What follows is my take on this particular religious war.
When it comes to defending your home, there are many things you can do. Exterior lights (cockroaches don’t like light), dogs, alarm systems (and using them), keeping your doors and windows locked, trimming back the bushes from exterior windows, and things like that. All of these things are good things to do and add to your layer of home security. I would also say that a firearm of some sort is another layer.
When people think of home defense firearms, what typically comes to mind is a shotgun. When I first thought about a home defense firearm a 12 gauge with 00 buckshot was the direction I headed. But recently I’ve encountered some thinking that has changed my mind, and while a 12 gauge is still part of my home defense battery, it’s no longer my go-to gun.
I believe it started when I read this post in Tam’s blog (if not that specific post, certainly one with a similar ending: that she opts to hole up with a carbine). If you read Tam’s blog you know she knows a couple things about guns, so that her choice of home gun went against the popular grain intrigued me.
Much of my firearms training occurs locally with KR Training. I’ve been working my way through the offered courses and some months ago the Defensive Long Gun class was put on the schedule. If you read that page you’ll see while the class is oriented towards the defensive use of any long gun, there’s certainly a preference towards a rifle. Here’s a reprinting of the relevant section:
Why a rifle instead of a shotgun for home defense?
- Shorter. 16″ barrel legal for rifle vs 18″ barrel for shotgun. Manipulation of a long gun indoors around furniture and people, while keeping the muzzle in a safe direction but also being able to quickly bring it up and on target, is more difficult as the barrel length increases.
- Capacity. Most semiauto rifles and pistol caliber carbines hold at least 10 rounds. Most practical length shotguns hold 5-10 shells. While most home defensive shootings require few rounds, reloading a shotgun is signficantly slower than reloading a magazine fed semiauto rifle or pistol caliber carbine.
- Less recoil. 12 ga shotgun w/ buckshot loads have equal or greater recoil than a big-game rifle. By comparison a pistol caliber carbine or medium power rifle (.223, 7.62, .30-30) is easier on the shooter which makes accurate shooting easier. Often the “family long gun” is something that any family member could use if needed, but typically most family members are not as enthusiastic about shooting or as comfortable with recoil as the primary gun owner. Choosing a “family long gun” that’s easier and more comfortable to shoot increases the chances they will enjoy shooting the gun and become more skilled in its use. If a shotgun is preferred, a semiauto shotgun such as the Remington 1187 has significantly less recoil than a pump shotgun.
- Faster shot recovery. See “less recoil”. It is unrealistic to expect that a single hit from any firearm will cause an ‘immediate stop’. Since multiple shots will likely be required, follow up shot speed matters.
- Simplicity in operation. Manually operated long guns (pump and lever action) require the user to remember to manually cycle the action between shots; with a semiauto all that’s required is to continue pulling the trigger until the fight is over. While this may not be a concern for the primary gun user, the less trained family member using the gun under life-threatening stress may find this a problem. Even in the hands of an experienced shooter, manually cycling the gun’s action takes time and can be done improperly, causing a malfunction. Clearing malfunctions with manually operated long guns is more complex and slower than malfunction clearing with semiauto long guns, particularly semiauto rifles.
- Simplicity in ammo selection. With a rifle there’s no need to have 3 different types of ammo (birdshot, buckshot and slugs) and try to switch between them as shot distances changes. Changing ammo requires on-the-fly target distance estimation, decision making and time to manipulate the shotgun.
- Ease of precision shot placement. The most complex situation is one in which a family member or other person is between the shooter and the threat, in the line of fire. With a rifle, precise shot placement is much simpler. With a shotgun, the shooter must know the exact relationship between visual alignment of the gun and the center of the shot pattern, and be able to estimate the shot pattern size at the target’s estimated range in order to determine whether the person in the line of fire might be hit.
- Less sensitive to dominant eye issues. Shotguns shoot instinctively unless the shooter has a dominant eye opposite the dominant hand. Then shotgunning is more difficult. Rifle – particularly scoped rifle – is less dependent on eye-hand dominance being on the same side.
- Penetration concerns. Shotguns are often favored over rifles because of concerns that shotgun pellets are less likely to overpenetrate and are more likely to be stopped by walls and other inanimate objects. Some studies and reports (1, 2, 3, others available online) indicate that the shotgun’s reputation for “low penetration” is exaggerated and that there are penetration concerns regardless of what ammunition is used.
On top of that, when I inquired which long gun to use for the course, shotgun or rifle, this is the response I received:
You bring both and use both during the course. It will be painfully obvious during the drills where the shotgun works better and where the AR will work better. Anytime we start putting “no shoot” targets up that you have to shoot around, or any target past 15 yards, the AR is the better choice. When it’s one big close target right in front of you, the shotgun works great.
And one final bit from my instructor, that he posted to a mailing list.
