Best SHTF Rifle

[Sneaky Pirate]

Newly registered, thought I'd post something to get my brain juices flowing. I love SHTF gear, so what's everyone's opinion on the best SHTF rifle?

[shrewd]

haha, i'll need some popcorn for this

[FLICK]

The reliable one that you have a bunch of replacement parts for, a shit-ton of ammo, and that you train with regularly.....

[PaTom]

I'm an AK fan, myself.

[fritz1]

At least one AR and one AK, use the AR for longer more accurate shots and for the likely more availability of .223/5.56 ammo, and use the AK for when the SHTF really hits and have no time to take precision shots or to clean and maintain your rifle, plus you can use it to whack some one upside the head.

[jeepin]

An Ar, bolt .22 and a p95 beause mine just always works.

[39flathead]

Depends on what you think SHTF means.

Does it mean the world as we know it ends and it's everyone for them self?

If so a 10/22 might be the best choice since they are cheap, pretty reliable and ammo can be bought and stored by the tens of thousands pretty cheaply.
This will get you food until all the animals are killed by everyone else, and in that case you may need something in a larger caliber to ward of the cannibals if you last that long.
When you have to start shooting rats for food, a .223 or 7.62 is over kill.

Sooo.
Does SHTF mean that you have an abundant supply of food and water and can hole up while the rest of the world falls to shit?
If so then you might want to consider an AR-15 or AK74/74 to defend your hidey hole.
The actual gun depends on if you think the streets will be overrun with US troops or Chinese ones.
Picking up ammo comes into play here.

Or does SHTF mean a week+ long power outage with looters and rioters grabbing all the goodies they can steal?
Here an AR-15 or AK with a drum mag might come in handy to repel invaders until the gov't shows up to stop the evil doers.
A 9 shot or larger 12ga might be best also to insure one shot stops the intruders.



Last, does SHTF mean Zombies?

If so, zombies are not real so you don't need a gun.

[Sneaky Pirate]

Well for zombies, everybody knows that swords don't need to be reloaded, so I'm good there.

And I like to keep the definition of SHTF nice and broad...I'm not preparing for one thing in particular, I'm just preparing for anything I can. My one gripe with the show "Doomsday Preppers" on NatGEO is that they all prepare for a very specific thing. Maybe NatGEO makes them do it just so that they fit the format for the show though, I don't know.

I have a Saiga in 5.45 that I converted to the "Homeland Defense" config (love that term), and I've got about 2,000 rounds for it. I could use some spare parts, but I think I'm good there.

I was recently thinking about getting a .22, but I don't know where to begin. Money IS an issue - I'm a broke college student (that's why I went for the Saiga in the 5.45... nice and cheap). Any preferences for a .22?

[streaker69]

And I like to keep the definition of SHTF nice and broad...I'm not preparing for one thing in particular, I'm just preparing for anything I can. My one gripe with the show "Doomsday Preppers" on NatGEO is that they all prepare for a very specific thing. Maybe NatGEO makes them do it just so that they fit the format for the show though, I don't know.

The people on that show are basically being told to say what they're preparing for by the producers, mostly so that the show's experts can then say that the odds of what they're preparing for are astronomically high. This is an effort to make the people look crazy. Granted, some of them are, but many of the others have some excellent ideas for things.

I think if you ask most people, they're preparing for an event that may cause civil unrest that causes a disruption to normal every day life. So they are preparing to have food, water, medicine and defenses to deal with whatever may be coming their way.

[Capt Quahog]

Here we go again! LoL!!!

Well . . . Suppose that the BEST SHTF rifle is the one you've got and have ammo for when the Sheeet Hits the Fan.

The type of principle battle rifle depends upon who and where you are along with myriad other factors. Here at the Forward Firebase Pocono Party Bunker & Feeble Geezer Retirement Home, the inmates have on hand a number of so-called "SHTF" rifles.

As of late, the smalls arms committee in the compound have been concentrating on updating the arsenal. We are in the process of moving away from Hall flintlock Mex-War carbines and Peerless .31 caliber pin fire revolvers to more modern tools of defense.

Due to wide availability of parts, easy interchangeability and abundance from many sources for ammunition, as of 2012 our main SHTF rifles here are based on the AR15 system.

I tend to favor genuine surplus military M16 component AR 20-inch barrel rifles. Recently completed building up an FN M16A2 clone. That is now our principle battle rifle. In the process now of putting together a Colt M16A1 early 1970s era rifle. After that, comes a Palmetto State Armory 16-inch mid-length "Disippator" AR15 carbine.

The Disippator carbine is a flat top which enables the use of all types of tactical scopes and items. It's realized that with age, a person's eyes tend to favor red dot and other electronic scopes over that of iron sights.