Bug Home with a Rifle or a Pistol, Which Would You Choose?

I have seen a lot of discussion about what to put in a bug out bag; but what I want to do is bug home as fast as I can before someone breaks in to steal my survival supplies. Also I want to get home as quick as possible to link up with our militia group.

So what would you want to bug home with supposing you were 120 miles or so from home because of work or visiting someone?

Whether I was bugging home with a rifle or a pistol I would carry a survival kit in a back pack.

Here is how I see it:

Bug home with a Rifle
Taking a full combat load (at least 7 loaded 30 round magazines) wearing cammo, mil spec boots, alice pack (medium without a frame), and using an AR/M4 or AK so you can carry more ammo and magazines than if you carried a .308.

Advantages:
Your have far more range, stopping power and firepower with a rifle.
It is harder to be seen in the woods wearing cammo.

Disadvantages:
If seen you could be identified as a combatant or someone you don’t see might shoot you just to steal your rifle and combat gear.
You can’t walk as fast with a rifle and full combat load.

Bug Home with a Pistol
Wearing street clothes, a shoulder holster, several spare loaded magazines, and a small yuppie looking backpack.

Advantages:
You can move much faster and thus walk home much faster to escape or evade faster.
You would not be shot on sight for carrying a rifle.

Disadvantages:
You might be arrested for carrying a concealed pistol or unlawfully carrying a pistol depending on which state you live in assuming you don’t have a pistol carry permit.
You may get home just to find it already looted or burnt to the ground so all your survival supplies and longer range rifle would be lost.

Which would you choose to bug home with a rifle or a pistol and why?

I would be bugging home with a pistol.

1)Because it doesn't attract the attention a rifle does.

2)I should have enough grub in my pack to get home, if not I could kill food with my pistol.

3)My plan would be to E&E back home anyway thus avoiding contact if at all possible.

I,ll go with the rifle I stink with a pistol.
I will be E&E as well, it,s a long hike for me if SHTF.

My pick is a rifle, or carbine actually. Like ShieldWolf, I'm not much of a pistol shooter.

Concealment is not something I really considered, however. My thought was, if the poo's really flying, one guy with a rifle minding his own business shouldn't attract too much attention.

Maybe that's not a good assumption. A solution may be to get a bigger civilian style duffle. A small one currently holds my L2 gear, which acts as kind of an organizer while in the bag. I'll experiment. A larger one may be able to hold my carbine near ready.

seeing as Im in WY, and I have a bushmaster m4gery...(and thats ALL i have in terms of guns), i'll have to say thats what i have to stick with.

But even if I did have, say...a Para-Ord .45, I'd still go with my 'carbine'. i can always break it down and hide it in a backpack

If i am in the city limits, i would say a pistol. But now days, with te world as it is, if i go more than 50 miles or so from home i carry a "well stocked" load. As you may not be able to get back before most of your gear is raided.

I would say it also depends on where you live to begin with. If you live in a large city like i still do, it would really suck to have to fight your way 50 or 75 miles back into your home, only to have to turn around and fight your way back out.

The OP wasn't specific, but this thread seems to be using the premise you are on foot as opposed to in a vehicle?

I carry a Glock .40 in the car with me at all times + 2/13 rds. I can get home [even on foot] long before the really large amounts of "S" hits the fan.
I'm sure in a situation large enough to consider bugging out or bunkering down, things will still take a few days to really heat up.

Yes the premise is that you start out in a vehicle with the trunk loaded with whatever you choose; then for some reason such as a the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) from a Nuclear blast


Or road blocks with gun confiscations and "Red List" arrests of everyone they think would make trouble for the "UN Peace Keepers."

Regardless of which scenario it is then you have to bug home 120 miles on foot. The main question is would you go combat ready with a rifle or go low key with a concealed pistol?

If i had to go 120 mileas on foot. I would go combat ready.

