Rifles for home defense

I have a friend that’s a graduate of the Parris Island School for Wayward Boys, he loves to remind me why rifles are the best home defense weapon. So this last post in the trio is dedicated to him. Semper Fibula! Or whatever.

Rifles of all kinds are popular for home defense. For the sake of brevity I’ll examine the three most popular: bolt action, lever action, and semi automatic.

Many people discount the bolt action rifle as a legitimate home defense weapon. They have their reasons, some of which are good. I’m not hear to trash any weapon. Except .22s, they’re horrible. Anyway, BARs have many advantages as HD guns. Most modern BARs are chambered in hunting calibers powerful enough to at least take down medium sized game such as hogs or whitetail deer. A good rule to go by if you choose a BAR as your HD gun is that if it’ll kill a deer in one shot it’ll kill your attacker in one shot. The amount of rounds you’ll, most commonly, be giving up is more than made up for with the power of the rounds you have. The 30-06 Springfield is a personal favorite because, well, you aren’t reading this in German or Japanese are ya?

Lever action rifles are all around the best of the hunting rifles. No matter the job a LAR will get the job done. Some LARs are also chambered in pistol calibers so they’ll give you more accuracy and ammunition than your typical revolver or semi auto pistol. The 30-30 winchester is BY FAR the most common caliber LARs come in and there’s no denying its effectiveness on both dangerous and/or tasty game. I would caution against using a rifle chambered in 45-70 for home defense. They’ve been known to penetrate multiple houses and obviously that’s not good.

Last and black riflest are semi automatic rifles. AR’s and AKs being the most common, actually, most common doesn’t do them justice. It’s more like they’re freaking everywhere these days! Almost all of them come with picatinny rails so you can attach all sorts of stuff on to them. Lights and sights being the most popular. Need to open a cold one while defending the homestead? There’s an attachment for that. Want to store extra batteries for the living room tv? You can do that. Short barrels and red dot or holographic sights are best for close quarters work. I’ll note though that outfitting an AR or AK for home defense will be the most expensive option of the three I’ve discussed.

This brings us to the end of my three part home defense series. Thank God.

On a serious note, parts the 101st and 82nd airborne divisions will be deploying to Afghanistan this year. Deployments are brutally hard on both those deployed and those at home. Help those effected out if you can. If you’re willing, email me at TactPunk@outlook.com and I’ll be happy to put you in touch with some great people or charities.

“Rendezvous with Destiny”
“All the Way”