My Every Day Carry (EDC) isn’t my The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) or Stuff Hits The Fan (SHTF) handgun. In fact, the only thing similar about the two is they both are chambered in 9mm.
This may or may not be the case for you, or you may have never thought about it.
Paranoid Prepper and I both choose Glocks as our TEOTWAWKI guns, and I’m going to share some of his thoughts about what makes a Glock a good TEOTWAWKI gun. I’ll also talk about everyday carry, and why my TEOTWAWKI Glock 17 sits locked up in a quick-access handgun safe next to my bed, and doesn’t ride in my waistband on my way to work.
EDC vs. TEOTWAWKI firearms
Let me start off by saying that you certainly CAN use one gun for both of your EDC and TEOTWAWKI / SHTF needs.
A good friend of mine carries a full-sized Colt 1911 in an inside-the-waistband holster for his EDC. I personally have zero desire to lug a gun that big and heavy around inside my pants.
My EDC right now is a Ruger LC9s, which I carry inside of a “Sneaky Pete” holster on my waistband.
Salty’s Ruger LC9s inside of his Sneaky Pete holster
My TEOTWAWKI handgun of choice is a Glock 17, while Spice’s is a Glock 19 (it fits her hand better). As you can see in the picture below, Spice’s hands are a bit too small for one of my Glock 17’s (the pink Gen 3 one).
Salty’s Pink Glock
EDC guns, in my opinion at least, should be guns that are small and light enough to be comfortable to carry with you everywhere you go (unless, of course, you go SCUBA diving). An EDC gun should be rugged and reliable, and they should also be of a large enough caliber to provide adequate “stopping power”.
While I understand and agree with the argument that the most important aspect of self defense shooting is bullet placement, not bullet size, it’s pretty obvious that even trained shooters like police officers outright miss their targets in a gunfight… a lot.
TEOTWAWKI handguns, on the other hand, are potentially a whole different matter, If you live in an area where open carry is legal, an externally holstered gun may well be your best choice. A gun in an external holster is faster to reach and quicker to draw in a situation where that quickness may mean the difference between life or death.
In a future post I’m going to take a look at EDC guns and what features to look for, but the rest of this article will be about TEOTWAWKI guns, using the Glock as an example of a good choice.
What makes a great TEOTWAWKI handgun choice?
Well, there are several factors that make guns both good and bad choices for TEOTWAWKI. Let’s take a look at the good traits first, via Paranoid Prepper’s thoughts on Glocks, then I will follow up with some bad things to avoid.
Availability
Glocks are the most common handguns sold today. They are popular with law enforcement and with the civilian market. As a result, finding a Glock is a challenge when we experience one of our periodic buying panics, but otherwise they are readily available. Since most police departments periodically replace their pistols, there are plenty of used “police trade in” Glocks available as well.
Parts, whether standard replacement parts, or custom upgrade parts, are very easy to find. As a result, if you want to acquire half a dozen of the same Glock model, it should not be a problem. Finally, magazines are readily available, and generally work fine in any generation Glock.
Reliability
Glocks have a well-deserved reputation for firing reliably. While semi-automatic pistols are inherently more complex than revolvers, Glock has managed to achieve revolver level consistency in firing. The common semi-automatic issues of failure to feed, failure to fire, etc. just don’t happen often enough with Glocks to be an issue.
I suspect the reason Glock has never produced a .22 is that the ammunition is so light powered and so variable, that a .22 Glock would risk the overall Glock reputation for firing reliability. There are plenty of online videos of Glock torture tests that make the point as well. I’ve seen videos of people burying Glocks, running over them with vehicles, freezing them in blocks of ice, etc. and the Glocks just keep on firing.
Interchangeability of Parts/Aftermarket parts
There are differences in parts across models and between generations of Glock models, but the differences are less than you might expect, and the amount of “gunsmithing” required to maintain a Glock is minimal. Basically, if you break a part you just replace it. There is no fitting or adjustment required.
This extreme consistency makes it easy for aftermarket parts suppliers to make parts that fit as well. Accessory makers also have an easy time with Glock. For instance, each holster will generally fit multiple models, minimizing the complexity for the holster manufacturer.
Cleaning
Ease of cleaning is where the Glock really shines. There are other models that are similar to Glock in their ease of disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly, but I don’t think you’ll find any other model of handgun that is significantly easier to clean than a Glock. You can field strip Glocks in about 15 seconds.
If you want to take apart the slide and detail strip the entire lower part of the firearm, you’ll need a punch and about another minute. The process is the same regardless of model. If you can disassemble one Glock you can disassemble all Glock models. Cleaner and a few swipes down the barrel will remove the crud quickly.
Since the firearm is polymer, it needs relatively little lubrication. A needle oiler applied where you have metal to metal contact is all you need.
And now… what makes a handgun a bad choice for a TEOTWAWKI firearm
Salty’s back, and here are a list of things that make a gun a bad choice for a TEOTWAWKI handgun. Several things on my list are basically just the reverse of Paranoid Preppers points above, but there are also a couple of other concerns I want to add as well.
