MGM Shotgun Breach Trainer

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Mike Gibson Manufacturing sent us some pictures of their new shotgun breach trainer and said, “It’s a simple, obvious solution to the need for training repetition with a breaching shotgun. You look at it and say, why didn't I think of that?"

Ballistic breaching in the field is now common place. With the active shooter threat, it's more likely for LEOs too.

He was right, though in truth the idea isn’t completely new. We’ve seen breaching practice doors with up to 8 deadbolts mounted in one door-frame, but that lacks realism. It also incurs the possibility that damage from one ballistic breach will interfere with the next one.

(Note: pictures aren't of the final version, they are from one built for field trials.)

Keith says the idea came from teaching indigenous forces in a SWAsian country. “They hadn’t even seen a shotgun, let alone breach a door with one. We built this thing with four doorknobs and set it up so a shooter can approach, get proper angle and barrel alignment and…go through a proper breach.”

The SBThas proper distance between knob and jamb and can be used with various kinds doorknobs.  It allows multiple ballistic breach attempts before resetting, providing realistic, real life feedback. Many units and LEO teams may only live fire breach a handful of times when they “qualify”,  and forever afterward just pantomime their actions in training. There’s not a lot of training value in placing your muzzle on a doorhandle in a MOUT facility and just saying BANG.

Slapping a doorknob on or spraypainting a circle on a board isn’t any better. It doesn’t teach you how to position yourself and manipulate the weapon with all the attachments on it. The SBT is designed to allow the breacher to engage one left, one right, rotate, then one left, one right, four different times.

Muzzle alignment, weapon change-out, approach to the door…you can actually engage an actual replica of a doorway. You can do it cheaply and you can do it over and over again. Crawl-walk-run theory…use this for a while, then move up to real doors, practice on it before hitting the shoothouse.

The SBT collapses and folds up small enough to fit in a patrol car’s trunk. It seems to us like a great tool for practicing an advanced technique in full kit, though we make no claim to be breachers.

The SBT is designed for twelve-gauge breaching rounds like the M1030 cartridge and TKO.  We do not recommend trying it with an M100 GREM unless it’s a special occasion on the range.

 

 

 


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