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AR15 Need help, etc.
shushirice
Member Posts: 27 ✭✭
Sorry for not being more specific. Going to be 79 in a few months, and only 5'8" 140 lbs. Not too strong anymore. Discharged in 1958. I'd like a light and simple configuration for home defense. Live in the country, but am still hyper about some of the folks riding bikes down the road. It would be tough to break into my house unless you came through narrow double pane windows, and I can hear a mouse. Front and back doors are steel with no windows. Some guy wants to sell me a Bush something or other, but haven't heard any good stories about them. Thanks for all the help, and hope I've made myself more clear.
Comments
Sounds like it is a Bushmaster Ar-15 type rilfe the gent is trying to sell you. Do yourself a favor...go to a reputable store, and by a New Bushmaster, Stag, DPMS, or RRA. It will be a fresh, factory gun, and not put together from pieces and parts.
Best
If you are determined to have a gun to protect yourself, all you need is the handgun that you carry when you have to go outside at night. While an AR-type rifle is excellent, it's not simple to use.
Neal
You may also want to consider some more conventional arms like Winchester/Marlin lever actions in pistol/rifle calibers or a pump shotgun with or without accessories such as an extended magazine.
There are far less complicated and can be just as effective.
They are very simple to learn and use. If and when the time comes, flick the safety from 'safe' to 'fire' with your thumb {it's ergonomicly placed} and fire if needed. Keep firing if needed. Have 3-4 magazines on your bedstand/dresser and you can continue to make it a bad place to enter for those who should not be there.
I used to believe a pistol was the best thing for home defense. Then I did some training with someone who knew and surprisingly to me, the AR was the best choice. I now have both at my disposal. The old BS line that a shotgun racking will scare away anybody is false. It just tells the professional thief you didn't go to bed prepared to defend your home. Otherwise a shotgun is good, ...but doesn't hold 30 rounds.
I'm in agreement here with fordsix. A Bushmaster, or any decent AR-15 carbine, is about your best home defense weapon as a gun is concerned.
I think the "best" home defense gun is going to vary from individual to individual and home to home. Certainly if you're trained and capable an AR-15 is a potentially good choice, but IMO its wrong to generalize this as the "best" choice for everyone.
quote:Pistols and shotguns work yes, but they don't have 30 rounds. Each of these weapon platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages which are beyond the scope of a post like this to discuss fully. Cost, size, recoil, ability to be used one handed and/or in tight quarters, penetration, ease of operation and maintenance, legality, availability of ammunition and a place to practice, all these are potential factors here.
On capacity, most modern auto pistol STANDARD magazines will hold about 15 rounds; some can hold 20. So if you've got a loaded Glock or Beretta handgun and one extra mag on your belt, there is your 30(+) rounds, and in a shorter, lighter overall package than any carbine. Some pistols will even take individual high cap magazines that can hold 30+ rounds, though for a number of reasons, I'd say to avoid those.
As a matter of practice, short of a prolonged firefight involving multiple armed assailants, you're probably not going to need or use 30 rounds. Yes, I realize its better to have and not need than vice versa, but empirically speaking, the overwhelming majority of personal home-defense incidents are resolved with ONE OR FEWER rounds actually fired and occur at short distances of only a few yards.
quote:The short handy rifle caliber weapon will do some serious damage when it hits.More than a conventional pistol, though not as much as, say, a 12 gauge shotgun with buckshot or a slug, though. More power also translates into much more noise (ie damage to your hearing) increased liability with overpenetration through walls and possible hits to distant bystanders, and typically increased ammo costs. . .there is no "free lunch" here.
quote:They are very simple to learn and use.Its not "rocket science" by any stretch, but the manual of arms for an AR-15 is quite a bit more complicated than many other weapons, including a revolver or shotgun, and these are a bit harder to master.
quote: If and when the time comes, flick the safety from 'safe' to 'fire' with your thumb {it's ergonomicly placed} and fire if needed. Same as every other semi-auto gun. Or you can choose a platform that has NO EXTERNAL SAFETY WHATEVER (eg a revolver, striker fired, or DA/SA type auto pistol) thereby making it impossible for you to forget to disengage the safety in the heat of the moment, or accidentally engage it.
quote:The old BS line that a shotgun racking will scare away anybody is false. There we agree. Not only is it false, its stupid practice. You don't want to wait until your adversary is within earshot before you charge your weapon. Assuming they are nearby, the LAST thing you want to do is unload a good round and give away your position by racking the slide!
quote:Otherwise a shotgun is good, ...but doesn't hold 30 rounds.
Combat platform shotguns typically hold 8+1. If you consider that each OO buckshot shell contains 9 (or 12!) individual pellets (each roughly equivalent ballstically to a .38 special handgun round), one shotgun magazine is capable of discharging 81 individual projectiles in quick succession. From a lead volume standpoint, that puts an ordinary shotgun up there with a submachine gun!
Again, I'm not saying a shotgun is necessarily better (nor worse), but there are any number of good reasons why many people think this is the definitive home defense weapon.
Speaking personally, I own a very nice, expensive custom AR-15 combat carbine, but I wouldn't dream of using it indoors in my house for defense. My "go to" gun is a revolver . . .and that's even though I've got a wide variety of other choices I could pick from, including the AR-15 and more contemporary auto pistols.
It is a bit louder than an M1 Carbine which is also very handy indoors
and also takes 30 round mags. It doesn't take sighting equipment without
some modification.
The Keltec P2000 takes 15,17 and 30 rd mags , folds to 16" and weighs 4 1/2 lbs. It is simple and outshoots a pistol 16 ways. BUT it doesn't accept accessory sights unless modified.