Best SHTF Gun

When the proverbial poop hits the proverbial fan, what gun are you grabbing? I guess it depends on what kind of poop and what kind of fan. Zombies have different considerations than major hurricanes. Either way, SHTF, and you need a SHTF gun. You don’t need it when SHTF. You need it now to be ready for when the excrement hits the fan. Today, we are going to cover a variety of SHTF guns and the philosophy behind each of our choices. 

What’s SHTF? 

SHTF is a popular acronym used to describe a disaster scenario. It’s an open-source term that can apply to any major disaster scenario. It usually means a situation where a part of civilization has stopped working. It could be a natural disaster, a foreign invasion, or those dreaded zombies. It’s an unpredictable disaster, and you have to survive it. 

What Makes a Good SHTF Gun 

When we chose our picks, we weighed a variety of features we figured were important to the weapon’s choice. These are the features that make a good SHTF gun. 

Versatility – The weapon should be easy to use in a wide variety of scenarios. It should be handy for accomplishing multiple tasks. 

Ease of Use – This will vary depending on the user. For some, 12 gauge shotguns are a serious challenge. Others can’t shoot a handgun to save their lives. Choose a weapon you feel confident with and can wield with ease. 

Reliability – When you pull the trigger, the gun should go bang. That’s all there is to it. In the modern world, this is easy to find. Don’t get stuck with something that might be ammo-picky or suffer in adverse conditions. Leave the finely tuned competition rifle at home, grab the over-gassed carbine, and go. 

Lightweight – The Barrett .50 BMG is a great gun, but it’s not practical. We need something small and light enough to be easily transported. You should be able to hump the gun with its ammo for a good many miles without tiring out. 

A Note on Our Picks 

I want to emphasize that this isn’t a one-and-done situation. Having multiple guns for multiple purposes makes sense. The guns on this list weren’t chosen to be the only guns in your arsenal. They can work together or supplement other weapons in your collection. This list was picked to be diverse and to help you find the right combination that just works.

The Best SHTF Guns

The IWI Tavor X95, specifically the 5.56 version, fits perfectly on this list. It has many of the qualities we look for in an SHTF rifle. It’s a lightweight, intermediate-caliber rifle that uses AR-15 magazines and a very common rifle round. It’s lightweight, versatile, easy to use, and capable. What helps sell it is the bullpup format. 

It’s important to realize that the X95 and the entire Tavor family were designed for the Israeli military. The Israeli military deals with urban and mechanized warfare, in which bullpups excel. In a SHTF situation, one of the first things you’ll likely do is bug out of an urban location. Suddenly, you’re in a vehicle and close-quarters areas. 

You’ve entered a realm where the bullpup excels. The rifle is uber short at only 26.125 inches overall with a 16.5-inch barrel. You have a weapon no larger than a sawn-off shotgun but equipped with a stock and the normal rifle advantages. The Tavor X95 can also be easily hidden in a short bag for concealment purposes, which might sometimes be critical. 

The Tavor gets the nod because it’s the most modern and versatile bullpup. The controls are primarily ambidextrous or reversible. You can find left-handed Tavors, which have left-handed friendly ejection as well. It’s one of the few bullpups that does left-handed well. 

The use of commonly used ammo and magazines helps solve the logistics issue. It’s easy to accessorize with a light and optic. Both would be important in a bug-out situation. The weapon has light recoil, and the bullpup format makes it easy to shoot rapidly with excellent control. Another benefit of that bullpup format is how easy the gun is to use with one hand. The weapon excels for self-defense and can be a workable hunting rifle for medium-game. 

The downsides come down to accuracy. It’s not a 1 MOA gun. We are looking at around 3 MOA with cheap ammo. Personally, that’s not a problem for me. Most of us aren’t 1 MOA shooters, and 3 MOA is perfectly acceptable. 

The Tavor X95 offers you a 5.56 caliber rifle in a very small format. It’s fairly light and easily maneuverable. It’s perfect for bugging out and working in or around vehicles. It might not be traditional, but it’s effective.

