Could tiny carbines be as good as pistols for Home Defense?

[MrMurphy]

I agree. I know you'll take hearing damage firing unprotected, but..... when enough people whack someone and report basically not hearing the shots/no ringing much, i have to trust them.

I know if I light off a 5.56 or .45 indoors without earpro, it's going to suck. Being used to shooting inside concrete buildings (during that exercise, even WITH earpro, we couldn't hear jack. Concrete large bunker type building and 13 shooters all going rapid fire with 5.56. Somewhere around 15-16 30 round mags were fired in under 2 minutes on semi, I know i went through my first mag in seconds, all aimed semi, there was just a lot of hide-and-seek targeting) I'm used to the head-on-a-swivel thing. I don't expect to hear much, i eyeball everything. If i can hear it, good, but operating around jets too, i'm used to not hearing a whole lot.

[wecsoger]

If you're not familiar with the box o' truth website, you may consider subscribing to their online newsletter. I highly recommend it.

And they just posted review and comments on this same and exact subject

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu143.htm

[t.r.]

How about an MP40? There aren't many left for sale. My Dad told me they dumped at least a million of them into the North Sea after WWII. Lugers and P-38's, too.

TR

[Catshooter]

What has 'not remembering the sound of the shot', (a memory/recall issue) have to do with the damage the sound waves/concussion does to the parts of the ear? Just becasue they don't recall it doesn't mean it didn't happen.


Cat

[MrMurphy]

We all agree hearing damage is occuring, but some people can hear normally/mostly normally directly afterwards, even with damage. Others get tons of ringing.

[JohndeFresno]

We all agree hearing damage is occuring, but some people can hear normally/mostly normally directly afterwards, even with damage. Others get tons of ringing.

That's probably it in a nutshell. I say that I don't remember because I'm getting old(!) but the point being made was that I THINK my overworked mental faculties, at the time, did not REGISTER much noise or any ear pain, but that doesn't change the fact that my ears were damaged to the point that they didn't function immediately after the shootout when the Sheriff arrived on the scene and requested me to brief him, and I ignored him because I could not hear normal conversation.

And perhaps some folks can handle the damage and still hear, some can't. My main point was that - why subject yourself to what the otologists call "high frequency damage" - with a .357 from a handgun held close to your body in a tight area, most specifically, when you can use something like a .45 caliber that works at a lower frequency due to its decreased muzzle velocity? But if my point is not made now, I'm clearly whipping a dead equine, so I'll bow out with this entry.

[madman4570]

Guys!
Would it possibly be a practical solution to right by the gun have an electric pair of ear muffs too and slip em on????
Or would that amount of time trying to do this (in a bad situation in home)take too long putting yourself more in harms way.
Really have not thought much about possibly without them making you deaf for awhile allowing someone to get you from behind or hindering hearing something from another area room/etc

Good stuff!

[Old Ironsights]

Well yeah, if you had the time to slip on a Type III tac vest, Muffs & a pair of Gen4 NVGs that would be ideal...

But these things tend to be grab&go and I only got 2 hands. One for gun & one for light.

If you keep a light on the gun then you get to grab something else, but still...

[Panzercat]

You'll be hard pressed to find a better close quarters 'carbine' than an SU16c. Here's my old one. It reaches maybe up to my thigh and I'm about 5'8". 30 rnds on tap, though i'd hesitate to unleash .223/5.56 indoors without hearing protection.

[MrMurphy]

Generally, if it's 'shoot from the bed', there's time for a pistol and a light.

If I have time to get to a long gun, I've got time to toss the earpro on as a round gets chambered, it's only an extra second or two.

I'd rather have armor, earpro, a rifle and even better most of a squad, but do what you got to do in the time you have.

If I ever have to fire without them, i will live with the decision, but if i have time, i'll put em on.