"like the shot-gun idea best. Hard to trace 00 buck to any particular gun. "With all the looters around they must have been competing for the spoils and shot each other sir"."
3 1/4" OOO gives you a little more range and as many pellets
Around here, folks use a "burglar load" in shotguns. First round is rock salt or #7 birdshot, then buckshot, slug, buckshot, slug.
And then there's the 'varmint gun.' A perfectly legal firearm designed for use against two-legged varmints.
Although at close range a 12 gauge slug has more knockdown power than a 7.62x39mm.