One of the all-time most popular posts here on Bug Out Survival is the piece I wrote back in 2010 on some of my ideas and modifications for fitting a Ruger 10/22 into a bug-out bag. The reason is obvious: the Ruger 10/22 has long been a favorite in a semi-automatic carbine of this caliber, and because of it's great reliability record and aftermarket support, many people planning to carry a .22 long gun as part of their bug-out equipment would prefer to have this model over most choices out there.
The 10/22 is a compact carbine even in its standard configuration, and even more so with a 16-inch barrel, but until recently, if you wanted to conceal it completely inside the average backpack or bug-out bag, you needed to either fit a bulky and somewhat heavier aftermarket folding stock, or take the receiver out of the stock as I described in the above-mentioned post. I've carried the 10/22 both ways on various wilderness trips. Folding stocks such as the Butler Creek model I used completely change the balance and feel of the weapon, and add a lot of bulk inside the pack when folded. Taking the standard rifle apart works, but does entail some risk of losing internal parts if you're not careful, and takes a lot more time than simply folding a stock.
The new take-down version of the 10/22 brings a whole new reason to choose this weapon, as you can now have one of the best semi-auto .22 carbines in existence with the packability of other take-down models such as the Marlin Papoose and Henry AR-7.
Here's a video introduction to this new 10/22 model that shows just how easily it can be taken apart and put back together:
For serious packing of a bug-out bag, I would certainly lose the bulky, fitted backpack it comes with, though this may be a handy way to carry it in other situations such as in a vehicle or boat. I haven't picked up one of these yet, but for $300 I probably will and look forward to comparing it to my other 10/22 rifles.
As I've mentioned here many times and in my books, I'm a big fan of the .22 rimfire when it comes to all around hunting and survival weapons. While there are many circumstances where other, more potent calibers are certainly needed, the lowly .22 rimfire does a good job as an all-around game getter and many experienced hunters and wilderness travelers would agree that if they could only have one gun, they might reach for their trusty .22, especially since so much ammunition can be carried in a small space. I've always been more of a rifleman than a handgunner myself, and most anyone would have better results putting meat on the table with an accurate long gun than a pistol or revolver, but if one of these two fine rimfire handguns were my own, I think I'd invest the time and effort into getting as proficient as possible with it.
These are not mine, however, but I'm temporarily in possession of them as a friend who is out of the country shipped them to me for safekeeping until he can pick them up. What you see here is a Ruger Single Six revolver in .22 Magnum, and the classic Colt Woodsman .22 Long Rifle automatic pistol:
Both of these models have long been popular with serious handgun hunters and marksmen, and either would do a fine job of bagging small game in the hands of a competent shooter. The Colt Woodsman, in particular has a perfectly-balanced feel in the hand and a silky slick action. Unlike many of today's lightweight .22 automatics, this is a pistol that is built to last and to be handed down through the generations. The Woodsman is getting harder to find these days, and if you do find one, it won't be cheap. Both of these came in old school fitted leather holsters, reminding me of the .22 revolver that was the first handgun I ever fired under my dad's watchful eye:
I might get better results with my 10/22 carbine, but I'd sure like to have either one of these in my bug out bag as well if I had to take off to the woods for an extended stay.
I spent most of the day last Saturday canoeing with my long-time camping and adventure-travel buddy, Ernest Herndon. We went to a large national forest lake here in south Mississippi mainly just to get out on the water for a few hours, but also because I wanted to shoot some footage for a video I plan to post here soon, in which Ernest demonstrates a simple paddling technique that makes long-distance travel in a canoe much more feasible and less exhausting. I'll have that video live here as soon as I have time to edit it.
Out on the lake, as we explored the hidden coves that reach like fingers into the wooded hills of the surrounding national forest, we saw a wide array of waterfowl coming and going, as well as deer and squirrel activity within sight of the water. Our conversation turned to survival hunting, as Ernest had read my last post here and we talked then about the different methods so many people use to achieve the same end, namely putting meat in the freezer
With over 30 years experience as a newspaper reporter in south Mississippi, including covering the local hunting and fishing reports and writing a weekly outdoor page for the Sunday Edition, Ernest has seen about every technique imaginable and has spend lots of time in the woods, swamps and fields with some incredibly skilled outdoorsmen. Most of these guys he knows are the kind I mentioned before that probably never read survival books yet have a knack for finding and getting their game when most everyone else comes up empty handed. They range from some local backwoodsmen who probably don't read any books at all to the highly-educated, like Ernest's own son, who is a doctor but also one of the most avid and skilled hunters I've ever met. Anyone who has done a lot of hunting and fishing has seen the type. The conversation reminded me of a hard-drinking surveyor I used to work with who each day after work would walk the banks of a lake near the job with a rod and reel and one specific artificial lure, and come back near dark with a plastic garbage bag full of bass. This in the same lake where my brother and I rarely got a strike. The same guy was equally proficient with getting deer during hunting season.
