Survival Guns

This post will be the first in the series of alternatives for Survival Guns.  There are just about as many opinions on what the 'perfect' survival gun' is as there are options.  The entire concept can be quite overwhelming and in my opinion, a bit silly.  Let me explain.

Folks are constantly trying to put things into a niche where they can mentally file them away.  It doesn't matter if it's people, sports, politics, knives, guns, or tools.  To that end I find the entire concept of a Survival Gun, as espoused by many on the internet to be downright silly.  In an attempt to provide some insight I'm going to review some of the commonly mentioned firearms and try to cover the pluses and minuses of each.  I'll also review some of the less commonly mentioned firearms to provide some perspective.  Things that we'll take a look at will be caliber, weight, capacity, accuracy, ammunition availability, and versatility.

You won't catch me using the term Survival Gun on any of my personally owned firearms.  Why? Because I don't really believe in the concept, as you might have noticed.  Also I believe the best gun for the job is the one you have in your hands at the time.  That means we have to know what the gun is capable of doing, what the caliber is capable of doing, have a fairly decent idea of how many rounds it might take to accomplish the task in front of us and if we'll need to reload at some point to finish that task.

A few other questions we should be able to answer are;

How well can I shoot this gun under stress?

How well can I manage the recoil of this gun?

How quickly can I make my first shot count?

How hard is this gun to reload under stress and how quickly can I actually reload it?

How well can I conceal this gun?

If I conceal this gun will I be able to deploy it rapidly?

Are there any fragile parts on this gun?

Do I need to carry spare parts?

How much ammo should/can I carry?

The list can go on in quite a bit of detail so I think we'll stop here for now.

As time permits I intend to cover several different options such as .22 caliber rifles and pistols, semi auto pistols, revolvers, semi auto centerfire rifles, bolt action rifles, lever action rifles and shotguns.

If you have a setup that works for you, my intent is not to try and change your mind.  These articles are intended to assist newer members of the firearms community to think about their options and read some reviews before spending their hard earned money based on the advice of someone who has a favorite.

One other thing you might have picked up on, was I placed a lot of emphasis on the end user's ability to accomplish certain tasks rather than the firearm.  Choosing a firearm is a subjective process in my opinion.  The best firearm for you is the one you can shoot proficiently and accurately.  Period. Dot.