A lot of people labor under the impression that you simply aim a shotgun in the general direction of the threat, pull the trigger and be done with it (skipping the loading, prepping and aiming bits). Shotgunistas refer to this as the “spray and pray” philosophy. Truth be told, at home defense distances, just about any ammo exiting the muzzle of just about any shotgun is fairly tightly gathered. In short, you can miss. Also, it’s easier to disarm a person holding a shotgun than someone holding a handgun. On the other hand, if you shoot someone center mass using a shotgun with good size pellets, they aren’t going to be singing about the event afterwards.
Basically it depends on ammo but at 10 yards or less the patterns will rarely be larger that the diameter of a baseball, so it is very possible to miss. I think the reason for the myth is that even an 18.5" bbl home defense gun has a sight radius so much bigger than a handgun that even if you were firing from the hip you would have a pretty good idea of where the gun is pointed. Check out theboxotruth.com (I swear I don't work for him) for some interesting stuff on patterns, including a bit where he shoots pellets out of a rifled barrel.
Shotgunistas? Seriously? You've also got "spray and pray" incorrectly explained.
Where do you get the info about shotguns being easier to take away from the user?
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