What is the range of a hunting shotgun?

Question

I'm writing a fiction novel. Can someone please tell me the range of a shotgun (a) to hit a target and knock it with minimal damage, and (b) to hit a target and produce a decent amount of damage?
In each case, over how much area does the shot spread over the target?

12 gauge double-barrel shotgun.

Answer 1

iv Shot all my life and can not be tort much on the subject, its my hobbie.
Alough you have some good answeres non of them are true to the form of shooting and velocity.
First of all there are many tipes of shot gun, make , gage,modle and designe (over and under or side by side) (12,16,20,28,410,10,8 bore) all used for diferent hunting ,12 (most common) through to 20 are used quit often on game shoots, 28 and 410 (much more of a gental gun on the recoile --ie the discharge) are genraly used by children or even woman. the 8 and 10 bore are genraly used on wildfowl and carry a larger gram cartridge for a much more affective kill.
Since i think we will be genraly talking about a 12 boreshotgun there are a few things to concider, First of all the size of your cartridge, most game shooters use between a 30 and 34 grm shell( caipable of 1450 ft per second.) there is also a 12bore shot gun called a magnum which will take a 3inch sell, not like your average 2 and 3quater sell(cartridge size). Thats the cartridges, next of all there is the choke on the gun, this is the tightness of the barrel at the end, some guns have a fixed choke where others have a removable choke called multichoke, Range with a shot gun all depens on the combernation of cartridge and choke.
With a heavy shell (cartridge) and tight choke (full choke, the tights of chokes) iv had kills at about 70 yards for quary(term for game) .You have in genrall 4 types of choke full(tight patern) three quater, half, quater, and true cillinder which gives you the larges patern possibal with minimum range, killing range of 30to 35 yards or there a abouts for small game,You dont say what the target is so iv tryed my best to explane the ins and outs of a shot gun .I realy could go on all day about different things but wont. if you wish for more detail or othere questions just e mail me [e-mail] (mark) . hope this helped. you could also try www.shotgunworld.com. they genraly have statistics on all aspects of shooting. good luck with the novel

just a little amendment for you, the singal rife slug will go through moste shotguns, though are not ligal, unles you have a firearms licence, with them indorsed on it with the perpose you intend to use them for... Form 60 yards they make a hole in an oke tree 2" wide and just over 2" deep (wincesrte stingers)..
SSg' on the othere hand are 9 BB'packed into a shell, for the use of big game and vermin. Cartridge size 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9. 1 bean the heavyer load,7 8 9 been the lighter load with more shot.

Answer 2

Just about any distance you want it to be! How far do you want it to be for the scene you are depicting? As you can probably tell from the more detailed answers here there is really no simple answer to that question. Firstly the type of shotgun has to be right for the character. A member of the landed gentry is probably not going to be at a driven shoot with a SPAS 12 magnum pump/semiauto for instance. Then what was the intended quarry? Someone out shooting rabbits for instance would be using a cartridge with fewer, heavier shot therefore greater range (perhaps N0.5) opposed to someone clay shooting who may well go for a larger spread (more pellets) provided by say No.9. At the extremes there is Dust which if I recall was made up of 2000 pellets per ounce (no longer available) through to a single slug (not legal on a shotgun licence in UK). Best thing is to take a look at some range tables (these will also give you spread), have in mind what you want your character to achieve and maybe post again if you think and aspect of your senario needs refining.

Answer 3

A double barrel 12 gauge 28 inch barrels,full/three quarter chokes using 2 3/4inch no5/6 shot cartridges will give a clean kill at between 40/50 yards for game ie:- pheasant,partridge and pigeons and so on but then you can start getting into the realms of longer barrels, 3ins magnum which increases the distance for larger birds geese and such !! Then you have the solid 12 gauge slug(one chunk of lead, i think one manufacturer calls them Brennik) used in shotguns with a open choke(unadvisable to use with guns that have a choke), used for boar shooting, these thing will go through an engine block...hope this helps...good luck with the novel !!!

Answer 4

For hunting birds 45 meters with the appropriate shell. Spread at this range 40 inch circle with nearly all the shot inside it....lots of small pellets...up to 450 of them
For Hunting people 35 meters with the appropriate shell. Spread at this range 20 inch circle......few large pellets as few as 9.
If you use this info you will be roughly accurate although these are not extreme results and could be anyhting in between.
Some guns can fire a single pellet....this could be fatal at 100meters but is notoriously inaccurate.

Answer 5

When shooting at birds you can reasonably expect a 100% death count at about fifty yards- this would also be enough to kill a full-grown man although the chances of a 100% death rate are far lower- for this you can half the 50 yard distance. Expect spread to be roughly the size of a dinner plate.

If the weapon is sawn-off, range is very greatly affected to the point that if a person is shot from 5 yards away they may not even get a scratch; however, the spread is much higher; you would be able to fill a doorway from this distance.

Hope this helps, good luck with your book!

PS, SAWN-OFF SHOTGUNS ARE ILLEGAL AND ARE HIGHLY UNSTABLE DUE TO THEIR SHORTENED BARREL- 1 IN 10 SHOTS IS REPUTED TO FAIL, WITH THE CHANCE THE GUN MIGHT EXPLODE AND SERIOUSLY INJURE (OR KILL) THE SHOOTER. Oops just looked up and realised I typed all that in capitals-sorry!

Answer 6

Largely depends on the type of cartrige used.

bird shot is small, with a large scatter pattern, and barely penetrates human flesh through thick clothing at more than 20 / 25 yards - but will shred anything at point blank range.

A single slug on the other hand can fell a deer sized animal.

Answer 7

it all depends on what guage shotgun and what kind of shotshells your using and how close you are to what you are shooting. for your book purposes, birdshot would probaly do the LEAST amount of damage, while buck shot would do the most damage. example...buckshot from a 12 guage at 10 to 15 feet can almost cut a man in half. thanks for taking the time to be accurate in your book, so fiction writers and media pukes aren't.

Answer 8

too little information. the difference between the ballastics of birdshot vs buckshot vs slugs is huge. depending on gauge and choke selection the variation is huge too.

large pellets at close range = dangerous
small pellets at long range = not so dangerous

any where in the middle... need more info.

Answer 9

i have heard that some slug maufacturer has produced a slug good to 200 yds.
personnaly i find it hard to believe.

Answer 10

Range is from hunter to the hunted. If it is not hunted, it is out of range. Got it.