I'll ping my resident SAS subject matter expert Texasproud to verify the SAS use of such......:o)
Stay Safe Ya'll !
I always wondered why that #9 or such "buffer" wasn't done, since there's so much wasted room between buckshot. Now I know it was !
The mantra is the Treasury uses #4, which I suppose Mel Tappan ("Survival Guns" paperback...still sound advice) popularized. The Wound Ballistics guys say #1 works best indoors, gets the job actually done, and doesn't overpenetrate walls and such. They claim birdshot creates a horrible wound (from which most eventually succomb, I assume), but these professional Wound Ballistics specialists are primarily interested in what STOPS them NOW...which usually, more reliably, means death...the other variations giving enough time for one to be killed. They rip Marshall & Sanow a new one too. Woah.
Hey...do you and yours know about (like you wouldn't) the V.N. room-clearing trick of reloading a 12ga. shell with $1.60 in dimes ? Said to fly everythere, and do a serious job. This is, I suppose, what Thurston Howell III uses as a Trap load.
Table 1. Lead Birdshot
Shot
Number Pellet Diameter
(Inches) Average Pellet
Weight (Grains) Approximate # of
Pellets per Ounce
12 .05 .18 2385
11 .06 .25 1750
9 .08 .75 585
8 1/2 .085 .88 485
8 .09 1.07 410
7 1/2 .095 1.25 350
6 .11 1.95 225
5 .12 2.58 170
4 .13 3.24 135
2 .15 4.86 90
BB .18 8.75 50
Table 2. Lead Buckshot
Shot
Number Pellet Diameter
(Inches) Average Pellet
Weight (Grains)
4 .24 20.6
3 .25 23.4
2 .27 29.4
1 .30 40.0
0 .32 48.3
00 .33 53.8
000 .36 68.0