Shotgunjones,
No offense taken at all! I needed some advice on something that's very basic, and I do thank you. My response was so terse it looked like I was miffed, but I'm not.
A friend has a brandy new 1100, and wants me to teach him how to shoot it! (In the valley of the blind...) I read the manual last night, thought about the process, remembered seeing many folks load it that way and wondered if it's The Way.