shotgun as night weapon

[ikor]

Do not underestimate the power of brute force...it is usually what the BGs use. Sledgehammers, kicking doors open with shod feet, bolt cutters, lifting gates off of tracks, etc. Understand, too, that high walls, etc. make it almost a certainly that once inside they will have privacy from anyone driving by or casual observation.

Given my druthers I would have blue lights and sirens atop the wall, or maybe the house, screaming at the touch of a button along with the other measures mentioned. If nothing else it will make your place easy to ID and locate for the cops or Security. Also as mentioned, many domestics are in on the plan and have been known to give details on security systems to the thugs.

Stil...three good friends have been robbed at gunpoint simply because they failed to secure their outside gate from the driveway to the back yard...complacency is a bitch. Best of luck.

[BadBoyTazz4Ever]

I'm not sure about a shotgun for home defence always thought it mostly for the wife to sit in the room with door locked & shotgun pointed at door shooting anything that comes through it.

I find it a bit to long for cramped spaces like hallways trying to turn & clear a room with out the weapon being exposed to someone behind the wall & them being able to make a grab for it. But then i'm fairly new to firearms so i might have a lot to learn.

Agree with locking the sleeping area off from the rest of the house. We don't have the most advanced security system, etc but what we do have is a lot of door between use & the living area & each one gets locked every time we leave the house or go to sleep. Next step is a security gate in the hallway & more security measures outside, best is still to catch them before they get to the windows & let them know with a siren etc that you know some things off...

Edit: One area i see people underestimating is the roof, take the time & fir a motion sensor or two in the roof, especially guys with tile roofs they make less noise when messing with them than sink does...

...
Dog in the bedroom taught to bark if hears strange noises (yes this can be lernt by the dog)! Hard to beat, will wake you + add to intruders problem has to deal with the dog as well. Inside dog less likely to be poisoned. Small yappers work well for this especially "wors honds".

...

I would love to know how you teach a dog that. Our little one has this habit of sitting up & paying close attention to what ever noise she hears outside / in the house but not making a noise. We never fought with her if / when she barked at noises we actually encouraged it & rewarded her if she did. I'm thinking she just got to use to noises in the house with the boarder we had for just over a year.

[ikor]

Dogs are like people...every one has their own personality. The term you are looking for with a dog as described (here in the states, anyway) is 'sharp'. By that we mean the dog is alert and ready to sound an alarm at any strange noise. They are not usually good serious defense dogs, since they prefer to make noise rather than engage, but they are perfect to sleep at the foot of the bed. Much can be seen in the parents of a puppy, and any breed will do fine.

Do not feed your dog(s) in the evening...rather feed in the morning or no later than mid day. Have friends come 'round and beat / bang on the fence, etc. and encourage / reward barking, etc. when the dog responds. Get stupid high with the praise...girl voice...goofy...the dog will love it. (one reason women make excellent OB trainers)

[BadBoyTazz4Ever]

Don't want to derail this thread to made a post in this topic: Dog Training...

[RyanD]

Wow guys, I re read this thread and it has highlited a few points I need to look at.

Thanks for taking the time to post.
Ryan

[miklin]

A few quick points from my perspective.

1) I have srong security gates in my passages. What makes me happy with them is that I have bricking from above the gates up to my double-volume ceilings. Why this is important is that though people feel safe with passage gates, they ignore one important factor - ceilings. On two separate occasions when I was on duty I got to a house where suspects were on other side of a passage gate. I climbed the gate, broke through the ceiling panel, crawled along, and broke my way through the ceiling panela bit further down. Did not take long, and was not difficult (but was messy and noisy). Pay attention to that point in your security.
2) roofs are indeed extremely weak points in any house's security. Beams in the roof are a great idea
3) personally I would not lock my bedroom doors at night. For me I want my family to be able to get to my room quickly in an emergency, and vice versa. Bedroom doors almost without exception yield on the first kick too. The most important thing though is that I do not want to have to open doors etc if I hear noises at night etc. Takes the surprise out of your defense, and gives the suspects the upper hand. Again this point is my particular opinion, and as malcolmm says not all houses have designs that allow passageway gating.

