a use for rotten ground beef

[justashooter 430]

so somebody bought 8 pounds of ground beef, put it in the cooler drawer of the fridge, and forgot about it for a few days. a nice shade of grey on the surface, still in packaging, it was an irresistable opportunity to settle once and for all the question of whether a shotgun loaded with birdshot is suitable for use as a defensive tool.

test implements included an NIB ithaca model 51 12 gauge 3" magnum autoloader with steel BBB shot in a 1 1/2 oz package (a goose hunter's dream), and my new favourite field gun, a pristine late 60's luigi franchi autoloading 48AL in 20 gauge, loaded with 7/8 oz field loads in 7 1/2 size.

the ground beef was in two packages, each about 3" thick and 8" X 10" in size. the first package was fully penetrated by the BBB shot at 10 yards in a nicely contained 5" pattern from a full choke barrel. the second package had a nice big hole blown through it by the shot wad at same range, and forensic examination of the remains in periphery indicated that 7 1/2 shot will nearly penetrate 3" of 92% lean ground beef.

sounds like it would work, to me. i'd prefer the franchi for it's 5 1/2 lb heft and 26" rifle sighted barrel, but think the ithaca would be slightly more effective. but then, when you are killing ground beef, it's already dead. pics would have been attached, but the first shot splattered the lense of the camera, unbeknownst to the intrepid photographer, who is now in posession of 24 frames of shutter-flash high speed photography of smears of ground beef.

[john & jean 37]

I thought this was about school lunches

[Ban Hammer 13,643]

I thought this was about school lunches

[natty bumppo 297]

I thought this was about school lunches

there wasn't a little paper boat floating in the soup

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

How about eating the food you buy and not letting it go off?

[slim 1,533]

Is there any way you could repeat this test and dress the ground beef in a leather jacket?

I've always seen penetration tables and statistics against gel or meat or even something like pine boards but home defense "experts" (and I always have to use quotes because as Murphy can tell you - there's no such thing as an "expert" in a gun battle) tend to argue over the effects of penetration through heavy clothing and THEN the meat.

While I have no doubt a 10 yard shot with just about any scattergun is going to do the trick, regardless of what the bad guy is wearing, I'd like to see if your real data confirms it. - Or I'll just head over to box of truth...

Sounded like a fun test. Next time "someone" forgets the meat, see what a 1/2 lb. of Tannerite added like seasoning will do. Happy shootin!