The Best Home Defense Shotguns: What Makes a Good Choice?

By: Joel T. Nadler

While many of us spend more time, money, and training on defensive handgun use — especially from a concealed carry position — the reality is that most defensive uses are likely to occur while at home. The classic saying that “a handgun is what you use to fight your way to a long gun” reflects the belief that long guns offer superior defensive capabilities. For home defense, a shotgun stands out as not only practical, but also a powerful tool that deserves some serious consideration. This article will explore the shotgun as a home defense tool, examining the shotgun’s strengths and limitations in this role, and outline what makes a “good” home defense shotgun.

 

Shotgun as a Defensive Tool

Due to its traditional association with hunting and sport shooting in the U.S., the shotgun often carries fewer political and social stigmas than rifles — specifically the AR-15. Regardless of political affiliation, individuals concerned about protecting their homes often find a shotgun to be a more broadly accepted choice. This widespread cultural comfort can make it easier to defend your choice of weapon in both legal and social settings, which is often overlooked. This acceptance, however, sometimes comes with misconceptions that need to be addressed.

Myth 1: You Don’t Need to Aim. I have heard this one many times, often from first time gun owners and it is widely supported in various movies and TV shows. Many a time a hero shoots a shotgun from the hip hitting all the bad guys in a room. In reality, the spread of buckshot is roughly 0.6 inches per yard. At a common home-defense distance of 5 yards (15 feet), the spread is only about 3 inches across — hardly wide enough to eliminate the need for aiming.

This can be even tighter (smaller radius) in many shotguns. As 15 feet is a decent distance in a home defense situation you absolutely still need to aim. Though a 3-inch spread of buckshot is better than the 0.38” spread of a single round from a handgun, it is certainly not taking out multiple people and hitting everyone in range. Put simply, shotguns require careful targeting, especially in high-stress situations.

Myth 2: Shotguns are Less Penetrative. While bird shot may be less penetrative than handgun rounds,it’s still capable of passing through several layers of drywall.

 By comparison, buckshot (the most common load used for home defense) consists of multiple projectiles similar in size to handgun rounds, but traveling at a higher velocity. I have personally tested birdshot, buckshot, and slugs on how many sheetrock barriers they penetrate at 10 feet and found that birdshot is only slightly less penetrative than 9mm, buckshot is more penetrative, and slugs are similar in penetration to rifle rounds. Home defenders must take this into account when planning their safe backstops and understanding the potential danger of missed or over-penetrating rounds.

 

Shotguns: The Pros and Cons

Beyond the myths, there are several advantages and disadvantages to using a shotgun for home defense. Your skills, home layout, and willingness to train will ultimately shape whether a shotgun is right for you. Personal preferences may impact these as well. The goal is to purposely decide what are the advantages and disadvantages of your own defensive choices.

Pros. The advantages (or pros) of choosing a shotgun for home defense include politics and stopping power. Politically, shotguns are widely viewed as acceptable defensive tools, which could be beneficial in jurisdictions with stricter gun laws. With a good defensive lawyer, it really does not matter what firearm you used if you followed the legal requirements of home defense in your jurisdiction (city, state, and federal). However, the reality is that especially in areas with more liberal leaning prosecutors, using a more tactical weapon associated with the military will likely result in 

Statistically, shotguns have tremendous stopping power and few people want to be on the receiving end of a shotgun. Finally, though generally accepted for home defensive use, the stopping power of a shotgun is devastating. In an examination of how many rounds it took to result in a physiological stop using emergency room data the average with a shotgun was 1.2 compared to 2.45 with a 9mm handgun. Similarly, the handgun resulted in fatality 24% of the time, with a shotgun it jumped to 65%2. 

Cons. The disadvantages of shotguns include complexity, capacity, recoil, and size. Most of these factors revolve around the lesser levels of training and preparation that many people devote to working with their shotgun. If you are spending most of your training time with a handgun and have a shotgun you hardly ever use for home defense, you may want to rethink your training priorities. 

