![]() ![]() Most people think of a 12ga shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot as a 25 yard gun. While that will ensure that at least one pellet hits the target somewhere, that spread serves to both reduce overall terminal effectiveness and increase risk of stray pellets missing the intended target over distance. To elaborate a little on that last point: the multiple projectiles in a shot shell will spread over distance. ![]() The real strengths of a slug are twofold: it extends the effective/safe range of the shotgun well beyond what you see with buckshot, and it does an excellent job of penetrating through intermediate barriers to still smack the target that’s waiting on the other side. That means that they possess perfectly adequate terminal effectiveness for the anti-personnel role, but they aren’t anything special on that front. Rifled slugs generally exhibit deep penetration with very little deformation. A good way to think about a rifled slug is like an improved version of a Revolutionary War-era musket ball. It’s called a rifled slug because there are spiral grooves etched onto the side of the projectile to help it stabilize in flight after being launched from the smooth bore of a shotgun. A 12ga slug is one large chunk of lead about 3/4″ in diameter that weighs about an ounce. The other type of load that I’m testing today – and which you will commonly find used in police/military/defensive situations – is the rifled slug. Buckshot produces some serious wound channels, and there is a reason why many folks regard the “stopping power” of the shotgun as second to none. To put that in context, one pull of the trigger is essentially the same as shooting eight or nine 9mm ball rounds all simultaneously. 00 shot shells generally contain eight or nine. The most common buckshot size used for defensive or tactical applications is 00 (pronounced “double-aught”). The go-to anti-personnel load is buckshot, which consists of a shot shell loaded multiple smaller projectiles known as shot. The 12 gauge shotgun is widely regarded by many to be the top performer with regards to terminal effectiveness in the armed citizen’s arsenal. Once again, Widener’s Reloading & Shooting Supply has provided us with some ammo for testing, so I took to the range to pattern some buckshot and accuracy test some slugs. We’re back with another installment of our defensive ammo range report series. ![]()
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