Kid, I agree that the single shot has a definite place in a survival situation. Too many people hear survival and they think of a nuclear holocaust situation. Well, we are much more likely to suffer from some time of natural or economic disaster in my opinion. Plus on an individual basis, the hunting type gun is going to be of much more use than a battle rifle. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with ARs etc. I like them and own them but for a realistic survival situation you would be well served by a single shot. I too have looked as some forums where the people are addressing survival situations, when I look at the loads they are talking about carrying, one thing becomes very evident to me, these folks have not spent much time walking carrying a load, and most of them seem to have forgotten about the basics of food, water, and shelter. I hope it never happens but if their idea of survival does occur, I am afraid they are going to learn to late that to survive they must be discreet and disappear into the surroundings not roving the area picking a fight with those around them, because somebody will be laying up on the hill with their totally inadequate deer rifle and put out their eye.
As a side note, when I was sent to Katrina last year, it was a very unstable situation in that I was part of the first wave down. Since our objective was to restore law and order in rural areas we were told to be totally self sufficent as far as food, water, and shelter for at least two weeks. I had food, water, and shelter in my rig, I also had an AR and an 870 but since I wasn't sure about resupply or the situation I was getting into, I also had a 10/22 and ammo with me. I didn't need the rifle but it was comforting knowing it was there because once I got there I figured out pretty quick if the food resupply became an issue there were plenty of tasty critters running around for the taking. While the AR would have taken these critters the 10/22 would have been much more efficent and called much less attention to us. Of course the folks in the rural areas generally had the situation pretty well in hand. They were hit hard but as is the way of country folk everywhere they were already trying to get their feet back under them when we got there unlike the folks who were standing in front of the news cameras saying no one will fix our problems for us while we sit around and watch. Ironically most of the problems we had and there were plenty of them were people from outside the area coming in to prey on others misfortune, it is probably a good thing we got them rather than the folks they were planning on preying on because as one fellow said "the turtles gotta eat too". But when I left the area I was heartbroken for the loss these folks had suffered but restored in that contrary to what the news media lead us to believe there were a lot of folks down there who stepped upto the plate and in the way of Americans past dealt with their problems, helped their neighbors, and drove on. Sorry for getting off topic but it kindof fit in.
