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Skiprr wrote:

Liko81 wrote:That implies you are totally awake, alert, and in control of your faculties in a firefight. At 2:00 in the morning when you're awoken by the sound of breaking glass, there's not much mental room for anything more than cha-chak, boom, cha-chak, boom even if you're wide awake; the combination of a quick transition from sleep to awake and the decent dose of adrenaline that's just been dumped into your body make it difficult to think rationally and remember how the gun's loaded.

And your physical environment makes a big difference, as well. A typical, suburban tract home is going to be under 3,000 sq. ft., probably have dry-wall construction, and sit pretty close to your neighbors' houses. A commercial or government building will likely have very different construction characteristics. A ranch with a lot of acres of breathing room may be offset from roads or neighbors by 100+ yards.

So possible penetration is a consideration in civillian defense circumstances. How close are things you absolutely don't want to hit--like family members in bedrooms or the big propane tank out out back--and how many of what kind of construction material layers are between you and those things?

Modern slugs are great. I use Federal TruBall in an 18" cylinder bore, and the lil' suckers are surprisingly accurate out to decent, intermediate distances. But they also pack a much heftier penetration punch than shot at defensive distances.

Lead shot, particularly 00, makes for a combination of short-range stopping authority with a relatively low risk of over-penetration. That's what makes it so effective as a home defense choice.