Firearms for survival/preparedness/personal protection

I've seen a couple of posts from here, there, and a few other places, about the BEST or MINIMUM battery of firearms that you NEED to have.

You may notice in the title I listed Survival, Preparedness and Personal Protection.  Those are three different, reasons and needs for a firearm, with 3 different requirements.  Some might quibble that Preparedness and Survival are the same thing.

NO!

They are not.

You can PREPARE for a SURVIVAL situation, however life may conspire against your preparations, and you will find yourself miles away or on the opposite side of locked door from your preparations.

Personal Protection is something that while it overlaps with the Survival and Preparedness is still a different kettle of fish.

Personal Protection could be the small .25 ACP, .32 ACP or ..380 ACP Bryco/Lorcin/FN Belly gun, or it could be a Glock/M&P/1911 in 9mm, .40 S&W, 10mm or .45 ACP and/or everything in between.

You could be just as well served with a small Walther TP-22 that you can shoot well than with the Glock 21 you can't even hit the barn with while standing inside the barn.

Each situation is different.

Personal Protection is your immediate person.  What you carry on your body that is NOT visible to others.  It has a hard limit, as to what you can easily conceal on your person while making it so you do not stand out as a threat or a target.

Preparedness, is the safe full of guns in the back of your closet, the 6 months of food, the hundreds of gallons of water, all of your other preparations in the event of a breakdown of civilized society either by a natural disaster or a concerted effort, like a riot or terrorist attack.

Survival is only what you have either on your person or available to you in your vehicle or your home that you still have ACCESS to.

Did you note that?

That you still have ACCESS to.

You can have all the preps you and your family could ever hope to need, IF you are at where those preps are stored.  If you and your family are on vacation, there is only so much room available to carry things.  Plus if you had to fly on a commercial airline you are limited/restricted even further.  If all of your preps are at home, but you're on vacation hundreds of miles away, they don't really do you any good.  In fact if you are not there, if something does go down, and you aren't there to safeguard your preps, they may as well be gone forever.

Now the idea here is to identify which part of your battery is for what area of the 3 aforementioned specialties.

Now this is just me, but I do happen to own a large number of various firearms.  Almost all of them could be considered part of my Preparedness Battery.

However I can only physically carry 2 maybe 5 of them at a time, if three of them are handguns.  It all depends on what else I have to carry, what particular firearms I have chosen and what level of awareness and alert I am at.

If I am around town, everything is hunky dory, and there are no threats, I will have at least 1 handgun on my person plus at least 1 other firearm in my vehicle.  The other firearm could be another handgun, or a longarm.  Rifle or Shotgun if not both.  Depending on which vehicle I am driving that day.

If I am in the S-10, I'll probably have my FEG AP765 on me and my Charter Arms Undercover .38 or my Rossi 461 .357  in the truck.

If I am in the Dakota with it's extended cab, I'll have the FEG plus I'll have either of the 2 revolvers AND I'll have either my Maverick 88 12 ga with a folding stock or my AK Pistol with a SIG Brace in the back of the cab.

If I am in the Suburban, I would most likely have most of the above plus my AR-15 or Kel-Tec Sub2000.

NOTE:  This is not including what is in my Get Home Bag's.  Those I'll probably write about later.

Now, from time to time, I'll toss one of my other firearms into any of the vehicles for no particular reason.  It could be my Sears/Savage Mod 29 .22 S,L,LR, or my Savage Model 24 22/20 ga and I could just be going to the other property to do some plinking or to the range to get some practice in.

Now, carry on my person is Personal Protection, carry in my vehicle is Preparedness and possibly Survival, if something happens.

Survival is ONLY what I have with me at the time something goes down.

Many articles I have read over the years makes assumptions, some of them are good.  Many of them are bad and a few are outright telling you to break the law.

So first things first.

Identify the core needs.

Personal Protection, Preparedness THEN Survival.

What firearms and/or tools do you NEED to carry on your person at all times to ensure your personal protection?

Mine is usually my FEG AP765, 3 extra magazines, Swiss Army Knife, 3.5 inch farmer's knife, my keychain with cuff key/ p-38/KTD Drive and LED light, a multi-tool (Victorinox Swiss Tool) wallet with ID/License/Permit's/spare cash, cell phone with 2200 mah back up battery charger, a pen light then my cigar case and my zippo lighter.

That might become my survival load out if something happened and I couldn't get to my vehicle.

Preparedness is the contents of my safes plus other things secreted around my house.

Survival is just whatever I have on my person when everything goes to hell.

Now as for firearms I recommend that almost EVERYONE should have.  Well, those articles I link to above make some good points, however not everyone has the budget.

So here is my bare bones list.

A good .22 rifle that can fire shorts, longs and long rifles, either semi, bolt action or pump, preferably with a tubular mag because if you lose the magazine you have a singleshot that is hard to load.

A .22 revolver that can shoot .22 shorts, longs or long rifles.  Mine has an extra cylinder so I can also shoot .22 WMR (.22 Magnum)

A centerfire revolver.  I prefer .38 special/.357 magnums having 2 of each.

a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun.  It could be single shot top-break, side by side double barrel, pump or bolt action.  I have one of each.  Please don't use a O/U double barrel unless it is one of the OLD ones with double triggers.

Then a good centerfire rifle that is capable of taking down small/medium to large game animals with the proper ammunition.  Even an AR-15 with the proper ammunition and shot placement can take down a bear if it's necessary.

One thing I haven't really discussed in this post is ammunition.  Every one has their own favorites and their own reasons for choosing them.  I will try to talk my friend Ken into writing up an article about various types and loadings of ammunition.

However I will say that my daily carry is a .32 ACP which I load with 73 gr Aguila or 71 gr PPU/Fiochi FMJ's.  My personal FEG does NOT like to work with JHP's.  Considering that I am a pretty decent shot with a handgun I don't feel undegunned.  Someone who isn't as experienced as I am however might chose a different firearm, caliber or ammunition type entirely.  I'm not saying I'm right and they're wrong.  I'm saying what I have works for me.  They might have different experience than I do, and their own hand size/grip might dictate that they need different firearms than I would.

That is something ELSE that will need to be written in another post.

My whole point of this post is this.

You can read dozens if not hundreds of lists and recommendations.  However, choose what you can afford, what you can legally own and what you can reliably shoot.

The best, most expensive firearm in the world won't do you any good if you cannot afford to shoot it, nor if you can't shoot it accurately or reliably.

Also, be sure to practice as often as you can.

Shooting skills can degrade over time if they are not reinforced through practice.

I've rambled enough don't you think?

Your turn, hit the Post Comment if you would like to offer any further thoughts.

geekprepper.org has a similar article on their website if you would like to read more.

The Best and Worst Guns for Home Defense