Pros and Cons:

Shotguns can be excellent SHTF guns. Plenty of shotgun options exist, and most work just fine. The Mossberg 590A1 stands out for several reasons. First, it’s one of the most proven designs on the market. It’s the pump-action shotgun choice of the United States military. These guns have been used and abused for years by PFCs and run just fine. They can suffer through thousands of rounds with minimal parts breakage. 

Another advantage of the Mossberg 590A1 is how easy it is to work on. It takes very little know-how to fix a Mossberg 590A1. Almost all of the parts are interchangeable with the 500 series of shotguns, some of the most common guns on the market. 

As a pump action shotgun, it can cycle basically any load up to 3 inches long. The 590A1 can even be fit with an adapter from Defender Tactical to cycle minishells. In an SHTF situation, the minishell birdshot loads can be great for small game, but they are much smaller and easier to carry than full-sized shells. 

The Mossberg 590A1’s thick barrel can also be super beneficial. It tends to throw patterns tighter than other shotguns. The 590A1 can take a cheap buckshot and extend its overall effective range. Mossberg also ensures these guns are optics-ready, so adding a red dot isn’t a problem. 

The advantage shotguns offer is versatility. You can fire birdshot, buckshot, and slugs. The shotgun gives you the ability to hunt anything from squirrels to bears. It’s potent for defensive use and very capable in that role. 

The manual operation ensures it’s not ammo-picky and will work without needing more complicated gas or inertia systems. It doesn’t need to be kept pristine to function. The Mossberg 590A1 is a brutal but simple weapon that will give you a very versatile weapon. 

The downsides are plenty. We have to deal with the short range of shotguns. With slugs, you get about 100 yards of accuracy. A Mossberg 590A1 will necessitate someone else carrying a rifle to have a weapon effective beyond 100 yards. The Mossberg 590A1 isn’t the lightest weapon either and will be a bit of a bear when working around vehicles. Shotguns also have limited capacity and more recoil than most other guns. 

As long as the Mossberg isn’t your only SHTF gun, you won’t regret having one. It’s a powerhouse of a weapon with excellent versatility. If you only want to shoot something once, then the shotgun is the way to go.

Pros and Cons:

Little Badger doesn’t inspire much confidence, but hear me out. The Little Badger series are micro-sized easily transportable .22LR rifles. TDX stands for Take Down Extreme. It’s a micro-sized .22LR rifle that breaks into two pieces. It’s very minimalist and very lightweight. This wouldn’t be the only gun in your arsenal, but it would be a great extra rifle to have on hand. 

The gun has two main selling points. First, it’s a .22LR, and second, it’s microsized. The .22LR round is super small, and you can carry 500 rounds of it without even noticing. That’s a lot of ammo that can potentially take small game like squirrels, rabbits, and even ground birds.

It could take a deer with a well-placed headshot in a pinch, but that’s only something I’d do when desperate. If you must dispatch a venomous snake or even an angry dog, the .22LR can do it. Using .22LR saves you from using what’s likely a limited supply of 5.56, 12 gauge, or similar rounds while occupying very little space. 

It bears mentioning that it’s also kind of quiet. If you use rifle ammo, its sound signature can be lower than a car backfiring or even the sound of a hammer hitting a nail. Keep subsonic ammo, and you won’t have the loud supersonic crack, either. 

The TDX also occupies very little space. The rifle is 31 inches overall with a 16.5-inch barrel and splits in half to reduce that size. Not only is it short, but it’s super small in every dimension. The gun has a wire stock and floppy plastic shoulder rest that barely exists. The barrel is super thin, and the entire thing weighs 2.9 pounds. 

The TDX comes with this plastic tube that allows you to pack the rifle away easily. The pill-shaped tube is thinner than a Nalgene bottle. The ultra-small design allows it to be easily carried alongside a quote’ real rifle’ with ease. Anyone can use the TDX. It’s so small and lightweight, and with such little recoil, it’s not challenging to shoot. 

