Complete Novice looking for advice

[RiverwinoIA]

well, his might be different, but i share the basement with another apartment in my place. that, and one side of the place is about half above/have under ground. so unless im shooting at a prone or crouche attacker (not likely), the bullets will still leave the house. his may be different though,

 

[UPD3315]

You are going to be hard pressed to find a range around C-U. There is one over in Bloomington, or at least there used to be.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Whoa, Nelly!

Let's step back a minute. Sure, this is a gun forum, and you did ask about guns, but there is much more to home defense than a boomstick.

Preferable to shooting a bad guy in your home is scaring away a bad guy in your home. Preferable to that is keeping him out of your home.

Your first priority ought to be securing the homestead against unauthorized entry.

Basement apartments are problematic, expecially in quiet residential neighborhoods. It's too danged easy to sneak around the back and quietly enter through the window.

What has been done, or can be done, to secure the windows? Are there bars? Are there stops to prevent the windows from being opened far enough to permit entry? Got any alarms on those windows?

How `bout the door? You do keep it locked all the time, even during the day, right? And it does have a deadbolt with a different key than the last tenant, right?

Got a phone? Good. A cel phone? Is the charger next to the bed? Do you put it there every night?

Ever consider an alarm system? You can get individual, battery-powered doodads that squawk when a door or window is breeched, or get an integrated wireless system that will also call an alarm company dispatcher, your cel, or the police when the alarm goes off.

Then, sure, go get a gun, a safe and some training.

Don't worry too much about the handgun/shotgun issue -- you've not fending off an army. If a handgun will be cheap, easily stored and accessible, go for it. Not too many home invaders/rapists continue their trade with .45, .38, .357, .32 or even .22 holes in their bodies.

 

[GEM]

GEM,

You have to stop using the word "techybabble"

No, I won't -

 

[peteyru]

mossberg cruiser

I own several firearms .... for several different reasons. For home defense .... and I also live in a densley populated area .... I keep my mossberg cruiser close by. I find its everything I want in home defense .. and its fairly inexpensive you can pick one up for under 300. I fortunatly have access to the PX (marine corp store) and picked mine up for a mere 210. They come in in 3 different gauges .. mine is a 12, but you can also get em in 20 and .410. If you are worried about your small wife I would go with the 20 gauge. It will stop anyone in your home(without stopping your neighbors) and is alot more managable than the 12 for a petie human being. The .410 is the easiest to shoot and it will still do the job but take a look at a .410 round before you buy it ... there kinda sad.
good luck

 

[hso]

Thankyou Matt!

Quick Draw McGraw, you objective is to protect you and your bride from being harmed in your home. Preventing someone from entering your home to harm your wife is the first step. Using a gun is your last resort.

Look at the locks and doors and windows they're on. Reinforce all of them and add long throw locks and screws long enough to go all the way through the door frame. Put glass break or movement alarms on the windows and then bar or pin them. If your doors don't have peep holes install them. If the've got big windows that someone can break out and release the locks put bars on them. Add a door bar that jams under the door knob or better yet under a dead bolt. Replace a hollow core inner door with a cheap steel from a salvage place and set a deadbolt that can be turned to lock so that someone breaking through the door will only meet a locked steel door when they go looking for your wife and her younger sibs. Make sure that you have both corded and cordless phones. When the power goes out the cordless phone won't work.

Installing the "engineering controls" is easy. The difficult part may be training yourself and your wife to use them. It's amazing the locks and alarms people that people won't set, but they do no good if you won't lock up while in the house.

After all that is done then look into something simple and reliable and inexpensive (if you're living in a small basement apartment you probably don't have a lot of money). A side by side shotty like those imported for the cowboy reinactors is $200 and says go away real loud. Twice. A used police pump can be had for less than $300 and far less if it's beat up and ugly, but servicable. Use bird shot cause it ain't going to have room to spread anyway in a basement apartment.

If you can afford a pistol, and you can if you're not picky about appearances, look for a used revolver. .357 if possible so you both can train with .38. You can find reliable used police .357s for under $250. S&W, Ruger, Taurus should all be reliable guns.

Young sibs? You're tall enough that a shotgun above the bedroom door (the steel one, remember) would be easy for you to reach, but your wife would need a stool to get there. Scrounge a salvage school/gym locker and put a lock on it when the kids are around.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

You're welcome, hso.

Remember, QDM is renting, so he may be limited in the changes he can make, but many landlords are happy to let competent workmen upgrade their own digs, and some will even pitch in for the materials.

It's worth asking.

If not, many non-permanent and non-destructive security enhancements are available.

 

[hso]

I've had friends pull the front door and set a steel door in place many times and the landlord, at least in the SE USA, has been very happy to have the upgrade. Half the time they've discounted the rent for the month if the install is well done. Same for interior doors (without the discount though)

As to window pins, an alternative for a double hung window is to take a dowel and use hex head wood screws to screw into piloted holes on each end. If the dowel is cut to within 1/4 inch of the space between the lower light and the upper frame the screws can be adjusted to fit well enough not to tip out and loose enough to be knocked aside for escape. Same method can be done for glass sliding doors.

 

[bad LT]

If you are going to get a shotgun, I would suggest a good youth model 20 gauge - less recoil than a 12 gauge, already comes with a stock that should fit your future wife, and puts out lots of lead. If you can afford it, you can even get a nice semi-auto (to reduce the recoil even more).

Glad to see more members are attending the U of I - Go Illini!!!

 

[Aguila Blanca]

You have to stop using the word "techybabble"

Right.

The correct term is "technobabble."

 

[GEM]

I liked techybabble because it more expressed my affective response to numerous posts that want to deal with fundamentally tactical, training issues with long discussions of rounds and guns. Techy - implied more of a lack of situational immaturity to me. Technobabble was too sophisticated a term.

The typical question is

What gun should I get for my house, girlfriend, momma or to fight a bear?

It is clear that the poster has little training - in fact with training you probably would know the answer.

The typical answer is I have a Mosschester 10 gauge loaded with tactical 0000 buckslugs that can clear an entire room and back it up with my Glolt 47 with 350 gr Extreme Claw hollow points

That's techybabble to me but if folks like technobabble - perhaps I might change.

Get training and then the difference between most of the quality guns out there will be trivial in civilian real world usages. If in the middle of the night, I had to pick up a modern 9, 40 or 45 from the major companies, it would be my training and thought that carried the day most likely as compared to the gun.