.22 must have (repost and upgrade from my files)

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     I can think of no bigger debate in the world of than the question " what rifle should I have, an AR-15 or an AK-47" Much has been written about both systems. These two weapons have been going head to head for 50 years and in that time you would think there would be a clear winner, well think again. Both of these rifles fill a niche but in the end it comes down to preference, skill,  practice or what your comfortable with.

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   For all intensive purposes here in this blog the objective is not to go head to head and battle the universe but for you to stay below the radar and stay safe (That is subject to change in the future). While either of the above mentioned rifles will help you in staying safe they do require time in training and an ever increasing cost to operate I.E. ammunition, again they fill a niche, good for something but bad for others. In an ideal world we would have a special selector switch to go between small caliber short range to say an intermediate caliber to oh my god reach out and touch someone at a mile and a half. Well we don't have that capability right now so we stick with what we have, a rifle for this and a rifle for that but slogging around with two or more rifles is a little more than impractical.

     Until science fiction catches up with reality or we grow more trigger fingers we will have to settle on using  one rifle at a time and again nothing is perfect. Now another age old question you hear a lot is,

"If you could only have one rifle, what would you take and why?"

     Please take into account that opinions are like, well you know the rest of that famous saying but this question for me is rather easy and clear cut. I would take a Ruger 10-22 stainless steel rifle™  in .22 caliber. 

     Why in the world you ask would I want a little .22 rifle, it can't do this and it can't do that, no better than a BB gun. Well yes there is a lot this rifle can't do, I wouldn't hunt a bull moose with it that's for sure, But it does bring a whole lot of other advantages to the table, hunting and portability are a few. Keep in mind again this rifle is not what you bring to take over the world, it is your survival gun not your assault gun and I believe you will be doing far more survival then gun-fighting. Now for the reasons why I picked this rifle, first and foremost is cost and at about $400 with a few bells and whistles you have a rifle that will certainly take care of your small game hunting requirements.

      My second reason would be Ammunition, .22 ammo is dirt cheap as compared to every other caliber out there, it can be found in a hundred configurations from sub-sonic to hyper velocity and everything in between. While this caliber may not be a heavy hitter by any means it is not meant to be, it is primarily a plinking round or a hunting round for small game or birds and this will fit right in to a survival theme, it will keep you feed and provide a basic level of protection. Now will it take a deer? it does every season but it is the exception to the rule and illegal in most states. Will it put a 2 legged animal down? again it does every year but it wouldn't be my first choice. Remember in a survival situation you want to stay under the radar and out of trouble and maintain a minimal footprint, noise is something in this case you will be able to keep low.

      In addition to being inexpensive it is also very light per round and that means that if need be you can carry huge amounts of ammunition, I am talking about thousands of rounds at a time, @ about 4lbs per 500 rounds you can carry a lot of ammo, what you lack in knock down you can sure make up for in capacity.You can break it down in one of two ways, larger caliber with less ammo or smaller caliber with more ammo.

     Accessories for a 10-22™ are as about as plentiful as one could imagine, from mild to wild. One big thing to take advantage of is magazine capacity if you can in your location. The factory magazine that comes with the rifle is a standard 10 round rotary magazine, they are pretty bomb proof and will last for a very long time.

This magazine will take 10 rounds and fire all day long with no problems but 10 rounds is only 10 rounds and thankfully the aftermarket world has been building extra capacity magazines for years
 and the sky is the limit. This is one of the big advantages of this type of rifle, while the .22 round may be small and underpowered for some things  it is offset by ability to send huge numbers of rounds downrange in the blink of an eye.

     Magazine's are being made that have a capacity of 20,30 and even 50 rounds, I think I even saw one somewhere with 100 round capacity. I would stick with the 30 rounders though as they seem to fairly trouble free and inexpensive. 

     In closing there are many reasons for and against a .22 cal rifle, it won't do everything but what rifle will? But as the question stated  "What rifle would you take if you could only have one" this would be mine. Take a 5 or 6 pound rifle and say 1500 rounds at 12 pounds and you can fill a basic rifle role and not break the bank. Keep in mind that if you are faced with some type of situation where you need to bug out on foot  weight will be a huge issue and it adds up fast, especially ammo.  Either way some form of .22 cal rifle should reside in your arms battery as there will always be a demand for one. YMMV

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