19th Century Anti-Riot Guns

[Puncha]

Imagine this scenario:

You are a business owner and your 2 storey shopfront premises is located in the surburbs of a major city. Due to a "Rodney King" style incident, a full scale riot has broken out. As you've invested much $$ and effort into your business (it's not a gun store or outdoors outfitters) you are loathe to abandon your premises to looting mobs. Hence, you decide to bug-in at your shop premises to defend it. Your desk clerk has also volunteered to stay behind to protect the property.

Due to the unexpected nature of this riot, you only have the following guns in your car boot (they were left there from your hunting trip last week):

1 CZ452 .22lr bolt action rifle with 400rds of high speed HP ammo.
1 SxS 12ga shotgun with 70rds of 2 3/4" 9-pellet 00 buckshot.
1 .45LC single action revolver with 100 rds of LRN ammo.

Assuming that your clerk is decently skilled with the .22 rifle, would you be comfortable with the SxS and peacemaker replica in the defense of your business over a 24-36hour period?

Note: Food, water and sanitation are not an issue as you have supplies handy.
Note to all spelling Nazis: I missed out an "i" in the Anti in the title. Also, the 1st option should say "good enough" instead of "go enough".

 

[Euclidean]

I'd be grateful to have anything at all even though I would prefer something different. Those tools work as well as they ever did even if there are better tools for this situation.

There's honestly not really a choice here, so why does it matter how I feel about it?

 

[nbkky71]

You do the best with the tools you have, whether it's an AR, a single action revolver or a SxS shotgun.

Let the bad guys worry about who's going to get first one to get hit with the shotgun pellets and the 6 rounds of .45LC

 

[22-rimfire]

Use what you have on hand. 70 rounds of shotgun ammunition is a fair amount to have lying around a store. I would say you would be far more likely to have perhaps a box (25) and that would probably be plenty.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I know it's .45 Long Colt, but Lead Round Nose? Wouldn't you use hollowpoints?

 

[Sharps-shooter]

I'd rather have an ar, but you can solve a lot of problems with a double barrel shotgun and a six shooter. I mean, we're talking looters and rioters here, rather than a commando unit bent on taking over my store. If you can simply persuade such a group that their energies would be more profitably spent elsewhere, they'll move on to the easy pickings.

Once, in Europe, I "persuaded" five guys with blades not to mug me. I did this by brandishing a broken bottle and saying "one of you will not go home tonight". I guess they went and mugged someone else

 

[Black Knight]

Remington 870 Wingmaster w/ 20 inch Rifle sight barrel, and any of my DA revolvers or semi-auto pistol. On the job I carry a semi-auto but recently off duty I have been carrying a 4 inch Colt Python.

 

[Diamondback6]

I've always been a firm believer in the theory of:

"Better" is the enemy of "Good Enough."--Adm. Sergei Gorshkov

Along with Moritz's First Rule of Gunfighting: "Have a Gun!"

And these two things in tandem lead me to go with the biggest, meanest guns I can lay my filthy hands on. If that means an SAA and a SxS 12-gauge, then I guess it's the best available and I'll have to make it work. I'd rather have a pair of specifically-fitted-to-my-tactics 1911s and an AA12 modified with an M203, but we can't always have what we want and gotta make do with what's available...

Like the old saying, "Bring what ya got and fight what ya brought!"

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Wheelie, SxS, & Bolt?

Well, if I actually got to CHOOSE my poison, those would not be top of my list, but I'm pretty sure I could make a convincing argument with the crowd that they might not want to come up close and count the guns.

I'm not sure I could even get the words "comfortable" and "defending myself from a mob" into the same sentence.

If I could change one weapon, I'd swap the SxS for a lever gun in .357 and a hundred rounds of whatever (hey, JSP if I get to pick).

 

[Caimlas]

That would be just fine. Short of a horde of zombies, or a crowd of several hundred or more, I'm thinking it would be a more-than-sufficient deterent - especially with the 00 buck shot, if you can make your presence known from the roof, and then leave the clerk indoors with the revolver and .22LR. Or maybe put him on the roof with the .22LR as a visual deterent, and you stay inside for 'just in case'.

With a mob small enough to see the results of someone being shot within a couple seconds (say, under 300 people), I don't see why you'd not be able to drive them off. Hell, the resounding boom of a SxS shotgun (both barrels, even) in an urban area should be enough to scare the bejesus out of most anyone.

 

[Colt46]

Why not bug out?

It's only property. That can be taken care of by insurance and no interest government loans. Given the weapons provided I'd rather sneak away with my tail between my legs.

