Loading ...The shotgun is an extremely versatile tool and with the correct ammunition the shotgun is far more effective than handguns for home defense but there is a wide variety of ammunition available for it. In this article I discuss how to choose between bird shot, buck shot and slugs for self and home defense.
Terminal Ballistics
To get the most out of this article you should have some basic knowledge about terminal ballistics (the effect of the bullet on the target). In a previous post titled “A primer on handgun terminal ballistics” I presented an overview of terminal ballistics.
The key thing to take away is that firearms stop threats including humans by penetrating them and destroying tissue and organs. If a bullet doesn’t have enough momentum to penetrate the bad guy it wont be effective in stopping him.
The FBI has determined that to effectively stop a human a projectile must penetrate a minimum of 12 inches with up to 18 inches preferred.
12 gauge or 20 gauge?
A common question is whether a person should purchase a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun for home defense. I recommend that for home defense a 12 gauge be used because it delivers more projectiles to the target, there is a wider selection of ammunition, and the fact that there are reduced recoil or tactical 12 gauge loads that greatly reduce the recoil of the 12 gauge.
2 3/4 inch or 3 inch shotgun ammunition?
For the 12 gauge both 2 3/4 inch and 3 inch ammunition is readily available, the 3 inch ammunition is sometimes referred to as “Magnum.” For home defense 2 3/4 inch ammunition is better. The 3 inch ammunition has greatly increased recoil which makes follow up shots harder, decreases the capacity of the shotgun, and may prevent women or children from using it due to the recoil.
Available Ammunition Types
Birdshot
Birdshot consists of many small projectiles ranging in size from .080″ to .23″ in diamater. Birdshot is the most common ammunition because it can be used for hunting birds, target practice and skeet shooting. Birdshot is numbered and the smaller the number the larger the projectiles.
| Size | Nominal diameter | Pellets/oz | |
| Lead | Steel | ||
| FF | .23″ (5.84 mm) | 35 | |
| F | .22″ (5.59 mm) | 39 | |
| TT | .21″ (5.33 mm) | ||
| T | .20″ (5.08 mm) | 53 | |
| BBB | .190″ (4.83 mm) | 44 | 62 |
| BB | .180″ (4.57 mm) | 47 | 72 |
| B | .170″ (4.32 mm) | 50 | |
| 1 | .160″ (4.06 mm) | 103 | |
| 2 | .150″ (3.81 mm) | 87 | 125 |
| 3 | .140″ (3.56 mm) | 158 | |
| 4 | .130″ (3.30 mm) | 135 | 192 |
| 5 | .120″ (3.05 mm) | 170 | 243 |
| 6 | .110″ (2.79 mm) | 225 | 315 |
| 7½ | .095″ (2.41 mm) | 350 | |
| 8 | .090″ (2.29 mm) | 410 | |
| 9 | .080″ (2.03 mm) | 585 | |
(table from Wikipedia)
Buckshot
Buckshot is essentially a scaled up version of bird shot and also contains multiple projectiles but they are both larger and heavier, making it suitable for use on Deer. Buck shot is numbered similarly to Birdshot, with shot size increasing as the number decreases. The most common sizes of buckshot are #00 (double ought) and #000 (triple ought).
Buckshot tends to have considerable recoil, recently several companies including Remington and Federal have introduced reduced recoil or tactical buckshot.
| Size | Nominal diameter | Pellets/oz |
| 000 (”triple-ought”) | .36″ (9.1 mm) | 6 |
| 00 (”double-ought”) | .33″ (8.4 mm) | 8 |
| 0 (”ought”) | .32″ (8.1 mm) | 9 |
| 1 | .30″ (7.6 mm) | 10 |
| 2 | .27″ (6.9 mm) | 15 |
| 3 | .25″ (6.4 mm) | 18 |
| 4 | .24″ (6 mm) | 21 |
(table from Wikipedia)
Slugs
Unlike Birdshot and Buckshot which have multiple projectiles, the slug is a single projectile. Slugs have a higher effective range and can be used where a spreading pattern is not desired. Because of their massive momentum and energy they are also effective against bears. There are several different types of slugs, expanding, non expanding, rifled, and non rifled.
