The best home defense 12 ga shotgun load is...

You will have trouble finding 1 buck in low recoil loads. Your 15 years of formal training would be a better guide than most of the users that will reply to this thread. If you need to shoot someone, you need a load that will penetrate to the vitals. Anything that will penetrate that deep will go though any number of 1/2" walls and doors.

#4 buck is favored by many for HD purposes.

I use 1 buck but I have to admit that my bedroom is in the basement of our tiny home and there is just the two of us currently. There is a good ammount of people that live in apartments and swear by 4 buck. There has been a recent trend to market BB size "Heavy-type shot" shotshells, but I don't think that is proven yet. Do not use birdshot, anything smaller than B, maybe #2's, but not if my life is on the line. Anything is better than nothing however, even an empty shotgun...but not much!

The best home defense 12 ga shotgun load is......somewhere in the search function.

+1 on the #4 buck....

It's getting to the point that if all everyone does is use the search function, there won't be anything to discuss...

Thats true...I like slugs.

I prefer 00 buck but anything from #4 buck to 00 buck is what I'd be comfortable with. Anything smaller and penetration may be an issue and anything larger over penetration may become an issue.

IMHO...

If no one is sleeping downstairs, then it isn't the load in your shotgun you need to be thinking about- it's how to go about positioning yourself at the head of the stairs before any intruders can get upstairs to threaten the family. If no one in the family is downstairs, then how much your load penetrates is no threat to your family. If all your family members are upstairs, and are properly located behind you and your shotgun, the only concern you have is to make sure they have a safe room that offers sufficient cover from any incoming fire the bad guys fling around.

See http://www.nrainstructors.org/CourseCatalog.aspx and check out the entry for "Personal Protection In The Home," also check out the "Find A Course" tool and see if there's a class offered near you. If not, try the DVD at http://materials.nrahq.org/go/product.aspx?productid=ES 26840 .

Essentially, anything that is going to effectively stop an assault is going to penetrate a couple of sheetrock walls. There just isn't any way to escape the laws of physics. The best answer is to arrange things so the only people who have to worry about how much your projectiles penetrate are the bad guys. If you're positioned upstairs, proned out behind some sort of cover- like the corner of your bedroom door- and covering the top of the stairs, no bad guy will see you until their head clears the top stair. If you've issued loud verbal warnings for the intruders to get out of the house, that the police are on the way, and someone still comes up the stairs in the face of that... well, my inclination at that point would be to assume they meant harm and react accordingly.

hth,

lpl

I also like #4 buck

There is enough penetration with #4 buck to do the job within the confines of a home without the overpenetration of OO buckshot. You also get a wound cavity with many more holes in it which translates into a much more decisive outcome. A 12 gauge with 27 pellets of #4 buck as opposed to just 9 pellets of OO buck in a 2 3/4 inch shell.

00 buck is what I use (just me and my wife..not worried about it going thru the floor to the neighbors living below us and I won't be aiming toward the neighbor on the same lvl as us).

#4 sounds good for you if you have loved ones on a different floor.

~Norinco

Could we make a poll out of this? I'm curious to see the percentage breakdown from slugs, to 00 buck, to 4 buck.

Another fan of #4 Buck for the use the op described and for all the reasons snooperman so aptly articulated.

I've got a less defendable layout in my house. There are a number of angles where a shot would penetrate a single wall and potentially kill an infant. I've got a tube full of #9 birdshot and spare 00 on stock. It's a small house, most shots would be under 15 feet. It's less than ideal - darn you, physics - but it's better than the alternatives, imho.

Me too, #4 buck.

Most sources I have read recommend #4 for HD where overpenetration is an issue.

Hadn't come across this thread before!

It's getting to the point that if all everyone does is use the search function, there won't be anything to discuss...

Click to expand...

That's very true.

Part of the problem is that the search doesn't combine your terms into an and. I tried typing in "laser bore sight" and got posts about laser sights, sights in general, bores in general, etc. I had a little better luck with "laserbore" but I doubt I got all the relevant posts. I tried the advanced search and didn't have much luck narrowing things down there, either.

I've been on a variety of forums and people constantly complain about people posting the same questions over and over, and generally there would be about one post a week to read if that weren't the case.

OO buck and don't aim for the bedrooms.

2 3/4" 00 Buckshot

And to the search nazis, others have already posted tell them to use the search, why didn't you use the search and see that?

Federal reduced-recoil 00 Buck for me.

It has consistently patterned in my shotguns out to 17 yards with a spread about the size of my palm. I am precise in aimed shots within this range. 00 is also easiest to find and buy.

Subjective topic...

As has been stated before, almost any effective load/round used for HD can effectively penetrate sheetrock.

Therefore, even though I tend to stick with a particular 00 Buckshot load (see below), I still feel a bit "safer" using it vs. say, one of my handguns (9mm and .45 ACP) when it comes to "penetration."

For now, I tend to use Federal LE Low Recoil 2 3/4" (9 pellet) 00 Buckshot rated @ 1140 [muzzle velocity]. I compare this load to the following (limited to select Federal Power-Shok offerings):

Power-Shok #4 Buckshot (27 pellet) - 1325
Power-Shok #4 Buckshot (34 pellet) - 1250

Im no ballistics expert, therefore Im not entirely sure how the 1140 rating [for the Low Recoil 9 pellet 00 Buck] actually stacks up to the higher velocity/smaller pellet size of the #4 offerings (particularly the 27 pellet version @ 1325), given the larger size of the 9 pellet shot, when it comes to penetration.

It just seems to me that larger pellets (due to their mass) would provide more effective stops/hits vs. many smaller pellets and the lower velocity (of the LR round) would somewhat diminish unnecessary penetration (within reason).

Hence, the decision to go with my chosen load.

here is what i do.


centurion 12 pellet #1 Buck mini shells.

They are 2" shells at 1250 fps. The recoil is substantially reduced in the 2" shells, it feeds reliably, and you can get 7 shots in a 5 shot magazine tube.

I bought a couple hundred of these from ammunitiontogo.com

they cycle and feed great.

slugs sit by my shotgun for HD