Feedback, Criticism, Hysterical Laughter On My Home Defense Plan?
- Thread starter Ruger9er
- Start date
g.willikers
New member
A short coming with bars over windows is not being able to exit through the windows if needed.
Might be a problem under certain circumstances, like a fire that blocks the doors.
Just a thought.
Also, shooting across an occupied bed has dangers, even if the bullet misses them.
There a lot more nasty stuff coming out of a firearm barrel than just the projectile.
Might be a problem under certain circumstances, like a fire that blocks the doors.
Just a thought.
Also, shooting across an occupied bed has dangers, even if the bullet misses them.
There a lot more nasty stuff coming out of a firearm barrel than just the projectile.
Wow, you have your hands full. Thoughts and prayers out to you and your wife. I wouldn't worry about providing access to a SWAT team, I'd imagine that things would be way beyond your control if they're needed.
Others have pointed out that a home invasion is unlikely. However do you have regular visits from vehicles that advertise healthcare services? If so that makes you a bigger target because criminals could target your house as a source of opiate related prescription drugs. That's a problem in my neck of the woods, and I'm on a few acres in the boonies too.
If you don't have a solid dog now then that isn't IMO that isn't a solution. Dogs are great, but also a lot of work on top of what you're already facing. Your alarm can wake you up and alert you, your outdoor lighting can do the same.
Try to make your place look like someone is awake and active 24/7. Alternate leaving lights or even a television on from different rooms. Put yourself in the head of a junkie who wants a quick and easy robbery, make it seem like you aren't one.
Others have pointed out that a home invasion is unlikely. However do you have regular visits from vehicles that advertise healthcare services? If so that makes you a bigger target because criminals could target your house as a source of opiate related prescription drugs. That's a problem in my neck of the woods, and I'm on a few acres in the boonies too.
If you don't have a solid dog now then that isn't IMO that isn't a solution. Dogs are great, but also a lot of work on top of what you're already facing. Your alarm can wake you up and alert you, your outdoor lighting can do the same.
Try to make your place look like someone is awake and active 24/7. Alternate leaving lights or even a television on from different rooms. Put yourself in the head of a junkie who wants a quick and easy robbery, make it seem like you aren't one.
Presuming you have smoke detectors, and I guess to a certain extent depending on your floor layout, you should be able to either put out or escape a fire before both doors are blocked.
Maybe someone with ladder and a set of bolt cutters can get through the bars , but most break-ins aren't that well planned out. The average criminal tooling around looking for a place to rob isn't going to choose the house with a security sign out front and bars on the window.
Rose bushes - or something else with thorns - under the windows are another good option if you're a gardener.
There's no way you can make a house impossible to rob, your goal is simply to make it less appealing than some other house.
Maybe someone with ladder and a set of bolt cutters can get through the bars , but most break-ins aren't that well planned out. The average criminal tooling around looking for a place to rob isn't going to choose the house with a security sign out front and bars on the window.
Rose bushes - or something else with thorns - under the windows are another good option if you're a gardener.
There's no way you can make a house impossible to rob, your goal is simply to make it less appealing than some other house.
2damnold4this
New member
Well placed book shelves full of books can sometimes stop bullets. Reinforcing the back door to make it less likely someone could break in might be a good idea. Bright flashlights are good if a break in occurs after dark.
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
That might be a concern if there weren't 5 doors and close to a dozen windows without the bars.
Any protection can be defeated. Of course they can be cut, that's how I installed them. The point is making it HARDER and RISKIER than everybody else's property.
Who's going to risk a well defended property when there's soft targets right next door?
Let's see, this one (a small business) has night vision camera's covering the entire exterior and interior cameras as well, barred windows where they aren't plainly visible from the road, motion lights near those windows, street/parking lights where the windows are visible and security signs on doors and windows indicating an alarm system and an apartment upstairs occupied by the owner, accessible from the outside only by a single door.... Hm, I'll bet that's fortified too.... the houses all around in every direction have... nothing.
