Setting up a new gun for home defense can be an interesting endeavor. You can get away with very little. In fact, a gun and a handheld light can be more than enough to defend your home. It’s not always optimum, but you can get away fairly well without overthinking it. That’s for other people, though. I’m going to overthink it. Today, me and my overthinking brought together what I think is my optimum setup for the Iron Horse Sentry 12 pump action shotgun.
I love a good shotgun, and I’m not always picky. However, when it comes to magazine-fed shotguns, I can be quite picky. Many are not quite up to snuff, and only a few stand out. The Sentry 12 has been one that’s stood out to me quite a bit in the last few years. It really is one of the few American designs with some serious forethought to it. It is built from the ground up to be a magazine-fed, pump-action shotgun.
It’s a tactical shotgun and a serious contender for a successful home defense shotgun. It’s not bad out of the box, but what can we do to make it a little better?
The Iron Horse Sentry 12
Well, first, let’s dissect the gun. It’s a pump action magazine-fed design. The gun is very AR-like in appearance. The stock is an inline design, and across the top is a healthy dose of rail. The guns feature ambidextrous controls, including the safety, magazine release, and pump release. Iron Horse made a number of smart ideas with the design.
The length of pull is only 12.5 inches, making it compact and easy to control. You can square up with it much like a rifle. Your skills with a rifle will slide over fairly easily. The long rail across the top is your only accessory mount. The Sentry 12 has a fairly smooth pump action, and it’s a good amount of fun to shoot.
The main downside comes from its single accessory rail and the rather smooth and small pump action. However, we aim to deal with both by the end of this article.
The Mags
The Sentry 12 comes with two five-round magazines. Five rounds are fairly standard for a pump-action shotgun. I think you can get away with the two five-round magazines. Shotguns are often referred to as low-capacity weapons, but for a home defense scenario, it’s simply not true. If you shoot someone once with a 12 gauge with the right buckshot, you are effectively shooting them with eight rounds at a time. You aren’t laying down suppressive fire with a shotgun, so capacity isn’t the problem it’s made out to be with shotguns.
With all that said, the eight-round magazines are a nice upgrade. They provide you with more than 50% more firepower. A little more ammo has never been a bad thing. Eight rounds are most certainly enough, and it keeps the single-stack magazine far from being obstructive.
The Ammo To Fill Them
One of the most important choices you’ll have to make is your choice of ammunition. This is true with every defensive weapon, but especially true with shotguns. For home defense, we will 100% avoid birdshot unless you are being attacked by birds. There are lots of people out there who will talk about it ‘being a slug’ at close range. Keep in mind plenty of people have been shot in the face with birdshot and survived, including the ancient old man who hunted with Dick Cheney.
That leaves us with buckshot and slugs. Slugs will work but aren’t necessary for home defense. Their main advantage is long-range engagements. They do tend to penetrate deep and fast and can easily sail right through the body of an attacker. They will shut a bad guy down, but I tend to stick with buckshot.
The same folks who propose you use birdshot are worried about the mythical overpenetration. Well, I can assuage your fear, or at least a little, by suggesting Federal Force X2 buckshot. This nine-pellet 00 load features specialty cut pellets that are almost entirely split. When they hit a target, they finish splitting and widen up as two half pellets.
This does two things. First, you have 18 wound channels rather than nine, which would be twice the chance of hitting something vital. Next, this changes the dynamic of the pellets and prevents overpenetration to an extreme degree. It’s expensive but capable.
The Optic — Holosun 509T
I like Holosun optics and have become a fairly big fan of them on my shotguns. I have three Holosuns on three different shotguns, and it’s all due to the multi-reticle system. Personally, I love the 32 MOA circle reticle for shotguns. It’s big, easy to see, and fast. Put the bad guy inside the circle and go.
It also tends to pair well with premium buckshot loads. You can pattern the reticle to your ammo at specific ranges. When done correctly, you know exactly which ranges every pellet will remain inside the circle.
On top of that, the Holosun 509T offers a solar backup, a Trijicon RMR footprint, and great big controls. I mounted the optic on a Trijicon RMR riser to get a good sight picture, and it’s a rock-solid option. The 509T is also an enclosed emitter optic meaning nothing can get between the emitter and your lens, so reliability isn’t a concern.
The Light — Surefire 340U Mini Scout Light
The new Surefire Pro models have completely changed up the mounting method for Surefire lights. The new mounting system allows you to change the angle of the light, making it perfect for mounting to the Sentry 12’s top rail. I can mount the light, then fold it over the side, closer to the barrel, and to the end of the gun. This optimizes it to reduce barrel shadow and make it easy to control while holding the pump of the Sentry 12.
The Mini Scout light provides 500 lumens of light backed by 7,600 candelas. It’s bright enough for inside the home and casts a big wide beam with almost nothing but spill. This provides a bright and clear picture that fills your vision with light. At the same time, it’s compact and lightweight and won’t weigh your gun down.
A Little Grip Tape
Finally, last but not least, the pump is small and a little slick. To improve my control over the pump, I applied a little basic grip tape. This made it easier to grip and rip the pump without my hand slipping or flying forward. This was an $8 upgrade that was well worth the slight cost of admission.
Pump Up the Volume
The Iron Horse Sentry 12 is an excellent shotgun, which is one of the few options for pump action designs that are built for magazines. The Sentry 12 utilizes some smart design, and it features a lot of awesome features that work well for shotguns but mixes in the magazine seamlessly. What do you think? Would you rock an amped-up Sentry 12 for home defense?