 

[ArfinGreebly]

Colt46

While you are free to bug out, I think I would not be joining you.

I think, all things considered, I'd being doing the Korean thing.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't suffer from accute hero syndrome.

On the other hand, I just don't believe letting rioters run unchallenged is the right thing to do.

I be standin'.

 

[Prince Yamato]

I've been mulling this over since I bought a Ruger SuperBlackHawk. I own an AK and I have a Beretta 92. You know what though? It's really about the accuracy. If I were in Iraq, well, crap, I'd want a higher-capacity weapon. In your typical US breakin scenario though, i think a single action revolver would suffice quite well. Most confrontation is going to happen at 10 feet or less. At that distance, you shouldn't have trouble shooting your assailant. Any more than 6 bullets into one person is probably overkill and a court of law would probably say so too.

 

[mete]

Riots ?? The worst riots in this country were the Draft Riots in NYC during the Civil War .These were protests against the military drafts that were instituted. Though guns [typical muzzle loading muskets] were made available to the public to put down the riots ,efforts were too little and too late.Many lives were lost along with huge amounts of property damage !! ...The NY Times supported the draft and were afraid their offices would be attacked so they got some Gatling guns to defend their offices !!!! ...Riots are best dealt with by using great force very quickly ,unfortunately politicians lack the fortitude to do this !!

 

[Kaylee]

Don't get me wrong -- I don't suffer from accute hero syndrome.

On the other hand, I just don't believe letting rioters run unchallenged is the right thing to do.

Well said. If more folk took it upon themselves to stop that kind of nonsense when it came close to home, we'd have a heck of a lot less of it.

To the original question... enh. As already mentioned ain't ideal, but it beats nothing.

 

[ilcylic]

I'm gonna stand firmly between ArfinGreebly and Colt46.

It's only property. I have insurance. I don't need to worry too bad about losing my shirt if the place gets emptied to the last can of tuna.

It's something of a moral imperative to defend my property against looters, if nothing else than for the example it sets for later looters.

My wife is approximately a zillion times more important to me than any physical object I might have in the store.

My choice, therefore, is to use what I have with me to fight my way out of the riot, and to my "broom closet" full of autoloading shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, and AK-47s. Then I'll defend what's really most important to me against rioters. Since I've got that clerk with me, we might all just hop in the car and work our way to where her family is, too. But we'll be loaded for bear.

----

So I guess my answer to the poll question would be: If I'm facing a SHTF situation, and that's what I've got with me, that's what I'll face it with. But it's sure as heck not my first choice.

 

[ripcurlksm]

Anyone consider getting an iron bucket on their roof for hot oil?

 

[SoCalShooter]

I like old west tech but I am gonna use the SHTF scenario combo of

870 pump action
AR 15
.357mag six gun
1911
tomahawk
ka-bar


Some may wonder if I can carry all this plus ammo...the answer is yes.

 

[geekWithA.45]

My preference for Rodney King duty would be my AR, a high cap autoloading handgun, a bug, armor, and a blade.

That being said, I can make do w/ whatever, and am a firm proponent of the sentiment that just because you don't have your favorite or preferred weapons with you doesn't mean you're unarmed and helpless.

 

[RevolvingCylinder]

I'd rather have a .45 Colt SA revolver, as .45 "Long Colt" is non-existent thus there would be no ammunition available for such an imaginary thing.

The savage creatures won't care what you're firing at them. Their primitive little minds will only understand that the "BOOM" can be painful.

 

[Biker]

I do believe that I'd get by with the SS and the .45 LONG COLT .
I've been shooting .45 LONG COLT in various guns for years now.
It oughta do.

Biker

 

[BobMcG]

"Are you comfortable with a SxS shotgun and SA revolver for property protection? " Do you mean as in... "Would you be comfortable with a SxS shotgun and SA revolver for property protection? " Taken in this context a simple yes or no answer would be all that's needed to fill the bill and my answer is yes.
Nothing different is "needed" to get the job done and done well. Does anyone honestly think the older weapons haven't done their fair share of dispatching the good, the bad, and the anything in between?

I'm setup and ready to take on the task the modern way or in a more traditional manner. It doesn't make a lick of difference to me which way it goes down. The outcome will be the same.

 

[kudu]

Seeing as how the 19th century didn't have most of the guns you have on your poll, and we are in the 21st century now, I guess the old SxS and .45 would be good enough, the .22 would not be feasible at that time in the 1800's. Unless your asking if old 19th century guns are as good today as yesteryear.

 

[tnieto2004]

shotgun

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

I'll take my CAR 15 + CZ75 SP01

51 rds w/o reloading.