If you live in a city and shit hits the fan, making you need to defend yourself and loved ones, you would need to be sure that you are prepared for the worst possible scenarios and have the fire power required to stop any threats.

Table of Contents

Handguns

Shotguns

Rifles

Storing Ammunition and Supplies

Knives

Credit: SERE Combat Survival Training — hurlburt.af.mil

The urban environment is both a unique and challenging one, with cramped short distances that make combat quick and decisive. I’ve fortunately not had to fight in a city as of yet, but I have done realistic urban training and learned a lot from it — in a short space of time.

Thinking back on this experience it made me want to write this guide, to help spread the knowledge to any other preppers, and readers who are interested in urban survival during a time of civil unrest.

Handguns

The first thing you are going to want is a handgun and plenty of ammunition to go with it.

Just so you know — there really isn’t any gun designed specifically for urban survival, certainly none that’s specifically catered for urban areas over any rural or other survival situations. So any modern semi-automatic pistol will fair well.

Also worth bearing in mind is a revolver is a great gun, but in comparison to a semi-automatic handgun, the revolver would be at a slight disadvantage due to reloading time, and the number of rounds that can be fired in quick succession.

Personally I favour a 9mm due to the ease of finding ammunition (which in a survival situation is definitely a plus!) and also 9mm pistols have a higher capacity over a six shot revolver. You absolutely do not want to be taking cover, frantically reloading when the time calls for decisive action! Owning both a semi-automatic and six shot revolver handguns would also be optimal in a perfect world where money is not a concern.

For a SHTF urban situation I would choose a Glock full size or compact firearm, or one of the SIG Sauer P Series. Alternatively if those are not available then the Smith & Wesson M&P Series are definitely worth a look! Ultimately there are many options out there for affordable semi-automatic handguns that have great build quality and a modern spec.

SIG Sauer P226 RX Legion comes complete with day/night sights

For what I own my choice was the SIG Sauer P226 RX Legion, because it offers day/night sights with 15 rounds of 9mm ammunition in the mag, it’s a full size handgun with a strong alloy frame and P-SAIT Trigger. The night sights are extremely useful for a night time urban environment, when the power is out and you have large buildings that block moonlight, and cast pitch black shadows.

Thinking rationally about a survival situation the power being cut is a given and so night times would be very dark inside an urban area. There may be a disadvantage if you did not have a night sight so budgeting for this in your survival plan is a must.

Shotguns

This is your go to breacher tool and not an offensive/defensive weapon. Utilised correctly a shotgun can save your life, but it’s not without some important caveats — miss-stroking a pump action shotgun (which is a very real and common occurrence in combat) will cause you to loose the fight. So I always recommend using an automatic.

Remember combat in an urban setting is rapid, and at a close range — ultimately very brutal. You need to neutralise a threat as quickly as humanly possible. At an extreme close range, any thug with a cheap gun at just 10 to 20 yards can be a serious threat just because of this close proximity. Ensuring you can neutralise this threat instantaneously is absolutely crucial to your survival.

Certainly a rifle or pistol, will work very well but what is more sure for split second reactions in a close proximity when there is a breach — is a shotgun. The spray from a shotgun shell causes instant damage to any threat, with a much higher probability than a handgun or rifle, because of the power packed into one shell in-comparison to unleashing a series of 9mm rounds from your semi-automatic.

The next time you are at the target range, compare your handgun or rifle with a shotgun. Now allow yourself to imagine the encounter at close quarters, when engaged with a lethal combatant, in a survival situation that is trying to take your life — ask yourself which one you’d rather have as your defence aid.

A Mossberg 930 8-Shot Semi-Automatic SPX Shotgun gives you the power to permanently eradicate multiple lethal assailants in seconds

For anyones budget I recommend a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun for close quarter urban survival situations, and for those with more funds available to spend on their shotgun, then I highly recommend a semi-automatic 8-shot like the Mossberg 930 SPX Pistol Grip. You should really go for a semi-automatic shotgun because you can ensure the shots will fire and there is no chance of miss-stroking the pump action reload after you have released your first cartridge. Additionally worth noting is a semi-automatic provides 8 shots which is enough to handle a breach intrusion of several threats.

Mossberg 590A1 Retrograde Pump-action 12 Gauge Shotgun

The Remington 870 or the Mossberg 500/590 series are very well made shotguns, that are used by military and police forces all over the world and feature a plethora of customizable accessories and are well worth your attention in choosing a shotgun for your survival kit.

Rifles

As essential to your prep team as a medic, is your rifleman. This is your preferred firearm and most important part of your kit! If you own only one gun — make it a semi-automatic rifle!

