Kendal Black
Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2011
- Messages
- 1,647
Following on from this thread about why rifles are best, I thought I would point out that, well, they aren't.
At short range, the shotgun has a higher hit probability than any other small arm. ( http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/10-1997.pdf ). I'm impressed by that--it's better than an AR, an AK or a buzz gun. I'm particularly impressed because almost all instances of justifiable self defense are short range affairs.
You can hunt any game animal the Americas with a 12 gauge shotgun. (Whether you get it or not is another question. It's called hunting for a reason.) So for versatility you can't beat the shotgun. You can use it for squirrels, grizzly bears or whatever else you wish. The fault that may be found with it is its short range compared to a rifle. It is a long range weapon compared to a bow.
As there is no squizzly rifle (squirrel and grizzly) the comparison to rifles is moot.
Conversations with shotgunners are more interesting because riflemen tend to be bound by the limitations of science and common sense, and they use technical terms like PSI, MOA, FPS and such alphabet soup. There is much less sound science behind shotgunning, thus more poetry and imagination.
At short range, the shotgun has a higher hit probability than any other small arm. ( http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/pdf/10-1997.pdf ). I'm impressed by that--it's better than an AR, an AK or a buzz gun. I'm particularly impressed because almost all instances of justifiable self defense are short range affairs.
You can hunt any game animal the Americas with a 12 gauge shotgun. (Whether you get it or not is another question. It's called hunting for a reason.) So for versatility you can't beat the shotgun. You can use it for squirrels, grizzly bears or whatever else you wish. The fault that may be found with it is its short range compared to a rifle. It is a long range weapon compared to a bow.
As there is no squizzly rifle (squirrel and grizzly) the comparison to rifles is moot.
Conversations with shotgunners are more interesting because riflemen tend to be bound by the limitations of science and common sense, and they use technical terms like PSI, MOA, FPS and such alphabet soup. There is much less sound science behind shotgunning, thus more poetry and imagination.