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For those leaning towards the .223 instead of 12-gauge.
There's mention of the magazine size being bigger on the AR-15 which is true but have you considered this?
Most .223 ammo has 55-grain bullets.
Most 12-gauge 00-buck has 9 balls (15 balls in 3" shells), each weighing about 60 grains.
When you pull the trigger once on the 12-gauge, you've effectively let out the equivalent of 9-15 shots compared to the .223 ammo although the speed is slower on the 12-gauge.
At 15 feet (which is what I'd consider normal for an in-the-house shot), unless you put your .223 directly through the heart or brain, that intruder is still likely to be standing after the first shot. Shooting twice is silly. You put those 60-grain, 9 at a time balls into someone's center mass in the same second, you can be pretty sure they going to be down.
Hmm, no one mentioned yet that the sound of racking a shotgun sends intruders fleeing?
You shouldn't be "racking" any firearm when actually faced with an intruder. Your firearm should already be fully loaded when you lay your hand on it--you don't know that you'll have time (or remember) to load an empty chamber in the moment of crisis. You certainly shouldn't wait until the time you think he's listening.
And of course, "racking" a loaded chamber just wastes a round.
I personally use a handgun (two, actually, ready at bedside or at my desk).
In every situation, the most overwhelming probability is that the violence of the situation is more likely to cause me to miss the target (or be faced with multiple targets) than any other factor, and those misses are likely to be by more than three or four inches. In all the shooting situations I've reviewed, missing the target completely happens more often per trigger pull than any other factor by a vast margin. In police shootings, typically five or more rounds are fired and only one or two ever strike anyone.
Backstop penetration is a concern, but surviving the moment is the primary consideration. The most critical factor appears to be having enough ammunition in the gun. The second most critical factor appears to be the speed at which one can get the gun back on the intended target after each shot.
Last edited by Ralph_Kirk; 08-09-2016 at 09:38 AM..
Glock 23 for me. I can carry it on me all day long and put it on my nightstand when I go to bed. I can also take it on trips more easily. And it was on a trip that I used it to stop two thugs from breaking into my motel room. If there is a civil unrest situation, then both the AR and the Mossberg will also be at the ready.
Well, I said that in a tongue in cheek way because that's what is usually said early on in threads like these. It works on movies I suppose. Besides, I can't "rack" my double anyway. It is a coach gun and is perfect for swinging around tight corners.
Actually, if you don't have a pump shotgun, they make an app for your smart phone that makes that noise.
Not real protection, but in a dark house if you don't have a weapon, that noise would probably get rid of an intruder anyway.
When we hear a noise in the night at our house, it's always the handguns that we reach for. I personally don't like shotguns. My husband does, but he still grabs his Glock 22. It's what he's carried and practiced with for years.
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