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I fully expect this chapter to be the most controversial and the chapter I get the most review comments based on. Which weapon to purchase is nearly a religious experience for a lot of people and they are very passionate about their particular weapon for specific reasons. Regardless of what I write below, I am going to have people wringing their hands and cursing me a fool because of reason X, Y, and Z. So please, to all my keyboard commandos out there, when I recommend Weapon X or gear item Z, I am not insinuating that your pick in battle rifle is crap. So calm down, take a breath, and don’t take my recommendations personally. The weapon you chose for whatever reason may be the perfect gun for your specific situation or purpose. Unlike 95% percent of gun magazine article recommendations and internet keyboard commandos, my weapon and gear recommendations revolve SOLELY around a long-term SHTF scenario. So it’s important that you understand where I am coming from. My recommendations are exclusively based on a weapon’s long-term reliability and the ability to score spare parts and ammo for the weapon after a societal collapse scenario. The following chapter is my opinion based on years of research and training with VERY qualified individuals with Special Operations training and many hours of discussions with various professional tactical instructors.
In a lot of cases, my advice is going to be different from the front page article you read in the latest gun magazine and their weapon’s new wiz-bang technological improvements. For example, I realize that your 6.8 AR has better ballistics than my 5.56 AR and might be an overall better man stopper, but if you run out of ammunition you have virtually zero chance of finding, procuring, or bartering for more 6.8 ammo. “Well, I have 10,000 rounds of 6.8 in my cabin,” you say. What happens when you have to bug out at the last second because a large looting force is rolling down your street or your cabin burns down because you didn’t learn how to properly clean your chimney? For that reason alone I would not recommend your rifle even though it costs three times more than mine and 9 out of 10 gun magazine articles recommend yours over mine.
Many people also make the mistake of buying a weapon based on the “expert” advice from their local gun store owner or their friend who is a police officer or competitive shooter. In most of these cases, a policeman’s weapon experience revolves around what weapon they are issued in their department and a couple range sessions a year. If you look at FBI police shooting statistics, you’ll see that when police officers fire their weapons in the line of duty, they have about a 22% hit rate. I am not bad-mouthing police officers and there are a lot of them that could run circles around me at the range! What I am saying is that IN MOST DEPARTMENTS, the amount of annual weapons training the average police officer receives is woefully insufficient to stay frosty. Typically, the only police officers that get up to date training, the latest gear, and plenty of range time are SWAT officers.
In the case of gun shop owners, their advice usually revolves around manufacturer’s product advertisement pamphlets (which can be grossly misleading and inaccurate), online articles they have read, and in some cases they recommend weapons that have been sitting in their inventory too long. I recently had a half hour conversation with a local gun store OWNER who literally tried to convince me that there is no difference between a cheap commercial AR and a mil-spec AR. He insisted that DPMS makes the highest quality ARs you can buy today. He went through all the technical aspects of their facility and it sounded like he was regurgitating a pamphlet ad sent to their gun shop by DPMS. Some gun shop employees are just that: minimum wage employees with no real life experience. They have never spent years on the battlefield and trusted their life to the weapon they are recommending that you purchase. You need to know where the advice you are receiving is coming from and their qualifications for giving you said advice! Gunfighting technology and techniques are constantly changing and improving and the individual you are receiving advice from may have received their “professional training” 30 years ago with far outdated information and training techniques.
There are so many online weapon myths in existence that you could literally write an entire book on the subject. My favorite is when a gun store employee tells me that the best weapon “to fit” my wife’s small hands is a little, pink, pocket-sized .380 or some other similar tiny handgun. The entire “pocket guns for chicks” advice is terrible and potentially deadly, yet you’ll get the same advice from nearly every gun shop you visit. Anyone with even the smallest amount of range experience knows that a tiny .380 is going to recoil in your hands sharper than a sub-compact 9mm. The slides on those tiny guns are usually much harder to pull back than a larger handgun with more slide mass and weight. The sights are so close together on the tiny barrel that a person with limited training would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn at 25 yards. They only hold five or six rounds of a woefully underpowered cartridge and without a perfect shot to the eye socket, the rapist will probably have plenty of time to disarm and kill your wife before they have a chance to bleed out. Add into the equation that you may have multiple attackers and then you’re really screwed. So three “bad guys” start shooting up the store you’re in and you quickly react, pushing your kids into the corner of the store under a display rack. You turn around and they are coming your direction and blocking your exit or retreat. Are you seriously going to take on 3 guys with only six rounds of .380 out of a 3” barrel? Okay, so you are Chris Kyle incarnate. What about your wife?
Why the hell are so many of these terribly underpowered handguns sold to women for self-protection?! Answer...because there is some expert in some popular gun magazine that says it’s the best thing since sliced bread after he was “given” one by the manufacturer to test. Instead of selling a woman a false sense of security, gun store owners need to explain why those little pocket guns are not the best choice for self-protection and explain that a larger caliber handgun is much better for self-defense. They need to tell the customer that she is going to have to learn to dress around the larger handgun or deal with a little extra weight in her purse. I am not saying that there is never a time where packing a smaller .380 for personal defense is warranted. But if you pull that thing out, you better have spent some SERIOUS range time with it or you are going to empty your magazine and be wondering why the man in front of you isn’t dead. In most cases, a gun store is the WORST place to make a decision on which gun to purchase. It’s kind of like grocery shopping when you’re really hungry.
