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Old September 1, 2007, 07:56 PM   #9
.351winchester
Junior member
 
Join Date: December 31, 2005
Location: MI
Posts: 1,013
Get her her very own 870 Express Synthetic 7-shot 20 gauge, or even the 4+1 (formerly called Express Home Defense models), if finances allow. People do better with their own firearm, especially when better suited to them than the alternative. Even if she is 5'2" and 80 lb.s, should be easily manageable, add a Knoxx stock and it probably kicks like a .410. 20 gauge, 2 3/4 #3 buck is a great defensive load, but is I guess just a ordinary sporting/deer hunting round. 7.5 bird if you live in a apartment and want to be extra safe. Birdshot is like a .22LR in the brain- very probable the guy is already dead, but it wouldn't be wise to assume that means stopping him. Of course a head/neck shot will probably have his eyes running out like egg yolks (on top of a perforated juglar/carotid/trachea) and have him grabbing walls to find his way back out the door. If overpenetration is not a concern, but there is absolutely no way to get any tactical or reduced loads for your 12 ga., try standard #4 buck, and turn to recoil reduction methods for your gun. Not sure if you could get ahold of a Vang Comp barrel, or Patternmaster choke (to make light bird hit like a ton of bricks with near slug accuracy and tight concentration-for the dreaded 'rat hole') if reduced power buckshot is that hard to get. Like I said, if you can afford it and she would be into it, see about a 20 ga., 18" barrel pump (autos will also offer recoil control but not sure about legality where you live and also autos are far less reliable than a pump and reliability is key; some might even say a short double barrel SxS would be enough but in these parts the more the better) for your lady.
It's just not cool to get battered around by a heavy 12 gauge load especially when you need far less of that to get the job done.
Do you have any friends that do reloading? A lot of clay shooters and bird hunters do, ask around. If reloading supplies are okay there's no way a good home defense load could be regulated. And you could make up your own specialty stuff-2 sizes of buck, etc. Personally I wouldn't count on any handloads in preparation for defensive use, but just throwing out some ideas here.
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