There it was again, in the middle of the night: THUNK! Sounded like a chunk of ice slid off the roof and hit the wooden deck. Or was it another Marine exercise down at Quantico?
Maybe an intruder stumbling and falling over an outside chair?
Whatever, it required investigating. Prudence (not my wife's name, just her attitude) dictated discreet firepower available if needed.
For safety and peace of mind, I never have a loaded gun in the house. I have shells quickly available but not with the guns. Meaning I have to load quickly and usually in the dark.
The 12-gauge coach shotgun? Safe and easy to load but only two shells with two in reserve. Short but still a bit awkward in narrow home hallways.
The .30 caliber carbine? Easy to load 15-round magazine, but also a bit challenging to manuever in narrow home hallways, and bullets that could go a long way if they miss.
The .357 double action revolver? Not easy to load six shells even with speedloader. .357 might go too far if miss target, and .38 not always powerful enough.
All of these require a flashlight somewhere and have sights virtually useless in the dark.
Dilemma solved. At gun show Sunday, after months of research, finally gave in and bought a Springfield XD .45 ACP, 4-inch barrel, complete with two 13-round magazines. On the accessory rail under the muzzle, mounted a Glock GTL tactical light with laser.
It's the best combination I've found of safe operation, light weight, excellent ergonomics, effective short-range firepower, relative unobtrusiveness, and reasonable cost.
Now response to thunks in the night can be quicker, more versatile, safer, and quite powerful if need be. I get the gun from a drawer, a loaded magazine from somewhere else close by, insert the magazine, and for added safety DO NOT pull back the slide and chamber a round.
But I could quickly if need be.
The muzzle accessory can be a blindingly bright light, a laser, or both, turned on only when needed by simply extending the finger to the toggle switch just past the front edge of the trigger guard. The laser is sighted in to the iron sights so is plenty accurate enough from all sorts of positions normally never attempted, and that's with both eyes open, tremendously improving situation awareness.
Because I never want to point a gun at anything except a positively determined hostile threat, and not always then unless it becomes absolutely necessary, I can still carry a small mag lite in the other hand to avoid escalating the situation on initial contact.
If things get ugly, the small mag lite can be dropped or placed as a decoy and the XD light and/or laser activated for shock effect and warning.
Sure, this is melodramatic in a safe suburban neighborhood. But doodoo can happen anywhere. The XD .45 ACP with light/laser is the best home defense solution I've found.
Fired 200 rounds through it today at the local indoor range, and the XD performed flawlessly (except, ironically, failing to feed the first cartidge from each of the two magazines the first time I inserted them, but never again).
The laser sight is humbling. Shows every little twitch that most shooters have. Distracting to other shooters too. So I used it just enough to verify its usefulness, then shot mostly with iron sights.
Rather than revitalize several previous threads about home defense, revolver vs. pistol, favorite guns and the like, this summarizes my view of the XD .45 ACP.
Like your situation, my situation might be quite different from others', but if anything in this thread triggers a hmmmm, I recommend you consider the XD .45 ACP and a good tactical light/laser.
Meanwhile, anything new in your home defense preparedness since all the previous related threads (hunkers down for cracks about claymore mines, moats, and industrial grade flypaper)?
