Best Guns for Home Defense
By: No Author Indicated
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Best Guns for Home Defense
The best gun for defending your home depends mostly on two factors: what you're comfortable using and what's tactically advantageous given the layout of your home. Generally, handguns and shotguns are best for home defense. Rifles are long-distance weapons and are somewhat less effective in close quarters, but they can still make excellent home-defense guns under certain conditions.
In this guide, we'll introduce the most important considerations for choosing a home-defense firearm and recommend our favorite models.
Stopping Power
When it comes to calibers, bigger is generally better, but there are many other factors to weigh. For instance, larger-caliber firearms incapacitate attackers more effectively but hold less ammunition. If someone breaks into your home, you probably won't be wearing extra ammo pouches, especially in the middle of the night. The rounds in your weapon may be the only ones you have quick access to.
Also consider which calibers and types of firearms you can shoot safely, quickly, and accurately. A smaller gun that you can shoot with confidence is more effective for home defense than a big gun you struggle to control.
Safety Checklist
Even if you hit the range every weekend, it's critical to train for the specific situations you want to be prepared for. Fending off an intruder in the dark just moments after you've been jarred awake is nothing like shooting at paper targets while you're alert and focused. Practice finding, loading, unloading and mock firing your home-defense weapons late at night. If you want to get really serious, do drills immediately after you wake up in the morning to simulate interrupted sleep — but use Snap Caps or training barrels to be on the safe side.
Conduct a thorough survey of the layout of your home and think about the directions in which you're likely to be shooting in a home-defense scenario. Also, think about the position, distance, and layout of your neighbors' homes. Bullets — especially big ones — aren't always stopped by walls. You could be criminally or civilly liable if you accidentally shoot an innocent bystander while defending your home. You may want to choose a weapon less prone to overpenetration, particularly if there aren't many obstacles between you and your neighbors.
For shotguns, #4 buckshot tends to be a good choice for home defense. It's powerful enough to drop an attacker quickly but less likely than the more common #00 buckshot to penetrate walls. Hollow-point rounds for pistols and rifles fragment on impact and the fragments quickly lose velocity, so again, they're less likely to overpenetrate. Most rifle rounds travel significantly faster than pistol or shotgun rounds, so overpenetration is, by nature, harder to avoid. Choose a rifle for home defense only if there are no neighbors or family members in any potential line of fire (or at least go with a smaller caliber). Remington 62gr Ultimate Defense and Federal 64gr Power-Shok SP, for instance, are .223 rifle rounds designed to minimize overpenetration.
Finally, give some careful thought to where and how you'll store your home-defense weapons. You'll want to strike a balance between safe storage and quick accessibility. If you live alone, or with another responsible gun owner, it's generally okay to store your firearms in a drawer or closet. If you have children, though, the equation becomes more complicated. Investigate biometric gun safes or wall racks that can keep your guns out of little hands without significantly slowing your access to them. Remember always to keep firearm safety in mind.
In any event, never store a firearm in condition red unless the entire trigger is completely covered by a hard-sided case or holster. As a quick reminder, the four weapon states are:
- Clear: No magazine loaded, no round chambered, slide or cylinder open.
- Green: No magazine loaded, no round chambered, slide or cylinder closed.
- Amber (not applicable to revolvers): Magazine inserted, no round chambered, slide closed.
- Red: Magazine loaded, round chambered. Weapon is ready to fire.
10 Best Guns for Home Defense
Home-defense needs vary widely, so we've assembled a diverse roster of our favorite shotguns, pistols, and rifles for that purpose. We chose these guns primarily for their reliability and ease of operation — two characteristics you'll definitely appreciate if you ever have to fight back against an attacker at night.
Mossberg 590 Cruiser
Caliber: 12-gauge
Capacity: 5+1
Action: Pump
Overall length: 31"
Barrel length: 18.5"
Weight: 5.75 lbs (unloaded)
The Mossberg 500 series of shotguns is one of the two most popular lines in the world, and for good reason. The 590 Cruiser is affordable, reliable, and highly customizable — many companies produce a wide selection of rails and accessories for this beloved pump gun. The 590 is more mechanically complicated than its spiritual twin, the Remington 870, but even so, it's pretty easy to operate, disassemble, and clean.
