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Old May 26, 2011, 10:07 AM   #1
toyman69
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dragons breath for self defense

OK, I was on youtube and saw these shotgun shells called dragons breath.
One of the videos the shooter used them on a manikin. I am wondering if they are leagle to own and shoot for one, and also if you could use them for self defense?
The shooter also had some other shells that had darts in them and some others that had bolo shot.
I guess I can't help wondering if they were leagle and you were to use them in a self defense situation if a prosecuter would try to throw the book at you for using them?
But I think it would be fun to shoot them, once.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:14 AM   #2
ChrisJ715
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Would these be damaging to your gun? I've seen them for sale but I've never tried them.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:18 AM   #3
oletymer
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They are great for seperating a fool from his money.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:19 AM   #4
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Dragon's Breath are legal in some states.. If you like to spend $100 for a box of 25 shells and don't mind the possibility of burning your house down, go ahead and buy 'em..

"Specialty" shotshells like bolo, Dragon's Breath, flechettes and Rhodesian Jungle are for mall ninjas, gamers and the AirSoft kiddie scene. They're rubbish and not worth wasting your money on. Period

Nothing beats a load of 00 or 000 buckshot for home and self-defense.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:39 AM   #5
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I don't know why you'd select them over a load that is known to be effective- good old buckshot or slugs.

Even if they're legal where you are, even if you can afford to shoot them so you know how they perform, I rather doubt they'd be an effective manstopper. Great psychological effect, but probably not a whole ton of physical effect.

If you need to be using lethal force in defense of your life, it's foolish to load something that isn't effective (IMO). Therefore, for a defensive shotgun, I'd recommend 00 or 000 buckshot; certainly nothing smaller than #4 buck.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:53 AM   #6
toyman69
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I don't think that I would wan't to use them for home defense, due in part to there cost but also due to our anti gun prosecuters and media.
But you guys are bringing up a good point about stopping power, I had never seen them before, and other than the wow factor they are not verry practical.
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:54 AM   #7
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I Love FPSRussia too but !! Those rounds are almost all useless EXCEPT the slug+ buckshot one.. that is an effective home defense round .. Winchester PDXI has a 12gauge shell with that setup.. and I like them personally.. others might disagree... but Dragon's Breath is something THAT CAN do a lot of physical damage if used in a Close Quarters Battle Zone in a WAR.. not in your HOME!!
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Old May 26, 2011, 10:57 AM   #8
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Dragon's Breath for Home Defense !

Hopefully you're defending someone else's home when you deploy it...
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Old May 26, 2011, 11:15 AM   #9
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Dragons Breath are great fun, I have a couple left, but there is no way in hell I would shoot one anywhere near my domicile... Go to the desert at night if you get some, that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like em.
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Old May 26, 2011, 11:20 AM   #10
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I've seen some of these loads, some of them have vicious sounding names.

As far as how "effective" they are... I'd say fire em into a block o' ballistic jello... If they penetrate 12" to 14" they hey they probably are effective. If all they go is make a ghastly surface wound then you're depending onpain or psycological shock or fear the stop or repel an aggressor. I personaly would rather depend on projectiles disrupting vital tissue. It means banking on a statistic correlation... ballistic gelatin does not emulate human tissue exactly. What it does do however is give you a rough correlation... bullets that penetrate 14" in gellatin should over time, in the majority of cases prove to be an effective projectile. Shot placement is key. The larger the hole that is made the better, the more holes that are made - the better. The more and larger holes you can put in vital organs the better.

Shotguns allow you to tailor your ammo probably more than any other weapon. With handguns you can vary bullet weight and pressure / velocity but that's not a huge change. You can load something like a glaser safety slug but that's not a huge change either... A S&W Governor / Taurus Judge gives you some more options but it's still not close to a shotgun. With a shot gun you can load everything from slug to birdshot, you can even mix shot, mix anything you like - #0 with #4 buck, #000 with #2 - whatever. You can cut shells, and a lot of guns even let you go from 2 3/4 to 3" Ya, I don't think you can fire a bolo round out of any rifle or handgun that I know of.

If you live in a stone castle, then maybe #000 is the best defense load, if you live in a townhome, sharing a wall with two other town homes on each side of you, maybe #4 is a better choice. My gut feeling though is that depending on the situation, #00, #0 or #1 buck is going to be the better HD round than any of the exotic so-called self-defense loads out there (in most cases).

Having a lawyer use the name against you is hard to predict. I have read of shooting cases where the family situation of the deceased is so messed up they can't find next of kin, or in other cases next of kin is incarcerated, in another country ... or just generally doesn't have the werewithal to file a case.
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Old May 26, 2011, 11:29 AM   #11
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Just a thought... Think to any burns you have been near. Remember the smell? That would be your house, for months if you shot someone with Dragons Breath rounds, if it didn't burn up in the aftermath.
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Old May 26, 2011, 11:37 AM   #12
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Really all they are is a novelty. I can only hope nobody in their right mind would be using any of that stuff in a defensive scenario for a variety of reasons; among them being sued by crafty Johnny Cochran, Barry Scheck-type lawyers.

