Centennial Homes – Double Wide Mobile Homes

Okay, first for the disclaimer. I am not a firearms dealer nor am I a self-defense expert. But I am one who has 30 years experience with firearms, and as such have a fairly good handle on the topic. And to cover all the bases, I posses many of the firearms I will discuss in this article, so take that for what it’s worth.

When the topic of personal and home defense comes up there are as many good choices as bad. First one must determine if in a time of fear and stress do you posses the will to use deadly force to defend your home and loved ones? If not, buy a taser, some mace and hope for the best. This article is addressed to those who have already determined their will to use deadly force, so let’s move on.

When it comes to personal defense and the “long gun” there is only one real choice – the shotgun. Mine is a Mossberg 500 Persuader. It’s a 12 gauge, 8 round magazine pump shotgun. It has an 18″ barrel (the shortest allowed by law) and this weapon is nothing but a man killer. This type of short barreled shotgun is also known as a “riot gun,” for obvious reasons. You can clear a path with this sucker if one wanted to.

The riot gun is a handy weapon for the novice or the nervous. As a shotgun sprays it’s numerous pellets over a semi wide swath, precision and a steady hand are not so critical, but there are drawbacks. As the weapon sprays its lethality it can also hit persons or things not intended to be hit, but for the novice this is a pretty easy weapon to posses and operate, and again, under extreme stress might be the best choice for many.

Drawbacks include the weapon’s size, as it’s obviously a great deal longer than is a handgun, but for defending one’s home there are few better weapons on this planet. Basically that’s it for “long guns,” as no civilian rifle has any advantages over the handgun for home defense, so if it’s not a handgun for ya, ya gotta go with a shottie – 12 gauge, short barreled and way deadly. As well the appearance of a shottie will almost always end the threat without firing a shot – NO ONE wants to be shot at close range with a 12 gauge – it’s truly a man killer.

So what about the handgun? Now it’s getting interesting. The choices of caliber, size, semi-auto versus revolver, etc. are many, and way too much to consider for this article, so I will list MY personal choices and you can take it for what you will. I will forego any in-depth explanation of calibers, etc. All that info is easily available with a quick Google search.

When it comes to handguns there are 2 choices – revolver or semi-auto. Both have advantages and drawbacks.

The semi-auto or automatic as it’s largely known is my usual choice. There are many reasons – speed of reloading, the high capacity of the ammo magazine and the fact that most semi auto handguns have a “safety” while I have never seen a revolver with one.

My personal choices are the 9mm or the .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol round originally made for the 1911 .45 used by the military up until the 1980’s). I prefer the .45 for its stopping power. Any creature under 500 lbs in weight on this rock that is hit full on with a round from a .45ACP is going down – no debate. They are on their ass, and isn’t that the point? To end the threat?

As well the .45 is great for home & personal defense because it’s a big slow bullet. It delivers the maximum foot lbs of energy to the target. If the round strikes anything of substantial girth the round will deplete all its energy in that girth, so little chance the round will hit its target and pass through them to then strike an unintended target, and that’s a good thing.

And while the 9mm is probably the most plentiful of handguns, its round is roughly .38 caliber in width, thus has no real power, but it will still do the job just fine, but I just like the .45 ACP.

As for the old standards, the .38 caliber, it has little stopping power, hence the reason most police departments use the 9mm .40 caliber, .357 caliber or the .45ACP. Ya wanna end the threat, and to do that the threatening entity must be on its ass for that to happen. The .45ACP was developed for the military because their old standard, the .38 was so underpowered it did not stop the charging enemy, so a larger, slower bullet was needed, and bang! the .45 ACP appears to end the argument. And end the argument it does, at least for me.

As far as the “little” handguns, the .22, .25, .32, or the .380 semi auto caliber weapon, they are fine to play with, to practice with, but they will not stop a determined foe unless you hit them in a vital area. Lacking a head or upper body shot you may just anger the SOB you’re shooting at, and that’s not gonna be good for you! I have seen a man shot in the thigh with a .25 auto and he just got pissed off. Not a good home or personal defense choice. Better than a stick or rock, but not much. If given a choice between a .25 automatic and a Louisville Slugger I’ll take the baseball bat every time.