This shotgun generally comes with a pistol grip for increased maneuverability indoors, but there are plenty of affordable aftermarket stocks to choose from if you'd prefer. If you'd like to make it even smaller and more maneuverable, you can get a 2+1 capacity version from Serbu Firearms that's just 16.5" long in total — provided you're willing to wait nine months for the ATF to issue an AOW stamp.
Remington 870 Hardwood Home Defense
Caliber: 12-gauge
Capacity: 6+1
Action: Pump
Overall length: 38.5"
Barrel length: 18.5"
Weight: 7.5 lbs (unloaded)
The Remington 870 (the other most popular shotgun in the world) is ruggedly straightforward. It has fewer moving parts than the Mossberg Cruiser, which makes it slightly less prone to malfunctions. It's also much easier to disassemble and clean.
Most likely, whether you prefer this pump gun or the Cruiser will come down to your preferences on length, weight, and capacity; the 870 is larger in all respects. Serbu makes a super-short version of this shotgun as well, which costs $50 more than the Mossberg 500 variant but holds one additional 2 3/4" shell.
Mossberg Maverick 88
Caliber: 12-gauge
Capacity: 5+1
Action: Pump
Overall length: 47.75"
Barrel length: 28"
Weight: 7 lbs (unloaded)
Want a rock-solid pump shotgun for under $250? Mossberg subsidiary Maverick Arms makes a line of shotguns very similar to its parent company's 500 line. Many parts are even interchangeable between the two product families.
Functionally, the Maverick 88 is very nearly identical to anything in the Mossberg 500 line. Overall, the Maverick 88 is more basic and lacks some of the 500's minor features, such as swivel mounts and a pre-drilled and tapped receiver for scope mounts. The finish is also a bare-bones steel bluing, as opposed to the nickel or parkerized finishes you'll find on most 500s. If you don't mind these small differences, the Maverick 88 is an excellent pump gun at an unbeatable price.
Benelli M4
Caliber: 12-gauge
Capacity: 5+1
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Overall length: 40"
Barrel length: 18.5"
Weight: 7.8 lbs (unloaded)
If you're looking to get rid of a lot of extra cash, semi-automatic shotguns are a good way to do it. The Benelli M4 is widely lauded as one of the best on the market, and it makes frequent appearances at competitive shooting events , particularly 3-gun matches.
The main advantage that a semi-automatic shotgun has over its break and pump-action brethren is, of course, a superior rate of fire — especially useful when engaging multiple targets. The M4 has another distinct advantage in home-defense scenarios: not having to work the action manually means one less thing that you have to focus on during a tense, adrenaline-fueled situation.
Heckler & Koch VP9
Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 15+1
Action: DAO
Overall length: 7.34"
Barrel length: 4.09"
Weight: 25.56 oz. (unloaded)
HK's superlatively comfortable, full-sized VP9 is one of the most accurate 9mm handguns you'll find anywhere, and its notably low muzzle flip makes it very easy to handle. It also comes factory standard with fully ambidextrous controls and a smooth, easy-to-reach slide release lever.
If the 9mm round has a drawback as a home-defense caliber, it's that it will likely take multiple shots to fully incapacitate an attacker. However, the VP9 is exceptionally easy to fire both quickly and accurately, even for relatively inexperienced shooters, leaving it with few or no drawbacks as a nightstand gun.
Taurus Model 66
Caliber: .357
Capacity: 7
Action: SA/DA
Overall length: 12.25"
Barrel length: 6"
Weight: 40 oz. (unloaded)
Many well-built .357 revolvers under $600 tend to be small, which often also means that they're difficult (and sometimes painful) to shoot. As a home-defense gun, though, a .357 doesn't need to be small. In fact, a bigger and heavier frame is better — it will soak up some recoil and make the weapon easier to control.
The Taurus Model 66 is a 7-shot, foot-long Magnum with a smooth, medium-weight, double-action trigger pull. It comes with textured synthetic grips, which may not be as pretty as wood, but they do make the revolver a bit easier to hold onto. If you want top-tier stopping power with a mid-tier price tag, look no further.
