Jim is a single white collar professional and business with a child in college. Jim has not previously owned firearms nor had he considered any Urban Survival preparations until he became part of our conversations. Because of our status, we had credibility with Jim therefore Jim listened and saw value in getting somewhat prepared.
He wins on both accounts: he doesn’t feel like some far right wing militia whack job; and, he feels better knowing he has a plan and that plan is backed up with a rapidly procurement, albeit of minimum nature, of Survival Gear and Equipment including a shotgun and pistol.
First rule of a gun fight or any event where you are attacked is to have a means to defend yourself and your property. In most pre-collapse cases a pistol, even a .22 LR, and especially a 12 gauge shotgun will do nicely. However, during a collapse when you may be faced with gangs of looters and brigands, maybe even outlaw motorcycle gangs or vicious street gangs more firepower will probably be necessary.
Enter the assault rifle or carbine (Boy we hate calling it that – but in the interests of a definition it’ll do for now), or better yet, a battle rifle.
An Assault rifle or carbine would be any variant of the M4/M16 family of firearms in caliber .223 Remington (or 5.56x45mm). Various makers include Bushmaster, Rock River , DPMS, Colt, Smith and Wesson, SigSauer and a host of others. Using a 20 or 30 round magazine, this firearm presents a lot of options. More options when you include multiple rounds or cartridges in various bullet weights and configurations to select for the anticipated use.
Another type of assault carbine would be the excellent Ruger Mini-14, however these are only now slightly less expensive than an M4 variant and less common. Magazines are different than the M4/M16 variants and harder to come by.
The original assault carbine is the M1 carbine (photo above) firing the fairly puny .30 caliber carbine round (110 grain bullet traveling approx 1,700 fps), which is similar to a .357 magnum (11o grain bullet at 1,400 fps) in ballistics – so the questions begs “why carry a carbine sized weapons that fires a pistol type cartridge”?
In the Battle Rifle category would be the M1 Garand (bottom) from WWII fame or even better, the civilian version of the M14 rifle (top) called the M1A1. The M1 Garand fires the .30-06 Springfield round, which is common North American hunting cartridge. The M1A1 fire the .308 Winchester (aka 7.62x51mm NATO) round which maybe more common. The M1 Garand has an internal 8 round box magazine and you load using 8 round clips. The M1A1 using a detachable 20 round box magazine similar to the magazines for the M4/M16 variants but of course not inter-changeable as the cartridges are way different.
In our view, the M4 carbine or M16 variants are the best choice for an Urban Survival Weapons upgrade. Ammunition is cheaper than the M1 Garand (.30-06) or the M1A1 (.308 Winchester ); magazines are easy and cheaper to buy; and there are much more accessories available for the M4/M16 such as fore end mounted lights, scopes, etc. The advantages of an M4 carbine over and M16 is that the M4 carbine (or it’s civilian variants) have a collapsible stock and shorter barrel (16 inches as opposed to 20 inches) making it much more handy to carry.
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com will be showcasing various accessories for the M4 carbine in upcoming posts. Stay tuned. Stay ready, Get Prepared.
