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 Tools – Question on Lever Action Rifles

We recently received this multifaceted question: “Hey Guys, Does someone make a lever action rifle in .357 Magnum? What do you think of this gun as a survival rifle? I was thinking I would like to have a rifle in the same caliber as my handgun. I also own a .357 Magnum handgun, a .22 caliber rifle, a 12 gauge shotgun and a 7mm magnum bolt action rifle. Also, can we be the best three friends that there ever was?”
First off, NO, we cannot be the best three friends that there ever was. Second, YES, there are several manufacturers of .357 magnum lever action carbine. We call them carbines because they fire less than a full sized rifle round and are usually built with a 16 inch to 18.5 inch barrel, or thereabouts.

A quick look at manufacturer, model and price gave us this information on .357 Magnum lever action carbines available:

Rossi Model 92, price $460

Uberti Model 73, price $850

Henry Model 1860, price $660

Marlin Model 1894C, price $525

Winchester Model 1894, price $879

Winchester Model 1892, price $650

We are familiar with several of the models. The Uberti M73 is a reproduction of the Winchester 1873 and is a great little, slick handling gun. The Winchesters, …….well are Winchesters. Great little guns, but expensive and increasingly so. The Marlin 1894C would be our choice, combining quality and price, if we were going to buy a .357 Magnum caliber lever action. Then either the Winchester M92 or Rossi Model 92 – same reasons. If we could afford the Uberti, it would be ours.

Our question to you is “Why do you want to buy a rifle/carbine in a pistol caliber.” If you are going to be on horseback that may be one thing, but if this is going to be your prime survival long arm, then we would suggest first buying something in a more suitable caliber and in semi-automatic platform such as .223 Remington like an M-4/M-16 Carbine or Mini-14 or M-1 Garand in .30-06. Of curse these will set you back $800 to $1,200. Even an M-1 Carbine in .30 caliber carbine, which is a true carbine round may be a better choice due to it’s much larger capacity to carry more ammunition in it’s 10, 15 and 30 round magazines. Lever guns are much slower to re-load when you have a platoon of Zombies inside the wire.

On the side of buying a .357 Magnum lever action is the fact that .357 Magnum and .38Special ammunition, which you could fire in a .357 Magnum carbine, is common and is still fairly easy to obtain in quantity.

If this is a point of you either buying a .357 Magnum carbine or not buying a new gun at all, then we would tell you by all means pickup the carbine as you need something other than the 7mm bolt gun you have. While you’re at it, also pickup some more ammunition for all yours guns and you may want to try the excellent .357 Magnum Leverevolution ammunition from Hornady as it gives increased performance out of lever guns.