Fabio



I love questions like these.

I fire a lot of .38 special from my .357 and I can tell you it would be an excellent choice for a home defense revolver. Some points and info you may consider.
-.38 is a very versatile round and avail in a wide selection, from wad cutters to JHP

- easy to find and cheap(where I live at least)

-plenty of power to stop an attacker, I would suggest anything in 125 gr for this purpose.

-a revolver, like IR said, is a very rugged weapon and very easy to use and maintain. If you buy a revolver I would suggest a few speed loaders and at least 12 dummy rounds. Then practice your loading/ unloading drills until they become second nature. Practice to load quickly in the dark or blindfolded. This is VERY important when selecting a revolver. The last thing you want when something happens is to be fumbling with trying to put rounds in the chambers.

- The advantage of any auto is the speed of loading/reloading. the higher magazine capacity, and the rate of fire. I can’t foresee many home defense scenarios where you will need to be firing that many rounds, so a revolver is more than enough most times. With practice with and without speed loaders you can easily get a complete unload/reload done in under 5 seconds.

-the advantage of the revolver is that it is very unlikely to jam and if you get a dud round you just pull the trigger to rotate the cylinder to the next one. In a gunfight, the last thing on earth you want is a jam, especially if you have only one gun. The next most terrible thing is running out of ammo. This is the disadvantage of the revolver. In a HD scenario, you should hopefully not need to reload but if you do its best you are quick. Revolvers take practice to do this quickly.

-the .38 special rounds have very little recoil. It is very easy and forgiving to shoot and your wife will be able to fire it just as easy. The heavier grained rounds will recoil more. Any round with a +p or a +p+ stamped into the bottom is a hotter round. These can kick a good deal harder and some are close to the performance of the .357 rounds. Do not shoot these hot .38s out of an older revolver and note that hot rounds will burn out your barrel very fast.

ABOVE ALL ELSE, when it comes to home defense guns or ammo remember that SHOT PLACEMENT is the single most important thing IMHO. people can argue all day long about expansion, stopping power, terminal ballistics and the like but If you miss the tgt or if you don’t hit the tgt in the proper place it won’t be of much good to you so practice every chance you can get.

On that same note, a 12 ga is one of the best home defense guns available, bar none. The big advantage is the wide variety and selection of ammo available (from shot, slugs, or some of the more exotic ammo like terminator rounds or flechettes) and of course, its massive stopping power at short range. A pump is far superior in reliability to most semi-autos, and some such as the Mossberg 590 will hold up to 9 rounds.

- for home defense, stick to the 2 3/4 inch rounds and if you cannot reload your own then buy some reduced recoil rounds. This gives you more ability to bring the muzzle back on tgt for follow up shots. a reduced recoil #4 or 00 buck will be more than enough to stop any threat dead in its tracks if you are on tgt, Literally

-to prevent the threat of over penetration inside your home, stick to #4 buckshot as the smaller pellets easily smash through flesh but not walls. A shot of double buck (8 pellet) will be like getting hit with 8 .32 cal pistol rounds all at once. These tend to go through people and walls, and are better used outside or where there is no danger of hitting anything unintended beyond your tgt. a center of mass hit on any intruder will most likely end your problem very fast.

-avoid magnum rounds for home defense. They simply have more pellets than the non-magnums but recoil much harder. If you can’t keep on tgt there is little advantage to more pellets.

-unlike the movies, a good hold and aim is still required of a scattergun. at 10-15 feet, which is a reasonable long shot in the home, the pellet spread may still be the size of your fist or smaller. IMHO I would avoid the "from the hip technique" and stick to a gun with a good solid shoulder stock. Shot placement is paramount, even using a shotgun. The advantage of a hard stock, besides the better aiming ability is that if someone gets the jump on you a good butt stroke to the throat will be a good way to keep the close quarter fight in your favor.

Man. I can go on all day but I will sum it up there. No matter what you choose, practice makes perfect. I vouch for the .38 and the 12 ga out of what you listed, but any firearm in the hands of a skilled individual can be a very effective tool indeed. With good drills and shot placement, even the tiny .22 will stop a very determined attacker.

This is my home defense revolver. I use it in conjunction with my .45 APC Para ordinance semi-auto, and my Mossberg 590 in 12 gauge. My HD rounds of choice for the .38 special are 125 grain Hornady XTP JHP. The little bag holds 9 pellets of 00 buck as a comparison to the size of the .38 special 125 gr bullets.

[img][IMG]http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll200/taurus-135/revolver.jpg[/img][/img]