What is your "good to go" rifle?

[Redneck Repairs]

Ill put this in general for the time being , since its rifle related , but a ( i hope ) far reaching thread.

Clint Smith , John Farnam , Aayub , Cooper , and a plethora of others have come out in favor of the " rifle " as the answer to a firefight .
Clint went so far as to say that a pistol is what you use to get to your rifle .. now that is a paraphrase not a quote , but sums up the attitude .

So for those of us who have a truck or trunk gun , and those who are thinking about it .......

Just what are your personal qualifications and thoughts for this rifle ?

Ill kick the ball off with an admitidly incomplete list that i have used .


1. It needs to reliably place rounds on a torso at 300 yards .
2. faster follow up shots are better than slow .
3. at 300 yards it needs to put someone down at least as reliable as 9mm will do at 25 yards .
4. at 2 to 300 yards magnified optics are your friend tho not necessary .
5. optics WILL fail , be it a battery going dead , or a scope fogging they are fickle and will quit you when you want them the most , so have irons as a backup .
6. What is cover for a .223 is concealment for a .308 , and conversely a .308 will shoot thro the bad guy and kill the autistic child setting in a van load of nuns 200 yards downrange.
7. Expensive rifles subjected to constant vehicle carry rapidly become expensive junk. They will continue to work fine , but due to the dings and " hickys " that day to day life will impart they will quickly loose value .
8. Vehicles are not secure firearms storage , if they dont steal the gun they may well steal the entire car.

Just some points , yall will come up with many more ...

For myself now i have 2 rifles i use for a " car gun " One is a norenco para sks . The other is a rock river AR . Both will fit into a soft guitar case to xport into a hotel ect.. ( that does not raise eyebrows like a gun case does ) . Honestly if only I travel i take the ar , if me and the wife travel i take both and she would get the ar if needed . Anyway chip in with thoughts both pro and con on the " go to gun " and the practical advantages / difficulty's of having it

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[pogo2]

You seem to be talking about a self defense scenario, but you mention hitting human size targets at 200 to 300 yards.

Although this happens in warfare and police situations, I can't think of this capability being needed for most civilian self defense against criminals. Am I missing something?

[Redneck Repairs]

Pogo , it entirely depends on your mindset , There have been several threads on malls , schools , ect .. of late ( one of them mine ) and a rifle unargueably expands your range capibilitys . If you got your family or charges out of a bad public building situation and decided you could not go back into it , would you want something that would accurately shoot further than your pistol ( assuming you did not just get in the car and leave ) or not ? 2nd is next time you go to the mall take the time to count your steps and figure about 27" per step to the closest door , use that to " guestimate " the distance to all the doors and parking areas you can see ... you will see range requirements fast , I hope i am not un realistic on them since i dont do many malls ect..

[pogo2]

Although I am mainly a handgun fan, I do own one rifle that I bought about 8 years ago with defense in mind. It is a Ruger Mini 14, an inexpensive .223 carbine that is not known for accuracy. However, it is easy to hit man size targets at 100 yards with the gun, and I have practiced at that range with it. I also have some 20 round magazines for it, and the gun has been reliable. It certainly would be more useful than a pistol at intermediate ranges from 25 to 100 yards.

In the rare situation where I needed something like this, I thought I would buy it and become familiar with it. I keep a supply of ammo for it in inventory.

Is this what you are referring to?

[Redneck Repairs]

pretty much exactly pogo lol . now put it in a vehicle and it would be a " go to " gun , just what i brought the thread up for .

[P95Carry]

I would reach for my FAL: Bob - mainly on account of your range specification max.

BTW - subject line ''reads funny'' - what should it be and I'll tweak it!!

[maclean3]

Not the fastest loading gun by any means but if I needed a rifle for home defense it'll be my Marlin 30-30 carbine. Last time it was in the trunk (back of my truck) was on the way home from a day of hunting but if I HAD to grab for something then yeah, that'd be the one.

Considering grabbing a Yugo SKS or two with my C&R in the near future, more because they're affordable and I'd like something in the 7.62x39 caliber than because of any perceived threat level though.
Jack

[ptmmatssc]

1. It needs to reliably place rounds on a torso at 300 yards

Can't see this as a self defense need. at that range it's basically sniping (offensive) . It would be realistic if you are talking a SHTF scenario , but even at that , avoidance is preferable .

Now for MY go to guns , I carry my XD45 or witness 45 which will get me to my KELTEC SUB2000 (loaded 15 rds) while home . Out in the world , well , either of my carry pieces are adequate . I shoot both out to 100 yds and to me that's enough distance for self defense . Now if society broke down etc , I have a few other go to guns for that scenario which could get me out to 500+ yds with no problem

[maclean3]

Hey Chris, got any picks of the FAL? I'm not too up on military rifles (CETME, FAL, etc) and curious what it looks like.
Jack

[Redneck Repairs]

Chris you understand the guist of what i am asking , feel free to change topic header to fit , I just thought this one would incite views . It could be a lot better tho lol .

[P95Carry]

Hey Chris, got any picks of the FAL?

Jack - my FAL is one bought from a guy a few years ago - all I know of its history is it is built up on an Imbel. It sure is a fine rifle tho IMO.

I also have a Century L1A1 - still useful but does not compare to the metric FAL. The caliber tho gives good ''reach'' as well as effectiveness.

[Tros]

I haven't given it much thought, but when I get around to a self defense rifle that will end up in the truck it will have to do the following:
- 150-200 yard accuracy
- Reliability, of course
- The shorter, the better. I don't want my rifle getting caught on anything when it is being taken out of a vehicle.
- Something powerful enough to take take the local wild predators (The animals, people :p)
- Fast follow shots is desirable.

Those are going to be my requirements. The Mini 14 would cover almost all of that, but it's accuracy is in question. While I haven't researched much, I imagine a M4 variant would work fine.

[maclean3]

Thanks for the pics Chris, both are nice but that top one's a beauty! Looks like it'd be pretty hefty to tote around for long periods though, like in the woods gathering food, bugging out and such - not really the original point of the thread but I like my guns to fill as many roles as possible. Is there a difference between 7.62x54 and 7.62x54R (Mosin Nagant round)? I'm such a C&R noob.
Jack

[P95Carry]

Is there a difference between 7.62x54 and 7.62x54R (Mosin Nagant round)?

Jack - the NATO round is 7.62 x 51 and is a parallel bottle neck case and rimless .... meaning it has a base like you see on a 9mm for example.

The 7.62 x 54R (Russian) is a taper case bottle neck but rimmed. Quite an odd looking round in some ways. No pics to hand but can later take a pic of both for comparison.

Ballistically I forget the differences but they are IIRC relatively small overall.

[maclean3]

Aha, I misread the text on your pic as "54" instead of "51." Got it, thanks!
Jack