Alternatives to AR-15 for Home Defense

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If you carry concealed, it makes the most sense to focus on the handgun and stick with it for home defense as well. You can concentrate all your training (instructor-lead), and practice, all your familiarity, all your resources (time, ammo, accessories like holsters, sites, magazines, etc.) on the gun you carry daily. There won't be any advantage to a different gun for home defense and there will be disadvantages in learning the disimilarities, the cost of retraining, the cost of practice time, and other resources. You're better off getting a second, same type handgun than any other different gun.
 
There's always a crossbow if you're good with head shots under pressure and expect only one unarmed intruder. You don't get more alternative than that. :thumbup: ;)

I'll amend my suppressed 9mm comment and say .300BLK suppressed is also another worthy option, provided it's shot from a relatively short gun. In my typical 1500sq ft suburban house, I think a long rifle would be detrimental to maneuverability.

An AR15 comes up quite often in these theoretical arguments but not once do I recall any first hand experience of someone using one indoors to stop a threat. I imagine it would work fine, if you hit on your first shot, like the proverbial crossbow, but I speak from experience after my ND that I was totally out of it for a few seconds. If you feel an intruder would allow you the time to put on earmuffs, then by all means go with that plan. I'd rather shoot 3 shots of 9mm suppressed into somebody that won't completely take me off guard than a single shot of unsuppressed 12ga buckshot. Repeat after me - Hollywood isn't real.

We like to say that practices makes perfect, but our scenarios don't involve shooting indoors without hearing protection. Maybe everyone needs to experience that just once, even though it will hurt your hearing. Until then, I take every one of these threads with a grain of salt.
 
I don't dislike the Mini-14. But unless I lived in one of the handful of places where a Mini-14 was legal and an AR wasn't there is no way I'd choose one over an AR. The AR does everything better and costs about 1/2 what the Ruger currently sells for. Years ago, when the Ruger was 1/2 to 1/3 what an AR cost, I felt it was a viable alternative.

The 1994 AWB didn't affect the Mini-14. If there is another AWB the Mini-14 as well as all semi-automatic pistol caliber carbines will be gone just like the AR so I don't see either as a possible replacement.

Inside my home I still think a handgun is the best option. The longest possible shot inside my home would be no more than 5 yards. At that range any long gun would be too cumbersome. I'd rather have one hand free for other things.

If there is any confrontation outdoors a shotgun with buckshot will be effective from my house to the property line in any direction.

I do have AR's. They are at their best if longer shots are ever needed. But I'd currently choose one for indoors work over a shotgun. Compared to a shotgun my AR's are lighter, more compact, and generate about 1/6 the recoil of a shotgun while holding 6X the number of rounds. At 5 yards a shotgun pattern is so tight, it offers no advantage over a rifle round. I'm sure a Mini could fill the same role quite effectively.

If I were to replace the AR with anything else, I'd choose a bolt rifle set up in a "Scout" type configuration with 5 or 10 round magazines. It picks up at longer ranges about where a shotgun starts to be ineffective. Not a fan of lever guns. I own a bunch, but they are expensive, heavy, slow to reload, less accurate, and with limited range, and not significantly faster for repeat shots than a bolt rifle.
One thing the shotgun offers is less over penetration. A load of high brass #4s is a lot safer while still being lethal.
 
If I were forced into a long range gunfight then I would consider an AR. Home defense? Gimme a shotgun. Oh, wait, my wife has one behind our bedroom door, a 20 guage Remington 11-87 filled to the gills with buckshot and ready to go. We live in the country and the outside walls are brick plus there is only the two of us in the house so over penetration really isn't a worry.
 
Not Nitpicking, but IMHO there is no one HD weapon that will be perfect in every personal or residential situation. It's a very personal assessment. Threads like this are very useful, it gets you thinking "what if" lots of great ideas and info comes out of threads like this.

