[Doc090107]

There are a few, or who knows how many, Beretta auto shooters who put a shell in the chamber, then one in the magazine, and then release that one so it is out of the mag and sitting on the carrier. The idea is that if second shell has any problem coming out of the mag and onto the carrier when shooting the second shot of the double this will be avoided.

I was talking this over with others, and even on the site. I have come to the conclusion that this maneuver is not needed. People who have been doing this for years, including me, say when they do this the shell in the mag never fails to move onto the carrier. That being the case then this shell would always come out of the mag and onto the carrier, as it should.

So releasing the shell in the mag to avoid a possible problem is fixing a problem that does not exist.

It also occured to me that Beretta would not really like this idea becasue it implies that there could be a failure of the shell to come out of the mag and onto the carrrier using the ‘normal’ loading procedure.

Thoughts?

Doc

 

[Bigfoot62]

. . . So releasing the shell in the mag to avoid a possible problem is fixing a problem that does not exist. . .

Yessir.
I agree.
But I know a skeet shooter who steps onto the station, positions his feet, drops two shells into his O/U, then touches the barrels to his toe pad before raising and closing the action.
I know another shooter who rotates the shells in his O/U so the headstamp lettering is oriented up.
I think for some people, it's just a part of their pre-shot ritual.

 

[MNGunner]

I've only heard of people doing a variant of this in order to be able to load 4 shells into a plugged gun--i.e. "floating" a shell.

 

[40Shotguns]

"Ghost" loading. Popularized by the "TactiCool" crowd.

 

[mike campbell]

I'll have to let my grandson know I'm part of the TactiCool crowd. I've been doing that since I got my first Beretta auto in 1993.

But then, I've always been cutting edge ... started wet shaving in 1967.

 

[ADAMSGW]

I have shot with a guy that has a Seminole 391 and he does this every time. Anyway, tens of thousands of rounds through my A400 and never did it.

 

[Tvbh40a]

I've read the Beretta manual. Nothing in the manual about it. Never done it myself, but I have seen it done many times.

 

[Always1]

The action actually feels different when you do this. It doesn't feel as "clunky" I prefer to do it this way but that's me. I've never seen any Beretta have a problem loading from the magazine.

 

[Skeet_Man]

On autoloaders it's possible to load the shell into the mag not quite far enough to be held in by the feed latch, but far enough so that it gets held in by the lip of the carrier when thumb pressure is removed, and when the gun cycles, the shell from the mag cannot feed and gets puked onto the ground instead (and depending on the gun (this would happen on a Beretta, not on a Remington 1100/1187), the action may still function normally otherwise, so you end up dry firing on an empty chamber while the loaded shell sits at your feed). If you manually release the shell onto the carrier it can be a second check/guarantee this possibility cannot happen.

 

[1100comp]

"Ghost" loading. Popularized by the "TactiCool" crowd.

You mean duck hunters?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[75coupered]

How can a "extra" shell be loaded onto the carrier capacity wise, if said shell has to be loaded into the magazine tube first before being released onto the carrier? I cannot see how total load capacity can be increased +1.

 

[cleboje]

I have tried this...but as a norm, I just load the magazine normally and let the gun do what its designed to do...no problems with this type of loading.

 

[40Shotguns]

You mean duck hunters?


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Nope. Look up the word "popularized".

 

[BerettaEd]

I think I read that Beretta had some feeding problems when they tried to go from a "bent" carrier to a straight one. Many people solved the feeding issue by bending or replacing their straight carrier with a bent one. Having mentioned that, several of the people I shoot sporting clays with always bring their second shell onto the carrier before calling for their birds. -Ed

 

[lt0026]

A nervous habit that has no benefit.

 

[TrapshooterJeff]

I've only heard of people doing a variant of this in order to be able to load 4 shells into a plugged gun--i.e. "floating" a shell.

"Ghost" loading. Popularized by the "TactiCool" crowd.

Just to keep the terminology consistent for this discussion, I believe there's a difference between what the shotgun community calls "ghost loading" and what we call "floating a shell on the Carrier". Both end up with the bolt closed on a live round, and a shell sitting (i.e., "floating") on top of the Carrier. The difference is how/why somebody would perform these operations.

• As mentioned, "ghost loading" is a way to increase overall capacity by +1. So obviously, it only applies to someone who wishes to perform this semi-complicated trick to max-out how many shells he can stuff into his gun. There are a bunch of videos online how to do this with the various shotgun brands that mechanically support it. I've linked to one video below.
• "Floating a shell" as already mentioned, is not done to increase overall capacity . . . it's a quick way to pop one shell out of the magazine before firing commences and have the shell sit on top of the Carrier. As mentioned, some folks think it lessens the chance for feeding failures. I first heard of it years ago rising in popularity among Sporting Clay shooters.

How can a "extra" shell be loaded onto the carrier capacity wise, if said shell has to be loaded into the magazine tube first before being released onto the carrier? I cannot see how total load capacity can be increased +1.

Video Link (one example among many):
Ghost loading a Mossberg 930

 

[noweil]

How can a "extra" shell be loaded onto the carrier capacity wise, if said shell has to be loaded into the magazine tube first before being released onto the carrier? I cannot see how total load capacity can be increased +1.

It can be done on older Benelli's. You load the tube magazine, open the bolt, press the carrier down, drop a shell on the carrier, then drop a shell in the chamber. At least that is what I heard.

 

[MNGunner]

Just to keep the terminology consistent for this discussion, I believe there's a difference between what the shotgun community calls "ghost loading" and what we call "floating a shell on the Carrier". Both end up with the bolt closed on a live round, and a shell sitting (i.e., "floating") on top of the Carrier. The difference is how/why somebody would perform these operations.

• As mentioned, "ghost loading" is a way to increase overall capacity by +1. So obviously, it only applies to someone who wishes to perform this semi-complicated trick to max-out how many shells he can stuff into his gun. There are a bunch of videos online how to do this with the various shotgun brands that mechanically support it. I've linked to one video below.
• "Floating a shell" as already mentioned, is not done to increase overall capacity . . . it's a quick way to pop one shell out of the magazine before firing commences and have the shell sit on top of the Carrier. As mentioned, some folks think it lessens the chance for feeding failures. I first heard of it years ago rising in popularity among Sporting Clay shooters.

Video Link:
Ghost loading a Mossberg 930

Among duck hunters (who most likely invented this technique as a way to cheat the 3 shell limit regulation), I've only ever heard it called "floating a fourth shell" both in my neck of the woods as well as online. That's also the only practical "purpose" I could see in doing this. I doubt it increases reliability in any way; however, I do know it does increase capacity.

Here's 12 pages from a duck hunting forum (many threads on this)--note the title:

Floating that 4th shell....Busted.

I know a lot of folks like to pull this stunt. All of my hunting buddies shoot older SBEs and love to pull this trick. It doesn't really bother me as I've never seen where this gave them any real edge over me. I shoot my A-5s a great deal. However, one of my friends did get pinched this year...

www.refugeforums.com

Call it what you like though...

 

[40Shotguns]

Yep. Invented by duck hunters.

Popularized by the TactiCool crowd. As evidenced in the video.

 

[Justin L.]

I've only heard of people doing a variant of this in order to be able to load 4 shells into a plugged gun--i.e. "floating" a shell.

I don’t think this is possible- once you release the shell from the magazine the carrier is locked and the shell sitting below the bolt wouldn’t allow you to slide another one into the magazine anyway. Plus, I’m sure the game wardens would have figured it out by now if hunters were getting more than the allowable amount of shells into their gun.