I wrote a short rebuttal to a Facebook shotgun forum’s topic that covered the use of birdshot as a defensive choice of ammunition: “Birdshot is for incapacitation of poultry. Small poultry. Whenever I hear about the fear of “over penetration” against a hostile target, I shake my head. I want that bad guy to stop what he is doing as quickly as possible. How do I do this? By making his blood pressure drop rapidly or by stopping the brain’s communication with the vital organs. In order to do that in the most effective way possible, I must aim for the most arterial parts of the anatomy and the brain stem. Those parts are protected by layers of skin, muscle tissue, and bone. Once the shot has penetrated these mediums, the remaining energy of each piece of shot is minimal. Use buckshot or slugs. They work.”
One of the Buckshot U subscribers poised a comment in response: “what about headshots??……keeps the shot up high away from the kids…also instant stop…..i have seen #1 completely penetrate a mans head at 85 yards…and there are 16 of them…will #4buck do that?…..#4buck seems to be gaining popularity”.-Tim H.
When it comes to headshots, especially with a shotgun, the issues are 2-fold.
- When you need a headshot, you need it in the worst way. You need it to be 100% effective with no damage to bystanders or hostages. In order to effectively incapacitate the threat, you must destroy the brain stem (medulla oblongata) that sits at the back of the skull where the neck and skull meet.
- The brain is protected very well by the skull. Most of the bones of the skull are thick and are concave. For a shot to be effective, the rounds must be placed at the base of the skull, directly behind the ear, or into the nasal/ocular cavity. Otherwise, the rounds have been known to skip off of the concave surfaces of the skull, become lodged in the hard palate, or enter between the skin and the bone, traverse around the skull, and exit the other side with only superficial damage to the target.
Either way, you want the shot to go deep inside of the head and terminate into the brain stem.
There was a mention of a headshot being utilized to change the angle of the shot to sail over the height of a child. While this would be correct, somewhat, this is assuming that some of the buckshot, or the slug, has missed the target and has very little between itself and the innocent bystander. What would be much more effective, would be to use your sights, use the properly patterned ammunition for the given distance with your gun, and follow through. If you are genuinely worried about the shotshell payload smoking through a human head or torso and into the next room, you can take a knee and alter the angle of the shot to a much higher trajectory than a standing shot to the head. I also would bet that the target isnt expecting you to angle out of your doorway only 3ft from the floor, versus an average of 5.5 ft.
#1 or #4 Buckshot, along with slugs can be used to great effect in headshots, as long as the shooter has patterned their specific load with their gun at various ranges.
Granted, some turkey or waterfowl loads may very well prove effective in deterring the badguy, they are made with land/water fowl targets in mind. It is the combined weight of the projectiles along with the size of them that causes the damage to the intended target.
Buckshot and Slugs are for bad guys. Simple as that.
Buckshot University 