Plastic slugs for home defense with kids at home?

[buenhec]

I now have two babies (twins) at home and have to rethink my SD strategy. Their room is on the way out to the living room from mine. I keep a 12 GA next to my bed for self defense. I am worried about penetrating a wall if I have to shoot an intruder in my house. There are also other people at home.

Should I use some type of rubber slugs to knock down an intruder and then depend on my handgun which is also next to my bed. Should I use defrag ammo as well in my handgun?

 

[blutarsky]

rubber slugs? no. people almost universally disregard the use of "less than lethal" ammo for home defense, since the use of it is pretty much equal in the eye of the law as regular ammo. plus just because it's "less than lethal" doesn't mean it isn't lethal.

you said the room where they are is "...on the way out to the living room from mine...", which i take to mean is in a room sharing a wall? or perhaps no more than a couple walls between you and them? even at that range the rubber slugs will likely be lethal to a baby -- you essentially gain nothing.

in any case -- if you're concerned about over penetration then slugs of any sort out of a shotgun are perhaps not the best idea.

 

[Zeede]

Anything that can't penetrate two sheets of drywall, also isn't going to do squat against an intruder. Especially if your intruder is on drugs.

Keep in mind that the spread at 10' for most home defense shotguns (no choke, or a cylinder choke designation) is only about 4". If you put it on center of mass, you are going to put all the pellets on target. Even 00 buck is less likely to penetrate walls than a handgun round, especially after going through a human body. If you don't believe me, go to www.theboxotruth.com and see where they've tested just this.

Cameron

Cameron

 

[Dave McCracken]

Worrying about overpenetration is non productive.

Place your shot to COM and you have no worries on that respect.

Practice until you can do so.

 

[Fred Fuller]

JOB ONE for a home defender with kids in the home is to secure the kids FIRST. Your kids (and anyone else unable to protect themselves) need to be BEHIND you and your gun, under control, safe and behind cover- not out where you have to worry about stray projectiles or uncontrolled bad guys harming them.

You need to rethink your home defense plan, not your ammo loadout. Try taking the NRA's Personal Protection In The Home class- see http://www.nrahq.org/education/training/basictraining.asp to locate an instructor near you. Failing that, get the DVD at http://materials.nrahq.org/go/product.aspx?productid=ES 26840 and/or the textbook at http://www.nrastore.com/nra/Product.aspx?productid=PB+01781 . Or see Louis Awerbuck's Safe At Home video- http://www.paladin-press.com/product/129/73 for more ideas.

Plan your 'fatal funnels' in advance and see that you have adequate backstops if needed- heavy furniture, loaded bookshelves, interior decorative brick or stone walls or whatever is necessary.

But the most important thing is to plan- for fire evacuations, or any local emergency that might happen- weather related, like tornados, earthquakes or whatever. Every family needs to have adequate emergency planning in place, practiced and rehearsed, so no one is left not knowing what to do in case of emergency. This includes the (less statistically likely than fire etc) possibility of intruders/home invasions as well.

lpl