i took my husband to the range yesterday. he’s been wanting to shoot the smith & wesson 637-2 revolver, and i’d been wanting to shoot the remington 870™ magnum 12 gauge shotgun. (apparently, remington no longer makes this exact model, replaced by the “express” line). it’s been over 15 years since i’ve last fired it, so i figured i’d check to see if it still works.

i’ve heard that the best home defense ammo for the 12 gauge is 00 buckshot, so that’s what we keep it loaded with. i had a couple of boxes of the remington, but purchased 25 rounds of the winchester stuff. it features “low recoil”, but even so, each shot pushed me back pretty hard. my shoulder is still pretty sore today. i compared that to the remington stuff, which is not low recoil, and sure enough, it pushes back noticeably harder. after 2 shots of that, i handed the shotgun to my husband to finish off the box.

this is what 25 rounds of 00 buckshot does to a paper target, at 7, 10, and 15 yards. i did fairly well, considering i haven’t had much practice lately. my husband did very well, considering that was the first time he ever fired a shotgun.

of course, when we got home, i took it apart to clean. it comes apart pretty easy, and most everything is easily accessible for cleaning. it took a little effort to reassemble, as the directions were a little confusing, but it’s back together and loaded up. with the low recoil winchester ammo.