Ah..looters. Not in the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ context, but real honest to goodness running-down-the-street-with-a-VCR-in-each-hand looters… Its one thing to scavenge for food and water…its another to enter the ruins of someones house and help yourself to their belongings..and its a completely different story to set up your own little goon squad and start robbing the stricken survivors.
There is, of course, one recourse to such evil and ‘it is best delivered with a Winchester rifle’, as TR might say.
Living in Montana is a mixed blessing when it comes to worrying about looters. On the one hand, most looters won’t last long. On the other hand, any looters here are likely to be quite well armed.
Regardless, contrary to the stereotype, we dont spend all our resources worrying about looters and invading UN hordes. Really. But the fact is that when the lights are out, its the middle of winter and theres no idea when the supermarket is going to be open our little heated, illuminated and well-stocked homes are going to look mighty tempting and some people just dont take no for an answer.
What are the standard armaments for the LMI’s? I was mentioning this yesterday to a potential recruit…heres what we went with and why:
AR-15 rifle – We went with this because although an M1A would offer more power we wanted something that would let us get mags, parts and ammo anywhere….every National Guardsman or cop is a potential source. (“Hey soldier boy, trade you a bottle of Jack for five magazines and a firing pin…”)
Rem 870 shotgun – The most common shotgun in the US and a proven design with all sorts of accessories available. The Mossberg is a secondary standard.
1911 .45 – We all like .45’s so we standardized on the 1911 pattern
Browning P35 – 9mm is the most common ammo on the planet so it made sense to have something in that caliber…Glocks and Rugers are pretty common but the P35 has all the same controls as our 1911’s. Theyre also quite reliable and well made
Ruger 10/22 – Again, the most ubiquitous .22 rifle in the US. Mags and accessories are everywhere.
Additionally, we try to keep spare parts for everything as well as ‘support materials’ (holsters, cleaning kits, screwdrivers, lubricants, etc).
Thats it for standardized weapons. After that theres caliber standards but no specifics on the firearm itself. For example, everyone has to have a .357 revolver but you can have whatever make you want. Same for a .308 bolt gun. (Although we’ve been thinking about standardizing on the Rem police package)
Although it isnt required, most of us try to have redundancy in our armaments. For example, 2 AR-15, 2 1911’s, 2 Ruger 10/22’s, etc, etc. Sounds paranoid, right? You’d be surprised….
Good choices, though not necessarily the only good choices, as I’m sure you know.
Handguns in particular have more flexibility. For example, I doubt you’d have any trouble finding parts/accessories for Glock 17/19, or SIG 225, or Smith & Wesson revolvers.
I don’t think redundancy is crazy at all. The spare can be cannibalized, traded, or given to new “party members” you may adopt.
Theres no shortage of Glock parts, not that Glocks ever actually break….and although the Glock isnt our primary 9mm we do own them. Thing is, the 1911 and the P35 have the exact same controls and method of operation so regardless of which one you pick up, the manual of arms is exactly the same.
There are alot of good choices out there…I know of groups that have standardized with AK’s and Ruger P95’s..and thats fine for them..we just went with what we did.
Redundancy has its place. Too often someone will say why do you need TWO AR-15’s? The obvious answer is ‘in case anything happens to the first one’. Its expensive, but if the guns you have no may be the only guns you have for the rest of your life, it starts to seem cheap.
Sounds paranoid, right?
Not to me.
What model Remington are you looking at, and what other .308’s are under consideration?
Hands down, the Savage .308 police package is looking *really* good. Esp. since you can rebarrel them yourselves without a gunsmith..that means we can pull the barrels off and thread them for a flash supressor or muzzle brake without too much fuss. The Savages are a fantastic deal and very accurate…my current catalog shows dealer price of $407. Additionally, the Savage comes with their new completely adjustable Accu-Trigger, so the Savage is really tough to beat these days.
This is probably a dumb question, but without looking at those models, can they be used to hunt also or are they really tailored for LE/anti-personnel use?
You can hunt with them just fine…they might be a little heavier than an average rifle though.
The 10FP-LE2 (the 26″ barrel one) looks like it falls right in my price range. 8.75 pounds, though… A little heavy to be lugging around the woods, but not horrible.
The LE1 is a half pound lighter, same price, 20″ barrel.
I’m thinking that for a dual use (hunting primary) gun the 20″ is a better choice. I’m no wiz at hunting rifles, but if memory serves, 22″ barrels are pretty common on hunting rifles.
Thoughts?
The ballistic difference in a 20″ vs 22″ is almost insignificant. For the average hunting distance (less than 300 yards) I dont think you’ll see any difference whatsoever. From a ‘tactical’ standpoint, I think youd have to be shooting at around twice that distance to see any notable difference.
Um, Glocks do break. Not a lot, but it happens. Mostly small stuff like extractors.