Best Truck Gun: Do you need one and which is best for you?

Truck gun is an interesting term that’s been around for decades in the gun world. You’ve probably seen lists just like this more than once, so what’s the difference with our list? Well, we looked at the current market to ensure we have the most modern and best picks possible. Plus, we go into detail on not just the gun but why it’s a good gun based on established parameters. This isn’t just a list of guns that fit in a truck. It’s a honed list designed to provide you with the best information possible. 

What’s a Truck Gun? 

At that point, it’s less of a truck gun and more of a gun truck.

Before we dive deep into the world of truck guns, let’s discuss what a truck gun is, does, and why you might want one. As the name implies, it’s a weapon that’s carried in your vehicle. Truck gun is a popular term, but it can be your car gun, your Jeep gun, your boat gun, or whatever means of conveyance you may use. It’s not your everyday carry firearm by any means. 

It’s a weapon larger than a handgun and often offers more power, more range, and more capability. A truck gun can accomplish tasks your average carry gun cannot. Truck guns can come in a variety of calibers and in a variety of sizes. They are not your traditional pistol, but like most things in the gun world, it’s really up to what you are trying to accomplish with your truck gun that matters. 

A truck gun can be used for a wide variety of tasks. Oftentimes there is a heavy focus on self-defense and having the ability to engage outside of typical handgun ranges. A truck gun can also be held in reserve and tasked with bugging out tasks. If a disaster occurs, you know you have a capable firearm in your vehicle. 

Finally, my purpose for a truck gun has always been neighborly. I live in a rural area, and it’s good manners to eliminate coyotes and hogs when possible, and a truck gun allows me to do so while riding on my acreage or my family’s acreage. 

Qualities of Good Truck Gun

What makes a good truck gun? I identified four qualities I think make a good truck gun, and I used these qualities to guide my picks. A good truck gun should score high in the following qualities. 

Versatility – A good truck gun should be versatile and capable of accomplishing a variety of tasks. It should be capable of self-defense against a person or animal. It should increase your effective range and overall capabilities. A versatile weapon should be easy to use and should be modular, and easy to accessorize. 

Compact – While these guns are larger than your average handgun, they should still be compact. You don’t want a rifle case taking up your entire backseat. At that point, it’s less of a truck gun and more of a gun truck. It should be easy to store, small in design, or easy to make small. Take down guns, for example, an excellent option for truck guns. 

Capability – You need to match your truck gun’s power and potential to your situation. If you are driving through the Alaskan wilderness, then you might need a powerhouse to deal with all the vicious creatures vying to kill you. If you are in an urban environment, then maybe a pistol caliber makes more sense. If you have miles of open country, then consider a scoped, full-powered rifle. You need to match the capability to your environment. 

It should have the ability to reach beyond your EDC’s normal parameters. This will often lead you to a rifle, shotgun, or braced pistol. It needs to be reliable, as well as powerful enough to deal with your threat situation. 

Availability – There are lots of guns in existence that make for a good truck gun. My Remington Model 81 in .300 Savage is a great take-down rifle, but it’s not one I’d suggest for the average person. You should be able to find the ammunition, magazines if necessary, and weapon fairly easily. I wouldn’t suggest an antique or weapon long out of production. 

Best Truck Gun

We break down our selections into a few categories. Most people might want a truck gun for defensive purposes, and want a either a full power round, a smaller PDW caliber, or a handgun round that share common mags with their handgun.

Some folks will prioritize compactness so it can be used as a backpack gun when they get to where they are going. On the other hand, some may just want something to take out a few varmints terrorizing the farm or a tasty squirrel they see while driving around the property.

Our Best Truck Guns

1. Editor’s choice Colt EPR		(Cold Be Any Quality Carbine AR-15) Take Down Capable Easy to Use Absurdly Common	Check Price
2. Compact ‘Shotgun’ KelTec KS7		Super Compact Extremely Powerful Very Versatile	Check Price
3. Short Stroke Piston Rifle S&W FPC 10mm		Folding Stock Ready 5.56 and .300 Blackout Options Pistol and Rifle Varaints	Check price
4. Folding PCC S&W FPC 10mm		Powerful 10mm Chambering Folding Design Optics Ready	Check Price
5. Versatile Revolver Taurus Judge Home Defender		410 and .45 Colt Chamber Versatile Design Easy to Shoot	Check Price
6. Modern PDW Ruger LC Charger		5.7x28mm Large Format Pistol Super Compact Take Down Design	Check Price
7. Small Game Savage Model 42 Takedown		Chambers .22LR and .410 Takedown Design Ultra Lightweight	Check Price

Best Truck Gun Specs

Best Truck Gun List

Here is our list for our favorite truck guns.