Glock 21
Caliber: .45 ACP
Capacity: 13
Action: DAO
Overall length: 8.07"
Barrel length: 4.61"
Weight: 26.28 oz. (unloaded)
Inside your home, where an attacker can close distance in a fraction of a second, stopping power is critical. The large .45 ACP cartridge offers plenty of that — enough to stand in as an approximate substitute for a .357 Magnum or 12-gauge shotgun.
If the fourth-generation Glock 21 has a flaw, it's that it's 1.34" wide — a bit large for small hands to hold comfortably. In exchange, though, you get enough space in the grip to accommodate a 13-round, double-stack magazine. And, of course, the G21 is as supremely reliable as every other Glock; many owners report firing 5,000 rounds or more without a single malfunction.
FN Five-Seven (5.7)
Caliber: 5.7mm
Capacity: 20+1
Action: DAO
Overall length: 8.2"
Barrel length: 4.8"
Weight: 21 oz. (unloaded)
If you've heard of the FN Five-Seven, you've probably heard that it uses armor-piercing ammunition, which is generally a bad thing for home-defense weapons. It's true that the Five-Seven was originally developed to use AP rounds, but these rounds are illegal for civilians to own in most places. Civilian-legal 5.7mm ammunition does not pierce armor, although it still has a slightly higher tendency to overpenetrate than many other small and medium-caliber pistol rounds.
Provided you account for that, the Five-Seven's stellar ammunition capacity, low recoil, light weight, ambidextrous operation, and ease of use make it a great pistol to keep in your nightstand drawer. If you're not looking to spend a whole lot on a handgun, consider Ruger's more budget-friendly take on the Five-Seven design, the Ruger 57.
Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport II
Caliber: 5.56/.223
Capacity: 30+1
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Overall length: 35"
Barrel length: 16"
Weight: 6.4 lbs (unloaded)
AR-15s can get expensive quickly. Knowing this, Smith & Wesson offers a no-frills, budget-friendly 5.56/.223 rifle built for the essentials of home defense. Its 16" barrel makes it a little easier to use indoors than the standard 18" barrel, and the 5.56 round is tried and true when it comes to stopping power; just be wary of overpenetration.
The M&P 15 Sport II is manufactured specifically to fire the less expensive .223 cartridges as well, making range time a little easier on your wallet (all 5.56 rifles can fire .223, but some handle it better than others due to slight differences in how the two rounds are manufactured). All in all, this is one of the best sub-$1,000 AR-15s on the market.
Century Arms C39V2
Caliber: 7.62
Capacity: 30+1
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Overall length: 36"
Barrel length: 16.5"
Weight: 8.1 lbs (unloaded)
7.62 consistently ranks among the three most popular rifle calibers in the world. It's a little less accurate than a 5.56 or .223, but it hits much harder, and for a home-defense weapon, the lost accuracy is usually negligible. The C39V2 from Century Arms makes a superlative bedside rifle as long as overpenetration is not a serious concern.
Like the M&P 15, the C39V2 has a shorter-than-average barrel that makes it easier to wield in close quarters. It also comes with flip-up sights and a few other nice features most commonly seen on more expensive rifles. The C39V2 is compatible with most aftermarket AKM parts, and it has a proprietary side rail that mitigates a problem common to many 7.62 rifles: scopes and lasers being knocked off-center by recoil. Overall, this is a fantastic home-defense AK, especially considering its price point.
Stay Safe at Home and Elsewhere
If you're on the fence about whether to buy a pistol, shotgun, or rifle, check out the case for why you should use a shotgun for home defense . And your list of preferences and requirements for a home-defense gun is probably different from what you want in a daily-carry weapon, so take a moment to browse our guide to the best CCW handguns , too.
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The NT membership, having made it pretty clear that they have little interest in the variety of seeds/articles that I've been posting and challenging me on having a negative attitude about guns I've decided to acquiesce to the preferences of the majority of NT members and will post what should be of interest to them. After all, what's in it for me to have been boring them with what I thought were interesting, educational and/or entertaining articles.
I don't leave a tab open for NT, as I used to. I just stop by once in a while.
If I spot a seed from one of the Good Guys, I always Comment. I'll do what I can to encourage them.