I must address the .357 Magnum handgun. This is a great weapon with a few drawbacks. It shoots a .38 caliber bullet, but the shell casing has near double the powder as does a .38 so the bullet is far faster, thus delivering more kinetic energy to the target than does the .38, but their are drawbacks. Unless you’re a good shot you might miss the target and a .357 round will move right through a wall like it wasn’t even there. Unless you hit the target at every shot there will be live rounds moving through your house, and that’s not gonna be good for anybody.

I have purposely left the semi-auto/revolver debate for last. A revolver is almost fool proof, but it’s slow to load and re-load, has a much smaller capacity for ammo stored and ready to fire and as I stated, I am not familiar with any revolver with a safety mechanism. As well, a revolver must be kept loaded to be any good. In an emergency you can’t ask an attacker to hold on a second until you load your revolver, so in an immediate emergency, if it ain’t loaded you may as well throw the SOB at ‘em for all the good it’ll do. And if you have kids around a loaded gun is a no-no, so the semi auto addresses those issues.

A semi automatic uses an ammo magazine to store the rounds, so one could keep a loaded magazine on thier person and leave the weapon unloaded until needed, and no kid can come along and shoot someone accidentally. And one can slam the loaded magaxine into the mag well and cock the weapon in 2 seconds – a lot faster than the time it takes to load a revolver. So if speed or magazine capacity are issues, and they are to me, then the only way to go is the semi-auto handgun.

So I conclude that to defend the abode go with the shotgun and the .45. These 2 weapons will end the threat if you hit your target – no discussion – threat eliminated.

In closing, let me brag on my personal arsenal. I am nearly as proud of my weapons as I am of my kids and my Rottie! Yeah, I know – I’m weird!

When it comes to handguns I have 2 .45 ACP’s and love them both. As well I have a 9mm semi auto and my “toy” gun is a Bersa .380 semi auto. It’s my “in my shorts or sweat pants” gun, but then I am a purty fair shot and quick too, so while I would not tell a novice to count on a .380, I can shoot an offender 6 times then throw the Bersa at him while I run upstairs to grab my Springfield Armory .45 1911 short barrel. If the Bersa didn’t stop the problem the .45 will – no doubt!

When it comes to “long guns” I have one shottie, the Mossberg Persuader. I have had that shottie for 25 years. Like I said, it’s not for hunting four legged critters, but it’ll damn sure mess up a two legged critter.

I have a Ruger 10-22, .22 caliber semi auto rifle. I have a bunch of 30 round magazines for it and thousands of rounds of .22 Long Rifle ammo. For hunting small game this is a great weapon and it’s great for target practice. The ammo is very plentiful and relatively cheap. so get ya the finest and most reliable .22 rifle there is and get a Ruger 10-22.

I have the ubiquitous 30-30 lever action rifle. Mine is a Marlin but Winchester and many others make a great version of this gun. It’s a great full size (.30 caliber in rifle bullets is “full size”), easy to load and operate weapon. It is suitable for deer and other large game, but not for the really big game. As well it’s relatively short (I think it has a 22″ barrel) length makes it a great “brush” gun. The lever action is the one you see from the westerns and is reliable to a fault. For one’s “first” long gun otther than a shotgun, the lever action 30-30 is a great choice.

My personal arsenal of destruction includes 3 infamous military rifles. The first, and my most prized is my K98 Mauser. Almost all bolt action weapons in history were of the “Mauser” design. My Mauser K98 is an ORIGINAL WWII vintage issue. My K98 was made in 1943, the serial numbers on the bolt, stock & receiver all match and the weapon was brand new in the box when I bought it about 6 or 7 years ago. It had been manufactured during the war but never issued. It was packed in the cosmoline that it was shipped in in 1943. The weapon is of near collectors grade and it is the sweetest shooting rifle I have ever fired.

