In 1967 the U.S. was embroiled in the Vietnam War. The U.S. Studies and Operations Group (SOG) was tasked with some of the most daring operations during the war.
During Vietnam, SOG provided ammo to communist supply depots throughout Southeast Asia.
But it wasn’t any standard ammo…
Rather, the U.S. supplied thousands of sabotaged rifle, machine gun, and mortar rounds.
Each of the rounds was packed with enough explosives to destroy the weapon that fired it, and were powerful enough to injure or kill the person firing them.
The objective of the rounds was to thin the enemy’s numbers and to reduce confidence in their equipment.
The operation named Project Eldest Son, called for technicians to pry apart thousands of captured AK-47 and 12.7 mm machine gun rounds, as well as 82 mm mortar shells.
Next, they filled the casings with explosives that looked like conventional gunpowder.
The booby-trapped ammo was then put back together and mixed into crates of good ammo.
The SOG manufactured over 12,000 rounds and 2,000 mortar shells.
Over two years, U.S. forces delivered sabotaged ammo to enemy supply caches in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
It was also common for U.S. forces to drop loaded magazines on the battlefield with a sabotaged round.
At the same time, U.S. forces spread rumors of Chinese factories producing bad ammunition.
The U.S. wanted the enemy to believe that the Chinese were giving them dangerous ammo.
In addition, the SOG produced official-looking enemy documents that reported the bad ammo.
These documents were dropped so the enemy would question if their gun was safe to fire.
This is why U.S. soldiers don’t pick up ammo on the battlefield, instead they had to find ways to carry a good supply of good ammo.
Now, you and I aren’t running around in the jungle…
But we still need to make sure we can carry plenty of ammo.
And when it comes to a shotgun, which is a very popular home defense weapon, ammo is a critical thing to keep in mind.
Here are a few tips to consider to keep your shotgun loaded when you need it most.
Stock sleeves:
Stock sleeves are one of the simplest ways to carry extra shotgun ammo.
They’re inexpensive and slip on the buttstock of the shotgun. They’re easy to remove if you don’t want the extra ammo for a particular training.
A stock sleeve eliminates the hassle of adding an accessory that requires tools or time to install.
You can find plenty of stock sleeve options from different brands online. One to check out is Uncle Mike’s brand.
Keep in loaded:
Many police departments used to issue shotguns to patrol officers.
But many departments required the shotgun to not have a chambered round.
So, the officer would have to rack the slide to load a round into the chamber.
The theory was that the attention-grabbing sound from racking the slide would get people to comply.
But if you use a shotgun for home defense, you should keep it fully loaded.
If someone breaks into your home in the middle of the night you don’t need to give them a warning of racking the slide.
If they are inside, they are there to harm you.
Keep your gun loaded and ready to defend yourself.
Shotgun side saddle:
Typically, a side saddle goes on the side of the gun. They are usually mounted to the gun and are a little more secure than a sleeve.
For the most part, side saddles are mounted on the side of the receiver opposite the chamber.
So, you would pick up the shell on one side of the receiver and then load them into the other side into the magazine tube or do a combat reload.
This way you could keep one hand on the shotgun while reloading.
There are a ton of different sizes and options when it comes to shotgun side saddles.
Most sidesaddles will hold either 4, 6, or 8 shells. Those shells can make a big difference when your life’s on the line.
This is, by far, my favorite option when it comes to adding more ammo to your shotgun.
Consider side saddles made by Mesa Tactical. But before buying, make sure it fits your specific shotgun.
