HD 12 gauge load

[clfergus]

Wanted some opinions. I live in a new cookie cutter home in a subdivision. Its a nicer subdivision but its not the quality of the older brick ranches or anything.

I have neighbors on both sides with little children plus a child of my own. My walls are sheet rock. Prob 1/2 inch.

I have a 870 with 18.5 inch barrell for HD. I had it in the safe with OO buck. The more I read on the internet i decided this prob wasn't the best with the possibility of wall penetration and children in the way for a stray pellet.

I had a few guys tell me to use #4 shot turkey loads. So I got some winchester 2 3/4 turkey loads. 1300 fps and 1.5 ounce shot.

I also saw some 25.00 a box HD ammo at dicks but it was made up of #2 and #4 shot. decided that can't be much better than my turkey loads.

I also saw on the web guys saying #4 buck shot.

Will my turkey loads do the job? Killing power with minimal wall penetration is my objective.

 

[redneckmedic]

That is exactly what HD gun and ammo I used to have in my vinyl village. Your Safe.

 

[kingnereli]

Do you really want to trust a load to quickly stop a bad guy that want easily cut through several pieces of sheetrock? Use #1 or 00 buck. With a good self-defense load at home defense ranges you won't need to worry about "stray pellets." You'll either hit or miss.

 

[Tryin']

"Vinyl Village"?!! How appropriate!. . . sorry, nothing more to add. . .

 

[Eddie]

#4 Turkey Loads are devastating at close range. You could ask a coyote that I called in with my turkey call one morning, but he ain't talking.

 

[2ADMNLOVER]

Good info found here The Box O' Truth - Ammo Penetration Testing

 

[remymartin]

+1 for 00 Buck. You can research it 'til you're blue in the face, hear a few other opinions....... It is the preferred load of military and PD..... I have Hornaday TAP 00 in all of my HD shottys.

 

[VUPDblue]

Federal LE132-00

 

[lovemywoods]

Federal LE132-00

Second that!

 

[shooter521]

Second that!

Second-and-a-half; I use LE133 00, which is the 8-pellet version of that load.

 

[LCPer]

I think I'll keep my #4 buck loads and hope I never have to see how they work.

 

[infidel]

I use Remington 2 3/4" 00 buck.

I know it won't kill the intruder on contact, but maybe you would be interested in less than lethal rounds such as salt pellets or rubber slugs?

 

[kycrawler]

your turkey loads will do just fine , likely engagement distance is less than 30 feet that should equate to about a 3-4 inch pattern , about the only way that wont penetrate for a kill shot on a center mass hit would be if they are wearing a vest , I use my own handloads of 0 buck and no 4 buck to hunt coyotes but my hd shotgun is loaded with no 2 turkey loads

 

[Eddie]

your turkey loads will do just fine , likely engagement distance is less than 30 feet that should equate to about a 3-4 inch pattern , about the only way that wont penetrate for a kill shot on a center mass hit would be if they are wearing a vest , I use my own handloads of 0 buck and no 4 buck to hunt coyotes but my hd shotgun is loaded with no 2 turkey loads

If they have a vest that is why you carry a slug in yer side saddle. The slug might not penetrate the vest either, but it won't matter much.

 

[bigmedicine]

Couple of thoughts. First, and forgive the attitude, it doesn't really matter what you shoot - shot doesn't disperse very far in the distances "typically" seen in home defense situations. An ounce of shot, regardless of size, is a lethal force beyond belief. You are going to have a 6" cloud of destruction.
Now - 00 buck is the standard - you really can't arge what agencies/military uses daily. That stated, you may want to think about something along the line of #4 - nothing you hit will know the difference and, in the case of a miss, maybe some of the individual pellets won't penetrate as far as others.

 

[bigmedicine]

I am not sure it matters if you wear a vest or not - getting hit by an ounce of shot going ~1900 feet per second will homoginize your internal organs. The shock of the impact at close range can be just as deadly.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

For HD I prefer only 9 shot 00 buck.

 

[edsinger]

00 Buck here

 

[Eddie]

I am not sure it matters if you wear a vest or not - getting hit by an ounce of shot going ~1900 feet per second will homoginize your internal organs. The shock of the impact at close range can be just as deadly.

Thats what I meant.

 

[clyde]

As another poster mentioned, boxotruth.com is a good resource. He will, however, recommend buckshot, that's a fun site to visit, very interesting, you will enjoy it. Personally, I think you would be fine with the turkey load, I'd back it up with a couple of No. 4 buck shells if there was a concern, maybe as a reload on a saddle or some such.