henschman
Member
I think some of you are misreading the OP... he isn't saying he wants a HOME defense rifle... he says he wants a homeLAND defense rifle. That is a very different thing, in my book. A home defense rifle is something that will only be used at extremely close quarters and indoors, if at all, against at most a few lightly-armed common criminals and would not usually be required to undergo a particularly high round count in between cleaning.
A homeland defense rifle, I would imagine, is something that you keep in order to fulfill your duty to stand ready to defend your liberty against anyone who might threaten it. Everyone has their own ideas about who exactly the most likely threat would be, but I would think the general scenario would invovle multiple bad guys who are at least as well armed as you are, probably vehicle-borne, and probably with some form of body armor. Expected ranges could be anything from point blank to long range (out past 600m), depending on the situation.
I believe a 7.62x51 to be the best choice for this role because of superior penetration and max effective range, but I believe in having a 5.56 AR as well, for ammo and parts commonality. It is definitely a good place to start if you don't have a lot of money to sink into a rifle and ammo. Like I said, I prefer the 20" barrel if there is a possibility of it being used at the longer ranges (i.e. out past 300m). A 1/7 twist is a good idea, since it is set up to use the mil spec 62 grainers and can use up to the 77 grainers for longer range and better terminal ballistics. The longer barrel really won't handicap you too much... if you get a gov't profile barrel, it is still plenty light weight, and it's not terribly long and unwieldly for close quarters either.
JMO/FWIW/etc.
A homeland defense rifle, I would imagine, is something that you keep in order to fulfill your duty to stand ready to defend your liberty against anyone who might threaten it. Everyone has their own ideas about who exactly the most likely threat would be, but I would think the general scenario would invovle multiple bad guys who are at least as well armed as you are, probably vehicle-borne, and probably with some form of body armor. Expected ranges could be anything from point blank to long range (out past 600m), depending on the situation.
I believe a 7.62x51 to be the best choice for this role because of superior penetration and max effective range, but I believe in having a 5.56 AR as well, for ammo and parts commonality. It is definitely a good place to start if you don't have a lot of money to sink into a rifle and ammo. Like I said, I prefer the 20" barrel if there is a possibility of it being used at the longer ranges (i.e. out past 300m). A 1/7 twist is a good idea, since it is set up to use the mil spec 62 grainers and can use up to the 77 grainers for longer range and better terminal ballistics. The longer barrel really won't handicap you too much... if you get a gov't profile barrel, it is still plenty light weight, and it's not terribly long and unwieldly for close quarters either.
JMO/FWIW/etc.