Budget home defense rifle

[MistWolf]

Ya know, it don't matter if you fire a 12 gauge, a 9mm or a 5.56 inside the house. It's gonna be loud. Your ears are gonna ring. Unless you got time to put your ears on. It beats getting beaten, raped or killed. That's the price you pay to win.

Those 9 pellets of buckshot may not all strike the target. They are travelling at roughly 1100 fps, give or take. High velocity buckshot is 1450 fps. Velocity of the 5.56 is going to be around 3000 fps.

Accuracy means you hit what you're aiming at. If the badguy is holding a loved one hostage, I'd rather have an AR carbine to precisely place the shot, not a shotgun with buckshot.

Follow up shots with an AR are faster. Even though it may take longer to pay for the AR on layaway, it's more likely to be practiced with on a regular basis than a shotgun. Here's a 6920 at G&R Tactical for a reasonable price and at the moment, it's in stock

http://www.gandrtactical.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=6920

The $300 could go towards toward a 9mm Glock now and get the Colt later. It's legal for a parent to purchase a handgun for you

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

Once a new gun owner gets over this hump, that can start to relax, stop worrying so much about hardware, and get focused on doing what they can with what they've got.

There's a lot of truth to that. The kind of gun doesn't matter so much as the familiarity. This is really the first step. She can upgrade later.

I may be reading too much of my own experience into the OP's friend's situation, but when I was 19, living in the kind of crummy apartment that makes people want to buy guns in the first place, it would have taken six months or better to save up an extra thousand bucks.

Well, it's not crummy, but she said that she lives alone, and there's a lot of older guys around, and she comes and gos a lot. So that's one reason.

Any shot fired indoors will be painful. A rifle will be excruciating. One gunfighting coach recommended hanging hearing protectors next to one's home defense gun.

In a life or death situation, you probably wouldn't even notice the noise with adrenaline. I've heard of cops and soldiers that claim they never heard the gun go off, or that it didn't sound that loud.

I lived in urban apartments for over twenty years, and word gets around

Just to clairfy, this isn't urban. It's not in a city. I don't even think there are hallways with this apartment. It's more like a condo than an urban apartment with hotel like hallways and doors. This place opens up to the outside, and another wall is brick, facing a parking lot.

I'd like to take her to a lgs to check out some options, but it doesn't matter so much whether we decide on a .22, 12 gauge, 20 gauge, .223, 40 S&W, whatever, as to how comfortable she is with it. I'd imagine that for any criminal, an expert with a .22 is to be reckoned with more than a novice with a .45.

 

[theblakester]

After scanning the past few pages, the trend seems to be that some people favor the AR 15 and some people favor the shotgun. They both have their advantages. In an offensive mission, clearing rooms with multiple unknown threats I would think an AR would be a better choice. In a defensive position, hunkered down behind cover hiding out in a room with 9-1-1 on the phone and the barrel pointed towards the (bedroom) door, I would give the shotgun the advantage.
That being said, under stress, a pump action shotgun may be difficult for her ( an inexperienced female) to operate with recoil and the cycling of the action if multiple shots are necessary. If you decide to go the shotgun route, I would suggest a gas operated 20 ga semi automatic shotgun with #3 buck. A 20 gauge kicks less and a gas operated semi automatic will also kick less.
Generally, a hi pint carbine isn't the best option for home defense, but given the shooter, the budget and the experience level of the shooter, it might be your best bet.... For now.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

In an offensive mission, clearing rooms with multiple unknown threats I would think an AR would be a better choice.

I've always been told that it's a bad idea to try and clear your own house, especially alone. It's best to hunker down, because your safety is the most important thing.

 

[allaroundhunter]

I've always been told that it's a bad idea to try and clear your own house, especially alone. It's best to hunker down, because your safety is the most important thing.

That's true, but there are also times when you think you hear something but then don't hear anything again for a while after sitting and listening. Then it may be appropriate to "clear" your house to find what caused the sound, if anything.

