So how far back would you go before you felt damn near unarmed as far as firearms go.

I honestly think if pressed a cap and ball revolver would still provide me adequate defense.

Any “modern” arm created during or after WWI would be totally fine barring the most extreme circumstances.

My point is for practical self defense in all but the most extreme outliers, assuming you were skilled in your choice, how “obsolete” could you go?

I mean a Glock 26 might as well be space age to a DA/SA low brow like myself.

I guess the most basic I can answer the question is to say I want a repeating firearm capable of firing modern full power cartridges.

I’d certainly not want a single shot anything and I don’t really want an antique that I have to shoot low power loads through. While I love my single actions (including my cap and ball revolvers) something like a modern Ruger Vaquero or Blackhawk would be about as primitive as I’d be comfortable with, and even then I’d really prefer a double action revolver for sure.

I have several DA/SA revolvers that I’d feel very comfortable carrying.

Probably when the platform is no longer supported by the manufacturer and aftermarket- Production ceases and the supply has ran dry. When the supply of parts are used up and nowhere to be found.

I have a model 1892 Winchester lever action that was manufactured in 1913. I could hold my own with that pretty well. I have a revolver that shoots the same 32-20 cartridge as the lever gun for up close work.


With that said, I would likely deploy my P320 or AR first.

I was looking through some old pictures and what I got a chuckle out of is I found a picture from 22 years ago labeled home defenders. It had a Bushmaster 16inch A2 Carbine, an 870 marine magnum and a SIG P220.

Today that same 870 with some different furniture and a Surefire Scout Light, that same AR only with a Mini ACOG and Surefire light and Rogers Stock now both reside in the “ready five” position of the safe these many years and numerous options later. I have moved to HK pistols specifically the P2000. It still DA/SA.

So as many guns as I have owned and as much as tech has changed I somehow find myself subconsciously still running the same gear, like an old comfy sweatshirt, 20 some years later.

Wife still has a P99AS.

Having worked in a Godforsaken gunshop for almost 5 years and having been a firearms instructor, I have fired almost all of the current production guns. And was not impressed by any.

So I still carry and use 3rd gen S&Ws and will continue to do so. As I don't expect anything better to come along and have emassed enough mags and consumables to keep them running.

I think any gun that is mechanically sound and gives you the capability to rapidly and accurately engage a target is viable. Regardless of how old it may be. Regards 18DAI

I'm comfortable with a 1911. It's not entirely new.

Obsolete really doesn't occur until something is no longer viable.

It may be that the item is no longer economically viable, or no longer serviceable, but so long as it's maintainable, and still useable and economically makes sense, then it isn't obsolete.

Especially if it's still selling like hotcakes...

Technically one may be armed with a single-shot flintlock, but then one would be perpetually on the edge of being effectively disarmed until they could get the dern thing reloaded. For a long arm, I guess I could go back to a double-barreled breachloading shotgun chambered for one of the larger currently common shells. For a handgun I can see the cap and ball revolver as being a good lower limit.

Black powder or flint lock......I would not trust after firing several of them......but anything reliable that shoots a modern cartridge is not a single shot, is not obsolete IMO.

I'm barely able to tolerate my P365s waiting on a Legend model, LOL.

Chris, the answer is in your sig line.

My primary concerns are if the caliber is viable and the firearm is reliable. I have an early production Remington Model 11 that I would not hesitate to use, if that is what I had. That being said, it is not part of my current rotation.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
I guess the most basic I can answer the question is to say I want a repeating firearm capable of firing modern full power cartridges.

Yep. I'd say that's a good baseline for a defensive firearm intended for use today.

So that'd be guns from the early/mid 1890s and forward (after the adoption of modern smokeless powder), provided they're not chambered in an obsolete caliber.

Though I'll also add the additional caveat that I wouldn't want to rely on some of the very early semiauto designs, even if they met this earlier criteria, since many of them were finicky and overly complex.

quote:

Originally posted by cslinger:
Any “modern” arm created during or after WWI would be totally fine barring the most extreme circumstances.

Understand that many of the guns used during WW1 were actually designed/created years or decades beforehand, in the 1890s, 1900s, and early 1910s. So saying "WW1-era guns" could be a good starting point, but specifically "guns created during WW1" is leaving out a few prior decades of viable options.

For example, the venerable M1911 was created years prior to WW1, and I'm sure you'd agree that it would be a viable choice for defensive use, even today.

I still regularly carry a PPK in .380.

I’ve got a katana and a Zulu iwasa (war club).

Both would get the job done, and I consider them viable options.

I am really having to keep an armlock on my wallet after seeing an ad for a 1903 .38, which is probably obsolete, but it will shoot.

If all things were still equal, semi-autos and all contemporary firearms still out there, I would be fine with only having a Colt SAA in .45colt along with a Winchester 73 in .44-40win

I often carry a Ruger Blackhawk when out and about in the woods of the Yoop.
A design that arguably dates back to the 1840s.
Same with a lever action rifle. 1860s.
It not the age of the design that matters, its the proven effectiveness that can carry it over to today.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Chris, the answer is in your sig line.

Word.

quote:

I’ve got a katana and a Zulu iwasa (war club).

Both would get the job done, and I consider them viable options.

Funny you should say that. I had a buddy who had a thing for medieval war axes. He looked like a stereotypical Hells Angel biker crossed with a Viking (helluva nice guy though. Never judge a book....). Anyway I always chuckled at the thought of someone breaking in to his house at o’dark thirty and him running down the stairs in his boxers, battle axe in hand, long hair all crazy with that look of pure murder we all have when awakened at o’dark thirty.

I can only imagine some poor bastard thinking ahhhh shit I picked the wrong house. I don’t wanna be the gimp, I don’t wanna be the gimp.

I knew an old-timer who carried a cap and ball revolver every day of his life. He passed away in in 2003 and read Wyatt Earp’s obituary as a teenager.

In no way was that revolver obsolete in that man’s hands.