re: Taurus's new Judge

From the Box O Truth:
LINK

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The buckshot only penetrated one jug and went into the second one.

That is equal to about 4.5 inches of penetration into ballistic gelatin or bad guy.

Not nearly enough.

The shot were flattened completely, but not from hitting the water jugs.

I believe it is a result of the three pellets being forced down the barrel and smashing each other flat.

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The rifled slug:

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penetrated 2 1/2 jugs or equal to 7.5 inches of BG. Again, well short of the 12 inches minimum required for a defense load.

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For the .45 round:

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penetrated 5 jugs, or equal to 15 inches of BG.

Plenty of penetration, but the expansion was not very good, a problem with this particular bullet

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Lessons learned:
1. Jack bought this pistol for snakes and it looks like a fine tool for that job.

2. Birdshot, in any gauge, is for little birds.

3. Buckshot out of a .410 does not penetrate enough to be an effective personal defense load.

4. The rifled slug was also a disappointment and did not have enough weight or power or penetration to be effective as a defense load.

5. The .45 Long Colt loads had plenty of penetration and would be the preferred defense load for this pistol.

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Opinions ALWAYS vary. But the novelty of shooting the .410 rounds doesn't appear to me enough to justify it, although I guess it would be cool in the woods to use on varying threats from both small and large.

ETA: Dammit. Just saw the BOT stuff posted.