Is a long gun part of your home defense strategy?

[MistWolf]

At night, I keep a braced and suppressed AR pistol by my bed. It has an Aimpoint, sling and light and is loaded with a 40 round mag. It's my first choice for defending my home.



I also keep a PPQ on hand. It's my EDC but in the home, it's a secondary arm. The shotgun was retired to hunting duties many long years ago

[psalms144.1]

If/when I need to go into homes or structures to deal with bad people my choice is a team of guys with long guns as a primary weapon that are almost exclusively an AR/M4 and a pistol secondary. The only thing that changes in my main residence is the lack of a team of guys.

My second residence includes the managing of game and I opt for a 7.62x39 as the primary and a pistol secondary.

As Sean mentioned pistols in most instances are more of a forced necessity and not the best choice when it comes to getting the job done in regards to ballistics. So if I have the availabily or the option, long gun it is.

Surf - absolutely agree with what you wrote. I don't think there's a "right" answer for this question. For a lot of us, the logistics/legality of having a meaningful long gun for HD readily available make it too hard or too risky. For the ones who can make it work, I don't think anyone would suggest a handgun is better for anything than a long gun.

[dolphin62]

My Remington model 31 under my bed and ready. I live alone so I keep 00 buck in the gun but nothing in the chamber until its needed. I will take my chance to shuck one in before the furry flies, I feel sorry for the fool....oh well. I have 2 holes dug in the swamp in my back 40 for them already. Would anyone be willing to conduct services for them who is a member on this site.

[blues]

dolphin, I won't quote you in case you want to amend your post. Sometimes it's not a great idea to make a post which can be used to establish a predisposition by a prosecutor if, heaven forbid, you are involved in an armed encounter and need to defend yourself. Better not to give the opposition ammunition to use against yourself.

[Jay Cunningham]

I live alone

knock me over with a feather

[Mitch]

2 is an oddly specific number of pre dug holes.


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[Glenn E. Meyer]

To go back to the original post. As a FOG, I have an AR with a red dot and a 20 round mag of Hornady in the closet. It is not a run to gun in most of the predictable home invasion , noise in the night situations. That's for a Glock and Surefire.

If some kind of horror erupts on the street or we have a civilization fail then the rifle will come out. For example, in Bastrop after the large fires, there were looters casing the houses. Then having the gun immediately available makes sense.

I have heard nonsense from friends who say that they will retrieve their 3rd Gen SW 45 ACP pistol and spray and pray as they fight to their shotgun. I kid you not.

If we had to bug out (but I'm more in favor of hunkering down in place), I'd take the AR. I have 5 30 round mags loaded up. Now - am I nuts - no, I keep them loaded to take to matches.

Moving through the house with the rifle doesn't make sense to me, given what I needed to accomplish. Yes, I'm not clearing the house as I know better unless there is some need to get to a family member.

[rob_s]

to the original question, no not really. I do live somewhere that bobcats and the like have been seen, and I'd go grab the suppressed AR if I was going to shoot one of them for some reason, but otherwise my G19 with light on it (multiples locked up in various locations) is plenty fine.

Last year, Gabe told me about a guy that came home to meet a burglar, with the burglar pointing the homeowner's long gun at him. That would really suck, and after we got broken in a few years back, and lost AR, 870 and a handful of pistols that were out, I secure firearms whenever possible.

I came home once to an unlocked front door, house in mild disarray, and an open back door (which happened to be a door to my bedroom as well). Various items gone, including my HD shotgun. It occurred to me that I *may* have startled the burglars away and that had I not had that back door for them to escape from I could have had some teenage mischief (nothing of any true value was taken) result in me getting shot with my own gun.

The guns stay locked up now.

[Robinson]

I have a pistol, light, and electronic earpro immediately accessible at night and may also have a pistol within arms reach other times depending on whatever activity i am engaged in. My go-to long gun is currently a suppressed 300 BLK carbine locked in a safe.

I like the idea of a suppressed long gun in case i ever need to fire it in the house (unlikely). But I am considering switching to either a shotgun or a Marlin 1894 .357Mag carbine for that role. Less likely to cause the legal system to want to crucify me if I ever have to use it. Also, I still do not have any formal training with the AR-style carbine and I don't think I am very good at it. Since I used lever guns for so many years they are just so much more natural to me and I feel much more confident handling one that I do an AR.

[dolphin62]

Sorry for the bad reply didn't mean to offend anyone.