Only One Gun

ONLY ONE GUN

By: Plan B Writers Alliance  http://www.LocustsOnTheHorizon.com

As the hour grows short, a rapidly increasing number of Americans realize they need to prepare their families. Because of this, a vast number of people are buying guns as part of those preps.

For many it’s the first gun they have bought and, due to finances, it’s often the only gun in the household. While a firearm is a necessary part of preps, in order to adequately prepare their families, most of their resources will need to be focused on something other than just guns.

The harsh reality is that 40% of the US workforce now makes less in real buying power than what a minimum wage worker did in 1968. A huge percentage, 64% of the US population, has $1000 or less in the bank at the end of the month, after the bills are paid, and 2/3 of those, 40% of the US population, have less than $500 in the bank at the end of the month.

The new book which is part of the ongoing the Locusts on the Horizon Project, ‘The Family Survival Gun‘ is a 60,000 word book written specifically to address this situation so many now face. It can be found through our website, which also links to our current crowd funding campaign to raise the capital needed to produce the books in hardback, which many have said they have wanted.

http://www.LocustsOnTheHorizon.com

It answers the question, if a family can only afford to buy ONE firearm, then what firearm do they get?

While there are many books and web articles talking about guns for survival, most tend to follow the approach that the late Mel Tappan took with his 35 year old book, ‘Survival Guns’ and many others started in the early survival movement of the 70′s and 80′s. These were basically shopping lists where people are shown choices of guns for a ‘survival battery’ to be made up of specific guns for specific tasks (even though many could do the functions of others).

Due to the modern economic reality, that old formula tends to break apart and leave people stranded, especially those new to the subject. So, with The Family Survival Gun, we took a different approach to this matter.

Most families cannot afford the classic ‘survival battery’. It is simply a non-issue. In modern prices, that is a ton of money just in guns alone, not counting all of the different calibers of ammo, etc.

Another fact that must be addressed as part of this is that in order to be truly prepared, buying a firearm for long term survival is more than buying just a firearm and a couple of boxes of ammo. What you are doing is adopting a complete weapon system.

What that translates into is that by the time you are done accumulating the ammo, accessories, spare parts, reloading gear and supplies for that caliber, etc, you have typically spent a total of at least three times the cost of the original weapon. Aside from the sheer cost of the guns themselves, this is why having multiple types of firearms can rapidly annihilate a prepping budget, leaving a family dangerously unprepared.

So, what we did was look at the requirements that a ‘do it all’ weapon would be asked to perform, and then decide which type of firearm could fulfill those requirements. Most of the information in the book applies to all models within that type of firearm.

We then narrowed down within that type of firearm what the best model of gun was to buy in today’s firearms market in the USA. This allows people, especially those new to prepping, to more rapidly focus in on the subject and deal with the matter at hand.

The book covers not only accessorizing the weapon, but a well rounded knowledge base such as fighting positions, buttstock survival kits, economical training, field strip, cleaning kits, aiming, ammo reloading, ammo fabrication from basic materials, ammo carriers, etc. All of this focused upon the chosen weapon type

WHAT TYPE OF WEAPON?

Well lets look at the requirements. The requirements basically fall into three categories:

1) Defense
2) Hunting
3) Durability & Repairability.

DEFENSE

It’s this section where the .22LR gets eliminated as a front runner. While some advocate the .22LR as the ultimate survival weapon, when you throw defense into the mix, it starts to fall behind other weapon types. A .22LR can be very lethal, but when it’s the lives of your family at stake, there are better weapons to rely upon.

First and foremost, a family’s primary firearm that they rely upon should be capable of realistic personal and home defense. It should be powerful, a proven man-stopper, absolutely reliable, and capable of a rapid follow up shot, preferably multiple, rapid follow up shots if need be.

Most civilian self-defense encounters end without shots being fired, the criminals leaving once the civilian homeowner is known to be armed. In the encounters which do end in shots fired, the range is almost always at 7 meters (23 feet) or less, usually less. It usually happens fast, and the average number of shots fired is two shots. Once shots start flying, the bad guys almost always flee the scene, typically abandoning any of their buddies who are shot and down.

The family’s primary firearm must also be capable of dealing with pests and predators, such as rabid animals, and feral dog packs. A rabid dog is often harder to stop than a drugged out human, and you absolutely do not want to get bit, especially in a survival situation. This is one situation where you need something that will stop it in it’s tracks. Even today, these feral animals have become something of a problem in many rural areas, especially near the fringes of major cities. In a prolonged crisis, problems with them will only get worse.

To prepare for a worst case scenario, the weapon chosen must be extremely reliable, shot after shot, with a history of proven effectiveness against hostile attackers.

