Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the procurement of a budget home defense shotgun. You may select any shotgun that cost under $200. It must be tough, reliable and 12 or 20 gauge. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.
The voicemail did not self destruct, thankfully, as I am a budget conscious college student. I did, however, accept the mission laid out before me.
Nowadays, when discussing an appropriate home defense weapon, most people will bring up the AR15. While some of this is caused by talks of bans and people wishing to stick it to the Man, there are several good reasons why the AR is an excellent home defense choice. Rifles are easier to aim and fire accurately than a pistol when under duress and the felt recoil from an AR is like a .22 Magnum. Several companies offer good choices in specialized hunting and self-defense ammo and some tests of said ammunition have shown that frangible rounds over-penetrate less than a 9mm. Even the standard 55 grain FMJ round tends to become unruly when it hits drywall and [amazon asin=B000H7EVEM&template=*lrc ad (left)]loses velocity quickly. The issue with using an AR15 for home defense is cost. A well made new-in-box AR15 will run around $1,000. If you wanted to go the used route it should still be a reputable brand, which can run upwards of $700.
A person on a budget should still be able to defend themselves and that is where the good ole shotgun comes into play.
Choosing a shotgun[amazon asin=B0000C53IH&template=*lrc ad (right)]
Before the recent AR craze, the venerable scattergun was always seen as the home defense gun of choice. The pump-action 12 gauge is devastating in close combat and many people believed that just chambering a round would send the intruder running scared. However, a pump-action 12 gauge is slow to reload and modern day pellets do not spread as far as many believe they do. In other words, you still need to aim with a shotgun.
Still, lightly used shotguns are available from $100 on up. Old H&R and NEF single shots with ejectors and old side by side shotguns fill the cheapest tier. Moving up, old hunting pump shotguns marked JC Higgins or Ted Williams, the store brands for Sears Department Stores built by Hi-Standard or Winchester, start around $150. The next tier consists of old Remington 870s or Mossberg 500s and if you’re lucky, some lightly used police [amazon asin=B005IURN5M&template=*lrc ad (left)]trade-in Remingtons, Mossbergs or S&W Model 3000s, which should cost no more than $250 — just out of my price range.
I knew the cheapest shotguns, H&R and NEF, were reliable guns, but I didn’t like the fact that they were either single or double shot. Taking all possibilities into consideration, I decided more rounds would be necessary, just in case firing off two rounds did not deter multiple intruders. Don’t get me wrong, with practice a person can use a single shot or double barrel shotgun quite effectively, but I would rather have a pump gun with five rounds.
In the used shotgun section of my local gun store, I glanced at various models, including a nasty looking 10 gauge single shot with a 18.5-inch barrel, poorly painted black and green camouflage and a large recoil pad; all for [amazon asin=B005S28ZES&template=*lrc ad (right)]$139. The guy behind the counter joked it could be used after boarding a ship to clear the decks or breach doors. Needless to say, I continued to peruse the shop. Until I realized I had an excellent candidate at home, a Winchester Model 12 that I picked up for $129 back in December; a not-so-perfect example of the “Perfect Repeater”.
When I first bought the shotgun I initially thought that it was nickel or chrome plated, but learned that the Model 12 was only produced factory blued; the blueing must have worn away from years of heavy use. The factory buttplate was gone, replaced by a red rubber recoil pad and very shallow pits were all over the receiver. Regardless of outward appearance, the internals work flawlessly, which is a testament to those who worked in the Winchester plant so many years ago. Also, the action is extremely smooth, much smoother than the Mossberg 590 that I owned. The only issue I could see with the Model 12 as a home defense weapon was the 30 inch barrel; corners would be cumbersome when moving about your house. Good thing a hacksaw costs $8.49.
