Obviously, your mileage varies. I'll have to respectfully agree to disagree on this one. After over 15yrs of martial arts training, I'm not going to be swayed about a female "pushing cartilage into the brain of a mail assailant" (sounds great on paper, but never happens in real life-broken nose yes, brain, no), and obviously you're very staunch in your position about "shooting until the threat is neutralized". Personally, in a self defense shooting, I'd much rather be sitting in a courtroom with no opponent than a crippled burglar playing the pity card. But that's my personal opinion about it. I'd also disagree that while YOU might be able to get the upper hand on an equally sized man with your long gun, we're talking about a woman in this scenario. Put a 220lb man on one end of a shotgun and a 125lb woman on the other end, and see who ends up with it. It's your opinion to bet on the woman, but my money's on the man. I'd feel the same if it was a 150lb man and a 250lb man... The weight is gonna win out 90% of the time. It's not chess, it's hand to hand combat.

And while I agree with you that a 2" vs 4" barrel does make a difference on paper at 25yrds, I personally don't know anybody that owns a house with a bedroom 75ft long. 10ft is "point blank range". My fiancee practices "audible" shooting with a blindfold to practice POINTING with her body. She shoots a Ladysmith .357mag blind folded and can score 6 center mass shots on an IDPA target at 10ft. The only cue is a sports watch alarm that beeps once at the base of the target to signal the start. She gets the same result with her 9mm Springfield 1911 EMP. It's 10ft. If she's hunting deer at 50yrds, then it's a 6" colt Python .357mag, because it's 50yrds.

Again, your mileage may vary. The guy asked for opinions, and I gave mine.