Pellet guns are good for quietly hunting small game. Bows and arrows are good for larger game. If you are going to flash something that represents a "gun" in an attempt to deter someone you are setting yourself up to be killed. NEVER make a threat you can't follow through on. The person you are threatening may act on the assumption it is real and kill you. Justifiably so.

Right on agree with you JustAbear.

I totally agree...you should never flash any weapon on someone else without expecting reprisal!!

There's plenty of time and reasons to just get a firearms and hunting license. They are usually both on the same weekend. Do it legal now, as training for doing it for survival later. There certainly is a learning curve to hunting, as I found out, so sooner is better.

Runs With Scissors.

You can do everything with a cross or compound bow from bringing down small and large game to fishing all the way up to protecting you and your loved ones.
If you intend to get a bow (and just like a firearm) make sure to practice, practice, practice, your life and the ones you love may depend on what you can bring down.

How come you're not getting your PAL, or do you already have one?

If it's not a WROL situation you'll go to jail just as fast killing someone with a crossbow as with your fists.

The long and the short of it is that as long as you are a law abiding citizen, getting your long rifle PAL is a bit of a long and frustrating, but easy process.

After that it's very easy to have rifles and guns that are compliant with current laws but if TSHTF and there's a without rule of law, to easily modify those weapons to be a bit more adequate for the situation.

And if you are thinking self defense, a bolt or arrow to the front or back of anyone will take them out, especially if properly placed. Just practice!

I am of the opinion that a rifle and shotgun are indispensable, We live rurally and I have had to dispatch my fair share of racoons ( in the chickens), an a few late night adventures with a bear. Owning firearms is a huge step towards self reliance. Be responsible, get a gun locker, follow the rules, and there are no issues. Things fall apart when you try to skirt around the laws.. Have ammo, spare parts, and learn your firearms, inside out.. Where we live there are lots of hunters, and I am amazed at how many show up the day before hunting to ask me to setup-zero there rifle.. if you shoot once a year, your not going to do very well. My kids and I shoot 2-3 times a week, .308, 22, and slugs. All four of my kids can shoot and fieldstrip-clean all of my firearms..

We just purchased Tim Larkin's Target Training series...it goes beyond self-defense..training is very violent ...have any of you also taken this training?

I have grown up in the country, so guns and bows are not uncommon to me at all. I have taken a few styles of self defense and have made sure that my children have done the same. They have to be realistic that when confronted by a 300 pound individual, that physics usually will win out. Hit and run away and live to fight another day!! The hardest part of it all is hitting someone to injure. You will get over that instinct quick, once you or your family is threatened.

I have grown up in the country, so guns and bows are not uncommon to me at all. I have taken a few styles of self defense and have made sure that my children have done the same. They have to be realistic that when confronted by a 300 pound individual, that physics usually will win out. Hit and run away and live to fight another day!! The hardest part of it all is hitting someone to injure. You will get over that instinct quick, once you or your family is threatened.

my opinion is to have and practice with firearms. . . long guns and pistols need paper work, do the courses, join the range, buy them practice them . . . (have bows and BB guns too)

i believe strongly in self defence (empty and with weapons. . .) here's why:
1) in the small city i lived in, 5 guys broke into a house, they got into the bedroom where they woke the owners buy having their hands on the wife's throat, the husband was hit with a beer bottle and then beaten.
2) i've been in 3 fights, first was in class, a friend started pushing me, throwing punches, i blocked, moved, spun him and pushed him away. . .over and over again, nex was with a guy i knew, he was drunk, picked a fight with me on a dark street, i hit him twice and sent him on his way, he came back with the high school foot ball team! (TEAM) they laid a beating. . . next a guy picks a fight in a school hall way, pulls a straight razor on me (nothing every happened to him pre Columbine pulling a razer 😯 ). . . both cases my martial arts experience helped me from getting hurt.

i'm now 260lbs, 6'4", pretty strong, from ages 10-19 i trained heavily in kung fu, with a mix of aikido, grappling, and trained with swords, daggers, staff, from 25-26 in the army reserves, did heavy weight training, running etc not in the same shape at 32 but not bad either. . .

do you really think your kids could stop me? (maybe they could and great for them!!!!)

but. . .

if i had a gun in my hand i could stand across the street shooting at you, your martial arts are going to do jack for you or your family! you can try to run, you can try to hide, but in the end i'm going to walk up to you, and you're NOT going to block my bullet!

firearms for self defence against a bigger, dangerous, psychotic, drugged up, criminals or person(s) was a (or many) weapon (handheld or projectile) or an animal (hungry dog to bear) you're not able to deal with. . . PERIOD.

for a hunting tool they add a lot to what a bow can do. . .

those are the main reasons i think you should have firearms now, if the world gets worse, you'll want them more so for the above reasons, a deer will save a lot of money in food, and it may save your life if someone comes knocking for food they can't afford. their little jimmy is hungry and THEY are going to feed them. . . NO MATTER WHAT!

you also want to practice with them, and you want your kids to practice with them, becomfortable shooting, and to be able to hit the mark. . . why wait until it becomes harder to get the paper work, or you can't afford them because of price increases.

just my opinion, and it was free.

i am sorry but this hypothetical situation is useless....if you are across the street with a gun?.......running is all you have my friend!!!.....live and fight another day!!...please read the entire thread before commenting. I am sure that in the same situation that you would be running right beside them Mr Gump!!!

i am sorry but this hypothetical situation is useless....if you are across the street with a gun?.......running is all you have my friend!!!.....live and fight another day!!...please read the entire thread before commenting. I am sure that in the same situation that you would be running right beside them Mr Gump!!!

