Another SHTF thread

[GunTech]

I am working on a TEOTWAWKI novel, and the most recent SHTF thread got me thinking. What would you pick in this scenario?

Here's the background:

A new strain of viral hemorrhagic fever is introduced into the US (and thanks to rapid travel the rest of the world). It is highly transmissible and lethal. 50% of the US population is wiped out from the disease alone (estimates of the great plague of the 14th century are between 30 and 50%). Further, due to the dependence on infrastructure for deliveries of food, destruction of the political system, loss of the health system, sanitation, riots, etc, the final tally is closer to 90% dead in urbanized areas.

You are a survivor in a basically lawless, uncivilized future. There is no resupply other than what you can scavenge. Due to circumstances, you have to leave your 'hide' with whatever you can carry.

What is you rifle of choice?

 

[kfranz]

AR, .22 conversion kit, a can, and a wheelbarrow full of ammo. Stop me if you've heard this one before....

 

[Ed Ames]

.22LR of course.

The diseased ones/zombies have the hemorrhagic fever which means they bleed easily from every little cut or scrape. Opening a .22 caliber hole in one is going to be like a pinprick to a water balloon... a small beginning that results in a lot of fluid hitting the ground in a rush.

Besides, .22LR is always the right choice for a survival gun. What other round can take just about any game from rats to deer and still fit 50 rounds in a box you can easily fit in a child's pocket?

 

[GunTech]

You don't have to worried about the diseased. They are all dead. Anyone who has survived is either immune or hasn't been exposed. Your 'enemies' are the other people fighting over the scraps.

 

[P95loser]

Whatever gun Tom Selleck used on Quigly Down Under, just because I figure if the rest of the book is so off the wall, might as well make your gun the same.

 

[GTSteve03]

Something long-ranged and sturdy. If I'm on my own I don't want to get in a close-range firefight. I want to avoid confrontation if possible but if not I'll take them out before they know I'm there.

For me, my best option is my Swedish Mauser. The 6.5x55 round has great aerodynamic performance and low recoil. I can reload quickly via 5rd stripper clips. If I add a peep sight I'll be fine for long shots. It's long, solid wood/steel construction and can mount a bayonet if I have to. Nothing sticking out to break/snag easily. No optics that can break/battery die on me.

An M1 Garand would be another excellent choice and gives you a little more firepower being semi-auto. I just can't afford one right now!

 

[Hoppy590]

AK or M16. real deal. should be a pick up with Da Switch. plenty of ammo and mags to be found

or if your out in the country/woods go with a a lever gun or a bigger rifle like M14 or FAL... with da switch. both also have plenty of ammo and mags to scrounge.

theres always the trusty M1 or other milsurps. PSL's, SVD's, SVT's something in .30 haha

 

[Rock_Steady]

Right now, if it happened, it would be the trusty scout-scoped levergun in .357. 10 rounds on hand, more on the belt, and ammo is lighter than most rifle rounds. Besides, it worked in Shaun of the Dead.

 

[Ed Ames]

All dead?

Doesn't seem realistic. Everyone getting sick and 50% dying is a lot more likely than 50% getting sick and 100% of those dying. But it's your story...

In that case I'd want a .22LR. It's always the right choice for a survival gun. What other caliber allows an old sock and 500 rounds to serve double duty as an ammo pouch and a club?

Beyond that I might start with a .308 but I'd expect to acquire guns and ammo along the way and not carry too many on my person.

 

[Matt304]

Have you seen the movie I Am Legend? If you don't mind the lower quality, watch it: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQyNDU3NzI=.html?full=true#full

I would choose an accurate auto rifle in a big caliber. 300 Win or 300SAUM. You may require something that can reach out far if game presents itself at distance. The larger the game you can kill, the more meat that goes on your table. If your life is on the line, you want a gun that can capitalize on those opportunities that will exist. You can always use a 50BMG on a rabbit, but you can't use a .22 on an elephant. So I would not want some little self defense weapon caliber in this situation.

 

[takhtakaal]

AR, .22 conversion kit, a can, and a wheelbarrow full of ammo. Stop me if you've heard this one before....

Viva barkless chihuahuas!

 

[zinj]

Give me a repeating shotgun before a centerfire rifle.

 

[jakemccoy]

I love my Rem 870 Police, but carrying the ammo would be a beeyotch. Something in .308 Win would be more efficient. I'm thinking a Saiga 308 because I have one. However, I'm sure there are better guns that I just haven't tried out.

A pistol caliber Marlin carbine is appealing. Such a gun in combination with the same caliber on the hip seems like a good option.

Maybe this...
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/1894centerfire/1894C.aspx

...plus a handgun in .357 Mag might do the trick. The same combination in .44 Mag might work also. For a novel, this setup would be sufficiently low key so as to make it easier for the hero to keep an awe-inspiring appeal.

 

[silverlance]

dont' forget a slingshot. no, i'm serious. They are very useful things to have in a true SHTF situation. good for getting rat meat, pigeon meat, crow, dog, cat... can do quite a bit of damage to a human too, as Goliath would testify.

 

[GunTech]

Doesn't seem realistic. Everyone getting sick and 50% dying is a lot more likely than 50% getting sick and 100% of those dying. But it's your story...

Actually, the detail is more like 98% infection rate, 50% fatality. If you've read about VHF it's a good thing they don't transmit well. Machupo, Lassa etc don't have great survival rates once you actually get infected.

Haven't seen I am legend yet, but the first part of this story follows the whole process of the disease, from index case to the breakdown of society. Part two covers after.

As noted, in the case of one character in question, you have to carry what you need.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

you have'nt said that the character could NOT carry a pistol so it's allowed? if so give me a scoped Mini30 and an accurate .22LR pistol.

