(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

This week we are going to discuss long guns for home and personal defense. There are many reasons why a person would choose a long gun instead of a handgun, the most obvious being that some locations have Draconian laws about the ownership of handguns by civilians. A strong second reason is that some long guns are nearly impossible for a child, too young to understand, to shoot. In a later installment we'll talk about the fact that it is very difficult to childproof a gun kept in a ready state but quite easy to gunproof a child who is strong - meaning old - enough to work the action.

There is a bewildering array of long guns. For simplicity's sake I shall lump them into three categories: full sized hunting and battle rifles, carbines shooting handgun rounds, and shotguns. Forget the full sized rifles for defense. Besides the fact that most (not all) full sized rifles are big and cumbersome and the scope sights that most wear are useless at inside-the-house or -store range, the bullets penetrate too much. No matter your religious beliefs, or lack thereof, you should know that there are evil spirits that possess any bullet that overpenetrates. That bullet will always shoot right through the bad guy and then the evil spirit takes over and sends the bullet through your single most expensive household item, the children's rooms, four walls, your neighbor's house, any handy baby carriages and a station wagon full of nuns before lodging in the Mayor's car.

The shotguns and carbines firing handgun rounds are, on the other hand very useful as home and store guns, each having some real advantages for us good guys, and gals.

We'll start with shotguns. The biggest single advantage to a shotgun as a defense weapon is the intimidation factor. The hole in the barrel is HUGE and very scary to look down. Since the very best possible outcome in a defense situation is the bad guy fainting at the sight of the homeowner licking his or her lips in happy anticipation of the carnage to come, and coming-to only when the police have him hooked up, this is no small advantage. If we survive a defense situation, we've won. If we survive without a shot being fired, we've WON BIG!

Shotguns come in single shot, double barrel, pump action and semiautomatic. All I can say about a single shot is that it's better than no gun at all.

When we get to the double barrels the possibilities start opening up. My home defense shotgun is an old fashioned short-barreled double barrel with exposed hammers. I've practiced reloading from the butt cuff full of five more shells so that I'm not at a disadvantage. After two shots of 12 gauge anybody that's not down is ducking, I've plenty of time to reload. The biggest advantage to a double barrel with exposed hammers is that it can sit for years, hammers down on loaded chambers with tape over the muzzles, covered in dust and cobwebs yet ready to go just by earring back those hammers. Another advantage is that the double barrel action is shorter than the semiautomatic or pump. My double is about five inches shorter than a pump with the same length, a real advantage in the house.

The disadvantage is the long practice required to reload fast enough if there are more than two bad guys. That's why most people prefer pumps or semis. Another disadvantage is that there is a learning curve on handling two different triggers. When I switched from a pump to a double I discovered that no matter how hard I pulled on that front trigger the second barrel still wouldn't shoot. It took a lot of practice to make the shift from front to back trigger automatic. The last disadvantage is that it's really hard to find an exposed-hammer double. To my knowledge only Norinco makes them anymore. I'm reluctant to recommend a gun made by virtual slave-laborers of the ChiCom government. Then again, slaves with something to do are better treated than slaves with nothing to do.

I don't like the idea of the internal-hammer doubles for defense, in order to be ready, the strikers have to be cocked over loaded chambers. That makes me nervous.

The autoloader has some advantages, most notably the softer recoil and the fact that we don't have to DO anything to be ready for the next shot. The normal magazine capacity is four or five shots although most shotguns have a wooden or plastic plug in the magazine limiting the capacity to three rounds, including one in the chamber. This is also true for pumps. This plug is easily removed and should be. The only reason the plug is there is because of federal laws on hunting waterfowl. There is a real good chance that we'll never have to defend our homes or businesses from armies of rampaging ducks. Watch out for the geese, though.

Still, check the local laws before throwing that plug away. I don't know all the laws everywhere. If you fall afoul of some local law I've never heard of, I'm afraid the 'Peter told me to defense' might not work.

The only disadvantage to the autoloaders is that most of them require adjustment when going from standard loads to magnum loads. This is more theoretical than real. The standard loads are plenty powerful enough.

The pump guns are what most people think of when the defensive or fighting shotgun is mentioned. Advantages include simplicity, comparatively low price, plenty of magazine capacity, and the ability to shoot any ammunition that is the right size. An advantage that many folks don't know about is that if the gun is cocked they can't work the action without either pulling the trigger or hitting the little action release button. This means that we can have a loaded magazine and an empty chamber and small children can't blow up the house. That's kind of nice.

There are many makes. You'll never go wrong with Winchester, Remington or Marlin.

Much is made of that intimidating ca-chunk sound of a round being chambered in a pump. Any sensible person will run away upon hearing this sound. Trouble is, sensible people don't commit many life-threatening crimes. Do yourself a favor. Get you behind something substantial before betting your life on this sound. It's fine when it works, awful when the bad guy pegs a couple of quick shots at the sound.

