What Is The Best Rifle Cartridge For Your Bug-Out Gun?

Bug-out bag guns are becoming more and more common with the market offering a seemingly endless number of innovations, but the decision on what best suits you can all come down to rifle ammo you prefer for this particular use.

We’re focusing on rifle cartridges because of their added versatility, let’s assume that this is something you want to use for self-defense and hunting and that you already have a handgun as your secondary weapon on your person.

We are going to dive into some of the pros and cons of common rifle cartridges.

The first consideration is the barrel length needed for the rounds and what that can mean when it comes to taking up valuable space. This will also bring up the need to consider how that barrel length affects the round’s utility for a given consideration.

5.56 NATO

If you have spent any time researching for a well rounded “SHTF” rifle you have undoubtedly heard of the extremely common 5.56 NATO round and for good reason. Since its creation 5.56 has been trusted by countless military and law enforcement agencies across the world due to the versatility and reliability it provides.

From long range to CQB engagements the 5.56 round provides excellent ballistics. When shot out of a 18-20” barrel as originally intended you can easily reach out to 600 yards, however this doesn’t make for a very concealable package.

An obvious solution is to shorten the barrel down to make this a viable option to pack into a bag. This is what manufacturers have done to solve the issue of combining the ubiquitous 5.56 NATO round into a compact, PDW, bug out bag style rifle.

While there are plenty of rifle style pistols with shorter barrels, one must consider: how short is too short?

It is generally agreed that the 5.56 NATO round’s ballistics steeply drop off once you go under 10.5” in barrel length.

With a 10.5” barrel the round can still easily reach out to about 300 yards effectively.

If you’re using a folding stock adapter or a gas piston system, with a 10.5-inch barrel rifle, you can really put a dent in the over-all length of your rifle, so there’s a reason 5.56 NATO is at the top of the best rifle cartridge for a bug-out bag gun.

.300 Blackout

So how about a round that was designed to reach maximum velocity out of a much shorter barrel?

The .300 Blackout almost is the perfect bug-out bag gun especially in you live in or near an urban area.

The .300 BLK cartridge has risen in popularity in recent years and for good reason. With grain weights from your common 110gr Supersonic to 210gr Subsonic this round does have some unique uses especially when paired with a suppressor.

While .300 Blackout isn’t as good at reaching out in long range engagements as 5.56 NATO, it really shines within close distances due to its immense amount of energy delivered to the target.

It produces similar ballistics to 5.56 with a 16” barrel but out of a 9” barrel.

What does that mean for you?

This short burn rate from .300 BLK means you can have a much shorter barrel even down to 5.5”, like shown by the Sig Sauer MCX Rattler, and still have an effective cartridge.

It’s worth noting that the MCX Rattler is offered with a 5.5” barrel chambered in, you guessed it, 5.56 NATO. But as previously discussed, a barrel length of less than 10.5” inches for this round is not optimal.

The 300 Blackout option is far superior for this kind of set-up.

What’s so neat about .300 Blackout is that you can shorten the barrel length of what you would have needed on a 5.56 platform to almost half and if you combine it with a folding stock, it makes for a tiny package that packs a lot of punch.

With such a small overall size you can fit a .300 Blackout rifle or pistol in most 3-day assault packs that you may be using as your bug-out bag.

Along with the benefits of a shorter barrel, the .300 BLK round was designed to be used with a suppressor. Plus, if you use subsonic ammo, which is commonly available most of the time, this round is almost Hollywood quiet.

Subsonic ammo, or ammo designed to not reach the speed of sound, doesn’t have that loud crack of the sound barrier breaking but only the sound of the explosion in the chamber. This is almost impossible to do with the 5.56 NATO cartridge due to just how fast the round needs to move to be effective.

Are we trading the ballistic performance of a standard .300 Blackout if we’re using subsonic ammo?

Absolutely. Subsonic .300 Blackout is best to be used within 100 yards.

Because the most common approach to making the .300 BLK round subsonic is by greatly increasing the weight of the bullet, usually from 110gr to 210gr, it drastically slows the round down.

So, by slowing the bullet, it no longer breaks the sound barrier, but also lowers its effectiveness at longer ranges.

Some may think that a 100-yard range is plenty for their needs, therefore it is a small price to pay for protecting your hearing, staying situationally aware, and perhaps flying under the radar a bit better during a SHTF scenario.

.22 Long Rifle

The .22 LR cartridge was bound to make the list of best cartridges for your bug out bag. Some may call it the OG rifle cartridge choice for preppers seeking that holy grail of the perfect backpack gun round.

The .22LR is extremely versatile. It’s cheap, readily available, it can be used for hunting and yes, self-defense.

If SHTF, food will be of upmost importance and the .22LR could become your best friend. You can easily put down small game while hunting even at a decent distance, allowing you to bring food home to the family when grocery stores may not be an option.

While 300 Blackout or 5.56 NATO rounds might be great for taking down larger game, you can’t hunt the smaller animals like squirrels or birds populating your suburban areas.

The argument about using .22LR for self-defense applications, will continue to be controversial and with good reason.

However, its lower recoil means you’ll hit your target easier and if you’re practicing aim small, miss small, then there’s plenty of spots available to neutralize the threat. A well trained shooter can make great use of .22 Long Rifle in a self-defense scenario and by contrast a new shooter won’t make good use of a higher caliber round if they’re struggling to hit their target.

This cartridge really shines when it comes to the amount of ammo you can carry with you. The round is very small and very light, allowing you to carry a 1,000 rounds in your bug-out bag, or a few hundred if you’re keeping weight down.

Having a lighter round that you can carry in bulk is beneficial if you are separated from your supplies or homebase for a bit longer than expected. It’s also beneficial for long treks, which will make even light things feel heavier and heavier over time.

Last but certainly not least, if you’re looking to .22 Long Rifle as your backpack gun cartridge, then your backpack gun may well be a Ruger 10/22 Takedown. This rifle is hard to beat if you’re looking for a SHTF rifle that you can throw in a bag and hit the road.

It assembles in seconds, only weighs 4.67 pounds, and when broken down and each part is only 20.25” inches long. It features plenty of aftermarket accessories and upgrades, it sometimes even comes with is own bag which makes it an out of the box, bug-out gun.

Conclusion

To wrap this up there are plenty of options for what rifle cartridge you can pack in your go-bag. I would say look around your environment and see which round fits your environment best because there will be trade-offs for every choice.

If you are in an urban area and plan on staying there for a while, the odds of you needing to make a 400+ yard shot are less then likely, for this reason it might be best to go with a .300 Blackout cartridge platform.

However, if you are in a more rural environment where longer distance engagements are more likely, whether that be taking down prey or self-defense, you may lean toward 5.56 NATO.

So where does .22LR fit in? You can make great use of this round in either situation but keep in mind you will not have the greatest power to make it through walls or sometimes even thick brush.

Of course, there are plenty of other great rifle cartridges that aren’t on this list, so I recommend doing your own research to find what round fits your situation best. We also kept this list limited to rifle cartridges and didn’t consider the viability of pistol calibers or shotguns, both of which are viable options worth exploring.