[dadgum]

ping for later

[Chainmail]

Great read and well thought out. Agree with every point for my M4 with ACOG - but my primary will always be my match-prepped M1A.

[redfreedom]

The basic combat rifle for home property defense in my opinion is anything that throws lead with reasonable accuracy at 100 yards or better, doesn’t jam and requires little to no maintenance. That would be an SKS with open sights.

Now I said “basic” as in minimal, not ideal as in perfect.

[imardmd1]

bttt

[AFreeBird]

L8r

[Dusty Road]

My first problem with this is the twist rate, really 1-7! A 1-7 will not stabilize 55 grain rounds worth a chit, that twist is for 60+ grain rounds. I can run 62 grain rounds through my 1-9 with no problem or loss in accuracy. This move towards slow heavy rounds defeats the purpose of what is considered hi velocity rounds. I’m on a ranch every day and carry several rifles, none of my rifle ammo combinations shoot less than 3500 fps. On one rifle I run a 1-12, it’s STEYR pro hunter 243 running around 3950 with a 58 grain pill.

[junta]

I’ll call these the snowflake threads for gunnies. Story time, one class I took with Max Velocity Tactical out of 12 people we had 3 snowflakes, one guy shows up with an M-1 Garand with the usual General Patton platitude, disaster on fire and movement, second guy Century Arms 93 clone nuff said and lastly a guy with an SBR who had the jam of doom in the class. And then we got the porch snipers here dreaming of John Wayne and his Winchester 73 mowin em down.

Git an AR just like the man says and then go train.

[yarddog]

Just about any rifle which is reliable and you have sighted in so that you know where it will hit.

It should be reasonably accurate which just about all new rifles are.

If it has a scope, make sure it is really well mounted. I once had the scope on a Thompson Center Contender fall off during a match. I sure thought it was on good but it wasn’t.

Just have a good supply of ammo too. If you have enough ammo and can shoot the rifle well, then caliber is not important.

Even a .22 or .22 magnum is better than nothing.

[BuffaloJack]

In 1969 they gave me an M14 rifle. I carried it and used it in 5 or 6 fire fights with the Viet Cong. It weighed 10.5 pounds loaded, and never failed me. Six months later they took it away from me and handed me an M16 (7.5 pounds loaded). That M16 failed (bend cartridges forced into the breach) during 2 different firefights. I never trusted the damn thing after that. I also, never used either rifle in fully automatic mode, ever, so both rifles were only used as semiautomatics. An AR15 is the semiautomatic version of the M16. I don’t like the AR15, because the M16 almost got me killed on 2 separate occasions.

[farming pharmer]

BKMK

[grobdriver]

Good stuff.
Bookmark to share.

[Who is John Galt?]

That’s the over-all best summary I’ve seen in a long time (thanks for posting ;^)! Two things mentioned that a lot of folks forget: KISS Principle & weight. You probably don’t need a rifle with ‘after-market everything’, plus 5 feet of rail (and some gadget attached to every available location). And your rifle doesn’t have to (& shouldn’t?) weigh as much as grandad’s M1 Garand...

[Rappini]

Thanks for the post, good enough to follow.

[Billthedrill]

Lots of good advice in this one. Rule One is have a gun, Rule Two is train. The AR has a number of virtues based on the fact that it's a modular platform and the range of ways to set it up is enormous. It's certainly not the only option, even in my gun closet, but it has an advantage over the big iron in that young people and women find it easier to handle than, say, a ten-pound battle rifle with a bipod. If everybody can shoot everybody else's gun you're ahead, because it can come to that.

What Nut'n Fancy calls the philosophy of use plays a part. It's a civilian firearm. It's great to envision sub-MOA accuracy out to 500 meters but if you're shooting people at 500 meters you may find that self-defense plea to be a little tough. You're not in the military, or if you're a vet, you're not in the military anymore. In any case, if you do find yourself engaged in long-range people-hunting you've probably got time to break out a more specialty gun. And a spotter. Just my $0.02.

[Lurker]

“and that’s Trijicon’s engineering marvel, the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG).”

$1,200 a copy. We have 2 “family” AR rifles. That’s $2,400 plus tax. Can’t afford it. Wish we could, but we can’t.

Went with the Aimpoint red dots. Can’t hit much past 350-400 reliably with my late 50s eyes. But for shots longer than that I use a bolt action.

My only quibble with this article so far.

L

[Darth Mall]

BFL

[M Kehoe]

Bttt.

5.56mm

[pigsmith]

Bump for later

[2harddrive]

Do you just plain like firearms? Or do you support the American 2nd Amendment in principle? If so, do check out this BOLD new website before they censor it: https://GunDynamics.com