The Top Five Handguns for Survival - They Would All Get You Thru Hard Times
If someone asked you what your opinion was on the top five pistols or revolvers that could be used for self defense or in a survival situation what would you say? When you think about it you need more than just five at least I would, so lets just look at semi automatic pistols. Caliber put aside, many of these are available in multiple calibers that should fit just about everyone, big and slow, small and fast or somewhere in between. Any one of these will get you through hard times, maybe hard times right around the corner.
The criteria for this needs to be understood going in. First and most important the weapon must be reliable, nothing else matters if it doesn’t shoot every time you pull the trigger. Second it must be accurate enough to get the bullet on the target at a moderate distance. We are not looking for a target grade or match pistol nor one that the best you can hope for is to hit the target somewhere at ten feet away. Combat accuracy is what we need to have. Third the weapon must be durable. In a survival situation you may not be able to get parts or a replacement weapon itself if things turn South. Last but not least the pistol needs to be affordable by the average person. Magazines and holsters shouldn’t be a special order item, it costs way too much to do that for most people. We are more or less looking at production firearms made by reputable manufacturers.
With those thing being said lets see what we have. Keep one thing in mind, if I miss your weapon feel free to explain why you feel it is well suited for our purposes. These pistols are in no specific order by the way.
Glock 17: This is the original plastic pistol and like them or not they have started an entire new world in handguns. The pistols themselves are extremely durable almost to the point of being ridiculous. The Glock 22 in 40 S&W is the single most popular police pistol in America and with good reason. A trademark of Glock pistols is high capacity magazines and their famous “safe action” trigger system. Glock is also the only pistol that can truly run dry, they are more or less the AK-47 of the pistol world. One person said that if you treat your gun like you treat your lawn mower, buy a Glock. The guns are everywhere, they are priced at competitive numbers and accessories of all kinds are found any place you look which translates to good pricing. Glock has pistols in 9mm, 357 Sig, 40 S&W, 45 Acp, 10mm and even the 45 Gap so finding your favorite caliber shouldn’t be that hard. Easy to clean and easy to shoot with a constant trigger pull it is easy to see why its so popular.
Sig P220/226: Now here we have weapon that is the choice of the FBI, Navy Seals, Coast Guard, Secret Service, The Texas Department of Public Safety and the list goes on. The weapons are at the top of the heap in the service/combat pistol market. It has been said many times that if a police department has the money they all want Sig’s. The Army even after adopting the Beretta M9 authorized the Sig M11, or for me and you the P228. Famous for their reliability and de-cocking system the pistols offer a rugged reliable side arm that have a plethora of accessories available for them. It has been said and could very well be true that the P220 in 45 Acp is the most accurate service pistol in 45 available today. I have seen these pistols feed empty cases. 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 Acp and of course 357 Sig are your caliber choices in this family. They say “To Hell and Back Reliability” and they mean it. One last thing, almost everyone who picks one up thinks a P226 fits their hand just right.
Beretta 92f/M9:Like them or not they are here to stay for some time to come. The U.S. military has reported excellent results from their pistols in the field once the lowest bidder contract magazines were replaced. The weapon runs and runs some more. The military has hundreds of thousands of these pistols in the field and have reported very few actual problems with them. Many have said that they need to hit the target several times to stop them but that is a fault of using a fmj jacket round not the pistol itself. With the addition of an accessory rail on the M9A1 the pistol can now compete with other top of the line pistols when it comes to using lights and lasers and such. Again here we have another pistol in use everywhere you turn so buying things for them is easy and well priced. These are big weapons so if there is one area that could be improved on its size, they are a little hard to hide in the summer.
Springfield Armory XD:This weapon has not seen any real use by military or law enforcement but it is one of the best selling pistols in the country. Here is a weapon that many see as an attempt to improve on the Glock, which it may very well be. Springfield introduced the XD(m) pistols as an upgrade to the basic gun. One thing about the XD’s is that they hold a bunch of rounds no matter what version or caliber you buy and they make a bunch of different versions by the way. Springfield is a little stingy on things like night sighted guns but other than that they give the buyer a nice pistol for the money which of the five pistols in this list, they are the lowest priced. Accessories are a little more limited that the others but again only because they don not have any major law enforcement or military contracts. The XD’s are reliable soft shooting weapons that people who own them really like them and they buy more, that’s one of the best endorsements you can get.
1911/Government Model: OK OK, you knew it had to be here. The government model has been around for over a century and I bet there is a reason for that. This big old fighter packs a big punch in one of the fastest shooting pistols you can own. Since it is single action almost anyone can shoot one well once they get by the recoil of the 45 Acp round. The 1911 can be turned into one of the most accurate reliable fighting handguns on the planet and is still what most people judge all the others against. Accessories are everywhere at all kinds of prices. The weapons themselves are durable and hard to break even in adverse conditions. So many companies make them now it would almost impossible to list them all. You have the original Colt, then Springfield, Taurus, Kimber, Sig, Para Ordinance, Auto Ordinance, Remington, Rock Island, some other island I’m sure, who knows. Custom guns from Wilson Combat, Night Hawk, Ed Brown and many more. With a good set if sights with a good trigger its hard to get a better combat firearm. They are easy to care for and keep on running.
So that’s it. Granted there are many many more. The Browning Hi Power is one of my favorites and then we have a bunch of pistols from makers like Kahr, Ruger and Taurus. Keep in mind the criteria we started with. Solid performers at competitive prices that were durable and reliable and that afforded owners easy access to accessories and parts if needed. While it is true that many others have good quality firearms I was looking for the best of the best that fit the bill. No crazy stuff like .50 caliber Desert Eagle’s even thought they are great fun and very powerful handguns, they just don’t fit the role for a survival handgun too well. Any one of these five above should be able to get you through hard times if they are given even moderate care.
