If you want the .223 caliber, an American option would be the Ruger Mini-14. It is not as scary looking as the AR, but 30 rd mags are available and it is a darned good gun. It also has the advantage of an exposed bolt. If you should get a bad shell stuck in the chamber, an AR is done. A stuck bolt in the mini can be opened without disassembly of the gun.

People knock them, but it would be real hard to find a more practical weapon. Simple to clean and maintain. For most people the rifle is as accurate as they can be out to 100 yards. Hard hitting and lots of ways to modify them with bipods, etc. Of course they will be illegal before long. Just the first up on the list of things I can´t imagine that will be shoved down our collective throats.

They divide us. They attack us 24/7 and they are very good at doing very bad things. I´m working at not breaking the many shifting laws and you can bet that all firearms, but these in particular will be declared illegal. That way only criminals will have them.

A Mini-14 is good at short range. M1A better. 7.62/.308 beats 5.56/.223.

Better yet. Both.

Marlin 10/22 makes an easy shootinggun with cheap ammo that´s easily available. It´ll do fine in a pinch..

I am now the proud new owner of a Colt M4 carbine. Yes ha!

a few years ago we traded in an SKS for a handgun. At the time the dealer gave us minimum trade value, said it was not a popular gun and had almost no resale value for him.
How times have changed...

I just bot the store´s last AR 15, 2 20 round clips and 2 30 round clips (the cops bot the last 100 round clips). I´d buy another one if my hubby would let me. :-)
It is a cool weapon and very accurate.
Our family has gone out shooting 2x and we all love it, even our children. We are teaching them to respect guns and the Constitution!

#4, Ruger makes the 10/22.

Im all for 10/22´s, Marlin Model 60´s, etc. Good cheap fun. Can be used for self defense and killing tasty critters.

Personally, Im heavily invested in HiPoint 45´s. Also, good cheap fun. I have a matching set, handgun and carbine. Both use the same 10 round magazine. These come in 9mm and .40 caliber as well. Reliable and will eat ammo that my KAHR CW45 will not.

My Mini 14 is my saddle gun. Couldn´t ask for a better one. And #7, it´s MAGAZINE, not clip. It matters.

The writer should have checked current prices.

Ruger´s Mini-14 is also available in 7.62x39mm, the same round the AK-47 shoots, (it´s called a "Mini-Thirty," because the round is .30 cal.) or in 6.8 SPC, a better cartridge for deer and varmints.

Years ago I bought a Ruger Mini-30 and several large magazines. It works well.

Hat tip to #1. Couldn´t agree more.

I have an SKS with a nice Swedish (!) classy stock (cheek rest, walnut, looks like a good hunting rifle - not scary-looking to those prone to the vapors) with the fixed bayonet removed. Came with a 13-round fixed magazine (which could be quickly reloaded with a CLIP - correct use of the word). I´ve had it modified to take 20 or 30 round magazines - or a drum, if I could afford one - which took only the replacement of one screw. These are the equivalent of an AK-47, use the same ammo, and a heck of a lot cheaper. And mine shoots GREAT.

The 10/22 is lots of fun.

BTW, if you look hard enough, you can find a 50-round magazine for a 10/22. Used to have one. I´d sit out by the pond and shoot at any snake or turtle that had the temerity to stick its nose out of the water. Shoot all day on one mag. Wonder what I did with that mag? Still have the gun.

Ruger also makes their own version of the AR, the SR-556. It is not even comparable in quality and use. It is far superior.

It is rather pricey and I am going to guess not as available either right now.

As many others have mentioned, the Mini-14/30 are excellent weapons and are not usually as scarce because they look like "regular" rifles. However, they are tough and reliable.

I don´t hunt, but have a Ruger 10/22. It´s a great little gun and cheap to shoot. I´ll pass on the high capacity magizines. I have quite a few 10 round factory magazines and also devices that will connect 3 in a cluster if I choose to. I don´t have a need for a larger rifle. I feel any self defense situation I may have will be up close and personal and have several handguns and my wife and I both have concealed carry permits. I can conceal a handgun. A rifle, not so much.

ARs are out there for close to retail prices, you just have to look and be patient. Daniel Defense is also still taking orders at retail if you can wait on back order. They are an excellent brand and well made.

