Paintball

[XxTexanxX]

Hey guys, I am looking at purchaseing one or maybe two rifles.

They would be for home defence seeing as I am getting rid of three of my shotguns. I want them to be semi-automatic and have a decent sized magizine. Price is no object, they should be powerfull enough to do what needs to be done in emergency home defence situations.

Any help would be apprecriated, this is my first rifle as ever since I have ownded guns I have only had shotguns and pistols.

[c6quad]

IMO your going the wrong way. keep the shotguns. that's what you need for home defense.

[Cale]

If you insist on a rifle, AK-47's are a great place to start. I picked up a Romanian one for $350-ish. Completely legal, as long as they are semi only, and they are very dependable.

[XxTexanxX]

Originally Posted by c6quad

IMO your going the wrong way. keep the shotguns. that's what you need for home defense.

Oh, I know, I am not getting rid of all my shot guns. I am keeping the double barrel, never drop that one.

Originally Posted by Cale

If you insist on a rifle, AK-47's are a great place to start. I picked up a Romanian one for $350-ish. Completely legal, as long as they are semi only, and they are very dependable.

Hmm, thanks for the advice. Do they got some good stoping power?

[c6quad]

well that's all you need then. the thing to keep in mind about a rifle is what is behind your target. with a larger rifle bullet, it's going to keep going straight through your target. if you have family members in other rooms or close neighbors you stand a good chance of hitting them too. you minimize that risk with a shotgun.

yes, AK-47's have plenty of stopping power.

[Fubarius]

So what is your home like? Are we talking apartment complex, suburbia, or are you watching over 40 acres?

If there's a single wall between you and your neighbor, anything with decent stopping power will have too much penetration. Just keep that in mind.

Personally, my rifles are for hunting, so stopping power is everything. Most assault rifles don't have enough punch for that guaranteed one shot and drop. I don't personally know of anyone who uses .223 or 7.62x39 for medium game (a category that humans would fit into). My choice is a 7mm Remington Magnum. Slightly smaller than the AK-47cartridge, but with nearly 4 times the gunpowder behind the bullet. To fire this cartridge I use a Browning Pump Rifle. 3 round mag, but if you don't miss, you won't need a follow-up shot. The down side to this monster round and other magnum rifle rounds, the kick is rather rough. Don't plan on sitting down at the bench and firing off a box of ammo, you'll end up with a bruised shoulder and possible develop a nasty flinch.

[Drum]

A shotgun would be useless against a "fleaing" suspect and his family in a minivan...

C'mon, Chad, he's talking about Texas!

I would suggest that you are best off with an M-14 or some other select fire hammer in .308 or 30'06. Both those calibers are readily available in armor piercing.

An AK would be a bad choice as it's accuracy cannot be depended on beyond, say, 300 yards. That's barely halfway down the block in your typical Texas ville.

If you cannot afford a crew-served weapon, then an M-14 (M-1a) would be your best bet for mounting a scope and really handing out the vengeance.

Good luck,
D

[doc Zox]

you want an ar15in 223/5.56, 16 inch barrel, collapsable stock, & several magazines. plan on sending a grand

Wall penetration - 5.56mm - THR

As I did some of the 1st tests on this subject, let me tell you what we found.
1. For the tests, we built sheetrock walls on 2X4's.
2. each wall (of 2 pieces of sheetrock) was 10 feet from the next.
3. There was no wireing or plumbing in the walls.
4. The final wall was sheetrock on one side, and T10 siding on the other, with no insulation.

In other words, we tried to duplicate a house, with normal spacing of the walls, but absent the wiring, plumbing, insulation, furniture, etc. that introduce uncontrolable variables. Houses are not built with sheetrock walls only inches apart, so there is no point in shooting layers of sheetrock.

5.56 rounds, did not reach or penitrate the 3rd (exterior) wall. In every case, it was apparent that the 5.56 bullets had either broken up, or become unstable as they exited the far side of the 1st wall sideways or in pieces.
9mm rounds, including 115g and 147 g, drilled neat holes straight through into the backstop.

My conclusions:
5.56 ammo, particularly 40g Federal BLITZ, was less likely to exit a house than 9mm from a handgun.
Downrange Wounds to unintended subjects from the 5.56 rounds would be of lesser severity, as they had mostly broken up, than from the intact 9mm rounds. Better to be struck by 'bits & pieces' than an intact 9mm round.

5.56 rounds are a better choice for interior combat than 9mm, as they pose a lower downrange hazard to innocents. This is in addition to their enhanced ability to penitrate soft body armor. This is what I reported to my agency.

I believe that rounds penitrate because of their velocity and mass. When the strike the sheetrock, they lose velocity, but not mass. Thus, the lighter 5.56 rounds lose more of their ability to penitrate than the 9mm, as they lose a greater percentage of thier velocity.

At the time of these tests, I was employed as an investigator by a Federal Agency. I have never been afiliated with any maker of firearms. My concerns were officer safety and weapon effectiveness.

[Stuffy]

I would say an m1 carbine its got enough knock down power to stop an intruder and not to much enertia to go through the wall behind the perp...through your kids, through your houses load bearing wall, through your neighbors house, into you neighbors ect, ect...
Plus you can get 30 round bannana mags for them.

[paintballssting]

Woohoo.......you guys got it easy. Your choices for weaponry is by far much more substantial then us boys up here in Canada.

BUT.........firearms are firearms no matter where you are

Not knowing how "deep" your pockets are and how plentiful your ammo supplies are makes it tough for a suggestion by me....BUT,

If I had my choice as well as deep pockets id go straight for a M4. That bitch is built for some serious *** kicking, but she is expensive and feeding her is just as expensive. Up here in Canada we have the Norinco version of the M4 but its called the M14S/305, she is cheap $425 CAD but the ammo to feed her is nasty expensive. We also have the SKS which is cheap to buy and cheap to feed.
If your going for home defense, stick with your shotgun but replace the buckshot and go for slugs instead that way when the prick is escaping in the minivan.....you can still leave your mark
As for hunting, either the .300 or the 7mm then again you have better access to the Barrett .50cal dont you?

In my gun cabinet cabinet right now I have a BSA .303, .30-30, 12ga "tactical", .22, and a P89 9mm as well as a 24/7Pro 9mm