The criteria for this needs to be understood going in. First and most important the weapon must be reliable, nothing else matters if it doesn’t shoot every time you pull the trigger. Second it must be accurate enough to get the bullet on the target at a moderate distance. We are not looking for a target grade or match pistol nor one that the best you can hope for is to hit the target somewhere at ten feet away. Combat accuracy is what we need to have. Third the weapon must be durable. In a survival situation you may not be able to get parts or a replacement weapon itself if things turn South. Last but not least the pistol needs to be affordable by the average person. Magazines and holsters shouldn’t be a special order item, it costs way too much to do that for most people. We are more or less looking at production firearms made by reputable manufacturers.
With those thing being said lets see what we have. Keep one thing in mind, if I miss your weapon feel free to explain why you feel it is well suited for our purposes. These pistols are in no specific order by the way.
Glock 17: This is the original plastic pistol and like them or not they have started an entire new world in handguns. The pistols themselves are extremely durable almost to the point of being ridiculous. The Glock 22 in 40 S&W is the single most popular police pistol in America and with good reason. A trademark of Glock pistols is high capacity magazines and their famous “safe action” trigger system. Glock is also the only pistol that can truly run dry, they are more or less the AK-47 of the pistol world. One person said that if you treat your gun like you treat your lawn mower, buy a Glock. The guns are everywhere, they are priced at competitive numbers and accessories of all kinds are found any place you look which translates to good pricing. Glock has pistols in 9mm, 357 Sig, 40 S&W, 45 Acp, 10mm and even the 45 Gap so finding your favorite caliber shouldn’t be that hard. Easy to clean and easy to shoot with a constant trigger pull it is easy to see why its so popular.
Sig P220/226: Now here we have weapon that is the choice of the FBI, Navy Seals, Coast Guard, Secret Service, The Texas Department of Public Safety and the list goes on. The weapons are at the top of the heap in the service/combat pistol market. It has been said many times that if a police department has the money they all want Sig’s. The Army even after adopting the Beretta M9 authorized the Sig M11, or for me and you the P228. Famous for their reliability and de-cocking system the pistols offer a rugged reliable side arm that have a plethora of accessories available for them. It has been said and could very well be true that the P220 in 45 Acp is the most accurate service pistol in 45 available today. I have seen these pistols feed empty cases. 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 Acp and of course 357 Sig are your caliber choices in this family. They say “To Hell and Back Reliability” and they mean it. One last thing, almost everyone who picks one up thinks a P226 fits their hand just right.
Beretta 92f/M9:Like them or not they are here to stay for some time to come. The U.S. military has reported excellent results from their pistols in the field once the lowest bidder contract magazines were replaced. The weapon runs and runs some more. The military has hundreds of thousands of these pistols in the field and have reported very few actual problems with them. Many have said that they need to hit the target several times to stop them but that is a fault of using a fmj jacket round not the pistol itself. With the addition of an accessory rail on the M9A1 the pistol can now compete with other top of the line pistols when it comes to using lights and lasers and such. Again here we have another pistol in use everywhere you turn so buying things for them is easy and well priced. These are big weapons so if there is one area that could be improved on its size, they are a little hard to hide in the summer.
Springfield Armory XD:This weapon has not seen any real use by military or law enforcement but it is one of the best selling pistols in the country. Here is a weapon that many see as an attempt to improve on the Glock, which it may very well be. Springfield introduced the XD(m) pistols as an upgrade to the basic gun. One thing about the XD’s is that they hold a bunch of rounds no matter what version or caliber you buy and they make a bunch of different versions by the way. Springfield is a little stingy on things like night sighted guns but other than that they give the buyer a nice pistol for the money which of the five pistols in this list, they are the lowest priced. Accessories are a little more limited that the others but again only because they don not have any major law enforcement or military contracts. The XD’s are reliable soft shooting weapons that people who own them really like them and they buy more, that’s one of the best endorsements you can get.
1911/Government Model: OK OK, you knew it had to be here. The government model has been around for over a century and I bet there is a reason for that. This big old fighter packs a big punch in one of the fastest shooting pistols you can own. Since it is single action almost anyone can shoot one well once they get by the recoil of the 45 Acp round. The 1911 can be turned into one of the most accurate reliable fighting handguns on the planet and is still what most people judge all the others against. Accessories are everywhere at all kinds of prices. The weapons themselves are durable and hard to break even in adverse conditions. So many companies make them now it would almost impossible to list them all. You have the original Colt, then Springfield, Taurus, Kimber, Sig, Para Ordinance, Auto Ordinance, Remington, Rock Island, some other island I’m sure, who knows. Custom guns from Wilson Combat, Night Hawk, Ed Brown and many more. With a good set if sights with a good trigger its hard to get a better combat firearm. They are easy to care for and keep on running.
So that’s it. Granted there are many many more. The Browning Hi Power is one of my favorites and then we have a bunch of pistols from makers like Kahr, Ruger and Taurus. Keep in mind the criteria we started with. Solid performers at competitive prices that were durable and reliable and that afforded owners easy access to accessories and parts if needed. While it is true that many others have good quality firearms I was looking for the best of the best that fit the bill. No crazy stuff like .50 caliber Desert Eagle’s even thought they are great fun and very powerful handguns, they just don’t fit the role for a survival handgun too well. Any one of these five above should be able to get you through hard times if they are given even moderate care.
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Not a fan of 9 mm.I wonder how many of the experts would a 9 mm. If limited to 10- rd.mag.more is not always better.like the.45acp.glock 21.13-plus 1.better than any 9mm of any capacity.even though not a fan of polymers.seraph I live 4 legged creatures also to deal with.my RUGER- krh 444.specials for 2 legged personnel.magnum for other needs.
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