Lower 48 Pilot's Rifle

[JShirley]

A folding high capacity semi-auto could be problematic, unless you only flew over states where it was legal.

A .410 is not a serious survival piece. It's great against poisonous snakes at 15 feet, but if you see them at 15', you can just walk around. Even a .22 WRF would be more useful, and more compact.

John

 

[mac66]

The Rossi Tuffy 410 is basically the old Snake Charmer shotgun. .410 ammo has come along way since the introduction of the revovlers chambered for it. Slugs, buckshot etc.

I carry a Snake Charmer on my ATV when out in the boonies. I've taken squirrels with it.

Another suggestion might be a shotgun with caliber reducers in it. You can get 12, 20 and 410s reducers in a variety of calibers.

 

[kBob]

I have taken squirrel, bunnies, quail, and dove with a .410, OK long ago but I did, and a guy in my club has taken over a dozen little Florida white tail deer with the old .38 wadcutter based slug.

Because of this the Springfield survival .22 over a .410 (based on a design used in some cold war bombers as a survival gun) would seem to be an excellent chose.

A friend used to carry an Armalite made AR7 in his little high wing.....but got far more use from the two lightweight aluminum and nylon strap lawn chairs he also carried.

-kBob

 

[JShirley]

a guy in my club has taken over a dozen little Florida white tail deer with the old .38 wadcutter based slug

And lots of deer have been poached with .22LR, too. Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

John

 

[CmdrSlander]

A folding high capacity semi-auto could be problematic, unless you only flew over states where it was legal.

A .410 is not a serious survival piece. It's great against poisonous snakes at 15 feet, but if you see them at 15', you can just walk around. Even a .22 WRF would be more useful, and more compact.

John

What about this?

http://www.winchester.com/Products/New-Products/Pages/pdx1-410.aspx

 

[JShirley]

Nope. A .410 is a gun for sport- if you're trying to actually survive, almost anything is better. More powerful rounds take up less space. For small game, rimfire rounds are considerably more compact, but have longer range. .410s are toys. Even that load you linked specified it's for close-range defense. If you're going through the trouble of packing a shotgun or rifle, why would you limit yourself to something that won't even extend as far as a decent handgun can effectively shoot?

A single-shot .357 rifle would be much better- heck, one could even get a Contender rifle, put an M4 adapter on it, and get a sliding stock little carbine that would shoot .38 or .357. It could be a little pricier than some other options, but could be extremely compact, and with good ammo, would be very accurate.

A cheaper way to go would be to buy a H&R .357 Carbine, and have a gunsmith shorten the barrel to 17", and the stock to 12.5" LOP- or just buy the very short youth stock. Then you'll have a compact, lightweight carbine that can shoot .38 wadcutters for harvesting small game with low report and minimal meat damage, and move all the way up to full-bore .357 for rifle-sized game. ATI also makes an M4-style sliding stock, but I'd prefer Choate.

Though not as useful for outright defense, any of the "pocket rifles" like the XP-100 and T/C Contender or Encore, in the right caliber, could take game out to 200 yards or further. These would be even easier to pack than any longarm except perhaps the Sub-2000.