12ga 3" 000 buck for me thanks
That's my standard load and gauge for home defense. Indoors, it's a simple point and shoot. There's no way to miss with that load in the 5-7 yard distances you find in most houses and it won't pierce multiple walls.
Outdoors you can load up with a combination of buck and slugs.
I've been interested in loading my own "buck and ball" type shells for the past couple of years. It was a common combat load in smooth bore long guns from the late 1600's through most of the American Civil War. It was real maiming and man killing combo in the days before antibiotics.
It still amazes me the generals of that time were able to get their troops to line up in open ranks, three to five rows deep opposite of each other, and commence firing with 50-60 yards between them. The powder of those times wasn't that great, and you couldn't see crap after the first couple of rows let loose, but Hell's Bell's, that's a lot of lead going down range from a weapon with a medium choke at best.