This is a question for anyone who is familiar with the policy of a law enforcement agency pertaining to what type of ammunition shotguns are normally loaded with for immediate use.

For example, one agency I’m familiar with requires that shotguns be loaded only with issued (00) buckshot when they are in vehicles ready for use. Slugs and less lethal (beanbag or rubber shot) are available to switch to if required, but the idea is that if someone other than the normal user of the weapon grabs the shotgun he can assume that it’s loaded with buckshot without checking. When not in use, e.g., stored in a vehicle, shotguns should not be loaded with any slugs or less lethal ammunition.

If you know the policies of more than one agency, please answer based on the largest one. Also, please do not respond to this poll if you don’t actually know a policy and just have an opinion of what a policy should be. Such comments are welcome in reply posts, but please don’t skew the poll results with should rather than is.

Note that the question refers to how shotguns are normally left loaded, not if the officer may change ammunition for specific situations.

Definitions of ammunition:
Buckshot refers to lethal ammunition loaded with multiple large pellets of any size, such as eight or nine 00 pellets.
Slug refers to a single large lethal projectile.
Less lethal refers to ammunition loaded with less lethal projectiles such as beanbags or rubber projectiles.
Other could include something like buck and ball, i.e., ammunition loaded with a bore-sized projectile and some number of buckshot pellets.

Definitions of load policies:
“Slugs” means all shotguns are required to be normally loaded with slug ammunition only.
“Buckshot” means all shotguns are required to be normally loaded with buckshot ammunition only.
“Less lethal” means all shotguns are required to be normally loaded with less lethal ammunition only.
“Mixed lethal” means all shotguns are required to be normally loaded with some combination of lethal ammunition only. That is, guns are loaded with a mix of slug and buckshot.
“Mixed lethal and less lethal” means all shotguns are required to be normally loaded with a mixture of lethal (slugs and/or buckshot) and less lethal ammunition.
“Unloaded” means that shotguns not in use must be totally unloaded and contain no ammunition of any type.
“No policy, officer choice” means there is no agency policy relating to how shotguns are normally loaded (or not loaded), and it’s up to the individual officer to decide what a duty weapon is loaded with.
“Other” because I always forget some possibility, and there must always be an other.

Question:
.
What shotgun ammunition load policy are you familiar with?

Choices:
Slugs only
Buckshot only
Less lethal only
Mixed lethal
Mixed lethal and less lethal
Unloaded
No policy, officer’s choice
Other

 

All department shotguns are to be carried loaded with 00Buck. Qualified Officers are issued slugs which are to be carried on the Officer's person and loaded only when circumstances dictate they would be appropriate. Criteria include extended range, need for more precision than buck can provide, possible body armor, etc. Under no circumstances will any less lethal shotgun ammunition be carried on the officer or loaded into any shotgun. We have dedicated less lethal launchers for that.

For us (CPD) who had a choice of 00 and Slug.

SWAT and the Heavy Weapons teams in the Detective Div are the only ones using shotguns now.
SWAT has less lethal shotguns (blaze orange stock & fore grip), no one else does.

We are issued both Slug and Buck shot and it is left to the officer which is loaded.

Very few officers opt to have a shotgun in my department as all patrol deputies are issued AR-15's. We were given the opportunity to get a shotgun instead of the AR but when none of the officers asked to swap out, the powers that be decided to allow the few officers interested in having a shotgun to get them in addition to their AR's.

We have two guys that are left that qualify and carry shotguns. I know one that has slugs in it and buckshot on the side saddle. The other guy I don’t know his set up. Are supervisor cruisers have a less lethal shotgun on board. More are getting built so there will be at least a car or two maybe more that will have less lethal shotguns cruising around at any given time.

My old department had a policy that only buckshot was to be in the gun. Slugs were on a bandolier or other type of carrier. But the user had to specifically load slugs for longer shots. They trained with slugs after 25 yards out to 75 yds.

Very few people even asked for them to be issued after we adopted the policy of letting officers carry their personal AR15s in 2003. The PD issued two carbines to each team. So the policy added more firepower to each team.

