I've been trying to think of how to pose this question, but there are very few situations which might become survival situations where I'd consider a firearm to be seriously important as survival gear. Outside of concealed carry handguns, when do you carry a firearm as survival gear? Do you carry it, or is it a home in case of a wider scale disaster? If you are carrying a "survival gun", why? Dangerous animals? Hunting? If hunting, what kind of game do you expect to be hunting? And finally, where do you live, work or recreate that you carry your survival weapon?

I've been thinking about this for myself and even here in Wyoming, I don't feel sufficiently threatened by bear or moose to carry a weapon for protection. I might if I was further north or west near Yellowstone and definitely would if I was in Alaska. And I don't really see myself being in a situation where I would need to hunt to eat. Unless seriously injured I can pretty easily walk to a road in a day or two, and if I am seriously injured I don't know that I could hunt. That said, I do occasionally carry a 9mm pistol and quite often a .22 pistol. But while they are both definitely options in a survival situation, I don't specifically carry them as survival gear. The 9mm is my concealed carry weapon and the .22 is for plinking.

I certainly don't think there is an ideal survival weapon. Against bear or moose a high powered rifle or 12 shotgun would top my list. For short term hunting a .22 rifle or pistol since I have to consider weight. Shotguns are versatile, but the ammo and weapon are heavy especially if you're lucky enough to be carrying a tent, sleeping bag and cooking gear(and if you're carrying a shotgun why wouldn't you be?). For protection in a break down of civil order I'd probably choose a combination of compact pistol and a semi-auto AK variant with a folding stock.