Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Home Defense AR Question

You should shoot one from a bench and report your findings.

But bad guys piss themselves and hightail it out of Dodge at the sound of a shotgun racking.

In my bedroom is a 16” AR loaded with 77 gr SMK’s, an Aimpoint red dot ready to go, a Benelli 21” M1 Super 90 loaded with #4 buck, an M&P45 with a light loaded with 230 gr HST and a G19 loaded with 124 Gold dots, also has a light.

The two occasions I’ve had to grab a gun and search out the “noise” I’ve grabbed my 45. If I was going to stay in my bedroom and make a stand I’d grab the AR.

I’ve known of 2 shootings with a shotgun, one from a front yard to the porch, the other across a kitchen table. Both birdshot and both very fatal. But you pick the best tool for the job.

The spare magazine is loaded with No. 4 Bird Shot, for a quick change-out. Maybe they should be reversed.



As with TRW, other assets are kept available, at the ready.

TRW’s choice of shot size shows considerable thought. In a 12 Gauge, No. 4 Buck is preferable to 00 for this use, in my view.

Handgun ,shotgun as a backup.

Same here. IF you in the house, you a problem.

Benelli Nova Tactical with strobe attached. S&W M&P 9mm in bed holster. Wife has a Ruger LCR w/38+P loaded.

As far as damaging your target goes, a shotgun is amazing at close range; say house distance. When I was a teen my friends and I were a threat to seek out inanimate targets if the doves weren’t flying or the squirrels weren’t showing. I can tell you a certain Sweet Sixteen, modified choke, and 6, 7 1/2, or 8 shot will cut down a 4” pine sapling at a surprising distance. At 20’ or so I don’t think a man would walk away with any torso shot. YMMV

Keep a fn 509 tactical 9mm at bedside as well as a 11.5” 556 with dead air sandman s with Holosun red dot. 55g vmax in a surefire 60 round mag. 24+1 and 60+1

Where I come from being in someone else’s house is more than enough intent to get you smoked legally and on the spot. No DA would bat a eye at it either.

No obligation to retreat. Castle doctrine

And they don't run from the sounds of a falling AR BCG??

I leave Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns playing on the tv every night, so that intruders will recognize the four clicks of my peacemaker.

Not so, here in America. We apply the Castle Doctrine.

Good points but how much applied to average homeowners in their homes? We're not shooting up the neighborhood. We have no immunity and are liable for damages. Nevermind a neighbor down range.

A crook would be welcome to escape with my tv, if I had one, if it meant I didn't have to patch up the walls, paint and replace siding.

Shotgun tip: the edge of the pattern is effective. At short range, put the edge ob the leading half of the rabbits head to avoid ruining the part you eat.

Frangible 5.56 will stop any threat in the house without shooting up the neighborhood.

Shotguns are betting on one or two intruders, who are hit amd incapacitated while you reload.

And, if the intruders have ARs or AKs, they can retreat out of your range and still fire on you with effect.

Point being, shotgun for urban? Maybe. If you live in a nice urban neighborhood where the home intruders promise to come in groups not more than two.

Rifle or carbine for suburban? Probably.

Rifle or carbine for farm and ranch? A certainty.

A gunfight must be won to worry about the next gunfight, so having a carbine in the safe downstairs and a pistol in the bedroom doesn’t make sense to me either.

This question of capacity...how many times do we get to miss and still survive?

My practice range only has three target stands. As I said before I like the idea of a bullpup with 40gr VMax. I don't see me learning it as well as a lifetime of hunting has trained me with a shotgun.

Around here, it's usually at least 3 guys with guns who kick the door in the middle of the night, which suggests having way more than 6 or 7 shots available.

As far as shotguns, I watched a guy pattern a Benelli M4 a few years ago, at about 30 yards, with 00 buck. The pattern was only about 6 inches, so "scattergun" did not apply. YMMV, of course depending on gun, chokes, and loads. So you'd still have to aim it roughly as well as a rifle, under duress. More recoil & fewer shots on board. So, I keep an AR handy.

One of these days I might get a bullpup shotgun perhaps a Tavor or similar, which helps the ergos.

There just isn't any well reasoned compelling argument to choose a shotgun over an AR carbine for self defense. Be it in the home, around a homestead farm/ranch or in a much bigger area outdoors the carbine wins on all fronts from 30' - 300+ yards. And I say that as a shotgun guy. I grew up with shotguns and have hunted a lot of game with shotguns and shot a good bit of clay's on the skeet and sporting clays range near me. Small game, wingshooting, turkey, deer and hogs and a heck of a lot of called coyotes, bobcats and fox. In certain predator calling circles I have a reputation as the guy who years ago started getting real serious about finding the ultimate shotgun, choke and load combinations for calling coyotes. I am about to retire from a 32 year law enforcement career that has shoved me into a few scenarios in which shotguns played an immediate role in my survival. I have seen the results of what a shotgun can do in a gunfight. I used an issue 870P to defend myself and a partner officer when ambushed by a whacked out meth head. It worked - decisively. I have investigated shootings involving shotguns, trained with, qualified with and been issued shotguns for a very long time now. I have a long interest in shotguns and currently have both a personally owned 870P pump and a Benelli M1 Tactical that I am not getting rid of for any reasons. With all that said I no longer rely on a shotgun as a primary long gun for self defense. AR carbines have taken over that role. The AR carbine checks all the boxes and just makes more sense all things equal.

“Just go out on the porch and fire two blasts into the air from your shotgun”. Seems like I heard that suggested by someone, somewhere.