What is your preferred home defense shotgun ammunition?

What is your preferred home defense shotgun ammunition

  • Bird shot (specify what kind of shot and brand in a comment)

    Votes: 8 7.9%
  • Buck shot (specify what kind of shot and brand in a comment)

    Votes: 88 87.1%
  • Slugs (specify what kind of shot and brand in a comment)

    Votes: 5 5.0%

  • Total voters
    101
  • Poll closed .
Winchester #1 buck. Patterns well and works on deer.

NYC Shooter,
What are you basing you assertion that 4 buck is marginal? Ive seen alot of deer killed with #4 buckshot. Most were on the move in front of hounds. If the pellets hit their mark the deer went down quickly. I killed a few with #3's out of a 20 when I was a kid. Killed a bunch more with #1's cause that what my shotgun patterned best. Unless a bad guy is wearing body armor, there is no way that a load of #4's center mass at 50 feet or less wont be devastating. If it will kill a deer at 30-40 yards, it will certainly kill a man at half that distance.
 
NYC Shooter,
What are you basing you assertion that #4 buck is marginal?

It will not penetrate enough to reliably reach the vital organs, especially through heavy clothing. I know of of no LE agency that specifies #4 buck.

#1 buck has been theoretically the best load for HD, superior to even 00. The problem has been that there has never been a #1 buck that patterned worth a damn. Until now. Federal recently introduced LE132 1B and I can think of no reason to use anything else for HD. I bought some about six weeks ago and it patterns as well as LE132 00.

Here is a report from the Firearm Tactical Institute analyzing HD ammo:
http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm

And here is a recent review of the new LE132 1B on the The Box O'Truth:
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot56.htm

There are those that will argue that #4 buck is good enough, and there are those idiots who will even suggest that birdshot is the answer, but I will use the load that I know will give me the best odds of stopping an intruder. But, hey, as usual YMMV.
 
PDX1

Tested at 10 yards the slug was dead on and the three (9mm dia balls) were all less than 4 inches from the poi of the slug.
 
Seems the polls are too close to call but I feel there is a slight leaning towards the buckshot options...:D

Brent
 
I don't know what to make of the articles. I m sure they are sincere . My own experience has been much different. Ive seen lots of big game killed with #4 buckshot. Would say that thousands of deer, boar, and bear have fallen to it. Yet its deemed inadequate for self defense by experts. Makes ne question the experts expertise.u
 
S&B 00 buck or Federal 4T 3". You never have to ask if you hit them with the 4T. Too many of them gives me a recoil headache in a pump.
 
Federal, 3.5 inch 00 buck 10 gauge in the coach gun, Winchester 2.75 00 buck in the NEF. Not many shotguns to choose from around here these days.
 
Out of my 500 the first 2 are 3" 000BK 10 pellet then it's a mix of 3" 1oz rifled slugs and more 3" 000BK. Slugs are Winchester and 000BK are Remington. If it's out of my 835 it's 3.5" 00BK 18 pellet all the way, Remington again here. And if it's out of the Nova, it's Winchester Supreme Elite Extended Range High Velocity 3.5" #4 shot turkey loads.

Until I can load my own this is what I'll use. When I do load my own it'll be a mean concoction of mixed shot sizes. From 000BK to #4 shot.


Tapatalked via my highly abused iPhone
 
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