Weapons - My 700

The equipment that will be required to help sustain life in a post-apocalyptic setting must be researched and tested thoroughly. Over the course of the next year and on through to 2012 I will be doing extensive research and field testing of any and all equipment that I think would be not only vital but also a great asset to have in a camp/survival situation or in a post-apocalyptic situation. I'll start my equipment research with some weapons, namely rifles. It is beneficial to have both semi-auto and bolt action rifles in your arsenal, but for now my main focus will be on bolt action rifles. A bolt action rifle is an extremely accurate and reliable weapon. Easy to maintain and come in a wide variety of calibers and features. After looking at most of the big name companies, i.e. Savage, Winchester, Remington etc..., I settled on a Remington 700. Been used for years by the military and law enforcement, has a plethora of aftermarket accessories and can be relatively inexpensive depending on what model you decide on purchasing. This was the first of my many weapon purchases and I decided on getting a 700 SPS chambered in .30-.06, the .30-.06 has been a tried an true caliber since 1906 and is capable of achieving great distances when hand loaded, but we will go into calibers another time. Since it was chambered in .30-.06 this made the rifle a long action rifle, typically anything .308 or lower is a short action, thus making the aftermarket parts search a little different. Now that I had a rifle I needed some optics! Quality optics can be found at a very affordable price, one quality optic manufacture is SWFA. I have a SWFA 10x42 mounted on my 700 and it is gorgeous, crisp optics and mil-dot and virtually indestructible with a lifetime warranty for $300! Once you've decided on an optic, now it must be mounted. Again, since we all live in an economical crisis, I chose some economically friendly accessories. I have a TPS base and rings, all cost me about $160 and they are perfect, but I'll probably be upgrading to Badger Ord. base and rings for about $300. So now that the scope was mounted next thing that was need was a stock. The Bell & Carlson Tactical Medalist A2, it's light and strong and cheap and looks amazing on the rifle! If I had more money in these broke ass times I would opt for something much better like either a J. Allen or AICS stock but there is no need for those! Once you've decided on a stock it's time for a bi-pod and I decided to get a Harris S-BRM 6"-9" bipod with podloc, many good reviews and great things about Harris on a lot of forums. After that I decided to change out the trigger guard with a "clip" conversion kit, namely the Kwik Klip and with it some 10 round magazines, and I must say for a product that only costs $85 ($38 per 10 round mag) it has worked flawlessly countless times at the range, I love it!. Lastly I installed a Karsten adjustable cheek pad on the buttstock, cost $60 and an Accu-shot monopod, cost about $85. So that's the rig so far, I'll updated it once I've gotten more goodies on it. I'll discuss my first semi-auto next time.