If you had a 10/22, a Mark III and $2,000 to put together a "budget arsenal," what would you choose?
[-snip-]
You may also use one weapon for more than one role provided the application is practical. To maintain the integrity of the exercise, assume that these would be the only weapons you would ever own. Roles include:
Nightstand or Under the bed gun:
"Pack" or "Kit" gun:
[strike]Trunk gun:[/strike]
Car gun (handgun):
Concealed carry (capable of IWB and pocket carry in shorts):
Defensive rifle (SHTF carbine):
Defensive sidearm:
Long rifle (bolt-action):
Without combining roles or using the .22s, that's $250 per weapon. Good luck. Have fun.
Someone else has already mentioned the "arsenal" thing, so I won't thump on that. Even "armory" is probably inflating things a bit. "Arsenal" is press-speak for "OMG! What a crap-load of gunz!" Those are some trolls worth not feeding.
Perhaps I should have phrased the question like this: If you had $2K and your .22LR guns to make the most complete weapons system possible, how would you spend it?
The general bases covered should be home defense, CCW, trunk, bug-out carbine/pistol, and long rifle.
Well, this might be an interesting exercise . . .
Nightstand or
Under the bed gun: | . . . | Well, I would use maybe the XD-40. ($550 new with night sights) |
| "Pack" or "Kit" gun: | . . . | I use the Marlin P70SS Papoose. ($220 new) |
| Car gun (handgun): | . . . | I rotate, but suitable for this is the Taurus PT111 Millennium Pro. ($330 new) |
Concealed carry
(capable of IWB and
pocket carry in shorts): | . . . | Yeah. Mine (Kahr P9 @ $600 new) is not going to fit the price profile,
although maybe decent price used, so let me suggest either the
Kel-Tec PF9 or the Ruger LC9 @ $350 or so.
Oh, wait, I forgot the Taurus PT709 "Slim" @ $300. |
Defensive rifle
(SHTF carbine): | . . . | You've already covered the Ruger Mini 14, so let me suggest the
Kel-Tec SU-16 Bravo. ($500 used) It accepts standard AR mags, eats
virtually any ammo, weighs less than 5 lbs, folds up for pack carry.
Frankly, it doesn't have the build quality of the Mini 14, but mine have
never malfunctioned. |
| Defensive sidearm: | . . . | Taurus PT911, compact 9mm service pistol, 15 round mag. (paid $350 new,
now $450 or so) Compare to CZ-75B at ~$575.
Prefer the CZ if you have the dollars. |
| Long rifle (bolt-action): | . . . | Well, I don't actually own a bolt-action rifle.
Let me therefore suggest a lever action: Marlin 336 series. Can be had
for around $300-$400 |
Now, looking over the prices I've quoted, I can see that with a little shopping you can bring those prices down, since some of them are quoted as new.
I like the Taurus PT911, but if I had it to do over again, I'd spend the extra bucks and take the CZ 75B. They were side by side in the case when I got mine, and I actually went prepared to get the CZ 75B P01, for only about $100 more, but the PT911 pointed more naturally, held more rounds, cost less, so I went with that. In hindsight, I'd take the CZ on a do-over.
The PT709 wasn't available when I was shopping, but given recent news reports, it seems to be very much up to the job.
Using the PT111 as a car gun is viable if you don't have a lot of space. It will drop into most center consoles. It also has a self-resetting double-action trigger, which allows a second-chance re-strike on a misfire. It has a 12-round capacity, so it's compact size isn't that much of a compromise. Considering that a "car gun" would be at least partly a precaution against car jacking, having a ready-to-go pistol that requires nothing beyond "pull the trigger" isn't a bad idea.
Sorry I don't have any advice on bolt-action rifles. If ammo availability and common use is a factor, then the Marlin 336 series (.30-30) is perhaps a viable alternative. With the newer Hornady ammo, it's an honest 300 yard rifle. With a tang sight or low-end optic, 200 yards is pretty much cake. With a decent optic, 300 yards is proven. With the more conventional ammo, you can expect good performance at 150 yards, or even 200. The .30-30 cartridge is easily one of the most common cartridges out there, found on shelves in remote mom-n-pop general stores and gas stations.
The Ruger Mini 14 -- especially one made within the last six years -- is certainly a viable "emergency" rifle. It uses another really commonplace round, available in a whole range of loadings for darn near any application. It should be noted that this would also be quite suitable for home defense. Although I suggested the SU-16 series as an alternative, the Ruger's build quality is better, and if it had to last a lifetime, I'd take the Ruger over the Kel-Tec.
[I will remark, though, that the folding Kel-Tec rifle might be useful as a kit gun. Especially the "Charlie" version. Compact, light, common round, common magazine, can also be fired when the stock is folded (unlike the Alpha and Bravo versions).]
My kit rifle choice (Marlin Papoose) was predicated on a couple of things. It's really light. It's more durable than the AR-7. It shoots the most common ammo anywhere. You can carry the rifle and a hundred rounds of ammo, and still be carrying less weight than a lot of other rifles without any ammo. Mine lives in the truck, along with a brick of 500 rounds, and a few hundred rounds of performance quality ammo (Stingers, Velocitors, etc.), and I could grab the rifle in its carry bag, a couple hundred rounds of ammo, and still have space and weight allocation for everything else.
So, maybe somewhere in all this rambling there is something you can use.
Enjoy.
