Shotgun ammunition

[610Alpha]

I'll throw my 2 cents in as well. A 2 3/4" shell does not have as much kick as a 3" or a 3 1/2", in short the longer the shell the more kick it has. I know all the tough guys will give me crap but if you are not used to a shotgun and you are going to be shooting some buck or slugs then you will want to consider getting a good pad for the butt of the stock or if your wife is going to train with it as well.

Side Note: I have not counted how many pellets are in a 3 1/2" Buck shot shell, one would think there would be more than what is in 2 3/4" shell.

[groovy mike]

Start with the shortest shells you can get. Almost every shotgun made in the last hundred years will accept 2 3/4 inch shells. 3 inch shells are too long for about 75% of the guns out there. 3 1/2 inch shells only fit about 10% of the guns out there. I'm guessing at the percentages, but in general 2 3/4 inch shells will work in every shotgun, but longer shells may or may not fit.

[Bearman202]

To get a bit more specific on the ammo, when talking about shot size, the bigger the number, the smaller the shot. Because of the limits of the size of the shell, the smaller size shot will result in a lot more pellets. For example, OO buck contains nine pellets that are .32 inches in diameter. 7 1/2 size shot probably contains forty to fifty pellets that are smaller than a b.b. The number of pellets will affect the coverage area also. Obviously, nine pellets aren't going to spread out that much, whereas forty are going to offer more coverage. There is an important distinction here, though. Those nine pellets are going to punch through a lot further than the forty. For hunting birds, you want the smaller pellets with less penetration, because you don't want to shred the bird. With bigger game, you want the deeper penetration. People have been hit with the 7 1/2 shot and shrugged it off. Nobody shrugs off OO buck. A slug is one solid shot that will fire much like a rifle, with a lot less range and accuracy. If you hit someone with a slug, they will feel like you threw a house at them, though.

Traditional wisdom is that a shotgun is the perfect home defense weapon. Especially a pump, in that the sound of the action being racked is guaranteed to kick the pucker factor off the scale for most invaders. Additionally, with a medium range sized shot, like a number 6, you can get a pretty good pattern without going through three walls and nailing your neighbor, or the kid in the next room. There is a fallacy out there that it's a lot harder to miss with a shotgun. That's bologna. Depending on the range, it's altogether too easy to miss with a shotgun, which is why you need to practice with it just like you would any weapon you intend to bet your life on. The difference is that as soon as you set the thing off, most burglars are going to be headed in the other direction.

[BigJohn]

Bird shot for small game.
Buckshot for big game including people.
Buckshot (any size) is pretty effective out to 30 meters. It can kill further than that, but not humanely.
If you need to shoot further than 30m, you might want to consider a rifle, but slugs can score solid hits out to about 100 meters in some guns.
If you intend to use slugs, shoot a lot of them at various ranges and make sure you know where they are going.

[rice paddy daddy]

To familiarize yourself with whatever shotgun you get, buy some inexpensive birdshot, #6 seems to be the size most available everywhere. lead shot wil be cheaper than steel, the steel is required for certain hunting applications.
I keep my defense weapon loaded with OO buck. Around the farm my companion is a 20 ga SXS double barrel with two triggers for instant barrel selection. One pipe holds #6 shot, the other #3 buck. #6 is for rattlers or possums in the henhouse, the buck for bigger predators.
I have never been very accurate with slugs from a smoothbore, but many, many other people are good enough to bag deer with them.

[Spock]

birdshot is birds and clay targets for clays 6-9 shot works

buck shot is for deer and bad guys

slugs are for deer and bear

hope that helps

youll wanna buy some bird shot to start with and learn the gun with, its way cheaper than buck shot.

[fallout boy]

your guys advise on shotguns was good and i'm gonna buy one thsi weekend. What type of ammunition should I buy for it? I see a lot of choices, can someone explain them?