Are you admitting you’re a troll?
Tisk tisk. Oh mods?
If your home is too cramped to make maneuvering with a big ol’ shotgun an option, try the Mossberg Super-Shorty. Available in 12 or 20 gauge, overall length of 16.5 inches.
Absolutely not. A shotgun pattern is very tight with 15 feet or so. In fact, you must aim it like a rifle…
Get a gun (preferably a 12 ga shotgun) and get some professional training.
Yea right!! Are you joking? There are four things wrong with it:
-
It’s a NFA 34 weapon, which means you have to register it with the Fedgoons, pay $200, get fingerprinted, get a sign-off from your local sheriff, etc.
-
It’s expensive as hell.
-
There’s no butt stock! Are you supposed to shoot it like a handgun? Ouch!
-
Because it would be (likely) difficult to aim, it won’t be as accurate as a regular shotgun.
Well, yeah. But it’s so neat! I want one.
First of all, I would highly recommend that you do not go with a revolver.
**Hard to load if unpracticed
**Only have 6 shots, 5 if you select a .357 magnum.
**Tip has to be heavy to ofset recoil. snub noses kick like a mule
**Too easy for anyone to shoot. pull hammer back, pull trigger.bang.possible dead kid.
**dirty. Powder and smoke spray out of the gap between the barrel and the cylinder as well as the end of the barrel.
**You have no idea if you fired all of your bullets yet unless you count.
I recommend the shotgun as well if you can get a short and cheap one. If not then please go with a 9mm semi-auto. You might want to try a Baretta or a Sig Saur. Get the size that is best suited for your hand.
Above all, which every weapon you get to use to protect your house and family, always practice on how to use it accurately, effectively and above all safely. Gun classes are great. Call your local NRA to find out where you can attend gun safety classes. they sometimes offer those free. Practice regularly until you can always keep your shots within a 9 inch circle shot from 7 yards.
I’ll also vote in favor of a shotgun, though may I suggest something a little smaller than a 12-bore? A side-by-side or over-and-under 20ga. shotgun will do quite well at household distances, is easier to handle, recoil-wise, in relatively inexperienced hands, and throws less lead (in case of a miss).
Slide action (‘pump’) shotguns are also a good choice, though they are slightly more complex, and require a bit more practice. Simplicity goes very far with anything that will be used in stressful situations, such as a real home-defense situation. Mind you, home defense situations are actually quite rare, in the grand scheme of things.
Other factors in favor of a shotgun:
- The pellets individually have limited penetration power, but collectively deliver tremendous energy, thus maximizing impact while minimizing over-penetration.
- Many juristictions place fairly tight restraint on handguns while shotguns are much more loosely restricted, meaning that the shotgun will cause fewer regulatory headaches.
- Most handguns, even the more popular calibers, are actually woefully underpowered if you really mean to shoot a person and expect them to stay down.
- If you select a slide-action (pump) shotgun, you have an additional factor in your favor: The sound of the action being cycled. That unmistakable schhhick-CLACK sound is often all that’s required to get the bad guys moving away from you at a high rate of speed…
More points: If you choose a handgun, make sure it’s one you can reliably shoot. That means range time. Make sure you’re using a reliable stopper, if at all possible. The .22lr, for instance, is actually fairly dangerous but it’s not a reliable stopper. On the other hand, the .25acp is actually much less capable than the .22lr, for all that it’s nominally larger in caliber. Pretty much anything from about .380acp and up will do, if you can place the bullet where you aim it..
If in doubt, do some research before you ask questions of the ‘regular crowd’ down at the gunshop. Everyone has an opinion on what’s the best home defense round, and rightly so: They’re betting their life on their choice, so they had damn well better believe in the choice they’ve made! Their choice may not be the right one for you, however fiercely they believe in it, so learn the basics before asking for their opinions.
If you select a shotgun, use a load that will not over-penetrate. 000 buckshot, for instance, can penetrate many apartment walls. #2 shot, on the other hand, will generally slow enough on impact that even if it penetrates, each pellet has pretty low energy, and is much less hazardous. Slugs, obviously, are right out.
Now (you all knew it was coming!), time for my favorite song:
Get thee to the range, whatever choice you make. Practice, practice, practice. Practice until your hands know the motions without thought. Practice until firearms safety is first nature to you. Read Stressfire by Masaad Ayoob. Get back to the range and practice some more. Practice until the guys at the range know how you like your coffee, and know the sound of your car well enough that they have your coffee ready and waiting for you when you walk into the building. Read, learn, and live the local ordnaces IRT firearms ownership. Read Stressfire again. Then go back to the range and practice some more.
This is how you avoid becoming a statistic of any but the most benign sort. This is how you avoid providing people of the nature of Mister Griffin (above) more ammunition for their demonstrably false generalizations.
