Arming Yourself for the Zombie Apocalypse: How to Build the Ultimate Survival Shotgun

A Manly Guest Contributor
July 11, 2011

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Creek Stewart of Willow Haven Outdoor.

As a Survival and Preparedness instructor, I take my line of work very seriously–sometimes too seriously. Occasionally, though, I like to take on survival projects that are just downright fun. This article highlights one of those projects.

I’m fortunate in that I’ve been able to turn my passion into my profession–this being the study of Survival and Preparedness. I’ve always enjoyed building survival kits of all shapes and sizes. I enjoy the challenge of fitting lifesaving survival necessities into small compact containers. I’ve built survival kits using film canisters, candy tins, key-rings, boxes, bottles, tubes, bags and everything in-between. For this project, I decided to build a survival kit using a shotgun platform–creating the Ultimate Survival Shotgun. My challenge was that everything had to be included in or on the gun itself–no extra pack items or containers. Below is what I did as well as the survival logic behind each decision.

Ultimately your survival needs fall into five main categories. Your situation dictates the order. They are:

◾Water

◾Fire

◾Shelter

◾Signaling

◾Food

Every survival kit must include contents that directly or indirectly meet these five basic survival needs. The shotgun platform I decided to use is the Mossberg 500 – PUMP. I chose a pump action because it is easier for me to troubleshoot and work on in the field compared to other models. I chose the Mossberg brand because it is a very popular gun, and there are literally hundreds of aftermarket modification pieces and parts designed to fit this gun. I knew I would want to add on some of these extras to increase the gun’s survival value. Below is a photo of the shotgun “off the shelf”–before my survival modifications.


Mossberg 500 Pump Action Shotgun Before Survival/Zombie Modifications

I will now break down each survival modification and detail why it was included in the final build.

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