Even in a survival situation I would never take more than I could eat or preserve. It's wasteful and the left overs draw predators.

The bucks up here are quite a bit larger than the ones in the US I'm told...and that's about the smallest 'big game' you can hunt so I'm not sure a .22LR would be good for anything but small game or maybe a baby deer. Then there's Elk, Bears, Moose, etc. A .22LR would just make a Moose angry...if he cared at all.

I'm going to be hunting purely for sport. Any hunting I do in a survival situation would be low caliber, small game (like rabbits or birds), and likely be done with snares, not a gun...and that's only if there are no fish to be found and I'm out there for a LONG time. Food is a low survival priority.

The other thing is that I have no intention of buying anything full size (like a Mossberg 500 for example) and carry it 'just in case' as a survival weapon. If I carry anything for this use, it will break down, be fairly light weight, and be a .22LR like the US Survival Rifle.

I want to be clear that I'm looking for generic advice (and thank all of you who have provided some). If this were survival specific, I wouldn't have put it in the 'Around the campfire' section of the forum. It's possible that whatever I buy might be needed in a survival situation one day...but that's not why I'm buying one and getting into shooting.