What is your preferred first line of home defense?

What is your preferred first line of home defense?

  • Pistol

    Votes: 106 38.7%
  • Revolver

    Votes: 21 7.7%
  • PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine)

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • RCC (Rifle Caliber Carbine)

    Votes: 11 4.0%
  • Rifle

    Votes: 4 1.5%
  • Tactical Shotgun

    Votes: 33 12.0%
  • Field Shotgun

    Votes: 7 2.6%
  • Club (Baseball Bat, Frying Pan, etc.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Edged weapon (Knife, Sword, Machete, etc.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Big Dog

    Votes: 48 17.5%
  • Tell your spouse there is a prowler in the house AND they left the toilet seat up

    Votes: 6 2.2%
  • Other

    Votes: 35 12.8%

  • Total voters
    274
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Solid core doors with double deadbolt.

Dog-preferably a Poodle, Bichon, Westie, or other yappy little dog that will alert the whole neighborhood.

Security system hooked to cell phone. I can turn lights,stereo, TV, etc on or off from Bumfug Egypt. Can see every room in the house on the smartphone. (and no, that system isn't really very expensive.)

Know your neighbors. Work with them.

Benelli M-4 loaded with 00 buck.
 
First line is difficultly accessed windows. Second is locked doors. Third is loud dogs that make a ruckus whenever they hear a bump in the night.

The list goes on for awhile before firearms even come close to playing a part.

I guess in the spirit of answering your question they way you intended to ask it though it would be a 20 ga Browning BPS w/ No 3 Buck.
 
Before firearms our first line of defense is hardening the target (our home), training and awareness of our home's layout and how to use it to your advantage.

We had a big concern about home invasion, i.e. esp. waking up in bed to guns pointed at us, so we had our home "gamed" by some professionals (SWAT types) with whom we happen to be close friends. The first thing they showed us was just how vulnerable to having our front door kicked in we really were. Using a stop watch we estimated it would be about 5 seconds to kick the front door and be up to our bedroom. As all the doors in the house were the hollow core variety it's about 1 second to kick those.

The main theme they taught us was to be able to buy time enough to arm, escape, or shelter in place to get or call for help. In all cases the recommendation was that shooting was the last resort. The team leader said if you can get even 30 seconds to prepare you've basically won. With the changes we made to our home it is our estimate that an intruder will not get to us in under 30 or maybe even 60 seconds, depending on where we are. We'll also know where an intruder can go and where he can't (at least not quickly) if he happens to get in.

Without getting into too many specifics here's more or less what we did:
  1. Installed a bullet proof security system. (We did not want a dog at all.) At least we'll be woken up if an intruder gets in somehow, we'll know if we've been breached if we're away and we won't come home to something in progress.
  2. Strengthened frames and hardware for all exterior doors
  3. Added security storm doors
  4. Ripped out select interior doors and replaced them with steel doors with steel frames. This really affects where an intruder can go in your home. WE know this, the intruder doesn't. It's a huge advantage and it simply buys you time if an intruder has to get through 2 steel doors to get to you. Heck, by the time an intruder gets through 2 or more doors we could actually be out of the house, tables totally turned.
  5. Moved communications from downstairs to upstairs
  6. Got educated on our lanes/tunnels of defense and how to use them
  7. Learned how to sweep the rooms of our house
  8. Acquired 2nd story ladders in case we had to exit from the 2nd floor. Practice this. It's not as easy as you might think. (This is a good idea for fire anyway)
  9. Have secondary communications available (walkies) in case it's needed.
We have no illusions. None of this makes us an expert - we've been schooled on one building - our house. No plan survives about the first minute of a conflict. However, by taking the above steps and more we THINK we've eliminated many of the common scenarios.

Oh yeah one final thing and this was something I never thought of. We were told that if you think your guns are loud at the range just try firing in a hallway and then see what happens to your hearing. They recommended to have some kind of hearing protection as they do in their jobs, IF POSSIBLE. So, spend those 30 seconds wisely.

Next on the list is maybe some sort of night vision capability.

EDIT: LOL I forgot to mention the firearms we would use first if it came to that. Me: Benelli M4 loaded with Winchester PDX. Mrs: Beretta 92FS in 9mm. We have others too but those would be the ones we'd grab first.
 
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First line is knowing neighbors and having an agreement to watch out for each other. One skeptical dog who barks helps.

But after that, yeah....
--Ithaca 37 18" bbl 12 ga for 2-legged. Triple-naught-buck. Iron sights.
--Scoped Marlin 336Y 16" bbl .30-30 for 4-legged (we have bears, wolves, cougars etc up here).

Hon. mentions to 9mm pistol and Timberwolf pump rifle in .357 mag - these are always ready to go, too. As is the AR-15 in 5.56x45 as final backup.
 
I live now in a low crime area but when that bad guys at your door , neighbors , alarms and dogs may not help for that crazy amount of time . Happened to me , it was 9:30 pm both cars on the driveway , alarm on my wife , dog and me all watching television and Bam , attempted home invasion . Im not a nut job but my pistol is always with me or at arm's length . I jumped up , dog didn't move wife screamed . Luckily my wife uses the dead bolt on the door . I guess they never counted on someone having a gun that fast . When the police came they said they were coming in if you were home or not . They also unscrewed all my sensor bulbs . It was unsettling for awhile but you get back into normal everyday stuff . So for me first line of defense is a reliable handgun .
PS
My neighbors heard the bang but thought I was working in the basement, and never looked out .
 
