Home defense long gun and a carry gun, advice needed
So, given what may be a small window between legal battles, I’m looking at getting a long gun (probably a shotgun) for home defense and also a carry gun for when I need to leave the confines of a pretty safe town…
Sadly, I have no useful experience with either. Yes, I’ve shot plenty of rounds from standard issue pumps and I’ve qualified expert with the 1911 several times but none of that has been related to home defense nor concealed carry. Thus, I’d like advice from the LEOs and retired LEOs here regarding what on the market today might make sense.
Right now, I’ve got my airguns (no, I don’t consider those home defense (but don’t get shot by my .62!)) and I’ve got a .357 with a 6″ barrel.
I can shoot the .357 pretty damn well but it’s huge for a carry gun…. It’s been my home defense gun but I’d rather have a gun with more power in that role…
All the magazines love every new gun and offer all kinds of advice. I’d like to hear from experience…
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Perfect for home defense I think. Only concern would maybe be a tad of over penetration, but as long as your drywall is good quality, I don’t think it would be an issue.
I think they’d really have something if the gun was full auto with a 30 round mag. 😯
Perfect for home defense I think. Only concern would maybe be a tad of over penetration, but as long as your drywall is good quality, I don’t think it would be an issue.
Did you notice how the skinny guy yells out, “Yeah”!. That was his machismo way of saying, “ouucccccchhhh!”
What’s up with the two feet of eye relief! It kicks but come on! LOL!
Is this not the obvious answer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP0CBaW9FEI
Perfect for home defense I think. Only concern would maybe be a tad of over penetration, but as long as your drywall is good quality, I don’t think it would be an issue.
My hands are probably average in size, I’m 5’10” and 170 so I’m not a big guy but I’m not tiny. I have no problem with the recoil of the .357 shooting hot loads (it’s currently loaded with silvertips which work well).
I qualified “expert” the first and every time I shot the 1911 for score while I was in service.
I have Pachmyer (sp?) grips for the S&W but prefer the regular wood grips for contol and feel. I can shoot decent groups with that gun but realize that groups isn’t what we’re talking about here.
I appreciate the advice to go “feel” the guns but there’s no place here where I can actually shoot the damn things first. I’m going to have to make a decision based on research as the local shop doesn’t hand out loaners… I wish I had a huge range here with loaner/rental guns for a comparison test.
the 41 mag loads from above were from a 5.5 ” ruger red hawk, and you loose juice out of the barrel cylinder gap lets not forget with the revolvers.
The 10mm Auto, in its original form, launched a 170gn JHP at 1,300fps and a 200gn JTC at 1,200fps , this out of a 5 ” barrel bren 10 , for right at 600 foot pounds of energy
nice reading where the original load data came from,
http://www.bren-ten.com/website/id7.html
Jerry ,
its personal preference, like knife and tof has said, go look at the guns , really feel them , hold them ,work the slides, if your not use to heavier recoiling handguns the 10mm might be a bit much, the 40 would be more controllable
I carry a 9mm sr9 ruger, don’t like it that much lots of shots, and rack it up with buffalo bore hp’s, but the safety is so tight you may get killed getting it off.
Jerry,
I think you should look at the Glock 40 in the M 27 sub compact( i think this gun is really to small , you only get two fingers on the grip, i really want to be able to get all of my fingers on the grip, i am wanting a fighting handgun that is small for carry,
or the glock 23 in 40 cal , which i think would fit your hand well if small,has a 4″ barrel and will be nice for shooting as well as carry. or guns of the similar size,
I have always been a revolver and a 1911 guy, i have caried a 5 shot 38 special , M 36 for years or have it in the truck mostly.
the 40 is really a nice power for carry and capacity compromise in a smaller gun,
sig has some nice compact guns, so does springfield in the xd , i did not have any of thses high capacity handguns, and i thought i might ought to get one or two as how things are going.
but between 10mm and 40 , for a carry gun , get the 40 , way cheaper also for range shooting and practice .
also if you get the 40 glock, you can get a 9mm conversion,and shoot 9mm on the cheap
Have you held any of these guns, what do you prefer, what feels best in your hand,
🙄
What is the GAT you referred to? I googled and got crap.
It’s spelled “ghat”.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghat
Had no idea the term was originally used for an airgun!
So, tons of great info here! For a carry gun, I’m leaning towards a small frame subcompact (using Glock’s nomenclature). The reason is that I’m not a huge guy and a comfortable gun to carry will get carried vice sit at home.
Glock has smaller guns in both 10mm and .40, with 10mm not hot like when it was new, is there a significant reason to go with one or the other? I mean, this gun isn’t for hog hunting, it’s for shooting a person ubtil they stop being a threat…
I’m intrigued by the idea of the lever action but I think that’s because I really would like a Henry rifle. Seems that a 12 ga. is the better choice though. The shot lines in my house, combined with where the kid’s sleep, allow me to worry less about penetration than some.