Shotguns were originally designed for shooting small flying things, not for personal defense. People have figured out how to use them for personal defense, but from a pure engineering standpoint, the shotgun is a kludge, not a tool designed for the home defense task. I ask the hunters how well they know their pattern size and relationship between point of aim and pattern distribution at 7 yards with their home defense load, then ask if they’d be willing to put one of their children downrange and shoot around the child to hit a paper “shoot” target simulating a bad guy that’s in their house near their child.
The modern M4 rifle is specifically configured for confronting armed “bad guys” in buildings and crowded urban areas where there are lots of “no shoots”. This is the same “mission” that patrol cops and home defenders have.
One fantastic website is The Box O’ Truth. If you’ve never seen this website, make the time to go through everything on there. There are some “bits of truth” that are relevant to this discussion:
- The Box O’ Truth #3 – Shows that shotgun loads don’t necessarily penetrate walls worse than handgun or rifle rounds.
- The Box O’ Truth #14 – More about round penetration through walls, and with rifle rounds.
- The Box O’ Truth #20 – Shotgun patterning. Check out the spread, and those distances aren’t that far. Remember, you have to account for every bullet fired, and that means every pellet of shot must be accounted for.
- The Box O’ Truth #22 – 20 gauge isn’t that bad.
- The Box O’ Truth #42 – This is a very telling one. For me the take home is beyond a few yards the pattern is rather wide and if “no shoots” have to be involved, it makes precision shooting difficult.
- The Box O’ Truth #43 – Shooting buckshot out a shotgun with a rifled barrel. Stick with smooth bores for home defense. (Updated)
- The Box O’ Truth #83 – Fighting with a shotgun. A lot of good information here.
This past weekend I attended the Defensive Long Gun class at KR Training. Very educational, time well spent. And as alluded to earlier, you go through the exercises and it becomes sorely evident where the shotgun and where the rifle have their strengths and their weaknesses. You can experience it first hand, and it really brings to light the importance of truly knowing your weapon, whatever you choose.
By no means is a shotgun an ineffective tool; it’s just like any tool: you have to know where and how to use it, strengths, weaknesses, and practice with it a great deal so you can know it and deploy it effectively. I still have shotguns as a part of my home defense battery, tho on the ones where I can change the choke to something tighter I did. So what is my go-to gun for home defense? These days it’s my AR-15 loaded with Hornady TAP FPD.
There’s a lot more to home defense than picking some firearm and hoping for the best. You have to pick what works for you in your context and situation. Get training, practice, and be prepared.
Updated: I was adding more material to this and the post was getting long, so I opted to break it up into parts.
Go to “On a home defense tool – part 2“.
Stuff From Hsoi 
The choice of a firearm for any purpose; competition, hunting, home defense, etc. is a very personal choice. As long as some degree of thought went into the decision I won’t fault anyone their ultimate choice. Even “it just fits me better” is a perfectly legitimate reason in my mind. Now, with the disclaimer out of the way let me respond to some of the points you listed based on more than 25 years of gunhandling and 11 years of carrying firearms in harm’s way.
1) Shorter: Valid comments but youth sized stocks, collapsible stocks, and choosing a double, or break action shotgun will help make up the difference.
2)Capacity: My personal home defense load launches 20 .25 caliber projectiles with each pull of the trigger. (20ga #3 Buck). If you need to reload your shotgun in the middle of a home defense scenario, you don’t have a home invasion, you are probably fighting zombies or mall ninjas. In addition, the manual of arms for reloading most shotguns is actually simpler than swapping magazines for the non-gun savvy. More gross motor skills and less fine manipulation.
3) Less recoil: Can’t argue with that although again with the proper gun, load, accessory selection you can make them reasonably close.
4)Faster shot recovery: Agreed that carbines will usually be faster.
5)Simplicity in operation: I consider this more of a training issue. The simplest manual of arms is for either a single or double barrel break open long arm. While not ideal, perfectly acceptable for many people.
6) Ammo Selection: Pure fantasy. Prudent shotgunners pick one load and stick to it. Even on the street, we load our shotguns with only one type. Some officers will carry different ammo with them in their patrol bag “just in case” but it is not on the gun, and not carried on the person.
7) Shot placement: No argument, although if you choose modern slugs, the accuracy is acceptable out to 35-40 yards. Further with specialty guns, but that is outside the scope of this article.
8)Eye dominance: Another training issue. Most non-shooters will instinctively try to line up their dominant eye with the sights, regardless of what type sights you have. As a firearm instructor I have seen people contort their heads, necks, and long guns into all sorts of pretzels looking for “their” alignment. I’m left handed and right eyed. I shoot handguns lefty, long guns and bows right handed.
9) Penetration: Ammo selection, knowing your zones of fire where you live, and…..ammo selection. By the way, for anyone who chooses a semi-auto .223, your chice of Hornady TAP rounds is great.
