What is the most all around Practical firearm you have?

[U.S.SFC_RET]

Dr.Rob Quoted

Remington 12 ga 870, unless you plan on walking somewhere with it and 100 rds.

You are right on with this one, I have never seen anyone walking around with a 100 rds. What in the world can you do with a 100 rds of ammo? Relive Hurricane Katrina?

Carrying 100 rds of .223 or even .30-06 takes up less space and weight that 100 rds of shotgun ammo.

Again the practical use of a rifle does speak for itself for the amount of ammunition that you can carry and the shotgun is carrying the day in this thread.

 

[benEzra]

U.S.SFC_RET

benEzra how much does a SAR-1 like that cost? looks beautiful with that Kobra collimator sight on it. What's that thing cost as well?

I paid $379 for the rifle in 2003. I could have gotten one cheaper at a gun show (low 300's to 350, probably) but wanted to support my local gun shop, and they had this nice one in stock. They don't import them anymore, but you can still find them. The SAR was replaced by the WASR, which has a smooth-sided receiver instead of the dimpled receiver. A new WASR-GP will probably run you $350-ish.

The Kobra was $179.95 plus about $5 shipping, from Tantal. He takes Paypal, and shipped it within 2 days. Mine is the EKP-8-02, the second-generation model. Some people like the first-gen models that use AA batteries (mine uses lithium coin cells), but I like the ergonomics of the Gen 2 model, and it's somewhat lighter and less bulky.

More photos here:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=249285

 

[4v50 Gary]

Rem 870. Change the barrel and you go from big game to birds and to home defense.

 

[md7]

winchester 1300 12 guage is my most practical.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

Mossberg 590.

If it's paper I can punch it. If it's clay I can bust it. If it walks, crawls, flies, or swims I can probably kill it.

 

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

Undoubtedly, a .22 or some sort. The first one that comes to mind for pure practicality is my Ruger MKIII 22/45. It's easy to strap it on for a walk in the woods, plenty accurate enough with the aftermarket open sights on it, and darn cheap & fun to shoot. It'll last lifetimes.

 

[HammerG26]

Probably my Kimber - makes the largest holes out of the handguns I have. Only have a couple of long guns - hard to conceal those.

 

[DontBurnMyFlag]

SKS yugo with scope

or

Mossberg 500 w/ folding stock

Both are indestructible, reliable and powerful.

 

[230RN]

Ah, the Officer's Pistol Substitute!

U.S.SFC_RET remarked:

230RN Quoted:

(2) Next most practical (don't laugh): my M1 Carbine. Light, handy, accurate, easy/cheap/fast to shoot, negligible recoil, can take a deer in extreme circumstances. Only legal for deer in some states (Florida, Louisiana?) but in extremes, who cares?

SHHHH quiet 230RN if the rest of the THR finds out just how practical these things are then the price will really go through the roof. just kidding.
Honestly for most of my adult life I never gave a flip about the .30 Cal Carbine until I retired from the Army and actually bought one for myself. They, when you can get a good one make for great home defence, light and easy to carry. Fast bscoming one of my favorite rifles.

Okay. I won't say another word about it.

You gotta get a bayonet for it. Converts it from "cute" to "fearsome-lookin' and I freakin' mean business" in two seconds.

Actually, I wonder why anyone would need to carry 100 rd of anything around with them --if things are that bad, you probably ought to den up and wait things out.

But 100 rd of carbine ammo only weighs about 3 lb (same as half a gallon of water), and the 15 rd mag weighs 3 oz. unloaded.

I think I'd rather carry extra water than 100 rd of ammo.

A practical (to my mind) walking around burden would be a five rd mag inserted, and a fifteen round mag in the pocket. Maybe two, but replenish the five-rounder from the fifteener.

The reason for the five rd mag is that it makes it easier to switch around how you're carrying --from slung to over-the-shoulder to one-handed over the balance point, to port arms, and back. I don't know about you, but in many miles of craggy old me prowling up and down these craggy old mountains, I find I change long gun carry position at least four or five times per mile.

I picked up a couple of rounds of .30 Carbine tracer ammo at one of the gun shows for signaling purposes. I don't want to use these for anything else in the woods.

I don't intend to get in any long-range battles with it on the theory that if someone's out to get me, I'll den up again until they get curious and closer or forget about me.

But, bear in mind, that was my second choice for most practical.

By the way, I read (a) that someone's making new almost-mil-spec carbines again and (b) the DCM/CMP is going to release some more soon, but I think that's just rumor.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

The one that is still dirty....

The one you leave dirty is the one you're not afraid to shoot if you're lazy.

For me that varries a bit.

For now it's my oldest M-1. I should feel bad, but I don't shoot corrosive ammo. And I'll grab it just to run a couple of clips through it.