In the last few years there has been some real advances in ammunition for the defensive shotgun. Primarily due to increasing numbers of women and some smaller statured minority men in police forces, the ammunition companies have developed rounds that offer plenty of power at typical defensive ranges, yet lower recoil. These rounds are variously known as 'tactical', 'managed recoil' or 'low recoil' depending on the ammo company, but they all offer the same thing. They are standard buckshot or slug loads which travel at a somewhat lower velocity than the high speed hunting loads that we're used to.

The new buckshot loads are ideal for defense. The slug loads? Even the lower-recoil slug loads have too much penetration to use in the house. The slug is mainly used to penetrate car bodies or barricades. The instances where a civilian can shoot at a car are few and far between. The civilian shooting at a barricaded suspect is even rarer. The rural homeowner has a use for the slug loads, the urban or suburban homeowner can live quite well without them. Use your judgement.

In addition to a five shot butt cuff, I have a cheap cloth and elastic cartridge belt loaded with a variety of ammunition, including a few slug loads. They are not in the gun or butt cuff. If the bad guy is so far away or so well barricaded that slugs are indicated, well, I ought to have plenty of time to change ammo.

At typical inside-the-house ranges, the larger birdshot loads are quite effective, yet less destructive to the house in case of a miss. Many homeowners like the first round in their gun to be a duck load for that very reason and I can't fault the logic. If there is a chance that a warning shot will scare the bad guy off, the birdshot penetrates a lot fewer walls. If the bad guy is so close that a warning shot won't work, he's close enough that the tight pattern will be as effective as any other load.

There is another very interesting option available. An ammunition company named Sellier & Bellot that makes rubber buckshot and ball loads. At near-contact range, these loads are lethal. At across-the-room, the ball-loads will knock a guy down, but - unless we are real unlucky - not kill. The advantage is obvious. Our object isn't to reduce the population but to save the lives of our families and ourselves. If I can do that without killing, so much the better. There is also the simple fact that if I kill or wound a bad guy, the LEAST that will happen is that I'll have a long, uncomfortable time before the Grand Jury. There's a good chance that I will be indicted and I will almost certainly be sued in civil court as well. If the first shot I fire is a shot that is normally non-lethal it will go a long way toward making my good guy status clear to all who hold my future in their hands. We will explore surviving the aftermath of a shooting in further detail in a future Carnival.

In the past few years it's become popular to outfit defensive shotguns with all kinds of sh..., um stuff. Pistol grips with no buttstocks, magazines that hold a year's worth of ammo, lasers, lights, sirens, beer-taps, and dancing girls. Most of these modifications are horsesh..., um fertilizer. Those super-long magazine tubes add nothing useful. If we can't do it with four or five rounds, we can't do it. Furthermore, those extra-long magazine springs have a tendency to kink, tying up the gun. That sexy-looking pistol grip is gonna bust you square in the beezer if you hold the shotgun up where you can use the sight. And if you don't use the sight, you don't have a weapon - you just have an extremely loud and destructive noisemaker. Shooting from the hip is for TV cops. I know a guy that tried one of those buttstockless pistol grip shotguns - fortunately, at the shooting range. He missed trying to shoot from the hip so he reloaded and held it up so he could see the front bead. Knocked himself plumb out cold. Y'all think I'm woofin', try it yourself. I'm not gonna. I never did get as purty as Momma wanted me to be in the first place... I sure don't need my face rearranged on top of that.

There are three - and only three - useful modifications to a defense shotgun: a decent recoil pad (if it doesn't come with one); a high visibility front bead (if it doesn't come with one); and, lastly, one of those little flashlight mounts. The worst thing in the world is to blow away your spouse during a late night bathroom trip or blasting a drunken Harvey showing up in the wrong house for a comment party. We don't shoot at noises, we don't shoot at shapes.

Here is a trick. If we are awakened in the middle of the night, don't go charging out. Grab your shootin' iron, get BEHIND the bed and loudly and clearly repeat the following sentences. "Who is there? I have a gun! I'm calling the police!" Unless other family members are in danger, stay there. The bad guys can take everything you own, the deductible on your homeowner's insurance is still far cheaper than the legal costs of even the most justified shooting. This can be enraging but, right or wrong, it's the world we live in. Some jurisdictions allow the use of deadly force in defense of property, some don't. Some people's ethical standards or religions allow the use of deadly force in defense of property, some don't. While my state allows the use of force to protect property, I figure I'll never go wrong using deadly force as the very last resort. During my life, I've stuck myself into some very stupid predicaments due to my somewhat-less-than-genius-like choices on how I made my living. But I'm retired now. Anybody wanting trouble has to bring it to me. They'll get mighty hungry waiting for me to come to them.

