Defensive Shotgun Load Choice for Home Defense..

well, All this less lethal bean bag, warnings, and etc sounds good.

sure the bean bag would work 85 % of the time,

and the #6 would make 98% of intruders stop in the their tracks.

but when it comes to MY life, anything less than 100% just wont do.

I load, 2 3/4 low recoil slugs (remington), all of it, even in the side saddle.

and also, these arent quite ball, they are hollow in the back.
 
Dixie Slugs Dixie Tri-Ball II! The load consists of three (.600’) hard cast round balls (buckshot) in heavy duty plastic wad.

Nuff Said
 
I've been shooting handguns for a very long time, but recently purchased my first shotgun. I realize shotguns are much more powerful than handguns but should we always expect to get a one shot stop with our HD ammo? While #1 shot doesn't penetrate as much as 000 or 00, wouldn't the lower recoil of the #1 allow for faster follow up shots? It seems to me, a couple of rounds of #1 buck would stop just about anyone. Maybe I still have the handgun mentality, but I always practice multiple shots.
 
Maybe I still have the handgun mentality,
Click to expand...

with a handgun you can fire off 10 rounds in 2 seconds,
with a pump gun, figure 3 shots per 2 seconds ?

figure 3 shots of 00 buck and you can pretty much be on the safe side... if you do whole mag of 8 oo buck, that would be 5 seconds of shooting. thats plenty of shootin...
 
The Mossberg is fully loaded with 00 buck, and the side saddle the same. Would not depend on #6 shot to stop or deter the BG from causing bodily harm to my family or myself. I have total confidence that 00 buck will do the job.
 
"If our only concern was to be sure we didn't penetrate walls, we would use BB guns."

Remember the first thing you learn when firing a weapon. Know what is beyond your target! This is exemplified by an OIS that occurred here in Austin a couple of weeks ago. The officer discharged his weapon at a (unarmed and fleeing) suspect in the direction of a busy grocery store parking lot. A round struck a bystanders vehicle only stopping when it hit a metal plate in the seat where a young child was sitting.
Remember too, criminals are cowards. Burglars do not want a confrontation. They will strike when you are not at home and are usually not armed. If you are however, or happen to come home, they most likely will not want to confront you, armed or not. Home invasion is another story. These guys are the drunk or "dusted" individuals, usally gang members, and are not going to be alone. They WILL be armed, and most likely have the drop on you. If you do decide to fight, be prepared for one hell of a battle. Short answer- Federal 00 tactical. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
 
It's pure folly to think or hope that either the intimadation factor or being shot with a bean bag, birdshot or whatever is going to stop a dedicated attacker if it's come down to a have to shoot situation. For one thng the "less leathal" rounds do not ALWAYS work, heck 00 buck does not ALWAYS work.

In additon all those videos you have seen on TV are entierly diffirent than John Q public defending himslef in the middle of the night. You have what 5 to 10 cops with a non-complying suspect and one officer shoots a less lethal round to end it while the rest are ready to shoot for "real" if instead of surrender the suspect escalates or engages. Very diffirent than jsut lonely old me and one bad guy. Sorry but that it the truth, and while less lethal alternative are great mainly for the fact they save cops lives and injuries from haivng to go "hands on" with non-complying suspects, I don't think you will find too many reccomending less leathal as the first line in a life or death situation.

I'd never put a buch of "less lethal" rounds up the pipe of my shotgun only to have the "real" stuff a few rounds back, I can see the afteraction report now... man he only had more than one round to go before he got to the real stuff.

Just like some are critical of light weight, fast moving JHP rounds in handguns for inadequate penetration, Less than 00 buck and you are riskign inadequate penetration of the agressor. I have frankly seen things (a labrador) shot point blank in teh thorax with birshot that lived so sorry I simply can not put much stock in this.


While I think it's great that we are all worrying about over penetratio and collateral damage, since all too offten people simply compleatly discount this it's certainly a matter of degree. I mean unless you live in an apartment, the combination of range and mutiple layers of material to penetrate makes the shotgun even with 00 relitivly safe, esp when compared with the alternatives, which even with JHP ammo have a greater absolute range and ability to penetrate.
 
I must say that about a month ago i would have agreed with people who chose to put birdshot as their main defence round, But that was a month ago. I went shooting a few times since then and got to try out my TPS on one such outing. Got some #1 buck just for the occassion. Started out with #4 bird shot high velocity loads, and shooting at a old dishwasher( yah I know redneck) all it would do is dent the out side thin metal sheeting. When firing at a two by six and some old phones(would you believe that i live in nebraska, more like tennessee)the birdshot would pentrate only 1/4 inch in. Totally put me in shock. This was all at what i would consider normal defense ranges(10 to 20 ft) and with cylinder and modified chokes.I would have expected a little more, especially for a round that people are considering for HD. If someone broke into my house there not getting the 2nd chance that birdshot would give them.

P.S. the buck grouped nicely at the same range while the birdshot was patterned sporatically. And #1 totally ripped through the dishwasher and left a exit wound the size of my fist.......sa-weet

my humble redneck opinion
 
If the rounds go through the interior walls, I'll fix them. I don't see anything penetrating the brick exterior walls. As long as I'm not shooting out the window, I'm not too worried about penetration. Right now I've got 3" 00 buck. I'll probably change my mind again later, and then again ... and then maybe again. Such is life.
 
Well, I don't know, it would seem that at normal house ranges, the shot would still be in shot cup on lots of loads, so It is hard to fathom #6 shot or espacally #4 buck not getting the job done, but I guess I could see a siduation where a bad guy might have taken cover behind a wall or door, and one might need to shoot through that cover: this is were 00 buck would shine, or maybe even slugs.

Someone like me, who lives in a rural area, often grabs a rifle instead, I keep a pre 64 Winchester 30/30 loaded, and a Browning BLR .308, but I also have a couple of 1911's 45ACP's and an old A5 with high base #6s but the shotgun is mostly for nusance varmits after dark. However, I am cosidering loading another A5 with rifle sights with #4 buck for coyotes after dark, around the place. I shot a skunk the other night with #6 and I got to admit, I wasn't that impressed with the highbase 6s, even for the skunk.
 
I was involved with a case where a Labrador dog (he lived, got a new home) was shot point blank, with small shot to the lateral thorax. He thankfuly lived, we recovered the shot cup form the wound chanel and the X-rays are very intresting and something I use for teaching to this day for the shot spread out and all lodged in the muscle of the chest wall. Very intresting to look at and a good lesson on why we always take 2 view x-rays.

Anyway if a point blank shot at a relitivly thin walled animal fails to do much damage I sure as heck am never going to trust it when I'm hopefully going to be further away and may be facing some one with garment layers and or fat to further impead the projectiles.

Remember if you are shooting it's a last resort and you are shooting to stop the threat, a large majority of people on having a verbal threat will flee / retreat, some it will take having a weapon leveled against them to give up, the rest take the application of force, while the shock of a wound may do it it's not considred reliable if it has come to that, they may be high on drugs or psycologically comitted to mayhem so that leaves us with CNS incapacitation or exsangunation through trama to the circulatory system. Those are the unpleasant facts of using deadly force to stop an agressor.

For anyone that is curious yes the SOB who did it got prosecuted and the dog ended up with one of the investigating officers.
 
I love the "Box O' Truth" and his tests do destroy many myths and misconceptions but I’m not overly worried about over-penetration. If he built his “walls” with a layer of insulation and 14-20ft apart I’d give the small pellet penetration tests more credence. 00 buck, slugs where I can reach them and my .40 S&W ugly plastic gun with a couple extra magazines for backup is my vote.
 
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