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4/10/14Modern-Primitive Survival DataBy Kirk BurnessThis is a write-up of the data I have to date on survival preparedness tools, weapons and procedures to save others some research and experimentation time.The viewpoint taken in writing this, is that there may be a situation that requires people to move to a more remote (country or woods) environment following a disaster, in other words away from their home or intended “bug-in” environment.I will do this write-up in separate chapters as I address different subjects.I will be suggesting books to read, youtube channels to watch and any other hatting material that comes to my mind. I therefore will not be repeating data from these source references accept perhaps to highlight some key points to save the reader research time.To start with, most of us know little or nothing about living off the land now. The everyday knowledge and survival technology that our forefathers had and practiced has almost been lost. If a group, family or individual finds the need to “bug-out” due to civil chaos/break-down (riots, roving gangs, etc.) they may be “out of luck” without prior preparation, and practice.To re-phrase this last point, a person would need to get the right materials and equipment and learn to use them well before he/she could be “prepared”. For instance, even if you had the right gun or slingshot, you would still need the time and persistence to learn how to use it well. When you are hungry or stressed or (worse) under attack, you can’t take a “time out” to master a tool or weapon. I read about one professional outdoor survivalist teacher that practiced his slingshot 4 times a week to keep good at it. If you think about it, if your survival depended on it “back in the day”, you probably would have been using it or trying to use it on small game every day. So whatever tools and equipment you do gather together for SHTF, I encourage you to practice with them and to also keep striving to learn new skills.GUNS FOR PERSONAL AND HOME DEFENSEI grew up not wanting to have anything to do with guns, and it wasn’t until I realized I would have a hard time surviving in the woods in a bug-out situation without one that I started to take notice. The research that followed has been extensive. If you ask 20 different long-time gun users for their recommendations you will often get 20 different answers. And it is the same for asking 20 different people which car they prefer – there are different reasons for their choices.But there are some important points that I have learned that should be passed on. Firstly it is doubtful that anyone is going to be prepared for every emergency without moving permanently to their bomb shelter. But we can try our best to cover the most important points.So for home defense I would just use a shotgun. They are fast to handle and you don’t need to aim quite so well, which is important if you are not used to handling a gun, especially if stressed out. 12 gauges are the most common, although 20 gauges can do almost as nicely and with half the “kick”. If the person shooting gets knocked around by the recoil from the first shot, the advantage goes to the attacker (if the first shot was not effective). Another reason to get some practice in…The two top choices in the moderate price range are a) Remington 870 which is made of steel and has sold 10 million (!) since 1951. There are 5 or 6 models and this one is favored by police. Choice b) is the Mossberg 500 which is made with aluminum so it is lighter and is favored by the military – it is the only one to have passed their test of 3,000 rounds (bullets) fired with no problem, i.e. no mis-fires. The Mossberg is not quite as refined in quality as the Remington but it is also about $100. cheaper. I am suggesting that the average person consider a pump action shotgun as this will give the person about 5 shots available in rapid succession. There are a few other possibilities that might be considered if you are bringing the gun into the woods in a bug-out situation though, which I will go into in another chapter.While I think of it, the most recommended shotgun shell size for defense would be Buckshot #00 or #1. It will stop someone dead-cold. But also the shot pieces may go through walls inside and outside the house and injure others. I personally prefer the idea of using Birdshot #4 or #6 which probably won’t kill them but will give them a very bad experience (think of a handful of BBs blasted into someone’s chest or face), and also there is Rock Salt which is meant to cause lots of pain but not permanent damage (for riot control) – this was used to shoot the heroine in the chest in the Kill Bill movie.Other items that might also be kept for defense are dowels (sticks) that are kept in handy locations such as by doors, as well as a can of $2.00 wasp spray that has a range of 20 feet – you can keep spraying someone and follow them with it as they run out the door!For personal protection and concealed carry, you need a smaller and relatively lighter handgun. Some people carry these in a bag or purse so they don’t have to be quite so small, but if you are carrying it in your bra or inside your belt you may not want something being a liability to you and your everyday movements. So for a starter you need to ask how you want to use it. Some people carry a main concealed weapon and also have a smaller (and perhaps for a last ditch effort) back-up to that.Again, how important is this issue to you?There is quite a debate over which ones are the best but here is some data to think with. By far the most popular bullet size for hand guns is the 9mm. That being said, almost every arms manufacturer makes one or more guns to fire this round. The most popular gun brands for concealed carry appear to be: Ruger (LC9, LCP), Glock (19, 23), Sig Sauer, and the Smith & Wesson M& Ps. Not all of these are in 9 mm.The two police that live across from me carry Ruger LC9s as back-up to their main carry (and I don’t remember what their main carry is). I bought my wife a Ruger SR22 which is a small semi-automatic that fires .22 caliber bullets – not the most ferocious bullet, but being able to fire 10 rounds in a few seconds increases her chances of “making a statement” if needed.I don’t currently have a concealed carry gun. I have a revolver for the woods (which is another chapter). If I do get around to getting one, I might get a Heritage Arms mini-revolver that fires .22 magnum bullets. These are almost like derringer size and as they are revolvers, very little can go wrong with them.Think a small elastic band around your ankle, easily covered by sock and your pant leg.GUNS FOR BUG-OUT SURVIVALAlthough there may be a need for defense from a bug-out camp against humans, in this area I will talk more about guns for survival in general.The most accepted shorter term survival needs just