On a serious note, A survival Air rifle could not be a PCP!
Being survival (in the tense that I presume we are all speaking) means that the world and or this country has lost all sense of direction, i.e. huge civil disturbance / all loss of law and order i.e. Shops and Supermarkets closed / broken into, and all stock stolen....
With a PCP you would need to own a Buddy Bottle, Which would fill your rifle 10 times, maybe a little more, then what? The dive shop has been burnt down… Own a stirrup pump and hoses? More kit to carry (can you carry more unwanted kit in a survival situation, these aren’t small objects)
I owned a Falcon Raptor light hunter a few years back which gave me 20 shots per fill !!!
Phill ue stated:-
I'd be after livestock before rabbits! Sheep, pigs and cow would be on the menu
You wouldn’t need a gun for these animals, Just a good sharp knife... which I think most of us own. If not a good sharp kitchen knife would do…
Phill ue Stated (sorry im not picking on you, Just going down the list):-
You could just take the action out of the stock and knock the pin of the break barrel out to fold the rifle up.
In doing this would loose the zero of the rifle, and you would have to re-zero your rifle, maybe a waste of 10 pellets every time you take it down. (every pellet counts)
Matt S Stated a crossbow.
Too powerfull in my mind, If you missed your target you would never find your bolt in undergroth or short grass, If you hit your target the flights will be stripped from the bolt (I know as I have done it) needing a repair kit/glue etc, and a huge stash of bolts. I think they are Bulky as they are the same size as an air rifle but with a bow fitted to the front.
With a Springer, you could shoot it as many times as you had pellets. there are some short i.e. HC “hunter carbine” ones out there like the Air Arms Pro Sport. Built to last for ever and has its own power source built onboard. There are many good makes out there…
To mention Rim fire / Shotgun before this big event happened, You would need a licence, When the world ended, so to speak, it would be too late to go out and find one. Ammunition would also be a problem its bulky and heavy and in the real world you can only store a limited amount (you can’t stock pile it, just in case) though you could in theory put 1000 .177 air rifle pellets in your pocket.
There are some big conversation going on, (and I think I read one on here) about publishing intention on survival in loss of law and order situations, If everybody knows your plans, when all goes tits up, where are people going to turn?
This also goes for licences! your plans will have been noted. With airrifles there is no paper trail, as long as you pay in cash…