No-Nonsense Bug Out™ Series — Module 06

Choosing Firearms For Bug In And Bug Out Preparedness

Forget the online arguments about stopping power and caliber wars. Here is how a career Special Forces soldier thinks about firearms in a preparedness context — and why most people are overcomplicating it.

By Joshua Enyart · Founder & Head Instructor, Gray Bearded Green Beret

Creator of YouTube’s most-watched bug out bag series — 7 million+ views

Firearms are part of my preparedness plan. They may be part of yours. But the amount of noise and misinformation around this topic — caliber debates, gear fetishism, fantasy scenarios — can easily steer people into spending too much money, carrying too much weight, and training for the wrong situations entirely.

I have carried firearms professionally for three decades as an Army Ranger and a Green Beret. I have used them in combat across multiple theaters. And I can tell you with certainty that the most important things about firearms in a preparedness context have nothing to do with what the internet argues about. They have to do with shot placement, simplicity, and understanding the actual role each weapon fills in your plan.

If you have not worked through the earlier modules in this series, start with the planning foundation and PACE framework in Module 01. Firearms do not exist in a vacuum — they are one piece of a complete system that includes your bug out bag, supplemental kits, and resupply caches.

The Goal Is to Never Make Contact

Before we talk about any specific platform, this needs to be the frame everything else sits inside: your primary goal in a bug out scenario is to never get into a firefight. Period.

If you are executing your plan — moving yourself or your family from Point A to Point B — your focus is on not being seen, not being found, and not making contact with anyone. The situations that would force you into actually using a firearm would almost always be close-range, because if a threat is far enough away for you to need a scope to see them, they are far enough away for you to hide from and bypass entirely.

This one principle should shape every decision about what you carry, how much ammunition you pack, and how you train. You are not going to war. You are protecting yourself and your family while moving to safety.

Personal Defense: The Pistol

For close-in personal protection, I carry a Glock 19 in 9mm. There are a few reasons this platform works for a preparedness application, and none of them are about brand loyalty.

The Glock platform has no external applied safeties, no decockers, and nothing you have to manipulate under stress. It is point and shoot. When seconds matter and your hands are shaking, mechanical simplicity is not a luxury — it is a survival advantage. The Glock 19 is also easily concealable, has solid magazine capacity, and is a proven workhorse across military and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

As for caliber: I choose 9mm over .45 ACP, and the reasoning is simple math. A 9mm bullet is .354 inches in diameter. A .45 caliber bullet is .452 inches. That is a difference of roughly one tenth of an inch. People are grossly overestimating the value of that tenth of an inch when the thing that actually determines the outcome is shot placement.

The 9mm gives you less recoil, which means faster follow-up shots and better accuracy under stress. The rounds are lighter, so you carry more for less weight. They are generally cheaper to purchase, which means you can afford to train more often — and training is where the real advantage lives. An altercation in a bug out scenario is unlikely to be one-on-one. The ability to place accurate, rapid follow-up shots matters far more than theoretical stopping power.

Medium Range: The Carbine

Depending on your plan, your training, and your environment, it may make sense to also carry a carbine for medium-range capability. I choose an AR-15 style carbine in 5.56mm NATO, and the reasoning runs parallel to the pistol choice.

The 5.56 is lighter than its larger counterparts. It has higher magazine capacity relative to weight. It produces less recoil, which matters for accurate follow-up shots under stress. And just like 9mm on the pistol side, 5.56 is a standard military and police caliber — meaning even in a scenario where civilian ammunition sales dry up, military and law enforcement will still be producing and using it. Availability matters when you are thinking long-term.

The carbine gives you that medium-range personal defense capability. But remember the foundational principle: if someone is far enough away to require a scoped rifle to engage, they are far enough away to bypass. The carbine fills the gap between pistol range and the distance where evasion becomes the better option. It is not an offensive weapon in this context. It is another tool for breaking contact and creating distance.

Iron Sights First — Always

This is the point where I lose a lot of people, but it is the most important tactical advice in this entire module: get very good with iron sights before you put a single accessory on any firearm. This applies to your pistol and your carbine equally.

Accessories are what the military jokingly calls the SAP mod — Special Operations Peculiar Modifications. Optics, lights, grips, lasers. The joke is that it is like Barbie for grown men. Accessorizing is the easy part. Shooting fundamentals are the hard part, and no optic compensates for poor fundamentals.

Here is what I learned in sniper school: a scope does nothing more than magnify your fundamental shooting errors. If you are not accurate with iron sights, a four-power scope magnifies those errors four times. It does not make you a better shooter. It makes your bad habits more visible downrange.

Iron sights require no batteries. The chances of them breaking are significantly lower than any battery-powered optic. If you train to be proficient with iron sights, you can pick up any weapon of that type and be effective with it — no matter what accessories it does or does not have.

If you want to add an optic after you are proficient with irons, that is fine — but always keep backup iron sights on the weapon. If your optic fails, runs out of battery, or breaks, you still have the ability to sight and engage effectively. A rifle with a dead optic and no backup sights is a club.

How Much Ammunition Is Enough

This is another area where I see people making serious mistakes, and it comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the mission. I have seen people plan to carry 500 or even 1,000 rounds in a bug out bag. I did not carry that much in any theater of combat, and I was going in with the intent of making contact alongside 11 or more other trained soldiers.

Your goal is not to make contact. Your goal is personal protection while moving to safety. If you happen to make contact — accidentally, unavoidably — your next goal is to break contact and get away as fast as possible, especially if you have your family with you.