 

[ThomasT]

I agree on the slingshot. Goliath was killed with a sling. They are two different platforms. I can hit you with a slingshot and a 50 caliber round ball. But with a sling you are pretty safe. I've killed a few squirrels,cats and birds with an old Whammo Wrist Rocket.

As far as a gun goes give me a 22 rilfle or my savage 24 22 mag over 20 gauge.

I would hope that with 90% of the population dead people might be able to pull together and help each other out. In the Steven King book "The Stand" thats what they did after a fashion.

I wonder why every SHTF thread has everbody grabbing an AR 15 and planning on killing everyone they see? I guess a gun solves all the worlds problems.

Am i about to get flamed?

 

[wideym]

You might try want to change it to a modified, weaponized version of KHF (Korean Hemoragic Fever). It would be easier to link a massive outbreak to a tinpot dictator like Lil' Kim.

As far a what weapon, what do you or close family members have? Uncle Joe's 12guage duck gun will kill just as much as a full auto M-16. Or you could have the main charators use an old family gun or cheap POS pistol to obtain a better weapon from a bad guy.

 

[FourNineFoxtrot]

Answering hypothetical questions is a weakness of mine, so I'll bite.

Although... everyone's reaction to such a scenario would be a bit different. My initial reaction in any kind of TEOTWAWKI event is to get out of dodge. I live in a city, which is where I don't want to be when bad things happen. I'd probably pack up everything I can carry in the back of my truck, and high-tail it to my family who live upcountry. At that point, it's not really "What do I do?" so much as, "What do we do?" Odds are that at least some of them are going to survive the disease, and we'd probably have other extended family, friends of the family, and so on coming in. I'm not at all sure if we would have enough guns to arm everyone (I have a liberal family), so probably those fit to stand a watch would do so either with their own guns, or borrowed ones.

My own selection of arms is limited by what I own, or what others might bring to the table. In such a situation, I would probably start wearing my Sig P226 on a belt holster, and carrying my Remington 7615 outside, unless it's needed by whoever is on watch. I'm more likely to fight it out at our family manor on the hill than I am to run, simply because I have nowhere else to go. It isn't overwhelmingly defensible; too much cover, to close to town, but it's big enough to house all the people we'd have.

A more pressing issue is food. I can't stockpile food for everyone, and people probably won't bring enough to feed themselves. It's likely that we're going to have to go searching. Hopefully, that means paying cash for food at still-open stores. More likely, it means a raiding party of whoever we can arm driving down to a city, and raiding a costco or something. It's distasteful to think of becoming a "raider", as such people are known in Survivalist patois. I hope nobody thinks less of me for admitting this, but there it is. Hopefully we wouldn't be raiding, so much as scavenging.

 

[Ed Ames]

Yeah, 98% is "everyone" or near enough as makes no difference.

I think the choice depends a lot more on the character than any "ideal"... if he's a survivalist gun nut he should have a FAL in 308, a polish Tantal, an AK variant, or similar. If he's a kid who has never been hunting/really shot a gun but now must grow up and use dad's deer gun to survive he should have an old 336 or model 70 with the bolt gun being in an older sporting cartridge (6.5x68S, 300 savage, 30-06, etc) that would've been available maybe 40 years ago. If he's a recently discharged army guy he should have an AR-15 unless he's in California in which case he should have a kel-tec or the like. East coast hunter type should have a shotgun... you get where I'm going.

Start with the character then pick arms that would fit the character...not what gun people on the 'net would suggest... unless the character in question is an internet survivalist wanker?

 

[dispatch55126]

Is this a real world question or a book question as they would be very different.

For the book, you'd need something recognizable, Rambo-ish and capable of blowing things away. Something like a full auto M4 or M1A. The AK doesn't work since this is an American novel.

Real world-either a .22lr or shotgun. Ammo is everywhere and it'll put food on the table. Who needs a 200 yrd+ rifle since I plan on surviving.

 

[Geronimo45]

No4 Mk1-ish Enfield. 10rd mag, likely effective versus the majority of critters in North America. While other folks would probably snap up the 5.56 and .30-06, the .303 might still remain. Also, you can use a .32 ACP conversion sleeve for little critters. Awfully fast running for a bolt gun.
Fewer parts means few parts to break. Ammo can be carried easily and cheaply on stripper clips. The No4s, IIRC, have peep sights. Some have the ladder-ish peep sights.

 

[ndh87]

With what i have right now, i'd be taking my marlin 44 leveraction and glock 17, probably my .22 buckmark as well.

 

[HorseSoldier]

M4.

If your character(s) are wandering across what's left of America, especially if they're doing so with whatever's stuffed in their backpack, the logistical issues just make too much sense.

• Ammo is highly portable for a centerfire rifle (though can't hold a candle to the earlier suggestion of .22 LR)
• In a post-apocalyptic setting, obtaining ammunition via trade may be an uncertain prospect but I'm going to guess that if you include military stockpiles, 5.56mm is easily the most common centerfire rifle cartridge in the continental US.
• As 5.56mm chambered weapons will also be the most common select fire military rifles in the country, there will be motivation for any surviving clump of people with an industrial base to keep the ammunition in production or at least reload it on a large scale.
• Again including military stocks, there are probably more AR-15/M16/M4 parts in CONUS than anything else. Better odds of scrounging up or trading for something needed if something breaks.
• M4 isn't the only light and portable carbine out there but this is another good argument.

Note all the above assumes your novel is set in a recently post-apocalyptic timeframe. If it is set further after the disaster, when native (and possibly exotic) large four legged predators have made a come back, or if the book is set in bear country from the start, something in .308 might be better.

 

[oregonhunter]

win 1894 in 30-30, the rest of the tacticoolers and general public would not look at your gun and see it as a threat wich would keep you low key but you could really do damage when you needed to.