This is ever so interesting.
Quote:
The problem here is missing what you shoot at. Most discussions about over penetration are really about missing the target.
|
That is the essence of the problem. The fact remains that there is no target too close or too big that you cannot miss it with a handgun. Except maybe touching distance. And you don't want to be that close to a home invader.
Quote:
A load of birdshot (#7 1/2 or 8) will certainly penetrate a sheet or two of drywall at in house distances.
|
There is no doubt about that. To test that theory I tried an experiment on an old, dilapidated barn. I was dove hunting, the shotgun was loaded with #7.5 or #8 birdshot, there were no birds, and I was bored. So I decided to see what the birdshot could do against corrugated steel barn walls.
I wasn't really close. Ten, maybe twelve feet away. But not much more than that and in a home you could be considerably further away from a bad guy. But, anyway, the birdshot blew a 6" or larger hole right through that steel!
Jim Cirillo was right, of course, there's always that time that you could have a failure to stop. But I still load my HD shotguns with birdshot. There are 9mm and .38 Special handguns at the ready, too.
My personal good news is that I don't have any sleeping loved ones in another room. And in my newly rebuilt-from-the-ground-up home the external walls are all brick so unless a window is penetrated my neighbors won't have flying projectiles coming to them. So if a home invasion occurs I don't need to think about over penetration - because I used all of that brick with that in mind. Thank you Col. Cooper......