Your team must have someone on board who has a strong working experience, is well trained and has built a deep knowledge of an automatic rifle, such as the AR 15 — plus what is advantageous is that rifleman has been working the scope on a sniper rifle also, as a sniper will ensure you have someone ‘in the crows nest’ that can give an early warning of any emerging threats, or a siege once camp is setup and your team needs to rest and recuperate. You do not want to be relying on purely your breacher tool alone! Your rifleman is the teams first line of defense in most cases.

The Springfield Armory ‘Saint’ AR15 Semi-automatic Rifle features a flip-up rear sight and a 16" barrel

In an urban environment you will mostly be in very close quarter combat, until you reach a safe place to make a base where you will be able to scope out the area more as your team camps.

Once a base has been setup, using an elevated position is obviously highly advantageous for keeping guard over your near proximity (500–800 yards) and be able to view any bridges or fence gates / entrances from a far, and help provide cover during a scouting operation.

Remember in a survival situation the cell phones will be out, as will power — so charging walkie talkies is highly unlikely, therefore you will need to discuss and plan the route ahead of making any moves, then you can know someone is following your steps providing cover from above, with a keen hawk like eye.

For urban combat a 16" carbine is ideal for covering a range of up to around 400 yards, and is light enough to not be a burden, as the AR 15 is really not heavy at all — with an average setup weighing in around 6.5lbs (3kg) The Springfield Armory ‘Saint’ is an ideal purchase for your survival teams semi-automatic rifle.

An AR 15 is modular so you can accessorize it easily and add lights, change stocks, optics and essentially customise the machine to be as you require. Another great point is the ammunition is light, affordable and run of the mill so like the 9mm rounds in your semi-automatic handgun, finding ammo won’t be hard at all, as it’s a common size and not some exotic or rare kind.

The CZ 750 Sniper Rifle has a range of 800 yards and is used by elite military and police forces worldwide

Storing Ammunition & Supplies

The Plano Ammo Can holds up to 8 boxes of ammunition and features a water-resistant O-ring seal to store ammo securely and keep it dry.

You need ammo but carrying lots of ammo can get really heavy, so you will need to build a cache of ammunitions and supplies for your survival base outside the city, or for your safe house.

Remember if you have access to a legal area in the city you could also store your ammunition there, so you know there is a midway bolthole for you to keep safe, and have supplies to reload during a SHTF scenario.

Your cache ideally should contain not only ammunition but also cleaning gear and replacements for your supplies such as sights, magazines and just simple items like lighters and fire starters, and essential medical aids. Wherever you build your stash make sure it’s legal and secure, don’t trespass or break any laws!

A weather proof lockable box placed in a stealthy manner is ideal for fitting these needs and gives you a destination where your team can rendezvous incase of communications being severed.

Check out the Ammo Can by Plano which can easily store your munitions and supplies with their durable, and lightweight weather proof design which is also very high value — costing only $8 a pop! Stocking up with several Ammo Cans is a easy way to build your supply cache.

Cleaning kits are vital to keeping a well maintained and reliable firearm

Besides storage of ammo you will also need cleaning equipment for your firearms, there are plenty of assorted cleaning kits available here that will suit any size of budget!

I recommend keeping several sizes of barrel brushes, and a few bottles of lubricant and cleaner to de-gum and de-gunk your firearms in your cleaning stash, enabling you to service all of your teams firearms easily, ensuring everything is well maintained and operating correctly — at all times.

Knives

With it’s 5" blade and zinc-aluminum alloy handles the CobraTec CTK-1 is designed for use with any task. It’s certainly a knife that you can rely on to get the job done.

A knife has many uses for both utility and hand-to-hand close quarter combat, and of course if you find yourself out of ammunition or incapacitated from reaching your gun — having a knife to hand is a practical choice, and should be included in everyones urban survival kit.

Not only can you make use of a knife to prepare meat, peel fruit, cut or whittle wood and craft textiles or materials, you can cut just about anything you desire, and you can also protect yourself when the need may arise.

Knives are a lightweight, high value essential accessory to your urban survival or prepping kit. Don’t overlook this highly useful tool. Just imagine you need to cut something when you are out in the shit, and literally cannot find a blade anywhere!

You just don’t know when the need may arise to just have a handy blade to make a quick cut, or just help eat some food. Plus obviously knifes are silent and will not give away your position, if you need to retain stealth in an urban setting (which is highly likely!) a knife is your primary go to tool.

Thanks for checking out my guide!

Thanks for reading, I hope this guide has been of use to you! If you are interested in any of these firearms or accessories I have mentioned please check the links below:

Have a great day! Please leave any comments or insights on your urban survival prepping below!

I love to hear from any preppers out there — knowledge is power!