This guide will be purely talking about equipment. There are many other resources for training and organizing. I will leave out anything that requires further knowledge, this guide is meant to be accessible NOT in depth. This guide is meant to be shared to people who do not own a gun or are otherwise ignorant. If you have any suggestions or corrections I will edit it. Once the final product is complete I will turn it into a pdf and a simple image guide to be shared. This is a collaborative project so if you think something I said is stupid, let me know.
You need a semi-auto rifle, specifically an ar15.
They're accurate, lightweight, high capacity, and can shoot quickly.
An ar15 is recommended due to their customization and versatility. Parts and ammo for an ar are also very easy to get (at least in the US). The 556 round has proven time and time again to be effective. Sure an ak might look cooler but they are often more expensive and not as reliable as an ar. This guide will be US centric so a lot of the advice maybe won't apply to you if you live elsewhere.
Ar15 Basic Guide:
You can save money by getting a separate lower and upper. They're easy to put together. The upper matters a lot, the lower much less so. Oftentimes complete ars will have an overpriced lower so buying just the upper and the lower separate can save you quite a bit.
Handguard style: I always recommend M-Lok. It's lighter and better than keymod and allows easy attachments. I honestly don't see any reason to choose anything else unless if you just don't like the feeling of m-lok for whatever reason in which case you can research alternatives.
Length: The length you'll likely end up using is 16", this is as short as you get without dealing with any annoying laws. For whatever reason anything below this is much more of a hassle to get. 16 is a fine length anyway. A 20" will shoot the round faster and a bit further, but the military decided to move away from it in favor of a shorter length. I don't think the extra speed makes enough of a difference to justify the extra length. As for going shorter the rifle will get less accurate but for close quarters combat (such as inside buildings) this is preferred. Specifically an 11.5" is a great option. Remember though the military used 20" barrels inside for years. If they can do it so can you.
Tldr: Buy a 16"
Brands: Now this part depends heavily on your budget. If you're well off I would recommend just buying a complete Daniel Defense ddm4v7, it's high end and out of the box simply works. (Around $2k) The next runner up is a BCM upper and an aero M4E1 lower. This is still pricey but cheaper than the ddm4v7 and has 99% of the performance. You can also get a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport III for around $700. There are many other brands but these are just to give you an idea of what's out there. There's also PSA guns for under $500 but honestly you're betting on this thing to protect your life, you may as well spend the extra money.
I got to go to work so I'll continue this a bit later. I'm going to write up parts about Pistols, Holsters, Plate Carriers/Armor, boots, Gloves, magazines, optics, etc.
>>5665>ak might look cooler but they are often more expensive and not as reliable as an ar.An AK is just as reliable, if not more so, then an AR.
>You need a semi-auto rifle, specifically an ar15This is great advice for Americans, the rest of the world probably can't get one though.
>16", this is as short as you get without dealing with any annoying laws.I really like 14.5" barrel length. You can pin and weld a muzzle device to make it 16". Another option for anything shorter than 16" is to just make it a pistol by using a pistol brace. This isn't legal in all states though.
>> BrandsFocus your money on the upper and parts. All lowers are built to mil-spec, so it doesn't really matter honestly. All I run are poverty ponys aka Anderson lowers.
Also, PSA is great, i have no qualms recommending them. Ive had no issue with my PSA build. You can get a build kit for 400 and a lower for 60 and have a functional rifle that will get the job done.
Grand thumb did a review on the PSA freedom rifle and shot 5k rounds before seeing issues with the barrel. Unless you're constantly shooting, 5k rounds is A LOT. No one should feel uncertain about PSA being able to protect your life.
>>5666Also, forgot to mention, for $800 PSA offers an AR-15 / dagger (Glock 19 clone) combo. This is a great deal for someone who doesn't own any guns. I love PSA, idk why people feel so confident to hate them when they have good stuff at a great price.
>>5666>>5667Thanks for the help I'll remember to include this info in the final guide. Can you send a link to the psa combo?
>>5667PSA is absolutely awesome. Ignore the haters. Its people who have a lot of money and like to hate on cheap/budget things aimed at people with less money. I will tell you from my own experience, PSA is completely quality. Most of the haters have never owned a PSA weapon.
>>5665Will this guide hold up to CA laws or are there any other semi autos that would work better?
>>5665No AR-15's in the Democratic People's Republic of Illinois. Sigh.
>You need a semi-auto rifle, specifically an ar15.
what exactly are your military credentials, anon?
direct conventional warfare against us military and paramilitary personnel is suicide. a leftist counter-insurgency coalition is outnumbered and outgunned on every front and therefore must resort to guerilla warfare tactics. if you want to know what kind of weapon is most effective in this type of scenario, all you need to do is look back to the vietnam war, look at what caused the most injuries and deaths of u.s. military personnel.
first of all, the majority of u.s. casualities in vietnam were not from bullets, but from explosives, namely mortar shells and mines. explosive fragmentation was responsible for about 60-70% of all us casualities in vietnam, and many of them were improvised explosive devices, often repurposed unexploded ordinance.
as for small arms casualties, the vast majority were not from snipers firing from long distances, contrary to popular belief, but from ambushes at very short range, 50 meters or less, with 7.62x39mm rounds, i.e. ak-47 and sks rifles. the viet cong would hide in the bushes and wait until the enemy was right on top of them and mow them down with close range rapid fire. the large heavy bullets caused much more grievous injuries than the more modern 5.56mm round.
snipers also played a vital role, but their role was more about psychological warfare than anything else; viet cong snipers often did not even aim to hit any target, they would do things like rig up a mosin-nagant rifle in a tree or in a tunnel and fire it remotely by pulling a string to terrorize and confuse the enemy. the psychological impact was devastating, us soldiers would surrounded on all sides by untraceable sniper fire and explosive booby traps, being herded like cattle into the aforementioned deadly close-range ambushes.
with all this in mind, i would say that the best rifle to carry in a hypothetical modern civil war type scenario would be a lightweight large caliber carbine. unlike vietnam, modern day enemy combatants will often be wearing soft body armor which protects against pistol and shotgun rounds, and even small-calibre rifle rounds to a lesser degree, but is useless against something as powerful as a 7.62 or the various deer hunting rounds such as the .308, .30-30, .30-06, .270, etc.
personally my choice of weapon would be a lever-action brush gun chambered in .30-30, such as the pictured marlin 336. at first glance it seems like an absurd choice, this old-timey lever-action rifle, but there is a reason why many deer hunters still swear by this weapon to this day - it's lightweight, reliable, simple to operate and repair, allows for very fast follow-up shots, and the heavy round-nose .30-30 round is particularly devastating to soft tissue compared to a pointed bullet. another important consideration is the availability of ammunition - bullets for the aforementioned warsaw pact rifles would be quite difficult to come by in the united states, and even 5.56mm rounds will probably fly off the shelves faster than anything else considering the popularity of the ar-15, whereas .30-30 rounds are widely available in any sporting goods store in america.