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harrycallahan wrote: I was only speaking from the view point of effectively being able to deploy a given weapon within the close quarters such as a residence.

Okay. But...the real question is what weapon can you put effective fire that will stop the fight on the target during a high stress, possibly dark, confused situation. It isn't always about what maneuvers best, but what stops the fight the fastest. Handguns are easy to maneuver in close quarters. They are quick to deploy. But, they require a much higher degree of marksmanship and they will always take more rounds to stop the fight than a rifle or shotgun. It is much easier for someone to remove a handgun from your hands - especially if you don't have specialized training in retention techniques.

Evaluate the most difficult shot you will have to face in your home. Go to the range and pace it off and see how many shots you can place in the vital zone (center of mass) in a very short time-ten seconds will be a long gunfight. Try the same exercise with a shotgun and rifle. Count the center mass hits and divide by 3. That tells you how many hits you will likely make if you are an expert with a lot of luck, in a real situation. It could be less. Then remember that no weapon is a sure one shot stop.

This stuff just gives you a rough idea. Do the above exercise in the dark in close confines. Better yet, get that professional training. There is too much here to even outline a reasonable sampling of scenarios you might face. Use whatever weapon you like but be aware of what you are facing before it happens.

In my experience the presence of denim changes some that perform well in bare gel into ones that over penetrate and don't expand. Others seem to do better with the denim in place. Denim clogs hollow points. Guessing how they will perform just doesn't work very well. The effect is predictably different for pistols, shotguns, and rifles in that order from most to least.

Harrycallahan...having a discussion settled by a bunch of people who probably have never used a weapon of any kind for self defense is problematical at best and might get you killed at worst. I have discussed the issue with a few folks on the Internet who finally admitted they made their decision about what to use to save their lives by playing a video game. Not good.

Police face an almost infinite variation of situations and you only need to watch the news for a few minutes to see what the preferred weapon is when things get bad.

If the most effective weapon for any situation were handguns, guess what you would see the military using?

I don't expect anyone to take my word for it. I do think it should be worth anyone's time and money to find out what works best from a professional trainer who has been there and done that. Ask him what works and what doesn't.

BTW the guy who does the Box O Truth has been there and done that and is talking straight. But don't take his word for it, go get some professional training and find out what the truth really is.

C-Dub...nice videos, but there are a couple of problems. 1) the test media does not include the standard 4 layers of denim which can change results significantly. I had the volume down. Did they give depths of penetration? 2) slugs, while making impressive displays, are notorious over penetrators which are great for barricaded suspects in cars or behind walls but used against humans may stop a lot more people than you intend. Buckshot is king for a reason.

TAM...he is right. The easiest weapons to run, those requiring the least training to learn the manual of arms, are, in order, from easiest to hardest: AR, semi-auto pistol, shotgun. In shooting aimed fire (an essential) the order is AR, shotgun, pistol. In learning/teaching good aimed fire it is the same: AR, shotgun, pistol.

The AR does not take thousands of hours of training, it is a battle weapon, designed for ease of use in the stress of combat. I agree though that my first line of defense will be my pistol. Why? Because I wear it everywhere. It's always on me, so I'll use it to fight my way to more effective stuff if need be.