You’re not a stick in the mud at all. I think that the Judge is really best suited as a trail gun in areas that have snakes as well as larger predators around, and a true shotshell is going to pattern better than any of the “capsule” rounds that already exist. Does it fill a niche that might not even really exist? No doubt, but it still offers the idea of a mini shotgun without having to do the tedious registration that you’d have to do with the above mentioned Serbu gun under the ATF-NFA regulations.
And while I like the Serbu, that looks more like a lock buster to me than a serious defense weapon. There’s no way that has an effective field of fire beyond 10 feet, and 10 feet is a little too close for my comfort if I’ve decided to go lethal.
IMO, shotguns are over-rated for typical home defense. They are unwieldy indoors. At typical indoor range, the shot charge spreads so little that it behaves as essentially a single projectile, negating the perceived advantage of less need to aim.
For indoor home defense, I would choose a good quality handgun and develop proficiency with it. You are going to have to practice with whatever weapon you choose. The learning process will be greatly speeded up if you take a class from a qualified instructor. A buddy who owns guns isn’t the best choice. I know way too many people who own guns but are poor shots to recommend it.
You can go with either an autoloader or a revolver, whichever you prefer. Each has advantages and disadvantages. In autoloaders, you will likely want something in 9mm parabellum, .40 S&W, or .45 acp. There are other cartridges available, but these three are easily available and have a proven record of effectiveness. In a revolver, you will likely want a .38 special, a .357 magnum, or a .44 special. Revolvers also are available in other cartridges, but the .38 and the .357 are as close to universally available in the US as it is possible for revolver ammo to be.
Now here is a key point that is often overlooked in these discussions: Load your weapon with premium self-defense ammo. In pistols and revolvers, this means high quality hollowpoint ammo from a first-line maker. This ammo isn’t cheap but you must buy enough of it to ensure that your piece will function with it and that you are able to shoot it to point of aim. It’s okay to shoot the cheapest full metal jacket ammo you can find for practice at the range. When your life is on the line you want reliable ammo that will do the best possible job of stopping your assailant. DON"T CHEAP OUT ON AMMO! It’s better to have a moderate quality gun with high quality ammo in it than it is to own a high-end gun and stuff it with cheap ammo.
If you choose to go with a shotgun, you still need to buy quality self-defense ammo. Federal and Remington both produce reduced recoil buckshot loads expressly for this purpose. This load is in wide use by police agencies because it is an effective stopper while still having reduced recoil compared to standard factory loads. Smaller shot and slug loads have no place in a typical home defense scenario.
Forgive my ignorance, but how inaccurate is inaccurate? If you think you’re going to be firing at a burglar who is standing 12’ or 15’ across a room in your house, is it really that wildly inaccurate? I can understand firing down a range, but surely such close confines as a home would make the inaccuracies of a handgun not much of a problem?
The only gun I’ve ever fired is a 10-gauge shotgun, once, when I was 12, for about 20 minutes.
Actually, from what I’ve seen, nearness to the enemy actually makes inaccuracie MORE of a problem, due to the shooter panicking and not using his weapon properly (and handguns are rather unforgiving of shaky hands and poor aims).
After all these responses, I’ve decided to get a shot gun and to follow your advice in the matter of gun safety.
I’d much rather have a dog, but my wife is adamant about pets. (We had a wonderful dog for 13 years, and she hated his guts, often exclaiming, “Rommel, I’ll be glad when you’re dead,” or words to that effect.)
In a house, 10 feet is about all you’ll have between you and your assailant, and the truth is that one blast from that will cause the assailant to run for his life if he’s not injured beyond the capacity to run.
Intimidation is often even more effective, especially if your assailant believes you’ll actually go through with it.
Intimidation is a wonderful thing, when it works.
