what kind of range do you expect out of your shotgun(hd/sd)?

C

cajun47

New member
cause i shot some poster board with my mossberg hunting shotgun(full size) with 2 3/4 00 buck and a mod. choke. was not too impressed at 25 yards. way too much spread imo. full choke was slightly tighter.

i carry this shotgun in my truck and 25 yards isn't too far for sd imo. so what range do you who have those 18" open choke shotguns expect? 10 feet?
 
i carry this shotgun in my truck and 25 yards isn't too far for sd imo.
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Depends on the scenario - legally, it might be too far
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+1
Don't base your actions in HD/SD scenarios on you opinion but on what's the law and how it's enforced in your area. Learning what is or isn't a justifiable action after the fact isn't prudent.
 
I honestly wouldnt worry about legal stuff, if someone is a threat at 25 yards and has the finger on the trigger then I fire no doubt. I would expect at 25 yards to hold a 20" group anyway with the right choke and about 18-22" is about what I would want for 20-25 yards and at about 5-10 yards a sub 12" group and at 10 feet and under dont miss, it will be really tight so aim straight.
 
I trust my 18" Remington 870 and my 18" Benelli Nova with buckshot out to 25 yards which is fine for indoor use IMO. I have 40 acres of rural property that is a combination of open ground and planted pines. When I have one of my shotguns in the truck when I am out there it is loaded with slugs. More than once I have ridden up on tresspassers or had them ride up on me and I can easily envision a 25 yard plus self defense encounter happening there.
 
25 w/ buck

Have shot and seen shot, a bunch of 9 pellet 00B loads from 18-20 IC and C bored 870's and 25 yds is the max in my mind. At 25 yds A broad side B-27 or FLETC ghost target will drop a pellet or two, and dispersion spread is distinct and many pellets are perimeter and not center mass. At 15, pie plate size patterns seem the norm.

Guns are different though and some do very well past 20-25 with the right load.
 
Before I would expect the DA to skip pressing charges... If I shoot a feller at 75 feet... he better drop with a gun in his hands.

Under 25 feet I think I could show that I had no other option than to shoot... even without a manmade weapon, threat of death or GBH is far easier to prove at 25 feet than 75 feet.

Brent
 
Brent, He is talking yards not feet. I still can't get over attaching a mag light with conduit hangers (even if it was for shooting a coon and not for HD.)
 
At 25 yards, the HD 870 here gets 16-20" patterns with its chokeless barrel with long forcing cone. At the distance of the longest shot opp in my house, 5-8". That's with an 8 pellet R/R load.

Similar results come from the backup, which has a Remchoked barrel,similar cone, same load. IC tube in.

And Frankenstein, my over publicized parts 870, wears the turkey barrel these days and is posted to repel boarders. 4 buck, Mod choke, 15" patterns at 15 yards, more or less.
 
None of the US SD laws dictate distance. It may be contact to infinity. Remember, you may be engaged in self defenses via defense of another at distances much greater than typical for normal self defense of just one's self.

In other words, distance isn't likely to be an issue so long as the criteria for self defense are being met, those usually being along the lines of the bad guy showing intent, opportunity, and ability to cause significant bodily harm or death to you or another. If that person has a gun and points it at you at 50 yards in a threatening manner, I would much rather have a shotgun with slugs for SD than a pistol.

If you want to claim that 25 yards might be too far for self defense, then you have to also note that 25 feet might be too far as well. In other words, distance is situational and not definitive unto itself. Remember, if you were in Austin on Augest 1, 1966, self defense distance was nearly anything within view of the clocktower, Whitman making his longest shot at something like 420 yards.
 
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I get consistent 4" (four inch) patterns at 25 yards with an 18" CYL bore 870 using full house Federal FliteControl buckshot loads (catalog #LE127 00). The load has ample penetration at that range, enough that I'd trust it to both pattern and penetrate out to 40 yards or so if necessary. If more range or penetration than that is needed, there are Brenneke KO slugs in the Sidesaddle.

Shotgun patterns for short barreled defensive shotguns these days are almost completely ammo dependent, unless a given shotgun is over-choked for buckshot... choose your ammo and you can almost choose your pattern.

lpl
 
I expect to have a shot of no more than 20 feet. I have it loaded with cheap sellier&bellot OO buck.they open up pretty fast but still keep all pellets COM at that range. Of course I like to plan for the unexpected too so I have some federal flight control like Lee's and winchester slugs avaaliable if necessary. ;)
 
OK boys, I want my shotgun to perform as it was intended. Open any shotgunning book or ammo flyer from the LGS.

Modified choke at 25 meters let's say? Perfect. I expect about eight or nine of 12 .30 caliber 0-Buckshot pellets in a 30" circle. Energywise, they've lost half their energy and a slug would be more energy-conserving, however, we use shotguns to increase the chances of a hit and to get multiple ones. Only three of those pellets have to hit to effect a probable one-shot kill. Go to 35 meters? The circle is rather larger and now I need four pellets to hit. I, the gun, and the ammo will do that even if the target is moving. That's a shotgun, the whole POINT of it, without "flite-control," a legal solution looking for a problem.

I am continually amazed by this fad of folk wanting to turn their shotguns into rifles for all intent and purpose. That'll go away, eventually, with experience and a little traditional reading. But, in the meantime, if your lawyer, the latest thread, or product-marketing gunzine rag is telling you that "if a proper pattern at the expected range is good a super-tight pattern at farther ranges must be "better," and you accept that generally, consider getting an AR with open-point heads and a red-dot sight instead...

OC? I expect, and want, almost all those pellets in a 30" circle at 15 meters. 30 meters? Those pellets will be in a 5 foot circle at almost 100 feet away. Perfect! That's exactly what I want! With 0-Buck I still expect to have a couple of effective hits at 60 yards on a man-sized target within a 10' pattern. Modified choke? Cuts the diameters of the pattern in half at those ranges if you expect you'll be going out to the maximum effective ranges of the shotgun/buckshot combination (and I wouldn't use a tighter choke on any 0-000 buckshot).
 
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