Well after putting a 100 rounds or different types of ammo thru the 6" Judge I thought I would post on it again. With 45's it is a comfortable gun to shoot, the grips are good and it is reasonably accurate given the stlye of sights on it. As a .410 the buckshot is the only round I would consider to be a self defense round. One of the older videos shows the gen being fired simulating firing it out of a car window using what appears to be birdshot. It is a pretty accurate portrayal of how the gun performs with birdshot. At 8' to 10' from the muzzle you have a 12" to 14" pattern that expands rapidly and IMO looses energy very quickly. The promo materials say the rifling is specifically designed to open the wad and free the shot column. I would say that it does that very well. My Contender with the same .410 load is still in the wad and a solid mass at that range. Buckshot does quite a bit better. The shot stays close together showing good penatration until it passes the 20 yard or so mark, looking much like 3 hits from a 22 at that distance. Much past 25 yards and it would be doubtful it you could get all the shot in a body target. Part of the appeal of a .410 round for self defense (to me) is the fact that the shot has a lot of impact at close range and still be difficult to penetrate 2 layers of sheetrock, minimizing the risk of unitended consequences. Taurus pretty well removes some of that advantage by getting the wad open so quickly. The shot gun that Mossberg produced several years ago with the flashlight in the foregrip would do a much better job in the home in that sense than the Judge, IMO.
I will probably keep the Judge until I get the chance to trade it for another more interesting toy.
I never did get the Glock, but did come up with a FN in .40 cal. It is a little more compact than my Ruger P89 9mm and has a better trigger in it. The 9mm is ok with good loads in it, but I would not want to carry it with ball ammo, IMO. My 1911 pistol is a blast to shoot, but to me the .45 has a lot of kick to control in an "up close and personal" situation and mine does not feed anything but ball ammo reliably enough to even think about carrying it for defense. But it is a gun with sentimental value so I guess it will be a range toy and a "gun safe queen".