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.