Ammunition Performance
For reference a 9mm handgun with 115 grain bullet produces:
Energy: 367 ft/lb
Momentum: 19.71
Velocity: 1200 FPS
12 Gauge Birdshot Ballistics
Birdshot is often recommended as a limited penetration ammunition for nervous home owners or apartment dwellers that want to avoid over penetration. In this section I evaluate the potential of birdshot for home defense.
Birdshot Terminal Ballistics Calculations
Let’s do some terminal ballistics calculations on the potential birdshot, I’ll use #4 shot as it is the heaviest commonly available birdshot load. In this case I’m using numbers from Federal’s Game-Shok Heavy Field Load.
Federal indicates the load fires 1 1/4 OZ (546 grains) of #4 shot at 1220 FPS
Overall Energy: 1804 ft/lb
Overall Momentum: 95
These numbers appear very impressive and far eclipse the 9mm handgun but there is a problem, bird shot does not behave as a single projectile even at point blank range, in fact there are 167 individual projectiles with a 1 1/4 oz #4 shot load. As a whole birdshot has massive momentum, but each individual pellet weighs only 3.2 grains, meaning they have VERY little momentum and don’t penetrate very well as they give up their energy very quickly.
Let us now calculate the momentum and energy of a single birdshot pellet:
Pellet Energy: 23.12
Pellet Momentum: 0.82
This paints a drastically different picture, having minimal energy, and very little penetration which is what we would expect of ammunition designed for birds. That said these numbers also don’t paint an entirely realistic picture because there are 167 pellets striking a fairly small area the performance will be better than a single pellet.
So to get a look at how birdshot performs as a ballistic gelatin test is necessary. Ballistic gelatin is used to approximate tissue and bones of animals to test ammunition. Tacticalworks (a respected information site on ballistic tests) did a test with #4 birdshot (full results here). Here are the results:
Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge Remington Heavy Dove 1-1/8 oz #4 Birdshot
Gelatin: 9′x9′x19′ 10% ordinance gelatin block
Measured Average Permenant Cavity: 6.5 inches (16.5 cm)
Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.0 to 6.0 inches (0.0 to 15.2 cm)
Conclusion:
Bird shot is for birds, not people people!
Even the #4 heavy bird shot load at 3 yards did not penetrate sufficiently to reliably stop an attacker, remember the FBI defines minimum acceptable penetration as 12 inches with 18 inches preferred.
Bird shot should never be used for a home defense load, all bird shot loads lack both the momentum and penetration required to reliably stop a human attacker. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone because bird shot is designed for lightweight game, if the pellets were capable of stopping a human it would devastate the small animal and not leave much to eat.
While the intentions of people who recommend bird shot are usually good they usually lack a fundamental understanding of terminal ballistics and unintentionally give horrible advice. They often site examples of bad guys being shot with bird shot breaking off an attack, the important thing to realize is that in almost all cases the attacker chose to stop the attack, he was not forced to stop.
At the end of the day you must realize that anything that will penetrate a human enough to force them to stop an attack is going to also penetrate walls. The best way to avoid this is to prevent the situation where you must shoot, and practice enough to reliably hit the bad guy in a defensive situation.
Fortunately there is a version of bird shot scaled up to a size that is effective on people, it is called buckshot!
12 Gauge Buckshot Ballistics
Many deer are the same size or slightly larger than human sized so it makes sense that ammunition developed for them would be effective on humans. Buckshot is often use very effectively in home defense, the two most common sizes are #00 and #000.
#00 buckshot terminal ballistic information
#00 buckshot has a pellet diameter of .33 and a weight of 54 grains (16.8 times more mass than a #4 birdshot projectile) and each cartridge typically contains 9 to 12 projectiles. For these calculations I’ll use Federal Power-Shok Low Recoil Ammunition 12 Gauge 2-3/4″ Buffered 00 Buckshot 9 Pellets at a velocity of 1140 FPS
Overall Energy: 1402 ft/lb
Overall Momentum: 79.14
If you considered only the overall energy and momentum it would appear bird shot would perform better, but remember, neither bird shot or buck shot is a single projectile so lets now look at an individual projectile:
# Projectiles: 9
Projectile Weight: 54 grains (16.8 times more than #4 birdshot)
Projectile Energy: 155 ft/lb (6.7 times more than #4 birdshot)
Projectile Momentum: 8.79 (10.71 times more than #4 birdshot)
As you can the individual projectile performance of buckshot is much greater than birdshot, but like birdshot because there are multiple projectiles we need to look at an overall picture, luckily tacticalworks also did ballistic performance testing of #00 buckshot (full results here).
Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge 2? Federal Classic 00 Buckshot (9 pellets)
Gelatin: 9′x9′x19′ 10% ordinance gelatin block
Measured Average Permanent Cavity Penetration: 22.3 inches (56.6cm) (3.4X further than #4 birdshot)
Conclusion:#00 buckshot penetrated to 22.3 inches (3.4X further than #4 birdshot) making it an excellent choice for home defense.
12 Gauge Slug Ballistics
Unlike birdshot and buckshot a slug is a single massive projectile, it can be used for deer hunting and has been used very successfully against black and even bigger bears.
12 Gauge Slug Terminal Ballistics Information
I’ll be using the Brenneke USA K.O. Ammunition 12 Gauge 2-3/4″ 1 oz Foster-type for these calculations
Projectile Weight: 437.7 grains
Velocity: 1600 FPS
Energy: 2184 ft/lb
Momentum: 100
tacticalworks also did a ballistic gelatin test with a 1 OZ foster slug here are the results (full results here).
Range: 3 yards
Shotgun: 18 inch barreled Remington 870 Marine Magnumn
Round: 12 gauge 2 Winchester Foster Style Slug
Measured Average Permenant Cavity Penetration: 17.0 inches (43.2cm)
Measured Temporary Stretch Cavity: 0.5 to 15.5 inches (1.3 to 39.4 cm)
Conclusion
The slug has massive momentum and energy, because this is an expanding slug the penetration was somewhat restricted to 17.0 inches making it an excellent option for home defense.
Overall Conclusion
Birdshot is woefully inadequate for home defense and should not be used except for target practice and bird hunting.
Buckshot is an excellent performer and has a proven track record. Buckshot is a better choice than a slug for general self defense because it does not depend on expansion to limit its penetration.
Expanding foster type slugs are also an excellent performer with massive momentum but non expanding or slugs that fail to expand have the capability to over penetrate due to their mass and momentum. Slugs are best used when a single projectile is required because multiple projectiles spreading would not be appropriate and for longer range shots.
I believe it is responsible to have both buckshot and slugs available with a defensive shotgun, the TacStar SideSaddle mounts to the side of the receiver and allows you to carry extra ammunition, in my case I load buckshot in the shotgun and carry slugs on the side saddle so that I can selectively use them.
Related posts:
- The 9mm Luger, 40 S&W and 45 ACP Compared
- A primer on handgun terminal ballistics
- About the 40 S&W
- North Carolina: Burglar no match for shotgun-toting couple
This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Ballistics, Firearms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] target, and ballistic gel testing demonstrates this. The birdshot, even at extremely close range, will only penetrate about 6 inches of ballistic gel, while penetration of 12 inches of balistic gel is generally considered the minimum effective depth [...]
is there birdshot for 9mm pistols to be used for snakes when in woods. olease reply with cost and address for purchase…thanks
00 is overkill, and potentially dangerous to those whom I am trying to protect. My intent is to hurt and scare the crap out of an intruder while at the same time not endangering members of my family. sleeping no more than two sheet-rock widths away from a potential confrontation with a home invader. A friend of mine, a competitive skeet shooter, recommended I use a target load, which is what I have done. I cannot fathom an individual sustaining such a load at point blank range and still insisting on doing me harm, particularly since I have seven rounds left.
Response from me
Dear Tom,
Would you go deer hunting with a target load? I certainly hope not as not only would it not be legal in most states it most certainly isn’t ethical and wouldn’t be effective. A deer is about equivalent to a human in terms of what it takes to physically stop them which is why buckshot is recommended for use against people.
The intent of shooting an intruder is to stop the intruder from causing us harm, not to maim or injure or kill, sometimes that involves death on their part. I strongly suggest obtaining some professional training or taking a CCW course even if you don’t carry. Think of this, the intruder already knows you may be armed and has decided what to do when he confronts you. Despite the long lived myth, bad guys do not reliably soil their pants at the sound of a 12 gauge being pumped and run away.
Follow up hits will likely be ineffective, the FBI has found that after initial ballistic insult additional insult is ineffective in stopping the bad guy. This would be more pronounced with a target load that is simply incapable of reaching vitals, it can not penetrate enough to reliably force an attacker to stop.
