Jason_W
Member
Can't help but chime in again as I was the guy who did the birdshot tests referenced in post 16.
diclaimer/grain 'o salt warning. My tests are not scientific and it's a kitchen counter op. gel blocks were not calibrated, but all blocks were from the same batch of gel with tests completed on the same day, so comparatively, they retain some validity.
The recoil on the 2 oz turkey load is intense. The only harder kicking 12 ga round I've fired have been lightfield 3.5" slugs. IMO, recoil makes turkey loads impractical for defensive purposes, unless you have the strength to stay on target after shot one. Likewise, the Black Clouds still kicked maybe a little too much for a controlled followup.
The size F was actually lead and not steel and those particular handloads were pussycats. Do they offer any advantage over 00 buck? At 15 feet it's likely a wash. There will be more holes in the badguy with the #F, but at that range neither will increase hit probability over the other and I'm sure both will zoom right through interior walls and endanger those on the other side.
I did an updated test for a different sight where I added Size T Hevi-shot loads and Remington Tungsten Alloy BB "Ultimate Defense" to the mix. The exotic stuff will most likely mess up a badguy at close range, but it's expensive and the el-cheapo sellier&bellot 00 buck will have the same end result.
As an interesting side note, an impromptu test of a 20 ga slugger revealed it to be highly frangible at close range. I would venture that one of them would not leave the chest cavity of an assailant intact. It's likely that it would still glide through interior and exterior walls in the event of a miss, but honestly, what load won't poke through two layers of drywall?
Anyway, that's just my non-scientific impression of the whole thing.
diclaimer/grain 'o salt warning. My tests are not scientific and it's a kitchen counter op. gel blocks were not calibrated, but all blocks were from the same batch of gel with tests completed on the same day, so comparatively, they retain some validity.
The recoil on the 2 oz turkey load is intense. The only harder kicking 12 ga round I've fired have been lightfield 3.5" slugs. IMO, recoil makes turkey loads impractical for defensive purposes, unless you have the strength to stay on target after shot one. Likewise, the Black Clouds still kicked maybe a little too much for a controlled followup.
The size F was actually lead and not steel and those particular handloads were pussycats. Do they offer any advantage over 00 buck? At 15 feet it's likely a wash. There will be more holes in the badguy with the #F, but at that range neither will increase hit probability over the other and I'm sure both will zoom right through interior walls and endanger those on the other side.
I did an updated test for a different sight where I added Size T Hevi-shot loads and Remington Tungsten Alloy BB "Ultimate Defense" to the mix. The exotic stuff will most likely mess up a badguy at close range, but it's expensive and the el-cheapo sellier&bellot 00 buck will have the same end result.
As an interesting side note, an impromptu test of a 20 ga slugger revealed it to be highly frangible at close range. I would venture that one of them would not leave the chest cavity of an assailant intact. It's likely that it would still glide through interior and exterior walls in the event of a miss, but honestly, what load won't poke through two layers of drywall?
Anyway, that's just my non-scientific impression of the whole thing.
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