If I had to choose my ultimate survival firearm, my H&R Tracker 2 Single Shot Shotgun would be my go-to firearm. Why? It has a 24" rifled barrel and adjustable iron sights. Most smoothbore shotguns only come with a beaded front sight.
Both the adjustable sights and the rifled barrel give a shooter the ability to accurately engage targets beyond 100 yards, as long as they do their part. With a 12-gauge sabot or rifled slug, you can drop anything in North America that walks.
The single shot shotgun is one of the easiest firearms to maintain in the field, and it’s remarkably durable given that it has very few moving parts. Yes, follow-up shots will be slower, but with practice, they can still be done pretty fast.
This is a very good modern-day equivalent to what Roger’s Rangers would have carried. If they were that successful at unconventional warfare with a single-shot muzzleloader, then there is no reason we cannot be as effective with a single shot shotgun.
The versatility of this gun is what makes it so amazing. Once I settled on the survival shotgun I wanted to use, I made the following modifications to it:
Replaced the stock wood forend with a Choate Fiberglass Forend. This gives me the advantage of having a large takedown knob that doesn’t require any tools to break the gun down. I kept the original wooden stock and recoil pad to help buck the recoil.
I painted the entire gun using Rust-Oleum camouflage colors to break up the gun’s profile and help it blend into the woodland environment better.
I wrapped the end of the barrel with jute twine. By doing this, the jute twine will, over time, start to fray—breaking up the visual signature of the barrel when in a hide site. This also gives me something to use as a fire starter if I needed it in a survival situation, cordage to use if I needed to tie something up or replace a broken bootlace, or to tie a splint with when applying first aid. Its uses are only limited by your imagination. You could also use paracord in place of the jute twine.
Installed a section of heavy-duty Velcro and added a velcro backed shotgun card to the side to hold additional shells. When carrying shotgun shells in the sidecar for home defense, I load the card up with the same shells. I don’t try to alternate different types of shells as some would suggest. In a stressful encounter, you’re not going to remember how you loaded up the shell card, so keep it simple and keep it all the same.
The operation of the barrel break single shot shotgun is pretty straightforward and does not require any significant amount of time to adapt to. When opening the action, the lever on top must be pressed, allowing the chamber to be exposed. After firing a round, the motion of opening the gun extends the bottom section of the chamber, pushing the shell out.
barrel break action
This survival shotgun offers tremendous versatility in short to medium range engagements and comes in at a price that doesn’t break the bank. A wide array of usable ammo is available, as it accepts 12 gauge shells up to 3".
Easy to use, easy to clean, and easy to maintain. When the zombies start shuffling their way down the streets, the single shot shotgun will be right at home. Or if something goes bump in the night, it will confidently step up to the task.
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