best .410 home defense ammo for taurus judge??

Status
Not open for further replies.

77blackcj5

Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
69
Reaction score
27
What's the best .410 handgun ammo for the judge that shouldn't penetrate a wall. Have kids in bedrooms close by? I picked up a box of Winchester pdx1 that has 3 discs and 12 shots pellets in it but haven't had a chance to try it out. Is that a good load or is there something better?
 
Register to hide this ad
Best for home defense? Not a judge or a .410 shotgun. Just use the PDX1's for now and buy a 12ga shotgun or a 9/.40 glock
 
So your saying I just need to keep the judge for my snake gun and use something else? My main concern is to not pop one of my kids through an interior wall. I have .22 .380 acp 38 special and 357 magnum also. Which would be less lethal through a wall and still provide stopping power?
 
Your pdx round should be a good choice .I prefer the federal buckshot load that is designed for handguns it groups very well out of my governor.You will find a lot of judge and governor hate on here mainly from people who have never tried one.It just does not fit their idea of a handgun.So in the end what you need to do is try a few different rounds and make up your own mind.Good luck and good shooting.
 
PDX1 is probably a good choice. Hornady makes a pretty good round too. Whatever you do, don't use birdshot. It will likely bind up your cylinder. At least it does in my Governor. That, and it will likely be ineffective.

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0XmkoWAdnhQ[/ame]
 
I don't think you can rely on ANY effective handgun round to not penetrate two layers of drywall and thus hurt someone on the other side. If that is what your walls are, you are going to have to make some very careful plans about how to handle home defense or choose a non-firearm type of weapon. I live in an old apartment and have the same problem with not just the walls, but the ceiling as well. Think it through and establish procedures for yourself and your family.
 
I understand the desire to not penetrate drywall to safeguard kids.

Unfortunately, effective sd depends on penetration.

I'm pretty unimpressed with 410 loads for pistols.

OP should consider a dog.

Most BGs avoid homes with dogs: why bother with a home with a dog when the dogless homes have the same stuff?

Effective hd doesn't always involve a firearm.
 
Last edited:
The .410 load is a poor choice for any kind of self defense against a human predator. If I was forced to use one, it would only be the Winchester PDX1.

There are options in frangible bullets for normal handguns that are designed not to over-penetrate such as the Glaser safety slugs. I might go with one of those over any .410 load if I was in your situation.
 
Last edited:
So your saying I just need to keep the judge for my snake gun and use something else? My main concern is to not pop one of my kids through an interior wall. I have .22 .380 acp 38 special and 357 magnum also. Which would be less lethal through a wall and still provide stopping power?


Having played around with many types of material on the firing range, we have been forced to conclude that any projectile that will do serious damage to a human will go through common wallboard like it wasn't there. Any ordinary .22 will penetrate a 2X4. It is extremely dangerous to shoot inside a typical house, and you need to be sure of your target and what lies beyond.
 
I wouldn't want to get shot by any of it. I suppose you could load 2 PDX & the rest with 45 Colt in the event of some drugged up superhero BG not retreating after the first 2 shots.
 
Probably not anything I'll ever have to worry about unless they make it all the way thru house into my bedroom door opening. Just thinking things out cause we suffered a break in last week while we were gone. We have since gotten adt security system installed. I just picked up a box of the federal handgun 000 buckshot it looks better than the pdx1. Just can't imagine a bg being able to take 5 rds of buckshot.
 
Since you have other options available, I would go with the .38 Special. Very few would argue with that choice.

BTW, have you fired a cylinder full of those buckshot loads? How fast can you get it back on target?
 
I wouldn't want to get shot by any of it. I suppose you could load 2 PDX & the rest with 45 Colt in the event of some drugged up superhero BG not retreating after the first 2 shots.

Why would you load 2 poorly penetrating rounds, then 3 45 Colt??? If you can not stop BG with first 2 rounds, What, then forget about the kids and just shoot 45 Colt and hope they are ducking????

Speer does make a 250 gr Gold Dot HP which would be a fairly effective SD round instead of 380, or 38/357.

Darkenfast's post about an alternative plan other than a firearm is the most logical & reasonable. Obviously you want to protect your self and family and only having drywall between the projectile and innocents is not the best plan.

I have no children But, I do have 2 Rotts that are faster & louder than I, bigger teeth, and can still hear!!, and a wife that shoots very well.
Be Safe,
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rpg
Just put a couple of each. At close range those .410 will work just fine. Chances are you'll never be in that situation in your life time and many more
 
Last edited:
I would think more about setting up the eventual engagement, rather than what I was hurling (which would probably be some sort of conventional handgun round).

In an ideal situation, I would control the area leading to the bedrooms (hallway, staircase, or whatever) from a position tht provided a clear "backstop".


Here: take a look at this home layout. It's such a crappy tactical layout it's realistic.

b486f5c7fe848d3eb9edf1f6d564f590.jpg


If I attempt to defend Bedrooms #2 and/or #3 from the doorway of Bedroom #1, then I'd be firing directly at those rooms.

A better choice would be to get the lights on in the Dining/Kitchen/Living Room area, then move either to the kitchen sink if the intrusion is coming from the front. If the intrusion is coming from the rear or the utility area, I would move to the entryway closet.

If it's coming from the utility closet, I could use the kitchen island as cover, but then I'm out in the open, and exposed to flanking from the Dining Room slider and windows, and the Living Room doors/windows. Something about standing in the middle of an open area just gets wets my fur, so to speak. I like me some walls.

I mean, literally any way you cut it, if all three bedrooms are occupied, then it's a tactical **** sandwich, but still.

If I could leave one non-master bedroom unoccupied in the above layout, it would be Bedroom #2, because firing at the front door from the Master means using that wall as a backstop.
 
Last edited:
Probably not anything I'll ever have to worry about unless they make it all the way thru house into my bedroom door opening. Just thinking things out cause we suffered a break in last week while we were gone. We have since gotten adt security system installed. I just picked up a box of the federal handgun 000 buckshot it looks better than the pdx1. Just can't imagine a bg being able to take 5 rds of buckshot.
Keep in mind that the ballistics performance of the 000 buckshot out of a Judge or S&W Governor will be vastly inferior then the same round out of a real shotgun. A good .410 load would not be a bad one for home defense if it were fired out of a long gun. That same .410 load fired through a 2.5" Judge would not be nearly as effective.

Also, you are assuming you will hit the bad guy (if there is only one) with all 5 rounds of .410. Good luck with that after being rudely awakened from sleep, scared and firing into the half-dark.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Rpg
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top