Originally Posted By: Dyusik
I thought about loading with rock salt. Less lethal and more painful. Win win.
Just my opinion(for what it's worth) but "less lethal" rounds for home defense are a legal battle I don't really want to test.
Any way you slice it, pointing a loaded gun at someone is lethal force. Remember that even blanks can be deadly at close range(10 ft. is getting inside the range where that's possible). As the Box of Truth shows(going on memory since it's been a few years since reading their write up) and from my own experience, the plastic wadding is a pretty vicious projectile in its own right at close range.
We don't have a "continuum of force" or whatever you want to call it like the police do. At home, either deadly force is justified or it's not. Of course, if you have to fire the gun your objective is to stop the immediate threat(something which is often deadly). Basically, at home, our escalation is pointing the gun, and if that doesn't stop the threat then firing the gun. Intentionally shooting to wound can get into really shaky legal ground(in this non-lawyer's opinion) as you're recognizing that lethal force is not justified.
My general opinion is leave the bean bags, rubber balls, and whatever other "less lethal" shotgun rounds you can think up to the police. For your home shotgun, use whatever shotgun load you think will get the job done if you need it. I've settled on smallish buckshot(#4 or so) since it will still penetrate decently and also runs 25 pellets to a shell as opposed to 9 for #00. I worry about over-penetration with #00 or with slugs.