OT ruger handgun

I have settled on a Ruger SR40c semi auto .40 cal for home defense. Any info to share?

practice practice and more practice. look into self defense courses. learn the gun and get comfortable with it. I carry a smith tactical 40 cal. a little harder to put back on target after recoil, but has enough juice to make your point and then some----law enforcement uses the .40 for a reason.

I like the .40 cal. It has good penetration and stopping power.

It will travel through sheet rock and doors so remember that if you ever have to use it.

When you practice at the range it is nice to shoot reloads that travel about 850 fps because recoil is very minimal and it makes the gun more pleasant to practice with.

Don't own one but these people seem to have tested it pretty well

http://cheaperthandirt.com/blog/?p=6459

The Final Word

I don’t like the SR40 nearly as much as I like it’s smaller brother, the SR9c. That being said, the SR40 would be a good choice for someone looking for a range gun, or a .40 S&W carry pistol. There are plenty of videos online about how to delete the mag safety, and the SR40 does do the most important thing that a carry gun should do: it shoots, and it shoots every time. While I think there are improvements Ruger could make to the design, I would still recommend the SR40. Overall, it takes 4th place on my list of .40 S&W polymer pistols, and of the guns on the list it does have the best price point.

Those are decent pistols. They are not a Sig, Glock, or a S&W by any means but most of them that I have seen cycle ammo pretty well, also seen a few that did not. The thing you have to get used to on those Rugers is the thumb safety.

Excellent choice, except the trigger is miserable. Ghost Inc sells a inexpensive upgrade. I put one in my SR9 and now I am happy with it. Before I upgraded the trigger it was like pulling a toilet plunger through a bucket of rocks. Of course, I tend to be a bit fussy about these things.

A 12ga pump is more practal, you proably won"t even have to fire after you pump it. The bullet won"t go through the wall and kill your neighbor or your kid in the next room, and you don"t have to aim so close.

I understand that ammo is available that is a compressed material that will dissintegrate when it impacts a solid object such as drywall, but provides good stopping power.

frangible---what the air marshall's are supposed to be packing

Luigi: yes, there is. The best known is the Glaser Safety Slug, which has been out for many years and works well for its intended purpose. The down sides are cost (about $2.00 EACH) and the fact that they have known issues with not being well sealed around the primer, causing an occasional misfire if (for instance) gun lubricating oil, cleaning solvent or water gets in them. Other manufacturers such as Fiocchi also make frangible rounds but in many cases these are intended for practice (specifically, shooting at short-range steel popup targets without the danger of ricochets), rather than self-defense. As with any round you plan on trusting with your life, figure on putting a minimum of 200 rounds through the gun with no reliability issues before you carry them.
Glaser Safety Slugs at Midway

I don't think you settled, from what I've read you got a good weapon.

I came real close to buying that very pistol in the compact version for a concealed carry but ended up with the fnx-40 and still saving for a sig.

Anyway, we keep hollow points in the guns at home. If you're worried about shooting through walls, then don't shoot!

For home defense I would suggest a 12 gauge pump shotgun for the following reasons.
1. The sound of a shotgun being loaded is scary enough for the guy to fall on the floor.

2. A bullet out of a handgun could miss and not hit the target, in the dark of night you may not hit the target.

3. If you do go with a handgun the bullet should be a frangible type of ammo that wont go through a wall into a family member.

4. A shotgun is cheaper then a handgun.

5. Also if you are going to shoot a person breaking into your home then you MUST shoot to kill that loser, if you just shoot him in the arm then he can come back and sue you. A Michigan state cop told me this. And that loser has to be in the house not on the front porch.

You can buy Shot-Shells for the .40 also...

Ron..

just drag him in the house gunguru

You do not shoot to kill, nor to wound, you shoot to STOP, resulting injury and/or death is not under consideration at that moment, only stopping the threat that is iminent. The only legal time you can shoot at all is when, a reasonable person, so fearful of the next action of the offender, and believing that his/her or family's life is in danger, has to take extreme measures to STOP that next offender's action. Those who have survived or experienced a live shooting, inside or out of law enforcement, will attest that shooting to hit any certain part of the body is out of the question. The suddeness, violence and fog of the split second actions only allow for the decision made then shots to center of mass. Paul in Mississippi

Practice, practice, practice! That includes mag changes! People can talk all the crap they want to about bullet placement.......doing it under high stress, in the dark of night and when the "target" may shoot back puts marksmanship in a whole new light!

Rick

I'm with the 12 ga pump crowd if your not gonna carry it out of the house.