Hm... Which to pick... I wonder?
No security system is unbeatable. The point is making a hard, loud, dangerous target in a world of soft, quiet, safe targets.
Your greatest advantage will be skill and tactics, not specific firearms.
Sign up for at least one class on defensive shooting. Playing games like IPSC or IDPA is also good for practicing parts of the defensive skillset, and making you a faster, more accurate shooter. (They're fun too!)
If you are not maneuvering through tight spaces, a long-gun usually is an advantage. The longer sight radius and additional stability from the stock tend to make people more accurate under pressure, when compared to pistols. That said, if you have never trained with the shotgun, don't expect to perform well under life-threatening stress!
Practice enough that you revert to the correct action when under stress.
You home sounds like a reasonably hard target, compared to most. Denying or dissuading intruders is a much better solution than getting into a gunfight with them!
Sign up for at least one class on defensive shooting. Playing games like IPSC or IDPA is also good for practicing parts of the defensive skillset, and making you a faster, more accurate shooter. (They're fun too!)
If you are not maneuvering through tight spaces, a long-gun usually is an advantage. The longer sight radius and additional stability from the stock tend to make people more accurate under pressure, when compared to pistols. That said, if you have never trained with the shotgun, don't expect to perform well under life-threatening stress!
Practice enough that you revert to the correct action when under stress.
You home sounds like a reasonably hard target, compared to most. Denying or dissuading intruders is a much better solution than getting into a gunfight with them!
Brian Pfleuger
Moderator Emeritus
Of course. 
Sorry to hear about your wife.
You have a plan, most people (maybe not on TFL) do not have a plan, nor had a LEO take a look.
If you are comfortable with the mouse gun and shotgun, keep them. If you were more comfortable with an xyz, get / trade one of those.
Your being armed, an unknown element to an intruder, is a distinct advantage.
I wouldn't tweak much of anything. Good luck.
You have a plan, most people (maybe not on TFL) do not have a plan, nor had a LEO take a look.
If you are comfortable with the mouse gun and shotgun, keep them. If you were more comfortable with an xyz, get / trade one of those.
Your being armed, an unknown element to an intruder, is a distinct advantage.
I wouldn't tweak much of anything. Good luck.
Thank you everybody!
Right now - I'm comfortable with the 9mm. That will be my bedside gun with the 17 round mag. I've decided not to get rid of the Mossberg, but see if I can get at least somewhat comfortable with it 5 shots at a time or maybe go ahead and take a skeet class that's not too far away.
I got the GP100 yesterday. I have a feeling that may become my go to gun but I'll just have to see. I shot some rounds with a rental at the range and liked it. The feel is like it was made for me - I have long thin fingers on big hands. I kind of figure if 6 shots of 38+ or 357 (don't know) don't do it then it's my time to go...
Right now - I'm comfortable with the 9mm. That will be my bedside gun with the 17 round mag. I've decided not to get rid of the Mossberg, but see if I can get at least somewhat comfortable with it 5 shots at a time or maybe go ahead and take a skeet class that's not too far away.
I got the GP100 yesterday. I have a feeling that may become my go to gun but I'll just have to see. I shot some rounds with a rental at the range and liked it. The feel is like it was made for me - I have long thin fingers on big hands. I kind of figure if 6 shots of 38+ or 357 (don't know) don't do it then it's my time to go...
I'm not sure that it's accurate to refer to the SR9c as a "mouse gun".
The SR9C is a 9mm compact handgun, but when it is equipped with the extended magazine/grip as the OP has done, it gives up nothing in capacity compared to a full-sized service pistol and little in terms of shootability. Even without the extended magazine/grip it weighs about the same as a Glock 19. With the extended mag it is heavier than the Glock 19 and holds more rounds. Without the extended mag it's still significantly larger in every dimension than the Glock 26.
