redpitbull44
Expert
- Sep 30, 2010
- 926
- 18
You guys do what you want. Inside the house, it's Federal 3" magnum 15 pellet 00. I also like 16 pellet #1 buck a lot. Thing is, I would rather use my .45 inside the house than use a shotgun. It's horter, more maneuverable, etc. I shot a 1/2 gallon milk jug full of water the other day with 2 3/4" Winchester Universal #8 shot. Blew the jug to smithereens, but some of the pellets were stuck in the front side of the jug. They hadn't even penetrated it!
You gotta remember that each pellet is individual. Each pellet carries its own mass, and in the case of bird shot, that mass isn't very much. What you guys are failing to see on the refrigerator is each pellet is hitting, doing a little bit of damage, and then another one is coming behind it and doing a little more. Like a bunch of little love taps from a pointy little rock hammer, all hitting the same place. Eventually, the point of that hammer is going to break through. Well, imagine that over the 5-6" surface area the shot is patterning, and then understand that the individual pellets themselves don't really have the mass to penetrate. As a whole, yes, but individually, no. The first pellet makes a dent and splatters. The next one deepens the dent and splatters. The next one rolls the metal back and partially opens it up, then splatters. The next one knocks that flap out of the way, and actually penetrates. This takes place over the entire surface area of the pattern. When you relate that to shooting a person, if it's a head shot, you are likely going to scalp them, a few pellets might pass through the skull, but most will embed in it, or drop away with bits of flesh. A torso shot will tear up the skin and fatty tissue under it, and a few inches of muscle below, but few of the pellets will travel into the body's internal organ cavity and cause severe trauma. If they hit bone, such as the breast bone, they will embed, not penetrate. The brunt of the trauma will result from the impact, not wound channels and loss of blood.
With buckshot, it's more like hitting with a splitting maul or a pick axe. Each individual projectile has 20 to 50 times the mass of one little piece of birdshot. Each piece of shot by itself can penetrate far enough to cause severe deep tissue damage. Then realize you are talking 8-27 individual pieces of shot, all capable of blowing right through, all hitting in that same exact 5-6" area. In the case of the refrigerator, you will see multiple large holes (possibly a large hole depending on the distance), denting, and more damage beyond, possibly denting and exiting out the other side. On a human target, honestly, it will be much the same as if you shot the person several times with a pistol of similar size projectile dimensions (weight/diameter), and similar speed. For example, if you have 9 pellet 00 buck, which as we all know is .33" diameter, just imagine shooting 9 .33" 53-54 grain bullets going 1300 feet per second, into a 5-6" group. You will see 9 deep wound channels, some of them may cross paths, most of them will probably exit through the back of an average person, each will have it's own individual hydrostatic shock characteristic (shockwave). Said "shockwave" will be slightly different than a bullet coming from a rifled barrel, but not by much. But, unlike firing individual bullets, these 9 wound channels will be happening at almost the same time. Being such close proximity, each "shockwave" will interact with the other. You're talking major, catastrophic deep tissue damage. It will penetrate bone, it will bore big enough holes to cause bleed out.
After passing through a person, the pellets will have slowed quite a bit. At in-home distances, you likely won't have pellets penetrate more than 1-2 sheets of drywall after passin through somebody.
You gotta remember that each pellet is individual. Each pellet carries its own mass, and in the case of bird shot, that mass isn't very much. What you guys are failing to see on the refrigerator is each pellet is hitting, doing a little bit of damage, and then another one is coming behind it and doing a little more. Like a bunch of little love taps from a pointy little rock hammer, all hitting the same place. Eventually, the point of that hammer is going to break through. Well, imagine that over the 5-6" surface area the shot is patterning, and then understand that the individual pellets themselves don't really have the mass to penetrate. As a whole, yes, but individually, no. The first pellet makes a dent and splatters. The next one deepens the dent and splatters. The next one rolls the metal back and partially opens it up, then splatters. The next one knocks that flap out of the way, and actually penetrates. This takes place over the entire surface area of the pattern. When you relate that to shooting a person, if it's a head shot, you are likely going to scalp them, a few pellets might pass through the skull, but most will embed in it, or drop away with bits of flesh. A torso shot will tear up the skin and fatty tissue under it, and a few inches of muscle below, but few of the pellets will travel into the body's internal organ cavity and cause severe trauma. If they hit bone, such as the breast bone, they will embed, not penetrate. The brunt of the trauma will result from the impact, not wound channels and loss of blood.
With buckshot, it's more like hitting with a splitting maul or a pick axe. Each individual projectile has 20 to 50 times the mass of one little piece of birdshot. Each piece of shot by itself can penetrate far enough to cause severe deep tissue damage. Then realize you are talking 8-27 individual pieces of shot, all capable of blowing right through, all hitting in that same exact 5-6" area. In the case of the refrigerator, you will see multiple large holes (possibly a large hole depending on the distance), denting, and more damage beyond, possibly denting and exiting out the other side. On a human target, honestly, it will be much the same as if you shot the person several times with a pistol of similar size projectile dimensions (weight/diameter), and similar speed. For example, if you have 9 pellet 00 buck, which as we all know is .33" diameter, just imagine shooting 9 .33" 53-54 grain bullets going 1300 feet per second, into a 5-6" group. You will see 9 deep wound channels, some of them may cross paths, most of them will probably exit through the back of an average person, each will have it's own individual hydrostatic shock characteristic (shockwave). Said "shockwave" will be slightly different than a bullet coming from a rifled barrel, but not by much. But, unlike firing individual bullets, these 9 wound channels will be happening at almost the same time. Being such close proximity, each "shockwave" will interact with the other. You're talking major, catastrophic deep tissue damage. It will penetrate bone, it will bore big enough holes to cause bleed out.
After passing through a person, the pellets will have slowed quite a bit. At in-home distances, you likely won't have pellets penetrate more than 1-2 sheets of drywall after passin through somebody.
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