Most shotguns are more complex than handguns. The average striker-fired handgun is drop safe (it will not negligently discharge if dropped) and can be left with a round in the chamber and ready to fire. Thus, the steps to use a handgun for defense are 1) retrieve the handgun, 2) point it at the threat, 3) if necessary, pull the trigger. Afterwards the handgun is ready to fire again. A shotgun by comparison is not drop safe and should likely be stored without a round chambered. Thus, the steps are 1) retrieve the shotgun, 2) press the action release, 3), firmly run the action to chamber a shell, 4) click off the safety, 5) if necessary, pull the trigger. Unlike the handgun, pump-action shotguns require the user to manually cycle the action between shots, which is frequently mishandled in training scenarios. Though these few extra actions may not seem like much, I have seen people fail to deactivate the safety or run the action after a first round so many times in shotgun classes I have honestly lost count. That reaction is during training, when not under duress; if not regularly practiced and under duress, imagine how often that might be forgotten. A semi-automatic shot gun can remove the need to chamber additional shells between each shot, but these tend to be more expensive and ammunition selective (more likely to have malfunctions with some shells). Another drawback is that some semi-autos may not cycle lower-power loads reliably, requiring specific shell types to function properly.

Managing malfunctions in a shotgun is a skill that must be deliberately trained, especially since clearing a double-feed or stuck shell under stress is more complicated than a simple tap-rack response with a handgun.

Capacity and size reflect that beyond training with the shotgun, though they are more powerful they also have a generally smaller capacity compared to many handguns and rifles. As a good friend of mine often says, I never want to die due to a lack of shooting back. Size reflects the difficulty of moving and using a shotgun in an enclosed space such as a home. Finally, though manageable with training by almost anyone, there is no doubt that a shotgun features more recoil than handguns and most rifles. 

The disadvantages of a shotgun are generally driven by individuals failing to consider and train for using a shotgun as a defensive tool.

 

What makes a Good Home Defense Shotgun?

When choosing a defensive weapon, be it a handgun, a rifle, o a shotgun, I focus on four criteria: reliability, capacity, ease of use, and willingness to Tain with it. Reliability is one of the reasons I favor pump-action shotguns. They are notoriously reliable due to their mechanical simplicity and broad shell compatibility.  With a small amount of training a reliable pump-action shotgun will run almost any type of shell (birdshot, buckshot, or slug). When it comes to capacity, I run under the assumption that the more the merrier. The greater the capacity the less proportionally devastating a misfired or missed round is as well as the greater number of scenarios (no matter how unlikely) you are ready to handle. I generally look for 5+ shells in a defensive shotgun and mine have had an extra magazine tube added to take their capacity to at least 7 shells.

I also recommend considering the ergonomics of the shotgun. Specifically look at the stock length, grip texture, and sling attachment points as these can significantly impact your comfort and ability to deploy the weapon effectively under stress.

You also want to make sure you have a shotgun you enjoy shooting and training with. Familiarity builds performance under stress. If you are not comfortable working a shotgun’s action and safety automatically, you are not yet ready to depend on it in a crisis. If you are planning to use a shotgun as your home defense weapon you need to practice with it to make sure you are competent and mistake free (leaving the safety on, failing to chamber another shell) with it. For some this may mean leaving the common 12 gauge for the smaller (but still devastating) 20 gauge. I enjoy practicing with my 12 gauge but still find it punishing to do more than 50-100 shells of practice with it at one time compared to a much higher tolerance for practice time and rounds fired with my handgun. Finally, the shotgun should be easy to use, the safety and action release need to be easily found and utilized, the running of the action needs to be smooth, and the trigger and sights need to be easy to find and use.

My personal Recommendations

You may have determined that my personal criteria favor reliable pump-action formats that are easily adjusted for additional capacity. Thus, my two recommendations are very similar 12 gauges from two different companies. 

The first is the Remington 870. This shotgun has been in production since 1951, has seen extensive military and law enforcement use, and currently has over 13 million copies in production. There have been multiple variants, and it is available in different barrel lengths and capacities from low capacity, longer barrel, wooden stock hunting versions to shorter, higher capacity, tactical versions. 

The second shotgun I would recommend is the Mossberg 590, first produced in 1961 and sitting at 11 million units produced. The Mossberg 500 series has also served in various militaries and law enforcement agencies over its decades long service. Like the Remington 870, these 12 gauges are easily modified for additional capacity and come in a wide variety of finishes, barrel lengths, and uses. Another unique advantage of the Mossberg design is its placement of the safety, which is ideal for ambidextrous use or left-handed shooters — an overlooked feature in many defensive scenarios.

Ultimately, your choice of defensive firearm will depend on your training, comfort, and environment. Each person needs to find a firearm that best works for their skills, home environment, personal situation, and tastes. For many this will be a shotgun, which can be a powerful and versatile tool, but only if you commit to understanding and practicing with it.Whatever your home defensive choice, make sure you fully understand its safe use, practice with it, and build your home defense plans around its safe use. As always, choose wisely, train diligently, and build a home defense strategy rooted in safety, legality, and preparedness.