How I choose my weapons

I guess the short answer is utility. If a weapon is tacticool I have learned to stay away from them. For my hunting rifle I wanted power with a decent trajectory, so I chose the 300 rum. This weapon has 3 separate powers of ammunition to chose from to be more versatile. Also for those long range days it has a bull barrel that is also fluted. This weapon for its purpose is highly accurate and dispenses heat at a decent rate, at the cost of weight. In a SHTF scenario this weapon would be employed in an offensive manner against people that would cause me trouble. The bull barrel and flute would allow for more shooting before the barrel would be in need of cooling. Conversely it will take longer to cool down.

For a medium range weapon 100-500 meters I could not decide between the two and they compliment each other so well I got them both. The AR-15 specifically the M&P 15T with EoTech 512 sight and gen 2 3x magnifyer. This would be mostly a varmint gun, however In a SHTF scenario this weapon would be a jack of all trades. A defensive and offensive weapon just as capable of killing at 1ft as at 350 meters.

The AK47 I wouldn't trust to more than 200 meters. However I has more penetration power than a wee .223. This weapon will only be shot once a year and cleaned just as often. AK47s are perfect for those SHTF days. Little maintenance needed and very cheap ammo. This bullet hose if used correctly can decimate an enemy in very, very short order.

For close in work, such as home protection I don't want anything to big. I sstarted with a 1911, which I still have, because it has relatively cheap ammo, and pretty accurate out to about 50 yds. The desert Eagle .44 mag is for hunting but will work in a pinch. And the 5.7x28 is just for target practice unless SHTF. At that point the Desert Eagle would be primary for a pistol back up as the standoff distance is greatest. This would be seconded by my .45 acp as it still has decent power. The 5.7x28 would be a last resort as a defensive weapon but the first choice a an offensive assassination style weapon. No I not claiming to be an assassin it's just a comparison.

2 Shotguns 1 with an extended magazine for fighting and another for 3 1/2 in loads and door breaching.

I wouldn't recommend carrying to much ammo in a SHTF scenario and instead rely on rally points and caches as well as ammo redistribution if applicable. If you do have to or want to snipe only carry enough ammunition for the mission times 2 for targets of opportunity. Your secondary weapon should have at least 120 rounds or the equivalent of a decent tactical vest. The Tertiary weapon should have two spare clips

Remember ammo is weight as well is the weapon. Should SHTF you will most likely want to shoot and scoot, and more weight is not conducive to that style of warfare. A stand up fight against a 25mm or 105mm main gun is at best a losing proposition at worst suicide.

But weapons are only a part of the equation. Do you have the equipment and space to cache weapons, ammo and other essentials? If not what would you do if SHTF?

When SHTF TPTB seem to think that gives them the right to disarm us, just when we need to be armed the most. Should you go wandering about doing whatever it is you would do in SHTF scenario where martial law is a most likely scenario, what will you pack? Have you practiced with friend on doing dead drops for counter occupation operations?

I am amazed reading these posts about what pistols or rifles to bring along in a SHTF scenario, but have never read one about what knife to bring. Personally, I think a decent hunting knife will be far more valuable than any rifle will ever be. Never runs out of ammo, and has many more practical uses.

I'm not saying that a weapon other than a knife is useless or impractical, just suprised I haven't seen it given much thought other than "and throw a knife in your bag."

oh yea, the testosterone seems
to be leaking quite extensively, lmao

i maybe wrong here but
doesn't the OP appear to be fishing
for information on how well armed
ATS members are???

I have no guns
no bullets
no knives
no explosives
and no money to buy any



what is a scope by the way??? lmao

You want a decent knife, find yourself a smith and have him make you a custom with Damascus steel, capable of being used as a spearpoint. 'Nuff said.

As for guns, I don't know how long guns would be useful after SHTF... About as long as the ammo lasts, I imagine. Make no mistake, before I abandon them, I'll use all of my handguns, rifles and shotguns until they go click.

AFTERWARDS, I'll switch to bow and arrow, with which I'm equally proficient... Plus, a properly silenced bow is possibly the deadliest weapon you can have in your arsenal — perfectly silent and deadly to the extent of your skill.

