12 gauge better than AR for home defense

[Dr.Rob]

Until I started shooting an AR in matches for six months out of the year my go to was a pump shotgun.

Practice and familiarity makes a big difference.

 

[moxie]

I keep an AR, a Mossberg, and a 1911 by my bedside, locked and loaded. Cocked too. Extra ammo. Couple of daggers.

And a Ouija board to help decide which to use.!

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

 

[txblackout]

I use an AR in 300 blackout loaded and chambered with subsonic ammo and a suppressor. It is loud but not deafeningly loud.

 

[benEzra]

I note, though, that your walls were only one sheet thick. The typical interior wall is hollow, with sheetrock on both sides -- so the four-wall test is really a two-wall test.

Regardless, you have made your point. A 5.56 or a load of 00 buck will penetrate the wall behind the bad guy, transit the next room, and go through that wall into the room behind that one.

A test with more realistic walls and spacing:

http://www.how-i-did-it.org/drywall/results.html

With appropriate load choice, .223 penetrates less in drywall than 9mm JHP or 00 buckshot. I'd like to see tests of the shotgun with #1 and #4 buckshot for comparison, and more 55gr and some 77gr JHP. Almost all loads from any gun (even. 25 ACP or .22LR )will penetrate 1 interior wall, but careful choice of load can often limit wall penetration to ~2 while retaining effectiveness.

 

[Mitlov]

On another thread, "Does an M14 turn cover into concealment" all sorts of things are being said about how great an AR 15 penetrates.

You can shoot through dry wall with a .22 LR -- a .223 will definitely go through drywall.

Both buckshot and 5.56mm will go through a single layer of drywall. But from everything I've seen on the topic, buckshot will go through more layers of drywall than 5.56 will.

 

[Ironicaintit]

Call me crazy, but i just (theoretically) like a scattergun better than an AR for home defense. But, im not a big fan of the AR platform anyways.
AK vs shotgun? Thats a closer race for me.

 

[Sam1911]

which one would you rather have to give up to the police as evidence, after a self defense shooting?

Whichever one I can shoot fastest and most accurately.

In the only "shooting match" that will ever REALLY matter, I want to be using the absolute most effective tool, that I am most capable of using well.

And if it sits forever in a police locker or goes to the scrap yard after it saves my life, it will have served its highest purpose.

The "police evidence locker" argument against using the most effective firearms we own is absolutely blinkered false economy.

Kind of like patronizing "Ernie's Budget Parachute Co." or buying a case of "Professor Clavicle's Patented Hair Tonic, Wart Remover, and Cancer Cure," there are times you can be cheap or nostalgic about things, and times when you shouldn't.

 

[Inebriated]

Surprised this thread is still going.

That might be the worst case I've ever seen a person try to make in favor of the 12 gauge.

 

[sappyg]

You know.... I keep both shotgun and AR around. They seem fine to me.

 

[Agsalaska]

I prefer and use a 12 gauge. But neither is better. I just don't own an ar15 and probably never will. I have shot more shotguns than I can count. So for me it's a 12. For others.....

 

[Ohen Cepel]

A key to me is what you know. I had a "doom shotgun" years ago, all tricked out, etc. Sold it when I realized it had been setting in the corner for years unfired since it wasn't something I could hunt with and just didn't shoot it much (before 3 gun was popular there wasn't a lot to do with a tactical shotgun).

I carried the AR (M16/M4) for decades and know it well. Yes, I know my hunting shotgun well but it will never catch the AR for me.

Training and experience with the weapon is key in my mind. One can have the best in the world and it's worthless if they are not good with it.

 

[C-grunt]

The 55 grain hollow point that my department uses has proven to be a great man stopper. Nation wide rounds like the TAP and the like have proven to end fights quickly.

Does a 12 gauge slug and 00 buckshot do more damage? Probably. But they don't make the bad guy any more deader.

 

[BSA1]

Lots of pros and cons...

Something to consider (or maybe not) was during the Banic shotshells were in stock in all of gunstores and Wal-Mart the entire time. In fact both shotguns and shotshells in bulk were available at their usual price.

 

[Water-Man]

You cannot intelligently choose one or the other, without being proficient with both.

Get trained and make your choice. Then you can tell everyone on this forum what you chose and why.

 

[Lord Teapot]

You cannot intelligently choose one or the other, without being proficient with both.

Get trained and make your choice. Then you can tell everyone on this forum what you chose and why.

sure you can

you can decide, reasonably, that the ability to fire 30 times without pause is worth more to you than the ability to fire once and then pump an action before being able to fire again. you can also decide, reasonably, that the ability to fire a pattern of buckshot at your enemy in one shot is worth more to you than the ability to fire 30 smaller projectiles, one after another, without pause.

 

[igotta40]

From reading the many posts here, it appears the only shotgun ammo in question is 00 buck and/or slugs, with birdshot being discounted as less than effective, vs a magazine full of rifle ammo. Okay fine, but there are alternatives.

I'm no expert, but it seems to me a Mossberg 590 with a 8+1 capacity loaded with #4 would put out 21 rounds per shot of roughly .22 caliber balls. Or 21 shots out of an AR15?

I could be wrong, but over penetration may be less than with 00 buck or slugs, and get more hits on target?

 

[Robert]

Oh for the love. This dead horse has been beat into the ground and then some...