Help Choosing A Semi-auto For A Beginner

Hi all! So with the impending apocalypse I have decided to finally get a semi-automatic rifle. I am a beginner so keep that in mind. I already own a taurus g2c, which is awesome since it is simple to use. I am looking for a rifle that is affordable (600 dollars max), reliable, durable, easy to use/maintain/has fewer parts. Don't care if it looks like crap, just needs to work. I am leaning towards any AR or the Chiappa RAK 9 but I am totally open to any suggestsion. Thanks!

Note: The Chiappa I mentioned is pictured. I think it looks cool to me and it has gotten good reviews but I don't know much besides that so if it is crap I obviously won't buy it

https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/chi...ture-matte-black-finish/FC-8053800940382.html

 

Mostly home defense. Long range would be nice but not a high factor. Mostly to protect my family against any would be Intruders onto our home perimeter/neighborhood

 

Actually doesn't have to be long range

 

Actually for home defense, I don't like the high powered semiauto rifles at all unless you live alone out in a rural area with no close neighbors. If you cut loose with an AK or AR in a house you will put holes in the walls from one end of the house to the other and very possibly in your neighbor's homes. If you take a shot or five at someone say in your bedroom with you, you may kill someone in the other end of the house with the missed rounds.

For in house defense and even in your yard in a city I recommend a pump shotgun. Load it with number 4 buck and you will be far better off. In a 12 gauge each round will throw 30 22 caliber pellets. That is what an AR 5.6 does when you dump a magazine. When you make a hit at in house distances with a 12 gauge shotgun it stops them THEN. If you feel that the 12 gauge is a little too much for you then get a 20 gauge itis still a great stopper with buckshot at in or near house distances without the problem of over-penetration that you will have with a high powered rifle.

TV and movies make the so called assault rifles look like magic that you just wave around and the bad guys fall down. That is not even close to reality. Spray and pray will get you killed if your opponent aims and fires instead of spraying at you. The entire purpose of an assault rifle is for assaulting targets that you can't see well and so you need to fire a lot and carry a lot of ammo.

The M-16 was designed and pretty good after a few fixes in Vietnam but it has been found lacking in the more open battlefields of the Middle East. You want to protect your family not assault people. A shotgun is a better weapon for this.

I practice what I preach by the way and have three Mossberg 500 pump 12 gauge shotguns in my house for home defense and have my rifles locked up in a gun safe.

PS: IF you have to have a semi-auto go for one that fires a 7.62 X 39 and not the 5.56. If you hit you want them to stop. Also you want hollow point ammunition for your home and NOT FMJ military ball ammunition no matter what you get. The FMJ ammunition is designed to be LESS lethal and to cause more casualties and fewer bodies in a war. When you are defending your home you want them DOWN and unable to harm you or your.

 

"So with the impending apocalypse I have decided to finally get a semi-automatic rifle. I am a beginner so keep that in mind."

"I think it looks cool to me..."

Listen to TexDanm.

Have you received training in shooting? When you were a kid, did the men in your family take you hunting? Who taught you firearms safety? Are you practiced with that 9mm handgun of yours? Have you been in fights? Have you faced hell before? See, man I want you to have the correct mind-set. I don't want you hurting yourself or your family. If you've gotten no training, then get some. Buy some used pump shotgun if you must buy something else. Take it out and pattern it with some different kinds of ammo.

"Mostly to protect my family..."

You gotta family, so first you get the means of purifying water. Put back some food -- dried beans, rice, noodles ... whatever you guys like. Canned goods.

Some cool-looking rifle don't mean sh## if you guys have dysentery and are wasting-away. And if you you're not good with a firearm, you could harm a family member or shoot your own pecker off.

Your first post here concerns buying a weapon. You've not said anything about the important stuff. Simply having a weapon in your hands around a man practiced in weaponry and he could take that very wrong and cut you in half for sh##s'n'grins. Not exactly a good thing for your family, losing a dad. Have you been around f###-up people? Ex-cons, you been around felons, excons, wrong-side-of-the-tracks folk? If you have, then good, this helps with understanding true human nature. During hard times, many "humans" turn into dog sh##. They just do. Hell, I've been punched at work by a nice guy (I'd hardened my gut in microseconds, so this had zero effect on me; "Something I said?").

"Getting ready" is an involved topic, my friend.
.

 

Go AR for ease of maintenance, ammo and aftermarket add ons. For that money - https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-pa15-16-nitride-a2-midlength-556-moe-ar15-rifle-fde.html



Dale

 

I am 66 years old and have been heavily involved in survival for the vast majority of my years. My Dad was all about self-reliance and we did a lot of things the old ways to make sure that I would know how to do those things if I ever needed to. I carried this on and then added to it especially in the areas of weapons and fighting. I was a licensed firearms dealer and gunsmith and have also done some range work and taught people how to handle weapons and shoot guns accurately and quickly.

