A good handgun for home defense?

True on the no safety issue, at least if you have no safetys you need a de-cocker..
but for example my Cz-75b with safety switch has never caused any trouble for me specially since the correct place for the shooting hand is thumb on top of the safety switch...

and Speer gold dot HP for example is the choise for many law enforcement units around the world and i assume they trust it to eliminate a clothed opponent..

My persona choise for home defence would be extreme shocks Air Freedom Round, since it wont overpenetrate or ricochet

northwolf, perkele! =) I'm from Norway, how's the gun laws in finland? I hear they are pretty lax compared to Norway? Is that true? Do you know how I can become a citizen of finland just for buying guns? ;-) hehehehhe

Hunting weapons are easy to get, just as long as you have a place to hunt and a hunting licence..
Sporting guns can be obtained if you have access to a range and you can show that you do some sport (ie. Practical, Silhouette, skeet...)
No guns licences are given for self defence...

i like the looks of a gun called the Thunder Five it is a short barroled revolver that chambers .410 shotgun and the .45 lc the first chamber #7 shot for snakes (two legged or no legged) second & third chamber 000 buck (about 3 pellets) the last two with long colt hollow points
the .410s blow a 2 foot flame (scary as heck) in that short barrol in the short ranges in a home there is little danger of over penatration and simple to use just point and shoot

Men if i was old enough to by myself a gun for home defense i deffently bought myself a Deagle.. with a 7 bullit patroon, and your gonna run for your life if you are stealing out of my house

Desert Eagles are too heavy, too bulky and most of all too much recoil...besides, neighbors will be thinking you exploded a bomb in your house!

If you need to enlarge your penis get a Revolver instead of DE, since you can get a .500 S&W and it has even more power than .50AE and it can be actually used as defence weapon sinc it doesn't have a mag spring that dies after long storage while loaded....

I wanted to get back to you and give you a status report on my SKS.
I finally made time to shoot it today along with my 1903 Springfield bolt action.

The SKS shoots fine. I made the initial mistake of having the gas port operator positioned over to the grenade launcher position which blocks the gas port so the action did not cycle fully. This necessitated my manually ejecting the first cartridge and correcting the position of the gas port operator. After this she cycled fine. No jams with the Wolf type soft point ammo. Left right alignment of the sights was fine. A couple of clicks on the rear sight and she grouped quite satisfactory for iron sights at 100 yards. I do not care for the sights on this rifle as I am used to my Garand with peep sights or the longer sight radius of my1903 Springfield, but I can learn to work with this arrangement.
Trigger leaves alot to be desired but this can be remidied by a good gunsmith. It is not up to the standard of my 1903 Springfield or M1 Garand but for the price this is a very workable rifle. I will have to do more research on what can be done about this if after market trigger groups are available.
Plans are now to clean both rifles and put them away for awhile. Lot of work to do with spring breaking. Wont have much time for the range for awhile.
I do plan to purchase a large batch of ammo for it and put it away too as posted earlier. I may consider purchasing another SKS down the road.
OH...one more thing ..the bayonet has to go..to barrel heavy for my liking.

Wanted to bring you and others on this board up to date.
Time to clean rifles and sort brass.

Thanks,
Orangetom

If you want a good home defense weapon just buy yourself a SigSauer P229 .40cal. My father bought it for my first handgun, and I still have it on my night stand. It's cheap, and reliable. not to mention the .40cal ammo is more powerful than that PIECE OF SHIOT 9mm. that thing is too widely used, and way underpowered.

I would have to agree with a 9mm or a .45, theyre both small and light with a relatively soft recoil. Yet they also pack a punch and if the first one doesnt solve the problem you have 9-14 more in the clip.

1911 in 45cal, or a .44 mag. But a 12ga. with an 18in. barrel is the best insurance.

I don't own any fire arms YET, but will as soon as I join the army. I will always keep the trusty AKS-74 in my house if I need it. As a secondary defense and something I can actually carry around, I'd choose the .45 XD ASP pistol or maybe the Grach Yargin (I don't know crap about it but it looks attractive, wish it came in .45.)

About the AK, yes I am a bit crazy, but crazy may someday save your life. A pistol will not neccessarily kill the shooter, but a fully automatic burst of AK bullets will eliminate the enemy. (Unless you are the lousiest shot in the world, in which case hire a body-gaurd.)

Yes, I do highly recommend a laser on all your weapons, in a life and death situation YOU ARE NOT going to be using the standard sights of your weapon.

Oh and one other thing: If someone invades your home, don't wait to catch a bullet, shoot first! (you do have the right to defend your home)(shoot if he is actually invading your home or you will find yourself in court)

PS: How come Dick Cheney can shoot people without reason people and we can't?

Well, Automatic weapons are very hard to get in the US and other countries.

