One gun for everything? I did that with a Ruger 10/22, spring of 2000. Well, sort of, but heres the story;
Got our cache ripped off, nets , food guns and ammo. Getting set up on the last travelable days in late April, and bringing the kids in early May as village schools end and the rivers ice breakup is very soon after.
We arrived with our snowgos and sleds with bedding, cookware for us, Agnes, bro inlaw Joe, our 5 kids, (Our daughter Mary, 1 month old) 2 dogs and food for a couple days
Some one had taken the time to remove all of our gear cloths, gas and nets, guns food tents stoves, baby clothes, and what ever a guy would shove in an 12X 12 cache.
The only thing not taken was my boat and 20 horse Honda outboard, a case of toilet paper and our tarps. They also left one net. I found 2 box's with hip boots and diapers, a shower bucket, soap and shampoo.
It was obvious that a guy on the ground with a snowgo and sled and a guy in an airplane were working near every mining cabin on the northern Seward Penennsula, or at least the ones that were active and took whatever they could. One had hunted the area and knew my cache. We eventually figured out who it was and took it back in a bastardly manner, later that summer, an entirely different story..
Anyways, we were up against floods of sun melted water all over the ice and temps that kill snowgo engines......and wet enough and chilled to build a big fire, make a windbreak and stay untill dry, and plan to go home, or most of the way, and for lack of gas, ditch the gear and put everyone in the sled for the last 50 miles, or so we planned.
My friend Jerry who just so happened along, was passing by on his final ride stopped in for a conditions report, and break from the rough, bare Tundra riding, handed me over his Ruger 10/22, 2 spare clips, and a 500 round box of .22lr shells, with a ziplock bag of about 200 more shells. He topped off his snowgo's tank and gave us 15 gallons of gasoline and all the spare rope and line from his sled, He than offered me his .243 and only 4 shots for Bear protection, and left after coffee. We did not use the .243, thankfully, but it was there with the wife at camp, just incase.
We decided to stay and hunt, as we had a very basic means, and its what we do. Woo hoo for a Ruger 10/22!!
We waited for the breaking ice to go by and went upriver to a cache of traps and some tools there, along with a nice tent and extra bedding, etc. Matches and new lighters really helped out, as did 20 more gallons of gas as I was using my running outboards spark plugs to make fires every day. LOL!! It was a winter cache, so it lacked a few things we needed.
each passing day things got better; Ptarmigan, Geese, Muskrats, Beavers, Caribou , Seals and Ducks all were hunted and delt with very efficiently, with that Ruger.....We went up the river and back down to the sea as the ice break up progressed over as the ice went out, the ocean broke up and we were able to access more gas at the closest village, 35 miles away.
The Caribou were plentyful, we loaded up at the places they favor to cross water, and dried up quite a bit of meats and sinews, and sat tight while the ice went by.
The rivers Spring flood displaced Beaver and Muskrats, a couple Otters and plenty of birds coming in for mating season, the hunting was excellent, and so life was fun.
5 weeks later we headed out, Coasting along the Kotzebue Sound..... in a 12 foot boat filled with skins, dried meats, buckets of seal oil, Ivory and my bro inlaw. We made it to our home village to stash our Spring Catch, gas up and take our larger boat, a reload on summer gear, nets, clothes, and many other this and thats. After taking everyone to Kotzebue for 4th of July, we all went back to camp and got our fishin' on..
Was a lot of fun and I shared the rifle with my bro inlaw Joe untill we got home. We used the bag of shells and a couple boxes from the brick.
Not having mosquito dope or nets or coils was nearly murder, and a lingering memory of misery from that otherwise Fun and absolutely spectacular Spring in the Arctic.