If a picture is worth a thousand words then here is my thousand words.......




Note the surrounding area notice the saturation and penetration of stray pellets.... One of those strays in the heart will kill you.......


5-10 feet with sawed off shot gun




Same gun at 28 feet

 

You could alwasy buy this barrel for your shot gun....



$250 in steel
$450 in carbon fiber.

http://www.housegun.com/

If I was looking down that I would be scared no matter how high I was.......



Even at point blank range that would absolutely cover the body with pellets from head to toe!

 

BTW on this picture....



The site those came from didnt say what shot size that was, but just guessing, by the size of the wounds from the strays and accounting for the flesh burning as they enetered..... I'd guess that to be #5 shot, maybe smaller but no smaller than #6 shot. You can also tell by the number of strays but they do say that is actually 2 shots on top of each other.

 

Who lied to you? A 9mm is just under twice the diameter of the .223 (5.56mm) and traveling at three times the speed.

Comparing the two.
.223 in a Remington UMC FMJ 45gr
Muzzle vel (fps): 3550
Energy (ft-lb): 1259

9mm in a Remington UMC 115gr
Muzzle vel (fps): 1155
Energy (ft-lb): 341

So how in the world can the 9mm with twice the hole diameter to punch but with three times less energy out penetrate the .223? If you have found a way to do this call me and we can go into business changing the laws of physics as we see fit.

 

Light bullets, most notably the 55gr M193 loading in 5.56 or something similar, has a tendency to fragment and fly apart when hitting media like drywall or bricks.

 

That hole was probably punched by the shot cup and the muzzle blast more than the pellets.

Regardless of the gory photos, I still say birdshot's for knocking little birds out of the sky. I keep my house gun stoked with Remington Express 00 buck.

 

I agree they dont show the surrounding area in that shot.

I personally wouldn't want to get hit with bird shot or buck shot........ I'm sure either could put a crimp in my ability to continue to live. I like bird shot cause I have aot of it...... and 100xs the chance of hitting vitals.

Although throwing 3 or 4, 8.41 mm hunks of lead at them is effective too. It's like having a 3 burst on a 9mm only with more knock down!

 

I think alot of people need to stop watching CSI! I just had to look at what new b$^^ S&#$ is going on. Oh My God!

 

A youth model 20ga is a good choice. Light and compact, you can bring it up and move alot faster than an adult size 12 ga. Not as much hitting power, but with a heavy load more than enough to stop anything at close range.

 

I would second the advice find a good place to barricade yourself and call the police. As mentioned by others trying to clear your house by yourself is a bad thing. If you sit still in, say a closet, with your weapon of choice pointed in the direction of the door you are in a darkened area so you target should be backlit giving a good silhouette. You should also have some sort of flashlight, turn it on just before you shoot to identify your target.

It sounds like your mostly concerned with drug users. Pepper spray is normally not going to be very effective against those who have used drugs that result in a numbing sensation. Personally for home defense I like shotguns. With the people you are concerned about you want to make a very big hole. If the person is on one of the drugs that seem to result in "super human" strength or pain tolerance the only option is to have them bleed out. After emptying a shotgun on the intruder you still have a rather decent club to defend yourself. A pistol isn't as good a club if it gets to that. You only have to stay alive for a few minutes, if you've called the police.

As far as the mental repercussions go, if you use the firearm as a last resort as intended it helps to lessen the mental stress you will feel. You will be able to justify to yourself and the court that the person was there to do you harm.

After writing all of that I have a war story to relate. I had a friend who lived in an area rife with drugs. He also owned a Pit Bull. Everywhere he went he'd take his dog with him. One day one of the drug dealers approached him and asked him to leave his dog at home, it was scarring away the customers. The dealer assured my friend that both him and his property would be protected from the thugs in the neighborhood.

 

Well I decided not to screw around with cutting down the barrel on my winchester 120 based on some good advice. I found a box of 3" magnum BB's and took out the wooden seven inch plug so I can load more rounds in it. I know I won't be heading out bird hunting with it now. I belive there is a pretty good size fine if caught hunting with the plug out. But I fell better knowing I have a few more rounds if needed. But then I feel that if It ever came down to having to use it on someone that comes into my house uninvited, I don't know how I'm going to react, What scares me the most is actually shooting someone. That split second reaction, will I have the ***** to do it. I'm going to get some prices on alarm systems for piece of mind.
In today's paper was an artical of a house that was broke into two blocks from me. No one was at home at the time and what amazes me is the amount of stuff they took and not a person witnessed it. I just pray I can make the right decision when and if the time comes. I'm sure my wife thinks im paranoid. But I want to a least have a chance to survive if it happens. Thanks for all the information and advice, sure appreciate it.

 

I side with you wrench. About 2 months ago, my wife was home alone watching TV and she said the dog started barking and howling at the back door. Thinking it was just "normal", (hearing neighbor dogs bark, or some other animal outside) she went to go let the dog out, but for some reason she stopped and flipped on the light outside and peaked out the window. In the snow she saw footprints up to the door, and leading over to the side window, then very widely spaced footprints leading away from the side of the house (i.e. the punk was running away) That was enough to scare me into getting a gun for home defense. Make sure you know the rules as others have said. Most cases it seems that you need to do what you can to warn off the intruder, not shoot first ask later. Did some searching a while back and found this article http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl..._67717287/pg_1

 

Wrench:

Take a look at the link below. I recommend a 2 3/4" shell instead of 3" for muzzle blast control, flash and you might even be able to get one more round in the tube depending on the shotgun. Control of the gun is also important if it takes more than one shot.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...841&hasJS=true

I'm with Quintin, "00" buck will hurt you BAD!

 

First, dont think of it as "someone", intruders are something. It may look like a person but it's not, it's sub human, it's a visious animal there to get you.

But if you can not convince yourself of that, my dad always told me, never pull a weapon you dont intend on using. I dont care if it's a gun, knife, club, a pipe, a kitchen fork or a set of keys. I'm talking deep down you have to have 100% commitment, a burning desire deep in your soul to stop this thing, if not..... then do not pull a weapon.

 

What Is CSI? Never heard about it.