Above Image PC: Ready Gunner

Although we’ve touched on this topic before for those in the market for a home defense firearm — this time we’ll be specifically looking at how to build ourself an 80% AR-style rifle optimized for defending your home. Spoiler alert: it’s an AR-9 build. Never heard of an AR-9? We can fix that right now.

WHY THE AR-9?

There’s a lot of talk and debate over how to best your AR-15 setup for home defense purposes but since we’re in the business of making 80 percents… why not build an AR-9? It’s lighter, more maneuverable indoors, is easier to mitigate recoil and far quieter than an AR-15. Those are huge pros already. With regard to milling out an AR-9 lower receiver, because it’s smaller than an AR-15 or AR-10 receiver, the time to mill it out is also significantly decreased.

You might be wondering, well what about a really fine-tuned AR-15 pistol or a short 300 BLK build? Those are certainly great options ballistically, but they're far more expensive. As far AR-9 pistols go, they're incredibly affordable, perform great, you don't have to worry about over-penetration and the recoil is similar to a high quality airsoft gun (extremely soft and smooth)! It's literally a great bang for your buck build that can be tailor made to defend your specific home and rule in CQB (close quarter battle) scenarios.

If any of this is starting to sound appealing, don’t forget to grab a Router Jig Extreme and the appropriate tool kit size for your router to be able to mill out one of our AR-9 lowers.

MUST HAVE ATTACHMENTS

These are your bare minimum, must-have attachments for a home defense AR-9 build:

Tactical Flashlight – Instead of fumbling around at night looking and feeling for light switches on the wall, blind any home invaders with a tactical light. A tactical flashlight on our home defense AR setup is a necessity. Not only can it blind an invader but it also allows us to identify the target before engaging. Check out this one from Streamlight.

Magpul MBUS flip up iron sights – The reason why we’re saying iron sights are more important in this case than any glass optic is because they’re by far the easiest to use and cheapest. We also want the least amount of actions necessary for you to have the gun up and ready to engage after grabbing your rifle or PCC (pistol caliber carbine). We know, “semantics.”

These work great in close spaces and you don't need to fumble with your red dot sight this way if you're not familiar with them just yet. Not to mention, these are cheaper to buy and use. Doesn't hurt to get good at using them.

Stick Magazines - Make sure to use the longest magazines possible so that in the event you have to defend your home, you won't have to reload even once. Typically, Glock's stick mags will house either 24 or 33 rounds. We recommend sticking with the OEM brand for this product to avoid issues commonly seen in third party brands. 

OPTIONAL ATTACHMENTS

Red dot or reflex sight – Glass optics are optional because unless you regularly train with them, they will be more difficult to use compared to iron sights. If you must, we recommend the Holosun T2 style red dot for its “shake awake” feature which turns on automatically when you grab your firearm that it’s set up on.

Sling – Slings are great because they allow you to do other things while keeping your firearm handy and close to the body. Maybe you need to grab the kids and get them out of the house or use your phone to call 911 - all important things. However, if you don’t practice using a sling regularly it could potentially just get in your way. We want to avoid anything that makes using a firearm more difficult.

Folding stock or pistol brace – The pistol brace is going to be a good option to stay legal (until the ATF says otherwise) for those building guns shorter than 16”. Shooting 9mm in an AR style configuration already takes a lot of the recoil out of the picture because of the heavier weight and longer barrel compared to any handgun. So, folding stocks could be very helpful in covering and clearing tight corners in homes — if necessary, shooting your AR-9 by only holding onto the pistol grip and handguard would not be hard to manage. Remember that a stock on a pistol makes the gun an SBR (Short Barreled Rifle) so be sure to check all applicable state and federal laws.

Suppressors – If you’re able to obtain one and afford it, having a suppressor will save your ears a lot of pain in an emergency scenario. If something goes bump-in-the-night we won’t be thinking of grabbing hearing protection. This is also one of the largest reasons why we make the case for an AR-9 over an AR-15 - it’s nowhere near as loud and there’s far less gas ejected from the gun.

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

If you’re still mulling it over, it’s always good to consider your needs based on what kind of home you live in so consider the following:

• How big or small is your home?
• Are your hallways wide or narrow?
• How much natural light is there at night?
• Do you have any night lights set up?

Pay attention to state and federal laws if you’re looking to remain compliant with your AR-9 build but we’re going to recommend you get the lightest possible parts with the shortest possible rail and barrel that you can comfortably control. Just because you can build a 7” or 8” barrel rifle doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best choice for this task.

Look for barrels that range from 9 to 14.5 inches so that with a muzzle device, the total barrel length would add up to be anywhere between 10.5 to 16 inches. Anything longer than 16” is simply too long for home defense unless you live in an incredibly large home or a mansion. Please note that any AR style rifle with a barrel shorter than 16” is considered an SBR which is regulated by the National Firearms Act (if you use an adjustable buttstock and not a pistol brace).

AR-9’s are also great if you ever plan on getting into any competition shooting. Sometimes the targets placed on courses can be 50 yards out (or further) and without an AR-9 or some sort of pistol caliber carbine it can be difficult to get shots on target.

Build Your Next Home Defense AR-9 With Modulus Arms Today!

We hope this helped make a decision on which weapon would be ideal for your own personal home defense weapon. It is not an easy decision to make but it might very well be one of the most important decisions you’ll ever need to make. Why not build your own AR-9? Check out our parts to help you get that done.