AR15 Home Defense: Round in Chamber?

I/We own several AR15/M4 weapons, but they are not the go-to home defense firearms, so, are not kept loaded or otherwise prepped for immediate defensive usage. This means that no loaded mag is in the weapon. Only one of our many AR15 magazines is kept filled with cartridges, if I recall correctly. Probably, the best way to describe our several AR15/M4 weapons is “reserve” equipment. We keep shotguns in a higher state of readiness, with pump guns being in “cruiser ready” mode, and my primary Benelli M2 is normally kept with a round chambered.

Keeping a shell in the chamber of my Benelli M2 allows engaging an intruder silently, without the need to make noise by chambering a shell. If I were to need to run, or move some distance, the Benelli M2’s design allows me to run the bolt, to empty the chamber, if I so choose, without another shell feeding onto the carrier. My Benelli’s ability to be operated, this way, is a significant reason that it is my choice of home defensive weapon. I do, of course, fully recognize that the Benelli’s cross-bolt safety button simply blocks the trigger.

To be clear, I am not opposed to using a rifle for home defense. For quite some time, at different times in my life, I have kept a different rifle prepped for home defense, with a loaded magazine inserted into the mag well, but usually chamber-empty. At times, the chamber would be kept loaded, with the hammer on half-cock, and the hammer spur folded, to totally block the firing pin. (Browning BLR, with current-version hammer.) If we move, to a more rural, open area, I may well resume keeping a BLR rifle prepped in this way.

Double Naught Spy said:

So I am just curious for the people who keep unloaded firearms for self defense...what happens when you decide to try to scare the hell out of the bad guy by chambering a round and you have a failure to go into battery? We have all seen the malfunction happen. At the range, it is a minor inconvenience. In a competition, it is a little embarrassing and maybe something you laugh about later. In a home intrusion situation, you have just changed your status from combat not ready to combat ineffective and definitely no longer have the tactical advantage of the intruder not knowing where you are, especially as you start jacking with your gun to clear the malfunction.

I know, a lot of folks have ninja malfunction clear capabilities and will be able to clear any malfunction before a bad guy would be able to get the drop on them, but for the rest of the mortals, how have you reconciled this potential shortfall?

If you are going the play the "scare the bad guy by making a scary noise" game, don't do it with your fighting weapon in an attempt to make it ready for combat at the last possible moment. That is when time is critical and where a minor malfunction in the loading process is apt to be of the greatest significance and potentially most costly for you.

Click to expand...

I keep my rifles unchambered for family safety reasons. I do have handguns chambered in a quick access safe. If I need immediate access to a gun or need a gun silently, I'm fighting with a handgun. If I have a little time, then it's the rifle.

I have kids that have bedrooms in a different part of the house than where the master bedroom is. So I dont have the luxury of waiting in ambush in my room. Im on the offensive. If the intruder hears the bolt rack on my Colt or Colt/BCM, they've got about 5 seconds before a large naked man is coming full Leroy Jenkins through the house armed with an AR15.

My house has several dogs. Having a job where I deal with family dogs on a regular basis, I have no faith in my dogs attacking intruders. They've been trained since the beginning to be family pets, not attack dogs. But I know damn well that they are going to bark like crazy. That will definitely help mask the sound of chambering my rifle.

I dont have issues flubbing the chambering of an AR15. If I do it at the beginning of a fight, well then I just screwed myself. Same if I dropped the mag or tripped over the couch and threw my rifle across the living room. But those arent issues I normally have so Im not to worried about it.

MistWolf said:

Good thing she's Armored

Click to expand...

If she reads this thread it may be “Harmed Farmer” when she’s done

My sidearm is loaded on my bedside table at night. AR is available, hammer down on an empty chamber, magazine loaded and in the gun (cruiser ready). After 30-odd years of doing it this way it becomes second nature to charge the AR under stress and in a hurry.

Stay safe.

I once tried to quietly chamber a round in the pre-dawn eagle paas, TX darkness on a hog hunt. Two hours later......I didn't even get the satisfaction of a *click*....nothing. the bolt didn't close. The pig got away.

Armored farmer said:

use the bed and Mrs farmer as cover.

Click to expand...

Good to see you’ve got your priorities straight.

JCooperfan1911 said:

Should an AR-15 carbine be kept in condition one for the purposes of self preservation within the domicile? Or, is such a practice dangerous and is the AR system not designed for keeping a round chambered with safety on for an extended period?

Click to expand...

YES!, its no different than a handgun or shotgun.

It also should have a light and a sling loaded with defensive ammo (i like 223 75 gr BTHP) also have your house wired so a single switch in your room can turn all the lights ON/OFF in the house and another switch to turn ON/OFF an alarm system/sound. Finally Establish a plan with your family for when the alarm goes off.