To find the 7.92 mm ammo for it I purchased two boxes of link-belted machine gun ammo, and when I wanna shoot the K98 I have to bust the rounds loose from the linked ammo. As a sidebar, the 7.92 mm round used by Germany in WWII is widely considered to be the most ballisticaly perfect shape ever made. In fact the German V2 Rocket is just an uber large version of the identical shape. For reference, the NATO standard .30 caliber projectile is 7.62 mm wide by 51 mm long, so the K98 is known as a “8mm Mauser,” although a slightly smaller “7mm Mauser” was also manufactured.

My other WWII era weapon is a Mosin-Nagant, 7.62 x 54mm. This is the Soviet issue bolt action rifle issued to all Soviet troops in WWII. This is the gun they carried from Moscow to Berlin. The Mosin came in two versions – the first was the standard length infantry rifle. My Mosin is the shorter paratrooper issued Mosin known as the Mosin Carbine. It’s the identical weapon with a shorter barrel. Both of the Mosin’s came with an attached fold away bayonet. This is a great little rifle. in fact I may buy me the standard issue Mosin and attach a scope to it for distance shots. If you saw “The Enemy at the Gates” this is the exact weapon used by Jude Law in his portrayal of leading Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev (yes, there are numerous spellings of both his first and especially his last names).

I guess my absolute favorite weapon is my AK47. Mine is a Norinco. The parts are stamped in Eastern Europe and shipped to the US for assembly. This is the most popular and loved weapon in all of history, and for damn good reason too! This piece is a stud!

It fires .30 caliber ammo, albeit shortened for the “assault rifle” usage. If the standard military full size .30 caliber is a 7.62mm x 51 mm (NATO) or 7.62mm x 54 mm (Warsaw Pact), the AK47 is a 7.62 mm x 39 mm projectile. It is the width of a standard 30 caliber load, but it is much shorter from tip to the back of the projectile.

This sacrifice in length but not width is one of the greatest things about the AK ammo. It packs a near identical punch to that of the full size round but with one major benefit – the weapons’ shorter round creates LESS recoil, thus making target re-acquisition easier after the first round is fired. As well as each round is significantly shorter one can carry more ammo without creating an undue weight burden.

But the absolute best thing about the AK47 is its toughness. It is 100% truth that one can throw the gun down in a stream bed, bury it under the sand, come back the next day, dig out the weapon, load the Bastard and start shooting. But how is that possible? Simple – the tolerances built into the weapon are extremely forgiving. Not to be disparaging to any ethnic group but the truth is Mikhail Kalashnikov, the weapons’ designer (hence the AK for Automatic Kalashnikov) designed the weapon specifically for the untrained and uneducated Mongols of the Eastern steepe to be able to use with little training. As well the weapon requires very little maintaining, breaks down for cleaning into 3 or 4 major parts and that’s it.

The AK is accurate, easy to use, cheap to buy & own and cheap to shoot. I buy 1000 rounds for $185.00, and that’s plenty cheap. As well extra 30 round magazines are everywhere and reasonably cheap as well. When it comes to firepower, money spent for the weapon, the maintaining of the weapon and the cost of ammo the AK47 is the deal. Cheap to buy, easy to maintain, cheap to shoot, accurate to well over 300 yards, and exceptionally forgiving in it’s use and reliable above any other weapon ever made, it’s easy to see why I love my AK.

As a sidebar I used to have an AR15 as well, which is the civilian version of the military M16. I had a Colt AR 15 that I paid almost $800.00 for brand new. It was a wonderful weapon but way more unforgiving in its operation as it’s a precision milled weapon with extremely close tolerances, and the 5.56 mm ammo is more expensive than is the 7.62 AK ammo. The AK is a stamped metal weapon, meaning it’s cheaper to build and far easier to maintain. I can go to the local gun show and drop $800.00 for a new Colt AR 15 or I can buy 2 new AK 47’s for $400 each and the ammo is cheaper and exceptionally plentiful.

So get ya some guns, bust some caps and have fun. And don’t point that thing unless you intend to use it!