Best SHTF rifle

[archerychamp]

Nope. Don't own any gas masks or potassium iodide. I don't have barrels of fuel in the garage. Don't even have extra water stored.

I'm just trying to decide what kind of rifle I should buy with my discretionary income for a SHTF rifle. An AR, an M1A or otherwise. That's why I posed the question.

Unfortunately, the discussion deviated into many other tangents.

Then you get smart-asses who chime-in....

For someone with a low post count who just tries to ask a question to start some discussion and get some affirmation or deterent from certain semi-automatic rifles, a newer guy sure never gets a break around here.

And from my experience with White Horseradish, he never has anything helpful or constructive to say. He's just snide and always makes condescending comments.

[JJ]

Hey archerychamp, hows that diet going

[farmerj]

get the M1A, but then again, I am bias to them too.

[Dave Pendleton]

Nope. Don't own any gas masks or potassium iodide. I don't have barrels of fuel in the garage. Don't even have extra water stored.

I'm just trying to decide what kind of rifle I should buy with my discretionary income for a SHTF rifle. An AR, an M1A or otherwise. That's why I posed the question.

Unfortunately, the discussion deviated into many other tangents.

Then you get smart-asses who chime-in....

For someone with a low post count who just tries to ask a question to start some discussion and get some affirmation or deterent from certain semi-automatic rifles, a newer guy sure never gets a break around here.

And from my experience with White Horseradish, he never has anything helpful or constructive to say. He's just snide and always makes condescending comments.

Just an observation, but if you aren't making any other preparations, what difference does it make what kind of rifle you have?

[archerychamp]

Hey archerychamp, hows that diet going

Told you before, not on a diet. I just quit drinking soda and eating junk. Nothing wrong with eating healthy with fruit, vegetagles, complex carbs, and lean protein.

Like I said about smart-asses chimming in!

[archerychamp]

Just an observation, but if you aren't making any other preparations, what difference does it make what kind of rifle you have?

I wouldn't say I'm totally unprepared. I just haven't gone to the lengths you suggested I had.

[Dave Pendleton]

Just an observation, but if you aren't making any other preparations, what difference does it make what kind of rifle you have?

I wouldn't say I'm totally unprepared. I just haven't gone to the lengths you suggested I had.

Well then, based on the information you've provided so far, I'd say your ideal rifle is a Barrett .50 or a Daisy Red Ryder.

Your original post implies that there is an optimal long gun for a SHTF situation even though you provided no details on what SHTF means to you.

Because of this, your question borders on the rhetorical, and as I suggested you'll find kindred spirits on ARFCOM and Frugal Squirrels and any other number of other sites.

[White Horseradish]

Maybe that's because they have strict gun control in Japan and the citizens are not allowed to own firearms. That's pretty effing easy to figure-out for the rest of us.

Oh, sure. That's only a small part of it, though. Really, this comes down to the centuries-old tradition of obedience, excellent organization of disaster response in Japan and the little fact that rifles are really rather useless in the face of earthquakes and nuclear reactors with failing cooling systems.

You've got a real arrogant smart-assed, know-it-all attitude about yourself, WH. In every post I ever read of yours, you are snide and rip into people instead of just trying to have a conversation. Why don't you try to be constructive instead of being such a dickhead all the time?

And by the way, his name was Thomas Mayne Reid, know-it-all.

Hm. "Dickhead", huh? I'm moving up in the world.

As for having a conversation, I did ask a simple, direct and, in my opinion, very relevant question - what do you expect SHTF to be? The type of situation you expect to use this rifle in would have bearing on what kind of rifle it is. What would you say to a guy who asks what a good hunting rifle is? You'd ask him what he planned to hunt and where, right?

Now, why you chose to get all up in arms over a pretty minor poke instead of constructively answering a constructive question, that's a question you gotta ask yourself. I do, however, commend your literary knowledge. Reid (I will report to my local Grammar Gestapo whipping room for that spelling error voluntarily) is an unfairly forgotten author.

