THOUGHTS ON DEFENSE LONG
GUNS
Part II – Rifles and Carbines
By Tom Crawford
Entire Contents Copyright 2012
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In the previous section dealing with defense use of the shotgun, we noted some of the reasons why a long
gun might be chosen for defense over the handgun. Recall that these reasons included a need for more
power, ease of skill acquisition, and freedom from regulatory impediments to handgun ownership or carry.
We identified the primary function of the shotgun as depositing great power on target at short range that
dissipates quickly posing less downrange threat. We also considered the secondary use of the shotgun at
moderate ranges as a substitute rifle when solid projectiles are used.
Now let’s consider the defensive role of the rifle and carbine in self-defense. First, a couple of definitions
are in order. For purposes of our discussion, a rifle or carbine is a shoulder-fired weapon with spiral
grooves cut internally in the barrel that engage a solid projectile as it travels down the bore. These
grooves, known as rifling, impart stabilizing spin to the bullet in flight, enhancing accuracy. The advent of
rifling was no small feat in the arms world, almost instantly changing war from a hundred-yard exercise in
musketry to a quarter- or half-mile affair. So great was the enhancement of accuracy due to rifling, that on
seeing a demonstration, the Catholic church in France outlawed the practice of riflery for a time in that
country, feeling that Satan must somehow be involved in the then-mystical process. Entire wars have been
won and lost over the issue of who had rifles. The tactical superiority conferred on those in possession of
rifles has caused the late expert Jeff Cooper to call rifles “The Queen of Personal Weapons”. Arab
Bedouins refer to the rifle as “The Brother of Allah”.
Within this discussion, we will refer to such an arm as a rifle when it is chambered for a full length, full
power conventional rifle cartridge, where compact size and portability are not the primary concerns. We will
refer to the weapon as a carbine when either a reduced size or velocity round has been chosen in order to
produce a shorter, lighter, more conveniently used weapon or ammunition supply, albeit with some
compromise in raw ballistic power. While this definition of terms may not satisfy the firearm historian, it is
convenient working terminology. Obviously, there are some short, light firearms chambered for full power
rifle cartridges, while there are some long, heavy weapons chambered in low to moderate power weapons
more often associated with the carbine. There are even some shoulder weapons chambered for pistol
cartridges, and these are best considered as carbines. Although useful, because of their limited power,
rimfire weapons will not be considered here.
Assuming you’re not an infantryman or a police counter sniper, what defensive use do you have for either
a rifle or a carbine? Well, that depends largely on where you are, and how badly things have gone when
you are called upon to defend yourself. As mentioned before, in some places, you just aren’t going to be
allowed to own or carry a handgun, but you may well be allowed long guns. You may simply find it easier to
hit at extended ranges with a shoulder-fired, single projectile weapon, but dislike the recoil and weight of a
slug-loaded shotgun. You may see an advantage to the rather harmless image of the more or less
standard “deer rifle” as opposed to a police style combat smoothbore.
These conditions aside, it is the primary role of the rifle to deposit great power on the target at extended
ranges, (50 yards and beyond). Longer distances are the natural working ground of the rifleman. Your
pistol may be running out of road at 25 yards, your shotgun with slugs may be effectively limited to 50, but
your rifle is just getting warmed up at twice that distance. As an added bonus, if you exercise a little thought
and care in the selection of a carbine, you can have a long-range tool that is at no serious disadvantage in
closer quarters normally thought of as pistol country.
The relatively greater power of rifle and some carbine cartridges opens up areas of tactical flexibility when
compared to the pistol or even the shotgun when conventionally loaded. For example, today’s criminals
have been known to use soft body armor to protect themselves while committing violent crimes. While such
body armor renders them safe from all but ineffective extremity hits or a difficult head shot with a pistol, soft
body armor offers little if any protection from standard hunting class rifle cartridges, or military carbine
projectiles for that matter. An adversary may seek cover behind a cinder block wall, effectively screening
themselves from pistol bullets or buckshot pellets, but the rifle with a shot or two will make quick work of this
supposed “protection”. Certain rifle cartridges will even disable motor vehicles at extended ranges, and
almost all do a better job of incapacitating the occupants of a car after defeating auto glass than is possible
with pistol bullets or buckshot.
