re: Don't know what type of gun to buy.

Don't buy a glock. Your GF will shoot herself. Stick with shotguns.

a 20 with buck shot is plenty enough to get the job done for both but yea get her something smaller like the 20. You want something that has stopping power but that she can handle.

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You really have enough money for a shotgun and handgun

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Yep.. if gonna spend 700, I'd get a used Remington or Mossberg for about 250, then use the rest to purchase a Smith and Wesson 642 Airweight.. great pocket pistol too with the boot grip.

Yeah the glock wouldn't be for her I'd buy her a 20 gauge shotgun.

If you really want to impress your girlfriend, get a harpoon.

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Until then, Remington makes an 870 12 gauge with an 18" barrel that holds 7 rounds:

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Love this gun.

Get a sawed off shotgun. Or maybe a German Shepherd

Couple of words of advice from an old man who has a ton of firearms experience over the past five decades ... longer even.

First of all - try to prevent someone from getting inside your place - that's first and foremost. A good fence, dogs that bark and alert you in advance, good locks (especially bolt locks), and an alarm system.

That's called four stages of defense. Alarm systems are inexpensive these days, install it yourself. If someone is determined enough to go through all of those ... then shoot them fricking dead if they come into your home and put your loved ones at risk. Most states have castle doctrines these days.

OK, so the bad guys have penetrated your first four stages of defense. Time to bring smoke on their sorry fricking punk asses with stage V.

With regard to the Mossey 500s and the Remy 870s ... go 12 gauge, don't worry about recoil because you're not going to feel it once the shooting begins. Your a-hole is going to be tighter than a gnat's arse stretched over a #10 washtub so forget about recoil. But with regard to those two shotguns (the 500 and 870) ... they are both pumps and pumps tend to get short-stroked in high-stress situations by amateurs like yourself. So if you go the pump route, practice, practice practice with birdshot, 100s of rounds until you can make milkjugs dance, until pumping and pulling the trigger, (all while aiming and moving and staying in control mind-you), becomes second nature. Remember, moving forward or backward it's always heel to toe or toe to heel and keep the front bead on the bad guy.

Speaking of shot ... use #1 or #4 buck, or even turkey shot, for home defense. All this 00 (double-ought) and slug talk is nonsense inside your average civilian home. 00 Buckshot is overkill and it'll penetrate walls and kill someone in the other rooms if you're not careful - and you won't be if the shooting starts. I prefer #4 buck myself, but to each his own. #4 will penetrate too but not as badly through sheetrock as 00.

I keep two shotguns handy 24/7 in the bedroom. One, a Benelli M4, is behind the headboard on my bed in a specially made saddle so all I have to do is jump-up on the bed, reach back there and start slinging lead as fast as I can pull the trigger - no pumping necessary, nine shots.

The other one is on bicycle hooks over one of the closet doors in my bedroom, on the inside. Now, I'm 6'3" so I have the height to grab it in a hurry ... if your shorter you might want to put it somewhere else. I did it years ago to keep it away from the kids but I had them trained properly when they were still chaps so I never really worried about it ... but it's still there. It's a Mossey 500 and I can rock and roll with the thing. Hold-on, I may have a picture somewhere ... yeah, here you go.

Well, here are both of them actually ...




So anyways ....

Now about the handguns.

You might get lucky and find a used Mossey 500, hopefully in good shape and very reliable, for under $300 ... if you get lucky. So that leaves you what, $400 for a handgun?

A lot of people are going to suggest Glocks ... but not me. Glocks are double staged triggers where your finger is your safety and more amateur shooters have ADs with Glocks than anything else. Hell, cops have ADs with Glocks. (google/youtube "ATF accidential discharge") You also do not know how to take immediate action with a Glock if it stovepipes, or how to handle a frick-up in a firefight like if the magazine drops out ... so just stay away from semi-autos altogether. They'll get you killed in a firefight. All it takes is limp wristing a semi-auto handgun and you're going to die.

I, on the other hand, have about a million rounds of practice through various semi-autos so I'm confident with mine ... I shot IDPA and IPSC for years and a bad guy is fricked if he gets in a pistol shootout with me, just sayin'. He's fricked.

But you do have a price limit.

You need a wheel gun ... 38 Special or, if possible, 357 mag.

Now, let me warn you about something first.

Most home break-ins and burglaries happen at night when people are at home ... I mean the ones where people are at home happen at night. You're probably going to be half asleep. Now ... I dunno how much shooting you've done at night indoors but I promise you this - you will not believe how loud a firearm is when fired indoors, nor will you believe how bright muzzle flash is at night indoors - especially when your eyes have been shut and you've been asleep and now, all of the sudden, you're in a dead dark firefight.

After the first shot you'll have a glow in your eyes that will blind you and your ears will be ringing and you will not be able to hear anything ... so everything after the first shot will be what we call "blind, deaf and dumb shots." There's a way around that but that's for another thread.

Anyways, so you've found yourself a used revolver, 38 Special or 357 Mag (which can shoot both) at a good price at a pawn shop somewhere. Taurus is probably going to be your price point but that's fine, Taurus makes decent revolvers.

Now, go to the range and practice, practice, practice. Then practice some more and then practice every single month for the rest of your life.

Here are a few of my favorite pistols from my own personal collection ... I've carried all of these at various points in my life.



Ideally, see that S&W 686 revolver on the bottom left? Ideally that's what you want but you're not going to be able to afford that AND the shotgun on your budget ... so a Taurus will be fine. Just make sure it's in good shape. There are plenty to be had out there at Pawn Shops.

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No it's not. He doesn't want to become a shooting enthusiast, he wants to protect himself if someone enters his home. A shotgun is the easiest, most cost effective way to do that without having to spent tons of man hours to become proficient with a handgun. No one is telling him or his GF not to get comfortable shooting it.

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You're right, sort of, but there are inherent problems with any newbie shooter thinking a pump shotgun is the end-all be-all of home defense.

Forget about the short-stroking issues. Any long gun is tough to maneuver and shoot with indoors. There is no cover in most homes, only concealment. So you gotta go full-ape-shite and move forward while firing a shotgun ... and even then most are going to be 3-5 shots max before you have a stick in your hands unless you know how to reload under fire.

A sawed-off (16") inexpensive used Remington 1100 makes more sense for home defense for most newbie shooters worried about home defense. Pull the plug, five shots (4 in the mag, 1 in the pipe), and if you can't defend your home with that you've screwed the pooch.

If the bad guys made it through your first 4 levels, and if they are armed, and if you live out in the country or anywhere where there is a 30 minute response time ... you're probably going to be dead anyways.

It's happening more and more these days too. Armed home burglary is way-up although the Justice Department is not reporting it - local LEOs are.