any of you guys keep your defense AR-15 loaded with a magazine,and with a round chambered and ready? (safety on of course)
Just wondering.This is meant for the owners without kids running around of course.

I do.  I keep the Bushy factory 10rd mag in the gun with Hornady TAP 75gr hollow points.  I also keep an extra 30rd mag loaded with 55gr FMJs handy.  Never know when I might need it.

ML

Cool.I was just wondering.I know people who have loaded mags in their AR-15s,but they never have a cartrige in the chamber.I'm thinking,it would be fine to have a round chambered,since the time charge it is longer then just flipping the safety switch to "fire"
any possible harm to the weapon from keeping a round chambered?
P.S. I keep a mag loaded with BlackHills 55 gr. SP rounds.
Not in the gun though,but right next to it.Might start keeping the gun fully loaded,chambered,and ready to ROCK

Come on, you guys really defend the inside of your home with these things?  Ever fire one inside a building?  Yowza, talk about ka-boom!  Kiss those eardrums goodbye!  And, if you miss, how far does that bullet go and through how many walls?  And, what does Mr. Prosecutor tell the "ladies and gentlemen of the jury" as he holds up an evil assault weapon you blasted the deceased perp with and points the accusing finger at YOU!  Yeah, I know, you should be able to defend your house any way you want.  But Mr. Prosecutor probably doesn't agree.

My home gun remains a Glock 27, and I think that even looks a little too "evil" for the bourgeouis.  I think leaving an AR around for this purpose isn't the best course to take . . .

Sorry to steer the thread in a different direction . . .  [;)]

Troy,you are right.
But,I posted this first before I started doing it.I currently keep it empty,no mag,and it is not charged,and the selector is in "fire"
so there's no tension.Chairborne Ranger,you have merit in your post,but I only have one weapon.That weapon is my black rifle.

The Glock and the mag is within reach but not together. All the rest are loaded without a round in the chamber inside the safe.

.38 S&W (pre-sellout) and a D&W .357mag - in home + fully loaded = no chambering no weak spring to worry about. Point and shoot. AR's in safe and away from Mr. Prosecutor.

There are better weapons for house defense.  I have a Mossy 500 beside the bed, in Condition 3.  Two rounds of birdshot, (no overpenetration) one round of buck, followed by a slug.  
 Besides, think of the psych efects on a perp when (he, she, it) hears the slide being racked..........
Affirm on the hammer spring.  Besides, by the time that the little ones can rack the slide, they, be large enogh for proper training....

No! I dont keep my AR loaded. thats dangerous! I do keep a AR mag loaded, but I keep my 590a1 loaded.

like I said before,my lovely AR-15 is my only weapon.I guess I'll just keep doing what I have been doing,unloaded,unchambered,and un-cocked,on "fire"
everything is just a few inches away from eachother though:)

I wouldn't have thought about keeping a weapon with a round in the chamber until I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine, back in the early 90's.

This was when I was stationed at Ft. Ord (Monterey, California).  There was a high profile home invasion case going on at the time, where the man of the house fought multiple attackers for 45 minutes, bare hands only, and was killed in the end.  The wife and daughter was physically unharmed.

Was mentioning to my buddy about the case in general, when he says that the guy was his uncle(!).  I immediately asked him if they had a gun in the house; there was a pistol in the nightstand.  Problem was, his aunt said that they were asleep, and woke up to find the attackers standing over the bed.  

What spared his aunt and cousin from getting raped and murdered was the getaway driver got spooked, and flashed the signal to get the hell out.

Couldn't get the thought out of my head of opening my eyes and seeing "them" right there.  Ever since then I keep the pistol with me on Condition One, and a blade under the pillow.


Chris

to keep thieves/rapists/muderers from standing over your bed keep your german sheperds in the house,then you will have time to get the 357 off the headboard to finish up.

I keep a flame thrower fully fueled but the pilot light off, it`s under my pillow

What, you're kidding, right?  A few shots aren't going to kill anyone's hearing.  Prolonged indoor fire will do that, but one or two shots from ANY gun sans a 50bmg won't kill your hearing, supersonic or not.

