Im looking at the Olympic Arms K30R - I had the Colt version years ago and like an idiot I sold it....both were chambered in the 7.62x39
When I was in Y2K mode, I decided to only buy firearms in calibers used by the military as I figured that resupply would be much easier in a real-life WTSHTF situation.
I would go 5.56 (.223) or .308 if you want to reah out there into madmax land.
Big one. Availability of ammo and components. Go 5.56. More readily available.
5.56 or .308(7.62X51) Or both if you can afford it.
Take a look at the FNAR first.
AR-15’s are great weapons. However, since you are already armed it’s worth considering if you are overpreparing one angle at the expense of underpreparing for others.
First of all, keep in mind that no matter how bad things get, Mugabe is still in charge of Zimbabwe. Governments just won’t die on their own. There was no Weimar Revolution in Germany.
That being said, prepare first for the idea that a societal meltdown won’t happen. Good job/business, education, strong family ties, no debt, positive savings, etc.
Get into cash. Sell whatever you can. Drop your asking price to sell fast. And renting is better than owning during deflationary downturn panics.
With the basics covered, you need to be prepared for a short-term emergency like all banks being closed for an extended period of time. Do you have enough cash on hand if your ATM card won’t work for a month?
At the next level, can you survive inside your home without going to a public/government food/shelter depot if a hurricane/tornado/tsunami/volcano/avalanche/earthquake or other natural event renders all stores closed for a month?
You’ve got your meds? Water? Safe canned food (#10 cans keep food fresh for 25 years). A certain way to start a fire, even in the rain? Winter clothes?
Do you have a 72-hour “bug-out” bag to grab and run if a wildfire or medium-sized meteor puts your home in an unsafe region? Or a plague (e.g. terrorist infection in your area).
Does each member of your distributed family know how to call you if cell lines are working, and know where to meet up if they aren’t?
Do you have basic first aid available (painkillers, asprin, hydrogen peroxide, bandages) and know where to find a doctor/hospital?
Surviving for longer periods of time is an order of magnitude more difficult than preparing for any of the above...and most people won’t come close to having the water or cash handy to handle even expected outages of the comforts of civilization (e.g. sanitary).
A few tips if you are in a longer-term survival situation:
#1: avoid all contact, especially violent, with military and paramilitary groups. You won’t have the firepower of a Destroyer or B-2 bomber, and you won’t have acces to their level of medical care. You want to survive. This is not about starting or winning a war.
#2: stay put if you can. Once you leave you will become a forager, and that’s a very difficult way to survive.
#3: if you have to leave (e.g. to avoid contact with paramilitaries), then leave. F’in go! A stocked sailboat would be nice at that point. Go fishing. Come back when the crisis is over.
#4: announcements on loudspeakers, radio, TV, posters, and handouts, are not to be believed. But they’ll be out there.
This is important because in a desperate situation various bad actors will have incentive to tell you what you *want* to hear in order to manipulate your behavior.
Also, weapons, dogs, and body armor are great things...but they aren’t going to help you against paramilitaries and they won’t sanitize your hands before eating or after septic disposal.
Likewise, while a gun is nice (and better to have one than not), shooting a deer in a nation that is starving will bring *large* numbers of people toward what they hope will be a deer kill. Drawing attention to yourself by firing a weapon or turning on lights at night...perhaps even a campfire, may be contrary to improving your survival odds. This might be a great time to have a simple slingshot for squirrel hunting. Very quiet.
Now, just remember that the worst is unlikely to happen. Being prepared for the plethora of catastrophies that are possible is difficult. Moreover, you don’t want to scare yourself silly *or* become so invested in the mental idea of a crash/disaster that you begin *wishing* for it.
It’s unlikely to happen. Many a 1980’s “Reagan nuclear war” survivalist wound up disappointed. So too did the Y2K nuts (e.e. World Nut Daily).
What’s more likely is higher unemployment, limited riots/arson attacks near colleges and ghettos, and some inconvenient bank failures that tie up some access to capital.
You might also consider some redneck car armor for your family/commuter vehicle. Used police surplus ballistic body armor panels (soft armor) can be found online for as little as $25 each. Stuff them behind your door and rear hatch interior panels, plus in front/under your driver instrument cluster pod.
Lower your windows on your doors, remove your interior panels, and insert old phone books. Duck tape them out of the way of the glass windows and electric window motors. This can be done by an amatuer with as little as 1 hour of your time per door.
Lighter calibers of street-thug firearms such as .22, .38, and 410 shotguns won’t penetrate into your interior through your metal outer door panels plus through phone books.
This is a very quick and inexpensive way to help protect your family from small domestic riots where some bad actor in the crowd is likely to have a small pistol.
You can do the above without even alarming your family that an elevated level of threat exists. The windows will still work, after all.