You have along way to go, and you don't really know what you will encounter. And its a good chance you won't be getting back to your BOV anytime soon.

that would be a long walk with only a pistol and a few mags.

You will need your gear, so take as much with you as you can.

simple...
Break down your AR, hide it in a backpack.
And carry a concealed pistol.
If the stuff gets to thick...
Reassemble your AR, and go fully armed.

Also, by the time you get to where you are going, it may end up being alot more than 120 miles as the crow flies. the home and gear you are heading towards may not even be there anymore.

If you walk at 3 mph (avg.) for 16 hours a day, it is still 3 day minimun to get home. Alot can happen in 3 days.

Well said North Force, I agree with you a determined militiaman could walk home. Also one may need to walk tactically paralleling trails and roads as well as skirting around cities and check points.

The quicker you walk home the greater the chance is you will still have something left when you get home.

All militia groups need to have pre-arraigned meeting places.

+1. I've spent my entire life in either the swamps or the woods. It's not very likely that someone will see me before I see them. Notice I said "not very likely." In such a situation, I'd rather have my full load. In a pinch, that same battle rifle can be used to take game. It's pretty difficult to gauge someone's exact location from a single shot. Yeah, you know what direction they're in (depending on terrain and acoustics of said terrain) but not much else.

Unless you're an idiot and shoot twice.

Now, if they're actively looking for me, that's a whole different ballgame. FLIR is the Devil, mama..

It's comforting to know that I am not the only person who has been thinking about this very issue.

I recently put the following BOB together. Although I have both full field gear (second line) as well as a LBE assembled for vehical patrols or patrols close to home, I knew I wouldn't want to load this gear into my car for regular business trips.

So I decided to build a kit based on what many security contractors in Iraq are using.




This BOB is small enough to easily toss in my car and hide under a coat in the backseat. It's fairly basic at this point but I wanted to keep it simple and then add other needed items as conditions demanded.

Here's a gear list:


$50.00 (50 x $1.00)
Cold Steel SRK knive and sheath
Multi-tool
Local Map
Blow out kit in a vacuum sealed bag (Guaze, H-Bandage, Gloves, Tournique, duct tape)
Tramadex (Blood clotting medium)
Israeli pressure bandage
Small container of pain killers and anti-inflamatories
120 rounds of 5.56mm ammo (4 x 30-round mags)
13-round G23 magazine
Extra batteries (2 x AA)
Flashlight w/batteries
Bic Lighter
Sharpie pen
3-Cliff Bars
5-drink mixes
2-liters of water (2 x 1-liter bottles)
Compass

This bag will suppliment the items that are always on my person:

Glock 23
Wallet (with ID, CCW's, Expense card, calling cards)
Chapstick
Cold Steel Recon folder
Cellphone with e-mail access

If conditions require I will place my AR-15 in the car as well.

I figure this is a good foundation that will allow me to get back to my home and resupply.

419!

Nice setup Alma,

I would add
Amodium AD (to need it and not have it sucks)
Baby wipes (Basically support for the above)
Watch
2Meter/440 handheld radio
GPS
Sunglasses/Safety glasses
Tweezers
Small bottle of eye wash/eye drops
Photon Micro or similar LED light
Some sort of small head lamp LED

Who makes the bag your using?

My kit is very similar but stored on a Molle belt, its basically my first line gear.

Sharpstick,

Thanks for the comments. I should add that I always have my watch and sunglasses with me and I forgot to pull out a smaller LED light for the contents picture.

I purchased the bag here . I got it from a company called LA Police Gear. I've purchased several things from them and have always been happy with the service and support they've offered.

I got my bag when it was on sale for around $30.00. I see that it's more expensive now. Nevertheless, it's built very well and all the pockets are great for storing gear.

419!

2nd line gear (ALICE or CFP-90) always in the wheels. It serves on brush fires and SAR as well as Militia.

Pistol mostly. A Glock 26 with 60 loaded rounds of ammo.

Sometimes a rifle is carried as well.

