From a friend of a friend of a friend- names have been removed due to the "sensitive" nature of the story! No it wasn't me.
Well, I decided to splurge the other day and buy me a new shotgun, a Benelli Supernova ComforTech. Not the most expensive Benelli, but a Benelli none the less. Well, as I was looking around for some ammo, I came across some less lethal home defense rounds. I know, "Why would someone want less lethal home defense ammo?" I was curious about what they would do, OK? So I bought some 00 rubber buckshot and a box of plastic slugs, looked "harmless" enough. A few rubber balls in one box of shells and a piece of plastic about 1 & 1/2" to 2" long in the others. I get home and get right to it. I live in the country so shooting in my back yard is an everyday thing.
I load a few of the buckshot in the gun and go to town on an empty 55 gallon drum behind my house. NICE! Those things knocked the piss out of the drum from about 25 feet away! A dent the size of a manhole cover in the side of that thing, I like it! Now time to see what the plastic slug does. I put 3 in the magazine and load one in the chamber. I set my sights on the middle of the drum, then BOOM; followed by a deep and eerie sounding "BONNNNGGGGGGG."
What happened next is still fresh on my mind and I go into the fetal position every time I think about it. Shortly after the "warning" from the drum being struck, I felt the most excruciating and intense pain I have ever felt in my life on my inner right thigh next to my groin. That plastic slug bounced back and struck me in the leg, then forced its way straight to my ball sack! I then thought "Maybe God is trying to tell me something?" as I fall over and try not to drop the brand new Benelli on the ground. As I lay on the ground thinking about the "ball strike" I soon come to the realization that it's a good thing it's (my penis) low and to the left instead of high and to the right.
Well, it's a few days later and I'm still limping and have a bruise on my right leg that is a weird shade of purple and encompasses most of my thigh. The doctor said I'm lucky I won't have to have a testicle removed and I still may be able to have children, just not any time soon. I'm not married and don't have a girlfriend at the moment so I don't have to worry about that right now. The "less lethal" ammo was given to a buddy of mine that likes to shoot anything and I will just use regular lead or steel shot from now on. I just can't put an intruder in my home, through the kind of pain and suffering I experienced.
That's a good story, and not the first I've heard like it. This goes to show you what happens when the tree-huggers try to redifine physics. If you point a shotgun at a PERSON, with the intent to defend yourself or others, the result had better be definitive ("less than lethal" only applies to the bad guy). At the same time, shooting plastic slugs at a steel drum ain't exactly rocket science. It was funny, and sad, at the same time.
On the side of the humor in the story, I can see it now. Bad guy enters your house. You draw and point your shotgun. Remembering your experience with the drum, you immediately give the shotgun to the bad guy saying, "You shoot it. I ain't gonna!"
When I was a young and stupid boy, I was in the barnlot one evening burning the trash. I, or course, had my well worn Daisy BB gun along. A McDonalds Juice cup had fallen on the ground and made an inviting point blank target.
But, the tens of thousands of BB's that had run through the old Daisy had weakened the spring and the seals. The result was a BB that couldn't quite get through the plastic juice cup bottom. It had just enough umph to dimple the bottom and richochet.
It hit me in the face, in the eyelid above my left eye. Right between the eyelashes and eyebrow. I was sure at first I had put my eye out. But I was, in fact, fine except for a red spot.
Experience is a harsh instructor. I lucked out that day in my lesson about "being sure of your target and what is beyond". But it is a lesson I won't ever forget. And it was less harsh than the one above, although if I had to choose between a testicle or an eye, I would give up the testicle.
I always wondered about the ricochet possibilites with such ammo. Now I know why I haven't tried it myself in my Benelli.
lol...let's hope your ball doesn't atrophy.