Ultimate Home Defense Rifle Opinions

[Alchase]

Simple, light AR15 with a Reflex sight and a standard barrel. You can train an 8-year old to shoot it effectively in case mommy and daddy get knocked out. And plenty accurate enough to shoot at coyotes up to 300 yards. It may not be a one shot, one kill rifle every time at that range but should be pretty close to it. You can always mount a scope for the coyotes and target shooting.

I setup my M&P with this idea in mind.
My wife, who will shoot only occasionally, has no interest in training to muscle memory, can shoot the M&P with red dot fairly accurately for the ranges needed for home defense. Getting her to shoot BUIS was fairly comical.
I mounted a Bushnell CQTS 1x32 red dot, then told her to put the dot where she wanted the bullets to go. After about 4 shots, She was hitting constantly "close to" the quarter size bulls, with most touching at 25 yards, all within center mass.
She even killed a couple zombies, for real world practice, LOL.

[Lefthook]

Yondering, it's all relative. How safe is it to let an intruder, especially an armed intruder enter your home and you go after the armed intruder without a firearm because firearms aren't "safe" to use in a home? I would hate to be one if the people you are trying to protect.

You summarize that "All firearms aren't safe for protection in a home because of the weak materials used to build houses". With that reasoning you are implying that a .300 Win Mag is equal to a .22 short when fired inside the house. That simply isn't true. There are personal protection rounds designed to protect you and your loved ones if the need arises inside your residence.

Firearms deserve respect regardless, from the range, out in the field, at home cleaning them and when they are used for protection. A person should maintain a safe procedure when operating a firearm even if operating a firearm is inside the home.

With the proper weapon, cartridge designed for the job, some intense research and proper training, even you could figure out the safest way to protect yourself and those closest to you. Even if the unthinkable occurs inside your home.

I'm not sure how you took my reply to mean you should go unarmed in your home. There are no "safe" rounds that are effective against an intruder; that doesn't mean don't use a gun, it means stop the foolishness about worrying which rounds penetrate walls - they all do. Account for that with training, shot placement, know what's behind your target, etc.

Oh, that makes sense, like I'm grabbing my .357 and not thinking twice. I was wondering what you had in mind against an armed intruder.

[Yondering]

Yondering, it's all relative. How safe is it to let an intruder, especially an armed intruder enter your home and you go after the armed intruder without a firearm because firearms aren't "safe" to use in a home? I would hate to be one if the people you are trying to protect.

You summarize that "All firearms aren't safe for protection in a home because of the weak materials used to build houses". With that reasoning you are implying that a .300 Win Mag is equal to a .22 short when fired inside the house. That simply isn't true. There are personal protection rounds designed to protect you and your loved ones if the need arises inside your residence.

Firearms deserve respect regardless, from the range, out in the field, at home cleaning them and when they are used for protection. A person should maintain a safe procedure when operating a firearm even if operating a firearm is inside the home.

With the proper weapon, cartridge designed for the job, some intense research and proper training, even you could figure out the safest way to protect yourself and those closest to you. Even if the unthinkable occurs inside your home.

I'm not sure how you took my reply to mean you should go unarmed in your home. There are no "safe" rounds that are effective against an intruder; that doesn't mean don't use a gun, it means stop the foolishness about worrying which rounds penetrate walls - they all do. Account for that with training, shot placement, know what's behind your target, etc.

Oh, that makes sense, like I'm grabbing my .357 and not thinking twice. I was wondering what you had in mind against an armed intruder.

I just don't like to hear somebody talking about supposedly "safe" rounds they could use for home defense, where they might think a family member on the other side of a wall is safe from those rounds in case of a miss.

Personally, I keep a suppressed 9mm pistol and a 300 Blk AR pistol ready to repel boarders (or coyotes, possums, etc), and will grab the 9mm most of the time. I know rounds from either one will blast through several walls, so I plan accordingly.

