SHTF Rifle vs Mountain Man Rifle

Cpl Punishment has made some excellent points. An AK with a folding stock, and hopefully a friend to watch your back, while you try to escape Babylon by the Bay. Good Luck.
 
Agreed---in an urban setting an AK would be easier to handle than a M1A.

DancesWithKnives
 
Ok,

Since it's my thread I will cheat. :)

I will add a 357 mag revolver to the 22 LR rifle.

Geoff
 
Then I would add to my rifle a S&W Model 17 .22 revolver with 3T and 6" barrel.:D

DancesWithKnives
 
firearms are hard to acquire here, legally. If the S hits the F I'm going to go out of my way to find one without going near the city. Other than that, It's knives all the way.
 
g123 said:
Ok,

Since it's my thread I will cheat. :)

I will add a 357 mag revolver to the 22 LR rifle.

Geoff
Click to expand...

well, if we are going to cheat and be able to carry a pistol, i think the pistol would be a Ruger Mk II. Not sure what the rifle would be with that pistol handy - probably my 7mm Rem Mag bolt gun.

vec
 
I almost went with my 10" bull barrel scoped MkII because it is so damn accurate, but the S&W is about as accurate and lighter/more compact. 'Course if you had one of those 6 7/8" Hunter models, that would be sweet.

DancesWithKnives
 
I think any rifle that you are well practiced/trained with is the best rifle. I use an AR for deer hunting not because it is the best caliber or the most reliable (which are both subject to much opinion) but because I know it the best and I am better with it than any other rifle and that has served me well thus far. If the Marine Corps issued me an M14 instead, that would probably be my choice instead.

I don't know, I'm sure someone else has thought of this before me but I don't look at a SHTF situation as something "different" than I look at any other day. I kind of look at it in the aspect of the S has already HTF and I am just "surviving" in it already. If a dramatic occurance happened right now, would I flip a switch and go into SHTF survival mode? No. I would do what I do every other day and make do with what I have given the resources that I have available and constantly look for ways to improve my situation.

For example, look at the black friday shopping craziness. Is it really a good idea to risk the dangers of those shopping areas just for a deal on a flat screen TV? To some, yes it is. To me, no way. I'd rather pay the extra cost and get it during a less "cutthroat" time. Is that gang of road pirates that patrol the local highway after an earthquake worth fighting through to get a handful of apples from the tree down the road? I'd have to decide that at the time but the same time of logic applies in my thinking.

Sorry to go off track a little. To answer the OP....AR15. :D
 
I would go with my sig 556. Why because it is what i have and feel most comfortable with. I have enough ammo mags and replacement parts for it to last me a long time. I have corrected most of the downfalls it had strait rom the factory. And i would be very comfortable with it being reliable when i need it. I think people often overlook you should use what you are most comfortable with. I would also have my Sig226 as a side arm in 9mm.
 
In no way did I hint that I would not be prepared to fight if It comes to that. Let the bad guys carry the load. I will stick with my 22.
 
Hey, didn't accuse anyone of anything, I wanted to pose a view most people never look at.


BTW, if we are doing the "I'll take a pistol, too" cheat, I'll still take the AK or FAL and my Ruger Single Six -- that way, I can fire any .22 ammo out there. While it's not as accurate with .22LR, I can take squirrel to 25 meters with it, and 50 meters with .22 Mag.

Another option with the two gun rule is to take a larger, hi-cap pistol, say a Glock 17 with 2 or 3 flush 17 rounders and 4-6 33 round happy sticks in case you have to fight (might even take a carbine conversion unit for the fight). Then ditch the CCU and happy sticks (keep any remaining ammo). And couple that with the rimfire rifle of your choice.
 
Since we are going the route of having a handgun. I would go with my glock 23. Only because that is the only handgun I own right now lol.
As for a rifle an d not a shotgun I would probably say I would go with my SKS. The only disadvantage would be to find more ammo once i have to bug out of my home. I can only carry so much. Once again beside my 22 cal rifles, Mosin Nagant, and shotgun. I figured I would go with the guns that I know the best.
What was that old saying someone on here posted before. "Beware of the man with one gun for know it well" ( I think that might be it lol)
 
Cpl Punishment said:
I agree, in the long term.
Problem is, you have to get through the short term to get to the long term. In the first bit of time after Disaster X, is when people will panic the most and be the most unpredictable. After things settle down a bit, you will be dealing with survivors and people who have learned to cope, there will be less fighting and more cooperating to survive. You can't remain a lone wolf indefinitely.

The problem with these one gun scenarios is that there is two missions which work best with two different toolsets.

Mission 1: Live long enough to start surviving and rebuilding.
Mission 2: Long term survival and rebuilding.

Mission 1 is best served by a fighting gun. IMO the Ak and FAL reign supreme here because they can, indeed, be carried in a tennis racket bag, skateboard bag, large duffel bag or one of the long, slender "tower" type backpacks that people like to use -- presuming you're using a folding stock model -- i.e. bags one would expect a refugee to have. This is important to urban dwellers walking out (walking should be a last resort, BTW, not a first resort) because their biggest threat won't be looters, but police an military who will perform a knee-jerk gun confiscation campaign. No matter what you carry, you won't outgun them, so fighting them is not an option.