And also the danger of collateral damage when firing a rifle round indoors is pretty dangerous to say the least.

How is the recoil of the 7.62x39mm? I shot a 30-30 before and the recoil was very managable, it's similar isn't it?

yup..you got it pretty close. The recoil is about like a 30-30. Pretty close.

I have several 30.06s and they are viscious recoil wise compared to the 30-30 and the 7.62x39 mm.


Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Desert Eagles are too heavy, too bulky and most of all too much recoil...besides, neighbors will be thinking you exploded a bomb in your house!

I'm gonna have to disagree on the recoil issue. DE pistols are too heavy and bulky, but thats what makes the recoil less of an issue.

I regularly shoot my friends .44 DE and the recoil is about the same as on my .45.

The DE is also one of the most accurate pistols I have ever fired.

However probably not the best for home defense if you have any neighbors.

Normal short barreled DE is inaccurate when compared to revolvers.. but 5-6 inch barreled DE is quite accurate in extended (+100m) ranges, .44mag S&W is allaround better gun than any DE!

The .45 ASP XD springfield pistol is HOT!!!!!!!!!!
I like it and I read all about it and its cool. Some parts of it look like from a Glock.
But if I'm defending my home, I would want something more powerful, something automatic.

It's getting late so I didnt read the whole thread, just tossing in my 2 cents.

If you've never been in a fight-or-flight situation with deadly force at your control, i'd really suggest a high powered flashlight and double-action-only pistol.

I've read so many stories of accidental shootings... this is the first time i've had an opportunity to make the recommendation and couldn't pass it by.

Frangible ammunition is another good choice for indoors. Something you should consider is over penetration.

I really don't think a pistol-grip pump shotgun is such a bad idea for home defense. Load the thing with beanbags or rubber slugs and see if any intruder will keep at you after taking a hit. Easy to mount an accessory light, you can use it as a club if you run out of ammo or just feel like hitting the person with a big stick, hot to mention the shock-and-awe factor of seeing a 12ga pump or hearing and seeing that shotgun blast.

Originally posted by Ford Farmer
If you want a good home defense weapon just buy yourself a SigSauer P229 .40cal. My father bought it for my first handgun, and I still have it on my night stand. It's cheap, and reliable. not to mention the .40cal ammo is more powerful than that PIECE OF SHIOT 9mm. that thing is too widely used, and way underpowered.

Oh... and on a recommendation. Ford Farmer is right on, SigSauer has proven to make one of, if not THE best modern combat automatic pistol. I personally own Glock pistols and have never been let down. The extra capacity and light weight sold me on the product years ago, not to mention it's proven durability and ability to ingest any ammo you feed it.

I'm not going to agree with the asessment of .40cal versus 9mm, however. Hell, with proper shot placement all you need is a rimfire with FMJ's. It's rediculous to think anyone would experience a noticeable difference dropping anyone with a 9mm or .40cal full of Safety Slugs, RBCD ammo or most any other popular +P round.

Maybe if all you're shooting is FMJ you might notice a difference. If I remember correctly, this was proven during the Strasburg tests but was negligable. It all comes down to having the proper ammo.

Originally posted by orangetom1999
I wanted to get back to you and give you a status report on my SKS.
I finally made time to shoot it today along with my 1903 Springfield bolt action.

The SKS shoots fine. I made the initial mistake of having the gas port operator positioned over to the grenade launcher position which blocks the gas port so the action did not cycle fully. This necessitated my manually ejecting the first cartridge and correcting the position of the gas port operator. After this she cycled fine. No jams with the Wolf type soft point ammo. Left right alignment of the sights was fine. A couple of clicks on the rear sight and she grouped quite satisfactory for iron sights at 100 yards. I do not care for the sights on this rifle as I am used to my Garand with peep sights or the longer sight radius of my1903 Springfield, but I can learn to work with this arrangement.
Trigger leaves alot to be desired but this can be remidied by a good gunsmith. It is not up to the standard of my 1903 Springfield or M1 Garand but for the price this is a very workable rifle. I will have to do more research on what can be done about this if after market trigger groups are available.
Plans are now to clean both rifles and put them away for awhile. Lot of work to do with spring breaking. Wont have much time for the range for awhile.
I do plan to purchase a large batch of ammo for it and put it away too as posted earlier. I may consider purchasing another SKS down the road.
OH...one more thing ..the bayonet has to go..to barrel heavy for my liking.

Wanted to bring you and others on this board up to date.
Time to clean rifles and sort brass.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Does it have the angled muzzle break, and if so, does it suffer from terrible muzzle flip? I've only shot one SKS, it was a Chinese made rifle without the detachable mag. No muzzle break... holy crap this thing wanted to go airborne when I was shooting.

Fired an HK MP5K last week. It's unreal how controllable those HK subguns with the roller lock are.