The single-shot, hammer-fired design makes it reliable. It will hit those rimfire rounds hard, which helps ensure proper ignition. The guns come with peep sights that are very M1 Carbine-like. They’re accurate enough for short-range work, but they wouldn’t win any competitions. A Picatinny rail allows for optics and accessories, but that kind of defeats the point. 

Overall, the Little Badger is a handy little gun. It’s super lightweight, easy to carry, and easy to shoot. It’s also cheap! 

Pros and Cons:

A lot of folks focus their SHTF weaponry around the idea of being in constant urban warfare. While I’m not inclined to disagree that defensive options are necessary, I do think we often get into the fantasy element of the apocalypse. If you go out looking for a fight or don’t take steps to avoid combat actively, you aren’t long for this world. Sometimes, you need a handy, accurate rifle for taking deer and hogs and as a working gun. The Mossberg MVP Patrol .308 is jsut that. 

The MVP Patrol in .308 offers several features, allowing it to check that working gun box. The Mossberg MVP Patrol comes in several calibers, but I think the .308 option is the best bet. Not because .308 is some amazing caliber, but because it’s very common. Common ammo tends to be more affordable, and affordable ammo tends to be the easiest to stock up on. It’s also easier to scavenge if we get into a Fallout-style situation. 

The MVP Patrol in .308 uses SR-25-style magazines. These are very common and reliable. Magpul even makes them, so finding new magazines for the gun isn’t tricky. While a lot of bolt guns use AICS magazines, which work great, they are also expensive and more burdensome to find. 

Bolt guns offer their own advantages. They can comply with the strictest state laws. They are also somewhat disguised. They don’t stand out as much as uber tactical rifles. In a SHTF situation, you’re likely to run into increased government presence, and bolt guns might draw a lot less attention. 

Bolt guns also offer manual operation and reliability, which you’d want in a pinch. The slower action isn’t great for close-quarters fighting, but in a SHTF situation, the last thing you want is to get into a fight. It still wouldn’t be my only gun just due to its bad home defense capabilities. The MVP Patrol series offers you some excellent long-range capabilities. 

If you want to squeeze out every ounce of accuracy you can get per dollar, then a bolt gun is the way to go. The MVP Patrol offers you a fairly affordable firearm that’s quite accurate and capable. It’s optics-ready, but it also comes with iron sights. The irons are open front sights that are quick more than they are precise. 

The obvious downside is the slow rate of fire. The action isn’t quite smooth, but it’s fine. That’s more of a preference than anything else. The MVP Patrol .308 is a reliable, straight shooter that offers a few advantages that are worth considering.

Pros and Cons:

An AR With a 20 Inch Barrel

Picking out one AR is tough. The AR market is flooded, and they are all pretty solid guns. My personal pick for a SHTF gun is an AR with a 20-inch barrel. The rifle configuration of the AR-15 is often slept on. Yep, it’s larger and longer and seems unwieldy, but in reality, it’s an excellent overall configuration. BCM makes a rifle upper, and so do Aero Precision and Palmetto State Armory. Personally, I like Aero Precision and BCM. 

Why the 20-inch barrel? Well, the AR-15 was designed around a 20-inch barrel. The longer barrel gives you a rifle-length gas system that is not only extremely reliable but also delivers lower recoil and a smoother recoil impulse. Not only that, but it’s a less violent impulse, resulting in less internal wear to the system. An AR-15 with a rifle-length barrel is one of the smoothest shooters on the market. It’s delightful. 

The longer barrel results in higher velocity. If you’re using the cheapest AR food, the 55-grain .223 or 5.56 M193 cartridge, you need as much velocity as possible. That 20-inch barrel gives you that. It helps make the lightweight projectile as effective as possible at the longest range possible. The 20-inch AR barrel does a fantastic job of throwing lead at high speeds and longer ranges. 

More velocity also equals more penetration. The rounds can go through barriers better than shorter barrel guns. Body armor has been seen in use by bad guys, and if bad guys are using steel armor, an M193 from a 20-inch barrel will punch right through it. 

