Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Recommendations for home protection-Novice user

My buddy, Bob, had a high-end brain surgeon for a cousin. Bob was a gun writer, so the surgeon asked Bob what his choice was for a self-defense gun. Without hesitation, Bob said a Ruger SP101. A few months later, the surgeon had a home invasion and popped she popped the perp with the SP101.

When it came time to buy a pistol for KYHillChick, I knew Bob would give similar advice. KYHillChick carries an SP101. At home, it never leaves her side.

Me? I'm a 12 GA guy. I've got a Rem 1100 with a deer barrel by the bed. I'd reach for it before the Ruger P90 (45 ACP) that's also close by. The first round is #6 birdshot. The next round is #4 buck. It gets progressively bigger. The last round is deer slug.

For a beginner? I personally think an AR is a bit daunting for a newbie. I've got an SKS at the farm because I might want to reach out a bit further. Son #2, Moose has a nice Ruger Mini-30 that he got from Bob's estate. That is an excellent piece of work. Personally I think both the SKS and the Mini-14 and Mini-30 are easier for beginners to grasp.

10/22? I'm not a big fan of 22 for self-defense. Yes, you may drop them. There are plenty of instances where it has happened like that. I'd be scared of the 22 not getting the job done fast enough. I've got a 30-Carbine flash hider on mine. It's there to as a damper and reduces the size of my groups, but it appears to the uninitiated that I've got something with a 80 caliber maw on it. It's intimidating visually, but I've never used it as a home defense weapon.

I mentioned in a previous thread that I actually had a home invasion once. I was buck naked on the bed when they showed up. All I had at the time was a claw hammer from my tool belt. I backed them down the stairs and out the door.

Mention this to your newbie friends: Besides a firearm, stock your house with lethal tools. Every room should have a claw hammer or a baseball bat or a machete or a crow bar. This comes from my Israeli buddy who had to fight her way to her UZI one day when the Palestinians tried to raid their settlement. Everywhere you go in the house, there should be something somewhere out of the way, but easy to reach. Keep backing up, room to room, until you can grab one of these tools and then come at them with all you've got. As soon as my friend told me this, I went up to the dollar store and bought a bucket of cheap claw hammers.

My buddy, Bob, had a high-end brain surgeon for a cousin. Bob was a gun writer, so the surgeon asked Bob what his choice was for a self-defense gun. Without hesitation, Bob said a Ruger SP101. A few months later, the surgeon had a home invasion and popped she popped the perp with the SP101.

When it came time to buy a pistol for KYHillChick, I knew Bob would give similar advice. KYHillChick carries an SP101. At home, it never leaves her side.

Me? I'm a 12 GA guy. I've got a Rem 1100 with a deer barrel by the bed. I'd reach for it before the Ruger P90 (45 ACP) that's also close by. The first round is #6 birdshot. The next round is #4 buck. It gets progressively bigger. The last round is deer slug.

For a beginner? I personally think an AR is a bit daunting for a newbie. I've got an SKS at the farm because I might want to reach out a bit further. Son #2, Moose has a nice Ruger Mini-30 that he got from Bob's estate. That is an excellent piece of work. Personally I think both the SKS and the Mini-14 and Mini-30 are easier for beginners to grasp.

10/22? I'm not a big fan of 22 for self-defense. Yes, you may drop them. There are plenty of instances where it has happened like that. I'd be scared of the 22 not getting the job done fast enough. I've got a 30-Carbine flash hider on mine. It's there to as a damper and reduces the size of my groups, but it appears to the uninitiated that I've got something with a 80 caliber maw on it. It's intimidating visually, but I've never used it as a home defense weapon.

I mentioned in a previous thread that I actually had a home invasion once. I was buck naked on the bed when they showed up. All I had at the time was a claw hammer from my tool belt. I backed them down the stairs and out the door.

Mention this to your newbie friends: Besides a firearm, stock your house with lethal tools. Every room should have a claw hammer or a baseball bat or a machete or a crow bar. This comes from my Israeli buddy who had to fight her way to her UZI one day when the Palestinians tried to raid their settlement. Everywhere you go in the house, there should be something somewhere out of the way, but easy to reach. Keep backing up, room to room, until you can grab one of these tools and then come at them with all you've got. As soon as my friend told me this, I went up to the dollar store and bought a bucket of cheap claw hammers.

For you and me, perhaps. Will a novice maintain them in a serviceable condition? Will they, at the worst possible moment, drop out the magazine when they meant to release the bolt?

Much better to give them a good, four inch, K-Frame, double-action-only revolver, stoked with premium .38 Special, and an external-hammer side-by-side 12 gauge, stoked with turkey loads. Someone breaks in, and they stuff the K-Frame in their pocket, grab the shotgun and cock the hammers. Nothing safer and simpler, and more than effective enough at room distances.

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This makes about as much sense as the rest of your posts.

Bless your heart! I forgot you were back. I guess I'll have to start telling the jokes slower again.

Write soon. Write often.

You can start by explaining why you begin with a #6 and work your way to a slug.

I'd also love to know why a novice shooter would find the Mini-14 simple, and an AR daunting.

An explanation of how you developed your Blunderbuss theory would be great as well.

Thanks in advance.

People don't use spreader chokes, therefore, at close range #6 behaves like a slug. A fellow on another board scored an Ithaca 37 at closeout price of $499. This had fully rifled barrel, rifle sights with hi-viz inserts and long one piece magazine tube (I think it held 7). Choice of rifled barrel for HD isn't as stupid as it appears because there are several slugs for HD. The Federal Truball and Truball penetrators (those are 1300fps load not the insane ones loaded to 1600fps), Winchester BRI 2&3/4" and Lightfield Light slugs. The plain 1300fps Truball is preferred because it has least recoil, muzzle blast and flash. The Lightfield Lights tend to be most accurate but have most recoil and flash of the ones I mentioned. The Winchester loads does not kick hard but has lot of muzzle flash when shot indoors.

Can you try again please?

I don't speak Polak.

You can start by explaining why you begin with a #6 and work your way to a slug.

I'd also love to know why a novice shooter would find the Mini-14 simple, and an AR daunting.

An explanation of how you developed your Blunderbuss theory would be great as well.

Thanks in advance.

I think we covered all this in a previous disagreement. It really doesn't serve much use to go around about it again. I'm not trying to change your mind, so let's leave it at that.

Having dealt with several novices before, I just notice that AR's seem to appear overly complicated and daunting to the uninitiated. However, SKS, M1 Carbine, and Mini-14-type designs seem to make them more comfortable. My wife had all kinds of trouble relating to AR's and AK's, but I put a MIni-14 in her hands and it suddenly became "HERS!" I'm not going to defend it; I'm just making an observation. As a somewhat similar aside, my sons have a 20-something friend that just bought his own first weapon as a result of all the hoo-haw. It was an SKS. He paid $700 for it. My sons were a bit aghast, since it probably had a $350 street value. Don't ask me to defend that choice. He made it, and he was damn proud of it. It just felt "Right" to him.

I'm not familiar with the blunderbuss. I've shot one-- that's about it. I don't have any real experience with one.

I guess my real feelings on the matter is, a novice shouldn't be using firearms for protection.

If you're going to buy a firearm for protection you need to go to the local shooting range and burn powder until you learn how to use it,..and not be a novice any longer.

It's not difficult to learn to use a firearm well enough to defend yourself with it.