16 Gauge for Home Defense?

[bushmaster1313]

Thoughts please about a 16 gauge gun for home defense

They seem to cost less than the 12 gauge guns.

How are ammo prices?
Is 00 Buckshot available?
What type of punch do they deliver compared to 12 gauge?
Were 16 gauge guns used by any police departments?

 

[Zack]

link is dead? odd

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/SearchResults.aspx

Go to gb and do ammo search for 16, you should find some stuff.

 

[chas08]

How are ammo prices?
Is 00 Buckshot available?

For slugs and buckshot, the prices on the internet is about the same as walking into Wal-Mart and buying 12ga ammo. I just a few weeks ago, bought a 100 rounds of each for about $4 for a box of five delivered. Birdshot is a little higher, the last flat I bought cost $70. The only size buckshot I could find comercially loaded was #1 buck. As for punch, it's all relative. If a 12 and a 16 are loaded comparably they will have a comparable punch.

 

[highorder]

If I had a 16, it would work.

Choosing a 16 over a 12? I don't see any advantage.

 

[Al LaVodka]

+1

And don't be focused on 00 Buck.

Al

 

[chas08]

Choosing a 16 over a 12? I don't see any advantage.

And for a HD gun, IMHO you would be correct. I wouldn't buy a 16 just because the purchase price was cheaper for the gun. My HD gun is an 870,18.5" barrel 12ga with the plug removed. Loaded with 00 buck.

 

[MachIVshooter]

And don't be focused on 00 Buck

+1

I actually prefer #1 buck, lots more pellets, still good sized. Just that off-the-shelf stuff is usually 00 or 000. In 12 ga., 2-3/4" 00 loads are nine .33" pellets, while 2-3/4" #1 buck loads have sixteen .30" pellets.

A #4 load will give you twenty seven .24" balls (12 ga.)

Looking at Midway, Graf's and Cabela's, your options are kinda limited in 16 ga. Feeral's #1 buck load is all I see, with 12 pellets. A few slugs as well.

If it's whatcha got, it'll work. I have a 16 ga. Model 97, nice gun. But 12 ga. gives you many, many more options, which is why I have 4 of those.

 

[Fred Fuller]

It will do, if the shooter will do.

AFAIK, #1 is the biggest (only?) buckshot available for it, and that's not available over the counter in many places. Anyone who decides to depend on a 16 needs to stock up on ammo while they can.

There is no reason whatsoever to sell a 16 short...

lpl

 

[oneounceload]

Anyone who decides to depend on a 16 needs to stock up on ammo while they can.

Or learn to reload.....

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

as said no advantage over a 12, but no real shortcomeing either when loaded with #1 buck or even hi-brass turkey shot, #4 or 5. it's all gonna hurt - badly.

 

[chas08]

Anyone who decides to depend on a 16 needs to stock up on ammo while they can.

I think ammo will always be available from some source. However it definitely isn't the gauge for the casual shooter who only buys shells as he needs them. The internet sales places have ample supply, just a limited selection of shot sizes. But what's out there is adequate to get most any job done.

 

[barnetmill]

If you already have a 16 ga then use it. In most cases i would not buy a 16 unless it was cheap. The only exception i can think of are for some drillings that come in 16 and a rifle caliber and of course some of the old quail guns that were expressly built around the dimensions of the 16. 12 ga and 20 ga ammo is more common.

 

[krmgator]

My only shotgun is a Browning Sweet 16 A-5. I think even with birdshot it will be an effective deterrent if needed.

 

[Girodin]

I would avoid it simply because I like to shoot any gun intended for self defense purposes a lot and ammo for a 12 is cheaper and easier to find.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Why not?.....

 

[mljdeckard]

Like oneounce says,

Either roll your own or find a local guy who will make a case of your preferred load. I use #4.

My dad has a '97 in 16 that has been beat up and sawed off. Sometimes we take it out and crank some rounds to it to look cool, but there isn't a lot out there for 16. I still think I should steal it from him and have it restored. Merry Christmas.

 

[paducahrider]

Howdy!
If I had a 16 gauge shotgun, for the purpose of home defense,(which I do) I would buy whatever ammunition that is available(which I did).
I wouldn't get too picky about the type of slugs or buck, as either will do the job at the range a home defense gun is likely to be used(like REAL CLOSE!!).
As mentioned previously, even birdshot is gonna be mighty effective within the confines of the average home.
My mother once shot through a door and screen door, at an intruder who repeatedly ignored her warnings to stop trying to pry the doors open in the wee hours of a cold winter morning.
From the size of the holes it made(fist sized) it wouldn't had mattered one whit what sized shot was in it, and she didn't bother to find out.
From the tracks he made, he left in one big hurry, and nobody ever rattled that door again.
I also worked with a guy who got abusive to his wife when he drank too much. He came home drunk one morning and threatened her from outside his back door. She told him to get away from the door, several times, then pulled the trigger on a 12 gauge loaded with #9 birdshot. She shot through two doors and blew his left leg clean off, at the knee.
He lived through it, his wife stayed with him, but HE QUIT DRINKING.
An intruder is probably not going to know which gauge the barrel is that he's looking into, and I doubt that he would be able to detect the difference if he was shot with either a 12 or 16, if he didn't see it.
I know I would rather be behind either one, than in front of it.
Somewhere, a long time ago, I read an article that made the statement that the best firearm to have for survival purposes was a double barrel shotgun, as it could be used for small or large game and self defense, simply by changing loads.
I would think that nowadays, the 12 ga. ammo is a bit easier to locate, but a good 16 is mighty close to the 12, and may be easier for some folks to handle.
You pick'em!
Thanks for your time.

