Owning guns for self-defence is illegal here in Australia, so I’ll defer to US-based members for appropriate advice on a suitable firearm there, but what I will mention is that if you are planning on keeping a gun loaded for an extended period of time and not shooting it, then a revolver is probably the way to go.
The springs in a semi-auto magazine can become “loose” or “weak” and lose their spring if the magazine is kept loaded for too long (ie days or weeks).
That leads to jams and feed errors, which are a Very Bad Thing.
A revolver, on the other hand, doesn’t have that problem, as the cartridges sit in the gun’s cylinder, which is rotated either by pulling the trigger or cocking the hammer, and is thus less likely to malfunction (assuming your gun is cleaned, well-maintained, and properly looked after, of course).
I can’t recommend taking a Gun Safety Course strongly enough, either. If you’re not familiar with guns, then they’re an excellent (and in Australia, legally required if you want a gun licence) way of understanding the safe handling and operation of firearms.
I’m sure I biased, because I have much, much more experience with rifles than handguns, but for a situation where you live out in the middle of nowhere (with no over penetration concerns) I would suggest an AK in 7.62x39. I’m not an expert on tactics or anything, so I’ll state my case and the real experts can tell me where I’m wrong.
Powerful round, you don’t have to worry about stopping power.
You have 30 rounds in the mag. If you get to the point where you use most of these, you’re probably fucked anyway, but to me, it’s nice to have.
It will not fail. My friends with combat pistols are always doing this and that to their pistols, maybe just for fun, I don’t know. However, if SHTF, I don’t want to worry about whether or not I put the right kind of lube on the slide. You can practically keep an AK stored in a swamp and not have to worry about it going bang when you pull it out. No need to worry about keeping a round chambered and the safety on. You won’t wear it out.
It’s just simple. I remember the first time I held an AK, I pretty much instantly knew how it worked. On the other hand, modern pistols seem to be pretty complicated. I looked at a Walther P99 a few years back and had a hell of a time figuring out what the different actions available actually meant. Not that they are race car motors or anything, but I like simple.
With a sling, it will be hard to get the weapon off you, and you can use it one handed.
With a rifle, I feel 100% confident I can hit what I’m aiming at, even off the hip with a sling and one hand (at close range of course). I don’t get this feeling with a pistol, but that’s just a matter of what I’ve had practice with.
Cons:
AK’s have gotten kind of expensive in the last month or two.
I’ve never shot an AK indoors without hearing protection, and I don’t want to.
7.62 x 39 is light for big bears; but I consider bears to be a far less significant risk than humans. AK variants have been used to shoot a lot of people over the years.
None of them are true, mil-spec AK’s as issued in their home countries. All are “parts kits” assembled in the US on US-made receivers and with US-made fire control groups. Not all parts kits are equal. Some are factory-new parts, others are parts taken from AK’s that are pretty well worn.
Not all the AK-variants sold in the US are assembled with equal care. Caveat emptor.
Folding-stock variants are less desirable from a shooting standpoint than fixed-stock variants. Folders are cool, and have their place in things if your MOS includes riding around in a tank or jumping out of a plane, but they’re generally less stable and durable than a fixed stock.
Some AK-variants sold in the US use the 5.45 x 39 mm cartridge. It’s ballistically pretty close to the 5.56 NATO, and there’s nothing wrong with it. There is, however, no domestic source of ammo. All 5.45 mm ammo is imported. Owners are, therefore, only one executive order away from having no source of ammo.
Some AK-variants sold in the US use proprietary 10 round magazines. If you buy one, be sure to get plenty of magazines.
All that said, I own a couple AK-variants. I have a Yugoslavian underfolder and a Polish fixed-stock. Both are in 7.62 x 39mm. They’re enormously fun to shoot and they are about as reliable as it is possible for a mechanical device to be. If the OP is interested in a 7.62 x 39 mm rifle, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the AK, though.
The SKS carbine is readily available in the US and is substantially cheaper than a good AK. If it hasn’t been monkeyed with, usually by replacing the factory magazine with an aftermarket model, the SKS is just as reliable as the AK. IME, it is also more accurate. The 10 round magazine holds plenty of ammo for all practical purposes and can be very quickly reloaded from stripper clips. Without the availability of full-auto, civilian models of the AK have nothing to offer except higher magazine capacity. That, IME, is a dubious value. Right now, Yugoslavian SKS variations are plentiful and cheap. I’d also like to note that, unlike the AK, when you buy an SKS in the US you are buying an actual military-spec weapon. They do not have parts removed and replaced with US parts of unknown quality.
To be fair that’s something of an oddity, it would be beyond uncomfortable to fire even with heavy barrel porting, and would be considered an absolute last ditch emergency weapon. Because of all the drawbacks in firing such a thing the majority of shooters out there would never fire it enough to become proficient with it’s use to really be able to make much of a difference in a high stress situation with it. The bear would have to be literally right on top of you for that to be useful and by then you’re kind of fucked anyway.
Snubbies like that can be useful if you are a reloader and concoct some some lower-powered rounds for use out of it. My experience with S&W 500 owners, though, is that they buy a gun and a box of planet-buster loads, shoot it a few times and then use it as a conversation piece or sell it. It is definitely a niche-item.
