Best home defense rifle?

AR-15. Accept no substitutes.


time-tested design
very accurate
very reliable
cheap, reliable magazine availability
30-rd standard capacity
very light recoil
reduced overpenetration concerns
lightweight
fairly short and maneuverable package (with shorter barrel lengths)
more accessorizing potential than a Barbie doll

A Serbu Super Shorty. An AOW shotgun. No stock to rip your arm off.

I am in the minority here but it is my opinion that the FN PS90 is the best HD rifle. It is short and fires what some would consider a pistol round. I call it an intermediate intermediate round since it resembles a smaller 5.56. You are not going to have over penetration since it the only ammo civilians can get are the plastic tipped ones. The bullet is pretty light as well so it will lose speed fast through walls or flesh.

50 round capacity is pretty good too.

The PS90 has nearly every advantage General Geoff pointed out about the AR. Of those he pointed out here are the ones the PS90 also possesses.

very accurate
very reliable
30-rd standard capacity
very light recoil
reduced overpenetration concerns
lightweight
fairly short and maneuverable package (with shorter barrel lengths)

As you can see it retains all of the ARs best advantages and even has some better advantages such as shorter length and higher capacity.

Now the AR is a good all around platform and HD is definitely one of its fortes. I think the PS90 is better in a pure HD role and the AR is the much more versatile option.

I'll wager 90% or better will vote for some variant of AR-15/AK/SKS.

It would depend on what you already have. If you have a 38/357, possibly a lever gun in that cartridge might be better suited to your needs.

A .223 fired indoors, in a small room will deafen you - if at night in darkness, it will momentarily blind you - even with a suppressor, it is still loud and hurts the ears. Just something to consider

Along with earlthegoat2's suggestion, there is the AR57, an upper for the AR-15. IF you SBR the receiver, you can get it in a shorter barrel with even less penetration worries for HD.

saw off an old side by side down to 19 inches. That should be LAW SAFE. & point it from the hip. unless your sure you will be wide eyed & bushy tailed when the purp breaks into your house. when your woken out of a dead sleep. & have to act NOW!!! do you really want to aim. i think not. point, pull the trigger & be done with them. my sawed off shotgun is a Mossberg 500 12 gauge . & i use 3-1/2 inch OOO buck shot. thats 19 nice balls per shell. hope i never have to use it. in husker nation the legal length is 18-1/4 check your state law

...sounds like you dont seem to want to put any stock that transfers recoil on that shoulder.

Go to a range and try out some rifles in smaller calibers, i´d say.
If that works ... might just get a an AK type for cheap.

get a feel for what u can shoot, then go from there.

Along with earlthegoat2's suggestion, there is the AR50, an upper for the AR-15. IF you SBR the receiver, you can get it in a shorter barrel with even less penetration worries for HD

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That brings up another thing altogether but if you SBR a PS90 then you have something really short that I dont think an AR can be shortened to as much.

The .357 lever gun is a good idea, or maybe one of the kel tec, hi point, or beretta cx4 carbines in 9mm.

A .223 fired indoors, in a small room will deafen you - if at night in darkness, it will momentarily blind you - even with a suppressor, it is still loud and hurts the ears. Just something to consider

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ANY firearm fired indoors will deafen you without hearing protection. Most centerfire pistols will be louder than a .223 rifle. . And as far as blinding, not really. I've fired a 20" AR-15 in the dark of night, and there was zero muzzle flash. Same with my M1A. Now that's not to say there might not be some flash with a 16" barreled AR, but probably not enough to blind you, especially if you have a flash hider (yes, they DO serve a purpose!).

I'd choose a lever action in .30-30 or .357. Light, short, mild recoil, fast shooting, and it's a "deer rifle" instead of an "assault rifle" in the eyes of the public. That might make a big difference if you have to defend yourself in front of a jury afterward.

I suggest a nice lever action chambered for .357 or .44 mag. It can be operated quickly, often they are carbines and they look like anything but an assault weapon to a jury.

I prefer a shotgun because you can make the first round non-leathal, next round can be birdshot and the remaining rounds can be buckshot. This shows the intent of using non-lethal means and escalate when the intruder doesn't back down.

I'd go with the .30-30 personally. The factory loads are virtually all HP and SP designed for medium thin-skinned critters, which is what people are. I'd stay clear of the heavier Partitions or hard casts though.

A .223 fired indoors, in a small room will deafen you - if at night in darkness, it will momentarily blind you - even with a suppressor, it is still loud and hurts the ears. Just something to consider

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Have you ever fired a .357 handgun indoors with no protection? I have (my ND). Trust me it will also deafen you, and has a pretty impressive flash as well. It was "memorable" to put it mildly ;-) Not the sort of thing you want to do unless your life is in danger.

Depends on the home. In a small condo/city dwelling type home,with nearby neighbors, I would opt for a AR. In the 'bush' in blackbear country a .44 mag or 30/30 lever gun would be a good choice. In Alaska or 'griz land' a BAR in .300 win or .338 win mag might be best. For me, my shotty is my go to gun, followed by my AR.

The 'assault weapon' hating jury...

Don't base your decision, in a home defense weapon, on what someone else might think. Pick a good tool for the job, and try and stay above ground.

Since you identified yourself as recoil sensitive due to shoulder injury, I would focus only on the .223 and smaller calibers; which means basically the .223/5.56 and the FN "5.7" which is a 5.6x28mm cartridge, already noted for the PS90 and AR57.

The 5.56 will cost you less to buy, the ammo is far more readily available, terminal effectiveness at short range is well proven, and recoil is quite light. The 5.7 has less recoil still and gets you 50rd magazines, but otherwise has more disadvantages in terms of limited ammo availability, ammo cost, unknown effectiveness, etc.

I would choose an AR-15 with a 16" barrel. The 5.7 choices aren't wrong, but I don't think they're compelling for your type of uses.

If you have a bad shoulder, then look at an M1 Carbine with soft point ammo. It's short and handy, has 30 rounds and low recoil - hard to beat!

There's a number of 9mm/.40/.45 short rifles out there as well. Any of them would serve.

The problem with the AR and AK is that misses (and even hits) are going to be skipping all over the neighborhood. If you choose one for home defense, I'd load with ballistic tips or some other 'big splash" ammo to minimize drilling rounds into the neighbors house. Better "stoppers" anyway since they're designed for hunting. Of course, if you're rural, whatever!

I've fired a 20" AR-15 in the dark of night, and there was zero muzzle flash. Same with my M1A.

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Based on prior experience we’ll just agree to disagree on the absence of muzzle flash. The M14 ball ammunition used in the mid nineteen sixties there was muzzle flash and if full auto was selected there was flash at the chamber end also.

USMC 64-68

I agree with CoRoMo, which is why I prefer a shotgun for HD. The OP specified that he wanted a rifle, however, and a .30-30 packs nearly 2000 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. That's more than a .223 or pistol caliber carbine and would be pretty potent at in-home distances.

Fs2000, 5.56 with 16 inch barrel effectiveness out of a short package. Took me a long time to warm up to it, but it handles great and is very reliable.

Your favorite pistol caliber carbine should do nicely.

mini-14. reliable enough, and the sight line is low enough you don't have to worry about missing headshots.

M1 .30 Carbine with a 30 rounder cocked'n'locked