Need help deciding on a truck gun

[mrvmax]

Go for the AK pistol. As long as you have LTC/CHL you are not breaking the law going through gun free school zones.

[Soap]

My concern is always securing the darn thing. At least with a pistol I can keep it on-body.

This is my question as well. When people say "truck gun", what do you mean? A cheapie Taurus in the globe box I can see, but where do you store an AK pistol or a shotgun that's sufficiently out of sight but still reasonably secure and accessible?

Back in the day, everybody had gun racks hanging on the back window of single cabs, all but tickling your ears. But with 90+% of trucks now being crew cabs, that doesn't really work, even if you weren't concerned about theft. I know we used to keep a lot of stuff behind the seat of my dad's single cab F-100, but there was quite a bit of room back there for that very purpose, and it was easy to flip the seat back forward to get to it (I'm not even sure it had a safety latch of any kind now that I think about it). Maybe other trucks are different but that area behind the back seat of my Tundra barely has room for a rope or a folded tarp, much less a rifle or even an AK-type pistol of any size. It does have a couple of decent storage bins under the seat but they're somewhat difficult to get to because the seat is secured by two latches and you pretty much have to clear everything off the seat and floorboard to get it to fold down properly.

I have a mini safe that attaches to the seat. Or i can latch the rifle to the seat underneath our seats. Or even in the trunk depending what I'm driving. This is why i have it narrowed down to these two guns. They're small in size. They can be used inside the car aswell. I'll always have my pistol on my hip.

[The Annoyed Man]

Option 3: 18" shotgun.

I recently bought a Rem 870 Tactical with a one-piece 6 round tube, and I am very impressed with it. $319 at Academy, and remington is always running a $25 - $50 off mail in rebate. I can hit a 12" steel plate with the regular remington slugger rifled slugs out to 75 yards with just a bead sight.

I live in suburban Fort Worth, so I carry an AR under my back seat. If I lived out a little further, this 870 would be my truck gun.

I ditto on the shotgun. After dithering back and forth on carrying an AR in my car, I decided that I don't own an AR I'd want to surrender to police if I ever had to use it. My particular tactical shotgun has a 20" barrel and a 8 round magazine tube (Mossberg 590A1), but it is very accurate for a shotgun as is yours. I was hitting a 2/3 scale IPSC steel silhouette consistently at 60 yards firing a LE load of a .650" lead ball and six #1 buck pellets. I really like the shotgun, but I would not mourn its loss as much as the loss of one of my ARs.

Here's a video of the same model hitting a steel plate at 100 yards with slugs. Given that 100 yards is certainly farther than any distance I would need to take a shot at someone else while oot and aboot, I call that good enough. Justme turned me on to an "over the shoulder" bandolier that holds 56 rounds of 12 gauge shot shells (Amazon.com).

https://youtu.be/FQearB6S6AU?t=2m23s

I upgraded the safety button and sights on mine, and added a short rail:



Extended safety button:


Upgraded ghost-ring sight and rail:


Big Dot front sight:


The sights are simply awesome, very easy to pick up, and spot on.

I also carry either a G19 or G17 with a spare mag on my belt, and often have a little black "Glock" bag with several backup magazines, PLUS three 33-round mags and a 50 round box of ball ammo in it. So I'll often have 180 or more rounds of extra 9mm in that bag, on top of what's in the pistol and backup mag. Between the 8 rounds in the shotgun tube and 56 shotgun rounds on the bandolier (a mixture of buckshot and slugs), plus however many rounds of 9mm I have on me, I think I'm pretty well covered.

That shotgun with slugs in it will easily put down whatever I shoot with it at any range that makes "shotgun sense", and I have a lot of confidence in the sights. I love my AR15s, but they are all custom builds and I've spent a LOT of money on them. It would pain me greatly to have one stolen, or (in the event of a shooting) have it temporarily confiscated by police. But the Glocks are just Glocks, and the Mossberg is just a Mossberg. Either is utterly replaceable.

[ELB]

Whenever I hear "truck gun" I think of One of these:

[joe817]

Whenever I hear "truck gun" I think of One of these:

Well that's certainly a truck gun. But I don't think they make a gun rack for it.

