I carry a .357 Marlin Lever and a S&W 686 plus (7 shot .357) in my Emergency Gear. I feel with correct shot placement, the .357 can handle about anything on the US East Coast. I can go with a .44mag and .45 Colt paring if I need to. The marlin carbine is light and dead on. .38/.357 ammo is light to carry and reletivly easy to find should I run out.

The Marlin .357 Mag and S&W revolver combo is really hard to beat. You can shoot a wide variety of .38 Spl and .357 Mag. ammo, even wadcutters if you load them one at a time in the Marlin as they don't feed from the magazine and you'll have to take the tube off to clear it. Yes, I do know for sure. The .357 with proper bullets can take even deer, elk and black bear at ranges out to 150 yards or so. Using cast bullets and light loads you can shoot rabbits or squirrels without losing much meat.
Ruger, Marlin, and others also make 9mm and .40S&W carbines that would make a good pairing with a suitable pistol, though the range of ammo choices is not as great as for the .357.
Versatility and utility are my big things. That's why I prefer the .357 Mag. and also the 20- or 12-ga. shotgun. As mentioned by others, there are several rifles made with interchangable barrels that shoot rimfire, centerfire and shotgun with the same action. H&R/NEF, Knight, Taurus, Rossi, are a few that come to mind. This flexibility, and reliability, makes for what I consider the ideal "survival" gun, or guns when teamed with a revolver.

The AR-7 survival rifle is not known to be accurate, reliable or have a good trigger.

I think a .22 rifle is a great survival gun. To me a good rife has a good barrel, good trigger and good sights. There are a lot of rifles like that. I prefer to have a scope on my .22 rifles. I have a T/C Contender carbine with a 17" custom barrel and a 2-7x Weaver .22 scope. I had Mike Bellm do the trigger job several years ago. It can be taken apart as small as the AR-7. I also have 21" .223 and 7-30 Waters barrels for it. It is a real joy to shoot!

Everyone should own a Ruger 10/22. My boys love shooting a brick (500 rounds) of ammo through it every time we go out shooting.

I think you also need a powerful handgun for protection. My preference is for a .40 S&W Glock 23 or a 9mm Glock 19 with night sights and a .22 lr slide by Advantage Arms. Mine likes Remington Golden bullets and CCI Mini Mags.

An even better survival rifle is an M4 clone. Get a flat top and put a low power optic on it. Then get a .22 lr adapter and magazine. I have a Bushmaster ORC with a Leupold 1-4x scope and the Ciener's .22 lr adapter with a 27 round Mad Dog magazine. It works amazingly well. The rounds hit where the scope looks, no sight adjustment is needed. With the M4gery you have the firepower to win a fight or hunt deer if you use special bullets. You can also use the .22 lr adapter to hunt small game. If you were in a desperate situation you could use a light mounted on your M4gery with a red filter and hunt at night with the .22 lr adapter. Just aim for the glowing eye. Surefire has wonderful lights and filters.

For a survival rifle I'd want something other than a semi-auto ... a lever action or bolt action. They are far less sensitive to dirtiness and different ammo. Since you, the human, get to work the action you do a much better job than a semi-auto action that relies on the minimal .22 cartridge for its power source.

Were it me, I'd buy a Henry lever action .22 rifle. I love mine. If you need it to be more packable, simply remove the stock. It's only one screw. If you want takedown to be tool-less, replace that screw with a thumbscrew from the hardware store. It's a standard 10-32 thread, 1.65" long. I happen to have one sitting here in my hand, in case you're wondering ... I was just installing a tang sight on my Henry .22 (model H001T) today.

A Survival "Rifle" goes along the same lines as a Survival knife. Neither do any good unless you have them with you. Handguns require practiced skill to be proficient beyond arms length. Handguns are self defence weapons and are not typically hunting weapons. Unless of course you are extremely proficient and practice with them, still, they hard to master.

Therefore, my choice goes to the rifle or shotgun. They need to be light, so you take it with you, It needs to be rugged and dependable to handle hard use, and still remain accurate.

In a true survival situation, the objective for a firearm is "MEAT ON THE TABLE." And this meat will probably be small game, with the ability to take larger game if needed. The game you shoot will typically be under 50 yards.

For me, this type of weapon would be either a small 20 gauge shotgun, or a Ruger 10-22 Compact with open barrel sights, no scope.

Shotguns are Meat Getters that require minimal marksmanship experience to be sucessful at harvesting game. Their drawback is their range (35-40 yards) and the weight of the ammo.

The Ruger 10-22 Compact is a proven reliable rifle that is accurate and can take game of all sizes even at extended ranges out to 100 yards. 50 rounds of ammo weigh as much as three or four 30-06 bullets or 4 shotgun shells.

Range practice is cheap and fun. What is also VERY good is the 22 rifle can be used by any member of the family with little training. My boys 8 and 11 each have a Ruger 10-22 Compact and can shoot with them very well.

Also, the 22 does not make a lot of noise which in some survival situations would be usefull.

My vote goes hands down to the Ruger 10-22 Compact. Put a sling on it, leave the scope off of it. If you insist on having a scope that will some day fail or get damaged, I suggest putting "High" rings on it so you can keep the open barrel sights on it as backup. "Low" or "Medium" Rings set the scope too low to retian the rear sight. Make sure you sight in the open barrel sights before you install your scope. When your scope fails, you can take off the rings scope combo with a simple screwdriver or quarter.

Muleskinner

OK..how about this..i have no idea if they are even made anymore but Iver Johnson and i would assume other gun companys made long barell 22 pistols..sort of goofy looking,somewhat like a blank starters gun but with a 10-12? inch barell. i have seen photos of them being carryed in outdoor books going back to the 1900's by fisherman and canoe trippers who were not hunting but would shoot somwthing for the pot--"pot guns".something like that could be slipped into a --don't open untill you need it" survival kit along with a couple box's of ammo.for someone who did not expect to be lost for anymore that a week or two or just need to pick up a little game on way out--