Pavomesa

Sar...if you were shooting at me, I can assure you that any of those guns you named would discourage me from messing with you.

Badger Boy

thats easy to say now... but if you were starving, thirstyand they had the only sustenance or if someone inyour family was injured and sick and they had medicine and despite all your pleas they wouldnt help, i think you might be singing a different tune.

up in NY, DEC actually has reported that attacks from wild cats is actually on the rise.... they target hikers.

while the .22 is afantastic survival tool, I dont think it is the BEST choice.Especially when you consider that you will have to compete against other animals and maybe other peoplefor increasingly limited resources.

Also when you consider how abundant drugs are in this country and how they give people super human strength and resiliency, a 22lr wont necessarily scare them or stop them. Sure point blank might stop them but what if you get rushed by two or more people... I wouldnt trust a .22 to keep my wife and children safe in that kind of situation. Is it likely to happen? I hope not but this is a Worst Case Survival Scenario.
i read about an insurgentthat washoopedup on drugs surviving being shot about 11 times to the torso, armand neckfrom a62 gr 5.56AND even having a Bradley runhim over. In a situation where you will have to survive for an unlimited amount of time you might run into these kinda of folk who might want somethingyou have or even some one - say a fall of society type situation where there is no law or safe place to go- You should probably consider something larger that a .22lr.

savagescout

Pavomesa

I like your reasoning sounds like you have thought it through. I am interested in how people think though it (survival ) more than the actualy result ( the rifle). I can definatley respect your opinon and all that have posted on this thread.

Pavomesa

Badger, do you know how many cat attacks have occurred on people armed with .22s? What you say about the drug addicts is true but I suspect if the world goes into survival mode the drug traffic industry may dry up. Won't be much profit in it when all I have to give you for a kilo of marajuana is three mushrooms and some pine nuts.

There is a fundamental difference in our thinking. You, I believe, are trying to prepare for a very rare and UNlikely possibility and I am trying to prepare for guaranteed eventualities.

And no matter what you or I do, there is always the possibility one of us will be bitten by a rattlesnake or smacked in the head with a rock by some guy who jumps on us from behind a bush.

Survival will be something of a game of chance. I worry more about running out of bullets than having the biggest gun out there.

statjunk

Pavo,

You are perhaps 100% correct on the the .22lr. The only other choice I would throw in there is a shotgun. I really think that in the situation described those are the only two choices. I guess it depends on how long you anticipate having to survive. I'd say the longer the outlook the better the .22lr is looking.

I don't know how many on here have a possibilities bag. However, mine just gets bigger and bigger every year that I learn something new in the woods. A lot of things can happen when your out in the woods and don't have a fully furnished house to go to.

Tom

Colorado Luckydog

If it ever gets to the point of survival like you guys are talking about, I'm glad I won't have to choose just one weapon. Myself and my family(all the way down to the 10 year old) will be packing. If I did have to choose one for long term survival, I think I would aggree with Pavomesa. My Marlin bolt action with 17 in the tube would provide well for my family. Second choice would be my .223.

jtb1967

Is there any documented evidence of the Russians using a 22LR as a sniping round in WWII? I've never read anything about it.

Pavomesa

Yes, it's well documented. I've read accounts of it but don't ask me to remember the publication and the History Channel mentioned it on one of their documantaries about WW-2. Keep in mind the Russians didn't have the cream of the crop for weapons and their partisans etc just used whatever they could get their hands on. They tried to go for the headshots as even the .22 was normally effective there.

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Stat - The problem with a shotgun gets back to the volume of ammunition you can carry. Shotgun ammo is terribly heavy and bulky...and depending on where you live, the limited range of a shotgun could be a hell of a handicap. A lot of the country, the SW especially, you could play hell getting close enough to kill a deer or some nice prize like that with a shotgun.

The .22 extends your range somewhat and will work for turkey, ducks, even quail in the hands of a good shot.

I've given the choice of this weapon LOTS of thought and all things considered, it's about the only thing that makes sense. Certainly the most return for a survivalist $$$. If a guy could afford a thousand or so 22 mag shells sitting around, it might be considered. Would be some better on larger game but don't know how much it would ruin on birds. You don't want something that's going to trash half your meat and birds may be much more a staple of the diet than larger game. Killing a deer and eating the meat or preserving it before it ruins can be very problematic. I've made jerky but never with nothing but a campfire.

Anyone who wants to get into the survival game had better have a lot of time to read, learn and practice their skills. I've gone out and put some of my notions to the test and found reality was far different from what I thought. The one thing I can assure you works is the .22LR. As I said in the beginning........the gun is not the issue. As the old saying goes, "The devil is in the details."

HEAD0001

A good reliable lever action in a pistol magnum cartridge. 44 Magnum would be nice. Tom.

jtb1967

[quote]ORIGINAL: Pavomesa

Yes, it's well documented. I've read accounts of it but don't ask me to remember the publication and the History Channel mentioned it on one of their documantaries about WW-2. Keep in mind the Russians didn't have the cream of the crop for weapons and their partisans etc just used whatever they could get their hands on. They tried to go for the headshots as even the .22 was normally effective there.

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I'd say the History channel took something that happend very, very infrequently and made it sound like it was commone place. I'm not aware of any reliable sources that document the 22LR being commonly used by the Russians as a sniper weapon in WWII.