buckshot vs slug for home defense ?

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  • satx78247

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    KBG,

    Both W.E.B. "Karamoja" Bell & PH Harry Selby said that 00/000 buck was THE weapon for STOPPING a wounded/charging Cape Buffalo, rhino or elephant.
    (BOTH preferred a 10-bore double-barrel with "heavy shot" for that UNENVIABLE task at CLOSE range.)

    "Karamoja" Bell said, with more than a bit of British understatement, "I'm little impressed with how well a man kills Cape Buffalo at 200 yards but rather more at two yards."

    Harry Selby in SEP 1957, after a client gut-shot a large male leopard, took down the charging leopard with a load of buckshot from his 10-bore Matador at CONTACT RANGE. - He later said, "It was a near thing."

    yours, satx
     
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    SQLGeek

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    Reading through this thread tells me there are some people that need to pattern their shotgun and chosen load.

    You may be very surprised just how easy it is to miss with a shotgun with buckshot.

    Birdshot spreads like a mother. After patterning it at a fairly close distance, there is no way in hell I'd use it in a self defense situation unless I had no other choice.
     

    satx78247

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    SQLGeek,

    AGREED 100%.

    In the aftermath of Desert Storm, a group of US Mike Papas were "given access to" a WWII Army barracks that was to be demolished in 15 days, for the purpose of testing shot-loads for home defense.

    After more than 300 rounds of various loads from skeet/trap to 000 buckshot, we found that ALL of the shot-loads would pass through interior walls composed of 2 thicknesses of drywall, insulation & 2x4 studs with enough power to wound/kill any person on the other side of the wall, IF the range to target was 15 feet or less.
    (EIGHT different double-barreled, pump & semi-auto shotguns in various barrel lengths & chokes were used in the tests. - Modified to NO choke at household range seemed to make little difference in patterns at CLOSE range.)

    The tests also indicated that #4 Buck was OPTIMAL for in-house defense against armed suspects & that #3, #1, 0, 00 & 000 buckshot loads were NO MORE LETHAL than #4 Buck at house-defense ranges.
    Out to 25M, #4 Buck worked as well as any of the other Buckshot loads, though 00 & 000 were superior beyond 25M & out to 50M.

    Note: At the conclusion of the testing the entire interior of that old building was "shot to pieces".

    yours, satx
     
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    Artichoke

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    grasshopperglock,
    snip
    Reference your 3 second "test": NOBODY can do that, including people like me who have a riot-gun (and a 9mm SA pistol) within easy arms reach from my side of our bed, BUT why are you talking about 3 seconds??
    (We have an alarm that awakens us when an intruder enters our "secured zone", steps on an interior floor, breaks any window glass and/or "forces a door".)
    I figure that I have at least 10-15 seconds to retrieve my riot-gun before any intruder can enter the interior of our domicile and/or cause significant harm.

    yours, satx
    or a dog ...heck I have a cat that screams when she sees an intruder at night, even little ones & an eccentric uncle kept a guard monkey in the wilds of Media, PA ...guard birds not uncommon in some security minded Latin American countries ...doors make noise when forced, windows make noise when they break, though nothing beats a good alarm system investment or a Doberman
     
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    shotcomparo.jpg
     

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    candcallen

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    Little Elm
    There is one rule to remember when it comes to buckshot.

    BUCKSHOT PENETRATES!

    It surprises people just how much power buckshot has at it's intended distance.

    Patterning your shotgun at all distances is just as important for home defense as hunting, maybe more so. Pretty much all loads will go thru walls, some multiple walls, and you have many more opportunities to hurt or kill with a shotgun miss than a handgun.

    Slugs? I have a couple on the shotgun for just in case I dont load them in the gun.
     

    baboon

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    Out here by the lake!
    KBG,

    Both W.E.B. "Karamoja" Bell & PH Harry Selby said that 00/000 buck was THE weapon for STOPPING a wounded/charging Cape Buffalo, rhino or elephant.
    (BOTH preferred a 10-bore double-barrel with "heavy shot" for that UNENVIABLE task at CLOSE range.)

    "Karamoja" Bell said, with more than a bit of British understatement, "I'm little impressed with how well a man kills Cape Buffalo at 200 yards but rather more at two yards."

    Harry Selby in SEP 1957, after a client gut-shot a large male leopard, took down the charging leopard with a load of buckshot from his 10-bore Matador at CONTACT RANGE. - He later said, "It was a near thing."

    yours, satx
    Karamoja Bell shot most of his 1,011 elephants with a .257 Rigby. Nowhere in Africa would that even be allowed in the last 30 years.
     

    sucker76

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    I settled on #4 buck for my HD shotgun. It is just a Mossberg 500 with cylinder bore. I watched ballistic gel penetration videos and read blogs and forums for days. Being in a neighborhood, I didn't want a good chance of anything going into a neighbors house. 00 buck just looked like too much penetration vs lethality for my area. The bird shot loads were the opposite. #4 buck seemed to be the goldilocks load.
     
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