Numerous ballistic tests and shootings show that #1 buckshot is the minimum load with enough penetration to be effective for self or home defense. The requirement of a MINIMUM of 12 inches of penetration is the result of the study of thousands of shootings by the FBI and various law enforcement agencies around the world. Recently local area police shot a man 10 times with bullets capable of penetrating 14 inchs in COM, he lived.
The fact is that NO bird shot load, even heavy turkey load comes close to delivering 12 inches of penetration, the most being 6 inches.
#00 buck is recommended because #1 on occasion can under penetrate. The person you talked to in good faith gave you horrible advice. A lot of people simply do not take the time to understand ballistics, and spread their opinion.
Bird shot even at 3 yards most often will not penetrate the rib cage, occasionally it works, the majority of the time it does not, these are the facts.
I understand your desire to avoid over penetration but the fact is anything that will penetrate a person enough to stop them is going to go through drywall.
I urge you to practice enough to hit the target, harden your house, and if necessary consider moving to a more tactically sound house. At a minimum you need to be aware there is a VERY good chance, more likely than not in fact that your target load will not stop the bad guy, and you should have a fall back plan.
You should also be aware that multiple tests show that pistols penetrate more than #00 buck through drywall, though firearm caliber capable of self defense is going to penetrate drywall.
Best wishes,
Jason
For Joe Ward, Jr
Joe:
Snakes, even the most poisonous, are harmless - unless you mess with them. Chances of hitting them with a pistol are nill, regardless of ammunition type. I grew up in Brasil, where poisonous snakes are as comon as Robins in the US. Best defense against a snake, assuming you want to kill it, is to slam a thin, flexible bamboo pole, like the end of a fly fishing rod, down on the ground, across the snake’s body, breaking it’s verterbrae - - and making you feel like a louse.
\
Response
While I agree seeking confrontations with snakes is not intelligent the statement of not being able to hit them is inaccurate. Having lived in Montana, Missouri and Idaho I can say shots are very possible, things such as CCI’s shot shells that allow you to fire a charge of birdshot from a handgun makes it much easier though plenty of people have hit snakes with JHP.
Thanks for the ballistics information. There seems to be this widely held misconception that birdshot is great for home defense, so I am glad to see you make a ballistics based argument. Penetration is key, as well as permanent wound cavity. As you have demonstrated, 00 buckshot has massive penetration potential and permanent wound cavity capability is amazing.
Thanks for the article.
great info on shotgun home defence thanks….
Thank you for the information! I picked up a Mossberg 590 recently and equipped it with Federal 12 gauge, 2 3/4″ Low-Recoil Buckshot for home defense. I made that decision in part because of the same worries of the poster above: over-penetration. The muzzle velocity dips down to about 1140 fps while retaining enough power to stop an intruder and it still maintains a very tight spread. When hunting season comes around, I’m planning to switch over to slugs.
Although I have to admit I was somewhat horrified to read the above poster mentioning his aim is to “hurt and scare the crap out of an intruder.” If an armed man breaks into my house, the last thing I want to do is give him a chance to get a shot. It’s a complete underestimation of what kind of people are out in society! You’ve just given someone with a felonious background and an armed weapon time to shoot at you in close quarters, not to mention amping his adrenaline up and giving him reason to shoot (and he’s not shooting to hurt or scare; rather to kill) you.
I found this helpful and very much appreciate it. Thank you!
I agree with using 00, but I think soft pellets should be used. The shot would spread more, but probably still not enough to give a wide pattern at 20 ft. The main advantage would be creating wider wound channels for faster blood pressure loss while still maintaining enough penetration to create exit wounds. Any pellets making their way through the target then through the wall would be so slow and deformed they’d be unlikely to even penetrate skin. A miss would probably still be deadly for someone on the other side of the wall.
Good site and a good analogy why #4 birdshot whom I have recoomended (use 4buck myself) for alot of poeple and you clearly explained why.
Not entirely sure it still would not be effective @ closer ranges but your article has me rethinking it. Very well done and thank you.
[...] sense. Although I am a bit of a hypocrite since I do keep my shotguns loaded with 4buck myself. Choosing Birdshot, Buckshot or Slugs for shotgun home defense.
