3 gun: deep IN THE WILDERNESS

The term "survival gun" is amusing because it's often used in conjunction with a scenario where your Cessna or other private plane goes down somewhere miles from civilization and lo and behold you survive the crash and happen to have a recommended "survival" weapon safely stashed in the hold that you can break out and use to live off the land until you're rescued. These three perfect alignments of 1) owning your own plane, 2) surviving a crash and, 3) recovering a "survival" weapon from the wreckage all add up to about the same odds as winning the Powerball. And I'm still not sure there's any such thing as one ideal survival weapon, I think there are choices, made intelligently based on the terrain your choosing to enter. For 100-miles-from-anywhere wilderness my "3 Gun" pick above would be what I'd take - be it Alaska, the Yukon or my own private Idaho estate (if only) - where I needed to survive all eventualities over the coarse of a year. And I mean eventualities, not just possibilities. I will need to track and procure my own food and I will at some point encounter a predator who intends to procure me as food, so to stay alive I need the above three firearms.

The Taurus Tracker would stay on my person at all times, in a chest holster, with extra rounds in a wrist band where they can be easily and quickly transferred into a freshly emptied cylinder if a reload was needed. Though there is ample evidence that bear spray is more effective than a 44MAG revolver against bears, a spraycan might need replacing after your first encounter so what would you do if there was a second run-in? Also a revolver has the potential to take large game so it's uses are more diverse. And you'll sleep better knowing it's near at hand, and loaded should anything try to sneak into your shelter in the dead of night.
These are the best and most affordable chest holsters I've found.
These are the wrist bands I'd utilize.

The Chiappa Little Badger is mostly junk but the parts that matter, work fine. Usually the guns function satisfactorily straight from the factory, but there are occasional lemons, so, if you buy from Buds then add the additional warranty for a few bucks more because Chiappa has abysmal customer service and any efforts to get the gun fixed will drive you to drink.  So, you bought one from Buds, it works (or you replaced it for one that does), now take off the useless little ammo holder by the buttstock, remove the hopeless plastic sights and remove all but the top picatinny rail. Get your suppressor stamp because this rifle comes threaded and that's very useful when you're trying to be quiet as a mouse out in the woods. Oh, and get a steel thread protector because the plastic one that comes with the rifle is all but stripped once you remove it. Then get a little telescopic sight (not a reflex or red dot sight) and put 100 CCI standard velocity rounds through the gun to make sure everything works as it should and that you can consistently hit a quarter at 50 yards. Then, once you've checked all those boxes you will have something truly amazing: i.e. a 22LR rifle that folds down to 16", is accurate and super quiet (when suppressed). Plus the mechanism is almost silent to operate unlike a bolt action which has a telltale tick-tack-toe-tick when cycling the action with the aplomb necessary to properly eject the spent brass and load another round. For putting small game in the pot a 22LR is unsurpassed and one brick of ammo will keep you alive for a whole year. What's more, you can stuff this in your backpack alongside your other provisions and the folding shotgun. This scope from Barska or this from Tasco works well, but you'll need to remove the dovetail rings with pliers (gently so as not to damage the scope) and get 1" rings for the standard picatinny rail on the Badger. The tube on the scope is 3/4" so go to a hardware store and buy a foot of clear fuel line with 3/4" ID and 1" OD. Cut 2 x 1/2" lengths, split them and wrap them around the scope tube prior to installing the new scope rings. This will create a tight fit and provide a wee bit of cushioning for the scope when it's stuffed in your backpack. Tamp everything down finger-tight (plus an eighth of a turn with a screwdriver) and once zeroed-in you'll have a stellar wee rifle that can make small game head-shots out to 70 yards.

A shotgun is arguably the most powerful weapon civilians can own. However, despite its lethality at close range, it loses a lot with each yard. So, barrel length is critical. Unfortunately Midland only make them with 18" (20 yards) and 26" (35 yards) barrels whereas for true usefulness you'd want a 28" (40 yards) or even a 30" (50 yards) barrel. However, it's a folder and that makes up for it's shortcomings in the range department by being inherently packable. And until someone revives the Burgess folding pump shotgun, we'll have to make do with this folding single shot. I've recommended the 12GA but if you prefer something a little less abrupt on the shoulder then go with the 20GA, and 20GA ammo is slightly more space-saving. Every ounce and cubic inch matters when it's on your back, believe me. The shotgun has such a wide range of capabilities but in our wilderness scenario it will serve you best for bagging moving meals: rabbits, grouse, turkeys, geese, ducks or anything edible that moves or flies fast and I've even see a deer brought down with a single shot as it sprinted across a shooters path. A bandolier is the best means of holding ammo as it won't pull your pants down, overweight your gun as you react quickly to flushed game or rattle around in a pocket. Keep half a dozen slug rounds in your bandolier just in case.

So there you go, these are the 3 Guns I'd pack if I were heading into the forest to get away from the masses, to tough it out with the beasts and survive off what the land yielded for my sustenance. You'll notice a distinct lack of magazines and the mechanical simplicity of the chosen three: this keeps risk of gun disablement to a minimum. You don't want to starve to death because you accidentally stood on your magazine or bent the feed lips whilst hurriedly trying to load up. Oh, and I'd also carry the greatest passive protein provider of all time, a mosquito net. Make a little fire (for light, not heat) and suspend the net above it to catch the attracted insects. In the morning you'll have a handful of protein that can be mixed into whatever pot of veggie stew you're brewing for dinner that night. And it's free, and nourishing (if a little unappetizing at first) and it requires no expenditure of bullets or calories to procure. GOM.