Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Your ideal home defense handgun

DocRocket I think we'd get along. In answer to the original question the first one within reach is a (drumrollllllllllll) Glock 23 with 14 Silvertip 155's. Next to it is a handy dandy hi-lume flashlight. Blind em or blast em depending on circumstance. As one who has drunk the polymer kool-aid I can't imagine a better handgun for in the house conflict than a hi-cap Glock; simplicity of operation, reliability, recoil control, lots of effective caliber rounds if required. With it and God's Will I can fight my way to the shotgun.

Kevin, No handgun is ideal for home defense IMO.
This Ithaca is the gun that has never seen the inside of the gun safe. No criminal in his right mind is going to stick around when this 18" barrel is belching fire and brimstone!
If I run out of shells, I can beat them with it.
whelennut

G21, 2 mags, XS 24/7 sights, 200 Lumen Surefire beside it.


270

Mine is a S&W 5906 with a crimson trace laser site next is a S&W 642CT 38 special,Ruger SP101 32 H&R mag with crimson trace.Get the idea OLD EYES

We keep the wife's Glock 17 in the nightstand with a Surefire light attached. We both know that the chamber is empty and we practice getting it out of the drawer in the dark and racking the slide. Since it is her match gun she shoots it better than me.

I dunno if it is my ideal, but what I'm using is an H&K P7M13 w/ spare mag and a 3" Colt Detective Special as a back-up. There is a commonality with my CCW P7 PSP and 2" Colt DS. Both point naturally enough that the sights are close to being on target without my having to think about it.

My Ruger 2 3/4" Speed Six has been next to my bed the longest. Also handy is my S&W 4566 or my Ruger SR9. Plan on getting my wife some CT's for her gun to up her confidence. She likes her Taurus 85, but also has an SP101 in another room.

There's nothing wrong with that. I dont agree with you, but we all make our own decisions on what's best for our situations, and in my situation a handgun makes the most sense. Obviously in your situation a handgun doesn't make sens. (btw - you have very good taste in defensive shotguns) This is a handgun forum, and this is a handgun specific thread. It wasn't meant to say that only handguns are right for home defense or anything like that. It's simply a thread about what HANDGUN you think is ideal for home defense. If your answer is none, then that's a very valid answer.

I do truely love my Glocks for the purpose intended (CCW) however at my age nowdays and hearing loss to boot, not to mention I don't just roll out of the sack near as fast as when I was 30 years younger, I'll put my money on the 12ga. pump shotgun at the side of my bed. It now has a set of night sights on the gun........got rid of the ghost rings.

I figure I won't have time to put my pants on, and shoving a pistol down the front of my BVD's is not going to happen anytime soon. I'll be lucky to get time to put my glasses on I hope! I suppose everybody has to figure out what is best for them but eyesight plays a big part of hitting the target and Preps just don't stand up and shout "here I am, shoot me" I figure the 12ga gives me a small edge or evens the odds.

You could leave a belt with holster and mag holders by the bed. No pants necessary and leaves the hands free. Not saying I have tried this but have considered it for the same reason. Yes, you will look funny. But if someone laughs you can shoot them.

Or you could take a quote from one of my favorite movies,(full metal jacket) and start singing "this is my rifle, this is my gun."

I would most likely be in the same situation. Buck naked wearing nothing but a shotgun.

that's funny right there. scary to a bad guy, but funny as heck.

Same as my primary carry gun: 1911 with 230 Fed HS's or Speer 200 GD's.

2nd choice is also my secondary carry gun: a G27, 40 S&W with 155 WW Ranger HP's or Fed 155 HST's

MM

I keep a couple of Smith .38's ready to go, both loaded with +p 158 grain LSWCHP. A 3" model 10 and a 3" model 36 (wifes gun).

I also employ a Smith 629 .44 mag mountain gun loaded with .44 special LSWCHP.

Like these big soft lead bullets-less likely to overpenetrate and the flash and noise is lower than other calibers/loads. Important to consider when using in the home.

If needed I can get to my other secured handguns fairly quick-keep a Glock 22 and Les Baer 1911 ready to go.

