It busted the bottle just fine.

But the pellets only penetrated one side of the bottle.

They did not exit.

That means less than 2 inches of penetration into flesh.

Not nearly enough for a defensive round.

The poor penetration is the reason that birdshot, in any gauge, is a poor defense load.

Let's look at the buckshot.

The 2 1/2 inch, .410 buckshot contains 3 - 000 buckshot pellets.

But here's where the unavailability of this ammo came into play.

I looked all over the county, and the only .410 buckshot I could find was 3 inch.

The 2 1/2 inch buckshot has 3 - 000 pellets and the 3 inch shells have 5 - 000 pellets.

The Judge will only fire 2 1/2 inch shells, so I had to cut the 3 inch shells down to 2 1/2 inches.

We will shoot it into the Waterbox O' Truth.

Notice the spread of the three buckshot.

The buckshot only penetrated one jug and went into the second one.

That is equal to about 4.5 inches of penetration into ballistic gelatin or bad guy.

Not nearly enough.

The shot were flattened completely, but not from hitting the water jugs.

I believe it is a result of the three pellets being forced down the barrel and smashing each other flat.