Given all of the "sage" advice on what constitutes a proper defensive caliber...

M

Mike Irwin

Staff
I've made a decision on what I'm going to carry on my person and keep in my home for self defense.

I'm making this choice based on the multitude of comments I've observed here over the last several months, the constant interplay between the "light and fast" and "heavy and slow" guys, the "9mm sucks, .45 rules" crowd, the "accuracy accuracy accuracy" afficionados, the "you need 700 in the mag and 70,000 in reserve" groupies, the, well, you get the idea...

I've managed to locate a Lahti 20mm anti-tank gun.

What could be better for personal protection after I cut it down to belly-band or thunderwear dimensions?

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>10 round magazine
<LI> explosive bullet roughly 10 times the weight of a .45 ACP bullet.
<LI> semi-automatic gas operated
<LI> roughly 12,000 footpounds of muzzle energy (of course that's with the rifle-length barrel)
<LI>VERY intimidating looking at the muzzle.
</UL>

What do you think? Will I be well protected? Should I send it to one of the big-name gunsmiths to have an action job and perhaps have it ported? Should I worry about flash frying bystanders with the muzzle blast?

Does anyone know where I could get a belt holster for this?

Christ, I need another gin and tonic...

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Yes, the triggers really suck on those things right out of the box. Also, I'd get some Tritium night sights and laser grips. Oh, and a full-length guide rod.
 
Hmm, the 20 mm is OKAY I guess, but for "real" defense I would definitely have a backup derringer with a "serious" caliber...the Davis 40mm over/under loaded with a couple of HEDP rounds should round out your CCW selection. I suggest an ankle holster with that so you can draw quickly in the office cubicle and lob one seven or eight partitions over on that jerk who keeps using his speakerphone all day.

;)

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"Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond."
-Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
 
You might want to ducktape a mattress or some foam rubber to the rear wall of your living room so it doesn't hurt too much when it slams you thru the wall from the recoil.
 
Obviously get it necked down to .22, carry a 1000 round magazine and have Corbon design the whole thing so it travels at the speed of light with infinite mass and fps.

Now, as to the real controversy: Beefeater or Tanqueray gin?
 
I was really new to the self-defense business when I started reading this forum. Here I had been an LEO and carried a 5-shot .38 revolver and thought it was OK. But after reading the advice of much wiser experts, some of whom are actually old enough to own a gun, I have changed my mind. I now carry a 155mm Howitzer, with the wheels removed as my primary defense weapon, backed up by two 105mm's in my back pockets, and a TOW missile in my vest pocket. This is in addition to 24 Glocks, with 80 spare magazines for each and seven cases of ammo, and 18 Bowie knives.

Let me tell you, it gets tough when jogging, but one must protect oneself.

Jim
 
Mike -- Wonderful post. Thank you.

Seriously, however, how much thought have you given to those 20mm rounds; there's a wide variety to select from: HEI, AP, Frag, tracer ...
 
There's one benefit to the Lahti. When you carry it in Thunderwear, you're going to be the envy of all the guys and the target of all the girls. Unless you scare them off. :)
 
Excellent!

I no longer carry a gun for self defense. When getting dressed, I simply strap 20 sticks of dynamite to my chest attached to a dead-man switch. If anyone threatens me or a loved one, I threaten to blow us all straight to hell.

Nothing scares a nut more than a bigger nut.

What scares me is that this would work. Although an ND would be pretty obvious. I wonder if I can get a trigger lock for it.
 
Actually, I don't even know who he is. He sounds like my kinda guy.

Gotta go, it's time to switch hands on the switch.
 
Conrad was a writer in the late Victorian era. He wrote a novella called "The Secret Agent."

One of the characters was an anarchist who walked around with a flask of nitro or some sort of explosive in his jacket with his hand always on the exploder.

Conrad also wrote Lord Jim, The Secret Sharer, and perhaps the most famous, Heart of Darkness, on which Apocalypse Now was based.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
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