Quote:
|
Originally Posted by 45long
At close range (6-10 ft) just about any birdshot load is going to act like a glazer saftey slug on steriods, punching one gaping hole in the middle and excerting all energy inside the intruder... When you are in your house and shooting 00 buck you are basically shooting the equivilent of nine 357 magnums in your house or apartment if using a 2-3/4" shell. Not good for anyone on the other side of the wall. Easy experiment: place sections of sheet rock 4" apart and shoot at them and see how many walls it goes through before it stops.
|
You know, I have seen adult men punch their hand through sheet rock on several occasions. I've yet to see an adult male punch his fist through someone's chest. My take away from that is that 5/8" of powdered gypsum backed by paper is probably nowhere near as tough as the average human beings and that something that is stopped by such a barrier is likely not suitable for human beings.
So my general rule is not to defend myself from an immediate threat of death or serious injury with something that won't penetrate sheetrock.
Quote:
|
All in all if you hit them with anything out of a shotgun it's very doubtful that he'll be going room to room from that point. Especially if peppered in the face.
|
I'd agree that is a likely outcome in most cases; but it does happen. Here is a
previous post where I discuss people who survived being shot in the head at household distances with a shotgun loaded with birdshot. In one case, a man was shot execution style in the back of the head with a .410. None of the shot penetrated his skull and he survived by wrestling the gun away from his attacker. In another case, the attacker took a load of high-brass #6 in the face from 6' (part of the load was blocked by a refrigerator) blinding him in one eye. He then killed the person he was attacking with a single shot of 12ga buckshot and drove two hours home where he was convinced to seek medical treatment.
I can definitely appreciate the desire to limit the danger to innocent bystanders; but I think going with a load that doesn't even penetrate sheet rock is taking that to ridiculous levels. Ultimately, the use of deadly force is to protect you and your family from an immediate threat of death or serious injury. It seems to me that failing to stop that threat quickly and with as few shots as possible is more likely to result in injury to myself or others than a stray shot - after all, the intruder is unlikely to have the same concern about overpenetration.