You always hear of the AR 15 as being a good home defense gun. I see the AR as a great self defense gun but not a gun that should be discharged in a home. The .223 is a high powered round and will go through plywood and sheet rock just as easily as it would a piece of paper.
And even the short barreled AR "pistol" guns that are in .223 seem to me to be way over powered for home defense. The problem of course being the bullet going through walls and into a neighbor's house.
As to what constitutes better choices for home defense is a moot point and I'm not looking to get into that here. Just that it seems to me the .223 is too much for an inside the house defense caliber.
Am I wrong?
I'm not reading through all the replies, I'm simply explaining my preference after weeks of research and testing... regardless of platform, a .223 splodey bullet is MUCH less likely to hit someone in the next room/house (currently in a townhouse) AFTER hitting something squishy, that's a big deal for me/us. .223 is NOT that powerful, it's the "general" bottom edge of deer legal, pistol rounds like to keep on trucking after squishy... just drywall alone?? Plenty of bullets will just truck on through, shotgun? The sweet spot is 2 shot to #4 buck, and again many effective rounds will truck through several spaced layers of drywall... I saw one test that showed the 1 or 2 water jugs (close to 9" of gel) in front of drywall, wall gap, 2nd drywall, and an orange on the back, the .223 didn't touch the orange. Basically if there's a miss, and only drywall, a cheap bbgun is about the safest option, but after a hit? I don't wanna have to worry about HITS, if I should ever be in that predicament.
*12-18" gel is based on cross body shots, i.e. arm, then chest penetration*
**stories from e.r. personnel about speedy .224 damage proves effectiveness**
I need to test further but it seems that a fast hot .327 85 gr may be comparable to a point.... so a .327 rifle (for accuracy and ease of aim may be a contender but then we're back to platform, next would be a .380 projectile (like 90 gr ftxish) at 9mm speeds, hard to compare 10mm so far, and .45acp is supposed to be big and slow so that's hard too... maybe a .38 super soft hp at .357 speeds BUT hoping in any non ftx load that the hp doesn't clog up.... .223 polytips or hps sp's are the EZ button really.