SHTF/Home Defense Rifles

[.38 Special]

All you critics just don't understand. It's "SHTF, dude!!!". That means anything goes, and the cooler your gun, the more chicks you'll bag after you've personally stopped the S from HTF. Grandad's old lever action thutty-thutty might technically work just fine, but it doesn't exactly go with the ninja outfit and night vision goggles. I mean, don't you guys read Soldier of Fortune?

Personally, I think what this place really needs is SHTF/tacticool/ninja/gamer/no one over 25 allowed forum where the grownups won't be whining about "reality" and "lawsuits" and other boring old fogey type stuff.

HTH!

 

[benEzra]

I have both the AR and the Mini-14, unless you had no other option, or you had a perfect shot that you knew the bullet would stop safely, I wouldnt use either in the house, thats what my Glock 22 is for.

55-grain .223 JHP's tend to penetrate somewhat less in building materials than most .40 S&W JHP's, and when they exit, they retain less wounding potential than typical handgun JHP's.

There is no rule requiring you to use FMJ in a defensive carbine, any more than for a defensive pistol.

You'll have a bad day in court when you try to justify having shot someone at 100 yards as self-defense.

Choice of a HD carbine is not generally about shooting attackers at 100 yards, any more than a HD 12-gauge is about shooting attackers flying overhead in V-shaped flocks.

Small-caliber centerfire carbines shooting moderate-weight JHP's (not FMJ) have some advantages over handguns at inside-the-house distances, not just at 100 yards. Whether those advantages offset the lack of portability compared to handguns, or the slightly lower per-round lethality compared to shotguns, depends on your own preferences and proficiencies.

 

[Art Eatman]

The consensus from about thirty or forty of these threads is that if one is to use a rifle, quick handling is important. Most people prefer medium-ower cartridges over pistol-cartridge-chambered carbines.

Few expect home defense to be needed at distances beyond maybe twenty to forty yards.

Subject to the user's skill, most believe that hits to 100 and 200 yards are reliably possible from almost any platform.

And so, another SHTF thread ends.