The Go-To Guns

I am a big fan of using a shotgun for home defense. I carry concealed everywhere I can. I’ve written (at length) about the idea of using a Glock brace as a poor man’s machine pistol. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that if you told me I had to go somewhere to shoot something, my choice would come down to the AR-10 that I built as “Scout Rifle 2.0.” 

I guess it turns out that Jeff Cooper was right all along. 

With the can on it and a full mag of 308, it weighs just about 12 pounds. Not light, but without the mag and can, it’s right at 8.5 pounds. With a 1-4x scope on it, I’m good out to 400-500 yards for a man-sized target, and 308 is still popular enough that I can, in theory, find ammo for it. The fact of the matter is, with that setup, there really isn’t anything I can’t do with that gun (except maybe shoot skeet or carry it concealed). 

Second place would be my 300 Blackout pistol. 

This is more a defensive firearm than it is a jack of all trades like Scout Rifle 2.0. It’s not meant to hunt game (although it does well when hunting hogs), and the 1x scope on it means that 300 yards is a challenge, and 500 yards is theoretical. 

To be honest, I was not that big of a fan of 300 Blackout when it first came on the scene, but now that I’ve shot it quite a bit, I get it. It’s got the punch of an AK round when you use supersonics, yet is pretty much a more aerodynamic .45 ACP when you shoot subsonic ammo. And top of this, you’re shooting it from an AR-pattern gun and are not saddled with the… unique ergonomics of the AK. Right before the current craziness, Wolf came out with some relatively inexpensive steel-cased 300 Blackout ammo and my hope is that once this madness is over, that ammo can help close the price gap between 300 Blackout and 223.