Trigger Warning: Shotguns Are The BEST For Home Defense!

[RSR]

Wow!  (This video is sarcasm.  )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDmWuHQ2GUA

Here's his actual vid -- and I agree w/ most everything except that pistol rounds penetrate less through intermediate barriers like interior walls vs 5.56.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cpLku4LWSw

And here's an add'l vid he did regarding the need for PCCs -- and I agree w/ the PC Carbine having an unnecessarily heavy barrel (same applies to the LC Carbine, their FN 5.7 offering)...  Ruger, how about a lightweight barrel for PC Carbine, something in between current and Taccom's XLW offering?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAr5AVymx0A

While this youtuber is sometimes off on technical aspects of firearms (5.56 vs 9mm penetration through walls for instance), I've really come to enjoy his channel and he's on point with most practical aspects...  He's a former Navy SEAL who found God mid-service, and is now an accomplished endurance athlete/long-distance runner as well as apparently firearms trainer.

[Claymore504]

I enjoy his videos as well. he has some great content that is not gun focused as well. I do not agree with him on shotguns, but I do on the PCC. Great stuff overall.

[RSR]

I enjoy his videos as well. he has some great content that is not gun focused as well. I do not agree with him on shotguns, but I do on the PCC. Great stuff overall.

US Military special operations folks are trained that they're accountable for every round they fire (and in fact, a negligent discharge alone is sufficient in many groups as grounds for dismissal and for instance, why spec ops trainers are so diligent/rigid about use of firearm safeties when present), so in that mindset his opposition makes sense.  He's also trained to operate at significant numerical disadvantage to enemy and to achieve fire superiority through volume of fire (why multiple rounds)...  And as a SEAL got a fair bit of CQB training and experience downrange...  Etc., to support his position, which IMO is basically that precision comes before sheer destructive power, and maneuverability is critical, you can't just rely on barricading...  YMMV.

Yeah, it took me a dozen or so vids to fully warm up to and "get" him, but the complete lack of any sort of pretension and his somewhat dry sense of humor are both a breath of fresh air.  Subscribed to his channel 6 months to a year ago...

And re: PCCs -- generally speaking for rural new shooters just wanting weapons for home defense and critter control, my recommendation the past couple years has been a ruger 10/22 and ruger PCC as their first two firearms purchases.  For urban and suburban new shooters for home defense, it's been the PCC and a handgun, generally with cross mag compatibility when possible and definitely in same caliber -- used to be a Sub2k instead of the PCC, but you get a lot more and more reliable gun w/ the PCC than Sub2k.  Point being, I think PCCs are highly underrated, especially for novice shooters you don't want to start off gun shy/trigger flinching.

For me personally beyond logistic ease (1k rounds of 9mm store in a 30 cal ammo can when space is of concern...), the biggest draw of PCCs is the hugely reduced blast and flash vs centerfire rifles, especially vs short-barreled or "pistol" form.  Sub 10" 5.56 guns w/o suppressors enter flashbang territory, while 9mm out of a 16" barrel is actually more in the ballpark of 22lr out of handgun (military folks in Spec Ops world like above also understand the importance of radios/comms during a gunfight)...  And lastly, 9mm +p out of 16" barrel is roughly equivalent to .357 magnum at point-blank-range out of a standard revolver, so no slouch in the manstopping potential either. 

[Davehb]

I enjoy his videos as well. he has some great content that is not gun focused as well. I do not agree with him on shotguns, but I do on the PCC. Great stuff overall.

US Military special operations folks are trained that they're accountable for every round they fire (and in fact, a negligent discharge alone is sufficient in many groups as grounds for dismissal and for instance, why spec ops trainers are so diligent/rigid about use of firearm safeties when present), so in that mindset his opposition makes sense.  He's also trained to operate at significant numerical disadvantage to enemy and to achieve fire superiority through volume of fire (why multiple rounds)...  And as a SEAL got a fair bit of CQB training and experience downrange...  Etc., to support his position, which IMO is basically that precision comes before sheer destructive power, and maneuverability is critical, you can't just rely on barricading...  YMMV.

Yeah, it took me a dozen or so vids to fully warm up to and "get" him, but the complete lack of any sort of pretension and his somewhat dry sense of humor are both a breath of fresh air.  Subscribed to his channel 6 months to a year ago...

