I understand Liz, but the problem is IRL you don’t get to pick and choose whether the person you are shooting at lives or dies. Normally it is in a panic situation, and things are going very fast, and the human body can be very fragile sometimes. You have to come to grips in advance that:
To protect yourself and your health, you may very likely shoot at an intruder, and
In a extremely high-stress situation, where things are moving very fast, it is possible you will hit the intruder even if you did not specifically try to, and
When you hit him, you will not be able to rationally choose “oh, I’ll just wing him, or shoot him in the leg”, because in the very-fast very dangerous IRL situation, you may aim for the knee and hit the heart, and
Even if you shoot in an innocuous place, they may still die due to blood loss or shock.
I’m not saying you should not shoot, or not defend yourself, of course. I, personally, will gladly kill anyone who tries to rape me again or injure me - and I personally don’t give a fuck about being prosecuted. I’d rather be in jail for a few years than raped. Or dead. There are a lot of things worse than jail, after all. Much worse.
Ugh. I’m just saying - you do need to prepare your mind a bit that if the worst happens, there is a chance you will take a life. But almost certainly, it will be justified. At least I will defend and support you, Liz.
Una, I understand this more than you know. If I didn’t understand this, I wouldn’t be getting a gun. But that still doesn’t change my heart when it comes to life and death.
There is some good info in the home defense section of the rec.guns FAQ. I ended up with a 20 gauge Mossberg, so that my wife can also use it comfortably (I’m more accurate with a 20 instead of a 12 gauge, also).
There’s more good info in the rec.guns FAQ, but I can’t seem to find an HTML version anymore. The text files are available here, but you’ll need to read this outline and this intro to figure out the filenaming convention.
The HTML version of the rec.guns FAQ should be at http://www.recguns.com but, for some reason, I’m getting a “forbidden” message from there at the moment. They’re probably just having server troubles, I’ll wager.
Anthracite suggests that my .38/9mm “minimum” somehow excluded her .44mag Super Redhawk. No way! The .44mag, especially out of a long-barreled gun like the Redhawk, has incredible stopping power. Even better than the .45ACP.
The Redhawk is a BIG revolver, bigger than my 4" S&W Model 19 in .357mag. As anyone who has shot .44mag revolvers knows, the kick and muzzle flip is incredible. Unless you are Superman (or Wonderwoman) forget about a quick accurate follow-up shot. For this reason alone, I would disqualify .44mags as defensive handguns. Hot loaded .357s have a similar, though less severe problem. I carry a 9mm pistol, which allows for rapid and accurate follow-up shots.
For home defense you might consider a short-barreled .223 rifle. Surprisingly, the .223 40gr loads do not overpenetrate. They cause incredible cavitation damage in the body of the bad guy, which translates to the closest thing you can get to an instantaneous stop. Contrary to popular opinion, OO buckshot, unless in a reduced power load, will send a handfull of .32cal balls through the usual backstops (drywall)and sometimes your bad guy into unintended targets.
No, I was just doing one-upwomanship on your .45 ACP
Oh yes, I quite agree. I wouldn’t use it as a defensive weapon except if nothing else was available. Also, that 9.5 inch barrel makes it heavy. But it sure is fun to shoot…
Got one - the aformentioned SS Mini-14 Ranch Rifle with factory folding stock, and several 30-round SS magazines (non-Ruger).
Okay. I have an original Ruger 20-rd. mag for my Mini-14 (I prefer 20-rd. mags for it). And a whole bunch of 30-rd. mags (some Colt) and four 20-rd. Colt mags for my AR-15, CAR-15 and AR-15A2.
What I want to know is this: Why do people say I have an “arsenal”? It’s just a “collection”.
Anthracite and Johnny I think I have found a weapon for Techie that will satisfy some of the conflicting requirements that have been brought up in here (such as in home vs out of home concealed arguments) as well as having some great “scare the crap outta’ the bad guy” factor.
Of course there are some potential leagal issues depending on local restrictions, but I just love this toy. I was pretty much disregarding it in the .12 gauge older model, but I thiunk with the new .20 gauge model available it is a real sweet piece. And while it may be bigger than any handgun I would suggest, at 16.5" it could fit nicely in a large Coach handbag (or a knock-off if ya’ wanna’ go cheap). This is, of course, only a semi-serious suggestion but what a lovely little firearm I think it is. Serbu seems to make a variety of funky guns, take a look aat the main page for more.
Techiechick: I previously mentioned my S&W 40V pistol as a good model, after shooting at the tactical range this weekend I have noted one problem which is more user error than anything else and easily rectified: I was using the standard dovetailed rear sights as my new sights are on order. The ABS rear sights drift easily after a day of quick shooting and therefore if you choose a gun with such sights I would suggest replacing the windage sights and going with a laser. It’s a pain to manbually drift your sights on the range, let alone when it hits the fan.
The Thunder Five from Holston Enterprises is chambered to fire either .45 Colt Long, .410 shotshells, or 45-70 caliber round. It’s a pug so it’s not all that large (the cylinder appears top be 50% of the total frame).
Pretty mean little piece, I especially like the interchangability of the loads. It’s also a revolver so you don’t get the issues that the Jericho 940 had with it’s interchangeable round system. Any of you ever have that Jericho pistol? What did you personally think of it? I just read reviews but I got a bad impression from them so I never picked one up.
Not that Techchick is in California, but here that gun would be illegal. Since it’s able to chamber a .410 load, it’s classified in CA as a “short-barreled shotgun”.
