I've given some thought to this subject. A serious terrorist attack that may disrupt the infrastructure. A government that may run amok on law-abiding citizens for whatever reason. A nuclear attack. A natural disaster - flood, hurricane, earthquake. All of these things may or may not be probable, but they are possible.

So the question is - what rifle would YOU use to defend home and hearth? I'm not talking shotguns or handguns here, only rifles, which can serve for both short and longer-range duty.

In my case, I want something relatively short, handy and light weight for manuevering. It doesn't need to be a really long-range proposition, as I anticipate an urban or suburban environment. The typical range will probably be within 200 yards. The ammo must be readily available and as light as possible for packing. Optical and open sights both. 6-position collapsible stock to compensate for differing clothing. A flash suppressor. Parts availability will be a factor. Don't need a "battle rifle" cartridge with the power of a .308 or .30/06; an intermediate "assault rifle" cartridge should do the trick. Full magazine capability desirable.

Here's my pick for duty: It's a Colt AR-15 with a 16-inch barrel, configured as a collapsible stock M4. Optical sight is an Aimpoint Comp ML2 with a 4-minute red dot for quick target acquisition. Back-up flip-up rear iron sight adjustable for windage; front sight is adjustable for elevation. Forward vertical grip for control. A Surefire high-intensity LED flashlight is attached for low- or no-light situations. Simple lightweight web sling. Extra batteries for the Aimpoint stored in the grip. Plenty of extra reliable 30-round magazines holding G.I. 5.56mm ammo in pouches.

It may never happen, and I hope it won't. But if it DOES hit the fan, I think I will be adequately armed.

How about you?

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

I will have an AR, but not .223 or 5.56. gotta be .308.

Winchester .30-06. I figure with the added range, I can pick up all the .223s I want.

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Regards,
Guy-Harold Smith II

John looks like were on the same page..
Colt 6940...
and my better half with the .357/.38 lever action

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SWCA #2306
DAV in honor of POP

Most likely the AK. Its smaller, lighter, and doggone it I like it. I would also never need to clean it. Just keeps on clicking without sticking.

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Now That's Bullet Maintenance!

I would say Glock G20, but you said no handguns.

What I would LIKE it to be is a Steyr Jeff Cooper Scout rifle, but I have never had convergence with one when I had the cash!

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I hope I copied that right

My Savage 112BVSS in .30-06. I can keep people minding their own business out to 1,000 yards or more.

M1A ..........

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Sure you did

Ruger Mini-14 in 5.56mm

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The Last Standing Knight

ar15s and mini 14

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WILL WORK FOR AMMO!

U.S. M1 Carbine caliber .30 or U.S. Springfield Model 1903A3 caliber .30

I saw a good answer to this often posed question on another forum.

The fellow said a single-shot .22 and one round of ammo.

His thought was to let others stockpile as much as they wanted, then at the moment of truth they would hesitate. The man with a survivalist mindset would not.

I thought that was the best answer I'd ever read on the "what gun is best" question.

What it boils down to is are you willing to kill someone, not is a AR-15 better that a M-14.

Sorry for the heavy post Paladin, but that's the question you've asked in a roundabout way.

GF

FN LAR. 50.00, or Long Para. Parts availablity in a SHTF scenario simply means that you have the parts in your possession. You do or you don't.

Galil is OK, but a mouse gun, and not a long-range one at that.

I have a better long-range weapon than the FN, but I think I value a good repeater more than a SS tack-driver.

Probably grab one of my M-1 Garands-WITH a bayonet on the end.

I'm thinking a plasma rifle.. something like the BFG 9000

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- The Federalist #46 -

Probably my old M-1 carbine. I don't own a store, so I'm not worried about holding off hordes of looters. In a natural disaster, I'll probably be out trying to help. A terrorist attack in the my corner of New Mexico is pretty farfetched and if it happens I'll be at work anyway.

I don't get the obsession with range. Who are you going to be shooting way out there? How can you tell looters from neighbors, or terrorists armed with AKs from Cousin Bubba with his AK?





I don't begrudge anybody an excuse to get a new gun, but the whole premise seems pretty silly to me.

Now zombies - that's a whole 'nother story!

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Colt HBAR.

As it stands right now, my SHTF rifle would be my bargain bin CMMG rifle . It may have been cheap, but it shoots straight and reliable.

Choosing a caliber by ammo availability is a moot point. In a real SHTF situation, whatever ammo you have is all you're going to get until you take some more from somebody else at which point you have to take his rifle, too, unless it's the same caliber as yours.

At any rate, what are you going to do by yourself? You can't cover all approaches to your property 24 hrs a day. Are you going to shoot somebody just because he's approaching your house when all he may want is a drink of water? I don't think it's worth a person's time to try to envision doomsday scenarios. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Mini 14-did the job for Andrew, Lili, Rita Gustave, Katrina. Never once had to shoot it or even take it out of the closet-but it was there.

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Forum consigliere

HK 91 w/ spares if the S does truly HTF. Joe

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Wisdom chases me; I'm faster

This is all I have at the moment...

+1
Especially a LEO or member of the military. I mean REALLY, you gonna do that?