1. Colt EPR ( Or Any Carbine AR-15)
2. KelTec KS7
3. Brownells BRN-180
4. S&W FPC 10mm
5. Taurus Judge Home Defender
6. Ruger LC Charger
7. Savage Model 42 Takedown 

Truck Gun Reviews

We have gone through what we think are factors to consider in a good truck gun and shown you our list. Now lets go through each of our picks in detail.

Colt EPR Review (Could Be Any Quality Carbine AR-15) 

I wanted to name a specific rifle, and I went with the Colt EPR because it’s a relatively affordable, highly reliable AR-15-style rifle. The Colt EPR is a modern rifle design with an M-LOK handguard and BCM Furniture with Magpul Pro Flip-Up sights. It retails for around 1,200 bucks and is a duty worthy carbine.

With that said, any carbine or even pistol AR-15 will work. The AR-15’s takedown design makes it naturally easy to take down and store in a small compartment. Separate the upper from the lower, and you have a very compact package, even with a 16-inch barrel. You can make it smaller by going shorter and into the AR pistol realm as well. 

The AR-15 series are lightweight, modular weapons that can easily mount accessories and optics. The gun can chamber various rounds, and I’d suggest sticking to 5.56 or .300 Blackout. Both rounds are reliable in the AR system, affordable, and easy to find. They are also versatile rounds that can be easily used at ranges from three to three hundred yards. 

The AR’s commonality and affordability make it a solid choice as a travel gun. The main downside is that it obviously can’t function when taken apart. Putting the gun together isn’t difficult, but it will take two hands and ten seconds. It’s not available on the fly, and that might be a downside for some. 

The AR-15 is lightweight, compact, and very capable as a truck gun. This lightweight rifle design is a versatile, easy-to-use, and very commonly available platform for self-defense. 

Colt EPR (Or Any Carbine AR-15) Pros and Cons

KelTec KS7 Review

I only suggest the KelTec KS7 after years of use without any problems. It’s a surprisingly rough and tough shotgun. I tend to be cautious with KelTec, but the KS7’s simplicity is the key to its reliability. The KelTec KS7 is on the list because of its compact design and 12-gauge firepower. Shotguns tend to be pretty large weapons, but the KS7 offers you all the advantages of a bullpup shotgun.

Namely, the fact the gun is about the same size as a Mossberg Shockwave, but you’re not stuck using a pistol grip-only design. You get a stock that leads to increased stability and ease of use. It allows you to engage targets at distances with slugs, but more importantly, it gives you control over the ferocity of a 12 gauge. The KS7 also gives you a total of seven rounds, which is nothing to sneeze at.

The gun’s uber lightweight at 5.9 pounds, and that makes it easy to grab and go. With the right rounds, you’ll be able to engage everything from venomous snakes to bears. The ability to shoot buckshot, birdshot, and slugs gives the KS7 an awesome advantage in any situation you might come across. It’s also a cheap gun that’s priced to compete with guns from Mossberg and Remington.

The bullpup format has some problems. It’s slow to reload. It can be difficult to clear malfunctions should they occur. My main problem with the KS7 is the included carry handle. It’s kinda weak and offers no optical option. Plus, you’re now dealing with height-over-bore issues and doing it with a shotgun! Luckily, it can be swapped for a rail at the end of the day, and I think a rail and red dot are mandatory. The KS7 isn’t perfect, but it’s a great gun for truck use.

KelTec KS7 Pros and Cons

Brownells BRN-180 Review

Much like the AR-15, the Brownells BRN-180 is a lightweight, intermediate caliber, semi-auto rifle that’s modern, modular, and easy to shoot. The BRN-180 comes in numerous sizes, and the 16-inch barreled version is a great way to go, but the pistol variants provide a more compact package at the cost of velocity. 

What makes the BRN-180 different is that it can very easily accommodate a folding stock. The BRN-180 is based on the AR-18, or more or less the AR-180. The design uses a short-stroke gas piston design with integral buffers. 

This allows for a gun similar to the AR-15 but with a folding stock for a much more compact design. With the BRN-180, you can fold the stock or brace and pull the upper from the lower to break the gun down into a super compact package. 

