Ok, here's my take on "subduing" your intruder....I'm 5'10", 165-175# depending on the week, I wrestle competitively in college, wrestled in high school and "kids fed", I also box and have taken classes in various combative arts, I bounced at bars and night clubs for a couple years (reminded me of the movie "Roadhouse"-"I thought you'd be taller"), I powerlift, don't compete much any more but still bench three and a quarter or so, and I'm a bull rider, which counts for a lot in itself IMHO....

As a bouncer, I naturally handled people of all weights, but usually men 50-100# heavier than me, as a wrestler, I spent all of high school weighing 155# but wrestling in the 215# and heavy weight (250#) classes at tournaments, and still frequent these classes at open collegiate tourneys-over the last 6yrs I'm 49(28)-0 at 215# and heavy weight combined (the "(28)" is victories by pin)...In 171# class I'm 105(44)-38, the light guys are a LOT harder to handle than the heavy guys!

I also once saw a lightweight girl (capped at 130#) about 5'6-7" bench 265# and hang clean 270# and my 140# all conference wrestler uncle (43yoa) can KILL me everytime we step on the mat (I'm 35# heavier and a lot younger). I've also taken classes from 120#, 5 foot nothing old oriental men that could whoop me like a red-headed stepchild.

Moral of the story, don't be confident in your size to win you a fight. I'm not saying you don't handle yourself well, but the bigger you get, the harder it is for guys to handle themselves well, it's kinda like a ferrari vs. a Semi-tractor, the ferrari might be lighter and doesn't have as much horsepower, but the 18-wheeler will do good to ever even touch the ferrari!! Maybe you will do some damage if you ever get ahold of a light guy, but not if he's only a little lighter and too strong for his own good and could go 12rnds with you without breaking a sweat. It's not a good idea if he's unarmed-you don't know how good of fighter he is, I wouldn't be much worried to have a 6'3" 250# man who just woke up come after me empty handed, had he a gun, I'd snap to. It certainly wouldn't be a good one if you think he might be armed...I got stabbed twice while working as a bouncer-I'll be danged if I know to this day where the knives were before they were in me. You don't bring a knife to a gunfight, but you certainly don't come empty handed!!! No matter how well trained I, or anybody else, is at fighting, it's mighty hard to whoop a 5yr old if he's got a .45 and knows how to use it.

As for my advise otherwise, either get outside and stay out, or stay in your room, don't make any noise, have a cell phone in the bed room in case he cut the phone line, but try the land line first because cops will get you on "caller ID" and come investigate even if you don't say anything for a house phone, not so for a cell phone-finding you is usually too hard.

Get a dog, even a small one, most small dog breeds make very good guard dogs because they bark like maniacs at the smallest sounds, bigger dogs make for good deterents of couse, but a yapping **** Tzu will wake you up quick too.

Have your wife familiar with a gun-either buy her a gun or have her practice a bit with one of yours-preferably a handgun-taking a shotgun from a woman is a lot easier than taking a handgun.

If you've got kids, move to their bed room quietly and GET THEM OUT OF THE HOUSE, you can either stay and find out what's going on, or leave with them, have a pre-planned spot for you all to go in such an emergency, and let the cops know where you're going to be. You might consider covering the approach to their rooms from a barracaded position with your shotgun and having your wife jump outside and wake them up through the window, you can safely get them outside and gathered that way without having to run them through the house-usually that's only good for older kids that don't sleep like the dead-infants/toddlers aren't going to walk and can't open the window, younger kids might be too scared to do it, but it's a better idea than running your older kids through the house.

Don't go downstairs-if he's just robbing you, he's not worth shooting, going downstairs either has you shooting him for no good reason-maybe going to jail, or has a robber with a gun to protect himself shooting you to avoid letting you shoot him-if he's there to kill you, you might give away your position and wind up getting shot when you could have barracaded in your room and had the upper hand.

Best bet is to just get outside-dropping out a 2nd story window isn't always great, but tying a bedsheet to the foot of the bed at least gives you a gentle Hanging drop of about 4-6', hard to get shot by a robber/intruder in your house when you're out behind the barn or at the neighbors.

If you go to the neighbors, it's sometimes good to go to the back door or their bedroom window if you know them well enough-bedrooms are closer to the backdoor usually and if someone's out to kill you, it's likely to be darker in their backyard-he doesn't have you illuminated to shoot you from a dark shadow like he would on their front step.

If you're going to stay inside and defend yourself, barracade yourself in-push the bed up against the door if you can do so quietly (just so he can't kick open the door and shoot fast), turn a dresser out a bit from the wall and use it as cover, a walnut dresser full of clothes makes pretty good cover.

Be sure of your target, in a town near my ranch a few years back, a man killed his own son, found him in the middle of the night in their kitchen, thought he was a robber, 12ga shot to the head, the son was sneaking back in after sneaking out with a girl...the year before a man killed his daughters friend who was sleeping over, she had gotten up to get a drink...granted these cases were both teenagers, you won't likely mistake a 5yr old for an adult robber, but they're tragedies all the same.

I've also heard stories of men shooting their young kids in such situations, they wake up and hear a bump in the night, grab a gun and shoot as soon as their door opens, turns out it was their young child who was woken up by a bump in the night and was scared.