How would YOU load your shotgun for Home Defense?

[Art SC]

I've recently purchased a Mossberg 500 12G Tactical shotgun. It was a good price, though I probably would have gotten a more basice stock. That said, I've been reading a lot lately on how to load it for Home Defense. I've heard everything from all #6 bird shot to 00 or slugs only (I actually had to look up what all that meant - real newbie, here). I've also heard how some vary the shell types from front to back in the magazine.

So what do (or would) you do in my case?

I'd enjoy hearing what brands of shells you might choose as well, as the whole genre is rather foreign to me.

Environment info: I live in a small 3 bedroom cottage in what used to be the "country" 10 years ago, but suburban build-up is going on all around me as has the crime rate. There have been 3 violent murders and 5 home invasions within 3 miles of our home...thus, the shotgun. If it effects your advice: we have one house to the side and a trailer park across the street, but nothing but trees to the back and other side if that means anything.

[tomh1426]

Think mines full of #7, it was on sale
It blows up targets with no problem so It should get the job done from across my bedroom.
If I dont want/need the shotgun I have a few other choices just as close.

[VA9mm]

My shotgun is loaded with 7rds Federal Tactical reduced recoil 8 pellet 00 Buck.

I want to hit vitals and drop the guy not cause shallow wounds. To me a person is more like a deer than a bird. I wouldn't hunt deer with birdshot.

[SpectreBlofeld]

Birdshot has its uses in apartment buildings and otherwise crowded areas where human beings are behind relatively thin walls. For everything else, there's Masterc... err, 00 Buck.

[GATMOG]

Well, in my 6 shot Mossberg 500, I leave the chamber empty and in the magazine--the first 3 shells to come out are 7 1/2 federal gameshok birdshot followed by 2 shells winchester 12pellet 00 buckshot. The much increased recoil of the last 2 ought to let me know that I'm empty. On the buttcuff, I have the same shell layout..

While I will never need an ammo bandoleer for HD, it too is loaded 24rds buck, 25rds bird with one empty loop so I can tell which round is where without looking.

Don't buy a bandoleer shotgun sling though, they flop around and throw their weight which messes up your aim..

EDIT: the beauty of a pump shotgun is that you can shuck out the kinds of shells you dont need at the moment--since you have the larger capacity model, I suggest using that to your advantage.

Stay safe!

Joseph

[skeeter1]

As a side-by-side double owner, I don't have many options. The trap gun is too long and ungainly for HD use, but when I feel the need to load up the shorter-barreled (26") field gun, it gets #4 magnum buck in both barrels. I can't imagine that failing to take care of business if I ever need to use it.

[DanAKAL]

My 20 ga 870 has four 00 Buck. Federal I think. Nothing special just some hunting loads. Should I ever need it I doubt there will be much difference in the end result using my 20 ga as compared to a 12 ga. I also have five more rounds on the stock in a sleeve.

Dan

[blackbear]

Law enforcement agencies have used 00 buck for many years. I would not use slugs for home defense. firearmstactical.com has interesting information on home defense shotgun ammo. One in particular from the Firearms Tactical Institute.

[41magsnub]

DanAKAL, please tell us where you have found 00 buck for a 20 gauge? I did not know such a thing commonly existed. The largest I have ever seen is #2 buck.

[Sarge]

If you have some OO buck on hand, I'd use that. Brand or type won't matter at interior ranges, so if you have to buy some, get several boxes of whatever's cheap. Use some of it for practice at the ranges you're likely to encounter; then stetch the gun out a bit and see where your usable pattern ends. My experience says it will be 20-25 yards, but it might be different with your gun & loads.

shoot a few slugs too, so you can see where your gun prints them.

If you don't I'd load with whatever field load you have on hand, which has the largest shot. This too will work at interior ranges, but it won't cut through intervening limbs like the buckshot will.

[kellyj00]

first round: 000 buckshot
second round: dragon's breath.
next three rounds: rock salt.

and I've got a fire extinguisher next to the bed.

I figure if you break into my house, you're getting 7 .38 caliber holes in you. You couldn't care less if when the second lights you on fire and the rest leave a sting.

Seriously, I load whatever I've got laying around. I live in a small predominantly-mennonite town in Kansas though so I don't have to worry about a break in too much. There's something about the mennonites that scares the h-e-double hockey sticks out of criminals, maybe it's all that arm muscle gained by churning butter.

[Creature]

For HD, I prefer to have reduced recoil 00 Buck in my magazine tube.

I use reduced recoil loads so that it is not so punishing for my wife to use...and also it makes for a slightly quicker recovery in case a follow-on shot is needed.

[PointOneSeven]

Turret mount in the front yard. Depleted uranium slugs.



But the neighbors probably think I'm crazy enough.




Usually 4 rounds of 00 buck, not racked, up in the office / bedroom.

[rantingredneck]

Small game loads are made for small game. People are not small game. Birdshot may stop a BG with one round It may not. 00 Buckshot also may or may not, but the may not's are much less likely.

