Best Indiana SHTF rifle...NO AK OR AR!

[netsecurity]

Honestly I know a guy who knows someone out of state. I have no reason to not believe them. But .22s do have more power than people give credit for. When SHTF, I doubt few will be trophy hunting so headshots will be paramount.

OMFG, I just realized that Mosinghuy IS the OP! So your post was a rhetorical question? You think 22lr is okay for security in a pinch? I suppose so, as long as your not defending against anyone else with a gun...

 

[HICKMAN]

EDIT: Okay Mosinguy, assuming you could head shot a deer with a 22, the OP said 300yds, AND for self defense, and it doesn't fit those requirements. So 22lr should be excluded, at least the Ruger 10/22.

understood:

But SHTF, you aren't hunting ANY game at 300 yards in this state, hills and trees are where the game are.

Same goes for SD, at 300 yards, you are breaking contact and hauling arse the other way.

Our forefathers killed game with crappy firearms, no reason we can't live with a 22. Besides, once people flood the woods, deer will be gone pretty quick. Small game and fish will a main source of food.

 

[HICKMAN]

Does the OP know how to skin and butcher a deer?

 

[Mosinguy]

OMFG, I just realized that Mosinghuy IS the OP! So your post was a rhetorical question? You think 22lr is okay for security in a pinch? I suppose so, as long as your not defending against anyone else with a gun...

Not really rhetorical. It was actually a challenge though to see what was going to be the "ultimate" winner. I figured before I posted it would come down to .22lr vs. ???.

.22lr isn't my main choice for defense but a headshot or if you're lucky a hit in the heart does the job.

 

[Mosinguy]

Does the OP know how to skin and butcher a deer?

Never have done it, but have seen it done. I honestly wouldn't go for a deer though in SHTF just because I think they'll be hunted to the max when food gets scarce.

 

[netsecurity]

Hickman is right, 300yds is really stretching it. In a defensive situation you can push the enemy back farther than that, or attack them with "sniper" fire at that relatively "safe" distance with a 223. A 22lr doesn't give you a 300yd bubble of security realistically, unless the enemy is just afraid of the sound of your gun.

Mini-14 is the winner, yay!

 

[sepe]

If people are gonna on .22lr (my choice wouldn't be a 10/22, I've got a Remington 582 that is a pretty sweet shooter), I'll take my Cetme. It will handle .308win all day, I've got quite a bit of a stockpile started, and it would do the job at 300 yards. It would alert people much further away than a .22 would though...hmm, maybe back to the .22lr for me. I'm not going to be taking 300 yard shots hunting. Unless something happens to the rivers, ponds, and lakes, I can catch fish. Hunt squirrel, cats, rabbit, feral children, or whatever with the .22lr.

 

[Beowulf]

No love for lever guns? You can get a Marlin 30-30 for well under $500 and the ammo would be common.

Though honestly, I'd probably go for a Mini-14 or a Mini-30 (assuming you can find one in the price range, they've been inflated for a bit, much like the SKS). If you couldn't, an SKS with an extended magazine or an M1 Carbine would do pretty well (though the M1 might get tough to feed).

Hell, how about a CMP M1 Garand?

 

[Mosinguy]

Hickman is right, 300yds is really stretching it. In a defensive situation you can push the enemy back farther than that, or attack them with "sniper" fire at that relatively "safe" distance with a 223. A 22lr doesn't give you a 300yd bubble of security realistically, unless the enemy is just afraid of the sound of your gun.

Mini-14 is the winner, yay!

Snipers? That seems kinda extreme. I'd like to think that I'd gtfo if there was any combat outside 100 yards.

 

[handgun]

SKS

 

[handgun]

AK 74

 

[Mosinguy]

AK 74

AK-74 = AK

You lose

 

[techres]

SKS

^ This for the win.

 

[netsecurity]

The main advantage of 22lr is ammo. Not only is it cheap, but you can carry thousands of rounds, and still carry food and everything else with little hassle. That is a BIG advantage, but a guy with a bigger gun could just strong arm you out of all your supplies if you can't adequately defend yourself. So 22lr has limited usefulness.

I will say that, if I were going up into the hills, never to see civilization again, never able to re-up my ammo, that I would choose 22lr. I would choose it in that situation only because I could takes years worth of ammo, instead of months worth of 223 ammo.

Most likely, ammo could be found or bartered for unless you couldn't come down from the hills, like in 'Red Dawn' (actually, even in that movie they hooked up with a gun store owner, and I'm just now wondering why the commies let him keep the gun store!).

 

[handgun]

AK-74 = AK

You lose

Yeah i for somereason thought no ak47 but it.did.clearly say ak my bad.

Sks is honestly your only real option.

Easy to take care of. Chrome lined barrels
Bayonet if you run out of ammo.
ammo common as toe nails
easy to modify
scope kits
realistic max. Accuracy range 250-300yrd rumored some further but with a scope and a hell of a shooter.
scope kit
Mags are easy to get. But i suggest dont leavr those tapco mags fully loaded.. for lomg periods.