Look under Build Your DDM4...

Three hots and a cot is looking better everyday....who oh who will pay the bills?

A few words on these guns:

With the SKS and AK - Only buy them Russian made if they are very old (c. 1950s/60s). These were the best the Russians ever made - quality began to dive after those monkeys began to try and manufacture sheet metal rifles.

A better option is to go Soviet-bloc manufacture - the Warsaw Pact countries did a better job in the modern era. My favorites in this category are Bulgarian and Romanian.

The best solution is to go with the supposedly "non-aligned" Bloc countries (Finland [Sako] and Yugoslavia [Zastava]). These countries were free to devise their own manufacturing designs and practices.

Sako is a damn fine choice for any gun, but I personally went with Zastava. This is the same firm that produced the Yugo automobile, but don´t be scared - those cars sucked so much because the Kragujevac factory where they were made was first and foremost an armory.

This AK-47 variant incorporates many design elements from the RPK (light-machine gun) design - a 50% thicker receiver, and a hard-mounted, chrome lined barrel among them. This reduces recoil, barrel warp, and jamming issues, making the rifle considerably more accurate, and sustained fire doesn´t cause the issues it does in the case of its country cousins.

Drawbacks: More expensive, considerably heavier. And, there are certain slight design differences which make some of the (very minor) parts non-interchangeable with Warsaw Pact AKs.

P.S. One of my favorite guns of all time is my Tula Armory (Russian) SKS from 1952. However, these are damned near impossible to find and later Russian models are junk. Avoid Chinese SKSs prior to the mid-1990s AT ALL COSTS. No matter how attractive the price, they are not worth it. 1990s and forward (Norinco era) are cool though.

Sorry for the second post but for the firearms we have been talking about remember 2 things:

1. If I do not reload, where will I get the rounds to practice and defend myself and family when scarcity occurs, and it will;

2. If I do reload what is the sweet spot ammo that allow me to carry say 500 - 1000 rounds for trips away from safety;

3. Do I need a Bug-Out-Bag and what the heck is it in the first place?

May the Peace of our Lord Be with each of you.

even though i own several Ar-15´s, SKS´s, M1 garands and M1 carbines, last year i thought, if every country bumpkin in every pee-ant country owns an AK, so should I. so i now do. And i wish i had bought one when they were $150 or $200.

I´m looking into a hammer or club since they´re the #1 murder weapons in the country.Can anybody recommend a hammer that doesn´t have a lot of recoil?

Considering this country is heading for communism, I think we´d be better off buying rocket launchers and tanks. If our government can give money and arms to the jihadists, why can´t they give them to us?

there are drop in stocks that turn a Mini14/30 into a "scary looking black rifle" with pistol grip, adjustable stock and Picatinny rails. The Mini 14 has the holographic site and the Mini 30 has bipod and a scope that cost more than 2x the rifle

Well, since there are literally dozens of US companies making AR-15 look-alikes (the design being in the public domain since the military paid for it) the shortage should not last long. HOWEVER ... looking at the options:

[A] The AK-47 is a sturdy, low cost weapon able to stand serious mistreatment. The downside is it is a collection of parts flying in loose formation, highly inaccurate and fires a heavy, large diameter projectile with an anemic powder load and consequential short range 400m max, accurate to 200 max.

[B] The !R-15/M-16 is built to much tighter tolerances, hence more accurate but less accepting of dirt and abuse and costs more. It has a lighter recoil and is accurate out to 400m but fires an anemically small, light projectile.

[C] Any AR-15 pattern rifle firing the 6.8mm Remington SPC cartridge is a MUCH superior weapon. Good out to 800m, ballistics match the .308/7.6 NATO with reduced -- but way superior to a .223 -- kinetic energy. Small case diameter allows a only slightly modified AR-15 bolt to fire it and you can load almost as many in an AR-15 magazine. Downside, it and its ammunition are expensive, plan to hand load your own if you´re gong to shoot much.

[D] 6.5 Grendel. An 7.92x39 AK-47 cartridge necked down to 6.5mm for an AR-15 pattern rifle but needs it´s own barrel, bolt and magazine. Expensive as a 6.8 and, IMHO, not as good.