12g Ammo suggestions

K

Kimbertron

New member
Hello all,

I received a Mossberg 500 for Christmas that will be used as my new home defense gun. Its been a bit chilly (-30) so i haven't been able to shoot it until today. I ended up turning the garage heat on full blast aiming at me and shot out the door lol. Well to make a long story short my future husband and I put about 100 rounds through it and it performed flawlessly, which leads me to my question. I am new to shot guns and am looking for recommendations on what ammo to use as home defense rounds. Thanks in advance for your help :D.
 
This is a familiar question and the answer typically boils down to your home environment. You want stopping power but want to avoid over-penetration -- you don't want to stop someone on the other side of the wall, too. How is your home constructed, how close are the neighbors, do you have children, etc.? Also, does you HD scenario include large dangerous animals?
 
The Winchester PDX1 Defender line has a new slug that is looking promising. My main concern is it being a single projectile and under low light stress a shotgun with a standard sight might be hard to put on target. I run a micro red dot on my 870, so the new slug might work for me, but it will take some practice before I switch over.

http://youtu.be/v1PCBOzgD8c
 
Most any advice regarding ammo for a defensive shotgun is going to be situation dependent, and zippy13 raised the important issues. Birdshot is good for practice, but might not be effective as a defensive load under less than optimum circumstances. Larger lead shot than what's usually considered birdshot, or smaller buckshot like #2, 3 or 4 buck, may be useful where overpenetration is a concern. Thing is, anything likely to penetrate enough to shut down a bad guy is likely going to be able to go through a couple of layers of drywall as well.

Around here there's just the two of us, myself and my wife, and no one else in the house. We don't have any neighbors closer than several hundred yards away. Penetration is not something we have to worry about too much. So we use a good load of 12 gauge 00 buckshot in the magazines (Federal LE127 00), and Brenneke KO slugs in the Sidesaddles in case more range or penetration is needed than buckshot can provide.

There's more discussion on defensive shotgun ammo at http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=475482 , why that thread isn't here in Shotguns I don't know...
 
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Looks like I forgot some information lol. It is me and my retired mother living in the house. The closest neighbor is about a mile away so over penetration shouldn't be an issue as far as that is concerned.

I was thinking large buckshot as i have never fired a slug from a shotgun but
I should probably pick some up to see how they shoot.

The Winchester PDX1 Defender line has a new slug that is looking promising. My main concern is it being a single projectile and under low light stress a shotgun with a standard sight might be hard to put on target. I run a micro red dot on my 870, so the new slug might work for me, but it will take some practice before I switch over.

http://youtu.be/v1PCBOzgD8c
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This looks pretty good thank you for the link. The video isn't closed captioned and i am deaf so i was not able to pick up everything that was said. What it looks like though if you can confirm this is a soft lead slug that flattened out and only penetrated about 14-16 inches? If so that might be a great option alot of power but wont penetrate more than a handgun it seems. The impression I usually get of a shotgu n slug is that it will blow threw a wall the car outside 6 grizzly bears and the neighbors house :D.

Also, does you HD scenario include large dangerous animals?
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I live in central Alaska so large animals are most definitely around but when im outdoors I usually have my Redhawk Alaskan with me so I don't see me taking this out much other than for practice and trap shooting (it came with a 28" barrel as well).

Thank you all for the information so far :).
 
Basically anything from #4 shot to slugs will do you for up close and personal. Nothing smaller for shot. 2 3/4" shells will be all you need for power. The only advantage to 3 and 3 !/2" shells is they have more shot and more recoil. Think about adding hi viz sights or ghost ring to your shotgun for aiming purposes and you are good to go. I have two with rifle sights, one with tru glo sights and one with a 2.5x scope and all work for fast accurate shooting at ground targets. Practice is more important than what you put in the gun so when you pick a load you are comfortable with buy it by the case and start practicing.
 
Think about adding hi viz sights or ghost ring to your shotgun for aiming purposes and you are good to go. I have two with rifle sights, one with tru glo sights and one with a 2.5x scope and all work for fast accurate shooting at ground targets.
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This gun is for HD and is not "aimed", so the only sight that would be necessary would be a simple bead or, perhaps, a an XS Big Dot over the existing bead.
 
This gun is for HD and is not "aimed", so the only sight that would be necessary would be a simple bead or, perhaps, a an XS Big Dot over the existing bead.
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I think the bead front sight will be fine for now also. If i do get something different it will most likely be because I was bored and like new toys lol.

Practice is more important than what you put in the gun so when you pick a load you are comfortable with buy it by the case and start practicing.
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I looked up that fancy defense ammo from Roman556 post and it looks great but is kinda pricey. I am all about practicing with what I carry in my hand guns but have a friend that reloads to keep cost down. I am thinking though if I buy a cheaper slug or buck shot that recoils similar to what I'm going to load it with I could practice a lot more. Of course i would get enough of what ever I end up choosing to make sure I like it.

