Trying to refocus the question…I guess I’m saying you’re now occasionally seeing home invaders wear body armor etc and work in groups. Home invasions are at least in my area very rare thankfully, so improvised LE stack type home invasions would hopefully be purely theoretical lol. I wouldn’t tailor my choice based on the number of Sheetrock layers behind the invader. Hopefully I’m able to recall the direction of my kids’ bedrooms. I’m just wondering if there’s any merit to considering something with more KE at very close ranges vs lower recoil (shootability) and higher round count of a 5.56.
i don't personally think so. If anything, that would be an incentive *for me* to ensure that I had a full 30 round mag and was mentally prepared to shoot as many times as needed until the threat went down. Lobbing a big heavy bullet and expecting it to take 'the bad guy' off his feet is 1911/.45 ideology from a decade plus ago (and I say that as a 1911 fan).
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Home invasions in my area are very rare, but property theft and break-ins are not. Usually it is more than one guy involved, and my guess is that since everyone out here carrys a gun in their vehicle - that they'll be armed too. Therefore, you can expect the likelihood of an exchange of fire to increase should you catch them.
A police response is 30 minutes away at an absolute minimum, and probably closer to 45-60. There are literally only two officers on duty in this county at any point in time.
I'm not worried about being invaded by hordes of meth heads, but I do think that planning for the worst case scenario (multiple home invaders) is better than preparing for a single meth head who is just trying to take my lawnmower or a few tools out of my shop...Something about 'better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener in a war' comes to mind...and that applies to your choice of home defense firearm as well.
^ That is why I want bonded bullets in a very manageable rifle platform. *My situation* is far different from many. If I lived in a built up urban environment (especially a crowded apartment complex), I would definitely have a different setup.
Too many situations for a one-size-fits-all answer, but I can't think of one where I'd rather have a 450 Bushmaster (or equivalent) and 10 rounds over a 5.56 and 30.