Anyone who doesn't know that a shotgun is the most effective, and safest, weapon in close quarters is ignorant or stupid.
Well the US Mil has 2 continuous decades of fighting in houses and the only thing they still use a shotgun for is breaching the door.
Shotguns are OK but the AR rules the real CQB world.
That's not exactly a fair comparison.
1) The shotgun is more of a specialty weapon in combat. Most individuals don't carry BOTH 5.56 and a shotgun regularly 2) Troops carry far more 5.56 ammo for their standard issue weapons, than shotgun ammo, so it stands to reason they'd quickly switch back to that which they are well stocked for 3) A house breech may lead them out a back door within minutes or seconds, where the 5.56 immediately makes more sense to have in hand
Let's turn the tables the other way. For those who have served, if you had the unfortunate situation where you breached a door to find an armed enemy, would you rather see a 5.56 or a 12 gauge in the enemies hand across the room from you?
The breecher is not the first one in. So mute question.. the first guy in will have an M4..
Correct, in a general sense. For us it would depend on the situation, how tight the quarters were in previous houses, etc. Just like in America, city houses were generally smaller and tighter, where farm country houses tended to be a bit bigger and more open, and that would sometimes influence what weapon was the first one in. Often times though, whomever is there and ready is the first one in after the doorway is breached, regardless of what he's carrying. A shotgun isn't always used by the breecher but there's usually one in the hands of someone on the patrol. Honestly though, with the exception of Fallujah, we'd breach maybe 1 in 50 houses that we entered. The occupants were almost always willing to let us in after the interpreter talked to them.
As far as personal self defense, like has been stated many times in this thread it's what you're comfortable with, as well as the specifics of your home that really should be the determining factor as to which weapon is "better". For me, there's no question. Shotgun all the way.