HUNTING

If the weapon is to be a family’s only firearm, it must be capable of hunting a wide variety of game, from small game such as rabbits, to birds on the ground/water or in the air, and larger game such as deer, javelina, feral hogs, and elk.

Most hunting kills in the USA with a firearm are done at 200 yards or less, usually much less. Your firearm should be able to reach large game, such as a deer, out to ranges of at least 100 yards, but a 200 yard range is desirable.

Hunting may not always be your entire food supply, but even when it isn’t, it can usually supplement it, and at times it can save you from genuine famine.

This was discovered by many rural families in the Great Depression who often got a quarter to a third of their food in this manner. Sometimes the ability to kill a single deer or feral hog supplied a life giving amount of protein in their diet for quite a while, often weeks at a time. It was also a time when many game populations were actually much lower than they are now.

It doesn’t take a lot of harvested game meat to make a significant difference in times of crisis and food shortages. For example, during times of extreme food shortages, governments tend to usually impose food rationing. Often the food available is meager and barely capable of sustaining life.

One example from modern history of what could be called a functioning food shortage, but not quite a famine, would be the food shortages and strict rationing during the occupation of Germany following the end of WWII.

During that time, one eyewitness account talked about a typical breakfast for a single, widowed, working mother of six children and her kids. It would be a slice of bread each and a cup of tea. That was it, it was all they had. The kids still had to go to school, and she still had to go to work every day.

Their dinner would be doled out from a single pot of potato soup. The ingredients for the family dinner would be one potato, one onion, and a half pint of milk. That was for one adult female and six children.

In such situations, a single harvested game animal can make a lot of difference.

DURABILITY AND REPAIRABILITY

In addition to being affordable, the firearm you chose should also be of a reliable, proven, rugged design.

Well-made firearms which fit this description have been handed down from generation to generation. A well-made firearm, properly cared for, will last a long, long time.

The firearm should also be readily repairable by the owner, and it should also be of a common design so that parts are available. A small number of important parts should be acquired and kept in reserve in case a repair is needed.

THE CHOICE

It was apparent that there was really only one type firearm which fit all of the criteria, and that was a shotgun, more specifically, a pump shotgun, preferably in 12 gauge. Single shots don’t have the firepower for defense. Semi-autos are too expensive, plus they have a rep for being finicky on ammo and being more susceptible to dirty, rugged use.

A modern pump shotgun is the only weapon which does everything that we need it to do. A well made pump shotgun is incredibly rugged, versatile, and it’s one of the least expensive firearms of any real quality you can buy. You can get a reliable pump shotgun for around $200. You can’t normally get a decent used centerfire weapon in any other category that cheap, let alone a new one.

One of the features of the shotgun that makes it uniquely versatile is that it is the one weapon whose ballistic characteristics and capabilities change radically when you simply change to different types of ammunition. No other firearm is quite like this.

With small game/bird shot a shotgun can hunt small game like rabbits without destroying both the animal and the food value. It can also pluck birds out of the air in edible condition like no other weapon can. A tremendous amount of edible game is in this category, and centerfire rifles are woefully inadequate for this.

When loaded with slugs it can be used as a rifle. A 12 gauge with a slug can reliably drop anything on four legs in North America, including big game like deer, feral hogs, elk, and even large bears. There isn’t much out there smaller than a T-Rex that a 12ga loaded with slugs cannot kill. With hunters of big game in Africa, a 12ga pump shotgun loaded with slugs gained the nickname, “poor man’s express rifle”.

With buckshot a shotgun becomes a ferocious fighting weapon, a “poor man’s assault rifle”. At close range, which is where civilian encounters typically occur and can be justified legally, it dramatically outclasses any handgun for self-defense, and holds it’s own against a rifle for lethality.

However, unlike a rifle, for use inside an apartment or a house, a shotgun can be loaded with a smaller diameter shot to dramatically lessen it’s penetration capabilities against walls and, hence, your loved ones and possibly even your neighbors. The Box O’Truth did a test and found that 5.56mm 50gr ‘frangible’ ammo, designed to break apart, still went through 8 drywall panels, the same as 00 buckshot. A load of #6 birdshot, however, had the same weight as a load of buckshot, but only penetrated 2 drywall panels, with most of the pellets stopped by the paper backing on the outside of the 2nd drywall panel.

There is another feature of modern pump shotguns which makes them incredibly versatile. Most modern pump shotguns are designed so that they can easily change barrels. For the more popular shotguns there is a variety of extra barrel styles available, including rifled barrels for hunting big game out to 200 yards.

