Requesting Opinions on Carbine Selection

[fightingquaker13]

When I watch baseball people are safe at home!

I live in a decommissioned missile silo.  If I'm at home I'm safe. (OK, I don't really live in a silo, but if I did...)
I do think wherever I have my stores is a safer place, and maybe the safest place I'm going to be able to get to or access.  Fighting defensively in an area you're familiar with is an advantage compared to roaming the streets.
  If it's a disaster whose aftermath will pass in a short amount of time (weeks rather than months or years) I do think home is the best place, assuming you're prepared.  Here in CO, I'm prepared to be snowed in for days.  But, I expect to have power and heat.  I can survive without both, but it'll be more rustic living.

That's the thing. There are some disasters, some locales you can evac from, some you can't. For most of us, without prior warning or an insufficent road net work, we will survive in place or not at all. If its TEOTAWKI, like that assinine 2012 movie they keep hyping (everythings, blowing up, fly at 500 feet rather than 5000, because it looks cooler). we are probably screwed. But in any reasonable circumstance, unless your house is underwater or on fire, you are probably better off at home. Leaving a generator aside, which is a luxury not a necessity, you can make it through a month for around a grand using stuf you will use or eat anyway. Home is the place to be. If home doesn't work, your odds just dropped by taking your chances on the road. Yes we can do it, but unless you have a destination where you know you will get a warm welcome, tavelling would not be my first choice.
FQ13

[blackwolfe]

A Staniless Steel Ruger Mini-14 may be the answer if rust is a concern.  Magazines are available, though not as cheap as AR or Ak mags.  Stripper clips can be used with them.  Accurate enough and reliable.

[MAUSERMAN]

I have a few choices that are not on the list but might work in a pinch.
M48 Yugo mauser 7.92x57
Mosin nagant 7.62x57r
M1 carbine .30 cal
Ruger PC9 or PC4
Mossberg 500/590
Marlin 336 30-30

[twyacht]

As a clever man once said:

There are two definitive events when having too much ammo is a bad thing:

When you are drowning.

When you are on fire.

A durable proven inexpensive carbine/rifle, that will work even if wiped down with old motor oil, bootlaces used as bore snakes, etc,..
will be very effective to the OP.

A "common" round would be better than an obscure caliber, unless you specifically intend to stockpile that round and magazines.

Harder to trade or barter for uncommon ammo.

[Timothy]

I still believe a decent lever gun in .357 mag compliments my revolver very nicely.  I can shoot either for hundreds of rounds without bothering to clean them and they work, every time.  Good enough for the critters I have here abouts and good enough for the squishy heads of the zombies or other miscreants that are lurking about.

12 Gauge Pump, revolver and a lever gun....nothing more. 

[Sponsor]

[fightingquaker13]

As a clever man once said:

There are two definitive events when having too much ammo is a bad thing:

When you are drowning.

When you are on fire.

A durable proven inexpensive carbine/rifle, that will work even if wiped down with old motor oil, bootlaces used as bore snakes, etc,..
will be very effective to the OP.

A "common" round would be better than an obscure caliber, unless you specifically intend to stockpile that round and magazines.

Harder to trade or barter for uncommon ammo.

This is particularly true when there is zero reason to go exotic in the first place. Close range, choose 7.62x39 and use an SKS, AK or Mini-30 (just buy lots of mags for it). Longer range, buy an AR or mini-14 (again with the extra mags for it, Rugers main drawback at SD ranges ) and use 5.56. You want something bigger, go with a lever action in .308, .44 mag, 30-30, .308 or 30/06. You will never have a hard time finding parts or ammo. All these are proven calibers in proven rifles. Why mess around? You don't need fancy when the game involves hitting a pie plate at 100 yards and knowing it will always go bang.
FQ13

[Badgersmilk]

6.8 may look nifty on paper.  But is still a rediculous choice.  I'll give .40 one HUGE benefit of the doubt...  You can find that ammo EVERYWHERE!  Store shelves are full of it even when everything else is sold out.  So that alone would be at least one good thing.

I'll agree your houses are "safe" long enough to pack up supplies and get out.  All I'm saying here is.  Does ANYBODY know you own guns or supplies at all?  WORST of all, do your kids friends know?!?  Kids have the biggest mouths of anybody on the planet.  If anybody is starving, panicing for any reason, needs water, wants a gun themselves, you can BET they'll come knocking.  Don't share enough, or if that person is in "survival of the fittest" mode, and you've got a serious problem!  Should police, gangs, or anybody start asking neighbors "do you know anybody who might own a weapon?" durring a confiscation scenario (Katrina), you can bet ANYONE who knows will squeal.  Let your neighbors see you a week into any survival situation, and you don't look like your dieing (like them), and you can't hide that!  You have a problem!  Don't come out of your house.  And neighbors will start to wonder "what's going on with them?", you'll have a problem. 

"Safety" doesn't exist as a single place.  Period.  If you ONCE overestimate the safety of your location...  Guess what.

Well...  That missle silo ain't bad!!!     Does Russia know your now only using it as a house (still marked as a target)?  What about floods?  Earthquak?  Radioactive worms? 

My favorite comment on here of all time whas a thread about gun confiscation, and somebody said.  Ahhh, I'll invite them boys in for a beer and they'll let me go.      Yep.  That's how it works. 

[tombogan03884]

 That's right BM, that's exactly how it goes.
If you have the foresight to spice their beers with prussic acid.  

But I have to admit, my favorite "Dumb Comment" was the guy who swore up and down that a .22 Tomcat was a great SD gun even after he admited that the velocity and muzzle energy numbers he posted were wrong.  What a maroon  

[L.E. Keeney]

Id agree about the Ruger M4 because I havent found an HK 416 civilian rifle out there. (a friend has a semi 416 14 inch registered upper on his rifle) but thats a special case.

I have a plain jane reliable Olympic Car-15 rifle in 5.56 that Im ever so slowly changing over to all tango down furniture and an SKS for deer hunting.

Of late Ive seriously contemplated getting rid of the AR and going totally to a 7.63x39 ammo platform with an AK of some sort with a folder. If it wasnt such a pain getting all new mags ammo and gun I might have already done so. The SKS/AK round is very popular here in WV believe it or not as a deer/hog hunting round and its much cheaper to practice with.

Why not consider a nice Colt M4 like the 6930? (is that the designation?) Its certainly cheaper than the ruger and is proven.

[Badgersmilk]

That's right BM, that's exactly how it goes.
If you have the foresight to spice their beers with prussic acid.  

But I have to admit, my favorite "Dumb Comment" was the guy who swore up and down that a .22 Tomcat was a great SD gun even after he admited that the velocity and muzzle energy numbers he posted were wrong.  What a maroon  

Bobcat!  It's a Bobcat.  Get that right mister! 

6.8, Bobcat .22, .40, or BB gun...  You can argue that ANY of them have merrits...  There are also better choices than any of them idealy.