Survival equipment ponderings

bigbcustom

bigbcustom

Joined
Dec 20, 2005
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Was just thinking about when I was a kid (13-16), and a friend and I used to do our little "survival trips" out in the North Idaho woods. During the summers, my friend and I used to take a few 4-6 day forays into the woods with knives, .22 rifles, good clothes, matches, canteens, and maybe some twine. That was all we had, but we managed pretty darn well. I think that the most important pieces of kit we had were the rifles, knives, and matches with the rifle being the most important (we never went hungry, birds and squirrels were in plentiful supply). I almost never see even a .22 listed in survival or bugout kits in these pages, and I got to wondering why...even a little pistol (if you are accurate with it) would seem to greatly improve your chances under adverse conditions. These days, of course, there are fifty more items to add to your kit (for good reasons). I just thought I would post and get other's opinions on this, and maybe hear some quick anecdotes from other's early experiences. Those were some good times when you look back.
 
Yes a .22 can be very useful in a survival situation. Not so much in a 72 hour scenario but long term yes.

Back when I was a kid I used to "play survival" in the woods near my home.
First we called it playing Grizzly Adams and later I think we called it playing Rambo. Sounds kind of silly now but hey I was a kid and we did practice some good skills like fire building, knife work and building shelters. Not too much hunting but plenty of fishing at local storm runoff basins and ponds.

Building shelters was always fun for me. Sometimes it would be an expedient debris hut but often we would scrounge building materials and build a "fort" out in the woods. My favorite fort was one we built with cinder blocks, bricks and an old door as the roof. We bulit a little fireplace with the bricks and would hang out in it on rainy days.

We would also take food from our houses and cook it up outside or in the forts. Mostly we ate baked beans with sausages or hot dogs. We used sticks as scewers an old coffee can as a pot; these will soon be gone as they are now using plastic to package coffee in bulk.

Man I could go on and on; it turns out that when I think about it these are some of my fondest memories of that time.:)

Thanks for starting the thread. I hope more members add their stories.:thumbup:
 
I think it's henry arms that makes a survival .22 that comes apart to fit in the waterproof stock, and comes with 2 8 shot clips. Not sure about semi auto, but I believe that it is. Under 200$, I always think of buying it.
.22 is a small caliber, but there are a lot of things that you can take with it.
 
Liam Ryan said:
.22 is a small caliber, but there are a lot of things that you can take with it.
Click to expand...

Indians in northern Alberta regualrly take deer with a .22. 'Course, they can track really well.

.22 seems like a good utility/weight choice for a long-term survival kit.
 
I have a old, old friend named Scotty, origanally from way back in the hills of West Virginia. He moved with his family to the Washington D.C. area for better employment oportunities. We were talking guns once and he made the funny comment that he was 18 years old before he realized that a deer rifle was not a .22 rifle with a flashlight duct taped under the barrel. :D
 
I purchased the Henry survival .22 . I find the buttstock very bulky compared
to the old charter arms model, but is still a great little rifle for the backpack.
My son used it all fall , took a couple partridge and a medium size rabbit a week ago with it, not one jam or malfunction.
 
I think the reason firearms are not included in survival kits is because there is to much hassle in gettng all the permits and proper licencing now. Personally I like the idea of a smaller .22. Realistically your more likely to get yourself some meat with a small firearm than with a snare (provided you can shoot)
 
This is my answer, the top one is a Browning Buckmark with a 1.5x6.5 variable LER scope, the bottom one is a Tactical Solutions aluminum upper reciever on a Ruger 22/45 frame, and yes I know it is purple. The bottom gun is my favorite and is very light, made entirely from polymer and aluminum except for the steel barrel sleeve, lighter than some of the knives some people carry. It has an integral scope mount with built in adjustable sights so it is easy to go from optics to irons without losing your zero. Both guns are very accurate, I have taken rabbits out to 75 yds too many times for it to be a fluke, and have added a little meat to my noodles or rice many times. The purple people eater rides in my pack in the pocket where a hydration bladder goes, virtually everywhere I go, and yes I have a CCW. Chris

Picture681.jpg
 
Me and my best friend used to go on weekend survival treks when we were kids too. We used to carry single shot shotguns instead of 22s, we ate a lot of crawfish, fish, songbirds, rabbits and squirrels, and one time a deer. We got in big time trouble for the deer, I think that was the last whipping with a belt I got.:o
 
Local aboriginals in northern NWT and the Yukon use .22s to shoot caribou, at pretty close range -- usually just off the highway, in fact. The concept of sport is different when you are filling your winter freezer.
 
Alberta Ed said:
Local aboriginals in northern NWT and the Yukon use .22s to shoot caribou, at pretty close range -- usually just off the highway, in fact. The concept of sport is different when you are filling your winter freezer.
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as sport if you are starving, in a particularly bleak time in my life my families only meat was deer, and I shot most of them off the side of the road in the wee hours. If anyone has a problem with it so be it, I had a wife and a 1 year old baby and 63 dollars a month left out of my PV2 pay after bills, lots of rice, pintos and deer meat, and no regrets. Chris
 
I spent my summers till I was in 11th grade on a cattle ranch and when we weren't fixing fence or working on the water or tending the herd we were hunting. Even though the ranch was an hour from the closest "town" we still tried to take the weekends off. Lots of those weekend my buddy and I would take the Jeep pickup to the top of the ranch and spend a couple nights. We hauled our own water and some food but mostly lived on rabbits. If we shot a deer then we would haul it back down to the ranch house to the hangin tree and a water hose.

