You will have a very difficult time defending yourself in court if you are claiming self defense at 30 yards unless the bad guy has you pinned down under a hail of gunfire.Who said that I will use my shotgun a few feet away from the BG?
I dont know at what distance I will have to engage a potential threat, it could be a few feet inside the house, it could be 30 yards in the backyard.
This is one of the very few statements that you've made that I generally agree with. Birdshot is known to be ineffective, especially body shots, at stopping the intruder. Birdshot is known to fail when encountering winter clothes, leather coats, etc.Some people got shot at close range with birdshot in the face, and survived, so yes it's important what load you use even at very short range.
While this is true at combat ranges where it is often tested, I'm not going to really favor a FMJ 223 at 6 to 12 feet, where most self-defense shootings occur. While I have no problem with the 223 as a self-defense round, and I will even advocate it, it is with a glorified varmint round like the Hornady TAP that will be virtually guaranteed to come apart inside the body cavity of the bad guy.Actually a .223 doesn't have that much over-penetration since the bullet starts to spin once it hits the first obstacle.
Easy to say today. Perhaps you don't have a family right now. Someday you may. Many are not the same as you.And like I said earlier, over-penetration is not an issue since I wont be shooting towards people I dont want to shoot anyway.
It strikes me that when we give advice we should give good advice for all, not for very narrow and limited siutations.