Survival Rifle

A semi auto 22LR is a must due to price and size of ammo. A Ruger 10-22 comes to mind

A cut down 12 Guage Mossberg pump with sling Buckshot.

A 9mm semi auto pistol

A high power rifle with scope.


YOU'RE SET.

One thing i didn't think of, is zombie uprising. If you have a .22 pistol and like 2000 rounds, you have a good chance of getting away.

My original intent was to pick one rifle, and considering that you are by yourself. There would be no way I could carry a few firearms, requisite ammo, as well as other camping/survival supplies.

Given some ideal situations, like having family members with you to help with the burden, and some means of off-road transport (with load-carrying capacity, I can see where having more than one type of firearm is not only possible, but desirable.

I have over two dozen firearms/sidearms in almost as many calibers, but you wouldn't want to have all those weapons and different, non-interchangeable ammo laying around trying to find the right caliber in a crisis situation. My varied weapons are secured, and used from my home to pick-and-choose as I hunt or target shoot based on what type of use, need, or challenge I might want or need with a particular caliber.

With assistance, I can see having the following in a survival situation:

-a single high-powered, bolt-action rifle with optics for precision, long-rang shooting, preferrably in a common caliber, like the .308 or .30-06.

-a high-capacity semi-auto or fully auto firearm, again with a common caliber, like the .223 or 7.62x39mm

-a pump-action or semi-auto shotgun, 12 gauge

-a side-arm chambered with a minimum of 9mm, up to .45 ACP

-and again, my number-one choice for "everyday use" would again be a rifle chambered in .22LR

For most hunting situations in the US, a .357 Magnum would be more than enough gun. In a light lever-action carbine, you will approach 7.62x 39mm in power and will be very effective against two-legged varmint's out to 200 yards with iron sights. So your rifle and revolver will take the same ammo. You can do the same with both 44 magnum and 45 Colt.

If you favor autoloader's you can go 7.62x 25, 30 M1 Carbine, 9mm, 40S&W and 45 ACP. Any of these pistol rounds with hollow point bullets will take deer/wild boar at ranges under 50 yards with a well placed shot. Find the AMT 30 Carbine pistol will be tough but there's still a few out there. There's a bewildering array of upper's for the AR-15 platform in pistol calibers.

Modern infantry soldiers are expected to carry their weapons in the field while carrying at least 70 lbs of gear on their back. I don't consider a rifle with ammo as excess weight.

Originally posted by crgintx

Modern infantry soldiers are expected to carry their weapons in the field while carrying at least 70 lbs of gear on their back. I don't consider a rifle with ammo as excess weight.

"Weapon" (singular) is the operative word. Above I mentioned carrying "weapons" (plural) along with ammo. Try carrying several weapons without anything else, its not the weight that gets you, but trying to keep everything from falling to the ground. I've carried three long arms at once - one on each shoulder, and another held. It can be done, but you can't really have too much jostling going on.

I can handle 70 lbs., even though I'm not as fit as I used to be.

I agree with your post, but think you missed my point...

Zhenyghi, one small comment on carrying a longarm . . . and I agree with your choice of 22LR.

A few years back a friend of mine developed and manufactured a hunting day pack.
It was a fairly heavy duty day pack made of olive drab colored heavy duty Cordura.

Pretty much a bag with zippered outer compartment and what made it nice for hunters was a bright orange webbed material bag about 12" x 16" you could flip out of the bags interior and hang outside where it could be easily seen by other hunters.
Granted, a survivalist probably wouldn't want the orange flag anywhere in the pack, but when it's inside it's out of sight.

On using it, I found that my heavy barrel Ruger 22-250 77V rifle with 12X scope slid off my shoulder.
Even when the rifle sling was set over the packs sling.
When that was done, the rifle sling dragged the pack sling off and it was a general pain in the backside.

We ended up putting a piece of webbing horizontally across the upper pack straps about breast high.
A nylon quick release buckle - like the packs strap buckles - was in the middle.
This additional strap held the packs main vertical straps together which was nice when the pack was used on it's own.
Even better, when the rifles sling was set inside the pack sling, neither rifle sling or pack strap slid off.