Does anyone remember the Sharon Tate murders that were done by the Charles Manson gang? I am old enough to remember it in the news.
It was a very disturbing and shocking event that frightened the people of Caifornia and made everyone question their home security.
Charles Manson's gang had walked right into the home of the Tate family and started stabbing them.
It was unbeleiveable to most people that someone would do that. The sale of every kind of home security device went through the roof.
Maybe the lesson to be learned from this horrible event is never think that " it can't happen to me." ( Always be prepared to defend your home.)
 
A very good point. Far too many people think nothing bad will happen to them.
 
Does anyone remember the Sharon Tate murders that were done by the Charles Manson gang? I am old enough to remember it in the news.
It was a very disturbing and shocking event that frightened the people of Caifornia and made everyone question their home security.
Charles Manson's gang had walked right into the home of the Tate family and started stabbing them.
It was unbeleiveable to most people that someone would do that. The sale of every kind of home security device went through the roof.
Maybe the lesson to be learned from this horrible event is never think that " it can't happen to me." ( Always be prepared to defend your home.)

Old enough to have been living in the area when it happened and also the Weather Underground and Brown Berets and Black Panthers and the Years of Bombings and the Cities Burning and ...

So I decided to use Abject poverty.
 
I have a Colt 6960 CCU with a SIG Romeo 7 red dot sight and a Fenix white light on a pressure switch. If there is a known threat, I am going for the AR-15 and it's thirty rounds of 62 gr Barnes. I have a Glock 20 with TruGlo sights and fifteen 200 gr XTPs on tap, as well as a handheld Fenix white light that gets the call for investigating odd noises or potential problems. The Glock is more inconspicuous and offers a degree of discretion that a slung carbine doesn't.
 
A gun is really a last line of defense. The first lines of defense are layered: live in a decent area where I know my neighbors, leave a porch light on at night, watch out for suspicious behavior, lock the doors, allow my big dog to do her thing, and so on. If they make it past every reason I've given them to go somewhere else, the gun I'd confront them with would likely depend on where I am in the house at the time. But, the most likely scenario is that they'd face the Glock 26 I carry as a CCW piece. If I knew the bad guy was coming through the door, I have a suppressed .300 Blk and a Benelli M4 conveniently available as well.
 
Short AK platform weapon (krink or pistol with brace) 7.62x39mm

Home defense for me requires (in no particular order):

1. Penetration. May have to shoot through barriers (walls, furniture, glass, appliances etc). Invaders might be lightly armored.
2. Capacity. 30 or 40rds as a standard. Might be multiple invaders, may take several rounds to engage each. Less chance of having to reload under stress.
3. Reliability. AK is king here.
4. Short length. Must be easy to maneuver in a home. Pistols can actually be longer than short rifles or carbines when you extend into a proper shooting stance.
5. Low recoil, fast follow up shots - semi-auto. Much less recoil than shotguns. Faster to shoot. More control and accuracy than handguns. No need to work a pump or lever.
6. Terminal performance. Far better than pistols. Not as devastating as shotgun, but good enough.
 
Being on 5th floor appartment building with security front door that trained SWAT unit needs 20 minutes to get through unless they use explosives/hydraulic press that demolishes the wall around the doorframe. Yes, that's a thing here. In very safe neighborhood that is in generally very safe country. Not gated but with a security guy paid to walk around and take notice of anything out of place. And cameras. And right next to an office building with their own security and cameras. And good neighbors.

That being said there is always loaded CZ 75 close to me and loaded Kahr CM9 close to my GF. Of course that is only to have something in hand for the 5 seconds it takes to open the safe and get out SBR AR15 that is always ready with two loaded mags.

Or should the situation need it to take the one minute to load up mags for something more serious, like AR 10 or ZB.26 - in case the bad guy would be threatening us from behind the fridge... in another appartment... in another building.

That being said I am still contemplating whether to secure the windows. Is that an overkill?
 
First line of defense for me is my S&W Model 59 in 9mm. It goes everywhere I go, and isn't far away when I'm home.
 
While the first line isn't a gun, I understand the concept.

CCW piece on the night stand (whatever it happens to be that day).
45 ACP Carbine next to that.

Always have these things next to the bed:
Phone
Flashlight
Fire extinguisher
Firearm
 
As far as firearms go my first line of defense is an M&P I keep locked up beside the bed.
 
My best defense is the mile long private road to my house, so anyone I see is automatically suspect. A total blackout at night let's my guard goat that is well over 6 feet tall when standing on his hind legs, get a hit in before you even know he is there, and it is his greatest passion in life to put people on their rear ends. Then the barking dogs kick in, but that is all they do. Dogs that bite don't last long around here.
Any brave soul that can get past the goat will be greeted with a 9mm, 12gauge, 06, 7mm, or one of 3 different calibers of ARs depending on which is handy at the time.
 
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