I’m a qualified expert with a .22. When I moved out to the country, I wanted something for home defense, and I spoke to my grandfather who is a retired Chief for the NYPD.
He recommended I buy a Casull 4 shot .50 caliber revolver.
His logic was as follows:
Very very loud. If you fire this weapon indoors it is loud enough that people outside a mile away will hear it. It is likely to cause any intruder or tresspasser to wet his pants.
Obstacles don’t matter. If you are shooting at a bad guy who is hiding behind a car, or a brick wall, there is no need to wait for him to show himself. Just shoot through fender, firewall, engine block, firewall, fender, and bad guy. Hiding behind a wall is not a viable option against this weapon.
Size. The Casull is humongous. Many small automatic handguns don’t have an intrinsic sense of direction to them. With the Casull, you always know where it’s pointing. It makes it a safer handgun.
Single action, heavy pull. It takes an effort to pull the trigger. You are extremely unlikely to do so by accident.
Storage access and use. If you store the gun with the hammer down on an empty cylinder, with three rounds in the other cylinders, it is pretty safe. My grandfather who has actually been in gunfights says three rounds is plenty. If you haven’t done what you’ve set out to do with three rounds it’s most likely because you are dead, not that you are out of ammo.
Accuracy. You can scope the handgun, and it’s extremely accurate for target shooting.
I took my grandfather’s advice and bought this weapon about 5 years ago. It costs about $8.00 a round, so it’s not something you use for plinking cans. You can however shoot down a tree with it.
On more than one occasion, I’ve heard trespassers down at the pond. If I walk down into the fields and fire a round or two at the targets I set up, and then head down to the pond, they are always gone by the time I get there.
You have to be very careful with it, as the kick can break your wrists or knock you over. In spite of this, I’ve taught the Mrs. to be comfortable with it.
I’ve always fired rifles, and enjoy them, but have always been uncomfortable with handguns. I think this weapon is a good compromise between the two for home defense. It’s also a hell of a conversation piece.
plus it’s got that “ohshitability”. Looking down the barrel of any gun is scarey, let alone a BFG like that. I thought The Redhawk was huge 'till I saw one of those.
I don’t know much about guns, but I always thought that penetrating power was not necessarily a good thing when buying a gun for home defense. Do you really want a gun that might, if fired inside the house, end up three bedrooms away? At worst, you hit someone you didn’t intend to hit, at best, you’ll be watching the Home and Garden channel for redecorating tips for a long time after shooting holes that size in your drywall and plumbing.
Some deal with noise – if I’m going to be firing something in the house, I want something that would allow me to listen to my CDs again someday.
I’m even dubious about the 3 shots are all that you need argument. Although it’s probably extremely unlikely that you’d ever be in an actual firefight situation in a home defense scenario, I think most people would tend to fire away.
While I’ve always agreed that you must knock down who attacks you, I’m also a firm believer in one personal self-defense policy: shoot and move. Yeah, shoot the guy, but make an effort to get the hell away. I wouldn’t use a hand-howitzer like a .50, but I do like my .40SW.
My Pop always said, if you can’t end the firefight in two or three rounds, you don’t belong there!
I fired a HK demonstration model .50 caliber handgun years ago. I don’t recommend it. Especially not for home defense.
First off, grandpa was right about it being LOUD, the sound alone would paralyze somebody unprepared for it. I had a pair of foamy-type earplugs under a set of earphone muffles and the discharge still stunned me. I absolutely cannot imagine what it would be like without earplugs and in an enclosed space.
Second, I could see where the recoil might break the wrist of a small shooter. The powder count of the rounds I fired was only about 125 grain (the least amount possible without the possibility of the bullet jamming in the barrel), but the sheer size of the slug this thing fired combined with the gun’s slide knocked me sideways. A second, rapid shot would have been impossible and it was sheer luck I hit the target in the first place.
Third, the slug smashed through the wooden baffle like a hot knife through butter. I can easily imagine a fired bullet passing through the bad guy, through the bedroom wall, through your TV set, through a brick wall, through your neighbors brick wall, through your neighbor…
Get yourself a .357 magnum. Plenty loud, lots of power, and hollow point will stay in the bad guy.
Ruger makes a fantastic stainless steel hammerless five shot snubnose revolver, the SP-101, that I highly recommend. You can get one for $500.
I’ve fired a Casull .50 before. Sonofabitch kicks. Took me by surprise the first time I fired one. I completely missed the target, but the second shot destroyed it.
I don’t own a handgun(always just hunted with rifles), but I’m comfortable with them. And, if I were to get one, it would probably be a .40. I’ve always fired them better than most for some reason.
What about the Desert Eagle by IMI (Israel Military Industries)? I heard that hit has quite the amount of stopping power itself. The pistol is gas-operated with a system that is more like a rifle than the delayed blow-back systems used with most other semiauto hand guns. I am not too familiar with the Casull .50 but from what I heard you all describe. It dosen’t sound like it is gas-operated for ease of use.
