What shotgun rounds do you recommend for home defense?

I've heard that 6 birdshot won't penatrate interior walls. NOt sure about 4 shot.

I've also heard that buckshot is best for stopping purposes but will travel through interior and exterior walls.

I'm looking to purchase in bulk so I want to keep the cost reasonable.

Recommendations?

[edit on 25-9-2008 by In nothing we trust]

If it is a 12 gauge I would recommend sellier and Bellot 00 buckshot, it is the cheapest buckshot, and you can get it in the 10 pack instead of the standard 5 pack. They have 2 3/4" and 3" magnums. Slugs are devastating as well. I like to load the first 4 shots 3" mag 00 buck followed by 3 slugs in my winchester 1300 (holds 8 2 3/4" or 7 3"). That way you still have a chance if your target is out of range for the buck.

BTW slugs go through anything and everything. So if its in your house, your slug can go through a perp, your wall, the house across the street, someone in the backyard ect, so be careful where you aim.

www.cheaperthandirt.com...

There are a good 4 pages of buckshot and slugs for ya.

www.cheaperthandirt.com...

This is a great site, and they have lots of good stuff.

No. 4 shot (in the UK this is #3 shot) is a good compromise between penetration and impact force (I don't believe in "stopping power"). It will penetrate enough meat to hit internals but won't motor through most of your house if you miss.

I've heard that the discerning shooter is using a cartridge with tightly packed cotton wool the fluffier the better. Col(our) is not important!

Hope this is of help to you?

Avoid birdshot at all costs. It does not penetrate deeply enough to reliably incapacitate a subject. This is widely documented and proven as a bad choice. The average penetration is about 6(yes six) inches. This is in ballistic gelatin. So that doesn't even consider bone, clothing, body fat, or a drug addled/ intoxicated perp.

You ideally want 12 inches minimum of penetration. You will not find a birdshot that will do this. Ideally you want #1 Buck, then 00. Ballistically, the best performing round is #1 Buck. More pellets than 00 = more wound channels. But #1 Buck has very limited offerings so it's probably just easier to find a 00 Buck that you'll like and will do just fine. The below links are excellent sources with buckets of info on shot choice(as well as why not to choose birdshot) with charts, graphs and gelatin data to back it all up.

www.firearmstactical.com...

www.tacticalshotgun.ca...

no.4-6 definitely. Low brass. You want to be able keep a quick shot on target. I don't know if you have any women or kids in the house but if you expect them to hit their mark should the time come you don't want to blow the gun out their hands and bruise their shoulder with some heavy load.

You probably don't want to tear holes in your walls either.

I keep a Mossberg 590 with four shells of no.7 skeet shot myself. It's low brass and the girlfriend can control it.

Something I used to do when living in an area known for break-ins was stagger the shells. 6/00/6/00/6/00 but that city was something special with break-ins every week and murders almost every two hours.

reply to post by mlmijyd


That's a good idea.

I wanted to get some less-lethal rubber ball stinger type shot a while back but was told I had to be a law enforcement officer to purchase them. I thought how stupid? It's like whoever made the idiotic laws would prefer I eviscerate an intruder than incapacitate them?

Winchester has 00 buck with low recoil for home defense(~20 ga kick) and Military 00 buck (magnum charge in 2 3/4).

you can buy bulk on on gunbroker.com

( I contacted a seller direct to avoid the auction )

[edit on 26-9-2008 by Pinktip]

[edit on 26-9-2008 by Pinktip]

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
...bruise their shoulder with some heavy load. ...

The context of this entire thread is that the person's life is threatened, so they are going to have to start shooting to keep themselves alive.

Now, do you want to rephrase or retract that statement?

reply to post by sir_chancealot


Nope. She's small. She practiced a few times with high-power loads and she developed a terrible flinching reflex. Now what good is the gun if when she picks it up she hesitates to pull the trigger because she's expecting pain? What good is it if after the first shot she's thrown off balance or drops the gun and can't follow through?

You go ahead and be the big man with hot loads. I'll mind my own business and make sure the people I care about can effectively handle a firearm in a stressful situation with calm and control.

In a 12 gauge I think that it is hard to beat a #4 buck shot load if using a pistol grip gun minus a shoulder stock in a situation where you may have to fire multiple times. With a gun that has a longer barrel and a stock the Remington Magnum loads are great but require more effort to recover from the recoil and re target if fast firing multiple shots. Just jacking a round into the chamber in a pump action shotgun is something that will send anyone with any sense at all, beating feet down the street. The sound itself is unmistakable. Not responding to that sound is justifying what will happen next. I forgot to mention that #4 buck was what was used by Navy SEAL team members in night time activities in Vietnam, and they can use whatever they want.

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
reply to post by sir_chancealot

 

Nope. She's small. She practiced a few times with high-power loads and she developed a terrible flinching reflex. Now what good is the gun if when she picks it up she hesitates to pull the trigger because she's expecting pain? What good is it if after the first shot she's thrown off balance or drops the gun and can't follow through?

You go ahead and be the big man with hot loads. I'll mind my own business and make sure the people I care about can effectively handle a firearm in a stressful situation with calm and control.

I'm sorry, did I totally lose reading comprehension for this thread? The OP was asking about the best DEFENSE LOADS, not PRACTICE LOADS.

