Teaching the new wife self defense in the home.

[West Texas]

Found a Rossi Model R35102 .38 SPL + P 5-shot yesterday...with PINK grips. So guess what is in the night stand this morning. Yep, with PINK grips...see the pic under WTB.

Nice little gun, she did REAL well putting 50 semi-wad cutters through it, then 50 rounds of lead ball and ended with 15 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense +P so she would have a feel for what it does in real life. Came home and cleaned it up and went through the plan of "what if..."

It all starts with getting to the gun. So if you are home alone and you start to feel uneasy, have it close. We live in a very upscale, very safe neighborhood, which means nothing if someone wants to steal from you are hurt you...and since our house is arranged where it would be impossible to cut anyone off from getting from the living room to our bedroom, GET TO THE BEDROOM.

1) Get your gun and SIT DOWN in the corner. If attacker has followed you closley, skip to step 4, if not, if your phone is close by, dial 911, put phone on speaker, lay it down on the nightstand and concentrate on the gun and the door. Talk to the dispatch over speaker, This lets them hear everything that is going on as well. And since it is being taped, there is never much question about what happened after this. DON'T let the phone distract you!

2) Keep the bed between you and the door and your back to the wall in the corner. You now have a clear field of fire 35ft to the door in the opposite corner of the room.

3) Give ONE verbal warning then don't HESITATE to shoot if they move toward you.

4) When you shoot, shoot twice.

5) If they are still coming, shoot twice more.

6) if still coming, let them get closer, then use last shot center mass.

7) if they leave, do NOT pursue. Stay put, help is on the way.

8) When LEO shows up, make them come to you AND CLEARLY IDENTIFY themselves before you give up your defensive postion.

9) If you HAVE shot the intruder, DO NOT MOVE, help is on the way, make them come to you and find you exactly as it all happened.

Can anyone think of anything I missed?

 

[M. Sage]

Found a Rossi Model R35102 .38 SPL + P 5-shot yesterday...with PINK grips. So guess what is in the night stand this morning. Yep, with PINK grips...see the pic under WTB.

Nice little gun, she did REAL well putting 50 semi-wad cutters through it, then 50 rounds of lead ball and ended with 15 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense +P so she would have a feel for what it does in real life. Came home and cleaned it up and went through the plan of "what if..."

It all starts with getting to the gun. So if you are home alone and you start to feel uneasy, have it close. We live in a very upscale, very safe neighborhood, which means nothing if someone wants to steal from you are hurt you...and since our house is arranged where it would be impossible to cut anyone off from getting from the living room to our bedroom, GET TO THE BEDROOM.

1) Get your gun and SIT DOWN in the corner. If attacker has followed you closley, skip to step 4, if not, if your phone is close by, dial 911, put phone on speaker, lay it down on the nightstand and concentrate on the gun and the door. Talk to the dispatch over speaker, This lets them hear everything that is going on as well. And since it is being taped, there is never much question about what happened after this. DON'T let the phone distract you!

2) Keep the bed between you and the door and your back to the wall in the corner. You now have a clear field of fire 35ft to the door in the opposite corner of the room.

3) Give ONE verbal warning then don't HESITATE to shoot if they move toward you.

4) When you shoot, shoot twice.

5) If they are still coming, shoot twice more.

6) if still coming, let them get closer, then use last shot center mass.

7) if they leave, do NOT pursue. Stay put, help is on the way.

8) When LEO shows up, make them come to you AND CLEARLY IDENTIFY themselves before you give up your defensive postion.

9) If you HAVE shot the intruder, DO NOT MOVE, help is on the way, make them come to you and find you exactly as it all happened.

Can anyone think of anything I missed?

Just a thought - 35 feet is kind of a long shot under stress with a snubby, unless you practice your butt off. She's going to have to keep her skills up, and I'd suggest some "stress inoculation" training (for example - run some wind sprints and then engage a target, all timed). Not stuff most relationships are strong enough for because you'd have to be tough on her. My wife recently asked me for a home defense weapon, and I'm going with an inexpensive 12 gauge with a Knoxx recoil reducing stock on it. Stopping power? Check. Easy to point and shoot under stress? Check.

On shot placement, I've become a fan of using pelvic hits as a follow-up. Aim between the hips and fire. Put holes in that sucker and it will break when they try to advance. Can't walk with your pelvis broken in two, and there are a ton of blood vessels in that area. I'm going to teach my wife one round of buckshot to the chest followed by one shot to the pelvis. With buckshot, this will mean the end of any fight, even someone on the most wicked drugs you can imagine can't fight if you do that to them. The pelvis gives you a nice, big target and it's at the body's center of balance, so it's very stationary compared to other parts of the body. Just watch people walk and even run.