Agreed as usual. My brother says that down around Parris Island you can pick them up reaaaaal cheap practically brand new. Lots of guys buy them because it’s the biggest caliber handgun in the shop, but regret that decision 5 or 6 rounds later and there’s a glut of them so they’re cheap to pick up.
No, that’s pretty standard for a used one, but they can be found for $500 so I hear, and that’s dirt cheap. The one in the link has also been tinkered with apparently as well as the seller is a duracoat process vendor and from the looks in the picture they did the barrel cut since the foam in the case appears to be sized for a longer gun.
This is a misperception that’s still quite commonly held. Holding the springs in compression does not cause wear or weakening. Spring strength deteriorates as a natural function from repeatedly going from compressed to uncompressed.
That said, magazines should be regularly checked and maintained. If you start getting jams and feed errors, it’s time to replace the magazine spring. You can, however, keep a magazine loaded in perpetuity withno ill effects as long components don’t rust.
I like a double-barreled “coach gun” type shotgun. The barrels and the distinctive hammers make this a very scary gun, and very simple. For home defence I suggest BB shot, not 00 buck- you don’t want “go through a wall and kill
someone” penetration in your home. Yes, at close range, just about any load will kill your target. Ak47’s have far too much penetration for home defence, assuimg you don’t want to kill your kids in the next room over.
There are no grizzly bears in CA, nor are there many handguns which could stop one reliably. Grizzly bear - Wikipedia
A cougar can be stopped with any normal man-killing firearm.
The OP doesn’t have any kids to kill in the next room over. WRT overpenetration: anything capable of putting down an attacker is going to overpenetrate in a typical American house, this includes shotguns. Drywall just doesn’t do much to stop a projectile. The guys over at the Box O’ Truth have dones some pretty convincing tests on just this topic. I own a coach gun, but consider it strictly a range toy. The hammers are something I wouldn’t care to be fiddling with under stress and the triggers are light enough to make an AD too easy after an adrenaline dump.
A side question: why is the .357 Magnum considered the very byword of the “uber-powerful handgun”, when by every measure I can look up it pales next to the .44 Magnum? I’ve shot the .357 easily, while the .44 is powerful enough that I would have to shoot it regularly before being really comfortable with it. Example: in the old Half-Life game the six-shot revolver called a “.357” is about as powerful as a single 12-gauge buckshot round! They really should have called it a .44
The venerable .357 was the first magnum handgun cartridge to bear the title, so it has that bit of history on its side. All others are descendants. Also, the .357 is the only magnum handgun cartridge that has any kind of real world utility and reputation as a combat round. All the others, including the moribund .41 magnum which was actually designed as a police round, proved to be better suited to sporting use. The .357 sits at the higher powered end of the “sweet spot” of adequate power combinded with controllable recoil.
.357 is revered because, quite simply, it is an excellent balance of bullet weight and velocity combining into an effective manstopper.
I don’t know if this still holds true, but I saw a study in the mid-80s that gave .357 the “win” for highest percentage of one-shot stops in self-defense applications.
There are several more powerful handgun rounds: .44 mag, .454 Casul, .50 AE, just to name a few commonly known ones, but there is no round more effective in its intended use.
Heh, heh, heh. Many years ago, I was a deputy sheriff. I used to call my shotgun The Reverend. I’d jack a round into the chamber. The bad guys would hear that very distinctive “KA-SHUNK CHUNK” and immediately raise their hands to heaven while calling on the Lord: “JESUS CHRIST!”
.357 is revered because, quite simply, it is an excellent balance of bullet weight and velocity combining into an effective manstopper.QUOTE]
Took the words right from me.
If its personal defense against would-be home intruders of the human kind, nothing beats the security of a .357. I swear by mine. But I hope I never, ever have to actually use it in a real-life situation.
If its defending yourself against critters of the large-paw kind (bears), your first line of defense might actually be getting yourself some dogs (more than one). One-to-one a single dog doesn’t stand much of a chance against a bear, but two or three dogs is simply too much of a nuisance for most bears to bother with and will scare the bear off. Most bears will smell the dogs and not even bother in the first place.
Bears aren’t scared of guns until you fire them off, and if the bear is so close you need to actually fire a shot, the bear at that point is likely to be more annoyed than injured, that is unless you’re an excellent shot.
Dogs will scare off most human intruders, too, anyway, so especially if you’ve got a lot of land I’d get a few dogs because the dogs serve multiple purposes without ever having to reach for a gun.
But if you live in Montanta, you’ll want a gun anyway, so I’d recommend the .357 as a good all-around choice.
Self-defense against a bear and self defense against a person are very different propositions. I’m with longhair75. I’m not a big fan of Elmer Keith, but he said one thing I agree with: Son, if you want to put a hole in something, make it a hole to remember. I know little about bears, but I’d carry the biggest, most powerful weapon I possibly could, and preferably not a handgun. The .44 Mag is powerful enough at short range, but I’d prefer to shoot it out of something like this. Those old Marlin and Winchester lever actions are quite light and handy for rifles, but get the most out of any pistol round.