For me, it's my former EDC with a white light attatched. I'm very familiar with this pistol and practice with it often. It's a .45 so I'm confident the round is enough. 14 rounds in hand may not be enough, but they will have to do. If I have time, 2 extra mags in the back pocket and phone. (You do keep a pair of pants bedside, right?)

Electronic ear muffs are right next to it on the night stand. If I don't have time for both, then my layered defense has failed and I'm so far behind the ball that I'm unlikely to survive anyway. So pistol gets grabbed first. I'll play the hand I'm dealt, we all do.

Long gun at the ready is a 9mm PCC loaded up with 127gn gold dots. 33rd stick mag in the weapon as well as a few stashed at choke points where I feel are the most likely engagement points. Once he's in the house, he's made his choices and clearly demonstrated his intent. All I can do is respond as best I can and deal with the fallout later, if I survive.

If the "Doo Bad" is still outside, then he is lit up by the security lights already. I'll let him know he's in the middle of a hard target and he should run along and play somewhere safer as police have been called and he is on camera already.

After that, it's all up to him what happens next.

Opinions to offer.

Keep a pair of pants at bedside. Put what you think you will need in the pockets. You'll need a place for phone, mags, flashlight, whatever. If it comes to a fight, you'll be at a disadvantage if you're nude. Unless you look like me, then the "shock and awe" factor may be an advantage. The sight of me nude, charging out of the shadows lit up by muzzle flashes would freeze the blood of many brave men.:rofl:

Layer your defenses as best you can given your particular situation. That will give you time to react more effectively. Even an apartment can be hardened to a point, but maybe not enough.

Try to stay calm, not easy, but try. A clear head is your greatest advantage.

Much more I could add to this thread but this isn't the place. Get training if you can. If not, Youtube has a lot of good training videos. Practice! A lot. Do an empty gun dry run through your home, at night, acting out the most likely defense situation you feel is appropriate. Play "what if" in your head and come up with a plan to deal with it.

Good luck. :cool:
 
Regarding an AR being too much, Mas talks about AR15 for home defense and says, if the hand gun is infantry, he sees the AR as artillery. At 6 min 45 seconds:
 
While I have an AR for home defense it is 3rd in availability behind a full size 45 and a shotgun.
 
I will take a hand gun over a long gun for home protection any day. A hand gun is quicker to bring on target, much more maneuverable when walking through the house and easy to slip into the robe pocket if I want to check out a random noise outside without alarming the neighbors. I do practice shooting from the hip at close ranges when I go out to the range. Walking around the house with my arms extended in my usual shooting stance never made any sense to me.

My home protection gun is a Springfield XD mod 2 compact in 45acp that is concealed next to my bed but very quick to access.

What you want to use for home protection is your choice and not my place to tell you what is best for YOU! If you think a crossbow and a saber are best for you, who am I to tell you any different?
 
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At the 5:30 mark in the video, Mas says that he doesn't like weapon mounted lights since if you point your loaded weapon at someone who can be there, you have committed felony aggravated assault, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, Mas, but if they are in my house unannounced in the dark, and I end up in advertently flagging a family member, I am not going to face the consequence that you describe. The light will keep me from shooting them, and is a great asset.

That said, good practice is to use the light in a low ready position, and allow it to illuminate the area. If needed, then raising to shooting position will further clarify the target, and will blind the perpetrator.
 
More important than what type of firearm you decided to use is the choice of ammo. Pick what you shoot best and will be most comfortable with at 0300 half asleep in the dark. Then make sure to load it with the best defensive ammo you can. FMJ and other solid nosed rounds are more likely to have pass through than proper self defense ammo designed for soft targets.

Picking the proper ammo greatly reduces the chance of over penetration, even with a clean miss. There have been many, many studies and tests done to support this. So pick what you are best with and load it accordingly for the task at hand.
 
I know that I super hate I’ve got a myriad different choices to purchase across this great America. It makes choosing difficult.;)

If my rifles were out, I’d choose a pistol, with a light. One free hand is more necessary for environment manipulation for me than a shotgun’s more lethal or more safe alleged attributes.

