heh, here i am being a little bit late to the party again... hope that folk don't consider my replies to occasional older thread too rude. i just feel like i'm playing catch-up with the community, and wish i had known about these forums (or about my potential move to Delaware) earlier so that i could have been contributing more over the past months.
a few things i'll add to the discussion of shotguns, just from personal belief and research...
1. many hardcore self-defense experts make the point that while the "racking sound" has undeniable psychological implications, it's not a defense mechanism in and of itself. heh, naturally the folk here on this forum are
plenty well versed in gun matters to know that... but still, once in a great while, one comes across some foolish soul who says something like "yeah, firearms make me nervous... but that's why i have the unloaded pump shotgun around... i can just rack it and scare the feces out of any home intruder with the sound."
brilliant, brilliant, brilliant... naturally, one should never introduce a firearm into a hostile situation (even the sound of one) unless you're capable and prepared to use it.
2. the notion of a home defense shotgun protruding around a corner before you yourself do can be a valid concern, but one that i feel is definitely mitigated by how you handle the gun as well as typical distance of encounters. (let's be honest, basically no home invader is going to lurk around the corner, awaiting a muzzle to grab) if you want to learn additional tactics and such on the matter, a good book to check out is "The Defensive Shotgun" by Louis Awerbuck.
3. heh, the AA12 can look sort of cool (even if that TV show makes awful hype out of everything they demonstrate, ugh) but is frankly not something i'd really want... gas-operated, auto, etc etc etc... to me (i'm channeling my inner "old curmudgeon") that's all just more parts to potentially break.
4. for home defense if you're looking for economical options, it all comes down to the Remington 870 or Mossberg 500 series. in that vein, i'll point out that there's some breakdown in the Mossberg family. The model 500 is the Plain Jane civillian version. There is also the 590, which is the police model. (the difference? primarily, more steel and less plastic among the smaller parts like trigger guard, etc.) My home defense gun is close to that... actually it's a little-known
additional model... the 590A1. This is the USMC squad shotgun, and the difference is that there are basically NO plastic parts at all in that firearm. Aside from the buttstock (which i swapped for a plain pistol grip) everything else is metal... from the safety button on down.
5. There is an age-old question of Remington vs Mossberg... in truth, it's less a matter of ruggedness and really it comes down to controls. I love two things about the Mossberg... (a) the safety is ambidextrous and (b) the feed mechanism doesn't have the "finger catch" problem that the Remington does.
6. For questions of over-penetration, there's a
terrific web site called the Box O' Truth...
http://theboxotruth.com where they fling all sorts of lead into various panels of drywall, etc. The study on all sorts of shotgun rounds is here...
http://theboxotruth.com/docs/bot3.htm7. GunEnvy pointed out that a full shotgun wouldn't fit in a typical bedside safe. heh, i encountered that problem. i wound up just making my own...
http://deviating.net/photos/2008-05-05-shotgun that's a box fabricated from heavy polymer board that i had routed and assembled into a long cabinet. bolts and screws were all security heads (which i later just ground or countersinked, since i'm never disassembling this) and the whole affair bolts to the bed frame. whenever i'm home, my keys actually live right here... hanging in the Abloy padlock. when i leave to go out, i take my carry piece out of there (not shown in those old photos, nor is the shell keeper sling that i have on the Mossberg now) and lock it up. it works pretty well for me. Not as super-secure as a full gun safe (enough blows with an axe and you might finally bust it apart... but it's still much, much stronger than wood) but it's good enough for one shotgun.