Posted on 12/06/2006 5:11:06 AM PST by Hazcat
True, but tell me is it easier/more likely to miss with a single projectile or multiple (per shot)? Even if don't kill the person when using a shotgun, you are more likely to cause damage that would leave a blood trail and require a visit to a doctor/hospital. All of which would make it easier to catch the perp than a complete miss with a single bullet.
Only the first shot is loud.
[True, but tell me is it easier/more likely to miss with a single projectile or multiple (per shot)? Even if don't kill the person when using a shotgun, you are more likely to cause damage that would leave a blood trail and require a visit to a doctor/hospital. All of which would make it easier to catch the perp than a complete miss with a single bullet.]
In close quarters, and with the right shot (shotgun shells), a shotgun makes for a very foregiving and lethal self defense weapon. As with almost any weapon, however, it has its pros and cons. If you load a shotgun with 8-shot bird/target shot, it is significantly less destructive than say #2 though OO (has fewer but bigger pellets/balls). A loaded and ready shotgun may not be practical in a house with 4 to 6 year old kids who bring friends from the neighborhood into your house. A shotgun is harder to run and manuever with, should you have to. But on the plus side, it is harder to miss with a shotgun than with a handgun. It comes down to individual personal preference. If you are going to have a shotgun for slef defense, put a good buck shot load in it for stopping power and know that it is most effective inside of 20'
This is just my opinion and others will think differently, I AM SURE.
Check your targets. If you're aiming at something you don't want to kill, one shot is one too many; if you have a legitimate target, keep firing until it stops twitching.
A miss with a pistol round is anything outside about ( ) here. A miss with buckshot is anything outside about the size of your browser window. That has some guesses and assumptions built in, of course.
That's a popular myth, but I'm afraid it's a myth. I believed it myself until was set straight recently. The kukri, as Gurkhas call their signature knife, is a tool as well as a weapon -- like an axe or a machete. It's a heavy, sturdy and versatile blade, good for chopping branches or cutting necks, as the day's events require.
Depends. If I were in an apartment, with nothing but drywall between me and the sleeping innocents across the hall, I might go with birdshot instead.
I know that this will sound heretical to a lot of folks, but I think "stopping power" is highly overrated in home defense. The goal isn't to kill the dude, but to remove the threat; and anything that makes a loud, scary noise and hurts like hell will accomplish that. If an intruder is still capable of walking, and suddenly decides he'd much rather be anyplace else, mission accomplished. Phosphorous rounds in .22 caliber would be great for that, but I'm pretty sure they're illegal.
I've had a few friends, spooked by neighborhood burglaries, ask me what handgun they should buy. My advice is usually that they shouldn't get anything they're not ready to use, because if they freeze up at the crucial moment, they've just handed the bad guy another weapon. They shouldn't get anything unless they're ready to spend the range time to become comfortable and natural with it.
And if they're not ready to put the time into learning to use a handgun, which takes a bit of skill and practice, they're better off with a pump-action shotgun. Just the sound of racking a shotgun in the dark will shrink the average burglar's testes to about raisin-size.
A friend of mine used to have a Charter Arms Bulldog Pug. It's a .44 Magnum revolver, 5 shots, with a 2" barrel. He had an ankle holster for it, and I think he only bought the thing so he could tell people his backup weapon was a .44.
Big round, small frame. I'm not sure whether my eardrums or my thumb tendons got the worst of it -- that little sucker was loud, and it also kicked like a mule on meth.
Actually, according to an article I read recently a subsonic round like the old .45acp is easier on the ears than a supersonic round like the .357 mag, +P 9mm, and a few other handgun rounds.
I learned from painful experience not to fire my snub nose .357 mag in an enclosed area without the best ear protection I can find. That's the reason I keep it loaded with +P .38 spl hollowpoints instead of full power .357 mag ammo. If I had to fire it inside my bedroom with magnum rounds my wife's hearing, which is already bad, would probably be gone altogether.
When there are no grand-kids around I keep my old. 45 automatic by the bed, but I don't want a cocked and locked pistol in the house if here are kids around. Even though they have been thoroughly warned about touching a gun unless an adult is present and both have been taught all of the gun safety rules and how to safely shoot my .22 pistol they're still kids and kids will be kids.
We do the same thing and put the guns up when the grand kids are around.
The noise from a .45 even out doors is pretty intimidating.
I'm going to reread my Gurkha book again, it would be worth another go.
Depends on the gauge, choke, and distance to the target.
Whether or not s shotgun is more effective than a pistol or rifle, depends on the gauge, choke, and distance to the target.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot3.htm
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot20.htm
I'll take my Sig 9mm loaded with 15 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 124gr JHP any day over a shotgun.
Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein advised "Get a shot off FAST! This upsets him long enough to make your second shot perfect"
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