How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It - James Wesley Rawles [86]
Regardless of which brand of .22 rifle you buy, you should consider mounting it with a telescopic sight. Because of its low energy, proper placement of a .22 rimfire bullet can mean the difference between crippling and cleanly killing small game. Mounting a scope will in most instances give you the ability not just to hit an animal’s center of mass, but rather to hit a precise aiming point, such as its head or neck. If you do decide to mount a scope, use a full-size (one-inch-diameter) scope rather than one of the inexpensive three-quarter-inch-diameter scopes made specifically for air rifles and .22s.
Centerfire Handguns
If you are seeking a particularly versatile handgun, you might consider the Thompson/Center G2 Contender or the earlier T/C Contender. These single-shot pistols use readily changeable barrels in a wide range of chamberings. Some of the most useful of the more than twenty chamberings are .22 LR, .223 Remington, and the .45 Colt/.410 shotgun barrel.
At the Rawles Ranch, we now carry Colt stainless steel Gold Cup (Model 1911 pattern) .45 ACPs with Pachmayr grips, extended slide releases, and Trijicon tritium-lit sights. When we moved to bear country, we sold off the Smith and Wesson 686es and standardized with the .45 automatics. We wanted to be able to put a lot of rounds into a bear in a hurry, and .45 autos are far faster to reload than revolvers—at least under stress, in our experience. Granted, the chances of surviving a bear attack are slim, but we feel that we have a better chance with the Gold Cups. At least when they find all the ejected brass around our mangled corpses, they can say that we put up a good fight.
Speaking of bears, for homesteaders living in brown-bear or grizzly-bear country, a more powerful handgun than even the .45 ACP is often recommended. A stainless steel Smith and Wesson Model 629 (6-inch) .44 Magnum, or Ruger Redhawk (5½-inch) .44 Magnum, or perhaps the Colt Anaconda (6-inch) .44 Magnum would be good choices.
Rifles
A lightweight rifle chambered in .223 Remington is particularly useful for shooting both perched birds and predators. Remington, Ruger, and Sako all make good-quality .223 bolt-actions. Selecting one is largely a matter of personal preference. We use our .223s on coyotes, which currently abound in great numbers in the western United States, and are a constant source of trouble in our area. They have a penchant for devouring ducks, chickens, pet cats, and newborn lambs. We use three different guns on the uncommon occasions when we have a chance to snipe at coyotes. These guns include a Remington Model Seven bolt-action chambered in .223 Remington, a Colt CAR-15 M4gery, and a scoped L1A1 semiauto chambered in .308 Winchester (virtually identical to and in most cases interchangeable with the 7.62mm NATO cartridge used by the military). A .308 bolt-action is used when we spot a coyote beyond three hundred yards. With the Remington Model Seven available, the CAR-15 is largely superfluous. But we like its easy handling, and the fact that we can get off a quick second shot when shooting at running rabbits or coyotes.
Combination Guns
The next category of guns is combination or “garden” guns. These range from expensive imported rifle/shotguns to inexpensive combination guns made domestically. The European three-barrel combination guns or “dreilings” (often anglicized to “drillings”) can easily cost two thousand dollars or more. Guns typical of this breed are the Colt Sauer drillings, Krieghoff drillings, and the Valmet over/unders. They typically feature a high-power rifle barrel mounted beneath side-by-side 12-gauge shotgun barrels. Domestically produced two-barrel combination guns, while not as aesthetically pleasing, cost far less than European drillings. These guns offer the ability to fire either a single shotgun shell or a rifle