Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

hey, remember last week I posted that I scored a used Hardigg rifle transport case for $75?

Yeah. Well.

Case is in good shape but make no mistake about it – this thing is designed for M16’s and M4’s that are basically stock. No optics, no special foreends, no special stocks, no sidemount slings on the buttstock…any of that stuff and they will not fit in the case properly. I had to leave the scoped/dotted AR’s out but the no-frills guns fit in there quite nicely. The case alone weighs 66# and once you stuff a dozen AR’s in there your gonna north of the 150# range…hitting the upper limit of man-portable. On the other hand, if you and your cell need to stash away a dozen rifles (with 24 magazines) in some sort of long-term hideout location, well this is the case for you.

Someone asked me what I thought of the case. I told ‘em it was like a prescription – now that I have it, I have to go get it filled.

Case purchased from: Old Grouch

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Another 50 surplus G3 mags showed up the other day. Why? Well…why not? I know someone who is thinking about buying a used PTR-91 so I figured I’d send some mags as an encouragement and the rest Im sure I can find a use for.

Magazines for the Glocks have been a hot commodity in the last couple days following the events in AZ. I’m amazed at posts I read on the forums about how people are trying to buy them now before prices go into the stratosphere and availability goes into the basement.

Here’s a thought… it has been 17 years since the 1994 Assault Weapons ban, its sunset in 2004, and all the disturbing crap that has been going on in the last few years and you still dont have all the mags you need? Well..hate to say it…youre an idiot.
“But..but..you just bought 50 more magazines so you’re just as bad!”
Well…no. See, I didnt buy them because of a panic (they were ordered before the shooting), and quite honestly I dont need them. In fact, I passed the ‘need’ stage for HK mags about 350 mags ago. If they announced tomorrow that anything over 10 rounds is verboten I would have a lifetime (several lifetimes probably) supply. And I had it years ago.

When my vendors had Glock Happy Sticks at around $20 ea. I ordered a bunch. I even shared the wealth with people who read this stuff. And as a result I can smugly watch people frantically scouring the interweb for $35-45 magazines.

To summarize, the handwriting on the wall has been there for years, the opportunity to purchase has been in place for almost seven years, and anyone who is deciding, suddenly, that now is the moment to stock up on magazines is…well, you pick the term.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Second time in about a month that a casual customer has hemmed and hawed and then finally ‘outed’ himself by asking me “How can I get started in being prepared?”

I hand ‘em a couple books, tell them to read them and come back to me and I’ll be happy to answer as many crazy questions as they want.

Interesting times. I’m sure other people are experiencing the same sort of ‘late to the party’ would-be survivalists.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

,Rawles has an interesting link to this article about a cop who was killed for his gun collection.

In a place like Chicago, where not everyone (legally) has a gun (or guns), the notion of a fella having a safe with a dozen guns might seem like a golden opportunity to equip your gang of inner-city urban mutants. Here in Montana a fella with a gun safe with a dozen guns in it is regarded with the same compassion and pity reserved for someone who has to eat government cheese and live off of food stamps. A dozen guns is cause for a raffle to help the poor slob catch up to the average which, according to zealot and gun rights activist Gary Marbut, is 26 firearms for the average Montanan.

There are, of course, a few individuals who are a bit above the average and they carry those poor deficient souls that only have 25.

I do a little buying and selling of guns at the shop and while I may tell the missus who bought what, I never, ever, share information like that with customers. They may say “Hey, my buddy Joe was telling me he got a rifle from you the other day” and my usual response is something along the lines of “Sorry, I can’t say who bought what”. I also dont talk about what my friends own, at least in terms of quantity. I may say “My buddy has an FAL” but I never say “My buddy has seven FALs”. In that regard, guns are like that secret, weird, out-of-the-mainstream porn that you like…you collect it, you sometimes trade it amongst people with similar interests, but you never let it get known in public that you have it or are interested in it. (Where am I getting this analogy from? I worked a couple years in an adult bookstore and saw some folks whom you would never suspect have some rather unusual interests. Plus…I have the internet.)

Probably one of the best responses I’ve heard to the “How many guns do you have?” question is “More than Sarah Brady (or Hillary Clinton) and less than Ted Nugent”. I’m rather pleased with what we own, and while we have a few close friends that know, with a small degree of accuracy, what we have we never tell outsiders or casual acquaintances/coworkers a number.

This article is also a good example of the need to spread your eggs outta that one basket. If everything that guy owned was in that one safe, and thebad guy had gotten to it, the family of the victim woulda been outta luck.
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Headshots are in the news. Just how hard is it for the inexperienced/casual shooter/FPS-gamer to make a headshot anyway? Lets find out using zombies as test targets:

Shoulder weapons (long guns) seem to offer a much better advantage to the novice or casual shooter. Tradeoff was speed. Something to think about.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Firearms distributor Davidson’s has the PTR-91 carbines (16″ bbl) on sale for $979 and Cheaper Than Dirt still has $0.97 aluminum mags and $1.97 steel mags. Even if your dealer charges you $50 to do a transfer you still come out way ahead. And theres still a huge amount of surplus G3 parts, stocks, slings, etc, etc, out there.

And, despite what armchair experts may tell you, you can reload your brass.

For price comparison:
A standard M1A from Springfield will set you back, dealer, $1300 and each additional mag is $41.00 (Source: Jerrys Sport Center catalog)
A standard AR10 from Armalitewill set you back, dealer, $1200 and each additional mag is $35.00 (Source: Jerrys Sport Center catalog)
I dont have the dealer pricing handy, but DSA lists their standard FAL at $1700 MSRP (so figure about $1300 dealer) and spare mags at around $20.

(Even if you say “But, I can get mags from XYZ Inc. for less than that! Only $12 per mag!” youre still getting one mag for the price of twelve.)

Point being that while I like the FAL platform a lot better than the G3 platform, for the money you cant beat the PTR and a footlocker of dollar magazines.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I try not to do New Years resolutions because, honestly, if something is a good enough idea that its worth being a resolution, then it is probably a good enough idea that you shouldnt wait until January 1 to implement it. Makes sense, right? But we all like having that clean slate on the calendar when we flip the page from December to January.

I’ve got a few things I would like to do differently this year, but Im going to keep them to myself for a while to see if I stick with them. However, if youve made some New Year’s resolutions in regard to preparedness I wouldn’t mind hearing them, if youre willing to share.
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This has been bouncing around for a few days and is too useful to pass up: Top Ten Survival Downloads You Should Have. I already had most of them, but its still some great reading.
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Ruger continues to try to stay relevant in the gun industry. Their new Scout rifle caught my eye and now theyre coming out with a mini 9mm. Not sure I’d prefer this over a Glock 26 but it is definitely further proof that innovation (if you can call copying KelTec designs innovation) has been let out of the cage since Billy Ruger left the biological plane of existence.

Trivia question: anyone know of a 9mm pistol that utilizes a locked breech of some kind but also a fixed barrel? The HK P7 springs to mind but thats really a delayed blowback rather than a mechanical locking.
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Ordered up one of these last week. Retail is running around $500 but this guy had ‘em used for $75 each. Well, at that price who could resist? It’ll be pushing the threshold of ‘man portable’ once it’s loaded with a dozen rifles but it should do an outstanding job of keeping them protected under even the worst conditinos. Pictures and details when they arrive.