When it comes to use of lethal force, I prefer to calculate my actions based on the idea that the assailant will not be intimidated. If I deploy a lethal weapon, it is with the intention of using it with possibly lethal results. Once a gun comes into play, all ideas of “just scaring” somebody cease. If you are unprepared to take your assailant’s life, you shouldn’t be using a gun. It’s not a magic talisman. It doesn’t make you any safer just by having it.
As for the Serbu Super Shorty, I’d say it’s just a toy; except that it’s lethal. With the S.S.S. you have a weapon the size of a pistol that still requires two hands to operate. It is basically a big, clunky, two-handed pistol with no sights, holding only 3 shots. Load it with anything more powerful than skeet loads and you will be able to add painfully hard recoil to its list of shortcomings. In fact, I can easily see you needing dental work if you load it with serious loads and fire it with a less than perfect grip. Despite its absurdly short barrel, at typical indoor ranges you will still need to aim it as if it fires a single projectile. I also believe that shotgun shells, which are loaded with powder having a burn rate calculated around longer barrels, fired through such a short barrel will cause velocity of your projectile(s) to suffer. The S.S.S. shows up in movies and TV because it is kewl looking. Best to leave it there.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but having a personal defense weapon that isn’t ready to fire is asking for trouble. Ask anyone who’s ever short racked a pump gun at the skeet range to attest to how easy it is to jam one when you’re excited.
One more thing about the Serbu shot gun, if you click on the link at the bottom of the page you’ll see that it’s a restricted weapon, much like a sound suppressor or a grenade. These things are fine to own if you like jumping through bureaucratic hoops and can be fun to shoot but I wouldn’t want to be the one sitting in court at the defendants table while a prosecuting attorney waved my “Destructive Device” around at a jury that was deciding if my shoot was justified or not.
If you intend to use it for defensive purposes, yes. That is the basis of the objection to the laws that require locks on guns at all times when not in use. By the time you get the lock off it’s too late anyway, so what’s the point?
Anyway, I have a quick-opening safe. Punch the right combination of keys and it pops open allowing you access. Everything I have in there is ready to go at all times. It’s my concession to protecting my son. In my state it’s not required, but there’s a certain common sense quality to it when you have a typically curious 5-year-old.
I’m recommending no such thing, I’m simply saying that from a tactical standpoint there’s little use in a firearm that isn’t ready to fire. There are too many variables in each person’s situation to ever recommend blindly one choice over another. If one had children, or frequent visitors, or a thousand other things then I’d recommend getting a dog, moving, better locks, an alarm system. If after considering all of the issues you personally face in your own need to feel secure in your home you decide that arming yourself is the right course of action there’s certainly a school of thought that an uncocked and unloaded firearm is best used as a club.
My own firearm is certainly left in Jeff Cooper’s condition one (round chambered, hammer cocked, safety on) but also stored inside of one of these which is a rather safe condition based on my home, the people inside of it, and the safety points of my personal gun.
It was love at first sight when these first came around a few years back. I thought I wanted one, then I saw the demo at the store. I damned near ripped it out of the dudes hands and sprinted to the checkout line when I saw the door spring open.
My gid was brought up with guns. Fromt he time he could understand we told him that if wanted to see gun, just come get me or his mom and we would unload it and let him hold it, let him look at it, do a drive by…whatever.
As a result he has no real curiosity about them. And he’s a member of Mensa so he never had any friends or anything to come over…so we never had that to worry about.
But I heard that a cocked weapon has a certain amount of tension in some part or other — a spring, an air chamber, what-have-you — and being in a state of cocked-at-all-times weakens the tensored mechanism. Straight-Dopen me out here.
You’re quite right, any firearm that’s going to be left as such needs regular workouts and careful maintenance to make sure it stays operable. With todays parts you’d potentially be looking at years before a clip spring or hammer sear malfunctions, but the chance is there.
So, just how much “exercise” should a defense handgun get? If you’re practicing at the shooting range every week or two, is that enough that you can leave the thing cocked and loaded without worrying about it quitting on you in your time of need?
