Which handgun for Home defense?

[Dick]

I don't mean this to be a dummys guide but not knowing your familiarity with firearms I felt basic was better than assuming knowledge that might not be there.
Personally I prefer #4 buck as my home defense load in a pump action Mossberg 500. I do agree that a revolver is less prone to malfunction however, I believe that someone relatively new to firearms would best be served by buying one firearm and getting highly proficient with it rather than have several firearms and finding themselves confused in a desperate situation. My vote goes to a 4 inch 357 with hollowpoints. For practice I echo the comment that 38 loads are cheap but you need to fire enough 357 loads to know how you will react. Finally, fire a few 357 rounds at an indoor range without hearing protection. The noise might deafen you for a bit. You are going to have to know what you will encounter.

 

[Bird]

Finally, fire a few 357 rounds at an indoor range without hearing protection. The noise might deafen you for a bit. You are going to have to know what you will encounter.

I would NEVER recommend such a thing to anyone. Neither will anyone who runs an indoor range, or even an outdoor range for that matter. I'm practically deaf without my hearing aids, probably because when I started on the police department that was the thinking at that time. We didn't use hearing protection "because if you get into a shooting situation on duty, you won't have any hearing protection." In later years, they learned how foolish that had been. When I took the FBI handgun course at Quantico, we used hearing protection. And I just re-qualified this morning on the Dallas police range, and everyone is required to have both hearing and eye protection.

 

[brin]

I would NEVER recommend such a thing to anyone. Neither will anyone who runs an indoor range, or even an outdoor range for that matter. I'm practically deaf without my hearing aids, probably because when I started on the police department that was the thinking at that time. We didn't use hearing protection "because if you get into a shooting situation on duty, you won't have any hearing protection." In later years, they learned how foolish that had been. When I took the FBI handgun course at Quantico, we used hearing protection. And I just re-qualified this morning on the Dallas police range, and everyone is required to have both hearing and eye protection.

You are absolutely right Bird, when I was on the force back in the old days we fired in the range to qualify and practice with no hearing protection and to this day I have constant ringing in my ears...same was true for the military where I was in the MP's...no hearing protection.. so now I have " Tinnitus " I have had it for years now and am used to it...unless I think about it like right now...

Don't fire a firearm in an enclosed area especially without eye and ear protection or you will regret it later.

 

[TripleR]

I also have tinnitus from shooting guns in my youth without hearing protection exacerbated by riding motorcycles without helmets too I suspect. Wear good hearing protection at all times while shooting if at all possible. I don't while hunting, but the way I hunt, I rarely discharge my firearm.:laughing:

 

[Soundguy]

i was at a range a while back and a guy did some rapid fire pop offs just as everyone walked up to the fire line before most of us had our ear gear on. i had tinitus from that for months.

 

[k0ua]

Firing a handgun indoors without hearing protection is a great way to do permanent and accumulative damage to your hearing. Been there, done that, "eh, what did you say sonny?" yep, I don't fire a handgun out doors without hearing protection either. And let me tell you.. Indoors is WAY worse than outdoors. And in my experience a .357 magnum is just about the biggest ear-ripper of any handgun I have ever seen and that includes .44magnum's. There is something about the high velocity crack of a .357 going off that just seems extra loud to me.. A .45acp is a *****-cat compared to a .357 in the noise department.

James K0UA

 

[Tollster]

I also have tinnitus from shooting guns in my youth without hearing protection exacerbated by riding motorcycles without helmets too I suspect. Wear good hearing protection at all times while shooting if at all possible. I don't while hunting, but the way I hunt, I rarely discharge my firearm.:laughing:

Same here, but there was a day when we where popping of some 38's without hearing protection when I was about 19, next thing I knew, someone ran a few .357's through it next to my ear. My ears rang for 3 days...never been the same since...I can't here the spring peepers (pond frogs) when I lay my head down on the right side...sux to miss out on the things ya love because we where young and bullet proof....ma always said I would pay for it when I got older....

 

[Bird]

I believe it was about 1981 when I went to an ENT specialist about the ringing in my ears. I'd never heard of tinnitus at the time, and he said that was what I had. And after a hearing test, he said, "You don't need hearing aids yet, but you will some day. That's from shooting those guns." I got my first hearing aids in 1992, and my fourth pair last August. Both the tinnitus and my hearing continue to get worse all the time.

Different calibers sound different, of course, but different guns of the same caliber often do, too. And yes, the only 357s I've shot hurt my ears more than the only 44 magnum I've shot. And perhaps oddly enough, the worst I've had is my own S&W Chief .38 spl. I don't really have an explanation, although I've thought perhaps it's the clearance between the front of the cylinder and the back of the barrel, or maybe just the short barrel. But my S&W Combat Masterpiece .38 spl. might hurt my ears briefly at the time it's shot, while the Chief would leave my ears ringing for a couple of hours, even years ago. There's less clearance between cylinder and barrel in the Chief than in the bigger gun.

 

[Gunny]

Always wear ear protection when you can! When I first started in Field Artillery we fired on voice commands, you could hear the command come down over the old radio loudspeakers and hear the gun chief's final command to fire. Gave us plenty of time to turn around, cover your ears, open your mouth, etc. Later on we go the newest digital fire control system and by the time you knew a round was going off, it was too late. Tinnitus is some bad stuff, and like has been mentioned, it's progressive and irreversible. It really sucks when you can't go to sleep because the ringing in your ears is too loud, when family complains because you have the TV turned up loud, or you keep asking them to repeat themselves.
When I married my wife, she was a very soft spoken person and I never understood her unless I was looking directly at me when she spoke. Thank goodness she stuck with me all those years and even better, taught herself to speak louder when talking to me!
Hearing aids are expensive and don't really take care of the ringing in your ears.
It's so much easier to wear protection now than it is to deal with high frequency hearing loss later on.

 

[clemsonfor]

i would not have know what "tinnitus" was except for the constant radio commercials i hear about it. I dont pay attention other than subcontiously but i must hear it several times a day in the truck. I guess its a doctor office, some surgery or some hearing booster thing or something??? All i know is that it taught me that "tinnitus is the constant ringing in your ears" i guess the commercial worked in that sense but i have no idea the point of it or who payed for it? I guess if i had it i would pay attention more as i would be the target audience, that would be if the tinnitus person heard it!!