A perfect example of the keyboard commandos wreaking havoc on the review forums was after I wrote my first book and mentioned that the main character carried a Kel-Tec SU-16C. I really got hammered over that even though I explained straight out that the Kel-Tec was not a proven battle rifle and that the character only bought it because that was all he could afford and he wanted to stay group standard with the rest of his squad (the SU-16 is chambered in 5.56 and uses standard AR mags). When I was writing that section back in 2010, most mil-spec ARs where running well over $1,300 and the Kel-Tec SU-16C could be purchased for just over $500. That is no longer the case today (2016), with Mil-spec ARs like the Colt LE6920 selling for as little as $900 new and the Kel-Tec SU-16C selling for over $700 (when you can even find them). Just before print, I really pondered changing the main character’s rifle at the last minute to an AR just to avoid “the controversy.” It wouldn’t have mattered though, because then I would have had the AK crowd getting mad at me. What I was trying to show in my first book was that not everyone can afford a LaRue AR and you may have to use what you have on hand.
So what is my personal pick for a SHTF battle rifle? I prefer a true Mil-Spec AR/M4 from a reputable company. Some would bring up the common myth that the AR platform is unreliable which is completely false. Some of that comes from the original roll out of the weapon in Vietnam when the military issued it to soldiers in a wet environment without lubricating oil or cleaning kits and proper training on how to handle possible malfunctions. The fact of the matter is the AR/M4 platform is the battle rifle with the longest running use in our military’s history. It has been around for 50 years and there have been hundreds of manufacturers over the years that have sent their new, state of the art battle rifles to the Department of Defense to compete against the AR. After literally a billion dollars of research and torture tests by the DOD, the AR/M4 is still the primary battle rifle of the US military and has proven to be most reliable weapon every single time. That is an undisputable fact.
Even in sandy environments it functions well, which is another misconception of the AR platform. Some say that it won’t function “dirty,” which is just not true. The secret to keeping your AR functioning is lubrication, lubrication, lubrication! The AR needs to be “wet” to function reliably. In the most recent AR class I took, the instructor was informing the class about the “dirty” AR myth and I didn’t believe him because I’d read the opposite in most AR forums from keyboard commandos. Everyone insists that you have to clean your AR constantly for it to perform flawlessly. The instructor broke down his LaRue AR and showed us the dirtiest bolt and chamber I have ever seen! The chrome bolt was caked so thick with carbon that I couldn’t believe the rifle would even function. He insisted he had fired over 5000 rounds since his last cleaning while only “snaking” the barrel a handful of times and regularly adding lube. He added some lube before class and his rifle functioned flawlessly both days. I also recently read an article by another reputable instructor who had fired 20,000 rounds through his AR while only adding lube and occasionally snaking his barrel (there were pictures of his bolt and chamber for proof). Please note: neither were advocating that you don’t keep you’re your AR clean, they were just proving that if you have a quality Mil-Spec AR and keep it well lubricated, it will continue to function and keep you in the fight.
So the question at the end of the day is would I still buy an SU-16 over an AR-15? Yes and No. If you are on a budget and can’t afford a quality mil-spec AR-15, I would highly recommend you save up until you can afford one. If you are operating on a very tight budget, and you can still find the SU-16c for around $500, then I would still recommend the SU-16 over most super cheap non Mil-Spec ARs in the same price range. Also, the AK-47 is a reliable, proven battle rifle if you can still find them cheap (quality AKs have gone up a lot the last couple years). Again, I still think it would be better to save up for a mil-spec AR, but either way, I would recommend a rifle chambered in 5.56 because the overwhelming availability of ammo in a SHTF scenario. The AR-15 is hands down the most popular battle rifle in the continental US. It at least gives you a shot in the dark at scoring a spare part or ammo after the SHTF. With a more exotic battle rifle like an HK 93, you may end up with a really expensive club if you lose a spring or a part breaks.
Once again, I am not saying that the AR is the ONLY battle rifle you can buy if you want to survive the upcoming zombie apocalypse. There are plenty of variables about your specific circumstances and where you live in which a different battle rifle might be better suited. For instance, if you live in South Dakota with flat, wide open spaces, a battle rifle in 7.62 (.308) may be better suited for your retreat. The important thing is to stay group standard with your squad and to get everyone on the same page. So I’m sure you will end up having some lively debates on this subject.
If money is no object, my go-to rifle would be a Larue Tactical PredatOBR AR. Larue makes the highest quality, mil-spec AR platform rifles on the market today. After that, I would go with either a Daniel Defense, Bravo Company, or a distant last Colt (Specifically the LE6920 model as they also offer non-Mil-spec ARs as well), in that order. Although great for plinking, I would not trust my life through a long-term SHTF scenario with a low-end, non-mil-spec AR-15 as you are just asking for problems. Regardless of which company you go with, if you are going to choose the AR platform as your go-to rifle, you need to make sure you always carry LUBRICATION, and an extra bolt on you at all times while keeping a spare parts/spring kit at your retreat.
As far as optics, I am a firm believer in being proficient with iron sights before moving to an optic. At that point, I highly recommend a red dot over a scope on a battle rifle for Close Quarter Battles (CQB). My favorite red dots are Aimpoints and the Meprolight M21 or MOR. The Meprolight M21 ($450) is Israeli Special Forces issue and have been proven reliable after years on the battle field. The red dot operates with fiber optic during the day and tritium at night and it never needs batteries. Therefore, it is constantly on and if you are ambushed, you don’t have to worry about fumbling for a button or knob (which is also great about the Aimpoints and their unbelievably long battery life). Since there are no electronics, the M21 is supposed to be EMP-proof as well. The only drawback to the M21 is that the red dot can be kind of faint when firing from a dark room into open sunlight. To combat this, Meprolight has a new model called the MOR which also adds battery operation on top of the tritium and fiber optic. The MOR contains a pressure pad operated red laser and possible IR laser (depending on if you can find this model for sale in the US), all built into the same lightweight unit. Unfortunately, the MOR also costs over $1,000 when you can even find them for sale.