[sako308]

Interesting topic this i have my millennium pro 9mm and 1300 win pump action at night next to me. 8 years back i had 5 intruders in my house they literally carried all electrical appliances out of my house on the floor below i realised i had trouble in my house called my neighbour next farm away but no answer i put 2 pillows below my feet ( wooden floor) and slowly went to the bathroom where i took aim suddenly they kicked down my door(that was locked) i did not shoot only said you bastards and they scattered two jumping from the second floor down one of the intruders break his ankle with the fall. I did get hold of my neighbour with constant calling and the local police station then the neighbour came with a friend i just stayed in the room upstairs and asked my neighbour to come up to me as they were two armed people and i one i did not know what was going down below any way with the house cleared of intruders that ran away then the police came on the scene and said i had the right to shoot there were 5 pangas founded below as they dropped it and ran away.

It doesn't matter what type of firearm you have when things go wrong you feel very small at that stage ( i always said if someone come into my house i will shoot them then i was put in that situation i didn't shoot i was luckily they were threatened by my words cos i not a big person in flesh)

My advise for any one is try to destruct intruders for as long time as necessary with gates dogs etc when this stuff goes down believe me theres no time if you don't have gates start by locking you bedroom door thats a start it gave me a few seconds to barricade me in the bathroom. I now have two vicious Boxers and two Jack Russel's in the house not outside(outdid they can easily be distracted by poison or something). We have a farm radio system in place and call system where the family in danger only calls one person and farm watch will be activated. Our radio system is linked with the local police station the more communication the better.We are very lucky to have a good police station 5 min max then they on the scene.( The radio station in the police station was payed for by the local farmers and must be on all the times and believe me we test it enough its always on)

My situation if a intruder comes in my house i Will use my firearm to spare the intruder the pain while my dogs violating his rights in my house the Jack Russel's grab the legs intruder falls over and then well then it is my Boxers that will end the threat just a joke hopefully the dogs will distract the intruders long enough for me to put my self in the best possible position to defend my self!!!

And i believe a shotgun pump or semi is the best self defence weapon in the house if there are no hostages or family between you and the intruder just point in the right direction if u don't shoot the intruder the noise will have a affect. I believe just the noise of the pump action while loading it will have a major effect. Just think of it a quite house you don't know and the sound of a pump action being pumped if you stay your out of your mind and committing suicide and wanting to be shot.

Regards

[Carbine]

If your pistol is your weapon that's licensed for SD, and your shotgun is licensed for hunting or sporting use, what happens in the courts if you have to take out a home invader with the shotgun, that's not licensed for SD?

My understanding is that you can't use a sporting or hunting weapon unless you had no alternative at the time. However if you are attacked at night while you are in bed, aren't you in serious trouble for not using your SD weapon 1st?

Sorry I'm not trying to hijack this thread. Just trying to figure out if I can legally use my 12ga 1st in such a situation?

Currently my plan is that I'll only open up with my 12ga that's licensed for sporting use, if I've emptied my 9mmP mag.

I would obviously prefer to use the 12ga 1st as it has better stopping power, but more importantly so that I don't have to hand in my one and only SD weapon for forensics and ballistics testing. It will take years to get it back.

Has anyone on the forum had to test this situation in the courts?

[FrankH]

My understanding is that you can't use a sporting or hunting weapon unless you had no alternative at the time. However if you are attacked at night while you are in bed, aren't you in serious trouble for not using your SD weapon 1st

You got that where? Please type in "sporting gun for self defence" in the search function and you will get about 20 pages of threads relating to your question.


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[Revolver]

Very good idea Merekjan, I am going to give that option to our farm wach. We can do home invasion drills on each other.