You aren’t Rambo. You aren’t going to be machine-gunning down whole crowds of rioters before one of them can shoot your car from behind or from the side. A little armor can thereby improve your daily sense of security without running up a big bill.
Obviously the above is worthless against more powerful handguns, but a rioter is less likely to be carrying around heavy artillery without being picked off by whatever police/national guard forces are still in existence.
There is a hell of a lot more .223 ammo around than 6.8mm. You already have three weapons that will reach out and touch someone long distance. Call up your local sporting goods shop and ask them if they have any 6.8 in stock and if they do not when will they get it in stock?
Problem with 6.8 is the ammo. It ain't cheap, and it ain't plentiful.
The Stags are reasonably priced and very dependable with a lifetime warranty. Like everything else, they are about two months or more in back orders. If you find them anywhere else, the price will be significantly more than list.
I have an LWRC with 1148 Rounds of .223
Sig Sauer .40
Beretta 25
Shotgun
I have a cross-bow (silent hunting)
We believe we can make it exclusively on our food storage.
See http://www.nitro-pak.com/
We have several Nalgene barrels for water and a stream running through our property. A lake is nearby
We have water prurification devices.
I own a Wrangler and Harley and a rugged go-kart (all have survival capabilities.
We have survival radios
My basement is deep below ground and our safe room could survive anything shy of ground zero.
We have two dogs, Doberman and Lab
My son and oldest daughter are blackbelts.
We OWE nothing
We take survuval seriously.
Don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but at this point you’ll pretty much have to take what you can get. ANY sort of military style 5.56 or 7.62 rifle is almost impossible to find.
Just buy a Lewis Machine & Tool MRP(Monolithic Rail Platform). It’s a bit pricey but is mil spec, offers a free float rail system, and the ability to switch between calibers in a couple of minutes. It’s the Swiss army knife of AR platforms and is high quality machines and super accurate.
For standard ARs I’d go with a Colt 6920 or Std MRP Defender 2000. Skip everything else.
.308Winchester for most all intents and purposes IS 7.62 X 51 NATO. The civilian .308 sporter rounds are generally a bit hotter, and have easier to re-load boxer primers than the military berdan primer, but otherwise work well enough interchangebly. A big plus, like other posters here have mentioned already. Belted 7.62 NATO can be broken down from the linkage holding them together and feed into most any .308 Winchester chambering. The military has many train loads amounts full of belted 7.62.
I do wish that most all civilians were issued and trained with .308. Otherwise as far as any future militia goes, we have an overwhelming variety of chamberings, if we all bring our favorite hunting rifles. Heck, I'd be tempted to bring a 7mm RemMag. Flat purty fur out there...but a bastard to reload for. One of the 'touchy' ones, problematic, with only small margins for error, and that's not to mention the bulges that one can end up near the belt, when full length re-sizing.
If one is going to reload one's own brass --- avoid beginning with, or learning the basics using 7mmMag. Both .308 & -'06 are much more forgiving. And safer though all guns & bullets & re-loading, are potentially dangerous, of course.
Another thing perhaps not to overlook when comparing the fairly new 6.8 mm with the fairly venerable .308, is there is as much reloading data concerning the .308 as there is any other chambering --- and like 30-06, MORE data than many any other chamberings, applicable to, I would wager, the particular 6.8 mm chambering you are considering.
For the .308 & the 30-06 Springfield, it's the same bullet(s), for starters (ok, .308 usually only goes up to 180 grn) and all the bullet AND powder manufacturers have extensive experience with them, and publish up-to-date data concerning them. All of which makes it easier to build up loads safely, and change loadings, primers, make of brass (even who made the brass, can make a difference) or particular 'bullet' in combination with all of the above. But just change one thing at time, or sort-of basically start all over when changing powders particularly, primers also, remembering too that Remington and Winchester cases are not necassarily exactly interchangabe with different powder/primer/bullet combos. Performance can and will vary. It's been proven. Like, before I was born (and I'm getting old!) Be careful. Follow the book(s), and that IS plural.
Buy an AR15 lower. We know you really want the 6.8 right? Why not get it now why you can. Something in a longer barrel (stainless maybe) for long distance shooting. If you’re loading your own ammo, the extra expense is not that big a deal. Why not get the 5.56 upper too? In a short barrel for CQB, of course. Cheaper ammo for plinking and fun, and a good house gun.
Whatever you buy buy as a private sale. Whatever you already have that you bought from an FFL holder, come up with a good story as to why you no longer have it.
Please post no pictures of an AR-15. I can’t take it. I sold mine 14 years ago to put a down payment on my Wife’s engagement ring. Now to see one, and the price they are going for today, makes me ill. It is like seeing your old high school sweetheart that you dumped become a beautiful Playboy centerfold.
I assume you are joking - or one of those dreaded “Mall Ninjas” !
You feel “under-gunned” ?
Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-kay !