It would be a Choate folding stocked 10/22 with 20 rounds loaded, and 200 in reserve.

Or an expendable AR carbine with 120 loaded rounds of ammo loaded, and 120 in reserve.

Glock 26 is on the way out... soon to be replaced by S&W M&P Compact 9.

Several of you took the words outta my mouth, as well as Alma showing fairly similar pic to my "fanny pack" system.

Of course, several factors stick out to me:

#1] WHERE in the Country(Nation) am I, & WHERE is "home" in relationship? This is significant, as it'll assist me in knowing the possible roads NOT to traverse, and the "round'a bouts" to use. Also, whether to go it on foot, vehicle, or animal...and across what type of terrain? ALL significant to my decision.

#2] WHAT TYPE OF SCENARIO is occuring? (The pic you supplied indicates soldiers in infantry PREpared & "clearing town"). BUT! What if the "event" just occuered two to three minutes ago, & I'm ALREADY on my way "home"? Am i close enough to make it BEFORE the SHTF GENERALLY?

#3] What are the social dynamics surrounding my "home"? Nuclear devestation? Riots? Warfare? Or is all JUST BEGINING to "sink in" to the local populace? Do I have time to take advatage of the "lag time"? Or, NOT...?

#4] Considering the possibilitiy that I'm sitting in a resturant, in S. atl., & my "home" is in N. Georgia. A "Suitcase Nuke" has just (two or three minutes ago) detonated in downtown Atl. (far enough away as to ONLY be a FALLOUT threat). I must then:
A) Determine windage
B) Determine EXACT location of blast if possible
C) Determine if the "perimeter highway" is open
D) Then determine whether a "round about" is wiser(obviously, & "TOPO MAP" is a MUST!)
E) Determine the "time of day traffic flow realities" and whether my vehicle is a possibility. IF NOT, then, reassess and determine which "foot route" is safest(part of route COULD take me through CRIMINAL INFESTED area...or NOT!)
F) IF "E" is "NO VEHICLE", and I've got a TOPO for directions, then I need to NEXT decide what type of ARMS are BEST SUITED to this scenario...I'd PREFER to take BOTH my "fanny pack", as well as my "break down" AR7...(yeah, I know it's just a .22LR, but I'm COMFORTABLE with it & VERY ACCURATE with it...THAT'S what counts!) BOTH can easily be concealed, one in my clothes, the rifle in my back pack...so CIVIS for me, till I get to the "home" & determine the proper attire for the circumstance.

ALL TOLD, I stay fluid, & keep my profile low, and STAY ALERT at ALL times.

Well, that's it.

Your bug out rifle is a folding stock 10/22? That is a nice idea. Not much power behind it but light weight and easy to carry.

Well actually Colt the 10/22 is a "BUG HOME" rifle. On a bug-out I would use an M4 type carbine... without question.

My location and lifestyle require that I have to shoot things from time to time, and a accurate .22 is just the thing for it. Inside 50 to 75 yards a CCI Stinger will land with a satisfying THWACK on a soft target. Not really concerned about "stopping power" with this rifle, if a vermin survives a hit (only happened once that I remember)and runs a 1/2 mile away and dies, then that's a plus. I like having one in the truck so that if I am working outside, then I can go to the truck and get just the right tool for a certain job if need be.

Now for social use the folding stock (or collapsible stock) is a good idea for firing out of a vehicle during a bug home situation. If you have ever tried to drive and shoot at the same time, you will find it is a chore and a half.

If the 10/22 is stolen, then I'm not out anything of substantial worth.

-edited to add-

Never trust a .22 in a bad social gathering, but they do have their uses.

I've managed to break down an M1 Garand and take it on a city bus in a backpack. It was legal, but that didn't matter 'cause no-one was the wiser. If you can tote an M1 around inconspicuously, then you'd be golden with your M4 (or similar sized weapon). If you can bring a long gun, do it.

-Herk