Like many of you, I considered myself appropriately armed and proficient with my home defense battery, (currently a Glock 10mm and Mossberg 18" barreled 12 ga.). A coworker's recent experience has me rethinking. Said coworker confronted and shot a drunk, high, intruder in the hallway just outside the bedroom. Intruder was hit once, and survived, with a single 240 gr. soft point fired from a .44 mag. Bullet entered and exited forearm without breaking bone, then penetrated and exited belly skin and fat, flew through several walls and was not found after it exited the house. The intruder was incapacitated for a while, but eventually drug himself out of the house, leaving a "trail" which helped the LEOs find and arrest him. Coworker was also incapacitated after the shot due to blast and noise in such tight quarters. It's been a long, expensive battle for coworker to regain his FAA Airman's Medical Certificate, and thus his livelihood. Thus my question: what are your thoughts on a practical compromise between firepower and and the ability to recover and fire follow ups, while preserving you hearing and sight for another day?

A pistol that shoots .410 shot shells. Perfect for close work. Not so good for the ears. Only bad for your eyesight if you are shot with it.

Just about any gun fired from inside the house is going to most likly affect your hearing and in a confined space such as a hallway even more so, that being said my bedside gun is the same as my normal carry gun a Kimber pro carry 2 in 45 because it’s the one I shoot the most

I figure better my hearing then my life

If your worried about it you u might consider getting a can and using it

I have a couple trains of thought on this, it involves actually shooting these options, at the range and at animals. A .410 home defense round, they come with discs and buckshot in one shell. The second is the CCI .22 segmented rounds in 1640 fps version. The .22 I prefer in a compact semi auto pistol for at least two or three shots, one most likely needed. The .410 will be loud, but have many wound channels of stopping power. The .22 will also have good penetration and multiple spreading wound channels. I simply choose these as I am concerned with beyond target unintended hits, wall pass through. The .22 1640 fps segmented round is my go to now for any coyote and smaller critters within 75 yards. I have a 10/22 semi, and a Marlin 25 bolt set up and sighted for this round only. Shooting indoors in a defense situation in a split second means some thoughts on beyond target wall/door pass thru hits best be thought about before it ever happens. No pre planning for bullets complete path will occur, the crook appears where ever. I know others will have other opinions, these are just mine.

i bought a 870 with a slug barrel for 100 bucks off someone hard up.wifey is deadly with num 4 buck outta it.would hate to be on the other end.

I agree

The last thing I would shoot is a bigger caliber handgun. If you miss the bullet could exit the building and hit someone else. I would go with a 20 ga shooting low base trap loads. They are very effective at shorter range.

Revolvers seem particularly loud to me. I know flash gets out the gap twixt cylinder and barrel and I'm sure a good deal of pressure and noise come out of that gap as well. A magnum revolver in particular makes a very sharp report. I fired a .357 mag in a small ravine one time and vowed I would never do that again.

I'm pretty sure a shotgun wouldn't have nearly as much sound pressure even when fired in a hallway. Ear splitting loud - YES. But the lower pressure, longer barrel, and direction of the sound away from the shooter would be much less damaging to the ears, I would think. I think even a non-magnum semi-auto pistol would be much less damaging to the hearing than a magnum revolver.

As far as penetration, it's all a compromise. Anything that doesn't penetrate interior walls is going to be less effective at penetrating a bad guy, too. No matter what, shooting a gun inside your house is a deadly dangerous thing to do. DON'T do it unless there is a very present threat to the life of yourself or those you need to protect.

I think .44 Mag is massive overkill for protection inside the home. Far too heavy of a penetrator, in my opinion. Any energy left over after the bullet passes through the bad guy is just wasted and dangerous. Recoil, noise, and flash are all far too severe for personal defense use (unless you are Dirty Harry. I'm not).

For me personally, bird shot does not offer enough penetration for me to feel confident in it for home defense. I prefer a small buckshot load (#2 or #4 buck). I feel like this is a reasonable compromise between adequate penetration in a bad guy and less penetration through walls. Plus, the small buckshot would be useful outside the home for coyotes, bad dogs, or whatever else needs to be shot at a little longer range. No matter what - I don't believe there is a "magic bullet" that will penetrate deep into a bad guy and yet not be dangerous on the other side of the walls.

think about how loud that 22 shot in a big pipe or under a bridge is.

must help some just by disorienting the intruder i'd think.

I like the idea of a pistol caliber carbine with a suppressor. An AR pistol in 9mm with the suppressor and wrist brace, red dot sight and a mounted flashlight makes the perfect in-home defense weapon to me. It has enough stopping power, reduced tendency to over penetrate compared with many other cartridges, multiple shot capacity, handy size, almost no recoil, and muzzle blast mitigated all in a package of a weight and size that can be operated by a man or woman.

At inside the home ranges, I'd feel best with a shot gun and 7 1/2 shot. It's less likely to shoot through walls and kill folks in the next room, not likely to miss, nobody hit at close range will be standing after the trigger is pulled.

The one time I thought I was actually going to have to use my handgun in my home I am glad i didnt have to because I do not think I could have hit anything my heart was slamming so hard. So for me now, its a 870 20ga with 3" #2 buckshot.

Same here and you would only have to hear it once!

most poeple shot with pistols survive. in your case though the pistol did its job and stopped the threat so i wouldnt worry about it. you dont have to kill the suspect to stop them. the only benefit of a kill shot is it will save taxpayers money for not having to pay for them while they are locked up.

2 potential solutions I've thought about but have zero experience with, are: a carbine in a handgun caliber, or loading the shotgun with 1 3/4" shells. In my coworkers case, he was basically incapacitated by the blast and flash of his own shot and had problems dealing with LEOs when they arrived soon after.

If you are concerned about over penetration you might consider frangible ammo in handguns. It's every bit as lethal in soft tissue, short range encounters. Generally the recoil is slightly less also.

Can't do much about the noise but........the use of a tactical light may actually be a benefit on both ends. It may disorient the target and at the same time your own eyes will be slightly constricted rather than wide open due to the dark,

I warn that these are gimmick guns and have very poor penetration with shot because there is so little barrel to get velocity.

I bought a Taurus Judge that will shoot 3" .410's, slugs, 45 long colt and it has an easy recoil because it's heavy. I leave it for the wife when I go on trips with self defence ammo,Winchester USA PDX1 .410 3" 4 Disc/16 Plated BB. Would not be a good day for an intruder. It is perfect for a scared freaked out woman because it it point and click and with the 3" rifled barrel it opens the pattern up at self defense ranges. Trust me, it will clear the hallway. There is no safety, just a simple DA/SA revolver. To big and heavy for a carry gun but perfect for home protection IMHO.

Should have used his 12ga