Help determine Ted's future.

So Ted has a posting on his Blog about the firearms he dreams about when he should be doing other things. There are several categories, and they break down like this:

-Shotgun
-AR 15 of some type, or boltgun in .223
-Some kind of .22 revolver. (?)
-Marlin Lever gun in a Long action Caliber.
-An AR 15 pistol variant.

Here is my response to each of these.

The shotgun. I am a big fan of the pump shotty. Loaded with buck or slugs, it can be one of the most powerful civilian weapons available. My vote is for the H&K FP6 A1 Pump Shotgun with Heavy Barrel. I have handled these at gun shows, and think that they are pretty alright. They run about $550.00. If this is not an option, I would go with the 870 Express This model has the 7 round capacity, and retails for under 300 clams. This might be a better choice than the H&K, and if you really want a pistol grip, just pick up a Brownell's catalog and order one.

.223 (AR-15 or Bolt Rifle.) My bias is going to run pretty deep on this. There is no reason whatsoever to have a bolt gun in .223. Modern AR's are just about as accurate as a bolt gun, but you get the combat capabilities of the AR. O am a big fan of Olympic Arms models (They make it just about as easy to build one as buy an assembled one) The real beauty of an AR, is that once you have the lower receiver, you can then but any number of uppers on it from .17HMR, all the way up to .50BMG in the Ferret conversion. So under the shotgun, this is definitely the best choice you could make. Go with the AR, it should be required by law that every household have one.

.22 Revolver. I am totally uninterested in this. Pass on this idea Ted.

Marlin Lever Gun in a big bore Cal. I was just talking with Dad the other day about how I need to get a lever gun one of these days. I am a big .45/70 fan, but I am also interested in the .444 Marlin. But if there is a .500S&W caliber on the horizon, I will buy that for sure. But until then, I would wait. If you want to shoot a .45/70, just come shoot the Ruger No. 3.

AR style pistol. These are pretty darn cool. They combine all of the great features of your standard AR-15 with the concealment/drive-byability of a pistol/subgun. I think that Olympic will be making one of these without all the holes in the body soon. There was a Bushmaster lightweight pistol at the gunshow last weekend for $700.00. This is something that I would hold off on until I had both the Shotty, and the AR. I prefer this model, over this one.

I think to sum it up, Ted has a really focused idea of what he wants. This is just a list of my ideas about what he should get. So make sure you go to Ted's blog and let him know what YOU think.