And re: PCCs -- generally speaking for rural new shooters just wanting weapons for home defense and critter control, my recommendation the past couple years has been a ruger 10/22 and ruger PCC as their first two firearms purchases.  For urban and suburban new shooters for home defense, it's been the PCC and a handgun, generally with cross mag compatibility when possible and definitely in same caliber -- used to be a Sub2k instead of the PCC, but you get a lot more and more reliable gun w/ the PCC than Sub2k.  Point being, I think PCCs are highly underrated, especially for novice shooters you don't want to start off gun shy/trigger flinching.

For me personally beyond logistic ease (1k rounds of 9mm store in a 30 cal ammo can when space is of concern...), the biggest draw of PCCs is the hugely reduced blast and flash vs centerfire rifles, especially vs short-barreled or "pistol" form.  Sub 10" 5.56 guns w/o suppressors enter flashbang territory, while 9mm out of a 16" barrel is actually more in the ballpark of 22lr out of handgun (military folks in Spec Ops world like above also understand the importance of radios/comms during a gunfight)...  And lastly, 9mm +p out of 16" barrel is roughly equivalent to .357 magnum at point-blank-range out of a standard revolver, so no slouch in the manstopping potential either.

The noise is something I can’t understand about rifles for home defense.
I sometimes wonder if the proponents has ever fired one in a 10x10 room without hearing protection. Or a shotgun.

Had a 7.62x25mm TOKAREV iirc back in the 90’s. Single action. No decocker. Small hammer. Trying to decock with cold and wet fingers (At least I was practicing muzzle safety) Hammer slipped from underneath my thumb cause couldn’t feel it like should + wet made it slippery, and it went off into floor. Ears rang for days. (One gun I didn’t keep long cause if design)

Even shooting 357 red hawk outdoors hunting was too loud for me especially if there was any embankment nearby to bounce the sound back. Hunting next to a big pond, and fired off a round at critter and embankments funneled sound into left ear. [emoji51] Ear ringing never fully went away from that.


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[RSR]

The noise is something I can’t understand about rifles for home defense.
I sometimes wonder if the proponents has ever fired one in a 10x10 room without hearing protection. Or a shotgun.

Had a 7.62x25mm TOKAREV iirc back in the 90’s. Single action. No decocker. Small hammer. Trying to decock with cold and wet fingers (At least I was practicing muzzle safety) Hammer slipped from underneath my thumb cause couldn’t feel it like should + wet made it slippery, and it went off into floor. Ears rang for days. (One gun I didn’t keep long cause if design)

Even shooting 357 red hawk outdoors hunting was too loud for me especially if there was any embankment nearby to bounce the sound back. Hunting next to a big pond, and fired off a round at critter and embankments funneled sound into left ear. [emoji51] Ear ringing never fully went away from that.

Agree.  Last fall/winter and extending into early summer, we had a fairly bad rat infestation in/around our poultry pen where they'd climb nearby trees to/from the coop to scavenge excess feed and scratch (any maybe also just to eat the birds' feces).  Snap traps weren't keeping up (and we also have fox, owls, hawks, rat snakes, feral cats, coyotes, etc. around too for more natural critter control so they weren't keeping up either), and since close proximity to our birds, no standard poisons, and since those birds and other livestock like goats may/can get into most other digestive attack solutions, those were ultimately a no go too... 

So I took to shooting them out of trees w/ snakeshot and then also 12g birdshot when able since it's a fair bit cheaper -- at least around 1/2, maybe 1/3 the cost of the pistol caliber snakeshot retail right now (and probably a bigger delta based upon having bought all of the ammo I was using 5+ years ago), but when fairly close/chance of ricochet/not time to retrieve shotgun went w/ snakeshot in handgun on my hip...
I once forgot earpro (had eyepro) when shooting the shotgun with a basic federal 12g game load w/ 7.5 birdshot out of a 20" barrel, and that did a number on my ears outdoors with minimal surfaces to reflect directly back -- so given every other alternative, I wouldn't want to repeat indoors with even louder buckshot (sub 16" rifles/pistols of intermediate+ calibers firing supersonic ammo are also at least that loud).  And that shotgun was MUCH louder than 22lr or 9mm, not just including their snakeshot options that are less loud/underpowered that I have sometimes fired w/o earpro. 

Knock on wood: after disposing two dozen, haven't seen another rat in several months...  And FWIW, the 9mm snakeshot seems to be much more effective than the 22lr despite CCI advertising same shot size and shot amount/weight for both...  Maybe 9mm is pushing more velocity, or maybe just it starting w/ a larger diameter/covering a larger surface area...  And then yes, 12g birdshot is overkill for rats and don't recommend it if you can afford the nearly $1 per round for snakeshot, but the 12g birdshot was effective, albeit excessively destructive.

