12g Ammo suggestions

IMO, #6s would be ample for indoor applications. Point and shoot, no significant pentetration into interior structures, and the assailent is most deffinately incapacitated and probably taking his last breath shortly thereafter. Leading to your secondary concern in todays sue happy world....a dead man can't talk.
 
IMO, #6s would be ample for indoor applications. Point and shoot, no significant pentetration into interior structures, and the assailent is most deffinately incapacitated and probably taking his last breath shortly thereafter. Leading to your secondary concern in todays sue happy world....a dead man can't talk.
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Picked up some #4 and #1 today. I'm having a "blast" so far with this shotgun lol. No cardboard box was safe today :D. Once it warms up a bit I'm going to set up some targets to see how they all pattern.

Your right about our sue happy world, thankfully im alaska we still have some rights when it comes too protecting ourselves though :).
 
Kim;
Don't confuse #4 shot with #4 Buckshot. You probably didn't, but I'm nervous... For HD please never put less than #2 shot (.15 caliber) in your gun and don't use THAT on anyone or medium-sized anythings past 15 meters.

Fred Meyers -- love 'em. Are you in the Northwest?
 
Don't confuse #4 shot with #4 Buckshot. You probably didn't, but I'm nervous... For HD please never put less than #2 shot (.15 caliber) in your gun and don't use THAT on anyone or medium-sized anythings past 15 meters.

Fred Meyers -- love 'em. Are you in the Northwest?
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I got the #4 to try but so far i think i am going to go with 00 because its everywhere and there is a very wide variety. I di still like the idea of going with a slug though but some real target practice is still needed.

Fred Meyers is my favorite one stop shopping lol, Im in central Alaska.

I just discovered midway USA does not ship to Alaska... poop. Never tried to buy ammo online but thought i would look for a deal.
 
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The 2 3\4" buckshot you bought will stop everything but "KingKong".
As for chokes, I don't even keep a choke in my shotgun at home. A blast from a shotgun at 20' is as deadly as it gets. Chokes don't mean sqat at HD ranges. Your talking about baseball size groups at best.
 
The 2 3\4" buckshot you bought will stop everything but "KingKong".
As for chokes, I don't even keep a choke in my shotgun at home. A blast from a shotgun at 20' is as deadly as it gets. Chokes don't mean sqat at HD ranges. Your talking about baseball size groups at best.
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Yeah the 18' barrel doesn't have screw in chokes anyway, the 28" barrel that came with it does. The longest possible shot in my house 28'. I know i am probably over thinking this and beating the subject to death, but I'm also learning a lot from you all in the process. I have been shooting for a long time but this forum has really broadened my knowledge of firearms quite a bit.
 
The Firearms Tactical Institute recommends #1 Buck:

Here is TFL's poll: (Thanks Hogdogs)

http://thefiringline.com/forums/show...arms+institute

Another thread:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452487

The Firearms Tactical Institute recommends #1 Buck:


Number 1 buck is the smallest diameter shot that reliably and consistently penetrates more than 12 inches of standard ordnance gelatin when fired at typical shotgun engagement distances. A standard 2 ¾-inch 12 gauge shotshell contains 16 pellets of #1 buck. The total combined cross sectional area of the 16 pellets is 1.13 square inches. Compared to the total combined cross sectional area of the nine pellets in a standard #00 (double-aught) buck shotshell (0.77 square inches), the # 1 buck shotshell has the capacity to produce over 30 percent more potentially effective wound trauma. In all shotshell loads, number 1 buckshot produces more potentially effective wound trauma than either #00 or #000 buck. In addition, number 1 buck is less likely to over-penetrate and exit an attacker's body.
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http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm
 
Here is what we use:

12 Gauge - 2 3/4" Standard Velocity #1 Buckshot

20 Gauge - 2 3/4" Standard Velocity #3 Buckshot

I use the 12 Gauge and my Mom and Little Sister use the 20 Gauges.

PS Im comfortable with those choices when it comes to recoil, penetration and pellet count.
 
Kim;
Going to Fred Meyers can be like, I dunno, a little vacation if ya just walk up and down all the aisles. Do you know the only time I ever felt undergunned? No, not when loaded with nickel-plated 000 Buckshot in a 12 ga. 3" Magnum for bear defense. It was when I saw Fred Meyers (I think it was in Fairbanks but I mighta been in Los Anchorage) selling big .475 Linebaugh and .460 and .500 S&W revolvers! Not that I wanted them, or even a .454 Casull, but, I was carrying a 5-shot 3" .44 Mag!

:(

LOL
 
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It was when I saw Fred Meyers (I think it was in Fairbanks but I mighta been in Los Anchorage) selling big .475 Linebaugh and .460 and .500 S&W revolvers! Not that I wanted them, or even a .454 Casull, but, I was carrying a 5-shot 3" .44 Mag!
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I was eyeing the S&W 500 at fred meyers the other day haha. I love being able to buy new cloths, food, a good book, guns and furniture all in one stop :). The 500 would be way to much gun for my frame but i recently saw a single shot 500 S&W rifle that would be fun if i start reloading. I think it was a handi-rifle.

Thank you for the links countzero alot of good info in there :)
 
I found that "Managed Recoil" slug ammunition to be inaccurate (as in I ran out of it before I could figure out whether it was shooting high or low or what). Before I shot it and after I shot the "managed recoil" slugs, I shot the standard load slugs and was ringing the plate without missing at 50 yards. I know we are talking about home defense distances here, but I lost all confidence in the "managed recoil" niche of ammunition. Your experience may differ.

Pattern your shotgun with what you will actually use in it and practice with that.
Know on sight what kind of pattern your gun will produce at the various distances you might use it. Different ammunition can produce significantly different patterns, some quite tight and others rather loose. I prefer tight, but you should at least know what you are going to get.

If the shotgun is to be your primary home defense gun, then you should practice reloading that shotgun until you can do it without any hiccups. While it may be that you never use it at all, or if you do use it that one or two rounds will suffice, you must be able to reload that gun quickly and flawlessly. I took a shotgun class and realized quickly that the shotgun is the .357 magnum revolver of the long gun world - lots of sound and fury, deadly ballistics, and six rounds before that deafening "click" of an empty gun.

What a shotgun gives you is devastating power and a pattern of projectiles, the tradeoff you make for that is low ammunition capacity. Reloading a shotgun is a critical skill, and much more dependent upon practice than dropping a magazine and inserting another.
 
If you put a magazine extension on your shotgun, you get 2 or 3 more rounds (total of 7 or 8) before you have to worry about reloading.
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I'm familiar:

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You can't even see it all. There's chest rigs for every long gun, as well as sidearms for every occasion.

That's just what I have in my closet for rapid deployment to the people qualified to shoot that live here. I have caches in my parent's two homes, one nearby and one at a "remote location" as well as in my office, my vehicle and stashed with a few friends.

The hardest part about the coming zombie apocolypse will be pretending I'm not excited it finally arrived.
 
anyway...

Looks like testing ammo will have to wait :(. Got bit by a dog yesterday... need surgery on my right hand FML. Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions im sure ill be spending some time on here recovering. Maybe i will be able to find a way to shoot off a rest left handed for a bit.
 
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