Rethinking the best home defense weapons: a look at the .22

[Midnitemo]

not everybody in my house would want to pick up a shotgun certainly not the elderly members or my partner so a .22 would be preferable and you can miss with a shotgun , tue cyl produces about 1 inch of spread per yard so your pattern at 15-20 yards is about 15-20 inches diameter

[Mortblanc]

Midnitemo, it appears that with your level of understanding you should stay away from anything that goes BOOM !

[Midnitemo]

so what bit is untrue?

[Midnitemo]

so what bit is untrue?

[NorthernRaider]

Providing it was multi shot compact say bullpup or short carbine I think I would prefer 22LR over a big unwieldy shotgun for home defence, a full sized shotgun is a large tool to handle indoors unless it was a 'shorty' or sawn off then its only got two or three rounds available, where as a carbine 22 could have up to 30 rounds easily available in one mag, hey ho we all have our own preference and justifications what ever rocks your boat eh?

[Midnitemo]

.22 hurts/can kill/does kill quite frequently in the USA is easier to shoot than a shotgun , is more wieldy than a shotgun(under UK rules) is loud indoors , 1 inch spread per per yard of distance on an open choke(roughly)the general public don't like the look of gun's and don't generally recognise them(here in the UK) I fail to see any of this is wrong/untrue....subjective maybe.

[NorthernRaider]

My wife would never be keen on using a 12 gauge, nor would my mum, so a 410 would be the only option and they are also limited in capacity, so again I would go for a compact semi auto 22LR . Naturally if any calibre was available I would go for 9mm in both pistol and carbine I've no desire to play Rambo.

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As I said before you only have to be lucky once with a 22LR, and with something like a 10/22 you can be lucky 30 times in about 6 seconds I respect everyones personal preferences they all have their own reasons to make their choices.

[Midnitemo]

I'm with NR if it were possible I would have any of the wonder 9's and a carbine or two to compliment them , Hi Power and MP5's by choice but any of the others would be fine. .22's and the"Cowboy Assault rifle" are sadly the only thing were likely to have to work with here in the UK

[Mortblanc]

Didn't think you believed in having guns NR ??

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You fellows gun knowledge is so bookish and rudimentary that it is not transferable into reality. It is made up of what you have read and not what you have done and means nothing in the real world.

Like having a shotgun with a spreading pattern and fearing a miss with a 15" pattern, so preferring a .22 so you will not miss with a single slug of less than 1/4" . Where's the sense in that?

Even if you catch the target on the edge and get two or three #00 pellets into it each of those pellets has more power than a .22lr bullet!

I suppose it does not really matter, since you do not have either item and probably will not acquire one of either type.

[Midnitemo]

I was just pointing out that you can miss with a shotgun and that you do still have to aim. just vaguely pointing a shotgun in the right direction and squeezing a round off isn't a guaranteed hit , if my life depended on it in CQB situation I'd pick up a shotgun before a .22 almost everytime , 00 buck is rare in this country as it has no use other than PSG competition's which is a very small niche perhaps only several hundred maybe as many as a 1000 shooters tops in the UK , we cant use it on deer , if you want to buy 00 buck you usually have to order it as it's rarely a stock item. so your shotgunner is more likely to be using no5 shot or smaller so tagging somebody with a few pellets because your aim was off isn't likely to be as effective as a well placed .22 round.

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the smallest mag's in .22 semi auto's are usually 10 or more capacity and from my experience my .22lr rifle barely moves of point of aim when fired even with the so called hyper velocity rounds so a second , third or fourth follow up shot in very quick succession would not be unreasonable.