[Speed_Racer]

I also really enjoy Paul Harrell's videos. Former military firearms instructor and a competitor. Dry humor, very knowledgable and has a grounded realism that is rare these days. He also does some ballistics test regarding home defense, demonstrating how many layers of drywall an AR round goes through vs a shotgun round.

[Crawl]

What a relief that someone on the internet actually understands that 9mm can penetrate your walls more than a 5.56 (depending on ammo). Thank you!

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[JamesCC]

Most people can’t fire a gun when calm- now imagine a breakin. I can see why shotgot is go to for a home defense

[RSR]

Most people can’t fire a gun when calm- now imagine a breakin.  I can see whyshotgot is go to for a home defense

The bolded & italics I added to your reply above is actually opposite of what the video states...  The title was sarcasm, as my OP explicitly stated.

[cavelux]

thank you for sharing

[Rooqy]

Great video, thanks for sharing!

[Bob Wilkins]

At typical house interior distances, even a cylinder bore will only open to fist or palm sized spread, so you'd better be good, and with no hearing protection. Ditto 5.56 with no hearing protection.

My home defense is a Brno 611 .22WMR which is highly effective at room/hall distance and far easier to tolerate as for noise/flash,  and back-up my Govt Model 1911 which is obnoxious as.for unprotected hearing but not likely to exit the house.

My .45 Colt loads are unsuitable as they would shoot end to end of my house and still likely enter a neighbor's house, buckshot can leave a house and enter next door and slugs do not even bear mention.

[MeatAxe]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j3BlRPtCj2E

So, maybe frangible 5.56 is somewhat better than a 9mm PCC for drywall over penetration, but you’d want to use a suppressor (and deal with all that entails). Otherwise, 5.56 inside is gonna be LOUD and make a lot of muzzle flash out of a short barrel, which could conceivably be blinding.

Fortunately for me, I have an older house with plaster and slat walls so overpenetration is probably not as big of an issue, so I’ll stick with a 9mm Scorpion PCC which is not horribly loud inside without ear protection.

[RSR]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j3BlRPtCj2E

So, maybe frangible 5.56 is somewhat better than a 9mm PCC for drywall over penetration, but you’d want to use a suppressor (and deal with all that entails). Otherwise, 5.56 inside is gonna be LOUD and make a lot of muzzle flash out of a short barrel, which could conceivably be blinding.

Fortunately for me, I have an older house with plaster and slat walls so overpenetration is probably not as big of an issue, so I’ll stick with a 9mm Scorpion PCC which is not horribly loud inside without ear protection.

Yes -- anything that's not being shot supersonic at fragmentation velocities to meet FBI specs will also have enough momentum to penetrate through multiple levels of drywall. 

And for 5.56 to reach velocities where it reliably tumbles and/or fragments, you really need a longer barrel than most are running in their "HD shorties" -- 12, if not 14+ inches depending on the round.  Granted, ammo select for soft points, poly tips, HPs, etc., can get adequate terminal performance for shorter barrels, but those rounds are unlikely to manifest the desired tumbling and fragmentation that prevents over-penetration.
And don't forget that short and unsuppressed 5.56 guns have muzzle flash and blast similar to a flash bang grenade: https://sadefensejournal.com/barrel-length-studies-in-5-56mm-nato-weapons/

I'm increasingly thinking that FN 5.7x28 is just about the best compromise option all things considered; however, a 9mm PCC is 2nd best IMO and definitely the more economical route.

If you have 9mm bullets that expand largely w/ minimal clogging issues in all mediums, and/or are running super fast so fragment regularly (i.e., non-bonded bullets through longer than pistol-length, standard handgun not BATF definition) then I think you're probably okay with slat and plaster walls, but as I recall from growing up in a house with such is that the plaster's definitely more fragile than equivalent thickness drywall, so the wood slats are probably the biggest improvement/obstacle ballistically, especially if you're talking vs. multiple shots in same general area...  So unless you have wallpaper or a lot of layers of paint, I wouldn't be surprised to see that plaster detach in big chunks with every shot.

[Crawl]

Lol, no you won't. Go shoot an open tip 9mm at a piece of dry wall, put a 2x4 behind it too. If you place a cardboard target behind that and shoot through them all, you'll see a nice, round hole in the cardboard.

Open tip 9mm fills up with softer media like wood or drywall and behaves like an FMJ with velocity inadequate for expansion or fragmentation.

Expanding 223 is the safest choice of all (especially plastic tipped options). It has the energy to make the projectile expand as designed.