- Availability – there are a lot of guns that are outstanding firearms, but they are fairly obscure and it will be exceedingly difficult in many situations to get parts and magazines. For example, I own and really enjoy shooting a Canik TP9SA, one of the sweetest shooting 9mm’s that I own. Having said that, you can’t just go into a gun store and buy replacement firing pins or springs for a Canik, nor replacement magazines.
- Reliability – If a gun isn’t 100 percent reliable, in a TEOTWAWKI / SHTF situation it can be the difference between life and death. One of the reasons it’s so important to train with your firearm using the ammunition that you plan to use if the SHTF is so you know that the gun/ammo combo is absolutely reliable. Yes, it’s expensive, but consider it a form of life insurance… or, more accurately, life assurance.
- Cleaning – A good TEOTWAWKI / SHTF gun needs to be extremely easy to field strip and clean, because you will be toting that thing all over the place, in all kinds of weather conditions. No matter how accurate or reliable a firearm is, if you don’t keep it clean, then you are putting both yourself and the longevity of your gun at risk
- Picky/strange Ammunition/habits – Every prepper needs to stockpile at least some self-defense ammunition for his or her TEOTWAWKI handgun. I have a friend who’s primary TEOTWAWKI handgun is a Makarov that shoots 9x18mm ammunition. He has several identical guns, spare parts, and plenty of both practice and personal defense ammunition. That works for me. Having said that, if you didn’t stockpile the ammo, spare parts and have mulitple copies of them, then it would be a poor choice. I have a WWII model Walther P-38 that is a great, reliable gun as long as I don’t put hollow point ammunition in it. It just won’t shoot them at all, that makes it a poor choice for a TEOTWAWKI gun.
- Single-action only revolvers – There’s a place for revolvers in the TEOTWAWKI world, but only double action ones. In case you are confused, single action means you have to cock the hammer manually with your thumb, whereas a double action gun can both cock the hammer and fire the gun on one trigger pull.
- A gun that shoots rimfire ammo – Rimfire is not the best choice for reliability in a SHTF ammo situation
A Canik TP9SA and similar “off-brand” guns are only a good TEOTWAWKI choice if you have several firearms, plenty of spare parts and magazines.
Wrapping it up
Feel free to add any additional thoughts in the comment section!
https://beansbulletsbandagesandyou.com/bullets/2019/05/04/teotwawki-handgun-different-than-edc/
My choice is the cowboy way old 6 hole stubby Colt edc and 7 hole 8inch Taurus shtf and Marlin 38spl/357 to reach out and touch someone when given no other way to survive. The old Colt is 38 only and abit heavy and not the thin and dashing figure of the autos but it’s family. 38s will be on the list of easyer to find ammo and the rifle ups the good old 158 grain lead flat tops.
My EDC and TEOTWAWKI pistol are the same. A Sig Sauer P-228 9mm. I’ve carried this pistol since 1991 and have extensive experience with it. I’d like to have a P-226 also, but I had to give mine back to the PD when I retired. I have spare parts, tools, and know how to break it down to pins and springs if necessary.
Sometimes, I carry a Walther PPK/S .380 as an EDC when circumstances require. A backup TEOTWAWKI is my S&W Model 686 .357. I have both magnum and .38 special ammo available for it (and a bunch of speedloaders).
I am kicking around the thought of getting a Glock 19, with spare parts and a mess of magazines. I may mount a small white light on this one.
BTW, extensive training with a pistol is not the be-all, end-all of accuracy. When under extreme stress (like a deadly force event tends to be), fine motor control goes to hell and so does accuracy. Moving targets and shooters also have a major compounding effect. Training must specifically take these matters into account. Stress and moving.
The ancient Roman Army had an excellent saying about this. “Training must be bloodless battles. Battles then are bloody training.”
If you are paranoid enough to want to carry while SCUBA diving, you can take any Glock and replace the firing pin cups with “marine cups”. These are inexpensive parts, but are the only modification required to make any Glock work underwater. 🙂
PP, my Glock now hates you for the very Idea of exposing it to salt water immersion. It’d hate Salty too, but he adopted it.
I have to admit I haven’t tested it, but when stocking spares, I bought Marine cups instead of the regular ones.
I found this article awhile back. It describes the parts that most commonly fail on a Glock.
http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/are-glocks-truly-perfection
Could be a good idea to stock some of these parts for a TEOTWAWKI Glock.
The thing about.22 rimfire is that it is simply the most common ammo in the USA. If you find someone with only one gun in the house, definitely not a prepper house, it will probably be a .22. That said, to leave out the .22 on the basis of ammo unreliability is silly. When almost every house with a gun has a .22 rimfire to have a least .22 in your personal arsenal just makes good sense. It is a case of : having only a .22 is better than no gun at all. I have several. I have other stuff also. The .22 will save your butt in a pinch.