Stressfire II: Advanced Combat Shotgun Paperback – December 1, 1992

The only reasons this doesn't get 5 stars are: 1) The book has numerous typos and similar errors, as noted by other reviewers, and 2) The author spends much less time than I desired on discussing ammo selection and terminal ballistics. After all, terminal ballistics are the biggest reason to choose a shotgun.The book is not for the faint of heart, and contains several graphic autopsy photographs in one chapter. I wasn't prepared for that. It's very disturbing stuff.Contrary to the opinions of certain other reviewers, I never felt that any one model of shotgun was getting any undue attention. The Remington 870 is discussed frequently, and with good cause. When the book was written, it was by far the most popular police shotgun, and generally regarded as the best pump action available for defense. If anything, Ayoob fawns over semi-autos too much, especially his beloved Benellis, but this is only to be expected. He is being paid to render his expert opinion, and his opinion is that the semi-auto is generally preferable to the pump, and that the Benellis are the best of the bunch.Ayoob also makes a very specific reference to the use of the pump gun's momentum to cycle it with one hand (as in the final scenes of Terminator 2). He does not recommend this technique.Use of the shotgun for defense and police combat is examined in thorough detail, and MANY popular models are discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of each are explored. Ayoob covers every aspect of the riot gun in more detail than I would have thought possible, and it is all recorded in his unique prose style, which I love.Ayoob does indeed recommend a transition to the sidearm if the shotgun malfunctions. This is probably the best course of action in most cases, but I must beg to differ with him in refusing to offer any other solution to the malfunction problem. He ignores the possibility of the shotgun being the only available weapon. While it is prudent to employ a secondary weapon, not everyone can do so at all times, and a brief discussion of fixing malfunctions would have been appreciated. Of course, most of the problems that can REALLY choke a pump gun are the kinds of things one cannot repair under fire.A wonderful read, and highly recommended for anyone contemplating the use of a shotgun in defense of life and limb!

I've read just about everything out there on tactical/defensive shotgun, and this one is among the best. Lots of info on the terminal effects, lots of info on real-world use, and plenty of little tidbits that fills in the blanks from other books on the scattergun. I like the way he covers tactical stances and movement and have modified my drills on the range as a result. I now practice dropping into and moving out from the combat crouch instead of always going to the kneeling position to return fire or after taking cover. I've also experiemented some with the carry and presentation methods I use and am now trying to shoot more from my weak side, and doing so using vertical and horizontal objects for stability. There are a lot of little things like that I've not read elsewhere, and that's one of the things that make this text so valuable.The book is a little bit older than some (from the 80s, iirc), but there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the basics of the defensive shotgun. With Suarez' shotgun text and this one you'll have all you really need to get going. All that remains is to get out and drill, drill, drill. When the SHTF you'll fight like you've trained, for better or worse. So don't just read it. Go out and practice.

Like all of Ayoob's books, he digs into the multiple physical and psychological sabotages your body does to you under extreme stress and how to train to use these "omgif's" to your advantage. Many of the techniques fly in the face of purist precision shooters because their targets are not shooting back at them. In all of his books, he describes the mental and body dysfunctions that happen when someone is seriously TRYING TO KILL YOU! In my personal experiences in combat, it seemed he was reading my mind while I was under fire. In some of his earlier books, he made mention to a book called "In The Dark Place" that he was in the process of writing describing the psychological hell of living though a gunfight and dealing with the aftermath. I have never been able to find this book but would love to see it in print. "In The Gravest Extreme", "Stressfire" and "Hit The White Part", I learned a lot about myself and finally recovered from the PTSD I had been suffering from since Vietnam.

Most of what you'd read in stressfire-- well, when stressfire was written, that's probably the only place you would be able to find information of this type. But today-- really--- youtube and various other gunblogs not only have the same principles and explanations, but they're doing it with better photography and more recent, relevant information.That's not a knock on the book, but you're not going to find anything in here that is going to change your view of combat shotgunning that you wouldn't find other places for free. Can be read in a few hours.

As with all of the titles by Massad Ayoob I have read to date, I am very impressed with the content, style, and tone of this book. There are differences between skeet, trap, bird hunting, game hunting, and self defense. While I never mastered skeet and trap and haven't hunted since I was in my twenties (I'm way past that now) I am still interested in being able to defend myself and my family. This book was recommended to me and initially I almost didn't buy it because I thought it was solely a "cop" book. Not so -- while directed towards the police training crowd, it also covers all of the things the individual needs to know about self defense.A shotgun is truly a formidable weapon, from the perspectives of both the user and the bad guy. If it drives the bad guy away without a shot being fire, so much the better.