What rifle and in what caliber do you most recommend for home defense and cheap, relatively plentiful ammo that is shortage-resistant?
I am considering a cheap Palmetto State Armory AR kit chambered for 5.56 NATO rounds so I could also fire .223s. Is brand particularly important, or are most ARs on the market good enough for practice and emergency use?
For anything but super-precision shooting a PSA will work fine.
I’m also a huge fan of red-dot sights for people who don’t want to spend 5 grand on ammo perfecting their shot. If you have a trigger pull that consistently makes you miss low and left, you can just adjust the dot to compensate instead of training for a better trigger pull. It’s not what I’d recommend for someone to take up shooting as a hobby, but for quick results with less training and money (ammo adds up faster than the cost of the optic FAST), it’s a good shortcut.
But go with a quality red dot like an Aimpoint or Holosun that won’t require you to take 20 seconds getting the dot up and running if you need it. An aimpoint can run for a year+ turned on, so you just leave it on and change the battery on your birthday, whereas others like a holosun are motion-activated, so it automatically turns on when you pick up the gun and turns off after a few hours without movement. Same thing - change the battery once a year.
The cheaper bushnell, vortex, swampfox, etc optics are fun for the range, but you can easily leave them tuned on and have a dead battery in a week, or you may have to turn them on and set the brightness every time you pull the gun out, which takes time.
5.56 is plentiful and relatively cheap, though it does tend to be the first to disappear from shelves when there’s a scare. From 2020-2022 it was hard to buy. It’s also a little faster with higher penetrati9n than I’d like for indoor use. I like 300 blackout in a short-barreled rifle or AR pistol a lot for up close since it’s less likely to kill the neighbor, and all you really need is a different barrel for it to work in an AR - it even uses the same mags. It’s also amazing with a suppressor, as the cartidge was developed by a supressor company specifically to be supressed. But the ammo is also expensive and less-plentiful.
I’ve been thinking about a Henry, due to not just living the style but also reliability, ease of repair, availability of ammunition, stopping power. However I know practically jack shit about guns, so I would appreciate any advice as to whether any of that is true or practical.
The nice thing about lever guns is that a lot of them can share cartridges with revolvers, such as a 357 mag, 44 mag, 45 colt, etc.
But they’re not actually as reliable compared to a modern semi-auto as people think, and when they do jam, they jam BAD.
Unlike a semi-auto, user error is also likely to cause a malfunction. If you change directions on that lever at the exact wrong time, you can end up having a double-feed that requires you to dismantle the receiver to clear it.
That being said, I do love them. I would probably look at a Winchester or one of the newer Marlins, though. Marlin (among others) was terrible for a while when they were bought out by a investment group that made awful guns, but they went into bankruptcy and more Ruger is taking over Marlin, and Ruger has an excellent reputation for affordable quality.
But if you’re looking for the shared pistol/long gun commination, I’m actually a bigger fan of a modern pistol caliber carbine like a Ruger PC Charger, Sig MPX, Kel Tec Sub2000, or CZ Scorpion Evo.
There’s also the newer Henry Homesteader, which has a more traditional look but is a semi-auto 9mm.
For repairability, nothing beats the AR platform. They can also be a fun project. You can buy a lower receiver (the frame that is legally the gun) through a firearms dealer, and get the rest of the parts online and build yourself a reliable, affordable custom firearm set up evacuate how you want it in whatever caliber you’d like fairly easily. There’s only a few tools needed, like punches, screwdrivers, and pliers. A castle nut wrench is helpful but not entirely necessary.
And then you’d know exactly how to fix everything.
To go that route, I’d recommend starting by buying a pre-made upper receiver from Palmetto State Armory in whatever caliber, style, and barrel length you want. Longer is typically more powerful and accurate with a longer sight radius if you aren’t using optics, but it is heavier and harder to maneuver in a tight space. Then, get a matching lower (different ranges of calibers use different-sized lowers) from a dealer and a Lower Parts Kit (trigger, assembly pins, etc, all bundled together), bolt, and stock. It takes about 30 minutes to assemble for a beginner if you watch a YouTube video first.