The criminal element is well aware of the enhanced power and range offered by the rifle or carbine. While
many a street-hardened thug who has been wounded in the past with handgun rounds will risk taking
incoming pistol fire, the sight of the SWAT team approaching with military profile carbines has caused many
to reconsider their antisocial behavior. In the Los Angeles riots, Korean merchants took positions on the
rooftops of their stores and successfully defended their establishments with rifles. While many other places
of business where reduced to rubble during days of civil disobedience and looting, these shops were
spared. I've trained commercial boat crews operating in the Caribbean who have put modern day pirates to
flight by the sight of their rifles on deck. The television and movie fantasy that a shooter with a scoped rifle
can’t miss (even at extended range), while untrue, can certainly be useful at times as well.
Not all rifle protection chores involve defense against human attackers. Those living in rural settings or the
bush have known for years that a short, handy rifle carried close at hand while doing farm chores can be
quite useful for predator, pest, and rabid animal control. Outdoor types know that a rifle offers foraging or
signaling capability when in remote areas. In Africa, defense against dangerous animals dictates that one
never leave their rifle behind in a hunting camp, even when making a quick trip to the latrine at night, lest
they become lion dung against their will. Closer to home, we must assume that at least a few fisherman in
Alaska have wished mightily that they brought their rifles along, probably in the last few moments before
they began their untimely transformation from sportsmen to grizzly bear chew toy.
So, what type of rifle or carbine might one select for utility use? There are basically three classes of these
weapons. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. These three classes are Pistol Cartridge
Carbine, Medium Power Carbine, and Full Power Rifle. These types are constructed for our discussion
only, rather than being terms of art in the firearms industry. There is some overlap between the classes,
and certain weapon types could arguably be placed in a different category. Still, thinking in terms of these
three divisions, divided along cartridge power lines, allows the user to select the best weapon for their
needs.
Pistol Cartridge Carbines
The first category, Pistol Cartridge Carbine, includes (as the name implies) short, handy shoulder guns that
are designed to fire cartridges typically thought of as handgun rounds. These guns are normally either
lever actions or semiautomatics. The lever guns generally are chambered to fire revolver cartridges, and
usually feed from a tubular magazine. Calibers include the .357 Magnum, the .44 Magnum, and the .45
Colt. The blunt nosed bullets normally loaded in these rounds present no safety problems in the tubular
magazine. Such weapons are quite popular with Cowboy Action competitors. Their traditional Old West
appearance coupled with the fast lever action design and relatively high magazine capacity make them
something of a “stealth combat rifle”. Their benign look makes them much favored in places that rigidly
restrict firearms ownership such as New York City, where they are known as “Brooklyn Specials”. Also in
this first category are the semiautomatics. These normally fire the 9mm Parabellum, the .40 S&W, and the .
45 ACP cartridges. The new .357 SIG cartridge holds great promise for use in this class of carbine as well.
Some police agencies issue a short, light carbine of this type to officers, chambered in the same cartridge
as the duty pistol, often capable of using the same magazines. Certain police or military style submachine
guns such as the HK MP5 would have essentially the same function as a Pistol Cartridge Carbine, but their
selective fire capability makes them highly restricted and expensive to own. Their fully automatic capability
is neither necessary nor desirable in most cases. At least one company makes a pump action carbine in .
357 Magnum as well.
The Pistol Cartridge Carbine’s chief virtue is its inherent shootability. Shoulder support, longer sight
radius, and recoil damping weight all combine to make these weapons easy to hit with, especially in the
range of 50-100 yards. At these ranges, only a very accomplished pistol shot will be on the mark, and then
with a bullet quickly running out of steam. The carbine’s longer barrel, when chambered in a high intensity
cartridge such as the 9mm Parabellum, .357 Magnum, or .44 Magnum, normally gives these pistol bullets a
velocity boost of 300-400 feet per second, by means of more complete powder burn and pressure build-up
in the longer tube. This increases their effective range somewhat. Lower pressure cartridges such as the .
