Shooting slug

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Just go get some cheap ones at Walmart to play with. They are fun and cheap. And DO NOT try shooting them from the bench. The recoil from them is much worse when you shoot them sitting from a table. I was zeroing in some rifle sights many, many years ago, and ended up with my hand going numb from the repeated blasts. One of the old timers managed not to laugh too hard and explained that shooting them like that hammers you far harder than shooting them while standing or kneeling. Save yourself the pain.

-Mb

[Dsal_13]

Just go get some cheap ones at Walmart to play with. They are fun and cheap. And DO NOT try shooting them from the bench. The recoil from them is much worse when you shoot them sitting from a table. I was zeroing in some rifle sights many, many years ago, and ended up with my hand going numb from the repeated blasts. One of the old timers managed not to laugh too hard and explained that shooting them like that hammers you far harder than shooting them while standing or kneeling. Save yourself the pain.

-Mb

I was just kidding I am not scared of shooting slugs.. This is my story

I have a Mossberg 500 "flex" it was a hunting shotgun when i bought it. (fixed hunting camo stock, and a 28'' barrel) I turned it into my home defense SG.. (i dont hunt) so I just bought an 18'' smooth bore barrel with no choke in it. so i was double thinking if i could shoot rifled slugs through there... thats all.. I am fairly new to guns.. all my knowledge i have gotten it from friends, calguns, and internet.

What do people prefer for home defense ammo? Slugs, Buckshots, or Birdshots?? This is just a poll type question..

[NoNOS67]

What do people prefer for home defense ammo? Slugs, Buckshots, or Birdshots?? This is just a poll type question..

00 buck. Not enough penetration with birdshot.

[E Michael]

birdshot for first shot then 00 buck. if the bird shot dosnt stop them then its going to take buck lol. If you live in an appartment bird**** is good because it is less likely to go threw walls and hit your neightbors.

[jdben92883]

Winchester has a 3-piece segmented Ranger slug that I'm growing very fond of. Make a viable replacement for buckshot. I can easily hit the torso of a man-sized target @ 100 yards with the ghost rings of my M4.

[gun toting monkeyboy]

DO NOT use birdshot for anything other than birds. They have done test after test, and it leaves big, nasty, but very shallow wounds. For home defense, buckshot, buckshot, buckshot. Using a slug totally defeats the purpose of using a shotgun. If you want to use slugs, just get a d@$#ed rifle ad be done with it. Slugs give you MASSIVE overpenetration for home defense. If you are worried about shots going through walls, go with smaller pellets and tactical loads. Don't bother with magnum buckshot loads, copper plating, or any other kinds of gimmick loads. Just the plain-old lead buckshot from Walmart will do everything you need it to do. And it is cheap enough to let you practice, and learn how your gun patterns. Know how your gun shoots with a particular load at different distances. See what the pattern looks like at 7 yards, 10 yards, 15 yards and 20 yards. This is very important. Some shotguns will have a patter 8" across at 20 yards. Some will have a pattern 3 feet across at the same distance. Know how you gun shoots. As for which size buckshot, there are several schools of thought on that. Some people want 000 buck, with 8 .36" pellets. That gives them the most punch per pellet. Other people want #4 Buck, and go for 27 .24" pellets. They get more hits, but less penetration. For the most part, a lot of people end up going with something between .30"-.33" pellets, meaning #1,0, and 00 buckshot, because these tend to give you the best balance between the number of pellets and adequate penetration. Personally I prefer #1 Buck because it offers the most surface area impacting the target for a 1 ounce load. And 0 buck tends to fit in the 12 gauge shells better that 00 when it comes to reloading your own. However, I can always find 00 Buck loads in the store. They are the cheapest. The regular load has 9 pellets, and plenty of knockdown power. So guess which one I use the most? Yup, the 00. The same load most police forces and the military use. It isn't my ideal load, but it does exactly what I need it to.

-Mb

(edit) Okay, not all other loads are gimmicks. Basic buckshot is hard to beat. But there are some duplex loads, buck and ball, and other self defense loads out there that are fairly effective. Most of them are expensive. But if you are willing to drop the cash on them, and see how they work in your gun, there is no real reason not to try them. Aside from using birdshot, the only other thing I am against in a home defense gun is untested ammunition.

[viet4lifeOC]

Onkeyboy,

Great info.

I'm learning a lot from your post.

Post on....M

[gun toting monkeyboy]

Don't just take my word on these things. I could be a blathering idiot living in my mother's basement and playing call of duty all night. There is a lot of good information out there online. Try to find sites that have actually done research, and ballistics testing. Any monkey can come on and have an opinion. I tend to base mine on what I have seen and read. And what I have tried out with my own shotguns. Look around for yourselves and decide is I am worth listening to, or just some Space Shuttle Door Gunner.

