FerFAL
Member
First thing first. Bug out? Where? Half the guys that suggest heading to the hills can’t survive a weekend without their VISA card, and if they can, what about their wives? kids?
Even if you do know how to survive in the wilderness and you are on your own, how long can you last?
Granted, if you know your stuff, and if you are in a fairly forgiving region with a certain amount of vegetation and wild life you can get by, but most of the time it’s just better to bug in and “ride the storm”.
If natural or man made disasters that could force you out of your home are a possibility to be considered in your location, you need a fixed BOL. Even if there’s no risk you can think of, a “plan B” bug out location is something you should consider anyway.
I’ve always claimed that the handgun is the survivalists main weapon, simply because that’s what we have with us when SHTF, but that doesn’t mean that a rifle is not a better fighting tool, its just that the concealability of the handgun is such a mayor advantage, it turns it into the weapon you‘ll have when you need it.
Many survival minded folks talk about “after-SHTF” as if you’d be magically dropped into a Mad Max movie. It’s doesn’t work that way, cops don’t disappear, nor do politicians, judges and lawyers. They are all still around, and even if they don’t stop the looting, just try going out there with your rifle on your back. Murphy comes around and a nervous cop or trooper with an itchy finger will put a round through your skull.
It’s like some law of nature or something, looting scumbags get away with hitting the local gunstore, but “Joe good citizen” gets turned into worm food.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t need firepower, rather the contrary, you need all the firepower you can get , but you have to be discrete about it!
That’s why I always suggest a high capacity pistol instead of a revolver, 6 rounds just isn’t enough, at least not when you have serious trouble to consider.
Some weeks ago I took a defensive shooting class with a guy who’s arguably one of the best instructors around, and he talked about an average of 15 rounds being fired during a street gunfight here in Argentina.
The good old 3 or 4 rounds average doesn’t fly here. I’ve known of gunfights where at least 50 rounds where fired, just by the bad guys. On an armored truck robbery some weeks ago, BG fired over 30 rounds, cops didn’t even get to fire once.
It’s not Iraq or Vietnam, but it’s a high capacity world out there, and when lead start flying it certainly pours down like tropical rain in a matter of minutes.
The words “It was like a war zone” gets heard often when the media interviews the witnesses after gunfight.
If it’s a SHTF situation you need to be able to fend off large groups of attackers and that requires a lot of ammo.
Granted, personally, most of the time I only carry my gun with only one 15 round mag, but give me a brake guys! carrying isn’t even legal here… If I lived in USA I’d be carrying at least two spare mags, a back up gun and an AK in the trunk of the car with at least 5 extra mags already loaded.
The situation Nomad was talking about with the FAL PARA was about a guy that tried to steal my car. I saw him and approached him from my friend’s house with my FAL PARA folded under my coat. The guy told me he was going to take my car and I pulled the gun out. The guy almost pissed his pants and couldn’t even articulate words as he walked away.
Of course, a FAL is an intimidating weapon, specially when it materializes as if by magic. It’s also one heck of a firearm. No shots where fired, but what if two guys jumps from behind the trees and started shooting?
You cant carry a FAL on you all day long during your average work day, but you can keep it in the trunk of your car, and folding stocks conceal much better, they fit nicely in a backpack too…
You can get by a crisis without ever firing a round. Even if you DO use your gun to defuse a situation, most of the time people simply don’t want to get shot ( How awesome is that!) but you have to accept the possibility that if it does en up in a gunfight, you cant start screaming “My Combat Master instructor who writes regularly for Guns & Ammo told me gunfights only last 5 seconds and only 3 or 4 rounds are fired!!!”
No, you have to finish it and if you’re hit by dedicated kidnapers or robbers you have do deal with 3 to 6 guys armed with high capacity semi autos at the very least, meaning 15 rounds per guy, and maybe some center fire semi auto rifles and shotguns along with them. Bullet proof vests are also common among pro criminals.
“That only happens in movies ”,”You think you are Rambo?” “ If I’m against 4 armed kidnappers I’m dead anyway”
WRONG! Granted, your odds aren’t that good, but they are much worse if all you have is a 5 shot 38 snubby.
I’ve known people and I’ve known of several cases where they managed to get out of such situations alive, thanks to a combination of luck, nerve AND adequate hardware for the situation, where a revolver wouldn’t have been enough, and a rifle would have been even better.
You might go thorough hell without firing a single round… or you may end up getting ambushed by carjackers a 11PM and end up firing 100-200 rounds. YOU JUST DONT KNOW.
