Rifle advice - defense, and fun. . .

Hantra

New member
All:

I own only one gun. My first is a Glock 32. I absolutely love it! I need more guns. hehe After reading something like Unintended Consequences, you just want more guns.

Problem is, my gun hobby competes heavily for capital with my audio passion. hehe So, I want to buy my next gun, and it might be a rifle. Give me some advice?

I am thinking about an AK. Reason being, it is very cheap to feed. Much cheaper than the G32. It is said to be extremely reliable. And most of all, it is inexpensive to purchase.

Now. . . That said, I want to know what the disadvantages of this weapon are.

What else is out there that has the same fun level, or higher, plus is great for defense when the SHTF? Is the AK even accurate at all?

Thanks!

B
 
I have a preban Norinco that will shoot 3 to 4 moa. It is a lot of fun but no tack driver. As for home D-fence I like a shotgun or a hand gun. A rifle will go through too many houses before it stops. If you are talking defending a camp or your compound than an AK might just be the ticket. They are cheap to shoot and a lot of fun. Mags are still cheap also.
Hope this helps, Amos
 
As a FIRST rifle, it is hard to beat either a Ruger 10/22, Marlin semi-auto, or Remington semi-auto 22lr unless one considers a bolt 22lr. Cheap to feed and cheap to buy. Makes for more practice. Not the worst thing to have for home defense. Later consider a .223 carbine loaded with hollow points it isn't anymore likely to penetrate house walls than handgun ammo. They are relatively cheap to feed too!
 
In the most recent Soldier of Fortune, there is an article about the Springfield M1A Scout .308 by Chuck Karwan.

I've always found that rifle appealing but couldn't justify owning such an expensive toy which I could only use for plinking basically.

Chuck made me a believer. He stated the M1A Scout could fill any role you pressed it into including the sniper role with some bedding and unitizing the gas block (or something), optics are readily swapped from tactical scope to dot to scout scope.

He touted the 110 grain Hornady TAP stating this would be his entry/urban load as the bullet simply didn't overpenetrate and terminal ballistics were devastating...

No, it doesn't "make weight". Who cares? You've got firepower!
 
A good 'ol SKS can be had for a little bit of cash...they are fun as heck to shoot...and the ammo is REALLY inexpensive...a great "starter" rifle...having said that...I also have a Ruger 10/22 that is fun and cheap to shoot...put a 30 round clip on there with some stingers in it and you have a nice self defense rifle...sure...the 7.62x39 packs a much bigger wallop than a .22 but think of ALL those little holes:eek:
Tony.
 
Get a .22lr. That is my first suggestion. .22lr rifles are fun to shot. For $8 you can get 500 rnd of .22lr. I just cannot get enough of shooting .22lr at 100 yards with iron sight.

You can’t go wrong with an AK, if that is the path you want to take. At less then $300, the AK has the best value for the bang.
 
If it is your first rifle, I suggest a .22.

If you really want a rifle for "defense", and are on a tight budget, then I would say an SKS or an AK variant. Be forwarned, the accuracy on these rifles is not great. They are definately up to combat specs, but tack drivers they are not.

Zane
 
Going to assume here that you are a total newbie to rifle shooting. If that's not the case, then the following paragraph isn't going to mean much.

Get yourself a good .22 LR (don't care if it's bolt, lever, or semi-auto) and learn the basic mechanics of rifle marksmanship. If you're on a budget (which it sounds like you are), then I strongly recommend one of the little Romanian training rifles. They are magazine-fed (7 rounds) bolt-action rifles that sell for about $65, give or take. Another $10 or so for a brick of 500 rounds and you're off and running! The bonus here is that you'll also have a nice little rifle for taking small game in a SHTF scenario should you find yourself having to hunt for food.

After that, I'd probably get an AK or SKS (based on what you said). Ammo is dirt cheap ($80 or so for 1,000 rounds), and the darn things just go BANG whenever you ask them to. The real disadvantage to either of these is that they don't score real high on the accuracy scale. Beyond a couple of hundred yards they're pretty much useless. If that's not a problem, then I recommend dropping the $300-350 and picking one up, then buying a case of ammo. I personally prefer (and own) the SKS because it is slightly (or quite a bit, depending on your particular weapon) more accurate than the AK and is more-easily fired from the prone position (no magazine sticking out of the bottom).

Going the route I propose will run you about $550 or so, depending on how many magazines you buy if you go with the AK. If you can bite that off in one shot, then I'd go ahead and get both rifles and all the ammo at the same time. Otherwise, get the .22 first and practice with it while you save up for the AK.

