How to load for home defense

[shootall]

late to post but no one mentioned how long you would have to react or if children or other person could access the gun . The child or other person situation could be over come with a lock when you were not around. Reaction time might dictate how you ready you gun. How long would you have in the middle of the night if woken by the sound of your door being kicked in ? You would need to wake up , clear your eyes , realize you were under attack and get on your gun. The average from breaking in to arriving at the bedroom door averages less than 50 seconds. Bigger the home longer the time , how big is your home ? How about travel and a motel/hotel ? Not sure about ya'll but i will give myself every possible advantage I can even cheat in a life or death situation. So loaded chamber , mag loaded , maybe one down for long term to say spring life.

[Synchronizor]

late to post but no one mentioned how long you would have to react or if children or other person could access the gun . The child or other person situation could be over come with a lock when you were not around.

The idea with gun locks and similar measures is to keep working firearms out of the hands of those who shouldn't be using them. This includes home intruders. If there are others in the home who are able to responsibly use a gun to defend themselves and others, they should be given access to it. Copies of keys, combinations, knowledge of hiding spots, etc. But no matter what the environment, there will always be situations where firearms should be locked up or rendered inoperable.

Reaction time might dictate how you ready you gun. How long would you have in the middle of the night if woken by the sound of your door being kicked in ? You would need to wake up , clear your eyes , realize you were under attack and get on your gun. The average from breaking in to arriving at the bedroom door averages less than 50 seconds. Bigger the home longer the time , how big is your home ? How about travel and a motel/hotel ? Not sure about ya'll but i will give myself every possible advantage I can even cheat in a life or death situation. So loaded chamber , mag loaded , maybe one down for long term to say spring life.

That's a fair point. Though I would counter it by saying that with some preparation and practice, racking the slide adds virtually nothing to the amount of time needed to bring a shotgun into action. I'd also add that in the kind of sudden, surprise encounter you're talking about, where milliseconds matter, a shotgun is a poor choice no matter how it's loaded. If I wake up and someone's already kicking in my bedroom door, I'm reaching for the Glock 31 I also keep beside the bed. I firmly believe that a home defense long gun should be complimented with a home defense handgun, as there are scenarios and applications where each would be far more effective than the other.

Chamber empty vs. chamber loaded is ultimately a decision that defensive shotgun owners will have to come to based on their specific situation. There's no single right answer for everyone.

[jirovec]

Full magazine tube, empty chamber, hammer cocked and safety ON. With practice it takes no time to get a round in the chamber and ready to go. I have young children in the house so I don't like having a round chambered.

I keep my 870 and Springfield XDM in locked safes in my master bedroom. I know most of you will disagree with this and I can't argue. Cause in many ways you are right. I have however taken other steps to give myself time to access the safes in case someone breaks into the house and moves quickly up the stairs.

I have a large house (about 3500 sq ft). I have an ADT security system with door censors and window sound censors. I then have an independent (unrelated to ADT) motion/sound detection security system throughout the house as a second warning. Add two dogs that don't like any noise downstairs and I see little chance to not be able to get into my safes and access my HD weapon of choice.

Oh yeah also due to kids/dogs an intruder would have to climb/move 3 sets of gates to go up the stairs. One at the bottom, one at the top of the stairs and then we have a landing area at the top of the stairs (basically a 5x8 gated area) for the 2 dogs (Boxer mix and Pit mix) to isolate them from the sleeping kids. The intruder would have to go through this area containing the dogs to access the rest of the upstairs.

[Automag]

Full Magazine, Chamber Empty and Safety ON. I have experienced two break in attempts in the past, so i used to keep a round in the chamber. I'm comfortable and practiced enough to just keep it chamber empty.