Can anyone recommend a good home defense round ?

[Busa1166]

I will agree that a 12ga is best. But you all are missing the point of the question asked.

HE HAS A .38 not a 12ga. He wants to know what ammo would be best for the firearm HE HAS.

I should have added that by the description of the building, it sound like any round from the 38 could got to the neighbors. Unless he is willing to use 38 Special Rubber Bullets, 38 Special Less than lethal ammunition, 38 Special plastic bullets, 38 Special safety ammo, 38 Special Rubber Ammunition, non lethal 38 Special ammo butI'd rather have an attack dog than nonlethal ammo

 

[greensleeves]

the best home defense is always a 12 gauge shot gun, the 38 is a great personal protection for a conceal carry gun

 

[majestic12]

I like the jacketed hollow point. If you could get a 12 gauge with bird shot, It will still mess some one up but won't go through you wall. Keep in mind you have to be pretty close for it to be effective.
stud
Or the ounce of prevention is good too.
A 4 screw deadbolt receiver is good it screws into the "King" stud.

If they can't kick in your door you don't have to worry about it.

 

[TallTom]

I will agree that a 12ga is best. But you all are missing the point of the question asked.

HE HAS A .38 not a 12ga. He wants to know what ammo would be best for the firearm HE HAS.

Point taken Lurch. OK then I'd go with the above shown sabre etc type. For my personal carry I go with an alternate stacked magazine. My 1st shot out will be a wad cutter, followed by my defense round. I do this for all 16. I use Eagle Black Talons which is a variation of the above rounds discussed. The 1st one will probably miss (or not), but I'll be able to know where the 2nd one needs to go. All it has to do is hit somewhere and they will do the rest of the work. These decelerate quickly upon impact. Do lots of damage and stay in the targeted body.

 

[MoNoXiDe]

+1 for home defense I prefer the shotgun. Should be able to repaint the room with the intruder and not worry about hurting the neighbors

+2 mossberg 500 is a nice shotgun for home protection. and just chambering a round will make someone stop in their tracks. it speaks all languages!

 

[dadofthree]

So a 50 Cal is definately out of the question...

Desert Eagle / hollow points


No, leave the Barrett in the safe

 

[dadofthree]

I would use a 158gr flat nose lead wadcutter. A nice high velocity lead round will not over penetrate and will put a whack on something for sure.

wadcutter, have not heard that term since I was a child, and that was a long azz time ago. Yes, before the wheel

 

[greensleeves]

So a 50 Cal is definately out of the question...

this could be a good home protection 50 cal! colt H-bar match comp lower with a upper ALEX-A 50 cal beowolf!

 

[dadofthree]

Stay the heck away from greensleeves

 

[brpo]

this could be a good home protection 50 cal! colt H-bar match comp lower with a upper ALEX-A 50 cal beowolf!

Yep - alot of the finest home defense weapons come with 10x50 power scopes.

+1 stay away from greensleeves...

 

[Projekt]

I like the jacketed hollow point. If you could get a 12 gauge with bird shot, It will still mess some one up but won't go through you wall. Keep in mind you have to be pretty close for it to be effective.
stud
Or the ounce of prevention is good too.
A 4 screw deadbolt receiver is good it screws into the "King" stud.
View attachment 259677
If they can't kick in your door you don't have to worry about it.

View attachment 259676

A strong kick will still get through that. Best bet is to use an auxiliary bar type floor anchored brace or for optimum intruder prevention, buy an armored door made with perimeter bolts that is fireproof and made with a steel chassis that resists small arms fire and is impenetrable by conventional kinetic ram type door busters, shot guns or shape charges due to the simple physics of its engineering.

Then you built up your street facing wall with the gaps between the studs filled with a bunch of last year's yellow pages to stop most drive-by shooting barrages or resist other conventional ballistics but not the force of a bulldozer. Either that or you make your own special layered ceramic or fiber reinforced concrete and sheet steel wall armor to provide protection against an extended attack on your home. Try to shoot through my wall surrounding my front door and you might as well shoot yourself..

 

[Projekt]

this could be a good home protection 50 cal! colt H-bar match comp lower with a upper ALEX-A 50 cal beowolf!

Do you actually shoulder fire that without a compensator or muzzle brake? What kind of grain count do your rounds hold?

 

[greensleeves]

+2 mossberg 500 is a nice shotgun for home protection. and just chambering a round will make someone stop in their tracks. it speaks all languages!

mossberg 590 and yes just chambering a round will make someone **** them pants and mumble" oh ****! "

 

[greensleeves]

Do you actually shoulder fire that without a compensator or muzzle brake? What kind of grain count do your rounds hold?

