Beretta Blog

I just read a story in the news about a foiled robbery attempt where a concealed carry permit holder intervened and stopped the crime. It made me pause and reflect on the types of decisions with which anyone who carries a concealed gun can face in a moment’s notice.

With the rapidly growing interest in shotguns for home defense, tactical use, and 3-Gun competition, buckshot loads are back in the spotlight and in demand! Until these trends took over, interest in buckshot was waning. Few states still allow bucks (actually deer of either sex, for that matter) to be taken with buckshot. Even in those that do, rifled slugs and slugs fired from rifled shotgun barrels, muzzleloaders, and rifles – even handguns – provide more practical and efficient tools to cleanly harvest deer under modern hunting conditions.

Right out of the box the Beretta APX is an awesome pistol for personal protection, competition shooting, or fun on the range. After putting a few hundred rounds through my new APX RDO, I investigated performance upgrade possibilities.

The firearms industry is susceptible to fashion trends, just like everything else. Over the last decade, as Instagram seized control of image-driven social media, "Everyday Carry" has become a thing. The high-fashion side of EDC has become cultish, but there’s something elemental to the viral fad.

Congratulations, you’ve decided you want to take responsibility for your personal safety and carry a firearm with you regularly. This is one of the most adult decisions you can make in your life because you’ve realized that there will not be a policeman around when you need one the most. 

A trip to your local gun store can be overwhelming for someone new to concealed carry. Almost all guns bear a striking similarity to each other. They’re almost all black. Most pistols incorporate a hefty amount of plastic and some steel. What sets them apart?

When I rounded the corner in front of my house, I could see into my backyard. The man was there, behind my garage. I had seen him earlier, when I’d left to pick up my son from school, just across the street. He looked out of place then, and I’d made a mental note of him. I even made eye-contact as I slowly drove by and gave him my best I-see-you look.

Two of the characteristics you look for in a home defense shotgun are simplicity and speed. Should you ever need the gun to perform its primary duty, you need it fast, and you need it easy.

The simplest possible sight for a shotgun is what most of them already wear – a single bead out on the end of the barrel. This is a fine choice – make that, the best choice – for wingshooting, which is more about instinct than it is precision. However, acquiring and honing the necessary skills for “instinctive” style shooting requires a great deal of training. For example, you need to drill and drill and drill on mounting the gun into the same position every single time.

Choosing a shotgun as the “tool of final resort” to defend yourself, your family, and home can be a wise decision. A light, short-barreled shotgun has a lot going for it as a defense weapon. We’ve looked at the pros and cons versus a handgun, and there are many reasons the shotgun can come out on top.

However, there’s one big question that must be answered: How are you going to store that shotgun securely and safely yet keep it accessible in a fraction of a second should you need it?

 

There’s a great deal of debate when it comes to creating and training for a home defense plan. The decisions you make and the tools you select will come down to what you personally believe you’re trying to accomplish.

Do you believe the best plan is to silently “retreat, retreat, retreat” and hide in hopes either the authorities will arrive or the bad guys will leave on their own before they find your hiding spot? Or are you of the mind to aggressively confront and repel the intruders … shooting if necessary in the process? Or is it your goal to more passively repel them – scare them off – hopefully, without a shot being fired?