Why do you need a riffled barrel and a scope for a home defense shotgun?
Are you going to start shooting slugs, and using the neighbors frige as a backstop?
At night when you’re awoken /starteled in the dark, is your wife going to acquire her target In the scope?
she’s using a shotgun. all she should need to do is point and shoot.
What are you thinking about for ammunition?
Is she really going be able to reload it in a stressful situation?
Just a simple test have her go for a run or exercise. wait till she’s breathing really hard, sweating and has been exercising for an hour and then hand her the gun and tell her to load it as quick as she can while you’re asking her questions.
So are you deciding on a shotgun because of affordability? Rather than an rifle or pistol both of which may be easier to control by smaller frame people like wives and children should they need to use it.
My buddy has a Taurus Judge…. Suffice to say, the .410 shot shells, even the buckshot rounds were manageable for a day at the range….
Then we got into the “self defense” .410 loads….
One which was loaded with 3 buckshot BBs, as well as flat washers…. Well, it devastated the target,… but just take a 32oz ball peen hammer, and smash yourself in the palm with the ball is how it felt to shoot!
And honestly, at in the house ranges,… (unless you have a HUGE house). None of the spreads were all that impressive… so you still have to be accurate with it.
personally, if considering a pistol for home defense, I’d take my chances with my Sig 365x (double the rounds, easier to shoot, better penetration)
That said, I have a DP-12 staged with 14 rounds of Fiocchi buckshot loaded as my HD gun!
I got rid of my Kel-Tec 15. It just wasn’t reliable enough. It dropped at least 1 round in 15. Didn’t matter who used it, or how much I, or anyone practiced with it. Since it was meant to be my wife’s go to h*ll plan, I went for a simpler and more robust design. In almost 300 rounds it hasn’t misfired or FTF yet.
My DP-12 didn’t reliably run the 6 mini slugs shown in the pic during live fire. Though it cycled them perfectly twice prior to doing live fire.
After that we ran 100 standard 2.75” shells through it, and it ran reliably as long as both tubes were loaded properly.
The only failure was, one tube didn’t lift the first shot, so the triggering went boom click, reload, boom boom, it didn’t DROP the round, it just didn’t lift it to the chamber on the first rack.
The last rack loaded the originally missed round resulting in a click boom firing cycle.
Happened twice, but regardless, all 14 rounds went boom!
I really liked the idea behind the DP12 and the Kel-Tec 15. I just found the implementation of it for me wasn’t solid enough for me to make that my wife’s final protection firearm (her primary is a FNX .45 Tactical with light and red dot). That’s why I went with the Benelli M4 platform (licensed version). I did alot of work on the Kel-Tec 15 trying to for the lack of better words, trying to make it fit. Muzzle Brake, bigger selector switch to make it easier to swap barrel, feeder/lifter polished, new trigger, multi function handle (light/laser). I just finally got tired of trying to fix it because I really liked the idea of 30 odd rounds available 15 in the shotgun and 14 in a mounted saddle. But it still dropped a round periodically and that just wasn’t acceptable to me. I don’t want my wife wondering is it a bang or a click.
Not saying it’s a bad system either one. I sort of wish I had gone the DP12 route, but not enough to go buy one now.
Wife tried to shoot my 20 1 time. Won’t touch it. We are old and she can no longer handle a 9mm pistol. At one time she could handle a light weight 45ACP. She can’t hold up the forward weight of an AR15 but can manage a braced 9mm AR pistol for a short time. ATF did not care about the Disabilities Act. The 410 is light enough and recoil is low enough she can get some rounds off. Not the best choice. She fares much better with the Charger. You have to work around peoples abilities. A 22lr is better than something they can’t shoot well.
I never said My Wife’s 20ga was the HD shotgun. My 12 ga is.
My Wife has Fibromyalgia and her shotty is too heavy for her to shoulder. It is a physical impossibility for her to get it to her shoulder, aim and pull the trigger. Her role in our current HD plan is to feed rounds to me as we defend our fallback position. She does have a 9mm pistol she can utilize if required. She cannot reload rounds back into her magazines, but she can get a full magazine back into her pistol. She has LOTS of magazines for her pistol.
Her shotty is being repurposed.
Shotguns do need to be aimed correctly, Sir. They are not “point and shoot.”
Perhaps the OP is on a shoestring budget. While it is possible to purchase a pistol within the same price range as a basic pump shotgun, I would have questions about extended reliability on those “less expensive” pistol options.
There is no mention by the OP of Wife/spouse/dependents/children. Or perhaps his wife is corn fed, you know? Maybe she’s 6’4" and 295? We cannot assume anything other than what is stated in the post.
Shotguns can be the cheapest firearm to buy. All kinds of Turkish pumps out there for under $200. My 12 is an old Mossberg 500 I picked up for $100. It had a C-lect choke. I cut the barrel to 18.5" and mounted the bead myself. Cutting a shotgun barrel is easy with a tubing cutter. Another point is if you have to use it it will be confiscated for evidence and you may never see it again. I could put an Opsol adapter in it and use the mini shells to increase capacity while cutting recoil. Wood stock can be cut and a recoil boot slipped on cheap.
PSA and BCA have Glock clones for sale at about half the price if someone needs a reliable cheap handgun. The HiPoint PCCs have a good reputation. There are cheap reliable guns out there but you have to shop.
And…I forgot about my lovely CX4 which works great for everything. Easy to shoot, store, hide, carry. It is magnificent. If it came in grey/blue, I’d buy another one.
I would get the 12 gauge and get the model that takes the shorty 12 ga. shot shells. That will give you more capacity and the shorties have a little lighter load and a little less recoil, but in 12 ga at home defense distances the shootee will never notice the slight difference in impact. Your market place might be different, but I notice more shops carry a wider selection of 12 ga. than they do of 20 ga. That’s a plus in times of emergency.
Can I ask why you think this is a better option over a full size pistol with a light / laser? Who wil be using this? Do you plan on training with this? These type guns are not precision weapons and don’t lend themselves well to point and shoot (I darn near knocked myself out one time shooting a 12g like a pistol – I still think it was the hardest I’ve ever been hit in the mouth!).
I will support your decision, I just think having a good pistol setup is better if you are allowed to have it. AIM. Not point and shoot. Just my 2-cents.
The quick, dirty and cheap solution—get thee to a pawn shop and grab a brand name wood (in a worse case scenario, it’ll serve as a club) stocked pump with a mod, cyl or imp cyl choke, and do the test I suggested, then get a whole lot of lead field loads. Shoot a few rounds of Skeet to make sure it’s reliable and to know where it hits. Remember the pattern board it your friend. Get a box of 00 or 4B for HD duty and call it good.