The pack was favorably reviewed in a couple of hunting oriented magazines.
Since then, we started seeing the horizontal strap showing up on other day packs and backpaks.

Even if you're using an older pack, day or backpack, tying a short length of parachute cord between the packs vertical straps could help quite a bit.
Use a shoelace type knot so that release is easy and quick.

The pack, as noted worked great with one rifle and if you had to carry a couple rifles it would do the job.

Along those same lines, the ever-popular 10-22 in standard open sight form is short enough to set into a backpack and have a minimal amount sticking out.
And with all the 10-22 accessories out there, a folding stock could make it darn near ideal for a survivalist carrying a 22LR.

My 10-22 - circa 1968 - I've had since new.
It has about 12,000 rounds through it with no failures.
Other 10-22 shooters report a much higher quantity of rounds through the gun with no failures.

Thanks for the info. With your heavy-barrelled Ruger, you must be a glutton for punishment. My brother has a heavy-barrelled Ruger in .25-06, and is one very heavy weapon with the (9-12x?) scope he has on it. It's much, much heavier than my Swiss K-31 Schmidt-Rubin, of which everyone who has ever handled it commented on its heavy weight.

As for the Ruger 10/22, I've read some recent complaints about its accuracy and reliability (by those touting the Marlin 60).

I happen to have both the Ruger and the Marlin. I like the "feel" of the Marlin, and it has good accuracy, but I find that I prefer the Ruger. With the Marlin I've had feeding and ejection problems. I've had absolutely none with the Ruger. Granted, my Ruger is at least 10 years old, so I cannot comment on the new ones out there.

As accurate as my Marlin is, my Ruger beats it hands-down anyday. Other nods go to the Ruger for the various accessories out there for customization, and its easy to load/unload detachable clips.

Zhen, I'm not disagreeing with your choice of .22 rf for an all around survival round but I prefer something a little bit more powerful.

Alternately, a greater level of firepower may get you out of hostile situation where you're greatly outnumbered liked at the Battle of Adobe Walls or The Wagon Box incident.

In a worst case scenario, I believe that it's better to bug out to a specific destiny where you've previously cached supplies. There's now evidence that ancient modern humans were never truly nomadic but instead semi-nomadic. Always caching supplies like flint and tinder at specific points along game migration routes.

Originally posted by Zhenyghi
Thanks for the info. With your heavy-barrelled Ruger, you must be a glutton for punishment. My brother has a heavy-barrelled Ruger in .25-06, and is one very heavy weapon with the (9-12x?) scope he has on it. It's much, much heavier than my Swiss K-31 Schmidt-Rubin, of which everyone who has ever handled it commented on its heavy weight.

As for the Ruger 10/22, I've read some recent complaints about its accuracy and reliability (by those touting the Marlin 60).

I happen to have both the Ruger and the Marlin. I like the "feel" of the Marlin, and it has good accuracy, but I find that I prefer the Ruger. With the Marlin I've had feeding and ejection problems. I've had absolutely none with the Ruger. Granted, my Ruger is at least 10 years old, so I cannot comment on the new ones out there.

Yeah, the 10# or so 22-250 got to be a drag after a couple of miles.

After a few of those hikes I invested in a 14" bull barrel, 6mm TCU Thompson Center Contender - the break open single shot interchangeable barrel and left the 22-250 at home.
The Contender fit in the backpack just fine and toting the aforementioned 9 1/2" barrel Ruger single six in a holster was no big deal.

The soldiers who carried WW1 rifles must have been some iron men.
My Swiss Mauser is not a lightweight and the modern day SKS weighs close to the same.

Funny thing with the 22's, my dad bought a Winchester Model 63 22LR rifle in 1952.
He left it with my grandfather in Arkansas since it was 'my' rifle, but I was too young for it.
After 20 years went by I got it . . . beat all the heck and gone by my not-so-careful cousins.

