Which to guard your house inside with

knastera said:

I noticed that too. I mean, we could have recommended a tripod mounted .50 cal, but he doesn't have one.

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iH8DemLibz said:

A single .50 BMG for home defense is just silly.



Pretty sure the magazines will need to be purchased out of state.



View attachment 216828

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Shoobedoo said:

Lots of different ways to look at this. As someone pointed out, power wise the 9mm Mak is about midway between .380 and 9x19mm, I'm sure there are plenty of people that have been murdered in the hood with a .380 shot or two to the head, so there is little doubt that the 9mm Mak can be lethal. Finding effective modern defensive ammo for the Mak can be problematic though, being a Soviet/Communist East Europe design, most of the commonly available (ie. inexpensive) ammo offerings are FMJ types, and not the best choices for defensive use.

On the other hand, if you fire two or three 230 gr. 45 slugs in to the torso of the toughest assailant from the Hi Point, they are going down hard and not getting back up, at least not quickly, which gives you plenty of time to seal the deal if necessary.

Three shots in to the torso of a determined, possibly chemically altered Felon from a 9mm Mak could just severely piss them off, and motivate them to crush your skull, or stab you 40 times with a hunting knife before they bleed out.

If the choice is between the Hi Point and the Mak my vote goes to the Hi Point. In a life or death situation I would rather be throwing high velocity bowling balls at my opponent than golf balls.

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Biggfoot44 said:

Back with the OP's binary choice between two specific firearms :

If he is assured of sufficient notice of evildoer's pending intent to walk over to retrieve a stashed firearm , the HiPoint carbine is a superior weapon.

If the home invaders kick in the door while you're kicked back in the La Z Boy , you're going to want that Mak carried on your person .

Confidence levels are subjective, and occasionally irrational. I wouldn't consider current premium defensive ammo in 9x18 " very effective " , but more of " doesn't totally suck ". In this binary context , "doesn't totally suck " does get my conditional nod .

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smokey0118 said:

http://how-i-did-it.org/drywall/results.html

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knastera said:

I can accept that. Help me understand what downgrades Hornady Critical Defense in 9x18 from "very effective" to "doesn't totally suck."

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knastera said:

I disagree about the ammo. You can get Hornady Critical Defense in 9x18 Mak. It's a very effective round.

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alucard0822 said:

That 9x18 Mak load has a 95 gr projectile at 1,000FPS for around 200 FPE, 9X19 will have around 50%-double the energy with much heavier bullets at similar or higher velocities. Basically comes down to "on paper" ballisitcs for the most part, but Mak, like 380 usually doens't have enough power to both penetrate sufficiently, and expand. The top 380 and Mak loads tend not to meet the standard 12" penetration in bare and denim faced gel where most modern 9x19 does, that particuar load seems to test around 8-10" of penetration in most tests. An additional issue with Critical defense is that it trades expansion and low recoil for penetration, where the majority of that line don't penetrate 12", some fall well short. It's also the reason they developed the superior Critical duty, which DOES usually meet FBI and most department standards, although with modest expansion, and tends to rank around the middle of the pack with testing. IMO the FBI criteria is easily passed by the majority of duty ammo in duty calibers, and what I would consider the floor of "effective" at least as far as handgun calibers go. Ammo designs that make the most of lesser calibers, and either meet penetration criteria without expanding, or get close with moderate expansion like Makarov ammo, "don't totally suck".

So long story short, that Mak load doesn't meet FBI performance specs, but only really matters if you care about such things, and doesn't really matter if that is the tool you have vs a tool you don't.

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Xshot said:

This guards my house 24/7.

Make it past him (and in a year, his baby sister), and I’ll take care of you myself.
I won’t have to take care of you myself.

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Shoobedoo said:

Dogs are the best alarm system money can buy, and that's no BS.



That is a beautiful Dobie you've got there, extremely loyal and faithful dogs, I miss my big Dobie boy, all 110 lbs of him.



Now we have a 10 lb. Chihuahua, a royal pain in the ass, but very alert and he barks at the slightest sound...

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knastera said:

Bark alarms are very effective. This is mine, a blue Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

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Shoobedoo said:

That would work.



My doggie isn't very big, but what he lacks in sheer size and intimidating looks he makes up for with impressive vocal cords...

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knastera said:

That's all that matters. Bad guys are like water, they seek the path of least resistance. If they hear a dog, pretty much any dog, chances are they'll look for a place without a dog.

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BradMacc82 said:

As a former owner of a Hi-Point carbine, I'd take the carbine w/out hesitation.

The handguns may be the butt of a lot of jokes, and deservedly so in most cases. But their carbines, hands down, are rock-solid little bastards. **And if it doesn't fire for some reason, at least you have a good bludgeoning tool...

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