Self defense shotgun loads

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diggler1833

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There used to be (might still be if Google hasn't taken the photos down) quite a few photos of people lying on a morgue slab with birdshot wounds.

^ The problem is that most of those wounds show such a tight pattern that it is easy to tell that they were delivered at just a couple feet. Once you add the length of any standard living room etc... the lethality rate drops off significantly, and you're left with really nasty soft tissue wounds that require treatment at an ER. However delivering one of those doesn't guarantee that you stopped the fight.

I'm a 00 buck guy myself, like many others on here. You get the penetration, potential to make it through some bone, and energy dump that are all pretty significant. Add all three together with a center mass hit and you have most likely delivered a near - if not immediate - fatal wound with one pull of the trigger out to any distance associated with "home defense".

I still have a loaded "Blackwater" version of a Mossberg 590A1 in the safe room with Federal Flite Control 00. However my primary long gun is an AR with bonded 55gr Speer Gold Dots. I'm not going to muddy this conversation by adding the "AR vs shotgun" silliness, so I'll shut up now.
 

Jason Freeland

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There used to be (might still be if Google hasn't taken the photos down) quite a few photos of people lying on a morgue slab with birdshot wounds.

^ The problem is that most of those wounds show such a tight pattern that it is easy to tell that they were delivered at just a couple feet. Once you add the length of any standard living room etc... the lethality rate drops off significantly, and you're left with really nasty soft tissue wounds that require treatment at an ER. However delivering one of those doesn't guarantee that you stopped the fight.

I'm a 00 buck guy myself, like many others on here. You get the penetration, potential to make it through some bone, and energy dump that are all pretty significant. Add all three together with a center mass hit and you have most likely delivered a near - if not immediate - fatal wound with one pull of the trigger out to any distance associated with "home defense".

I still have a loaded "Blackwater" version of a Mossberg 590A1 in the safe room with Federal Flite Control 00. However my primary long gun is an AR with bonded 55gr Speer Gold Dots. I'm not going to muddy this conversation by adding the "AR vs shotgun" silliness, so I'll shut up now.
My personal experience the ER in treating bird shot wounds, is that they don't penetrate. The shot columns break up after a few inches and the pellets stop shortly after. I know it's not a scientific study, going off of what I've seen, but I would not trust bird shot at any range, for people. Slugs or buck is where it's at.
 

Chuckie

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Here is one of the 7.5 gel tests. Almost none penetrated beyond 5 inches at 10yds in 20% gel. So the “lethal” factor is a bit over stated. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t wanna get hit with it, but for single shot drop ability, I opted for #4s.
No problemo because I don't have any clear-shot spaces in my place that are 10yds (30 ft) or more. Almost all of my in-home distances are around the 6yds (18ft) or less. Based on gel-test research I've opted for using 2 3/4 #1 Buckshot low-recoil as being the optimal load for my particular HD situation - YMMV.
 

diggler1833

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My personal experience the ER in treating bird shot wounds, is that they don't penetrate. The shot columns break up after a few inches and the pellets stop shortly after. I know it's not a scientific study, going off of what I've seen, but I would not trust bird shot at any range, for people. Slugs or buck is where it's at.

I will agree with you completely. There are outliers to every situation, but by and large I'd guess that many more people shot with birdshot up close lived rather than died.
 

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