I restored it, ironed all the bumps out of the stock and put a nice oil finish on it.
The metal parts I had re-blued to a factory blue level.
It came out very nice.
I screwed up and let the bolt fly closed and the bolt handle - just a bent sheet metal piece - broke.

I put the rifle up figuring I'd weld the part some day.
That was about 72-73 or so.

Last summer I got it out and couldn't find the small piece that had broken off.
Kind of a bummer cuz I had access to a TIG welder.

Anyway, I got a replacement handle - new and unused - from Numrich arms.

Fast forward 54 years from when the rifle was last fired by me and I got to fire it again.
What a sweet little rifle.
Sized for an adult although a lot of them get cut down for kids.
With the longer barrel it did better than the short barrelled 10-22, but part of that is I'm a bit out of practice.

Even so, the 10-22 is still my favorite 22 rifle.
Lightweight, easy to carry with a sling or without and it's reliability is legend.
Being a 68 model means it has a very smooth trigger with about 4# pull.

One reason the late model 10-22's get at the least a replacement trigger or trigger job by owners who are serious shooters.

I favor the Savage/Stevens 64F over the Ruger 10/22. It's a little heavier due to its steel receiver but the gun's design is simple and easy to work on if you desire a lighter trigger. It also has a simple magazine design when compared with the Ruger's magazine. With a synthetic stock, it's a simple rugged reliable alternative to the 10/22.

For small game, I mostly us my precharged airguns these days. Some of fellow airgun hunters regularly take much larger game with these type airguns but it's quite illegal to take such game here in Texas.

Originally posted by crgintx
I favor the Savage/Stevens 64F over the Ruger 10/22. It's a little heavier due to its steel receiver but the gun's design is simple and easy to work on if you desire a lighter trigger. It also has a simple magazine design when compared with the Ruger's magazine. With a synthetic stock, it's a simple rugged reliable alternative to the 10/22.

For small game, I mostly us my precharged airguns these days. Some of fellow airgun hunters regularly take much larger game with these type airguns but it's quite illegal to take such game here in Texas.

A few years back I read an interesting piece in one of the gun mags.

Since Korea doesn't/didn't allow the average guy - read that as non-military - to own a firearm, very powerful air rifles with relatively large calibers came into being.
Seems like they may have fired a 6mm or so projectile and had enough power to knock down a small deer with a well placed shot.

The failing was, the air rifle took a lot of pumping to fill the high pressure tank.
Then again, perhaps it wasn't a failing since the Korean hunters became very proficient at hunting.
A minute or so between shots is a long time if you miss the first one.

With the limited range of the high powered air rifles, it makes you wonder if bowhunting wouldn't be a better way to go.

DDawg, you are within an easy day's drive of the airgun center of the US, Airguns of Arizona and their crosstown competitor TopGun Airguns. Precharged airguns are charged by scuba tank or a special staged hand pump. I own 2 very powerful Korean precharged airguns. I hope to buy either a 9mm or .495 cal Korean airgun in the future. Standard airgun calibers run from .177 up to .25 caliber. The 2 other main calibers are .20 and .22. .177 and .22 are the most common calibers. My .22 Korean PCP(precharged pneumatic) will shoot 30 grain pellets at 1080 fps. There's one mass produced pcp airgun builder in the US aptly named AirForce. They produced 4 different models with power rivaling most of the Korean made airguns.
Dennis A Quackenbush is a custom maker of big bore airgun with power up to 450 ft/lb muzzle energy from his .50 caliber airguns. If the name Quackenbush sounds familiar, your great granfather probably shot one of his airgun/rimfire combo guns as a boy. Mint models go for $1,000 or more these days. Dennis is carrying on the family tradition on a limited scale by making these new airguns.
All of these guns are fairly expensive up front but airgun pellets especially in .177 are dirt cheap and when fired at a 920 fps velocity limit,they are more accurate than any rimfire gun you care to name out to 60-70 yards and will flat devastate all manners of small game like squirrels, rabbits and birds.
If you want more detailed info go over to: www.airguns.net. It's the best website in the world dedicated to airguns shooting.

