# Ponder the Unthinkable (pt12) Rifles



## Winston (Dec 29, 2014)

A while back I was at the range, lamenting that my pistol shot groups were not tighter.  The range officer sized-up the situation, and confirmed my basic philosophy:
"Those groups are just fine.  Center mass.  Besides, You just need to be accurate enough with your pistol to buy time to get to your rifle."

There's a reason that when you see a group of soldiers, they're not marching and clutching pistols.  The "top of the food chain" in firearms is the rifle.  If you know that you'll be in peril, it's insane not to make every effort to have a rifle.

Police have learned the hard way over the last few decades.  Seventeen years ago, a group of bank robbers armed with rifles held-off wave after wave of police in a running battle that lasted hours.  The police lacked the range to close in on the bad guys, and the power to penetrate their body armor.  The police in North Hollywood eventually had to raid a sporting goods store and "borrow" some hunting rifles to end the event.

Think about that for a second.  Even the police have to wait on _the police_ SWAT during a life-threatening event.  Minutes, maybe an hour or more.  How much damage could be done during that time?  In the above event, eighteen police and civilians were injured before the robbers were taken down.  Eventually, most departments nationwide authorized some patrol units to carry rifles for use in exigent circumstances.

You don't get more "exigent" than a "Stuff Hits The Fan" or "Without Rule Of Law" (SHTF / WORL) scenario.  They'll be no SWAT coming to your rescue.  Not even a cop with a rifle in his trunk.  It's all on you.

As covered in Part 9 Offense, without the ability to project power, you're at the mercy of those that can.   

What do you look for in a rifle?  First, understand what you're looking at.  By law (in the US), rifles have a barrel of no less than sixteen inches.  The long barrel provides two important features:  Increased accuracy and higher muzzle energy.  Both of these things are vital in an emergency when you are threatened.  If someone is taking pot-shots at you from behind cover, a rifle can more accurately place a shot at the exposed assailant, or even shoot a round through the cover that they are behind.

The barrel alone does not make a rifle accurate. The rifle also had a shoulder stock that provides stability when firing.  The sights are more accurate on a rifle because they are farther apart (sight radius), and optics can also easily be added.  A bipod mount also enhances accuracy, as well as simply using the rifle sling as a brace against your arm.  With a pistol, it's about your grip, stance and eye relief.  In other words, you can almost "idiot proof" a rifle, whereas a pistol requires much more practice and skill.  Again, why do armies march with rifles?

The most common / popular rifles sold in The US today are semi-automatic Sport Rifles (AKA "assault rifles").  Most are chambered in the diminutive 5.56 (.223) caliber in the M4 / AR-15 configuration.  Also popular are the Eastern Bloc 7.62 X 39 AK variants.  While neither is a good hunting rifle, I'll use that as an easy to understand metric to contrast them for use in personal defense.

Depending on your game, most hunting is done with a rifle at ranges of one to two hundred yards (no one likes to carry a deer farther than that).  In a SHTF scenario, engagement distances should be similar.  International deer hunting standards state that the minimum caliber to harvest a deer should the no less than .240.  While the AR-15 falls below that threshold, many claim that they can take a deer down with a well placed neck shot.  In contrast, a soft-point round from an AK can easily dispatch not only deer, but tougher-skinned animals (such as hogs), but at shorter distances.  

Here's where our hunting / defense comparison ends.  When hunting, you get one shot to kill the animal.  If you don't, and it's injured runs off, that's cruel (and no venison for you).   For personal defense, you just want the other guy to stop shooting.  If injuring him will do it, that's just fine.  The problem is, people don't act as rationally as an animal.  Maybe your assailant will crawl into a fetal position and give up.  Maybe they'll just keep shooting after being hit multiple times.  Or, they may temporarily retreat, patch themselves up, and come back at you with better, or more, firepower.  Remember that cliche about "no thing as dangerous as a wounded animal"?  Except an angry, crazy man with a rifle that you just shot.

Let's just say that whenever possible, first round kills are best for everyone involved.  The military uses the 5.56 because it causes a large wound canal due to the bullet tumbling in flesh after impact.  This _kind-of _makes up for the fact it's undersized.  It's main strength is that it injures very well.  Debates have raged about the effectiveness of the .223 / 5.56.  Do your homework and come to your own conclusions.  For what it's worth, the 5.56 is cheap, plentiful and easy / fun to shoot.  In a SHTF scenario, it will be the most common bullet you'll find.   

Ironically, the less common calibers are the most effective.  A good bolt-action rifle chambered in .270 is accurate, reliable and had good stopping power.  If you can handle the recoil, the .30-06 is the premier standard cartridge.  If you can find a Browning  Automatic Rifle (BAR) in this chambering, that's gold right there.  American Outlaws Bonnie & Clyde Barrow used the BAR.  That's why cops hated them.  Shot straight through the cars the police hid behind.  And you thought Clyde Barrow used a Tommy Gun?  He was evil, but not stupid.  

Life is all about compromises.  In my opinion, the best overall chambering / platform is the AR-15 in .308 / 7.62 x 51 caliber.  The .308 has a much greater chance of first-round incapacitation, and the sporting rifles that can fire it are numerous and easy to use / care for.  The ammo is less plentiful, more expensive and heavier. 

