off topic.. shtf question..

AntDog,

For myself, I live in a rural part of Texas, in the hill country, but this county alone has 30K people, and the ones bordering it do too. We're about 1.5 hr west of San Antonio - a few day's walk down I-10 or about the place a half tank of gas will run out. There are MILLIONS of people who will be leaving the cities. what I see is after the food stored and scavenging run out, people will turn to hunting, but with no food storage, each deer(and there are a ton) is going to go bad in a day. how many deer each day would you need to kill to feed 30K people? even if it were just the locals. Not to mention scenarios where there's disease or radiation or some other chemical affecting the animals.

I'm partly basing this off what I was told by an older East Texas man, that during the great depression deer were virtually wiped out in the forests due to sustenance hunting. And there's a lot more people now.

Those 30k people will be much less within only a few weeks. Most people dont have enough food, or water to sustain more than a week. They also dont get the concept of rationing.

Add in that the population number includes alot of people who require medical treatments, and medications to keep themselves healthy. Some conditions will quickly decline without medication and/or a very specific diet that cant be maintained when you dont have options like a grocery store and pharmacy.

The knowledge and experience of hunting and foraging is lost on aloy of society today. People have gone soft here with the availability of packaged food and meat they never had to kill and process.

Average people wouldnt even know how to create a fire without a Bic or a box of matches.

The elements will eliminate a good portion of people

Common illnesses that would normally be treated quickly and easily are now deadly or incapacitating. They will also spread quickly.

All of this plus the violence of desperate people will decrease the population so much that i really doubt the wild game population would take a huge hit.
 
AntDog,

For myself, I live in a rural part of Texas, in the hill country, but this county alone has 30K people, and the ones bordering it do too. We're about 1.5 hr west of San Antonio - a few day's walk down I-10 or about the place a half tank of gas will run out. There are MILLIONS of people who will be leaving the cities. what I see is after the food stored and scavenging run out, people will turn to hunting, but with no food storage, each deer(and there are a ton) is going to go bad in a day. how many deer each day would you need to kill to feed 30K people? even if it were just the locals. Not to mention scenarios where there's disease or radiation or some other chemical affecting the animals.

I'm partly basing this off what I was told by an older East Texas man, that during the great depression deer were virtually wiped out in the forests due to sustenance hunting. And there's a lot more people now.

Murman I totally agree with you. With as many people as there are, unless you are truly remote, I'm talking hours drive from a city of any size, the JIT supply chain means that food with be gone from stores in a day, people will be starving in a week, within a month every dog, cat and rat that can be found will be a staple of the diet. Cattle will be wiped out quickly as well a deer. Those who can't hunt will scavenge the cities dry. Fish is a good bet for sustainability.

I used to help yeah some survival classes in San Antonio back in the day


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Being a former member us Uncle Sam's Misguided Children I spent my fighting career learning all the skills I need to survive. Started Hoarding 22cal ammo back in the 80's...My ex and children were given the instructions of buying me bricks of 22 ammo for birthdays and Christmas presents...Imagine my surprised look when I was opening those presents...SO now even with practicing and bunny hunting I'm down to maybe 25-30K rounds with what I would purchase when on sale and it was plentiful remember all those $5.00 bricks you should have stocked up...:eek:

I used to go to Cabelas every pay day and buy a brick of .22, box of 45, 100 5.56 and a box of .308, box of 9mm. It really built up the stockpile fast buying like that twice a month for a couple years


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I used to go to Cabelas every pay day and buy a brick of .22, box of 45, 100 5.56 and a box of .308, box of 9mm. It really built up the stockpile fast buying like that twice a month for a couple years


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That is exactly what I am talking about...buy it cache it in multiple locations along with a few rations in pvc pipe...good to go. My father has a fair size ranch so we have multiple cache's just in case we get caught out away from the main structures for any length of time. When we hunt Elk we pack in for better than a week into a remote area we take plenty of dry goods and any leftovers are placed into the closest cache. Because you just never know what you might be faced with. We have long guns Ak's and small caliber 22's both rifle and pistol cached as well you know some cheap ones that will get you by in a pinch.
 
Also, some of the modern air rifles can take care of a lot of your small game hunting needs quietly and you can carry a ton of ammo for them


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Also, some of the modern air rifles can take care of a lot of your small game hunting needs quietly and you can carry a ton of ammo for them


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That's a very interesting point I had not thought of.
Some of the more powerful .22 or .25 caliber ones could be a great choice.
Time for some more research.
Got any suggestions for makes/models?
 