45 ACP and .45 Colt see little increase in velocity, since these rounds effectively burn all their powder in the
context of a shorter pistol barrel. A practical working zero for weapons in this class is 50 yards. So sighted,
a Pistol Cartridge Carbine will be usable out to about 100 yards on practical targets.
The Pistol Cartridge Carbine is best thought of as a handgun substitute, or adjunct weapon, and you either
love it or you hate it. Those with minimal pistol abilities will find this type of weapon an effective means of
personal protection in any situation where a pistol would work well. Such weapons make very effective
predator and vermin control rifles. One does get the somewhat extended range and a moderate increase in
power, but you do not have the ability to defeat hard cover that comes with full power rifle calibers.
Cartridge interchangeability with the pistol may be more of a theoretical plus than real, except in unusual
cases. Extremely good pistol shots see little reason to have one, often saying that if they are going to carry
rifle weight and size, they want to shoot a longer range cartridge.
Medium Power Carbines
This class of weapon includes carbines chambered in cartridges designed for use at medium ranges, out to
250 yards or so. Generally, the ammunition has been designed to be physically smaller, and therefore
more easily carried by the common foot soldier. The carbine itself is normally shorter and lighter than a
standard rifle, a feature much appreciated by those who have to carry such weapons in the field.
Semiautomatic designs, often derived from selective fire military patterns tend to dominate this field,
although exceptions exist. Examples include the AR-15 pattern carbines, the Ruger Mini-14/Mini-30, and
the various Kalashnikov derivatives from any number of Eastern Bloc countries. Clearly, the most popular
calibers in this class are the 5.56 mm NATO (.223 Remington) and the 7.62 x 39 Soviet round. Exceptions
to the above weapon/cartridge traits include the lever action carbine in the century old .30-30 Winchester
caliber, and the .30 M1 Carbine developed for support troop use in World War II.
The Medium Power Carbine is probably the most often selected choice in a rifle purchased for general-
purpose use, especially when defense usage is factored in. This type of weapon normally provides a
material increase in effective range and power that is normally sufficient for the majority of needs.
Ammunition is relatively inexpensive, and can be conveniently stored in volume owing to its small size.
Medium Power Carbines normally offer low recoil, with less noise than Full Power Rifle cartridges. Most
weapons in this class have high magazine capacities, reflecting their primary anti-personnel mission. Most
can be quickly reloaded for sustained fire situations. Almost all of these medium loads will defeat criminal’s
soft body armor, as well as automobile glass if that is a concern. Frangible bullet ammunition is available
that can make these calibers suitable for close quarters use where over-penetration is a concern.
In a survival situation, all of these cartridges could be used to harvest deer-sized game, and all make
suitable predator or vermin control rifles. In fact, the type of weapon known as a Ranch Rifle for such
purposes is normally chambered in such cartridges. When selecting a Medium Power Carbine as the long
gun of choice, one is giving up the ability in most cases to defeat hard cover. None of these cartridges
would be the first choice for defense against dangerous animals, although they certainly would be better for
that purpose than anything firing a pistol cartridge.
A practical working zero for Medium Power Carbines would involve sighting the weapon at 50 yards first.
Then, one should confirm the actual point of impact out to the practical range limit of the cartridge and
adjust as necessary. This will be about 100 yards for the .30 Carbine, about 200 yards for the 7.62 x 39
and the .30-30, and perhaps 300 yards for the 5.56 mm NATO (.223 Remington). Certainly, these
distances are not the maximum ranges for these cartridges, but are practical limits imposed by trajectory
and wind drift, not to mention the shootability of the weapon in which each cartridge is most commonly
encountered. Looking at these range limitations, one could say that the .30 Carbine cartridge more
properly belongs in the Pistol Caliber Carbine class. Although designated a rifle cartridge, .30 Carbine
ammunition is normally packed 50 per box, like handgun cartridges. A sporting cartridge known as the .243
Winchester, quite popular in the eastern U.S., would fall into the Medium Power Carbine category, albeit
with long range capabilities owing to the light bullet weights loaded in this caliber. This cartridge, although
most commonly encountered in bolt action weapons, has been loaded in virtually all action styles, and was
in fact a product of the search for a military carbine round that ended in the development of the .223 we use
today.
