Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Shot size for home defense

There's a guy at my rod and gun club whose friend woke up with 2 guys in his house. He grabbed his shotgun and walked out his bedroom door. One of the guys took a shot at him with a pistol and he returned the favor with birdshot. The guys got out the door before he was willing to follow, but there was blood on the floor, and he was sure he got a good shot on the guy.

One, I had a lawyer tell me once that I'd be much easier to defend for shooting a guy with my bird gun and bird shot than I would if I shot a guy with a SPAS 12 and a tactical defense buckshot load. He said that the prosecution would be sure to mention to the jury "Riot Gun" and "Personal Defense" or "Police" or "Military Grade" loads. I should stay away from shells called Shredders or Splattermatics or whatever... The jury would be led to believe I was some nut holed up waiting to blast someone.

What concerns me is if my friend's guy shot an intruder that got a round off in his direction, and he made it out the door, he was still on his feet and could have shot at him some more. The guy had a pistol! If he did pattern his gun on the guy with birdshot, I'd like something more. I wonder if something like our old 1 1/2 #4 lead goose rounds would have done better. It'd blow the snot and feathers off any goose that flew too close.

The reality of this is that your friend like most always think they made a good shot. If the Perp was not caught then there is no way to know where the perp was shot and just how good or bad that shot was.

As to what the lawyer told you is pretty spot on.

The same garbage gets bandied about when talk of shooting someone with a handload from a defensive firearm is mentioned. It is always some lawyer talk this or that. Yet that seldom seems to be the case. Massad Ayoob has done a lot of research in this area and the last I'd read of this in his writings is that he can't document any cases of a Jury hanging someone on this fact. Same for a home defense specific load or firearm. The bottom line is that if the shooting is justified it matters little what weapon or load you used to defend yourself from deadly force. Lethal is lethal - it has to be a "good shoot" or it isn't gonna matter.