Great info. Was wondering on the overall effect of buckshot, your info addresses them. For others to know 3″ shells fired with Knox recoil system reduces the recoil, feels like a reduce recoil 2 3/4 shell. I have 590a1 and it works great.
Question how about ff shot it is almost the size of #4 buck, as a possiblity? I think some test in order.
Great information, just what I needed. In my 12 gauge shotgun, I usually have birdshot for my first round and flow up with 2 single slug rounds.
Anyone who has been in an actual gunfight/situation requiring the use of deadly force, KNOWS that to wound, or otherwise only injure a determined assailant, is to invite serious bodily injury. I use a Mossberg 590, 12 Gauge…00 buck. Wife has a Remington 870 Magnum Express in 20 Gauge, #3 buck. Neither of us shoot to wound. And I never have to “Rack one”. I keep a round in the chamber. Thumb Safety off, and I’m there. Do some studies on Fine Motor skills, and what that means when you are 1/2 awake at 3 am, in the dark, and someone is in your living room, that wants to hurt you. You either make ‘em DRT (Dead Right There) or you risk being hurt, or killed.
Great information! I would love to see someone do an actual test on sheet rock. I’m just getting ready to order a Mossberg 500 for home defense–so I can’t yet do the test myself. Someone out there willing to take few shoots and tell us what you found out?
Response
Hi Paul,
Another gun enthusiast did some testing on sheet rock, his results are available at: http://www.theboxotruth.com/
Jason
I like what you have said about buckshot. Although I personally believe that you can and should use lower strength shotshells for certain situations. I do believe that if you hit someone with birdshot that the immediate damage will not be too great but the long term damage will be enough to kill and poison a person from the lead that has come off of the pellets. Although I wouldn’t plan to use birdshot for home invasion defense, it is still practical to be used in certain situations such as appartment buildings. Now adays laws are so for the criminal and so against the good person that happends to get his or her house robbed that thinking out a detailed plan for your execution of a home invasion is not an option, but a vital necessity. In my case I use slugs and buckshot in my Remington 870 Experss Magnum. I prefer slugs in that they offer precision energy transfer and can be used for home defense and can still be used when the fight happends to leave te home and enters the outdoors.
I like your detail and your overall artical, I really don’t like how you compare a human to a deer. A good sized human is said to be around 200 lbs. while a deer can be in access of 350 lbs. In my experiences I have never heard of a burglar or an intruder weighing in over 350 lbs. Deer are much more bony (thicker bones) and have more muscle mass that most humans. “A deer is about equivalent to a human in terms of what it takes to physically stop them” -this statement can’t be true because because of the following. Common police loads include 9mm, .40 cal, and .357 sig. Where on earth do you find a hunter in the woods in his stand with a 9mm, .40cal. or .357 sig pistol? You don’t. These loads, although they are very effective on humans would never have the energy or power to knock down a deer effectively. And I have never known a hunter that uses reduced recoil buckshot loads on that trophy buch or any other deer, although they are effective on humans. No I would never use birdshot on a deer because their skeletal and muscular structure does a good job of protection their vital organs. Plus they’re bigger than humans. Humans have a weaker skeletal and less muscular structure in that birdshot in those rare circumstances could prove to be a effective stopper.
Response
I finally had a moment to reply to your comment, I appreciate your reply and agree with most of what you said. You said “here on earth do you find a hunter in the woods in his stand with a 9mm, .40cal. or .357 sig pistol? You don’t.”
I’ve known several people who have taken deer with 9mm pistols (ill advised yes), in fact my brother took a deer with a .22 LR which has both far less energy and far less momentum than any of the mentioned pistol calibers. Is it less than ideal? Absolutely so! The handguns are also extremely underpowered for use against humans as well :). The only advantage a handgun has is it’s size which makes it convenient to carry and easy to conceal.
These loads, although they are very effective on humans
There is the problem, they aren’t very effective on humans. They have an acceptable trade off of recoil, capacity, and performance so that the average person can comfortably and accurately shoot them. There is a very good chance it will take multiple handgun hits on a human to stop him, handgun bullets act primarily by punching holes and letting blood out, even after the heart is destroyed a human has at least 15 seconds of control.
Police departments recognize handguns are underpowered, which is the why the shotgun and patrol rifle (usually AR-15) are available. Police these days are trained to continue shooting until the threat stops, because they can’t guarantee they’ve got hits on the BG or that those hits have taken effect.