That's one thing that always bugged me about firearms — as soon as you pull the trigger, you've just given up your position. That sucks.

Not so with bow & arrow. A decent archer can lay up in a blind and stroke multiple kills without ever giving away his position.

At closer range, poison-tipped blowgun darts would work; although they're not immediately lethal, the poisons that you can brew up yourself are supposed to bring down a human being in about 20 minutes or less.

I'm also pretty good with a boomerang to about 50 yards, at which distance you can kill small animals and inflict injury on humans.

Nice, quiet weapons, I think, are the order of the day in the months and years following SHTF.

— Doc Velocity

I'm pretty good with a bowstaff, but my most effective weapon is boredom. Anyone remember the scene in Airplane where he talks about his life and everyone commits suicide? Thats what I do.
And if the SHTF, I think having a network of friends or trusted acquaintances would be as effective as any weapon for your chances of survival.

reply to post by Doc Velocity


Boomerang...Nice! I'll have to check that out. I had a plastic one when I was 5 or 6, but never worried about accuracy. Just basically threw it as hard as a I could, and it would never come back. Haha. *excuse me while I laugh at myself*

reply to post by oppaperclip


Hello,
Really, when TSHTF in my case, I will utilize my knife only. I don't want to shoot anyone out of fear they are coming to get me. When they are in my point-blank and in my face, they are not going to have a chance to shoot me.
I'm not saying I'm bringing a knife to a gun fight, I'm saying that I'm not bringing the fight, just ending it.

Chances are, we brothers and sisters need to rally together and be smart, not try to steal in order to survive the fight. You got to know your enemy. They won't be wearing street clothes for one, and two- if they're wearing a suit, well, let them chance failure...

I think knives are dandy. However to get really good at them you have to practice...a lot. Then if you do use it on a person you are going to be very intimate wit who you just killed.

However as a tool for survival, a knife is great, I would recommend a heavy machete and a small utilitarian knife for fine work. You should also have at least a hatchet, and all of these can be used for hunting and shelter.

Bows and darts, no problem.

In a SHTF scenario, I think more along the lines of practical for everything. I'm sorry, but the guys who have a rifle, a shotgun, a handgun, a bow, a knife, and ammo for all of them, are not very mobile.

I am a huge supporter of having a variety of weapons in the safe to choose from. The problem is, which one will you grab to carry with you if you have to leave the relative comfort of your home for an extended period, or even for good?

There are alot of strong arguments for a nice hunting rifle with a scope. Also for an AR with an ACOG and a dozen 30 rnd mags. Even arguments for a good 12 gauge loaded for bear with 00 buckshot. The problem is, if you need to conceal it, your screwed.

Knife? Heck ya, I have a nice Benchmade Auto that is the same model issued to US troops. It will be on my belt in any situation. But the gun I will be grabbing won't be a 20 lb hard to conceal long gun. It will be the trusty ol Glock, and the IWB holster.

I can take game if I need to, I can protect myself and my family. I can also tuck it away, so as not to draw unwanted attention to myself.

I hope I haven't derailed the thread as the topic was how to choose weapons......but choosing what to carry during a disaster type situation is definitely a relative topic!

Originally posted by time91
Anyone remember the scene in Airplane where he talks about his life and everyone commits suicide? Thats what I do.

A well-trained big dog is a pretty effective weapon, like a guided missile with teeth.

I remember back in the aftermath of Katrina, some guy in New Orleans holed-up in his shop and posted a warning out front, spray-painted across the plywood-boarded windows:

KEEP OUT!
I got a shotgun, a mean dog and an ugly wife!

Apparently it was enough to keep the looters at bay.

As a matter of fact, I used to date a girl who was so ugly that she could instantly kill small animals just by glancing at them. I tried taking her squirrel hunting with me, thinking I could save on ammo, but it didn't work out... She was tearing 'em up too bad.

— Doc Velocity






[edit on 3/28/2010 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by treemanx
The problem is, which one will you grab to carry with you if you have to leave the relative comfort of your home for an extended period, or even for good?

Well, I mean, it's not really the firearms that would slow me down — I can get my M4, two short-barrel police shotguns and all of my handguns into my StarLite traveling case (that's the personal gun case our troops use when they're shipping out).

