Of interest to gun folks - A top 20

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Joe Saxon said there's something about owning a gun and being able to walk into just about any hardware store and know they have ammunition for it.

Can I get a witness?

It's one thing to own gun, but quite another to be able to feed it. A gun without ammunition is an expensive stick. Consider this article from Outdoor Life on a new wildcat round. Jim Carmichael says "This new wildcat may be the ultimate answer for long-range deer and varmint hunting."

Really? And what, I ask, is wrong with the .243? The .308? The .270 and of course the venerable and mighty .30-06? If you wanna get really technical, the 6.5 Leopard is already duplicated by other wildcats. I say it is a duplicate, but I don't have absolute proof. I do have a conversation with the guys at C4HD who tell me they've cranked out so many wildcatter dies they can't tell me for sure.

Where is Mr. Carmichael gonna get ammo for the 6.5 Leopard except from his own reloading press?

Say he goes on a hunting trip with this rifle and loses his ammo supply. Now what? He's either buying or borrowing another gun.

Which rolls me right back around to my original point. It's well and good to have a rifle and a cartridge that you absolutely adore, but if you can't get ammo for it, then what?

Plenty of people have done the 1, 2, or three gun SHTF scenarios, A few have even reached beyond to include 5 guns. I'm asking you what you'd have in the gun safe if you were limited to 20 guns?

With ammo availability the key requirement, here's what I'd have, if I could afford it:

SHOTGUN

A 12 gauge pump - This is the best all around gun. It can shoot light loads of No. 12 shot all the way up to 1 ounce slugs. It's good for everything from squirrel to bear. Why a pump? Less maintenance and more reliable than an auto and faster backup shots than a single shot and more shots than a double-barrel.

A 20 gauge pump. Less kick than the 12 and less punch too. But a 7/8 ounce chunk of lead at 1,200 FPS is gonna flatten what you shoot.

RIFLE

I can go bolt action or single shot with these. Bolt provides a faster second shot than a SS, but a SS is the most accurate and reliable. The sole exception is in a .22. I will take a SS .22 any day over any kind of repeater.

.22 short, long, long rifle - Gimme a .22 and I can kill anything that is native to North America today with one shot. Guaranteed. I've dropped animals weighing more than 1,000 pounds with a .22. I dispatched an elk, mortally wounded, with a .22 revolver. Biggest hog I ever killed, .22 and he dropped.

.22-250 - Anything bigger than a medium hog, this is a head-shot only proposition. But if you are after meat or hides, this will do it out to 1,000 yards.

.223 5.56 NATO - Runs neck and neck with the 7.62x39 as being the world's most common military-style rifle round.

.243 - I don't consider this - and I know this is gonna make some folks mad - a suitable rifle for big deer and larger game. However, small deer, small hogs, etc, you betcha. YMMV.

.270 - Second only to the .30-06 in my book.

7mm Mag - Ubiquitous and no other reason at all.

.30-30 - North America's most popular deer round. If a store has only one box of ammo for a rifle, this is gonna be it.

.308 - A short .30-06. Will handle everything up to most bears. With a head shot, even the biggest bear will wait for you. BONUS! You can load it subsonic and stick on a suppressor.


.30-06 - The King. Load 110 grains and you bust varmints. Load up 220 grain round nose and you can stop a moose.

300 Win Mag - Not as common as the others in this list, but it is in the top 10 best selling rifle cartridges in the United States.


HANDGUN

I prefer revolvers. More reliable.

.380 - Not the strongest to be sure, but the main criteria is feeding the gun. And, it'll still kill supper.

.357 - Shoots .357 mag, .38 special and .38 S&W.

9mm - Underrated, especially when +P ammo is used.

10mm - A 10mm will also shoot .40 ammo. Yes huhn.

.44 mag - Dirty Harry, here we come!

.45 ACP - The original slabsides.

This list is not 20 yet. I add two that I just happen to like and just want in my 20-gun collection.

16 gauge shotgun. Purely emotional decision, I admit. Dad left me a Stevens nickle-plated SXS in 16 gauge and der yaggo.

.45-70 - This old buffalo cartridge has made a comeback in recent years because of cowboy action shooting. It's not extremely common, but can be found. It is also capable of killing any land critter on the planet up to and included the Big 5. Load it hot with 500 grain monolithics and I'd hunt Cape Buffalo and elephant with it. It's a lot MORE common that the other dangerous game rounds.