I guess this thread will go the same as the other "The Judge" pissing contests have....too heavy....too big.....bad shotgun.......poor .45 Colt accuracy.......birdshot, slugs, and on and on and on.
Some of us like/hate 9mm, .380, .22, .40 yada yada yada.
Is a birdshot loaded .410 shell out of a short barrell a good choice for defense ? Compared to a garden rake, yep. Compared to a well placed .45 JHP ? Guess that comes down to the term "well placed". What are the statistics regarding the average number of rounds fired versus the number that strike the intended target ? By a large margin, lots of shots fired do not come close to being well placed. What happens to the ones that miss ? They all hit something unintended, maybe only the ground, but maybe not.
Now, the arguments for or against The Judge are usually whether or not it does this or that the best. In my personal scenario, I'm pretty worried about possibly killing my kids down the hall or the dude pumping gas down the street. When I load 32 lead BB into a 3" .410 shell, I'm choosing a compromise between safe and lethal as it works for me. Best choice ? How can we ever know ? The best choice is always going to come down to whatever you're holding in your hand when the proverbial SHTF,be it gun,knife or baseball bat. And let's not forget that we're talking a realistic range in a defensive encounter of 3-5 yards.
Sure, #6 birdshot is not a good choice unless that's all you have, so take advantage of the fact there is a choice. 000 buck ? Now were getting warmer, and of course .45 Colt is real fine in most everyone's book, and my Judge shoots it pretty good
Gimmick gun ? No worse than those peewee .22 cal revolvers a lot of folks stuff in their pockets every day.
It's the choice of what I want to stuff the cylinder full of that makes it fun to shoot.
And like a lot of other guns out there, if your opinion is based on something other than shooting The Judge, well heck, you're just whistling Dixie I guess.