Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike McLellan
I doubt that home-owners insurance would cover the amount of collateral damage that you're likely to incur with a shotgun. If you have to actually shoot an intruder in you living room, not only will you splatter blood & tissue all over the ceiling and walls, you will ruin the carpet as well. You may say that it was a small cost to pay for your family's safety, but I prefer a .22 magnum. Chances are, you won't immediately kill your target and he might make out the front on his own power. The bark & bite of a .22 magnum will scare the heck out of any but the most whacked-out intruders. You may have to shoot more than once, but you can do so without destroying your house.
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Ugh. Let me make a contrary argument.
The least of my concerns regarding a serious UOF incident in the house is cleanup, and I am actually reasonably confident that such should be covered by insurance. Given that at least one of my dogs is going to a very good job at creating nasty wounds and blood trails, it does not matter what I shoot them with, if it even becomes an issue. There will be a company coming to do a biohazard cleanup regardless.
The first step is to make your home less appealing to intruders. Lights, fencing, etc. The second is to make it physically harder to enter - good windows and doors, etc. Associated with both of those is a canine alarm system. Notice is good, and dogs are better company than alarms. A big one, even if not likely to go full landshark on an intruder, sounds like a bad idea to an intruder.
If someone determines to continue after those levels of discouragement, the last thing to consider is choosing a weapon with "not making a mess" as a criterion. Choose a weapon/weapons that delivers as much as you can control; the best typically is an AR. Good ergonomics, less risk of over penetration than pistol rounds, and even less risk because you will shoot it better and dump as much energy as possible into the offender. While some offenders who face a gun or receive wounds will in fact change their path, some will not. Depending on the good judgment or good will of someone who has neither based on what you are already experiencing is not a course I would advocate.