Help What gauge should i get (shotgun)?

[Trashcan]

I'm going to get a shotgun. I'm wondering what gauge I should get or if it really matters. I'll be using a shotgun shell.

 

[bbq1]

12, then 16, then 20.
But stick to 12.

 

[Trashcan]

12, then 16, then 20.
But stick to 12.

Please excuse my ignorance, but all 12 gauge shotguns can shoot slugs, right? I've heard they're the most lethal.

 

[bbq1]

Please excuse my ignorance, but all 12 gauge shotguns can shoot slugs, right? I've heard they're the most lethal.

You can shoot slugs or pellets ranging from 9's (the smallest but most number in the shell) or 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
The lower the number the fewer but bigger pellets are in the shell.
From such short range I doubt there is any difference to what will occur to your head.

 

[GeorgeEastman]

12 gauge with 00 buckshot is supposed to be the ticket. Damn things are so long though. I always think about getting a .44 Magnum.

 

[Roger]

Please excuse my ignorance, but all 12 gauge shotguns can shoot slugs, right? I've heard they're the most lethal.

It is best not to shoot solid slug through a gun with a choked barrel. (A choke is a slight constriction of the muzzle which is intended to concentrate the spread of pellets.) Sometimes chokes are removeable, but proper sporting shotguns may have the muzzles made with the slight constriction.
Sometimes, in the case of double barrelled guns there is a different sized choke on each barrel.

The advantages of solid slug are that they can be made to spin in a smooth bore, mimicking the effect of rifling, giving added accuracy and range, and energy retention over a considerable distance.

At point blank range, the pellets (of whatever size) in a conventional cartridge stay clumped together for the first metre or so, and produce an entry wound very similar to slug. 12 bore, 20 bore, even .410 are quite adequate for point blank ranges.
If a contact shot (or very close shot) is taken, the expanding gas enters the entry wound and will usually create tearing around the main entry wound (in an intra-oral shot this sometimes takes the form of splitting the corners of the mouth.) Where sufficient gas enters the closed bony vault of the skull then the awful result is the "head explosion."

A similar head explosion can be caused by a high velocity rifle bullet, but the mechanism of the injury differs. Instead of gas entering the skull, the destruction is caused by a sudden increase in intracranial pressure caused by a pressure wave coincidental on the creation of a temporary cavity in the brain tissue. Where the skull cannot withstand this internal pressure, a large chunk of bone may be blown away, and the brain completely or partly eviscerated.
This is known as a "Kroenlein Shot" after the Austrian physicist who first noticed and described it.