Aimpoint red dots is also a top choice for me. The Aimpoint PRO (Patrol Rifle Optic) can be purchased for under $400 on Amazon and the batteries last for 3 years constantly on, which I am a big fan of. That is my biggest issue with EoTech red dots which has an almost cult-like following. While EoTech batteries also last a long time, every model of EoTech has an automatic shutoff feature to their reticle after 8 hours of non-use. That feature cannot be turned off and it’s insane to me that you might be on a night patrol longer than eight hours and run into an ambush. You shoulder your weapon to return fire and...no red dot! Now you are taking precious seconds in the middle of a firefight frantically fumbling for the “on” switch to your red dot. No, thank you! If I turn my red dot on, I want it to stay on the entire time I may need it. That is the main reason I solidly advise against EoTechs. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I’ve also read that EoTech has some reliability issues with their red dots and to me their reticles seem washed out and blurry anyway (just my personal opinion).
Having a 3 or 5 times multiplier on a flip-to-side mount is also a good option if you need to reach out and touch someone. The only time I would consider a scope for a battle rifle was if I was absolutely certain that I wasn’t going to get into a firefight within twenty-five yards. However, I can see where a scope would make sense in certain open plain areas out west. If I did go the scope route, I would want one on the low power side like a 2-7 power or, better yet, the newer 1-6 power optics, just in case of CQB (Close Quarters Battle). From personal experience while deer hunting, there was a time years ago where I had to pass on a shot because a large buck was too close and moving too fast in a thicket for me to keep the crosshairs on him with my 4-16 power scope. It was very frustrating and I moved to a 2-12 power hunting scope after that with greater success in the brush.
There are two things that I would steer clear of when purchasing or building an AR-15 platform rifle. The first is adding a “piston” system. I know that adding one is quite the rage lately and prevents your rifle from getting dirty as quickly as a normal gas impingement AR, but you are asking for problems down the line. The AR platform was never designed for the added stress that a piston puts on the rifle’s bolt carrier group and buffer spring tube. At some point, you are going to experience what is known as “carrier tilt.” Depending on the quality of your rifle, you can start experiencing malfunctions in the 5,000-10,000 round range, with some people having issues starting with as few as 1,000 rounds fired. It is not a matter of if but a matter of when you will experience carrier tilt. Carrier tilt will seriously diminish your rifle’s reliability and in some cases can cause a complete failure to your rifle. I would steer clear of aftermarket “piston” kits for your AR. Don’t take me the wrong way and think I am against piston rifles in general; I am just against adding them onto the AR platform. The AK-47, ACR, and SCAR rifles where specifically designed to prevent carrier tilt while utilizing a gas piston in their rifles.
The second thing I would avoid (not as big a deal in bolt action rifles) is steel cased ammo. I am not saying to “never” use it; for instance, if you were running low at your retreat and found or bartered for more ammo and that’s all you could get, then use it. However, I wouldn’t purchase it or use it on a regular basis in semi-automatic weapons as the steel case produces a lot more wear on your gun than brass cased ammo. Besides, the companies that sell steel cased ammo are typically using other sub-par components in their ammo, the most common of which is “dirty” powder and poor quality primers. You have a lot higher chance of experiencing a malfunction when using cheap steel ammo than when buying from a quality manufacturer like Lake City or Federal. In a SHTF scenario, you need to be able to trust your life to your ammo functioning flawlessly!
So now that I have given you my personal recommendations, remember that my intention is not to bash anyone’s choice of battle rifle. There are a lot of proven battle rifles to pick from. What is much more important than the rifle you choose is making sure you are proficient with it. Professional firearms training is an absolute must! However, taking your black rifle to the nearest range once every couple months, sitting behind a bench with sandbags, and plinking away at paper targets is practically worthless. You can teach a monkey to put a red dot in a circle and pull a trigger. A firefight is pure chaos and confusion. Any scenario you end up in where there is someone shooting at you will most assuredly never happen when you are seated behind a shooting bench with sandbags. Practice shooting prone, on your knees, while running, while lying on your back, while standing on your head (you get the drift). You need to learn how to operate your rifle while moving to cover. And please, if you don’t know the difference between cover and concealment, Google it right now; it could save your life. If you can’t “move and shoot” at your local gun range, then you need to join a new one or make a range at a friend’s farm.
No matter how high speed you think you are from watching Instructor Zero on YouTube (FYI, that’s a joke, not a recommendation...), it is vital to go through a first-rate carbine operator course with a professional instructor. That does not include your local NRA course or going to the range with your buddy who “shoots a lot” and served in Vietnam. If you are a beginner, then a couple of range sessions with someone like that may be beneficial to show you the safe operation of your weapon and some basics, but you may also be picking up bad habits or outdated operational standards. You need to ask around and find an actual operators course with a vetted professional tactical instructor. The best rifle in the world won’t help you if you don’t know how to make it sing properly.
In the meantime, I highly recommend Kyle Lamb’s training DVDs, which you can purchase through Viking Tactics for practicing at home and at your local range. Practicing in your living room on a regular basis is actually more valuable than range time. Place a pillow on the floor and practice mag changes from your battle belt until they become second nature. Practice clearing jams and double feeds (hypothetically! Do not practice with live rounds indoors...obviously). Practice ready-up drills. Focus at a point on the wall and practice raising your rifle quickly to your shoulder (and drawing your pistol) until it becomes second nature and your sites automatically line up with the point you were previously focusing on. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Those three simple drills will make you ten times more proficient in a real life situation than someone putting thousands of rounds downrange sitting behind a bench, and it won’t cost you a dime.
