I’ve spent days researching on the Internet, watching video footage, reading user reviews and examining self defense accounts to determine the best air gun for self defense and home defense. All of this research has lead to this conclusion, the best self defense air gun is the Byrna SD XL. In this article I’m going to lay out the reasoning why the Byrna SD XL is the air gun you should choose for your personal protection if a traditional firearm is out of the question for you.
A Very Important Note To The Reader
I want highly emphasize this point, I am not affiliated with, sponsored or stand to gain financially by Byrna to make this claim or write this article. I am writing this article because I have spent countless hours compiling all the state laws surrounding guns (air guns specifically) and I understand many people simply can’t get their hands on a traditional firearm. For those you can easily get a traditional fire arm, by all means go that route for self defense!
There is however a need for these less-lethal weapons to help those who are at a disadvantage due to the laws of the states in which they live. These people need a means to protect themselves and their property. I took this recommendation I am giving you in this article for the best self defense air gun very seriously! I know that people may find their life in danger at some point and this article could be the difference between life and death for them.
Byrna SD XL Quick Overview
Weight: 1.3 pounds
Power Type: 12 gram CO2 cartridge (30 Shots Per CO2 Cartirdge)
Action: Semi-Automatic
Velocity: 300 Feet Per Second
Trigger Pull: 6.5 Pounds
Capacity: 5 round magazine (comes with 2 mags)
Additional Features: Ambidextrous Safety, Sticky Honeycomb Grip, Large Sights For Quick Target Acquisition, Accessory Rail
Made in the USA
No Permit Required For Purchase (Must Be At Least 18 Years Old To Purchase)
The Most Important Rule Of Self Defense
When it comes to self defense, there is a very common saying, the gun you have on you is better than the gun you have at home in your safe. This is a very true statement, one I unfortunately learned on my own. I have experienced four instances which solidified the importance of self defense, and I believe by sharing my experiences with you, it can help lay out the foundation of why I have selected the Bynra SD XL as the best self defense gun.
Self Defense Story # 1
One morning I left my house very early to do some fishing on my friends property which was a half mile walk from my house. I arrived to there property which was a 7 acre pond surrounded by tall grass. I observed the surrounding and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, so I began casting my pole into the pond.
About three cast in, a man pointing a shotgun at me emerged from the tall grass near me. He was on the land illegally doing some poaching. The man told me I was tresspassing on his land, which was clearly a lie because the land belonged to my friend.
I was unarmed and felt completely vulnerable in that moment. The man also did not seem mentally all there! I apologized to the man, told him my friend told me it was his property and he had given me permission and I would leave, at which point he let me leave.
That day I applied for the concealed carry license and started carrying a handgun.
Self Defense Story # 2
I was out on a walk with my pregnant wife and our 1 year old daughter. We were walking through the neighborhood when someone opened their front door and two large dogs pushed past the homeowner, out the door towards us. One was a rottweiler and the other was a large mix breed and these dogs were behaving very aggressively.
I had to make a decision all within the span of 2 seconds, do I draw my weapon. I was hesitant because what if I over react and fire my gun in a neighborhood, what would happen. I did my my gun but at the last second the homeowner was able to get their dogs to return to them.
That day I realized, the amount of time you to react is likely a few seconds or less. Your weapon needs to be ready to fire in a split second! This is a very important lesson that lead me to select the Byrna SD XL as the best self defense air gun, but more on that in a moment.
Self Defense Story # 3
This story did not happen to me, but to my wife. At the time my wife was still in college and had a class in the evening. At the time we lived about 35 minutes away from her college and the route to get there was a very rural route. As my wife was driving down a sparsely populated county road she approached a pick up truck driving roughly 10 mph in a 50 mph zone.
At this point she decided to pass the truck, but when she did the truck sped up and got in the middle of the road. Once in front of her it began driving 10 mph once again. After about 30 seconds it moved back to the side of the road.
At this point my wife attempted to pass the truck and this time was successful. However as soon as she passed the truck, the truck sped up was a mere inches from her bumper and continued to ride on her bumper for several second then passed her.
They then came to an intersection and the truck stopped and would not move. They then began to open their door to get out, at which time my wife quickly got around the truck and speed into town where she managed to lose the truck which started following her again.
In this situation this stranger was acting erratically and putting my wife’s life in danger. In this situation my wife’s situational awareness was critical in making a split second decision to evade the situation.