A free hand lets one call the police, open doors to flee, block unexpected attacks and retrieve sandwiches when there is a false alarm.:)
 
There's always a crossbow if you're good with head shots under pressure and expect only one unarmed intruder. You don't get more alternative than that. :thumbup: ;)

I'll amend my suppressed 9mm comment and say .300BLK suppressed is also another worthy option, provided it's shot from a relatively short gun. In my typical 1500sq ft suburban house, I think a long rifle would be detrimental to maneuverability.

An AR15 comes up quite often in these theoretical arguments but not once do I recall any first hand experience of someone using one indoors to stop a threat. I imagine it would work fine, if you hit on your first shot, like the proverbial crossbow, but I speak from experience after my ND that I was totally out of it for a few seconds. If you feel an intruder would allow you the time to put on earmuffs, then by all means go with that plan. I'd rather shoot 3 shots of 9mm suppressed into somebody that won't completely take me off guard than a single shot of unsuppressed 12ga buckshot. Repeat after me - Hollywood isn't real.

We like to say that practices makes perfect, but our scenarios don't involve shooting indoors without hearing protection. Maybe everyone needs to experience that just once, even though it will hurt your hearing. Until then, I take every one of these threads with a grain of salt.

Within the last year or two there was a story about a pregnant woman using an AR to shoot 2 men attacking her husband. I believe that took place in their house or apartment
 
I like a 9MM pistol. For most of us it is an unlikely event, but something is better than nothing, I think a rifle is too much for in the house, shotguns work in some cases. But a pistol pretty handy, a good stopper and not overkill in a home setting. But while some choices are better than others, all are better than nothing.
 
An AR-15 with a pistol caliber upper makes sense, plenty effective, the risk of overpenetration is reduced, the pistol grip makes one hand operation easier.
I like the idea of an M-1 Carbine with a bayonet-quite an intimidation factor.
Bird or skeet shot at close range is plenty potent.
My understanding is that it is prolonged exposure to too loud noise that causes damage.
 
An AR-15 with a pistol caliber upper makes sense, plenty effective, the risk of overpenetration is reduced, the pistol grip makes one hand operation easier.
I like the idea of an M-1 Carbine with a bayonet-quite an intimidation factor.
Bird or skeet shot at close range is plenty potent.
My understanding is that it is prolonged exposure to too loud noise that causes damage.

Yeah, I still hear fairly well and remember one rock concert in the late 1970s where we went to the restaurant after and the guy across the table from me would talk and sounded like he was at the end of a long hallway. Thought it was funny at the time. Later got wise and wore foam ear plugs to a Ted Nugent concert where I was in the risers in front of a speaker bank. Still too loud!

I used to shoot the 12 gauge outdoors with no hearing protection. Don't recall it being all that loud.

But now with my cumulative damage, fairly decent hearing (just bad enough often cannot hear my wife who does not speak very loudly), and constant but generally not noticed ringing in my ears, I don't need any further damage.
 
aaaaa, what's your living situation like? Urban/suburban/rural? Family?

These posts talking about sound/hearing crack me up. If I'm in a position where I may need to shoot someone in defense of myself or family, that is my LAST concern. Adrenaline pumping also reduces hearing.

I thought about this recently and decided if I wanted a long gun, I'd probably go with a Beretta CX4 carbine in 9 mm. It's short enough to be handy inside, has Pic rail for a light. They make frangible ammo with shot in the tip that's designed not to penetrate as much drywall, but is still enough when it hits a person. It's expensive, something like $3-5 a round. I'd think hard about that. Can't afford to practice with it, but it would be worth having a few rounds in case of self defense.

MY living situation is a suburban house with 2 daughters and a wife. The older daughter is 16, has ADD and impulsivity issues and no common sense at all. She recently pointed a gun at me in jest immediately after I taught her the rules of safe gun handling. It was an impulse control thing and she immediately regretted it, but that made me realize I can't trust her at all.