Don’t go under 16 inches, though, unless you really understand the laws regarding the differences between hand braces and stocks as well as the difference between an AR pistol and a Short-barreled rifle. A short-barreled rifle (designed to fire from the shoulder with a barrel under 16 inches) a controlled weapon like a machine gun, silencer, or grenade and requires special permitting that takes like a year to get as well as a $200 tax stamp, and unless you buy it under a special trust only you can have posession of it.
Anyway, I’m rambling. In short, for an effective firearm for defense from 2-legged threats, I don’t recommend a lever gun. They’re super fun, and I love all of mine, but they aren’t what I keep in my quick-access safes in the bedroom or the hidden sage in my car.
My personal defensive guns are a pump shotgun for the house, and automatic pistols (a little pocket-carry 380 for concealed carry when I can’t hide a hoslter and a 9mm for when I can) and a braced AR pistol in a hidden safe in my van for if things go really south. Braced pisyltols are in a legal limbo right now since they were essentially banned by the Biden administration, but the Courts have frozen the rule, so I don’t super recommend building one right now.
I have more guns (like 60 of them, lol) in the home safe, but most of them are range toys or hunting guns. My precision rifle that’ll take off a gnat’s wings at 300 yards is fun, but a $7,000, 20lb bolt-action rifle with a $3500 scope (the industry used to give me a bunch of freebies - do not ever spend that kind of money on a single gun) isn’t a practical weapon.
Finally - whatever you go with, you need to shoot it. A lot. If you have a $1,000 budget for the whole thing, buy a $200 pistol and $800 of ammo to train with. You can train with cheap shit, but make sure to buy defensive ammo to keep for emergency use. Defensive ammo is really, really expensive (often several dollars a round), but you want the bullet to do it’s job, and (more importantly) stop moving when it hits something. If you have to use a gun defensively, you don’t want to shoot through 4 walls and kill the neighbor.
I used to be a firearm salesman. If you have any questions, I’m available.
What rifle and in what caliber do you most recommend for home defense and cheap, relatively plentiful ammo that is shortage-resistant?
I am considering a cheap Palmetto State Armory AR kit chambered for 5.56 NATO rounds so I could also fire .223s. Is brand particularly important, or are most ARs on the market good enough for practice and emergency use?
For anything but super-precision shooting a PSA will work fine.
I’m also a huge fan of red-dot sights for people who don’t want to spend 5 grand on ammo perfecting their shot. If you have a trigger pull that consistently makes you miss low and left, you can just adjust the dot to compensate instead of training for a better trigger pull. It’s not what I’d recommend for someone to take up shooting as a hobby, but for quick results with less training and money (ammo adds up faster than the cost of the optic FAST), it’s a good shortcut.
But go with a quality red dot like an Aimpoint or Holosun that won’t require you to take 20 seconds getting the dot up and running if you need it. An aimpoint can run for a year+ turned on, so you just leave it on and change the battery on your birthday, whereas others like a holosun are motion-activated, so it automatically turns on when you pick up the gun and turns off after a few hours without movement. Same thing - change the battery once a year.
The cheaper bushnell, vortex, swampfox, etc optics are fun for the range, but you can easily leave them tuned on and have a dead battery in a week, or you may have to turn them on and set the brightness every time you pull the gun out, which takes time.
5.56 is plentiful and relatively cheap, though it does tend to be the first to disappear from shelves when there’s a scare. From 2020-2022 it was hard to buy. It’s also a little faster with higher penetrati9n than I’d like for indoor use. I like 300 blackout in a short-barreled rifle or AR pistol a lot for up close since it’s less likely to kill the neighbor, and all you really need is a different barrel for it to work in an AR - it even uses the same mags. It’s also amazing with a suppressor, as the cartidge was developed by a supressor company specifically to be supressed. But the ammo is also expensive and less-plentiful.
Thank you so much for the reply! That is extremely helpful.