No matter what he gets, I think he should get training (handgun course, shotgun course, whatever) of some kind on it, even if it’s like a Basic Handgun course.
I like the idea of a shotgun, but I think the OP should shoot one and see if he’d be comfortable using it before even considering one. A 12 gauge can kick awful hard, especially if you’re new. A 410 may be a good home defense option, if they even make em anymore.
.410 shotguns are still very much available. I’ve seen new shotguns in 28, 16, and 10 guage also, in addition to the old stand-bts of .410, 20, and 12.
If you are going to get any gun for the house,YOU MUST BE ABLE TO PULL THE TRIGGER ON A HUMAN BEING. a GUN IS USELESS UNLESS YOU CAN USE IT!!! It will be turned on you if you just “show but can’t shoot”
I like Glocks,light weight,low recoil,no levers to remember when under stress or half asleep. Always verify your target,too many times a family member is shot by someone shooting at a shadow.
Cool. I haven’t had anything to do with shooting for a while, so I didn’t know how good the info I was giving was. Glad to hear it. I lurved my 410 when I was a smaller ninja.
Man, I need to find a shooting range. I haven’t been in ages.
I was actually oggling a Rossi .410 ‘side-by’ earlier today. Beautiful stocks, nicer-than-average blueing, and a little high-quality engraving on the lockwork. Sweet. Really reasonable price, too. I just couldn’t justify the purchase to myself, no matter how nice an example of the gubsmith’s art it was. I already spend enough on shooting as it is, without needing another excuse to spend even more money.
Ugh. That was an ugly post!
I’m going to agree with the shotgun crowd on this one. I do not, however, think that you should go with 00 buckshot. The pellets are .38 caliber and are likely to over-penetrate. Smaller pellets will do the job. Anyone that’s hit at the ranges you’re likely to encounter inside your house will end up with the wadding in them anyway.
I heartily agree with the posters who’ve suggested a pump-action. As David Lee Roth said after frightening off a methed out neighbor a month back, “Racking a shotgun says in like 97 different languages including Martian ‘Hi! Whatcha doin’?’”
One more vote for the shotgun. #2 shot, 12 or 20 Ga., pump action.
In addition to the reasons others posted above, at short, inside the house distances, you aren’t shooting a spread pattern of shot, you are shooting a condensed column of shot. Deadly, but not likely to penetrate both the target and walls.
Depends how you’re going to store it, I guess. If it’s going to live in a kitchen drawer, I’d go with a revolver. The S&W .38 is enough to get anyone’s attention. If I was going to store it beside my bed, I go with the shotgun. The Super Shorty, as mentioned above, would be perfecty adequate for your needs and probably wouldn’t tear the neighbor’s wall down.
.357 mags are great for Clint but something of an overkill for what you want, imho.
- PW
I have lots of experience with both semi-automatic handguns and revolvers. Next to my bed is a revolver (a S&W 44-mag). Why? It’s SIMPLE to operate, even under stress. And, there is no doubt about stopping power. True, it only holds 6 rounds. But, speed loaders are cheap.
.357 is an excellent defensive caliber, as is 44-Special. You can load factory 44-Special cartridges in a handgun chambered for 44-mag, and have an excellent self-defense weapon. Very controllable, and still has plenty of punch.
You can also shoot .38 Specials out of a hangun chambered for .357 mag. This gives you more options than simply buying a .38 Special.
Go find a S&W Mod629 with a 5" barrel, pick up a few boxes of 44-Special cartridges, and head to the range.
Thank me later.
Griffin…
What are YOU gonna do for home defense?
After a boatload of research, Ihave come to the conclusion that:
I think that the ideal home-defense rig is a .410 auto loader shotgun with a pistol grip and a Mag-lite with a pressure switch and I suggest #6 birdshot. The .410 has very little kick, an automatic shotgun gives you MANY more rounds, the pistol grip keeps the package short so that you can use it in the house, the Mag-lite/pressure switch rig gives you target confirmation and room clearing but with the switch it is not a good target for the bad guy, #6 shot is ideal as it pisses away its energy quickly and the penetration is minimal.
unclviny
Why stop at handguns? Why not use something a little more heavy duty to protect your home? With all these new bills and laws I’m sure it’d be perfectly legitimate to use an assault rifle for home defense becau…, wait a second, an assault rifle for home defense? But then why do all those other people seem to need a weapon with a high rate of fire? Perhaps they plan to suprise attack the thief with a pre-emptive assault before their VCR is stolen.
I’m wondering, is it legal to purchase non lethal ammunition for a shotgun? (rubber bullets/bean bag charges)
Because many of these look potent enough to incapacitate, without being lethal. I’m not averse to the concept of using deadly force to protect my life/my family’s, but I am concerned about the possibility of accidents.