Survival guns

Gimme a break!

If you must make black powder you have been in a world of hurt for way too long and most likely haven't survived.
Stupid thinking is stupid thinking.
Knowledge & skills beat relying on weapons every time.
You can't eat ammo no matter how long you cook it.
Learn how to stock up on food, meds, equipment & how to make meat when you need to.
 
If you must make black powder you have been in a world of hurt for way too long and most likely haven't survived.
Stupid thinking is stupid thinking.
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Or perhaps you have been surviving successfully for long enough without black powder that you now have some time and materials to make it and improve your condition even further..?
 
"...are fine IF..." And you know how to make BP without blowing yourself into next week. Making BP is not just a matter of mixing charcoal, sulfur and saltpeter(That you'd also have to know how to make. Starts with cow poop.). Even if you know the correct proportions, BP made that way tends to settle into its component parts just by moving it.
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It an't rocket science fellas, and this is the 21st century, you don't need fresh poop, there is plenty of already processed chemicals available readily. Myself and a bunch of the guys from gunslingersgulch.com make bp all the time for personal use, and no one has ever blown up themselves. You are not talking about large batches in a factory, with your average intellect, possibly legal citizen employee. Unless you figure yourself to be on the dense side, you'll be fine. Otherwise, stick to slings and rocks. I heard tell they worked back in David's time, should be fine now too, lol!
 
My idea of survival is not the SHTF deal but more along the lines of no job, no money, and the need to feed you're family.

So taking an inventory of my BP shooting equipment, I think I can live a long time.

I'm thinking of my inline TC Omega. I like the idea of casting my own bullets. I have several hundred lbs of lead, about 25 Lbs of powder (mixture of pellets, BP, and BP substitute. 4 K shotgun primers. I also make my own shotgun pellets (for buck shot), and in the process of building a set up to make bird shot.

Also have a couple BP revolvers, a mold, but not a whole lot of percussion caps.

And a couple of BP CR, one in 45-70 and one in 44-90, w/molds.

I think I could eat a long time just using black powder but I don't see it happening. Besides I have a skinny wife who doesn't eat much and it wouldn't hurt me to eat less.

My pension fund is over funded so I don't see problems there, so I'll just use my BP stuff on targets and a bit of hunting.
 
Concur with Kraigwy. As I stated earlier, if you want to play mountain man, you can do it with a smokepole and make it. During the Great Depression, the iron mounted rifle was popular among the poor in the South. Shooting them was cheaper than buying cartridges. Lead was probably free (wheel weights, battlefield or range pickups) so all it cost them was powder and caps. They put game on the table and as sung in the Beverly Hill Billies song, "kept their family fed."

Now, if one thing envisioned is engaging gangsters or black whirlybirds, forget it. Better to take a cue from either The Holy Grail or Forrest Gump. "Run away! Run away!" or "Run Forrest, run!"
 
IMO , survival is knowledge . doesn’t mater if what you consider as practical for a weapon . Knife , bow , Muzzleloader ………. all have to have some knowledge in order to maintain or build .
One of the things that always confuses me about these topics are the number of folks that consider AR’s or Ak’s as practical .
don’t get me wrong , both are great weapons . Since I spent the better part of my life in the military I think I can attest to that .
However for the un trained or basically trained person they are also like a muscle car with a teenager behind the wheel . IE your spending more time filling her up then you are driving .
That then means a very large stock pile of ammo . Which in turn would mean your not mobile or have reduced mobility do to the need to protect your treasure / stockpile
Being immobile in the face of those black helicopter while at the same time planning to fight . Well , to each their own I guess .

With Muzzleloaders the nice thing is that they will shoot what ever you put down the barrel . No need for specific bullets of just the right size , primers ,crimping press or specific powders . You don’t need lead . You can shoot pea gravel , wood plugs , rocks , nails …….. Anything that will go down , will come out . I have even used seeds for bird shot . Frankly at closer ranges on birds like grouse , loading the gun with plant seeds works very well . I also have see a couple folks who were testing shooting seeds like cherry pits. while i have never done it , i was very suprised at the result . may seem odd but ha, in a pinch its all about the result right .……..

Draw back though is that you need to have the knowledge of how to make powder . As was said , not hard if you know where to get of find the ingredients.
You also I think have to have the “smarts “ to realize that the powder is precious and thus not wasting it on things that are not cost effective . IE why use a powder charge to kill grouse when there are a lot cheaper ways to do the job

So in the end I think the best survival weapon is going to end up being Knowledge . Thus the ability to make what you need , be it a firearm , a bow a simple sharp sides stone to put on a spear or what have you . Along with that the ability to adapt change .
Do that and it wont matter if they come for your guns because you will have the ability to make another .

The thing is ,the one thing most all can agree on is that there is a need to prepare to survive against something . We just cant seem to agree on what it is .
One thing for sure , like squirrels storing nuts for the coming winter , some of us will prepare correctly some wont and a whole lot of us will be somewhere in the middle
 
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Survival is a very open term. I've been trapped in a rural cottage for 17 days by a blizzard. Was I surviving? How about massive floods cutting the small town off, does that count?

