mighty thunder sticks

MIGHTY THUNDER STICKS


A minion wanted to know my thoughts on apocalypse orphans. This will be a wonderful topic but must wait for another day after it ferments in my brain awhile more. But it did get me to thinking on the subject of firearm caliber. And all our favorite surplus war bolt action rifles. If the mighty he-man warrior of the clan sucks in an airborne virus, gets sick, soils his drawers in a bloody manner and dies ingloriously, will the more frail members of his family be able to pick up one of those ten pound clubs and then actually fire one? All along my less than perfect plan had been for the wife to act as back-up with the rimfire rifle, and if needed she could use the revolvers in rimfire or even the 357 if she went with 38’s. This is all fine and dandy with me using the Enfield to reach out to longish ( I’m no sniper, but even three hundred yards is a good distance to start taking out AK users ) distances but if anything happens to me her survival chances diminish with such an arsenal. There is nothing wrong with a rimfire as the sole long arm, but it must be used in very skilled hands ( stalking, ambush ). The average survivalist is an overweight office worker, not a practiced bushwacker. And the spouse is usually going to be less skilled in the martial arts. While a good firearm in untrained hands is a marginal tool, to a certain extent the tool will substitute for that lack. In a knife fight, you are just as disadvantaged with a stainless steel $5 knife from China as with a $100 knife custom made if you are untrained. In firearms, the training level is much lower than a knife to achieve a tolerable level of skill. If you are half-assed in using a gun, the difference in the tool starts to matter ( unlike the knife ).

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A guest article was posted earlier.  Scroll down after my article.
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Spending a grand on an AR-15 makes some sense as the carbine did have an original selling point that our little Vietnamese brothers in arms could shoot the thing far easier than the current 308 in service. They couldn’t shoot it for long as it jammed up easily, but don’t get me started on that. A African pygmy with arthritis could fire the AR for as long as it took to jam, with no discomfort. The AR is THE best design for a firearm that any urban boy could pick up and hose down the enemy. The recoil is zero. You do not flinch and can easily follow up shots. In all other aspects, this is the worst firearm every made. The parts are so over engineered that it would make a German cuss, the site is stupid, one can’t imagine why such a light weight carbine needs a carrying handle, you need a stick and a rock to extract a case jammed in the extractor, and the thing is dangerous to the user in a protracted firefight when the enemy won’t honor your request for a time out so you can clean your piece of crap. You might be tempted to arm your 100 pound five foot tall wife and your teenage children with this weapon because of the weight and recoil. As long as you hate them and want to see them die ( okay, I’m only sorta kidding ).
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For a loner survivalist, no other warm and fuzzy feeling will equal that of a scope mounted thirty caliber bolt action that will easily smite our enemies at eight hundred yards ( I ain’t that skilled, you might be- the gun certainly allows for it ). But if you have a wife and or kids, and are on a budget that precludes the purchase of four or five AR’s ( which are only three quarters of the price of the cheapest thirty caliber ), I’d recommend adopting a mid level arsenal. I’m talking about your average poor prepper here. I understand thee are plenty of Warrior Princesses out there that can pick up a M1 or whatnot and kick some serious long range ass. But that is not normal, is it? It is exceptional. Even though I applaud that skill, I won’t pretend it is normal. For the family defense unit of limited means and normal skill levels, think about carbine rounds. Yes, the 223 and 762x39. But not the semi auto rifles that are traditionally associated with those rounds. Semi-auto is retarded for a long term collapse into a dark age. You must conserve ammo from day one. And the cost of acquiring them is double. I’m suggesting civilian hunting bolt action rifles ( gasp! What of the bayonet? ).

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It is true that a surplus rifle is a far superior military arm than its lighter constructed civilian counterpart. You can shoot them longer, butt stock your enemies in the trenches, mount a bayonet and charge if you run out of ammo. You can abuse them and they still function. A deer rifle is not so accommodating. But the difference in the ammunition and weight is critical in arming females and children. Even a slender short pasty Englishman weighing one hundred twenty pounds soaking wet has the upper body strength to carry his Enfield all day long and shoot at bloody Krauts at the end of it. His wife, even if taller and matching his weight, does not. Despite what FemiNazi bitches tells you, the genders have physical differences. Males, even the weak ones, have superior strength. That is just the way it is. That also kills them quicker, so stop your whining. You fems also have the ability to store much more body fat ( and stay healthy ). If you aren’t busy at the gym trying to turn your body into one matching a pre-teen boy, you can put some fat on your ass and carry that portable apocalypse pantry around with you. Just don’t try to carry around a heavy rifle. You will only set yourself up for failure.

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A mid-caliber bolt action should be used for mid range sniping. Not close in urban assault. And it is an offensive weapon, not defensive. Don’t hunker down and wait to be attacked. The best defense is a good offense. So, while the rifle itself is not perfect or the best, it is affordable at around three hundred bucks. It should be light enough for the females and children to tote. Perhaps not easily, but easier. And the recoil, with a rifle mounted pad, should be manageable. Not as nice as a AR, but a heck of a lot nicer than a Mossin Nagant. And the benefits of scaling down your caliber are reflected in price and resources. The rounds cost half thirty caliber ( applicable to all but the 762x54r ), which means the same cost for arming two family members as one using his mighty macho thunder stick. And, while I’m not overly skilled on reloading so I can’t give exact figures, you are using less gunpowder to propel your lead down range. Yes, less stopping power and range, but more ammunition in the long run. As long as you are sniping instead of spraying and praying, the mid level calibers should only be marginally less effective ( 80/20 rule ). Now you are armed as a family with less than perfect but acceptable weapons rather than just having one member armed with the perfect rifle.

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