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Sure you did

Colt AR 6520 (simple) and KAC SR-25

I'm no longer in the military, so I will NOT soil my hands with a 'mattel rifle'. No 'steel and wood'! Now that I said that, Comrade Kalashnikov having celebrated his 90th year, made a very good semi-automatic 30-30! Would i own a 30-30? If there were a rnage to travel to, to utilize, become one, and know it's inner voice, yes! But, alas! The closest range I have near me is a 25-yd. indoor range. So, choose already, SF! I did, a Trapper 16-inch barrel, big loop, lever action in .38/.357. You see, I can marry this rifle to my M15-3, or my Taurus M82. I have been working to find 'the store-bought loads' that would fit what I would require of this combination, and all NON-Plus P.

How did you manage to not comply, during Katrina, when that fat now-retired National Guard General, and now school board superintendent, Gary Jones, said that New Orleans was 'Little Somalia', and that 'we have to take it back from the insurgents', and disarmed survivors who were in their house, under armed threat?

I have modern "assault weapon" style carbines, which would be among the first choices in the hypothetical scenario. However, as food for thought, on a recent road trip in the PR of California, where free men abdicate their constitutional rights and can't carry Evil Black Rifles, instead, I took a CA-legal .223 bolt-action carbine with a low power variable scope. Not my first choice for an urban CQB rig, but a very far cry from being inadequately armed. Effective to a couple hundred yards, light, short, easy to deploy, lightweight ammo, utterly reliable, even if neglected, only very few parts ever likely to break, no parts ever likely to wear out, no batteries involved --- this may be the ultimate post-apocalypse general-purpose rifle iteration.

Ditto. My M1A's x2 in case one breaks.

De Oppresso Liber

If you're the squeamish type, get a pig and kill it with a knife. It'll get you used to the blood and screaming/squealing.

Anyway, good luck hitting man sized targets out to a 1000 yards with any sort of off the rack hunting rifle. That sort of thing isn't all that common even with a precision rifle, expensive optics, match grade ammo, a spotter, and the training how to use it. A good part of such training is actually how to lay still in your own waste while terrible insects bite you. Not much fun.

I couldn't get ammunition reliably during the recent ammo panic. Even the really odd stuff got snapped up, like 70 plus year old stocks of 7.35mm Carcano.

Good luck capturing weapons too. That presumes that you hold the ground at the end of something and that whoever you're trying to recover things from didn't have friends.

Anyway, I live on a Marine base. There are three recruit battalions, the weapons bn, and what not.

What could happen, and I'm actually surprised hasn't, is for three or four shooters to pull a mumbai and get into family housing and attempt to run up a score. (Crash the gate, sneak in via delivery truck, or just get in via the swamp.)

I've got two M4 clones and a Colt 6500 - basically a transitional A1/A2 hybrid. I've also got an M1 carbine a Mini 14 and a bunch of other things.

My current M4 clones are a straight CMMG and a CMMG lower with all Colt parts. One is back to iron sights, the other has an older Aimpoint Comp M on it. Either, or the 6500 will work fine. Since the operative word was "rifle" and not "carbine", I suppose the answer is the 6500.

My wife is a Corpsman, the AR platform simply makes sense. When the boys are older, they can have the extras.

I keep 75 odd AR mags laying around loaded. I also have 1000rds "rainy day" can of GI green tip on strippers handy. I keep 6 mags in my Eagle chest rig, along with my G34 and a total of five mags for that. That goes on over my Izzy tac armor with level IV plates (allegedly multi hit) front and back. A rifle is only part of the answer, your accessories are what can make the difference. (My wife has her own armor and a reasonaby stocked medic bag.)

Though I have a PVS-14, I've yet to get an IR laser/illuminator mounted. Eh, other priorities. I suppose I should get one of the M4's a can too.

Truth be told, I plan to get a SCAR-H when those become commercially to be had in a bug free format and if the new Leupold HAMR works out, just mount one of those and be done with it.

Those interested in this sort of thing will find it more useful to have a suppressed weapon with IR target aquisition systems paired with American made (ITT) NVG than to worry all that much about caliber and platform. Just tuck the gun under your arm and follow the dot that only you can see at night. Tape down buttons on your remote controls and you've got makeshift IR IFF units. The can isn't so much to kill the noise as to eliminate the flash.

Sir, FWIW, my "go to" rifle is a Garand. Yes, it's big and relatively low capacity, but it's also rugged, reliable, and powerful. If the bad guys have cars or know enough to hide behind things, that power might come in handy.

Probably most important, I'm very familiar with M1s. I've shot them competitively for some years and done a good bit of gunsmithing on them, including building a few up from bare receivers. I also have plenty of "support stuff" on hand for them: spare parts, tools, ammo, clips, components, etc.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

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Wishin' don't make it so.

Almost any good bolt or lever action gun from .223 upward.

I've got my semi-auto ranch rifle in .223. It has a lot of extra large capacity magazines and it's pretty accurate for open sights.

I'll be grabbing my M4ergy 14.5" because I've got decades of experience with it.