Self Defense Story # 4
This final story involved my wife once again. She has just left our infant son’s bedroom after laying him down for a nap. It was about 1PM in the afternoon and there was a knock at the door. She never answers the door for strangers, but her mom just lives down the street, so she went to the peephole to see who it was.
To her surprise it was two men, both wear gloves and both carrying large duffle bags and sock hats. This was is fairly temperate weather mind you. At first she just assumed maybe they were selling something and they would leave. But then they began jiggling the door handle.
At this point my wife ran into the bedroom and got my .40 pistol and aimed it at our front door. The continued to jiggle the door handle for about 10 seconds, then left. Thank goodness we always keep our doors locked at all times!
The Moral Of All These Self Defense Stories
So what do all of these stories have to do with a gun review? Well I always go back to these stories because these situations were instances you don’t expect to find yourself in, but they find you. When doing research to determine the best self defense air gun, I always think about these situations and how if I had a particular weapon on me would the weapon be appropriate for the situation.
The Number 1 Reason The Byrna SD XL Is The Best Self Defense Air Pistol – Readiness!
Nearly all self defense air pistols operate by CO2 cartridges. When you insert the CO2 cartridge into the gun, you must puncture it to make the gun operational. Once the cartridge is punctured, it can begin to low pressure over time.
This presents a big problem, because in most self defense situations, like the guy I encountered while fishing or the two dogs that nearly attacked me and may family, I would have only had split seconds to react if I needed to. So for most self defense air guns, they would not have been readily available to fire (unless of course you waste a CO2 cartridge every time you carried the gun with you). Most guns require you to turn a thumb screw which presses into the CO2 cartridge and pierces it making it ready to fire.
However, the Byrna is not this way! With the Byrna, the CO2 cartridge can be housed in the CO2 compartment of the pistol without being piercing it until you pull the trigger for the first time. From my experienced these split seconds are absolutely critical! In no way would I have had time to fiddle with tightening a thumb screw to ready the CO2 cartridge so I could fire the weapon.
There is a caveat though, if you pierce the gun by pulling the trigger, this trigger pull is slightly harder than the subsequent trigger pulls, around 8 pounds of force compared to 6.5 pounds of force. From my experience this is fairly negligible. Also the first shoot will fire around 180 to 200 feet per second, the following shots will fire around 300 feet per second. While this drop in power isn’t ideal, I think the benefit of having this CO2 piercing method greatly outweighs the loss in power. Also consider you likely will be firing multiple round very quickly and depending on your ammunition type, this loss of speed may not even matter.
If you were in a situation that allows you some time to react, you can pull the trigger while the gun’s safety is on to pierce the CO2 before firing a shot, then turn off the safety and you are ready to fire your first shot at a full 300 feet per second. Which in two the scenarios my wife was in she would have had the time to do this. Having both of these as an option is the number one reason I think the Byrna SD XL is the best self defense air gun, but speed matters!
So The Byrna is Quick To Deploy, But Does It Have Stopping Power?
Speed without stopping power won’t help you in a self defense situation, luckily the Byrna has the power to stop an attack. Byrna has a line of different ammunitions you can fire out of the SD XL. This allows you to be selective based on your use case of the Byrna. The type of ammunition you use will depend on how effective the Byrna will be at stopping a threat. Byrna offers three self defense rounds, the Max, the Pepper and the Kinetic. Byrna also offers 2 training round, the Eco-Kinetic and the Pro-Training.
The Best Air Gun Self Defense Round
Byrna’s MAX round is by far the round I would choose to carry in self defense air gun. The MAX is a pepper gas, tear gas blend and is one of the strongest irritant blends you can find, making it popular among bounty hunters and security officers.
After watching multiple demonstrations of participants getting it by this round I have no doubts about how effective it is. Pepper spray is rated as the most effective non-lethal self defense agent, and when combined with tear gas, the effects are nearly instantaneous.
The MAX round explodes on contact, creating an irritant dust cloud with a radius of 12 feet. The irritant blend causing burning eyes, coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, gagging, tightening of the chest and the general inability to breathe. That doesn’t even include the pain of getting hit with the round which leaves welts.
