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Letter Re: Advice for a Canadian with a "Just One Gun" Budget

Hello SurvivalBlog:
I am a Canadian 21 year-old living in rural Nova Scotia looking at purchasing my first gun. I will only have enough money for one in the near future (with ammo stockpiles).
I've just got my license (we need 'em in Canada, unfortunately), and have $1,000 to spend [on the gun and ammunition, combined]. My budget is extremely limited, but I think that a gun is the most important priority for survival situations. We have a self-sufficient garden, clean water, well, fuel, wood-stoves, and have potato-like Jerusalem Artichokes growing wild all around us.
I am looking at a Marlin .30-30. Good for hunting. Good for self defense. Good for bug out.
Do you have a better recommendation? Thanks, - Matthew in Nova Scotia

JWR Replies: Instead of the Marlin .30-30, I would recommend a replica .303 Lee-Enfield "Jungle Carbine" (replica of the Number 5, Mark I) or an Ishapore 2A1 carbine (The latter is a 1960s Indian arsenal final evolution of the Enfield, in 7.62mm NATO)..Your choice of caliber should be based on whichever is more popular in your corner of Canada.

Lee-Enfield bolt actions are much faster to reload than a tubular-magazine lever action, either via stripper clips or loaded spare magazines. Both .303 and 7.62mm NATO are ballistically superior to .30-30, and surplus ammo for these calibers bought in bulk is much less expensive than commercial .30-30 soft nose ammunition.

One qualifying note on "Jungle Carbines": From what I have read, less than 20% of the #5 Enfields on the market are genuine originals that were made during WWII with the lightened receivers. Those are real collectibles that fetch $600+. Most of the so-called "Enfield Jungle Carbines" are actually just commercially-rebuilt earlier model Enfields, on standard receivers. (Typically a No. 1 Mk III with a bobbed barrel, shortened wood, and a replica #5 flash hider and #5 buttpad installed. ) The notorious Sam Cummings (of Interarms) and other importers reworked tens of thousands of these in the 1960s and 1970s.) They now run $250 to $375 at US gun shows, which is not considerably more than a standard Enfield. I would suspect they could be found at similar prices in Canada.

From a practical shooting standpoint, the replica #5s are actually preferable to the scarce original #5s, which had a problem with "wandering zero". You could zero in one of these, only to have the zero change while shooting it. According to SurvivalBlog reader B.A.G., this problem was traced to the lightening cuts that were made in the #5 receiver. Short of replacing the lightened receiver, there is no way to fix it. The replicas do not have lightened receivers, so this is not an issue. Again, they will never have the same collector value as an original, but they are more accurate shooters.

I have owned two of these replica #5s, and they both had decent accuracy (2" groups at 100 yards), with no symptoms of wandering zero. Their recoil is hefty, but quite bearable with a slip-over recoil pad.

OBTW, most of the Ishapore 2A1 carbines that you see are equipped the same US-made fake #5 flash hider. There were umpteen thousand of those flash hiders made.

If you have your heart set on a lever action, then consider finding a used Browning BLR (a box magazine-fed lever gun) chambered in .308 (or perhaps .30-06 if bears and moose are plentiful in your area) and at least a half dozen spare magazines. If possible, get the takedown variant, since these can be stowed in a backpack or suitcase. The BLR is much faster to reload than traditional tubular magazine lever action rifles.

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