By Joe Cota
The old “If I had only one gun” game!
This is what’s going into my bugout bag (the stainless steel Ruger .22 you see above), although it would be hard to leave behind my 1911, big bore N-frames, and other handguns. I suppose it depends on what the emergency is at the time, but the Ruger is my survival gun.
The pistol you see above is the Ruger Mark II, stainless, 6-inch tapered barrel version, fitted with Wilson Speed-Jector magazine quick release, fixed sights, six or ten pre-loaded factory magazines (no aftermarket mags for me), and at least 500 or 1000 rounds of hyper-velocity Winchester SuperX 40-grain bullets, loaded for 1435 feet per second. Maybe I’ll include one box of subsonic ammo, too. Or not.
The emergency, whatever it might be, would probably be of such short duration that carrying lead bars, bullet molds, powder, primers, and a hand reloading press in the manner that Skeeter Skelton wrote about for a bugout gun would be counterproductive.
With this humble .22 pistol I know I could find something to eat and defend myself. With this setup, I won’t be planning to single-handedly take out tanks and aircraft or fight off packs of wolves and grizzly bears. But I won’t starve to death!
What’s going into your bugout bag “if you could only have one”? A bazooka?