Guns for remote living

[peternap]

This topic comes up on every off grid board. It gets a little carried away with the battle rifles but is still a consideration every person living on their own needs to consider.

First, I'm going to try to stay away from the fighting gun subject other than to say that I own over 30 assault type rifles and wouldn't consider any of them as a suitable gun for remote living.  There's a lot of opinion in this post and a lot of experience also.

If I knew all ammunation would be difficult or impossible to get, I would choose a .62 Gemmer style (Like a Hawken) smooth bore flintlock. Does it all and everything you need to make ammunition is always available.

The 12 gauge and .22 are considered universal and aren't bad choices I have a 12ga/.22lr over under that would be a good choice if I didn't hand load.

My all time favorite rifle is my Marlin 45/70 guide gun. Love that gun but still wouldn't be my first choice for an all around gun.

I can go on and on but out of over a hundred long guns I own, I would have to choose my 12ga/.308 over and under. The 12 ga is a do it all cartridge, for short range. It will also stop anything in North America at 25 yards or less using buckshot.

The .308 is a great cartridge although I feel the 30/06 is a little better. It gives me good long range performance plus I can load a lot of different bullet powder combos. I load swaged buckshot with very small charges of Bullseye powder to get the economy and performance of the .22lr, I do this in my .44 and .357 handguns also.

Handguns........
I do not like automatics. Have a few but never shoot any of them except for a .22 every once in a while. You can't handload a wide range of loads for them, they jam, they are slower for the first shot than any of the revolvers. They're good for cops that can't shoot well ( there are a suprising number of them) gang bangers and military.

My favorite hand gun is a Dan Wesson .44 mag. Very well made weapon and has interchangeable barrels. You can handload the 44 to super hot for defense/offense or hunting big game, to the swaged buckshot loads and everything in between.

Second favorite is my Thompson Contender. I like the Contender better than the Encore because it has a better trigger. It will take any barrel including rimfire and centerfire in the same frame and can be fitted with a rifle stock with a full range of rifle barrels and a 20 ga barrel. In fact, if it were not a single shot, it would be the perfect all around gun.

Come to think of it, for the one gun people, It may well be the perfect gun. You can get muzzle loading barrels, shot barrels (In either pistol or carbine configuration), calibers up to .458 mag.

A rifle stock and a box full fo barrels will give you something for every season....

[tanya]

If you have guns you should keep it to yourself too because they immediately make you a BIG target for robbery.  I like the little 410 shotgun it is small but shoots big.  We had to borrow a gun when we had bears 30.06 only hurts them and make them meaner.  nice big 444 that will do fine for a bear.  Better yet a good wrist rocket sling shot you know slient but deadly for those two legged pests. 

[glenn kangiser]

I had no problem with a bear with a 30.06.  One shot stopped 3 days of killing my chickens - guineas - and kept her out of the garbage.  Game warden couldn't seem to get the job done and she didn't like the trappers trap.

I like the 30.06 auto for the bigger stuff.  Have a .22 auto rifle for the little stuff and a Baretta .380 auto pistol for when I want to scare something.  I also have a .22 Ruger revolver at the other place with an extra magnum cylinder.  Need to get it up here one of these days.

My distant cousin lives in the LA area.  He has an arsenal.  Probably a good thing for city life.

[Redoverfarm]

I too have a wide aray of firearms. Most of which I never hardly use anymore.  My father was a gunsmith for some 50 years and kept me in some nice firearms. Birthdays and the like. Still keep the 22-250 for groundhogs ruining my fields. I would have to say that if you had to pick just one firearm that is "all purpose" without having multiple barrels it would have to be a pump action 12 ga.  You have the versitility of a wide range of loads, #7 for birds, #5-6 for squirrels, # 4 for turkeys,  the list goes on. 00# buck, and rifle slugs.  One gun many uses.  And for the two legged creatures you can start with # 7or #9 and work your way up.

[ScottA]

I'm with Redoverfarm on this one. 12ga. shotgun will cover 90% of your needs. Add I 30-06 if you want to own 2 guns. I personaly have no use for hand guns but I supose there are some places one might come in handy. I've found that more familiar you are with your wepon the more useful it is so one gun used for everything becomes pretty efficient after a while. I had a Thompson center contender in 30-30 and couldn't hit jack with it beyond 50 feet. Maybe I'm just a bad shot. Around here most hunting takes place at less than 50 yards so a shotgun/slug will do the trick on deer.

