A shotgun is a great self-defense weapon. Personally I use two #4 in front of three 000 buck for home defense. I've shot thousands of sharks with everything from a 458 to a 22, and a shotgun loaded with bird shot at 6' was as good or better than everything we tried. Believe it or not bird shot seemed to have more stopping power than buckshot at 6' or less. Buckshot would completely penetrate through the shark where as birdshot wouldn't.