From my living room wall to kitchen door is the longest strait shot in my house so I'm thinking set up two targets for that distance and practice alternating targets to get used to handling the gun.
 
This gun is for HD and is not "aimed", so the only sight that would be necessary would be a simple bead or, perhaps, a an XS Big Dot over the existing bead.
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Agreed but you can miss at 20' if you are under stress and in a hurry. For instance in my house 24' is the longest possible shot. We don't know what her longest possible shot is but if you have sights you can acquire quickly and train with them till they are second nature the chances of a miss under stress goes down considerably. For example I take at least 2 sometimes 3 of my shotguns I would use for home defense purposes and I set up reactive targets from 6 yards to 25 yards at various angles from my shooting position. Then I practice mounting the gun, hitting the safety and shooting them as fast as I can and still make consistent hits on all of them.

It doesn't matter which gun I choose to protect the homestead because I am familiar with all of them. I don't want to shoot any of them in that kind of situation but if I do it will be something I have practiced till it's automatic. I am a trained pistol and rifle shooter from my days in uniform, I just naturally find my sights quickly. If I was a duck hunter like my uncle or a trap and skeet shooter like many of my friends that might not be such a consideration for me but I'm not a shotgunner so any help aiming is a plus.
 
Agreed but you can miss at 20' if you are under stress and in a hurry.
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That's the point. If you are stressed and in a hurry, you don't want to deal with GR sights or a scope :eek: You may, in fact, not have time to even mount the gun to your shoulder. I am pretty deadly at 7 yds. with my shotgun under-arm or hip mounted. It just take practice.
 
Picked up a couple to try out when I was food shopping.

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Only shot the cheap target stuff so far so Im curios as too how much more recoil these will have lol. Ill be finding out tomorrow I suppose
 
at ten yards anything in the heavy birdshot to slug range will do wonders.

I recommend you try out a rifled choke and see how it patterns as at interior room ranges a shotgun won't spread out much with most chokes.

Be careful shooting out your garage with more than bird shot. Nothing has an effective range of one mile, but some of the fancier slugs might have a dangerous range of a mile.
 
I recommend you try out a rifled choke and see how it patterns as at interior room ranges a shotgun won't spread out much with most chokes.

Be careful shooting out your garage with more than bird shot. Nothing has an effective range of one mile, but some of the fancier slugs might have a dangerous range of a mile.
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The 18 inch barrel that came with it doesn't have chokes as far as i know, the 28 inch i got does but that's heavy and long for home defense. I need too research more about different slugs too was a but confused about different types when shopping.

The garage I'm shooting out of points to my backyard and to my home range. The edge of my back yard goes into a very steep hill that my grandfather years ago also dug a good back stop for shooting, Very convenient :D. Thanks for looking out though I can picture someone shooting out of there drive way at cars or something lol.
 
For defense, brenneke, fosters, rifled, or saboted will all pretty much be the same. There is differing accuracy with each, but that probably won't come into play at defensive shotgun ranges(more for deer hunting). I would get the cheaper foster slugs for HD(and by would I mean do).

Good you are watching out. It is just sometimes people post about how they are shooting 308 into hay bales or a pile of grass clippings and they don;t understand the real ranges of guns, especially the dangerous range v. the effective range. Always like to make sure they are thinking about it.
 
FEDERAL FLITECONTROL buckshot is a great HD round. it will extend the effective distance of buckshot for HD, and is very manageable.
 
Shot some of these at halftime. Wow those 3 inch magnum buch shot was fun but had a tad bit of recoil lol. The managed recoil slug wasnt bad but i think alot of practice would be rough. Im thinking of ways to reduce recoil now.. maybe a nice recoil pad. Had shoulder surgery last year and its never been the same.
 
Kim;
Find a reduced recoil buckshot round of smaller than #00 Buckshot (i.e. #1 or #4 Buckshot). You have TWO good reasons for this.

My own HD shotgun is basically the same arm with Sellier & Bellot one oz. (21 vs. more common 27 pellet) #4 Buckshot shells. I don't think you can get these anymore but there'll be other options.

Congratulations and good luck.
 
Kim;
Find a reduced recoil buckshot round of smaller than #00 Buckshot (i.e. #1 or #4 Buckshot). You have TWO good reasons for this.

My own HD shotgun is basically the same arm with Sellier & Bellot one oz. (21 vs. more common 27 pellet) #4 Buckshot shells. I don't think you can get these anymore but there'll be other options.

Congratulations and good luck.
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Yeah I'm going to pick up a few more options next week, was looking for #1 shot but they didn't have it. I am going to go to a real gun shop to find a bigger selection to try (bought the others at fred meyer while food shopping).
 
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