Home Defense Pistol or Shotgun, Changing Views.

[reagansquad]

I don't always have a gun within reach. I usually do, but not always... What I do always have is a knife. 21 feet works both ways. My place is very small, and if you just kicked down the door, killed my dog, and are on the way to my fiance... well... I'd fall under the 'very determined' catagory.

 

[LadySmith]

While someone trying to flex the bones, I'm gonna be poppin' caps.

 

[SapperLeader]

To me it is definitely layers of defense with a handgun AND shotgun defense plan, with two rifles ready to go inside the safe. I either have my carry rig on me when at home (IWB full size and j-frame in pocket) or I’m in gym shorts and have a neck knife/photon light around my neck and a j-frame IWB. The handgun is for answering the door during the day, or for unexpected intruders that made it into the house with me unaware.

If you have reasonably secure doors, a dog to alert you, and handgun for immediate threats, you should be able to buy enough time to get to a long arm for defense. If you have been surprised or ambushed, defend yourself with the handgun and be done with it.

No matter what I carry, if it is at all possible I want that shotgun in my hands. It hits harder, I’m better with it, and its easier to shoot. Granted I tend to not open the door with my shotgun (it scares the pizza man and cracks the UPS man up but any odd noises or late night callers and I will grab the shotgun.

This topic is always fun, though we all tend to have the same responses every time

 

[foghornl]

First up is the Springy 1911-A1 Champion, followed by the Maverick/Mossberg 12Ga with 6 rounds of #4 Buck. After that, we get to the Most Serious Artillery...The US Rifle Cal .30 M1

 

[cslinger]

Course I could just Claymore the entrences.

DING DONG "Avon lady" BANNNNNGGG!!!!!!!! " ooops."

 

[SpookyPistolero]

Anymore, claymores might not be such a bad idea! Seems that yesterday there was a home invasion on my side of town. Three guys in masks all armed came in on a man and his wife. The news report was poorly organized so I couldnt get all the info on it. It seems that the home owner and his wife returned fire. The husband was shot and taken to the hospital, and I suppose the intruders fled since no arrests were made.

So the first point is that anything can and very well might happen to you at any time. The couple said they didnt know the intruders and everyone interviewed described them as very nice/cool/nonviolent and without enemies. Dont act/look like a victim, dont be a vicitim. The second is to be armed at all times. When 'anything' comes bangin at the door, Id like to have something to bang back with. And also want something that I am very sure will make a man change his plans without having to shoot him 6 times.

This doesnt really change my daily plan or mentality much. But I will continue to be armed with a handgun on my person at all times. I agree with another poster, that if your weapon is not within reach of where you are, then you are unarmed. I will also continue to maintain a surefire equipped 870 next to my bed.

Dont forget trouble will likely come in the dark, so control the light and get yourself a few great flashlight (I myself just picked up an amazing xenon/lithium surefire look-alike from walmart for $20), preferably weapon mounted. Also, make sure youve got a cellphone either with your gear or with your significant other so someone can call the cavalry.

So please, everyone, depend on no one but yourself, and make full use of the tools you have at your disposal. Dont get caught with your pants down!

PS- It also seems that with the door being kicked in and shots fired, that no one in the neighborhood heard anything, and no one else therefore called the police. (I believe they actually couldnt hear it, not that they could hear it but didnt want to get involved.)

Stay safe, be vigilant, act from forethought.

-Spooky

 

[shooter58]

A few years back, I read an article by Sheriff Jim Wilson in some gun rag, where he stated that he kept a loaded handgun in every room of his house and a shotgun in the bedroom. Made sense to me, and I have done just that ever since. Shotgun in the bedroom is loaded with alternating rounds of 00 buck and solid slugs. I have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths + dining room....they all have a gun somewhere in the room. My alarm system consists of a Rat Terrier backed up by a German Shepherd. Wife and daughter can both dot your eye with a gun.

 

[bnormal2]

If you empty a handgun into an intruder your looking at roughly 1-15 chances to put a hole in them. You have to hope to put a hole in them big enough and in the right place to stop them from doing harm against you or your family. From everything I've read the law of averages says you'll miss 3 times more than you hit an attacker from a dead sleep shooting scenario. If you pull the trigger on 12ga 00 buckshot your flinging 12 or more pellets with each pull of the trigger. You don't have to be accurate, just close. With 8 shots you've got 100 chances to save your life and your family members. I'll take my 870 HD with 00 buckshot every day over a semi or revolver for home defense.

 

[TheEgg]

Simple -- I wear a handgun during waking hours. In addition I have .357 magnum revolvers (Rugers), pepper spray, and a flashlight stashed near each entrance to the house. In another room (ain't tellin which ) I have the 870 12 ga. and the AR 15.

If this is not enough, well, I didn't want to live forever anyway.




Remember -- Paranoia, properly applied, is a useful survival tool!!!!!!!

 

[Fred Fuller]

"You don't have to be accurate, just close."

At typical in-house ranges, shotgun patterns can be measured in a few inches at most. It is not only possible to miss with a shotgun at across-the-room distances, it has been done a lot more often than people think. It IS necessary to be accurate with shotguns at close range. A miss with a shotgun is still a miss. You cannot miss fast enough or often enough with any firearm to win a fight.

lpl/nc

 

[Mikul]

The shotgun is best suited when there is a good distance between good guys and bad guys. If my wife is in the kitchen and a bad guy comes in the garage, I'm going for the handgu: Discriminate vs Indiscriminate.

