At a distance of 12ft, that’s 4 inches. I like my odds hitting something with a 4 inch wide bullet vs. a 0.4 inch wide bullet.
Some people have the idea that you can just point in the general direction of the threat and let fly, no aiming needed.
Aim for the middle of the body, pull the pointy thing that sticks out the bottom until it quits making noise.
No, no- you pull the pointy thing that sticks out of the bottom until the thing you are AIMING at quits making noise…
Threads like this are one of the reasons I’m glad I don’t have kids; so I don’t have to think about creative ways to store the guns.
I’d suggest the following for storage. Keep the gun someplace accessible but not obvious when you’re in bed, like the top of a bookshelf. Buy a key-based trigger lock and put the key in the lock when you turn in. In the morning, put the gun in its more secure location and take the key out. Repeat daily.
If you want a good middle ground, I’d advise getting a Saiga rather than a traditional pump action. They’re based on the AK, so they’re magazine fed and semi automatic. They also have a looooong and stiff safety. You could store the magazine and the gun separately and minimize the odds of a rugrat being able to do anything with it even if they found it. One word of caution, being an AK it’s got that rock and lock style of getting the magazine into the gun, so it takes some practice before you can do it reliably under stress.
Now for the next batch of stuff to consider: Home defense and loads. As was noted above, you don’t want slugs for home defense. They over-penetrate on a human and can easily continue through doors or drywall. The same is true of 00 and other large shot. For home defense you ideally want a #2 or #4 buckshot. They’ll do the job nicely but won’t over-penetrate. Conversely, you want to avoid any form of birdshot. Beyond a few feet and they can be stopped by a heavy coat or leather jacket.
There are two schools of thought on racking a round on a pump action. Lots of people think, to some extent legitimately, that the sound of a shotgun racking will be a deterrent in itself. It’s certainly an intimidating sound. That said, most self defense instructors advise having the gun ready and loaded, since racking a round will give away your position better than anything short of yelling, “Hey! We’re back here!” I’m pretty solidly in the second camp.
Get a pump action shotgun and store it unsecured and unloaded. When you hear an intruder, grab it and work the pump a couple of times, making sure that the sound carries. Any sensible burglar who has ever seen any action movie in his entire lifetime is going to know what that sound implies, and is going to haul his ass out of your home before things start going boom.
And if he’s so strung out that he keeps coming anyway, for the reasons expressed above, you’d probably do just as well to use the unloaded gun as a club.
Funny, I’ve always heard that a shotgun was the ideal home defense weapon because everybody knows that sound (the sound of a shell being racked into the chamber from a slide-action shotgun), and a lot of times, that will obviate the need to actually fire the gun.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, threaten with an empty gun. Either have it loaded and ready to make holes or don’t have one.
Is it legal to own military/law enforcement tactical shotguns like the Mossberg 500 or SPAS-12? Because they look like they will take care of your home defense needs.
I agree with runner pat. If you are going to use a shotgun for home defense, you want to get into a mindset that you are ready to rock and roll with it.
And might want to Stainguard[sup]TM[/Sup] the walls.
While it is a good suggestion to teach all household members about both gun safety and the consequences of an incautiously wielded firearm, even if this is adequate for your child to behave responsibly, it does not in any way guarantee that his friends will not get curious. Firearms kept in the home should be secured against any reasonable irresponsible use.
This is a good point missed by the people who insist that a weapon must be accessible “within seconds”. If you genuinely believe this, you should be like a Marine and sleep with the rifle in your cot. Otherwise, you should make reasonable efforts to secure your domicile such that an attempt at entry will take longer and make more noise than just a few seconds. Actually aggressive random home invasions, while highly publicized when they occur, are vanishingly rare; most home invasion type attacks are either drug robberies or domestic disputes.