There was supposed to be one on a team, but most of the time it was the sgt who was issued it, along with a LTL shotgun with orange stocks.

The practice for my Dept. was:
14 inch Remington 870, kept "cruiser ready" with OOB.
Two spare 5 round boxes of OOB and one box of slugs was kept in the cars glovebox.
You inspected the gun to ensure "cruiser ready" at start of shift.
Orange stocked 870 with beanbags were kept in the shift supervisors car.

A long time ago, our shotguns were loaded "cruiser ready" with 00-buckshot. Slugs were carried in the side saddle.

Several years ago we went to all 00-buckshot.

Two of our officers recently went to a less lethal instructor course and we are in the process of converting three of our shotguns to less lethal (bean bag rounds).

quote:

Originally posted by DeputyCG:

Very few officers opt to have a shotgun in my department as all patrol deputies are issued AR-15's.

I'm that pain-in-the-ass that likes to point out (mostly to my co-workers) that we don't get rid of our stove just because we have a microwave oven, too.

Two different tools. There's overlap in their application, but at their outside edges each tool does something very well that the other can't.

Houston PD, in Texas, from when I was sworn, in 1984, to when I retired, in 2018: 00 or #4 Buck, in the magazine tube. (Officer’s choice.)

As of some time in the early Nineties, for those who have attended the required training, select-load slugs, as deemed necessary, at the officer’s discretion.

Shotguns were owned by the individual officer, so not normally shared, unless more than one officer, such as regular partners, or a small squad, all qual with one shotgun. IOW, each officer is expected to qual with each firearm that he/she will use, for official purposes.

As of when I retired, the approved duty shotguns were the Remington 870, and the Benelli M1 Super 90, or M2. The list of pump guns shrank, over the years. Two things they all had in common were dual action bars, and a cross-bolt safety.

When I stood a fixed post, at a vehicle barricade, during Super Bowl weekend, in 2017, I “selected” a whole mag tube full of fresh Federal TRUBALL Penetrator slugs. It was trendy, in Europe, at that time, for terrorists to steal “lorries,” and then drive into crowded venues, to crush pedestrians.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Rexster,

Benelli M2 with 14 inch barrel.
Slug frangible Ammo only.

quote:

Originally posted by 808:
Slug frangible Ammo only.

Barrier breaching rounds?

Shotguns are assigned to a car. Loaded at start of shift and unloaded at end of shift. Deputies issued both 00 buck and slug. 00 buck is the standard daily duty load by policy. Slug "may" be utilized in unusual circumstances. Dedicated "bean bag" shotguns in blaze orange furniture in every supervisor's slead.

As a curious outsider, for agencies that elected to move to AR-15 from shotgun, was there interest in repurposing the existing shotgun inventory for less lethal uses, thus extending the less lethal options to more users? Or did the qualification training (and cost) for less lethal shotgun make that less appealing?

We’ve had 14” Benelli M1 Super 90s since 1999. They’re assigned to each car and only loaded with Federal FliteControl huckshot. A box of slugs is in the glovebox. The shotgun and rifle are mounted in between the seats.

We load 00 buck, and have 2 slugs on the side saddle.

Oops! I mean to edit my post, and, instead, quoted myself. Quote deleted.

FWIW, I started, in the academy, in 1983, and then worked most or all of the rest of the Eighties with an S&W 3000 pump gun. This was followed, by some time in the very early Nineties, by the Benelli M1 Super 90, then, several of the Remington 870, and finally, 2016-2018, by a Benelli M2. There was some some amount of overlap.

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:

quote:

Originally posted by DeputyCG:

Very few officers opt to have a shotgun in my department as all patrol deputies are issued AR-15's.

I'm that pain-in-the-ass that likes to point out (mostly to my co-workers) that we don't get rid of our stove just because we have a microwave oven, too.

Two different tools. There's overlap in their application, but at their outside edges each tool does something very well that the other can't.

Exactly.

We issued both slugs and 00B (Winchester Ranger low recoil) to line deputies for their 13" 870's - supervisors were issued bean bags as well. #4B was authorized, but no one used it as we didn't supply it.

We could use personal shotguns if approved and after qualification, authorized loads only.