Spoiler alert! Shotgun wins!
When people tell you to use a shotgun with birdshot for home defense because it is safer, show them this. The hole in the door that you see here comes from No. 8 birdshot, the smallest and lightest commonly available. It was fired from about 12 feet, and it blasted through this interior door as though it were not even there, making a heck of mess in doing so. If you were behind that door, would you feel safe?
Using a shotgun for home defense might be a good idea, but not because birdshot will greatly reduce the danger of pass-through injury. You must know your target and what is beyond it. You must aim carefully, or you will miss. You are responsible for every round that goes downrange. Make your rounds count, and do not expect interior doors and walls in your house to stop bullets. They won’t.
If you shoot at the bad guy and miss, you run the real risk of injuring someone else.
You Must Aim
As mentioned above, you must aim with your shotgun. Look at the pattern on the door. It is about 2 inches in diameter. That will make a terrible hole in a bad guy, but if you do not aim, you could miss. A shotgun is not the street-sweeper you see in the movies. If the sights are not on the target, you will miss.
