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Thinking About a 410 AR for home defense

If I lived in an apartment with paper-thin walls, and neighbors on both my left and right AND across the hall from my front door, and if the back side of my apartment faced a small courtyard with another set of 4-story apartment buildings on the other side (a pretty common layout for apartment buildings in crowded cities) THEN, and only then, would I make "lowest risk of overpenetration" a more important factor in choosing ammo than "most effective at dropping attacking bad guys."

I think I'd still go with an AR carbine shooting light varmint bullets, BUT it would probably have to be an SBR and wearing a suppressor. I don't want to shoot an unsuppressed .223 in a small apartment without hearing protection-- not even a few times. Not even in an emergency.

If I didn't want to have a two-stamp gun for home defense in my urban apartment scenario,
I think I'd go with the shotgun choice. And since I already own a 20-gauge pump, it would be that, using some kind of waterfowl load and 3" shells.
I’d strongly advise against steel shot. I’m not saying I have because it’s illegal but I’ve seen ducks hit with lead and it drops them way harder than any steel. If you want a lighter load but still deadly I’d advise #4 or #5 Turkey mags. They’ll roll a big Turkey or yote out to 50 yards (still a turkey/coyote and a burgaler probably hyped up on some kind of drug are two very different things.)
 
cmshoot cmshoot
What length is the barrel of the 9mm you use the 124gr +p gold dots in? (I'm a slacker and still haven't got around to taking your home defense class, so I'm trying to figure out if you're using a 3" or shorter barrel with the gold dots.)
 
cmshoot cmshoot
What length is the barrel of the 9mm you use the 124gr +p gold dots in? (I'm a slacker and still haven't got around to taking your home defense class, so I'm trying to figure out if you're using a 3" or shorter barrel with the gold dots.)

A pair of Gen5 MOS models, the G19 and a G34, so 4.02” and 5.31” barrels respectively.

I’m running the standard load, but Speer has a +P 9mm Short Barrel load with a 124grn bullet.
 
9FE4354B-4DFC-43A4-8561-2B34EF8D6A5C.jpeg
“20-ish male s/p GSW to chest w/ shotgun at close range using bird shot last night. For those using this for home defense, he wasn’t bothered all that much by these pellets. Just a chest tube, but certainly not incapacitated by any means....” Only a few pellets even made it into the thoracic cavity. (Posted in an EMS group)
 
View attachment 3328580 “20-ish male s/p GSW to chest w/ shotgun at close range using bird shot last night. For those using this for home defense, he wasn’t bothered all that much by these pellets. Just a chest tube, but certainly not incapacitated by any means....” Only a few pellets even made it into the thoracic cavity. (Posted in an EMS group)
Those airsoft player were salty
 
View attachment 3328580 “20-ish male s/p GSW to chest w/ shotgun at close range using bird shot last night. For those using this for home defense, he wasn’t bothered all that much by these pellets. Just a chest tube, but certainly not incapacitated by any means....” Only a few pellets even made it into the thoracic cavity. (Posted in an EMS group)




Damn that looks painful though.
 
View attachment 3328580 “20-ish male s/p GSW to chest w/ shotgun at close range using bird shot last night. For those using this for home defense, he wasn’t bothered all that much by these pellets. Just a chest tube, but certainly not incapacitated by any means....” Only a few pellets even made it into the thoracic cavity. (Posted in an EMS group)

While my personal choice would not be birdshot, this pattern indicates the shot was fired at greater than "in the house" distances. It also looks like he was fleeing the scene when shot.

Here's a not exactly real world video that one could use in an argument for using birdshot in a shotgun:


Around 9:40 or so he tests #8 in a 12 gauge for self defense to prevent over penetration in drywall.

My preference would still be buckshot, but at 5 yards the birdshot still seems to be pretty damaging. Sufficient for self defense? As he says "You be the judge".
 
While my personal choice would not be birdshot, this pattern indicates the shot was fired at greater than "in the house" distances. It also looks like he was fleeing the scene when shot.

Here's a not exactly real world video that one could use in an argument for using birdshot in a shotgun:


Around 9:40 or so he tests #8 in a 12 gauge for self defense to prevent over penetration in drywall.

My preference would still be buckshot, but at 5 yards the birdshot still seems to be pretty damaging. Sufficient for self defense? As he says "You be the judge".
That guy post some pretty helpful stuff, “Garand Thumb” also did a video on YouTube testing the ranges at which buckshot is deadly using ballistic gel targets. Also pretty informative.
 
#2 or #4 shot are great at home defence distances, #4 buck even better. Get some brown wrapping paper and shoot at 10, 15 and 25 feet, the results may be surprising. I just recently switched to a 12 gauge bullpup for home defence. The results were impressive, even at 20 feet varying the choke had significant differences.
 
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