I think back to the dogs that nearly attacked my family. I was in a neighborhood, so firing a firearm was not ideal! I had multiple targets to neutralize as well. Whether human aggressors or animal aggressors, I can not think of a better option than a pepper / tear gas in the situation. One shot would have the ability to affect multiple targets and shot placement on a fast moving target would be difficult, but given the radius of the irritant cloud, shot placement would not be quite as critical.
In fact in most situations, I believe this irritant round would give you time to escape the situation and put your attacker at an extreme disadvantage. The Byrna Pepper is similar to the MAX round, though not quite as potent, but still plenty capable of deterring an attacker.
The Power Of The Byrna SD XL
Some locations may not allow you to carry the MAX round (cities in California and New York instantly come to mind), but you’ll still need to deter an attacker and I think the Byrna SD XL is still plenty capable in that area when using the Kinetic round. The Kinetic round is a super hard plastic round that inflects pain by blunt force.
The Kinetic round weighs 3 grams and travels 300 feet per second. While I myself haven’t been hit with a Kinetic round, I have been hit by a much softer paintball round at close range and I can tell you first hand, it hurts, a LOT! I can’t imagine how much more painful the Kinetic round would be!
The Kinetic round is easily capable of shooting out car windows and even though the Byrna is considered “less lethal” a properly placed shot to the temples, throat or eye sockets could prove to be fatal.
Below is on man’s self defense story using his Byrna SD with the Kinetic round. During this encounter, his attacker was much larger and one shoot was all it took to stop the attack.
The Ease Of Use Of The Byrna SD XL
It is vitally important that any weapon you carry for self defense be simple to operate because you won’t have a lot of time to react in these situations. I also think of the situations my wife had been involved in, and how important it is for someone with little experience with firearms to be able to use the weapon. Below are several features that set the Byrna apart of other self defense air guns.
Ambidextrous Safety
Regardless if you’re left handed or right handed, being able to operate your gun with your off hand is extremely critical! There may be times when you may not be able to use your dominant hand and your off hand is all you have. If you hand toggle the safety with your off hand, then your gun is basically useless at that point. With the Byrna though, this isn’t an issue. The safety is on both sides of the gun and can be easily accessed regardless of which hand it is in.
Sticky Honeycomb Grip
I have shot quite a few hand guns in my life. One of my biggest pet peeves are guns with no or very little grip on them. Hands get sweaty and wet, which causes the gun to move in your hand throwing off your accuracy. The fact the the Byrna has the built in sticky honeycomb grip is a huge upgrade of many of the self defense air guns you’ll find and this upgrade should not be overlooked. You want every advantage you can give yourself when it comes to self defense, and this is a bigger advantage than you may realize!
Excellent Sight Picture
Another feature I really like about the Byrna are its large, robust sights. Having larger sights makes for quicker target acquisition.
One thing I would have liked to see is either bright colors on the sights or even better night sight optics for low light conditions. The sights are still good nonetheless. Personally, I would paint them with yellow and orange to make them stand out a bit more. Nail polish works well for this job.
Accessory Rail
An easily overlooked feature is the inclusion on the accessory rail. This rail would allow you to attach a flashlight or laser, which would make target detection and acquisition much faster. Though you may never add on of these accessories, having the option is still nice.
On my .40 caliber pistol I mentioned in the self defense story where my wife had two men at the door trying to get in, I had attached a laser to it. I did this knowing if my wife had to use the pistol she wouldn’t have to worry about the sights. This is great for people who haven’t had a lot of training with guns, and even for those who have. It’s just another advantage you can give yourself in a self defense situation.
The Byrna Looks Like A Traditional Firearm
The Byrna, especially the black version, looks just like a traditional firearm. I’ve read multiple self defense stories where just the visible presence of the Byrna was enough to deter attackers. The Byrna looks so similar to a traditional firearm, many times just its visible presence will be enough to stop an attack. But if it’s not enough, you know it has the capability to stop a threat if there are no other options!
Good For Teaching Children and Teens
Due to the lack of recoil the Byrna is the perfect gun to teach children gun safety and marksmanship. Unlike traditional handguns which require the owner to be at least 21 years old in most states, 18 year holds can purchase and carry this weapon, state laws permitting. Some states laws are less restrictive than other and may allow those younger than 18 to carry this weapon. We put together this article surrounding the laws for non-lethal self defense air guns – Self Defense Air Guns and the Laws Surrounding Them.
