Our last blog post was all about the best-concealed carry pistols on the market. These pistols were small and easy to conceal while still feeling excellent in hand. When we’re shopping for a home defense weapon, we have a little more freedom regarding size and caliber. Here are a few tips to help you find the perfect home defense weapon for you!
Consider Your Home’s Construction
Your home’s construction materials and floor plan should be considered carefully when choosing a home defense weapon. You’ll want to assess whether the occupants of your home are clustered together in their respective bedrooms, or if they are spread out across the home. Regardless of the platform you choose, your rounds will likely have the ability to travel through walls if they are suited for personal defense. That means you’ll have to remember that any misses, or even a round that travels through a target, could potentially travel through your walls as well.
You will also want to survey your home to find the longest shot you would reasonably need to take if an intruder were to breach and enter. If you have long hallways, consider whether you would feel confident hitting a target with precision using a pistol. Ultimately, you don’t want to be missing shots in your home, where missing the target can potentially harm other occupants. If there are shots you don’t feel confident taking, upgrading to a rifle may just give you the precision you need to feel comfortable placing difficult shots.
People often recommend shotguns as the ultimate home defense weapon, citing that the racking sound alone can often be enough to defuse a threatening situation. While that sound is certainly quite intimidating, it won’t matter much if you struggle to place shots across the home. Additionally, if you happen to miss, that is eight live bullets inside of your home for the price of one trigger press. People often “fix” this issue by downgrading to birdshot, which we can’t recommend either simply because it doesn’t pack a strong enough punch to reliably neutralize threats.
Can I Just Use My Everyday Carry for Home Defense?
If you are a CCW permit holder, you may be wondering if you can just use your EDC as your home defense weapon. That will really depend on the pistol itself and your confidence in using it. In general, your EDC is probably the pistol you’ve trained with the most, making it a prime candidate for self-defense in any setting. If you carry a smaller pistol, like the Sig Sauer P365, you may want to consider keeping another pistol in a quick-access safe for home use. The better handling characteristics of larger pistols may help you keep every shot on target when precision matters over everything else. That being said, if you are choosing between a shotgun you keep under the bed and shoot once a year and your P365 that you practice with once a week, the P365 will be a natural choice.
Improve Your Home Defense Strategy with Soteria Training Academy
Soteria Training Academy provides expert pistol training with an emphasis on safety. Whether you’re a beginner in the world of firearms or already have a wealth of experience, we look forward to helping your shooting skill set. Contact us today by visiting our website, or call us at (410) 216-3176 to learn more.