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Spin off thread.. More versatile, .22 or 30-30?

I try to approach this discussion as realistically as possible, when it comes up. I also like to assume that I won’t be able to go shopping in the middle of a life and death scenario. 🤣
Looking at what’s in my gun cabinet, I have a quality, bolt-action Czechoslovakian .22 with old, mediocre optics, and a poorly adapted five round magazine from a later model (I couldn’t find any original mags here, Canada). It shoots straight, good for targets, but if I lost that mag I would be screwed.
I have two 30-30s, one is essentially a show gun that my late-grandfather won at a charity auction, and it’s covered in shiny brass bits. The other lever is also pristine, but sports a heavy barrel, beefier stock, iron sights and has exactly zero shiny parts. I keep that last one at the front of the gun safe, because it’s light enough, has okay stopping power, and isn’t so long as to be unwieldy, and a box of my best 30-30 rounds on the shelf above.
I also buy cheaper 22lr rounds, and mid-high or better quality for all my centrefire stuff, so that to me is a no brainer. For me it’s 30-30 all the way.
Also, I gotta throw in with the shotgun guys, any time I do any shooting, my pump action 12 gauge is coming with me. I am more practised with it than any other gun I have owned, and it is simple, consistent, and reliable.
 
I am firmly in the 22 camp on this one. 30-30 is a decent deer rifle. If things really do hit the fan deer will be gone in very short order. During the depression, there were pretty much none to be found. This is according to my grandparents who lived through it. There were plenty of rabbits around. My grandfather clubbed rabbits and sold the pelts to buy his first .410 shot gun. My father has it in his safe.

The 22 is going to be lighter smaller and I can carry a lot of 22 rounds vs. 30-30.
If you are "living off the land" small game is much more common than large game. I use 22s around my property on a pretty regular basis, large rifles are just used at the range and hunting.

If I had to choose a firearm for "bugging out" it would depend if I am in a vehicle or on foot. If vehicle based, I would take a 308 battle rifle with about 200 rounds, or a 6.5 grendel with the same amount of rounds. If I am on foot, it would probably be a 22, or a FN5.7 carbine just for weight reasons.

Whatever you can safely and proficiently handle and shoot is and have access to is what you should use.:massey:
 
22lr
It will do the job if you know it’s limits and ammo is much more common. With a ruger mkiv and a 10/22 I think I can manage to handle most problems that a gun solves.
 
If the ammo choice is down to 3030 vs 22 I would probably go 22.
If the question is you only have one ammo choice, well 5.56

But what if its a single weapon? Thats a more difficult answer.

I have a couple TacSols and TacSol TDs, Savage MkIIs, Ruger Mk-III, ruger SR22, Walther P22, GSG MP5k.
Everything is threaded so can isnt an issue.
The TDs are super portable, not as much as a handgun, but for a long gun they fit into a small case.
All the TacSols work great, unless I load them with subs. Same goes for the hand guns and GSG. None of them like subs much.

The Savage Mk-ii FVSR eats anything and everything, shorts, longs, subs, has a decent set of glass on it that I zeroed to 100yrds with match ammo. The rifle is hollywood quiet with sub. Its currently in a Boyds Hunter stock, and wears a harris bipod. I would want to add a weapon light, and maybe either some back up irons, or a small red dot on a 45* mount. It uses 5rd mags. Guess thats a limiting factor. I have never bothered to look and see if anyone makes a 10 or 15.
 
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