If your optic ever dies, the rifle-length ARs can offer you a very long sight radius which results in a weapon that’s easier to shoot accurately at a variety of ranges. For decades, the Marine Corps taught people who had never shot a gun to hit threats at 500 yards with M16s and iron sights. 

The downsides are pretty obvious. The gun is huge. It’s tough to maneuver indoors and in and out of vehicles. As we established earlier if you bug out, you are now mechanized, and the rifle-length AR sucks. It’s more of a dig-in gun rather than a bug-out gun.

Pros and Cons:

The Savage Model 42 builds on a long line of successful combination guns designed for survival purposes. These utility-based weapons aren’t fancy, but they can be very handy working guns. The Savage Model 42 combines either a .22 WMR or .22LR with a .410 shotgun.  The idea is to provide you with both the advantages of a shotgun and a rimfire rifle. 

We already discussed the utility of the .22LR, and the same applies to the .22 Magnum. The lightweight round can be used for a wide range of purposes and provides a tool for small game hunting and even limited defense against wild animals. You can carry a few hundred rounds in your front pocket and be good to go. 

The .410 option gives you a great gun for taking a variety of game. You can hit flying birds with birdshot and kill snakes, as well as squirrels, with ease. Hitting moving targets is always easier with a shotgun. Load it up with buckshot, and you can kill deer, pigs, and other medium-sized game animals. 

The ability to use buckshot ups your defensive abilities. Slugs can expand your range, but .410 slugs kind of suck in most cases. In a pinch, a round of .410 buckshot can stop a two-legged threat, but an over/under platform is far from ideal for two-legged self-defense. The Savage Model 42 is less of a defensive choice and more of a lightweight working option. 

The Model 42 is a takedown gun, which means it can be split in half and carried in a pack fairly easily. This increases the gun’s utility for a user who may have a main rifle but wants to carry an alternative for hunting and dealing with pests. The gun is very lightweight and fairly compact, has very little recoil, and can be handled by nearly any shooter. 

The gun lacks defensive capability. It’s not the best for any form of self-defense. Model 42 excels for survival, but not much else. If the situation hasn’t deteriorated to small game hunting, the Model 42 might not be all that handy. 

Pros and Cons:

Before we depart, let’s look at one final firearm, specifically a handgun. Most people focus on long guns for SHTF, but for most disaster situations, the handgun is still likely going to be the primary weapon of carry. Most rough situations won’t devolve into full-on apocalypse, and a good handgun will go a long way. I’m not a Glock fanboy, but I respect the brand and the weapons they create. 

If I had to suggest just one handgun for a SHTF situation, it would be the Glock 19. Right off the abt, Glocks work. They work in the worst conditions, and they keep working through the most adverse situations. The simple design helps ensure reliability, and Glock has proven itself over and over. 

The Glock 19 is a compact 9mm. It’s not super small, but it’s still concealable. The size allows for a good in-between of control and concealability. The popularity of the gun ensures you can find a metric ton of holsters to make carrying the gun in any situation easy. The Glock 19 comes with a rail for a light, the MOS series come optics ready as well. 

The stock magazine holds 15 rounds of ammo, but you can use 17, 18, 33, and even 50-round drums if you see fit. In some situations, more ammo is better than less ammo. Carry a 15-round mag during the day, but pop in the 33-round party stick when you go to bed at night. Having options is nice, and the Glock 19 gives you options. 

The Glock 19 series gives you an excellent, easy-to-carry handgun for those trips to get gas for the generator or for carrying around the house in times when police response is, at best, delayed. It’s capable but also convenient. Even if you have a long gun, having a sidearm is just common sense.

Pros and Cons:

When It Hits the Fan 

When the poop hits the fan, I hope you never have to use a firearm. You likely won’t. Humans are mostly good, but threats do exist among these good people. Sometimes, they make themselves known when emergency services aren’t capable of responding. For those threats, be ready. I also hope none of us ever find ourselves in a situation where we are using .22LR to take squirrels to cook in a stew over a fire, or we’ll starve, but the least we can do is be ready for the worst situations. 

What’s your choice in SHTF gun? Let us know below!