Like the modern AR-15, the BRN-180 series is designed to be modular and fitted with M-LOK rails and an optic rail. You can deck it out with most AR-15 accessories and turn it into a very modern and capable rifle or large-format pistol. 

The BRN-180 is a bit pricey, and the right-side charging handle isn’t modern in its ergonomics. If you can get passed those two flaws, then the BRN-180 series is a compact, intermediate-caliber rifle that makes an excellent truck gun. 

Brownells BRN-180 Pros and Cons

S&W FPC 10mm Review

The S&W FPC is the ‘other’ folding pistol caliber carbine. They took a page out of KelTec’s book but admittedly flipped that page upside down. Instead of folding the barrel over stock, the gun folds the barrel to the left. The FPC predictably uses S&W M&P magazines and packs a whole host of interesting features. S&W Premiered the design in 9mm but recently swung for the fences with a big bore 10mm variant.

The 10mm offers a longer effective range, deeper penetration, and the potential to stop bigger threats faster. With good 100-yard performance, the 10mm is a great truck gun cartridge. Its ability to deal with vermin that walks on two legs and four shouldn’t be understated. With the FPC, we get 15 rounds of 10mm. S&W even includes three magazines with the gun.

One could be kept in the gun, and two more are stored in slots under the stock. This gives you a total of 45 rounds in the gun and on tap. Reloading from the stock is a little tricky at first, but you can get quite fast with it. The extra ammo allows this to be a self-contained system. Heck, S&W even includes a rather nice bag to store the gun in your truck or home.

The S&W FPC’s side folding capability makes adding optics easy. Since no irons are included, a red dot is a must-have. The side folding design relies on a large locking system shaped and used like a tab. It’s quick to fold the gun and even quicker to unfold it. The magazine release, ambi charging handle, and safety are all nice, but the bolt release is painfully small.

The S&W FPC in 10mm packs a serious punch without costing a ton of money. It’s one of the few 10mm PCCs. The big downside is the straight blowback system, which does lead to some excessive recoil. While it’s not painful, I’d argue it recoils more than a 5.56.

S&W FPC 10mm Pros and Cons

Taurus Judge Home Defender Review

Let’s be real clear: I dislike the Taurus Judge. I dislike the 3-inch barreled model and the 6-inch barreled model, so I figured for sure that when they slapped a 13-inch barrel on the so-called Home Defender model, it’d have all the same problems as the original. This means poor patterns, crummy .45 Colt accuracy, and nothing more than a novelty. I was wrong.

I tested the Home Defender extensively, and I fired a multitude of .410 loads through the gun. Birdshot still doesn’t give the best performance, but buckshot worked exceptionally well. Even standard, non-speciality handgun loads patterns surprisingly well. With 15 yards, the pellets could all stay in an IPSC A-zone. With handgun specialty buckshot from Federal, the range expands out to 25 yards.

This gives you .410 power in a handgun. As a handgun, it can often be concealed legally in a vehicle, but state laws may vary. The .410 power allows you to deal with everything from snakes to man-sized threats quite well. With a .45 Colt, we are getting into dangerous game territory. The Judge Home Defender offers a double dose of effectiveness.

At 25 to 50 yards, the .45 Colt rounds are great big slugs that are dealing significant damage. A good .45 Colt load will be able to deal with nearly any threat, and the 13-inches of rifled barrel the Judge Home Defender offers gives them an excellent velocity. Plus, accuracy is exceptional with a red dot, and hitting a ten-inch gong at 50 yards isn’t tough.

Add the ability to attach a red dot and white light, and you will have a very capable truck gun. It’s an oddity, but a capable gun that outshines previous generations of the Judge. The Judge Home Defender does lack the range of other truck guns but still offers excellent versatility.

Taurus Judge Home Defender Pros and Cons

Ruger LC Charger Review

The Ruger method of weapon production goes like this: Introduce a neat rifle with a neat design, then shrink it into a large-format pistol. Then call that large-format pistol a Charger. They’ve done it a time or two, and the latest is the Ruger LC Charger. The Ruger LC Charger shrinks the LC Carbine into a pistol that’s 16 inches long overall with a 10-inch barrel. It chambers the little 5.7x28mm round and makes for an excellent truck gun.

The Ruger LC Charger uses a 1913 rail for attaching a brace, and a folding brace system would be a great way to keep the gun compact and capable. It’s easy to stash, even with a brace, and creates a functional pistol that can be easily locked into a small safe in your vehicle. When needed, it’s lightweight and well-balanced, making it easy to shoot with a single hand.