It light of ↑ I keep a Ruger SP-101 with 38 +P hollow points for HD, but it's in a locked handgun box with the key hidden. I'm not at all sure I would wake up and get to it in time, but I'll take my odds on that before I allow the older daughter to do something stupid or maybe sneak a boy in when I'm not home who would do something stupid. I'll upgrade to one of those quick safes at some point soon to knock a few seconds off my response time.

Another practical factor for me is that I usually sleep with earplugs in, or my wife wakes me up at night. She gets up at least once every night to go potty, and when I wake up, I can't just go back to sleep like she can. I feel bad the whole next day. She gets up in the morning an hour or so before I do and wakes me up too. Being practical, I'm dead to the world and I wouldn't wake up unless she woke me up. That probably wouldn't happen either, as she sleeps with earplugs because of my snoring.

The more I think of it, the more I think I'd be better served by beefing up my home's security: auto-sensing lights w/cameras, better lock on the back door, etc. Maybe even a dog that would sleep without ear plugs, hehehe.
 
Don't expect to have all your wits afterwards. These kinds of threads don't mention that enough.

Don't expect to have 100% of your wits during the entire engagement. You are awakened at 2AM, jump out of bed in a semi-stage of undress, grab for whatever you happen to have at the ready, and plunge into a completely unknown situation? The instant dump of adrenaline will pretty much wipe out your fine motor skills and much of your fine sensory input (think tunnel vision, audio exclusion.) Muzzle blast will likely hardly be noticed; that is not to say it won't take it's toll on your hearing.
 
I kind of like the Ruger Mini14 Tactical, but it is expensive. Same ammo as AR-15, but only holds 20 in the magazine. Maybe larger magazines can be had?


However, the more it looks like a regular hunting rifle, the more I like it, such as the Ruger Mini 14.

Not a fan of .223 rounds going off in a bedroom or hallway, but yes, 30 round mags for Mini-14's are available from Ruger.
 
My (now ex) wife is disabled and not proficient handling either a pistol or shotgun, but she is very proficient with a suppressed 7 1/2" AR pistol in .300 BLK. So, as with most things, it depends.

Pretty much the same reason I have a 10.5" AR pistol handy. SWMBO is not disabled, but can't work the slides on my pistols, won't shoot my revolver or a shotgun. She can pull the charging handle and chamber a round, and I told to not even bother turning the red dot on, center it on the chest and fire. Max range in our house is 10 yards.
 
... Keep a pair of pants at bedside. Put what you think you will need in the pockets. You'll need a place for phone, mags, flashlight, whatever. If it comes to a fight, you'll be at a disadvantage if you're nude. Unless you look like me, then the "shock and awe" factor may be an advantage. The sight of me nude, charging out of the shadows lit up by muzzle flashes would freeze the blood of many brave men.:rofl:

About 1977, one-bedroom 2nd-floor apartment (at the top of a single flight of stairs) in VaBeach. I had warned the management both verbally and in writing that I was currently working graveyard shifts and to NOT allow masterkey access to my apartment by service people during the day. I was living alone and mentally geared towards being the only person in the space.

When I was sleeping during the day, I would jam my K98k under the doorknob. Just in case.

One morning I was awakened by a loud noise, like something hitting the floor in the other room. I immediately grabbed my Colt Combat Commander from the headboard shelf as I rolled to the right out of bed and assumed a position aiming down the short hallway towards the front door.

The telephone company service guy was just completing his step over the dislodged rifle on the floor when he saw some movement to his right and found himself with a naked guy ~15' away pointing a .45 at his head.

He released the large toolbag and suddenly "disappeared" out the door. I would not be too surprised to learn that he got all the way down those stairs before that bag hit the floor. :D

I quickly threw on some shorts and collected the guy in the carpark, apologizing and explaining that I had warned the management in an attempt to avoid such an episode.
 
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