The Ultimate Survival Weapon. What do you really need to Survive?


When you take a look at the world today, it is easy to see why people are a little nervous and are wondering if they need to prepare.  There are is a lot of scary stuff going on for sure.  Personally, I am not what I would call a “Prepper”.  A “Prepper” to me is a person who lives a standard American life and is warehousing food, guns, and ammo for some future apocalyptic time when they will have to hole up and survive by defending themselves in warlike fashion from hoards of starving raids or platoons of corrupt military forces that they plan to stave off with their trusty AR-15 and 20,000 rounds of Nato ammo.   I would laugh at how ridiculous this mentality is to me, but it is really sad that so many have bought into this fantasy that is fertilized by Hollywood fictional movies.

Are ready to defend your food stores?

I am not a prepper.  I am a person who lives in a constant state of preparedness.  Preparedness is my way of life, not something I do for a future day of difficulty.   Being prepared is not about what you have.  It is about your mentality.  The issue is teaching yourself to break away from the co-dependent mentality of people that only know how to live in what I call the “Safety net of Modern Civilization”.  To survive you need to become an Independent Rugged Individualist.


Remember where we came from?

What is an Independent Rugged Individualist?  It is the same kind of person like those of the days of old that loaded their families in wooden ships to cross an ocean to an unknown land and forge out a new life without asking anyone to help them.  They did not need OSHA to give them a safety guidebook to help them not hurt themselves.  They did not need “Wet Floor” signs to keep them from slipping on a puddle of water.  And they certainly did not need labels to warn them that coffee is HOT! They took responsibility for their own well being and safety and used their brains and common sense to survive.  That is the mentality that it takes to survive.


AR-15 style semi-auto 5.56 customized rifle


Do you need a gun?

But what about weapons?  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have one? The simple answer is, yes.  Weapons are very handy to make survival easier if you have the right idea about survival.   Visit any forum on the internet, that deals with prepping or apocalyptic survival and you will not get past the first page before you see people talking about “Sandbagging” their home and defending their food stores by mowing down their starving neighbors that did not prepare. Really?


Is surviving worth it if you have to kill your neighbors?

Think about that for just a second.  You want to survive only to remember the faces of all the people you killed just because they were hungry and you had food.  You may think that you could psychologically handle that, but let’s get real; suicide among soldiers returning from battle due to PTSD has killed more soldiers than the enemy did with bullets and bombs. The national average is 22 veterans a day commit suicide.  That is an average of 8,000 a year!  And these are war-hardened soldiers that were trained and mentally prepared to kill enemy combatants, not your typical urban male mowing down his starving neighbors.


Do you need to be able to fight an army?

What about defending yourself from corrupt police or military forces?  Let me ask you a question.  Can you give me one example where a person or even a group of people successfully fought the police or the military and survived to tell about it as a free person?  Ruby Ridge?  Nope.  The Branch Davidians in Waco?  Nope.  Listen, the second you pull the trigger to fight a single police officer or soldier you have killed yourself.  You are dead at that moment.  You might still be breathing, and you might even take a few with you, but you are dead.  Even at best, if you surrender, you will be locked up in a hole until the government kills you. Make no mistake about it; if you choose to resist the government with deadly force, you are dead.  You are not going to fight the government and win a battle and walk away and live your life like normal.  Your life is over the moment you make that choice.  So if “SURVIVAL” is your goal, then preparing to fight the police and soldiers is the exact opposite thing you want to prepare for.


If not a military weapon, then WHAT?


Single Shots

The truth is, the best weapon for survival is one that is quiet and you can carry a lot of ammo for without much weight.  In this case, there is no other gun that matches those criteria better than the 22 long rifle.  There are lot to choose from, but when choosing something you need to rely on for a long time, the less moving part it has, the more reliable it will be.  Of course, the gun that matches this factor the best is a simple break barrel .22 like the Rossi single shot .22lr  Rossi 22 Caliber Break Barrel Youth Rifle

This gun also has many other interchangeable barrels that make it extremely versatile.  But personally, I have not found the Rossi to be very accurate and so it would not be my choice for a survival weapon if I had other choices.  There are other manufacturers that produce a similar style of weapon, but I have not used them, so I cannot comment on them.




Bolt Actions

The next best thing to a good break barrel is a great bolt action.  When it comes to bolt action single shot .22 rifles, there is one that I love.  This is the Remington Targetmaster 510.  This gun is an antique model, but if you ever get a chance to own one, you will never sell it.  This is the sweetest most accurate shooting .22 that I have ever owned, and because of it’s longer barrel, it is much quieter than most other .22 rifles.


Remington Targetmaster Model 510 22 Caliber Rifle

The great thing about the Targetmaster is that it can shoot any type of .22 ammo.  From shorts to mini-mags, the Targetmaster can handle them all.  I have tested the Target master with all kinds of ammo and it just loves everything I put in it.  Here are some videos you can watch to see it in action.




Next after a great bolt action would be a reliable semi-auto.  There are a couple of semi-auto 22lr rifles that have withstood the test of time and I would not hesitate to take them into a survival situation with me. Of course, I am talking about the well known Ruger 10/22 and the Marlin model 60. Both of these are great weapons that have proven themselves reliable.  Personally, I like the Ruger better but that is a personal choice.

Ruger Model 10/22 22 Caliber Rifle with Wooden Stock

Marlin Model 60 22 Caliber Rifle


Here a couple videos on these guns.




The Ultimate Survival Gun

Okay.  What if you wanted something a little more then a 22lr.  Well, the truth is, you don’t really need anything more then a 22lr if you are not planning to go to war.  Every animal on the continents of North and South America have been killed with the 22lr.  But there is one gun that is probably the most versatile and reliable gun ever made.  A gun that can shoot two completely different types of ammo with just a flick of the thumb.  A gun so reliable that you would have to work to try to break it.  What gun am I talking about?  None other than the SAVAGE model 24!


Savage Model 24 Survival Gun, 22LR over 20 gauge

The Model 24 comes in many configurations, but the one I think is the best is the 22LR over a 20 Gauge shotgun.  This gun gives you all the capability you will ever need.  You can shoot anything from a 22 short to a mini-mag in it, but then you also have a 20 gauge shotgun that you can shoot shotshells in then slip in a slug for some real stopping power.  I have even heard tell that they have made 20 gauge barrel inserts that will convert the shotgun barrel to any caliber of rifle you want, .223, .270. 30.06, etc.  I have yet to try this, but hope to one day.

To sum it up.  Any gun is better than no gun, but for ultimate survival, you need quiet and light.  There are a lot of good weapons out there that fit the bill.  I have only mentioned the ones I have experience with.  But at the end of the day, my choice would be the savage model 24  22LR over 20 gauge.   I don’t think you can beat this configuration.  The biggest problem with this gun is they no longer make it (why is beyond me) and if you can find one for sale, they don’t come cheap.  There are some newer models with nylon stocks, but they are hard to find.


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