Classics, State of the Art, & SHTF

2184 Views 23 Replies 9 Participants Last post by t-star, Sep 11, 2016

GunGeek

Discussion Starter · Sep 6, 2016

At a gun show this weekend sitting behind a table resting, while a friend took a nature break. Two guys next to our table got into a pretty interesting discussion. The kind of discussion that only gun nuts would find themselves in.

One guy was an old fart like me, and the other guy was probably in his late 30's to early 40's.

So the older guy was a 1911 kinda guy, and the younger guy liked H&K's. The older guy was looking a very nice L1A1 build on an IMBEL receiver. The whole thing was built up VERY nice, wood furniture and a very nice SUIT(TriLux) scope; very cool cold war era rifle.

His bud was telling him that he could get a Colt AR with a Trijicon for that price. Older guy says, "That's cool, but it's not what I want."

Younger guy says, "If the SHTF, which would you rather have in your hand".
Older guy; "The AR of course, but if the SHTF, the L1A1 will get the job done"
Younger; "You'd willingly pick the lesser rifle"
Older; "Yes...Look, what are the chances I'll need a rifle for a SHTF? About 10x lower than being struck by lightning, so why not have the rifle you love, rather than buying the perfect rifle for an event that is extremely unlikely to happen"

So the other guy went into the predictable rant about "having the best" and why have something less than the best.

So anyhow, got me thinking about how anal gun people can be. There was another guy there who told the H&K guy, "I only own WWI era guns, mostly British. And if the S ever did HTF, that's what I'll call on to get the job done."

The H&K guy was incredulous.

I just found the whole exchange VERY entertaining. The reaction from the H&K guy was not an uncommon reaction. Go over to ARFCOM and watch those people debate the most minute details with a rabid intensity. Guys who think their choice of this 124 grain JHP vs. that 124 grain JHP is a "huge difference" and make the differences sound as vast as a .25 ACP vs a .357 magnum.

So, how do you feel about being armed with one of the "classics" in a SHTF scenario? Or do you only buy the latest & greatest?

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Diamondback

· #14 · Sep 9, 2016

The weapon fitting its operator is the most important thing, all else comes after that.

If you recommend an S&W 629 with a 3" barrel to an arthritic old lady and I hear it, I'm gonna point and laugh... and then do whatever I can to see you blackballed as the Gross Incompetent you obviously are. Hell, you recommend that to ME and I'm gonna get my Mr. T on about "WTF you smokin', FOO?!"

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Diamondback

· #16 · Sep 9, 2016 (Edited)

Reliability's like power: doesn't matter if it's a One Shot Stop Every Time if the weapon and your body can't be adapted to work together. (I *guarantee* an M256 120mm will be a one-shot killer if you're downrange, but I also guarantee even the frickin' Incredible Hulk couldn't rise to the challenge of shoulder-firing an Abrams tank mainbore.

)

Maybe they're in a tie, or one slightly edging out the other. (Glocks I can't hit crap with but I can at least make 'em go bang... Beretta 92 family, on the other hand, just HOLDING is painful for me never mind firing. Obviously if I can't have a 1911, even a flat-MSH, if it's Show Time and I have to choose between Glock or Beretta I'll unhappily take the Glock and either hope I can get to Smell Yesterday's Burrito Lunch Range, or dial in an even lower correction than my usual Offset Aimpoint...)

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Diamondback

· #19 · Sep 10, 2016

stand watie said:
t-star,

AGREED 100%. = Remind me sometime to tell you about my late friend, 2LT Joe Berry, of Merrill's Marauders & some of the "stunts" (that he related to me during his final illness) that they used to KILL many HUNDREDS of "sons of Nippon", including an EXPLODING PRIVY that they used to "take out" a BG of the Japanese Kempeiti.

That musta been a downright crappy way to go...

mg:

*dodges flying fruit*

Sorry, just couldn't help myself...

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Diamondback

· #21 · Sep 10, 2016 (Edited)

t-star said:
what you never pulled the grenade in the chitter routine - I thought EVERYBODY in theatre did that one- typically it was an azzhole officer or suppy sargent or something not a frag grenade mind you but something like goofy grape - somebody we wanted "promoted" to rear echelon

It was regrettably not my privilege to serve, old friend, though I've heard plenty of similar war stories from friends who did--and have a doozy from my college days involving a jar of collected human flatulence that somehow found its way into being unsealed in a real stinker prof's office... somehow somebody stole it from my locker in the computer lab, and the damn thing left the adjunct/part-time faculty office portable uninhabitable for three days.

Half the faculty told me they wished they coulda seen the look on Stinkeress's face when she cracked the rotten egg... she was let go at the end of that quarter.

Hey, it's not MY fault that she liked the same kind of mason jar for her homemade fragrances that I was using to support a pre-med friend's science project. Do you have any idea how much time and work it took to harvest her ONE jar of farts? O.O

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