CHoice of shotgun ammo for home SD

#1 buckshot. More wound area (pellets) than 00, still good penetration (12" + in BG), but a little less penetration than 00.

Disadvantages: hard to find.

I put a lot in faith in these reccomendations: http://ammo.ar15.com/project/Self_Defense_Ammo_FAQ/index.htm#SHOTGUN AMMUNITION

Disclaimer: yes shot placement is most important, yes everything with adequate penetration will go through walls, etc etc yadda yadda ad nauseum....

I use low-recoil 00 Buck from Federal, Fiocchi and /or Remington. I consider all of these acceptable.

Ranger 00 Buck

... Depends on what we're planning to "defend" against...

For the 20" barrel Mossberg 500 (50577)

I use low-recoil 00 Buck

Click to expand...

Me too. It's great stuff. I'm a relatively new fan.


My quick-access bedroom lock-up also has a Remington 870 w/ a 27" barrel loaded with 2-3/4 full-power 00 Buck for if the threat is a varmint in the yard, and a 30-30 Levergun if it's a little farther out. There's a Mossberg 18-1/2" barrel 20ga loaded with #4 high-brass bird that my wife considers hers. All the long guns have buttcuffs with extra rounds.

There's also a S&W 5904 9mm currently with seventeen 115gr ball in the mag and one in the pipe, that last weekend, for the first time I noticed my wife also referred to as "hers".

(I love it when that happens). By all means, honey...

Oh yeah... my 442 parks there every night too.

Les

Brenneke short range tatical slugs in the heavy magnum. Good up to 65 yards max. But pack much energy on the 20 gauger. The 12 gauger can do 100 and still exceed that of the 20 in numbers.

Triple aught slugs from remington in a large 12 gauge shell is my alternate. And followed by a variety of ammuition that I have experiemented with as I settled onto a favorite.

Or outside, I break out the brenneke black magic or the winchester magnum super X 3 inch it shoots very flat and strong.

For the wife it's the 20 gauge with buckhammer managed recoils and the short magnum brennekes for HD. She has had great success with Federal full load trueballs but they hit too hard and travel a long way.

If either gun is not availible we go down to the C2 Taser or the .45 ACP or both.

I shoot a Remington 870 Marine magnum 12 and the wife a Mossberg 500 bantam with youth stock.

With the ammuntion we use, aiming is part of our montly range practice. Center mass every time without fail is what we expect of each other up to 20 yards.

We have a little contest every range visit, the one with the best center mass group gets to pick three tasks for that month to ask of the other spouse. Quite motivating.

And finally, every time we shoot we replace the spent box with two or three more for the stock box. Never a fear of running out anytime soon.

Finally but not last, I have not found any buck ammuntion that wife can shoot. We have a specific tatical problem inside the house itself from the designated fall back to room (Aka the Alamo) and anything to the left if miss (Usually does) will hit and destroy other things that are expensive to fix for the house itself. We will be lining that inside wall around the house vitals with old bullet III vests as we can find them.

The way things are now, the intruder has a good chance of fighting a team of two. The wife in her alamo with me as the hunter within the home.

Your gun and the patterning board will give you the best answer to that question. All shotgun barrels are pretty much a law unto themselves, and the only way to know what any given barrel will do with any given load at any given range is to pattern it.

Patterning means "shoot a big piece of paper and see what it does."

Then you'll know what none of us can really tell you.

See http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=11817 for more...

lpl

Rem 870 or Mossy 500 .... both excellent choices. I'm partial to the 870's (have two of them), but nothing to sneer about in the Mossy.

Ammo. NOT slugs. Way too much penetration of both internal AND external walls ... in both your house AND the next door neighbors. YOU fire it, YOU are responsible for where it goes.

#1 buckshot is pretty much ideal indoors (IMHO), and you can find it mail order lots of places. If you want to cover outdoor spaces you can use 00 buck, but you will get penetration issues (again, internal and external) using it indoors.

Bottom line is that pretty much ANYTHING fired out of a 12ga shotgun, at indoor ranges, is going to cause the BG on the wrong end of the barrel to have a -very- bad day with any kind of a solid hit.

2.75 inch 00 buck 12 pellets

#4 buck.

The archives are your friend....

Fired some brennekes today with spouses's 20 gauge. Staying with the buckhammers on that gun for her.

I also fired some triple aught. I had I think 8 per shell times 5 makes 40 holes about the size of a dinner plate at 7 yards. Each hole about as big as those made by the .45's I fire. All 40 are accounted for on paper.

It is my humble opinion anyone hit by triple ought at 12 feet or so is going down and will require surgery asap and even then may not make it off the table.

The Brennekes on 12 gauge is about as hot as I want to fire. They are smokey when finished firing.

One other thing. I had some trouble with tatical lights and crap falling off the gun at the range today. But the sightmark reflex sight stayed in one peice with no damage.

Now I need something for the stock of the gun to save my teeth. What do they call those? Cheek pads?

Always something come up on that yonder range to think about and improve on.... I cannot complain. Rather have things go break and need thinking and fixing THERE while shooting for fun instead of here at home with bad guy breaking in.

Patterning means "shoot a big piece of paper and see what it does."

Click to expand...

Great advice that is commonly overlooked by many!

I have my HD shotty loaded with fiocchi low recoil 00 buck. It patterns well for me at my longest indoor shot (~12 yards).

