The author’s personal choice for a personal protection rifle is this Winchester Model 1894AE, chambered in .44 Magnum.
These days, modern sporting rifles, like the AR15, are everybody’s darlings, and why not? They are light, ergonomic, fast shooting, and they generally fire a round that Uncle Sam has deemed effective…though, admittedly, government decisions on that subject aren’t something I accept without a grain of salt.
Personally, I like the modern sporting rifle genre, and I own examples in calibers from 9mm up through 7.62 NATO. I like shooting them, but, when I’m travelling, whether it is in the mountains of my home state of Pennsylvania, or even a cross-country trip, the gun that goes behind my front seat is not an AR15. I still travel with the same .44 Magnum chambered, Winchester Model 1894 carbine that I started packing in 1991.
I’ll admit that wasn’t always the case. For a brief period in the late 2000-ought’s I decided to join the twenty-first century, and I replaced my trusty lever gun with a Just Right, or JR, carbine chambered in 9mm Parabellum. The JR is a pistol-caliber carbine with AR15 styling, and a number of AR15 interchangeable parts. In its 9mm chambering it uses Glock magazines. With two, 30-round Glock mags, each loaded up with modern hollow point ammunition, this little gun puts a lot of firepower into a compact package. I was happy with it as a truck gun.
However, the time came when I needed to make a trip to Rhode Island to visit family. Rhode Island, while not perfect, is by far the most gun-friendly state in southern New England, so having my JR carbine there would not be a problem. Unfortunately, to get there, I would have to run the gauntlet of New