Rather, it's the fekking ammo that's going to be difficult to haul. How much does a standard military-issue ammo box weigh when fully loaded? 25 lbs? 30 lbs? Pretty damned heavy, I know that, and you'd need several ammo boxes for an extended situation.

Which is why I'm not bugging out. I'm stocking up the basement, and I'll make a stand right here on the homefront. I have more supplies, medicine, food, water and ammo at home than I could possibly haul out of here, and it's worth defending.

— Doc Velocity

Here's a custom Damascus pig-sticker I had made last October...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8a7a0e8702e4.jpg[/atsimg]

I designed it, because I wanted some specific features that you don't often see in commercial knives, and a buddy in Missouri made the thing in about a week.

It's 1/4" thick Damascus steel, has an extra-deep choil, a half-guard, and an extra-deep spearpoint. The handle is WhiteTail Buck antler w/crown. It's a handful.

— Doc Velocity

reply to post by Doc Velocity


What will you do though, if you HAVE to leave your home? There are many different scenarios that could dictate the necessity to strike out away from home, and as you mentioned, while it may be "somewhat" easy to carry a full cadre of weaponry in your Starlite case, you'll likely not carry enough ammo to make them worth carrying.

I admit as well, that staying put and protecting the resources I have accumulated at home is a good plan. But things don't always go as planned, and we need to understand the dynamics of the things that affect us once we leave the protection of our homes.

reply to post by oppaperclip


AK 47 might get 200-300 meters IF scoped.


But without, you'll be lucky at 100 meters.

Dont forget to think about weapons for protecting your home------first one that comes to mind is improvised mines--booby traps--get the department of the armys book on unconventional warfare devices and techniques book----my copy is tm-31-200-1----1966. great book that decribes many home made bombs-booby traps-and mines you can make cheep for your home---
MY favorite is the cheep bullet mines you make out of pipe, a hi-powererd bullet and a stick with a sharp nail in the end.
Pipe is capped--stick with nail is placed inside with nail facing up---bullet is placed so primer is resting on nail -stick is cut so as the bullet stickes above pipe half inch--install under rug in floor or out side around home-------man steps on bullet, presses bullet down on nail and BOOM!!!!!---i recomend 50 cal or 10 gage shotgun shells with buck shot-------
Many high explosive acids also decribed in there also.

Originally posted by Doc Velocity
At closer range, poison-tipped blowgun darts would work; although they're not immediately lethal, the poisons that you can brew up yourself are supposed to bring down a human being in about 20 minutes or less.

I'm also pretty good with a boomerang to about 50 yards, at which distance you can kill small animals and inflict injury on humans.

Nice, quiet weapons, I think, are the order of the day in the months and years following SHTF.
— Doc Velocity

Doc, hydrogen cyanide. Not hard to make at all, reduces into crystals but can be easily crushed into "icing sugar" consistency. I used to make my own back in the day (I had a lab at work and at home) and pack my 44 and 9p hollow points. Of course, I also packed some with mercury and others with semtex (I am sure most know the formula), magnesium and phosphorus with a 22 rim fire cap in the nose ;-)

Also, in the dart scenario, if you mix your "agent" with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) you just have to hit the skin to transport the payload, you don't even have to break the skin. DMSO is a cellular transference mediator meaning it carries what it contains right through the skin.

Cheers - Dave

Forgot the disclaimer... Don't do this at home as hazardous materials experience is required. Hydrogen Cyanide is extremely dangerous, both the vapor and the powder can kill, usually within about 7 seconds. Specialized equipment and protection is required, like fume hood with precipitator scrubbers, sealed beakers and distillers, protective suit, gloves, head gear and of course a gas mask with separate ventilation source. Also, anything down wind in close proximity would be in a potential danger zone.

[edit on 3/28.2010 by bobs_uruncle]

Originally posted by crazyinthemiddle
Boomerang...Nice! I'll have to check that out. I had a plastic one when I was 5 or 6, but never worried about accuracy. Just basically threw it as hard as a I could, and it would never come back.