Discussing characters like this, especially the ones Ernest has accompanied and interviewed over the years, led us to more conversation about alternative methods of game and fish gathering that are rarely discussed in a survival context. Take hand-grabbing for instance: This involves wading along the shores of a creek or lake and reaching into holes to grab catfish that are laying up there. People who are good at this can get far more fish than they can eat in a very short time, but again, there's a knack to it that some have while most of us would have to work a lot harder at it. It's all about knowing how and where to look. The same goes for setting out drop hooks in the local creek, building fish weirs or rigging snares and traps. We also talked about frog-gigging, shining beavers, alligator, rabbit and deer at night, and even killing armadillos with a stick, if you were desperate and couldn't find anything else.
When the conversation turned to the optimum firearms to take in a survival situation, as these discussions always seem to do, Ernest expressed his thoughts on shotguns, which would be his first choice because of versatility with a variety of loads. He said the weight and bulk issues of the ammunition could be mitigated somewhat by choosing a smaller bore, like a 20 gauge, and that he would prefer the simplicity of a single or double-barrel over a pump or automatic. Knowing that if Ernest actually had to bug out someday he would do so in a canoe along a local stream, I could find no fault with his choice of weapon because in a canoe he could carry all the ammo he wanted and in the thick cover around here, the shotgun would sure make it easier to harvest squirrels and most other game. I grew up learning to hunt with a Savage singe-shot 20 gauge myself, and later switched to a .22 for small game before acquiring a variety of rifles in different calibers.
As a result of this conversation, Ernest decided to poll some local experienced hunters regarding their choice of a survival firearm and got a variety of answers, with many favoring 12-gauge shotguns, and few opting for a 20-gauge, a .22 rifle, a .22 revolver with interchangeable .22 Magnum cylinder, and one preferring a .17 HMR rifle.
Another interesting topic of this conversation we had regarding survival hunting concerned what we have seen in our travels in various parts of the world. Ernest went on two expeditions into the interior of New Guinea back in the 1980's, including visiting a village in the mountainous jungles there where the people still hunted with bows and arrows and wore bones through their noses. He wrote a book about it called In The Hearts Of Wild Men. In New Guinea at that time, he also encountered various subsistence hunters that used shotguns, while crocodile hunters were still using spears. Later, in the 1990's, we traveled together in both the jungle areas and drier mountain areas of Honduras and encountered both Miskito Indians and campesinos who hunted every kind of animal in the region with .22 rifles. Lucio, our host at a remote ranch near the El Salvador border even used his .22 to shoot fish when we approached a stream and claimed to have killed over 200 deer with his well-worn and rusty Marlin Model 60.
The conclusion we came to is that you use what you have and what you feel comfortable with. When we stopped for lunch and Ernest broke out his banjo to pick some blues, I decided maybe he won't have to hunt after all in a post-apocalyptic world! People are still going to need entertainment after the lights go out, and what could be better than some banjo blues by a campfire out in the backwoods? I recorded one of his tunes for YouTube and thought I would share it here too:
Deer season is in full swing here in Mississippi and naturally, in a state blessed with an abundance of woods and game, hunting is a big deal here. The woods are full of folks out to fill their freezers with venison or seek a trophy rack to hang on the wall. As I've mentioned here before, I believe that plenty of the backwoodsmen who grew up in places like this learning to hunt and fish from childhood could feed themselves just fine if forced into a bug-out situation after the SHTF. Although they may not read survival blogs on the Internet, own any books on the subject, or even give it any thought, many would know where and how to to find game and have the skills to do so. This is especially true of the older generation around here, such as those who grew up in impoverished rural areas where hunting was a supplement to the everyday food supply back when many people still grew most of what they ate and raised livestock for the same purpose.