If you are part of a retreat group (and you should be), you also need to train together in small squad tactics. You need to work together until you can read each other’s minds and then train some more. This brings me to probably one of my more debatable philosophies. Most preppers are learning and teaching themselves the wrong squad tactics! I love the SAS Survival Manual and the Army’s field manuals. That is great stuff, but some of it is not designed for a SHTF scenario. Most military training is designed for pitched battles and winning wars by advancing the fight. Those tactics are great if you are ordered to take a hillside during a war. In combat, your job is to kill the enemy with the realization that the friendly forces may take some casualties as well in order to gain the objective. As a soldier, if you get shot in the melee, there is likely a medic nearby who will call in a rescue helicopter to transport you to the nearest Forward Operating Base and a professional medical team with the latest and greatest medical technology for treating battlefield wounds. There are no hospitals in a SHTF scenario and you’ll probably never make it to the nearest doctor. Getting shot (even a minor wound) is life-threatening, especially if it gets infected. You need to avoid shootouts like the plague! Forget all the Rambo crap. You are NOT Travis Haley just because you watched the Magpul Tactical Carbine DVDs and bought all the same tacticool gear he has.
Your tactics should be based on guerrilla warfare. If bullets start to fly, forget winning. Your squad’s ONLY objective should be to retreat by bounding under heavy cover fire. Every engagement should be immediately handled by disengaging as quickly as possible and retreating! At that point, you can rally up and decide whether or not to set your own ambush for your pursuers. Make them come to you! That doesn’t make you a coward; it makes you smart and will keep you alive. If you absolutely MUST engage an enemy, then make sure it is on your own terms. Night vision optics and suppressors are absolute game changers in this department and I would highly recommend outfitting your squad and training with both. Again, if you must engage, use guerrilla tactics and hit the enemy quickly from a distance and retreat just as quickly. Never try to win a pitched battle. It isn’t worth it if valuable members of your team or loved ones are killed over no real practical objective other than killing the guy(s) that took a pot shot at you.
Another topic of conversation I’d like to discuss where battle rifles are concerned is the area of accessories. Everyone has been to their local range and seen Tacticool Bobby all decked out in MultiCam and wearing a Shemagh scarf. His AR looks like a Christmas tree with every available accessory, including but not limited to, a tactical light, a red laser, an IR laser, a front grip, and a bipod all mounted to his quad rail with a 3x flip-to-side multiplier mounted behind his Eotech. Bobby takes about ten shots before he has to lower his arms to the low ready and give his aching shoulders a break. I am not saying that every one of those items doesn’t have a specific place in your arsenal. What I am saying is that you don’t need all that crap on your bug-out rifle doubling the weight of your weapon, which you are going to be carrying around for the next three to five days. Keep all that stuff at your retreat or bug-out location. The one exception would be a good quality tactical light. I’d recommend having a fast attach on your flashlight and carrying it in an accessory pouch on your battle belt, and only mounting it on your quad rail once it gets dark.
On the subject of tactical flashlights, I have an opinion that is quite contrary to most of the “experts” out there which I touched on while discussing flashlights for your BOB. Flashlights have come an incredibly long way in the last decade with extremely high-lumen CREE LED flashlights available that Maglite probably never dreamed were possible twenty years ago. Unlike the lower lumen flashlight you carry in your BOB, your weapon-mounted tactical light should be at least 500 lumens. Even when working on a budget, you can still find decent quality 500-900 lumen flashlights in the $50 range. I already went off on a rant the last time I discussed flashlights and I’m going to try and contain myself this time. Here is the deal: you do NOT want a strobe feature on your 600 lumen tactical light...PERIOD! I realize that 95% of the “experts” out there will tell you differently, but their expertise is outdated and just plain wrong.
If you do a Google or YouTube search on the effectiveness of the strobe feature on a tactical light, they will almost all sing its praises. What you have to realize is that a lot of their advice is based on the 100 lumen flashlight era of five years ago. If you only have a 100 lumen tactical light then yes, there is a smidgeon of viability that a strobe feature will help disorient an attacker a tiny bit more than 100 straight lumens in their eyes. The drawback to the strobe feature is that it also has a disorienting effect on you, as well as any of your compadres that may be standing to your left and right. If your attacker is standing in front of a reflective surface or brightly painted wall, that strobe is also going to reflect right back at you.
Most experts recommend the strobe because it is harder to see movement under strobe and one of the other members of your squad can slowly move alongside the attacker without him seeing your partner approach. Make special note of this next point: The strobe has the same disorienting effect on you and your partner, making it harder for you to see your attacker’s movements, as well. Is he reaching into his back pocket for a gun? Maybe he is pulling out his wallet to flash his badge because he’s an off-duty police officer. It will be a lot harder for you to determine exactly what he is pulling out from his back pocket compared to a steady stream of light. This forces you to make a less informed, split-second decision on whether or not to squeeze your trigger. If you make the wrong decision, you are likely to have your life ruined by spending all your money on defense lawyers while being villainized by the anti-gun media.