Let me be clear. I think a pistol caliber carbine is a great “family” gun. I’ll leave action type to another discussion. My personal choice is a 20 gauge double (but I always have a handgun backing that up). Obviously what works for me is not what I would recommend for most users. Your choice of an AR seems to work great for you. Excellent choice. I still think the AR platform is an enthusiast’s gun. Not the average “leave it in the corner and hope I never need it” home defense firearm. I applaud you on seeking out additional training to both improve and retain your skills.
In closing; don’t think I’m picking a fight. Most gun discussions will get more people riled up than talking politics. Just giving you my point of view. Carry what works for you and “Run what you Brung’. Stay Safe.
Jimspoor, thank you for your input.
Like I put at the top of the post, it’s my entry into the religious war. 🙂 IMHO there is no one right answer, because if there was we’d all be doing it. There are many situations, contexts, parameters that have to be considered and in the end, it’s a personal choice.
With that, let me respond to your response. Note that those 9 points are not MY reasons, but a reprint from the KR Training website. That said, I do find merit in the listed reasons.
1. Indeed. Barrel is not the only thing to consider. It’s probably more accurate to say that one should consider the overall length, and certainly stock and other aspects of the firearm’s construction enter into that equation (e.g. a bullpup). However, there’s no getting around the legal barrel length restrictions, and all other things being equal, the rifle does have a 2″ legal advantage.
2. If I can take larger capacity, I will. There’s no telling what the situation will be like, and if it’s 3 AM and I’m in my underwear, all the ammo I’ll have is what’s on the gun. So it’s an argument with shotguns for things like ammo side-saddles, extended magazine tubes, and so on. But you hit on a key point: one’s ability. If you’re not that savvy, you’d probably want something simpler to operate. If you’re someone that practices religiously, it’s a different situation. So again, there’s no one right answer… many factors to consider.
3. For most home defense situations, encounters are generally going to be 3-25 yards. You don’t need magnum buckshot at those distances. Things like reduced recoil loads are perfectly fine and probably a better choice for this context.
4. And to build upon what you said in point 3, if you can get less recoil and thus can manage the recoil better, you’ll gain in shot recovery.
5. Yup. A break-open is simple. I personally don’t care for it due to capacity issues.
6. I think this is a matter of one’s approach to the matter and what you think you’ll be up against. IMHO, the pattern of buckshot at 25 yards is just too big (even 15 yards it’s getting kinda big). Take a look at the link to The Box O’ Truth #20. At 20 yards his patterns were from 9″ to 17″. Even the 9″ feels a little much for me, if you’re wanting to get all your pellets in the A-Zone (so to speak). If all your pellets don’t hit the target… where do they hit? And you’re responsible for them. I personally just don’t feel comfortable with that. However, it also demonstrates that there’s a lot of homework to be done when you select your tools: different ammo performs differently, and choke pattern certainly matters too. You’ve got to spend the time and the money to try out the loads in the shotgun you intend to use and pattern them at different ranges and see what works right and best. Like you said, pick one load and stick with it… just do your homework and make sure it’s and educated pick (i.e. don’t just pick what’s on the shelf and say “good enough”). I think we agree there.
7. Yup. But now we’re into the issues of ammo, which were alluded to in points 2 and especially 6. So, are you going to pick slugs and stick to that one ammo? Or are you going to have to switch to slugs if you need that accuracy, then the issues of reloading, carrying extra ammo, etc..
8. I think one common thing that weaves through all of this, and we both agree upon, is the importance and need for training. That doesn’t mean you just take your guns out to the range and throw lead downrange. It means seeking instruction, even if you have to travel for it, and really learning. Even if you’ve shot guns all your life but had no formal training, if you start with formal training take the basic classes… sure they might be a bit boring, but they also should help to ensure that your foundations are correct and solid (perhaps correcting bad form or mistakes you’ve made for years). So no question, training is really they key thing. The tools/hardware are the easiest and least important thing really.. it’s the software (your gray matter) and your skills that matter far far more.
9. Best I can say here is The Box O’ Truth has been great. There are also lots of other great things online showing ballistics gel results, formal tests, informal tests. The Internet is great for that and evaluating ammo performance.
You’re right that an AR wouldn’t be a gun to get and leave in the corner… it’s just too expensive for that. 🙂 But that’s a great thing about a shotgun, especially a pump shotgun — you can buy them used pretty inexpensively, and given their simple construction they can be somewhat ignored and still perform when called upon. But I think we both agree that letting any firearm sit in the corner isn’t good — you should be practicing with it! 🙂
Anyway, thank you for your input. It shows that there’s a lot of information out there and there’s no one right answer. Everyone has to do some homework and discover what is best and right for them, even if it means changing your mind down the line because you’ve learned more.
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