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CompVest wrote:Skiprr +1

SRVA and I had the honor of going to Thunder Ranch for Team Tactics. WOW what a class. A great way for a husband and wife to learn to work and communicate with each other. Clint and Heidi are terrific people.

I will NOT be behind my husband. We will work to our strengths and as a team.

And the two of you also have a natural Y-axis advantage. Seriously; not joking. An advantage Clint and Heidi don't have.

Really! I'm being serious...

txbroker wrote:May god have mercy on the person whom invades my home...

Yeah; ya know, actually, I think there probably aren't many targets on this Forum that would make a good choice for an occupied home invasion attempt.

There are some choices on this board that would make real beauties...like the urban legend of the IPSC Grand Master shooter who was upstairs when a burgler kicked his door open; the police supposedly arrived to find the bad guy about a step-and-a-half inside the doorway with two to the heart and one to the sinus cavity, lying right at the foot of a two-story collection of shooting trophies the homeowner had mounted in his foyer.

Liko81 wrote:...But as she's a trained handler, from a tactics standpoint it makes more sense to be able to point guns in two directions over one...

I'm not gonna second-guess txbroker's wife or her confidence level, but your point is very clearly illustrated when you watch Clint Smith clear a structure by himself, and tell you what he's doing, then watch him do it again with his wife, Heidi. It's quickly apparent that it's about three times more efficient when you have two trained gunmen who know how to work in tandem. It changes some of the geometries dramatically. We all know there's a very good reason you never see a single SWAT officer clear a structure by himself, but I think Clint's demo really brings it home...no pun intended.

frankie_the_yankee wrote:Winchester Ranger SXT 230 gr. in 45ACP.

Same here, both in an XD .45 Service and my 1911s.

Primary go-to though, like Carlson1, is my 870 Tac2 with a tube full of 00 standard load, and four Federal TruBall slugs mounted on the receiver. I might go to #1 shot if it were more readily available, but nothing smaller; I don't rotate load shot/slug in the magazine because I don't want to chamber a slug unless I really need one. The shotgun is maintained with a fully-loaded magazine, hammer down on an empty chamber, safety off.

The home handgun is mainly the XD, primarily for the extra magazine capacity. I never use the XD for concealed carry. My main carry gun is a compact 1911, and it's always easily accessible as a BUG for the XD, if need be. Both are loaded with Rangers in good ol' 230 grain. The other .45 ACP defensive rounds I'll buy are Federal HST and Speer Gold Dot, both in 230 gr. I just like the heavier bullet. I also don't dislike Remington Golden Sabers in 230 gr.; I still have several boxes of them, but my compact carry seems to like them a little less than the other types, so I don't buy it much anymore. One I haven't tried but have thought about is Hornady XTP also in--you guessed it--230 grain.

But I think Frankie is right in that most modern defensive loads will serve the purpose, so I generally worry more about whether the particular brand and round shoot reliably for me, and what kind of deal I've found on the price. Oh, and did I mention I prefer a heavier bullet? When I highlighted "most defensive loads," what I'm not personally sold on are the non-bullet bullets like Glaser or Magsafe. By that I mean lightweight projectiles that are either individual shot pellets or pre-fragmented things designed to disperse rapidly on impact. There is no super-duper ultra-stopping ACME magic ammo...and that's sorta what many like these claim to be. I don't spend time looking for real-world ballistics tests, but my gut just tells me to be suspicious of next-generation bullet claims, and even more suspicious of the penetration capability of the pre-fragmented stuff.

YMMV.