Last week, I had mentioned Jon Low's September 15, 2024, newsletter in my post "The Future Of Self-Defense May Involve Defense Against Gangs/Mobs." I had specifically recommended reading his list of 6 essential rifle skills and included the following quote from Jon:
These gangs have automatic rifles. Do you? These gangs operate in coordinated teams. Do you? How is your militia or vigilante team? Or do you think you can defend yourself and your family from the gangs by yourself? Because the police are not responding. Good luck on that.
As Michael Mann says, "Prevention, not reaction." If you want zero friendly casualties, you must strike pre-emptively and decisively. If the police don't show up when good citizens complain of gangs, what makes you think the police will show up when the gangs complain about your militia? I'm joking. No, as a matter of fact, I'm not.
Of course, and as always, there is a lot more in each newsletter, so be sure to check it out if you have not already done so.
And Greg Ellifritz has published a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. He has links to articles on treating wounds and lacerations, hand held light techniques, a couple articles for fans of revolvers, a guide to universal holsters that actually work well, and more.
I didn't see a specific recommendation for the AR in Low's article, but I guess it's a given that it is pretty much the standard. I'm in that camp myself but, in the case of a lone individual encountering an armed gang on their property, a long-tube semi-auto shotgun is a formidable tool. At 5 or 6 rounds of 00-Buck...or even 7 or 8 rounds with magazine tube extensions, that's 60 to 80 projectiles spreading out with increasing distance. They may have numerical superiority, however not many people are willing to charge into a wall of buckshot. At minimum, it may be enough to scatter them and send them running...or limping.
ReplyDeleteShotguns would be particularly effective if you could canalize the attackers. Years ago, when I first saw advertisements for drum magazines for the SAIGA shotguns, I thought that they would make great "point defense" weapons for a prepper ... assuming that they (the shotgun and the magazines) would reliably function.
DeleteA great many gun magazines built their empire on "9MM vs .45" and now it's become "AR vs Shotgun." How times change....
ReplyDeleteWhat, to me, appears to be missing, is the balance between the primary choices: shotguns reign supreme inside 25-30 meters, especially when fed with ammunition such as Federal's Flite Control and the ability to create Fatal Funnels, but shotguns are capacity limited and the basic rule of "if you're not shooting it you're feeding it" applies heavily and must be practiced religiously. Close-in terrain control with a pair or trio of competent shotgunners with overlapping fields of fire would be devastating; secure positions with spare shotguns and dedicated loaders to keep fresh gns in the hands of the shooters - the "New York Reload Principle" writ large - to maintain fire, would be particularly so.
ARs have the advantage of greater capacity and Application of Energy at distances shotguns can only dream about. Their downside, however, is "energy delivered" because 5.56 is, at best, a low intermediate cartridge requiring multiple hits even with the preferred 77 and 75 grain projectiles.
I'm still waiting for the perfection of a high intermediate cartridge for ARs, assuming one can be created within the dimensional constraints of Mr. Stoner's magazine well; there's too big a jump between AR-15s and AR-10s, and the AR-10 platform leads to "how powerful a cartridge can I put through this thing" and I think something in between both rifle and cartridge size might be more useful (an AR 12.5?). The Germans, sort of, attempted it with the 7.92X33 cartridge, but were restricted by the severe limitations imposed by availability of personnel, plus constraints imposed on ammunition, barrel and magazine manufacturing equipment and processes, not to mention severe supply chain issues, under continual heavy allied bombing. Thankfully, they were not able to, but had they been able to patiently start with "a clean sheet of paper" it would have been interesting to see what they might have come up with.
The 6.5 Grendel was intended as a something intermediate between the .223 and the .308, but still fitting in AR 15 magazines. A 6.5 Grendel with a bimetallic case like the new 6.8 x 51mm, allowing for higher pressures (and velocity), might be the ticket.
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