More often, a robber enters the home expecting it to be unoccupied and finds himself in a panic when he finds that it isn’t. It is generally wisest to encourage such a perpetrator to leave rather than to corner him and attempt to hold him for the police, and it is never advisable for an untrained person to attempt to physically restrain an intruder. I know it sounds like the “right thing to do” to many, but there are so many things that can go wrong in that scenario, even if the defender is armed or physically stronger than the intruder. The perp is in the kind of desperate situation in which he may be willing to do anything to escape, while the defender attempting to restrain an intruder is still bound by statute and case law. Even if property defense laws in that jurisdiction are fairly liberal and permit the use of lethal force in defending property or against an intruder, the civil liability, not to mention having to clean up blood, bone fragments, and brain matter out of carpet is not a pleasant task.
The great thing about a shotgun as a home defense weapon is the wide range of loadings available for it. #6 or smaller shot is unlikely to penetrate more than a layer of drywall at house distances, although the same can be said for heavy clothing. I personally prefer #4 for close work and #0 or #1 for more distance. Magnum shells are unnecessary for home defense and will just make a larger flash and bang.
This does highlight one of the deficiencies of the shotgun; you may very possibly suffer hearing damage after firing one in confined quarters. The other big negative of a shotgun is the length, which makes it problematic and dangerous to advance around corners or through tight hallways. In this regard, a handgun is preferable, though most defensive instructors will tell you that the best thing to do is to scoop up your family, move to a defensive core, hunker down behind cover, and call law enforcement. You definitely do not want to be prowling around outside your home with a weapon in hand when the police arrive.
As for the o.p.'s original question, a cable lock (which prevents the action from being worked, but allows the gun to be stored with the magazine loaded) is advisable. The other option is something like this which blocks out the action. I’d prefer to keep a weapon loaded and chambered just so I don’t have to make noise racking the weapon, and thereby giving away any tactical advantage, but it does mean that you’ll have to be awake enough to manipulate the lock and chamber the weapon before it is hazardous.
Stranger
Sorry, but this is absolutely terrible advice. It means that you won’t treat the weapon or gun safety seriously, you up the ante for any genuine attack that might occur, and you’re not prepared to back up a potential threat. If you are going to wield a weapon in defense, even in the hope that just the display of it will serve as a deterrent, you’d best be prepared to use it. If you’re not prepared for those consequences, buy pepper spray, a Taser, a baseball bat, or a five gallon drum of marshmallow creme.
There are some things that even StainGuard[SUP]TM[/SUP] won’t protect. The blood isn’t so bad; it’s the dried brain chunks that stick to everything.
Stranger
I recall a gun safe with a fingerprint lock.
Fast opening.
Battery backup.
I disagree. They can be Darned Sneaky. That sort of thing is something you don’t want to Screw Around With. ™
The Shotgun Meets the Box O’ Truth.
CMC fnord!
Best security? Take your daughter out to shoot it. One thing that’ll curb her curiosity to play with it is to show how loud and how it slams into her shoulder to say THIS IS NOT A TOY. Or at the very least will give her some respect for it.
I have a Mossberg 590 with bayonet lug, perfectly legal. You can check your local laws but generally stores won’t stock guns they can’t sell legally in the state.
If you read the link…
I participated as a teen in removing birdshot from someone who had been shot at reasonably close range- they barely penetrated his skin in the least parts, and the worst were just underneath.
Easily picked out of a lineup, and scared as hell, but my friends chose to use alternating loads of bird and 00 buck after that.
However, they had no kids.
If you are so stressed that you can’t open a keyed trigger lock, you are too stressed to be able to use a firearm effectively anyway. For home defense, the gun should be loaded and locked, with both the weapon and the key being readily accessible but as widely separated as possible.
This for a home with children, of course. Around here we don’t bother. I can just grab the weapon and rock. Mine’s a Mossberg 500 loaded progressively: #4 shot, 000 buckshot, 00 buckshot, slug.
Indeed.
My Father kept his pistol in his sock drawer. He “Let me shoot it” so I knew it wasn’t as you said, a toy.
I couldn’t pull the trigger, he wrapped both hands around mine, made sure I was generally aiming at the target and pulled the trigger. I don’t think I ever held it without his hand around mine. 
Why the different loads? I’d figured on just #3s.
Note to self: if I elect to visit the silenus household with extreme prejudice, insert the trauma plate into body armor and retreat to solid cover after shot #3.
Stranger