Ideal Survival Rifle

200 rounds just keeps my load weight down, but might freak out and throw in a brick, never know. In the first couple of weeks I would have a working bow and arrows, know how to do it from mucho experience, and that would take a lot of pressure off the .22.

 

.22 shells in a bubble-gum canister - over 50 rounds, goes into a ALICE compass case.. The case is mounted' on a single shot .22 using 50 ft or paracord wrapped on stock.

If the butt plate is dropped, 6 rounds sit in a hole drilled just for that purpose. Also holds a ferorod.

 

Rereading from start again, the more I read, the more I think it is necessary to define what you will be doing with the firearm. Defending a fixed site as a sniper, 50 cal, or at least 308, in foxhole or bunker defending a site, 223 and AR or AK or so is great, inside a house, shotgun or pistol, survival in bush, 22 LR or 22 mag with multiple caches of ammo for long term use. No way one size fits all and after all the talk is done, guess I will stick with the one that I have a lot of experience with, feel comfortable with, and spend the extra money on ammo or reloading supplies. Still feel if the SHTF, in 1 year there will be thousands of firearms available and no ammo. Most idiots I know have a deer rifle, a shotgun, a 22 rifle, a 9 mm pistol, and a total of 200 rounds of ammo for all of them combined. Many people with a tricked out $1,500 AR, 5 30 round mags, and 200 rounds of ammo, or a accurate scoped 308 bolt action with 30 or so rounds of ammo to hunt deer with. Lots of 12 ga pumps I see where they have what is left of a box of 6's, 10 rounds of turkey loads, no buck or slugs and perhaps 40 or so rounds left from W ally World 100 pack someone gave them and the gun was last shot 3 years ago and if lucky was cleaned after use. It of course has a trigger lock, locked up in a closet, and they aren't real sure where the ammo is, perhaps on a shelf in that same closet on the top shelf. It won't be taken from their cold dead hands, there would be long odds that they could find it and load it in less than 10 minutes and then it would be doubt full that they could even use it effectively. A lot of gun owners are just slightly more aware sheep and the wolves will not even find them a threat and of course all their firearms will be registered or their wives or children will turn them in for the safety of the children you know.

 

im still a fan of saddle rifles.... it s why i have a 38 special, and a saddle rifle that shoots teh same bullets... simple, easy,

 

The big mistake I made was getting rid of my Rossi 92 .357mag. Cheap ammo.

 

You want to know how much ammo you should have?
Enough so that you lost count during the Bush years.
Enough so you look though some random box and find hundreds of rounds that you haven't seen in 10 years.
Enough so that you decide you want to organize it by caliber, put it in ammo cans and realize you don't want to spend that much money on ammo cans. Rather just buy more ammo.

 

I shoot .22lr,.22short,.22tcm,.22hornet,.32sw,.32swl.32-20,.32hr mag,.38special,.357mag,.9mm
.44mag,44-40,.45acp,.45colt,45-70,7.62-39,7mm,and .30-30. I have thirty ammo boxs with twenty thousand rds center fire ammo and a little over fifteen thousand rds .22 ammo that I need ammo boxs for. I will leave all this for my grandkids. You cannot have too much ammo.

 

Whenever someone mentions "survival" and thens asks what gun is best, I, too, want to know what sort of survival they have in mind. It does make a difference. If its putting meat in the pot the requirements are much different than for personal defense and/or defending your home. One rifle, for instance, may be excellent for one but only mediocre or even a poor choice for the other. We need to have both missions covered, which means more that one firearm, which usually means a long gun of some type. If scrounging around in the woods and fields become a necessity to augment a limited food supply, then the .22 LR would be hard to beat for all its attributes you already know. Lets face it... big game will be gone in short order under the circumstances we most often envision. Thats means small critters, and the .22 is up to that task. Its also fairly quiet, which I think will be important.

Years ago I realized the importance of having ammo, and enough of it. Not only for shooting, however. I believe it will one day be used as currency. Still do, now more than ever.

 

How much per round would you estimate to reload?

 

Me personally I would use cans of food, poptarts, potatoes, propane tanks for currency before ammo.

I probably should get something stupid long range with the limited numbers of trees and all the windy clear days here.

 

Hmmm.... Let's see... $.10 for 158gr RNFP ( 1000 lot), $.03 per primer ( $30 per 1000 ) Well powder was given to me (12lb of700X ) so $.13 a round. Rings the plate real well at 100 yds. That's for the revolver.
The lever action is different! 180Gr XTP Hornady with SPM primer in .357mag, #9 Accurate powder traveling at 1800fps. Turning big city phone book into confetti... Priceless.

 

I live 3 miles south of a little town that just last week arrested 21 for drugs. Yesterday a small town south of me about 31/2 miles had a drug related shooting in a house next to a school that had to go into lockdown to protect the students. Two people in critical condition with head wounds,the shooter who dealt in drugs was finally caught.
Now do you think I need firearms in my home? I hate having to lock up everything all the time whether I’m home or not. By the way I forgot to mention the old house that’s falling down across the road from me,that’s owned by sorry people who have been in the pen for drug dealing. Yesterday a white car pulled into my drive a man got out and knocked on the door,but would not answer my wife when she asked who was there. I had left to go to town and she was by herself. He finally drove off and went to the other house on this road,he was a insurance salesman. Now tell me again why I don’t need firearms,please.

 

The police will protect you Pard-Nahh...

Best just get rid of those bang sticks...I'll be glad to dispose of them in the Red River for ya !

 

For me ,
The best survival rifle is the ruger .22hornet bolt action
The best revolver for the home is the smith wesson .41 mag or the 44 special
The best auto pistol for the home is the kimber 1911 .45 acp
The best rifle for the home is the ruger mini thirty with thirty rd mag or the ruger .44 mag auto carbine
The best shotgun for the home is the 12 ga auto with a legal short barrel with slugs or 00buckshot
For the home use the biggest caliber you can handle
I had to leave home I would carry these plus a ruger 10-22 with twenty rd magazines
These are what I use but everybody must use what they think is best

 

Well, if you don't have food, poptarts, potatoes, or propane and want some, but you do have lots of ammo........

 

I just came across this thread and read the whole thing.....good topic and some good info.....I was surprised to not see any mention the Mini 14. And no, I don't want to start the old debate - AR vs Mini. I have 2-1/2 ARs and 3 Minis, and think there are certain advantages to the Mini (depending on distance of engagement to some extent). Something about them just 'flips my pickle' more than the metallic black guns (although they are a blast too)
I picked these up off different sites and added some of my own. See what ya think.....

Less military looking (might help in certain situations)
Stock trigger better than most stock ARs
Lighter/Maneuverable
Longer sight radius
Piston operated
Stainless option
Cold hammer forged barrel
Works with any ammo... less jams
Can load through top in a pickle if mag sticks
Newer versions are able to accessorize

 

Try some .22 lr 60grain Aguila ammo.Yesterday I shot a wild hog with the 60 grain at 35yds,dead hog. I shot this in a browning .22 auto pistol. Louisiana wild hogs will ruin just about anything,yards,the woods,anything.

 

Pit's hot !

 

Well I would say that if were speaking strictly survival and not self defense I'd go with the a rifle / shotgun over under, or a shotgun with rifle / pistol caliber adapters. Plus suppressors so as to not let the a**holes know where you are. Or possibly a pistol caliber rifle with low powered Game Getter rounds. Just my .99 cents worth(adjusted for inflation)