Dave DeLaurant said:

I keep a couple of suitable rifles just in case, but then I also still maintain my dad's backyard fallout shelter.

Click to expand...

This makes me a bit nostalgic. My Dad was a building contractor for 50+ years and fallout shelters were a pretty common project when I was a kid.

That said - handguns have one in the chamber and rifles do not.

I wouldn't. I didn't even keep one in the chamber of my M4 doing vehicle patrols in afg. In fact, my M4 was secured with straps to the side of my rucksack, as I was operating a mounted crew served weapon, so my M4 was pretty much there if I needed to dismount.

It's been interesting all the answers and reasons here. Very informative.
For me, old as I am and very low speed/high drag...
I keep my AR with the magazine in but chamber empty with a couple spare mags nearby.

For the most part the stored weapons are empty, the ready to defend weapons are loaded cocked and locked. They are ready to defend, not "waydaminnit I gotta charge it cuz I left it empty Mr. Intruder!"

How you manage other weapons stashed around the house should be done safely to keep house guests and children away from them, that is where the concealed gun furniture and accessories come in. I may have carpentry tools scattered around for all the honey do remodel repair jobs, not a firearm.

My practice has generally been NOT to have a round in the chamber for home defense, regardless of firearm type. The exception is of course a revolver. But my semi-autos, whether rifle or handgun are kept with full magazine, but no round in the chamber. Same with my pump shotguns. It comes down to a balance between safe storage and the immediacy of self-defense in the home. Other people in other home environments may choose to have one in the chamber according to their circumstances and that works for them.

Depends on how many other hands are around the house that may find themselves on said gun. If I lived by myself, yes I would have no problem with that. If I live with my wife, no because she is not proficient and has no business handling a condition 1 AR15. If there are kids in the house who are to young to be proficient and don’t understand the danger, nope nadda never ever unless it’s locked up by some other means.

If you need to keep an AR with a round in the chamber in your house... You may want to reconsider your house setup. Brick walls instead of plywood and drywalls, steel doors and window bars, and a perimeter wall. A couple of dogs too. Then nobody will jump you in your bedroom.

And if one day you need to use your AR, you won't have to worry about who's on the other side of the wall...

Surprised how many people say not to leave guns loaded if kids around. Kids are good at putting things together. Like, magazines into guns, etc. I'd never, ever leave any of my guns not in my control or locked up.

Many guns in the cage in he basement are loaded to avoid administrative handling. Carry pieces stay loaded, IN THE HOLSTER when not on the body.

I also have several loaded magazines for rifles stored in the cage and a card of 12 ga. Just for options. Lots of other ammo nearby but these are set for instant defense if something happens.

The HD gun is my boring 16" carbine locked up with a non-electronic pushbutton setup hidden in a closet but at arms reach. I used to leave it loaded because if it's for social work, it better be loaded. However, it goes out regularly to be shot one way or another, so to avoid carrying a loaded gun through the house, or loading/unloading in the 2nd floor bedroom, I now do loaded mag, empty chamber.

I am not concerned about silence because it will take a bit to get to the gun anyway, there's no way anyone I need to shoot is a ninja, and no way I am not verbally challenging first anyway. I do not believe the charging handle noise will help slow anyone down, I just don't /mind/ the 1/3rd second delay to charge it.

My carry gun is always loaded, round chambered, ready to go.

Long arms, unless I have reason to think I'm about to have to go into action imminently, I keep the mag loaded, but nothing in the chamber.

Ditto above. CC weapon round in chamber, safety on. For home defense, AR bolt closed on an empty chamber, safety on, 30 round mag in mag well. BTW frangible ammo may be an option if you live an urban area.

Round in Chamber?

No. Empty chamber, mag is full, rifle off safe. Rack and roll. Trigger finger indexed along rifle housing.

A lot of people don't have the ideal home set-up so it's a question which is going to have varying answers and an AR-15 is a bulky weapon even if it's an AR pistol.
Guns in gun safes, sure , makes sense, but not many people get home, put their keys on the counter and then go and remove their gun from the gun safe and a lot of people are followed home seconds prior to a home invasion robbery by multiple attackers.
If one watches the YouTube channel "Active Self Protection" crimes occur within seconds. Very rarely is it a situation where a home defender hears a noise in the dark, racks a round and goes to investigate, or retreats and dials 911.
If you load the "Active Self Protection" video page, then keyword search by "home" events always happen in 1-3 seconds.
A home invasion is more likely to occur while you're pouring yourself a glass of milk in the kitchen, or watching TV and your door is kicked open catching a home owner/occupant unaware or in the middle of pushing a vacuum cleaner, of some other mundane task.
In the time it took me to type this Kyle Rittenhouse fired his first shot, ran two blocks and fired several more.
Sadly, and to counter a comment I saw several months ago where a child thought their parent "weird" and "paranoid" (outside this forum) for carrying a handgun on their person while at home the best defense imo is having a gun in arms reach or on your person loaded and ready to fire.
It's a sad world we live in when you're more likely to be robbed while you are mowing your lawn by a passerby than engaging in a standoff battle with an AR from the comfort of your bunker. LOL

For those of you that go chambered. If legal in your area do you keep it chambered in your vehicle if the rifle or shotgun goes for a ride?

