I have a few favorites of my own. For home protection, you can't really beat a 12ga. loaded with 0 or 00 buckshot. It will make someone cease and desist, one way or another. The benefit of a shotgun in home protection is quite simple. If you have a pretty good handle on where the bad guy is, that's all you need. And it's not likely that you will hit an innocent bystander outside of the house if you have to use it. Don't forget, you can get rifled slugs for a shotgun, and for brush deer/hog hunting they work pretty darn well (they do kick like a mule). Shotguns also serve double duty as bird guns. Choose your shot weight according to your prey.

For my primary meat gun, I shoot a Savage .222 bolt action, scoped over open sights. Yes, it's a smaller caliber. It's also deadly accurate out to about 750 yards and a very flat shooting rifle. I've put plenty of deer, hog and turkey in the freezer with it. I also hunt with an old .30-.30 lever action, it's done the deed many times too, fantastic gun for short range shots in heavy brush.

And for personal protection, I have one of two carry guns. My favorite is my CZ75B 9mm with a custom clip. Sweet pistol, low kick, dependable, reliable. My other carry is a S&W .357 snub. Also a nice pistol, but with a loud mouth and a bit of a kick, and not real accurate. One thing about it, since it's a wheelgun, if you pull the bang switch, it's going to fire. No running into cycling problems. Downside, only 5 shots, compared to the 16+1 for my 9mm. Of course, if you can't get it dealt with in 5 shots, 17 ain't going to make much difference.

Just remember this and you will do fine............bullet placement trumps both mass and velocity. (A cookie for the first person to identify who said that).

Take every chance you get to shoot different guns, you stand a far better chance of finding one that you REALLY like that way, rather than just a written description.