The biggest area where I see them push the strobe nonsense is for the “frail college girl” on campus to flash into the suspected rapist’s eyes, allowing her enough time to run away and escape. Sorry, guys. This isn’t pepper spray. The second she turns to run, the flashlight will no longer be shining in his eyes and he’s probably going to catch up to her (unless she’s an Olympic track star) and be more pissed than he was a moment earlier. The theory that flashing a strobe light into an attacker’s eyes will buy you time to escape is laughable at best. If you actually dig into the research and studies these “experts” are quoting, you will find a 100-200 lumen flashlight used in EVERY SINGLE TIME.
So is there a time and place for a strobe feature on your weapon light? Maybe five years ago, but not with today’s 500+ lumen tactical lights. Unfortunately, because there is such a misconception about strobes and because they are in such high demand from customers, it’s not as common to find a tactical light without a strobe these days. If you shine a 500-900 lumen flashlight into someone’s face at night they are going to be disoriented and be forced to divert or cover their eyes...every time with no exceptions (unless they have superhuman pupils). Strobing them does not add to the effect at all because their eyes are already diverted. The only person it affects at that point IS YOU! If you are indoors (especially with light colored paint on the walls), the only person you are disorienting is yourself and those with you. I am not just pulling this out of my posterior. I have actually experienced it.
The last advanced pistol training class I attended included a night shoot portion. The negative effect of a strobe light was the instructor’s main point and he drove it home during that training with real world demonstrations. He demonstrated different scenarios with different lumen flashlights and the strobe features turned on and off, indoors and out. It was very thorough, and I could say without a doubt that he was absolutely correct. At the end of the day, if you buy a 100 lumen light, than by all means get the disco ball feature on your flashlight, even though I still believe the negatives of strobes far outweigh the positives. If you are going to get up to speed with the times and get a 500+ lumen weapon light, then make sure you don’t get the strobe feature. Unfortunately, like I mentioned, they are much harder to find so you’ll need to get a light where the strobe can be programmed out.
The most important feature to a weapon-mounted light is the tailcap switch should ONLY turn the flashlight on and off and NOT cycle through various settings. When you toggle that switch on in an emergency, you don’t want to cycle through 5 different modes to get to high. I don’t care if it remembers the last setting when you turned it off, stick with a strictly on/off tail switch. I am also not a big fan of pressure pads for your weapon mounted flashlight, either. The wires leading from the flashlight to the pressure pad have a tendency to catch on objects and rip the pad off your gun or rip the cord out of the back of the flashlight. If you don’t carry the other tailcap switch in your bug-out bag or assault pack, then you end up with a paper weight on the end of your rifle. One other thing that you need to realize is that you won’t get over 300 lumens with standard batteries in most cases. So you need to stock up at your retreat with rechargeable CR123 batteries or whatever battery your high lumen flashlight takes.
My best recommendation for those of you with the means is the 600 lumen Surefire P2X Fury (single mode option) flashlight ($149). Surefire is a proven name on the battlefield and their quality is top tier. If you are on a budget, then for just about any other flashlight, I recommend the Nitecore brand. Their company, I’ll admit, is newer and they haven’t been around long enough to be proven in the “sandbox,” but their build quality is excellent for the price point. For a battle rifle, check out the 920 lumen Nitecore MT10A ($55 on Amazon). The MT10A has a standard tail switch on/off activation with the ability to purchase a pressure pad if you so choose. Switching between the different modes is on the side of the flashlight in the form of two rubber buttons for easy step up or step down in power. Be sure to mount these buttons toward your quad rail so they aren’t bumped accidently. The MT10A remembers the last mode you were on, so when you hit the tail cap you will always get the turbo mode (or whatever mode you have it set at). It does contain a strobe feature but you need to do some serious gymnastics with your fingers between multiple buttons to activate it, reducing the risk of accidently switching it on in a gunfight. Another great feature is that it has a mini low-lumen red LED built into the lens for when you want to retain your night vision. Now the kicker: the Nitecore MT10A flashlight uses rechargeable 14500 batteries (which are required to get the 920 lumens); however, it will ALSO uses standard AA batteries (obviously at lower lumens)! This means that if you run out of the 14500s or lose the charger after the SHTF, you don’t just have an expensive paperweight. The only drawback to the MT10A is that it has a short run time. If you are looking for a longer run time, check out the Nitecore MT26 ($59) which runs about the same price but uses 18650/CR123 batteries as opposed to 14500/AA batteries. Another great budget flashlight company I would consider would be the Foursevens brand.
For a pistol-mounted light I’d highly recommend the Surefire X300 Ultra ($195). A pistol light is an item that gets a good amount of abuse and has to handle constant recoil. Don’t skimp here; I wouldn’t recommend any other brand of cheap pistol lights. Don’t forget to buy the proper gun holster for your battle belt that will hold your specific pistol mounted light. After going through a night shoot with a professional instructor, I discovered that regardless of what method I used to hold my flashlight in my off hand, my accuracy suffered dramatically when I couldn’t use both hands to grip my pistol. I know that it’s important to train one handed (and I do), but it would probably take decades of doing so to achieve anywhere near the accuracy you’ll get while using a proper two-hand grip. After the night shoot I attended, I am convinced there is no way I EVER want to get into a firefight at night without a light mounted on my pistol. Since that day, I now conceal carry my Glock 19 everywhere I go with a light attached. The light does add a little weight to the front of your barrel but it also helps mitigate recoil to a degree and I found my rapid fire groups closing up faster than when not having the weapon light mounted.
The next area of weapons I want to cover is handguns. This is the easiest section of the chapter for me to write. The best brand of handgun for a SHTF situation is Glock, end of story. I have owned many handguns over the years and to tell the truth, they have all given me pretty good service and most were reliable. However, Glock is the best SHTF handgun you can own. It may not be pretty, and it may not “fit” your hand perfect, but when you pull the trigger, it goes bang every...single...time. I have at least 10,000 rounds through my Glocks with not a single issue and they have eaten every kind of ammo I have fed them. I don’t know if there is another handgun in the world that has been more rigorously tested and abused yet has still continued to function.
