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 The Pitchfork’s survival projects, Survival Ammo Choices

Pitchfork © 2010
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Freely quote with attribution

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Do not foresee a moment, a battling; foresee two years and more, a
warring.  Pitchfork

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Introduction

Pitchfork's approach to survival ammo choices assumes among other matters that you already haven't strong emotional or other attachments to a rifle and its round.  Plenty have. 

Pitchfork's approach to close security protection ammo is without emotion and with some senses of practicality and tolerance.

Handguns

Let's get handguns, or, rightly, their calibers, out of the way now.  There are a few rifles that fire handgun rounds outside the .22s, including but not limited to 9mm, .357, .44, and .45.  None will pass Pitchfork's screening either for ammo as presented herewith or arms as presented elsewhere hereunder.

And then there's what Pitchfork regards as a fundamental truth about firearms, one which Clint Smith, Thunder Ranch aptly stated once upon a time (for all but closest contact, Pitchfork exacts) -

"The only purpose for a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should have never laid down."

Clint Smith, Thunder Ranch

What about your ammo analytical hierarchy of survival needs? 

• Personalize ammo to your own survival needs.  Remember the firearms analytical hierarchy?  Urban-Rural vs. Social-Cultural? 

• You need ammo with ranges that matter to you

• You need ammo that's appropriate to your target(s)

• You need commodity rounds - abundance signals:  commodity market pricing; more readily acquired – store-bought or in the field; demonstrated, generalizable utility and functionality - user-appreciation, if you will, surplus ammunition abounding

• You need “standard” bullets - by names, include soft point (a/k/a softpoint, soft-point, SP), hollow point (a/k/a hollowpoint, hollow-point, HP), soft-nosed, and tipped.  Yes, Delores, merciful extends to bullets; real world is when the other guy’s shooting at you and yours.  [Big, big game=solid points=virtually irrelevant here under.]
   

What's in range?  (The Missus has quipped at such moments that this stuff had to be worked on by guys:  guys can overcomplicate anything, she thinks.)

Effective range.  Maximum range.  On the horizontal.  Target range.  Minute of Angle.  Hunting range.  Minute of torso. Long range.  Spent range.  And so forth.

Nope, not done yet.  There's more, more, more.

Bullet drop.  Muzzle energy.  Bullet type.  Grain.  Ballistic coefficients.  Velocity (of sorts).  Wind.  Humidity.  Barrel twist.  Yaw.  Drag.  Lift.  Parabolics.  Loads.  Altitude.  Temperature.  And more, more, more.

Looking for even more complexity?  "Range of a Rifle Bullet" The Physics Factbook™, Edited by Glenn Elert -- Written by his students, at http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2003/JessicaWorrell.shtml.

Oh, yes, Pitchfork's got a thought or two or so about handguns, but not much more and not now.
 

Pitchfork cuts range down to survival size

Let's start again with a review of Pitchfork's assumptive views of survival by security.

Remember about Pitchfork’s assumptive thinking on bad times gone worse –

• You’re in for at least a couple years of lawlessness

• You’re not wealthy, and you won’t become wealthy

• You’re not going to outrun anyone

• You’re not going to out-martial art anyone

• You’re not interested in ‘tack-driving’ a rifle bullet through an eye of newt at 500 yards free-hand; rather, it’d be swell, as is commonly referred to, to shoot a so-called hunting minute-of-torso accuracy at a range you can see clearly, with a rifle scope if you’ve got one and are in a place where it’s useful (i.e., not just down the hall or to the next door neighbor’s front porch)

• You’re not a gunsmith, and you’re not nearby a gun shop

• You’re not even mechanically inclined

• You’re not going anywhere; you’re staying put, except maybe as a verymost last resort

• For most encounters, you're 7 or 8 yards from your enemy

• For some few encounters, your 100 yards and multiple away from your enemy

Cutting this to size for you

• Pay attention to the ammo needs hierarchy at the top of this webpage, for starters.  How far do you expect to shoot if you had to shoot?  At what do you expect to be shooting if you have to be shooting at it?

• Pay attention to the assumptive thinking on bad times gone worse - not for excusing, but for setting the stage

• Remember that with bullets, it ain't over until it's almost over, or somewhere below about 150 feet per second. 

"The bullet’s velocity required for skin penetration is between 148 and 197 feet per second. A velocity of less than 200 feet per second, which is easily obtained by a celebratory gunfire, is capable of fracturing bone and even causing intracranial penetration." Ordog GJ, Wasserberger J, Balasubramanium S. "Wound ballistics: theory and practice" Ann Emergency Medical Journal 1985;13:1113.

Braving the certainty of being wrong no matter what he writes to follow about Pitchfork's preferential ammo for survival - 

Notables in the Pitchfork's firearm inventory: 

• .22 long rifle (up to the Aguila SSS 60 grain, inherently unstable) ammunition is in all four cells. 

  • So would 12Ga if Pitchfork could reckon the urban community acceptance and appreciation from the boom, boom, boom of a shotgun at city park or in your neighbor's backyard. 

  • He couldn't.

• A pistol round is in one - social, urban. 

  • Pitchfork chose 9mm as being more commodity market than .45.  That's Pitchfork for you.  The Silver Bear 9mm Luger (9x19mm), 145 grain, hollowpoint appeals

  • A professional assassin might have chosen a .22 round of one sort or another, depending on accessories.  The Aquila SSS appeals

  • Most handgun fights reportedly occur within about 7-8 yards, wherein frequency and distance vary inversely.

• The two larger rounds for rifles are, in Pitchfork's opinion -

  • Not greater than a matter of expected range and

  • Not lesser than either both or, the simpler solution - a .308 Winchester alone

• In 12 Gauge - a mix of slugs and #00 buck, though even #4 buck may be functional in shorter ranges

You're free to come to your own conclusions about survival ammo needs and to use your own analytical hierarchy of criteria to get there.  You know what Pitchfork used and where it got him. 

While the field-quality of performance of any of these choices depends on materials (firearm and accessories) and methods (the shooter), Pitchfork notes that those dependencies vary directly with distance - at-the-moment attitude and preparation withstanding.