[Lefthook]

Interesting thoughts on the low key rifle and after the shot repercussions. I would never shoot at any threat or person unless my life or a family members life was truly at risk, meaning there would have to be multiple shots fired in a long range incident. So I would think there would be ample proof of the need for lethal action, and at that point I would hope it wouldn't matter what the rifle looked like....But I get it, some people only know what they see on tv!

I like the setup shown, and think it would be functional?

Thanks,
H&F

This is normal on this forum, for the goodie two shoes to pick apart any question a person asks. Get used to it, they probably voted for HITLERY too.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to upset anyone with my scary black rifle. Who knows what firearms I have inside my home?

Yeah, you have to register ALL gun purchases now, in the commie state of Washington. So, yes, they HITLERY lovers will know what you have in your house. I feel sorry for you Washington residents.. You gotta get rid of the people who do this to you guys.

this one dosent get registered.
http://ar15mold.com/freedom-15-5-kit/

To the OP
Do you save furs when you hunt coyotes?  If so I'd go with 556. I love my 16"
For HD you prob won't want a scope on it unless you plan on mounting a laser sight or the iron sights that you tilt to use.
If you go with an AR just understand that after you build one you end up getting this sickness that can only be fixed by building more so you'll probably end up building separate rifles for hunting and HD

It wouldn't because it's not a gun, or a complete lower with a registered serial number. Good catch...

Campmeat- Not trying to highjack the thread but.....What rifle do you have in your avatar?

[HuntandFish]

What do you all think about this deal? Its not really building my own rifle...But it seems like a good deal and a lot of you have recomended Aero. It would still allow me to customize the final product. What drawbacks and inferior parts do you think come with a setup like this?

http://www.brownells.com/firearms/rifles/semi-auto/oem-mid-length-16-rifle-prod81838.aspx

Looking forward to your thoughts.

H&F

[huntnphool]

What do you all think about this deal? Its not really building my own rifle...But it seems like a good deal and a lot of you have recomended Aero. It would still allow me to customize the final product. What drawbacks and inferior parts do you think come with a setup like this?

http://www.brownells.com/firearms/rifles/semi-auto/oem-mid-length-16-rifle-prod81838.aspx

Looking forward to your thoughts.

H&F

 I've purchased a lot of product from Aero, great company and product!

 http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,202718.msg2691553.html#msg2691553

 Customer service is top notch too.

[Rob]

What do you all think about this deal? Its not really building my own rifle...But it seems like a good deal and a lot of you have recomended Aero. It would still allow me to customize the final product. What drawbacks and inferior parts do you think come with a setup like this?

http://www.brownells.com/firearms/rifles/semi-auto/oem-mid-length-16-rifle-prod81838.aspx

Looking forward to your thoughts.

H&F

Pretty good idea.  It helps one of the more interesting challenges of building the upper - making sure the barrel and bolt are matched to the cartridge specs. 

If you buy the barrel and bolt and put them togheter you will need to get go/nogo gauges.  If you get an issue on the gauges then things get complicated.

Just depends on how much playing you want to do. 

[Mongo Hunter]

Whatever you build make it suppressor capable and invest in one. A rifle being shot indoors is going to be LOUD, so you'll either need to keep ear pro by your gun or get used to the constant "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" in your ears forever 

[b23]

Whatever you build make it suppressor capable and invest in one. A rifle being shot indoors is going to be LOUD, so you'll either need to keep ear pro by your gun or get used to the constant "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" in your ears forever 

I'd have to agree, shooting these short ones is VERY LOUD outside, I could only imagine what it would be like inside.  I'm thinking of adding a light to mine, any recommendations as to which light to get??

[Mongo Hunter]

I have a streamlight on mine. its the laser light combo. I don't recommend that particular one because its kind of heavy and bulky but it came with the gun. but I like the TLR-1 and will probably replace it with one of those. or anything by surefire.