What is the Best Home Defense Rifle?

What rifle is best for home defense? Well, if you're asking that question and you truly are a novice, if you don't really have any idea what's going on, then chances are, you have a rifle already or you have your eyes on a rifle that you're thinking about buying. And I wanna talk about some of the very common types of rifles that you might already own that maybe aren't as good for self-defense, home defense situations and then build up to the one that I actually recommend. The first, most common rifle that people have when they come to me and they ask a question is, "You know, I'm considering home defense, I've got a gun, but I keep the ammo in one room and the gun locked in a safe and I'm not sure if I've got the right gun." Well, that's usually a high powered hunting rifle. That kind of person that goes hunting, or maybe got a hand-me-down rifle, maybe they went hunting with their father or grandfather and they aren't really into firearms or hunting anymore, but they are interested in home defense.

Well that , that high powered hunting rifle, probably a bolt action type rifle with a magnified scope on it, isn't going to be something we'd recommend for home defense. And this has nothing to do with them being a novice. Maybe it has nothing to do with you being in this situation, not being 100% comfortable with firearms. It's not the idea that this rifle is too powerful. It's not the idea that the rifle isn't one that you're ready for, but that you might build up to.

It's the idea that in general, for the most experienced firearms owner, for the person who's the most competent with that type of firearm, it's still not the best. Generally they have slow rates of fire. Generally they're heavy. They're long, which makes them hard to use inside of confined spaces and of course that high powered rifle cartridge is probably gonna go through the bad guy and maybe a wall or two behind him. Even if you take normal precautions for intermediate barriers inside of your home, something like putting a bookshelf in place.

Well, the most powerful hunting rifles will go right through that bad guy, right through the wall and right through that bookcase and potentially harm people on the other side. So the idea of a high powered hunting rifle for home defense, probably not the best idea at all. Especially in any kind of a confined space in any suburban or urban environment. As a ranch rifle may be a good idea for perimeter defense, but not even inside that ranch home. High-powered hunting rifles, bolt-action guns, they're gonna be right out.

The next most common gun that people have is the 22 long rifle. Someone may come to me and say, "Hey, I've got this 1022. I've got this lever action, 22. I've got a bolt action 22. Is that something I could use for self-defense, home defense?" Absolutely.

You could use it, but it's not gonna be optimum. And we're really having all of the same types of problems that we have with the high-powered hunting rifle, long gun. If it's a bolt-action gun, you know, it's relatively large, relatively slow to fire, but now we're dealing with the exact opposite end of the spectrum in terms of power and caliber. Now we've got a very small round that's moving relatively fast, but doesn't have a lot of weight and isn't going to potentially do the damage we need to do to a bad guy to stop them from hurting us. Now, if you have a semi-automatic 22, of course, they can be very fast to fire.

Some of them have reliability issues. It's a big difference having a acceptable reliability gun for plinking, for target shooting, for going out and enjoying some small game hunting and having something that you're willing to put between you and the bad guy or between your family and the bad guy, in terms of reliability and home defense. The 22 long rifle guns, except for some very specific applications for people that can't hold or manage the recoil of a heavier medium caliber gun. Well, we're gonna put those right out as well. The next most common type of firearm that people have when they come to me and say, "Hey, do you think this would be all right for home defense?" is a lever action rifle.

Now the lever action rifle enters into, what I consider an acceptable realm of defensive long gun. Lever-action rifles are generally short and they're usually medium caliber rifle cartridges or larger caliber pistol cartridges, like maybe a 357 Magnum or a 44 Magnum. And if you have a medium caliber lever action rifle, something like a 30-30, you're in really good shape. When you start getting to the higher power lever action rifles, the 4570, which have a lot more recoil, a very heavy bullet and if you're a lever action rifle owner, you probably know the kinds of things I'm talking about, again, we're getting out of the realm of reasonable guns for home defense. The lever action in the hands of someone who knows how to use it, somebody that has that medium caliber rifle or that high heavier caliber pistol cartridge, set up lever action rifle, can really be very potent as a home defense tool.

Now they're also relatively short. They have a relatively high capacity, the same kind of capacity that we're gonna see in a lot of typical defensive handguns, but with much more power and much more controllability. So the lever action, absolutely. From a lot of people that haven't gone out to buy a home defense gun, turns out to be a great option for them, especially if they practiced with it and they know how to use it. The best type of firearm that you can have for home defense, in my opinion, when it comes to rifles, is the medium caliber semi-automatic rifle.

Generally, we're talking about those kinds of rifles that sometimes get demonized in the mass media, that look a lot like they're rifles or are a lot like they're rifles that your local law enforcement or that your military operatives may be carrying. These are things like the AR-15, like the civilian version of the AK 47. Now, this particular gun right here, well, this is my current go-to home defense rifle. This is a 223 or 556 caliber rifle. That's about a medium caliber rifle, that's medium power.

It's a relatively small bullet, but it moves very fast. It's got a good powder charge behind it. This is the kind of firearm that is going to be expected to do the kind of damage you're gonna to need to do to stop a threat. Of course, it holds a magazine that can hold 10, 20 or even 30 rounds. You can even get larger magazines for it.

Most people will consider having the standard capacity magazine, right around 30 rounds and having a couple of them. Obviously, I've got an optic set up on it. I've got a laser and a light set up on it and I've got a sling to make it easy to put this gun on me if I need to pick up one of my kids or do something else while having the rifle at the ready. The other types of calibers that you might see in this area are the 300 Blackout. You might see the 762 by 39 especially in those AK type firearms.

The semi-automatic medium caliber rifle in the hands of someone who knows how to use it, if the gun's reliable, well-maintained and appropriately accessorized, is what I think makes the best home defense rifle option.