Do we all wear the same size gloves?
And the answer is no, we do not, so why do people expect us to be able to shoulder the same size rifles or grip the same size handguns comfortable? Even if you’re a guy, you’re not all built the same, and luckily the military has caught on to this. If I had a nickel for every WWII vet I know that made a comment on how big the Garand was and how many of them had trouble shooting one, I’d be rich. The M1 Garand is a very accurate and powerful rifle, but not everyone could hand them. If you field a rifle of the same caliber today, and allowed people to adjust the stock for their comfort, recoil issues go away.
In the last few months I’ve had a lot of consultation with new gun owners about home defense weapons and assessing how they could be deployed and used within their homes. Many of them always thought about handguns being used in their homes and never rifles but there are carbines with rifle stocks that use the same rounds as the pistols. Everyone seems to think that a rifle is too much or too hard to manage, but now that pistol caliber Carbines are so prevailant. Why not. I prefer to mount lights on rifles rather than handguns, and I also know that most novice shooters will be safer and more proficient with a Carbine over a handgun. At the very least, a rifle is easier to retain and become a baseball bat than a handgun. Please keep in mind that bullet selection is extremely important when deciding on a Carbine or rifle in your home. There are some very well thought out M4 rifle stocks, Beretta Storm, and shotgun stocks that are very good for home defense.
After a few years of actually taking real fighting classes, one of the most common things every instructor told us was, “get a white light” on your fighting weapon. There are some handgun options where you can hold a flashlight while using a handgun and not have a fixed light on it which makes holster options very limited. The Section8 Tactical ultimate retention device is a good tool to use, but this isn’t recommended for using with a shotgun or carbine. I recenltly finished a training course where we used lasers for defensive purposes. The best tactical for using lasers is knowing when to turn them off. Yes, using a flashlight or laser is a giveaway, but spotlighting a threat and identifying it is paramount.
With the advent of the accessorized rifle or carbine, people are putting so many things on rifles these days that need to be screwed on, locked in, and battery operated that Murphys law has some really cold things to say about this. Every screw on your carbine is going to come loose at some point and every battery operated device will fail at some point. I’ve seen a lot of accessories that fit in the pistol grip, buttstock or other areas and this is nice for some purposes, but any of those operators were spending more than a day with their setup, they find that they aren’t carrying enough tools sand gear on their guns to get through 48hrs of hard use.