Today, despite all the concrete and the cities and roads and the ever-growing human population, deer are more abundant in the South than they were at the time of De Soto's expedition in the 1540's. Wildlife management programs are largely responsible for this. Another major factor is a lack of natural predators, such as mountain lions (usually called panthers down here) that were long since wiped out but may be coming back. Finally, one of the biggest factors is the reversion of most farmland back to woods or pine tree plantations, creating more natural habitat. This explosion of the deer population is evident everywhere, especially along the highways and backroads where they are frequently hit by vehicles and are especially a menace to those of us who sometimes ride motorcycles. Large numbers of deer are often seen wandering into suburban neighborhoods and down city streets at night, something that was unheard of here when I was growing up.
This abundance should make deer hunting easier than ever, and it has, but few "hunters" that I know of anymore practice anything that really resembles hunting. Instead, today it has become all about ease and comfort, with so much reliance on technology and expensive equipment that skills and woodsmanship are rarely considered.
I don't know how widespread this practice is in other regions of the country, but here the concept of climbing a tree to get a better view and to get out of the deer's line of sight and normal zone of awareness has evolved in just my lifetime to something completely different. When deer hunters first took to the trees to get above their game, it was by either climbing a tree with well-spaced branches and perching in a fork or building some simple wooden platform in the fork with perhaps a few 2 x 4 rungs nailed to the trunk for easier access. Then, the portable climbing tree stand was introduced, allowing hunters to carry the stand most anywhere and use it on straight, limbless trees to get an unobstructed shooting platform. I remember buying one of the earliest ones on the market - a dangerous contraption with a flexible steel band that wrapped around the tree and held the lightweight plywood platform in place - as long as your weight was properly centered on it. Climbing tree stands got better over the years, with more security aloft and better methods of attaching and climbing the tree, such as this one: Summit Viper SS 81066 Climbing Stand
Then the portable climbing tree stand fell out of favor with most hunters and was replaced with a variety of ladder-stands, with the platform and ladder all built into one. These were heavier and bulkier, of course, not something you could backpack into the wilderness to set up in a new location on every hunt. But this didn't seem to bother most hunters, who then decided to skip the tree part of the "tree" stand altogether and erect free-standing shooting towers, much like those you see guarding the perimeter walls of a prison or garrison. No longer simple platforms, these stands featured "shooting houses" atop them, complete with comfortable chairs, shooting ports and heaters. Some of these were home-built on site, but a new industry sprung up to provide a variety of such tower stands with built-in shooting houses. Now these are all the rage around here, and they can be seen from the highways and backroads overlooking cut-overs, pipeline and powerline right of ways, and food plots. The portability is gone, except of course for the initial set-up, which in the case of the biggest ones requires equipment like a tractor with a forklift.
Because this new type of hunting from a fixed location eliminated the possibility of scouting recent deer trails and setting up ambush sites based on the current movements of the deer being sought, shooting house hunters had to either bait their quarry with a planted food plot or set up over an open space like a pipeline and hope for the best. The food plot option has of course, become the most popular. It is without doubt an effective means of killing deer, but will those young hunters growing up using nothing but these methods be able to effectively hunt if cast out into a survival situation in trackless swamp or mountain forest? Will they know how and where to look for deer signs, and how to take advantage of available cover to still hunt from the ground, and to get within effective range of an open-sighted rifle or more primitive weapon such as a traditional bow? It seems apparent to me that many hunting skills are being lost, even by those who are growing up in the country and raised in a hunting tradition - not to mention the vast majority of more urban youth who have no interest in it or access to it at all.
I don't have a problem with anyone's choice of hunting methods and I'm all for anything that thins the herd some, since there are no predators other than human hunters and speeding vehicles on the highway to do this. But the point I want to make is that such methods do not prepare one for real survival hunting while on the move and in the deep woods and swamps where shooting houses and food plots are non-existent. If you want to be prepared to hunt for your food in a bug-out situation, you're going to have to get off the 4-wheeler, leave the comfort of the shooting house, and forget about the carefully-planted food plots. You need to know what the natural foods are that your quarry depends on in your region, and what seasons they are available and where to find them. You have to think about water sources and look for well-used trails to and from them. You need to be aware of wind direction and natural techniques for masking your human scent. You need to know how to move quietly and slowly when in your hunting territory, and how to stalk with excruciatingly slow deliberation when necessary to get closer for a shot. You need to be an expert with your hunting weapon of choice as one shot may be the difference between going to bed hungry or well-fed.