Once clear you may have to fight to get where you're going, whether you want to or not. I don't care how ninja-like you are, everyone can screw up, and on the other side of the coin, the bad guys can just get lucky.

Now for this phase, you really don't need a lot of ammo, and if you do, as a single person, or dragging a wife and kids along, you probably won't survive such a fight even if you had the ammo. Which brings up another point: if you have a wife and kids, it doesn't matter how good you are, they aren't.

There are several ways to discreetly carry such a weapon and enough ammo (I'd carry one magazine for the gun, and 4 spares -- not a lot of weight).

Mission #2: Long term survival, is better served by a good foraging gun. I like the idea of a .22Mag over, 20ga or 12ga under combo gun. .22 Mag doesn't deviate more than an inch from 0 to 100 yards with a 100 yard zero, making it much easier to hit with than a .22LR, and the ammo isn't much bigger, nor does it weigh much more. IMO a lot more utility for little extra weight and bulk. The shotgun, bigger game and/or birds.

The dilemma comes in of which to choose?
Do I want to take the fighting gun and risk running out of ammo when it comes to hunting (why aren't you trapping, snaring, and starting your own garden?), or do I want to take the hunting gun and possibly not live to get to the point of not needing a fighting weapon?

So, once again, I'll choose the gun most likely to get me to the long term survival phase alive, and depend on tools that can be made on the fly and are much more efficient and reliable means of food gathering to get my groceries.
Click to expand...

Yes I understand you have to get through the short term and >as I said< I would take more than one gun if I had a choice, but the question was what ONE gun.
Cpl Punishment said:
I want to take the fighting gun and risk running out of ammo when it comes to hunting (why aren't you trapping, snaring, and starting your own garden?), or do I want to take the hunting gun and possibly not live to get to the point of not needing a fighting weapon?
Click to expand...
I previously said that the .22 would only be a buffer until I could provide for myself better off in the long term and I assumed you'd realize that would include all these things and perhaps more. Plus you might take into consideration that I don't live in the downtown area of a major city and I'm not planning on trying to get past hordes of looters and gang-members. I plan on walking 3 blocks to the trees and disappearing if the roads are that bad. Or if they aren't driving 2 or 3 hours to the mountains.
The .22 mag is a good idea, one which I'd consider because of the better ballistics and knockdown without much compromise in weight athough they would be harder to find if I ever did have a chance to scavenge ammo.
Cpl Punishment said:
Once clear you may have to fight to get where you're going, whether you want to or not. I don't care how ninja-like you are, everyone can screw up, and on the other side of the coin, the bad guys can just get lucky.
Click to expand...
I'm not trying to say that I'd just carry a .22 because I'm some kind of bad-a$$, just that it makes sense for long term survival and remember this is a ONE gun thread and I'm not saying that in a actual SHTF reality my 7mm Rem Mag wouldn't be in my hands and my folding stock/security model mossberg wouldn't be strapped to my pack with my chipmunk .22 shoved inside of it. But in a one/1 gun choice I'd still take my .22 single shot and travel at night to avoid people, as I'd rather have a few thousand rounds to feed myself with than at most a few hundred for a more powerful gun, assuming I have to walk out, which if I'm down to carrying one gun I think I should. I think this is my last posting on this subject as I can't make my viewpoint any clearer than this.
 
Last edited:
My Browning Buckmark would be my gun:thumbdn: Everyone see's the SHTF scene a bit differently. I see a pretty good size and pretty well armed force.If one gets far enough from the crowd and has no big prize that they will come after, they will most likely not come after you. I don't see a person being able to take much more than they can carry in their pockets ar a small pack. I don't really think that home defense will be a option, at least not the home you have now.
 
udtjim said:
My Browning Buckmark would be my gun:thumbdn: Everyone see's the SHTF scene a bit differently. I see a pretty good size and pretty well armed force.If one gets far enough from the crowd and has no big prize that they will come after, they will most likely not come after you. I don't see a person being able to take much more than they can carry in their pockets ar a small pack. I don't really think that home defense will be a option, at least not the home you have now.
Click to expand...

The more I think about it, the more inclined I am to not take a rifle at all. I would take my Ruger 22/45 instead. It doesn't weigh all that much, it's accurate, and I know exactly what I can do with it.

In my situation I would be leaving a large city, on foot, and heading for the hills. Like Jim, I don't see defending my home: I see leaving it, just as fast as I can. I have absolutely no desire to have to fight it out with anyone along the way. For me, it's stealth mode, all the way.

If I were really, really forced to deal with an enemy &#8212; and yes, that's what they would be at that point: an enemy &#8212; I'm more likely to simply shoot them in the head from cover, than I am to get into a stand-up fire fight. As Jim's sig line says, "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics Suck." After that, I can take whatever I want from them.

In my stealth-bug-out-mode I would be able to take very little, probably just the contents of a small pack. Rather than the weight of a rifle, I think I would rather take the weight of a few tools to improve my life wherever I'm going.
 
I would get an AK (or its civil semi auto variant - SLR).They're robust and the 7,62 x 39 ammo is easy to find here :)
 
In town, a pistol like my 92FS (although I prefer .45). In the bush, either my M4 or my 10/22. Reasons can be made for either IMO.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top