[ScottA]

Originally Posted by charliegirl

Shooting the $hit this morning and a guy at work shows me a pic of his new revolver, a S&W .357. In this conversation, he tells me that revolvers are better for home defense because they're faster to shoot because there's no slide to worry about, you just point and shoot. I'm fairly new to the gun world, but I disagree with him saying revolvers are better for home defense. Even with only a year's worth of experience, I mess around with my gun a lot and have gotten to where I can pick up, rack the slide to chamber a round all in the same fluid movement and it feels like second nature. Plus, you can always have a round already chambered.... am I missing something or are revolvers really better for home defense like he claims?

ugh... fanboys.

[HockaLouis]

Revolvers are basically foolproof and failsafe. Hell, there isn't even a safety! And if a round fails to fire, pull the trigger again. I recommend these for relatively new and/or very infrequent shooters especially if they're women.

Shotgun: preferred.

My first bump-in-the-night go to: an 8+1 medium frame double-action military semi-auto in a holster w/a spare mag.

[SK2344]

I think the safest would be the short barrel shot gun but the best is what you handle well. I shot my .45 hollow points through a metal covered door, 9mm & .38 through sheet rock and wood. The thing that I fear most is killing someone in the next apartment! Your bullet will not be stopped by the walls in your home. Having said this, I have a handgun ready to fire in every room of my apartment!

[HockaLouis]

...to stay the heck out of Palm Beach County Fla. (if you have a handgun in every room of your apartment, need it or not).

[Johnny357]

My HD preference: M1 carbine with 15 round mag and two backup 15 round mags in the stock pockets.

[Biohazurd]

I use both I have hi cap semis all around the house but I also have a few smith and ruger revolvers as well Ruger gp100 6" is one of my favorite house guns. And if for some crazy reason my cyl and my speedloaders are empty it would work good as a club ha ha!

[sweeper22]

The "best" can only be defined by your specific skills, preferences, and environment (urban vs rural, children present, etc).

If I had half a second to grab something it'd be an auto pistol. There's always one within quick reach in my home.

If I had few moments to hunker down, I'd get ahold of a 12ga or 9mm carbine.

I've got a DA 357mag that I like just fine, but I'm not great with it. If that was the platform I learned on and invested a bunch of trigger time into, I'd probably feel a bit different. But I've invested the time and money mastering (well, sort of) my various auto pistols. I suppose I have 5 that would meet the criteria for a full-framed battle type pistol, and shoot each regularly.

[Doc3402]

am I missing something or are revolvers really better for home defense like he claims?

For the most part I would say that it's up to the individual, but there is an exception. If you buy ammo off the shelf it's up to the shooter which style firearm they are more proficient with when waking from a dead sleep. If you are a reloader, and are deeply concerned about not shooting through the neighbors house, I would pick a revolver hands down. There are some neat things you can do with 158 grain hollow base wadcutters in a .38 or .357 magnum revolver that you can't do with an auto-loader. You can also reduce muzzle flash by choosing different powders, something an auto-loader may not tolerate.

So how do you practice shooting from a snooze to see which one works better for you? Beats me, but that's part of the reality of home defense.