Posted on 12/26/2012 7:00:26 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Let’s talk home defense.
First things first, shotguns are devastatingly powerful. Nothing can compare to the 12 gauge at close range. Even birdshot, which is still one mass of moving lead at close range, will tear a human to shreds. In my battery I have a Remington 870 and a bandoleer of slugs and buck ready to go for when the SHTF. You don’t lose much with a 20 gauge at close range either and you gain some agility with a smaller gun, and more family members are likely to respond better to the 20.
The second point I’d like to make is on handguns for home defense. Shoot the biggest cartridge you can handle.
--snip--
Hi-Point Carbine
This is the least expensive gun on the list with a suggested retail price of $285. You can get them in 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. The added barrel length as a rule of thumb will add 300 feet per second making even a 9mm a good stopper and even better with +P loads. The specs on this gun make it a good home defense choice; 16.5” barrel, length 31” and it weighs 6.25 lbs. Now here is the rub, some folks flat out hate these guns. Others love them. I’m indifferent right now because I don’t have a lot of range time to make up my mind but that will change because my neighbor just got one...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Comments on one of these threads is guaranteed.
The best gun is the one you have when you need it. As long as it goes bang then it will be a game changer. Nobody wants to be shot with even a .22
For the home I prefer a 12 guage or a .45 but I found some tests which found the 5.56 round had the least penetration through sheetrock walls. It only went through 3 simulated walls.
I am interested in the Hi Point carbine in .45 cal. I would appreciate any range reports from current owners.
I don’t have anything with which to defend myself. Come on in...
I’ve had the C9 9mm pistol for some time now and think it’s probably the best value for the money out there. Can’t afford the carbine at this time.
12ga/45 is safe bet. I like how the first two listed were my favorite rugers.
454 Casull = too much recoil
HiPoint carbine - I’d go with the 45ACP
AR - be sure to have something like Hornady TAP ammo or maybe some frangible ammo for inside the house.
And please tell me where I can get an AR for $650.
I think I’d opt for an old, honestly-used lever gun in .44 or .357 rather than a highpoint. JMO.
Not recommended for apartment dwellers...
I could tell you where but that's not the problem. The problem is when. Do you have ready access to a time travel machine?
Keep your eye out for an old Marlin camp carbine in .45acp.
No frangible! Frangible is for shooting steel and breaking up. Drywall is not harder than the cartridge. It will tear through your home and your neighbor's home.
#4 Buckshot in a 12/20 gauge shotgun with a light or 45/40/9 in handgun with a light.
Wal-Mart, until Sandy Hook happened. Had some really nice ones.
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If I know someone is in the house, I’m with the Saiga 12 at the top of the stairs as wife calls 911 holding her 870. If I have to investigate, I’m taking my M&P .45 and light. A rifle and shotgun can’t corner/quarter as well and are easier to grab by bad guy hiding.
I thought frangible was what air marshals used. Or are they using something like Glaser safety slugs?
How well does a polymer reciver stand up? Glocks, Rugers, Springfields seem to do OK. I don't know.
Anything that won’t penetrate the plane won’t do a reliable job on a person. The airplane skin is very thin.
I don’t know what Air Marshall’s use but puncturing the side of a plane with a bunch of bullets won’t take it down. That only happens in Hollywood.
Thanks for the post. I carry a .38 and my wife has a .22 mag for her purse and wants something bigger. (She fired a .357 mag at the range and loved it.) All we really have for home defense is a Winchester Defender 1300 and I’m rethinking what will be needed when times get weird(er).
Cash talks in da hood.
Throw in a Mini-14 and 30. Nice little guns for any real purpose out there.
Good post, and good advice.
I’ve got a double-barrel 20 gauge shotgun (w/ two triggers), a 30.06 with scope, a Russian AK (semi), a 22 squirrel rifle, a 357 S&W, and some other miscellaneous handguns. Everybody in the family can be shooting away at any invading Obama Democrat locusts who venture onto my property when the SHTF.
I would like to get a couple more high-powered rifles w/ scopes, though, just to be sure.
Were they printed?
Carbine for the house? OH GOSH YES! I suggest a Rossi, not a Puma, for the money value. The Puma line are near Browning Hi Power cost, whereas, a Rossi will not break you. They make them in most revolver calibers, and even .44-40. I read a report, that stated a carbine in 16-inch barrel lentgth, (I believe it was on CHUCKHAWKS.COM), is the optimal length of a barrel for a .357 Magnum chambering. Any longer a barrel, and the ‘law of diminishing returns’ kicks in, and we don’t need that. Yes, folks do suggest mostly 158-grain loads, but for home defense, for me, I employ 125-grain loads. Remember, too, a 16-inch .357 magnum carbine weighs less than five pounds. That read-about .357 magnum ‘oomph’ has to go somewhere when that bullet leaves the barrel, and your shoulder is where it is going. You will feel the difference in the grain weight loads.
Here is what my 20th Century ‘jaeger rifle’ looks like, complete with John Wayne large lever loop:
http://www.rossiusa.com/product-details.cfm?id=174&category=8&toggle=&breadcrumbseries=
No scopes, no hooded sights. I have ordered, and emplaced a leather ‘butt cuff’ like this one:
http://www.diamonddcustomleather.com/Rifle_Butt_Cuff.php
(Won’t the liberals have fun with trying to regulate a handmade piece of leather, huh?)
And like the author, yes - the rifle can chamber both .357 Magnum and .38 Special, in that order, I prefer to feed this little beastie only factory 125-grain .357 Magnum loads. I was told that particular round is good on all things, feral.