But having a 12 gauge autoloader works well in that situation when you can accidently fire a second time to make sure he is dead. (oops, my finger jumped). 2 shots to the chest, get the mop bucket.

1. In my 16 years of being in the military and police I never saw any one "fall to the floor" on the racking of a shotgun. Doing this just to send a message to the bad guy, where you are and what you have. Why do this ? It is counter to common sence and every training I have ever had. Supprise is everything.

2. A handgun bullet may miss, so may a shotgun charge. A shotgun can easy blow through 2 sheets of sheetrock. I am curious about your statement "In the dark of the night you may not hit your target". Misses happen in daylight, if it is to dark to see your target why are you shooting ? How can you tell it is a threat if you can't see it ? You could easly be shooting your college kid that decided to supprise you and come home for the weekend.

3 Frangable bullets in defense shootings are almost a complete unknown. For the house gun I will stick with a 9mm Glock shooting 124 grain hollow point +P+. At 1250 fps it approaches 357 mag performance. I am not going to worry about reloading. If I can't settle it with in 17 rounds I probably can't settle it.

4 A shot gun is cheaper ? Not always, I like semiautos, what happens if you get shot in the hand and can't work the pump ? . What difference does price make anyway ? Because it is cheaper dosen't mean it is better. Sometimes you may want to hide the pistol and you can by sliding it under your belt behind your back, try that with a shotgun.

5 Always use the minimum force necessary, never shoot to kill. I haven't read every states laws reguarding Castle or Presumption but most start out by saying you get to shoot, then give a bunch of examples of when you can't.

My 12 gauge remington was $289 + tax. A good handgun is $500 minimum.

I am waaaay better with a 12 gauge pump then I am with a handgun, and I have been told that in a home invasion situation you WILL be at least a little scared and holding a handgun steady will be difficult. Do you not agree that a 12 gauge charge will have more kinetic energy then a 9mm bullet? Now a rifle bullet will also put down an invader. Watch Youtube videos of Larry potterfield of Midway USA. Larry goes through a schitt load of guns and measures stopping force. The .30-30 winchester ranks near top of the class. I specifically asked a US army soldier that returned from Iraq 3 years ago. I asked him about the .223 round and how effective it really is. He says: "I will tell you right now that no one on the face of the earth has ever lived with that round going through their torso unless they had been wearing body armor". The .223 remington was designed to fragment inside the human body, a .223 that enters into your liver may have 2 pieces exit the body, 1 out your shoulder blade and the other out the left kidney. Massive internal bleeding and you are dead in under 2 minutes.

I will still stick with my statement of the other guy not being able to tell his side of the story, you just have to be certain that he has a weapon of some sort, knife, gun If you shoot him. And.....I know that the castle doctrine allows using deadly force to protect life and property, it may be different on the left coast.

How many shootings have you been to ? Self defense laws are very similar throught the US. You have to use reasonable force and the threat must be recognizable by a reasonable person. If you decide to arrange evidence or make up a story the detective will be all over you, trust, he is well trained. You are confused about Castle. All Castle does is say you can't be sued or prosecuted if you did use reasonable force. In other words Castle will not protect you if you shoot a policeman executing a warrent, or the cable guy, your daughters bowfriend that snuck in a window, a friend that was in your house and you got drunk and became beligerant with, the inlaw you have always hated that said something stupid at Easter dinner, or even a criminal that puts up his hand and says I give up. Using deadly force in situations like that can get you convicted of manslaughter or murder, and you don't seem like the kind of person that would do easy time! California is a "Presumption" state. The presumption is that you did use reasonable force. Far better legislation I think. I am not saying that a 9MM has more kenetic energy than a 12 ga, I am saying it has enough. If it makes it to hand to hand fighting it is far easier for the bad guy to grab the barrel of a long arm. Also, no US troops shot the 223 Remington out of their weapons, not one. Nor was the 223 bullit designed to fragment. Troops use the 5.56, there is a difference, thought a gun guru would know that. The 855 bullit was designed to yaw when entering soft tissue, causing it to tumble, if traveling greater than 24-2500 fps it can break at the crimping grove. Anyway, that GI was wrong, there are lots of casses of a 5.56 passing through a torso and the victim living, depents on what got hit and how close the trama team is. The 30-30 is a great round, when I started out as a deputy nearly 30 years ago we had model 94 Winchesters in our patrol cars. Isn't it interesting that the Soviet 7.62 X 39 has almost identical performance to the 30-30.