Shotgun for Home Defense

[K191145]

That's exactly what I did :-)

 

I live in a 60+ year old house constructed of all oak frame. Real 2x4 outside wall studs with 1x6 oak boards for the outside wall, covered with that old type asphalt/sand siding about 3/4" thick, and that was covered with 1/4" ceder shingles. I never tried it but I bet a .380 wouldn't penetrate it, anything else would loose most all it's velocity plus my nearest neighbor is almost 200 yards away. I'm pretty confident to shoot at bad guy with just about anything in my house.

[JWKilgore]

Regardless the reasoning, at shotgun velocities and load mass, relying on a slight difference in pellet size to not do unintended harm through a wall simply compromises stopping power on the intended target.

I'd prefer to know my backstop and what is beyond it, and ensure a positive stop.

You misunderstand... I'm not relying on shot size and interior gyp-board walls to protect anyone. My intent is always to aim center mass of bad guy, know what I'm shooting at, know where all friendlies are, and never knowingly shoot toward any friendlies. But I also fully understand that in a middle-of-the-night self defense situation things could go sideways quickly. If that happens I want to give friendlies at a distance as much of a chance as possible while still ensuring a quick stop of the bad guy.  

 

Anyone I'm aiming at will be in the same room as I am, or at most 10-15ft away; even something as small as lead BB will give 12" of penetration in ballistic gelatin (FBI minimum) at those ranges. But after going through a few sheets of gyp-board, a #3B pellet vs. a 00B pellet could be the difference between an innocent having the shot bounce off his skin or death.

 

That said, your situation may be different. My mom and dad live alone with no near neighbors, and he loads 00B. If I lived in his situation I'm most definitely load at least #1. But I don't, so I load down slightly.

[molonlabetn]

You misunderstand... I'm not relying on shot size and interior gyp-board walls to protect anyone. My intent is always to aim center mass of bad guy, know what I'm shooting at, know where all friendlies are, and never knowingly shoot toward any friendlies. But I also fully understand that in a middle-of-the-night self defense situation things could go sideways quickly. If that happens I want to give friendlies at a distance as much of a chance as possible while still ensuring a quick stop of the bad guy.

Anyone I'm aiming at will be in the same room as I am, or at most 10-15ft away; even something as small as lead BB will give 12" of penetration in ballistic gelatin (FBI minimum) at those ranges. But after going through a few sheets of gyp-board, a #3B pellet vs. a 00B pellet could be the difference between an innocent having the shot bounce off his skin or death.

That said, your situation may be different. My mom and dad live alone with no near neighbors, and he loads 00B. If I lived in his situation I'm most definitely load at least #1. But I don't, so I load down slightly.

I accept that. Far be it from me to know better than you how best to defend your own home. My intention was to make sure we remember not to what-if the most effective solution to death.

[bird333]

I am confused as to what to use in an apartment in a 12 gauge. Is a #1 still too much?

[molonlabetn]

I am confused as to what to use in an apartment in a 12 gauge. Is a #1 still too much?

At room distances, any buckshot load will penetrate several walls before it begins to disperse significantly or lose energy. Honestly, a .223 rifle loaded with a fairly light bullet will be the safest choice for minimizing penetration through building materials...

Birdshot might possibly penetrate fewer walls (if the shot has time to leave the cup, say after 10ft), but may also be significantly less likely to stop an invader past that distance. I would never recommend bird shot as an HD round, but if you know that you will be using a shotgun at little more than contact distances in a small space, and are willing to accept it might not stop them (there are plenty of verified shootings with bird shot to research), it's an option. I own several boxes of 2-3/4" steel T-shot (goose loads), which I keep mainly for mid-size four-legged critters, but would do in a pinch for sub-10yd defensive use in an OUTDOOR environment (steel bounces back at you from hard surfaces). Lead BB loads would be acceptable, Hevishot makes a tungsten BB coyote load. Just remember, you are giving up a lot of lethality once the shot leaves the cup. Edited April 28, 2014 by molonlabetn

[dcloudy777]

I'm picking my defense load based on the terrible thing that's trying to kill me, not where I happen to be located at the time. 

 

Basically every aspect of a violent encounter is a variable:  range, time of day, number of attackers, background... the only real constant is something terrible trying to kill you or some innocent person.  That's the one thing you can always count on to be there when things go bad, so I'm going to equip myself as best as I can to stop that terrible thing.  All other concerns are secondary. 

 

For a shotgun, multiple studies have confirmed that #1Buck or larger is required to reliably achieve 12" of tissue penetration throughout the entire useful range of the weapon system. 

 

In the one shotgun I keep loaded for social purposes (as stated here before, rifles are much, much more suited for this sort of thing), I keep Federal 2.75" 000 Buckshot.  It patterns beautifully out of the gun, adds a bit a range, and even a single .36cal pellet has an excellent chance of incapacitating a threat.