Who's going to the range this weekend?

I put some holes in paper. I’ll post some pics and findings in a couple of days. Duty calls.

Slugs and buck.
 
raining cats, dogs, and hippos here. We've likely had 22"+ of rain this season easily, and more to come. I'll take a water taxi, please. As soon as this clears out into spring, we're headed to the range and pay our yearly membership before we expend lots of ammo. lol
 
Not exactly my finest work but I did manage to give three variations of defensive shotgun shells a comparison across three different guns. Sadly I could not remember where I put my big bulls eye targets. So I had to use thin 11/17 paper - which kinda sucked. Target paper is generally heavier and thicker.

For scale, the circle in the center is three inches. The distance may seem unconventional but I decided 20 feet is about the distance one is going to encounter in a home defensive situation. Very possibly less, but not likely to be more. Excluding those who live in mansions.

The patterns were remarkably the same at that range. Which means don't spend a bunch of money on defensive ammo for home defense. Federal or Remington plain vanilla 00 or 000 buck gets the job done. The 000 buck is slightly bigger than 00.

The guns were the Beretta 1301, Mossberg 940 and Shockwave. At twenty feet, the length of the barrel was not much of a factor. The groups were slightly wider with the Shockwave but not much.


Screenshot 2025-03-17 at 10.32.34 AM.pngScreenshot 2025-03-17 at 10.32.43 AM.pngScreenshot 2025-03-17 at 10.32.52 AM.png
Interesting that at such a close distance only once did the wad hit the paper. They either went over or under. I'm not sure which.

With the Shockwave, I always load alternating 00 buck and slugs. In this case, a Winchester deer slug. I tried to shift my point of aim slightly for each gun so there wouldn't be just one big hole in the center of the thin paper. I was too lazy to do one target for each type of ammo and it was looking like rain so I did this hurriedly. All three groups were between 3-1/2 to just under 5 inches. The Shockwave being the largest. No surprises there. I usually run an IC choke for defensive shooting (although I dont think it matters all that much) and that's what's in the Beretta and Mossberg. No choke in the Shockwave of course.

So this sort of half-assed science project revealed two things: 1. Good ammo is pretty much all the same at close range; 2. No matter which smoothbore you decide to use for home defense, the bad guy is fucked. He's going to have 8-9 nasty holes in his chest. Or if you aren't a good aim, his leg or arm may or may not remain attached.

I planned to also pattern the 20 gauge Shockwave but ran out of time. I may be able to do that later in the week.
 
Last edited:
NavyVet83 said:
6-24x50?! That’s a lot of optic for a .22LR lol. Beautiful rifle nonetheless.
Click to expand...
A retired older gentleman once told me to buy the most magnification I could afford so, I did. The 30mil scope does look huge on this little .22 but, it sure is nice to zoom in on the target like it’s 10ft away.

Plus, Racer needs all the “magnification” he can get to shoot a group like that!
 
I was thinking today I might add birdshot to the repertoire. Some home defense advocates recommend it. I'm not sure I would recommend this because I'm fundamentally a pistol shooter. Birdshot lacks the mass and velocity to deeply penetrate. Works great on ducks, geese and pheasants. But it can be effective on two legged threats at close range and if your shot placement skills when under pressure are perfected.

Depending on the ammo, you are looking at between 130 and 500 pellets (depending on shot size) in every shell. Imagine that hitting a perp in the face. At 20 feet ... 250 pellets of #6 shot in a 12 -15 inch pattern. That's gotta hurt. Neck shot... could be fatal.

Then again, somewhere there's a guy who says only a bazooka will do. :)
 
Bongo Lewi said:
I was thinking today I might add birdshot to the repertoire. Some home defense advocates recommend it. I'm not sure I would recommend this because I'm fundamentally a pistol shooter. Birdshot lacks the mass and velocity to deeply penetrate. Works great on ducks, geese and pheasants. But it can be effective on two legged threats at close range and if your shot placement skills when under pressure are perfected.

Depending on the ammo, you are looking at between 130 and 500 pellets (depending on shot size) in every shell. Imagine that hitting a perp in the face. At 20 feet ... 250 pellets of #6 shot in a 12 -15 inch pattern. That's gotta hurt. Neck shot... could be fatal.

Then again, somewhere there's a guy who says only a bazooka will do. :)
Click to expand...
WAIT, WHAT?

You are seriously saying my shortie 50BMG with a folding stock is not for home defense?
:ROFLMAO:
 
I keep the .50B next to the bed loaded with 350gr JHP… when I shot the body armor video I got to save one of the rounds. They expand immensely. As long as I hit the intruder I good. If I hit an extremity, he will surely lose that body part… if he lives. Seriously though, I’d probably opt for my Glock 26 if someone broke in. With the way society is today, a jury would likely try to say I was on a mission to hunt down and kill the intruder by using such a large powerful round instead of 9mm. Then I’m looking at murder with no self defense legitimacy in court.
 
Last edited:
I forgot to mention that the home I am defending is my sister's house - about 1.25 miles as the FMJ flies :)I'm also clearly kidding. My brother in law can protect my sister locally. No long distance needed :geek::)

Also, I don't own a BMG yet but that's my next bucket list gun purchase.
 
