Effect of Birdshot, including No 8 clay shot at close range for humane dispatch

[Heym SR20]

Not wishing to hijack another thread on low velocity HD shotgun cartridges, the late Paul Harral did a very good piece on effect of birdshot at close range in home defence type situations. He demonstrates both the effects on typical walls as used in US - ie plasterboard.

And then on simulated animal tissue.

He does this with both a lightly loaded single 28 bore, as well as 1 1/8 oz out of a 12.

At 5 yards all would be deadly on a typical medium sized animal such as a deer.

 

[weblyish]

Not wishing to hijack another thread on low velocity HD shotgun cartridges, the late Paul Harral did a very good piece on effect of birdshot at close range in home defence type situations. He demonstrates both the effects on typical walls as used in US - ie plasterboard.

And then on simulated animal tissue.

He does this with both a lightly loaded single 28 bore, as well as 1 1/8 oz out of a 12.

At 5 yards all would be deadly on a typical medium sized animal such as a deer.

I did not need to watch a video to find out if a 12G at 5y would work on a person, but i did enjoy watching it

 

[Smellydog]

I thought you were anti lead but here you advocate it!
I'm confused....

 

[SirLoin]

Humane or human dispatch?

 

[Lever357]

I do like watching Paul Harrell, very knowledgeable and dry sense of humour. Another good guy taken too soon.

 

[Heym SR20]

Humane or human dispatch?

I think a shotgun works perfectly well for both. A shotgun, even the little 410 makes a very effective close range gun for big animals. A ball of shot dumps all of its energy in the target destroying all the organs in the way. Its one of the reasons its still the preferred follow up tool for wounded leopards etc. But you need to hold your nerve till its close.

 

[Scarpa]

I still have a box of 44g BB cartridges. Those would be my home defense grab in an emergency.

 

[palmer_mike]

I still have a box of 44g BB cartridges. Those would be my home defense grab in an emergency.

At home defence ranges (unless you live in a very big house) the shot size probably wouldn’t make a lot of difference. Unlikely to be much spread at short range?

Of course it’s not an option in the UK

 

[paul o']

Used to 12g #6 to putdown pigs and nags no problems close up nutshots

 

[enfieldspares]

Many years ago I had the pleasure of meeting and visiting him at his house Major Freddie Mills. He was one of a number of, at the time, then expert wtinesses in forensic ballistics. One of the things we talked about was buckshot vs birdshot and the conclusion of the evidence from actual cases of human deaths was that at under a certain range (which was quite short) that neither was more lethal than the other. If one "killed" at that range so too did the other also "kill".

Much earlier than that as a boy reading Corbett I had met a friend of my father. A man named as "Tiger" Chapman as he had once shot a tiger. I was keen to know what he had used as the technicality of the weapon and its ammunition obsessed me. He told me that he had used a 12 bore shotgun as to quote his words "loaded with #6 shot as it held together remarkably well at close range".

So yes just as in drey blasting for which I chose the old Sellier & Bellot "Black Lord" 1 1/4 ounce of #7 at short range you have in effect a fist size sub-missile swarm that will bust its way through most obstructions. If any are sceptical of the lethality of small shot at close range do the demonstration that I used for my son when I first took him shooting. Fire the the gun (loaded with #6 or #7) into soft earth from about three feet away and look at the width and depth of the hole it causes.

 

[Ratel]

Even a .410 can be lethal at short range. I remember as a boy seeing someone hit in the neck whilst shooting rabbits in a field of corn being harvested. The blood spurting out frightened me very badly and I exited the scene as quick as possible.

 

[enfieldspares]

I did get consulted on a case where a person had been shot at close range with a sawn off shotgun and birdshot. It was now maybe thirty plus years ago so my memory is poor. But what I do remember is that the perpetrator then resorted to clubbing him with the cut down butt and tang of the sawn off gun. The post mortem report indicated that the intestines and bowel was like an old dishcloth. Such that had the person survived it would have been impossible to repair as you wouod have been trying to stitch a never ending series of holes. Whereas with buckshot, had the survived, there would have been maybe only a half dozen or a dozen holes to repair. So at close ranges birdshot even if not lethal will result in horrific damage that is near impossible to repair.

 

[NoIDeer]

A few years back I was asked to dispatch a very poorly pet guanaco weighing approx 150kg. After a bit of research I chose to use a 12g sg with 30gms no 6 shot. Absolutely the perfect tool for the job. 1.5 inch entry no exit and a very dead non twitching or bleeding animal which helped a lot with a very sad but glad pet owner.

 

[Selous]

I did get consulted on a case where a person had been shot at close range with a sawn off shotgun and birdshot. It was now maybe thirty plus years ago so my memory is poor. But what I do remember is that the perpetrator then resorted to clubbing him with the cut down butt and tang of the sawn off gun. The post mortem report indicated that the intestines and bowel was like an old dishcloth. Such that had the person survived it would have been impossible to repair as you wouod have been trying to stitch a never ending series of holes. Whereas with buckshot, had the survived, there would have been maybe only a half dozen or a dozen holes to repair. So at close ranges birdshot even if not lethal will result in horrific damage that is near impossible to repair.

I guess the limiting factor for birdshot lethality will be penetration of the individual pellets once the pattern has opened up enough for the pellets to become individual projectiles. If there is clothing, skin and subcutaneous fat present this could absorb a fair bit of the 3 or so ft lbs of energy for each pellet

 

[Bowland blades]

Light clay loads have been employed to dispatch sick and injured cattle inside barns for a very long time . even a .410 at almost touching the beast rage carries the energy as a large caliber handgun .

 

[devon deer stalker]

But you need to hold your nerve till its close.

Exactly, on a rough shoot once myself and another gun jumped a hedge, as we landed a huge stag was with his hinds sheltering from the wind, hinds ran he didn't, along he came, my friend crapped himself 'i only have no 6 shot' my reply was ' it won't matter at 5 yards!'
I put a shot over it's head at 20 yards, and thankfully that stopped it, but he did walk off slowly, proving a point.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Gamekeeper was jailed this year for the dreadful murder of a fellow estate worker - using a 12 bore and light shot. Police initially put it down as a natural death until some shot fell out of the body bag!

Murder trial jury told of dog walker's shotgun injuries

Jurors heard forensic evidence in the trial of David Campbell, who is accused of killing dog walker Brian Low in Aberfeldy in February 2024.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Dunwaters]

Small shot also gets into the blood vessels and transported a long way from the initial site leading to blockages and strokes.

 

[HonestJohn]

In Denmark we used to shoot roe with shotguns sub 20m, granted with 4’s or 3’s, but worked as well as a rifle

 

[Colonel]

A 2 1/2”410 has more energy than a 357 magnum at the muzzle