Regardless of caliber, like pistol ammo, consider different types of rifle ammo.  Since rifle bullets tend to over-penetrate (especially at closer ranges), soft-tip bullets are preferable.  The cost breakdown usually means you can buy twice as many FMJ rounds for the price of one box of hunting ammo.  Budget accordingly.  There is a specialty bullet that you should consider if your SHTF gun is also for home defense:  the frangible round.  It pretty much transfers all energy at the point of impact, with little danger of collateral damage.     

I have two main battle rifles.  The SKS is the predecessor to the AK-47.  It's as idiot-proof as a semi-automatic can be.  I don't think I've ever had a Failure to Fire (FTF) with that thing.  It's accuracy and stopping power are adequate out to about 100 yards.  My other go-to rifle is a 75 year old military surplus rifle called the Mosin Nagant.  It's often referred to as a "poor man's .30-06, with similar ballistics. It hits much harder than a .308, but not quite as accurate.  The beauty with both is that the ammo is dirt-cheap.  The SKS / AK ammo is almost as common as the NATO 5.56.  The Mosin ammo is a bit harder to come by, but at 20 cents per round, it's easy to stock-up ahead of time.  Oh, and some of the Mosin rounds have a mild steel core.  They over, over penetrate.

Since I just covered pistols in the last installment, let me slide in a few words about carbines.  A carbine is a short rifle, often chambered either in a small rifle or pistol caliber.  The idea is to have a weapon with greater range than a pistol, but not quite as powerful as a full-sized rifle.  In military history, these were popular as calvary weapons, and later for armor and airborne troops.  A lighter weapon, shooting smaller rounds means increased mobility with decreased weight.  Which means, you can carry more bullets.  In this role, the M4 (AR-15) chambered in 5.56 does excel.   Remember, you do take a penalty in accuracy and power compared to a full-sized rifle.  

So, a lot depends on how you plan to deploy your defense.  I'm not a "bug-out" fan, but if we ever need to get out of town, the SKS is almost perfect.  It's a little longer than I like, but I can bring a ton of ammo with me with only a minor weight penalty.  There are many AK variants with folding stocks, but I like my old SKS.  A carbine is also a very good "bug-out" weapon.  If possible, I prefer to stay put during a SHTF event.  That's why I have the Mosin Nagant.  Short of someone rolling up my driveway in an tank / APC, it'll stop them.  The corrosive ammo it shoots sounds like a canon, and launches flames you could roast hot dogs on.  I'm not kidding.  Only the truly insane or desperate would advance after the first shot knocks the first assailant off their feet. 

I do have a soft spot for that .308 / 7.62 caliber.  In the Marines, that's what my M60 machine gun fired.  It was funny when all the riflemen, firing their M-16s, heard my gun open up.  Heads turned.  You can sure hear the difference.  Which, in a SHTF scenario, isn't always a good thing.  We machine gunners did have a shorter-than-average lifespan in combat, for a reason.  Which is why we were the only MOS (billet) issued two weapons, the machine gun AND a pistol.  For close encounters.

Speaking of that, am I forgetting anything?  Right, shotguns.  That's in the next installment


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## SwitchBack (Dec 29, 2014)

Interesting. 

Though I find it sort of funny about the pistol comment - I served military, had a 98% accuracy with pistol at 30-40 yards and that included simulated fight where I shot the "guy" / target right between the eyes. 


Your work is very well researched, however, I got to ask if your book is going to cover safety, etc. or just how a gun can blast a hole in someone & which one does it best. Cause I remember 3-5 years ago how the either the Daily or the BBC [probably both] did a special on gun nuts [mostly American] and 99% of them were nutters who had 3+ guns [and big guns too] while the sane daughter from a Detroit or Philly cop had a single glock pistol.


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## Plasticweld (Dec 29, 2014)

Guns are like words...you can never have too many of them.

Winston good read with a lot of good info. Some of my choices have to do with availability of ammo.  I have  a great long range rifle 285 OKH   basically a 7mm necked down, it is a nice 1000 yard rifle.  The trouble is that all of the ammo is hand loaded and brass has to be modified.  The real advantage of the .308 and .223 is that there is a lot of ammo around.  Being a ardent re-loader I make sure I have plenty of power, primers and bullets on hand.   I also have a Mosin Nagant, I was buying more .308 and found I could buy a 1000 rounds of ammo for that gun and basically the gun was free. One of those $389 deals, rifle and a 1000 rounds type of deals.   I keep it basically as a truck gun as it does not matter if it gets banged up. 


I heard this, or read this somewhere years ago.  One of the advantages of the .223 is that has a great capacity to wound but not kill, with standard ball.  As far as battle field tactics go, for every wounded enemy solider it takes two other soldiers to take  him off the field.  Kind of one shot three guys get tied up scenario.  


I have done head shots on deer when working off a nuances permit, for  a farmer friend of mine best shot  with the .223 446 yards with a 62 grain boat tail hollow point, 3869fps. Drop and fold.  If someone is willing to reload it changes the dynamics considerable compared to using standard ball.


Thanks for the read and sharing...Bob


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