12-Gauge vs. 20-Gauge vs .410 Bore: Which Is Best for Home Defense?

There are three major shotgun calibers in the United States – 12-gauge, 20-gauge, and .410 Bore.

In the world of defensive shotguns, 12-gauge rules. It’s the most dominant option among police, military, and home defenders. But does it have to be?

Let’s find out! We put these three side-by-side in a head-to-head comparison, with live fire shoot, to determine if the smaller shotgun shells are a viable alternative to the mighty 12-gauge.

So, keep reading to see what we discovered in testing!

How Shotgun Shells Work

Before we get too far, let’s talk about how shotgun shells work.

Gauge is an old measurement that relates to the diameter of the bore and how many lead balls of that sized diameter would create one pound.

To create a pound of lead in 12-gauge, you would need 12 lead balls the size of the gun’s bore. For 20-gauge, you’d need 20 balls because the bore is smaller. As for .410, we don’t use gauge but rather fractions of an inch — much like how we measure standard handgun loads.

Basically, gauge number (12, 20, etc.) is inversely related to the size of the shell. Therefore, 12-gauge is the biggest, followed by 20-gauge and eventually the wee little .410.

A bigger shell holds more shot. Shot is the term used to describe the multitude of pellets inside the shotgun shell. In the defensive world of shotguns, we have two viable options: buckshot and slugs.

Buckshot loads use fairly large pellets, ranging from the .24-inch-per-pellet No. 4 buckshot to the .36-inch-per-pellet 000 Buckshot. (Pronounced Triple Aught.)

On the other hand, slugs are large, heavy, solid projectiles. Slugs extend your effective range, but for home defense, that’s not needed. Slugs are much more likely to over-penetrate a target.

Buckshot is typically the best defensive option for inside the home since a shotgun’s lethality comes from the multitude of projectiles that hit the threat per trigger pull. The larger the shell, the more pellets it can contain. Each shot delivers multiple pellets on contact, making them very effective for self-defense at close ranges.

12-Gauge vs. 20-Gauge vs. .410 Bore

12-Gauge

12-gauge cartridges originated in the early 1800s and, over time, rose to dominance for shotguns.

While they are the largest popular gauge, that wasn’t always the case. In the late to mid-1800s, they were considered a good compromise of power and portability compared to the era’s 8- and 10-gauge guns. 

The most significant benefit of choosing 12-gauge is the number of options available. 12-gauge loads come in various sizes, from mini 1.75-inch shells to mighty 3.5-inch loads. But the most common choice for self-defense is a 2.75-inch round.

12-gauge shells come in a wide variety of shot sizes. For defensive use, the most common is the 00, which holds eight to nine .33-inch pellets. The standard 00 buckshot load is the most common, but shotgunners will argue for their favored buckshot flavor.

One massive advantage of 12-gauge is the sheer number of purpose-built tactical loads. These include low recoil loads, tactical slugs, and more. Loads like the Federal FliteControl buckshot provide the tightest patterning buckshot load available, and it’s my choice for home defense.

In the defensive shotgun market, 12-gauge guns also rule. Finding a 12-gauge pump or semi-auto in your favorite flavor is easy. I can’t say the same about the .410 and 20-gauge.

The 12-gauge offers users a lot of lead per trigger pull. With all that lead, we see substantially more recoil than .410 and 20-gauge loads. (I’m one of many shotgunners who’s in an abusive relationship with recoil.)

Other common complaints include the weight and size of these guns. They are big and often heavy. They certainly aren’t egalitarian weapons like the AR-15.

20-Gauge

20-gauge originates from the United Kingdom and dates back to the days of muzzleloaders with .615-inch diameter bores. The 20-gauge shotgun gained popularity in the United States in the 1950s as a lower recoil alternative to the 12-gauge. It’s remained a popular option ever since.

The gods of the gauge have blessed the 20-gauge with two major benefits — lighter recoil and a lightweight gun. This makes it much more attractive to smaller shooters or just people who don’t have a masochistic mindset toward recoil.

But with lighter recoil and a smaller shell, we do get less of a payload. To be entirely fair, it’s not that much less of a payload. You can still get a two ¾ inch shell with nine pellets.

The difference comes from using the slightly smaller Number 1 pellets rather than the 00 pellets. Number 1 pellet scan still penetrates deep enough to reliably reach the vitals of a threat.

