🚀 go-pugleaf

.In-Reply-To: <2597@jade.BERKELEY.EDU. - Frank Warren
.
.I disagree with the advice to use such small shot.  Even at close ranges
.#8 would most likely produce mayhem but not lethal force.  #4 buck is as
.large as I would go but I would think very hard before using anything
.smaller than BB.  A 12 gauge generally has muzzle energy comparable to
.a 30-06 but you can spread it too fine.  Very small shot dissipates all
.of its energy in barely 2-3 inches of penetration -- fine for birds, and
.less than half of what is needed, according to study, for a stopping-grade
.hit.  It is definitely not enough for someone high enough on drugs or
.adrenalin or psychosis to attack a man holding a shotgun.  The truth
.probably lies somewhere between #4 buck and BBs.




Frank,

Would you believe that a 20ga skeet load of #9s at 15 feet will penetrate
3 pieces of 1/2" sheet rock.  Leaving a hole about 3" thru the three pieces
and putting a bulge in a fourth piece.  That was, by the way, out of a skeet
choked barrel.  I did it last year as an experiment with some old sheet rock
I was going to get rid of.  The pieces were 2-1/2" apart.  About the same
as a house wall.

You can draw whatever conclusions you wish from this.

-- 
Mark O'Shea
marko@tekecs.GWD.TEK
Tektronix, Inc.
Willieville, Orygun