I’ve been thinking about a Henry, due to not just living the style but also reliability, ease of repair, availability of ammunition, stopping power. However I know practically jack shit about guns, so I would appreciate any advice as to whether any of that is true or practical.
The nice thing about lever guns is that a lot of them can share cartridges with revolvers, such as a 357 mag, 44 mag, 45 colt, etc.
But they’re not actually as reliable compared to a modern semi-auto as people think, and when they do jam, they jam BAD.
Unlike a semi-auto, user error is also likely to cause a malfunction. If you change directions on that lever at the exact wrong time, you can end up having a double-feed that requires you to dismantle the receiver to clear it.
That being said, I do love them. I would probably look at a Winchester or one of the newer Marlins, though. Marlin (among others) was terrible for a while when they were bought out by a investment group that made awful guns, but they went into bankruptcy and more Ruger is taking over Marlin, and Ruger has an excellent reputation for affordable quality.
But if you’re looking for the shared pistol/long gun commination, I’m actually a bigger fan of a modern pistol caliber carbine like a Ruger PC Charger, Sig MPX, Kel Tec Sub2000, or CZ Scorpion Evo.
There’s also the newer Henry Homesteader, which has a more traditional look but is a semi-auto 9mm.
For repairability, nothing beats the AR platform. They can also be a fun project. You can buy a lower receiver (the frame that is legally the gun) through a firearms dealer, and get the rest of the parts online and build yourself a reliable, affordable custom firearm set up evacuate how you want it in whatever caliber you’d like fairly easily. There’s only a few tools needed, like punches, screwdrivers, and pliers. A castle nut wrench is helpful but not entirely necessary.
And then you’d know exactly how to fix everything.
To go that route, I’d recommend starting by buying a pre-made upper receiver from Palmetto State Armory in whatever caliber, style, and barrel length you want. Longer is typically more powerful and accurate with a longer sight radius if you aren’t using optics, but it is heavier and harder to maneuver in a tight space. Then, get a matching lower (different ranges of calibers use different-sized lowers) from a dealer and a Lower Parts Kit (trigger, assembly pins, etc, all bundled together), bolt, and stock. It takes about 30 minutes to assemble for a beginner if you watch a YouTube video first.
Don’t go under 16 inches, though, unless you really understand the laws regarding the differences between hand braces and stocks as well as the difference between an AR pistol and a Short-barreled rifle. A short-barreled rifle (designed to fire from the shoulder with a barrel under 16 inches) a controlled weapon like a machine gun, silencer, or grenade and requires special permitting that takes like a year to get as well as a $200 tax stamp, and unless you buy it under a special trust only you can have posession of it.
Anyway, I’m rambling. In short, for an effective firearm for defense from 2-legged threats, I don’t recommend a lever gun. They’re super fun, and I love all of mine, but they aren’t what I keep in my quick-access safes in the bedroom or the hidden sage in my car.
My personal defensive guns are a pump shotgun for the house, and automatic pistols (a little pocket-carry 380 for concealed carry when I can’t hide a hoslter and a 9mm for when I can) and a braced AR pistol in a hidden safe in my van for if things go really south. Braced pisyltols are in a legal limbo right now since they were essentially banned by the Biden administration, but the Courts have frozen the rule, so I don’t super recommend building one right now.
I have more guns (like 60 of them, lol) in the home safe, but most of them are range toys or hunting guns. My precision rifle that’ll take off a gnat’s wings at 300 yards is fun, but a $7,000, 20lb bolt-action rifle with a $3500 scope (the industry used to give me a bunch of freebies - do not ever spend that kind of money on a single gun) isn’t a practical weapon.
Finally - whatever you go with, you need to shoot it. A lot. If you have a $1,000 budget for the whole thing, buy a $200 pistol and $800 of ammo to train with. You can train with cheap shit, but make sure to buy defensive ammo to keep for emergency use. Defensive ammo is really, really expensive (often several dollars a round), but you want the bullet to do it’s job, and (more importantly) stop moving when it hits something. If you have to use a gun defensively, you don’t want to shoot through 4 walls and kill the neighbor.
That’s super helpful information, thank you very much!