shotgun shell

[XenosAce]

Nice choice with the Mossberg 500 P. I have one as well and it shoots slugs, buck and bird just fine. I would never use birdshot for HD. Buck with or without flight control wad. Really HD ammo is up to the user. There are some ammo that everyone will agree with that is better. But while I like flight control wad shots, other may not for their own reasons. Best thing to do is get some of the ammo in question and try it out.

Good luck Viet.

[NapalmCheese]

Glad I asked for info. I read people on other forums advocating the use of birdshot as an effective HG shotgun ammo.

Again...many thanks for all who offeredsuggestions.

There are people on this forum that also advocate for the use of birdshot as a HD round. They have their arguments and I have mine, when it comes down to it you need to consider both sides and make up your mind. The problem is that when you are talking about a home defense round you are playing a numbers game. The goal is to immediately end the confrontation, that may mean killing the threat, that may mean the threat leaves on their own accord, it may mean that getting shot with a 1-1/8 oz load of birdshot hurts enough that the threat gives up. For my money (and life and life of my loved ones) I will continue to keep my gun loaded with buckshot as I feel it is a more reliable method of immediately ending the confrontation. Because I live in a small apartment with other people around I choose to load with #4 buck which does not have as much energy per pellet as the bigger sizes (and coincidentally does not penetrate as well as the larger sizes).

The terminal ballistics of a load of shot are dependent on a number of things. The total frontal area of the lead hitting your target is one issue, the more frontal area the better. Total frontal area is pellet diameter * number of pellets (not completely accurate for all circumstances). In those regards it was found some time ago (not by me) that #1 buckshot maximizes that frontal area. You can't pack enough 00 buck into a 2-3/4 in shell to match the frontal area of a load of #1 buckshot. As shot gets smaller you once again can't pack enough pellets into a standard loading. Penetration is another concern, the smaller buck pellets don't reliably penetrate as far as the larger pellets. Again, #1 is sort of the sweet zone in that regard.

Anyway, the 20 gauge should fit your purposes just fine. I am a Federal Ammo fan and just checked their website, they make a #4 buck and a #3 buck load for the 20 gauge. The #3 buck load is a hunting load, it's got more juice behind it. I'd stick with the lower velocity #4 buck load (which is labeled as personal defense) unless you feel that #4 buck is too small. There are definitely more options for HD rounds in the 12 gauge, but the 20 is a really good size.

Find a load you think will do the job you are asking for it to do and then take it out to the woods with some butcher paper and pattern it at different distances. Patterning a shotgun is extremely important to the understanding of what you should expect of it. Despite what may be seen in movies you are looking for the tightest pattern you can get in an HD gun. When you fire your gun you are responsible for every single pellet that comes out of it. It's nice to know that within 10 yards every one of those pellets is going to land within 10 inches of where you've pointed your gun.

In recap, as Summers said get familiar with it. Once you are all familiar pattern it (really that's just the continuation of getting familiar with it). While you are at it look into taking defensive shotgun courses (which should also go over ammo selection) and read up and learn shotguns in general, how they work, and what to expect of them.

Finally, it is my opinion that a defensive gun should have a flashlight on it. I am not worried about giving away my position to an intruder, I am worried about positively identifying my target. Likewise if you are using this is a ranch gun and you find there's a pack of coyotes tearing up your dog one night a light is handy to have.