Hello everyone, i have a question about survival guns.would a rossi single shot rifle make a dependaple weapon?

Yes, but why do you want a single shot firearm? I own several but I'm just playing devils advocate and asking the question.

Depends on what you feed it and point it at.

There are a lot of terms that I could use to describe Rossi. Unreliable is not one of them. They might lack compaired to Remington, Winchester and Colt, but they are far from junk. Solid, budget minded work. It will go bang when the hammer drops on a live round, and they are accurate enough.

You must first ask yourself whta you are going to survive. Single shot shotguns in South America have greatly increased indigenous hunting takes of arboreal game compared to the former blowguns. A Rossi shotgun may not be a AR15 but that is a very real impact.

Magazine fed weapons are only needed against dangerious preditor's. That means Man and one or two other critters. Just in case you miss with your first shot. In a survival situation, the amount of ammunition you have is limited. Having only one shot makes a man real careful about his marksmanship.

I'm curious to know which "one or two" you are going to list. The most dangerous creature that most of us will deal with in a survival situation is a feral dog. I'm not talking about a stray animal that needs a home, I mean one that has gone wild. They don't fear humans, they kill for fun, and they come in packs. I know- I've had to deal with 3 packs in my area in the past ten years. Until they attack live stock, the state just isn't interested, and even then, you have to have a lot of proof.

I've also dealt with a number of rabid animals. I will say for a fact that a rabid animal can and will keep coming until it practically destroyed if what is left of it's poor, tortured mind says you are lunch.

This is a very interesting point to raise when the topic is Rossi, though. Other than thier revolvers, my books show no repeaters in thier current line up. Neither does thier website. Not even a double barrel.

I can vouch for the feral dogs. We had a pack come out of the woods while we were stopped snowmobiling one year. If we didn't have those heavy snowsuits on and snowmobiles to get away with we would have had a tough time fighting them off. They were fast and mean as could be. Makes me wish I had atleast a good revolver on me.

I've never bought into the whole "fewer rounds make you a better shot" mentality. I know some old school LEOs will say a revolver is a better weapon due to blowback, aim recovery and the fact that you have fewer shots to place which should make you a better shot.

I'm of the opinion that practice makes you a good shot and that any deficit perceived in a semi-auto can be trained out of the use of said weapon. I'm a pretty good shot with anything you put in my hands and have been since I was a kid. I couldn't care less if it's a revolver or a semi or a shotgun. What I DO know is that if I've practiced with a weapon, I can lay down a shot on about anything, even if it's moving. Now, given that I've obviously practiced with my weapon and I can hit what I want when I want, why would I limit myself to a small number of rounds?

Sure, there are those who might scatter/spray, but that's just crap training and they lean on volume as a crutch. While I tend to agree that in a survival situation that ammo might be scarce, it doesn't mean that I'd want a one shot weapon. Ever. Seriously, what's the point? If anyone can make a reasonable argument, I'd love to hear it. Especially in a survival situation... If you are already carrying the weight of a weapon, why not carry some rounds to make it worth it's weight? Should I carry my camp stove with 10cc of fuel?

And I can think of a lot of animals, 0, 2 and 4 legged varieties, which make me think an accurate firearm would be a good thing to have. The more ammo the merrier.

With this site all about being equipped, I just can't see how a single shot anything could be as beneficial as a multi-shot equivalent. A shot can go wide with a single shot firearm just as easily as a multi, but I know I can get off another round in a semi-auto a hell of a lot faster than reloading a single. Plus a magazine is a more convenient place to locate your small quota of ammo than in a special pouch or loose in a pocket.

I was thinking any pack animal, like lion, wolves, feral dogs, baboons etc. I think that you choose a rifle according to the threat. If you are limited to a single shot weapon, have a careful think about ease of reloading. (Rolling block?).

What I meant was that only having one shot forces you to get in as close as possible and make that shot count. I would also prefer a revolver to a semi-automatic pistol because they are easier to maintain in the field, and if you have a misfire you just pull the trigger again. At the end of the day, any weapon in any caliber beats no weapon at all.