This meme came from Cheaper than Dirt over the weekend. If you could only have three guns and 300 rounds of ammo for each one, which ones would they be? Their staff roundly chose a Glock 19 in 9mm, an AR-15 and then the pattern got a little spread going. Of course, my reaction was to ask what the scenario is: is this for urban survival, an African hunting trip, or just what? Is that 300 rounds for each forever? No such information was given. So here's my take on it. None of these are grail guns; they're pretty ordinary.
- Handgun: a Springfield XD Subcompact in 9mm. Figure in the wide availability of 9 mm and it's a natural. This is Springfield Armory's equivalent of the G19, but it fits my hands better. For me, it's a natural shooter. Conceptually, it's a "ho-hum". Same as most of their staff.
- All purpose: Mossberg 500 and a couple of barrels. A longer barrel for hunting and a shorter one for self-defense or "social work". My 300 shells would need to include some rifled slugs as well as buckshot and birdshot, say 50 slugs, 100 buckshot, and 150 assorted bird shot. Again, a ho-hum. Several staff chose 12 ga. pump guns, but they all went with Remingtons.
- Rifle: Remington 700 in .30-06 or .308. This was tough one for me. AR or bolt action? I like my ARs, but I went with the bolt action thinking of the Scout Rifle concept, a rifle equally adept at hunting and as a battle rifle, capable of taking down pretty much any North American predator, four or two legged.
What magazine are you using there? I've got a 700 in 30-06 that uses the factory 4-round detachable, And I'm thinking something more available than the factory one would be nice to have.
ReplyDeleteNice rifle!
ReplyDeletemmm, a solothurn with 300 rds?
ReplyDeletemebbe a minigun or 2?
A .357 lever action rifle. A .357 revolver. A AR7 .22 rifle.
ReplyDeleteAnon #1 (2217) That's a Kwik Clip I got from that source (Cabela's) last fall. I did a little review of it last December but the summary is it dropped in place on my aftermarket stock with no fitting required, and worked perfectly. It rattles a little, but it's a bolt action gun and doesn't need to be as precise as a semiauto, I think.
ReplyDeleteAnon 1514 said, "A .357 lever action rifle. A .357 revolver. A AR7 .22 rifle." I kinda like that. Common ammo between lever action and revolver. On the 22, though, I'd probably still keep the 12 ga. over the AR7. I'd have to think about that...
ReplyDeleteGreybeard - here's another thinking point for ya - instead of the AR7, a 10/22 takedown. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI upgraded my 500 to the metal trigger group. Mostly due to the Bubba-ed original plastic one which I believe was reinserted one night with a rubber mallet, damaging the front lugs.
ReplyDeleteIt'd fire two rounds, then recoil would have sufficiently let it sag about 1/8" to where it wouldn't shoot unless it was pushed upward.
Bud found a metal one on Arfcom for 90 shipped so I got that. Was still a deal for what I paid. Not quite a 590A1, but better than a 500. Call it a 501 and a half.|
Other than that...Block, with Advantage Conversion, and some sort of rifle if I had to have only 3.
Secret Code:
William ongAlb
My reason for the AR7:
ReplyDeleteI had a nice 10/22 ranch in stainless and sold it a few yers back. No complaints it ws a nice gun. But my AR7 is my backpacking small game gun. It is half the weight of the 10/22 and half the size (that includes the take down version). So for a backpack that's my preferred gun. My 4th gun is a good 12 ga shotgun but given I could only choose three I had to take advantage of the double .357 ammo option. If it comes to SHTF I would prefer to take small game with the .22 over the shotgun. Where I live there are ducks and geese everywhere and I can take one with a .22 as easily as I can with a shotgun with a lot less noise. I know a lot of people tend to think in terms of a gun for defense after TSHTF and it is a reasonable position. But I choose not to go with a battle rifle. They stand out in a negative way, they use ammo faster then a hunting style weapon and my philosophy is to avoid a fight rather then believe I can dominate a fight. Some will argue with me about not having some version of the many assault or military versions out there but for no my reasons make since to me. In case you think I am making that decision without enough experience with weapons I can tell you that in the military the first weapon I qualified with was an M1 carbine, a gun I really like and the next year I got my expert marksman ribbon with the AR16. I have no quibble with these guns, it's simply that I made my choices based on what I like/need.
Anon 1359 10/22 No need to do a long justification for your choice. I can respect the value of .22 I'm not sure it would be as valuable here as where you describe, but it sure has a place.
ReplyDeleteAround here, we have a lot of alligators. I'm not sure .308 is enough gun for some of them, and while I didn't consider a bangstick as one of my three, a 12 ga slug applied directly to the forehead is a good start!
Some probably dumb questions (I know just enough about guns to have an adequate grasp of the depth of my ignorance) about the rifle in the photo: What's the red thing sticking out from the eyepiece? Do the 'hollow' scope mounts allow you to use the iron sights without removing the scope, or do they just look cool? It seems like the centerline of the scope is rather high above the centerline of the bore, does this make any difference at ranges different from where zeroed?
ReplyDeleteAnon 1855: the red thing is release lever. That rear cover is spring loaded, so you press that lever and the cap flips up. When you're done, the cap snaps back in place.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about the scope mounts. The centerline is a little high, and it does affect zeroing the scope, but you only do that once.
There are some funny aspect to ballistics in this situation that will fool you if you don't think about it (or read about it) carefully.
The optical sight is a straight line, but the bullet, if fired parallel to the ground will start to fall the instant it leaves the barrel. What you end up doing when you sight the rifle in at 25 yards, say, is to point the rifle very slightly upward, so that the path of the bullet intersects where your crosshairs are aimed instead of falling below it. If you then moved to very far target, 500 yards or so, the bullet will continue to rise and then start to fall, crossing the same point of aim much farther out - like around 200 or 300 yards. So sighting in the rifle for 25 yards "automatically" sights it in at the farther distance. The exact distance depends on the ammunition and that height of the centerline of the optics over the center of the barrel.