 

[MachIVshooter]

then pulled the trigger on a 12 gauge loaded with #9 birdshot. She shot through two doors and blew his left leg clean off, at the knee.

The fish was THIS BIG!!! I SWEAR!!!



I personally know two people shot at contact distance with 12 gauge bird loads. One was in his foot, inches from the muzzle. Foot and toes still there, but kinda deformed.

The other was in the calf, from 4 feet away. Pretty nasty scar, and an infection nearly made him an amputee, but the wound itself was unimpressive.

Then quite a few years back there was a lady who was shot in the face from less than two feet while sitting in her car. Pretty badly disfigured, but very much alive.


Bird shot is for birds. It will not effectively dispatch a human being, no matter how many whoppers we regurgitate about dismemberment and grape fruit-sized holes through people.

For defense with a shotgun, one should not use anything smaller than BB (or T or F shot for steel), and preferably something in the buckshot family or slugs.

 

[WardenWolf]

It's a bad time to buy a 16 gauge. The intermediate calibers are disappearing thanks to the advent of more powerful shells and lighter-weight guns with better recoil management. The calibers that are going to survive are 12, 20, and .410. That has already been determined.

Things aren't looking so good longterm for .410, either, as it continues to slip further and further into irrelevancy and inadequacy. We may eventually see a rebirth of 28 gauge to replace .410 in the bottom slot, but don't hold your breath.

 

[chas08]

The intermediate calibers are disappearing thanks to the advent of more powerful shells and lighter-weight guns with better recoil management. The calibers that are going to survive are 12, 20, and .410. That has already been determined.

It must be true, Ive been hearing it for the last 50 years.

Bird shot is for birds.

I agree, But my wifes stepsister Killed an intruder in my fatherinlaws house with a load of birdshot several years back. Maybe it's like the rifle guys say "it's all about shot placement"

 

[Old Shooter]

If it's for HD and is just gonna sit n the closet until it is needed, a 16 can sit and mind it's manners just as well as a 12.

I would stock up on what you believe is an adequate amount of ammo for whatever practice you plan on doing as supply on the shelf seems to come and go but I can always find some if I check on a couple of stores.

 

[zoom6zoom]

Most 16's these days are built on the same frames as twelves, so there's no size or weight savings in most cases, either.

 

[dtvburns]

I think bird shot from just a few feet would tear someones head clean off.... Then I think about our ex-vice president, Cheney, shooting a guy in the face. The guy lived, so I load my HD gun with buck shot.... just to be sure.

 

[foghornl]

The only buckshot loaded for the 16-Ga I have seen on the shelves on 40+ years of shooting is #1 Buck.

However, if a 16-Ga gun is what you have on hand, USE IT! I started shotgunning with a Savage/Stevens Mdl 94B single-shot 16-Ga with that notorious "Tenite" stock set.

Yea, 12-Ga ammo is available in a MUCH wider variety of loads, but don't tell those Bambis/Daffy Ducks/Rocket J. Squirrels in my freezer that they got taken down with a simple 16-Ga.....they might be mad.

Seriously, the 16-Ga will do its part for HomeLand Security when you do YOUR part

 

[paducahrider]

the fish was THIS BIG!!! I swear!!!

Howdy!
to MachIVshooter:
Sounds like your friends were luckier than mine.
It also sounds like you doubt that #9 will blow off a leg.
The fact remains that he has only one leg and uses a prosthetic from the knee down, on the stump.
I wasn't there to see his incident(thank Goodness), but was in the house when Mom blew the hole through the two doors. It was,,,,,IMPRESSIVE!!!
I would say that distance is everything, when shooting a shotgun. At very close range(4 feet?), it won't make as big a hole as with a few feet more. But, in that few extra feet the pattern will be larger, with little reduction in total energy.
If all that energy goes into a joint(like his knee) it's likely to shred everything, and blow it apart, and it did.
On the other hand, my uncle, while a teenager, shot himself in the foot, completely through the upper and sole of his boot, with a .22 rifle, and he never told his parents for fear that he would get a whipping. The bullet went between his foot bones but didn't break anything. He never missed a day of school.
Another teenage friend of mine mishandled his twelve gauge auto going through a fence and had it discharge at point-blank range, up through his diaphragm, heart and lungs. He was hunting quail, so was probably using # 9 shot.
Almost all his internal organs were damaged, but some were just gone.
Needless to say, he was dead before he could be taken to a hospital.
You can believe whatever you want, and I'll believe what I've experienced.
Thanks for your time.