All-around homestead rifle
Is a 12 gauge shot gun an all around best buy for the money and for survival?
Johnny Small
Fort Lawn, South Carolina
It is if it works for you. When you’re talking about survival, are you meaning personal protection? Or are you talking about shooting food animals? While the 12-gauge IS awesome for some personal protection, it is heavy to carry around and sometimes slow to get up and shoot when you need a gun quickly. A pistol works best for this, in my humble opinion. The 12-gauge is a good all around gun as you can load it with birdshot to shoot upland birds and small game at relatively close distances, heavier waterfowl loads for ducks and geese, or even slugs for deer and larger animals. I, personally, love a .22 rifle for an all-around homestead/survival gun. It is cheap to shoot, has no recoil (making it a good choice for children and women who are leery of a heavier gun), and will fill your pantry with small game (even a deer with well-placed shots…in a survival situation; it is illegal to hunt deer with .22s in most states), defend your garden and homestead from most varmints, and even stop a human with well-placed shots. You might ask Massad Ayoob his opinion; I’m just a homesteader! — Jackie
Saving corn seeds
I just finished reading your article in the July/August issue on “Incredible corn.” It was great. I love your in-depth articles. There’s just one thing. There was no mention of how to save corn seeds, and if there is a difference between saving seeds for open-pollinated, hybrid, sweet, dry, flint, or popcorn.
Glenn R. Catt
Chesapeake, Virginia
All corn seeds are saved the same; you let them dry on the stalk then shell the hard corn off of the cobs, just as you would popcorn, flint, and flour corn for grinding. Hybrid seed will germinate fine but will not produce the same corn that you enjoyed fresh from the garden; you need open pollinated corn for this. — Jackie
