AR 15 Mods for Self Defense
The AR 15 seems to be the American darling of semi-automatic rifles. Every single gun shop sells twenty or more different varieties of AR 15 Mods including: upper receivers, lower receivers, grips, magazines, bolt assemblies, shoulder mounts, etc. What the AR 15 is great at is responsive shooting at distance. It is ideal at 10 to 300 yds and effective up to 500 yds* with proper sight alignment.
*Yes, the specs say 800 yds but by the time a 5.56mm NATO round gets to 800, the bullet has stopped spinning and is tumbling.
With all that said, the AR-15 is passably decent in close to short quarters. That distance, for this article, is relatively defined as 1-15 yds. And for that distance, the AR-15 will just have to do.
Home defense, however, has nothing to do with short range, small caliber rifles. It has to do with something that can clear doorways, entry ways, corridors, and rooms quickly and efficiently. And for this purpose, the AR-15 will do fine. Is it ideal? No.
A semi-automatic or pump-action shotgun loaded with double-ought is ideal. A pistol with laser sight assembly and/or a flashlight is ideal. But let’s pretend those don’t exist. We’re going to discuss:
How you can make your AR-15 Home Defense ready
1. Non-Magnifying Holographic Weapon Sights
This is probably the best Ar 15 mod that would make a great holiday or birthday gift. While it’s not going to do you any favors in bright daylight, under an open field, it will help you out immensely when shooting in a dim indoor environment.
Most (if not all) holographic weapon sights are battery operated. So, make sure to change out the batteries when the time comes and stay on top of it.
We’d recommend keeping a clipboard inside your safe where you list off the dates for battery swaps.
Always calibrate these ar 15 sights on the range.
Never trust anything right out of the box.
Make it prove itself to you by taking it to the range and training with it. If your AR-15 upper receiver has tactical rails for different sight assemblies – this is ideal. Because the AR-15 is a monster at medium to long range and there’s no reason to limit your capabilities by putting on a fixed (non-removable) non-magnifying holographic weapon sight.
You want specifically non-magnifying holographic weapon sights because you do not want to have to change your field of vision back and forth between magnified and non-magnified lenses.
2. Picatinny Rails or Tactical Rails
Go ahead and get a version of these picatinny rails that complies with other commonly manufactured AR-15 mods and accessories. Not only do they provide a bit more grip than the standard polymer AR-15 handguards, it allows you to customize any AR 15 mod position and is handy with any other ar 15 accessories to fit your needs.
3. AR-15 Front Hand Grip
Ar 15 Front Hand Grip is an important AR 15 mod for home defense. This Ar 15 mod allows a responsive grip action and positive reinforcement on the weapon while going around tight corners or moving through narrow spaces. With a picatinny or tactical rail system on the handguard, you can adjust the position of this hand grip to fit your needs.
4. Front Rail Flashlight
Ideally, we’d recommend a flashlight on the front hand guard assembly that accommodates both white and red light. This is ideal for low level light environments where you want to illuminate an area without sacrificing your night vision. White light can be handy, too, if you want to illuminate an area while blinding a potential opponent. Just remember with white light – it works both ways. And it also destroys your night vision if you need to turn it off.
You can position the front flash light on either the bottom side of the handguard or the side for effective switching on or off.
It’s not recommended to combine attachments into one attachment – i.e. have a flashlight inside the hand grip. This is because sometimes one piece breaks and the other doesn’t. Destruction of one means the necessity to replace the other.
Whatever combination of AR 15 mods and accessories you feel makes Home Defense AR 15 better suited, make sure to always train by “slicing the pie” around open doorways and corridors. That means dividing an open space into smaller segments and slowly clearing each open space until you’re ready to dive in and take a chance. Slicing the pie gives you an opportunity for situational awareness rather than just recklessly charging in.
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