[glenn kangiser]

I wear the Baretta .380 auto when prospecting, especially if I see lots of drip irrigation lines in the area.

[glenn kangiser]

I need to get a shotgun again.  My old one was stolen years ago.

As to my choice of one gun - of what I have and know about - which is not much --

1. My 30.06 - very accurate and has stopped everything I needed to stop or shoot. I use it when I want to know for sure something is going to be dead.  Bullets are expensive - started to do my own loading but never quite got there.

2. Second  - my .22 semi-auto rifle for varmints, coons or smaller.  Cheap ammo.

[MountainDon]

I load swaged buckshot with very small charges of Bullseye powder to get the economy and performance of the .22lr, I do this in my .44 and .357 handguns also.

Hmmm, I'd not heard of that either...

[williet]

It  would depend on the area, but.....a good ole 12 guage pump, a .22 rifle, a .38 in the house and a .22 Bearcat to plink with....these would be the basic guns I believe everyone should start with...then a good large cal. rifle for hunting,if needed...I have all of these and several others, but I'm in the city right now and use my RWS 350 mag. pellet rifle for cats and such....it's a great gun too.

[Erin]

The only time I've used a firearm against a two-legged threat it was just my little single shot 20guage. 
We had an extremely drunk neighbor in our front yard trying to pick a fight with my husband. 
I grabbed the gun, but forgot the shells.  So I just beat him with it.   

We have the basics; couple of shotguns and a .22
DH wants a bigger rifle for Christmas though so I'm currently working on that one. 

[glenn kangiser]

Good job, Erin and not as many papers to file either.

[Redoverfarm]

OK Buffs. Anyone heard of a Daisy Heddon compressed jet fuel rifle, 22 cal.  My dad when he was a dealer bought him and myself one.  They only made a few and ATF made them stop production because they said they were not licensed as a firearm company.  It has some type of compressed fuel(dry) onto the back of a .22 bullet.  No casing ( I think this was the real kicker for ATF because it would have put the brass dealers out of buisness and could not be traced by casing marks(primer indentations).  Everything went out the barrel. Has a air cylinder that you cock similar to a pellet.  The air ignites the fuel.  The fuel is waterproof. In fact you can leave a bullet in a glass of water take it out and it works.  If you want to shoot indoors you just take a razor blade cut off some of the fuel and it decreases the velocity.

[MountainDon]

You're joking, right? 

[Redoverfarm]

No Don I am serious.  I only bought 1,000 rounds.  Every once in a while I let my son shot off a couple of rounds.  Lord knows you could never find any more ammo for it.  The ammo came in plastic tubes. 10 rounds per tube and 10 tubes per box. The only down side was that it is a single shot.  I never thought at the time but I got the one with the plastic stock and my father got the one with the wooden stock. His is probably worth more than mine.  It has the same velocity as
a .22 LR.  Sorth of        Huh.

One of the large gun manufactures a couple years ago tried to come up with something similar except that it was set off by an electical charge. Never flew for some reason.

[Redoverfarm]

I was sort of hoping that Peternap was on line as he would or could probably remember.  It must have been 20+ years ago.

[peternap]

I vaguely remember it. There was a big caseless ammo research boom at that time. There was a variation of that ammo developed for the military. Just never caught on. One problem with it was the bolt face and chamber mouth had to be modified to form a complete seal without the brass case acting as a gasket. Very interesting stuff though.

I expect the rifle is worth a fortune.

[MountainDon]

re: the Daisy & Heddon rifle.... the Daisy VL

  Ah-HAA!!!

http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2006/01/airgun-makers-that-spawned-firearms.html
scroll down about 1/3...

...and a photo of the ammunition... scroll down a little
http://www.ak47.net/forums/topic.html?b=6&f=11&t=226707

...and some more info
http://cartridgecollectors.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1806&view=next&sid=541cca384a44e0856edc9ca5a665b1c8
click on the image of the article; it expands. 

[glenn kangiser]

Cool find, Don.  Very interesting.

[Redoverfarm]

Good job Don.  I was going to take photo's and post but you were quicker on the draw than me.  I looked for someone on the site to estimate the value but did't find. Did you see it anywhere. Thought I might have overlooked something.

[desdawg]

I just have basic stuff. A 30.06, .243 varmit rifle which I bought for it's flat trajectory, 12 gauge pump and an old .22 rifle that my dad had when he was young. Nothing special. I am not a gun nut, just wanted to be equiped for different hunting situations.