Due to high penetration of walls a rifle would only be a good choice out in the country where you might see em coming. in a home the shotgun would be a good choiceWhich would be better for home protection, Rifle vs. Shot Gun?
I won't be using it for any other purpose besides protecting my family. I don't want anything to big or to heavy with a lot of kick back, Im pretty strong so i'm not worried about that but need it to where my wife could handle it to.
If barrel is less than 18" you have to go through a Class III dealer, I believe the Federal fee for a short barrel shotgun are a lot less than on a machine gun, unless they've gone up.My suggestion would be this...
12G Valtro PM-5 Hunting Stock 14"
The PM5 Shotgun includes the following features:
- Choice of Pistol Grip or Standard Stocks
- 14 inch barrel
- Ultra Light Weight
- Non-Glare matte Black Finish
- Removable Prismatic Box Magazine Feed
- Interchangeable Choke Tubes Optional
- Folding Stock Optional
- Simple reliable design with minimal moving parts
- 3 inch chamber will fit 2 and 3/4 and 3 inch shells
- Internally Chromed Barrels
- The special alloy receiver's surface is resistant to atmospheric agents
- Minimal Maintenance required due to simple design and rugged construction
- Used by Law Enforcement and Military around the world
You can kiss goodbye to walls windows and most of your house fittings as well as the attacker but it is small in length and packs a punch and it looks neat.
However I think your best bet is as pointed out, move to a safer country.
Given that he is looking for a home defense weapon I think the shotgun is ideal, it is easy to use, doesn't require a whole lot of accuracy (ideal for untrained users), the short barrel is better for confined spaces use, and will do enough damage to deter most attackers.
Rifles are really only useful for ranged defense and I didn't get the impression he was going to use it to hold off the Indians circling the house.
Pistol is of course the other option but accuracy goes out the window in the hands of inexperienced users.
I already own a pistol actually. And trust me when I say Im not afraid of someone breaking in, but with me gone a lot work wise and other reasons, I want my wife to feel safe when she may be by herself ya know. so thats why I was asking.
lol you guys are crazy. but no my wife is not weapons trained. I took her to the fireing range once so she could practice shooting my 45 and she actually did pretty good. I think I may go with either a 12 gauge or a 20 gauge shot gun. what you think
Borrow both 12 & 20 and see what she can handle. An auto loader like the Remington 1100 with an extended magazine would do well. Don't get the 12 if she may end up being afraid of the recoil.The only advantage to a 20 gauge I can see would be lower recoil but the 12 gauge has a much wider variety of loads including reduced power rounds I would be inclined to go with the 12 gauge simply for its versatility.