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Is quad loading a necessity?


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I don't know..... I'm going to give it another 5-10 years to see if it catches on before I give up my weak hand caddies.

It sure has caught on, just have a look at how the winners at the Italian World shoot 2015 load their guns.

Edited by RobboD
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  • 3 weeks later...

I just discovered four shot caddies. They're amazing and reliable. I had been using six shot caddies. I had good occasion to laugh at folks loading two and four last weekend. We had a 43 round shotgun string. One guy dropped all his shells jumping off a prop well away from the shotgun. Another guy had load two fumble two going on. A third guy was howling like a scalded cat when his gun burned him at every reload. I think I'll stick to the weakhand reloads. Grab a couple and stuff a couple. I'm not Daniel Horner, but I don't drop shells much.

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I stuck with duces in matches until my quad loading was constant enough that I could be sure of my load every time. Not only does droping shells add to your stage time, it also has the potential to screw up your load plan if you don't get the right number in the gun before you start shooting again. Running dry with a bird in the air is no fun.

Now my quads are now fast and consistent, but there are still times when I will load duces or pull from a 4 shell caddy if the situation calls for it. Every method is valid. Use the one that's the most consistent until you have them all down and can use the one that's most appropriate for the stage.

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Is quad loading a necessity, probably not. However it is a learnt skill, and once you learn how to do it consistently and on demand you wonder how you could live without it. I started out old school weak hand. I was lucky if I could do 8shells in 8 seconds due to my hand injuries, however I switched to Load two, I was able to consistently do 6 second 8shells, then I learn how to Quad load consistently, I'm easily in the 4 sec range while standing or moving. One of the things I had to learn with Quads is to know when to bail out of the load, for me if I don't get the correct grab on all 4 shells, I can just bail on one of the two sets I grab and turn it into a Load two situation.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
On 29 July 2016 at 1:25 AM, AHI said:

Now load like that while moving through a coarse .

Do it all the time if you look on my Facebook there's a couple of videos on their. The general consensus over here in Europe is that if your not quad loading your not likely to win anything. There are some people that disagree with that but I can't think of anyone who has won a world or European title in the past year or two who uses only load 2. Maybe some senior title was won with load two but not much else. Do you need to quad load to compete and have fun ? Defiantly not. Just do whatever's easiest and have fun with it. 

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On 6/14/2016 at 11:54 PM, kurtm said:

"Those folks were"????.......or maybe are? Most of "those folks" ain't dead yet!!! ;)

"Y'all sit down while Grampa Miller tells ya a story about scattergunnin in the old days of making pew!"         Kurt, we need to squad up for pandemic again next year so we can discuss the pros and cons of various loading techniques. Over beers of course....or just drink beers.

 

 

Snippets of Wisdom (or bits is BS if you will):

-For loading technique: quads, deuces, dino-loading......it matters a LITTLE, but not as much as making your hits and loading while moving as smoothly and quickly as possible. Someone smoothly and quickly quad loading while moving on a field course will beat out the same performance with twins and weakhand loading....but if not smooth, it won't. I've seen some FAST shotgun loaders (well faster than myself I would guess) get their tails handed to them because they either stood in one spot to reload their tubes, and/or had to make up shots that caused additional reloads to be necessary.

-Dino-loading takes practice to master, and practice to maintain. Yes, I do still practice this occasionally, and it does come in handy on occasion for that one slug hit on paper, sliding a heavier round in, or needing that one extra shot. Quad loading take practice to master, but a lot less than weakhand. Dual loading can be picked up with 2 minutes of explanation by anyone willing to pay attention.

-If you can quad load.....you can dual load, but not necessarily the other way around. I am a quad loading shooter, but will often grab two from my belt and dual load when only needing that many shells. Yes, a quad loader can drop a deuce on the range when needed. (punny, I know)

-If you want to be good at running shotgun stages, shoot with the good shotgunners tearing up those stages. Then pay MORE attention to how they broke the stage down, shot the targets, reloaded while moving into the next position.....and LESS time worrying about which loading method they used. This would comparable to arguing between pistol shooters about how bullets forward or bullets out will make or break a big field course when the reloads should be done while moving from position to position.

 

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Well said Dillen.

 

I was RO on the all shotgun stage on the Pro match at Rockcastle last weekend.  Bryan Ray was within two seconds of the stage win, and he was weakhand loading from 4 shell caddies.  The key was shooting while moving and not missing, and being able to load on the move.  The very fastest runs on our stage did not look fast, they simply involved no make-up shots to knock down steel.

 

That being said, I myself benefitted on Stage 4 and on the pistol bays stage from being able to quadload.  My load times went down dramatically when I switched to quad loading.  And I was very late to the party of ditching my 4x4 caddies and going to quad loads.  I still have my caddies because there are situations where shell retention is an issue.  I occasionally botch a load and wind up shoving in two instead of four.  Overall it is still an advantage.  I haven't seen a belt mounted quad load rig that can reliably be laid down on for prone rifle and come up with all shells intact.  I have my DeTurk vest on my chest and I can shoot prone on it but I have pushed some shells almost out of the vest.

 

A clever match director could make life hell for the quad loaders.  My 4x4s are staying in my range bag.  But on a drag race big shotgun stage or on a big jungle run, quad loading is a huge advantage.  Go ahead and learn weakhand if you are just starting, there is no reason to put your hand anywhere near that hot barrel.

Edited by Vespid_Wasp
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On 6/16/2016 at 1:31 PM, MarkCO said:

5 years in the US, about 6 in Europe. :) Even so, one of the times that stands out to me was you whooping and hollering and explaining it to Rob Leatham at the 2011 SMM3G on the all shotgun stage. Don't know if you remember, but that remains one of my shooting high points.. :)

 

Longer than that. I saw deuces in Germany back in 2004 or 2005.

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First load two I ever saw was the German National team and the Swiss National team in Terni Italy at the first European Shotgun Championships in 2003, first Quads were from a Finish shooter at the 2011 Euros.

I doubt I was whoopin and hollering about quad loading Mark, as I have never been that impressed with it and still don't  do it. But Robbie was complaining about all the shotgun loading  of the new style 3-gun match and he said he didn't want to practice that much to get good, so I was telling him about twins and quads as a way to be competitive without the time consuming practice for Weakhand.

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I find this thread quite bizarre.  

Usually on BE when people look at technique and practice and ways to be gooder every advantage is thought out, video analysis of the top shooters is done with creepy levels of obsession over slightness differences of foot placement or grip minutia.

Yet in this thread, while as far as I can tell everyone winning at modern 3gun is quad loading, I see an argument that it is ok to go slower and not ues the winning technique because .. oh I don't know why, I guess because history/situational arguments/personal biases/sticky hands/tactical considerations/whatever.   

Is quad loading a necessity? Of course not, you don't need to win, place higher, or even shoot a shotgun.  But to my mind when the people winning matches prefer that technique I would say that is hint.  Only you can decide what to practice to get the most returns from your time dryfiring or on the range, perhaps the benefits of quad loading are not high enough for someone who could benefit more from practicing something else but at some point I think it will come about to mattering. Sure not missing is more important, but some matches are being won by a few seconds, so shaving those couple of seconds loading seems to matter at that level.

Then again, I struggle to hit the dirt with a shotgun so what do I know.

 

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