Our doorway darkens when it comes to options. 20-Gauge ammunition doesn’t have many options available for self-defense. Winchester makes a tactical load, but it’s just their standard 20-gauge buckshot load in a black hull.

The tide has begun to change slightly, and Federal showed a FliteControl option for the 20-gauge at SHOT 2024. This is a 10 pellet number 2 load, and I can’t wait to try some and see how it performs. If it works, then the 20-gauge becomes an even more viable option for home defense.

There are also fewer options for 20-gauge defensive shotguns. As of this writing, I have a Mossberg 590, which is the best defensive 20-gauge shotgun on the market.

.410 Bore

Oh, the wee little .410. It’s the caliber I started my adventure with shotguns in at the age of 8. I love the .410, but in terms of defensive use, it’s not the most loving option.

Like the 20-gauge, there are two immediate benefits — less recoil and lighter weight. These guns are so light the UFC would need to make a new division to accommodate them. A full-sized Mossberg 590 in .410 weighs less than 6 pounds, so it’s very light and easy to handle.

If we measured .410 in gauge, it would be 67.5 gauge. With a dedicated 3-inch buckshot load, I’d put the recoil at 5.56 levels. Maybe a hair more, but less than something like a 7.62x39mm.

For a shotgun, it’s downright soft. The Gauge Gods were sacrificial with the .410’s payload. If you wanted a serious defensive .410, I’d point you to a 3-inch round with five 000 pellets. That’s the best you’ll be able to do.

It’s still five 9mm rounds per trigger pull, but it’s significantly less than the 12- and 20-gauge options. Speaking of options, you don’t have a lot with the .410. It’s limited and pricey.

The .410 costs the same or even more than the premium defensive 12 gauge on a per-round basis. The scale factor isn’t in play because not that many people use .410 these days for hunting anything but small game and clay pigeons. The .410 comes in 2.5- and 3-inch varieties, unlike the other gauges.

The same goes for guns. Most .410s are designed for hunting, with very limited defensive options. For this test, we got a 590 in .410, which is easily the best defensive .410 out there.

Range Testing

We are basing this entire conversation on home defense. I wanted to test a 12-gauge, a 20-gauge, and a .410 defensive shotgun side by side through an objective series of tests to illustrate any potential performance differences.

To do so, I used the Lucky Gunner Shotgun Skills Test. Chris Baker designed the test with home defense in mind. This course of fire has four stages from 15 to 3 yards with 11 rounds per run.

I blasted through this test six times with three guns in three different calibers. Each gun passed the test twice, and I took the best time for each run.

For testing, Mossberg sent me a Mossberg 590 in 20-gauge and .410. I tested that alongside my personal 12-gauge Mossberg 500. All three guns are relatively plain, and all feature bead sights, so it should be a fair comparison.

Stage 1: 15 Yards, aim and fire one round from the low ready.

I didn’t expect to see much of a difference here. Since the guns are one-round fired, it’s tough to see a difference between the various shotgun chamberings.

Stage 2: 10 Yards, aim and fire two rounds from the low ready.

This one perplexed me. I thought I’d see more of a difference in the times. The recoil does play a part here. I am an ardent practitioner of the push/pull recoil reduction technique, so maybe my recoil reduction techniques are more effective than I assumed and evened the playing field.

Stage 3: 5 Yards, gun is cruiser-ready with three rounds in the tube and lying down on a table or similar platform. At the beep, the shooter grabs the gun and fires the three rounds on target, and then emergency loads two rounds into the gun and fires them.

Look at this weird spread of times…with the winner turns out to be the 20-gauge in this drill.

Well, it’s complicated. I didn’t make any major mistakes with the other two shotguns. It just turns out the 20-gauge is the right compromise in low recoil and good shell size. The recoil is self-explanatory, but the shell size might not be.

I used port reloads for my emergency reloads. The .410 shells are small and awkward to grab and load. They want to flip around in the hand, and the smaller .410 ejection port is harder to find. Meanwhile, the 12-gauge offered more recoil. Out of all three, the 20-gauge was just easy to grab and load into the gun.

A flaw in my push-pull method comes from releasing the push/pull tension and grabbing a shell, shucking it in, and shooting. I had to release the tension to grab the shell, and I lost that excellent recoil mitigation, which increased my time between shots and ultimately slowed my time down.

I never considered that shell size would be a factor.

Stage 4: 3 Yards, start with the gun at the low ready in a compressed firing position. At the signal, fire two rounds in the compressed position and take a step back by shouldering the gun and firing one headshot.

