Survivalist weapon

[Radamus]

One weapon outside of a good knife? I would take my 12g pump shotgun - good for hunting, protection and defense, nice and simple, versatile. In the right hands a good stick would work- unfortunately that wouldn't be in my hands. Rambo took out a national guard unit with just a knife by using it as a force multiplier.

[REZ325]

Rambo took out a national guard unit with just a knife by using it as a force multiplier.

[jpm1]

good posts. good posts. and what about producing his own cartridges. that means you would have to save a machine in your hideout. is it a good option in a survival situation. i don't know how these machines work. if whever they need electricity or not, and if the raw materials are easy to find and stock

@ Radamus: yeah but you need to be close to the game with a 12. the big game, the one that will save you energy generally is spotted far away

[Hawkeye]

good posts. good posts. and what about producing his own cartridges. that means you would have to save a machine in your hideout. is it a good option in a survival situation. i don't know how these machines work. if whever they need electricity or not, and if the raw materials are easy to find and stock

@ Radamus: yeah but you need to be close to the game with a 12. the big game, the one that will save you energy generally is spotted far away

There are manual presses for reloading.

It's worth questioning whether or not it's worth it though. There are many cons to reloading 223 ammunition. For one, you're not saving any money as it's often cheaper to just buy factory ammo. You're also not saving much in the way of storage space, since the only thing you're really recycling is the brass, and you add all of your reloading equipment to the storage. You also need a good solid table-like structure to mount your reloading equipment to. If you're in a cabin, that's probably not an issue, but I think bushcrafting would find this a challenge. If anything malfunctions with any of your reloading equipment, then you're suddenly low on ammo with no way of making more. Lastly, the neck of the 223 is small, and the most delicate of any rounds you'd be reloading, and is therefore challenging. You'll only get around 5 reloads on 223 brass before the neck starts to split. So, about the pros...well, you'd be able to reuse your brass for a while, and you'd be able to improve your accuracy. IMO, the accuracy improvements you gain aren't really that practical in a survival situation. You're faced with hitting a pie-plate sized vital area, not winning a shooting match. Your factory ammo will do just fine.

For me, if I'm having to store bullets, powder, extra brass, and reloading presses/dies, I would rather just store factory ammunition & melt down my spent brass to make other things that might be useful. If a person was comfortable enough casting his/her own bullets though, now that changes things & makes me think of exploring muzzleloader practicality. No brass necessary.

[jpm1]

what about this

[Hawkeye]

what about this

Fascinating. That's something I've never even considered. Do you know anything about those specific guns? I have a pellet gun, but imo it's not accurate enough to depend on, especially if you move beyond 30 yards or so. Mine is the Gamo Whisper Silent Cat. What gun is he showing there?

[Radamus]

@ Radamus: yeah but you need to be close to the game with a 12. the big game, the one that will save you energy generally is spotted far away

This is true, but you also have to consider what I know as my geography and what my needs would be. My justification, and I thought about all of this trying to imagine it, was versatility. Initially I went to AR and .223 because of availability of ammo - everyone has .223' s. But - not good for flying animals, running animals- Sure, broadside WT at 200m but that's only one thing edible - In an apocalypse might I also find a wild pig or cow as well?
Reloading doesn't take a lot of precision to load up something in a shot shell, in fact you could even use black powder in a survival situation. Check out "Demolition Ranch" on YT, they've shot everything from mud and nails to gravel and empty brass casings through a shotgun and you don't need Hollywood magic to pull it off. So there's my supporting reasoning

[MooseHunter330]

Say that again. Brenneke makes a slug, that still delivers 1600 ft. lbs at 100 meters.

[Radamus]

Brenneke makes a slug

Touche'!!! I came across them in the 80's, never forget, had a translucent white hull and a pointed rifled slug for smooth bore- Kicked like a mule and whistled when you shot them. I still have some floating around of course we get all kinds of them today but back then there was nothing like the Brenneke on the market.

My pick of a shotgun is very much like this game, covers every animal on the list but Bison based on ammo choice. For me to find bison I'd have to go hunt at the zoo-

PS-reloading- I can knock the primer out of a shot shell with a nail, press one in on a rock - all I need is powder- wad - piece of cloth would work, and a projectile, could be anything, broken glass??? anything, and then fold the end in- even cheap shot shell presses don't re-size the brass. This is why I chose the pump- I have one auto-loader that will hang on reloads that didn't have the base sized.

[MooseHunter330]

Not talking about the regular Brenneke. I mean the "Opal Magnum". Developed for African Dangerous game.

Data:

Distance 0 25 50 75 100
Velocity (ft/s) 1473 1299 1152 1035 954
Energy (ft lb) 3822 2969 2335 1891 1602
Trajectory (cm) -5,00 +1,10 +4,00 +2,70 -3,80

With the 666gr. projectile, this load still delivers .45-70 - esque performance at 100 yds. (In reference to a Remington 405 grain flatnose).

This is something different from Wilhelm's original 1898 load.