AR bedroom gun

[possum]

I'm going to save you alot of posts and just say that you are wrong. Never consider birdshot a viable home defense round. At the very least I would suggest No. 4 buck shot. If you are serious move up to 00 Buck.

+1 great advice btw i have "00" in my 870!

 

[js]

I have a Rock River Arms AR15 and have thought about (in the past) making it a primary home defense choice... but, 12ga 00 Buckshot just seems to make more sense as for "more bang for the buck". With 00 Buckshot you're releasing 9 or so pellets at a time...compared to just one 5.56mm rd. Also I think you need to think about the size of the firearm and the amount time it's going to take you to get to or pull your weapon of choice in a defensive situation. This is where a handgun may be a better choice as well... oh, decisions, decisions...

But while you're thinking about it, let me go ahead a firmly plant the AR seed with a picture of mine...

 

[Thin Black Line]

I've always been of the opinion long-guns are "safer" with kids because it's harder to accidentally shoot yourself.

For small kids, yes. For older kids horseing around, not so good. This is
where lack of securing the weapon, lack of supervision, lack of education,
and just general dumbassery among 14 y-olds can come into play. I would
secure my car keys and the long-distance phone from them as well.

When small kids shoot themselves with handguns it has always been due to
the factors above and the fact that during their exploration of the moving
parts they only have the strength to pull the trigger with their thumbs. The
position the firearm will be in when this happens will be likely toward their
own body. Side note: another good reason not to keep a round chambered
in a mag-fed handgun since most kids (even some adults) can't rack the
slide.

When you're not in possession of it, secure it. There's no perfect substitute
for that.

 

[shark3-1]

I see shotguns as a very poor self defense choice. They are long guns with less than 10 rd. capacity, most being pumps, so you need to manually cycle the action. Any good shotguns should pattern buckshot like a slug in the distances found in your home. I find that a pistol would be a much better choice as it will provide you with more rounds and quicker follow up shots.

The best choice IMO is a short barreled rifle as it has a large magazine capacity less penetration than the pistol or shotgun slug rounds while being very accurate and providing much quicker follow up shots. If you have family members in the house, you need to KNOW that the shots you place are going to be accurate. Under stress hitting a target is far easier with a rifle than with a pistol. Also, when shooting a pistol with your arms stretched out, the short barreled rifle will extend about the same length from your body. Also, if you learn to short stock the weapon, it becomes more compact still. I keep mine on my bedside table when I go to sleep, and I keep it locked up during the day.


I think that most people think that the shotgun is going to be a death ray that you just point in the general direction of the target and it will destroy everything in a 5 ft. cone of death. I don't know how that rumor got started. It will inflict a lot of damage when you do score a hit, but you better hit the target on the first shot because the follow up shot is going to take a little while due to the recoil and having to chamber another round.

I'm not saying that it doesn't have it's place as a CQB tool, it does: shooting doorhinges and doorknobs, but I don't think that you'll need to do that for home defense. I'm sure that some have a very different perspective, but that's my $.02.

 

[JShirley]

Training.

Properly held long guns won't extend appreciably further than properly held sidearms.

I don't believe shotguns are the ultimate! home defense tools, but they're better than sidearms. There's a reason they're called SIDEarms.

John

 

[scurtis_34471]

I still think locking up the rifle itself is less of a priority than locking up the mags and ammo. If all the mags and ammo are in a gun safe somewhere, the rifle is by the bed and a loaded mag is in a quick access pistol safe by the bed it seems like both safety and accessibility are covered.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Yes, scurtis, that would be an option as well. LOL, you just have to know
your teens. One day it's "Hey, guys, my dad is gone check this out." A
week later the entire family comes back from vacation and you notice something
missing....

 

[Essex County]

It seems to me overpenetration my be a problem with anything that might be effective. The other problem is securing the weapon. If you do too good a job how effictive will you be at 3 A.M., Groggy and disoriented? Sadly I don't see a clearcut solution....Essex

 

[scurtis_34471]

Yes, scurtis, that would be an option as well. LOL, you just have to know your teens. One day it's "Hey, guys, my dad is gone check this out." A week later the entire family comes back from vacation and you notice something missing....

I would definitely put the gun in the safe if I was going to be gone more than a few hours.

 

[up_onus]

That is one EXPENSIVE home defense gun.
Its just me and my humble opinion, but I would rather have a pistol or two, and maybe a shotgun or two rather than ONE AR...

 

[michael_aos]

EXPENSIVE

That's my biggest reservation about a house-gun AR.

You could probably find something like a Cavalry Arms Scout in the neighborhood of $700 though. Still a lot more expensive than a pump shotgun.

 

[Eyesac]

I like the idea of the AR for Home defense, but I just don't feel like it's handy enough. Opening doors and turning on lights is a little harder, doable, but harder than a pistol. my .02

 

[davek]

I've got two magazines of 75 grain Hornedy TAP for home defense, but to be honest, I suspect that if goblins ever did break into my house, I'd probably be too busy with other stuff to "fight my way" to the AR.

 

[Tallship]

I think all you need to consider something here. You are not trained in urban combat, and even if you are, the after-effects of putting a few rounds of 223 ammo into a person inside your house are not something you want to contemplate. What you really want to do is get the guy out of your house as quickly as possible. And what you need to do that is an 18 1/2 inch pump shotgun. There is no other sound in the world like a pump gun being racked, and most of the bad guys know what it sounds like. And if by some remote chance the guy is high on drugs and doesn't immediately head for the next county, your chance of hitting him with the first shot is much greater than any other weapon.

