#6-8 is what I would have thought everyone was using. The only place I'd heard of using #12 was in .22 & pistol calibers.

DLR:

Thanks

That's the truth. I use #9 in my .44 mag homemade shotshells. Beyond 15'-20' it spreads out too thin to be of any use. One of these days when I get some time I'm going to try varying the powder charge to see if that will tighten it up a bit.

How would this revolver work as bear defense? How about closer range home defense?

The bear defense survival weapon of choice for bush pilots in the far north is a 13" to 18' barrel 12 gauge shot gun with high powered slugs; unless, of course, you can afford a mucho dollar 45-70 or similar. In my limited experience with bears, a .410 would just tick it off.

I do believe this weapon would make an ideal home defence weapon.

any shotgun barrel shorter than 18 inches in length requires a FEDERAL permit to possess (besides any state license)

DougM:

You are correct of course. What you may not realize is these mostly 13" to 15" shot guns are for the sole purpose of keeping the bears at bay in the event of a plane crash. The likelyhood of finding an ATF agent lurking on the glacier is kind of remote.

Soooo just fill out a Form 4 and a few weeks later your set.

I would definately take the .45 LC over the .410 for bears. While it may be marginal it would certaintly be better than nothing. The .45 LC cartridge would also work well for home defense, provided you choose an appropriate load (low muzzle blast + good hollowpoint.) Not sure about the .45/.410 gun itself since I don't own one. Sounds like a pretty nifty combo though.

The Taurus Tracker is an extremely interesting little backpacking piece to me but not the current 45 Colt model.

I've been looking at these for some time. The very fact that it has a cylinder long enough for 2 1/2" 410 shells is what puts me off this model. Too long a jump to the forcing cone to expect much in the way of accuracy. Pity, as I specifically wanted this in 45 Colt. I would not have loaded it as hot as my Rugers, but relatively warm hard cast bullets from 45 Colt always get the job done in my experience.

The Tracker in 44 magnum may soon be a replacement for my wife's Target Bulldog in 44 Special (her backpacking choice) or... I hate to add another caliber, but the one that makes the most sense of all is the 41 Magnum Tracker. I've been leaning a little more that direction the last month. The size, weight, form, and caliber really come together in the 41 mag Tracker.

As for snakes - I don't carry shotshells; my wife very rarely carries her Bulldog with Speer shot capsules I loaded - usually they are in a speed loader. Just "comfort ammo" for her, as she does not practice as much as I do. The only snake we have EVER had to shoot was a poor black snake I accidentally ran over with my mountain bike, and I euthanized it with one shot from the Ruger MkII (22 lr) I had on me at the time. We ate the snake that night.

OTOH, I shot truckloads of small game (mostly ptarmigan) for the pot with my favorite Ruger Blackhawk in 45 Colt (very heavy bullets; very heavy handloads). It is pretty easy if you are using an accurate load and are practiced with it. I demonstrated this for my sons a couple of weeks ago while at the range - starling at 50 ft, one shot, decapitated (no idea why it landed on my close range target backer). It's more difficult as the caliber goes down - difficult shot for me with an iron sighted 22 pistol (the head, I mean).

IMHO, shotshells in a pistol are a waste of effort.

HTH,

Tom