Mav,
The thing I'd argue in the Ruger & Savage comps is that neither is as field-maintainable through harsh & unsupported conditions as the Mosin.
Have not tried with Savage, but I've discussed parts & bolt disassembly with Ruger.
Some key parts are restricted & not available, Ruger doesn't want you breaking down their American bolt at all, and the plastic stocks are nowhere near as durable as the old Mosin's wood.
It's things like this that have to be balanced out in making a "survival" choice, in your own projected survival needs.
Without either factory or gunsmith support, if you're left on your own in a continuing survival scenario, having a spare Mosin firing pin (extremely easy to replace without tools & check for correct protrusion with the "multi-tool" gauge typically supplied) or even a complete spare bolt assembly along, can keep you running for quite some time in the most adverse conditions far from home.
In saying this, again- I'm not promoting the Mosin as a first-choice survival rifle.
Or even a second, third, or fourth.
But- I'd take it as a hard-use survival rifle before I'd go with either of the plastic-stocked Ruger or Savage budget guns.
I've worked with both, and I still maintain that (even though the American in .308 I tested was one of the most accurate rifles I've ever shot), if you gave me a choice of ONLY those three, Ruger, Savage, and Mosin, for a rifle to bet my life on, it'd be the Mosin.
The other two are actually great hunters & excellent bargains, but they're simply not built to be the beat-it-to-hell, hard-charging, gotta-run, take-it-all & shrug-it-off proposition that the crude & oogly old Mosin is.
Not trying to sell you on a Mosin over either of the other two as your choice for a survival tool, just pointing out a couple factors in the selection process.
I fairly often see the Savage & the Ruger American recommended for hard use instead of the Mosin, they're really not in the same class.
And, an optic sight may or may not be desirable.
The budget-level plastic-stocked rifles shoot well, but shooting well in a survival situation is not the only factor to consider.
GP,
Survival means many different things to many different people.
And it does not automatically mean a WWIII situation, or involve a fallout shelter.
It can encompass those, but it can also include the aftermath of a natural disaster (flood, earthquake, widespread forest fires, etc.) that puts one in the position of "surviving" without outside help for the period of aftermath chaos that will follow.
It can cover a back country excursion where one is either lost on foot or suffers a mechanical breakdown, and the rifle may be needed for subsistence hunting or critter protection while waiting for help or re-locating civilization.
I carry a "survival" rifle along on every desert or mountain outing.
It's chosen for the terrain or projected need indicated.
It can involve off-grid living, to various degrees, where either food or predator defense are priorities.
A survival rifle can be anything from a .22 single-shot rifle as a squirrel & rabbit harvester, to a .375 H&H Magnum in grizzly territory, and those who discuss various options are far from either attracting, or being, a "bad element".
If you & AGT find Mosin discussion utterly intolerable in a survival context, you're entirely welcome to discontinue participation.
You're also entirely welcome to start up your own threads about your personal choices for survival rifles, and I'll promise not to take up several inches of thread space with sarcasm, belittlement, and personal insults in spitting all over your pet.
And last year, we in Utah had our own feral off-grid crackpot finally arrested after a run of two or three years living off stealing from other people's cabins in remote areas.
Made a lotta owners nervous about their cabins, property in them, and even using them, never knowing if the guy was in the area or not.
Denis