Being a bit of a gun nut I have owned a great many guns over the years (and own a fair number right now) most are collector's items but a good number are intended for self-defense. As an avid shooter and a police officer I have also fired/used/carried an even larger number of firearms. As a result I have had the opportunity evaluate these guns for performance, reliability, ease of upkeep etc. What follows is my (highly opinionated) list of guns for "the end of the world as we know it" scenarios;
1. Remington 870 12 ga shotgun.
It is easy to clean, stupid easy to operate, ammo is readily available, resonably priced, easily reloaded and damned dangerous to the target. Plus nothing says, "Y'all can leave now", like the slide of an 870 slamming closed. I know there are dozens of other 12ga shotguns out there but few even approach the popularity of the 870, which makes the Remington the first choice as parts will be easy to find, not that you are likely to need them. This guns works equally well on bad-guys and game animals. Get some ammo and practice.
If you only own one gun this should be it.
2. A powerful handgun.
This is an either/or for me; either a SIG226 in .40cal/.357 or a Smith and Wesson .357 large frame revolver. I have both.
The SIG has an easily swapped barrel (no tools needed, it takes about 15 seconds to swap) which allows it to use either the .40cal or .357SIG ammo. You will need both barrels at hand to take advantage of this option, of course. This large-frame semiauto is very well made, tolerant of dirt and poor quality ammo, amazingly hard to jam/break and very easy to use.
The Smith is available in a dozen different varieties, I have a large frame with a 4" barrell in stainless steel chambered in .357 magnum. you can get a .38 cal but that would limit the ammo you can use. Spring for a couple extra dollars and get the .357, it will shoot the .38 cal ammo just fine and makes getting supplies that much easier. It is a dream to shoot with a well designed grip (you can get optional grips to suit just about any hand size), very good sights, easy to operate controls that are well laid out. It is almost impossible to hurt or jam, if you get it stainless steel it hardly needs to be cleaned (do it anyways!!).
You can bet your life on either of these guns, I have and do.
3. A rifle caliber semiauto carbine/assault rifle
This will piss of some people but I am NOT a fan of the AR series, I strongly reccomend that you get an SKS/AK instead.
I own and SKS, it uses 7.62x39mm cartridge (which has more knock-down than the puny 5.56mm AR round) which is readily available and cheap enough to get a lot of practice with and keep a large supply of. Remember if the world falls apart there will two kinds of money; silver and ammo. The SKS is very easy to operate, dead easy to clean (one of my biggest gripes abou the AR series is that it a pain in the ass to clean and needs cleaning ALL OF THE TIME) will function happily when it is dirty/wet/muddy/frozen and is plenty accurate for short range (100 yards or less) work. The only drawback the the SKS has it that the design is a top-feed ten-round magazine which many people find clumsy to use, if that is a draw-back there are conversion kits so that you can use AK-47 mags. A better idea would be to get an AK-47.
The AK-47 is the King of assault rifles, everything that I said about the SKS goes as well for the AK, plus it uses magazines which makes relaoding in a stress situation a LOT easier. The only obstacle is that the price has gone up a bit due to the Obama election.
4. a bolt action .22 cal rifle
Heaven forbid that we are ever reduced to hunting little critters for food, but in the event we are this will be your go-to gun. Remington, Winchester and a host of others make excellent guns that fit this model. Find one that feels comfortable to you, has a weather resistant stock and hopefully a stainless steel action and barrell. Make sure it is simple to operate and clean. Practice with it a lot, maybe even put a little 4x scope on it (particularly if your eyes are getting old like mine). Ammo in .22 cal is very inexpensive, ranging between 1 penny a round for practice ammo to ten cents a round for hunting quality stuff. Keep lot of it around. In a pinch you can use it for self defense but you really need one of the guns listed above for that.
5. a large rifle caliber long-gun
The number of choices here are simply staggering. I collect rifles from World War One some I am loaded with guns that fit this model. Your choices are almost as wide. For the average person I would recommend one in 30-06 or .308 as these are common hunting cartridges as well as military surplus. this makes finding/loading up on ammo easier. I recommend a bolt-action as they are simpler to use easier to clean and a lot harder to jam/break. A Winchester 70 or a Remington 700 are both excellent choices. You will want a scope with this one as it is intended for reaching out and touching the target at long range. Some people feel that a semiauto is better because of higher rates of fire, my feelings are this; you are not going to be engaging in military operations so a few well-placed shots will be more than enough to deter looter/bad guys and you really should only need one round for game.
6. A Ruger 10-22
This excellent semiauto rifle combines accuracy, lightness and ease of use into an inexpensive package that anyone can handle. It can be used for pest removal, hunting small game and as support to a larger caliber gun. It uses the cheap .22cal ammo and has aftermarket magazines that hold up to fifty rounds. Get one.
7. a small pistol
If society comes completely unzipped you will need at least one of all of the above guns. If it gets badly frayed around the edges you will want a pistol that you can carry all the time. People that live in major cities will already know what I mean, there are places the you just don't go, if things go badly there will a LOT more places that fit into that category. Some of them will be places that you will need to go into. Thus you need a gun that you can carry comfortably and can conceal easily. I recommend the Makarov, it is an old Soveit design but is solid, reliable and accurate. The ammo used to be hard to find but is commonplace now. Other options are a small frame Smith&Wesson revolver in .38cal or a .32cal semiauto Kel-Tec, both are reliable and easily concealed if not particularly powerful. Whatever you buy practice often and if at all possible get a carry permit.
There you have it, the guns that I think you will need when the world ends. One thing that I need to stress is that you need to stock a bunch of ammo. You will need to practice, a lot, and then practice some more. Hunting and competitive shooting is better than just target shooting. You need to be able to pick up your gun, and just by feel, know where the controls are and be able to use them without thinking about it. Otherwise you will be fumbling around while the bad guy is shooting.
Pray to God we never need them, in the meantime keeping buying ammo and silver.
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