FerFAL
Even if you do know how to survive in the wilderness and you are on your own, how long can you last?
Granted, if you know your stuff, and if you are in a fairly forgiving region with a certain amount of vegetation and wild life you can get by, but most of the time it’s just better to bug in and “ride the storm”.
If natural or man made disasters that could force you out of your home are a possibility to be considered in your location, you need a fixed BOL. Even if there’s no risk you can think of, a “plan B” bug out location is something you should consider anyway.
I’ve always claimed that the handgun is the survivalists main weapon, simply because that’s what we have with us when SHTF, but that doesn’t mean that a rifle is not a better fighting tool, its just that the concealability of the handgun is such a mayor advantage, it turns it into the weapon you‘ll have when you need it.
Many survival minded folks talk about “after-SHTF” as if you’d be magically dropped into a Mad Max movie. It’s doesn’t work that way, cops don’t disappear, nor do politicians, judges and lawyers. They are all still around, and even if they don’t stop the looting, just try going out there with your rifle on your back. Murphy comes around and a nervous cop or trooper with an itchy finger will put a round through your skull.
It’s like some law of nature or something, looting scumbags get away with hitting the local gunstore, but “Joe good citizen” gets turned into worm food.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t need firepower, rather the contrary, you need all the firepower you can get , but you have to be discrete about it!
That’s why I always suggest a high capacity pistol instead of a revolver, 6 rounds just isn’t enough, at least not when you have serious trouble to consider.
Some weeks ago I took a defensive shooting class with a guy who’s arguably one of the best instructors around, and he talked about an average of 15 rounds being fired during a street gunfight here in Argentina.
The good old 3 or 4 rounds average doesn’t fly here. I’ve known of gunfights where at least 50 rounds where fired, just by the bad guys. On an armored truck robbery some weeks ago, BG fired over 30 rounds, cops didn’t even get to fire once.
It’s not Iraq or Vietnam, but it’s a high capacity world out there, and when lead start flying it certainly pours down like tropical rain in a matter of minutes.
The words “It was like a war zone” gets heard often when the media interviews the witnesses after gunfight.
If it’s a SHTF situation you need to be able to fend off large groups of attackers and that requires a lot of ammo.
Granted, personally, most of the time I only carry my gun with only one 15 round mag, but give me a brake guys! carrying isn’t even legal here… If I lived in USA I’d be carrying at least two spare mags, a back up gun and an AK in the trunk of the car with at least 5 extra mags already loaded.
The situation Nomad was talking about with the FAL PARA was about a guy that tried to steal my car. I saw him and approached him from my friend’s house with my FAL PARA folded under my coat. The guy told me he was going to take my car and I pulled the gun out. The guy almost pissed his pants and couldn’t even articulate words as he walked away.
Of course, a FAL is an intimidating weapon, specially when it materializes as if by magic. It’s also one heck of a firearm. No shots where fired, but what if two guys jumps from behind the trees and started shooting?
You cant carry a FAL on you all day long during your average work day, but you can keep it in the trunk of your car, and folding stocks conceal much better, they fit nicely in a backpack too…
You can get by a crisis without ever firing a round. Even if you DO use your gun to defuse a situation, most of the time people simply don’t want to get shot ( How awesome is that!) but you have to accept the possibility that if it does en up in a gunfight, you cant start screaming “My Combat Master instructor who writes regularly for Guns & Ammo told me gunfights only last 5 seconds and only 3 or 4 rounds are fired!!!”
No, you have to finish it and if you’re hit by dedicated kidnapers or robbers you have do deal with 3 to 6 guys armed with high capacity semi autos at the very least, meaning 15 rounds per guy, and maybe some center fire semi auto rifles and shotguns along with them. Bullet proof vests are also common among pro criminals.
“That only happens in movies ”,”You think you are Rambo?” “ If I’m against 4 armed kidnappers I’m dead anyway”
WRONG! Granted, your odds aren’t that good, but they are much worse if all you have is a 5 shot 38 snubby.
I’ve known people and I’ve known of several cases where they managed to get out of such situations alive, thanks to a combination of luck, nerve AND adequate hardware for the situation, where a revolver wouldn’t have been enough, and a rifle would have been even better.
You might go thorough hell without firing a single round… or you may end up getting ambushed by carjackers a 11PM and end up firing 100-200 rounds. YOU JUST DONT KNOW.
FerFAL