[archerychamp]

The context is:
Our financial system collapses
Our power grid collapses
Our access to fuel collapses
Our government starts to collapse
& it's every family for themself;
or a "Red Dawn" situation.

A .22 isn't going to cut-it for defense. For small game & survival, fine. But I was thinking more for defense as well as for survival.

A couple pages back, I thought I had clarified the context a little bit. If you still want more details, I would be happy to elaborate. Survival by hunting game would be one use of the rifle. Defending yourself and family would be a dual reason.

And yeah, there's nothing wrong with Capt. Thomas Mayne Reid books. Those are the kind of books I loved as a kid and growing up, I still love outdoors survival books. I not a psycho survivalist wannabe. I just have always loved the outdoors; hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, learning to live off the land. I grew-up wanting to be a mountain man (Didn't we all?)

Sorry, White Horseradish. I guess my bad day got to me and I went over the edge. Sorry for the dickhead comment.

[EJSG19]

Oh come on...

4 pages?

Google "SHTF Rifle". I count 117,000 results that you could click on. The point is, other wiser people than you and me have belabored this to no conclusive end. There is always room for argument, because there is no best firearm for anything

This subject, as thin as it is, has been beaten worse than a rented mule. The premise is exceedingly thin, the differences in the rifles are thin (as in how effective one would be compared to the other in.....my god I'm tired of the acronym SHTF... a SHTF scenario.)

If all the crap you mention is happening, then who Effen cares if you have an AR15 or an M1A. Really, what difference can there be? Are you walking 50 miles a day with it and 500 rounds on your back? If so then you are trying harder than me to survive, and more power to ya. Otherwise, both will make something that is alive, dead. End of story.

You can't really bitch about the answers you get, when you ask for the best Doomsday rifle, while admitting you have made almost zero preparations for such a situation. The gun is a drop in the bucket compared to what it'll take to keep a family alive.

If all you're asking is which rifle is the coolest and will make your wang look the biggest, nobody can answer that but you.

[Maniac117]

I understand the subject has been beaten to death, and I've been the annoying little rat terrier barking underfoot here.. But come on, am I the only one with a "OH ****" bag that includes a gas mask?!

I feel like the guy who farted at the party just when the music enexpectedly stopped.

[Srigs]

The one you have available to you when the SHTF.

My choice would be an AK for "without the rule of law" WORL. Going to a Bug out location, I would never choose walking so that would be a last resort and the animals we have would need to be abandoned and that is a marriage limiting move.

[farmerj]

The one you have available to you when the SHTF.

I do believe that was the first answer given to him.....on page 1.

And it went south from there.

[White Horseradish]

A couple pages back, I thought I had clarified the context a little bit. If you still want more details, I would be happy to elaborate. Survival by hunting game would be one use of the rifle. Defending yourself and family would be a dual reason.

Fair enough. I'd say a commonly available caliber is what you need, ammo supply is more important than the gun itself.

And yeah, there's nothing wrong with Capt. Thomas Mayne Reid books. Those are the kind of books I loved as a kid and growing up, I still love outdoors survival books. I not a psycho survivalist wannabe. I just have always loved the outdoors; hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, learning to live off the land. I grew-up wanting to be a mountain man (Didn't we all?)

Well, I thought that whole living in a tree in Africa thing was kinda cool. I just couldn't figure out how to come up with a faithful servant.

Sorry, White Horseradish. I guess my bad day got to me and I went over the edge. Sorry for the dickhead comment.

Don't worry about it.

[White Horseradish]

I understand the subject has been beaten to death, and I've been the annoying little rat terrier barking underfoot here.. But come on, am I the only one with a "OH ****" bag that includes a gas mask?!

I feel like the guy who farted at the party just when the music enexpectedly stopped.

Well, at least we know why you have that gas mask...

Settle down. Here go some pics for ya.
This is my zombie defense gear. I call it the Milla Jovovich kit.