The packaging is convincing enough:

Quote:
12 GA. Terminator-X
Upon impact, this slug mushrooms and expands to nearly 2 inches, stopping the slug from totally penetrating your objective. This rapid expansion forces the dozen of tiny pellets to spread through your objective like a cancerous disease, opening an area at the impact point equal to a softball! The cavity created has the shock effect of 95%! That means only 5% of any living being could survive this kind of hit.
Quote:
12 GA. Exploder
A stabilized, finned slug with a deep hollow core for loading combustible materials. The exploder round has curved finns in the rear of the slug for stability. Recent D.O.T. regulations require that the "Exploder" hollow cavity be shipped unloaded. This allows you to load the cavity yourself, safely with no tools required. Use our formula or yours. Complete instructions included.
Quote:
12 GA. "Rhodesian Jungle"
The Rhodesian Jungle Rounds are great for in home defense! The combination of several large pellets surrounded by a mass of smaller pellets allows for double punching power to any intruder that is unlucky enough to cross its path. Make the intruder think twice with this double whammy of power. If the big pellets don’t get you, the small ones will!
Rhodesian Jungle Ammo - 25 pak $99.95
First i was like .. Now i'm like :barf:..
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Old May 26, 2011, 11:43 AM   #13
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They are only as effective as a gallon of gas and a Zippo lighter... But the gas and Zippo cost less to use... Pick whichever you choose for HD/SD both are a fire hazard by design.

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Old May 26, 2011, 12:19 PM   #14
sirsloop
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Instead of killing a perp, you burn your house down! Excellent defense! :barf:

The question that needs to be asked is... "What problem or inadequacy does Dragon's Breath and other novelty rounds fulfill in the market today that is not capable of being solved by conventional slugs or shot?"

Good for starting fires and looking cool... bad for defending yourself. If I want dragons breath I'll drive over to PA and buy some roman candles.
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Old May 26, 2011, 12:24 PM   #15
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Speaking of gas...

I bought some of those dragon breath shells last year. I poured gasoline all over a cardboard silhouette target and shot it with the dragon shell.

Nothing happened. The flaming balls of whatever they are bounced off. Didn't ignite the gas.

As kids we used to shoot each other with roman candles. (dumb, I know.) All we got was black marks on our shirts and some small burns. If you use a dragon breath shell on a person that's all they will get is some small burns. All these dragon shells are is a big single shot roman candle.

Quote:
Dragon's Breath is something THAT CAN do a lot of physical damage if used in a Close Quarters Battle Zone in a WAR.
No. It is a novelty firework who's only effect is a few seconds of fire and smoke and a very dirty shotgun barrel.
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Old May 26, 2011, 12:29 PM   #16
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Quote:
anything you like - #0 with #4 buck, #000 with #2 - whatever. You can cut shells, and a lot of guns even let you go from 2 3/4 to 3" Ya, I don't think you can fire a bolo round out of any rifle or handgun that I know of.
Two things here.

1 Why do people keep going back to this cut shell idiocy. It is dangerous. It's unpredictable. If you want a slug, buy a slug.

2 Why would you want to fire a bolo round any way? If they were that effective the SWAT team would fill their shotguns with them. They don't because bolo rounds are BS
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Old May 26, 2011, 12:33 PM   #17
C0untZer0
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Probably a piranha gun would be just as effective:











.
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Old May 26, 2011, 12:47 PM   #18
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IF you used one, the BG's lawyer will take everything you have. The DA might also want you to spend some time in their local facility. Same thing for cut shells or any other zombie repellent type of ammo
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Old May 26, 2011, 02:35 PM   #19
jeepstrapped
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For self-defense, nope.

But, they would be fun as all get out to try once.
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Old May 26, 2011, 02:41 PM   #20
chasep255
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I think dragons breath would be effective for home defense. If you miss your house will burn down and the bad guy won't get your stuff.
On a serious note I don't think using a flame thrower round would fly in court.
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Old May 26, 2011, 02:43 PM   #21
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those novelty shells are just that, a novelty. I wouldn't call a flechette shell a novelty though. Flechettes were actually fielded by the Army in limited numbers in SE Asia and proved effective. They were pulled for humanitarian reasons because they were all but impossible to remove from the wounded without taking out a chunk of flesh with it.
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Old May 26, 2011, 03:01 PM   #22
toyman69
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Thanks for all the insite, I guess the novletie caught my eye.
I would still like to find some and try them out at night.
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Old May 26, 2011, 03:18 PM   #23
hogdogs
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First... Be sure they are legal in your immediate jurisdiction!
Second... Make DANG SURE THE AREA YOU FIRE THEM IS WET!!!

Brent
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Old May 26, 2011, 08:00 PM   #24
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From the what I've been able to find they'd probably work well enough but theres jusy way to many things against specialty round such as price and in this case settibg your home on fire and uf you did have to use them its going to look really bad when they bring up what you shot the guy with I'd stuck to a proven HD load. They would make for a fun range trip if you had a lot of cash to blow.
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Old May 26, 2011, 08:27 PM   #25
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"Nothing beats a load of 00 or 000 buckshot for home and self-defense."

Actually, yes it does: #0 Buckshot, #1 Buckshot, #4 Buckshot, BB Shot, and #2 Shot.

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