Cosmoline
Member
Would you recommend that I use the BAR with 4 shots of .338 Win Mag (more power per round) or the 1919 with the 250 round belt (more total power) as my house gun?
The 1919 is going to be hard to move in a hurry, so I'd suggest the BAR. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the more destructive the round and and more stable the platform, the more likely you are to both win the encounter and win it quickly. So you minimize the chance of both getting shot yourself and hitting some other person because you had to spray 15 rounds from your handgun.
Consider this hypothetical. You are facing an armed criminal kicking in your door. You have at your feet a 12 pound Napoleon armed and ready, pointed right at the center of the doorway. Your other option is a CCW handgun. Which do you use? The cannonball may well keep traveling, but so will your handgun bullets. And while one cannonball is going to resolve matters with extreme prejudice, even several handgun bullets may fail to do so. And, not to go Joe Biden here, there *is* something to the intimidation factor. I dare say most criminals, upon seeing the business end of a cannon or a double barreled elephant gun, are going to reconsider options fast. So ideally you'll never have to shoot. Whereas with a short gun? They may decide to roll those dice. A minor consideration, but it adds to the balance.
Kinetic energy remaining in a projectile that has passed through the target is of no use
True, but a bullet that stops half way is a bullet that stops doing damage to any tissues in front of it. So one that stops short of a man's heart won't stop the threat. This has happened before. Read the forensic breakdown from the Miami shootout, where a Mini-14 played havoc against handgun armed agents:
The bullet came to a rest about an inch short of penetrating the wall of the heart.
http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs7.htm
There is also the consideration of shock. The same reasons for wanting a through-and-through wound on game apply to humans. The exit wound is typically larger and permits free flow of blood out of the body. This ideally crashes the circulatory system, deprives the brain of oxygen and causes shock quickly. Otherwise even a fatal wound may not stop the attack.
Meanwhile, even "low powered" rounds that are "safe" for home use will blast through interior walls like tissue paper. There is no safe way to shoot someone in your home. Every bullet you send out is inherently unsafe. So minimize your number of shots.
That is true--outside. Not in your house.
That may be so. I haven't fired a Mosin indoors. But it's a good point. And more support for the electronic muffs.
Last edited: