Hi everyone, I'm trying to find a gun for home defense for my mom. My mom has never handled a gun and I have very little experience with them myself. We are trying to find a gun that is not going to break the bank, and one that my mom, who is a very small woman, can aim and handle relatively easily. Could yall make some recommendations?

Tags: Defense, Guns, Home

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How old is your mom?  Are we talking 50?  60?  80?

 

For handguns, definitely nothing bigger than a 9mm.  My wife (30s), sister (20s) and mother (50s) have all tried my .45 (Kimber 1911), and all complained about it a lot.  Not a womens' caliber.  Too big for them to handle.  They all liked the 9mm a lot more.  The Ladysmith (Smith & Wesson 3913, I think) is supposed to be a good handgun for women.  Not sure what the caliber is.

 

Maybe a shotgun.  You don't have to aim shotguns.  Point and spray.  Kicks into your shoulder, so it shouldn't beat her up too bad.

 

JB

She is 50 years old. I was definitely thinking along the lines of either a 9mm handgun or a shotgun.

Single barrel, short, shotgun. Crimp the end in a vice horizontally along the axis into an oval instead of a circle.  Get a Lee loader for a 12ga.  Pry the crimps apart on a commercial shot shell, pour the shot out and weigh them.  Get an equal amount of weight in lead split shot fishing sinkers.  String those sinkers onto a length of piano wire.  Load your new grape shot into the shell with your Lee loader.

Replace your mothers bedroom door with a solid core interior door.  Put a high security exterior door knob/strike plate on the door.  Teach her to lock the bedroom door at night and if she gets a break in, to barricade herself and call the cops on a cell phone.

Thanks Shane. Cool ideas, I'll take them into consideration. Would certainly take care of any intruders and keep my mom safe.

I am all for allowing a homeowner to use whatever they chose to dispose of someone breaking into their home. I have wondered if they make shot that is not round but more jagged and or spiked to cause more damage like shrapnel. I am sure there are many politicians, D.A. and other authorities who would love to prosecute a homeowner for using some sort of homemade ammo like that. Are there any precedents for something like this?

Flechettes

Nice.

I would go with some sort of shotgun. Even if it where something small like a 410 it is better than nothing. Must manufacturers make jr or youth models. Most intruders are not looking for a shoot out so just about any caliber will do but a shotgun is a little more forgiving. It will not cover an entire wall like some people claim but you definitely get a larger area of contact.

Best thing to in my opinion would be to get a sturdy door for the bedroom and reinforce the door frame. People breaking into houses do not want to work so use this to your advantage and make a door they have to work to get into and they will go somewhere else.

What kind of shotgun would you recommend? I was looking into pump shotguns because those seemed less expensive and more practical for home defense than other types of shotguns.

definitely pump. It it doesn't fire you pump again and pull the trigger. You can buy low recoil ammo for shotguns and that might be useful for an older woman but that type of ammo may not work well for a semi auto shotgun where the recoil is used to chamber the next shell.

At this point I'm definitely leaning towards a pump shotgun. I've heard about a couple different types that are supposed to be really good, but I'm going to go over to the local gun shop in the next week or so and get their input.

Appreciate you letting me know about the low recoil ammo, that would probably be ideal for my mom.

I would also check out some pawn shops for a good used pump shotgun.

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