If anyone wants a Judge and can handle it, fine.
It can be used for self defense, fine.
The gun does have limitations and the owners and users need to realize what those are. Only flesh and bone count in the real world and what the happens with them.
No other medium,paper, gelatin, plywood, or any other medium is valid. Some mediums approximate what might happen, but that is all.
I can take a .22lrf solid or JHP and blow a hole through a large bar of soap that makes the .22lrf look like a super duper self defense round. Same thing with .17 caliber pellets. Yet we all know those are poor choices for any defense application.
So shooting through wood is not an indicator. Name me a person made of wood.
The velocities are low for the self defense ammo. That's whether the bullet or buckshot are used. The bullet has a better chance of stopping under most circumstances.
Penetration will not be as deep as if shot from a full length shotgun barrel.
You are hoping that the bad guy is going to have to be on top of you or close enough that he/she can still do major damage with a knife/blunt object range for the gun to be effective with buckshot. Maybe even little shot.
Then again your situation may not bring the attacker into that close a range. It might, but that is no guarantee that whatever criminal attack will be breathe up close and personal.
Lack of velocity means lack of penetration. So the buckshot might do the job and again, it might not.
There is an ever increasing documentation by police of the fact that many miscreants are taking one or more full loads of buckshot, 12 gauge that is, and are still up and fighting. That or they if the person shot wanted to they could well go on and still kill or gravely harm someone.
As of know there are no documented cases of anyone being stopped by a Judge fired load of buckshot. Do you want to bet your life and the lives of others on that? Do you want to be the test case for the real world does it work or not? Not me. I'd rather have the .45 Colt loads in place.
If the enemy is within touching distance then there is the likelihood that a contact shot under extreme duress will need to be made. The idea is to put room between you and your attacker. Get off the main line of attack if possible. The contact shot unless needed, is a last chance only to survive shot. You cannot bet that the drug doper, "man on a mission", adrenalin soaked mind, is going to "just give up". Reality isn't like that.
You cannot assume what will happen during an attack, predict how it will go, how it will unfold, that you or others will not hurt while the attack is going on, that you might be able to get off a shot or shots at all, or how things will end. We can figure out what might happen, but you have to be prepared for all eventualities. Got a crystal ball or tea leaves that tell you ahead of time how things will go down. Not me. Hostage or others in the same room or line of fire happen all the time. Got that one figured out? Where are all the projectiles going to go when you unleash them? Have a magic wand to make sure they all strike the bad guy/s? Didn't think so. So what if another person is struck by errant projectiles? Hey, Life is cheap.
Since life is not cheap morale and ethical issues enter into the equation.
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=1976.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=5162.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=1603.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=797.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=8590.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=1926.0
The Judge is a very close range gun with buckshot. Longer range with the .45 Colt loadings. I'd rather be more prepared for most things that are possible to be prepared for. That's true for the .45 Colt loadings.
In a violent struggle can you guarantee exactly what will happen or how it will come out? Documented real world cases on such things prove that it cannot be done. One can plan for most things, but not all.
Before making suggestions make sure you go through all the links. Most if not all things were covered in them.
Like I said, if you want to be the test cases for the buckshot stopping someone. Go ahead if you feel lucky. I will be waiting here for the reports.