Survival Firearms Skill Sets

I received this through e-mail from a reader: "Dear Urban Survival Skills I have been reading your site, other prepper sites and ar15.com as I am into the prepping movement hook, line and sinker as much as I can be with a wife and two kids, both under 8 years old. I have a AR -15 rifle with the straight military butt stock. A buddy who works with me who was in the Air Force tells me it is a duplicate of the M-16A2 but mine only shoots one bullet at a time. He thinks I should either buy another shorter barrelled one with a telescoping stock or modify my AR-15. My friend and I were both talking about some professional training. He was a airplane refueler and I have never served in the military. Although I could probably never afford it, what do you think about the firearms schools? My friend has read about Gunsight(?) Do they have classes for civilians? Any ideas about getting my skills built up? I can shoot pretty good, but I do not have the gun skills like I see on T.V. Sincerely, Chet."

UrbanMan replies:: It is a credit to you Chet that you recognize the need for training. If what you mean by television is the action movies, then you are seeing rehearsed and much edited scenes which are make believe. Although Hollywood does do a good job sometimes about hiring professionals to teach the actors how to be professional looking in their weapons handling. Enough about that - it just isn't real.

I can tell a lot about a person's ability by the way they handle a gun,..where his hands and fingers are, muzzle direction, how comfortable he appears with it, etc. This comes from many, many hours handling firearms. And of course without the ability to put bullets on the intended target, you just look like you are competent.

I am not convinced that a collapsible stock, short barreled M-4 clone is much better than a fixed stock AR-15. If you buy a second AR for your wife than a M-4 type would give you more versatility like carrying it in your car, truck or any situation where the shorter barrel and overall length makes it easier to handle.

And your friend is right about the possibility of modifying your current AR-15 with a collapse stock, but I would put the money into other preps.

If I did not have a suitable handgun or shotgun, before I would buy a second AR, I would think very soberly on a defensive handgun and/or a shotgun. In fact with today's AR prices you could probably pickup up two decent handguns AND a good quality 12 gauge pump shotgun for the same price or less than an AR.

Since you mentioned Gunsight Academy, a five day carbine course would cost you around $1,500 tuition not counting the cost of over 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Then you have travel, lodging and meals. If you wife lets you go, then she's one in million. If you could latch onto someone at a local gun range, such as a well versed instructor (some of which are teaching concealed carry classes now) or get involved with IPSC or IPDA shooting, you may be able to build your skills albeit slower, but saving some money. If you did go to professional training after that, you would get more out of it most likely.

In the meantime why don't you go to Youtube and check out the Viking Tactics Channel for weapons drills ands such. Good luck to you. You are on the right track. But remember while firearms are a key component to surviving the collapse, so is stocking food, having a water source, prepaing in all other survival equipment and material areas,...and above all, have a plan.

Urban Survival Firearms - Lever Guns better than AR's?

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received this comment from Outlander777....."I agree with most of all said here except I would point novice weapons owners to another system then an AR. It is not the end all system and does require more then a basis knowledge to opperate at max performance levels. Lever actions like the BLR 81 have magazines, Marlin lever actions carry 8 to 10 rounds. It is important not to go out as an aggressor force. Avoid all fights as much as possible, there wont be a lot of medical to be had in the TEOTWAWKI world."

UrbanMan replies: I agree with the concept of novices having simple firearms to operate. Any firearms needs, of course, to be reliable as well. However, I think I would train a novice to operate an M-4 variant as easily as I could a lever gun. I used both all my life and carried guns for a living the past 33 years. I would love to be able to carry a big bore lever gun - just like the style - but in a collapse the advantages of weapons that do not have to be re-loaded so often, and has less felt recoil is a good thing. Box magazines lever guns are an easier gun to reload than the traditional side loading, tubular magazine lever guns, and if I relied on a magazine fed, lever gun, I would have a dozen or more spare magazines for it.

The Mini-14 is a really good little .223, just with a bad rap due to it's mediocre sights. Replace the sights and you have a very reliable magazine fed gun, easily to learn and shoot. The M-1 carbine is the same albeit with a much more anemic round at a 110 grain round nose metal case bullet going a nominal 1,800 feet per second. Although I have one of those also. It's a back up gun and intended to be issued to any new people in my survival group that are firearms novices or otherwise incapable of handling larger firearms.

I agree with the concept of not being an aggressor until you have to be. Sometimes it would be necessary to take a fight to someone or some group as opposed to having the fight at your home or Survival site. In any event, have the fight on your terms and those terms should be favorable to you, whether you are fighting from prepared defensive positions at your home or Survival Site, or initiating an ambush on a mob obviously heading towards your home and therefore your family.

I also agree that the probability of no medical care in a TEOTWAWKI world, hence ever scrap, scratch and cut gets maximum treatment. I have seen small mesquite needle puncturesgo without treatment and create bad infections in hands and arms.

Outlander 777 thanks for the input and back and forth...you sound like you know your guns - the BLR 81 is an excellent rifle. Be safe.

Urban Survival Firearms - Is the 6.8mm SPC a good Survival Collapse Cartridge

UrbanSurivalSkills.com received the following question regarding Urban Survival Firearms and choices of caliber. "Me and another Survival prepper are deciding on what gun we are going to get. I’m thinking that an M-16 type rifle in the 6.8mm cartridge would give us both firepower and stopping power. What do you think?"

Urbanman replies: The 6.8 SPC (6.8 x 43mm) due to it’s overall length and relative low chamber pressure made the M16 or AR platform adaptable to this cartridge. Although the bullet diameter is smaller, I tend to think of this cartridge like a the M43 AK round (7.62x39mm).

It is a good stopper and was developed and pushed by elements of the Army Special Forces community to replace the 5.56x45mm (.223 Remington) as small groups of Special Operators would find themselves in a "target rich environment" and the 5.56 was failing to put people down for the count. This was largely due to the SS109 bullet - steel core penetrator, which had too much penetration and did not leave all of it's energy in soft skinned targets.

The 5.56x45mm standard military round in the 62 grain SS109 configuration has a muzzle velocity of approximatley 2,700 fps depending upon barrel lengnth. The 6.8x43mm SPC round with a 115 grain bullet travels at 2,800 fps. More diameter and weight, and more velocity, give the 6.8mm SPC the edge of which round is a better stopper.

I would not begrudge anyone going to the 6.8mm round in an AR platform. The considerations would be ammunition availability and price - certainly much, much cost involved than stocking the abundant .223 Remington. The cost difference between equal amounts of rounds has to have the 6.8mm SPC costing twice as much if not more. Are you going to be to stock 4,000 rounds per gun? That's my base figure for ammunition on hand for each main long gun. I'll stick to my AR platforms and the 5.56x45mm round.

The bottom line, as I am reminded by readers all too often, is to have a long gun for these lawless survival environments; be able to use it well; and have sufficient ammunition for it. Sounds like good advice to me.