Un-coordinated or discussed I was pleased my grandson and I both choose shotguns for a night time firefight. He was guarding the upper realm of our survival retreat while I was guarding the center . Actually a county deputy sheriff joined us that night but I am not sure what his weapon of choice was , but do know he was driving a canine unit vehicle . And to top this off we live in a very remote and rural area on a dirt road . For day time I prefer a scoped bolt action rifle for precise bullet placement .
If you're really interested in this, I might suggest IF you're going an optic route you have a look towards some form of RDS or a variable optic (such as the Vortex Strike Eagle) that goes 1-6x or 1-8x. While you CAN work a moderate power optic in close (perhaps like a 3 or 4x ACOG) this isn't particularly easy (some types of rifles have offset sights and/or an RMR to help with a close in situation). FWIW, many LE agencies go with an M4 variant with some form of low power optic and/or RMR or RDS (aimpoint, Trijicon MRO, EoTech, etc.). For me, a bolt generally wouldn't be the best option in a defensive rifle and I'd prefer a semi like an M4 (to the extent that it wasn't 4-legged thick skinned high fat predators like bear as a primary threat in which case it'd be a shotgun with slugs or 45-70 lever like the Marlin GBL with ghost rings--although an M4 platform could be used for bear with proper shot placement and many people do this). If I was going the shotgun route I'd prefer a higher capacity pump (like a Mossberg 590) with shorter cylinder bore barrel. Whatever it is, for me I'll needs something that coherently allows for follow up shots. Many people (including me) tend to have issues with shot placement and missing when under a great deal of stress and compressed time constraints (this can be mitigated through training).
I have no idea if our country will stay together or come apart. And there's no way to predict this. Certainly the shenanigans of the major democrap run cities shows that there IS a threat of personal injury, death, and property destruction by gangs of marxist mobs egged on by marxist politicians (not unlike South Africa which seems to be the democraps' favorite model along with their political 'heroes'). I doubt these entities would poke their nose into well-defended rural communities but one never knows. And the democraps thrive on creating hate, strife, and division amongst people who have no real reason to be mad at each other (and should be grateful for what they have to begin with). But almost ALL of one's defensive capabilities lay in mindset and training; the equipment needs to be reliable but is secondary to a person being able to competently use it in a dynamic high stress environment.
