It’s the hit it gives you, is it not? I shot myself with a .32 ACP when I was a kid, and the only thing that hurt was the stitches. I could empty the clip into the bad guy, and he could beat me to death with a chair while he bled to death.
One of the local papers today said he used No. 4 shot. He fired three times and hit 8 people. The first shot was apparently fired into the crowd from behind, hitting random people, then 2 died from close range shots.
Yep. Getting a torso hit from a 12 gauge loaded with 00 buckshot can ruin your whole day. That’s like getting hit with 8 .32 cal bullets, all at the same time, and within 2 inches of each other. Massive trauma and failure of any organ that happened to be in the way. Pretty much the same from any shot at that distance. That’s why my shotgun has a #4 buckshot round loaded first. Then 00 buck, then a saboted slug, in case I want to kill their car. 
A home defense book I read ages ago recommended a no-choke, short barreled pump shotgun with 7½ shot for the first round or two, followed by the heavier rounds in case of escalation. The reasoning was the birdshot will do nicely at in-house ranges, say seven yards, yet not penetrate walls so much.
Many birds will eat gravel etc. to fill their gizzards with nice food-grinding stuff. If they eat lead shot they may die from lead poisoning. I believe this is a huge problem with fishing weights, presumably it is also an issue with shotguns.
e.g. from here
not a ‘cone of death’ but considerably larger area of impact at ranges of 5-10 feet than the size of the barrel. As stated above, somewhere between cup and saucer-size cone at that range. Doesn’t mean you don’t have to aim, just that you’ve got more wiggle room than a rifle barrel or a slug, which is exactly the size of the barrel it’s fired from.
Yes, buckshot would penetrate an average civilian internal wall fairly nicely, but nearly any birdshot would not, which was kinda my point. You load slugs or buck for home defense in an urban area, you’re gonna more likely get some collateral damage. #4 like Senior Whackjob in the church in Tennessee and it’s quite a bit less likely.
Just an FYI, a saboted slug is basically worthless without a rifled barrel. Without rifling on either the slug or the barrel, there isn’t an stability, and the slug will almost always start tumbling end over end. At that point, it’s basically a knuckle ball and you never know which way its gonna go. Accuracy at that point is basically luck.
And on the other hand, a rifled barrel is worthless for shot. So you might want to try just a regular old brenneke type slug rather than the saboted one.
Obligatory Box O’ Truth links;
The Box O’ Truth #3 - The Shotgun Meets the Box O’ Truth
The Box O’ Truth #14 - Rifles, Shotguns, and Walls
The Box O’ Truth #20 - Buckshot Patterns
The Box O’ Truth #33 - Rock Salt in a Shotgun
The Box O’ Truth #35 - A Load of Dimes Vs. The Box O’ Truth
The Box O’ Truth #42 - Precision Shooting With Buckshot
CMC +fnord!
105/120mm smoothbore cannons on the M1 Abrams uses a fin-stabilized sabot for just this reason. The sabot puts a HUGE amount of velocity into the smaller-than-bore round, but velocity is useless if it’s horribly inaccurate as you pointed out. I think some shotgun flechettes, as well as some sabots, have tiny metal fins to help with this… but I can’t imagine they’re cheap or easy to get as I can’t imagine any civilian usage…
Those are wicked cool. I used to target shoot my hunting rifle in MT with milk jugs half filled with ice, just for the ‘kaboom!’ effect due to hydrostatic shock.
And it does prove my point - 5-10yards out, a shotgun is a good home defense weapon, unlikely to kill innocent bystanders next door, but very likely to make mince meat of the intruder and a bit easier to aim than a rifle or pistol…
Brilliant quote:
[Pedantic Ass Mode:]
That’s called a “sub-caliber munition.”
[/Pedantic Ass Mode]
Well this is why we are here.
IMHO.
A short barrel shotgun is a good home defense weapon, but don’t count on it magically hitting the target.
I suspect it is a very good weapon for suppressive fire though at longer distances (perhaps 20-30 yards). Once the cone does spread a bit (doesn’t really happen in the distances typically needed for home defense) That could be very useful for suppressive fire.
Or if you know you have a lot of enemies crowded in one position.
WWI was one of the first common uses of a shotgun in warfare. The trench sweeper.
Back during the Anti-Vietnam War protests, we were taught to use #9 shot and fire at the street in front of the demonstrators to spread the pattern more effectively. That situation never actually occurred, as far as I know, so I’m happy to say I have no idea how effective it would be.
I thought of putting a short barrel, pistol grip and folding stock on the 12 gauge I bought at a pawn shop. It occurred to me should I actually have to shoot an intruder in my house, I’d much rather the cops found me with a duck gun than some sexy looking SWAT shotgun. 
Smart move. That’s why I’ve given a special name to my primary home defense weapon (S&W Model 28 .357). If I ever have the misfortune of having to cap some hostile miscreant, I want to be able to say, when being questioned by some lawyer, if I named my pistol (he’s hoping I named it “Killer” or something like that, so he can paint me out to a jury like a crazed gun nut), I can honestly answer “Fluffy.”
Thanks for that. I thought smaller-than-bore would be more descriptive, though, for the non-military amongst us
I find the fact that the shooter chose #4 shot to be quite chilling. It may have been an accident, but according to some research I did on this subject some time ago, #4 shot is about optimal for doing a lot of damage in an interior setting. The pellets are large enough to carry enough energy to be lethal at most likely interior distances, and the pellet count in an ounce or an ounce and an eighth load is still high enough to put out a lot of shot, giving a pretty nice deadly pattern. If I hear that he was using a skeet gun with a super-improved cylinder choking – which causes the pattern to spread out quickly at comparatively short range – I would say that he planned this to do as much harm as possible.
I seem to remember Cheney used a 28 gage shotgun. I remember because I have never used one and had to look up the specs on it.
My home defense choice is a 40 caliber handgun with hollow point 155 grain rounds. My thinking is that an exterior wall is going to break the bullet up into pieces that would be unlikely to penetrate a neighbors exterior wall and still have enough energy to do any damage. Is that wrong?