Pipefitter, I agree, my pit bull is my alarm system. She can hear alot better than I can, and should be able to hear them coming. That being said, I keep my Browning High Power  wedged in between my box spring and my mattress in a holster (so I don't get any oil on the mattress of course) with a hi cap mag inserted, but no round chambered. I have confidence I can chamber a round fast enough after I hear my dog starts barking. And by the way, a dog barking usually will be enough to scare most people away. I think in general that an AR would not be the ideal home defense weapon. I'd save up and by a handgun for sure.

Properly engineered springs wear out from compression/decompression cycles, not from remaining compressed for extended periods... I thought this was well settled in a myriad of "will my mag wear out from being left loaded" threads. Why are hammer springs different?

Gunsite studies show more interior wall penetration from 9mm than .223 FMJ.  .223 is an excellent home defense gun caliber.  I keep mag in rifle, no round in chamber and Blackhawk vest
with 12 mags by the bed in case the battle extends over more than a few hours. Might be a Chicom division at the door or even worse the BATF.  :}

I use my 12-gauge as my primary and have a .38 for a backup.  When I first got my AR I kept a mag loaded, but left it unchambered.  I decided I was more comfortable with my pump action if I had to spread lead.  Now I take the upper off my AR and put the lower in my safe.  I usually wear the .38 around the house.

For some reason this is not what I was thinking when I clicked on the teaser thread. Silly me.......

Fullclip...would you have checked out my thread if it was titled "keeping rounds chambered?"
as opposed to the current "leaving her hot and ready"
:)

Of course, but not as fast.......

Nomad, dogs are the early warning system you need. Like it was stated before, dogs will give you time to get locked and loaded if they don't scare the intruder off. Most importantly,  whatever you use for home defense, train with it. Fumbling in the dark while scared/asleep isn't going to be easy.

I cannot have a dog.My S.O. has med. condition,so I cannot have that kind of pet.
I dry-fire practice in my house,clearing rooms and such,learned a bit from a friend of mine who was in the Orlando S.W.A.T. unit,he's in police aviation now though.Odd switch huh?

I have to agree 100% with all of your points. I also have to say that even if you are cleard they take the weapon for ballistics and you might not get it back and if you do it might be a while. I keep an old model 19 s and w with 357 mag. I think that is a hot load but I am a very good shot and I want something with enough power to stop someone on drugs. I hope to god I dont miss cause it could go through walls. Like all rounds. I hope to god I never have to use a weapon against a person.  

Get an alarm so the perp runs away when it sounds.

I also have a question, what kind of places do you people live that a hot AR is needed. Very rural places I can understand but city type of places I disagree.

If you shouldn't have the hammer cocked during storage don't you risk the chance of tweaking your firing pin when you dry fire? I'm more worried about dry firing my M1A and AR with the Jewell trigger.

i keep my wife loaded and next to the bed

AR15 stays in closet, 20 seconds away from hot duty.  1991A1SS stays in drawer next to left hand, hammer down on live round.  Wife's Model 29 stays near her right hand, hammer down on empty cylinder.  We have decided this is the safest "hot storage" option available, and with the hollowpoints we use (Fed Hy-Shok) allows us to minimise any possibility of overpenetration.

Our kids are also 19 and 20, and fully understand the concept of death.  They also understand that having a pistol pointed in my general direction is one of the nastier ways to die, as I have demonstrated a few disarming techniques - if a little too fast for them to follow...

FFZ

With the proper ammo choice, the .223 does not penetrate walls as much as say, a 9mm or .38 would. Use something like Hornady TAP 55gr not FMJ. Granted, this is a high velocity cartridge, but the .223 has less mass than the heavier handgun calibers and disipates energy at a high rate when it stikes something. Also the design of the TAP bullet causes extremely rapid fragmentation upon impact minimizing over penetration. A handgun caliber, especially a .45 would crash through walls, or your target, at close range. Thats why a LOT of police agencies are switching from handgun caliber subguns to .223 carbines for house work. That and an M4 is a lot cheaper than an MP5!
Personally i keep my 590 loaded with #1 buck as I sold my AR. Looking to get an M4gery.