The LC Charger uses Ruger 5.7 magazines and keeps the magazine in the pistol grip. This keeps things nice and short. The ambi safety is a nice touch and has a 1911-like design. Up top, you have a full-length upper rail, and we get an M-LOK handguard. The barrel can also detach from the gun and make an even more concealable package.

The LC Charger’s use of the 5.7×28 has several major benefits but one major drawback. Some of the benefits include very low recoil and low muzzle rise. I can blast through an entire magazine very quickly while keeping the gun on target. It’s almost like shooting a rimfire, and my Bill Drill time sits under two seconds with the LC Charger. The 5.7x28mm gives you 150 yards of fairly flat shooting cartridge.

The downside is tied to the price of the ammo. It costs a whole lot more than 9mm. The little round can be quite effective, and from the 10-inch barrel, it’s blazing fast. The speed lends to penetration and can allow the bullet to tumble, creating a much more effective wound path. If ammo wasn’t high-priced, the LC Charger would be hard to beat.

Ruger LC Charger Pros and Cons

Savage Model 42 Takedown Review

The Savage Model 42 seemingly offers a 50-state legal option for an effective truck gun and working gun. The model 42 takedown is both a rifle and shotgun. It features two barrels, one that fires .410 and another that fires .22LR. This combination gun offers a lot of low recoil versatility in a package that weighs 6.1 pounds. 

Neither the .22LR nor .410 are known for being powerhouses. However, with proper shot placement, either round can be quite effective. The .410’s buckshot capability can take down medium game, and since the gun has a three-inch chamber, it can use the most powerful .410 loads. The little .22LR round can reach out to 100 yards with about 4.5 inches of drop. The little .22LR round is a hole poker, but for taking small game and medium-sized predators in a pinch, it can work. 

The .410 barrel does offer a lot of versatility in its design. You can load slugs, birdshot, and buckshot to accomplish various tasks, from dispatching snakes to downing coyotes and even hogs with good shot placement. 

Takedown is in the name, so you can easily break the gun into two pieces, and it comes with an included storage case for keeping things simple and easy. The case isn’t fancy, but it’s functional and allows you to safely store the gun in your truck or car out of the way. The gun is quite light, and if you bug out, you have a very effective hunting tool in a lightweight package. 

As many recognize, this is just a double-barrel gun with two shots, and that’s it. It’s not a fighting weapon and not something most would prefer for self-defense. In a pinch, any gun is better than harsh language. 

Savage Model 42 Takedown Pros and Cons

The Holy Commandment of Truck Guns 

If you choose to invest in a truck gun, let’s make one thing clear, you are obliged to follow the one holy commandment of truck guns. It’s simple. DO NOT LEAVE A FIREARM UNSECURED IN YOUR VEHICLE. Locking the car doors does not secure it unless you are driving an armored car. 

A gun left in a vehicle without some form of locking device is nothing more than a loot box for a criminal. Guns should be secured inside the vehicle via some sort of locking device and shouldn’t be left in a vehicle at all over long periods of time. When you come home, it goes inside the home. 

The Legal Considerations 

Also, before you throw a firearm in your truck, trunk, or plane, you should know your local laws. Can you carry it loaded? Is it required to be in the trunk? Do you have to have it secured? You need to be able to answer all of these questions before you decide to purchase a truck gun and start carrying it around. 

Keep It Clean

Most of us will likely have some form of case for your truck gun, be it a hard or soft design. It’s often easy to go weeks without looking at the gun if you just leave it in the case or safe. Every so often, you need to inspect the weapon and ensure it’s clean, rust-free, and ready to operate. The same goes for extra ammo, magazines, etc. You should also check your lights, optics, and similar items to ensure functionality. 

Carry On 

As usual, I suggest making sure you keep yourself a low profile. I’d avoid the NRA and gun company stickers on your back window. It’s a great way to get a window smashed while a thief searches for a gun. 

Keeping a truck gun is a big responsibility. You have to keep the weapon safely secured and stored in a secure manner. While these can be very handy tools carrying one requires a certain degree of responsibility. If you can do that, you have a safe way to carry some extra firepower for dealing with threats, violent animals, and alien invasions. 

Suggested Reading

Number one on our list was any quality AR-15. Check out our Best AR 15 Article to see our favorites.