Had the OP bothered to ask about PRACTICE LOADS, or shooting on the range, I would agree.

Your response CLEARLY wasn't about shooting during practice, but about during an actual firefight.

I state with absolute certainty that in a real firefight, where you have to actually shoot someone, a bruise on your shoulder is going to be the LEAST of your worries, and the very last thing on your mind.

reply to post by sir_chancealot


Unless the OP plans on practicing inside his home it sounds like hes asking both questions.

Indoors. close range. don't want to penetrate walls.

I would reload my own with the smallest shot i could find preferably #22 shot.

Just before i loaded it i would coat it with pepper spray and let it dry.

Chances are you would not be shooting over 10 feet so the spread would be tight and indoors # 22 would not penetrate a wall.

But a 10 foot the wound would be about 8 inches across,
and with #22 would sever all surface veins and arteries to about 3/4 inch deep plus the pain would be unbearable

If the person survived he would spent hours having each small pellet picked out.
Pepper spray would cause the wound to become infected if they are not removed.

Ether way one round would so incapacate him to the point he would no longer be a danger to you
he would have so many hole in his skin he would be bleeding badly and would likely bleed out quik.

reply to post by ANNED


For home defence you don't concern yourself with how long it'll take to pull the shot out afterwards or whether the wound becomes infected later. Your concern is simple;

Will this shot stop the attacker quickly before he hurts my family or me?

However we must bear in mind the legal consequences of our actions. Load a cartridge with small pellets that are designed to cause suffering and that will scream of pre-medetation. While this may not concern you during the incident, the attackers lawyer will ensure that you think of little else in the months following the shooting. The attacker will sue the living hell out of you and make your life agony for the forseeable future. There are plenty of regular loads on the market that are much better suited than the one you suggest and will not cause you the legal difficulties that your little home-made one will.

Also, very small birdshot like this will not stop an atacker. It may slow him a bit, but won't cut deep enough to damage muscle, bone and organ sufficiently to reliably stop an attacker. At the same time you don't want any missed shots over penetrating and injuring a third party. Here shotguns are unique in that loads can be tailored to suit these needs.

[edit on 27-9-2008 by PaddyInf]

Originally posted by PaddyInf
...The attacker will sue the living hell out of you and make your life agony for the forseeable future. ...

Gotta tell you, if it comes down to having to shoot someone in my house because they broke in, invaded, whatever, the police WON'T be getting his side of the story. I guarantee you that.

You see, the only way I KNOW he ceases to be a threat is keep shooting until he quits moving.

Rock salt.I still get a kick out of that scene in ''Kill Bill".You may not want to kill someone,but incapacitate them for a while.I think this would do it.

This whole thread is pretty worrying...

It's like some of the people on here WANT to get their houses burgled, just so they have the chance to shoot someone.

It all depends on what you want to accomplish. In SitX self-defense, against a single person, daeoeste took my answer: Rock salt. You get multiple penetrations of very sharp crystals, and every one of them feels like hell itself has hit them. But on the other hand, it's not (usually) lethal, so if there's a court battle later on, you have the defense of not shooting to kill, just due to the type of load. Yeah, he'll live, but everyone who he tells will think a couple dozen times before playing with gunpowder-administered rock salt.

On the con side, you have to load them yourself (although anyone serious about shooting should have a reloader), and you better clean that barrel real good after use. Rock salt is corrosive to steel as well as flesh.

Back to the shot size, it all depends on your situation. I'd recommend keeping a supply of #8 or #6 for small game hunting as well as scaring off the average wanna-be looter. They do hurt, even if not as lethal as larger shot. You also want some #4 or #2 for larger game or for those who look to be a little tough for the bird shot. Both of these are usually lethal, if not from the immediate damage, from the subsequent bleeding.

I try to keep a supply of 000 buck on hand as well. You have a better chance of hitting something vital/painful with shot and 000 is big enough that I doubt the recipient is going to have much chance of not doing the bleeding to death quickly thingy. Slugs are also good, but don't expect them to slam through things like an armor-piercing rifle round; they will stop soon enough, just not before blowing some really big holes in whatever was in front of them.

It also matters whether you are using a full-choke or a modified choke shotgun (except for slugs of course). Full choke concentrates the shot over a smaller area, so you can use smaller shot with the same results. You have to be a bit more precise on the aiming than with a modified choke, though.

Shotguns in general are great for fast shooting (aim is not as critical as a single round rifle) and for the fear factor (that hole in a 12-gage can look huge when you're staring down it). But for immediate lethal damage or medium/long range, I'd take a rifle or good handgun any day. Less recoil to allow you to re-aim quickly in changing conditions, more exact penetration, and handguns are easier to swing quickly and easier to hide than a big bulky shotgun.

TheRedneck

edit to add:reply to post by mr-lizard

I don't think it's all that (although I will admit some people have that mindset), it's more a desire to be prepared in case of something. I have plenty of firearms and other weapons, and all of them are there in the intense hope that they will never be used.

That said, I would rather have them and never need them, than need them and not have them. I have a responsibility to protect me and mine, and I have no intentions of abrogating that responsibility to anyone else. The stakes are too high.

TheRedneck


[edit on 27-9-2008 by TheRedneck]