Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire SKS for home protection?

I have been asked the "What should I get" question a gazillion times.
My responses -
1 If you can train yourself to blink for a split second when you pull the trigger a shotgun is a perfect self-defense weapon inside a structure. Muzzle flash in a small area - a hallway, bedroom, etc will blind you for too long if your eyes are open when all that burning gas lights up the darkness.

2 Unless you have earplugs in you will be stunned by the muzzle blast of almost all large caliber handguns, rifles, and shotguns.
TRY IT in a closed room sometime. I did, years ago and decided that my .41 magnum S&W was a lousy choice for defense inside a structure.


3. Over penetration has been pointed out - rightly so. I like my neighbors and do not want to shoot any of them while trying to stop a bad actor.

4 After suggesting several books, training facilities, and videos about self defense with guns I suggest that - please don't react until you have thought this through - they get a 10 round capacity .22 LR pistol or 9 shot revolver that is ABSOLUTELY reliable - that YOU and any other persons who may need to use it - is well trained and shoots the weapon a minimum of 100 rounds twice a month. As a "back-up" to the handgun I suggest a Ruger 10/22 with an extended magazine and perhaps a folding stock.

Get a watermelon, put it at 25 feet, put ten rounds of CCI Velicitor into it as fast as you can and remember that humans are 80% water. My wife trains herself to draw, squeeze the laser on-switch, and put five rounds into the head of a man silhouette target in four seconds. I would NEVER allow my best friend and cohort in life risk herself if I believed that there was great risk involved.

Your choices - and they are difficult. Good luck.


Terry

Good read on shotgun ammo for home defense.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm

Penetration tests of wallboard by various shotgun ammo with links at the bottom to penetration tests by various ammo one might use in home defense.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-3-the-shotgun-meets-the-box-o-truth/

Unless you're planning to use bird shot (which compromises effectiveness in stopping an attacker), most other common choices will penetrate most household walls, even several of them. The solution is to know what's behind your target, not to pick something that won't penetrate walls. All effective rounds will penetrate modern house walls, and likely several of them. If it won't, then its effectiveness against an attacker should be considered suspect.

PS Not responding to Jim. He was just the last poster.

Wouldn't recommend this in a trailer park

Are you saying that penetration is a problem in most trailer parks?



Travis

Ain't nothin but a thang if you have enough flour. Careful with that self rising stuff you'll end up with yeast rolls. Not atkins friendly.

mossberg 500 with pistol grip and 18" barrel is a much better in-home option IMO.

For a while, an SKS was my "home defense" firearm. I had the East German 62 grain plastic core "ubungspatronen" ammo loaded. Were I to do the same thing again, the 123 Vmax would be the way to go.
The SKS is reliable as a rock, about as heavy, too.
A folding-stock shotgun with long mag tube is probably a better idea, but an SKS will work, especially if you can get a side-folder stock for it.

If your home protection extends to about 385 meters it will do fine. We were dinking around with one at the silhouette range one day and it was knocking over the 385 meter turkeys very handily. Admittedly were were shooting with our elbows on the bench but at least it had the mechanical accuracy - with some kind of surplus East bloc ammo - to regularly hit those things out that far.

For inside, I'd take buckshot any day.

Unless you're 100% certain that you can remain in your bedroom and allow the bad guy to come to you, a long gun is not a wise home defense weapon. If you have to leave your room for any reason, you run the very real risk of having a bag guy take a long gun from you.

I'd go with a handgun.

Suck on it first.

Yeah, I remember your teaching your boyfriend how to do it. Here's you working on the top of his head. Did it work for him?

[quote=SansSouci]Unless you're 100% certain that you can remain in your bedroom and allow the bad guy to come to you, a long gun is not a wise home defense weapon. If you have to leave your room for any reason, you run the very real risk of having a bag guy take a long gun from you.

I'd go with a handgun.

And you are a complete fuggin' moron !

Have you ever cleared a house with a long gun? I didn't think so. If you have, you wouldn't ask such a stupid question.

Hell, even a half-lame crook would take a handgun from you and shove it up your a$s.

Soldiers have been doing it for a very long time now.

TRH,

We're not talking battle in a war zone. We're talking one person trying to clear an urban/suburban home with a long gun. Believe me, it is very easy for a crook to take a long gun from a good guy. I've seen it done many times in training.

I would never attempt to clear my home with a long gun. It's a bad idea with potentially deadly consequences.

It's much easier to take a pistol than it is a long gun. Again, you're talking about something you have never done or know nothing about...fuggin idiot...

From what I've read, you simply trying to clear your home would be a bad idea with potentially deadly consequences.

And, yeah, I have done the "clear a building with a long gun" thing. I damn sure didn't wish I had a pistol when I did it.