Guns for SHTF

[Snake Eyes]

Unlike AK, and AR packing preppers, and end timers weak on common sense, and who envision fighting hordes of zombies tooth and nail to protect their larders of Ramen noodles, and peanut butter; these three will put meat on the table...

Mosine Nigant - ammo is cheap for a lot of range time. Using 203-gr. Soft Point 7.62x54R bullets, it'll drop deer at 300 yards with ease

Remington 870 Express Tactical 12 gauge. Great for deer, and fowl. Doubles for home defense.

Ruger 7722 Varmint in 22 LR

[Truckman]

All good choices and, as always, any choice is better than waiting until after SHTF...The Mosin-Nagant has been around for 121 years now and has been battle proven many times...They'll work in any temperature extreme...If you own one and it doesn't shoot to point of aim, try extending the bayonet...Often that puts it right in the business district of the target...

As for the Remington 870, what can I say?...It's simply the best home defense gun ever...They work every time, and with 18 1/2" barrel they're easily manipulated in a narrow hallway...With extended magazine you get 7 rounds of buckshot to deal with the zombie hordes...I wouldn't add a no-buttstock-pistolgrip or folding stock as many do...Just try one-handing an 870 with your other arm occupied and you'll see what I mean...

I like the small game choice in the Ruger 77/22 also...They are extremely accurate and very forgiving in foul climates also...

Ammo is still plentiful in all those calibers...I'd probably have to pick an AR-15 and a 10/22 for my choices, though, simply because I'm so familiar with takedown and maintenance and the accuracy level is so high...The 870 is a solid choice and is the only shotgun in my gun safe...My recommendation has always been and still is, choose the gun(s) that you are comfortable with, that you have confidence in and that you shoot well with...

Good topic......Ben

[Snake Eyes]

My current Mosin Nigant, a 1929 M91 Dragoon (no bayonet)...is just downright freaky in the accuracy department. Scoped with a cheap BSA pistol scope (2-7x32) it'll place five round groups the size of a nickel dead center at 100 yards shooting suplus Soviet ammo.
What's great about these old battle rifles is that they were made in the millions making them fairly cheap to purchase. So, for around a 100 bucks, one can have a fairly good deer rifle. For another 80 bucks, one can order a spam can (440 rounds) of ammo....great for target practise.
Being made for a peasent army, these rifles are very easy to field strip and clean. Some grumble about the bolt being complicated to take down. I've found that not the case. About the only negative is the recoil, a bit heavy which requires reestablishing one's sight picture with each round.

[Truckman]

Yes, the short versions were always in more demand (M38 & M44) but I like the full size M91 smokepoles for accuracy...Almost any .30 caliber round is inherently accurate and the 7.62X54R is no exception...I always found the Finnish versions to be the most accurate, but I'd love to check out the US produced Remington and Westinghouse versions also......Ben

[Saggy]

Just startin' out with this range shooting'. Got a PMR30 cause for plinking' the 22 magnum is cheap and only need 2 loaded magazines (60 rounds) to carry me thru the 1/2 hour cheap range time. The 22 is a small caliber but even Zombies can't abide 30 little pieces of lead hitting' on 'em in a short period of time.

[Dave Grubb]

While I'm not a SHTF fearing kind of guy I do have my preferences for "friendly funnin" in those categories

First for center fire rifles---at the end of the day if I had to pick just one it would be a Remington 700--most likely in Rem 7MM Mag. I have never needed more than one shot for anything up to and including 1000 pound moose.

As for shotguns--I love doubles--but I do have a couple of Winchester Model 12's that will never leave the collection and that would be my pick for a pump action.

...and for varmints--if it is rim-fire it would be my Model 60 Savage with a tubular mag and 6X scope, SS with laminated stock. Keep it reasonably clean and oiled and it will perform flawlessly all day long!

[LawDog]

If I'm out and about when SHTF, I expect my Kimber .45 and Smith and Wesson 3000 pump or Beretta 1200 FP (whichever happens to be in the truck at the time) will get me to the house. Once I get to the house, all foreseen contingencies are addressed inside here.....being watched over by "Ditka, da Bear"..

[Kevin]

Model 12s - be still my heart! 870 users just cannot possibly understand what it means to have a gun with an action so smooth, when you hit the release, it opens by gravity alone. And when it jams and the zombie is eating your face, you can die knowing that you've been privileged to own a piece of history as you become history. Actually, I've never had one jam. My M12 collection is my joy.