Before this turns into a book, let's discuss the third option: the carbine shooting handgun-cartridges.

There are two main options, the little semiautomatic Marlin Camp Carbine, and the lever-actions in handgun cartridges like .38 Special/.357 Mag, .44 Special/.44 Mag and .45 Colt.

Those who were here for last week's Carnival might wonder why I recommend that beginners should stay away from autoloaders in handguns but make no such statements about long guns. Simple. The carbine or shotgun, being longer, makes us much less likely to lose control of where that muzzle is pointing. While there is still a somewhat increased possibility of an unintended loud noise, we're much less likely to hit someone we care about. We still need to drill a little more on safety, but it's an acceptable risk.

The Marlin Camp Carbine is a nifty little weapon. It comes in nine millimeter, 40 S&W and 45 ACP, all - with the right ammo choice - proven combat rounds. Advantages include: much lighter recoil than the low recoil shotgun loads; muzzle blast that won't damage one's hearing nearly as much as shotguns; and the ease with which they can be shot with acceptable combat accuracy. Disadvantages include being a bit more fussy than some other shootin' irons as to what ammo it will digest. They are short, light, and easy to shoot. Maintenance is fairly simple and straightforward. Not a bad choice at all. It's an even better choice for the man or woman who also has a pistol in one of those cartridges.

Rule number one of gunfighting is to have a gun - any gun. If you don't have a gun, you can't go to a gunfight.

Rule number two of gunfighting is that the only reason handguns exist is to buy time to get to a long gun.

I can't find the Camp Carbine on Marlin's Website, it may be discontinued. I still see them in gun shops so, if this is your choice, best move quickly.

I happen to love the little lever-action carbines in handgun rounds. Marlin's 1894, Winchester's 94, Rossi has one, and there are several others. There is a Marlin 1894 within arms reach as I sit in my little study. I can hit as accurately at one hundred yards with it as I can twenty-five yards with my revolver. This is comforting, since I live in the country, where the nearest patrol car might more than ten minutes away. It's even more comforting knowing that two-legged varmints aren't the only challenge. I live where rabid critters are a very real problem. Two-legged or four-legged, even with the brush, trees, and rolling contours of the land, if I can see it, I can hit it. My choice is the .38/.357 Mag model, primarily because that's my go-to handgun cartridge. An arcane fact of gun lore is that the longer the barrel, the higher the velocity of the same cartridge. Depending on the load, the carbines hit as hard at fifty to one-hundred yards as the same load hit at powder-burn range. In a close range defensive situation this means a bigger hole in the bad guy. Counter-intuitively, this doesn't mean the bullet will have a lot more penetration. That .38 Special, +P, lead hollow-point will actually penetrate a little less from the carbine than from a revolver. It expands more, so the bullet hits more of what it's tearing up, and it stops a little quicker.

A lever-action can actually be fired - accurately - just as quickly as a semiauto. With a little practice, you can learn to work the lever in the time it takes to recover from recoil and get your sight picture back.

A little known - and seldom thought-about - advantage of the lever-action carbine is psychological - it's a good-guy's gun. If you end up having to use one in self-defense, it's the conditioning of everyone we will be dealing with in the aftermath - cops, prosecutors, grand juries, and (if it goes that far) judges and juries - to think of it that way. We've all grown up on Roy Rogers, Marshall Dillon, the Rifleman - all those guys. The guy in the white hats all had lever-action carbines. The villains we grew up with all had handguns, AK-47's, sawed-off shotguns, and the like.

It's a small thing, but it can be the difference between Justifiable Homicide and Manslaughter.

Next week? How about how to avoid a gunfight and what to do if we can't?

Posted by: Harvey at 08:02 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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(A Guest Post by blogless Peter, for Carnival of Cordite)

I like to think that I've learned a bit in the fifty years I've spent as a shooter and gun owner. I'm a pretty fair amateur gunsmith, I've been handloading ammunition for forty-five years now and there was a time when I strapped on a holstered service revolver to go to work every day.

Over the years I've both been asked by non-shooters about that first gun and been present when other gunnies have been asked. That first shootin' iron is today's topic.

The mistake we gunnies make most often is recommending our favorite iron to that non or new shooter, Lord knows it's a mistake I've made myself. Trouble is, the right iron for an experienced enthusiast is not necessarily the best first gun for a beginner. As a matter of fact it seldom is.

The vast majority of non-shooters who are thinking about that first gun want something for home and self-protection. Let's begin there. Another time we can discuss fun guns and hunting rifles and shotguns.

In most cases when we are discussing firearms for self-protection we are speaking of a handgun. In some locales handgun ownership is very difficult, in those areas a shotgun or short rifle, perhaps a carbine shooting a handgun round makes sense. Still, let's discuss the handguns first.

