It's not the caliber, it's how well you shoot it.

[Delkal]

Not the same as shooting inside of say a hallway or room in the house But I can tell you that shooting a 45 cal. handgun from the inside of a car(sitting drivers side shooting out the pass. side window) is 5X as loud as shooting at the range without muffs or plugs in also there is the concussion and flash even in daylight. It was similar to a flashbang! everything felt like it was in slow motion for a few seconds, This was a training scenario we did back when I was a LEO .

As others has stated though In a stressful situation ie: buck fever for example I have heard that rifle going off but that report and concussion were alot lower than just at the range but still noticed it , How that would translate to a handgun fired inside of a narrow 3 foot wide hallway when your zoned in and ampped up with Adrenalin I dont know but I will tell you you will feel that concussion .

As to the original issue of this thread ,Simple shoot as much gun as you can accurately and with total control. Keep shooting till there is no longer a threat .

I am wondering if you would have noticed the flash bang effect if it was a real life experience and not a training scenario. You subconsciously knew it wasn't a real situation and I am sure it was as loud like you described.

There are numerous accounts where in a life and death experience you get "tunnel vision" to concentrate on the problem. Even worse accounts where people in the military get parts blown off and don't realize it for a while. I would assume "distractions" like a noise or flash would be ignored if you were in this situation.

Luckily I have not had to test this. The closest I have come was with deer hunting. Sight in your slug barrel with 10 shots at the range and your crying........Take 2 shots at a deer and you don't remember the sound or the kick.

And YES, the take home message for this thread is to shoot what you are comfortable with and keep shooting. It will work.

[Boo Vuccla]

Oh God I hate to add to this but..........shooting well, regardless of caliber is just part of the equation. In the dark? Muzzle blast, (big fire and light), will blind the shooter and the intended target also. Loud bang? Not so much as again, when your stressed, you know it's coming. (The intended target won't). How tired are you? Groggy? Hung-over? Still inebriated? Do you have night-sites? Are there others in the house? Spouse? Kids? Family staying over? A kid with a key that may come and go occasionally? There are a lot more factors in home defense that add to right and wrong. But for the original question which was bullet or pellet placement over caliber of the projectile, this is the most important factor: Where do you live?
Where you live, the caliber and how you shoot it is more important overall. If I lived in an apartment building with neighbors above, below and on three sides of my place, I don't want my neighbor defending his place with a 500 S&W, 454 Casull, etc, etc. My home on a acre of ground is still within 50 to 60 feet of other occupied structures. Heavy hitters will go through multiple walls of residential homes if it doesn't hit a stud. Even if you do practice long and hard, it's too easy to miss and way too easy to have a pass-through of your target that causes collateral death & damage. The press loves to publish these encounters when they happen!
Shoot everything you own well but shoot home defense with what will work without jeopardy to others. (And no.......a don't like a 22LR for defense either).

[Mitch10mm]

Did anyone mention that often the display of a firearm is enough to stop the threat? It's not the movies where the bad guy is determined to carry out the attack for little reward.

[Emptymag]

The perfect solution is a .22LR 1911.

Big, scary gun to potentially scare them off and little pew pew rounds for sensitive widdle hannies that don't like recoil.

[Zeke2A]

Food for thought...
When practicing at defensive distances with a handgun you have nice little holes in paper to indicate where your shots are landing (instant feed back). Some people even use that feed back to adjust their next shot(s).
When shooting a human, you may not be able to tell exactly where your shots are landing, let alone (in the heat of the moment) if any of your shots hit the target.


Even COM shots may not stop the attack. It's my contention that you keep shooting until the threat is neutralized, regardless of where your shots landed.

Sage advice .....only time I disagree is if there are multiple threats .

[Zeke2A]

I would keep shooting until my weapon is empty, and then reload before even checking the condition.

This could get you into legal trouble ....dropping 17 rnds of 9mm into a perp after he hits the floor after 2 ....excessive force ? IANAL ...but dumping a mag into a neutralized threat is bad juju ...

[animalmother85]

Proper shot placement is easy to train for, easy to say and easy to do when your on the range shooting paper or steel. Try it in the dark, disoriented and in your tightly whities and tell me how it works for you. My guess is you wont be scoring amazing one off head with any pistol in any caliber.

Shoot a man from the side having to penetrate through an arm then into the toroso and tell me if you would want a 36gr .22lr.

^Yep

I would prefer a 11.5" AR-15 loaded with Hornday 77gr TAP or a similar 77gr fragmenting round.

You forgot to mention that you have a light on there.

It's funny how many people recommend shotguns for defense when those who practice and compete shooting multiple targets quickly under stress almost unanimously agree that it's harder to use well than either rifle or pistol. I can hardly see how someone who shoots 1-5% as many rounds a year is somehow better off.

^Yep
At no part in OTC, SFAUC, or SFARTEC do they primarily use Shotguns for clearing rooms. Shotguns are for birds and breaching...and deer in certain counties. Stop fooling yourselves on their versatility.

I believe it's called auditory exclusion. It's like the tunnel vision people experience in high stress situations, but instead of a narrowing of one's vision it's a temporary loss of hearing.

I experienced some degree of auditory exclusion on the rare occasions I've shot deer while hunting; I was in full "buck fever" each time. My ears weren't ringing after the shots, and the shots themselves were nowhere near as loud as I've heard in the very few times I've been around gunfire without hearing protection.

This is very common among the uninitiated. Been there. After you have your cherry popped a few times, you start wishing that you left on your MSAs/Peltors. However, waking up in a to a bump in the night leaves you very amped up. Perception changes, things are not as loud. We haven't even begun talking about micro to macro/fine to gross motor skills.


The best thing I've come across so far for 'home defense' is an SBR (8"-11" barrel or so) with a good two point sling and a good light. I've run through shoot houses with things from M9s and Glock 19s to SAW/Mk48s. Shotguns are no magical room clearing device, no matter how much you want to justify your purchase or validate your opinion, they just aren't. Not even the ones that fit 8 rounds in them. A converted Saiga may be ok, but I wouldn't trust it from a reliability stand point.

a 22lr is ill advised, especially if assailant is under the influence of some sort of upper.

Don't want to believe me? Head over to Primary and Secondary and see what other guys with similar experiences say.

So I guess to sum it up, I'd say it's both; The caliber and how well you shoot. This should be in the rifle section because pistol calibers - for the most part - suck.