Thread: Best Weapon for Home Defense is

Originally Posted by Red Seven

A handgun with a caliber of .38 or larger but one that can be fired accurately with one hand.

It is important to have one hand free for the cell-phone. Shotguns are intimidating and great for blowing away bad guys in the movies but in a real life situation, you need defense and comm.

JMHO.

One word, speakerphone.

A security system w/ cameras is the best weapon for home defense.

I don't know anyone who has used a firearm for defense against home invasion but I know one person who chased someone off with the sound made by racking a shotgun. Also someone who defended his home from an aggressive dog w/ a .357. I believe he used two hands.

As a rule, one handed shooting is for movie stars and gang bangers, neither of which can reliable hit their target.

This should be interesting, read somewhere you need 3 guns for home defence.

A pistol or revolver a shotgun and a rifle.

I have to agree, the rifle could actually be any centre fire calibre.

Tony

As a rule, one handed shooting is for movie stars and gang bangers, neither of which can reliable hit their target.

I used to be able to Fire a 9mm when I served, it was one of the ways we were taught to fire; I was very accurate too.

Originally Posted by Red Seven

A handgun with a caliber of .38 or larger but one that can be fired accurately with one hand.

It is important to have one hand free for the cell-phone. Shotguns are intimidating and great for blowing away bad guys in the movies but in a real life situation, you need defense and comm.

JMHO.

Blue Tooth!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Chaobam Armour

As a rule, one handed shooting is for movie stars and gang bangers, neither of which can reliable hit their target.

I used to be able to Fire a 9mm when I served, it was one of the ways we were taught to fire; I was very accurate too.

That's why I say 'as a rule'. If you know you can fire one handed accurately while undergoing the handshaking adrenaline rush that accompanies a home invasion than you won't nor should you be concerned w/ what weapon some stranger on the internet thinks you should use. If you don't know then it's highly unlikely that you can.

And really, if you need a gun in one hand do you really think 911 is going to be of any use? When seconds count the police are only minutes away.

All irrelevant in the UK anyway, we can't carry weapons'.

I agree with Red 7 on this. For a couple of reasons.

Recoil slight enough so that you can shoot 1 handed means that your wife and older children should be able to handle it also. You are not always going to be in the right place at the right time.

Also for reason beyond your control you may be limited to 1 handed shooting. You may have been injured by your attacker on your way to retrieve your gun. Or because "Life Happens" you may already have a broke hand/arm or other injury caused by your favorite sports or job. On a silly side argument. Have you ever woke up from sleeping on your arm? Its numb and you cannot do a thing with it. Although that feeling may go away in a few minutes, I would hate to trust my life on a weapon that I needed 2 hands to operate when 1 isn't working.

For a 3d reason. 1 armed shooting allows you to shoot from cover and concealment. Same with practicing weak handed shooting. I can find a place to shoot from and provide a much smaller target.

a medium or large sized dog beats a gun. Its a nice big visible and loud deterrent. Sure a criminal could shoot your dog, but then they let you and the neighbors know whats up. More importantly dogs make criminals want to look for an easier target. Dogs will also willingly die defending their family and in the dark their eyesight and sense of smell and hearing makes them a vicious foe. Also if you hear some one coming in and the dogs not freaking out, its probably your kid doing something their not supposed to, not a burglar. Kids have been shot by their own parents while sneaking out or back in.

However, if a gun is required, I would choose a semi automatic shotgun loaded with a medium bird load. With a round kept loaded. Screw the jack the slide sound to scare them off, if their coming at me or mine and my pitbull hasn't scared them off I am not going to waste precious seconds trying to do so again, they had their warning.

A bird load will tear them open in the close confines of a house and is less likely to penetrate walls than a bullet or heavier shotgun load. With smalls running around this second point is worthy of major consideration. A bird load out of a shotgun set up for home defense (shorter but still legal barrel) is also more forgiving than a pistol accuracy wise.

The cell or land line is for once the shooting stops. I am not going to be able to hear the operator anyway for several minutes after an exchange of gunfire in an enclosed space without hearing protection and I am not going to waste brain power on trying to do anything but aggressively stop the threat to my family.

The gun I feel most comfortable shooting is my Ruger Blackhawk .357 SA. I'm much more of a "point and shoot" guy than a two handed-combat stance guy so an SA revolver is great for me.

That said, I've been telling myself for years that what I want for home defense given that my neighbors with the cute little girl are about ten feet away from my house, is a 16 or 20 gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot. I figure that's gotta be able to do the job inside my house without doing much "extra" through stucco, studs, and drywall. But have I actually bothered to pick up a 16 guage? No, because I'm lazy.

-dale

Originally Posted by dalem

...But have I actually bothered to pick up a 16 guage? No, because I'm lazy.

-dale

You'll pay more for 16 guage factory ammo though, or components if you are reloading. You can use 12 G target loads, same FPS as your 16 G so no more penetration, just more shot leaving the barrel.

My vote for best home defense is 12 Guage semi-auto. I would never rack a pump shotgun to try to scare an intruder- why give up a tactical advantage by announcing your presence? If you have to shoot, shoot.

Incidentally, I have used a gun to defend the home one time. That was a warning shot from a .44 mag, and fortunately it did the trick.

the best weapon is the one that is available when you need it.

i,m pretty sure intruder wouldn,t like to be shot from any gun, .22 or 12ga. just the fact that you got a gun is enough in most cases.

I agree with Zraver that a good sized dog is weapon #1. The dog has far better senses than you, can bark like hell, is intimidating, and gives you less personal legal exposure (if you did not specifically train it to attack a person).

One story I heard started with two pistol (22 caliber) armed burglars and an enormous, home alone dog. It ended with the dog sitting in the middle of the living room, wagging his tail in front of a dead burglar when the family came home. The other guy ran away.

^^^ lol, true.

thou my dog has zero value as a deterrent, he almost never barks, if he is home alone, he sleeps, sometimes when i come home, open the door, put the lights on, he keeps sleeping, like nothing happened, than his tail starts wagging(all 2 inches of it). only than he gets up and runs to me.
few times my friends rang a bell when i wasn,t home, they would've never guess i have a dog. my friends call him an oversized cat.

Thought this might happen:(:(:(.

Ask a simple question and get dog's, rolling pins, tacticool frying pans and very little info about gun's that are used for home defence.

Maybe the title of the thread should have been "The pro's and con's of Home defence in your part of the world, and how you do it or don't do it".

BTW, with my Colt Detective special I could draw down on a target at 15m and double action all of the 5 rounds loaded into a ten centimetre circle in as many seconds, when I practised doublets at multiple 10cm targets I may have needed 10 to 12 seconds, or more depending on how they were set up. This was prior to my Accident in 2006, and now that I have been successfully operated on my aim is to be as good as I used to be, watch out wallet).

It's all down to the practice you put in and muscle memory, and knowing you are going to hit what you are aiming at, because it just feels right, the hold on the weapon, sight picture and smooth trigger.

Tony