I was 12 years old and my buddy was 13 when we started doing this. I didn't see my parents for most of the summer but heir only concern was that they wouldn't let me drive until I was 13 because the ranch roads were too steep to learn on and I couldn't manage to get the pickup into four wheel drive. We never thought of this as "survival", just another day on the ranch.

I've hunted and fished and camped for as long as I can remember. I have baby pictures of me sitting on a dead deer and I still have the Jeep CJ-3A we got in 1958 for the purpose of deer hunting. No rust! I didn't really think much about survival untill the mid seventies and then it was connected to camping, not battle rifle/camo/end of the world type stuff. To me that seemed better left to the neo-nazis and religeous zealots. Still later, maybe in the early 80's I started preparing for the natural diasater scenario that I am convinced can still happen, mainly e-quakes. My family takes that threat for real so we are well prepared.

Anyway, my skills are just a natural progression of what I love doing-camping and hunting. I don't have students like so many of you unless you count the Boy Scouts. I don't prepare for end of the world/on the run scenarios like so many BFer's do. I own camo because I like the fit and the looks not because I plan on "leading the resistance". Many of you will say I just don't get it. So be it. I just like the quiet outdoors with the occasional burst of gunfire. I was lucky in my upbringing with 2 parents who didn't lack money and loved the outdoors and trusted me to stay out of trouble. I hope all of you had as good a time as I did. And, I hope you owned a single shot .22 and got to fill the pot with it.
 
Runningboar,
you got it, nice pistols.
I was going to say a Ruger with a bull barrel can be as accurate as a .22 rifle. That Buckmark rates real high too!!
My buddy had the Ruger .22 with the 5.5" BullBarrel. he could shoot birds right off the power lines, one shot.

If i knew I was going out, providing for myself for a while, and had time to situate everything , I'd take my Ruger 77/22. I don't think I'd try to shoot deer with it (unless I was actually starving) but anything smaller than a deer would be fair (and dead) game.

So, how do these people kill deer with a .22lr? head shots?

Or are we talking .223 type of centerfire 22s?
 
I grew up on a farm in Iowa. Started carrying a BB gun at about age 7. I got my first .22 when I was ten. I carried it everywhere I could and cannot tell you the thousand of birds, squirrels, rabbits, cats (stray) and coons I shot. I bought a .22 Mag in High School (Model 1984 Winchester) and was amazed at the upgrade that gave in range and knockdown power!! I also bought a "Hunting Knive" in the local hardware store that I carried for 15 years. Didn't know it at the time, but it was a KaBar with a synthethic handle. I currently have a S&W .22 fpistol for my BOB bag. Not much around here you cannot kill with a .22!! Enjoy the stories!!
 
Liam Ryan said:
I think it's henry arms that makes a survival .22 that comes apart to fit in the waterproof stock, and comes with 2 8 shot clips. Not sure about semi auto, but I believe that it is. Under 200$, I always think of buying it.
.22 is a small caliber, but there are a lot of things that you can take with it.
Click to expand...

I bought one of these a few months ago and I'm enjoying the heck out of it just target shooting. I got it for $150'ish from Wal-mart. The only problems I have had with it jamming is using Remington Thunderbolts. I've recently discovered that was what was causing the jamming when I started going to a different range. They handed me CCI's by default. Been through 200 rounds of CCI and no jams. Went through a box of 50 Rem. and had at least 4 jams. That does not include the several hundred Remington I had used before. Now I have about 250 rounds left that will never get used.

Yes it is semi-auto.
 
Remington Thunderbolts don't have very good quality control.
I'll bet you are hitting over or underfilled rounds.

I swore off of them ages ago.

Try Winchester T-22s.
They get the SkunkWerx seal of approval :thumbup:

It's what I run through these guys regularly.
10-22and77-22.jpg
 
SkunkWerX said:
So, how do these people kill deer with a .22lr? head shots?

Or are we talking .223 type of centerfire 22s?
Click to expand...

.22 LR

Only saw it once. Shot through lungs and trailed it by the blood spotting. It was dead 2 miles away.

Now hold on. They have been known to take Polar Bears w/ .22 LR. Think of it as multiple stab wounds with a .22" ice pick - a very long ice pick.
 
WOW...

I understand the 2 miles away bit, I had been thinking, even a shot to the vitals, and it could still take a while. I was thinking clean head shot through the ear canal, or base of the head/neck. Or maybe through the eye socket.


Polar Bear, holy crap....I guess if a Polar Bear was running me down, and all I had was a .22lr .... I'd blast away, making every shot count and hope for the best.

Even if I had my M1 Garand with 8 rounds ready, you'd still find a brown spot in the snow where I was standing! :eek:

I do think I could take him with 8 rounds of 30-06 FMJ. :thumbup:
 
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