If you haven't read the thread I started about patterning shotgun loads please do so and please pattern test some shotgun loads before you settle on them for HD. A shotgun is not a death ray. It does not immediately stop everything in front of the barrel. It must be aimed and you have to know what your chosen HD load does at likely SD ranges. If you're like me you also want to know what it does even farther out to the unlikely SD ranges.

I shoot buckshot to 25 yds and Slugs to 100 yds at least once a month if not more often. Practice, practice, practice....

I keep my Remington 870 loaded with 5 Rem Managed Recoil 00 buck followed by 2 Brenneke KO slugs. I keep 2+2 of same in my 4 shot sidesaddle. There's a bandolier hanging in the closet above the shotgun that is stoked with 15 and 10. The reasoning is simply that IF I ever, God forbid, encounter a situation where 5 rounds of 00 buck hasn't solved the problem, then I'm gonna want some slugs.

Edited to add: My shotgun is kept firing pin down on an empty chamber with the 7 shells mentioned above in the tube. Rack and go.

[BillCA]

The first two rounds up in my Winchester 1300;
Federal 2 3/4" managed recoil #2 shot. Followed by;
6 ea Remington 2 3/4" #00 buck.
These are followed by two rounds of slugs.

The 20 gauge 870 is stoked with #4 buckshot with the last two being saboted slugs.

I figure the best tactic with a shotgun is to cover the hallway to the bedroom (nominally 15') or the locked bedroom door. This confines the BG to a narrow zone to improve the odds of a hit.

[1tfl]

I have a Remmy 870 with 6 shot mag. and side saddle for 6 spares.
They way it is loaded first 2 will be Federal Tactial #4 buck shots followed by 4 rounds of Federal Tactical 00 buck. On the side saddle first 3 rounds are Federal Tactical 00 buck and last 3 rounds are Remington 1 oz low recoil slugs. I use remington slugs because all buck shots are federal (red) shells and the Remington slug is in green shell.

[bobby1028]

My 1201FP is loaded with 6 rds Federal tactical 00 buck,the side saddle carrier with 6 Brenneke's

[Rockrivr1]

The first two rounds in my Mossy 500a is 00 buck followed by a slug. Then a mix of each after that. I also carry 3 slug rounds and 3 00 buck rounds in the side saddle. If I go through all that ammo and still have a need for more, I'm in some serious trouble.

[CGSteve8718]

I use 00 Buck and wouldn't go any smaller than 4 Buck. I also keep slugs in the carrier just in case.

Slugs only doesn't sound like a good idea. They will be go through and through, they should be kept around for just in case you need one.

Also, I forget who it was on here that said it in another thread, but it's important that you use a pump action also. No matter how cool you think the magazine fed shotguns are, the pump action's practicality can't be beat because of it's ability to "last in first out", and "shoot one load one".

[roy reali]

I use Federal "Intruder" shot or Remington "Bad Guy" shot. I want to use something that is labeled for the correct application.

[evan9201]

i would load mine up with any quality brand of 00 buckshot matched with a full choke. when that BG gets hit with that he's going down!!!!.

[jheitertusa]

I use Federal Classic, 16 pellets of #1 buck. I figure it is a good compromise between number of pellets and size.

[DonR101395]

14" Mossberg chamber empty, safety on, 5 Winchester 9 pellet 00 buckshot in the tube, 5 on the butt stock.

[boltactionlife]

My 870 is loaded with a 3" magnum slug first for a aiming first blow, then 3" magnum 00 shot (15 pellets) for when the other guys that I didnt see that started to shoot back at me so I can fire back not haveing to aim well and run for cover at the same time.

[sholling]

I'm about a quarter mile from wilderness but still in the suburbs with neighbors on all sides so over-penetration is an issue I pay attention to. For that reason I keep 8rds of #8 target load in my Benelli M1 Super 90. Before anyone laughs, at the ranges we are talking about for indoor use, say 5-15 feet, that #8 shot is going to hit as one tight nearly solid mass and turn center mass into gooey hamburger - without turning the sweet little old lady next door into gooey burger if I miss. It's also a Benelli and if the BG still hasn't gotten the message I can follow up with 7 more over the course of about 2 eye blinks. Sitting right next to the Benelli is a bandoleer with 25rds of full bore 00 buck. I figure if 8 rounds of #8 shot, and 7 magazines worth of 230gr Federal HSTs haven't solved the problem then it's probably time to get serious.

BTW: I was perusing the 12ga pages of a favorite ammunition site and they had 'Pit Bull' brand buckshot & slug dual load 12ga with six 00 Buck pellets followed by a 3/4oz slug. It sounds way too gimmicky to me. Especially with a name like 'Pit Bull', but if somebody like Federal did it it might be an interesting concept. Anyway I might pickup a box of plain old fashioned Federal slugs just to have a few in the house although I don't know what the heck for.