Even after all these years I am still learning new things. A gun is a great thing to have if you firt, know how to use it. Second practice with it enough that you do it mostly via muscle memory and Third are mentally fully prepared to take another human life. If you are not willing to take the time to cover all of your bases then you would be safer without a gun. So many times I hear of people that had a gun but either never could get it into action, missed or froze at the last second. The thing is that in many if not most of those cases the person, had they been unarmed, would have hidden or avoided the confrontation or just given the person what they wanted and survived.

In close, reach out and touch, distances a knife is a far better weapon. ANY time that you can avoid a gunfight it is a WIN! Get in enough of them and you will be a loser. I would probably guess that if things go down into the pits that while guns will be nice to have, you need to know how to feed, shelter, clothe and make water safe for consumption more than you will need to be armed to the teeth for a shoot'em up. It isn't going to be like in the Road Warrior Movies. Disease and starvation in the big cities is going to wipe out so many people that the rest will have a lot of space and choice of the stuff that is left.

Lots to think about and lots to learn. Prepping is a lifestyle or it will mostly be useless.

If after the fall I feel the desperate need for an assault weapon there will be plenty of people running around with them willing to "donate" one to me.

 

There are a lotta guys who donated their money and such to my dad and his brothers.

In some special moments, the generosity of others astounds.

 

I agree 400 %!!! Their company name is false advertising. They are far from being cheap.

 

Cool looking guns are okay in Arnold Schwarzenneger movies, but for real life I would prefer you look into a reliable weapon that will not fail you in a critical situation.

 

Cheaper than dirt, yuck. I'll never deal with them. Plenty of good companies to deal with Palmetto is one of them.
I have three loaded guns ready to defend my home. The 9MM pistol will penetrate more walls than the others. The AR in 5.56 will penetrate fewer walls. It starts tumbling the it hits anything. The shotgun is a good choice with the right ammo.

You have been given a bunch of good information. All of them are right, even the they are contradictory. So much of it depends on preference and opinion. Each has its own pros and cons. If you personally weigh one benefit more heavily than I do you'll come up with a different answer. That doesn't make either of us wrong.

The big problem you are going to have is finding a gun to buy. So many people right now are buying guns that you may not have the choices that you had two months ago. In March they sold over 2 million guns. You might look into a used gun.

 

I was thinking the same exact thing. Semi-auto, magazine fed shotgun. I wasnt too keen on the pump action and my aim was alright with the over under. Any suggestions on semi-auto/box magazine fed shotguns that hit some of my criteria?

 

And yeah I have heard super negative things about cheaper than dirt as well but that was a good picture lol

 

A high speed, frangible bullet in a 223 will penetrate fewer walls than a lower speed buckshot load.

 

The only thing I would add is pay close attention to what has been posted. It is sound advice, and I would concur with all of it. Think this thing through.

 

I checked out Tri-Star and found them interesting. One thing about a semi-auto shotgun is it has less felt recoil. I only found five round magazines for them but they come with two. I really like their bullpup but that is slightly outside your price range. They do seem to be available.

 

You are a lot more up on these than I was. I went and did some reading and these sound like a good choice if you want to use an AR in your home without shooting up your neighbors' houses accidentally.

Also, I forgot to add this in my earlier post about using a 12 gauge in your home. In all of my loaded in house pump shotguns my first two rounds are #6 shot. I have done some tests and in across the room distances the birdshot hits as one solid chunk of lead with devastating effect. Once the shot pattern opens up and the cup peals off the birdshot has very little wall penetration.

My big concern has always been that I wanted to KNOW where my shots were going to go and how much overpenetration I needed to look for. When I was in the gun business I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do a lot of very interesting tests as we shot up all sorts of old cars and an old house to actually see where different types of ammo went as far as penetration and overpenetration.

Good times...

 

That's not a great choice either.

That size makes big holes in targets, but the individual pellets still lack penetration.
00 Buckshot is the preferred size for self defense.

If you simply think about your shot angles, you will know where any projectiles will go.

A highly frangible rifle bullet will stop just beyond the first object it encounters, after breaking into small fragments.

https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-3-the-shotgun-meets-the-box-o-truth/

 

Big thing is simply having something on you. I routinely have a snub in a pants pocket (shrouded hammer).

I do not go to the door without a snub in my back pocket. A goodly number of home invaders knock. You open the door then they push their way in. Happens to women all the time.

Guy knocked at my door one cold, cold night at around 2am(?). His car had broken down. Wanted me to let him in. That night it was a pump shotgun I was carrying. I asked him to leave, so he gets back in his disabled car and drives off.

 

Take a watermelon, shoot it with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with birdshot from 10 to 15 feet away. Look at the melon and tell me that if a person had that many holes of that size in their chest that they wouldn't be down or at least severely injured and no longer a threat.

I would never infer that birdshot is a better stopper than buckshot. The entire point of the discussion isn't about what is the best stopper. The purpose is to offer a safer, from the point of over-penetration, option for in a house that is occupied by more than one or two people.

