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The shell is heavy dove, perfect for home defense. Believe me when I say this shell can shatter a 2x6 board with ease. Close range, an intruder will not survive, provided you aim for the vital regions.
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The ability to break boards does not translate into the ability to penetrate flesh. One is a function of kinetic energy transfer into the object, the other is a function of how well the -impacting- object penetrates the object its' hitting. Put simply, breaking boards is indicative of how well something -sheds- energy, penetrating flesh is indicative of how well something -retains- energy. That's part of why a shotgun load will smash a 2x4, while the much more powerful .308 rifle bullet will just punch through. Because the pellets dump all their energy very quickly (being very light), they're great at smashing things. However, penetration sucks for precisely the same reason. This is why Dick Cheney could shoot his lawyer in the face and not kill him, and why cops who take vest-hits from shotguns get to go back to work the following week, while cops who take vest-hits from a centerfire rifle get buried.*** It's also worth asking: if birdshot is effective for self-defense, why do cops, the military, prison-guards, etc. all carry buckshot?
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Birdshot in the eye socket is not going to be good for the burglar, or his brain.
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Birdshot in the eye-socket will stop in the eye or, at most, the frontal portion of the brain. This is painful, perhaps blinding, but not instantly incapacitating. If someone's coming after me with a weapon, especially in my home, I want him down NOW.
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If you kill your neighbor's kid because the shot was too heavy when it went through a window or an apartment wall, you can explain that too, but I doubt you'll receive the same sympathy.
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Here's how the conversation would go:
Cop: Why is this burglar's face full of BBs?
Homeowner: Because I shot him with birdshot, but when that didn't work I moved to buckshot.
Cop: So you used a less-effective loading...why?
Homeowner: I didn't want to kill him, just scare him off.
Cop: Why wouldn't you want kill him, if you felt endangered enough to pull a weapon?
Homeowner: I didn't -know- he was a serial rapist, I thought he was just some guy.
Cop: You're under arrest for Murder in the 2nd Degree, put your hands on your head and turn around slowly.
Homeowner: What?! But HE burglarized ME!
Cop: If he wasn't a lethal threat, you had no business pulling your gun: you fail the "Reasonable Person Test." And if he was a lethal threat, you had no business using #6. Now, you have the right to remain silent...
Granted, this scenario would require the cop (and the DA) to be total hoplophobic assholes. However, hoplophobic asshole cops and District Attourneys are hardly difficult to find. Basically, the legalese argument would run thus: If the Bad Guy was a lethal threat (passing the Reasonable Person test), lethal force is justified. However, the homeowner's choice of a (probably) non-lethal round indicates that the homeowner didn't believe the Bad Guy to -be- a lethal threat, and they therefore had no legal right to even present the weapon, much less fire it, less still fire it into the Bad Guy.
As for killing the neighbor's kid, here's the thing: that's a concern with -everything-, even a .22. It's something that should influence the choice of weapons, but should not be allowed to decrease the effectiveness of the weapon selected IMO.
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The Ar-15 uses .223's which--surprisingly penetrate less than say, a .45.
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Not exactly.
The Box O' Truth #1 - The Original Box O' Truth - Page 2
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot12_4.htm*
Centerfire rifle rounds will -always- out-penetrate pistol loads using the same weight of bullet, assuming no exotic (MagSafe, Glazer, Green/Frangible) exotic bullets are used in the rifle.
Rifle Bullet = Fast, pointy, lots of sectional density, 1,000+ ft-lbs at the muzzle.
Pistol Bullet = slow, blunt, not much sectional density, 500 ft-lbs at the muzzle (maybe**).
The one exception to this is firing into water, where a rifle bullet's higher velocity and greater kinetic energy will cause the bullet to self-destruct. Pistol bullets hold up much better.
*This series of tests deals with shooting through spaced walls. The 5.56mm testing was problematic, because the projectile kept keyholing and frequently departed the test area. This caused deviation from the path of aim and made side-by-side comparison difficult, since the pistol bullets all traversed a straight line.
**Talking defensive calibers here, not .460 S&W Magnum or the like.
***Almost -any- centerfire rifle round can penetrate or perforate a Police vest, and many are capable of giving all but the highest-rated hard body armor a very bad day.