The opinion I have heard is that it won't penetrate walls. I agree, why? That is why I am putting this question out there.
Uh.......why...??? If you are in fear for your life at a level you will defend then you are not wanting to **** them off. You want to stop them. Just make sure they are inside and facing you when this happens.
I load up with #2 steel Nitro Express in 3"
Start strong. Finish strong.
At inside house ranges you don't get much spread with a shotgun, the lead is going to be in a close clump. That said bird shot will spread faster as the range increases and you will lose power/penetration. I stick with 00 and don't worry about any increase in range. At inside house ranges what a shotgun has with a full power buckshot cartridge is it's ability to damage a target. 9 32 caliber balls tearing into a person at once is going to hurt.
I have done the unofficial totally non-scientific tasting with a 12G using various loads.
We found #2 steel hi-velocity 3" loads to do some serious damage beyond what 00 will do. Not even suggesting that 00 is not the go to. It is. But if you want to shred something in anger try the #2 that exits at 1750 FPS for a 3" shell.
This is of course a non-scientific non-certified result but man I tell you that load is ugly.
i will have to look into those. I also have a pretty nice 1911, if you know what I mean?
Any recommendations on particular 00 shells?
The opinion I have heard is that it won't penetrate walls. I agree, why? That is why I am putting this question out there.
Uh.......why...??? If you are in fear for your life at a level you will defend then you are not wanting to **** them off. You want to stop them. Just make sure they are inside and facing you when this happens.
I load up with #2 steel Nitro Express in 3"
Start strong. Finish strong.
I did a ton of research when trying to answer your same questions for myself. Based on everything I've seen and shooting planks of wood with different loads, It is true that smaller shot penetrates less than bigger shot. Something to consider if you're concerned about overpenetration: If it's capable of killing a person, it's probably capable of overpenetrating a good amount if you miss your target and the payload hits walls before anything else. Personally, I load my HD shotgun with 27 pellet #4 buckshot. As to a recommendation on a specific load you should probably pattern several different loads at different distances and see what patterns to your liking.
This might answer some of your questions too
[video=youtube;CiHHgjaR0TI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiHHgjaR0TI[/video]