It does give up something in sight radius and barrel length compared to a full-sized pistol.
Buy some bird shot and try it out at the range at relatively close distances. Bird shot is not expensive and will provide enough feedback to be a good practice loading.
If your shotgun is set up in a "defensive" configuration, it probably isn't a great choice for use at a skeet class. Defensive shotguns are usually set up with a short barrel--usually a fixed cylinder choke--and an extended magazine. Shotguns intended for aerial shooting usually have longer barrels and some accommodation for changing the choke of the barrel.
I'm not trying to discourage you from taking the skeet class, I just don't want you to get frustrated. A 18" bbl with a cylinder choke probably isn't really going to make you feel good about your performance in a skeet class.
I currently own a 20 pound Boston Terrier that only barks when he wants me to wake up. But I kept the "beware of dog" signs that I got when I owned Rottweilers and Shepherds. They're in several places on the house and garage.
I also installed several fake video cameras that I got from Radio Shack for ten bucks with big signs that advertise 24/7 coverage. They have coaxial cable feeds, and I went as far as to put a dummy cable entry on the surface of the outdoor walls where I placed them. They also have blinking red led bulbs that I've been happy to find last for two years before you need to replace the batteries. I've also covered the entire perimeter of the house and garage with motion detector flood-lights. The only downside to that has been that I've grown complacent to their triggering because of deer and other critters.
I live in a small town without a police force, I've learned from experience that an LEO response is 45 minutes away. The local bad guys know that too, they don't care about alarms because they know the response time.
I also installed several fake video cameras that I got from Radio Shack for ten bucks with big signs that advertise 24/7 coverage. They have coaxial cable feeds, and I went as far as to put a dummy cable entry on the surface of the outdoor walls where I placed them. They also have blinking red led bulbs that I've been happy to find last for two years before you need to replace the batteries. I've also covered the entire perimeter of the house and garage with motion detector flood-lights. The only downside to that has been that I've grown complacent to their triggering because of deer and other critters.
I live in a small town without a police force, I've learned from experience that an LEO response is 45 minutes away. The local bad guys know that too, they don't care about alarms because they know the response time.
It was said: "A shotgun is the absolute best HD weapon for virtually everyone."
Please remember that statement is an opinion, . . . nothing more.
A shotgun can easily become a liability when the BG has hold of the barrel, . . . when all 3 rounds are shot out of it, . . . when you cannot get to it because it is in the other room (vs pistol on the belt or in the pocket), . . . or when it gets its barrel stuck coming around a corner in the hallway, the curtains, or a myraid of other places and things.
A shotgun has it's place, . . . but as an HD weapon, . . . it is just a choice, and for some is great, . . . for other's it is more of a liability.
A shotgun also requires much more training to become operationally competent with it, . . . than does a pistol or a revolver.
May God bless,
Dwight
Please remember that statement is an opinion, . . . nothing more.
A shotgun can easily become a liability when the BG has hold of the barrel, . . . when all 3 rounds are shot out of it, . . . when you cannot get to it because it is in the other room (vs pistol on the belt or in the pocket), . . . or when it gets its barrel stuck coming around a corner in the hallway, the curtains, or a myraid of other places and things.
A shotgun has it's place, . . . but as an HD weapon, . . . it is just a choice, and for some is great, . . . for other's it is more of a liability.
A shotgun also requires much more training to become operationally competent with it, . . . than does a pistol or a revolver.
May God bless,
Dwight
If by "operationally competent" you mean it has a more complicated manual of arms, then that is true when compared to a revolver but not when compared to an autopistol. The manual of arms is pretty comparable in complexity to that of an autopistol.
If you mean that rentention techniques may be more complicated with a shotgun (or any long gun) then that is probably true.
If you mean it takes "much more training" to make good hits with a shotgun than a pistol or a revolver, that's going to be a difficult opinion to support. It's much easier to make good hits fast with a long gun than with a handgun.