Does Birdshot Turn Into a Slug at Close Range?

This is a guest post by Andrew Betts For some reason, people desperately want birdshot to be suitable for home defense. They will come up with all manner of excuses to make that work.

Making Birdshot Useful for Defense

This is a guest post by Andrew Betts At this point, most people should be well aware that birdshot is an extremely poor choice for defense. Sure, the knuckle dragging window lickers will proclaim that it has killed people, but so has heart disease. That doesn’t make a bucket of KFC a good home defense […]

Patterning Your Shotgun

A lot of the “experts” out there will tell you that you can pick up a shotgun with any type of ammo in it and simply point in the general direction of a bad guy and you will hit them.

Shotgun Drills

As with any firearm, if you are going to own a shotgun for home defense you are going to need to practice shotgun drills in order to get and stay proficient.

Mossberg 500 Tactical Shotgun Review

  The Mossberg 500 is a great shotgun that makes an excellent home defense weapon. It’s reliable, easy to operate and not extremely expensive.

“Cruiser Ready” Is a Bad Idea

This is a guest post by Andrew Betts How Should I Store My Home Defense Gun? By its very nature, a home defense gun should be ready to use as quickly as possible yet be secure from unauthorized use. Some folks also bend over backwards to find additional issues to worry about. For example, it […]

How to Store a Home Defense Shotgun

One of the questions we get asked a lot is how to store a home defense shotgun. One thing you have to think about with especially pump shotguns is that they are not drop safe. That means if you drop it with a round in the chamber, it can go off. For this reason, most […]

What Makes a Good Home Defense Shotgun?

What makes a good home defense shotgun? While we are not total fans of a shotgun for home defense (read about this here), a good one in trained hands does make a pretty good home defense weapon.

Franchi’s Affinity Shotgun Review

  This is a guest post by Tarra Stoddard As I first picked up the Affinity Shotgun, the quote “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” came to mind. The light weight, along with the shotgun’s  perfect balance was  immediately noticeable. It has a 26″ barrel, and empty, the Affinity weighs 5.6 pounds. For […]

Racking a Shotgun

This is a guest post by Andrew Betts There are a great number of folks that advocate racking a shotgun for home defense. Is this a viable strategy? Should you do it?

Finding the Right Shotgun for a Woman

By Home Defense Gun Staffer Shana The Right Shotgun for a Woman More women these days are getting into shooting and hunting, which is a great thing. But finding the right gun, especially a shotgun, for a woman can be tricky at times. Many women borrow a gun from a man the first time they […]

How to Load a Shotgun

You would think it is relatively straight forward on how to load a shotgun. Most have a tube that you simply push the round into until the tube (magazine) is full. Like everything it is a lot harder when it’s dark, your adrenaline is pumping and someone is shooting back at you.

Shotgun vs Pistol for Home Defense

There’s always a done of debate of shotgun vs pistol for home defense. Stopping power, penetration, ballistics all come into the discussion.

Think Twice about Shotguns for Home Defense

Shotguns suck for home defense I know, I know there are going to be some comments about this post. For a lot of people, shotguns for home defense are either a love them or hate them proposition. In my opinion, a shotgun is not a bad weapon for home defense. However, it’s not necessarily the […]

Mini Shells for Defense?

This is a guest post by Andrew Betts Mini Shot Shells Back in the early 2000s, Aguila introduced some mini 12 ga shells. This is one of those things that “seemed like a good idea at the time”. I immediately bought a box of them thinking they would be a great choice for defense because […]

Should You Have a Pump or Semi Auto Shotgun for Home Defense

You will get a lot of different answers if you ask someone if you should have a pump or semi auto shotgun for home defense. There are a couple types of shotguns that we are going to immediately dismiss for home defense. These are the single shot, double barrel and bolt action guns. One school […]

Long Gun Retention

You need to practice long gun retention. The last thing you want is to have your rifle and shotgun taken away from you and potentially used against you and your family. It’s easier said than done. Clearing a building with a long gun gives a threat a good opportunity to wait around a corner and […]

Using a Long Gun for Clearing a House – Doorways

Clearing a house with a long gun (rifle or shotgun) has its pluses and minuses. You will generally be more accurate with a long gun, have more ammo with a greater punch. Besides the overpenetration issues, you are going to have to make sure you can clear the house without flagging your position or even […]

How to Survive a Gunfight

We found an oldie but a goodie on how to survive a gunfight. The weapons may change but the principles don’t. This video is a compilation of old FBI training videos. Not to over exaggerate, these tips could save your life!

Are Short Barrels for Shotguns Better?

Home Defense Gun Staffer takes on the question of “Are short barrels for shotguns better?” 

Hunting Guns for Home Defense

by Home Defense Gun Staffer Bob Hunting Guns for Home Defense I’m not trying to say buying guns isn’t a great hobby. Heck, I love to buy guns. Sometimes it seems like I’m better at buying them than using them. I have all the hallmarks of an avid gun buyer, including my own coffee cup […]

10 Gauge Vs 12 Gauge Vs 20 Gauge Vs 410 – Home Defense Shotgun Ammunition Gauges

Home Defense Shotgun Ammunition Gauges Shotgun sizes have always been measured in a way that confuses most everybody. You would think that the “12” in a 12-gauge shotgun means some sort of measurement.

The Browning Silver Lightning Shotgun for Home Defense

The Browning name is well known among shotgun enthusiasts for high quality, high performance, autoloading shotguns that feature superior fit and finish. Thus, with its distinctive semi-humpback receiver, the Browning Silver Lightning is a fitting tribute to its original predecessor, the Browning Auto 5 which was designed by John M. Browning in 1898.

Shotgun Ballistics Every Gun Owner Should Know

If you own a shotgun for home defense, you really should know shotgun ballistics and what your weapon and ammunition is going to do inside your home.

Send this to a friend