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KD5NRH wrote:Storing a non-drop-safe gun (most long guns have none of the various drop safeties common in handguns) with a round chambered is asking for trouble. I rack the shotgun because that's what it takes to make it go boom. If it happens to scare a home invader away before I have a clean shot, so much the better.

Keith wrote:On my Winchester Defender it's much more easy for me to just pump then find that darn little safety button on the side in the dark.

+1 to both of these.

Proper carry or storage for a pump shotgun at the ready is: action closed on an empty chamber, trigger pulled to decock, and safety off. To put it into action requires one step: rack the slide, and it's ready to fire. If you decide to not fire, it's then easy to apply the safety.

If you don't pull the trigger after closing the action on an empty chamber, you'll have to hunt around for the action bar release before you can work the slide. Bad thing to have to remember.

The only ergonomic shotgun safety that I know of is the Mossberg (above the tang, ambidextrous, "forward to fire"). It would be nice if someone made a tactical shotgun with an M16/AR-style safety, floating firing pin, and firing pin block safety. I'd trust one of those with a chambered round.

I agree that racking the shotgun as a warning is just as silly as firing a warning shot. (I believe the first shot should always be a warning shot: aimed center mass, as a warning that if you don't stop, I'll shoot you again!)

That said, I have some friends who went to Los Angeles as special Deputy U.S. Marshals during the Rodney King riots. At one point they chased a man carrying a handgun into an abandoned building. They saw him dart down a hallway, but didn't know where he went from there. There were multiple doors down the hall, so they shouted for him to throw out the gun and come out with his hands up. No response. One racked the slide on his 870, and all of a sudden a handgun came skittering across the floor, followed by two empty hands sticking out of a door.

At least that's how they told the tale.