Well I just about disagreed with that whole article and it starts with affordable and he left out versatility. When it comes to a good reliable firearm I’m not pinching pennies thats always a mistake but I understand we don’t want to break the bank.
Reliable:
While there are several good semiautos out there and I own and have owned many, their off the list.
Available: The 7.62x54 is off the list, while still a good round it’s a fossil, theres a better choice.
22 Rifle- There are several good bolt action rifles in this caliber, mine would be a RugerModel 77/22. You can feed a variety of ammo through a bolt action from shorts to birdshot.
12ga shotgun- Ithaca Model 37. Smoothest most reliable action on the market and comfortable to shoot by both right and left hand shooters. (bottom eject)
Center fire rifle- Ruger Model 77 (prefer the tang safety) in 7.62x51. Wide variety of ammo available for this round.
Center fire. While I love a good double action revolver I would probably stick with a single action here and the ruger Blackhawk convertable in 357 Magnum/9mm would be my choice. 9mm, 38 Special and 357 Magnum.
Reliablity, availability and versatility have pretty well been coverd here. and we still didn’t break the bank.
That depends on the size of your bank account, I guess. I can’t really quibble with the guns listed in that article.
For the cost of your list one could, or could have anyway, 2 or even 3 of each of the guns on his list. For the price of one of those Ruger 77’s you could buy 4 or 5 of the Mosin’s and a couple of thousand rounds for them. And as far as being a dinosaur, well, they’re live dinosaurs and they still have a bite that can kill a man at 600 yards. You can’t argue with that.
We bought three of those bad boys and 6 tins of ammo back when prices were sane. That’s three rugged, reliable, and proven weapons and a big pile of ammo for less than $600. They aren’t as pretty as those Rugers, I’ll admit, but they do go “bang” every single time you pull the trigger.
That also means we have a ready source of spare parts if one breaks. Not likely I know, but how many spare Ruger 77’s can someone afford?