I can lean over and reach the Benelli M2, that I favor for home defense. It was my duty shotgun, during the final two years of my policin’ career, 2016-2018. Familiarity is comforting. I had used Remington 870 shotguns, or its clone, the Howa-manufactured S&W 3000, since 1983, and an Ithaca 37 pump gun before that. I had used the Benelli M1/M2 platform since the early Nineties. With my pumping arm not aging so gracefully, I gravitated toward the auto-loading Benelli, while my former duty 870P now wears a Pachmayr Vindicator grip, as complete-cycle pumping is made easier, when the gun is not shouldered.
My BCM “Lightweight Middy” M4 is unloaded, inside the safe. I was certified to be a “patrol carbine” unit officer, for a time, but never learned to like the AR15/M4 platform, for close-range work. I saw it as a “perimeter” weapon. When enough of my young buck colleagues, with their younger eyes and younger knees*, were certified to carry patrol carbines, I let my patrol carbine certification lapse. I could qual with my duty shotgun while remaining standing on my hind legs.
It is not that I have anything against the 5.56/.223 cartridge, for use within structures. It is well-documented that a 55-grain JSP .223 bullet will over-penetrate less, through many common building materials, than a typical duty handgun bullet. (Better not miss, with an AR/M4, out in the open, however, as that bullet is deadly, for a much longer distance.
One nice thing about the Mini-14, at close range, is that the line-of-sight, over the bore, is not so high, so, there is less offset, at extremely close range. No need to do any math, or recall a memorized offset, while aiming, across a room.
*The timed, run-and-gun qual was best performed by younger folks, who could spring quickly to their feet, after the mandated prone firing position at 100 yards, and the mandated kneeling firing position at 50 yards.
