itppowell, I know exactly what you are aiming at with the posts about "squirrel shot" for self defense.
I'm not trying to argue with the effectiveness of OO or OOO loads in killing power, just that smaller buckshot has proven (to me at least) to be more effective at ranges of less than 25 yards.
Police and military agencies don't choose heavy pellets because of their superiority at close range, but rather because they know these loads may (and most often are) used at longer ranges. At 40+ yards (where police weapons are likely to be used) individual pellet energy and penetration become a very important factor where a single pellet strike might be the deciding factor in a gunfight. For typical self defense, this is not the case.
This is my last post on this. Police don't use 00 buck because they know it will be used at longer ranges. I was a LEO firearms trainer for 15+ years and had training with many agencies across the country as well as international. A standard police shotgun (what almost all agencies use) cannot reliably hit anything smaller than a school bus with buckshot beyond about 10 yards.
They use 00 buck because it makes a mess of whatever it hits and is steeped in tradition and very defensible.
If you are looking for something to use in your home for defense, use whatever you want. The range you shoot at will be very, very short. I personally wouldn't use anything smaller than #4 and #2 would be better. The advantage to using #2 or #4 is that you will probably not have any pellets exit your house. In this liability driven world you should be just as worried about the pellets that don't hit as the ones that do.
I leave my shotgun loaded with either #4 buck or whatever coyote load I am trying at the time. Pretty easy to defend these choices- I grabbed my turkey gun or my coyote gun and defended myself. If you have a tricked out tactical shotgun in your arsenal, great, just be ready to be crucified over your use of it however wrong that is.
If you choose to use promotion dove/quail loads for home defense, you are making a poor choice. You will most like NEVER fire a single round at an intruder. I would be smart to pony up and buy at least ONE box of the stuff you really want to bet your life on.
I would also not recommend magnums for the simple reason that the recoil will not be fun and at 10 feet you don't need magnums. If you have 00 buck it will work great but some pellets might have enough momentum to carry through a wall and hit something unintended; like a neighbor. Food for thought.
