Enfield rifle as a home defence Weapon?

[Mp15-22]

My question might be very easy to answer: or maybe not.
Anyway: i have an enfield 2A1 RFI in .308 NATO, and i was wondering if this rifle in this specific round, could be use as a home defence weapon, i have many other guns that are better for home defence, but im wondering about this gun only. What do you think? Thank alot for any comments.

[deadin]

Good home defence weapon if you start defending at a couple hundred yards.
Too awkward for close work unless you use the bayonet or as a club.
Also any close neighbors might prefer you use something that isn't going to blow through their house/apartment......

[pinecone70]

Yes: what deadin said. Long guns are difficult to work with in a typical house, but a shotgun with a shorter barrel would be a good choice.

[Old Grump]

You gotta love it, just shy of 9 pounds it makes a dandy club that will hold up to several boogermen before you have to clean the gore off. Good if you ever want to shoot military matches and trust me nobody wants to look at the business end of the barrel. Not a gun I would use for clearing the house room by room but for poking down the stairs at a tire iron carrying house breaker you have the final vote as to who gets evicted from your island. Just know that there are directions where it will not be a good direction to point it at.

If you don't reload get somebody to make up some LRN bullets in front of an equivalent 30-30 load and only your closest neighbors will have to duck. Just don't use surplus hardball.

[wpage]

Get yourself a shotgun...

[Jim K]

I once knew an idiot who was a big fan of Mel Tappan. Tappan wrote for a couple of gunzines a while back and always touted the H&K in 7.62 NATO as the ideal home defense weapon. But the idiot lived in a apartment in the city. He kept a loaded H&K, about 100 loaded magazines, and a couple of cases of ammo, just in case a burglar broke in.

Fortunately none did, or that guy would have surely killed someone, and most likely not the intruder, but some innocent party in another apartment. Plus, of course, he was a gun ban law waiting in the wings.

I certainly don't oppose home defense, but please use an appropriate firearm, know the makeup of the walls and partitions, and know where members of your family are before opening up. (And FWIW, a shotgun with No. 7 shot WILL penetrate dry wall and have enough force to kill someone on the other side.)

Jim

[Bill DeShivs]

Regardless, the gun is entirely adequate for defense. It's excessively powerful, long and heavy-but if you shoot something with it, it will work very well.

[deadin]

i keep my sks loaded with hollow points around here. i have neighbors within a stones throw.

I'm glad you're not my neighbor....

[old semperfi]

easy answer..........................no no no no no no no no no old semperfi

[finloq]

Anybody ever hear of a .38? Ruger 3 1/4" SP101. Quick, easy to handle and never jams.

[Old Grump]

Originally Posted by finloq

Anybody ever hear of a .38? Ruger 3 1/4" SP101. Quick, easy to handle and never jams.

That wasn't the question though. He has an Enfield and wondered about its suitability for SD. good enough for war, its taken down elephants, Black bear and bad guys wearing the wrong uniform. I have to say it will do till he can afford something sexier. Plus its a .308 and it has a lot of flavors to choose from. 308LR1 (.308 Win. 170 grain Flat-SP) is the low recoil bullet that Federal puts out that he can get commercially.

Or do like I did for my neighbors kid and my brother, loaded a 150 gr LFN and 4895 powder. Don't know what the velocity was but it was like shooting a smaller gun and it made a ragged 1 hole group at 100 yards with iron sights in both guns. At least when the kid shot them, my holes were a little further apart.

[Recon 173]

It depends upon where you live and how well you've trained with your firearm of choice. If you live in a city, town or village then the .308 may not be a good choice for you. If you live outside of a city, town or village then the .308 may be a really good choice for you. If you have a rural setting and you have lots of distance between houses, then that .308 may work well for you and most other shooters out to 400 or 500 meters in some situations.

If you haven't trained for such a defensive scenario with your rifle, then you may have trouble speedloading ammo resupplies and getting back on to target. So what you need to do is think this whole situation through and get some training. For the most part, I really don't see too much of a need to shoot longer distances like 300, 400 or more meters when you are in a defensive mode. You just want to cover and control anything close to your house and person for the most part. Probably nothing over 100 yards distance at the most and most of the time maybe only to about 25 yards or so.

So forethought and training are your best friends when using a MBR cartridge for defensive purposes.

[zb338]

You didn't tell us what your other firearms are. We might do
better if we could tell you that the .308 isn't near as good as
say, your .45 auto.

Zeke