Down Hill From Here

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HANDLOADER

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If the country was to all of a sudden fall. Say to the economy or a nuclear blast or anything that causes societys to fall apart. What weapon would you have. The rules are simple
1. No rim fire
2. Easy to reload for
3. Can make own bullets
4. Must be powerful enough to take down med to big game while still being able to defend yourself.

My choice is a RUGER black hawk in a 357 MAG with my handloads.

GOD BLESS

Handloader
 
While I really doubt your scenario, I'd go with a lever action in .357. Rounds would still be viable even if loaded with black powder. Not as good as modern powders, but good enough. Plus, .38/.357 compatibility. Longer sight radius means more accuracy. Longer barrel means you get all of the energy in the cartridge. More rounds in my magazine than your cylinder. I can top off without having to take my carbine out of battery. Aimed shots are the only ones that count. Durable, proven design should last a long time if taken care of.

Downside is that I might lose cases if I'm not careful. Slower to fire than semi or full auto. Have to clean it from the muzzle. Moderately complicated action that takes some know-how to repair if it breaks. No way to mount a scope on the top of the receiver.
 
Something in 357mag is a good idea...FOR A BACKUP WEAPON. I'd pick one of those 3" barrelled SAA revolvers for my backup.

Primary would absolutely have to be a full auto capable assault rifle chambered in 308winchester. Either a G3 or a FNFAL.

Now, about your thread. I think it would be much more interesting to discuss WHAT is going to cause a total collapse. I say it will start out with gang warfare. Then the problem will spread. Initially it will be the black gangs against the latino gangs. THen when the government tries to intervene, all hell breaks loose and it turns into a balkan style ethnic/religion war between latino catholics and black muslims with white separatists and skin heads not able to stay out of the "fun" and they compound the problem until it's every man for himself.

In the chaos, the mafia and the hell's angels go to war over who gets to grab control of the country. Or maybe the join forces peacefully instead and divvy up the country without any bloodshed.

Mexicans invade to backup their american latino brothers. Islamic extremists invade to back up their black muslim brothers. The united nations invades to try to disarm everyone, but once they get here, they realize that prospect is pretty near impossible. So, being the corrupt organization that the UN is, they conspire with the mafia and the hells angels to only dissarm the non-latino, non-muslim, non-mafia, and non-hells angels portion of the population.

In otherwords, only the innocent by-standers get dissarmed and wholesale raping and pillaging ensues.

America ends. Canada falls next. Russia takes over europe. china takes over everything else.
 
Already have several - M1 Garand. (And yes, I reload .30-06.)

What I don't understand is why you limit yourself to one firearm:confused:.
We have several handguns and a 12 gauge pump loaded with #4 buckshot for in-house social work. For medium-range around-the-spread work we have .30 caliber M1 Carbines (or .357 Mag Marlin Model 1894, .30-30 Marlin Model 336, or 7.62x39mm SKS). For heavier needs, (unlikely IMHO) the Garands are backed up by a .308 M1A1, a .30-06 SAFN49 and a 8mm Hakim.
 
If it's something to make my own bullets, how about a .54 or .50 muzzleloader? You can manufacture the powder yourself too. You only get one shot, but once the ammo supply for everyone else runs out your'e sitting pretty.
 
If it's something to make my own bullets, how about a .54 or .50 muzzleloader? You can manufacture the powder yourself too. You only get one shot, but once the ammo supply for everyone else runs out your'e sitting pretty.

+1 on that. The humble flintlock rifle and shotgun put a lot of food on the tables of Appalachian and Ozark Mountain Folk up through the 40's. It is the only weapon that I can think of that common folk can outfit absolutely without manufactured components. There are recipes for making your own gunpowder, using urine or cave dirt to distill Potassium Nitrate. Flints can be found in most riverbeds and obsidian works too. Pure lead can be cast into balls, and a pail with a bunch of holes dropped from the top of a roof into a barrel of water makes for usable shot.
 
This is just another silly 'what if' Hollywood type situation unless you open the discussion beyond guns. I reload for every center fire I own, so I have reasonable stockpiles of components for all. Practice would stop in a SHTF scenario and it's doubtful that all that many bad guys are coming my way in particular-that stockpile will last quite some time.