Could be anything from a weather event through a car or plane wreck to whatever takes your fancy.

Because its such a wide term the answers have to be as wide as well. Personally I agree with those who said in one form or another Knowledge is power. I increasingly see just owning gadget (x) as somehow being prepared. It'll take a real emergency situation for many to discover that just having it means about nothing, knowing how (& when) to use it is way more important.
 
What Captchee said. Survival is knowledge. The more you know, the less gear you need to rely on. If you don't know enough, then your knowledge base needs work (and being in a real life situation is a poor place to learn it). For those who want to learn, take Tom Brown's basic survival course. You'll learn how to build a shelter, make a fire, harvest water and filter it, and about a few edible/medicinal plants. All you really need is a knife. That's why mountain man Hugh Glass was not a happy camper when he was abandoned for dead by his attendants who didn't leave him with even a knife.
 
Draw back though is that you need to have the knowledge of how to make powder . As was said , not hard if you know where to get of find the ingredients.
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I was a bomb tech for the Anchorage Police Dept for a long time. Part of the Duties of LE EOD is post blast investigation.

Based on my training and experience I advise to STAY AWAY FROM MAKING YOUR OWN POWDER. I cringe when I think of the number of investigations I've done because people try to make their own BP or other explosives.

You hear of fireworks and powder manufactures having explosions all the time. They have labs and facilities to make powder and still have accidents. Making that crap in your kitchen is dangerous and probably illegal depending on where you live.

I agree with stock piling powder and primers. But dead set against trying to make your own gun powder.
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People over think the GUN deal in survival situations. Thinking they have to have AR/AKs and all sorts of weaponry.

My first two years I lived in Alaska I lived in a little cabin north of Healy near McKinley Park. I got laid off in the winters and there were NO jobs to be had so I had to do the best I could feeding my family. I had heavy rifles and shotguns, even BP. But I fed my family with a Savage 24D 22/410. (and a bit of fishing). Yeah we had Moose, but rabbits and ptarmigan were the main stays.

My grandfather fed his family with a single barreled 16 gage during the depression.

Again, I don't believe in the Zombie/SHTF BS but I understand during rough times you still have to feed your family. AR/AKs and such are just not practical. Shot guns and 22 rifles are. Shotguns are like Muzzle loaders, meaning you can shoot just about anything you can get into the barrel, but Smokeless powder is easier and safer to store, you don't use as much so its much cheaper then BP.

I get a kick out of survivorest who stock pike guns and ammo like they are preparing for war with no idea what it takes to feed their families.

You can't gun your way to survival. Water Food and Shelter is key. You cant shoot everything. Get a book on eatable wild plants in your area. Learn to make a garden concentrating on staples, beans, corn, etc. Learn to make candles. Learn to convert animal fat into oil that can be used as light, cooking, and heat. Learn to preserve food without electricity.

Learn to be gathers and not hoarders. In extended times of stress, such as hurricanes, hard winters, etc. Storehouses make for targets for those who don't prepare. If you're a gatherer, you don't have anything to steal, yet you can still feed your family.
 
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think 2" -4" heavy wall water pipe with an end cap, & a touch hole... in essence little cannons... filled with shot, pea rock, or ???

if one were to chase the black powder deal fully down that road, a black powder, flint lock, ( if you want to go there ) double barrel shot gun may be more practical???

saw Pike guns at Bass Pro shop in Springfield, MO on display... was fixed in a John boat, used during the depression by profession duck hunters...

I think of my lil 25 ACP revolver ( & the soon coming Contender barrel ) as very good survival guns for hunting... in a survival condition, even deer can be taken with a 22... I'm not a fan of the 22... but the little 25 is reloadable, a couple 1000 cases aught to last a life time, & just a pinch of powder is all that's needed...

yup... I have much, much more powerful guns, but that lil 25 might just save my bacon some year

that said, survival is a state of mind, not a gun, or a piece of equipment
 
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Based on my training and experience I advise to STAY AWAY FROM MAKING YOUR OWN POWDER. I cringe when I think of the number of investigations I've done because people try to make their own BP or other explosives.
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There's a little danger in almost anything. I think knowledge works here too. With the right knowledge, you can safely make black powder. Part of that knowledge is to never make the powder in your kitchen, and never get complacent with safety.

I agree with stock piling powder and primers.
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Where? In the kitchen? ;)
 
I don't recall reading about a Pike Gun.

I've heard of Punt guns, which were huge, boat mounted guns that were boat mounted and aimed by steering the boat. Market hunters would use it to decimate a flock that was afloat (not flying). Those punt guns could be eight feet long or so. There were never meant to be shouldered (unless you're Paul Bunyan size).
 
There is/was a punt gun on display at Waterloo Village in NJ.
The guide was amazed when someone actually recognized it.
I remember being told the trick was to hold the trigger string in your teeth, & do a kind of "plank" on hands & tiptoes only when firing because the recoil would violently propel the punt back 15~20 feet scraping the skin from knees & elbows if you didn't.:eek:
 
a pike gun is just that .
you have to look back fairly early to find them but they were basicly just a small gun barrel set to the end of a Pike and set off by a fuse .
 
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