The bottom line is the VAST majority of people shot with handguns, even in center of mass (over 80%) survive. Recently a man decided to draw a firearm on a tactical team in my town, he was shot over 20 times with 9mm and survived.
Handguns capable of reliably stopping humans do exist, 44 magnum for example, but the recoil is so punishing that most people can not be accurate enough with them to consider them a primary defense tool.
“A good sized human is said to be around 200 lbs. while a deer can be in access of 350 lbs”
Deer are a great analog because #1 they don’t know what a bullet is or what they are supposed to do when they get shot. They only know they are injured and react. A bullet capable of forcing a deer to stop and die will perform extremely well on a human. Some humans will lay down or pass out when shot even with very minor hits. The true bad guys will continue to fight until their body gives out, and that can be a very long period of time, they are the ones we must prepare for.
Make no mistake, America is larger than it used to be. While the average male used to be ~ 180 pounds in today’s world an AVERAGE sized male is 200 pounds or more. Recently several men invaded a home, luckily the husband and wife were able to fend them off, the main aggressor took two rounds of #00 buck in the chest before going down, he actually escalated the attack after the first hit, he was almost 400 pounds.
The average athletic / lean looking 6′0 male is around 190 pounds, a good sized male is well over 200. Burly, musular looking guys are often easily in the mid 200’s.
birdshot in those rare circumstances could prove to be a effective stopper.
Bird shot could occasionally be an effective stopper if a head shot was guaranteed which is extremely unlikely otherwise it lacks the performance to stop a BG. The thing to keep in mind is those ballistic tests that show 3-6 inches of penetration do not consider bone in all. In real world center mass shootings the rib case almost always stops the birdshot completely with no disruption to vital organs. The BG may CHOOSE to stop the attack but birdshot can not be counted on to force him to. The BG may very well kill the good guy and then go to the hospital.
Another thing to consider is the skull is notorious for deflecting handgun bullets, so it may also defect bird shot rather well due to it’s low mass.
Thanks for the information, very informative. I’m considering a Mossberg 590 for home defense and to carry in my car. I have other shotguns that I have owned for years but they are expensive and have long vent-rib barrels and I don’t care to saw them off.
I have a question for you. This is hypothetical and may draw some left-wing comment but it could happen.
As well as for home defense, would a 12 gauge, 9 shot, #oo buck, 20″barreled pump shotgun such as the 590 be effective enough to thwart a mob of enraged morons bent on stopping one’s car to maim or kill the occupants? Also, a group of the same coming down the street to attack or burn one’s home? If not, what would be the best weapon that is within legal ownership?
If you’re old enough to remember the Rodney King riots, you should remember on t.v. seeing a man attacked and pulled out of the cement truck he was driving by several morons who beat him senseless while attempting to bash his brains out and then danced around him for the camera as though they had made a touchdown!
Well if I can help it, something like that is not going to happen to me. I’ll come out with barrel ablazing and take a few of them with me!
Response
Hi David, the Mossberg 590 is a VERY nice defensive shotgun, with a six shot side saddle there is up to 15 rounds of SG ammuntion on and in the weapon. I highly suggest that you seek out a tactical shotgun course (they are around $100 usually) and also a handgun or CWL course.
The training will make you aware of local laws on use of force, give you some good tactics and aid in your defense if you are forced to use lethal force.
There is an increasing number of incidents of people being pulled from vehicles, in one case the passenger got out of the car to break up the attack and was stomped to death, in another case a man as beat by 15+ people for no apparent reason, at the end of the attack one of the attackers urinated on the man’s head and they left, the man unfortunately died.
Your question is hard to answer because there are so many variables, why are they attacking, are they armed, are they average citizens or well trained / drilled? Will the group turn and run if a firearm is presented and their victim suddenly isn’t so helpless? What will they do if you begin firing, run or attack?
There is also the question of how many people can you realistically engage and stop before you are overwhelmed. Ideally the presentation of the firearm would de-escalate the situation but you can’t count on this effect.
The SG has an undeniable advantage in terms of ballistic performance over a handgun in defensive situations but there are a some potential disadvantages: #1 It is a long weapon, even with a 20 inch barrel. #2 It is slow to bring into play, unlike a handgun that can ride on the hip you must retrieve the SG. #3 It has limited capacity and is not magazine fed, the side saddle is a great addition because it increases the available ammunition by 66% and if you have the firearm you have the extra ammunition.
