The Top 40

Buy one each of the Russians. Ammo is relatively cheap, both are super reliable, easy to maintain and operate.

I looked up the Mosin-Nagant. It is just another .30 caliber bolt action rifle. I don't see why it ought to be superior to any one of about 100 million .30 deer rifles in the closets of American hunters. The M1 and the M14 rifles used by the US military (the M14 is still in service) were .30 caliber rifles. Similar rifles are still used by US snipers. The terms you used for the Mosin would far better apply to the Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle.

An AR in .22 is nothing more than a trainer. An AR in .223/5.56 or .308 is a bad MF.

While they are not my first choice for hunting AR's are a joy to shoot, the ammo isn't expensive and they're versatile enough that they can be used for home protection or hunting.

The advantage of the Mosin-Nagant is that it's dirt-cheap, reliable, and available everywhere.

The thing to remember about the AR-15 or the M16 is that wounds from them are NOT intended to kill, but to incapacitate. Caring for an incapacitated soldier ties up the enemy's resources -- time, money, materiel, and manpower -- that don't have to be expended on a dead soldier.

So yeah, if you want a man-stopper, go with a .30-caliber rifle or a .45 caliber pistol. The M1911 is not so good at longer ranges, but close-in (ten yards or so) it will blow limbs (or heads) apart.

Cheerful thought..... *brrrrr*

Hale Adams
Pikesville, People's still-mostly Democratic Republic of Maryland

The whole silly article was a waste of time and written by someone fawning over an old gun - clearly he has little experience.

Hale Adams is mostly right and will get to prove it in about a year and a half.

I can see the gun guys have already weighed in, and pointed out that that "article" was primarily intended to be clever, and was written by another of those guys who find the primitive Mosin to be possessed of magical powers because Russia.

AR-15s (M-16s) don't shoot ".22s" but a .22 diameter bullet in front of an enormous case full of propellant, which is a different animal altogether. Latter model AKs (AK-74s) shoot a Russian version of the same round, which pushes a 60-grain bullet at over 3,000 feet per second - real different from a .22.

AK-47s shoot practically the same bullet that Mosins do, but not nearly as fast - essentially a .30 caliber projectile in a shorter (39mm) case than the Mosin, so less propellant.

The Mosin itself is just a stone-age Mauser, but it worked. The 7.62x54mm round is only marginally different from a U.S. 30.06, chambered in the Springfield which was so similar to a Mauser that they actually paid royalties to Mauser while Germany and the United States were busily engaged in shooting them at each other.

So this little comparison list is cute, but I think inspired by the same "Revere the Holy Primitive" bullshit that makes some women and/or liberals go for black guys.

Don't forget the venerable M-1 Garand. The rifle that fought the Nazis and Japs. It's overpowered for "social work" but that's half the fun. The Garand Guy even sells M-1s with box magazines or shorter "tanker Garands".

Rob hit the button with the cartridge. Caliber doesn't mean much unless you know what is pushing that round down the tube.

I have a Ruger .22 Hornet revolver. That's as different from a .22 LR as a.22.LR is to a BB gun.

Both are .22 cal.

AR-15 is semi-auto. Did this guy not know that it isn't a full-auto "assault rifle?"

Mosin Nagin is a joke. Like people who say, yeah my Prius can go 90 mph.

No need to beat up the M-N. cheap and cheery, ballistics are near those of a 30-30, (that point irrelevant). AR-15, Springfield 1903, Garand, AK -47, Lee-Enfield. All of these primarily military weapons. Man-killers designed to be used by chimpanzees and repaired by The Three Stooges.

Look at Viet Nam. Not the politics, chum, the weapons dynamic: use your complicated high quality rifles to hold off squads of bad guys. At night. With A-P rounds. And state of the art radio coverage: and some jaboni crawls over and whacks you on the head with a 2x4.

Done.

Even an old gun is better than none, assuming you have what it takes to do it. Most don't. And this will be clear when the lead comes in your direction. The dynamic shifts considerably when the talk goes hot. In that scene the bowels go weak and the gun, new or old, is abandoned out of stark raving fear that goes all the way to the bone. The animal will arise in the survivors.

@ Cobb

The Mosin Nagant may be a joke to you. But those on the receiving end of the projectile did not think so. The cartridge packs power between the our 7.62 x 51 (.308) and our venerable 30-06.

Look up Russian snipers during WWII for some educational tutoring. Also look up "Simo Häyhä", a Finnish sniper. The gooks used this rifle in Nam (snipers) as well with deadly effect that I can attest to.

Also, one can purchase surplus ammo for the Mosin Nagant (7.62 x 54R) for less than forty cents a round.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it-:)