Questions on the following 12 gauge ammo

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BlueHeelerFl

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How would the following ammo rate for self defense? And is that #2 buck shot? I haven't owned a shotgun in a long time and have forgotten a lot about them.

I found this ammo in a box of shooting supplies from my family house up north. I had to move my Mom down to be with me for medical reasons and packed in a hurry

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That would be #2 shot, not buckshot. #2 shot would, according to most "expert" opinion, NOT be as good a choice for stopping a determined 2-legged threat as buckshot.

Edit: Fine Figure beat me to it. :)
 
At closer range, less than 20 yards, it would be formidable. I have dropped coyotes at 50 yards with #2 shot going about 1300fps. Penetration was most of the way through the coyote. Might not be the best choice for defense, but it certainly isn't the worst by a long shot.
 
Any basic 00buck in 2 3/4 is all you'll ever need for two legged critters at close range (under 15 meters...). You have to see the damage to believe it....
 
Federal no longer manufactures this load according to their website.
That should be a clue.
I'd use it for practice and get a couple of factory fresh boxes of 00 Buck for HD
But I'm a wee bit leery of relying on defense loads that are older than my toaster!
 
At closer range, less than 20 yards, it would be formidable. I have dropped coyotes at 50 yards with #2 shot going about 1300fps. Penetration was most of the way through the coyote. Might not be the best choice for defense, but it certainly isn't the worst by a long shot.

If that’s all I had to use at HD distance I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. If could afford buckshot I’d get some though.
 
LIGHT load? Not hardly; it's 1-1/4 oz; just right....#2s will decapitate you at bedroom distances or cut your knee in half............
I wouldn't want to get shot with it but at 1140 fps it's just a trap load of 2 shot. I'd guess limited penetration of indoor walls was a sales pitch.
 
Shotgun ammo velocity can drop off quickly; usually, the faster it starts, the faster it slows, so at in home distances, that is a non-starter
 
At closer range, less than 20 yards, it would be formidable. I have dropped coyotes at 50 yards with #2 shot going about 1300fps. Penetration was most of the way through the coyote. Might not be the best choice for defense, but it certainly isn't the worst by a long shot.
The voice of experience = wisdom. Kudu is absolutely right. In the right circumstance, it is more than adequate.
 
Assuming this is #2 birdshot and not #2 buckshot. The pellets in #2 birdshot only weigh 4.4 grains each. A 115 grain 9mm bullet traveling the same 1140 fps will be a lot more effective. I guess birdshot could be effective if you were shooting from such close distance the pellets hadn't begun to spread out and the pellets hit the target as a large mass.
 
Just for fun I weighed a #4 pellet of birdshot, 3.1 grains on my scale, then I weighed a #2 pellet, an even 5 grains is what I got. So 546 grains of lead give or take, or about 110 individual pellets capable of penetrating 4-5" at 50 yards. Not all will hit the target, but I found at least 14 pellets in the coyote I had shot, 2 had penetrated the skull, at 50 yards. At 20 yards even with a mod choke at least half the pellets would hit inside a 16" circle with a couple more inches of penetration without velocity loss at 50 yards. Would #4 Buck be a better load for defense, absolutely, but #2 birdshot is nothing to sneeze at inside house distance, at 20 feet it would leave a 4" gaping hole about 6-8" deep even through clothing. Now OO buck might very likely go entirely though a human at that same distance, good or bad you decide.

Just a comparison, I am a big fan of the .17HMR. I use the 17 grain bullet starting out at about 2400fps, at 250 yards it is down to about 1150 give or take. I have found that past about 190-200 yards the bullet has slowed to where when it hits an animal it doesn't expand or break up, it just pushes through. I have killed 3 coyotes with this little gun, the furthest was at 260 yards where the bullet just poked a .17 hole in one side and out the other in the chest cavity. It dropped and laid still for about 5 seconds and then got up and ran 50 yards and keeled over dead. Now that single 17 grain bullet is traveling about the same velocity at 250 yards as where the same load of 546 grains of #2 shot starts out at the muzzle of the shotgun.
 
Birdshot is for birds. It is not completely useless or inoffensive, but number two is better suited for shooting geese than villains.

In doubt, use a sword! For household distances, I fail to think of anything better than a katana: no risk of hurting anyone else than the person you aim at, immediate deployment, silent, never out of ammo, extremely efficient at stopping a threat immediately, impossible to jam, repeater. I concede I might think otherwise in another forty years. :)
 
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