SHTF Gun Group for a Family of 4

[HammerDown]

+1000 on the Shotty of the SKS. in the words of a Force Recon Marine and a San Jose SWAT team leader, NOTHING is as useful for food from birds to bear or as intimidating and devastatingly demoralizing as a shotgun with a variety of loads and rifled slugs. That said I'm sold on picking up a cheap Mosin just to have.

No better option than a 12 gauge for verasiltility, power, and simplicity.

I really dont understand the AR-15 guys saying the shotgun is useful in 2% of situation...talk about head in the sand. Where the heck in SHTF are you going to be firing at ranges of more than 200 yards in a majority of CA? You can get a shotgun that fires 3 or 3.5'' Mags and at least 250 round of shells with a muzzle velocity of 2100 fps at the barrel, 1500-1600+fps at 100 yards, and still going 1400+fps at 150 yards with a 385 grain projectile, for the entry price of your AR.

Are you going to be dropping every person you see at 250+ yards, without knowing their intentions?

[KevinB]

Hammer, a shotgun is a useful piece of equipment. I own several.

The pitfalls of a shotgun are many, slow rate of fire. Extremely slow rate of reloading. Ammo is way too heavy. Try picking up 200 rounds and running with it.

Accuracy at even moderate ranges is non existent as well as bullet penetration.

If I happen to run into some zombie birds, I will be all set.

[echo1]

Hammer, a shotgun is a useful piece of equipment. I own several.The pitfalls of a shotgun are many, slow rate of fire. Extremely slow rate of reloading. Ammo is way too heavy. Try picking up 200 rounds and running with it.Accuracy at even moderate ranges is non existent as well as bullet penetration.If I happen to run into some zombie birds, I will be all set.

KevinB, you, like me, have been around guns, shooting guns, owning guns our whole lives. The OPs bro is a rookie with minimal ducats that needs to ramp up fast. For the price of 20 rds of Lapua, you can get 1000 rds of .22lr or more. For the price of a platform that's shoots .338, .22lr rifles all around. I've got stuff that will reach out and touch someone too, but I preach to all the youngsters from non gun families to get some sort .22lr at least, and to hoard ammo. The first 7-10 days of chaos is what you have to make ot through. In the long run, a .22lr firearm is disposable since you cant reload. That's another reason besides cost, why you need to store thousands of rounds of it. PAX