I live in top floor apartment right now, locked stairways, underground garage and quiet neighborhood, so chances for anything to happen suddenly are limited. Hence the only guns that have a round in chamber are the bedroom Glock in a quick-access safe and a hidden .357 revolver in the foyer. AR:s are in the hallway safe with Surefire 60rd mags on the shelf, as are shotguns and an open pouch of #00 buck.

At the summer house things are a bit different, the safe isn't exactly quick access but anyone even close to the mostly fenced 6 acre yard can easily be spotted well in advance. A lever gun and a shotgun are commonly kept near the front door in any case - most commonly for stray raccoon dogs or even roe deer during the season, but also for anything with fewer legs than four if need be.

So it all depends on the circumstances. At one time I kept a suppressed XM177 in a bedside holster, ready to go, but the neighborhood was quite a bit different and there was a burglary spree going on for a number of years. I probably wouldn't these days, even if I had a good way to secure the rifle from unauthorized access. Handgun is usually plenty indoors and enough to get you to your long gun if the situation goes from bad to worse.

My only hangup with leaving a loaded chamber in either my AR or sub gun is dropping them straight down on the muzzle. The safety is blocking the trigger, but if there's a hard jolt, there's nothing blocking the hammer or firing pin. My EDC is a different story - chambered and ready to roll out.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

Mag in the well, empty chamber.

Click to expand...

I second this notion. Rounds in the chamber will "cook off" during a fire and will end up god knows where. The fire department will likely retreat in this situation and let the house burn to the ground.

Rexster said:

(Browning BLR, with current-version hammer.) If we move, to a more rural, open area, I may well resume keeping a BLR rifle prepped in this way.

Click to expand...

Interesting choice, over the ARs. Or in addition to?

Goosey said:

Interesting choice, over the ARs. Or in addition to?

Click to expand...

Well, it is good to see it as defensive options. Chronologically, the lever rifles have seniority; I learned to use them first. Familiarity is comforting. This is a general thing, whether the task is shooting, driving, or running machinery.

More specifically, I learned to use weapons with safety/selector levers that are set to “Fire” when the safety/selector is oriented toward the target, in the Eighties and early Nineties. Some of those systems are on “Safe” when the lever is pointed downward*. Well, in early 2002, at age forty, the AR15 enters my life, with a selector lever that is on “Safe” when it is aligned with the target/opponent, and on “Fire” when the selector is pointed downward. Yes, I can train to know that the AR15 works differently, but, during the mental fog, immediately after being awakened by a bump in the night, the brain just might be better-served by a weapon system with earlier, stronger, better-hard-wired familiarity.

So, I am not against using an AR15/M4 type of weapon, but it is better if I can be alert and focused before the fight starts, so I can be mentally ready. `If I am hunting pests or people, an AR15 is OK, because that is proactive. My brain is engaged at the time I pick up the rifle, if I am being proactive.

I envy those who started with the AR15/M4 system. The AR15/M4 is an excellent weapon system.

Notably, I did not think in terms of sweeping-off a safety lever, with a downward motion of my thumb, when learning to use the 1911 pistol system. (My first handgun was a Detonics 1911.) My brain thought in terms of aligning the safety lever toward the target. That line of thought worked well when I later learned to use slide-mounted S&W and Walther safety/decock levers. A similar, forward movement of the thumb served to move the 1911’s safety downward, to align with the target, and to move the S&W/Walther’s lever upward, to align with the target/opponent.

There is a miltary-rugged rifle, with a safety/selector lever that I like better, the HK G3, and it derivatives. It is set to “fire,” when the lever is pointed at the target/opponent.. I very nearly bought a version of PTR 91, quite recently, to give that system a try. (Another buyer acted, while I was “sleeping on it.”)

My actual, daily reality is that I keep a Benelli M2 shotgun prepped and most-ready-staged for home defense. It is same shotgun I used for police patrol duty, in the later part of my LEO-ing days. The simple cross-bolt safety is the same as I always used, with several shotgun systems, over time.

*Notably, I was issued Tasers, for many years, with safety levers that were On-Safe when pointed downward, and on “Fire” when pointed at the target/opponent, just like he safety/decockers on classic-era Walther, S&W, and Beretta pistols. Protocol was for a test-fire of the issued Taser, at the beginning of every shift, which meant nearly-daily reinforcement of flip the lever up, toward the target, to fire, then flip the lever down to put on-safe.