What is the best Home Defense Weapon?
- Thread starter KLGunner
- Start date
HVACDOC
Elite
Well that pretty well sums it up. Sometimes the simple answer is the best.
A friend of mine was once robbed while he was sitting in his recliner asleep. The perp sneaked in, got what he could carry, and went back out. My friend never woke up, and his wife and kids upstairs didn't either. I don't think he had a dog (big mistake!). I also think he left his door unlocked until he was ready for be (also a bad idea).
We have an emergency chain ladder in all our upstairs rooms in case our exit is blocked by a fire, or it is better to go out the window for some reason.
BIO-HAZARD
Elite
My 1st home gun is the Kel Tec KSG 25 12 GA. But I will probably Grab the CZ Evo Scorpion 9mm . Because I have a Romeo 5 red dot on it and 30 round mag. with 3 more 30 round mags staged though the house .
TEXASforLIFE
Ronin
My wife wanted me too shoot a skunk, I told her not a good idea. Don't kill 1 near the house, after several days of smelling it she decided it was a bad idea!
TEXASforLIFE
Ronin
As long as it has bullets it should be a good HD weapon! State approved of course!
^ Same here.
It's still in my HD toolbox, but that's honestly only because it's sooooooooooooo devastating at typical CQB distances.
My daughter's definitely not going to be using it (my wife is not a shooter), so really, the only person in the family is me, and even then, for the reasons you've mentioned above, it's still not going to be my go-to unless we're literally bunkered-in (removing issue #1, and likely also even issue 2) and I can have both hands on the gun while my daughter is behind the AR and my wife on the phone to 911.
It's still in my HD toolbox, but that's honestly only because it's sooooooooooooo devastating at typical CQB distances.
My daughter's definitely not going to be using it (my wife is not a shooter), so really, the only person in the family is me, and even then, for the reasons you've mentioned above, it's still not going to be my go-to unless we're literally bunkered-in (removing issue #1, and likely also even issue 2) and I can have both hands on the gun while my daughter is behind the AR and my wife on the phone to 911.
RandomHero
Custom
Personally I don't own a shotgun. But still believe that's the best firearm in general for most people protecting their home. Reasoning is you don't have to be super accurate, just point in general area and your good.
Annihilator
Emissary
As stated here earlier, this is a good topic, also it’s hard to say which is best, also stated here. For me, I would have to pick something that my wife can also use in case I am not around, I would pick a good double action revolver, probably what I said in another post if you could only have one gun, S&W 686 SSR, she is pretty efficient with a revolver, plus she doesn’t have to worry about chambering a round like in a semi auto.
You can make a head shot on a skunk with a .22 especially if said skunk isn't perturbed and it will not spray.
DO NOT Make a BODY SHOT though. I have even shot a few with a 12 ga. when they were relaxed with high base 6 shot at fairly close range and they didn't spray.
RandomHero
Custom
Ok this is my home defense weapon. For those that don't know, it's the Springfield XDm 5.25" 45ACP with an LAPG 850 lumen tac light on it. The pros for me is that it is small and I can drive tacs with it. I can clear a room easier with it than a shotgun. Did I mention I have 13 rounds at my disposal? The LAPG light on it is every bit of 850 lumens. And I keep it locked and loaded with Federal HST 230 grain ammunition.
The only con I can think of is if a burglar has an AK or an AR. Even so, I think I'd have a chance since I'm so accurate with it.
Attachments
TEXASforLIFE
Ronin
It was with a shotgun!
A lot of people believe a shotgun with 00 buck is a super spread device that will clear an entire room with one shot but the reality is the shot group of a shotgun will be relatively small when used in a home defense situation because of the lack of distance to spread the shot anymore then a baseball size group. The real stopping power comes from firing
9 00-buck pellets in 1 shot with the projectiles being .33 caliber slightly smaller then a 9mm bullet but all impacting the target at the same time in a compact area. Whatever weapon you choose to defend your life train well with it and put yourself through scenarios in you're home. The 12 gauge is still a viable defensive/offensive tool in close quarters in the right situation if it wasn't the police and military would have stopped using it years ago.
What is your armed defensive plan?
Will you hunker down In an area of refuge in your home armed waiting for first responders?
Do you go on the offensive and clear the threat?
Are there other residents in the home that will need to be defended?
What do you do if you hear a bump in the night and are unsure if there is an actual threat?
9 00-buck pellets in 1 shot with the projectiles being .33 caliber slightly smaller then a 9mm bullet but all impacting the target at the same time in a compact area. Whatever weapon you choose to defend your life train well with it and put yourself through scenarios in you're home. The 12 gauge is still a viable defensive/offensive tool in close quarters in the right situation if it wasn't the police and military would have stopped using it years ago.
What is your armed defensive plan?
Will you hunker down In an area of refuge in your home armed waiting for first responders?
Do you go on the offensive and clear the threat?
Are there other residents in the home that will need to be defended?
What do you do if you hear a bump in the night and are unsure if there is an actual threat?
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@RandomHero , this is perhaps one of the biggest fallacies/urban myths of the shotgun. Especially if you're going to procure one for home-defense, you'll want to take heed of 10mmLife's words, which I think are worth reiterating:
^ To give you a solid visual of this ------>
hickok45
....and his follow-up video:
^ Look at how tight those pellets group, RandomHero.
And again, this, Mr Guns N Gear:
^ Here, pay special attention to how the difference in the chosen load/cartridge can make.
Any way you cut it, that's not a "general-direction" weapon: not at typical across-the-room/down-the-hall distances in the average American home, at least.
It's very, very, very possible to miss, without aiming.And this, RandomHero is really where the lethality of the shotgun comes into play. As you've now seen from the videos above, with the shot patterning so close together, that's a tremendous amount of damage, and it drastically increases the odds of effecting a true physiologic stop on the threat which it impacts. It's just like 10mmLife noted above: it's like shooting that threat 8 to 9 times with the typical 9mm handgun.
This is also actually why for defensive/duty use, wads which help keep the pellets together - like Federal's FliteControl - are so popular: it helps keep that shot all together for a longer distance, which helps mitigate the risk to the backdrop (i.e. bystanders).
Here is a video which I think I may have cited before on this Forum, where John Correia of Active Self Protection examines a police shooting incident in which the officer used the shotgun in a "surgical" manner to eliminate the threat, while he was still in close proximity to an innocent:
To effectively be able to use the shotgun in self-defense or duty service, one must know how the gun patterns with one's chosen ammo, and know also at what point a slug change-over will be necessary to effect precision shots.
This is exemplified in the response I'd posted earlier in this thread to Peglegjoe - https://www.thearmorylife.com/forum...2-gauge-ammo-for-home-defense.597/#post-11114
Hope this helps to bring the shotgun into better perspective!
swords, baseball bats - Check & check
You forgot baseballs.
Michigan man uses replica battle axe to fend off home invader
OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A man is alive and well after he used an axe to fend off a convicted criminal who broke into his Michigan apartment late Wednesday night. Ben Ball, 36, used a replica batt…
fox4kc.com
^ I love it that this man calls the weapon his "baby."
And my daughter, the anime heavy in our house, turned me onto this one: supposedly, Japanese voice actor Kaito Ishikawa (the voice of "Genos" in the anime series One Punch Man) threw multiple shuriken and injured an intruder in his home.....
To this day, there's some debate as to whether this story is actually true, but heck, I'd like to believe it's so!
Annihilator
Emissary
Early man’s home defense weapon of choice.......