DSA FAL. Because I am very familiar with it and I like the operating system.

 
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I don't know what to tell you guys. It's dry here everywhere I look. I'm sitting on about 200 rounds for the next time we go shooting and that's all she wrote.

A couple of years ago I lined up at the counter at a Walmart at 7:00am to try to get some.

A couple of guys in front of me were wearing shirts branded with a local gun shop's logo. They bought all they could, and later that same day, I went to that same gun shop (to shoot) and saw the same A-holes taking the same ammo they had bought at Walmart out of the bricks, putting 50 rounds into a ziplock, and pricing the bags at $5 a pop, WHILE STANDING AT THE DAMN COUNTER. The bricks were 550 rounds for about 12 bucks. Y'all can do the math.

I didn't even say anything. But, then I knew what they were up to. Slimy bastards.

I'll never do business there again. I was a loyal customer for years. That was just over the top. I'll never use their range again either. I found another range in my area that doesn't charge "per gun, or per shooter, whichever is greater". **** those assclowns.


There's plenty of .22lr available online, but the days of $12 for a brick seem to be long gone. Six cents per round, plus shipping, seems to be the rock bottom price for the cheapest stuff these days.
 
Like everything else the price had to go up eventually... Six cents per round is crazy gonna take the fun out of target shooting....NOT!!!!
 
The idea of "finding" suitable ammo I find pretty far fetched... If you did, you would also find the guns to go with it...

That is always the big problem with these "survival" scenarios: On foot, even 100 centerfire rounds in a backpack is a very noticeable weight to carry around... Better to never hunt with so few rounds, unless you are around your home base...

One item always fascinated me is a gadget promoted by David Canterburry: It is a slingshot that can shoot a full-size arrows that can be unscrewed into two short pieces, so the whole thing is quite compact when stored... I have to try that thing one day...

Gaston
 
My go-to long gun would be an accurate and reliable 22LR. Probably a lever gun.

I particularly like the advantages of the tubular magazine. Less likely to come out of the gun and get lost and it has a significant capacity.

That's a very interesting point I had not thought of.
Some of the more powerful .22 or .25 caliber ones could be a great choice.
Time for some more research.
Got any suggestions for makes/models?

Dave,

I bought one just last week after doing a bunch of research. While the PCP models are sexy, pressurizing them is a PITA. Bear in mind that the sky is the limit with these things. I just wanted a modern air rifle to supplement my old Red Ryder for plinking fun so I went with an inexpensive choice: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Beeman-Dual-Caliber-Air-Rifle-with-Scope/16686245

Although this shows up as not available, my local stores had about a half dozen, on sale for ~$80.

One thing that I like about the new technology is the use of a gas piston instead of a metal spring. It still thumps around but the "twangy" noise is no longer an issue. Supposedly, it lasts longer too.
 
Ruger 10/22 all the way. 9mm sidearm (Glock 17 or Sig P226) for close up protection.

For long term bugging out. Ruger Blackhawk convertible as sidearm. 38/357 mag, and 9mm all in one gun.

For close at home ranging.... Ruger Scout in 308 for large game. 10/22 small game. Ruger P90 (45 ACP) for sidearm. Knives? ASH-1 and Hack warden (horizontal sheath for the Hack).

This would really need to be LONG term SHTF. I'm in Canada. Sidearms are for the shooting range or the gun safe. Semi autos, like the 10/22, are soon to be banned. If the government would have its way.
 
That's a very interesting point I had not thought of.
Some of the more powerful .22 or .25 caliber ones could be a great choice.
Time for some more research.
Got any suggestions for makes/models?

I thought about it after reading this thread and then walking into the gun store today and they had a bunch of em on sale. I'm researching too!


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Got a couple ARs but if I had to grab just one it would be one of my 10/22s. Very accurate,light,stainless,and can carry a large amount of ammo. Plus I would grab a Ruger mark 3 along with my Glock as the mark 3 share the .22 ammo.
 
interesting, lots of love for the little 10/.22.. my personal choice is an LRB Tanker (m14) 18" barrel, love the power the .308 has for defeating cover...an dependable as hell.
 
The idea of "finding" suitable ammo I find pretty far fetched... If you did, you would also find the guns to go with it...


Gaston

Not true. Many stores carry ammo and not guns. I have been n far places that had 308 and 30-06 ammo but no guns. pretty normal.
 
A nice lightweight 5.45 slinger will do everything needed in such scenarios. ;)
 
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