Full Power Rifles
The last category of rifled weapons is that of the Full Power Rifle. In this group, we find cartridges
designed with heavy duty, long-range use in mind. Generally, the size and weight of the ammunition are not
a consideration, although some of these cartridges have been designed with shorter overall lengths to
assist feeding in semiautomatic weapons or to allow for a shorter action length. This type of weapon is
designed with the classic first purpose of the rifle in mind, to deposit great power on a distant target, with a
high degree of accuracy. Full power rifles have been used successfully to wreck men and machines at
distances of 500 yards and beyond. The skill of the shooter rather than the limits of the weapon or
ammunition normally limit the maximum practical effective range of a full powered rifle. In short, there are
many 100-yard riflemen who own 500- yard rifles.
There are entirely too many Full Power Rifle cartridges to list them all here. Classic examples would
include the .30-06 Springfield, the .270 Winchester, the .303 British, the 7 mm Mauser, the 6.5 mm Swedish,
and the military 7.62 x 51 NATO, also known as the .308 Winchester. With minor exceptions, the job
description for and the abilities of the Full Power Rifle haven’t really changed in a century. Virtually all
cartridges in this class provide all the power and accuracy we could ever need for any reasonable purpose,
without having to resort to so-called “magnum” rifle cartridges. While there are many rifle cartridges that
provide more raw ballistic power than those mentioned, we begin to exceed the human’s ability to tolerate
recoil when we go to larger or higher velocity rounds. The ballistics of the above cartridges are all quite
similar. A practical zero can be established by sighting almost any weapon in this class such that the bullet
strikes about 2.5 inches high at 100 yards. So sighted, your weapon will for all intents and purposes be
usable to 300 yards without correction for elevation, provided you have sufficient skill to hit at that distance.
A Full Power Rifle can defeat hard cover, or wreck the engine block of a motor vehicle. No body armor
available to criminals has a prayer of withstanding fire from such a weapon. Such rifles can defend
effectively against dangerous animals in the wild, or be used to feed oneself in a survival situation. Their
loud report makes them effective signaling devices. The rifle in this category can, in the hands of an expert,
hit targets as far away as the eye can practically see. About the only areas where this type of rifle isn’t on
top are in situations where there is a need for a high rate of sustained fire, calling for high capacity and
rapid reloading. Such situations are quite rare.
The typical Full Power Rifle is a bolt-action design, less commonly a semiautomatic, or even a single shot.
To take full advantage of this weapon’s capabilities, most users will want to mount a good quality optical
scope sight. Highest flexibility is achieved when the scope selected is lower in magnification than most
people think. If a variable scope is selected, the low end of magnification should be about 2X; the high end
really need not be higher than 6X unless police counter sniper activities are in order. Virtually any good
quality over-the-counter hunting grade rifle/scope combination will do what most of us have in mind for such
a rifle, but higher quality products tend to be more rugged in sustained use. In recent years, a general-
purpose rifle known as a Scout Rifle has become somewhat popular, featuring a short action, short barrel,
and forward mounted low power scope sight. This rifle features rapid reloading via detachable magazines
or stripper clips. The Scout may be the pinnacle of utility in a Full Power Rifle, but some examples can be a
bit expensive at over $2,500.
Whether or not you need to spend this type of money on what is, for most of us, a third line weapon is
completely up to you. There are many more foolish ways to spend money than on a fine rifle, however. A
good general-purpose rifle can also be used for hunting and pest control chores. Rifle marksmanship
practice is a worthwhile activity, and a challenging hobby in and of itself. In these days of increased anti-
firearms regulation, your common “hunting rifle” is likely to be one of the last firearms to be restricted. If this
is what you are left with to use in defense, rest assured that you are far from unarmed.