Home defense 20 gauge semi auto
- Thread starter Balrog
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Starter52
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I have always liked the old Remington 1100 lightweight 20 gauge. Mild recoil and one of the best looking shotguns ever made. Used ones are available in most areas.
Jim Watson
Member
A friend has one of those 21" straight grip 20 ga 1100s.
It is a handy carbine-like piece.
What size buckshot can you get in 20?
It is a handy carbine-like piece.
What size buckshot can you get in 20?
bannockburn
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In a semi-auto I would go with a used Remington Model 1100 and look for a spare 18 1/2" barrel. I sometimes use my Winchester pump-action in 20 gauge with an 18" barrel for home defense.
FL-NC
Member
I saw a factory 870 in 20 gauge with the black furniture, 18" barrel, and extended mag several years ago.
This is a standard weight 1100 dating to 1973. I had the barrel cut to 20" and LOP shortened an inch and a half (including the recoil pad) so that it would fit my wife. She loves it. Short barrels for the older 20 gauge 1100 is unobtainium so that's why I had this one cut. The newer LW 20 gauge 1100 barrels are much more common.
Loaded with 2 3/4" 20 pellet # 3 buckshot. I believe it to be a fine HD shotgun.
Loaded with 2 3/4" 20 pellet # 3 buckshot. I believe it to be a fine HD shotgun.
1KPerDay
Member
Benelli makes a bunch of nice 20s. Bring money...
cdb1
Member
Weatherby used to market a HD semi 20 gauge. They discontinued it but they sell a semi-auto turkey shotgun in 20 gauge. The only difference I can tell between the two is the turkey gun is camo as opposed to flat black on the discontinued HD shotgun. I have the turkey version because I hunt turkey. It serves double duty as my HD shotgun.
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Koroner
Member
Don McClure was the Remington employee BITD that saved the company's 8,000 unit order from the CHIPs disqualification by inventing the cutaway bolt and square U shaped slot in the shell carrier as an anti-jam feature.
He lived to the ripe age of 93 and we shot together many times (he used to be on the Rem shooting team originally).
Twenty odd years ago he added the same features to my Rem 870 twenty gauge with black composite furniture.
It ROCKS! Thanks Don.
He lived to the ripe age of 93 and we shot together many times (he used to be on the Rem shooting team originally).
Twenty odd years ago he added the same features to my Rem 870 twenty gauge with black composite furniture.
It ROCKS! Thanks Don.
true enough, but with my advanced arthritis 12 ga recoil is almost impossible to deal with.
The standard size you find in stores is #3 although I'm sure you can find specialty stuff online.
DocRock
member
Weatherby's SA-08 youth model 20 ga is pretty versatile at 24". It's light but the gas system dissipates felt recoil well.
Armorer 101
Member
A 20ga Beretta 391 with a 20” barrel, extended IC choke, with a barrel mounted light and a palm switch on the for-end works real well with 3 inch #3 buck. I carry one on the farm, so far it is Mr fox 0 Beretta 5. But inside the house it is #9 shot, #9 will not penetrate two walls but according to my emergency room doctor customers, #9 is almost impossible to fully remove.
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What difference does that make? I'm much more interested in stopping whatever is going on to make it worth shooting inside the house. And for that, give me buckshot every time. In the 20, 2 3/4" 20 pellet #3 buckshot. In the 12, 2 3/4" 9 pellet OO buckshot.
cdb1
Member
I got to agree with you. About 35 years ago an idiot shot me in the thigh with 7.5 shot from around ten yards away. It hurt like hell but I was surprised at the lack of penetration. It also didn’t incapacitate me and if it would have been an HD situation I could easily have moved and shot.
lf I’m going to shoot someone I want the person I shoot to be incapacitated immediately. So I have 000 buck and 00 buck for 12 gauge and #3 for 20 gauge.
I hope and pray I never have to shoot someone-again. I was the only one home when our house was invaded when I was twelve. I had just gotten home from little league football practice and my family was on the way home from Wednesday night church service when it happened. It is impossible to describe the feeling of sheer terror, the incident was one of the factors that shaped my life some good and some very bad. It happened 48 years ago and I can still remember every moment vividly.
My Mother uses an old small frame Rem 1100 LT20 Youth with standard 21" VR Barrel and 5 shot capacity loaded with standard 2.75" #3 Buckshot Loads. She used to use it as a quail and dove gun gun when she was younger. You could add an extension for more capacity but she has never seen the need.
Honestly, I don't know that low recoil 12 ga buckshot rounds would recoil all that much more than standard 20 Ga buckshot rounds.
I feel your pain. At 8 you should not have to hide behind the bed with a Glenfield Model 60 cutoff from the phone (it was an era when one phone in the house was the norm) and contemplate putting as many .22 LR rounds into someone as possible (and hoping it will be enough) while his father lies dying from cancer in the hospital.
Thankfully they opened the door and apparently recognized it was a child's room (it was also a time of one tv and stereo in a house) so apparently not worth the time and closed it back.
Very thankfully they left 5 minutes before my Mom got home from the Hospital (Much earlier than normal). I usually spent the evening with my Grandmother but she had something at School she had to be at.
They were never caught but to this day I believe it was someone known to us (to many coincidences).
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