Original "Armalite" AR-7 with steel lined aluminum barrel : I owned the first production series from Armalite back in '64 when Col. Burton T. Miller hunting buddy of SAC chief Curtis Lemay worked at the Costa Mesa, CA plant. I took that gem everywhere I flew, canoed or hiked in Canada as insurance. The barrel had to be refinished time to time because the soft metal got beat up in the bush. The rifle had a tendency to jam with high load magnum rounds, so I fed them manually. The chamber required lapping to avoid jamming and a stronger magazine spring helped. Later I put a Bushnell 4X scope & mount, but found out that there was creep after sighting in a few rounds, the mounting ring would loosten and throw your pattern off. Since everything fitted in the butt, I filed a space for the scope mount and siliconed the cavity. Light, compact, quiet and economical with high short distance accuracy. Forget those long shots, I was always lucky getting ground hogs or crows. Until they develop a nuclear .22 stay away from large game. To show you how stupid I was, Armalite was about to LICENCE Colt for the M-16, so I took my leave money from the RCAF and blew it on whiskey and women in Hawaii..I should have bought stock in Colt and I would be writing this on my private island instead of freezing my ^$#@ in Canada .

I am not impressed at all with either of the guns you chose, quality is very suspect on both. I have never seen either one of these group or shoot worth beans, I personally like something with more punch too. Chris had the best idea of anyone with the single barrel shotgun.

Where I live you can buy a New England Firearms single shot 20 gauge for 79.95. Get a gunsmith to silver solder some rifle sights and you have a firearm that will take, with the right ammo, dove on the wing, whitetail deer, and anything in between. All for around 125 bucks, it is light and easy to carry, the added sights are for shooting slugs btw. Good luck with your choice

I live in PA. We have some of the nicest, smartest gun dealers anywhere here.

I’ve owned an AR-7 for more than 20 years, and while I have not shot it a lot, I think it is fine for what I bought it for – as a SURVIVAL rifle in a survival situation, i.e., someplace I didn’t expect to be without the usual stuff I might have. With the iron sights it is good to about 50 yards for small game, which is all you should tackle with a .22 LR anyway! If you’re in bear/big game country, you shouldn’t be counting on a .22 to get you out of a jam. I did splurge on some aftermarket 10-round clips that had a beefier magazine feed spring, but other than that, it’s still stock. It gets cleaned and oiled once a year, and when you consider all the variables – price, size, weight and abuse tolerance, I think it is one of the better all-around choices for a survival rifle.

Well Maggot, I think quality might have slipped in the last 20 years, because the current examples I have seen were really cheaply made and they wouldn't be in my top ten for a survival rifle. Ruger 10/22 with folding stock, thompson contender, any number of "youth" 22 rifles on the market, and in a knock down, root hog or die situation, a single shot shotgun, 22" barrel , rifle sights, interchangeable chokes, and a variety of shotgun shells. I am only talking about shooting food not defensive problems. Chris