Quote:
Originally Posted by WATCHDOG
There's a big difference between being on the line (a fairly well controlled situation and hopefully not lethal for you) and being in an unfamiliar dark house at night and hearing the sound of a shell being racked into the chamber of a pump shotgun. So you're in the dark, trying not to trip over stuff you can't see, and all of a sudden you hear that sound but you can't see where it's coming from. Plus, in the dark, sounds can seem like they're coming from one place when they're really coming from another.
Now...you might not pee in your pants, but it's gonna startle you and make you hesitate, and maybe start thinking breaking into this house wasn't such a great idea after all.
My first line of defense? A 1951 Winchester Model 12 factory riot gun with a 20-inch cylinder bore barrel. After 62 years, the action is still smooth as silk. I've run about 150 rounds through it in the past month...a mixture of #4 Buckshot and 00-Buckshot...with not one jam or malfunction. And although I'm getting on up in years, myself, I don't have any problem getting it back on target while pumping it. Oh, and did I mention you can slam fire it?
Actually, my real first line of defense is the Rottweiler whose photograph I use as my icon on this forum. I have two of them, and they sleep where I sleep. No one is going to be near my house...day or night...without them letting me know about it. So by the time some punk's finished trying to kick my door in or come in through a window, I already know about it, and Old Faithful and I will be waiting.
 |
The main problem with the "sound of my kachunkachunk as a deterrent" plan is that it projects reason and logic on to the potentially unreasonable threat. It also assumes the threat will leave instead of engaging in a fight with you.
When someone enters your home while you are there, it should be understood that they are likely there for the sole purpose of hurting you or your family. Otherwise, why not just wait till you leave and come in then? Because of this, a home invasion is a force-on-force scenario. In such a scenario, you don't want to fight fair and you don't want to give your opponent any advantage over you. Do you think the home invader will shout out, "hey guys, I'm over here and I have a gun"? Probably not. He/she wouldn't likely want to give away his position and capability to fight. When you rack your shotgun at a threat, you're letting them know where you are and what you're armed with.
Will most people probably high-tail it out of there? Yeah. Again though, the threat is likely there to harm you, may not be rational, and may also be armed heavily. It is best to barricade yourself and your family behind a strong door at the position of advantage in the room, have 911 on the phone, and wait with your gun aimed at the entry to the room. If the threat breaks in, and after you've identified them as a threat, you've got the advantage over the threat and can respond with force.
The threat has to essentially clear your whole house...probably by themself or with a team that's not very good at room clearing. Their disadvantages are that they don't know where you are and they don't know the layout of your house. When they enter a room, they have to scan it in it's entirety to find where you are before finding you and attacking. Their only real advantage is knowing when they will enter a room.
You have the advantage if you stay put because you know the lay of the room and can position yourself to your benefit, and you know exactly where the threat is coming from(the door). Your disadvantage is you don't know when the threat is coming. If you're barricaded behind the locked door, the act of breaking in will let you know when the attack is coming and give you the last advantage you need to beat them easily. If you're racking your shotgun and yelling at them, you've given them the "where" piece to their puzzle. You've also given them the expectation that you're armed and have narrowed their choices in how they will respond to you ahead of time.
Of course the worst thing you can do, which will give up all your advantages except your knowledge of your home's layout is to go room-clearing to bring the fight to them. In that case, you're attempting to engage in a firefight with an unknown number of threats with an unknown fighting capability, hoping to find them and stop them before they can find you and stop you. You also limit your ability to plan where your shots go in a 3-d range with permeable walls when you have to respond to a threat from any direction.
if that's not good enough, i guess i could use a cutesy bumper-sticker saying like the "pump mahhh shawtgunn" crowd...
While the racking of a slide is a pretty good auditory deterrent, the *BOOM* is much more effective.
and here's our first line of defense. Stoney's a very well-trained guard dog.
guard dog stoney.jpg