What kind of gun would you want above all?

[The Exile]

If you had just one gun for any reason; you hear some oddly human noises at an ungodly hour or there's a fire and you only have enough time to save one gun, or your plane goes down over the wilderness; what kind of gun would you want above all else assuming that it had be the same answer every time and why would you choose what you did?

 

[hso]

Difficult to beat a shotgun for any application except longer ranges and then with a rifled barrel and some specialty ammunition it can get more reach.

Difficult to beat an AR for a lot of applications, too.

YMMV

Mod Note: This thread doesn't grant license for end of the world discussions.

 

[230RN]

Accurate six-inch DA .357 revolver with adjustable sights.



Can reach out to longer ranges if you've practiced that. Not Elmer-Keith-type shots with his tricked-out SA revolver, but long enough.

Availability of various ammo... which is why the adjustable sights are important. Won't be a target rifle with each click = 1/4 minute of angle, but good enough.

Terry, 230RN

 

[DSAPT9]

A few years back I would have said the AK but I have gone back the AR platform as of late and it would be my go to gun for pretty much everything gone wrong.

 

[The Red Hot Rider]

Remington 870 (full choke) with extra rifled slug barrel. Good stock of punkin' balls, 00 buck, and #4 shot.

 

[ROAshooter]

S&W 629 Classic ...5"...barrel.....

 

[rcmodel]

I have to admit I'm very surprised this thread got past the first mod!

But, here in wide open Kansas, a shotgun would be the last thing I would choose.

I'd rather have a good .22 rifle and 500 rounds of ammo for the same weight as a shotgun with 25 rounds!!

.22 would make food gathering the logical choice of arm.

And I wouldn't feel outgunned with a Ruger Mini14, or AR-15, except they would draw attention to you a mile away the first shot.

Last time I hiked a box canyon trying to kill a horse killing mountain Lion in Colorado, I carried a 30-30 Winchester 94 carbine, and felt very well armed.
They never made a faster rifle for well aimed first shots!!



In case of fire?
Probably going to be the SIG P-232 .380 under my pillow that goes out the door with me!!

rc

 

[230RN]

....

 

[The Exile]

Yeah I probably should have worded that differently, perhaps the situations I am trying to evoke with nukes and migs could be achieved if I had said something like "your plane goes down over a very bad place" or something like that but it still fails to describe the root of question I have which basically what is the gun you would want if you lived in a world where you needed a gun for a variety of purposes very practical in nature and didn't have the luxury of a well stocked safe. I blame Tom Clancy personally, just has a way of eliciting curiosity and captivating imagination in me.

 

[rcmodel]

Well, my late daddy ran a cattle farm for 50 years with a .22 Winchester pump, a single barrel 12 ga shotgun, and a 30-30 lever-action.

He did quite nicely against everything that crawled, slithered, scampered, skittered, flew, or stomped & charged all those years.

Mostly with the .22 pump.

We didn't have any a nukes, MIG's, or Tanks on the farm though.

rc

 

[mnrivrat]

Living along a river , back in the late 80's and 90's , and having to raise my two children by myself on disability income, I had to sell everything I had prior to make ends meet.

What I kept was an older Mossberg Model 500 in 20ga that had the barrel shortened to 19 inches. It served me for well over a decade and took care of all my needs in that remote area.

There are many ways to look at the one gun only question. Much of the answer is in where you live and or travel. Different circumstance can make a different choice more practical than another, but for best for any circumstance narrows it down a good bit.

The settlers of this nation generaly got by with single shot, smooth bore guns as they moved west . If I was on the move and foraging I would take my Savage Model 24V that I rechambered to .223 on the top barrel and use a chamber adapter to allow .22 rimfire. The 20ga bottom barrel is set up for screw in chokes and I have a rifled choke tube to shoot sabot slugs from it while keeping a modified choke in it for all else. I tuned the barrels to shoot to the same POI at 25 to 30 yds.

Being able to carry a couple hundred rounds of .22 rimfire gives that caliber a big + if you are on the 2 legged move.

 

[HammsBeer]

Just one? A mid sized all metal 9mm pistol, such as a SIG.

I don't hunt and I don't see myself crash landing in the wilderness, but a 9mm pistol can serve as a home defense or personal carry weapon. Plus 9mm ammo is cheap, low recoil, good capacity, and any quality 9mm pistol will last for many 10's of thousands of rounds without issue.

 

[Deog]

Marlin 1894s 44 mag lever fun gun. Reliable, small package, accurate, can hunt and use for self defense, and it is wood and steel.
Or a 12 gauge of some sort

 

[The Alaskan]

During one of our big forrest fires up her elast summer, one Iditarod musher, who lost everything but saved her dogs, said "only love the things that love you back." (her dogs)

When my neighbor's adjoining condo (all wood frame, 1980's construction, all connected) caught fire a few winters back and completely burned out, I put the dog outside, then ran back in for my guns. I threw the first two cases out into the snow and ran back in, then the next two, then the next two, by that time I had to physically pull myself away from my girlfriend, who didn't want me to go back into the house.

So my answer to the OP's question is: "all of them."

 

[BLB68]

If you had just one gun for any reason; you hear some oddly human noises at an ungodly hour or there's a fire and you only have enough time to save one gun, or your plane goes down over the wilderness; what kind of gun would you want above all else assuming that it had be the same answer every time and why would you choose what you did?

Oddly human noises: Cell phone and Shield. (Rather have a carbine of some kind, but I don't happen to have one.)

Fire and only time to grab one: Shield, b/c it has one in the pipe and that one might become a hazard in a fire, and it's closest to hand.

Plane goes down over the wilderness: I want a gun's weight in supplies to get water and make fire and shelter. And lots of duct tape.

 

[jim in Anchorage]

Well I fly all over Alaska and what do I throw in the back of the plane? A 20" barrel Ithaca M 37 12 GA. With slug and shot loads. Bears to bunnies I'm set.

 

[samweller]

Browning Hi Power 9 MM

 

[Mr.510]

One gun forever with the world the way it is today: My every day carry XD45C.

One gun forever if the crystal ball says bad things are going to happen to the world: My Ruger 10/22 with 2.5-10x scope.

 

[dranrab]

A good 12 gauge shotgun is what I would have if I could have but one. I need multiple barrels though.

 

[JFtheGR8]

I'd probably take my Mossberg 500 12ga along with its slug barrel. Like others have said it's good from small game hunting to large predator defense.

 

[rsrocket1]

Stock Saiga 7.62x39. A full size AK is a little too bulky. The Saiga is light enough to carry all day and like a lever gun, compact enough to not get in the way. 3 MOA with iron sights is good enough out to 100 yards and hits hard enough to take game or discourage predators of nearly any size or number of legs. If it's self defense at night I would much rather have a compact easy to maneuver rifle or shotgun than a pistol and in the wilderness, I wouldn't want to come up against a bear or mountain lion with a .22LR

 

[bannockburn]

One gun to do it all: Colt Lightweight Government .45 ACP with a TacSol .22 conversion assembly.

 

[Balrog]

To the guys who picked a rifle or shotgun:
How do you conceal carry those?

If I had to have only 1 gun, it would be a Glock 19.

 

[Shovelhead]

Reread the OP.

 

[Crawdad1]

I would grab my Ithaca double barrel sitting in its case. I have two locks, two triggers and two actions in case something goes horribly wrong.