 

[Dewidmt]

Winchester or Marlin lever gun in .30-30
Don't know why everybody is going so "high tech"!

 

[canav844]

Mini 30 would be my choice I guess. Then Mini 14 with M1 carbine 3rd.

Under $500 makes that a lot harder. AK can be easily purchased for the criteria, and a well chosen AR can be built for the price point.

With a 10/22 for SHTF purposes, if you needed to survive on it, it should manage small game with ease, assuming S has actually H TF (WORL, no sign of it returning for multiple decades, the asteroid hit and somehow you're the only one left) and it's not just a two day rain storm (like IN needs kinda badly right now, and I know I'll get flamed for it, but going into the survival boards I really start to wonder what people are considering SHTF to really mean); I'm assuming that you would have been without power for multiple weeks with no foreseeable restoration of power in sight, this means unless you're looking for one bullet to feed a dozen people, taking a deer is probably going to end up in much of the animal going to waste, so for SHTF small game is more important and you can stock up on .22lr with ease compared to .308 and .223. Now it's not great for self defense or deer (or ideal for many more), but .22lr has killed many people and many deer, being cheap prevalent and with some extremely concealable handguns being made for it, the criminal element has proved this for us (and that the .22 round if placed between the ribs from a rifle at close distance can bounce around inside the ribcage having the effect of multiple hits to the lungs heart and arteries with one bullet). Also .22 rounds aren't what they were 50 years ago, and some rounds can still penetrate outside of 100 yards, shot placement it more and more critical if you want it to kill and be humane, but that's a concern with any round from the get go. In a last ditch self defense effort, the 10/22s semi automatic action (when you spend $500 on a 10/22 put a good trigger on that reduces pre and over travel) you'll be able to put multiple shots on target in a hurry, and with low recoil place them where you want them. Stock up on $10 magazines, that IMO can be dropped in pockets and packed in backpacks and stored easier, and are very reliable, and then pick up a few tri-mags or glue bases together to create 20 or 30 round magazines before having to grab the next block.

Also the 10/22 and several other 22s out there are built on very simple platforms with very few moving parts, this makes keeping a handful of parts and needing nothing more than a pocketknife a viable option for keeping the rifle functioning, and many 10/22s can go ages and thousands upon thousands of rounds without a cleaning, so you won't be needing to stock large quantity of cleaning supplies, nor will you have to expend excessive amounts of time maintaining the weapon. And at $500, you could purchase two (or one and another rifle see below), do DIY/kit trigger work to both, scope one tech sight the other and have them setup as redundant should the scope fail or parts are needed for scavenging.

I think another option also worth consideration here, would be a Mosin, if you're primary concern is a threat of the greater than 100lbs variety, get one for $100, make some modifications, keep a stock of surplus and commercial ammo, use the surplus stuff for target shooting and the commercial stuff for feeding and protection. I think I've seen stocks, barrels, magazine conversions, trigger groups for them, combined with a good 10/22 you'll have 2 rifles that cover all your bases for about $400, and have the ability to invest that 100 in more ammo or add toward quality glass that will be durable enough that it shouldn't be an issue after SHTF. $100 of .22lr in bulk packs works out to about 2,775 rounds, which is a fair amount of trigger time (compared to same value of .308 affording you only 200-250 rounds), which improves your odds of being able to make the hit when you need it, something IMO that is far more important than having a great .308 and not being able to take it out and practice with it and then when you need to make a shot to survive, miss.

If you already have these rifles, and you're just looking to justify your next rifle purchase under the guise of SHTF, then I'd say a Rem 700, Savage 10, or Rem 770 (and be willing to put a lot of work into fine tuning it)

 

[Beowulf]

Most likely, ammo could be found or bartered for unless you couldn't come down from the hills, like in 'Red Dawn' (actually, even in that movie they hooked up with a gun store owner, and I'm just now wondering why the commies let him keep the gun store!).

Not that Red Dawn should be considered realistic in any way, if I recall properly they hit up the gun store as the invasion was happening. The invaders policed up all the weapons after that (thanks to the gun registration records the mayor had for some reason). They switched to using enemy weapons after they killed some enemy soldiers with their shotguns and deer rifles (and bows and arrows, I guess).

Weren't they supposed to be making a remake of that movie with Chinese or North Korean soldiers instead of Cubans and Russians?

 

[pokersamurai]

Since you eliminated the AK as a choice I would choose the Saiga Sporter Rifle in either 7.62x39 or 308.

Sorry feller. The Saiga uses an AK action. This makes it an AK clone. AK clone = AK.

You lose -100 internets right meow!

You said no AK's. The Saiga Sporter Rifle is not an AK, just ask the ATF .
The M1 Garand, M14, Galil, Valmet, and FAL all use the same ak style long-stroke piston system too so are they excluded from your list also?

 

[Fordtough25]

Winchester or Marlin lever gun in .30-30
Don't know why everybody is going so "high tech"!

+1, hard to beat a good .30-30 in the woods. Or mildy open areas.