Another factor to consider is that hunting the old way can be more fun and certainly more challenging. You may not get a deer as often, but when you do, it will be more rewarding and you will know what it feels like to be a hunter. Getting your game on its own terms and at the same level will give you the confidence you need to know that you can survive. If this is something you are already doing, then take it to the next level by using more primitive hunting weapons. In a future post I will show some examples of the traditional and primitive archery equipment that I have made to give you some ideas about how you can get into this too if you find it interesting.
The Ruger 10/22 is an all-time favorite among many rimfire enthusiasts, and for good reason. It's a reasonably priced, lightweight, reliable and infinitely customizable auto-loading carbine chambered for the .22 Long Rifle cartridge. The 10/22 has long been one of my personal favorites when it comes to semi-auto .22 rifles, but in its standard configuration, it's not often marketed as a "survival rifle" in the way that purpose-made take down rifles such as the Henry AR-7 and the Marline Papoose are. I've owned all these various survival rifles at one time or another, and all have gone with me on some of my long wilderness trips. But given the choice, I would take a 10/22 over any of them. It was never a problem to slide a standard, wood-stocked 10/22 into one of the long storage compartments of my sea kayak or into a duffel bag in the canoe, but how do you fit one in a backpack or bug-out bag?
In my book I make the case for having a take-down .22 survival rifle inside the bug-out bag and away from the prying eyes of the authorities or others who may take an interest in it, especially in an urban bug-out situation, where firearms may be confiscated as they were in New Orleans after Katrina. There are folding stock options available for the 10/22 that can solve this problem, and I've used them many times, but never really warmed up to them. I really like the handling of this great little carbine in the standard wooden stock. And the folding stocks are much heavier and add the bulk of a pistol grip that is really not necessary in a survival .22 rifle. Once such stock that is still available is the Butler Creek Folding Stock Butler Creek also made a take-down folding stock for the 10/22 that was much more practical, but is no longer in production.
To keep the look and feel of the carbine stock, I decided to customize mine for my own requirements. The main criteria regarding fitting it easily in the bug-out bag for me was that the longest part had to be 24-inches or less. To that end, I took a Ruger 10/22 Compact model, which comes with a 16-inch barrel, and mated it with a cut-down carbine stock from another 10/22 I have that is currently residing in a Butler Creek folder. The entire barrel and receiver assembly for the 10/22 Compact is just 21 1/2 inches long. The overall length of the Compact in the factory stock is 34 inches and it weighs just 4.5 lbs. - a good place to start. Here's what is looks like in factory configuration, the other stock pictured will be explained next:
I didn't want to mess up the nice new stock that came on my new 10/22 Compact, in case I want to sell the rifle later, and besides, I like the traditional buttplate style of the carbine stock anyway. If you don't have a spare carbine stock like this, you can pick one up on Ebay all day long for about 25 bucks, as so many people take these off to install all sorts of "tactical" stocks on the 10/22, as well as target and precision hunting stocks. In this photo you can see the difference in the stock lengths, and the piece I cut off the carbine stock. I cut it to a total length of 23.5 inches, which meets my requirements and still leaves plenty of forearm to grip when shooting. After all, remember the Marline Papoose and the AR-7 have no forearm forward of the receiver at all, forcing you to grip the front of the receiver or rest the barrel on your hand. This cut-down carbine stock is comfortable for me and I'm 6'-2" tall. It's also extremely lightweight.
After cutting it down, I reshaped the fore end and sanded away all the fake walnut finish on the birch stock. I then coated it with clear epoxy resin to make it impervious to the elements.
Although the naturally-finished wood looks better than the fake stain (did I ever say how much I hate stained wood - being a professional boatbuilder and yacht carpenter?) I decided to spray a coat of green Krylon Fusion over it to keep in the spirit of a "survival" rifle. I now have a handy 10/22 that fits within the 24-inch package, which is plenty short enough to disappear inside a decent sized backpack.