When I come across an article that might appeal to one of the Good Guys, anywhere in the fairly large mass of "stuff" I peruse every day, I'll seed it... for them particularly, not in any hope of reaching a wider audience.
OTOH, I'm a "never say never" person. As of this moment, I don't see myself ever seeding stuff just because it appeals to me... My last experiences were rendered unpleasant by Mods interfering systematically at the wrong time: ignoring sabotage by the Usual Suspects, while applying unwritten rules whenever they please. But "never say never".
I hope you and the other remaining Good Guys keep trying. I enjoy what you seed, and I know you're the only hope for NT going forward. Personally, I no longer have the courage.
Even though I'm a target for more reasons than what I post, I'm not going to stop trying to make NT a better place.
Buzz
Your articles are great.
Intellectual and requiring a bit of intelligence and thinking to participate in the discussion rather than simply hating one side and blindly accepting the other.
I hope that your articles on travel, books, entertainment etc will continue.
I enjoy them and try to participate when I have anything meaningful to contribute.
Thank you Robert. I didn't say I was going to stop what I've been posting - I'm simply going to add articles that might please my critics.
Good to know.
I make it point to limit attempts to please my critics
On Newstalkers (and in life) often times when someone is criticizing you on a comment or position you offer it is because they are wrong rather than you being wrong.
Again I love the change of pace (and beautiful pictures) your articles bring to NT
Thank you, Robert. It is because of you and others who appreciate what I contribute to NT that I WILL continue to post what I choose to post, and those who wish me ill, and I just inherited a new one who deleted his membership from my groups because of my RED BOX RULES which I have learned I REQUIRE because of the shit slung at me for such reasons as where I've chosen to live or because my opinions on this site's moderation, politics, guns and life generally differ from theirs and in some cases such as my movie games because without those rules I would be forced to waste a lot of my time doing unnecessary research. I don't feel sorry for the losers who choose a path in which they merely display their ignorance and malevolence.
Lets clear the air here .
I in no way wish you ill so you did NOT inherit a new one , as a matter of fact i have stated i am happy you found a place that is to your requirements of life and liking , you finding your Shangri-la so to speak if you remember that conversation .
Yes i deleted my membership in your groups , i never read red box rules or group rules because i think they are ridiculous for supposed grown adults , but i after our exchange , went back and read them all for all the groups, and decided the best course of action for myself is to simply keep my opinion to myself and not comment anymore , and that is no reflection meant on you .
No matter how much i enjoy the articles, and i do enjoy some of them . I will continue to look at them, but yes , the red box rule led me to make the choice to delete myself from the groups mentioned . I shall in the future make sure i observe and follow group and red box rules more closely before i choose to comment , If the article is from a group.
IMO you overreacted. In the words of Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) to the boy who wasn't able to clean the ring from Goeth's bath tub) "I pardon you."
Ignore the fact that Goeth then shot the boy dead.
Ahh, the movies are SUCH a source.
[deleted][✘]
During my tours in Iraq and Afghanistan I used the Mossberg 590 for building clearance operations. It worked so well removing a threat that when I returned home I picked one up at Academy Sports and use it for home security.
I thought that for home security a pistol would have been a better choice since a rifle is too big for a bedside drawer.
The best thing for home security is what you feel most comfortable with. whether that is a pistol a shotgun or a baseball bat.
If someone with a gun broke into my home, I don't think I'd be particularly safe with just a baseball bat. But I'd feel secure with a Jewish space laser.
I don't think MTG has allowed them for home use, but i hope you are first in line when they become available, Might make a decent cheese knife.
The problem with hand guns is you have to be more accurate when firing. A shot gun, not so much. I may have to do some repairs but more than likely there would be at least one less dumbass breaking into houses and it saves taxpayer money.
I didn't know there was a special knife for cheese, and I've not only been a lover of all kinds of cheeses for most of my life but I'm almost alone in that love where I live and have to go to a major import box store to find imported cheeses other than the popular processed cheese slices that seem to be all the people here even know about.
LOL. Well, I was my high school marksman champion and although it was with a rifle, I think that if I ever tried it, and I think everyone here knows that there is no way I would even touch a pistol, I think I could handle it accurately enough due to the fact that the target would be pretty close.