A handgun on the belt + a SG in the truck would be a good combination.
Thanks for the advice. In conjunction with the advice of a friend, I have decided to find some 2 3/4 OO buck shot, perhaps reduced recoil for my new mossberg 500. With the reduced recoil I hope my wife could use it effectivly, as she complained about the recoil of the target loads we used the other day. I am kind of irritated with myself for being talked into 3″ Magnum High Velocity T Birdshot when I was buying my gun. I asked for OO buckshot and the guy scoffed at me since he knew I was using it for home defense. Not only can the gun hold less of these rounds, but it seems it is less effective in stopping power and with the Magnum High Velocity load, I worry it will knock my wife on her butt the first shot she takes.
Drywall is easy to fix, I’m a taper. The thing I would have trouble with is trying to offer medical aid to the victim of a crime, while the intruder is still nearby and still poses a threat.
Remember you can always hire someone to deal with drywall problems very easily. Patches can be dealt with in 3-5 days easy. Dealing with a victim though…. Different story. Imagine a family member traumatized for life?
Plus remember the economy is not that hot, the drywaller will be happy to come help with your problem after the fact.
Again trying to quantify:
Problem (a) intruder is in your home for any number of nefarious reasons.
Problem (b) Patching drywall holes after shooting bad guy.
If you don’t deal with problem (a) then (b) is not a concern. Your loved one may be harmed, dead, or gone.
If you do deal with problem (a) then problem (b) may only cost several hundred dollars, and usually no funeral is necessary, visiting loved one in hospital, counseling daughter, or wife, after (god forbid) some violation.
Anyone good at math can see the obvious answer.
Yours is the first site I clicked on thru Google after I asked to see “shotgun ballistics”.
I live in an above normal crime rate neighborhood for 3 months now and feel I need a gun for possible intruder breakin. I have heard someone pulling on the bars over a window once and at another time an individual climb on the roof and then it sounded like he tried to know the spinner vent off but unsuccessfully. I called the Sheriff’s Dept and they were here within 10 mins and of course the indiv. was gone. If the spinner vent had been knocked off the intruder, if thin enough, could come into the attic then into the house thru the ceiling access door. I feel a metal shower rod is not what I need as much as a 12 gauge w/buckshot(lower recoil rounds). I am a retired law enforcement ofcr. and am permitted to carry even a concealed gun if I choose to. I had been thinking about just a 410 shotgun but doubt they make 00# for it and a slug would penetrate to the outside of the home is I missed the intruder so your info and stats and recommendations for the 12 guage is just what I needed. Thanks very much.
“I had been thinking about just a 410 shotgun but doubt they make 00# for it”
Winchester makes a 000 load for the 410. They stack the shot in a single column into the 410 shell. For a person who really needs low recoil this could be a good option.
Can’t help but comment on wanting to just “hurt” an intruder. I was taught that you never point your weapon at a person unless you are willing to take their life. Makes you think hard long before you draw down on someone, not just making up your mind “in the moment” because then it is too late. If you are not prepared to take a life defending your self or family you need to decide whether or not you should have a weapon for self defense. That said, thank you for the ballistic info, I too thought that 8 shot would be sufficient. Needless to say now it is 00 buckshot and 1 oz. slugs in my 12 ga.
In the discussion above, there is concern about the limited number of shots from a shotgun. What about a Saiga 12 guage. I understand that they can take magazines of 13 shells. Any advantages or disadvantages?
this is a great site all the others dont go into deatail like this… my question is, i will be traveling to alaska soon and was wondering what would be the best choice for stopping a bear. i dont plan on meeting any bears along the way but just incase i break down somewhere in the yukon tarritory and might get stranded for a while i would like some sort of defense against animals. i was thinking of getting a benelli nova pump with 3 1/2″ 00 or even 000 buck shot with a slug or two on the side. any thoughts?
If your choice is a shotgun, I would strongly advise using only slugs for heavy and dangerous game like bears, save the 000 or 00 shotshells for home defense or hunting smaller game.
Either 3 1/2″ or 3″ high velocity slug shells are fine.
Many people in Alaska use the 454 Casull handgun for its stopping power and compact size when on fishing or camping trips, but if you’re traveling by car the shotgun is a better choice for defense and taking game if needed.