The 10/22 is not meant to be a "take-down" rifle, but the fact is that there is only one screw attaching the receiver to the stock (the Compact model does not have the barrel band). You can assemble this by tightening down this one screw with a screwdriver blade on your multitool just as fast as you can put together a Papoose or AR-7. Sure, you have to be careful not to lose the screw, or the take-down pins that hold in the trigger assembly, but for bug-out purposes, the rifle is going to stay disassembled until you get out of Dodge, and then will likely stay assembled and in use for the duration of whatever SHTF event sent you packing in the first place. I simply slide the receiver end into one of my spare socks inside the pack, the take-down screw threaded in place. The stock and barrel can be protected inside a sleeve or pants leg of your spare clothing - or you can get fancy and make a custom case for the two parts.
The main thing is that when you do need it for survival hunting, you'll have a well-made, reliable rifle that is easy to carry and handle in the field.
I'll be posting more about this set-up in the future, as well as some of the other Ruger 10/22 options and other .22 rifles you may not have considered for the bug-out bag.
Anyone planning to bug out on coastal waters or along rivers or other waterways with reasonably clear water should consider adding a simple bowfishing rig to their gear, as it will take up little room and adds little weight even in the smallest bug-out vessels such as canoes and sea kayaks.
In the photo below (taken a few years back) is a good-sized Sheepshead I shot not far from the beach while camping on a remote barrier island. These fish tend to congregate around rocks and other structure, and I got into a school of them by wading out an old wreck after setting up my camp ashore. There's nothing like fresh fillets cooked in the skillet on the beach as the sun goes down. The bow is a Hoyt take-down recurve drawing 60 lbs. This is a versatile hunting weapon, but if you are choosing a bow just for bowfishing, you can get by with something much simpler, and of lower draw weight, since the shooting is done at close range.
Shooting a bow from a kayak is difficult, if not impossible in most conditions, but it is feasible to bowfish while standing in a canoe, dinghy or John boat. I've had great success with this method of fishing when cruising on my larger sailboat, especially when anchored in mangrove areas, where I rowed the dinghy up into narrow creeks among the flooded roots and waited for schools of mangrove snapper to swim by. It takes practice to get good at hitting small, often fast-moving targets under the water, but it's well worth the effort if you're in an environment where you can see beneath the surface.
In addition to a suitable bow, you will need at least one fishing arrow and some sort of bowfishing reel. Modern, manufactured bowfishing arrows are usually made of solid fiberglass so they will be heavy enough to penetrate a few feet of water and still have enough energy to impale a fish. They are tipped with a barbed point that can be unscrewed from the shaft since the barbs prevent pulling the arrow backwards out of the fish. Fletching is not even needed at the typical close ranges at which bowfishing is done, but most fishing arrows are fletched with heavy-duty, waterproof plastic vanes for flight stabilization. For the reel, I prefer the simple, open-faced design that looks like a handreel and screws directly to the front of the bow in the threaded receiver most modern bows come with for adding stabilizers. Here is an example of one of these I found on Amazon for just $11.85 Bohning Bowfishing Reel With Line You can get a complete kit with an arrow for less than 30 bucks: Sting-A-Ree II Bowfishing Kit. Tape-on reels are also available that work well for longbows and primitive self-bows lacking threaded inserts: Beginner Bowfishing Package, Tape On Mount.
Fancier designs are available with reels that are more similar to those used for angling, but for this kind of fishing I like the simplicity of the hand reel. There's nothing to break or get tangled and it packs away easily when not in use. I will be posting more on bowfishing, and archery in general in future posts, including details on primitive equipment that can be self-made and can be just as effective.
. In New Guinea at that time, he also encountered various subsistence hunters that used shotguns, while crocodile hunters were still using spears. Later, in the 1990's, we traveled together in both the jungle areas and drier mountain areas of Honduras and encountered both Miskito Indians and campesinos who hunted every kind of animal in the region with .22 rifles. Lucio, our host at a remote ranch near the El Salvador border even used his .22 to shoot fish when we approached a stream and claimed to have killed over 200 deer with his well-worn and rusty Marlin Model 60.
Butler Creek also made a take-down folding stock for the 10/22 that was much more practical, but is no longer in production. 
You can get a complete kit with an arrow for less than 30 bucks: 
. Tape-on reels are also available that work well for longbows and primitive self-bows lacking threaded inserts: 
.
