Gun Digest Book of Survival Guns

The 590A1 is available with five-plus-one or eight-plus-one magazine capacities. Mine is the five-shot magazine, which also features Mossberg’s ambidextrous tang-mounted safety. While I am more used to the pushbutton safeties of the Remington 870, Ithaca 37, and M1 Carbine, I like the Mossberg design, not so much because it’s ambidextrous, but because I can see that it’s on or off every time I mount the gun to my face; no rolling it to the side to double-check as with other models (yeah, I know, you can feel it, but you need to visually check it, as well).

The 590A1 is very smooth in operation for a tactical shotgun in its price range (around $500), and has become more popular than once was the Remington 870. The 590A1 is an excellent tactical and riot shotgun.

My last pick for a pump is the Remington 887 Nitro Mag Tactical. It is the very best in pump shotguns Remington has to offer. The Remington 870, of course, is still very alive and well and is a great shotgun, with variations available for every purpose, but it is not without its faults. Even with its anti-jam feed tab update, the 870 still can lock up from time to time and require emergency field clearing. While the ergonomics are okay, they are only that. I have never picked up any variation of the 870 and gasped, “I gotta have me one of these!” So, while the 870 is a durable, fairly reliable workhorse (remember, it was the 590A1 that made the military Mil-Spec-grade approval), there is a better Remington pump-action now, one for the twenty-first century.

^{The Remington 887 is the top tier in out-of-the-box-ready tactical shotguns. Length of pull and price are just right. This is not a reworked 870, but is, rather, twenty-first century new. Coupled with Remington’s Managed Recoil buckshot or slugs (the civilian version of the popular law enforcement reduced recoil load), the 887 stands ready to meet your CQB or mid-range needs.}

While it operates with controls similar to the 870’s, the 887 is not simply a dressed up, worked-over version of that revered model. It is, rather, a new design. Extremely capable out of the box and with all the tactical features the average shooter could want, including a tactical muzzle break and a $450 price tag, the 887 Nitro Mag Tactical is one of the few fixed-stock shotguns that has fit me without modification. Additionally, the Armor LOKT protective polymer finish makes it nearly impervious to the elements or hard knocks. You could throw this baby in the bed of a pickup truck or the toolbox and not have to worry about it getting torn up. It was a standout when I tested it for my book Tactical Shotguns, since all the rails for optics and lights were already in place. (And no, just because it has rails for optics and lights, it doesn’t mean you have to mount them.) You simply cannot beat a deal like this.

^{A formidable woman with a formidable firearm—in this case a Wilson Combat shotgun—is more than capable of defending her area of responsibility from a takeover.}

^{The shotgun can still dominate as a CQB-type of weapon for defense against single or multiple aggressors, whether they are of the two- or four-legged variety.}

^{The shotgun still sees some action with S.W.A.T. teams. In this case, the shotgun is the Benelli M1 semi-automatic. While many S.W.A.T. teams favor semi-autos, the pump-action models are the best survival guns, because they can fire any type of 12- gauge load without balking. The recoil-operated Benellis are great guns, but may not function reliably with reduced-recoil loads.}

CHAPTER SEVEN Handguns: Don’t Leave Home

Without One

A handgun (or several) is essential to your civil disorder survival gear. You simply can’t get by without them. Handguns are the final firearms used during close-quarter battle situations, or one may also be the only firearm you have with you when the balloon goes up. Obviously, you won’t be packing an AR in a movie theater, only the evil do that. With some forethought, you are going to be using a handgun, and hopefully it is big enough to do the job.

But the handgun is not only for CQB situations. With the right handgun and the right practice, you can effectively hit human-size targets out to 200 yards, free standing and with no optic attached. The fact that you can be effective at extended distances is important to understand and a skill you should be able to perform. With Ohio changing its minimum police qualifications from a 60-round course to a 25-round course and had its officers and trainees firing just two rounds at 50 feet shows a lack of understanding for the need of long-distance handgun fight tactics. This new “standard” does a great disservice to the officers in Ohio, in terms of their ability to defend themselves and also to the people they are sworn to defend. To make matters worse, officers can fail the 50-foot portion of the course, and as long as they pass the other reduced-distance portions, they are deemed to have qualified.

^{While the 1911 .45 ACP (mounted on the armor in the background) is a superior pistol shot for shot over a 9mm weapon, at only 7+1 rounds it lacks the magazine capacity of the 15+1 Beretta 92/M9 military pistol. The most recent M9 variant is the M9A1 with a built-in front rail, shown in the foreground with the BLACKHAWK! Xiphos tactical light attached. The grips are Crimson Trace’s Lasergrips and the sights are XS Sights small dot express sights with a tritium front insert. While the tactical light and laser sight are an excellent addition to the M9A1 for tactical law enforcement use, they aren’t needed on a dedicated survival handgun.}

Small-town PDs previously required by law to shoot the 60-round course each year will jump for administrative joy at the savings in ammo and overtime. (Oh, and don’t worry about shooting after dark, as officers no longer have to do that, either). But what does this say about their view of the world? While the states claim departments can do all the extra training they want, which is true, they are ignoring the long-term realities of the economic depression—yep, that’s what I said—we are currently being suffocated by.

Anyone out there think they don’t need long-distance handgun competency? Listen to this.

I have a friend, Brandon Moore, who was a deputy at the nearby Morrow County Sheriff’s Office. He was ambushed by a marijuana grower who began shooting him with a 5.56mm AR-15 from around 70 yards. Brandon, working plainclothes but wearing soft body armor and carrying a full-size Smith & Wesson M&P .40 with two spare magazines, was shot through the thigh and scrotum. The AR rounds blew out part of his testicles, then passed through the left leg, blowing away a chunk of tibia and causing that leg to be permanently shorter than the right. A final round from the pot grower penetrated the armor, slowing down, but taking out his spleen and collapsing a lung before its travel stopped.

Severely wounded, Brandon couldn’t make it back into his car to retrieve his AR, so he went to war with his M&P. In a rollover prone position with the gun in his right hand, and while clutching his scrotum with his left, Brandon returned fire, with multiple rounds and reloads, from a laser-measured distance of 64 yards, across a span of time that went at least 10 minutes.

I was guarding Moore’s assailant when the doctor came in to deliver the news of the guy’s condition. Brandon’s .40-caliber rounds had struck the shooter twice in the soft armor he was wearing, causing severe bruising, while the rest of the rounds had shattered the man’s right heel and totally pulverized eight inches of tibial bone in the same leg. His right foot was being held to the rest of his leg by some remaining flesh and a stainless steel rod. The assailant was forbidden to put any weight on his right foot until the doctors could figure out what they were going to do to permanently fix it; the rod was merely keeping the foot from flopping around. Whatever they figured out, the shooter was destined to be indisposed for a long time. Brandon, one of the most courageous men I have ever met, required multiple surgeries but returned to the job before eventually retiring.