Here is a survival rifle worth taking a look at. Kel-Tecs SU-16

Survival Rifle

It is light weight, folds down to a compact size, has integrated folding bipod legs, chambers a .223 (5.56 NATO), and stores two 10rnd magazines in the butt stock.

Wow thats awsome I want one. I'll be checking into that ASAP

Good luck on getting the Kel-Tec; they are hot items. If you're really serious about getting one, have the money, and see one available, get it. They won't stay on the shelf long, and I've inquired about ordering one, but they've often been on backorder due to high demand.

I'd get one, but currenly lack the place for storage, and need the money for more pressing needs.

Yep ran into the same thing. Very hard to find, and dam expensive. So instead with my tax refund from old uncle Sam ime CONSIDERING building a custom rifle using the 7.62x39 AR as my base, with custom barrell

Henry makes a take-down survival rifle in .22LR.

Springfield Armory used to make a replica of the M7? Survival Rifle chambered in .22LR/.410 shotgun, .22 Mag./.410, and I think .22 Hornet/.410.

I believe the original government issue was .22LR/.410.

One of the first rim fire rifles I bought years ago was a Charter Arms AR7 rifle.

It looks like the company Charter Arms was bought out by Henry and they are producing the same take down rifle with more options than back when I purchased mine.
The one I have is sitting in the trunk of my olde Chevy in the take down function with all parts in the stock. Also in the trunk of this olde car is a large bottle of Tylenol..empty and refilled with .22 long rifles. They have been back there in the trunk for years and every once in awhile I take them out and shoot then clean them. I do not really recommend this rifle as a survival rifle as I have better shooting tools at my disposal now days.
This was never a very accurate shooting rifle compared to say my Bolt Actions.

I am also in posession of a unusual set up advertised today as the Savage Model 24C or Campers combination gun. This comes in a 20 gauge shotgun with a .22 caliber barrel mounted over the top of the 20 gauge.
It takes down into two pieces with the stock and receiver seperate from teh barrel and foregrip. It opens up similar to the standard break open shotgun. This tool I would recommend much more than the Charter Arms/Henry .22 survival rifle.

I do not believe they even make this Savage Model 24C anymore and the combination guns they do make are pretty pricy for what they are.
They do however come in better set ups...and calibers.

Like .223 over a 20 gauge
30-30 over 12 gauge and such.
a .357 over a 20 gauge.

At the time I purchased mine..I did not know they even had a .357 over a 20 gauge. This one would be more preferable to me than the .22 caliber over 20 gauge.

Intresting posts here on rifles.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Rossi firearms Makes what they call matched pairs. There not over under combos like what you guys are talking about. they are break open single shot style firearms with up to three different barrels for the same gun. Last one on the link is a 20 Gage 308 combo package. Want a long shot break the gun open drop the shotgun barrel back in the pack and put on the 30-06 barrel. Yes carrying a extra barrel is more weight but these guns are very affordable. We got a 410/22LR for my son for Christmas. It cost us $99.00 the stocks on these guns are gorgeous and the accuracy is there so in my opinion its money well spent. They are also starting up a program ware if you have one of there break open guns you can send it in and they will match it to a barrel of you choosing. im thinking when they start this program having a 7.62x39 barrel matched to my kids gun. for the old man to use. For singl shots these are fun little guns to shoot.

[edit on 13-1-2007 by angryamerican]

Hey Guy...

You are quite right. And I had forgotten about Rossi. Silly since I own one.

My Rossi is a pump .22 carbine based on the olde gallery design rifle. Shorts, Longs and Long rifles. This rifle can take down into two pieces by unscrewing a large oversized nob on the side. This rifle is a pleasure to shoot and reasonably accurate for the moneys spent.

The break open type rifles of which you speak are also ideal as they are simplicity personified. Not many moving parts at all. I have seen a couple of people shooting these rifles at the gun club. They were in .223 caliber and .243 Calibers.

I believe another company makes them to called New England Arms though I dont think they make them in sets like this with two barrels.

One of the key features of these guns to me in addition to simplicity and versatility is affordability. Affordability is always important to most of us.

Thanks for reminding me,
Orangetom