Not bad for a weapon where the price of the basic firearm is around $200 – $350, new.

BRAND & MODEL

Well, what brand and model did we chose?

There are a lot of brands and models of pump shotguns on the market these days. Many of them are inexpensive, Chinese made copies of older American designs. These vary in quality from pretty good to recycle immediately. Some are now made under contract in Turkey, like the resurrected Winchester.

However, as a family survival gun, the debate really brews down to two brands as a primary choice, Mossberg and Remington. For availability, parts, aftermarket accessories, and just general reliability, Mossberg and Remington are the best options. Most pump shotguns sold in the USA are one of these two brands, and of their flagship models, the Remington 870 and the Mossberg 500, there have been over 10 million of each sold.

While both are good shotguns, after much debate on the issue, we settled on Mossberg as having an edge over Remington as a weapon for long term self-sufficiency and survival.

One key reason for this is that the Mossberg 500 is much more user maintainable and repairable than the Remington 870, minimizing the need to ever call upon a professional gunsmith, which may, or may not be available. Unlike the Remington, virtually every part on the Mossberg can be removed and replaced by the owner with basic, common tools.

The Mossberg 500 is also extremely reliable. While the Mossberg 500 is priced like a Remington 870 Express, when it comes to reliability and durability it’s really in the class of the Remington 870 Wingmaster, a much more expensive shotgun.

Not all Remingtons are equal. The Wingmasters, for example will use many forged parts while the same part on a Walmart grade 870 Express will be investment cast. All Mossberg pump shotguns however, including models with different styles of mags tubes, such as the 590 and 835, essentially derive from the same basic design and all are built from a common inventory of parts.

Mossberg also sells what is probably the best bargain in a new manufactured centerfire weapon nowadays. It’s a plain Jane, no frills version of the Mossberg 500 called the Mossberg Maverick 88, which retails for around $200.

CALIBER

While the book focuses on the 12 gauge as the primary caliber, much of what is there is also applicable to the 20 gauge.

The smaller 20 gauge is nothing to sneeze at for either hunting or defense. A 20 gauge loaded with buckshot has about twice the killing power of a .44 magnum. Many like the 20 gauge due to it’s lighter recoil.

However, we focus on the 12 gauge for several good reasons, and we show how to manage the higher recoil. Even a small statured person can operate a 12 gauge effectively if they use it properly.

Ammunition, reloading components, guns, and accessories are more common for 12 gauge than for 20 gauge. For example, inexpensive bulk packs of ammo at Walmart are typically found in 12 gauge but not in 20 gauge. For another example, you can get the reloading components to make your own .50 caliber sabot loads for 12 gauge, but not for 20 gauge.

The 12 gauge is the most common centerfire caliber in the USA. As for shotgun shells in general, more 12 gauge shells are sold than all other gauges of shotgun shells combined.

Modern shotgun shells were developed into their current configuration in the late 1860′s. They are a low pressure cartridge, with about half the chamber pressure of a .22LR rimfire, and many of the smokeless powders they use can be used to reload handgun cartridges. The length of the 12 gauge shotgun shell itself is a legacy of the blackpowder era. They are one of the few modern cartridges that can be loaded with blackpowder and maintain their performance.

Because they are a low pressure cartridge, if worst comes to worst, you can fabricate the entire 12 gauge shell, hull and all, if need be, easier than you can most other cartridges.

SUB-CALIBER ADAPTERS

One of the beauties of a shotgun, especially a 12 gauge, is the plethora of sub-caliber adapters available for it. In the kit we recommend in the book for the shotgun is a rifled .22LR adapter, and adapters to fire 20 gauge and .410 caliber shotshells. These are the same size as a standard 12 gauge shotgun shell and can be carried with the shotgun.

The rifled .22 rimfire adapter, which can fire either .22LR or .22 Shorts, is surprisingly accurate and gives the pump shotgun the versatility when hunting of an old style, break action combination gun, except you have the raw firepower on tap of a 12ga pump action when you need it. The 20ga and .410 adapters allow the shotgun to hunt with scavanged shotgun shells in different gauges. While the majority of the shotgun ammunition sold in North America each year is 12ga, the most of the rest of the sales are in 20ga and .410 caliber.

THE BOOK

The Family Survival Gun is a 60,000 word book that takes knowledge and concepts first presented from a section in our first book, ‘Locusts on the Horizon’ and takes it much deeper, in more detail. Some material to readers of Locusts on the Horizon’ will be familiar. This was necessary for it to be a stand alone book. However, there is a lot of new material in this book, and we feel it offers much to everyone who is concerned about the future.

http://www.LocustsOnTheHorizon.com