Ideas on fortifying drywalls against 12 guage 00 buck round overpenetration

[ezmiraldo]

Hey guys!

I've been watching video after video showing how 12 gauge 00 buck round penetrates numerous drywalls (4-8 walls, depending on the test). Any ideas on how to make drywalls inside one's apt. stronger, to avoid overpenetration? I'm living in an apartment complex with neighbors and relatives living just couple of dry-walls away.

Please don't suggest switching to birdshot or other types of ammo -- that aint happening! Suggestions to shoot accurately (doh!) or moving to rural areas where there are no neighbors or relatives are also not accepted, thank you very much...

Let's hear it!

[cslinger]

Bookshelves stacked with books might be a start.

[FITASC]

Don't use 00 buck; switch to #1 for starters. Depending on layout, placing large pieces of furniture in certain location might also help. 00 Buck at close apt distances might be a tad much for your use.

[skizzums]

I don't know what kind of answer you are wanting. you want to use 00 buck and you want/need to live in a drywall apt. there is no solution to your conundrum outside of replacing walls in a building you don't even own. good luck

[Sharkbite]

One way to decrease penetration would be to try using some of the low recoil OO Buck loads. Most of the reduction in recoil is accomplished by reducing velocity.

Slower starting speed means slower impact speed--- with buckshot that means lower penetration as well.

Remington also makes an 8 pellet reduced velocity OO Buck load. VERY soft shooting and plenty of power for in home distances. The one bad side (if it is a bad side) is that it patterns REAL tight. Might be too tight at inside distances.

[1-DAB]

Brick walls?

[2damnold4this]

Bookshelves stacked with books might be a start.

+1

[Dreaming100Straight]

Use some of that inpenetrable dry wall sold at the HD. That or spray it with 1/4" of diamond impregnated elastomeric vampire blood.

[Blindstitch]

Sounds like somebody is building a library. Beyond that I don't know. I do know that I wouldn't want a face full of #2 or #4 shot.

[Rangerrich99]

Have you considered no. 4 buckshot (not the same as birdshot)? The tests I've read say it penetrates about 8-9 inches into gelatin (enough to reach vitals from 20 feet) and penetrates about half the number of drywall sheets as 00. I've used a coyote load on animals and can say from experience at relatively close ranges it really makes a mess out of flesh. Enough so that I have a couple of them in my HD shotgun as starters. The rest are no. 1 bucks.

Caveat: I probably wouldn't trust them beyond say, 20 yards on a man-sized target, but I'm betting there's no range inside your apartment longer than 30 feet.

Just a thought.

[kilimanjaro]

Not to make an issue of it, but I would think 99% of your defense shots are going down tje front entry towards the doorway. Unless there's an apartment across the hall instead of blue sky, overpenetration should not be a concern.

I use No. 6 shot, myself, just to keep the wiring and plumbing intact.

[Buzzard Bait]

I would think that firing a gun of any type inside a apartment where two sheets of sheet rock is all that separates you from your neighbors would be dangerous and irresponsible. You would be held responsible for all damage injuries and death.

[dcludwig]

I think the obvious problem you have is living in an apartment. This eliminates a permanent fix, though the bookcase suggestion would be a semi-permanent one. You move, books move. To cover every outside/next-door wall would still take a lot of bookcases/books. I do know of used book stores/and 2nd hand stores that have boxes of books for a couple bucks each. Cheap book cases at the right logistical height could be made and placed at strategic positions.

Still, a bit of work with that method. If you are an upper floor, you will be primarily concerned with your outside door, as this is the only feasible access by a BD. So, maybe the landlord would allow or even split the cost of a beefed up door.

Maybe others have better ideas. I like my 00 buck. I use my recliner to both watch TV/Movies as well as do computer stuff. My HD by the chair allows me to work my way back to the shotgun, which allows me to work back to my AR 15. Being single in a house with plaster walls, and small but steep hills on 3 sides of me, over-penetration is less (though still viable) concern for me. Singleness allows more options and more spending money for gun stuff

[oley55]

Seems like the walls between units are more likely concrete block with a drywall covering. Not for reasons of stopping 00 buck protection. but as a fire barrier to make the Fire Marshall happy.

but then I may be confusing standard duplex/townhouse divider wall construction with those of an apartment building.

[Virginian]

Kevlar tapestries.

[jmr40]

Please don't suggest switching to birdshot or other types of ammo -- that aint happening! Suggestions to shoot accurately (doh!) or moving to rural areas where there are no neighbors or relatives are also not accepted, thank you very much...

With these requirements you've pretty well painted yourself into a corner. Unfortunately these are really your only options.

[jabba21]

As someone else said I think, skip 00 and go to #1 if you're concerned about over penetration.

[jabba21]

And that's #1 buckshot. Don't listen to the birdshot crap.

[Snyper]

Seems like the walls between units are more likely concrete block with a drywall covering. Not for reasons of stopping 00 buck protection. but as a fire barrier to make the Fire Marshall happy.

They don't generally have firewalls between individual units

[Virginian]

I would suspect that if one is living in an apartment where they think they really need a shotgun and double ought buckshot for protection that those apartments are not up to the highest building standards.

[Moomooboo]

Use rhinoliner or any bedliner. But uh. There is nothing non permanent that would make it fleffective other than tons of bookshelves. Books can be had for cheap. Bookshelves not so much.

[mete]

"tons of bookshelves" Books can add up to lots of weight and considering modern construction that room is going to bend or deflect !!! It will take a lot less than you think !

[ezmiraldo]

Thanks for your suggestions, folks! I will try to do something about my walls first, and use "stack-up" ammo method (in mag tube first two rounds birdshot, the rest are low-recoil buckshot; in side saddle first 5 rounds low-recoil buckshot, and last two rounds slugs).

Although, its overpenetration dangers are minimal, I do have one concern about birdshot. At the largest distance in my apt. (30 feet), its group size is 17 inches out of my shotgun!! So, although I gain some protection in terms of overpenetration, I lose in terms of the likelihood that some rounds will end up entirely missing the target no matter how good my aim is. So, if my child is in another room, I'm good to go; but if my child is in the same room and behind the BG, i'm sol, as some rounds might entirely miss the target due to enormous group size. My currently used 00 buckshot group size at that same distance is only 4.5-6.5 inches... Which leads me to think that I should probably just stick to low-recoil buckshot rounds... Why does life have to be so hard!?

[Ralph Allen]

Life is only as hard as we make it. If your neighborhood and town are so bad that this is what you seem to be so concerned about, the only thing that I see as a probable fix for your question is find somewhere else to live. If you are worried about shooting innocents and maybe even your children, then the fix is move. Yes, I know you said at the start of your post that this was not an option. Why not? Are you chained inside your apartment? Maybe it's time to stop watching video scenarios of actions that will probably never happen to you, or if you are so concerned that they will, then move.
Ralph

[Dragline45]

Pick up some #4 buckshot, it will penetrate less than 00 through drywall and has a proven track record. Point men armed with shotguns in Vietnam used #4 buckshot.