Recent acquisition - 7600 pump carbine .30-06. Just 'cuz it's fun.

[Truckman]

Recent acquisition - 7600 pump carbine .30-06. Just 'cuz it's fun.

I've always liked pump rifles too, Kevin...I always wanted a Model 14 in .35 Remington for a keeper...Sold a few, but never kept one...I'll settle for the IMI Timberwolf in my safe now...It's in .357 Mag in the original hard chrome finish......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

Great to see you Kevin--don't be such a stranger!

I'm not much for pump action rifles----but I have to make an exception for the 141 (or the 14). For some reason that gun just "feels right"

The 760 and its variants are very popular in PA and I have shot a lot of them---mostly off the bench when working up loads. I have to confess I find they have an unusually harsh kick to them--I just don't enjoy shooting them.

[Kevin]

"Don't be such a stranger" - hey, there ain't nobody stranger than me!

There's something about the configuration of the stock on the pump Remingtons that kills my shoulder at the range as well. Out in the field, I don't notice it. Maybe because when shooting from a standing position, the body can move with the recoil better? I don't know. But I am jealous of your "one shot" history. I'll be honest - I've needed two some times. I hunt the big woods - the Adirondacks - where you have to keep moving. Often, you end up jumping the deer out of a bed. Other ways we hunt up here is by putting on a drive. No other way to cover the thousands of acres of woods. The sitters are getting shots at moving deer then as well. So we use lever actions, semi autos, pumps - not many bolts. Just not conducive to the type of hunting we do up here. I wish I could say I've only needed one shot but that wouldn't be the truth.

I do own a very accurate bolt, though. A Savage 116, 30.06. With the right handloads, it is very nice to shoot. And like Ben says, I put as good a glass on top as I could afford, which cost just about as much as the gun itself. Never regretted it. I use Bushnell 4200s and Leupolds in the VXIII class. But I can't hit a barn from the inside without good optics. I envy Mike and his ability to, up to now, use iron sights.

"End of the world" guns - M12, bolt 30.06, Ruger 10/22.

[Truckman]

hey, there ain't nobody stranger than me!

Ain't it da troot......

And I agree with your choice of optics...A VXIII on hunting rifles...Leupold MK 4 on more serious shooting machines......Ben

[Mike]

End of the world" guns - M12, bolt 30.06, Ruger 10/22.

That works for me, except for the 10/22. I want something manual - lever, pump, and last resort, bolt. Most of them will eat anything you feed them, unlike the semi's which want to be fed something special. My current choice is my Henry 001 lever.

I'd really prefer a lever in the large caliber, too. I like my .300 Savage, but ammo would be hard to find.

[Mike]

Thinking about it, the availability of ammo should be a factor to consider. We can stockpile all we want, but when it comes time to move, can we take it with us? Can we protect it from others? Can we take it from others?

12 gauge is common enough to find all over the place. No problem.

.30.06, .270, .30.30 .308 are also very common. They shouldn't be too hard to find. 5.66mm and .223 are everywhere today, finding it should be easy. National Guard armories come to mind. Taking it maybe less easy.

.22 is everywhere. No problem.

[Kevin]

I've even seen serious discussions about how money might fail in such a situation. At that point, even metal money would have no value. What would count is what you can trade and at that point, ammo becomes a possible barter medium.

And what's the most common ammo? .22, 12 gauge, .30-06. These are the most common guns out there in the US. Stockpiling food - maybe last you a year, if you go freeze dried or home canned. Money? Who needs it when there is no organized economy. The coin of the realm in a world where we are on our own would be ammo, from what these sites say.

Dunno if I believe them, just offering it up for discussion.

I agree on the 10/22 and complexity, though. Thing is, I don't expect the end of the world. If it does come, I'll have to use what I have on hand. I guarantee you, just having ANY firearm means that you have something 95% of the people around me don't have.

I also tend not to think that the solitary, fort-up sort of scenario will work. If the economy collapses, we'll likely become very local but very cooperative. I have some experience with this - I have relatives in Russia who have lived through two collapses, one after WWII and the second in the 1990s. They got by through cooperating with their neighbors, growing their own food, and hunkering down. I expect that the benefits of cooperation will outweigh the solitary guy, so I'm betting on not needing firearms for much except for maybe defense, where their use will likely encourage anyone to go bother the easier pickin's further down the road.