yes i would be running too bro, but my point is that i'd be shooting at you and you'd be dead! (ok ‘i’ wouldn’t be shooting at your, but a psycho criminal would be)
you can't defend against a gun at a distance without a projectile weapon, a lot of luck and a lot of skill. . .

i'm not a "SURVIVALIST" so that i can put myself in situations to get KILLED, i don't plan to be in shoot outs, play the hero, or pretend i'm some operator, i prep to keep my ass alive. . . i'm not going to try to fight a person across the street with a gun i'm going to pray, i'm going to run (and pray a lot more), but if they are shooting at me, that's all i have. . . prayers and running (and i'm too big of a target to run fast enough lol) to equal the odds you need a firearm and the knowledge and skill to use it.

i did read the entire thread bro! and i offered my opinion, that is what you asked for. . . i tried to back that up situations that i thought were relative to my opinion, supporting my belief and making you believe it too. if you felt i came off as a dick i'm sorry that wasn't my intention, and i wasn't trying to act like a super hero, i was pointing out that in a situation like that, you're screwed. . . (just like i would be!)

i disagree with the non carry laws of Canada. i'm born and raised here, i support concealed carry for our citizens to protect themselves against criminals, i own pistols, i have the paper work to transport my firearms to the states, i have CCW for Maine and New Hampshire, i have reciprocity rights in ID, ND, SD, WY,UT, AZ,IA, MO, OK, AR, LA, IN, KY, TN, MS, AL, GA, AK, PA, AND NC with my NH license, my Maine license adds ME and VT, plus anyone can Carry open in Va IIRC. A foreign government recognized my right to defend my life and gives me permission to protect if with a proper tool on it’s soil but my own government does not afford me the same rights?!?!?

i believe firearms are a tool that we should own and use as preppers, i keep them in priority to my other preps, i believe in beans before Band-Aids and Band-Aids before bullets, but there is no real substitution for a firearm. (bow/crossbow is close but has draw backs in defense.)

i believe strongly in peace, freedom and the right to be any where in my country without fear of attack, i shouldn't have to worry that my wife might be raped or murdered, (your kids should be safe NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE) but bad things happen, (I have 4 family members sexually assaulted by different people (3 female, 1 male), I know a boy violently rapped while working his paper route, I know of two stabbings in my city, a guy beaten nearly to death buy a group of 20 something year olds with 2x4s, we’ve had 4 shootout here in the last 2 years (one started with the guy shooting his co workers), and one of our doctors were assaulted at work beat with a pipe in the bathroom, another was shoot in the face on his way home from work, he pulled over to help someone out. . . I LIVE IN A SMALL CITY BRO, 20K population)
i met the wife in kung fu, she can fight, but she can also shoot. . . she does not have her paper work for firearms (something that needs to be fixed) if she's at home alone, it's illegal for her to have access to my firearms to defend her self against someone breaking in to do her harm. (and she might be charged if using force (and or deadly force) to protect her self from assault, rape or death. . . go figure. . .

you have experience with bow and firearms, you have self defense training, you asked “are BB Guns, Crossbows, Bows adequate in a shtf situation?” if you need to defend against 1 or more attackers/criminals/gangsta’s/zombies, or whatever with one or more weapons or firearms, then no, I don’t believe they are not adequate in a SHTF situation . . .

I’m not trying to pick a fight, but when in small cities, you are having stabbings, shootings, shoot outs with police, gang beating with weapons, rapes, (I went to school with a guy who’s mother was murdered) I was attacked by 11 guys (foot ball team fight) one of there fellow team mates was driving home from work, saw his friend kicking the snot out of me and my friend, he got out of his car to HELP THEM beat us! I know two girls DRUGGED, different nights, neither of them were assaulted thanks to good friends noticing strange behaviour. . .

People do this kind of stuff now, if there was mass hungry, a break down of society and “WROL” (without rule of law) what kind of things do you think people are going to do? Ask yourself is a bow going to be enough to keep your children safe? Your wife safe? You alive to protect them in times that are worse then what happens now?

Bro, if you ever need to defend you life, I only prey you have the tools needed at that time. We can’t CCW here, and criminals do! They aren’t going to attack/rape/mug you when you are ready with a firearm/knife/bat etc. they are going to do it when you are not looking, alone in a dark ally when they out number you. . . post fan will be no different.

Like I said, I believe good people should be free of fear and risk of attack . . . you’ve done everything to protect you and your kids from most things (HUGE PAT on the back bro!) but in those cases listed above, none of us have a chance without an equalizer . . .

I submit this respectfully, with passion, but only because I’d hate to find out another good person died/ was injured/ or raped, because they didn’t have the paper work to own the tools that may of saved their life.

I have grown up in the country, so guns and bows are not uncommon to me at all. I have taken a few styles of self defense and have made sure that my children have done the same. They have to be realistic that when confronted by a 300 pound individual, that physics usually will win out. Hit and run away and live to fight another day!! The hardest part of it all is hitting someone to injure. You will get over that instinct quick, once you or your family is threatened.

NOT hitting someone to injure isn't about instinct. It is about social conditioning. In the past before all this crap, if we were in a position where we had to attack or defend we did so with as much power and violence as we had. There was no "take a shot and wait and see what happens". We fought to overwhelm and overcome. Period. Instinct will come back to many of us very quickly. To some it won't and those are the ones who will fail.

It is a sad comment on society but I agree with everything that you said Entropy.