The new season of Placeholder Of  Fear The Walking Dead started the other evening. Although I very much despised the the show at the begining, it has started to grow on me as the situations become more dire and the characters more jaded. (What can I say…Im a sucker for cynicism.)

While they did kill off a major character (well, sort of a major character) they killed the wrong one. Why, oh why, are they keeping these two useless women? This mother/daughter combo is making me root hard for the zombies. And, they introduced a cute blonde gun bunny and killed her off in the same episode. Figures.

Bu, my favorite gun bunny is still (barely) around, so that’s some comfort.

I sorta predicted that last seasons closing episode shootout was with some sort of Texas militia and I may not have been too far off. This episode introduced something I’ve been anticipating and dreading – survivalists. Anticipating because I think it’s an unexplored avenue. Dreading because I have no doubt whatsoever it’ll portray them as lunatics.

My interpretation of the episode was that the military base was not occupied by military, but rather by an expeditionary force from the the survivalist compound (“the ranch”).

Anything worth noting in the episode? Just the usual: two-man rule (as seen by the sad and early demise of the new gun bunny), pack a good first aid kit (as evidenced by Mexican gun bunny needing aid), have your stuff packed and ready to run on a moments notice (the base being overrun), try to avoid integrating into large groups of heavily armed strangers, and be careful your lies don’t catch up to you (“Dr.” Strand).

The plotlines have reduced from the three of the previous season to two – Strand off in his sports car, and the shrinking family of idiots. I’ll be curious to see where it goes from here.

Actually, it just occurred to me, what happened to Blades’ daughter Ofelia? Last I saw she got pinched at the border.

You guys know that saying about how when it comes to war, the amateurs talk strategy/tactics but the pros talk logistics? I think when it comes to preparedness the amateurs talk guns, the pros talk logistics. And, yes, this is new nothing new….I’ve said it before. But, the fact I’ve said it before doesn’t detract from it being true (IMHO).

In the last 365 days I can count the number of times I needed a gun, body armour, and night vision on one hand. However, on virtually every one of those 365 days I had needed food, water, clothes, shoes, toilet paper, etc. So, when apportioning money for resources, where does the lion’s share go? Yup, to the unsexy things like paper towels, socks, canned goods, toothpaste, and that sort of thing.

There is no doubt in my mind at all that there is definitely going to be a time when an M4, ceramic plates, hands-free commo, and a buncha webgear is going to be exactly what the moment calls for. But, that’s one time out 100…the other 99 times out of 100 I’ll be needing/using all the unsexy preparedness stuff.

I was reminded of it yesterday as I was going over my budget for the month. I got hungry and it was time to make dinner. Felt like some chicken and rice would be just the ticket. Reach deep into the freezer and find this:

Yup…five year old chicken. Been sitting in the freezer quietly for the last five years. Is it good? Yup…cooked up and went down just fine. But because of foresight five years ago, it was there for me last night when I was hungry. And there’s also a couple cases of 7.62×39 sitting next to the freezer, because that same foresight says that someday I’ll need that too. But which one usually winds up getting used soonest? The unsexy stuff.

Being something of a Ballistic-American (aka “gun nut”) I loves me some thundertoys. And preparedness is definitely one of those interests where you get to justify to yourself (if you are the type that needs to do that sort of thing) your purchases of guns and ammo. But its ‘preparedness’, not ‘warfighting’….and preparedness encompasses a lot more than guns. Thats why we have “guns and…” Guns and…toilet paper. Guns and …canned food. Guns and…extra clothing. Guns and…Ham radios. you get the idea.

But, what’s the first thing people jump at doing when they decide it’s time to ‘get serious’ about preparedness? In my experience, nine times outta ten it means the go buy some guns and ammo. Which is fine, but the apocalypse (no matter what flavor of it you expect) is going to be so much more than guns and ammo. The AR and M855 are just one instrument in the orchestra that plays the preparedness symphony.

Unfortunately, the sexy stuff like guns, ammo, armour, smoke grenades, night vision, etc, etc, are subject to more scrutiny than, say, a case of Spam and a bucket of rice. There is always the real possibility that you could wake up tomorrow and find that, on a local/state/national level your access to ownership of those things is cutoff or severely curtailed (looking at you California!)…the same risk to, say, freeze dried food, buckets of rice, AA-batteries, quality boots, and neosporin is virtually nil.

This is why, for me, I’m “heavy” on guns and ammo. I want a lifetime supply but I don’t have the luxury of a lifetime to collect it. Since tomorrow could possibly the last day I have to acquire a ‘black rifle’ and ‘hi cap’ magazine’, I would like to have as many as I can in place just in case some sort of regulatory shenanigans takes place. Succinctly, I’m virtually 100% positive I won’t be prohibited from buying canned tomatoes and paper towels a year from now, I cannot be so certain on the gun stuff.

And, yes, tomorrow could also be the last day I have to acquire canned bacon and frozen pizza as well. But, historically, the threat/risk to one has been greater than the other.

My personal flavor of apocalypse is economic. It could be a worldwide depression that throws us into a Third World life of living like Venezuelans, or it could be me breaking a leg and not being able to work for two months…but, in my world, thats the most likely apocalypse I see coming. And in that case, I’ll probably get far more mileage out of my blue barrels of rice and my #10 cans of freeze dried pork chops than I will out my HK91 and Lake City ball.

