A 9mm PCC for home defense ?!?!?

[Darryle]

Most burglars don't wear plates, they are opportunist, looking for an easy mark.

Situational awareness is your friend, don't give anyone a clue of what you have, especially when it comes to firearms.

I do agree that a shotgun is your best choice. Plenty of choices and very reasonable. Ammo isn't too bad either, 9 big holes are quite a deterrent.

 

[AZ_Five56]

I'll echo what some others have said when I say that I'd go with a rifle round in this form factor. If I was going to use 9mm, I'd just rely on a pistol. I don't have experience with 300 BO, but that looks very interesting with a heavy bullet in a subsonic load. From my understanding about 300 BO (which isn't much), they run pistol powder and attain good velocity with very short barrel lengths. Some popular ones on the market run 5" barrels which are nice if you're planning to suppress.

 

[BravoNovember]

I personally like the thought of a subsonic 9mm round in a PCC and a can. I think about a 5.56 for home defense going out my bay window and into the house across the street with several young kids. Also, would be way easier on my family hearing

 

[Malcolm31]

I personally like the thought of a subsonic 9mm round in a PCC and a can. I think about a 5.56 for home defense going out my bay windo and into the house across the street with several you kids. Also, would be way easier on my family hearing

This…

 

[Formidilosus]

I personally like the thought of a subsonic 9mm round in a PCC and a can. I think about a 5.56 for home defense going out my bay window and into the house across the street with several young kids. Also, would be way easier on my family hearing

Do you understand that 9mm not only penetrates deeper, it also is measurably more lethal when going through intermediate barriers compared to heavy fragmenting 5.56 projectiles? Any pistol round is measurably worse at your concern.

 

[BravoNovember]

Do you understand that 9mm not only penetrates deeper, it also is measurably more lethal when going through intermediate barriers compared to heavy fragmenting 5.56 projectiles? Any pistol round is measurably worse at your concern.

I’m sure we both can find evidence to support our thoughts. At the end of the day we're are both going to have means to protect our family

 

[Formidilosus]

I’m sure we both can find evidence to support our thoughts. At the end of the day we're are both going to have means to protect our family

?

Sure, however what I wrote is fact. If someone is worried about “over penetration”, pistol rounds are about the worst choice.

 

[ARK_Ginger]

I’d gladly sacrifice some of my hearing shooting an intruder with a suppressed 300blk (supers) or 5.56 than choose a piss poor performing caliber in a carbine like 9mm or 300blk subs that is more likely to over penetrate.

300blk is a fun caliber to reload and shoot through a suppressor. It’s practicality is limited for me at barrel lengths above 10” though.

 

[Stu]

Do you understand that 9mm not only penetrates deeper, it also is measurably more lethal when going through intermediate barriers compared to heavy fragmenting 5.56 projectiles? Any pistol round is measurably worse at your concern.

Where is the 75gr Gold dot on that spectrum? Not that I’ve been able to find any in years. Who is buying them??

 

[Formidilosus]

Where is the 75gr Gold dot on that spectrum? Not that I’ve been able to find any in years. Who is buying them??

It’s a barrier blind projectile. Through soft barriers such as a single wall, it performs correctly. Through a wall, across an open space, into another walk…. Won’t penetrate as much as a pistol round.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

I think a ruger pc9 with fibre optic front or low mag illum. scope or even red dot would be one very fun rig for reactive range fun, called coyotes (instead of a shotgun), and pretty good camp or home defense rig too. Seems a lot of versatility there. Can slap a light/laser on easy. Get a 2 point sling and bulk ammo and good to go.

I'm sure this would get laughed at but I think a savage a17 in .17 hmr with the 25 round mags in mdt chassis could be set up equally to a pc9 or AR and have zero worry about ricochet or over penetrations if sticking with the v-max to tnt on bullets (not xtp, those suckers penetrate). Would be just as fun for the reactive range time, 0-150 yard coyotes, gopher days and do 2 point sling, light/laser defensive set up. Would prefer the 9mm for bear defense in camp though, would not use 9mm on gopher days...ricochets.

