What's the recommended QuickFireRapid Keyboard of Shotgunz, pandemic threat protection ?
Probably going to start a fight here but I'm okay with that because I really want to see people as best equipped and prepared as they can be - a shotgun is the worst option available. As others have mentioned, the go-to base standard in that regard is going to be the Mossberg 500. But for "threat protection," between rifles, pistols, and shotguns, the shotgun is going to be at the bottom of the list every single time with only one exception I'll cover in a bit. Compared to an AR or similar carbine, you give up capacity, ease of use, reliability, handling, basically everything that actually matters when it comes to defensive use.
- Capacity: 5 vs. 30 standard. "But you can get mag extensions!" Cool now you've got 8rds vs 30. Or 40. Or 60. "But I live in a restricted state so I can only have 10rd mags anyways." Well, reloading is going to be important, which goes into the next point.
- Ease of use: If you want to reload a shotgun you need to first have a good way to carry the shells (which is either a gaming rig or one by one), flip it over, push them in one by one (making sure that they go all the way in because otherwise it could jam), usually change hands somewhere here unless you're going with a more "gamer" method of doing it, then you can flip it back over, run the slide, re-shoulder, and try to hit the target again. Or, with an AR, you could stay on target, push button without moving your hand, stuff a new mag in, press the button that's conveniently right under your thumb already, and be right back at it. The learning curve and time needed to actually be good enough at reloading a shotgun for defensive situations is significantly higher.
- Reliability: You, or anyone else in your house that might need to pick it up, can't manually introduce short-stroking on an AR simply because they lack range/dry-fire time. This is not uncommon with a shotgun.
- Handling: 18" minimum barrel length, longer receivers, more front-heavy, off-set recoil vs. 16" minimum barrel length (or down to 10.5" if braced), shorter receiver (a non-adjustable stat), more centered weight, and inline recoil.
And this is only touching over 1 part of each. This doesn't get into malfunction clearing, rimmed vs. rimless ammo, plastic vs. brass casing, lights (which are a requirement for a defensive setup), slings (also a req), recoil, accuracy (yes, you still need to aim with a shotgun, and it's actually
more difficult due to spread), etc etc.
Can a shotgun get the job done? Yes. But am I ever going to recommend it over a carbine? No. The one exception where I will is when budget is a serious concern - a good AR starts around $600 and goes up from there. You can get a Mossberg 500 or Maverick 88 for $2-400. If you're on a budget and really will not be able to save up a bit more for a better setup (even a trade-in or used gen3 Glock, which I'd still recommend over a shotgun), that's when the shotgun becomes the go-to, simply based off price alone. But this is generally going to be offset by the extra time required on the range (even with dry-fire) to reach even close to similar levels of proficiency as a carbine, so even then it'd be an extremely niche situation that I'd say to get a shotgun for price concerns.
tl;dr - there's very good reasons basically no unit or person that actually knows what they're doing fields shotguns anymore. Carbines are superior in every metric that matters for winning fights.
If you're talking about a breakdown of society, an AR-15. Those fire very small high velocity rounds though, so you would need to worry more about over-penetration and effective range should you miss.
Another point for carbines actually - the 5.56/.223 has repeatedly been shown to overpenetrate
less through household materials than defensive shotgun loads (buck, slugs). The simple fact is that guns are designed to penetrate - anything that's going to do it's job of going through a person sufficiently enough to be considered for defensive use is going to go through other materials - especially soft things like drywall - like it's hardly even there. But if you are actually concerned about it, 5.56 is going to win this one again. Your better options though regardless of platform are to know your shooting angles and do your utmost to avoid missing, both of which just require a lot of time on the range and in dry-fire.
I never got this argument. So many people in the US talking about these sporterized modern Army rifles as if they were a good choice for a "survival situation".
Because they are. Not for the "survival" situation as you're talking about, but "survival" as in "I need to survive whatever is immediately happening right in front of me because the police aren't picking up the phone since two city blocks are on fire."
For the "survival" fantasy of going out and living off the land - there's a litany of skills that people are going to need before caliber even begins to become a concern. It doesn't matter that the 5.56 isn't the best option for hunting most things when most people can't even hunt anyways. By the time that society has devolved to the point that you're hunting and foraging for your food to "survive," what caliber you have is no longer a concern.
