Is there a way to make birdshot useful for defense?

Yes

Trade with a bird hunter that has too much buckshot .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

YES.....melt it down into a lead slug.


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Interesting test. Thanks for posting.

Spread it out in your hall ways and tile floors, maybe an intruder will slip and fall.

The lost art of "Cut Shells"

Google this for a video.

drunkenpoacher said:

Google this for a video.

Click to expand...

Yep, cut shells. Makes it into a budget slug

I wouldn't bother cutting my shells or using a gimmick. Birdshot is the last thing I'd use to repel boarders, however at across-the-room distances it would definitely take the fight out of someone. I remember bird hunting one time as a kid and talking a big chunk out of the side of a tree with a round of 7/12 20ga birdshot. Had that been flesh and bone...

The key to remember is that it has to be practically point blank range. Any distance at all and it rapidly loses effectiveness.

Yes... Turn them into "cut shells". Google it

Either cut shells or mix the birdshot with melted wax, then spoon the mix back into the shell. Both hold the shot together until impact, causing deeper penetration and more energy transferred to the target.

A doctor friend of mine once told me that the wound that he hated to see most of all was a bird shot wound to the gut/chest area. He said with all those little holes you had to work your ass off to patch up all the leakers before the person bleed to death. When I was teaching gun safety to my sons I shot a 6 inch diameter pine tree from a distance of about 2 feet with bird shot, it cut it clean off. So at point blank range you could take off a arm or a leg with bird shot. And it is less likely to kill a loved one in the next room like buckshot or a slug. My two cents.

Umm, seems I worked a shooting where the home owner killed the subject with one shot of 7 1/2, 2 3/4 load in a 12 ga. mossberg pump. One shot DRT busting through the front door. Shot across the room from about 15 feet. Never spread more than a tennis ball size, and wad was found in autopsy.

So, saying it's no good for SD is kind of out there. It is the best choice? Maybe not, but it will work if that's all one has and the distance is right.

SD as in how far are you realistically dealing with? 20-30 feet - birdshot will be dangerous to downright lethal. Longer ranges like beyond 25 yards not so much. However it would be really hard to find legitimate long range SD situations. Most bad things happen up close.

Most shotguns aren't loaded with 30-round magazines. They hold maybe 5-8 rounds. A 15-round boxes of slugs is around $10, same goes for buckshot. Buy some to keep in the gun, but you can practice moving, reloading, shooting with the cheap promo shells.

Headshot or center mass at point blank range maybe. Get some #4 buckshot if your concerned about over penetration. I'd rather use rubber buckshot for defense than birdshot if it came to it.


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I'd rather use me a cut shell in my crack barrel single shooter 12 bore.

I have never seen cut shells used in gel but I would bet you would end up with a similar result.

People don't believe it until they have seen it.

I was thinking a four-bore.
Full of birdshot.

I can't understand the basic question. Why?
6 bucks for a box of target loads a bit more for game loads. Buy a box of something with some punch to it.

If you want to use birdshot, magnum turkey loads would probably be an attention getter.

Cut shells are certainly a lost art, they do have a useful place in ones shooting knowledge base.