The .17 hmr v-max/tnt go in and do wonderful 6" circles of death on coyotes and on gopher days with v-max there's no ricochets, gophers explode (which gives good visual of what's happening inside coyotes to 150 yards), while .22 lr skipping all over the place, as would a 9mm, I'd be inclined to the .223 with frangible high speed lighter bullets if needing more hp and lower penetration and ricochet potential, but even .22 mag with v-max type lighter/faster options would be something to look at, I'm just a bigger .17 hmr fan. Both magnum rimfire would be a little easier on ears without suppressor also. I've shot a pile of coyotes with .17 hmr, haven't lost one, tried several ammos, v-max best for gophers but excellent on coyotes, tnt perfect for coyotes just slightly tougher than v-max and always getting in front quartering and facing dead on and doing the deed but do get a few ricochet on gophers and not as dramatic explosions so it's ideal for coyotes (which is what I would think would be for people also), the xtp was delayed controlled and coyotes went twice as far before expiring if they did a runner...the xtp would be for braining deer imo, survival, it would poke holes through both lungs of deer. I would not want to be shot with that little bugger and a guy with 25 rounds of those mini-bombs (v-max/tnt) on tap semi-auto would be no fun to deal with inside 150 yards.

 

[Mark.c]

Personally I would go with a production PCC from a reputable manufacturer for SD rather than building one yourself. Reliability and liability would be a concern with anything home built or assembled.

 

[Zigzag357]

What’s your price point? I’m a fan of 9mm PCCs, I’ve struggled to find decent subsonic 300 bullets that actually expand. I have the apc9sd and have had no issue shooting pigs at 75-100 yards with expansion. Sd is the way to go in my opinion, they drop way less than putting super heavy rounds and are just as quiet if not quieter.

 

[TheGDog]

I have "choices" in various places in the house. For where I'd be at most of the time in the house during the day. (I work Fully Remote for last 22 yrs straight) Just a Sig P238 lil mini 1911 in .380acp.

What I like about that option for mid-day chores is I can slide it with sticky holster into whatever pants/shorts I'm wearing and go check the front door if somebodies ringing or knocking. Or do a perimeter scan if some odd noise was heard outside.

So quickly can strap up, remain inconspicuous. But it's got nice chunky 3-Dot Tritium Night Sights too, that are suprisingly good to pickup with your eyes (even with crappy vision), even in the pitch black dark!

IMO gotta make sure any personal defense option supports some kinda night-sights system, as that's most likely when somethin' bad is gonna pop-off. People tend to do dirt at night. Mostly.

P365 9mm is a GREAT option that you and your lady can both handle just fine, as well.

10mm is a bit much for the ladies that aren't avid shooters. Or are more on the slender side.


Another option I'd love to also try out is that new Smith & Wesson .22 Magnum pistol they've come out with, presumably to go head to head with that popular Keltec one. And it holds like 30 rounds!! 30 rounds of some .22 Mag? (I'm in SoCal so predominantly hotter-weather area, mind you) Can seriously EFF some sh!t up, man! Especially if you do all-copper rounds. And even the tiniest of ladies would be able to just totally drill-down on somebody with a .22 WMR round. Now Imagine 30 of them on tap!

Big fan of the lil mini weapon lights on a home defense, wake-up outta your sleep kinda gun.

I'd imagine a lil .357/.38spl lever action carbine would be the easy-button for a shoulder-mounted weapon that for sure the whole fam would likely be able to manipulate under duress. Some of those hold up to like 10rds. Come in 16", and people put cans on them too, and shoot sub-sonics at times! They're crazy quiet when going that route. And hell a .357 Mag from a Carbine can take a Black Bear. So you know it'll take a human. I bet some .38spl +P Lehigh's would be legit for an all around round that everyone in the fam would be able to shoot well and especially out of a carbine. And with the .357 Mags, would start to rival .223 Rem energy ft-lbs. Just at shorter distances.

 

[Woitey]

The real answer is, that each person's situation is unique to themselves. Even a Chief's Special with its five shots is better than a golf club. A suppressed AR/SBR with a 5.56 is still going to be pretty loud in a residence. So's a shotgun. Subsonic Blackout rounds still aren't cheap. My answer was a B&T APC 9 with subs, and a Gemtech suppressor, SBR'ed. A cheaper option would be one of the Turkish clones of the MP5, which all said and done will be cheaper than your run-of-the-mill 2011.

 

[Dave0317]

I agree this is definitely a personal choice. Lots of factors come into play.
Do you live alone? Is it going to be primarily a HD gun, and range fun is secondary, or are those priorities swapped? What’s the budget for the whole set up?

For me, if there is kids/family in the house, that precludes a shotgun. I need to be able to carefully place every shot I take, can’t do that with 9 pellets spreading out through the house.