Would you want a gun with that much kick when in a situation where you are already most likely going to be stressed about the situation at hand?
Just a thought.
From the tone of the OP, I gathered that Scylla wasn’t planning to use the .50 for inside-the-home defense, just for the sheer “scare” value of firing it when trespassers or the like are wandering around the property (and just to make a big noise, not firing AT the trespassers). I’d never dream of firing a .50 inside a house, it’d rip a path clear to the Great Outdoors no matter what stood in its way.
The ideal uses for a .50, in my book, are scaring someone with its hellish report (“a sound like the opening of the fly of the Lord God Almighty”) or, for you assassins, sniping over great distances. Beyond that, you’re much better off with a .45 or (radical thought) whatever caliber you find most comfortable to shoot.
Your pretty much correct. The only reason I can imagine it being fired indoors is to scare off an intruder. I’ve told my wife that what’s important is that she fire the gun, not necessarily that she hit something.
Phalanx: It’s a revolver. The Desert Eagle’s also available in .50…I can’t imagine needing to use (or wanting to carry) 7 of those rounds, though.
I’ll stick with my .40 S&W w/Black Talons and .45 ACP, though.
I’m a fan of the pump action shotgun. It makes a pretty loud and distinctive sound without being fired, which I’m very confident would cause the vast majority of intruders to elect to vacate the premises ASAP while saving on household damage, clean-up, legal inconveniences, and possible emotional trauma for a nice guy such as myself. Also, in the unlikely event that it does require actual firing, odds are I’m not going to miss completely.
I’ve heard it suggested that in the interest of safety, one should keep a pump and not have any shells for it. Makes sense except that if you’re shell-less and give it a pump, and bad guy hears it but doesn’t depart, you may as well just start looking for a good way to kill yourself.
Scylla, not to disrespect your grandpa, but I take exception to some of his advice on a defensive gun. Single action revolvers have a lighter trigger pull than a double action, not heavier. The trend is toward double action only revolvers and semi-auto pistols to reduce risk of accidental discharge.
A hand cannont is not a good choice for defense. Better to have something of more reasonable power that you can handle well.
I agree with Gunslinger on .45 ACP being a better choice for defense. Handguns aren’t for everyone though and a better choice for a less experienced shooter might be a short carbine rather than a huge handgun. I use a Winchester trapper lever action in cowboy action shooting and that would fit the bill nicely with Cor-Bon .45 Colt ammo. The 16" barrel makes it extremely compact but it’s easy for a less experienced shooter to handle well. They hold nine or ten rounds, are bargain priced frequently (Big 5 has them for $270 now) and are available in common calibers: .45 Colt, .44 Rem Mag/44 S&W Special and .357 mag/.38 special. Common ammo means you can afford to practice so you can become safe and proficient.
Absolutely no offense taken to your good advice Padeye. To give you an idea about my grandfather, when I was a whee boy, he had an 18 ft. motorboat he used to take me out on. My grandfather would back his truck up to the trailer, but could never quite get it lined up with the trailer hitch. He’d get out of the truck and being the Gorilla Mick cop that he was, he’d lift the trailer end off the cinder blocks , walk it over to the hitch and drop it onto it. All the leaf springs in the truck would sag about six inches.
My grandfather was a firm believer in opening eggs with sledgehammers.
Truth be told, I’ve come to some of the same conclusions you have (and was similarly warned at the Sporting goods store.) I bought the gun anyway, primarily because it seemed like such a bad-ass piece of weaponry. Which it is.
Ideally I should have a more practical, easily used and carried handgun, but I’ll never sell the Casull.
I have several rifles and shotguns, but this is my only handgun.
They’ve got them (relatively) new hammerless revolvers, that I’m not too particular of (SW “J” Frames). May be awesome for my mom or sister, but I’m not thrilled with the lack of control I have by not pulling the hammer back. I’m working on getting my first revolver (I have several pistols and rifles), and need to take a look at what is out there. Good timing for this thread . . .
Tripler, I’m an auto pistol fan too but you may want to reconsider double action revolvers. Try any of the other S&W models that use a leaf mainspring unlike the J’s coil. The double action pulls are now as good as used to take a custom trigger job. With a little practice you’ll have all the control you thought you’d need single action for. I’m not going to trade my mildly hotrodded 1911 for one but I still think a DA is a better choice for defense. FWIW my own defensive pistol is a Sig P245. The stock double action pull is a bit too stiff but I have a Wolff spring ordered and on the way.
Consider that the fastest and most accurate shooter ever, Ed McGivern, was only able to make his records using a S&W double action revolver - semi-autos were too slow. A couple of years ago someone broke Ed’s records but again only by using a S&W DA revolver.
Lately though all my shooting has been single action revolver for SASS cowboy shooting. A brace of Colt (replicas anyway) .45s is something not much improved on in 127 years
