RKBAman,
All I'm doing on this thread is outlining the reasons I changed my own choices in HD shotgun ammunition- in other words, I came to find my own trust in a given load misplaced. I made that change precisely because of things I learned from personal contact in formal training with a professional. IF I had already known all the answers, I wouldn't have needed to take the class.
Trust is precisely the issue, not putting down anyone else's opinion about anything. Trust in hardware is not something you can really afford, unfortunately, when the chips are down. Not trust in a given make or model of shotgun, not trust in a given shot size or load or velocity, not trust in some bad guy to drop right on down and die when you peg him with anything at all that you can carry around by yourself and fire from your shoulder. Slugs don't work 100% of the time, buckshot (even 3" maggie numb loads of #4 buck with howevermany dozen pellets) don't work 100% of the time at all ranges and in all situations.
It is precisely the experts that I _DO_ trust. The same experts who tell me NOT to trust in any of the above hardware, the experts who tell me to RUN THE BOLT and be prepared to shoot that pumpgun again immediately, and still again if necessary. I trust the experts who tell me to be prepared for a failure to stop no matter what firearm I'm shooting or what ammo I'm shooting out of it. I trust the experts who tell me to be prepared to transition to a sidearm if my long gun goes down for the count. I trust the experts who tell me to be prepared to take a hit and fight on however I can with whatever I can make work, either limbs or firearms, like Special Agent Ed Mireles running an FBI-issue Remington 870 with one hand because the other arm had been blown inside out by a bank robber/murderer with a Ruger Mini-14 on what had been a pretty spring day in Miami in April of 1986 (
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/cu...18969.story?coll=sfla-childrensfund-headlines ). I trust the experts who tell me that weird things happen to human brains in crisis situations and that I had better be prepared through good training to deal with those things as best I can, to include _not_ being frozen in place because of a failure to stop when I trusted my firearm and ammunition too much.
It can guarantee you that ain't me who will be kicking in your back door at 0200, it ain't me you have to worry about stopping with your Remchester Loudenboomer Magnum loaded with Roman Candle sized shells in which you have absolute faith and trust to stop even King Kong himself with one shot. I don't know who or what it will be that's kicking in your door, if the odds go against you and some rock monster really does try to make your family his own personal ATM to finance his next shot of chemical comfort. And I don't really care what you have chosen to try and stop such an occurrence with, that's your business and I'm no expert at all this anyway.
But I know that weird things happen in gunfights, and I know that people have been hurt or killed because they watched themselves deliver a round to what they were sure was center of mass on an adversary, with a personally owned or department issued firearm and ammunition in which they had complete and absolute trust, and then they froze in place like a deer in the headlights when their magic wand failed to be a one-shot stopper. And then they got shot or stabbed or run over with a car by someone who didn't know he was supposed to fall down and die instantly because he had been touched by a magic wand.
I'm hoping nobody here is setting themselves up to fall into the same trap.
Yes, in fact the odds are that a 12 gauge 3" maggie numb load of #4 buck delivered COM at 12 feet would be a stopper, and would be unsurviveable by any human who took a solid hit from it. But it isn't the odds you have to be concerned about, it's Mr. Murphy, and he's always hanging around.
lpl/nc
