The Lucky Gunner Home Defense Shotgun Skills Test is a fairly simple assessment of shotgun skills. It tests a lot of skills, and is easy to run on most ranges. This video is also really cool because I was joined by my friend Neil, who shot the drill with me. Unfortunately neither of us pulled off a passing score.
Lucky Gunner Home Defense Shotgun Skills Test
This shotgun test utilizes every skill a home defender needs…and none they don’t. Developed by Chris Baker, this drill removes slug drills and longer-range shooting, and focuses on home defense skills, hence the name. Neil and I shot these with two different levels of experience…and two completely different shotguns. I ran a Remington 870 SBS, and Neil ran a Beretta 1301.
Unfortunately neither of us managed a passing score. I had a malfunction while doing the CQB technique that cost me quite a bit of time. I still really enjoyed shooting this drill, and will certainly be shooting it again soon. Let’s take a look at the course of fire.
Course of Fire
The Lucky Gunner Home Defense Shotgun Skills Test is meant to be fired with buckshot and requires eleven rounds. The entire course is fired on a single target at 15, 10, 5, and 3 yards. The target is an IDPA or USPSA silhouette, and the clean scoring zone is the -1 and -3 zones (IDPA) A/C zones (USPSA). The course of consists of four stages, as follows:
- Stage 1: 15 yards, 1 shot, pars 0.6 (advanced), 1.0 (intermediate), 2.0 (basic)
- Stage 2: 10 yards, 2 shots, pars 1.0 (advanced), 2.0 (intermediate), 3.0 (basic)
- Stage 3: 3 yards, shotgun in cruiser ready on table, 3 in tube, 2 available for reload. On buzzer retrieve shotgun, fire 3, reload 2, fire 3, pars 7.0 (advanced), 11.0 (intermediate), 16.0 (advanced)
- Stage 4: 3 yards, using CQB technique fire 2, step back and transition to shoulder mount, 1 head, pars 1.75 seconds (advanced), 3.0 second (intermediate), and 4.0 seconds (basic)
It’s important to note that this article is NOT the definitive article on this test. That honor belongs to Lucky Gunner’s own article, which can be found HERE. I sincerely enjoyed shooting this drill. It will be part of my practice routine from now on. If you use a shotgun for home defense, work on getting your skills to the next level on the Lucky Gunner HD Shotgun Skills Test.
