If they were going to have a shoot-out w the feds, they would have stayed with their vehicle.
They never had any intention of shooting it out.
They’d seen these guys for days as they brought in more and more resources. They were outnumbered, out gunned, with the feds having drones, choppers, fix wing aircraft, and all kinds of neat tax paid stuff.
No way were they going to shoot it out with them in a planned ambush on a lonely stretch of highway. They were sitting ducks and they all knew it.