Kevin,
Years ago when I was going to gunsmith school in Denver I lived in a low income part of town in an apartment building.
One day some teenage girls came over and complained about a peeping tom. I got out a 12 gauge double barrel "Coach Gun"
and slowly walked around their building holding the shotgun like I was hunting for rabbits. They never had any problems after that?
I sold that one and got the Ithaca pump for two reasons, first it has a greater magazine capacity, and second when you rack a 12 gauge every criminal wants to get small.
People need to know that there are two kinds of people who come into your home.
1) The kind who want to make sure you are not home so that they can come in and take whatever they want undisturbed.

2) The kind that wants you to be home so they can either beat you up, rape family members, or kill you for whatever reason they may have whether it is revenge or insanity or whatever.

The category #1 people don't concern me much. The category #2 people make me want a shotgun with a pistol for backup. I don't want the pistol for my primary weapon. It is for a last resort, self defense, close range scenario. I don't care if it is accurate at 100 yards. I want something that starts with .4
I don't want it to be inexpensive because my life could depend on it being powerful and reliable. I don't care if it is accurate because it will be dark and at close range at a moving target. Either I will be moving or they will.


I want a big bullet that can break bone and penetrate to vital organs no matter what.

Priceless!!


People have come to call that a wives tale but I�m here to tell you, it works. Funny story �

I�m 16 years old, and I�m a gun-geek even at 16; I just didn�t have very many guns. It�s the middle of the night, and my grandmother (raise by grandma) spirits into my room and wakes me up and says there�s someone breaking into the house. I wake up in time to hear the front door open as the crook defeats our laughable excuse for a �lock�. Now at age 16 the one thing I could afford to collect was ammunition, and at any time, there is ammo on every counter, surface, shelf, under my bed, etc. I grab my grandfathers old JC Higgins Model 20 shotgun and start searching my room for ammunition and I�m not finding anything; I�m starting to get really nervous. So remembering that racking the slide of a shotgun is universal language for get the %$&# out of my house, I swing my door open, and call out something like �I know you�re in my house, (slide rack as hard and loud as I can), I have a shotgun, if I see you, I�ll shoot you� Sure enough, I hear the front door open and close before the echo of my voice died away (apparently this crook fell into category #1). Not trusting to good nature, I continued to fumble around looking for ammo, and find a single shotgun shell on the bottom shelf of my bookshelf. Load it into the gun and began searching my house (hey, I was 16, what do you want?). And predictably, the crook had fled the scene. I secured the door, we went back to bed, this time with the loaded shotgun right next to my bed. The next day I unloaded my shotgun to discover the round I had put into my gun was a Vietnam era flechette round with 34 case hardened, fin stabilized arrows inside it. I�m pretty sure I was in violation of a few laws just having it in my collection; I�m even more sure it would have been very frowned upon (in California no less) to shoot someone with such a round.

Learned a long list of lessons that day; thank God no one had to get hurt.

Here are some Minnesota women who fear not the Category 2 people!
whelennut

In the Corps we had 105 Howitzer rounds loaded with those things that they used for direct fire, perimeter, final-protective-fire (FPF) in case you were being over run. The only time that I saw them shot was at Quantico during the Basic School---they did an interlocking FPF with those against 50 or 60 silhouette targets---they obliterated the entire hillside---I can't imagine how ugly the wound would be coming out of a 12 ga. at bedroom distances!! Your grandmother would have some major redecorating to do!!

the cell phone is the ideal home defense weapon, should you hear an intruder a quick call to 911 and yelling out loudly "I have the police on the line" is all you need to know..... all this gun talk and stuff could get a person killed or worse.....

9mm semi auto. Mostly nostalgia because it was my dad's choice when I was a young pup. You see, the Watts riots were going on back then and he had to drive to work near there. But, I digress..

Inside my house, the longest shot would be 40 feet. With lots of family inside, a scattergun just would never do. My choice includes Hornady TAP ammo and a flashlight. I learned as a security guard to hold the flashlight away from my body because of a lights affinity to attract lead in the dark. I bet you all knew that already.

My 357 magnum would sound like a howitzer going off indoors and my S&W 1917 only holds 6 rounds. 9mm & 3 mags... if that don't get 'er done, nothing will.