Re: Need a Family of .22LR, 9mm, .45 ACP Pistol for Home Defense

#>At in-house ranges the shotgun spread is only about 2" and needs as much aiming as a rifle. <<

Sorry Nick but I disagre with you. It doesn't sound like you all that
much about tactical shoguns, tactical training, and/or tactical
shotshell loads.

A pattern can be as little as 2" (even as little as .729" right at the
muzzle for a 12 gauge) in a typical short range scenario but that's a
generalization. The right shotgun with the right ammuntion can give you
much greater spreads in a typical home defense scenario.
Generalizations don't work in this case. Much depends on the length of
the barrel, the choke used (if any) and the type of load one is
shooting. And whether the shotgun has been tweaked (Vang Comp Systems
comes to mind.)

I have patterned my Remington (with an 18" barrel and cylinder choked)
using a particular shot charge in which the spread is several (or
more) inches at 12'. For home defense I use a load similar to the old
Federal Cartridge reduced recoil personal defense shotshells. It's a 12
gauge 1.5 ounce load of #2 pellets. I have patterned that load many
times. In five test patterns - each with the distance from the muzzle
to the target being 12 feet - all 5 shot patterns measured, on averge,
approximately 8 inches in diameter (one was 10"), with even radial
dispersion of the shot and the the shot pattern centered around the
point of aim. As a comparison, I fired some 1 ounce #8 lead loads (what
I shoot skeet with) and the pattern of this load was approximately 2"
in diameter at 12-feet. Furthermore, In testing that same load at
longer distances (15', 20', and 25') it appears that the old Federal
personal defense loads had a pellet spread rate of approximately 1.5"
to 2" for every 3' of travel from the muzzle, which is twice the spread
rate for conventional shotshell loads when fired from an 18-inch
cylinder choke barrel. At 15' I have gotten patterns that avergae as
much as as 10-12" . That sounds better to me than a <.5" spread that a
single 9mm or .45 inch bullet affords.

#>Don't shoot at shadows, identify your target.<<

Like I said in my original post concerning the intruder, i.e.
"he/she/they won't/don't heed your command to leave your premises", one
has to assume that one has already taken steps to identify who's in
your house. In defending one's residence, especially at night, it's
true that you need to be absolutely sure of the intent of any intruder.
Is this a criminal invasion of your home, or has one of the older kids
decided to make a surprise, unannounced visit? Could it be a room mate
who had car trouble? That's why I recommend tactical lights mounted to
the shotgun's foreend, providing a means of positively identifying any
night time intruder. Such a light allows hands free operation, in the
event the worst has occurred and lethal force must be brought to bear
in the defense of one's life. Still once you've taken the inital steps
of calling out to order whoever is in your home to leave, and they
don't respond, the odds are very very good that it's an intruder and
not the kid or a friend.

I offer no apology for my orginal post. Perhaps I could have been a bit
more thorough in qualifying my advice. That's why it's important that
anyone choosing to purchase a firearm for home defense purposes
understand ALL the the ramifications and obligations of doing so. That
includes how to secure your home, how to light it, how to minimize your
exposure to home intrusions, how to select a firearm (pistol or
shotgun) and ammunition (regular or personal defense) for use in home
defense scenarios, how and why it's important to train one's self in
home defense scenarios and so on and so forth. Someone seeking advice
from this group by saying that he doesn't like the "plastic" look of a
Glock obviuosly needs a lot of help, *before* buying a gun.

In any case I'm enjoying the discussion. Nice to see so many experts
hanging out here. Most of whom offer, generally speaking, pretty sound
advice.

Best

AD Buck



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