But reliability is not my only requirement for a SHTF handgun; simplicity is also very important. Again, a gunfight is an enormously chaotic event, even for the best trained police officers and soldiers. Nothing goes according to plan and the only hope you have is if you have trained extensively and your tactical training takes over as second nature. I have read that when confronted with opposing fire, even some of the best trained soldiers get “club hands” and fumble and bumble through their mag changes and operating their rifle or handgun. It is also not uncommon to hear stories of well-trained police officers racking the slide on their weapon after they draw, sending an unused round flying, all because that was their normal routine on their range days.
If I am transitioning to my handgun, it is because my rifle has failed, or I have run out of spare magazines for it. In either case, your handgun is your last ditch effort to get out of a bad situation. I don’t want to have to think about whether I have the safety on or not while I’m drawing. I know there are going to be people who disagree with me and insist their weapon have an external safety. But, for the average Joe with minimal training in a firefight, that is one extra step to fumble through before your weapon is operational, and fractions of a second can mean the difference between life and death. A handgun without a safety in a proper holster is EVERY BIT as safe as a handgun with an external safety! True weapon safety is more about keeping your barrel pointed in a safe direction at all times and proper trigger finger control than whether or not you have a physical safety on your weapon.
When choosing a Glock, I would stick with models chambered in 9mm or 40 caliber for ease of acquiring ammo in a SHTF scenario. You could go with a Glock chambered in 45 ACP as well, but you are limited to fewer rounds per magazine. In a firefight, I want as many rounds packed into the magazine as possible. With the Glock models 17 and 19, you have 17 and 15 rounds per magazine available respectively. In each of my backup mags for my everyday carry Glock 19, I have also Glock factory +2 baseplates installed, allowing me to carry 19 rounds in my Glock 17 spare mags (FYI, the larger Glock 17 mags fit the Glock 19). Another great thing about Glock is that a lot of their parts are interchangeable even between models of different calibers. Lastly, similar to the AR platform for rifles, Glocks are probably the most popular handgun in the country with many police departments having them standard issue, so finding a replacement part after the SHTF is still a possibility.
Glock is NOT the only handgun suitable for a SHTF scenario, but it is far and away the best, in my opinion. The Smith and Wesson M&P line would be a distant second choice for me, especially for people with smaller hands. There are the HK, 1911, and revolver faithful out there that will swear by their handgun and curse me for not recommending their weapon....fine. If you properly train with your handgun and you are comfortable with it, then good for you. A good example of this is a retired police officer that was issued handgun X and has used it exclusively for 20 years. While I would still recommend cross-training to the Glock, if you aren’t serious about spending the needed range time becoming proficient with a new weapon platform, stick with what you are proficient with. My recommendations are for the weekend warriors, those purchasing their first handgun, and those who don’t have the time to train four times per month. Remember, your handgun may be your last ditch effort to save your life. I want a handgun that is simple to operate, reliable, and has a high capacity magazine.
The next weapon I’d like to cover is the bolt action rifle. This is an area where I am a lot more flexible. Most bolt action rifles from the big manufacturers are reliable, which is my number one requirement for any SHTF weapon. I realize that there are plenty of fantastic long-range calibers available for a bolt gun, but I would recommend sticking with .308 (7.62) or a far distant second 30-06. These are arguably the most common hunting cartridges in the US today and your best chance at re-supply if needed. The other options I would consider would be a detachable box magazine (to carry spare magazines for faster reloading) and a threaded barrel for adding a suppressor.
My personal rifle recommendations would be a Remington 700 or a Tikka CTR, both chambered in .308. The Remmy 700 is a very common weapon with a lot of aftermarket options. The only problem with the 700 is if you buy a base model, you are probably going to want to upgrade both the stock trigger and stock to make it high speed. My personal favorite rifle is the Tikka CTR (Combat Tactical Rifle). Tikka arguably makes the most accurate out-of-the-box rifles for under $1,000. Tikka triggers are fantastic straight from the box and the buttery soft smoothness of their bolt actions are unparalleled for the price. The CTR comes standard with a Teflon coated bolt, a 20” threaded semi-heavy barrel, and a 10-round steel box mag. The only drawback on the Tikka is that it would be hard to find a spare part for it if something broke. Fortunately for bolt guns, this is rarely the case. Once again, I am not belittling your personal pick in bolt rifle as I am really flexible on this weapon platform. As with most rifles, be sure to get plenty of practice with it.
I would also highly recommend buying a good quality laser rangefinder to use with your bolt rifle and memorizing the ballistic charts for your particular brand of rifle cartridge. I hand wrote and laminated a small ballistic chart with common ranges for both my standard rounds and my subsonic rounds and taped it inside the rear flip up scope cover on my rifle. With a quick glance up, I can find the bullet drop at multiple distances for both rounds. Professional training with a rifle is important, but definitely lower on the priority list than attending multiple pistol and carbine training courses. After some of the AR training courses I have attended recently, I no longer recommend the Magpul Carbine DVDs. However, Magpul’s Long Range Rifle DVDs are stellar and I highly recommend them to learn the basics of accurate long-range shooting skills.
