Shotguns: Defense & Survival

Shotguns are among the most commonly owned and iconic American Firearms. Even the most awful and notorious gun-controlling, freedom-hating politicians like Joe Biden have publicly recommended that people get a 12 gauge shotgun for home defense. And, while I’d never take life advice from a career swamp-creature like Biden and his “AFT” storm-troopers, the shotgun does have valid use-cases in the modern arsenal. Shotguns are versatile, commonly owned and easy to find ammo for. You can hunt birds, bears or defend your home with one. On the downside, shotguns have limited ammo capacity compared to modern rifles, have harsher recoil and are much slower to reload. Despite these drawbacks, shotguns are an effective firearm that’s also a lot of fun to shoot for recreation and sport. There’s nothing quite like acing your friends at turning sporting clays into dust on a sunny afternoon.

Is a shotgun right for you? Let’s discuss the pros and cons and find out together.

The Pros: Why Get a Shotgun?

Shotguns Are Versatile:

Shotguns are famous for their versatility. A shotgun is useful for hunting small game/birds but is also useful against big game including bear and moose. Shotguns are also a very effective firearm used by law enforcement officers and for civilian home defense. If someone could only own one single firearm for home defense, hunting and for wilderness survival, a shotgun would be a strong choice of weapons. The only things you can’t do with a shotgun are concealed carry and precision rifle shooting.

The extreme versatility of the shotgun comes from the wide variety of cartridges that you can fire with one. On the low end of the power curve are small game loads that feature low recoil, low power and hundreds of tiny pellets. These small game loads are still lethal at close range, but their small pellets quickly disperse in the air and don’t travel long distances. Be careful though, lethal does not mean effective. So, I would not recommend small game loads to be used for self defense.

Moving up to more powerful shotgun cartridges includes pheasant, turkey and waterfowl loads which feature larger but still relatively small pellets sent at much higher velocities and/or a larger amount of pellets. Waterfowl cartridges are lead-free shotgun shells that feature steel or more exotic metal BB’s sent at much faster velocities.

More powerful still are the buckshot cartridges that are effective against large game and for self defense against humans. Buckshot features a small number of much larger, heavier pellets fired at high velocity. “Double-Aught Buckshot” is the most widely used buckshot and usually features nine 33 caliber lead pellets. Buckshot is effective out to about 50 yards, but can be lethal much further.

Most powerful of all are the shotgun slug loads which feature a single, very heavy projectile sent at high velocity. Shotgun slugs create devastating wounds and allow the shotgun to effectively reach out to 100 yards in range.

Shotguns Are Commonly Available:

Shotguns are among the most commonly owned firearms in the United States. This commonality means that it’s easy to find ammo, especially for 12 gauge. Any store that sells ammunition will have at least some sort of 12 gauge shotgun shell for sale. Commonly available ammo to suit a wide variety of purposes makes for a huge advantage.

Shotguns are Less Regulated:

Disclaimer: I believe that any weapon in use by police officers or National Guard Troops should be freely available for civilian purchase and ownership. Since SWAT Teams can kick down civilian doors at 3am armed with fully automatic rifles and submachineguns, I feel that civilians should be free to own those weapons as well.

In reality though, many people live in areas where the government is tyrannical and will not allow civilians to own intact AR-15s, let alone select-fire M4s. For those unfortunate people who need a gun but were cursed to live in a place like New York, New Jersey or California, a semi-auto shotgun could do the job. A Beretta 1301 with 10 rounds of buckshot or slugs on board would be an effective way to defend your family in a ban state. Sure, in some of those states you can get a neutered AR-15 with a low capacity, non removable magazine. But, if you only get 10 or less rounds, it makes sense to have 10 rounds of high power buckshot versus 10 rounds of 5.56mm in an AR15.

It’s also worth noting that prosecutors, law enforcement and the news media tend to judge AR15s (and Ar15 owners) much more harshly than people who own shotguns. Unfortunately, it may be easier to legally justify using a shotgun for self defense when compared to an AR-15 or similar modern sporting rifle.

The Cons: What’s Wrong With Shotguns?

