Handle a bare bones C8 (or your choice of equivalent civilian AR15) with a 14.5" pencil barrel and iron sights.
You wouldn't believe how light and easy to handle it is. Try the lightest, easiest to handle configuration that ever was, then decide how much useless junk/weight you want to add to it.
It won't be much Sir.
Amen! On a SHTF rifle, I wouldn't run much more than a quality dot, a quality sling and a set of backup irons. BFG Vickers is the golden standard sling-wise and I'd be looking at something like Meprolight M21 dot-wise - no electronics to get fried, no batteries to worry about after 500 hours of 50,000 hours, tough, durable, business-like, but with great optics and very fast acquisition if you go with the donut of death ("circle dot") reticle.
Rifle-wise, make it a no-brainer and go with DD. Rock-solid reliable.


















