I enjoy most of your posts.
I am also a strong defender of my right to own guns
You know I appreciate the fact that you do like what I post, and there is nothing wrong with your responsibly exercising the right that your nation specifically grants to you., My concern is and has always been about the misuse of that right, which unfortunately is MUCH too great in America.
Meh. These debates are weird to me in that they almost always seem to focus on stopping power. That’s great a thing to worry about if your home invasion involves a bear or an elk.
But a human being? You shoot most humans with a BB gun and they will sit down and cry and probably roll around on the floor in agony. There’s a good chance that even this much will send them running off into the night. Further attempting to victimize you is probably more trouble than it’s worth. Sweating the difference between a shotgun or a 9mm or even a .22 is probably irrelevant. If you want to use a firearm, I think you’re best off using the weapon and ammo that you are most comfortable using to your maximum effectiveness.
So, some rifles (e.g., AR-15 style) can be great if you’ve practiced working the inside of a house with them, but if not, you may be slow getting on target, and they can be complex to deal with if it’s dark, and you’re panicked.
Handguns can be simpler to operate and quicker to aim, but like the rifle, it can be easy to miss, even at close range.
Shotguns fix some of that, but they are not magic. Spread patterns at close range are not that much bigger than a single bullet - at least not so much bigger as to make aiming irrelevant, as is often implied. And then you see people recommend buck shot for shot guns. Even as a full grown man who works out, getting kicked in the shoulder when firing buck shot makes me wanna cry.
Also, remember that shooting any firearm - particularly in the house - is going to be LOUD. Like disorientingly loud. Like you or your family might suffer hearing damage levels of loud. Think about that before you get something that fires large caliber or supersonic bullets.
Bottom line, use the weapon you are comfortable using and you’ll have your best chance. For a human being, getting shot by anything suuuuucks.
You just gave me an idea. How about posting a sign (lit up at night) in front of your house that has the picture of a gun and in bold letters says GUN OWNER ITCHING TO SHOOT AN INTRUDER.
There are signs like that out there
With my unique sense of humor, this is my favorite warning sign. I do have a small backhoe, one of the best and most useful things I ever bought. I might get this sign mostly as a joke.
Arvo...only have one sign at my front door..never ever had any problems...but lots of laughs..
Well put!!!
That's the kind of sign I meant. In that case the potential intruder doesn't even have to be able to read English.
I'm not sure about the relevance of a backhoe, unless it's for the purpose of digging a grave for the intruder.
Having been owned by a cat for 17 years I appreciate that one - would have put it up if I knew about it.
That is the idea. The only graves I have dug with it was for dogs that died of old age.
Okay.
One of mine says "FORGET THE DOG. BEWARE THE OWNER!".
LOL You must think the intruder has a sense of humour.
One can always hope, or at least a sense of irony...
If I thought I needed a weapon (which I don't) I would go for a 9mm pistol as I am experienced and comfortable with it. Besides it would be the easiest to handle and aim with my limited mobility
Because of the massive gun violence in America, I couldn't blame ANYONE for strapping on a holster and never being without their gun. I've always enjoyed watching Westerns.
Luckily that is something you don't have to worry about encountering
Yes, and don't I know it. But it doesn't stop me from worrying about the safety of my grandchildren who go to school in Milwaukee.
This year, I think there were 2 killings in county I live in and both were done by knife (In a county of about 44,000 people I guess there are almost that many guns )
Last month I actually exercised my Concealed Carry Permit rights and took my pistol with me. I need some home repairs done and got a very substantial discount for paying cash. I had to take several thousand dollars cash to a town about 35 miles away, since I made a cash withdrawal, I also dropped off cash payment on the Charger's repairs, as that was on the way. Cash gets things done at a better price.
Having my pistol and a big dog made feel more secure caring a lot of cash.
Don't worry, I'm sure the National Knife Association will make sure the SCofUS doesn't ban knives.
There are lots of knife and sword collectors here. A popular TV show, Forged in Fire is a competition to make knifes and swords. The winner gets $10,000.
My wife's favourite cutting tool is a cleaver, and I think that's pretty common here.
