if you need a gun for foraging, so do MILLIONS of other people, a great many of whom will be very willing to kill YOU. No WAY you can know who's what, so the only prudent action will be to evade everyone that you can, and be ready to kill anyone that you can't. Regardless of how "remote" you THINK your retreat area is (assuming that you can actually GET there, in good health) it can certainly be reached by motorcycle, boat, skidoo, etc, plus less than a day's walk, by anyone in MANY towns or cities. Such vehicles go a LONG ways on very little fuel, which they can easily haul along. If such a rider finds a truck or tractor or car with 15 gallons of fuel, he's good for several hundreds more miles, too.