But don't be without the .22 LR. Everybody needs one of those around.

Good luck and good shooting! :D
 
If you want a cheap shooting AK go with the 5.45x39mm, it would be a better choice for in the home as well. The projectile SHOULD penetrate less than most defensive ammunition from a handgun. I stress Should, I base that on my (limited)experience and a conversation I had with a DOD TechInt guy here the other day. I am not a big AK fan (do a search and you will see) but it will certainly do what you are asking. There are limitations to the AK system but it fits within the perameters you describe. The 5.45mm AK is supposed to be more accurate than the 7.62 guns. I don't know know why that is, I have some ideas but nothing I have thought through.
 
Definitely a Ruger 10/22. They can be had locally, they're cheap, a thousand rounds is pocket change, and there are more accesories out there for a 10/22 than you can you can fit in a full-size pickup.

You can outfit a 10/22 to look like a preban Mini-14 FS to the untrained eye.

You can go the opposite route and outfit it for competition use to where it'll hang in there with the full-blown Remington 700's at 100yds and less.

You can pick up 22cal silencers for the cost of a nice rifle (that's relatively cheap, as silencers go), and almost all 22cal silencers are designed with the 10/22 in mind as one of it's applications.

I can go on and on. As an AK, AR, FAL, shotgun, pistol, and other rifles' owner, I have to shove you toward a 10/22 as your first rifle. You won't be dissappointed.

Anything that puts a hole in something is good for self-defense.
 
Hantra, some good comments, above.

If you're new to rifles, you're new to hunting. Therefore, you're uninterested at this stage in your life about anything outside 200 yards, and more likely 100 yards. Go to any football field and envision your target at the other end, to see what I mean.

I pretty much would recommend a bolt-action .22, to train yourself in eye-trigger finger-sights coordination. A semi-auto tempts one to just go "Bang, bang, bang, bang..." and waste ammo without learning anything.

One of the "AK clones" as a generic type will do just fine for fun and SHTF. The former is far more important, IMO.

Regardless, BUY A SET OF "HEARGUARDS". Otherwise, your most-often-used word will be, "Huh?", followed by, "Whadja say?" and you won't need to spend any more money on audio systems--any old baby boombox will do ya, along with really cheap speakers.

Art
 
If you’re on a low budget, how about a pair of rifles for less than $250 combined?

I’d second the recommendation for the Romanian .22 bolt action. You can get one for $70-80, and they’re good shooters, with iron sites for 25, 50 and 100 meters. They’ve got more-or-less standard Weaver-type rails and will take a scope with Weaver-type rings (you may have to try a few different types of Weaver mounts to find one narrow enough to mount on the top rail). Mine shoots great with the totally cheap Federal Classic ammo – about $8 for a box of 550 at WallyMart.

As a second rifle, I’d try a FR-8 Mauser. You can get one for about $150 or so. They’re chambered for 7.62 NATO, which is available pretty cheap. Southernammo.com sells “dinged and tarnished” 7.62 NATO for about $80 plus shipping (just the UPS charge - about $30 depending on where you live). 7.62 Russian or 5.56 NATO isn’t much cheaper than that.

So for about $225, you can have a bolt-action .22 and a bolt-action .308.
 
AK's are really fun to shoot. So are SKS's. The ammo is cheep too. Contrary to what Klinton said, you can use an AK-47 to hunt with. The 7.62X39 has similar ballistics to the .30-30 Win., and makes a good short-range deer cartridge (up to 150 yards). SKS's are cheaper, and I find them to be more accurate, and you will have more money left over for more guns. :D

Also, look at the Enfield rifles. They are very inexpensive, but very accurate.
 
You should buy an AK or SKS as they will do what you want.

The only downside I can see to them is they aren't as satisfying to shoot if you are a first class marksman. Until you get to that point the rifle will outshoot what your capabilities are. What I mean by that is few people can plop their butt on the ground and fire a ten shot group with anything that is smaller than what the AK will do from sandbags. If you can, you generally look to more accurate rifles.

AKs and SKSs are lots of fun and the ammo is cheap.
 
Just a thought.

There was an article in the last NRA magazine about a DPMS AR variant that looks very good for a shooter. Short bull barrel several other mods that make it a budget gun without compromizing on the reliability. It looks pretty good. Get a .223 and a .22 rf conversion unit. This will give you a good medium range rifle with the option of cheap practice/fun shooting.

Tests have shown that a good fragible .223 is not any more likely to penitrate walls more than a pistol round.

Worth looking into.

Cheers,

ts
 
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