So, enjoy life, get one of these little beasties, get the other leather to go with it - someone out there makes a muzzle cap, too - and for the full experience, get a pair of ‘mechanics’ style gloves at your hardware dealer in desert tan. (Shooting a lever action with a good set of gloves will save your hand.)
http://www.mechanix.com/tactical/the-original-coyote-glove
Have fun, learning how to guard hearth and home, like our pioneering forefathers did in The Great West. Besides, this particular carbine is in no way shape or fashion anything close to an “Evil Battle Rifle”, or E.B.R!!!
Happy New Year to all the Freepers!
Long live the Republic!
I forgot one thing .... everything the author recommends, except the lever action, is A SEMI-AUTOMATIC OPERATING RIFLE!!! Duh!
I’ll see your 9mm (Browning hi power mkIII), and raise you a Sw Model 10/15.
Why?
After shooting both a MkII and MKIII, with: non-limp-wristed FTF/FTE’s caused by factory ammo and magazine failures to keep slide back after last shot, with the seconds necessary to whether tap-rack=bang, or tap-drop-rack-slap-rack-bang, I do not believe that semi-automatic pistol machinery, in any caliber, can equate to the relaese of a nice lead 158 grain solid semiwadcutter, with each trigger pull on a four-inch barreled .38 Special revolver. I’ve watched intently every 9mm load fired through the ‘FBI-standardized’ four layers of denim placed in front of Simtest ballistic gelatin test material, only to see it fail to operate as designed. Solid semiwadcutters, which are not hollow point bullet deisgns, do not clog, nor fail to ‘petalize’.
What made me consider this load? I made a visit to the Fed pen in another part of the state, on a nice clear fall day, where the business office was located 75 yards from ‘the workout cage’. The weights being lifted by, and the girths of, these ‘refrigerator perrys’ helped me make that decision.
And while I'm rambling, the 5.56 in pistol configuration with two or three 30 round Pmags makes a nice surprise if a gaggle of feral ver4min show up at your home, uninvited.
A .22 to the head is usually a game changer as it likes to ricochet around the inside of the skull.Also remember you only want to deal with the situation in your home, not your neighbors. Pick the gun and caliber for your surroundings.
For clearing the house we rely on Mr. Mossberg 500 tactical.
For clearing the house we rely on Mr. Mossberg 500 tactical.
Tell that to the Marine Corps which is changing over from the 9mm to the .45 cal. Semper Fi.
Ruger 10/22 with a Ruger brand 25 round magazine, er, I mean clip, and a 2-7x or 4x quality rimfire scope. Want to carry 500 rds of something other than .22LR? Not me thanks.
I like a handgun with a laser. Yes, I think it is difficult to hit a moving target with a handgun and be moving yourself and a laser makes the task easier.
“....and 9mm is easy to get.”
.
Walmart was out of 9mm this afternoon and so were other stores.
What’s going on?
I guess ‘easy’ to get. I usually don’t get all of my ammo from Wally world. I suspect its simple supply and demand as of now. Or perhaps, Walmart is slowly turning away from guns and ammo in the future? I know they took down their AR’s from online pretty quickly after the Conn. shooting.
Most caliber wars are fought for the pleasure of the participants. I don’t own any semi-automatic handguns. I shoot revolvers because I enjoy them more, and a defensive gun ought to be one you don’t have to think about. I’ve never felt undergunned in the night with my 7-shot 686+, or even my 6-shot single action guns.
All that said, the 9mm is a fine round and the guns that use it have a proven track record. I may carry a 5-shot J-frame, but 15+ rounds of 9mm is nothing to sneeze at. And the ammo is about the cheapest ammo you can buy commercially. That encourages lots of shooting...
The one time I’ve pulled a gun, it was a 22 that I happened to be carrying with me while hiking that day. I had probably shot 10,000+ rounds thru it, and I suspect part of the reason the 8 guys stopped trying to surround me was that there was something in my body language that said, “I won’t miss!” The familiarity of a fine gun in your hand that you’ve shot a few thousand times is a wonderful thing if you need to make 5 or even 15 shots get the job done.
The article is wrong about needing the largest caliber pistol to stop an assialant... Serious studies of real shootings have show that an accurate shot with a lower caliber is just as likely to take down the bad guy. And - as the author pointed out with shotguns - a 20 ga. shotgun would be better handled of many people (smaller stature, less strong, etc.) and yet not lose much knock down at relatively close range versus a 12 ga....
The best defense caliber is one that does not cause the shooter to close their eyes, flinch or hesitate... Few people are accurate shooters in a sudden unexpected terrifying situation - adrenaling pumping, frightened, etc. So having many smaller caliber rounds - means in case of 9mm up to 14 rounds in a Browning HighPower... vs about 1/2 in a powerful .45 ir 357. I think any gun that hits where it is pointed by an average person because the recoil did not knock his/her arm and head back is the best most reliable defense. There is power in numbers... Note: .22 cal. killed Robert Kennedy and nearly killed Reagan ...
Good choice. My Dad used one in RVN. I have a ‘Maverick’ for the safety on the trigger guard, and an AT top-folding stock.
I believe if Martha Stewart recommended a ‘Home for the Holidays’ firearm, she would go for the boom-stick.
I have the Hi-Point 40 S&W and love it and when my alarm went off recently it came in very hand as I checked things out. I love the thing and it is like carrying a M-14 or M-16.
I have a Marlin Camp Carbine in 9 mm and love it.
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What’s going on?
My local Wall Mart has been out of 9mm since last Friday plus a bunch of other cals.
Looks like they haven't restocked since Friday.
As a postscript, the 12 gauge has four times the muzzle energy of a .44 magnum, so ‘candycane’ slugs with 00 and you’re loaded for bear.
bkmk
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