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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ucbvax!jade!jkh
From: jkh@jade.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.rec.guns
Subject: Re: handgun advice solicited
Message-ID: <2597@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Mon, 23-Feb-87 17:56:13 EST
Article-I.D.: jade.2597
Posted: Mon Feb 23 17:56:13 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Feb-87 01:14:04 EST
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 30
Approved: jkh@ucbjade
Author: trwrb!trwspp!spp2!jeff@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Jeff Hull)
Article: 2:28

>Good Idea, the only thing I consider usefull for home defense is 
> a 12 ga shotgun with a 19 and 1/4 inch barrel.  It not only has good
>psychological value (to the 'bad guy'), you don't have to worry about
>missing if you were in a situation.  Pistols are great, but under the 
>kind of stress that situation makes, do you really want to try and hit
>something?  If you have to point a gun a another person, you better be 
>ready to use it, and if you're ready to use it you better be ready to 
>kill said person should you have to.
>
>[ All good points, however, I couldn't help but put my two cents in.
>  Shotguns *DO NOT* spread shot out appreciably at ranges one would
>  be most likely to encounter a intruding felon. You had better damn
>  well "worry about missing" with a shotgun or any other piece. I'll shut
>  up now.. Sorry. -jh ]

For serious home defense, the ONLY choice is a shotgun, whether it started
life as a shotgun or as a handgun that you have loaded with shotshells.
The reason is, of course, penetration.  Any, repeat ANY, load you can put
into a handgun that has reasonable probability (for me, that means 99%+)
of taking out an intruder will also punch right through the walls of any
normal house or apartment and still have enough energy to kill your
daughter, the neighbor, or whomever is in that room.  Something like a
.357 magnum has a distinct possibility of retaining lethal energy after
punching through several walls.

Get a shotgun and load it with birdshot, e.g., 6s or maybe even 8s.

P.S. Jordan, you're right about little spread, of course, but a good
gunsmith can open the choke up a little beyond full-bore (which,
technically, makes it a blunderbus) to help matters.