Will Buckshot Go Through Walls? What the Testing Shows

The short version

A lot of people buy a shotgun for the house on the theory that buckshot "won't go through walls like a bullet will." It's a comforting idea, and it doesn't survive contact with the test data.

Interior walls in most American homes are drywall over wood studs. Drywall is a finishing material, not armor. Our 9mm and walls post covers what that means for handgun rounds. This is the shotgun side, built only on third-party tests that are published and linkable. We haven't run our own.

What the published tests found

Athlon Outdoors: a real interior wall

Frank Melloni built what he described as a code-typical interior wall: 2×4 studs on 16-inch centers with 5/8-inch drywall on both sides and no insulation. He fired a pump shotgun from 21 feet, aiming each shot at a stud, with a camera filming the back of the wall.

Remington Gun Club #7½ birdshot made it through the first sheet of drywall and stopped. Remington Ultimate Defense #4 buck went through both layers. Remington Ultimate Defense 00 buck went through both layers. Neither buckshot load went through the stud itself. For comparison, a managed-recoil 1-ounce slug went "clean through the 2×4 stud" and both layers.

Shooting Illustrated: wall, then gel

Jeff Johnston shot through two sheets of half-inch sheetrock into ballistic gelatin at 7 yards from an 18.5-inch Mossberg 590M. That setup answers a different question: not just "does it go through," but "how much is left after it does."

A 9-pellet Winchester Super-X 00 load still averaged 13 inches in gel after the wall, with individual pellets from 8 to 15 inches. A 41-pellet 3-inch Remington #4 magnum averaged about 8 to 9 inches, with some pellets at 13. Birdshot averaged half an inch, with a few pellets reaching 3. A 1-ounce slug went 22 inches.

Put that next to the FBI's 12-inch minimum for defensive loads and you see the bind. The loads that still had enough penetration after one wall to be effective are the same loads that will go on through the next one.

Box O' Truth: four panels

The long-running Box O' Truth tests, as summarized by The Firearm Blog in 2017, used four pieces of drywall. The summary reports that "all rounds tested including mil-spec XM-193, soft point, buckshot, .30 carbine, etc all penetrated all the walls presented." Only a frangible round and birdshot showed reduced penetration. The summary doesn't specify the buckshot size, so treat it as a general result.

What about #4 buck and birdshot?

Smaller pellets do lose energy faster. That's real. Lucky Gunner suggests #4 buck as a reasonable pick for apartments and townhouses on those grounds, then adds that it "is still going to go through at least a couple of interior walls." Our buckshot buyer's guide and the tests above agree.

Birdshot is the one load that consistently stopped early. It's also the one that consistently failed to penetrate deeply enough to be a reliable defensive load. Johnston's test had birdshot averaging half an inch in gel after the wall. That's the trade: the same property that keeps it out of the next room keeps it from doing the job in this one.

The FBI's own testing recognized walls as part of the problem. American Rifleman's account of the protocol describes one barrier event as two pieces of half-inch gypsum wallboard spaced about 3½ inches apart, simulating standard construction. Defensive loads are expected to pass through that and still reach 12 inches.

Exterior walls are different

Exterior walls usually add sheathing, insulation and siding or masonry, so they stop more than interior partitions. "More" is not "everything." Lucky Gunner notes that 00 buck at around 1,600 fps is more likely to penetrate exterior walls and other hard barriers than slower loads. Windows and doors stop very little.

If you live close to neighbors, assume a miss can leave the house. The same goes for vinyl-sided homes and anything with large windows on the side you're thinking about.

Is a shotgun still a good house gun?

Yes, for reasons that have nothing to do with walls. A shotgun puts several projectiles on target with one trigger press, it's familiar to a lot of households, and good pump guns are widely available. Those are real advantages. The point here is narrower: don't pick a shotgun because you think it's wall-safe, and don't load birdshot hoping it will be.

The same is true of the alternatives. Handgun bullets go through walls, as our 9mm post explains. Rifle rounds do too, though Lucky Gunner's pistol-caliber carbine article notes some 5.56 loads tumble or fragment after passing through a couple of walls. Every platform shares the problem. The planning below is what actually moves the risk, and it works the same whatever is in your safe. If you're still choosing the platform, our handgun vs shotgun vs carbine guide lays out the trade-offs.

How to plan for it

The answer isn't a magic shell. It's knowing your house.

1. Map who sleeps where. Draw your floor plan and mark every bedroom. Note which walls sit between your likely position and theirs.
2. Pick a defensive position, not a search route. Most home-defense plans work best when you stay put, call 911, and let the threat come to a known angle. Our family plan post covers roles.
3. Find your backstops. From that position, look down each line of fire. What's behind the doorway: a child's room, an exterior wall, a staircase, a chimney? Masonry, a bathtub, or the ground floor from upstairs are better backstops than a shared bedroom wall.
4. Choose a load that patterns tight. A wide pattern means pellets going places you didn't aim. Reduced-recoil 00 with a FLITECONTROL-type wad keeps the charge together at house distances. See our patterning post.
5. Train to hit. Every pellet that hits its target is a pellet that doesn't go through a wall. Practice from your defensive position (with an unloaded gun, verified twice) so the angles feel familiar.

Loads worth patterning

None of these will stop at drywall. They're listed because tight patterns reduce strays, which is the variable you actually control.

• Federal Tactical reduced-recoil FLITECONTROL 00 buck, 9 pellets.
• Hornady Critical Defense 00 buck, 8 pellets with the Versatite wad.
• Federal Power-Shok #4 buck, 27 pellets, if you want to compare a smaller shot size in your gun.

The bottom line

Buckshot goes through interior walls. Every test cited here agrees. #4 buck loses steam faster than 00 but still gets through a standard wall, and only birdshot stops early, at the cost of not working well as a defensive load. Make your peace with that by choosing a tight-patterning load, planning your position and backstops, and practicing until hits are the norm. Browse Ammunition Depot's 12-gauge category for patterning ammo.

Editorial note: This is an independent editorial overview built from manufacturer specifications, retailer listings and published sources. We have not performed hands-on testing of the products discussed, and nothing here is a performance guarantee. Verify specifications, compatibility and the law where you live.

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