Shotguns Have Low Capacity

Compared to semi-auto rifles like the AR-15 and AK-47, shotguns are way behind in terms of capacity. Shotguns usually hold between 5 and 10 rounds, compared to AK/AR rifles which commonly hold 30 rounds. This means that if you’re a victim of a home invasion and you grab one gun to defend your family, a shotgun gives you between 5 and 10 chances to stop the threat before reloading. In contrast, an AR/AK gives you 30 chances to neutralize the danger before reloading.

Shotguns Are Slow/Complex to Reload

Dovetailing with the above mentioned low capacity, shotguns are also much slower to reload. Standard configuration shotguns have non-removable magazines so you have to handle each shell to reload the gun. Need to reload a shotgun? you have to handle between 5 and 10 cartridges and get them back into the gun. An average shotgun owner would probably take 10 seconds or more to reload their shotgun. With an AR/AK, an average owner could reload in 5 seconds. Sure, there are a few magazine-fed shotguns out there. But, magazine-fed shotguns are often picky about ammo and many have issues with being unreliable.

Shotgun Ammunition is Bulky & Heavy

Shotgun shells are heavy and take up a lot of space. Just by virtue of size/weight, you’ll always be able to carry many more rifle rounds than shotgun shells. Whether it’s home defense, wilderness survival, or a full-on zombie apocalypse, being able to carry more ammo is always an advantage.

Plain and simple, carrying a rifle would allow you to have 3x to 4x more rounds for the same size/weight.

Shotguns Have a Limited Range

Rifles like the AR15 can make accurate hits at 300 yards range and beyond. However, it becomes exponentially more difficult to make hits with a shotgun past 50 yards. The decreased range and accuracy of a shotgun limits its usefulness. Sure, most self defense shootings occur at close range, but if you’re hunting for food in a wilderness situation or without rule of law scenario, being able to hit stuff while being further away is an advantage.

That said, depending on the load being used, the limited range of a shotgun can be an advantage in certain scenarios like shooting birds or other flying targets at close range.

Shotgun Ammo is Less Effective Against Body Armor

The slower, heavier projectiles of the shotgun make it much less effective at defeating body armor when compared to rifle cartridges. Depending on your defensive scenario, you may find yourself up against enemies wearing soft, kevlar body armor that can defeat most/all shotgun cartridges. That said, even if a soft armor vest will stop a shotgun slug, a shotgun slug is still likely to seriously injure or maim someone through their vest.

Even still, the much faster and pointier rifle bullets such as 5.56mm or 7.62 NATO have much more ability to defeat body armor compared to shotgun cartridges.

Shotgun Ammo Can Still Over-Penetrate Walls

Despite shotgun’s limited range and lower ability to defeat body armor, the slower and heavier projectiles fired from a shotgun can actually penetrate more interior home walls than an AR15. The AR15’s much lighter and faster bullet tends to fragment and tumble after going through walls, so in some cases an AR15 can be less of a hazard compared a shotgun with regard to innocent bystanders when fired indoors.

That said, all firearms (AR15, shotgun, handgun) can and will over-penetrate through walls and injure or kill innocent bystanders in other parts of a home or apartment building.

Shotguns Have Much Higher Recoil Than AR15s

Shotguns loaded with self-defense ammunition have noticeably harsh recoil, sometimes called kick. AR15s can be easily fired by smaller and newer shooters, including females. Sure, a full-grown, athletic male can easily operate a shotgun loaded with slugs or buckshot, but what about your wife? Okay okay… your wife is a trained MMA fighter who can beat me at arm-wrestling and she every-day carries dual-wielded double-barrel shotguns loaded for Grizzly Bear. But, many newer shooters and many female shooters cannot easily manage the bulk and recoil of a 12 gauge shotgun. Don’t believe me, search new shooter with a 12 gauge on YouTube and watch hours of

Furthermore, increased recoil means increased flinch or recoil anticipation when shooting. If you are anticipating all hell breaking loose every time you pull the trigger, you’re more likely to jerk the trigger and miss your shot.

Conclusions

As you may have gathered, there’s no right or wrong answer to the question of whether a shotgun is a good gun or not. Is it right for you? Well, that depends on your intended use case. The shotgun is a versatile and devastating firearm that can put a goose or a moose on your table and defend your family too.