I always wondered what 410 buckshot would do out of some of the current ‘self defense’ pistols on the market these days so I figured I’d make that happen. I used the 2.5’’ Remington HD 000 buckshot load, the Clear Ballistics “FBI Spec” gel, and a Bond Arms Texas Defender (3’’ barrel) for the test. Here’s what I found:
-2.5’’ pattern at 7 feet
-Penetration was 8.5’’ to 12’’
Here’s the video of the test and what I think of the results:
The shot fired at the end of the video didn’t seem to show much recoil. How did it feel at your end?
Honestly I really don’t think it’s that bad. Some people do but if you grip it high like it’s designed I don’t think it’s that bad. I shot 25 rounds of buck that day and my hand was a little red in the web but that’s it. I have larger than average hands though so that may help.
Did the impact flatten the pellets or did the flatten against each other upon firing?
Excellent question. I didn’t even think of that. I’m not sure there’s any way to know.
8-12" is pretty decent considering how little horsepower is behind them. We experimented with that exact model using wax slugs which works very well out of a 12ga. Didn’t work from the TD, they’d come apart and at 5 yards sprayed a pattern 18" or more. I personally didn’t find it pleasant to shoot but it wasn’t designed to be a 200 shot afternoon plinking gun. It’d make a decent deeply concealed back up gun but I’ll stick to my P220 as primary! :)…O.L.