The first handgun should stay away from the extremes. Avoid the very large, the very powerful and loud. Avoid the tiny little guns, they are very difficult to shoot. Avoid the extremely cheap as well as the extremely expensive. Most extremely cheap firearms are unreliable. The extremely expensive should be avoided simply because the new shooter may decide he or she doesn't like having a gun around, by avoiding the extreme that person won't take a bath selling it. There is also the strong possibility that the new shooter will find out how much fun it is and want something with more features down the line. When we stay in the middle we maintain the best trade-in value.

Avoid both extremes in power. A hand cannon will certainly put a bad guy down but a cartridge with a huge muzzle blast and horrendous recoil will never be shot enough to attain proficiency. Especially if each cartridge costs more than a dollar. By the same token, the mouseguns will kill. That is very small comfort if the bad guy dies from infection four days after he's ripped your arm off and beaten you to death with it.

Above all, avoid complexity. Most serious professionals use autoloaders these days, the Glocks, the Sigs, the wonderful old 1911, there are a host of good autoloaders in serious cartridges. Great Guns! If I were on my way to a gunfight and restricted to a handgun I'd pick one. Well actually if I were on the way to a gunfight I'd change directions and go to a picnic or maybe the library, instead.

Still an autoloader isn't a beginner's gun. Complexity breeds accidental discharges. During the great shift from revolvers to autoloaders during the late '70s through the '80s police departments endured an almost tenfold increase in inadvertent firearm discharges. There were also Officers killed because of problems manipulating safeties. The beginner doesn't need complex. The beginner doesn't need to worry about in which order to remove the magazine and clear the chamber. The beginner doesn't need one recoil spring for light target loads and another for business loads.

Speaking of springs, in my youth autoloaders were considered less reliable because to be loaded and ready a few springs had to be under constant tension. Improved metallurgy has made that mostly a thing of the past. The modern autoloader, fed good ammunition is just as reliable as a good revolver. Still, the autoloader is not the best choice for the beginner.

While there are some tactical situations that the increased cartridge capacity and easier reloading are an advantage, home and personal defense aren't those situations. A civilian in a defense situation won't have the time to fire six rounds, the gunfight is won or lost within three seconds. The rule of thumb is that if we need more than six shots it ain't a gunfight, it's a war.

That leads us to the double action revolver. Which one and in what chambering?

The very best for the beginner is the mid sized four inch barrel length six shot in .38 Special or .357 Magnum. Unless one has someone experienced, stay away from the used guns. If, on the other hand, we have someone who can tell the difference between used and abused, a good used revolver is not only a great bargain but will hold it's value. A good gun shop that has a variety of used revolvers will often let the shooter put a box of ammo through a used revolver and, if it's not satisfactory, allow the purchase price in trade for a new one. Ask.

If our new shooter can afford the price difference, Stainless Steel is a useful upgrade. It's not THAT difficult to avoid rust but again, the less the new shooter has to worry about, the better. An adjustable rear sight is another nice option but, again, not absolutely necessary. Legions of bad guys have been brought toes up by fixed sight revolvers.

Brands? Smith and Wesson, Ruger and Taurus. Unfortunately Colt has downsized it's line of fine .38 and .357 revolvers.

In S&W we look for what is called the "K Frame" There are too many model numbers to keep track of but if the clerk at the gun shop doesn't understand .38 or .357 K Frame Smith, leave.

In Ruger we might get lucky and find the old Security Six in good shape. If not, the slightly heavier GP100 is a fine revolver.

In Taurus we again look for the medium framed four inch .38 or .357.

No matter the choice, forget buying .357 Magnum ammo for now. All .357s shoot .38 Special ammo just fine. Our new shooter doesn't need the muzzle blast and, in the lighter weight guns, unpleasant recoil. We want to start with the load we call the target wadcutter. This is a bullet shaped like a little bitty beer keg at a moderate velocity. The relatively quiet report and light recoil make it easy to shoot. The peculiar shape of the bullet makes it more effective than it's energy numbers suggest. Once our new shooter is accustomed to the mild loads we can introduce him or her to the most effective .38 round, the old FBI load, the 158 grain lead hollow point Plus P load. The civilian won't need the full charge .357 Magnum ammo. With the likelihood of being indoors in a defense situation the very loud muzzle blast is disorienting to the shooter.

While there are many directions a shooter can go once the experience is there, this is the starting point. While the four inch medium frame revolver is not as easy to hide as some other firearms, with the proper holster neither is it impossible.

There are smaller cartridges that are easier to shoot, they are lacking in that hard-to-define thing we call stopping power. There are heftier cartridges, they are more difficult to shoot.

Of all the bewildering choices, the medium frame revolver shooting the .38 Special is THE choice for the beginner.

Next Carnival we'll cuss and discuss the choices for those who are restricted to a shotgun or rifle for a home defense gun.

Posted by: Harvey at 10:49 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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