Of course if you want to be ridiculous, the ‘One Gun’ I would pick would be a 20 mm Gatling gun with the helicopter as its ‘stock’... With that, it would be pretty easy to acquire whatever other firearms you desired that were more practical in the long run.
Heading out into the wilderness, I’m sure one would be best prepared with some variant of a 22 Long rifle in a compact rifle or accurate handgun, because it wouldn’t be difficult to carry a couple thousand rounds of ammunition, which should get you through any short-term evacuation emergency, and it is quiet enough that it could be used to acquire other more powerful firearms in a social meltdown situation.
On the other hand, if a person were in the midst of a large urban area during a sudden meltdown, it would be hard to argue against having an AR 15 because of the ubiquitous parts and ammunition.
On a more immediate and practical basis, (...at least until after the upcoming election...
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
The only thing that could be crucial in terms of it’s abilities would be personal protection outside of the vehicle or the home, because although a redneck like me might simply wear an overcoat or poncho, it isn’t the most concealable and discrete firearm for sure. Obviously it’s not ideal for hunting, although with the right bullet selection it certainly would be doable. Remember our ancestors used cartridges we would consider very under powered and managed to survive.
It can deliver a 30 caliber bullet at 1000 ft./s that weighs 220 grains, or double that velocity with a 125 grain bullet. Magazines can hold anywhere from five to thirty rounds reliably, and probably as much as 90-100 rounds. Current bullet selection it’s good in terms of weights, but admittedly the selection of bullets that would expand much at the lower end of velocities is limited. Having said that, I know plenty of people who have killed deer and coyotes and other game with 32-20’s, using ordinary cast bullets.
This 300 blackout is what I would consider the perfect set up, the 8-1/2” barrel being adequate for that cartridge and compact, and without even flipping up the lens caps the 45° iron sights with the cross hair front sight it delivers an excellent sight picture even in very dim light. The Streamlight 1,000-lumen flashlight sits below the optic, but above the bore, and provides excellent illumination out to 100 yards for using the iron sights. The above-bore green laser works well for the range of trajectories out to 100 yards in terms of practical accuracy for 300 Blackout, and the Spitfire optic, unlike most red dots, has an etched-glass reticle, so you get a dot and a ring for sighting without having to take the time to turn on the illuminator for green or red reticle illumination.
If you’ve not used 45° offset iron sights, you should try them. Although people talk about iron sites as ‘backups’ in case the optics fail, modern quality optics don’t really fail very often. The main usefulness I find is that I tend to keep the lens caps closed just to protect the optic, so the iron sights are the fastest to use in an emergency. For a short rifle that you might have a short stock on or an arm brace that you would press into emergency use by applying it to the shoulder instead of using it on the wrist, you will find that it is actually far more comfortable and intuitive to have that gun at a 45° angle than straight upright.
Of course you could set up the Same rig in a 223 or any other AR-15 derivative from 204 Ruger to 50 Beowulf, but the 300 Blackout is relatively quiet in the various subsonic bullet weights from 180 grains on up, so it isn’t likely to cause permanent hearing damage if used indoors, plus the short barrel is conducive to using a suppressor like the LibertyCans Mystic, which is a high-pressure capable (300 Win Mag) suppressor that is able to be taken apart and cleaned for those of us who like to use cast bullets, or even use it on rimfires.
I haven’t figured out a way to take a picture to show it, but you can walk out in pitch black conditions, and by simply flipping your thumb on the Streamlight, look through the irons and you will see a bright green laser dot in the middle of a very well illuminated field of fire out to 100 yards, and that dot will be precisely in the middle of the crosshairs of the front sight as seen through the rear sight aperture.