[twomillenium]

My concern is always securing the darn thing. At least with a pistol I can keep it on-body. For our trip to San Antonio, Austin and Hill Country this week, I decided to take 8 mags for my G19 and a Kimber Solo with 3 mags as a BUG. So that gives me 136 rounds of 9mm mixed HP and FMJ. If I need more, I plan to take it off the attacker.

If it ever was to get that bad, most people would never find out that they needed more than a 136 rounds.

[Bitter Clinger]

My concern is always securing the darn thing. At least with a pistol I can keep it on-body. For our trip to San Antonio, Austin and Hill Country this week, I decided to take 8 mags for my G19 and a Kimber Solo with 3 mags as a BUG. So that gives me 136 rounds of 9mm mixed HP and FMJ. If I need more, I plan to take it off the attacker.

If it ever was to get that bad, most people would never find out that they needed more than a 136 rounds.

Agreed. Not planning to attend any "Black Lies Matter" protests or outlaw motorcycle gang gatherings.

[J.R.@A&M]

Option 3: 18" shotgun...I can hit a 12" steel plate with the regular remington slugger rifled slugs out to 75 yards with just a bead sight.

You must have better eyes than I do. But I agree with your thought, and keep my hunting/etc. shotgun in my vehicle (with Remington Sluggers, and a Burris Speedbead red dot).

[MJR]

Glock 19 in the console and HEB for hunting. I am 68 and never had anything taken from my car/PU.

[LucasMcCain]

Whenever I hear "truck gun" I think of One of these:

On the upside, that would be pretty hard for someone to steal.

On topic, the Sub 2000 folds up to about 16" long and mine takes the same mags as my carry pistol. As far as storage, that's about as good as you're going to get. The challenge right now is just finding one for MSRP or less.

[earlwb]

I had used several ranch rifles over the years a long time ago. This was when everyone I knew had a pickup truck rear window rack. it had typically two guns on the rack, a shotgun and a rifle. I used a 12 gauge Remington 870 shotgun for that part. The ranch rifle was a 6.5mm Carcano carbine, or a 30-30 lever carbine. I also used a Remington Model 8 chambered in .35 Remington too. That was before the Ruger Ranch rifle in 7.62x39mm came out though. As soon as the Ruger Ranch rifle came out then most everyone was getting one except for me.

Nowadays with all the anti-military gun fervor going around. I would choose something that is not black and looks more like a sporting rifle with a wood stock on it. But if it is not in plain sight, locked and secured inside the vehicle, then anything would work fine then. With all of the stealing going on today, one can't just put a gun inside a car without it being secured anymore.

A .22LR gun is fine. Most people do not want to be shot, so it makes a good deterrent in most cases. Unless you are wanting lots of rapid firepower, a combo gun, maybe even a take down model may be the way to go. Then you could have a .22LR and a 20 gauge or 12 gauge shotgun too. You can even get barrel inserts for the shotgun to shoot other cartridges as well.

[maverick2076]

Whenever I hear "truck gun" I think of One of these:

On the upside, that would be pretty hard for someone to steal.

On topic, the Sub 2000 folds up to about 16" long and mine takes the same mags as my carry pistol. As far as storage, that's about as good as you're going to get. The challenge right now is just finding one for MSRP or less.

I love my Sub2K . Fold it up, and it fits in a laptop bag. ITs accurate, easy to shoot and shares mags with my carry pistol.

If you are having a hard time finding one, go to your local Academy. If they don't have one in stock, ask the gun counter guys to search for it at other stores. When they find one they will have it shipped to your local store for free and you can pick it up there. They sell for MSRP, which is $429. That is how I finally got my PMR-30.

[LucasMcCain]

I love my Sub2K . Fold it up, and it fits in a laptop bag. ITs accurate, easy to shoot and shares mags with my carry pistol.

If you are having a hard time finding one, go to your local Academy. If they don't have one in stock, ask the gun counter guys to search for it at other stores. When they find one they will have it shipped to your local store for free and you can pick it up there. They sell for MSRP, which is $429. That is how I finally got my PMR-30.

Really?!? They looked for me and the nearest one was several hundred miles away, but they said nothing of having it shipped to the store by me. I'll have to remember that for the future. I managed to find mine at a Cabela's. It was apparently being held for somebody who hadn't shown up to pick it up. The sales guy I talked to said he was tired of holding it, so he sold it to me since I was there with cash in hand.