[GaryE]

Hi, just recently purchased a Remington 780 which is the first pump type shotgun I've owned. What I want to do is have the magazine loaded with a
few shells but not have one in the chamber. If I ever had to use this I want
to be able to slide the action down and up thereby being in a position to
shoot if necessary. I have an ideal that if I slide the action down I can load
a few shells but what happens when the slide is push back forward. Is a shell
in the chamber? Can you load the magazine without having to bring the action
to the rear? I'm thinking maybe I can load this by just pushing shells into
the magazine thereby not having one in the chamber and not having the
hammer spring in a cocked position. The gun is for home defense and will sit
more than being used for anything else. I've had many guns over my lifetime
but am just now getting back into purchasing them again. I'm sure what I
had thirty five years ago is probably changed a bit these days.

[Davyboy]

Why not just leave the bolt in the open position.

[robocop10mm]

First off, I am presuming you mean a Remington 870 not 780.

What you are referring to is called "Cruiser Ready". You want a loaded magazine tube, an unloaded chamber and the ability to quickly and easily "rack" the action to fire.

First understand that you must have the action completely closed to load the magazine. If the hammer is cocked, the bolt will be locked forward and the slide release lever must be used to rack the action. The hammer must be in the fired (uncocked) position to rack the action w/o using the slide release. To get into the proper condition follow these easy steps.

Ensure the gun is completely UNLOADED. Close the action, put the safety on FIRE, point the muzzle in a safe direction and pull the trigger. DO NOT rack the action. Leave the safety in the FIRE position.

Hold the slide forward (in the closed position) and load the desired number of shells in the magazine tube.

When you need to shoot, simply rack the action back and forth to load and fire.

[Virginian]

You don't have to have the hammer cocked to load the magazine, at least on any of mine. You do on an 1100; a feature of that design. You can close the action on an empty chamber, and then pull the trigger, but if you do remember the fore end is then free to move also, and if it comes back any then you can't load anything in the magazine. If I tried this with mine I would have to be super careful or the fore end would fall back of it's own accord. I would just leave the hammer cocked on an empty chamber if I was you. When the fore end is pulled to the rear it is going to cock it anyway, and it doesn't take me any longer to hit the slide release than it would the safety.
I leave my fully ready to go. I keep reading about these people getting shot with empty guns, so I want to make sure that doesn't happen.

[GaryE]

Hi, just want to thank you guys for the information. I had a hunch concerning
this but wanted to make sure by asking these questions. Thanks! Gary