For just pure stopping power shoot a slug. BUT that sort of defeats the purpose of a shotgun doesn't it? What is the point of defending your home if you harm another member of your family with a stray bullet that goes through sheetrock like it is paper and hits them in their bed.

 

ER docs and Surgeons call it a rat-hole wound. Lead everywhere. And if over 1100ft/sec there's adjacent tissue damage due to hydrostatic shock -- try to debride all that.

Having said this, some monsters just won't stop fighting. Until the hypovolemia of the felon gets to the point where they can't go on, they'll keep going on. Supernatural stuff. The thump of a projectile can also cause neurologic shock of the autonomic nervous system -- this can fold a human or monster. But if the THUMP isn't enough, there the monster is with a driving heart ... for the deadman's 1o seconds, or a whole lot more.

Drug bust NYC (1980's?); guy takes two buckshot loads and a .38 breaks his pelvis. He keeps on truckin'. Runs past the arresting officers out into the hallway. Takes third buckshot load to the back and hits the far wall. While sliding down the wall, he says, "Don't shoot me no more!" Dies in xport to local ER.

After that one, NYC entry teams began to go to using more shotgun slugs.
.

 

Put a rack of pork ribs in front of that watermelon before you try shooting it. Your ribs are there to protect you from injury. They are effective.

Over penetration is a serious consideration but my life is more important. My first round is a steel slug followed by 00 Buck. When I say stop they will stop. Realistically, if a round from my home hit another house it would hit the roof and cause little if any damage. Most likely any missed rounds would never leave my property.

 

If you're ever attacked by a watermelon bird shot will save you.

If you want to stop a human before they stop you, there are many better options.

A little forethought about firing angles can negate overpenetration issues.

 

Taurus G2c, many people have purchased this very inexpensive 9mm from Taurus, =< $250. It's not as good as the weapons that sell for 3x the price ... however .....

https://www.snipercountry.com/taurus-g2c-review/

Aftermarket parts are readily available from Lakeline LLC; https://lakelinellc.com/

The Taurus G2c has polymer components. The recoil assembly and the striker guide can be replaced with stainless steel to greatly extend the useful life of this inexpensive 9mm and to improve its trigger pull. It's trigger pull is horrible, yet it CAN be improved.

https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...placing+the+striker+guide+and+recoil+assembly

The weapon continues to fire without malfunctions. Taurus had problems with their model 111, but fixed the problems with their model G2c. The mag. capacity is 12 rounds, however 15 rnd and 30 round magazines are out there.

The Taurus G2c can be dropped in your pocket. It is light, 22 oz. (there is a G2s, "s" not "c" that has a narrow grip only having a seven (7) rnd magazine). The barrel is short, 3.5". It fits in my hand as if it were custom-designed for me. People have run hundreds, even thousands of rounds of ammo through these without any failures to feed and fire. All firearms can be picky about what brand / bullet-weight ammo they like. Seems the G2c is not so very picky. You can go-on without the modifications I've mentioned. Me, I'm one picky s.o.b. .

Note that a friend and I have chronographed (he designed and built his own circuit board, electronics engineer, had to buy sky screens, we had to read results in hexadecimal, but we used to have to read hexadecimal all the time anyway at work, machine code, comm strings) the 9mm rounds out of the chopped 9mm Spanish pistol I owned at the time. Velocities met manufacturers' spec. even with its 3" barrel -- and all of the dang time. The 9mm round just doesn't need a lot of barrel. My chopped 9mm would send 95-grainers out over 1400 ft/sec. -- which Remington said they would do. Four+ inch barrel -- didn't need it. I don't even know what all calibers we tested, come to think about it. I'm a numbers freak. I remember this. Calculus, no problem, 4.0 GPA. By god, I remember numbers. Short barrel on a 9mm = no problems with diminished velocities.

Sight radius? Well, obviously you gotta problem. The Taurus G2c has a windage and elevation adjustable rear sight. Nowadays, you can get nearly every bloody dang site type you want for this popular pistol. Tritium?, no problem.

You can use the medium caliber 9mm to lay down fire so as to get you to your real weapon, a shotgun or repeating center-fire rifle. The G2s is light, little, and drops in your pocket. I don't carry a battle weapon around with me, but I've got some small handgun in me pocket all the time around the house and in my work shed; even now there's a handgun in me pocket.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=test+firing+the+Taurus+G2c+

One could call it a poor man's Glock.

$250 weapon + $52 stainless steel parts = $302 sweet handgun. Or go out and spend 2.5x that on a short Glock, SIG, whoever. Me, I watch my budget, and so does everydangbody else who is at least semi-mature. Just sayin'. Nowadays, people living near cities better prepare for the unthinkable! It's a mind-rape being attacked, but guess what, you gotta deal with it -- it's not just your life, it's the life of your family that is at stake! Used to, it was just your possessions that the armed thieves wanted, now they need to demean you and your wife, then kill you all. Just a little observation there.

Replace these parts with the online instructions I provided above: