As promised in my last blog post on defending your home, food and family, here's #2 of my suggestions for your must-have weapons.
A light carbine or rifle
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| SKS |
There are hundreds of firearms in this
category and many of them are excellent. So I will simply tell you what I
like and you can make up your own mind.
The SKS. If money is hard to come by and for a lot of us it is then you can't beat the SKS. It's not the best rifle in the world but you can get one for around $100 bucks. That's an incredible price for a good solid rifle. And it has the added benefit of the availability of cheap ammo. You can get crates of the stuff for a few hundred bucks.
The SKS. If money is hard to come by and for a lot of us it is then you can't beat the SKS. It's not the best rifle in the world but you can get one for around $100 bucks. That's an incredible price for a good solid rifle. And it has the added benefit of the availability of cheap ammo. You can get crates of the stuff for a few hundred bucks.
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| VZ58 |
The VZ58. I am a big fan of the VZ58. It's a great rifle and you can get
one at a great price. There are a few different models and I won't go
into that here but you should be able to pick up one for $500 to $800.
It's a much better rifle than the SKS but as it fires the same ammo so
you can afford lots of it.
One other thing to point out about the VZ and
the SKS is how tough they are. They are old school weapons made from
steel and wood. They can take a lot of abuse and keep on going.
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| Beretta CX4 Storm |
Beretta CX4 Storm.
Now this little gun is totally different from the SKS
and VZ. It's a modern design made with a lot of plastic parts and it
fires pistol ammo. But I really like mine. It's light and handy with no
recoil to speak of and it would be a fantastic weapon for defending your
apartment or suburban house. The pistol caliber ammo is also suitable
for hunting small game like rabbits and you could drop a dear or other
large animal if you had to. Not that I would recommend it for large
animals.
One drawback is that it is an expensive little gun. At around $1000 to $1200
it's not something everyone can afford. But it's a great little gun.
Another nice feature worth mentioning is that if you are a fan of
Beretta pistols you can get one that takes the same mags as the Storm.
That can be really handy.
The AR 15 family of firearms. A person could write an entire book on
the AR 15. All I will say is that it is an excellent firearm. It has
lower recoil and is more accurate than the SKS and VZ58. On the down
side it's a little more prone to breaking and it's requires a bit more
maintenance. The ammunition is more expensive but it's available just
about everywhere. It is also more expensive at around $1000 to $1200.
As I said before there are lots of great carbines and rifles. The AK 47 family. The FN FAL family. The Ruger Mini 14. The M14 family of rifles. The list goes on forever. I am actually a big fan of my M1 carbine and would have listed it but for the fact that the .30 carbine ammo is getting a little harder to find.
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| AR 15 |
As I said before there are lots of great carbines and rifles. The AK 47 family. The FN FAL family. The Ruger Mini 14. The M14 family of rifles. The list goes on forever. I am actually a big fan of my M1 carbine and would have listed it but for the fact that the .30 carbine ammo is getting a little harder to find.
Next up will be #3 - the handgun
I appreciate your solid advice in these posts. It’s valuable stuff for folks new to firearms & don’t know where to start.
ReplyDeleteOne of my guiding/cornerstone principles for all preps & planning is simplicity. Wherever possible, I eliminate unnecessary / redundant / complex parts & systems. To that end, I place high value on common caliber pistol/revolver and rifle systems.
One of my favorites is a stainless steel .357 revolver with a .38/.357 lever action rifle. Very simple. Eminently controllable. Readily available, reliable & cheap. Something you can pass on to your grandchildren.
My other is the fantastic CX4 (as you mentioned) married to a 92FS, both in 9mm using common magazines. On the CX4, I mounted a fixed power, 2x20mm, scout scope, co-witnessed with iron sights.
No night vision, no red dot, no batteries required. Between the butt stock mags & the 92FS, I can easily carry over 100 rounds without even trying. It’s not worth much beyond a 100yds, but really…what is it I’m going to be shooting at beyond 100yards again?... Like you said, it’s certainly not cheap. But honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever regretted paying a little more for good gear that does *exactly* what I want.
Snoo-Diggity-DANG-Dawg
Hey Snoo-Diggity-DANG-Dawg - thanks for the comment. Good points, all good stuff! Like you said, simple is often best.
ReplyDeleteI agree a good quality revolver is always a fantastic choice because of its simplicity and reliability. A good quality lever action rifle isn't a bad choice either. the only downside that I can see to a lever action rifle might be the slow-to-load tubular magazine and the tendency of people to short stroke the lever under stressful situations. But practice with it such as competing in cowboy action sports would alleviate that tendency.
Thanks again - appreciate your dropping by and reading and commenting!