What will be in short supply post Armageddon is readily convertible sources of energy--i.e. gasoline, natural gas.

Transportation will fail almost as fast as the lights go out and the water stops flowing. Bicycle is a mid term option, but replacement parts will dry-up soon. There will be no planes, trains or even trucks in very short order. Time to find a horse or donkey or ox-if they survived.

Hand tools and seeds are essential to establishing a balanced sustainable food source--fresh meat is nice, but what makes anyone believe that animals will survive a disaster that rips civility apart? Know anything about salting meat, drying, dehydrating or smoking? Better get those skills before you knock down a surviving deer or elk unless you want most of the kill spoiled.

Medical supplies and sanitation is next. Can you get by without allergy meds? Or BP pills? And even if all the dead somehow dissolve without the associated disease, what about all the waste from those that survive?

At his point maintaining a home and finding clothing will go from just expensive to critical and time consuming.

So, can you farm or perform some cottage type industry like weaving or grain grinding or blacksmithing. Smart and sturdy enough to herd livestock-assuming some survives-hell do you have any skills that you could barter for food, shelter, clothing or medical care? What will pass for money?

Unless you have a relatively minor catastrophe like a hurricane, typhoon, tornado, flood, wildfire, mudslide, earthquake or volcano on the small order that earth/humans have already survived--most simply by being far away, in a true complete breakdown of society via some holocaust, which gun to have will be secondary to just staying alive.
 
I think it would be similar to a Mad Max scenario. But just in case, I have a fully functional farm out in the boonies where I could flee to from the city. We'd distill moonshine and dig potatoes all day long.
 
12ga. pump. With the right shells it is good for birds or bears and anything in between.
Agreed. For versatility, I'd say a shotgun would be VERY hard to beat for single gun versatility for hunting, SD, HD, etc combined.

Everything from bird shot to buckshot, and then the big ol' slugs too. Also, shotshells are mind numbingly easy to reload (not that brass is difficult, but shotshells are even simpler, IMHO). A reliable 12ga will cover evry need with the exception of maybe long range sniping. although, if you are real good, and know your gun, loads, and ballistics, I'll bet you could do pretty well with a slug barrell with good sights. Maybe not .50bmg Barett, of benchrest or whatever the current "top" "sniper" rifle is, good, but good enough to get some fairly long shots from concealment at a distance. I'm sure there are probly some VERY skilled slug gun shooters out there that could hit at surprising distances.
 
A complete breakdown into stone age or even pre-petroleum age can't happen. Too many industrialized nations with industry intact will try to take advantage of the situation one way or another. Either through trade or through direct military action. One way or another, the modern world will wiggle its way into the war torn regions. If you think you are going to run off into the forest with your blunderbuss and fend off armies of naked starving stick wielding hoards, you are dilusional. It won't be like that at all.
 
Russia had a full scale overhaul of their government and monetary systems not too long ago and it didn't take them that long to get back on their feet...paranoid much?
 
I guess it's fun to fantisize. But reality is that most, like a real major portion, of the folks on these forums have a multi-multitude of weapons already. Better prep questions would be on ammo stocks and they've been done to death. A better senario would be, "what would your first line of defense be?" Would you line up your M/N's, second line of SKS's followed by high ground shooters with the Mausers and 03's? That would be mine. With the combo of my neighbors and family, that would give me approximately huntable 100 acres with a half dozen wells and a few generators. Actually my whole area would be a formitable compound, if everybody held tight. Since we all be hillbillies, I think we can git along jus fine:).
kid
 
If the country was to all of a sudden fall. Say to the economy or a nuclear blast or anything that causes societys to fall apart. What weapon would you have. The rules are simple
1. No rim fire
2. Easy to reload for
3. Can make own bullets
4. Must be powerful enough to take down med to big game while still being able to defend yourself.

Question has been asked repeatedly so I'll give the same repeat answer.

In a "minor/temporary" breakdown I'd choose a rifle and pistol in .357 magnum/.38 special and teaming up with all my friends and neighbors to ride it through.

In a major breakdown, all civilization gone, just me vs the plagues of zombies...I'd probably only need one bullet.
 
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