"truck guns"

[cooperritchey]

Mosin nagant, cheap, hard hitting, and durable, if its to long get a mosin nagant m44, I think you can get one for about a $100.00 so you don't really have to worry about it getting stolen, not much value

 

[wayfarer]

Mosin nagant, cheap, hard hitting, and durable, if its to long get a mosin nagant m44, I think you can get one for about a $100.00 so you don't really have to worry about it getting stolen, not much value

Agreed.
The M44 is actually a decent bolt gun. Easy to dress-up with an ATI stock and, scope mounts, if needed, are easy to install. The surplus ammo is still relatively cheap and compares well to other .30 stuff.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

Yep. I'd go with a Mosin Nagant if I had one on hand. Add it to the list of inexpensive, homely but rugged old ex-miliary bolt guns that are hard to break and will do a job.

BTW, my vision is changing with age and I can't stick scopes, red dots and lasers onto everything I own. It's hard to see ordinary sights without glasses, and even glasses don't make it like it was in the past. The other day I was shooting the single shot .22 rifle that Dad used to teach me to shoot (sort of a nostalgia thing since Dad's passing), and I realized it has sights well suited to poor vision (as well as low light - that and a Rayovac Sportsman light kept the family fed, back when times were lean). The small gold bead front and the large rear aperture (really an old Lyman peep sight that does not have any of the various apertures screwed into the ring of the sight) seem to function instinctively, your eye centering the bead without you even being fully aware of the rear ring. I guess Dad was using a "ghost ring" before the term was popular.

I think my ideal truck gun should have either irons that I can actually see, as described above, or cheap but reliable glass of no more than four power - on see-through mounts because one never bets one's life that a scope won't get busted.

I don't think it's essential that the truck gun have common ammo, just desirable. If you find enough to feed it (get loading dies and components), the 7.65 Argentine, .30-40 Krag, .303 British, 8x57 Mauser and a handful of others will do the job. For me, the primary features of a truck gun are "cheap, durable, reliable and accurate within expected ranges." If it's 7.62x39 or .308 that's just a bonus, so long as it's cheap. Hey, I just remembered that I have a Stevens 325C in pieces. If I can find all the parts and put them back together, a cheap bolt .30-30 will fill the bill as a truck gun.

In the heavy duty truck gun dept. I have a Siamese Mauser in .45-70 with 20" heavy barrel and sights of Ashley Emerson's design, the white line front post and ghost ring rear. That's my "bear in the brush" gun. If it was just a bit more beaten up, and it wasn't for the fact that converting, re-stocking and putting new sights on even a cheap Siamese Mauser action makes it not-so-cheap, it would make a sledgehammer of a truck gun. Some of my handloads in the Siamese Mauser .45-70 kill on one end and maim on the other.

 

[40calruler]

I may be looked at by people outside of here as a bit nutty but hey nobody knows what is in the vehicle.
I keep a taurus 4" .357 in the locking center consul..cost was around 350 for the gun and function is great.
I do drive out of town a lot so I keep a lockbox in the back with a couple boxes of ammo and a small backpack with a ruger 10/22 takedown. Seems to me that having a .22 rifle that I can "conceal" in a backpack is a comforting thing if I ever needed to hunt or do anything that takes some accuracy more than the .357 will give.

Also carry iwb most of the time so likely if I needed to grab a gun quick it would be my Sig 238 that I have fallen in love with. The wife, kids, and everyone aside from my brother have no clue that stuff is in there along with some fire starters, flares, good buck knife and a folding shovel..Some rice and beans as well.

Call me crazy but at least I will be crazy and prepared.

 

[erudne]

At last weeks Carson Gun Show there was a 303 and a 8mm, for $60.
There was also an M-44 in a sporter stock for around $90 they would have been excellent truck guns

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Since we cannot keep a rifle or shotgun loaded in the vehicle in Oregon or Washington, I am thinking that an AK pistol like a PAP would be the most useful.

 

[40calruler]

I wondered that. A AR or AK pistol with an arm brace would be a pretty darn good SHTF weapon to have at the ready. I just really like the 10/22 takedown for the ease and accuracy. Yes it is under powered but my thinking is that I can carry hundreds of rounds without being weighed down. a couple boxes of CCI stingers and 4 25 round mags along with a couple of the stock mags. I really like those rifles for their concealment and reliability.

 

[erudne]

The up-side of military rifles is their stripper clips and/or mags for rapid loading, a few seconds or a minute at worst.
In my imagination there will be an event or series of lesser occurrences that will lead-up to the need of a truck gun as every-day-carry. The exact circumstances are impossible to predict at this point.

Of course in rural areas nearly everyone has a rifle, if not in plain sight then tucked-away out of sight.

My old friend that was a Nevada State Patrol officer back in the 1970's he carried a 17" 308Win, despite NSSP policy simply because he was one of 3 'Staties' on patrol, on the graveyard shift, in the entire state of Nevada, He had seen 357s bounce off of speeding felon's car tires and take out a patrol car in the process.

 

[Hamilton Felix]

"Since we cannot keep a rifle or shotgun loaded in the vehicle in Oregon or Washington, I am thinking that an AK pistol like a PAP would be the most useful."

Good points. I've had a long time interest in the bullpup concept, because of getting "a lot of gun in a small package." Same thing with other short shoulder arms. Since the SIG brace came out, AR pistols have taken off. Frankly, the short AK makes more sense, at least when comparing in original calibers. The .223 is a varmint round and velocity is its thing. Short barrels lose a lot of that. The 7.62x39 is closer to being a light bullet .30-30 though at a bit more pressure. I have data for loading it with 150 grain bullets. I think it would have more to offer in a shorter barrel. And, being a pistol owned by a CPL holder, it may be carried loaded in the car.

I certainly don't rule out the AR or AK pistol with arm brace. But then, part of my definition of truck gun is "cheap," so that $60 .303 or 8mm and $90 M-44 comes closer.

 

[erudne]

Just FYI:
The ancient 8mm projectile of WW2 was deemed to be the most aerodynamic round ever designed, at that point.
Not that I'm a 8mm-phile by any means but it's as good as a 30-cal or a 303 when it comes to putin' meat on the table

 

[wayfarer]

Just my thoughts about the question of loaded carry in the car. That restriction apparently is by local edict and with a CCW you are "maybe-not" restricted in any city/county location. The legal-eze gets real fuzzy and most certainly confusing but with a CCW you are apparently golden. The big issue is that the Court of Appeals has decided that your vehicle is a public place...figure that one out.....
Kevin Starrett has plenty of info on the OFF site and answers plenty of questions.
http://www.oregonfirearms.org/102-14-08-oregon-court-of-appeals-deals-major-blow-to-gun-rights
http://www.oregonfirearms.org/faq

...I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV......

 

[Hamilton Felix]

I'm not hung up on the idea of keeping a loaded rifle in the truck, but less restriction is always good. It was my understanding that the loaded pistol in the car is accepted for CPL holders because the legal alternative is more dangerous - CPL holder unloading his gun every time he stops in a "guns prohibited" location, then loading it again when he gets back into the car, lots of too obvious and potentially dangerous handling. But I could be way out in left field, and enforcement is often inconsistent if not capricious. I just try not to attract attention.

As to the truck gun: it must be cheap and able to reliably put down a bear, deer (or elk, depending on your location) from 100 yards or so. It's not your favorite "shoot across a canyon" high country hunting rifle, but it has to be bombproof reliable.

 

[erudne]

It's not your favorite "shoot across a canyon" high country hunting rifle, but it has to be bombproof reliable"