call for a .22 caliber rifle. The best for bug-out or camping are those that can fold up or break down into two pieces easily for transportation, and these would include the Ruger 10/22 Break-down and the Marlin 70 Papoose (which are getting harder to find). They cost about $350. There is also an AR7 which all fits into the rifle stock so is very portable but its reliability and ruggedness are not great.Rossi makes “Matched Pairs” in almost every caliber, so two interchangeable different barrels will come with the same gun, and the barrels can be changed fairly quickly. These cost about $300 - $350. as well. So you could get a .22 and something bigger that might work varmints or even a deer, like a .248.Along this same idea, H & R sells rifles and shotguns that can work together. If you order one caliber barrel, for about a $100. more you can order another caliber one (or more) that can be fitted to your gun. You have to send the receiver part (where the bullet goes in) to the company for that to happen though, but it would be worth it.The reason it is a good idea to have the ability to fire different calibers is one reason why people have different guns – you can’t do everything with just one gun and do it well.If you shoot a squirrel or rabbit with too high-powered of a gun, it will be blown to tiny bits and it will be hard to get a meal out of it. If you shoot a wild boar or a bear with too small a caliber you will just make him very mad at you!One solution to this is the “combo gun” which there are a few of around. The F6 Scout by Springfield Armory is the most famous and probably the most sought after, and you’ll pay $800 or so because it is a collector’s item. It shoots .22 and .410 shotgun, one barrel above the other. Another older model out of production is the Savage 24 that shoots .22 or .22 Magnums and 12 or 20 ga shotgun. I’m currently trying to buy one of these. Their newest models shoot .22 and .410 shotgun which I am not as interested in as the .410 is not really that useful in my view. Also one that just came out this month that I am eager to see/hear a review on is the M6-22 by Chiappa – they have tried to improve on the F6 Scout. It will shoot .22 and 20 ga and the price I just heard is about $450.The reason combo guns are so useful when you are foraging is they can shoot a wide variety of game quickly with their different bullets available.Also you could take a Rossi or H&R pair and switch barrels in about a minute from a .22 to a higher caliber if you saw deer or a herd of boar.One thing I should mention is that semi-automatics are not recommended for survival situations of any length as they can break or mal-function more easily and out in the elements. Bolt action rifles and single shots are the most recommended as they have the least parts to have any trouble with. You just have to take your shots more carefully and be a better shot. If I was preparing for civil war I might lean more toward the military tactical rifles but I don’t live in a heavily fortified bunker so I may not be able to protect things as well as I’d like.The shotguns I recommended earlier can also usually be broken down by just removing several screws to transport easier.The best all-round bigger game hunting caliber is the .308. There will be some people that think that .30-.30 and .30-06 are better and also .270 for prairie/plain situations but they are all close. But the .308 will kill any North American animal and definitely a human very easily, they are extremely common (still used by the military) and can be reloaded the easiest (make your own bullets for it).Inexpensive but good companies again are H&R and Rossi. You can easily spend $700-$1000. in some of the other brands such as Winchester or Remington so if you have the money to spend then you can get a higher quality gun – especially if you intend to do a lot of general hunting outside of a survival situation.I am currently looking at an H&R Survivor model .308 for about $300. (before the cost of getting a scope for it).I that doesn’t work out I will try to find a Rossi matched pair in .308 and some other barrel.There’s a lot I could tell you about the different calibers of bullets, but basically there are maybe 10 main calibers that are suited for different-sized game. And within each caliber there could be lots of different kinds of bullets. For instance a very heavy .270 bullet might be almost the same as one of the lighter bullets in the .308 size. So the best thing to do to understand it is to determine what game needs to be taken and work backwards. A .270 is a great deer and coyote gun so if that’s what you want to hunt, that’s what you get or maybe a .248 would work well too.Another point to make is that the .22 costs about .10 a bullet while the .308 costs about $1. per bullet. It’s far better to use and especially practice with .22s whenever possible.I took a look at what types of game I had run into in Florida woods and decided I needed something bigger if I was going to both protect and feed people. I have personally seen wild boar, wild cattle and know there are some bear around so the .308 will be my heavier gun.Mostly I will want to hunt squirrel, rabbit and maybe some bigger birds so that’s a reason to have a.22/20 ga. combo for my everyday survival or foraging gun. I also have a Ruger Single Six revolver – it is small and portable compared to a rifle and can be used as a back-up for small game if something happened to my rifle.I can also recommend Heritage Arms for making a very good six shooter revolver for about $200.If I manage by statistics, I can count the times when I have had to handle direct confrontation or physical threat in this life on one hand. However if I count the times I have needed to eat so far, it is about 50,000 times! Therefore my possible personal need for home defense and protecting my castle needs to be balanced with ensuring my family or group gets enough to eat if things go to hell. But my combo gun will be ready with its shotgun if needed for home defense.The best sources for straight gun and ammo data is .You can read internet blogs and watch youtube videos for hours and hours and get tons of sometimes confusing and conflicting data so I hope the above can help with understanding this gun area. It is definitely a good idea to watch some of the youtube video reviews on different gun types though, especially if it is one you are considering getting. Many times though they are glowing and biased reports to make themselves right or seem like important experts.For some of the new guns I mentioned you can get further data on at: Decent new prices are to be had from:Walmart (the Pinellas Park branch- they can order almost any gun cheaply)The best used or hard to find guns can be found on: Gander Mountain also shows used guns and rifles on their website. ................
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