You need enough rounds to effectively suppress a situation long enough to disengage. That does not take 200 rounds. Personally, I would carry about four magazines for the rifle — roughly 120 rounds — and three magazines for the pistol, about 45 rounds. That is enough to keep heads down long enough to break contact and move, which is the entire point.

Remember: a military combat load of seven 30-round magazines — 210 rounds — is designed for a team of soldiers whose mission is to make contact with the enemy. Your mission is the opposite. Carrying excessive ammunition adds weight that slows your movement and makes you more vulnerable to the exact situations you are trying to avoid.

Tactical Lights: A Necessary Accessory

I said to be cautious about accessories, but there is one I consider non-negotiable for anyone whose plan includes operating at night: a weapon-mounted tactical light.

The old-school method of holding a handheld flashlight in one hand while trying to manipulate a firearm with the other is outdated and unnecessary. Modern weapon lights let you illuminate a space, identify what you are looking at, and engage if necessary — all while maintaining a proper grip and full control of the weapon. If your plan includes any possibility of low-light conditions, and it should, a tactical light on both your pistol and your carbine is worth the investment.

The 12-Gauge Shotgun: The Versatile Alternative

Not everyone can own a pistol and a carbine. Laws vary by state, and some regions restrict these platforms significantly. A 12-gauge shotgun is one of the most versatile firearms available, and in many places it is the most accessible option.

The versatility of a 12-gauge cannot be overstated. Bird shot for hunting small game. Buckshot for self-defense and hunting larger game. Slugs for longer range and hard targets. You can build a tactical shotgun that gives you meaningful defensive capability in places where pistols and carbines face legal restrictions. And shotgun ammunition remains widely available even in jurisdictions that restrict pistol or rifle ammo sales — which matters when you are thinking about long-term sustainment.

Personally, I prefer 00 buckshot as a general-purpose defensive load. It spreads the impact over a wider area, which is exactly what you want when you wake up at 2 AM with sleep in your eyes and need to engage a threat in your home without a lot of fine motor movement.

This is actually where I think the shotgun shines the brightest — home defense. For your bug-in location and your alternate bug-in location, a 12-gauge tactical shotgun with a red dot sight and a weapon light is hard to beat. You can light up the space, identify the threat, and engage effectively without the precise shot placement that a pistol demands when you are barely awake. The other major advantage is reduced over-penetration compared to rifle rounds. When your family is sleeping on the other side of a wall, that matters.

Long-Range Precision: A Bug-In Tool

A precision rifle — something like the Remington 700 platform in .308 or 7.62mm — has a place in your overall preparedness framework, but that place is not on your back during a bug out. It is staged at your bug-in location or alternate bug-in location.

The logic is consistent with everything else in this module. If someone requires a scoped rifle to see and engage, they are far enough away to bypass. But if you are static at a defensive location and need to stop a threat at distance before it gets close to you and your family, a precision rifle gives you that capability. This is a defensive, location-based tool — not something you ruck with while trying to move fast and stay hidden.

One supporting tool worth considering if you stage a precision rifle at your bug-in location: a small, compact set of binoculars. Even if you never plan to engage at distance, binoculars give you situational awareness. You can see what is ahead, determine whether something is a threat before it gets close, and start planning your response — whether that is engagement, evasion, or simply locking the door. Information at distance keeps you ahead of the situation.

And the same iron-sights-first principle applies tenfold here. If you do not have formal training with a precision rifle, simply owning one does not make you a long-range marksman. The scope magnifies your fundamental errors at even greater distances. If this is a tool you want in your preparedness plan, invest in the training to use it. A bolt-action rifle in .308 — another military and police caliber, another round that will remain in production — with proper training is a legitimate tool for protecting a fixed location.

Invest in Training, Not Hardware

I want to leave you with what I consider the most important takeaway from this entire module, and it has nothing to do with brands, models, or calibers.

You do not need an expensive firearm. You need a firearm you can afford that leaves you enough budget to train with it extensively. It is better to have a $700 AR and $2,000 worth of professional training than a $2,000 AR and $700 worth of training. The person with the less expensive rifle and more trigger time will outperform the person with the premium hardware and minimal range time every single day.

Training teaches you to place shots where they need to go. It builds the muscle memory that takes over when your conscious brain is overwhelmed by stress. It makes you familiar with your platform so that manipulation — reloading, clearing malfunctions, transitioning between weapons — becomes automatic. No accessory, no caliber upgrade, and no online forum debate can replace that.

This also applies to caliber choices. If you can afford more rounds of a given caliber, you can afford to train more. If you train more, you shoot better. If you shoot better, the caliber debate becomes irrelevant because your rounds are going where they need to go. The whole thing circles back to fundamentals. Cheaper ammo means more range time, and more range time means more capability when it counts.

Whatever you choose to carry, get the training to go with it. Know your local laws. Practice regularly. And remember that the best fight is the one you never get into.

How It All Fits Together

Your firearms plan is not a standalone decision. It connects directly to the system you have been building across this entire series. The PACE plan from Module 01 determines your routes and scenarios. The bug out bag from Module 02 establishes your baseline load. The supplemental kits from Module 03 adapt the system to your environment. And the resupply cache system from Module 04 keeps the weight off your back for the long haul.

Firearms fill the personal defense layer of that system. For a bug out scenario on foot, the pistol and carbine combination gives you close-in and medium-range protection while keeping weight manageable. For your static locations — home, alternate bug-in site — the shotgun handles home defense, and a precision rifle extends your defensive perimeter if you have the training to support it. The ammunition load stays honest because the mission is personal protection and breaking contact, not sustained engagement.

The time to acquire, learn, and train with these tools is now — while there is still rule of law, while ammunition is still on the shelf, and while professional instruction is available. Do not wait until you need them to figure out how they work.

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