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February 16, 2014, 07:38 AM | #26 |
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To me, the advantages of a handgun for home defense are that it can be used one handed if needed and it's easier to keep on your person at all times within the house. Obviously, long arms can be more powerful than handguns and are usually easier to shoot accurately.
My long guns are locked in the safe but I can keep my EDC with me in the house. If I had plenty of advanced warning, I'd barricade the family and get a long gun out after calling 911 for help. If I had time to do all those things, I should have time to put on some hearing protection. For folks that want to use a 5.56/.223 type firearm for home defense, they could minimize muzzle blast and flash by careful choice of ammunition and the use of a flash suppressor rather than a muzzle brake. This chart indicates that an AR with some muzzle brakes is more than ten times louder than the same gun fired with the quietest flash suppressor. Even the inexpensive A2 flash suppressor is less loud than any muzzle brake tested. Muzzle brakes may help a little in competition but I don't see the point in one on a home defense rifle when a flash suppressor not only reduces the muzzle flash, it is less loud. |
February 16, 2014, 12:21 PM | #27 | |
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In the sound debate, what most people miss is that properly taken readings are done in an anechoic chamber. If not a chamber then we have to look at the environment it was taken in as it is not "Controlled". Were the measurements taken out doors or in a large room like a firing range? It matters.....a lot. When fired out doors the sound gets to go away from us: the direction of travel. That is why the sound is much less behind the gun as opposed to the side of the muzzle or in front of the muzzle. When fired in doors such as in a hallway, much more of the sound is reflected back towards us. You can easily get 10 or more dB GAIN depending on location / distance from walls and corners, and construction. You also get a longer duration of the sound pulse due to reflection. With this in mind if I could use a suppressor to knock 20 or more dB off of the source; I would take it. |
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February 16, 2014, 02:35 PM | #28 | |
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I'd go with the hearing protection for several reasons. Electronic muffs not only protect your hearing, they can make it better. Electronic muffs are much cheaper than a suppressor and they work on whatever gun might be discharged, including one the attacker may have. Ear muffs also don't have the stigma attached to them in the general population that a suppressor might. |
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February 18, 2014, 10:32 PM | #29 |
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I see this brought up more and more on different forums. The question always goes something like this one.
AR's are louder than say a 9 mm pistol. If you don't believe me stand between them on the range (with ear protection of course) and see for yourself. How much louder, I don't know, just louder. Put a suppressor on your AR if that is what you are going to use in your house. You need to be able to hear everything if you are going to defend yourself so ear protection is not a good idea. As far as I know you can't suppress a shotgun so that's out. The least amount of noise is going to be from a suppressed pistol. Lots of good ones available. Here's a Sig suppressor. http://www.sigsauer.com/CatalogProdu...mm-sig-sd.aspx Not being able to hear is a disability and a handicap. Vets get paid for it. I lost a fair amount of my hearing in the Navy working with aircraft. Don't assume that a few shots inside a house won't damage your hearing because it will. Last edited by lostintheozone; February 18, 2014 at 10:47 PM. |
February 19, 2014, 02:51 AM | #30 | |||
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For me, in times where I've fired an M16 under stress I've experienced auditory exclusion; I couldn't hear the shots but I could hear and feel the buffer and spring moving under my cheek. So it's possible the gunfire won't distract you in the heat of the moment. But keep in mind that the auditory exclusion phenomena is purely mental; you'll still experience permanent hearing loss from the shots. Me, I have a silencer on my AR-15. It's my stationary "hole up in the bedroom with my family" gun so length isn't that much of an issue. Quote:
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February 19, 2014, 09:16 AM | #31 |
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Hearing protection is another tool in the box. No one says it's required for a defensive situation, that'd be foolish. However, if you've got a pair of electronic muffs next to the bed and something goes bump in the night, it takes less than a second to put them on.
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February 19, 2014, 09:31 AM | #32 | |
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and/or Issue us a wife who repeats everything someone else tells us. After a while you'll learn to read wife's lips.
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February 19, 2014, 05:31 PM | #33 | |
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I use M193 55gr FMJ for HD. |
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February 20, 2014, 12:48 AM | #34 | |
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February 20, 2014, 05:14 AM | #35 | |
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- Jon Disequilibrium facilitates accommodation. 9mm vs .45 ACP? The answer is .429 |
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February 20, 2014, 01:04 PM | #36 | |
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February 20, 2014, 02:03 PM | #37 | |||
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In the event of an errant bullet, M193 is not barrier blind. Walls are hard barrier materials that present shear force resistance to bullet penetration which causes M193 to fragment. Quote:
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February 21, 2014, 08:53 AM | #38 | ||
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Read these pages:
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I'm not condemning your use of XM193, it's my go-to round if I run out of soft points. Just understand you still need to be aware of what is beyond your target, even behind interior walls.
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- Jon Disequilibrium facilitates accommodation. 9mm vs .45 ACP? The answer is .429 |
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February 21, 2014, 10:27 AM | #39 | |
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Okay, you've convinced me. The "Box O' Truth" link you posted compelled me to do a little more research about 55gr FMJ and the other tests I've found confirm and validate that it's likely to not fragment and penetrate more walls than JSP or JHP.
Now I'll either have to find wall penetration test data for the following loads or perform some of my own wall penetration tests:
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February 21, 2014, 02:30 PM | #40 |
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Report and temporary deafness is one thing. But I think flash is more of a concern. I can't find a cite but I believe I have read over 3/4 of home defense firearm use is at night. Temporary deafness is a reduction awareness. Temporary blindness from a flash indoors in the dark is a full loss of awareness for more than a few seconds.
As far as wall penetration this depends on a lot of variables. If you are in a wood frame with many residents it is different than a brick frame with one or two residents |
February 21, 2014, 05:14 PM | #41 |
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If you can see well enough to identify and fire on a target, it is a virtual guarantee that you have enough light that muzzle flash is not going to be a problem. I have fired numerous guns in the dark. The only one that had enough flash to effect my vision, even a little, was a 18" barrel 12ga firing deer slugs. Even with that one, I was left with a "glare" in the pitch black that was a complete non-factor as soon as I got to a lit area.
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February 21, 2014, 06:46 PM | #42 |
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And it's also amazing how much a good flash hider can lower your muzzle flash at night.
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February 21, 2014, 08:31 PM | #43 |
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My own HD AR is a 16" carbine. I keep a 20rd mag of PRVI 75gn Match JHP.
I like that the PRVI is relatively affordable and available. Although my carbine has a 1/9" twist, I got good accuracy at 100yds, so I am not concerned with close range accuracy. I do have a spare 20rd mag of M193 handy.
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