Best weapons to own when TSHTF?

In any situation your best weapon is always your mind. there are so many possible scenarios when the SHTF that each must be addressed seperately.

Situation 1) You are home and planning to stay yet gangs roam the streets looking for easy pickings:
This is where a 12 gauge shotgun is incomparable. Street sweeper with pistol grip or a Saiga 12 gauge with ammo drum. Any pistol larger than 9mm would also be great. Load with 00buckshot and its hard to miss.

Situation 2) You've abandonded your home and gone off into the woods.

As many have mentioned a Ruger 10/22 is a great choice. It's cheap, reliable and very accurate out to 60 yards. A 4x scope will bring home the squirrels and rabbits. You can't easily kill a deer with a 22 but you can stun them with headshots until you can get close enough to finish the job. Same goes for people if they insist on coming after you.

PORTABILITY and the number of rounds you can carry make the .22 a very good choice for woodland survival. Gun and 1,000 rounds weigh about 15 pounds. .22 tracer rounds are also available as well as subsonic ammunition that is relatively quiet.
I would also carry a semiauto 9mm or .45 with an extra clip and 100 rounds for a little more serious firepower.
Those who believe they can tote around a Barrett .50 will find out really fast it was a bad idea.

If you have a partner I would suggest one carry a good rifle while the other totes the .22. -this would give you the best amount of versatility.
My choice of rifle would be an AK47 if youre worried about people with hostile intent. I wouldnt care to get into a firefight with a bolt action rifle although the bolt action 30-06 or winchester .300 are good calibers for hunting large game. mauser 8mm is also a great surplus rifle than can be had for cheap. Also on the cheap, the SKS is about the best value you can get in a semiautomatic rifle. it's ideal for women and children as the stock is very short and the gun itself is relatively light.

If they get past whatever bullets I can send their way then I'm a sitting duck. At 5'6" and 120 lbs theyre pretty much gonna take me down. lol

There is no, one, correct answer, as it is situational. If you are properly prepared, well in advance, you should have a lot of options. Spears, swords and axes should be a last resort, unless you really are the B.A. that you think you are, and if you think that you are, then you probably aren't. If that is the case, then I would just go back to the basement and video some more light saber moves for you tube. In a proper survival weapons cache you should have a, brain, a plan, a group of like minded individuals, .22 rifle, 12 ga shotgun, AR style rifle and a handgun; all with plenty of ammo, minimally. Of course, this assumes some sort of prepared location with some tactical advantage. If you have either, made no plans or are only mobile and by yourself, then you are probably helixed. I know, I know! That rugged, Mad Max, individualist mystique that we all know and love........It's just in the movies, it's not real, there is no John Rambo. You'll have to get over it. Typically those that have been operators don't advertise it on websites like ATS etc. and any info from these experts would be suspect at best. Yes, if all you have is a sword, tomahawk or spear then by all means you should know how to use it. However as Indiana Jones (yes it is a movie, too, just an example) showed, you can wave stuff around and look all B.A. while you get yourself shot and killed. The object is to avoid all this. First, if you have no tactical skills or knowledge, join the Guard or Reserve, or learn it yourself. If you were in the Army or a former Marine then brush up on your TTPs and METT-TCs. If you were in the AF or Navy then learn some military skills. Don't even go there, just retired USAFR 37 years with 11 active duty, E-8. Fortunately I was privileged to be in unique units that needed these skills and I was trained on them, the rest don't. No disrespect intended, just reality. Now back to the weapons, get past the MM syndrome and get real. If I only had one weapon, it would be a Ruger 10-22 rifle with 5-10, 10 round magazines and at least 1000 rounds of ammo. The fancy hi cap mags, stick out, are easy to break and are not as reliable as the factory 10 rounders. This allows you to have the potential for a high rate of fire, low noise profile, cheap ammo for practice and stock pile. Now, trust me, while this is not my weapon of choice for a firefight, it will cause terminal damage if used properly and in spite of the armchair Rambos, it will make people stay down and it will hurt if you connect. Also if you could swing a can (suppressor) for it that would make it a very versatile unit, and these are legal in most states, just have to do the paperwork with BATFE. Next is the 12 ga., get one. Most of our guys overseas use a Benelli M4s (expensive) or Mossberg 590 Special Purpose pumps (like a rock). There are still some Remingtons in inventory and a few guys like them, too. Stock 00 buck, lots, some slugs and squirrel and bird shot. You can have the pump tapped for a choke so it can be used to hunt with. Next, an AR style rifle is a must for several reasons. Commonality of ammo and weapon with our troops, in case supply requisitions became necessary. Most people will not engage targets out past 100 yards, regardless of the weapon's capability at hand, it's psychological and I don't know the answer, it's just reality. It's easy to shoot, easy to maintain, inherently accurate to 300M and with the CORRECT ammunition it is devastating. Standard 55 gr ball ammo is probably the best all around ammo and performs best on soft targets. The 62 gr (green tip w/ penetrator) is for targets wearing body armor or non-tactical vehicle interdiction. On soft targets it over-penetrates (i.e. goes through them and leaves a clean hole, requiring multiple hits for take down). However, to overcome this the Army uses a 71gr hollow point (this is allowed by Geneva Conv. if the HP is only part of the mfg'ing process and is not for the express purpose of creating greater injury, I kid you not) that is authorized by the local commander if the situation warrants. My son (Ranger, Brnz Star, CIB, 7 tours, PH) says they work great! Nuff said there. Any time you hear someone refer to them as plastic rifles, it is someone that heard something bad about them a long time ago and has had no experience with them in the past 40 + years or more. My son and his fire team don't have a problem with M-4s and he says he's never had a malfunction with his, course they clean them after every mission, like you're supposed to. I carried one through two tours in the desert and never had a malfunction. Ask someone that carries an M-14 as the DM, which one they would rather have in an urban environment...it'll be the M-4. Yes the M-14 (M1A civ) does have advantages in certain situations like stopping vehicles or reducing "cover" to rubble but these are rare compared to the need for versatility and rapid accurate fire in open urban areas or woodland terrain. I have 4 personal ARs and have yet to have a malfunction in any of them, ever! Next, pistol. Revolvers; no! Well, I'll say the same thing about a pistol as I said about the AR, commonality of ammo and parts. Beretta 92F is the civilian version that most closely matches the M-9. Let me say that I am a dyed in the wool 1911 fanatic, period and from that point of view the M-9 is crap. But, not to cut my nose off to spite my face the fact is that the 9mm is the most popular pistol round in the world and I have several 9mm pistols to take advantage of this fact, even though I will carry a .45 1911. At some point you may have need of your weapons looking exactly like those of the armed forces!!! Think about it! Now having said all that, I do own an M1A and I highly recommend one, if you have all the others, you can afford one AND you really need one, otherwise I would invest in a good .308 bolt gun with a good (not Chinese) scope. Keep it simple, ammo and magazines and good luck. 2cents