Same goes for taking down humans...
I suppose that's why it's preferred by every police force in the US and most countries, plus the militaries in the US, France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, why Russia moved to the 5.45, why China issues a similar idea with the 5.8x42...
While there are advantages to heavier and larger calibers such as 308 from a purely ballistics standpoint, they are nigh wholly countered by the rest of the considerations that you have to look at when considering an entire platform and setup. I have
more than enough confidence in my 5.56 to take down threats at any range I would need to engage at and would be happy to provide the ballistic testing to back it up as to why.
You want a time-proven, rugged, simple Bolt-action chambered in a widely available full-powered military or hunting cartridge. Something like your enfield or a nice pre 64 Winchester 70 in 30-06 would be ideal.
Guns listed here that have broken on me: 2x Enfields
Guns listed here that have not broken on me: any AR15.
When your Enfield or 57+ year old rifle can get into the 4, let alone 5 digit round count without failure or breakage, let me know, but otherwise I'm going to keep sticking with AR's that I've known personally to manage exactly that. Not to mention every other significant advantage mentioned here (because nigh every issue that applies to shotguns applies to antique bolt actions as much or more). Modern and properly configured setups are so reliable that it's a complete non-issue, this isn't Vietnam where we were giving people bad ammo and worse information causing failures.
You are mostly referring to the development of arms in a military context here, I am not. A "survival rifle" does not equal a military battle or assault rifle. 5.56 being "good enough" is not good enough. You always want something that is more than adequate. Full powered rounds like .308 and up are proven to have much greater lethality on both animals AND humans. Read reports from field medics.
If we're going to professionals, I could just go ask my friend that was a corpsman with plenty enough stories behind him which he thinks is the most lethal. Or I could just realize that I helped him build and acquire both his carbines - an AR and an AK - and extrapolate from there and all the other research I've done that carbines are "more than adequate." Again, no one is going to argue that a bigger bullet moving at a higher velocity is going to do more damage, that's basic ballistics. But there's a whole lot more than
just ballistics to be considered here.
Little recoil for fast follow-up shots and great mag. capacity are important for an army gun, not such much for a hunting or "survival" rifle. Id rather have a more powerful round I know can do any job and trade that for lower capacity (5 rounds are plenty), then an intermediate round which may be adequate for most jobs.
You're confusing the fantasy of surviving off the land by hunting for your food with the reality of surviving a lethal encounter with one or more aggressors. Get a hunting rifle for hunting. Get a fighting rifle for fighting. If you're only going to have one, the likelihood and urgency of being able to survive an aggressor or group of aggressors is significantly higher than the likelihood of hunting for your food through the woods undisturbed. And if you are having to survive an actual fight, 5 rounds very likely is not plenty.
Semi autos simply function less reliably with low quality or old ammo, both of which one is likely to be shooting after a wile in a “breakdown or society” scenario, rather than quality factory-new ammo that may run well in your AR. A rifle one would want in a survival situation requires long term reliability, simplicity of construction and the ability to function in a wide variety of environments, temperatures and with a wide variety of Ammunition, regardless of manufacturer or condition/age. It is simply a fact that a bolt action performs better in these regards then any semi or fully automatic rifle ever will. End of Argument.
By the time that ammo has been so old to the point that it's reliability and effectiveness has degraded enough to not function reliably, none of us are still going to be around. If your AR requires only high-quality ammo to function, then it's a pretty garbage AR, and that's on you for building/buying poorly. Meanwhile I'll keep feeding mine low-pressured steel-case and watching it chug right along without question or complaint despite being caked in carbon from the suppressor for another few thousand rounds.
Long term reliability is fulfilled by the AR15 - we still have vietnam-era rifles kicking around. Simplicity is fulfilled by the AR15, if anything it's easier to perform maintenance and upkeep on than most bolt actions. Function in environments is a non-issue given it's performance from Saharan to arctic environments alike. Wide variety of ammunition is a non-issue as already mentioned. It is not "simply a fact."
TL;DR - the AR is the best personal fighting implement designed and your best bet to survive a fight.