Well, the basic premise of the question was, could a shotgun from the ground bring it down. The answer is yes. I doubt very seriously that if any law enforcement or other authorities decided to take such a measure, that they would limit themselves to skeet shooting gear.I was responding to a comment about skeet shooting. Not goose shooting, or any other kind of shotgun work. But putting that aside, why is a goose a tougher target than a drone?
Why is a goose tougher? I guess I should have said “tougher to bring down”. That certainly has just a whole lot of personal opinion on it in the absence of empirical testing, but having shot plenty of the birds myself, and knowing the basic anatomy of a drone as well as the bird, I would definitely like my chances of bringing down the drone at a hundred yards better than the goose. Hit pretty much anywhere on a Phantom and you’re likely to render it unflyable. They’re pretty fragile by comparison, and have a lot higher percentage of areas on the body that would be a “get hit here and you’re done” zone.
I’m all up for actually testing the theory, as long as it’s with your drone and not mine..
As far as “projectiles returning to earth”, that’s pretty overrated with most stuff that comes out the business end of a shotgun. I’ve been hit dozens if not hundreds of times by “falling shot” of pretty much all sizes.. it pretty rarely even warrants a verbal “ouch”.. I wouldn’t want to get hit with a falling 230gr bullet out a .45 or something similar, but shotguns are, in the real world, effectively out of that argument..
most of your “falling projectiles” that make the news are still actually on a ballistic arc, and could certainly still kill somebody: shoot a rifle at 45 degrees elevation and it’s still going to be potentially lethal when it hits the ground: Shoot straight up with it, and there’s just not a whole lot there when it goes from that ballistic arc to just falling.. is it possible that it could still kill somebody? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not. It might put a ding on your car hood or something..