so somebody bought 8 pounds of ground beef, put it in the cooler drawer of the fridge, and forgot about it for a few days. a nice shade of grey on the surface, still in packaging, it was an irresistable opportunity to settle once and for all the question of whether a shotgun loaded with birdshot is suitable for use as a defensive tool.

test implements included an NIB ithaca model 51 12 gauge 3" magnum autoloader with steel BBB shot in a 1 1/2 oz package (a goose hunter's dream), and my new favourite field gun, a pristine late 60's luigi franchi autoloading 48AL in 20 gauge, loaded with 7/8 oz field loads in 7 1/2 size.

the ground beef was in two packages, each about 3" thick and 8" X 10" in size. the first package was fully penetrated by the BBB shot at 10 yards in a nicely contained 5" pattern from a full choke barrel. the second package had a nice big hole blown through it by the shot wad at same range, and forensic examination of the remains in periphery indicated that 7 1/2 shot will nearly penetrate 3" of 92% lean ground beef.

sounds like it would work, to me. i'd prefer the franchi for it's 5 1/2 lb heft and 26" rifle sighted barrel, but think the ithaca would be slightly more effective. but then, when you are killing ground beef, it's already dead. pics would have been attached, but the first shot splattered the lense of the camera, unbeknownst to the intrepid photographer, who is now in posession of 24 frames of shutter-flash high speed photography of smears of ground beef.