As far as optics go for your bolt gun, it’s hard for me to make recommendations because everyone’s geographical locations are different. In the foothills of West Virginia, a low power 2-7 power scope is sufficient because the likelihood of finding a shot farther than 300 yards is rare. If you live in the open planes of Montana, a 4-16 power or higher scope would make more sense. A good rule of thumb is that you should spend around the same amount of money on your optic as you do your rifle. I realize that those of you on a budget can’t afford this. However, if you pay less than $100 for a cheap scope, you are REALLY doing your weapon a disservice and you are hamstringing your ability to shoot accurately at longer distances, which is the whole point of a bolt gun! If you are on a budget, look at scopes from Nikon, Burris, and Vortex in the $150-200 range.
My personal favorite scope on a budget, and the one I currently have on my Tikka, is the Vortex Diamondback 2-7x35 ($189 on Amazon) with the bullet drop reticle. Their glass is superb for the price and easily competes with Leupold’s entry level scopes. The best part of the Vortex Diamondback scope is the excellent FOV (Field of View) at 100 yards that is comparable to much more expensive scopes. At 100 yards, the Vortex’s FOV on 7 power is 19.3 feet! Compare that to Nikon’s 2-7x35 scope which has decent glass but the FOV is only 12.7 feet on the same 7 power. That is almost 50% more FOV from the Vortex than the comparable scopes in the same price range! What a larger FOV means is that you’ll have a lot less “Tunnel Vision” effect out of the Vortex than other scopes and you’ll be able to see a 50% larger area where you are looking. Make note and be sure you get the Diamondback model of scope and not Vortex’s lower-priced Crossfire series. The Crossfire scopes use a far inferior quality of glass. If you are not on a budget, you have thousands of quality options like Leupold, Zeiss, Schmidt & Bender, etc.... One of my clients has a Leupold VX6 2-12x42 scope with the illuminated FireDot reticle, and I absolutely love it. At 2 power, with both eyes open, you can almost run it like you would a red dot on a battle rifle and follow moving targets really efficiently. At the end of the day, you need to do your own research on scopes that are suitable for your particular area of the country.
I will be perfectly honest: I am not a big fan of shotguns for a SHTF weapon. They definitely have their place for certain scenarios and I know that there are a lot of prepper “experts” out there that tout shotguns as the best all-around SHTF gun you can have, but I strongly disagree. I personally think a shotgun is a great idea to have for cabin self-defense as it’s a devastating man-killer at close range and won’t penetrate walls indoors like a rifle or pistol round will. Shotguns are also great for bird hunting. At the same time though, shotguns recoil quite a bit, their ammo is expensive and bulky, and they can’t be easily suppressed (I realize there are new suppressors for shotguns, but they are thousands of dollars). Shotguns are absolutely NOT a substitute for a battle rifle or long range hunting rifle! Just like your knives, please don’t try to multi-purpose your guns. I realize that some of you are on an extremely tight budget, but if you end up in a gunfight with a shotgun against a looter brandishing a battle rifle, you are at an extreme disadvantage regardless of your skill with your shotgun. I would only purchase a shotgun after you have purchased a handgun, battle rifle, and bolt gun (in that order).
For self-defense shotguns, I would go with a Mossberg 590 or a Remington 870. They are both great weapons that have been around for a long time, there are plenty in circulation, and there are lots of aftermarket accessories you can purchase for them. If you are on a real tight budget, you can also get a standard break open 12 gauge from a reputable manufacturer for under $200.
Once you have purchased a handgun, a battle rifle, and a bolt gun, (and a year’s worth of long term food storage!), there are other SHTF guns you might want to consider. The first would be a reliable semi-automatic .22 rifle. Once again, this is a weapon that I regularly hear some other prepper “experts” recommending as their go-to SHTF weapon. They are dead wrong. I admit a well-placed shot with a .22 can kill a man...over time. However, you could also shoot them 20 times and still have to wait ten minutes for them to bleed out as they return fire. A .22 caliber gun IS NOT a substitute for a battle rifle...period! There is no debate here and anyone debating it is wrong! A .22 is really great in a couple other aspects though. For one, their ammo is extremely cheap and easy to buy in bulk compared to other calibers. You can easily suppress a .22 and use it for hunting small game around your retreat, and with its limited recoil it also makes a great first gun for a young teen or your spouse to learn on if they are new to shooting.
My personal recommendation for a semi-automatic .22 is the Ruger 10-22 Tactical model with the threaded barrel. The 10-22 has been around for decades, there’s a ton of them in circulation, and the aftermarket accessories available are endless. They are also, arguably, the most reliable semi-automatic .22 you can buy. A lot of other companies’ semi-automatic .22 rifles can be very picky about what brand of ammo you run through them. Reliability in SHTF weapons is paramount! The one exception to the Ruger 10-22 I would consider is the Smith and Wesson M&P 15-22. This is an AR clone with a functioning charging handle and magazines that resemble standard AR mags. Most of the models also come with threaded barrels. This would be a great gun to get some serious AR range time on a budget without buying the much more expensive 5.56 ammo. I don’t personally own one, but most reviews I’ve read say they function pretty well and will eat various brands of .22 ammo.
A newer caliber on the market that would make a great secondary battle rifle is the .300 Blackout cartridge, which was actually designed around being fired through a suppressor from a 9” barrel. The .300 Blackout is essentially a 5.56 cartridge trimmed back to fit a larger and heavier .30 caliber bullet. Instead of carrying a bolt gun in a scabbard while you bug out, you should highly consider buying a 16” .300 Blackout upper with a fixed scope for your AR and carrying three spare AR mags with subsonic .300 Blackout ammo. With a quick swap out of your battle rifle’s upper, you could have a silenced semi-automatic rifle effective out to 150 yards. Now this may not work out West, as 150 yards isn’t that far, but in that situation you could use .300 Blackout supersonic ammo and still have a pretty quiet and hard hitting rifle out to 700 yards. This platform would make a fantastic weapon to set an ambush against an attacking force.
