oldefoxx
Shooter
Well, I'm on a farm and I have 1911 in .45 and an AR and a M1A and several SG, but I have .22 conversions for the 1911 and the AR and I use them almost exclusively. I know one thing for a fact: NOBODY WANTS TO GET SHOT, WITH ANYTHING. I guarantee that .22HP will ruin anyone's day. As said, several rounds up around the head will take care of 99% of anything. I have yet to come across anything that didn't want to get shot. I regularly drop 150lb goats with a single shot to the back of the head. I've seen a .22 drop a 900lb bull the same way. I know they work.
After saying all that, it depends......if it's at night and I'm surprised from my sleep, etc, I'll grab the SG; if I have time during the day and know what it is, I'll grab a .22,,,,if it's a wild hog or bear, I'll grab the M1A, but I have NO problem using .22, most of the time.
AFA scenarios, well, nobody knows how any encounter will pan out. They're all different. OP said that invaders fled when they realized he was home, so that's all it took then. We've seen many cases where just the sight of a gun DID stop the confrontation, so don't tell me that it doesn't work. We just don't know,,,sure, we could be confronted with a hardened felon on PCP, that keeps coming after several .45 rnds, but that's very very rare( and then it becomes about how good your HTH and conditioning is). We've seen many cases where folks shoot and empty their gun and don't hit the BG once, because of stress, so it really didn't matter what caliber or how many rnds it was. So imo, nobody has the secret to armed confrontation success.
Nobody? Tell that to someone that has not watch Rambo, Dirty Harry, of other fictional Hollywood characters in action.