Home defense question

I’m not sure if this is the right place for this.

My wife and I have owned our home for about six months. Recently, we experienced a break-in. It was a single male intruder, and luckily, I was able to chase him out of the house with a wood chopping axe I keep in the garage. However, the experience shook both of us. I’ve been thinking a lot about what could have happened if there had been two or more intruders, or if they had been armed. Since then, we’ve been working on securing our home with new locks, kick plates, and cameras. We’ve also decided to get a shotgun for protection. Our knowledge of firearms is pretty basic – essentially, point and shoot, hoping the intruder either stops or is neutralized. My wife is smaller, so we’re looking at getting something more manageable for her, and I was wondering if a 20-gauge shotgun would be a good option for home defense? The closest gun store has a Maverick 88 in 20-gauge for around $300, which is affordable for us.

Could anyone provide some advice on whether this would be a good choice? Apologies if this isn’t the right place to ask – if not, I’ll delete this post and find a more appropriate forum

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Congratulations on taking the protection of your family into your own hands. The answer to your question is really “it depends”. A shotgun is a great home defense tool…if you know how to use it. It’s certainly easier to use than some other firearms, but I would advise you and your wife to spend a day at the range learning to shoot it. In a high stress situation, it’s important you are familiar with the shotgun.

As far as the shotgun choice itself goes, it’s weight, recoil, and type of ammunition are all a factor. Ammunition for home defense is different then say ammunition for water fowl. A .20 gauge would probably work for her, but it needs to have the right ammunition type. Whatever you decide, make a fun day out of it at the range. Bring eye protection, ear protection, and an interest in learning how to be proficient because it could be your life on the line.

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I have a little experience with a 20 gauge even tho the last time I short one often I was a child but we have been to the range trying out a few guns

We both like the shotgun

She likes the hipoint carbine in 9mm since it’s easy for her to hold and shoot.

I sorta like it but it just feels weird to me and I’ve heard bad things about the brand

It will work in my opinion

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Ok. I’m planning on #4 buckshot the employee said it’s similar to firing 20 .25cal bullets at the bad guy. But he tried to recommend a rifle but our plan is if they get past cameras and our doors were just gonna bunker down in our room which has one window out 2nd floor. And a doorway in so I wouldn’t believe we would need a rifle

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Yes - best bet is to remain in your room. I have others in my house so I would unfortunately (for the intruder) have to venture out. Try to get a gun light to mount on the magazine tube.

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Luckily in case of another break in we don’t have kids. So we can make the safe option to just hunker down and wait. Plus most of our valuables are in our bedroom the tv in the living room I got from Craigslist for 40 bucks and a Rokus set up that’s about it that’s valuable downstairs

If you go toward a pump action shotgun, I would definitely recommend seeking out professional instruction for it. I generally advocate an AR-15 of some variety as a home defense tool for a variety of reasons, but I think the biggest issue against shotguns is generally that there isn’t an abundance of adequate training like there is for handguns and rifles. Even when there is training, most don’t take it and just assume what they learned from the movies or word of mouth is good enough.

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Get an AR or some sort of small caliber rifle like that. Even a pistol caliber rifle. It’ll be better on all levels including your wife being comfortable shooting it. Shotguns have a lot of recoil, 20 ga isn’t any better than 12 ga and the short ones are worse due to weight. Also stay away from anything long like most shotguns. Terrible indoors

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Was talking with some others in this and I’m deciding on either a Ruger PCC since they can take glock mags and those are cheap at my closest store or some type of psa 9mm ar. My friend is going through the process to transfer ownership of one of his psa daggers to me since me and my wife like the way it shoots we tested it on some of his land

AR is the way. Your wife may not be able to shoot the shotty. AR is easy to handle and is excellent for multiple intruders.

Pistol and 22lr would be readily available.

Train, train ,train

Training is being handled through a friend just for overall basics and we’re looking into classes.

We’re looking into a PCC or some sort my wife likes how they feel. My friend is going to legally transfer ownership of one of his PSA daggers to me until we can find something we both like and have time to save up for a good quality firearm

My dog is prime security, pity anyone running into him.

In my mind if I wouldn’t face a threat I wouldn’t feel comfortable sending anyone or any of my pets to do the same. I wouldn’t be able to send someone else to potentially die or be harmed in my place whether it’s protecting my wife or kids in the future if anyone is going to die or be harmed it’ll be me or the person who decided to do harm to me