Lol there was a killing in my town 17 years ago, that's Canada for ya
Sounds more like small town.
Hunting knife or bow and arrow?
Maybe so, but would you like to see the "per 100,000" statistics comparing Canada to the USA?
That's correct, population approx 14,000
Hunting rifle I think, it happened about a year before I moved here. It didn't actually happen in town but rather on a nearby reservation
It doesn't really have anything to do with my comment. But if you want to, it's your seed Buzz.
I myself own a 9 mm semi auto pistol and a Mossberg M-702 Tactical Plinkster .22 caliber semi auto rifle. It is black and looks like a M4 carbine at first glance. I keep both weapons loaded with hollow point rounds. Either one will put somebody down at close range aiming for center mass. I use to have a M1911 .45 but my arthritis won't let me handle the recoil anymore.
Quite the collection, honestly my first response was having a shotgun but then I realized how difficult it would be to move and use while hobbling around on crutches and changed my mind to a pistol
I know it's been more than 18 years since I've lived in Canada, but I never would even have DREAMED that I would need or even WANT a gun, and I lived in Toronto, not a small town. What happened?
Lol don't ask me I've never lived in Toronto, the biggest city I ever lived in was Kingston and that was 35 years ago
"Home invasion" is a myth. There's less than one case per year in the whole country.
It's an excuse for firearms that have no purpose other than to kill lots of people very quickly.
No hunter needs more than three rounds without reloading. No target shooter needs more than three rounds without reloading. Only a killer intent on murdering lots of people needs more than three rounds without reloading.
If there's no intent of killing people, there's no need for big magazines.
Now... one may "want" something without "needing" it. One may enjoy blasting away. Fifty years ago, in a jungle far away, I enjoyed blasting away with a "grease-gun" loaded with one in three rounds being tracers. It was entertaining. Of course... If I wanted to do something similar today, it would be at a firing range, using a weapon that never leaves the range.
High-capacity firearms at home kill the people who live there.
Do you have a link to proof of that? I agree with the rest of your comment. If you mean a whole number of people breaking in, I'm sure there are instances of that happening, in fact there certainly have been examples of police doing it. However, I think that most times it would be a single person unless Macaulay Culkin were the only occupant.
I'm talking about the mythological "attack on peaceful family at home". SWATs, drug busts, meth lab explosions... are not included.
I researched this a couple years ago, and didn't keep any links. It's hard to weed out all the deaths that are more or less caused by America's gun culture, like SWATting.
OTOH, it's easy to find total gun deaths in the country - close to fifty thousand every year. Most are suicides - it's hard to know how many would have been avoided if there was no firearm easily at hand. There are over nineteen thousand gun murders every year.
Guns are the fourth most common cause of death among young Americans.
But hey! Playing Rambo is s-o-o-o-o much fun!
You contradict yourself in the 1st sentence. The rest is a matter of opinion.
No matter how you spin it, the firearm has never been the problem. The problem nobody wants to address is the person holding the firearm.
I've addressed it. In America parents protect their kids even if they know they badly need emotional or mental health help and most times the kids are the ones guilty of killing their parents are as much to blame as the kids are. That's not a mental health problem, that's a societal one. Anyway, although you and others say it's not a gun problem, it's a mental health problem, IMO you happen to be right, and the biggest problem is that fuck all is being done about it. Besides, it would probably bankrupt America to build and fund the needed mental hospitals and professional staff required to take care of the existing problem.
Wow, 40 comments in 16 hours - sure beats Literature and Books. LOL
Yes. It says something about American - and NewsTalker - "culture".
Bob, I'm doing the best I can to try to make NT a better place. I'm posting new NON-POLITICAL NON-GUN articles every single day in a thankless attempt to maintain with them about a third of the Front (Home) Page in the hopes of showing potential new members that there is more to NT than politics and guns because IMO there IS more to life than politics and guns, notwithstanding the massive resistance to that reality.
I appreciate your effort.
I also appreciate Sysephus's efforts.
As long as TPTB are happy promoting fascism, the Front Page will be mainly fascist, because the fascists are organized for that purpose.
I also admire Don Quixote.
LOL. You got it.