On the warning thing, I'd strongly suggest that you tell her to issue a warning when she's in the bedroom - "I have a gun!" is all I'd go with, though "I have a gun and the police are on the way" couldn't hurt if she's got room for a warning. If she can see the intruder, forget the freaking warning! If you can see a target, shoot it. This isn't the movies, you don't get hero points for warning the BG that they're about to get shot.

She should shoot as soon as she sees a body filling the doorway! This will improve her odds of scoring a good solid hit by a long way. There is a reason why door-kickers have nicknames for doorways like "fatal funnel" and "vertical coffin". They train to get the hell out of the doorway as quickly as possible. Any funneling terrain makes a defender's job easier. I'm a fan of defending the end of a hallway for that reason, but if you don't have one, a doorway makes a good second choice. A straight set of stairs rock, too (assaulters hate going up stairwells!!). It's far easier to predict and hit a target moving straight toward you than it is one that is moving laterally. A doorway forces them to move in a predictable and easy to hit way, so use it.

 

[majormadmax]

Sorry, but I don't plan to give anyone a warning. If you are in my house uninvited and a threat, you're gonna have to deal with the consequences that I am a armed homeowner and not a police officer. I don't owe any intruder the courtesy of a warning!

 

[M. Sage]

Sorry, but I don't plan to give anyone a warning. If you are in my house uninvited and a threat, you're gonna have to deal with the consequences that I am a armed homeowner and not a police officer. I don't owe any intruder the courtesy of a warning!

The only reason I would give a warning is to avoid having to shoot someone. If they go away, it saves me money. If they don't, they're going to get shot. Given my preference for carbines and shotguns for dealing with trouble and how much I like to practice with them, their odds of survival are pretty damn low.

 

[West Texas]

Good advise! I have a couple of tacticle as well as my hunting guns...and a double barrel stage coach with exposed hammers.

I told her up front, if you are going to have a pictol, you ARE going to know how to use it effectively, if not, shot gun it will be! And she did REALLY well at the range yseterday with it, after the first 10 rnds, she was hitting center mass every time she pulled the trigger, even under "rapid fire" (two count between rnds) on the 15 yard target I set up just for the reason it is the same distance across the room.

She has shot my assortment of .45's (probably 250 rnds total) and done real well, but she's not a big fan of the recoil, and I don't like auto's for realitive newbies for all of the obvious reasons. (FTE, FTF)

We are going to do some comabt/tacticle course stuff one evening this week.

Thanks guys, always nice to have another set of eyes on a situation when thinking it out!

 

[jtriron]

Sorry, but I don't plan to give anyone a warning. If you are in my house uninvited and a threat, you're gonna have to deal with the consequences that I am a armed homeowner and not a police officer. I don't owe any intruder the courtesy of a warning!

Very well said ... click .. bang..rack..

 

[fm2]

Make sure there's a flashlight available. You gotta ID the potential threat.

 

[Daggett]

I would send your wife to a professional self defense shooting instructor and frankly anyone else regardless of their level of expertise. The more professional training (not target practice) the better. When you attend these classes you find out that you really don't know what you don't know. I "shot all my life"...I had no clue. I discovered I had basically been fiddling with handguns for about 20 years, before actually learning to fight with one.

Snub nosed revolvers and women is a stereotype and often a bad choice. I think most women are better served shooting many types of pistols in conjunction with professional instruction, then making an educated choice about what is best for them, given many variables. Snub nosed revolvers require more expertise than almost any other kind of handgun, they are not a gun for beginners. They are loud, have tremendous recoil with full house self defense loads. 13 yards, under life threatening stress, with a snubbie would be a hell of a short for an experienced shooter. For snub nosed specific training I would seek out a class from Claude Werner, who is one of the experts with this platform. Ed Lovette is another excellent teacher of the snub. Inexperienced shooters particularly need more shots, not less, throw in the emotional and physical impact of the kind of stress and fear that you describe in a home invasion scenario, accuracy can go out the window, 10-15 shots instead of 5 seems a better choice. My wife is 5'2 and about a buck o' five, she started out with a Sig, then moved to a Glock 26 as her carry and a 1911 for the nightstand pistol. As she shoots and trains more, she may eventually end up with a Model 19 or 17 to conceal carry, but it is an evolving process. Her hands may be best suited for the grip size and shape of a 1911.

As far as 1-9 above...I don't believe in a specific number of shots, you shoot until the threat is stopped, I would not be shooting and assessing in the circumstances you describe, I would be shooting until the target was no longer capable of continuing the action that prompted me to shoot them in the first place. Movement after shooting them may be necessary to see them where they fell, to reload, get the phone etc... Sight of the assailant must be maintained if they are down.

When the police arrive the only thing he/she should say is, I am very upset, I had to defend my life, I will be happy to cooperate with you once I have calmed down and can speak with my attorney.

My 3.5 cents...