That leaves handguns and rifles for me. PCCs have all the weight, often less reliability, less range, and often are not actually that easy to shoot well due to horrible triggers and bad ergos on many of them. Combined with zero advantage in limiting penetration, and less overall lethality, it’s not a serious option for me. I’d still use one for certain things, but it’s not my first choice.

I’ll always have a handgun, because I carry outside my house as well. But for dedicated HD only type use, an AR with short barrel and suppressor is ideal to me. Sure it’s not super quiet, but I’m comfortable with the risk vs reward of firing a few shots and risking hearing damage in a life or death situation. But, I’ve already got some of that anyway.

One thing I’ll caution the casual user against, a suppressor changes the gas pressure and therefore speed of the bolt moving and feeding. This can cause some reliability issues. A flow through suppressor like Huxwrx fixes that to a degree, but it’s not as quiet. If you suppress an AR, make sure the gas system is also tuned for reliability. And keep in mind the whole system gets dirtier when you add a suppressor.

 

[Zigzag357]

I agree this is definitely a personal choice. Lots of factors come into play.
Do you live alone? Is it going to be primarily a HD gun, and range fun is secondary, or are those priorities swapped? What’s the budget for the whole set up?

For me, if there is kids/family in the house, that precludes a shotgun. I need to be able to carefully place every shot I take, can’t do that with 9 pellets spreading out through the house.

That leaves handguns and rifles for me. PCCs have all the weight, often less reliability, less range, and often are not actually that easy to shoot well due to horrible triggers and bad ergos on many of them. Combined with zero advantage in limiting penetration, and less overall lethality, it’s not a serious option for me. I’d still use one for certain things, but it’s not my first choice.

I’ll always have a handgun, because I carry outside my house as well. But for dedicated HD only type use, an AR with short barrel and suppressor is ideal to me. Sure it’s not super quiet, but I’m comfortable with the risk vs reward of firing a few shots and risking hearing damage in a life or death situation. But, I’ve already got some of that anyway.

One thing I’ll caution the casual user against, a suppressor changes the gas pressure and therefore speed of the bolt moving and feeding. This can cause some reliability issues. A flow through suppressor like Huxwrx fixes that to a degree, but it’s not as quiet. If you suppress an AR, make sure the gas system is also tuned for reliability. And keep in mind the whole system gets dirtier when you add a suppressor.

If your wanting a PCC that takes care of all of those things the B&T line is the way to go, you can go semi model of the road with the GHm but loose the ability to shoot Hollow points or step up to the arc/apck if your worried about 147s expanding I recommend the APC9SD or SDK my go to rifle for home defense. I run 115HSTs through it and have never had any issues killing pigs with it, haven’t shot farther than 100yards at a pig but don’t see it being an issue, just no real shots past that where I’ve been hunting. They expand like there supposed to and I’m about 2k rounds cleaned once and zero malfunctions outside of my wife riding the bolt home. If your in Texas hit me up and I’ll let you play with the both of the rifles and a few 556/300 sbrs and cans if you want to.

 

[SloppyJ]

Super old thread but if you're going down the pcc road, do your research. There is a bit of black magic involved with dead blow buffers, buffer weight and bolt weight within a range, and the feed ramps are the barrel are the big ones.

Macon armory is a good resource. I built a 4" SBR off of an extra aero reciever I had laying around. Used a Macon barrel and buffer. So far it's been very reliable shooting my loaded subs and it's stupid quiet using my R9 or my deadair Mojave. I want to put some more rounds through it for testing but I can't think of a better home defense setup. I've thrown a holosun on top of it since the picture

 

[Zigzag357]

Super old thread but if you're going down the pcc road, do your research. There is a bit of black magic involved with dead blow buffers, buffer weight and bolt weight within a range, and the feed ramps are the barrel are the big ones.

Macon armory is a good resource. I built a 4" SBR off of an extra aero reciever I had laying around. Used a Macon barrel and buffer. So far it's been very reliable shooting my loaded subs and it's stupid quiet using my R9 or my deadair Mojave. I want to put some more rounds through it for testing but I can't think of a better home defense setup. I've thrown a holosun on top of it since the picture




View attachment 758219

Were you able to get it to run without any issues? I’ve never had any luck with an AR9, I always recommend going with a function built PCC.

 

[SloppyJ]

Were you able to get it to run without any issues? I’ve never had any luck with an AR9, I always recommend going with a function built PCC.

Yeah so far so good. I have a few hundred rounds down it. Using a Macon barrel and buffer weight with an Aero bolt.