-Mb

[jdben92883]

Well, I'd take exception to the idea that all slugs are worthless for HD. I fully agree a user should pattern all the combinations of buckshot loads and shotguns that he might use. You'll be surprised buckshot doesn't spread like the movies. In fact, at 7 yards, your spread with a typical modified choked 18-20" barrel is going to be smaller than your fist. Things open up at 15-20 yards, but how many HD shots are going to be taken at 60 feet?

Use a rifle...let's not be silly. There's a big difference between a 1500 FPS segmented slug designed specifically not to over penetrate and a 3000+ FPS rifle round.

You have to control and aim your shotgun regardless of the ammo. I've patterned lots of various buckshots and who wants to deal with a couple of pellet flyers hitting an unintended target? Or trying to figure out how far away is the bad guy and if the respective pattern is the size of a golf ball, tennis ball, softball, or basketball? A segmented slug offers a vastly superior POI...you know what you're going to get when the bad guy is behind the bead. This REDUCES the possibility of collateral damage.

The segmented slugs only segment when they hit something gooey. They'll zip through drywall, plywood, etc, and keep right on moving. So if you plan on missing your target, slugs may not be the way to go. The way my house is laid out, there are very few scenarios where I would have to worry about a slug passing through walls and causing issues for my other family members. If I lived in an apartment or had family members I had to worry about scattered throughout my home, then I'd stick with standard 00 buck.

DO NOT use birdshot for anything other than birds. They have done test after test, and it leaves big, nasty, but very shallow wounds. For home defense, buckshot, buckshot, buckshot. Using a slug totally defeats the purpose of using a shotgun. If you want to use slugs, just get a d@$#ed rifle ad be done with it. Slugs give you MASSIVE overpenetration for home defense. If you are worried about shots going through walls, go with smaller pellets and tactical loads. Don't bother with magnum buckshot loads, copper plating, or any other kinds of gimmick loads. Just the plain-old lead buckshot from Walmart will do everything you need it to do. And it is cheap enough to let you practice, and learn how your gun patterns. Know how your gun shoots with a particular load at different distances. See what the pattern looks like at 7 yards, 10 yards, 15 yards and 20 yards. This is very important. Some shotguns will have a patter 8" across at 20 yards. Some will have a pattern 3 feet across at the same distance. Know how you gun shoots. As for which size buckshot, there are several schools of thought on that. Some people want 000 buck, with 8 .36" pellets. That gives them the most punch per pellet. Other people want #4 Buck, and go for 27 .24" pellets. They get more hits, but less penetration. For the most part, a lot of people end up going with something between .30"-.33" pellets, meaning #1,0, and 00 buckshot, because these tend to give you the best balance between the number of pellets and adequate penetration. Personally I prefer #1 Buck because it offers the most surface area impacting the target for a 1 ounce load. And 0 buck tends to fit in the 12 gauge shells better that 00 when it comes to reloading your own. However, I can always find 00 Buck loads in the store. They are the cheapest. The regular load has 9 pellets, and plenty of knockdown power. So guess which one I use the most? Yup, the 00. The same load most police forces and the military use. It isn't my ideal load, but it does exactly what I need it to.

-Mb

(edit) Okay, not all other loads are gimmicks. Basic buckshot is hard to beat. But there are some duplex loads, buck and ball, and other self defense loads out there that are fairly effective. Most of them are expensive. But if you are willing to drop the cash on them, and see how they work in your gun, there is no real reason not to try them. Aside from using birdshot, the only other thing I am against in a home defense gun is untested ammunition.

[SonofWWIIDI]

Dang, thought this was gonna be a thread about shooting snail without their shells!

[gun toting monkeyboy]

The difference between a 1 ounce lead slug at 1500 fps, and a 55 grain FMJ at 3000 fps is huge. The bullet is going to fragment and disintegrate into tiny fragments in drywall. The slug is going to go plowing through, intact. And with buckshot, yes, your pattern is pretty tight and HD ranges. Normally between 3"-18", depending on distance. However, I am looking at the overall effectiveness versus potential colateral damage. The slug is just too much for most places. neighbors tend to get upset with chunks of lead coming throught their houses. Buckshot, with its multiple pellets, is less likely to do that. And has the added benefit of overloading the target's CNS with multiple hits. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying slugs aren't useful. I like them, because they can do a HUGE amount of damage. But I just think Buckshot is more useful for home defense.

-Mb