[Doc Intrepid]

Unless you sold out some organized criminal group to the FBI, or ran off with some mobster's girlfriend, or in some other way identified yourself for "special treatment" by some gruesome individual, I could never get behind the idea of rifles for home defense.

The reason why is simple. Try carrying a rifle with you around your house, everywhere you go, everything you do, for one full day. Make coffee in the AM, work in the garage, hit the bathroom, do a little yard work, all wearing a slung rifle.

90% of the time, a rifle in a home defense mode is going to be leaning against a wall "over there" somewhere.

It ISN'T going to be on your person, or even in your immediate vicinity most of the time, because toting a rifle around with you everywhere you go is a PITA. (Guys in the infantry learn this really well.) If the day ever comes that you need it, it's going to be leaning against a wall somewhere you aren't - upstairs if you're downstairs, or out in the garage if you're in the kitchen.

What you'll have with you when the moment comes is a pistol.....

And as was said above, you'd have a hard time explaining to the gendarmes why you initiated deadly force in self defense from 300 yards....

That said, if you're absolutely focused on toting a rifle around for home defense, I'd go with the lightest rifle and the most rounds available. A 5.56mm rifle, preferably a SBR if they are legal where you live, is a good weapon to resolve interpersonal disagreements, its fairly lightweight, and it offers 30 rounds or so of a relatively well-proven round.

I love .308s for other scenarios, but for totin' around the ranch day in and day out, something short, lightweight, and handy is probably a better selection.

Just MHO. YMMV.