[marktwain]

Very likely he simply did not think the dog would be killed, only stung. A number of people use bird shot to discourage bears, but the shots are usually from a much further distance, and a bear has much tougher fur, hide, and fat than a chihuahua.

A lot of people have little practical experience with ballistics.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Shotgun ballistics are sometimes confusing to rifle and pistol shooters.

If we use target loads as an example, all of them regardless of gauge, propel the shot at 1150 to 1250 feet per second. The difference is that the shot charge varies from 1 1/8th ounce for a 12 gauge to 1/2 ounce for the .410. Terminal energy of the pellet is no different.

[mowowie]

Yea........i suppose....

[mowowie]

Something that really stuck with me as a kid was the story of this cool guy actor on the set of some tv show in the early 80’s.
He put what was some stage prop type pistol to his head as a big joke, pulled the trigger and killed himself.
Big joke.

Anyways i learned that you don’t ever point a weapon at anything you don’t want to hurt.

[PowderMonkey]

Now that you mentioned it, in my youth a friend of mine who had a paper route found himself attacked on a regular basis by a beagle with a bad attitude. Every time Jeff pedaled his bike past its property delivering the morning paper, the little beastie would charge into the street grab the roll cuffs on his dungarees and drag Jeff from the bike. Finally fed up with the attacks, one morning Jeff brought with him a sling shot loaded with an old minnie ball he'd found. On that fateful morning the dog charged and Jeff let fly with that .50 cal lead ball. It plunged into the top of the dog's skull with the greatest of ease and immediately silenced old “Snoopy.” Jeff cried like a baby for days. He just wanted to drive it off. Never thought of killing it.