Bongo Lewi said:
I was thinking today I might add birdshot to the repertoire. Some home defense advocates recommend it. I'm not sure I would recommend this because I'm fundamentally a pistol shooter. Birdshot lacks the mass and velocity to deeply penetrate. Works great on ducks, geese and pheasants. But it can be effective on two legged threats at close range and if your shot placement skills when under pressure are perfected.

Depending on the ammo, you are looking at between 130 and 500 pellets (depending on shot size) in every shell. Imagine that hitting a perp in the face. At 20 feet ... 250 pellets of #6 shot in a 12 -15 inch pattern. That's gotta hurt. Neck shot... could be fatal.

Then again, somewhere there's a guy who says only a bazooka will do. :)
Click to expand...
My shooting range sent anyone interested to a gunshot oriented first aid class. There were some graphic videos and photos - including one of someone shot in the face with birdshot. ALL of the skin and a lot of flesh was gone from the head. I assume it was a morgue photo, there was not a lot of blood. Just raw meat. And one tooth. 😳 The instructor asked us what should be our priority in rendering aid to this soul. He said to start with getting the airway open.

Your 5 inch shot patterns with seperate punctures look more effective then the single 1 inch hole I was getting with the Flitecontrol. But maybe either option would be overkill.

If you have a half hour the banana man tested every shot size in this video:


View: https://youtu.be/N6Y5S-Eh8HI?si=5XfbmQHoPApr36dm
 
Alex said:
My shooting range sent anyone interested to a gunshot oriented first aid class.
Click to expand...
My club is getting a similar class together for the RSOs. A show of hands was about 10 of us, myself included. :)
 
NavyVette said:
WAIT, WHAT?

You are seriously saying my shortie 50BMG with a folding stock is not for home defense?
:ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Excellent question!! Just what does constitute wanting to assure you've neutralized a threat when in a dire life-threatening moment, as overkill?
 
Alex said:
My shooting range sent anyone interested to a gunshot oriented first aid class. There were some graphic videos and photos - including one of someone shot in the face with birdshot. ALL of the skin and a lot of flesh was gone from the head. I assume it was a morgue photo, there was not a lot of blood. Just raw meat. And one tooth. 😳 The instructor asked us what should be our priority in rendering aid to this soul. He said to start with getting the airway open.

Your 5 inch shot patterns with seperate punctures look more effective then the single 1 inch hole I was getting with the Flitecontrol. But maybe either option would be overkill.

If you have a half hour the banana man tested every shot size in this video:


View: https://youtu.be/N6Y5S-Eh8HI?si=5XfbmQHoPApr36dm
Click to expand...

I've seen some nasty wounds up close and personal. Never birdshot but your description is consistent with my hypothesis. My first aid would be to call 911 and leave it at that. I did attend a survival training class long ago where they taught how to handle gunshot trauma, broken bones, other serious injuries. Mainly your own. Also which bugs to eat if necessary. :)

The difference could be the IC choke re: the patterns. What choke were you using with the Flightcontrol?

I quickly gauged the holes with an old school drifting divider/compass I keep around just for that. It was interesting that four of the pellets would hang together and the remaining four or five were 'independent'. Except the Shockwave. At 30 or 40 feet of course that would have been vastly different. The Winchester defensive shot is scored down the middle sort of like a hollow point so it expands when it hits something. That would also affect its flight. Not a perfect sphere.

I did have one other set of "targets" that were the same. I didn't bother marking up or posting them because they were nearly identical.

In the end, whether your pattern is 3 inches or 5, it's mostly irrelevant for defensive shooting. Clays , birds, or target... different story. The perp is going to receive a most likely fatal wound from a shotgun at 20 feet or less. If not fatal, it will likely end the threat in one round. Joe Crackhead may take a poorly landed 9mm round and keep charging but that doesn't happen with a shotgun.

I have often repeated right gun for the right job. Defending your castle, the shotgun (incl. shorties) is hard to beat. Multiple perps in an urban setting... pistol caliber subgun. Walking around town, pistol. Shooting a bad guy 100 yards or more away... obviously rifle.
 
Bongo Lewi said:
The difference could be the IC choke re: the patterns. What choke were you using with the Flightcontrol?
Click to expand...
Cylinder choke. Flitecontrol is designed for police and defensive shotguns that have no capability to accept chokes. I have heard but not tested for myself that using chokes can actually cause the pattern to get wider, not smaller with that particular wad design. Might be something else to geek out on my next trip to the range with the Beretta. 🤓
 
I cut open some Federal 12 ga shells, here's what I found.

Left to right, Truball LEB127DPRS deep penetrator slug; Power-Shok 000 8 pellet buck F127 000; Law Enforcement Tactical 8 pellet Flitecontrol 00 buck LE13300.

20250318_154631.jpg


20250318_152806.jpg


20250318_153259.jpg


20250318_154306.jpg


It is interesting that the Flitecontrol wad is taller than the stack of pellets and that it is a one piece design, vs the short, overflowing, 2 piece wad of the Power-Shok loading.
 

Share this page

Back
Top