Best Survival Firearm

I'm going to wade into one of the biggest bar fights in the survival/preparedness world: what is the single best firearm to have for survival/preparedness?  I am going to add some qualifiers, because of course if you have an unlimited budget, then you could of course purchase one of each.  I'm going in with the idea that the budget is limited ($300 for the gun, accessories, and some ammo), and you can only buy one gun for defense/hunting.

So what's my choice?  The Ruger 10/22.  Here's why. 

Let's start with hunting.  In most cases (urban/suburban) the most plentiful game around most folks will be small game (squirrels and rabbits).  A 22 is perfect for those.  Even turkey and ducks (sitting on a pond: sitting ducks!), which I see very frequently here in Florida with the preponderance of retention ponds and some wooded areas on the outskirts of town.  Sure there are deer also, which would provide more food, but they are much harder to find and hunt down.  If I had a larger caliber I could go for those, but I couldn't go for the smaller game.  I will take a frequent squirrel over the infrequent deer.

Security.  Yes, I'm trading a lot for security, but I won;t need it to protect myself if I'm starving.  Plus, I think in alot of situations, just throwing some lead at folks will drive them off.  Now, the person that only has a 10/22 would definitely have to pick your battles.  And you would only pick the ones that you absolutely could not avoid, and then you better get the first shots in.  There are nice 30 and 50 round clips available for the 10/22, so you could pump alot of lead down range very quickly and disengage.  Plenty of folks have been killed by 22s, so it's at least better than no gun in this case.

Budget.  For $300 I can get (all this at Gander Mountain) the gun ($229), 2 x 25 round Ruger mags ($30 x 2 = $60), and 100 rounds.  OK, I missed my target by $.99, and I didn't include tax.  But still, a reliable firearm like the 10/22 and 100 rounds for $300. 

I don't think you can beat this with any other set up.  You might get a higher caliber (Mosin Nagent for under $150), but again you are going to limit your hunting opportunities to bigger game.  You could probably get a pistol for a bit under the $300 target (new) or used for maybe closer to $200, but you again limit your hunting options.  I guess in my calculus for 'best' I'm going to weight hunting equal or maybe even higher (60/40?) to defense.  Let's be honest, there is no one perfect weapon for defense and hunting, they are two different realms all together.  If you live in the woods, and those woods are full of deer, I could see going for a larger caliber hunting rifle, if you were confident in your deer hunting skills.  But I would still want a 10/22 for the urban/suburban setting.