#4 Shot for Emergency Self-defense?

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I've loaded my Mossberg 500 with 13, 12ga mini shells loaded with #4 buck and feel perfectly armed for home defence. And of course my 10mm Colt as a backup.
 
I have shells from #9 birdshot to 000 buck, but for HD it is 1 ounce slugs. It works up to 100 jards and its devastating up close.
Outside the pump 12 ga shotty full of slugs is queen and inside the house its a full size .40.
 
12ga 1 5/8 oz #4 @1500

Across bedroom (20'), blows a 12-14" hole through sheetrock or door.
A belly or face full would not be pleasant.
 
If all one has is bird shot like #7 I would aim for the face of possible. Can’t kill/maim what you can’t see. And your #4 I wouldn't want to be shot with it! At any distance!
 
BlackHand1917 said:
During the first ammo crisis during the Obama Admin when the ammo shelves were entirely bare, I started buying the only ammo I could find at the big box stores, which was 12 guage birdshot. After the crisis passed I sold of some of the 7 and 8 shot stuff at the local gun shop and they were happy to buy it. However, I kept some of the shells wth the larger pellets. Just how useful would something like #4 shot( non-buck )or BB be for self-defense? Marginal? Useless? In recent weeks I have been augmenting my stocks of 00 Buck but doing it gradually for money reasons. Should I use the smaller stuff just for training or is it basically useless?
Click to expand...
If your talking self defense in the home, virtually anything from #8 to 00 buck will do the job. At ranges of 10-20 ft., any load will not have a chance to spread, so you’re column of lead will be very destructive no matter the size of shot!
 
At 15 feet, a load of #4 birdshot will rip a big gaping hole through any miscreant's ribcage, and make a decent pulp of whatever offals stand behind.

Put a watermelon behind a 1/2" plywood, try, and see what happens...

(Edited, at 15', not 15"...)
 
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My two bits on this that is not worth two bits.

What is that one rule we all should know? Something about your target and what is behind it.

Now I am a poor country boy, so my time in houses with 40yard rooms is nil, my house will max out at about 40 feet with a clear line of sight, so I really don't care to need to kill a bad guy past that. Now if he grabbed my wife and is running away in a car I might rethink that after I thank him for that....joke thats a joke.

I always have a worry in the back of my mind, where is that shot going to go, two bits of sheet rock is not going to stop much, and after learning 3/4" sheet rock is not really a thing anymore, you have even less resistance. Who know they really don't make it that thick anymore, had a garage flood, and the hardest part was finding the sheet rock to put it back together again....shocked.

Past that after seeing why houses are made of today, you have some plywood, and it aint thick, some tyvek and siding, that is only going to stop the most wimpy stuff, I don't want to kill the bad guy in my house only to have the shot wiz through him out the window and into the neighbors house.

My shotgun that lives beside the bed is in #7 bird shot, I think that is going to be enough to do the job at 15 feet.

I remember that old video with the guy in the beard, did not know he passed, he was one of the better "gun guys" on youtube.
 
Dad used to hunt all small game with #6 shot. It definitely would be ugly on someone within 30 feet.
 
I would go hunting on a relatives property as a young man using semi-auto shotguns. We didnt have much luck with hogs one day so had fun chopping small saplings down. A single shot of birdshot and we were severing 1.5-2" thick saplings trunks clean. We saw how far back we could get and still achieve it. I dont recall exactly but it was several yards, not feet. That convinced me I didnt need to get hit by birdshot at close range.
 
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BlackHand1917 said:
During the first ammo crisis during the Obama Admin when the ammo shelves were entirely bare, I started buying the only ammo I could find at the big box stores, which was 12 guage birdshot. After the crisis passed I sold of some of the 7 and 8 shot stuff at the local gun shop and they were happy to buy it. However, I kept some of the shells wth the larger pellets. Just how useful would something like #4 shot( non-buck )or BB be for self-defense? Marginal? Useless? In recent weeks I have been augmenting my stocks of 00 Buck but doing it gradually for money reasons. Should I use the smaller stuff just for training or is it basically useless?
Click to expand...

Lol, you stepped on a land mine here. It's a very hotly debated subject. My humble opinion; buckshot not birdshot unless your just insanely worried about over penetration. Lots of folks make special comments in regards to bird shot like "I wouldn't want to be shot with it". Well yeah...nobody would. But we're talking about stopping power and ending the threat quickly. With a Shotgun that threat really needs to be ended with one shot considering the limited rounds it can hold and slow rate of fire. Bird shot CAN stop somebody....but a fair amount of times it will not. Especially considering factors like adrenaline and drugs they may be one. Even if bird shot fails to stop a threat 10% or 5% of the time, those are not odds I'm willing to bet my family on. 00 Buck is king.
 
Blunderbuss623 said:
Lol, you stepped on a land mine here. It's a very hotly debated subject. My humble opinion; buckshot not birdshot unless your just insanely worried about over penetration. Lots of folks make special comments in regards to bird shot like "I wouldn't want to be shot with it". Well yeah...nobody would. But we're talking about stopping power and ending the threat quickly. With a Shotgun that threat really needs to be ended with one shot considering the limited rounds it can hold and slow rate of fire. Bird shot CAN stop somebody....but a fair amount of times it will not. Especially considering factors like adrenaline and drugs they may be one. Even if bird shot fails to stop a threat 10% or 5% of the time, those are not odds I'm willing to bet my family on. 00 Buck is king.
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What is the % of one shot stops with buckshot?
I’d be willing to bet it wouldn’t be good enough for you based on your requirements.

have you shot anything living with 1 1/4oz of #4s?
 
Barbaroja said:
What is the % of one shot stops with buckshot?
I’d be willing to bet it wouldn’t be good enough for you based on your requirements.

have you shot anything living with 1 1/4oz of #4s?
Click to expand...

I hunt almost exclusively with Shotguns. Prey big and small. I also work in emergency medicine, and have seen the end results of both on a human. Neither looked overly enjoyable, but the difference between buck and bird shot is incredible.
Let's not kid ourselves. Both are lethal rounds and should be treated as such. But the edge definitively goes to buckshot. If you cloned somebody 200 times and put 100 rounds of bird and buck through them the percentage of successfull stopping power would be overwhelmingly in favor of buck shot. If I have to trust my families life to a shotgun, 00 buck will be in it. Federal Flight Controll 00 is an amazing round and can't recommend it enough.
 
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