 

[theblakester]

To be clear, I wasn't suggesting clearing rooms in a HD situation (unless u gotta protect your babies down the hall). I was referring to military/swat type tactics- urban warfare, serving warrants to a potentially armed and dangerous threat etc.

 

[brettboat]

I don't know what state y'all are in, but there are ALOT of states where you only have to be 16-18 to own a handgun. Some states have so many exception clauses that you can realistically own a handgun at any age.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

I don't know what state y'all are in, but there are ALOT of states where you only have to be 16-18 to own a handgun. Some states have so many exception clauses that you can realistically own a handgun at any age.

Ownership isn't a problem. The problem is finding one at a decent price. We can't go to an FFL, it would have to be private sale, and then the bigger issue comes up, which is finding defensive ammo, and also finding ammo to practice with, because we couldn't get that from an FFL either.

 

[LeonCarr]

Another advantage of the shotgun:

Even with all of the panic buying going on I can go to my local Wal-Mart, which has not had ANY pistol ammo or .223 on the shelf for more than 5 minutes (Usually it is bought before the stocker can even put it on the shelf) since the election, and buy 12 Gauge or 20 Gauge Buckshot or Slugs.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

They have buckshot at Wal-Mart? I've only ever seen birdshot. Perhaps they have it during hunting season?

 

[LeonCarr]

Here in the DFW area every Wal-Mart I have been to has it in stock year round, usually both the Winchester or Remington 15 round Value Packs and the Winchester or Remington 5 round boxes.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[peacemaker45]

Wal-Mart's stock varies by area. Some stores don't sell guns or gun stuff at all. Others carry a full line.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk 2

 

[allaroundhunter]

Yep, my local Walmart keeps a good stock of .243, .270, and .30-06, but the only shotgun available is Winchester Universal 12 and 20 ga birdshot.

 

[Panzercat]

In a life or death situation, you probably wouldn't even notice the noise with adrenaline. I've heard of cops and soldiers that claim they never heard the gun go off, or that it didn't sound that loud.

First time I had to chunk a round indoors (bedroom) without hearing protection the noise didn't even register consciously. It registered instinctually and through the recoil. Was a .45acp from my older 1911. Ears didn't hurt, no obnoxius hollywood ringing and hearing came back from low muffle to full in about a minute. I'm not advocating it, just my ear drums didn't explode with blood and gore.

 

[Warp]

I've always been told that it's a bad idea to try and clear your own house, especially alone. It's best to hunker down, because your safety is the most important thing.

That is not always an option.

My daughter's room is on the other side of the house, for example.

And who says that a home invasion is only going to happen at night when everybody is in their bedroom anyway??

 

[Warp]

Another advantage of the shotgun:

Even with all of the panic buying going on I can go to my local Wal-Mart, which has not had ANY pistol ammo or .223 on the shelf for more than 5 minutes (Usually it is bought before the stocker can even put it on the shelf) since the election, and buy 12 Gauge or 20 Gauge Buckshot or Slugs.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

If you are 'doing it right', you'll have the ammo you need for defensive use from the moment you buy the gun.

But my Walmarts didn't have 12 gauge buck/slugs either

 

[NORA]

I live in an apartment and my go to HD weapon is a Rem 870 20" barrel loaded with 1 1/4 oz of #6 shot. The longest shot Icould possibly take would be 8 yards and hitting a person with that load will act like a slug at those ranges yet do minimal or no damage to someone on the other side of the wall. I know of no rifle or pistol round that wont penetrate several thicknesses of drywall Even the lowly 22 rimfire will penetrate several sheets of drywall. You should be able to get an 870 for less than $250

 

[InkEd]

20 gauge shotgun with birdshot

 

[JShirley]

Enough with the birdshot suggestions.

What you, the individual, choose to load your own firearms with is your choice. Suggesting someone else load their home defense weapon with something designed to kill birds and small rodents is reckless and irresponsible, and you should be ashamed of yourselves.
This has dragged on more than long enough for all worthwhile suggestions to have been made.

John