RC,
What is the GAT you referred to? I googled and got crap. I guess I don’t know that slang. For sure, I would like to have a combat light on the shotgun! I’m thinking semi-auto but I’m comfortable with a pump. I don’t think I’d want one of those rotating mags… seems too easy to fuck up in a high pressure situation.
Tof, your right. And not only is the BBl. length different, S&W changed the specs for the .41 mag shortly after it came out.
Elmer Keith had envisioned it to be THE ultimate combat load, but it was just too hot for most officers to handle. Hence, the down grade in performance. The 10 MM. pretty much mirrors what the .41 was adjusted down to.
In fact, it ended up being so anemic, that they came out with a smaller frame Auto loader to handle the much lowered specs. It became the S&W.40. The S&W .40 is pretty much the same to the 10MM that a .44 special is to the >44 Mag, or the .38 S%W is to the 357.
When I was Hog hunting with the 10MM it was hot. Much hotter than you see listed in PB post above. But then again, I hand loaded every thing I shot back then. Well except .22 rim fire.
Back then, the .357 was mostly loaded with either a fast .125 gr. or a slower 158 Gr. There were no 170 Gr. available when I was hand gun hunting with the .357. Especially not iin a factory loading. (Told ya I was an old fart!) 😆
I used the 41 mag, because it was the same frame as the .44 mag, but with thicker chambers (Cylinder walls) and bbl. Making it a heavier gun, and able to handle slightly more pressure than the .44 mag. (These were in the S&W’s of course).
have killed a lot of game with both the .41 mag and hot 10MM’s
Mike
Yep, your very right. The 10mm IS NOT a 41 mag or close to it. I’ve heard that saying before but it’s not.
As far as expert or whatever goes, LIKE WITH ANY GUN, YOU PURCHASE THEN practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. Too many people BUY GUNS for self defense and don’t even go to the range once a year.
So for anybody who is a newbie, buy what you feel you like and what suites you but good lord, whatever you buy, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and PRACTICE some more with it. You cannot defend yourself or your family if you don’t even know your gun or if it doesn’t fit you. Even if you say FORGET a pistol, i just want a lever action or a shotgun…………..YOU GOTTA PRACTICE TO BE EFFICIENT.
The other thing that should be noted about a Semi Auto round like the 10mm vs the 357 or 41 mag is that the 10mm is ALWAYS being shot out of a 4.6″ barrel and the mags are being shoved out of a 6″ or 8″ barrel. But that’s the nature of the beast
The 10 mm is a bad motor scooter, but a 41 mag it is not .
here some data make up your own mind.
357 mag
170gr jhp 10.7 gr Blue Dot 1,445 fps
170gr jhp 13.2 gr 2400 1,450 fps
173gr LSWC 16.5 gr 2400 1,511 fps
41 mag
170gr JHP 26.5 gr H110 1,900 fps
170gr JCH 26.5 gr H110 1,887 fps
170gr JHP 26.0 gr H110 1,530 fps
10mm
170gr FMJ 15.0 gr No. 9 1,341 fps
165gr JHP 14.3 gr AA #9 1,300 fps
170gr FMJ 15.0 gr No. 9 1,341 fps
357 sig
125 gr XTP 6.0 gr titegroup 1,300 fps
125gr XTP 7.1 gr wsf 1,559 fps
147gr XTP 5.8 gr Bullseye 1,145 fps
147gr XTP 10.5 gr No. 9 1,158 fps
357 mag
125gr JSP 17.6 gr 2400 1,810 fps
125gr JSP 14.5 gr Blue Dot 1,795 fps
145gr JHP 16.0 gr H4227 1,566 fps
145gr JHP 17.2 gr H110 1,691 fps
All these would throw one heck of a fire ball.
It took me a long time to warm up to Glocks.
I carried a deburred 45 Stainless Gold Cup with checkered Ivory grips for years, but my fun guns were Ruger 22 Standard Auto’s, suppressed or otherwise, and I used them to do aerial shooting.
We had a open pit county dump when I was a kid and as an adult I had my own, and in both places the bullets would only go down on widlerness, so I grew up shooting bottles out of the air with a Ruger Standard Auto.
You older guys will remember the Hiedleberg Keg bottles, best targets for shooting in the air theere was, they flew perfect. I shot them by the hundreds, when my kids got old enough to shoot I taught them how to shoot things out of the air. My son really impressed the USMC with a 45 and aerial targets.
Everything changed with the Glock prejudice when a friend loaned me his Glock 21 to try. I threw a bottle into the air and vaporized it, I looked down at that Glock 21 and had the instant realization that it had the same grip angle as the Ruger Standard Auto.
So if you have ever had and enjoyed a Ruger 22 Auto, you going to love the Glock grip angle. But they are dangerous guns and need to be carried only in a secure holster.
RC
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Thanks Pabs, I’ve put out a request for proposals to have all my walls covered in reactive armor….