Originally Posted by
Alaskan Rover
While I don't personally own one, I would say my favorite all-around gun (be it rifle, or shotgun or muzzle-loader) would have to be the Kalashnikov AK-47.
I have seen and handled more than a few of those rifles during my time working for five years in Russia's Far East Siberia. They are very common amongst the people in Siberia, and easy to acquire by these people. They use them for hunting, protection and literal "highway robbery". They make use of very easy to find 7.62mm rounds, and are decent at single-shot mode. A GREAT remote-region bottle plinker!!
The absolute BEST thing aboute the kalashnikov is that it is INCREDIBLY RUGGED! It will continue to work well under all sorts of conditions offensive to guns, including the odd sand storm. They continue to work in remote, sandy places like Tajekistan and parts of Pakistan when most Rugers and such would have seized-up long ago.
I don't even know if they are available in this country, but Kalashnikovs are probably one of the most rugged, reliable and simple rifles ever designed, for remote, bush use. It might not have supreme accuracy in terms of long-range MOA, that some western rifles may have, but all around, it is a GREAT nearly indestructable rifle.