Best Truck Gun

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I like MachIVShooter's choice, but we call that a Bar Gun, Course if your trucks parked down at the bar 25% of the time I think your OK.
 
I think the Mosin-Nagants are the best. They're powerful, generally inexpensive, stoutly built and best of all as a truck gun you can REMOVE THE BOLT before you leave the vehicle. That way if a thief breaks into your cab all he has is a piece of wood with a barrel and receiver. He'll have to headspace a new bolt to make a functional rifle. He cannot shoot you with your own rifle. Plus if you hold the bolt in your fist with the knob through your fingers it makes a pretty nice defensive weapon.
 
Wide open country gives a different perspective on what to carry in the vehicle. Several reasons drive the consideration of a long arm.

  • The distances involved and the armament of potential adversaries.
  • The extended time it can take for law enforcement to show up.
  • The potential trouble with large game and predatory animals.
  • Back country survival scenarios.


Personally, I carry a Puma .45 Colt lever gun with a 16" barrel in my car and a Marlin .357 Magnum lever gun with an 18.5" barrel in my pickup. Both vehicles have a couple handguns in each as well.

Do I feel all this mobile firepower is absolutely necessary to my safety...nope, I doubt I'll ever need any of it. But if I do ever need it...boy will I need it!

As to the power of the long guns, I feel both guns have all the power I'm likely to need even against the large wildlife around here using the +P Buffalo Bore ammo driven along the longer barrels of the lever guns.

P.S. I live in Southwest Montana, North of Yellowstone. There are Grizzly bears, black bears, moose, elk, mountain lions etc. in the area.
 
Good analogy OrangePwrx9
My choice for several years was a lever action .44mag. The Rancher I leased from carried a .30cal M1 carbine. We dispatched quite a few hogs over the years before he passed away. I would love to own that carbine.
 
Motega: "That's cool you live in a state where you can shoot black bears for messing with your bee hives. Where is that again?

I live dead center in the most dense black bear population in our country and most likely the world. I have seen dozens of bears over 600 pounds and many closer to 800 pounds so not only are there a LOT of them, they're BIG... and though I fully support and participate in hunting them it grinds my gears to hear people talk about poaching. "

NY...if they're screwing with beehives. You know about beekeeping? Maybe halt the rush to judgment until you do.

So you didn't hear anyone talk about poaching. What you heard was common sense.
 
I have a Model 24 Savage in 22 Mag/29 ga Mag and a 30-30 Model 94 in saddle scabereds hanging behind the back seats of the truck.
 
Man, I hate to back up, but Motego I owe you an apology. I went back and read some of your previous logs and your not the ___ ____ I thought you were. But, when you went off about bear land, and acting like you couldn't tell the difference between protection of property, animal depredation and poaching... well, we thought...but now I know you were just funnin us. I'll just bet if that same bear was tearing the wheels off your house you might shoot him a little , just to make him stop.
 
BluegrassDan said:
I don't really understand the concept of a "truck gun." Can a person justify needing a long gun to defend yourself at 200 yards? Long guns are too slow and unwieldy for self defense in a vehicle anyhow.

Maybe I'm wrong?
Click to expand...
Rifles trump handguns any day of the week, even at very short ranges and a "truck gun" is usually in addition to a handgun
 
I agree with COSMOLINE, Mosin is towards the top of my AlwaysGoBang list,plenty of power, simple as a dead bolt lock, only has 2 more moving parts than a hammer, and cheap. 10-4 on that bolt idea too, Cosmo I bet that would leave a pretty good Thump Knot!
 
Moisins were designed to save the government money on ammo by being so painful to shoot that a soldier so armed would rather charge his enemy and club him to death
 
If you and your neighbors are shooting cans out of the air and hitting them 4-7 times ,then your already shooting further than 500yds! Wheres them bullits landin! But if you really can do that, I doubt any one will bother you about it, I guess there's a certain poetry in that.
 
Is this gun going to go IN the truck, or are you going to drag it BEHIND the truck?

Is there some reason why you won't be putting the gun in a case?
Are you going to leave it in the truck, where it will get stolen?

Why would you want any less of a rifle when driving a truck, than you would want under other circumstances?
 
Jeff56, it doesn't take long to load a semi auto. Keep the mag separate from the gun, in the trunk, etc, and in a few seconds, a fella in Ohio is legal and armed as well as the bad guys. No, you can't keep it all up front with you in the cab/driver's area, but a rifle and ammo can still accompany you on the ride.
 
I don't know what got you guys off on BEARS. When I said BAR gun, I didn't mean like Dan'l Boon kilt a Bar on this tree Bar, I meant like Dew Drop Inn Bar.
 
You are correct Sir, If we were talking about Davy Crocket or songs, I was making a halfass reference to the folk story that told that Daniel Boone carved that into a tree, and I'm sorry if it wasn't funny I guess I'm just trying too hard. But dont feel bad alot of people get them mixed up. I think its because Fess Parker played both parts in pretty much the same outfit
 
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I carried a Mosin Nagant M-38 in my truck for a while before I got my SKS. Its a good choice but I figured I would rather keep the Mosin in decent shape and let the SKS take the abuse... On that thought, A full size 91-30 wouldn't even fit in the cab of my Tacoma!!
 
I have seen dozens of bears over 600 pounds and many closer to 800 pounds so not only are there a LOT of them, they're BIG...
Click to expand...

How do you estimate the weight of a bear by seeing it? It seems to me an individual would have to see LOTS of bears actually weighed in order to visually estimate the weight of bears.
Also, since the largest black bear ever recorded weighed 880 lbs., I'd sure like to know where you're seeing blacks that are close to 800 lbs.
35W
 
Lever actions slow to load, I think with a little practice you might surprise yourself. If with either a Winchester or Marlin when you drop the lever, the shell carrier, is in the same position as when feeding from the tube mag, so with either rifle held barrel slightly down, and leaned a little left for the Marlin, you can drop a round into the chamber directly, and close the lever and its cocked and ready to fire like right now. you can load the next one the same way if you need to, or charge the magazine if you find you have more time than you thought. Try it . I find I can do this faster than I can load an SKS with a stripper clip. Sustained fire would go to SKS but speed to first shot from empty? Lever. Also if its a social or decidedly UN-social situation, I wouldn't count on it being without witnesses, with my luck it would be 3 soccer moms, a college professor and my insurance man. It might help if Im holding a gun like the DUKE uses as opposed to a Uncle Ho special, or God forbid something black and ugly. What do you think? Oh I almost forgot, favorite brand for this would be Ted Williams, JC Higgins, Western Auto, Western Field. They run about 30 bucks cheaper,at the pawn shop, are still made by Winchester or Marlin, and when the opposing counsel or well meaning media try to demonize your choice, named after a sports hero, they'll have to work at it!
 
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I have seen hundreds of bears in the woods and comparing them to various other sources I'm pretty sure I'm close. NJ Fish and Game estimated several bears inthe Delaware Water Gap at over 1000 pounds. You WILL see a 1000 pound black bear killed in NJ over the next few years if we can manage to continue the very necessary and sensible hunt we had this year. Often I 5 bears for every deer while I'm hunting in early fall- not comforting considering I stalk with a 45# longbow. I have a photo somewhere of a 800+ pound bear in my yard... I'll try and dig it up. In the meantime enjoy this recent pic- this sow with her 2 cubs I am estimating at 275 pounds. Go ahead and post some pics of bears with known weights and we'll see how close I can get.
 

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