reply to post by BrainPower


The gun you are talking about is called a "camp gun” and it is made by Marlin. They also have the same model in a 45cal. pistol load. I bought the 45 but my pistol is a 9mm, I would have liked to have the same cal cause it would make it easy but the 45 is much more power.

I made a thread on this too, but while not your ONLY weapon, I think one of the best to have would be a couple of pellet guns (a CO2 pistol and pump rifle).

Laugh all you like, but consider this...it's perfect for hunting small game, and pretty silent. The ammo is cheap, and you can carry a LOT, and it's universal. Great way to feed yourself without announcing your location for miles (like with a firearm).

reply to post by Gazrok

excellent point! some of the good air guns will shoot a 22cal pellet just as fast as a 22cal bullet like 1200fps that is lethal. I bet if you ran out of BBs or pellets you could even figure out how to make something in its place! Ammo for ever.

Potato gun and lots and lots of Right Guard.

Your brain

reply to post by Asktheanimals


You hit the target square on. All the weapons mentioned included. The mind is the most
powerful weapon of all, used in conjunction with all the weapons posted above might not be
so bad after all.

reply to post by Ridhya


Guess you've never seen the cold steel line of weapons. Watch this video, at the 5 min. you will see what a good sword will do too flesh and bone!

you need a shotgun,a katana,a tomahawk. a flamethrower and lots of grenades

reply to post by BrainPower


In order of importance (and decending price)

AK-47 and at least 1000 rounds
12 gauge pistol grip shotgun w/100 slug and 100 buckshot rounds
Springfield M6 Scout survival rifle 410 bore/ 22 over under (w cheap ammo, and 410 is field reloadable if need be)
308 bolt action rifle w 250 rounds
sidearm anything 40 cal and up or Judge 45/410 pistol
takedown recurve bow
spear with extra points
axe
machette
bowie knife/K-bar
multitool

boomerang (just kidding)

this is all for weapons I'd like to have for protection/hunting/survival. if you have a group or family I'd assign weapons to each member according to age and ability.

in all truth the best weapon you could possibly have, is a good place to hide and a well laid plan to get there.
staying in your house is not an option, unless you have a hidden bomb shelter buried deep beneath it.

you wouldn't have enough bullets and booby traps to last you very long, plus you're only drawing attention to yourself when you open fire on someone.

its best to lay low and be forgotten.

at the first indication of trouble, its best to head to your prearranged survival camp before all the roads are blocked off and you cannot escape.

time has always shown that barricading yourself behind castle walls, the enemy will always prevail. because they have the advantage of roaming free and all the time in the world to wait you out.

any weapon you would want to possess would be suppressed/silenced. so you would look towards subsonic ammo, like 380 or 45acp. then put a suppressor on it and your enemy will not know what hit them or from what position

as i first mentioned your best weapon is stealth

out the door in 5 sec's and on the run!
SKS & Glock 10mm..