And that 10/22---it STAYS dirty 24/7. And really, for what I do most (backyard tin can plinking) either works equally well.

Not entirely true, the Garand is more fun no matter what.

 

[Essex County]

It would be one of my least used

An older H&R single barrel 12 gauge....Essex

 

[.45Guy]

Most practical?

That would be my Glenfield 25. In my misspent youth it took every species of game to be had in NE Ohio. There's not much it can't do that would be considered practical.

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

230RN Quoted:

But 100 rd of carbine ammo only weighs about 3 lb (same as half a gallon of water), and the 15 rd mag weighs 3 oz. unloaded.

Carrying 100 of those rounds and the light weight of a .30 Cal carbine, what is it 6.5 Lbs? Don't quote me, makes it practical. The only draw back is the price of the Ammunition. I believe the popularity for this rifle is out there in the crowd but not enough to bring the price of the ammo down. Can anybody say RELOAD!

 

[Deer Hunter]

My best all-around firearm would be my FN FAL. It's an STG58 from DSArms. 20 rounds of .308 will get me anywhere I'll ever need to go.

 

[220_Swift]

My most practical is a 22lr/410 O/U. It gets a lot of use.

 

[MCgunner]

It's really hard to beat a shotgun for all around practical, useful. You can hunt everything from birds and small game to deer/hog and big game at short range. You can protect yourself with it. Only thing hard to do is conceal it for carry.

Handguns, 4" K frame .357 magnum or K frame equivalent.

 

[doubleg]

Big old new haven 28" pump. Its at least 42+ years old and is still as reliable as the day it was made. I think I might love it more than my 1911.

 

[230RN]

The low-down dirty rapscallion doubleg said:

Big old new haven 28" pump. Its at least 42+ years old and is still as reliable as the day it was made. I think I might love it more than my 1911.

Them's fightin' words. I think it's a Capital Crime to say that.


U.S.SFC_RET said,

230RN Quoted:
But 100 rd of carbine ammo only weighs about 3 lb (same as half a gallon of water), and the 15 rd mag weighs 3 oz. unloaded.

Carrying 100 of those rounds and the light weight of a .30 Cal carbine, what is it 6.5 Lbs? Don't quote me, makes it practical. The only draw back is the price of the Ammunition. I believe the popularity for this rifle is out there in the crowd but not enough to bring the price of the ammo down. Can anybody say RELOAD!

Without looking it up, I think the original specification was less than 5 1/2 pounds, but the final Winchester version was only 4 1/2 lb dry.

I've always had trouble reloading this cartridge and in fact blew a Universal Carbine up once, not because of an excessive load per se but because I couldn't get the bullets to stay seated in the feed cycle. They got rammed into the case, resulting in exceedingly high pressure.

There's not usually a cannelure on those bullets, and I didn't have facilities to use asphaltum to cement them in, so I gave up on the idea after Universal returned it to me all better. Usual very high-pressure constellation --base of case melted, blew off extractor, jammed bolt, expanded the 15-rd magazine below the mag well. That gun still shoots, 25 years later, but I got another mil-spec one soon after that anyhow. If one is good, two is better --buddy gun, you know. Maybe they'll mate and I'll have a litter.

Only thing I don't like about it is the peep rear. If I ever get a replacement rear sight, I'm going to either mill off the top half of the peep, or dope out a way to put a conventional rear sight on the regular sight base. The Universal had tapped holes for a sidewinder scope mount, and I used it that way for many years, but finally took it off as being too bulky and contrary to the design philosophy of the gun --meaning "to be light and handy."

I don't have any trouble buying 50rd any time I want to out here (Colorado.) I don't usually keep much ammo for anything around, maybe tops 200rd for each gun except .22LR. I was reading another thread on THR and they were talking about keeping many many thousands of rounds on hand for each gun.

Might be useful for trading stock if the SHTF, but there are other things you can keep in stock for trading purposes --like toilet paper and Clorox (TM).

I'm not sure but I think it was Heinlein who recommended that you never own anything more than you could carry in your two hands at a dead run.

 

[bclark1]

any 12ga. in my case, probably the mossberg 835, since if i talk about an autoloader someone will say it's going to fail (never have but let's prevent that discussion in the first place).

i love my rifles. i love my pistols. i love my magnum ammo, and i love my rimfire ammo. all have a purpose, usually pretty narrow. but there's no denying that a 12ga will do anything, and if we're talking about all-around practical, i just don't see anything that comes close.

 

[461]

One handed- 4" GP-100. Two handed- Single shot 12gauge unless people are the problem and then a 12ga pump of reputable build.

 

[10 Ring Tao]

12 ga pump of course.

Slugs for big game. Birdshot for things that fly. Buckshot for 2 legged animals.