Speedload Your Shotgun Like the Pros

Photography by Jorge Nuñez

Keeping a Tube Gun Fed Is a Critical Skill When Seconds Count. Learn the Techniques Below to Shave Time Off Your Reload.

Watching the video for the first time got my attention. The second time was to confirm what had just happened. I watched it a third time to see if there was some magical editing or trick photography, and by the fourth time, I just wanted to know how it was done. Twenty viewings later, I still could not believe my eyes.

The video showed a shooter practicing a new shotgun-reloading technique that allowed him to reload eight shotgun shells in just over three seconds. Yes, you read that right. Three seconds! That’s just under a half second per round — how is that even possible? Well, it’s possible if you are using the newest shotgun gear and reloading techniques developed for three-gun competitions.

Faster, Pussycat
One of the most common questions asked of any high-level competition shooter is, “How do I learn to shoot faster?” My response is that speed isn’t just about going faster; it’s about saving time. The more you can eliminate wasted motion and increase the efficiency of any given technique, the faster you’ll be without ever having to try to perform faster.

For example, let’s look at an analogy of the gears in a sports car. If we are driving along in second gear and want to go faster, we can step on the gas pedal harder and the car will go faster. This seems like a good solution, but in reality the car will only go so fast in second gear regardless of how hard you stomp on the gas pedal. The problem isn’t that you’re not providing enough power to the car; it’s that your car will travel only so fast once the engine redlines in that gear. The transmission needs to shift to a higher gear to keep increasing your speed. Shooting is the same way. You can try to make yourself go faster, but only refining and streamlining your techniques will allow you to get to that next level to perform faster overall. Artificially trying to go faster will only cause you, for lack of a better term, to crash at whatever you’re trying to accomplish.