 

[davek]

There is no other sound in the world like a pump gun being racked, and most of the bad guys know what it sounds like.

Meh. I hear that a lot, but I've never once heard anything anecdotal to back it up.

And if by some remote chance the guy is high on drugs and doesn't immediately head for the next county, your chance of hitting him with the first shot is much greater than any other weapon.

Certainly not great enough to make any real difference at the ranges inside my house.

 

[Eyesac]

I will never pic a defensive weapon because of the way it "sounds" when charging. That's pretty silly in my opinion, and nothing about a shotgun makes it easier to hit someone in HD ranges.

 

[Tallship]

An 18" barrelled shotgun has a spread of about 10" at 5 yards. That means you have a 20" range of hitting the person with at least one ball of 00 buck, which will do some pretty good damage. And you're buying the gun because it makes that sound, which alerts the intruder that you are armed. 99% of bad guys don't want anything to do with an armed homeowner.

 

[davek]

An 18" barrelled shotgun has a spread of about 10" at 5 yards.

Mine doesn't.

That means you have a 20" range of hitting the person with at least one ball of 00 buck, which will do some pretty good damage.

And where did all those other balls ov 00 buck go?

And you're buying the gun because it makes that sound, which alerts the intruder that you are armed. 99% of bad guys don't want anything to do with an armed homeowner.

I can honestly say that when I bought my HD shotgun, "The sound it makes" didn't even cross my mind.

 

[js]

I can honestly say that when I bought my HD shotgun, "The sound it makes" didn't even cross my mind.

+1

 

[ctdonath]

That is one EXPENSIVE home defense gun.

Dang straight.
(OK, you probably weren't talking about mine, but it cost about the same.)

If I have to grab a gun "for real", that price tag will be cheap.
The infinite value of life, be that life my wife or my own or my dogs, aside...
My dogs cost me more than that.
My wife's immigration papers cost more than that.
Our home cost a couple hundred times more than that.
And so on...just for "invoice".

Of all my guns, that one and my G26 must go bang every time. They must handle as well as practically possible indoors. Terminal ballistics must be reliable. Ammo must not run out.
Less importantly, but still big, hearing and vision must be preserved, avoiding the "flash bang" effects.
Cool and collectible helps too.

Next time a gun malfunctions in your hands, think "what if this was 'for real'?"
I've had red-dots go dark, shells fail to extract, magazines fall apart, slides lock up, light taps, failed primers, etc. - don't fail me when it matters.

 

[ctdonath]

What you really want to do is get the guy out of your house as quickly as possible.

I don't know why he's there.
I don't know what weapons he has.
I don't know if he'll flee or fight.

It takes time to "get the guy out of my house as quickly as possible."

If he's in my house unbidden, he has already overcome many fears, and has already replaces "stay out" with "go in".
He has already justified being there.

While the question of what exactly I will do remains until that moment, I absolutely want one option:
Stop him. Instantly.

I'm not relying - at all - on legends of fear-inducing sounds.
I'm relying on my unilateral ability to end the threat he poses.

 

[CWL]

I see shotguns as a very poor self defense choice. They are long guns with less than 10 rd. capacity, most being pumps, so you need to manually cycle the action. Any good shotguns should pattern buckshot like a slug in the distances found in your home. I find that a pistol would be a much better choice as it will provide you with more rounds and quicker follow up shots.

Let's see, my Beretta 1201fp holds 6+1-rounds of 9-pellet 00 buck = 63 projectiles. My Glock17 holds 17+1 rds of 9mm = 18 projectiles. 2 trigger pulls of shotgun = 18 trigger pulls of pistol. Am I doing the math wrong? Lots of documentation of people surviving multiple COM handgun rounds at close range, I don't think there are any survivors of COM shotgun blasts...

An 18" barrelled shotgun has a spread of about 10" at 5 yards. That means you have a 20" range of hitting the person with at least one ball of 00 buck, which will do some pretty good damage. And you're buying the gun because it makes that sound, which alerts the intruder that you are armed.

The same Beretta 1201fp can shoot palm-sized patterns of Federal Reduced-recoil 00 buck out to 17-yards. I have trained to take head-shots against hostage targets because I want to understand the capabilities of me and my gun. At 5-yards, the spread would be smaller than your fist. Obviously you do not understand that the purpose of a SD shotgun is to dump the greatest amount of energy into your target via multiple projectile hits -it is not to send out a cloud of pellets in hope of hitting BG with one of them.

 

[CWL]

Oh, here's my 4-forgery home-defense rifle. Deployment will be 3rd place (after shotgun and M1911 .45ACP) Holoscope is co-witnessed to iron sites and white-light on forstock centers POA at 15 yards for quickfire drills.

Ammunition will be Lake City NATO because if anything survives 12ga. and .45ACP, I will have justification to seriously unload on it.

 

[davek]

Ammunition will be Lake City NATO because if anything survives 12ga. and .45ACP, I will have justification to seriously unload on it.

Anything survives 12 ga and .45, I'll be shooting whatever I got left over my shoulder while I'm running the opposite direction.

 

[meef]

Tallship:

What you really want to do is get the guy out of your house as quickly as possible. And what you need to do that is an 18 1/2 inch pump shotgun. There is no other sound in the world like a pump gun being racked, and most of the bad guys know what it sounds like.

You say this from personal experience, I take it?

Otherwise - why do you say it at all?