Wow, my thinking must be from another planet.

First, I don't know any wild animals in this hemisphere I would have to defend against short of a griz and I don't live within 1,500 miles of one. As for defending against people, they are about as hard to drive away as chickens.

It wouldn't take me 2 seconds to make this decision on weapon.

Give me a stainless bolt action .22 Long Rifle.

Why?

First I can kill anything from a dove to a deer with it. That will feed me.
Gotta be a bolt action because they are stronger and don't have as much crap to brake or gum up. All these AR's andd AK's and Awhatevers are BS for an ultimate survival weapon. They are COMBAT weapons.

I can stack 1000 rounds of 22LR ammo in the space 100 rounds of high power rifle ammo takes up. I assume we are going to have to survive more than a weekend because that's about how long most of you guy's ammo is going to last. And if you gotta pack up all your stuff and run from a pack of crazoid thugs, try running with 1,000 rounds of even the dinky little .223 ammo in your pack.

We all like to kick around the notion of "survival" but if your really think about it......the gun really plays a very minor part in things. We'll worry more about having a few pots and pans to cook and boil water and a blanket to stay warm at night more than which belt fed machinegun we are going to set up at the cave entrance.

Get real guys. Are we talking about survival or just a weekend gunfight? They are two VERY different things.