12-Gauge Ammo Recommendations?

[Shadowline]

I bought a new Mossberg 500 last week and want to stock up on both target/fun and home defense ammunition.

In the absence of any real knowledge I purchased Remington 3" "Nitro Turkey" shells for home defense, and some Remington slugs for range qualifications. The thing is, I have no idea if the shells I got for defense are appropriate, or a horrible idea. As one consideration, I do have kids in the house. Any ideas for both home defense AND "fun" ammo is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

[OldSchoolPC]

Remember, anything that will kill a man, will go through a wall and kill a kid no problem.... I'd be more worried about not stopping the threat, than the slim chance that your shot will penetrate and hit a family member. #4 Buckshot for home defense with kids. That is enough stopping power and shouldn't go THROUGH the bad guy, then wall, then kill kids. Also, search for threads on the topic. Lots of info.

I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND ANY TYPE OF BIRDSHOT (even nitro turkey) FOR HOME DEFENSE.

[OldSchoolPC]

As for "fun ammo". Just buy cheap. I mean, multipurpose load at walmart is cheap. Any "flight control" shells will give you very good grouping, but they are more expensive. If you mean "exotic" ammo, they are all fun really, if you have a place to shoot. Make sure you get in some practice with the same type of home defense ammo that you store in the gun. Recoil is VERY different from one kind of shell to another. I see your an experienced member, so you probably don't need this reminder but.... with shotties, you still need to aim.

[Pete D.]

A) you do not need three inch shells for HD. Leave them for hunting or the range.
B) +1 about #4 buckshot as a good HD choice.
C) Walmart 100 packs of Remington, Federal, or Winchester are perfect for casual shooting in any of the clay sports (or even serious shooting).
D) Slugs....again, you do not need three inchers. "Regular" rifled slugs will do all that up you need and are less expensive than other types for practice and getting familiar with that type of shooting.
A step up are the Brenneke Black Magic slugs.
Pete

[Chazman321]

From chipmunks and clay pigeons to cape buffalo and rhino, they make a 12 gauge loading for it all... lol


-Chaz

[Shadowline]

Thanks for the info so far. I have decent experience shooting shotguns, but have not owned my own until now. Since I was shooting other people's guns I was able to simply hand over some cash for ammo and they took care of the rest. One of the reasons I asked about the "fun" ammo is because I know I need to get considerable practice with the gun on the range (feel, quick loading, accuracy) before relying on the weapon as my primary HD weapon.

I'll pick up some #4 on the way home today (thank you for the advice).

Next I need to find someone with shotgun and rifle experience that wants to spend some time on the range with me. Nothing beats one-on-one time with a veteran shooter and owner.

[Valorius]

I bought a new Mossberg 500 last week and want to stock up on both target/fun and home defense ammunition.

In the absence of any real knowledge I purchased Remington 3" "Nitro Turkey" shells for home defense, and some Remington slugs for range qualifications. The thing is, I have no idea if the shells I got for defense are appropriate, or a horrible idea. As one consideration, I do have kids in the house. Any ideas for both home defense AND "fun" ammo is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help.

I don't know what the backstops are like in your house, but i did some armor tests against a IIIA recently, and when i shot it with 3" magnum solid copper .50 caliber sabot slugs....uh....see for yourself:



Yeah, that's what a devastating defense load looks like. LOL.

If your backstops are questionable, i would go with #4 buckshot. I would not go any smaller than #4 buck, penetration in gel/tissue becomes an issue.

[Shadowline]

I don't know what the backstops are like in your house, but i did some armor tests against a IIIA recently, and when i shot it with 3" magnum solid copper .50 caliber sabot slugs....uh....see for yourself:



Yeah, that's what a devastating defense load looks like. LOL.

If your backstops are questionable, i would go with #4 buckshot. I would not go any smaller than #4 buck, penetration in gel/tissue becomes an issue.

I can't use sabot in the barrels I have, but at this point the backstops are not good enough for those rounds anyway. (devastating is an understatement!) I'm fortunate in the fact that 99.99% of break-ins (at night) will put me between the intruder and kids, but I want to keep that .01% in mind. It sounds like #4 is quickly becoming the consensus.

[Valorius]

Contrary to popular belief, and just for the record, in all of my testing sabot slugs work quite well in smooth bore barrels. You can easily shoot 3" groups at 25 yards with even a short barreled smooth bore and sabot slugs.

At longer range they probably start to suffer, but at defensive ranges, sabot slugs work great in smooth bore barrels.

If you get #4 shot i suggest the 3" magnum version. You get like 40 #4 buck pellets per shot.

[PAallterrain]

I use frangable 00 buckshot. I figure thats my best bet for not sending rounds through the wall and towards the neighbor or the horses. I figure between bones, flesh, drywall and 2x4's and siding, there shouldn't be much left when they fly out. I'd also say anything T shot or bigger would be a great HD load. I have some Dead Coyote loads and i'd have no qualms about shooting an intruder with them, other then they are over 3$ a shell.

I practice with low recoil slugs only, full power stuff hurts. We shoot IPSC metal targets from 100 - 200 yards for practice and regularly make hits with remington low recoil rifled slugs and only a front bead sight. Buckshot i don't really practice with, but i'd say whatever you can get cheapest in 2.75" shells.

For birdshot, your best bet is to grab the newspaper and wait for dunhams to have one of the 2 day only sales when federal top guns go on for 5.19 a box (51.99 a flat). I called a local distributor to try to get a price on an entire skid, being 128x 250 round flats, and the price was almost the same as dunhams so i just buy from there. You can get them almost every week for 5.49 a box (54.99 a flat). I have better luck with them then i do the stuff from walmart, and its a little cheaper even at 54.99. We go through alot hunting doves/clays/3 gun, and i get jams from the winchester and federal walmart stuff on occasion in my 11-87, the remington seems ok and i have no problems to date with the federal top gun dunhams sells.

Hope that helps ya out.