350 HP....its got a thump.........last hunt I dropped a texas doll ram at 86 yards on a run with one shot:satisfied:

 

[Flicka]

38 Special really isn't a terribly strong round. If over penetration is a major concern for you, then you're already working with one of the safer cartridges with respect to that. Corbon makes some great products, but you really have a lot of good options out there for your caliber with a good number of different brands. The Federal Hydra Shok has been a very popular defensive round for a long time now.

Now to the old myth that birdshot is safer and/or won't penetrate walls... That's just not completely true. Think about the distances you'd be shooting in a home defense situation. Often no more than 10-12 feet, depending on the layout of your home and size of the rooms. At distances like that, birdshot can still be incredibly destructive because the shot has barely any room to spread before impact. Consider that a standard 2-3/4" shell of any small hunting shot still contains 1 ounce of metal projectile. Also keep in mind that most defensive type shotguns have a cylinder bore. The spread of your shot will vary depending on the exact ammo type, but the general rule of thumb with a cylinder bore is that the shot will spread one inch for every yard it travels from the gun. A choked barrel can hold an even tighter pattern, intensifying the effect I'm describing here. So if you're shooting 12 feet across a room with a cylinder bore, the spread pattern of your 1 ounce of shot is likely no more than about 4 inches in diameter. If you hit your target with that, he's going to have a very bad day. However, if you miss with your birdshot from such a short distance, it will easily travel through a typical interior wall and inflict heavy (easily lethal) damage on whatever it hits. Just something to consider.

Here's a video that illustrates my point. It's not great quality, but you can get the idea.

 

[dane789]

I will agree that a 12ga is best. But you all are missing the point of the question asked.

HE HAS A .38 not a 12ga. He wants to know what ammo would be best for the firearm HE HAS.

Thank's for pointing that out Lurch, I can't fit a 12 ga shell (or a dog LOL) into my revolver. What about the CCI shotshells? They are like mini-shotgun rounds for hand guns. Are those a realistic idea or useless?

 

[Flicka]

Thank's for pointing that out Lurch, I can't fit a 12 ga shell (or a dog LOL) into my revolver. What about the CCI shotshells? They are like mini-shotgun rounds for hand guns. Are those a realistic idea or useless?

CCI shotshells are not a defensive round. They are more for pest control than anything else. Your goal in defensive shooting is to immediately cause incapacitating trauma to the cardiovascular or central nervous system of an attacker, and those little shotshells don't offer enough penetration to reliably achieve that.

 

[m_ridgeway]

38 Special really isn't a terribly strong round. If over penetration is a major concern for you, then you're already working with one of the safer cartridges with respect to that. Corbon makes some great products, but you really have a lot of good options out there for your caliber with a good number of different brands. The Federal Hydra Shok has been a very popular defensive round for a long time now.

Now to the old myth that birdshot is safer and/or won't penetrate walls... That's just not completely true. Think about the distances you'd be shooting in a home defense situation. Often no more than 10-12 feet, depending on the layout of your home and size of the rooms. At distances like that, birdshot can still be incredibly destructive because the shot has barely any room to spread before impact. Consider that a standard 2-3/4" shell of any small hunting shot still contains 1 ounce of metal projectile. Also keep in mind that most defensive type shotguns have a cylinder bore. The spread of your shot will vary depending on the exact ammo type, but the general rule of thumb with a cylinder bore is that the shot will spread one inch for every yard it travels from the gun. A choked barrel can hold an even tighter pattern, intensifying the effect I'm describing here. So if you're shooting 12 feet across a room with a cylinder bore, the spread pattern of your 1 ounce of shot is likely no more than about 4 inches in diameter. If you hit your target with that, he's going to have a very bad day. However, if you miss with your birdshot from such a short distance, it will easily travel through a typical interior wall and inflict heavy (easily lethal) damage on whatever it hits. Just something to consider.

Here's a video that illustrates my point. It's not great quality, but you can get the idea.

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Thanks for posting this, these threads make my head explode with amount of misinformation out there in today's world with the access we have to facts through google.

Buck shot will severely over penetrate as well. It's very effective though. I wouldn't trust my life with bird shot. Unless I was being attacked by pheasants.

As far as ammo for op I'm not familiar with what's out there for the .38, do some research. Bro science is not always good advice. I'm sure somebody is making a nice frangible round.

 

[Sous]

I still stand by my original suggestion of Hornady Critical Defense for your .38. There are a ton of good options here, but most of them do not even reference your needs. It would be like asking for a tire suggestion for your Hayabusa and people posting up tires for a tractor that work great for them.

Do a bit of research on the Hornady round and you will see it is a great close proximity round designed to stop some one.

 

[GsxrBots]

Hornady Critical Defense rounds. You don't have to worry about over penetration at all with a .38 special. Even a +P. You'll be fine.

Try not to over think it, just buy a bunch of boxes, and practice, practice, practice..