.410 Home Defense Ammo Patterns at 7 yards

[RandyMarsh]

Whats up everyone, went to the range today to pattern my .410 shotguns with all the cool home defense ammo at 7 yard distance.

The Guns:

• Kel-Tec KSG410
• Mossberg 590 .410

All shots are from 7 yards:

3 inch Winchester Super X 000 Buckshot:
5 shots
Heaviest Recoil

3 inch PDX1 Defender: (4 Disks & 16 pellets )
2 Targets, 5 shots on each I believe
Heavy recoil but not as much as the 000 buck

2.5 inch PDX1 Defender ( 3 disks & 12 Pellets )
Took about 7 or 8 shots here
Low Recoil with these

ATI BBB Buck: (12 pellet BBB Buckshot) (2.5 inch)
Zero Recoil with these

7.5 inch birdshot:
2.5 inch, took 5 shots on each sheet
No recoil with these, spread was huge

#4 Birdshot
2.5 inch, 5 or 6 shots, big spread at 7 yards.
Seems pretty devastating for only birdshot:

Hornady Critical Defense: (slug with 2 buckshot balls behind it)
2.5 inch, took about 8 shots here I think
Low recoil with these:

Conclusions:
- all shells cycled nicely in both guns, (except for one of the 2.5 inch PDX's that got stuck in the KSG, but the shell was bent)

- Hardly any recoil with anything, but the 3 inch 000 buck kicks a little bit and so the does the 3 inch PDX's, but all of the 2.5 inch ones had almost zero recoil.

- Hornady seemed to hit the target where i wanted the most and had a nice little hard hitting spread.

- Currently for home defense I am running 7+7 of the 2.5 inch PDX's in the KSG and in the Mossberg tube i have 4 pdx's and 2 hornady's ready to go. Thinking of mixing in a #4 birdshot in there somewhere too.

 

[spat]

.410 certainly wouldn't be my first choice for home defense, but those should get the job done in most cases.

 

[lrick]

Make use of what ya got. .410 is viable with the right ammo. Also good for those sensitive to recoil. Yeah I know, with adrenaline you won't even feel a larger bore, true, but if it deters you from practicing, that's not helpful. At typical SD distances the spread won't be so great to compensate for poor aim and technique due to a lack of training.

Defensive rounds are fine. The birdshot spread may look impressive, but paper gives no indication of penetration which is lacking with birdshot. I'd stay away from it.

As long as the KSG is reliable, it's a good size for indoor use.

 

[Saltwater60]

It’s absurd what the .410 shells cost these days. I have a 20 gauge shotgun I have loaded for self defense and I would gladly use it as a back up to any of my pistols. Bear to see the patterns and I’d be happy with all of them but my recommendation is not to use any of the bird shot for self defense because there’s no penetration or knock down power.
Thanks for posting and good work!!

 

[RandyMarsh]

It’s absurd what the .410 shells cost these days. I have a 20 gauge shotgun I have loaded for self defense and I would gladly use it as a back up to any of my pistols. Bear to see the patterns and I’d be happy with all of them but my recommendation is not to use any of the bird shot for self defense because there’s no penetration or knock down power.
Thanks for posting and good work!!

Yeah I am sticking with the PDX's and Hornady Critical Defense. 14 PDX's in my KSG should be plenty.