Choosing the Perfect Gun for a Doomsday Scenario or Self-Defense: Rethinking the Legendary Weapon

This is not my real name. Ok, you might think I’m crazy. You might think I’m weird. And you might think I’m abnormal for not choosing a classic weapon like a sword, axe, or a certain kind of gun. Let's get this straight—I like melee weapons. The pair of nunchaku would be a perfect choice for me for the following reasons:

Lightweight Speedy Usable in cramped spaces High damage Easy to use Cool, man

But in the context of an apocalyptic scenario, guns are simply not as practical as many would imagine. A sword is unwieldy, a shield cannot attack, and a blade has a tendency to be stuck in bone, making it difficult to access the brain of a zombie. These are the reasons why I chose the nunchaku.

Recommended Guns for Self-Defense and Doomsday Survival

If the world was thrust into apocalyptic times and you had to rely on one gun for your protection, I would recommend a shotgun or a hunting rifle. Shotguns are perfect for defense because they have a wide shot range and can be used effectively for hunting or home defense. A hunting rifle is perfect for hunting without the need for a heart rate monitor or a silencer.

My Preference: The M-14, M-21, and M-1A Rifles

I've always been partial to the M-14, M-21, and M-1A rifles. These rifles shoot .308 Winchester or 7.62 NATO rounds with good effect and accuracy. This is especially true when you mount a decent telescopic sight on them. The 7.62 NATO/.308 caliber rounds will give you up to 1000 yards of use, which is why the Army adopted the XM-21 sniper rifle in Vietnam. We now call the old XM-21 by the name of the M-21 rifle.

I will not be hitting a button on a shirt when I talk about shooting at 1000 yards. What I am talking about is hitting a silhouette target measuring about 18 to 20 inches wide and about 30 inches tall. As you move in and engage targets at closer distances, your precision or accuracy increases until with practice, you can shoot birds the size of a crow or blue jay off the top of a silhouette target. I saw it done with a properly scoped XM-21 in Vietnam.

The 7.62/.308 bullets are capable of dropping just about anything that walks on the North American continent. However, as a practical safety precaution, I would be leery of trying to drop polar bears or grizzly bears with this caliber. Those kinds of bears have no sense of humor and you should think of them as being like an earthmoving tractor with teeth that's hungry and you make a nice snack for them.

The M-14 Family of Rifles: A Significant Edge

The M-14 family of rifles can outdistance any AK rifle shooter by a factor of 2.5 or 3 times in distance. People who use the 5.56 ammo won't have as much power to penetrate as your rifle in .308/7.62 will have. With practice, the M-14 family of rifles could give you an edge. They have 20 and 30 round magazines for the .308 rifles, whereas most bolt-action rifles have a 5-round limit. The rounds of a .308 rifle will generally put down a hostile person with one well-placed shot, something I know from having been a sniper in Vietnam.

A Snapshot of My Time in Vietnam

Here's a photo of me with my sniper rifle in Vietnam after I dropped a wild pig with it. I deliberately positioned the rifle like that so I could get the scope rifle and scope case in the photo. No, the rifle is NOT pointed at my head. I used one well-placed shot to bring down that pig. That was a National Match XM-21 sniper rifle that I shot back in those days. That rifle never failed me. If it had been a girl, I would have married it and brought it back with me.