so i have a judge with a 3" barrel and 3" chamber and laser grips. also just picked up a box of the new the new federal 3" .410 handgun buckshot loads.

i was thinking of having this be my wife's house gun since I'm gone 2 nights a week.

my question is how well do you think the buckshot will be at stopping a bad guy? do you think they deliever enough power with on shot to put someone down?

I'd like to know the energy of the pellets are. 9 pellets of 4 buck. i haven't shot it yet but i'd think that at 20 feet the pellets would be spread a bit and not all hit the target.

I know a guy that's taken deer with 410 slugs in the judge; can't speak on the buck, but I'd bet one load or another is causing some hurt (death)

BoxOtruth did a piece on the judge. In short, the slugs did about as well as the .45LC, but buck out of it was found seriously lacking. It did not have the energy required to penetrate to (let alone through) vital organs at a range of about two yards (IIRC). Federal supposedly came up with a new round for the judge in .410. It supposedly had one small slug backed by several buck shot. I haven't seen any testing on it, but I reckon the slug's energy is reduced greatly by its small weight, and the buck probably the same as results for just buck.



Edit to add: The testing a buddy of mine and I did with a 3" judge in calibrated gel got 3" of penetration with buck, and 14" with slugs at a range of 4 yards. FBI minimum to be considered an effective round is 12 to 18". Also always remember that unless specifically specified otherwise, energies advertised by ammo companies for revolvers are tested and figured using six inch test barrels.

WOW... must have been a point blank shot. Accuracy is not the best out of these guns.