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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Birdshot For Home Defense?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

At 12 feet ANY shot coming out of the tube on a 12ga. is effectively a solid object, and UTTERLY devastating. At six feet it will punch through the chest cavity of a 150lb animal leaving a hole you can see through. At "inside the house" range it is far and away the deadliest CQB weapon you can carry, with ANY shot size.

Anonymous said...

I've done some testing on various birdshot loads with water bottles, phone books, wood, etc. My opinion is that low number birdshot BB, #2, #4 etc. is just fine for any inside the home defense. BB, for instance, is almost as big as the smallest buckshot. The cheap #8 birdshot mainly used for trap was less impressive at anything over 8 yds.

science, bitches said...

Birdshot acts exactly like what it is - a collection of small, low mass objects which have very little ability to penetrate, producing wide, shallow wounds far less likely to incapacitate a bad guy. It's exactly the same as the difference between as being hit with a cup of water vs. a block of ice.

Hopefully the misconceptions about birdshot will disappear as people become more educated.

For self defense, stick to 00 buck, or at least #3 buck, which is the smallest shot shown by testing to penetrate the minimum 12" by the FBI testing protocol.

Anonymous said...

In this eternal debate about the effectiveness of birdshot, don't forget that not all shots hit center of mass. If the home invader is moving and firing from 6-7 paces away, it's easy to miss. Would #8 birdshot be effective enough if only 1/5 of it peppers the bad guy's arm? I know that a few pellets of buckshot or BB birdshot in the arm will slow his attack.

Don Williams said...

Dick Cheney has a better understanding of tactics than you guys: shoot the attacker in the face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney_hunting_incident#Whittington_injury

If it works for lawyers , it should work for lesser forms of vermin. : )

Lance said...

I think Cheney proved the point. Laudable the effort to off a lawyer may be, birdshot did not work. Stick with #2 or larger.