i'm looking more and more at bows and arrows of every type, longbows,shortbows and crossbows. air rifles are ok but come post SHTF pellets may be in short supply and no air rifle is silent silent if you know what i mean, but bows are very quiet.
Bows are a perfect pshtf weapon,easy to craft and deadly if you know how to use them.Unfortunately i'm a bloody terrible archer,crossbows (despite they're drawbacks) are probably for me.As far as what i'm going to carry.Well I sold the 2 greener gp's as recent tests have shown that they're somewhat cartridge fussy.With that in mind I went with a 12 gauge cooey as my 20 gauge cooey is extremely reliable/cheap,and will shoot whatever I feed into it.Also I went with a Miroku MK70 (purely for target I can't see myself lugging a heavy over/under around).Many thanks for everyones replies though,thank's guys
To go with the other guys I'd pick bows mainly crossbows as I have one and fairly good with it as its shoulder fired fitted with a scope you have a certain amount of range but can be fired without and the bolts can be made fairly easy. Also `ammo`can be reused.
(19 April 2013, 08:42)Highlander Wrote: [ -> ][quote='Timelord' pid='54455' dateline='1366329431']
Good post,.......... but what country are you talking about?, surely not the UK, the last paragraph above is completely wrong if you are, there are many thousands of legal firearms both of the shotgun and the FAC type
In my last paragraph, it is the legal guns that may be removed in a "gun grab", which leaves only the illegal ones + government owned ones still in circulation in a PSHTF environment. That is the UK I am talking about or many other countries come to that...
(19 April 2013, 12:20)Tartar Horde Wrote: [ -> ] (19 April 2013, 11:22)BeardyMan Wrote: [ -> ]Nothing lasts forever, no matter how many spare parts you have for it.
That useless expensive club may very well come in handy - there's not much that can go wrong with a scope - as long as the glass isn't broken.
Open sights are usually just a reference point anyway, same with a scope if you're firing at a different range to what it's zero'd in at.
I have had three scopes that have broken the reticules BM due to recoil, trust me mate they do break, but you're right the lens tend to be tough. I am unable to make any parts for a rifle in a SHTF scenario, and to be honest don't know many people who could, they all rely on put by spare parts. The only weapon I myself can be truly self sufficient in is the Bow as I can make everything I need to shoot, the only other weapons I could honestly put my hand on my heart and say I could make would be the Atlatl and spear. I could make a catapult, or even a slingshot rifle but eventually the rubber would run out and there aren't many rubber trees in East Yorkshire. I may be taking an extreme outlook here but I don't like relying on something that relies on other people making parts for it.
Tarter Horde, you worry too much about things that MIGHT happen.
And you have had some very BAD scopes! I have a dozen scopes mounted on various weapons and have never had a scope that I paid more then $20 fail on me. The last time I saw a scope failure was back in the 1960s with a cheap small bore .22 scope.
Yes, guns break. Some break in a year or two, others continue for a century without a problem. I have an Enfield marked 1916 and I sincerely expect it to still be operating in 2116. I have a couple of Mausers that are almost a century old and still going strong, and two of my best pistols were made before WW2 broke out. I know they could break, but do not anticipate it happening or live in fear that it might.
If one of my firearms breaks down the road so be it, that is the time I build a bow or some other inferior tool, but I am not going to abandon the tool because it might break a year down the road.
^^^^^ I tend to agree with the statement above, to start out with the best you can get, and end up with the worst only if you have to,.. most firearms are a simple design, and should last a long time if well looked after
Yes, always go with what works at the time. Just because something could break in a year, or two, or ten, does not mean that it is no good now. As for repairing or remaking parts, you can make a hell of a lot of things from metal with a vice or similar and a file. When this is not or is no longer an option, you then move down your list of items.
If you are lucky enough to have something, keep what spares you can.
Improvise does rhyme with compromise. Sometimes you have to do the former and it means you do the latter. Be as prepared as you can be is all.
As for spare parts???
We have a saying over here; "two is ne and one is none".
It is not exactly true but let's look at the OP.
We are dealing with TWO Greeners and I am assuming they are identical.
A Greener is two separate single shot firearms attached together! The op has two of them and therefore has 4 separate shotgun actions.
Should one side of a Greener break the other side is still operable, and the OP still has three shooting platforms.
If the same side of each gun breaks he still has two single shot platforms.
If opposite sides of each of the guns breaks parts can be cannibalized and he still has one DB gun. (and in that case if different parts are broken a swap and repair could make one side operable and three actions again usable)
This is after he uses the Greener for the thousands of shots one would expect from such a firearm. I personally know of Greeners here in the states that are 100 years old and still going strong.
I can see two identical double barrel guns lasting several lifetimes.
That design was developed in an era when bird shooting meant hundreds of rounds would be fired over a weekend. They are built like very elegant tanks.
I have a big issue about this! If I had to bug out alone would I take my air rifle? Crossbow? Sword? Air pistol? Pistol crossbow? At the moment I have to say - I have no idea. I think it would depend greatly on wot type of situation it was. Or even which was closest at hand when I have to run.