Well, to tell the truth, I started out with that red, hard-plastic Whammo boomerang in the 1960s, before they discovered the things were actually quite dangerous and took them off the market. I became entranced with the boomerang, practiced with it for hours every day for a couple of years — actually, I broke so many of them, I actually owned about 10 of them over 2 years. I started wrapping them to give them more weight.

By the time I was 9 years old, I could not only throw and catch the thing quite gracefully, but I had learned how to hunt rabbits, squirrels and birds with the damned thing — I could hit animals on the run and birds in-flight. By then I was using a solid wooden boomerang with sharpened edges.

When I finally revealed my secret talent at school one day during show-and-tell, several guys were laughing me down, laughing down the boomerang as a weapon — to them, it was just a weird-looking Frisbee, right? Well... I had a lot shorter temper as a little kid.

So, after school, I met these dumb asses out on the football field to give them a proper demonstration. The first challenge they posed to me was the easiest one — to target and hit one of them in full sprint.

No problem.

As he was sprinting across the field, about 20 yards away, I hurled that rang right into his nuts — it was a low pitch, thrown close to the ground, which suddenly arced sharply upward, right into his cods. I threw it with enough force to kill a squirrel.

The comedian went down and stayed down, and my audience was suddenly awestruck, quite terrified. It was a supremely satisfying moment in my young life.

— Doc Velocity





[edit on 3/28/2010 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by itsawild1
Dont forget to think about weapons for protecting your home------first one that comes to mind is improvised mines--booby traps--get the department of the armys book on unconventional warfare devices and techniques book----my copy is tm-31-200-1----1966. great book that decribes many home made bombs-booby traps-and mines you can make cheep for your home---
MY favorite is the cheep bullet mines you make out of pipe, a hi-powererd bullet and a stick with a sharp nail in the end.
Pipe is capped--stick with nail is placed inside with nail facing up---bullet is placed so primer is resting on nail -stick is cut so as the bullet stickes above pipe half inch--install under rug in floor or out side around home-------man steps on bullet, presses bullet down on nail and BOOM!!!!!---i recomend 50 cal or 10 gage shotgun shells with buck shot-------
Many high explosive acids also decribed in there also.

A lot of these types of improvised devices you read about are plausible in theory but in practice just plainly don't work. For instance, the "booby trap" you described with the bullet and pipe, and the guy steps on the bullet and the nail pushes into the primer and goes BOOM........Wouldn't work. Or at least not reliably.

The problem is that the pressure upon the bullet from the weight of the man, is not enough pressure on the nail against the primer to ignite it. The nail would need to strike the primer much more solidly and quickly for the primer to ignite. Placing a spring under tension around the stick, connected to the stick and the bullet, so when the bullet is stepped on the springs force is released drawing the nail point quickly to the primer would result in a much more reliable trap.

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
Doc, hydrogen cyanide. Not hard to make at all, reduces into crystals but can be easily crushed into "icing sugar" consistency.

I know about it. However, I was into the more organic toxins, such as nicotine sulfate. Easy to make, also, with a carton of cigarettes and a few bottles of Everclear. Like hashish, it reduces to a gummy black goo that is sparingly applied to blowgun darts.

That sparse quantity will kill a grown rabbit in less than a minute. I've seen it work. It's a hematological toxin, attacks the blood, causes the living blood to crystalize within the circulatory system. Instantly clogs the heart, producing almost instant death for small animals.

— Doc Velocity




[edit on 3/28/2010 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by Doc Velocity

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
Doc, hydrogen cyanide. Not hard to make at all, reduces into crystals but can be easily crushed into "icing sugar" consistency.

I know about it. However, I was into the more organic toxins, such as nicotine sulfate. Easy to make, also, with a carton of cigarettes and a few bottles of Everclear. Like hashish, it reduces to a gummy black goo that is applied to blowgun darts.

That quantity will kill a grown rabbit in less than a minute. I've seen it work. It's a hematological toxin, attacks the blood, causes the living blood to crystalize within the circulatory system. Instantly clogs the heart, producing almost instant death for small animals.
— Doc Velocity

Well, Morninglory flowers/plants produce an excellent toxin and these plants are easy to come by. Also if reduced properly (I have the recipe around here someplace) they can be turned into a rather nasty mush that has the same effect as psilocybine mushrooms.

Cheers - Dave