Since I live out in the sticks, I keep an officers model .45 locked and cocked with safety on under the pillow. I also keep my M4gery with surefire 500 light next to my bed. I also have my winchester 1300 next to the door to my bedroom. And on the wall above the shotgun I have my 20" AR with a starlight scope just in case the coyotes come around. I also have 2 bull mastiffs and 2 rotweilers running the perimeter of my property. All this and I am still feeling kinda insecure. I'd like to have a Vulcan on top of the house that would swing 360 degrees and sweep the area at the push of a button. And claymores, gobs and gobs of claymores, yeah, that would be it.

I'm a little concerned about the folks who are saying stuff like, "I keep a 9mm in the bedstand drawer, an empty magazine by the sink, a box of ammo in the closet and the firing pin under my pillow.  I'm sure I would be able to get everything together in an emergency." (yes, I'm being slightly absurd to illustrate a point)

Seriously.  Do you think that upon being awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of breaking glass or splintering wood, in pitch darkness, while simultaneously dealing with the physiological and psychological effects of both a sudden awakening and an adrenaline dump, you are going to be able to get all these components together quickly enough to have a useful weapon by the time the boogie man shows up?  Have you trained for this scenario repeatedly to the point that you can do everything automatically?  He's going to have a few tactical advantages already, and with the exception of knowing the turf better than he does, you are already waaay behind the response/reaction curve.

I'm a strong advocate of K.I.S.S. - I don't want to wonder if I have a round in the chamber or not, or if I have a mag seated or not.  I will most likely be scared sh*tless, shaking like an aspen leaf in a hurricane, and have a terrible case of tunnel vision and I want to do the least number of things I have to in order to survive the encounter, which includes getting my weapon in action.

Are you really prepared for an armed exchange, or are you just hoping all the racket you make from racking the action, loading a magazine, etc. is gonna scare the turd away?  Well, maybe it will, but maybe it won't and if not you have just telegraphed your position and the fact that you're still trying to get ready for a gunfight.  He already is.

I'm not criticizing anyone or trying to start a flame war, but think about what sequence of events you may be trusting your life or that of your family to.  It's hard to plan unless you've actually been in a real life armed encounter, but please - keep it simple.  The more basic your response, the greater the chance it will work when it has to.

Using an AR-15 for home defense?  Keeping it loaded?  DOTS (Depends On The Situation).  Do you have children in the house?  Will a home invader who sneaks in find it before you wake up?  etc.  Then using the AR-15 for home defense.  How close are your neighbors?  Will the 5.56 penetrate outside your house?  Who are in the other rooms in the house?  Will you shoot the invader and your child in the next room?  Will you shoot your neighbor next door?    

These are all things you must consider before you think about keeping a loaded rifle/using an AR-15 for home defense.  Always remember BACKSTOP.  You may have areas where it will be "safe" to shoot the rifle in the house and there may be areas where you CANNOT shoot the rifle.  If you shoot a home invader and kill a neighbor in the process the smallest charge you will be found guilty of is negligent homicide.  

I have a large German Shepard who patrols the house.  He will warn before anyone enters the house.  If anyone is still determined to get in he will give me more than enough time to insert a mag of Horn. TAP ammo and take up position in a "SAFE" shooting zone (good backstop).

Just my thoughts.

I want to go threw walls. At least one for the reason when I was last robbed. The dude was in the other room and I could blow one round of 240g. 44mag. close enough to get his attention.
 No homes for a hundred yard and lots of trees.
Didn't get a hit that time. Drywall was easy to patch. Yes there was a hell of a ring in my head for awhile.
 The dude dropped my DVD player and broke it. But gotaway with nothing.

never loaded with a round in the chamber. .45 auto in shoulder holster with two extra mags by bed. 20 rounds of 308 a.p. in my upstairs bedroom for hard to take down prey. a ak47 in the closet by the door and in the garage covered up (just don't know when someone wants to attack you while your mowing the yard thats why I have a snub nose .44 special with 5 rounds of glasser safty slugs loaded in it. besides bed and can take any where in my back pocket and its always loaded just pull the trigger.