Gentlemen,
Just curious what rifle you keep behind the kitchen (or living room etc) door to handle misc chores.
This question probably applies more to rural dwellers than urban dwellers. Here in the country, we keep a rifle behind the kitchen door to dispatch vermin (and occassional big game) as well as defend the homestead. In a pinch, it could be pressed into service for most anything I'd ever have to shoot with a gun.
My current kitchen door gun is an M44 Russian 7.62X54R, with the bayonet lug cut off and put into a black synthetic sporter stock. It wears a nylon/neoprene sling and has an ammo holder on the buttstock. In the ammo holder, I keep 4 rounds of varmint ammo and 5 rounds of big game ammo. The varmint ammo is a handload with a Hornady (.312") 85gr XTP bullet at about 2,900 f.p.s. The big game load is some OLD Remington factory 150gr bronze points. Both loads shoot to a useable point of aim at reasonable ranges.
This is the gun that I am most likely to grab when I head out the front door. It is such a useful piece. About as handy as an M94 lever action 30/30, but with a bit more punch.
The most recent example of it's usefuness was yesterday. Me and my brother went to check our trail cams so we threw the M44 behind the seat of the truck. On the way to the camera, we came across a groundhog and my brother grabbed the rifle and dusted the hog at about 75 yards, with the open sights, using the varmint loads from the buttstock ammo holder.
This gun has been used many times in a similar role. It is one of my most used guns.
So, what do you use?
SSB