If you want a 12 g for home defense, my recommandation is a short double barrel shotgun. It is scary as hell, reliable and easy to load and reload. There are a lot of these that are easy to maintain since it might be stored for long periods. It may be used as a baseball bat also (if unloaded or out of bullets). You also need to practice target shooting with a short barreled shotgun. Especially if you are used to longer barrels. I shoot skeet and sporting clays in competitions and do very well but when I went hunting with my 18 inch double barrel shotgun for the first time, I could not hit anything. I needed some practice with the shotgun and improved significantly. I started with paper targets to see the spread and ajust myself and then moved to clays. I love it so much that I now hunt small game with it? Personnaly, I do not use my shotgun as home defense tool. The reason is not for the gun laws. The reason is that I have five girls in the house. I don't want them to see an exploded person in the house with half the head missing. Even a rapist or thief. Shotguns are messy, noisy and would require a lot of cleaning afterwards. It is an overkill from my perspective. My recommandations is 22 lr semi rifle with red dot. Mine is reliable and a slinged baseball bat. Keep in mind that I have guns for bears and keep a shotgun and other stuff for that. But for home defense, I have studied and analysed the question and 22lr is my favorite caliber. Could be a good topic to discuss with gunnutz... Quick access safes are a good investment and store my stuff in a legal manner. Even for home defense. Do not forget to practice scenarios in your home, practice from your bed, kitchen and other parts of your house, time yourself and improve. Train your spouse and kids too for hiding quicly. I also have a code word like a "no duff" code for home invasion. My dog is the best alarm system and sleeps in front of my girls rooms. Very good for son in laws... Remember that your are the last line of defense for your family. I respect the gun laws entirely because I choose to live in Canada but I am the king of my castle and will gladly go to prison to protect my family from a serious situation. Finally, I don't want to explode a 16 yr old idiot that want's to rob my ipod. Fists and baseball bats are still good for those. Trust me, they work just fine. Prepare and practice with wathever you decide. It's your choice and I respect that. When it comes to home security, it's you and your wife that must make the decisions together.
Best Bedside Defense Shotgun
- Thread starter BoogerChew
- Start date
Yes, you could store with the chamber open, drop a shell into the chamber, then close the bolt etc., and that would be faster. Either way, legally, you can't store it loaded.
A little tough for me to work through all the steps in my head, because that's all it is for me (and likely ever will be) - specifically a thought excercise. It's all about "balance of safety" - with a kid in the house, am I safer to keep a bedside shotgun, within easy access, that curious fingers can get at? Weighed against the very unlikely chance of having to deal with a night-time break in?
The OP has a partner, but no kids in the house, and that's a totally different calculation.
Greenhorse six
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Never mind.
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Save the bird shot for birds; optimal load for a 12 gauge in that scenario would be a reduced recoil buckshot load, or going for a smaller size of buck. (#1 buck is supposed to be the best compromise of pattern density vs. penetration.)
I just read this whole thread, and after page nine, I thought to myself... Self, why are you still reading this? Then I turned the page and found this little gem! It has all bases covered. Pure genius.
And my 870 lives in an in-wall cabinet behind the bedroom door. Buckshot. I have a friend(I don't actually associate with him anymore, but he truly is a good guy just too sad now), who I have know all my life. He has some very very sorted times, and been addicted to everything at least twice. When they are hopped up on Oxie's or Meth, Bird shot is not going to do it. If your brain isn't able to tell your body you have been hit, you probably won't register a non lethal hit. He was involved in the "drug trade in my small town, and when they finally went down, they had all kinds of guns and weapons in their house. This stuff didn't even make the news, but my point was moving isn't going to fix anything, we live in a nice quiet area.
What did fix the problem, was hepatitis! That sh!t cleans up the streets like nobodies business
frankthedog
Member
- Location
- Vancouver Island
I keep my 870 in my safe, which is in my closet, which is on MY side of the bed, which is closest to the bedroom door. In the 870's side saddle sits #4 buckshot as of right now, and the slugs stay in the shell holder on the stock. The gun stays unloaded and the chamber stays open. That is how I keep mine in case of an extreme emergency.
Put one shell of #8 light bird shot in, rack the slide (why?).
If time, then feed in order: 2 slugs, 2 buck, another bird shot.
The first shot (or probably even the sound of racking the slide) should do the job. If not then you can progressively "escalate" from bird shot up to slugs.
And you can also tell the judge "Jeez, it was only light bird shot your honor. I was trying to be safe.".
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- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Have you ever been in a house that was on fire? Anyone who knowingly sets fire to an occupied dwelling is trying to kill the occupants. Anyone who attempts to commit murder with fire deserves no consideration.
A break action shotgun, single barrel or double, is simple to load and manipulate in the dark, but I'd opt for a pump.
DA Grizzly 8.5" even shorter and it's mag fed (read faster loading).
