(gun cocking)
(heavy rock music)
- When it comes to ballistic battles
the talk about shotgun ammo is always one of them.
I've got a pretty basic semi-auto 12 gauge shotgun here
and I've got three different kinds of ammos.
You know, birdshot has its place in self defense
especially if you're within close distances.
Right now, some people might think this is too far.
I'm about 35 feet from a pepper popper target
and I've got buckshot and I've got slugs,
but I'm gonna tell you that buckshot and slugs
might be a little too much for this distance.
Let's see what birdshot does.
(metal impact)
That's a wicked load.
Let's take it back and see what buckshot does.
Alright, so back here this is about 18 yards.
I'm gonna try a load of buckshot, just standard buckshot.
We're gonna see what it'll do.
(deep metal impact)
Well there's no doubt it knocked it down
but I wonder how many of those nine pellets
are actually on the target.
Well 18 yards looks to be about maximum distance
if you want to use standard double ought buckshot.
Nine pellets, trying to keep them on a human size,
man size silhouette target, that's about your distance.
Alright, so I'm all the way back here at 50 yards
which is at least half a football field.
So neither birdshot nor buckshot's
gonna do any good from back here.
I'd be lucky to get one pellet on that target
with buckshot from here, but I've got a slug
so let's see how this works back here.
(heavy rock music)
(deep metal impact)
50 yards is no match for a 12 gauge slug.
(heavy rock music)
- Pump shotgun is one of the most common
defensive firearms choices in the world
of firearms training.
Now, of course, this one is a 20 gauge
and I'm a big fan of the 20 gauge.
12 gauge obviously has more power but how much
power do we really need at bedroom distances
with our family behind us.
And isn't the 20 gauge a lot easier to shoot?
The 20 gauge is gonna have less recoil, it's a lighter gun,
it's a kind of gun that's also gonna be more versatile
in terms of letting your family members come out
and train with you and I promise you that when
it comes to a full day of shotgun training you're
gonna be glad that you have that 20 gauge instead of a 12.
Now, not only is it easier to shoot in general but
it's also gonna be much faster and easier
to get that followup shot.
When we have the shotgun up in our shooting
position and we're managing recoil
of course what we wanna do is run that pump quickly
and get that followup shot as quickly as we can
and stay up there on the target.
Now, as you notice there's a couple of big holes
up there from each one of those shots.
What I'm firing today is the Winchester Defender round.
This is a 20 gauge scored round that actually
fragments when it hits the target.
So this is actually a segmented slug.
As you can see here it's pre-scored
so those three marks break apart.
Now, that's not what you're seeing there.
What you're seeing there is the wadding and the slug.
This is one projectile.
Now if I were firing 12 gauge slug, if we look at the
difference between a 12 gauge round and a 20 gauge round,
if I were firing a 12 gauge slug, full power, obviously I'd
be a lot slower on those followup shots.
This lightweight shotgun that I can train with all day
allows me to fire these slugs very, very efficiently.
And what we're gonna do now is take a look and see
how that segmented slug works by
firing it into a block of gelatin.
Now, this ballistic gelatin block is what we use to simulate
human tissue so we can evaluate the performance
of these defensive rounds.
What we're looking for here is for this slug to break apart
and stay within that block.
This is gonna keep us from having to worry about
over-penetration like we would with a traditional slug
and of course this is an across-the-bedroom distance.
So, I've got my family behind me, I'm barricaded,
I'm, maybe on the phone with the police,
bad guy comes in through the door,
I come up, I take the shot.
Now we're gonna assess the situation,
make sure the bad guy's down, make sure
the family is okay, continue on with that scenario.
Right now let's take a look at what that segmented
slug did inside of our gel.
(gunshot)
Now, I already said I'm a huge fan of 20 gauge,
I'm a huge fan of the segmented slug and
what we see here is exactly the kind of
performance we're looking for.
I pull the tape measure out.
So I've got about 14 inches of penetration
on one segment, 13 and a half on another,
and 12 and a half to 13 on the third segment and
they spread out, the did exactly
what they were supposed to do.
Spread that damage out, and you can see
that happens very early.
So this is from a 1600 foot per second
three quarter ounce slug out of a 20 gauge shotgun
inside of a bedroom distance and of course we didn't
even have anything here to slow it down, the clothing and
things that would normally be there.
So this is exactly the kind of performance you want.
I'm a big fan of the 20 gauge shotgun for home defense and
I'm a big fan of the segmented slug to be loaded into that
shotgun for when you need it the most.
(heavy rock music)