Here is triple 000 pattern from my 870 at 7 yards.

http://media7.dropshots.com/photos/620679/20090604/124042.jpg

Here is the 5 round brenneke pattern at same distance, with the 20 gauger.

http://media8.dropshots.com/photos/620679/20090604/124436.jpg

Centurion

first shell is a slug, the other three are 00Buck.

3 slugs and 3 buck in the buttcuff too

I'll second the idea of carefully patterning your gun before making the final decision. I spent a couple hours and quite a pile of various shells patterning my 870 shortly after I got it in order to decide what I should stock up on and what to leave on the shelf. I was rather of surprised at the results. Prior to patterning, I had sort of decided on using 2.75" 00 buck magnum shells (12 pellets @ 1290 FPS) thinking the added pellets would give a better, more complete pattern and the slightly lower velocity would be a little better in terms of over-penetration. As it turned out, they didn't actually pattern all that well with my gun. The standard 2.75" 00 9 pellet loads patterned quite well, as did the 3" 00 15 pellet magnums. The 3 inchers are lower velocity yet at 1225 FPS, but they give a pretty nasty blast for indoor use. The 2.75" 27 pellet #4 buck shells actually gave the best pattern, being nice and round and extremely full and evenly distributed. As a result of the patterning, I decided to stock up on those three.

As a result, I keep the 870 loaded with two #4 buck shells first because I use this gun frequently to dispatch pesky critters around the farm and the fine-patterning #4 is great for that. I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of any of that either. The next two shells are plain old 9 pellet 00 buck for two-legged critters that might cause trouble. When I get a dedicated HD gun, I'll probably keep it loaded with the 9 pellet 00 buck with some slugs and maybe a couple 3" 00 mags in a sleeve. Not sure yet, but my point is the patterning was very helpful to decide what will work best for my particular gun, and it's nice to be able to keep a simple stash of just a few varieties of ammo that you KNOW will do what you need it to do.

EDIT: I would seriously consider using #1 buck in place of the 00 if it patterned well and I could find it around here. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find so much as a box so I don't bother with it. Personally, I like to be able to just go to the store and pick up what I need when I need it, and 00 buck is everywhere.

My humble 1/50th of $1...

A couple of lonnnnnnnnng days at the range with as many different kinds of buck as I could find...

Rem 3"Mag #4 Buck (41 pellets) was the best out of my 18-1/2" cylinder-bored Maverick 88. As the buckshot sizes got bigger, so did the patterns and holes in said patterns. At 27-30 Yds {admittedly, a long shot for SD/HD uses} I was only getting 1 or 2 hits in a 24" circle from 0/00 Buck, while the #4Buck was still putting around 25-30 holes in that 24" circle.

Your Mileage WILL Vary.

Yes it will.

My favorite 18" CYL factory 870 barrel throws consistent 4" patterns with Federal LE127-00 (FliteControl) at a measured 25 yards.

Patterning with different loads at varying ranges is critical in knowing what your shotgun will do.

lpl

I own a Mossy 590 for HD. I have patterened it with 3 types of 00 Buck. All Low Recoil, all shot at 10 yds, Remington, Fiocchi & Federal.

Remington RL12BK00 - 3.5 inch pattern
Fiocchi 12LE00BK - 5.5 inch pattern
Federal LE133 00 - 1.2 inch pattern (Flite Control)
I also took some Estate 7.5 Birdshot with me. The pattern was bigger than the target.

I consider any of the 00 Buck acceptable.

I'm no expert, but IMHO, unles you are literally face to face with the Bad Guy, birdshot will only make him/her mad.

My 2¢.

I have been peppered with birdshot from a decently far range. Felt like stinging drops of rain. I prefer to load up with 00.

As far as shotgun selection goes, I was a big fan of my 870 for a long time, but have been finding the 500 to be a bit of a better fit. The 500's safety is in an area that is very easy to quickly release and the slide release is almost naturally gripped when picking up the gun.

I go either way with the 870 or the 500.

Next shoot Im going to pattern some triple ought at 5 yards and see where we are at. If it still throws too much I'll move to something else or go back to slugs.

Little bit at a time Im learning this buck stuff.

Ideally, I recommend starting with choosing a load based on your environment, then buying a few samples and other loads (1 up, 1 down) from there to pattern with. Urban/rural environment, others in your home, home construction all play a role as will the element of needing the gun quickly to dispatch animals - anything from a coyote in the hen pen to a bear in the back yard, as was hinted above.

What I love about patterning for HD is that it's a fun way to get to know your gun. The first time a shooter tries it, they will usually learn two things if they didn't already know them:

1) Those who say shotguns don't need to be aimed (particularly at typical HD distances) are quite wrong.

2) Those who say a shotgun can't be used for precision shooting at HD distances are also very wrong.

Pattern your 12 (rem or mossy) on paper then move to 12" paper plates set up at 5, 7.5,10, and 15 yards (SD is hard to claim if you shoot much beyond 20 feet) see how many pellets hit the plate and you will soon know which load to use. Buy 5-6 boxes of all different buckshot/shot sizes you can find. use the smallest (less chance of overpenetration) size that "kills the plate".
Anything from a 12 will easily kill under 10 yards

In my 870 with a 20 smooth bore slug barrel and a two shot Wilson extension mag, the first round is a slug and everything after that is 00.

All 2 3/4.