 

[Red Tornado]

For handy yet inconspicuous handgun storage in every room, this might be just the thing.

You can have a pistol handy, without having to wear it at home.
RT

 

[rlq9thrk]

I keep it simple

Can't afford a pistol (or other firearm) on every table in the house. Don't like the thought of someone entering uninvited and picking up a pistol that's closer to him than me. Don't like the idea of coming home and meeting someone at the door who just stole a pistol. So I keep the pistol IWB all the time (everywhere it's legal, of course) or very near the bed when sleeping. That way, I also don't need a $1500 safe.

 

[FunGunner]

This thread prompted me to look for the nearest firearm, for defending my home at the moment, and what do I spy. My Imbel STG58 FAL and about 6 loaded mags in a hip pouch on a pistol belt. Wasn't that way a half hour ago, but just found it funny to think, bad guys would be in deep doo doo, to wake the bear right at this moment.

 

[Bob F.]

Read a good article awhile back; 'bout big brown bears up north but revelant here as well. Guide said he'd prefer .458Mag, 12 ga. slug, .338 Win, etc vs. bear. But actually relied on .44Mag SRH since when he was skinnig deer, gutting salmon, etc., 44 was on his hip. Bear was usually sittin' on long gun.

Glock 19 IWB, 870 cruiser-ready nearby. But home invasions are almost unheard of here abouts-way better than even odds BG's will get their butts blown off!! "Course, there's always the ignorant stranger.............

Stay safe.
Bob

 

[bogie]

If you empty a handgun into an intruder your looking at roughly 1-15 chances to put a hole in them. You have to hope to put a hole in them big enough and in the right place to stop them from doing harm against you or your family. From everything I've read the law of averages says you'll miss 3 times more than you hit an attacker from a dead sleep shooting scenario.

Huh?

Lemme guess - that study was done with a buncha cops, right?

Bring 'em on. Just tell 'em to bring some $$$, because I intend on taking it. Yeah, I've got an attitude. I've burned enough ammo in the past six months that I don't really have to think, or really aim. Pie plate in the torso.

A .45ACP is probably big enough.

 

[FunGunner]

"Bring 'em on. Just tell 'em to bring some $$$, because I intend on taking it. Yeah, I've got an attitude. I've burned enough ammo in the past six months that I don't really have to think, or really aim. Pie plate in the torso."

I personally can not find anything wrong with that statment. I strive for the same profincy myself, and am at the point that I really don't use sights at 20 feet or less.

 

[赤悪魔]

Lol

if you see box's. You need some new font packages. But I do like the hey BOX BOX BOX Guy quote I got in the other thread.

Im no ninja, thats silly talk

Now there was a guy in the 70's who bent spoons by flexing them.

I mean what I said about the knives though

thanks for the welcome

 

[Third_Rail]

That was fairly off the thread topic.


I like the name, by the way. You don't see too many foreign character names on THR.



Anyway, I just keep my Mossberg 500 cruiser-ready in the safe. Due to my living circumstances, there's no other way to store it until I get a shorter barrel and folding stock.

 

[c22m22c]

"Use the handgun to fight to your longarm, if you can. -- natedog"

i'm gonna side with natedog. as my LT in the army told me once..."the pistol is what you use to fight your way back to your rifle (shotgun, long gun, etc) which you never should have dropped in the first place."

my input.

 

[Smoke]

Home invasion? Possible - but I'm more afraid of being run over by a herd of moose in my front yard. Odds are better of a moose stampede too.

Someone trying to break in? I can see them coming for a long way....so can the dogs and they let me know 5 minutes before you get to the main driveway.

There are handguns in various rooms, I don't wear one in the house. If I feel the need the 870 is what I grab. The first 4 out are 00, the last two slugs, there are more of both on the butt. If I run dry, the 870 makes a better club.

Smoke

 

[RAY WOODROW 3RD]

K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)

Growling/barking/biting female pitbull between my family and BG.....
5 shot .44 Special while on the way to retrieving the 12 gaug = BIG HOLES stop BG from advancing.

Woody's tip of the day:
(always keep bedroom window cracked open to hear what's going on outside the house during the night)

 

[Zeke Menuar]

Since I got a C&R license, I have a large enough variety of firepower to defend myself from 0 feet to 1000 yards.

There is almost always a 45 automatic with arms reach of me(like now for instance).
If things get bad, I hope to fight my way to the back to get the Mossberg 500 or the SKS depending on the number and type of uninvited guests.

ZM

 

[seeker_two]

Good points, cslinger. This should be a sticky...

Since my wife & I don't have any children (yet), I've been able to do enough "seeding" through the house to where, at any moment, I'll have a pistol, knife, hatchet (yes, he said hatchet), club, or heavy object in easy reach to fight my way to my shotgun or rifle.

Of course, having the two best rural alarm systems in place help too...

1. Nosy neighbors...
2. Small dogs that bark whenever ANYONE approaches the house (I call them "Daddy's little target indicators" )...

 

[Mannlicher]

I have good locks, strong doors, and bars on the windows. Its gonna take a lot longer than that to break in. I often carry a handgun around the house, and I have long guns in several places. The dog's give a lot of warning too.