CD

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De Oppresso Liber

I have two extremes that I've come to consider my Go To rifles, a M1 Garand and a HiPoint 995TS. They are both reliable and their niches do not overlap much. Though given my rural location and the fact I do not plan on evacuating, I consider my H&R Handi Rifles to be very useful for food harvesting.

Based on the KISS philosophy, the “rifle” in our SHTF bag is a SS Rossi M92 Carbine with a 16” barrel and iron sights in .38/.357, sharing ammo with the revolvers we will be carrying. No glass to break. No batteries to wear out. Both lever actions and revolvers are time proven mechanisms that are known to function reliably under less than ideal conditions.

Being realists, neither my wife nor I believe we will be very likely to effectively defend our home from trained and disciplined aggressors, but we're pretty sure either of us will be able to deter a gang of thugs to the point the survivors will go looking for easier pickin's.

John

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Age + Treachery = JohnnieB

The boys that come after you in your neighborhood are going to be wearing standard body armor so unless you are using the latest steel penetrator 223's you are SOL. You need something like the 308 or 30/06 that can get the job done. My Remington 03A3 with 3X9 and glassed stock is minute of dirtbag accurate to 800+ yards and M2 ball will penetrate even Dragonskin inside 100 yards.

I'll say one thing, Gator is one of the more interesting military spouses I've encountered

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Forum consigliere

FN 1949, or M1 Garand. Both in 30-06.

todd

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Blessed, not lucky

I have never lived in an urban setting and don't live in a suburban setting now. It's 1/2 mile to the nearest residence. Bolt action '06, Ar 5.56 and several others will all get it done.

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Front sight and squeeze

I'll take Shorty. He likes hypothetical missions.

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Currently my only CF rifle is my Mini-14 in .223. I have no use for any sort of CF rifle as I no longer hunt. The only reason I have the little Ruger is SHTF senarios. Maybe not the best choice, but it's what I have. At the time I got it black rifles were unavailable or priced out the roof. So were the Rugers for that matter.

We don't even get trick-or-treaters at our place on Halloween, so I don't anticipate a zombie mob. I'm comfortable with a couple of 22s to harvest the squirrels and doves that pay frequent visits to our feeders.

Dragonskin was all marketing and hype, it tends to fail under rough use. Multi curve level IV+ plates are expensive and rare. M2 AP doesn't penetrate. They're good up to six or more hits of it. They were designed to ameliorate the effectiveness of snipers with 7.62x54R rifles and AP ammo.

Modern ESAPI and XSAPI plates are essentially in this category.

The M955 black tip, not commecially sold, but can be obtained, actually penetrates better than M2 AP from a Garand.

Just about every store that has ammo will have 30-06, 308, and 223 and I have one of each .

I have many good rifles and most of them would qualify. Surprisenly I had this remington 760 in 30-06 sitting in my safe for about 9 years and never fired it until last year! Its in a great caliber, accurate, light and fast handeling. It has a peep. My dad shot his last big buck with it at 87 years old. Dad died two months short of 90. This will do the job as well as any gun I own. I have winchester 70s, levers, bar, browning safari, ruger 77 etc. This is probley one of my cheapest rifles, yet I belive one of the best for the job and sitting right under my nose untill tried out as a after thought last year! Dance with the one ya brung!

My mini-14 and 10/22

Lots to choose from, but it would depend on which one I could grab first.

Semi or a lever would be my choice. I have an old Rem 740 in LNIB condition, should be good and the '06 does reach out and touch. Mini 30 with a scope and 150g handloads - lots of handloads. Should work.

Lever option allows 9 heavy .44's in the magazine and a 100 yard "safe zone". More actually, but 100 yards is a nice round figure.

If more is needed, 45-70 loaded hot with a 2x scout scope should do the trick.

In any event, it's all academic and I'd hope never a reality.

Jeff Cooper used to talk about the 1894 in .30/30. They are pretty slick little guns. Don't take up much space, are pretty accurate, and they put out a pretty good punch. In the back of your car, they don't attract the attention of Mr. Police Officer like an AR or an AK does. I like the M-1 Carbine, too. Carbines seem pretty mundane - at least to me.

I feel pretty comfortable with either of these two. I have never felt real comfortable hauling around one of the "science fiction" guns, unless I am actually on the way to the range. Wouldn't worry about it if it was all I had, but ARs just seem to attract too much attention.

These are both needed. If you dis-agree, that's OK. One should have an AK variant because "IF" it happens, YOU WILL SEE THEM!!!!!! The 7.62x39 is used widely all over the globe and is plentiful. Just ask any Vietnam era veteran.......unfortunately, you will hear how good the AK is. JMO and Thanks to all those that discovered this first-hand.

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Go big or stay home

I think a lot of it depends on where you are, and who or what you expect to encounter. The old cowboy combo of long gun/handgun makes a lot of sense to me, my Marlin 9MM Camp Carbine uses the magazines for my S&W M-659, my Marlin 45 uses the same magazines as my Colt MK IV,
then there my Marlin M1894s in .357 and 44 Magnum. Stinker that I am I note that even if you just wound an opponent the chances of them getting prompt medical treatment are pretty low. Where I live in Central NJ is pretty much 100 yard country, hence long range capacity is not needed.