A great thing about this round is that you can buy a .300 Blackout upper for your 5.56 AR lower and everything else on your rifle functions the same way, including using the same bolt carrier group and the same 30 round 5.56 AR mags. When utilizing supersonic ammo, the .300 Blackout’s ballistics are similar to the hard hitting 7.62x39 AK round. When utilizing subsonic ammo, you are essentially shooting a .45 caliber weight bullet (208 grains at 975 feet per second) with better ballistics out to 150 yards. The other great thing about the .300 Blackout round is it’s designed to fire reliably out of a short 9” AR pistol barrel. (Important Note: putting a 9” pistol length barrel on your AR lower with a stock makes it a Short Barreled Rifle [SBR] by ATF standards, so be sure you don’t do this without the proper ATF paperwork or buy an AR pistol lower to mount it on!) This makes a great, compact, and silent CQB weapon. I would however, only purchase this as a backup weapon for a specific purpose and NOT buy this as your primary battle rifle. Since it’s a newer caliber on the market, there are not a lot of these weapons around yet and the ammo is quite expensive, making it hard to come by post-SHTF. On the flipside, if you have your own reloading equipment, you can make your own .300 Blackout brass from spent 5.56 casings, giving you an unlimited supply of .300 Blackout ammo as long as you have the proper components and equipment to size down the 5.56 brass and reload them.
I would also consider picking up a .45 caliber handgun with a threaded barrel and a .45 caliber suppressor. For “quiet work,” this gun is fantastic. If you had to silently enter a house where a retreat member was being held, this would be a great handgun to do that with. With a quality “wet” silencer, the .45 is truly whisper quiet. On top of that, you don’t need to buy expensive subsonic ammo as most .45 caliber rounds in circulation are already subsonic. If you have some extra money to spend, pick up a semi-auto HK UMP carbine converted from a USC (make sure it was legally converted or buy a USC and do the conversion yourself). A friend of mine has one of these, and with a suppressor attached and 25 round UMP mags, it truly is a whisper-quiet death machine and a total blast to shoot. However, they are also extremely expensive and will probably run you well over $2,000 to get a used one.
If you can afford to drop $2,500 on an HK UMP, then you will probably be a good candidate to pick up my next recommendation: a Barrett model 82A1. Having a semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle to keep in your retreat’s watchtower could be a game changer if your retreat is assaulted by a large looting group driving armored vehicles. I am NOT making the case that your little band of merry men go toe-to-toe with a professional military force (foreign or domestic). But there is always a chance that in the societal fallout after the SHTF, some of the larger gangs of looters may get their hands on military trucks and hardware after the rural reserve bases have been abandoned. A Barret chambered in 50BMG will easily cut through the engine block of most light-armored vehicles and disable them in their tracks. With its large, specifically engineered muzzle brake and a heavy recoil spring, the 82A1 is surprisingly very comfortable to shoot. The recoil is more of a slow push on your shoulder and less of a sharp snap like you would get from a larger caliber hunting rifles. In fact, the 82A1 is more comfortable to shoot than my little .308 Tikka T3 Lite deer rifle. However, expect to pay over $10,000 to pick one up with a scope and extra magazines. Obviously, this weapon is not a bug-out weapon as it weighs over 30 pounds before you even add a magazine, scope, and ammo. However it is a force multiplier and huge asset for a “fixed” firing position at your retreat.
On the same subject of weapons and personal protection, I would like to add a couple other recommendations for your retreat. I’ve already discussed the advantages of having night vision optics for your weapons, but an additional item for security you should consider is a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) optic which produces an image based on an object’s heat signature. With night vision, an enemy combatant can still be unnoticed at distance if they are in a static position and stay still. However, it is almost impossible to hide from a FLIR optic. If you have a watchtower at your retreat, you should really consider a FLIR optic for scanning your perimeter at night. Unfortunately, to buy a quality FLIR unit you are looking between $4,000 and $10,000.
For daytime perimeter security, I recommend buying a good quality spotting scope. There may come a time when your bolt rifle’s scope and its standard magnification won’t be powerful enough to verify a potential threat at distance. Before you start throwing rounds down range at a “potential’ threat, having a 20-60 power spotting scope on standby could help you verify if you are shooting at an armed looter or the neighbor’s kid who accidently wandered onto your property. Last, I would highly recommend buying some full-size silhouette (18” x30”) or equivalent-sized AR500 steel targets. Besides being able to use them on a homemade range pre-SHTF to increase your shooting proficiency, you can also use them post-SHTF for ballistic protection in multiple locations around your compound. Some could be placed below the windows of your watchtower, in a sniper hole, or at other security positions like your LP/OP (Listening Post/Observation Post). You could also use them to protect a vehicle if you were forced to make a supply run or leave your retreat in an emergency. With improvised brackets, you could weld them to the outside of your driver and passenger doors or place them upright in the bed of a pickup to protect your squad while travelling.
There are a plethora of other weapons that I haven’t covered and you could literally write an entire book on the subject. Again, if I didn’t mention your personal choice in rifle or handgun, I’m not saying that you are wrong or your weapon is crap. This chapter is just my opinion based on years of research and experience on which weapons are most reliable and best to consider SPECIFICALLY for a long-term SHTF scenario. Whatever weapon you end up choosing, make sure it is reliable and chambered in a common cartridge, get plenty of professional training on its use, and practice, practice, practice!