Here is where the .410’s super-low recoil became a real asset. The compressed firing position is awkward, so the lighter weight, lighter recoiling gun offers a major advantage. The gun recoils so slightly that I don’t even need to place it on my shoulder to control it.

Range Testing Results

I thought I’d see a much bigger difference between the three loads when shooting the skills test. I imagined faster times with the smaller 20-gauge and .410, but that wasn’t always the case.

It turns out that recoil mitigation matters more than caliber. 

Beyond the Range

Beyond the range skill test, I worked various shooting and reloading drills. After one long day, I came to a few conclusions throughout my evaluation.

Reloading

As we saw in Stage 3, reloading can be an exciting phenomenon. Loading the 12-gauge and 20-gauge felt ergonomic and intuitive. The .410 was a pain.

The ratio of shell size to receiver is skewed with the .410. It’s very easy to get the mini .410 shells stuck on the side of the receiver near the magazine tube opening. They get hung up and require more manipulation to load quickly.

Push/Pull & Recoil

Push/pull does wonders for reducing shotgun recoil. I’m not a master of the technique, but I’ve gotten pretty good at it.

After a day of shooting these shotguns, I noticed I got much more tired of shooting the 12-gauge with a proper push/pull technique than other guns. My technique starts to suffer after the 50th round of 12-gauge buckshot.

I didn’t find this to be true with the 20-gauge, and the .410 is more like a burp gun than a shotgun.

Patterns

I patterned each gun several times, and the .410 always had the broadest patterns. It has the fewest pellets but the most spread. The 2.5-inch loads with three 000 pellets patterns are the tightest and are comparable to 12-gauge and 20-gauge patterns. (Excluding Flitecontrol.)

Learn more about patterning in our patterning guide!

Home Defense Winner

As lovely as it would be to make a declarative statement about who won this contest, it isn’t possible. Different strokes for different folks and different needs for different shotgunners.

So, where does this leave us? With some recommendations based on platform…

12-Gauge: Semi-Auto Shotgun

If you want a defensive 12-gauge shotgun, we live in the golden age of semi-auto 12-gauge shotguns.

Benelli, Mossberg, Beretta, Savage, and more offer a glut of modern semi-auto options. Semi-auto shotguns slice through the challenge of pump-action.

The big problem with 12-gauge shotguns is the recoil, but a semi-auto action significantly tames that.

Getting new shooters behind a 12-gauge can be challenging, but the semi-auto with the right ammo offers a cheat code for success.

We have specific recommendations for the best models in our guide to the Best Semi-Automatic Shotguns.

20-Gauge: Pump Action

The 20-gauge hasn’t got the semi-auto love of the 12-gauge. While some semi-auto 20-gauges exist, very few are tactically oriented.

With the 20-gauge Mossberg 590 release, it’s tough not to recommend a pump-action in 20 gauge. The 20 gauge already has less recoil, but you could trim sporting rounds into reduced recoil loads and cut that recoil even more.

These reduced recoil loads might not function well in a semi-auto shotgun but will sail through a pump shotgun.

For more on pump-action, check out our guide to the Best Pump Actions [Home Defense & Hunting].

.410 Bore: Firearm-Type Weapon

You can get a Mossberg 590 in a .410, and it’s a good choice, but I think it’s overkill. Instead of getting a full-sized stocked shotgun, you should consider a stockless firearm, like the .410 Shockwave.

Something like the Shockwave offers a smaller, even lighter platform that’s easy to handle. The recoil is so low you don’t need a stock to control the gun.

It’s perfect for close-range use, and the little gun works well at .410 buckshot ranges. If you need a lightweight option, this is as light as a scattergun gets.

Need more .410 Bore? Check out our review of the Mossberg Shockwave and the Henry Axe.

Final Thoughts

Shotguns are a thinking man’s weapon. It’s not as simple as loading a magazine with JHPs and preparing for the world. You need to train, shoot, and experiment to find the right option for you.

I use a shotgun because I want a big, hefty payload that patterns tightly. When I pull that trigger, I want eight 00 pellets, so 12-gauge is perfect for me. That said, I’m also 6’5” and 280 pounds, so my experience isn’t everyone’s.

Hopefully, we’ve helped provide you with enough data to make an informed decision on what would work best for you and your preferred shotgun platform.

What’s your preferred gauge/caliber? Let us know in the comments below! For the best shotguns out there, check out our guide to the Best Home Defense & Tactical Shotguns.