So, I would never discourage anyone from buying guns and ammo, but I do suggest tempering the buying spree with a little prudence and logic about how much of a percentage of your budget should be spent on things you shoot versus things you eat or use every day. It’s the unsexy and unfun part of preparedness but it is probably the most important part.

(Which reminds me, finish off your ‘hicap’ AR mag needs in one fell swoop.)

Pmags – $10 ea. – Have about 80 left.
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I see that another episode of ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’ spontaneously occurred in the decidedly diverse city of London over the weekend. Weapons of choice? Vehicles and edged pointy things. The police, when they finally got a handle on it, did the logical thing and killed the “knifemen”. (That’s the Brit term for a knife-wielding maniac….”knifeman”. I suppose if he’d beaten them to death with his bare hands he’d be a “Fistman”…which very much sounds like something you really don’t want to do a Google search for when “Safe Search” is turned off.)

Knives are interesting business…it is, generally, thought of as a close contact weapon (as opposed to a ranged weapon like, say, a crossbow or a Glock 40) but even a gun-toter can be bested by a guy with a knife at a distance IF the gunman is even slightly off guard. Mythbusters did a fascinating experiment where they gave one guy an airsoft, one guy a knife, stood them apart at various distances, and on the buzzer the knife guy charges the gun guy while gun guy tries to draw and shoot before he gets stabbed. Result? If someone has a knife and is within several yards of you, you’re in big trouble unless you already have gun in hand and are aware of the situation. See for yourself.

Now, a huge caveat here is that, for whatever reason, Adam is doing the so-called “Israeli carry” * of carrying his pistol in Condition Three… and empty chamber, hammer down. These guys aren’t gun guys, and they’re in California, so they probably aren’t used to the notion of carrying a gun for self-protection. But..the data is still extremely useful.

Here’s one very determined guy with a knife putting the hurt on several armed police officers who, I’m guessing, didn’t immediately shoot him because “he only had a knife”.

And, that “he only had a knife” statement comes up from time to time in this country when a cop shoots some guy with knife. Disparity of force? Absolutely. But, as we’ve seen, a man six yards away with a knife is virtually as dangerous as a man with a gun. Shooting him when he starts advancing on you from that distance may look bad or excessive to the uneducated, but in reality it’s the only thing keeping the gun user from becoming something that looks like an elephant’s tampon.

Living here in the somewhat quiet environment of Montana, I don’t worry too much about Sudden Jihad  Syndrome. But if it does happen, the odds are much higher that the aggressor will encounter much stiffer (and possibly louder) resistance than a bunch of unarmed Britons who have been culturally beaten into believing that physical resistance trying to kill you who look different from you is ‘intolerant’.

:::Shrug::: It’s a dangerous world out there. That’s why we have hollowpoints.

* = I take issue with the article about Condition Three carry. In particular:

Let us assume that racking the slide adds a half second to your total presentation time (which is pretty slow, by the way). And let us assume that you can draw and fire at the 2 second mark. If the attack comes before you can draw and fire (2 seconds) having the chamber loaded or not doesn’t matter, as you don’t have time to draw and fire at all. If the attack comes after a 2.5 second time frame having the chamber loaded or not doesn’t matter, as you have time to chamber a round. Only if the attack happens in that critical time frame after 2 seconds but before 2.5 seconds does the chamber condition matter.

But at that point you are now in a bear hug with a guy trying to kill you with a knife. You’ve, presumably got one hand trying to keep him from shanking you, and your other hand is holding an unchambered pistol. You’ll rack the pistol with your..what?..third hand? If the round was already chambered you’d connect the muzzle to the medulla and let terminal ballistics handle the rest. So, yes, chamber condition matters.

Twenty bucks gets me 4# of 85/15, a nice flank steak, and a couple party packs of steaks. It’s all about being unafraid to say to the guy behind the meat counter “Hey, you wanna mark down some steaks for me?”. Already marked to 30% but if they don’t sell it by the end of today it’s a loss. So….half a loaf is better than none, as far as theyre concerned. As for me, it’s bargains like these that are keeping me from becoming a vegetarian.

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Want some Pmags?
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Weather is turning into summer out here. 85 degrees during the day and about 55-60 at night. I’m hoping to get out this weekend and try the DMR-build AR. We shall see. More than enything else, though, I’m gonna be standing in front of the grill with some tongs, a Coke, and a buncha dead cow happily sizzling away.

My vendor dropped a bunch(!) of Gen2 Black Magpul AR Pmags on me the other day. I’m dumping most of them into the “Next Election This Becomes My Retirement Fund” stash. However, I still have couple hundred left over. If anyone wants, they’re $10 ea. Minimum order is 10. Shipping is $12.40 Priority Mail flat rate for as many as you want over ten.

Want 10? 10x$10 + $12.40. Want 15? $10×15 + $12.40? Want 37? 37x$10 + $12.40

You get the idea. Obviously the more you get, the less the per unit cost becomes as you spread the shipping over the quantity of mags.

Anyway, email me and lemme know. It”ll work just like the 10/22 mag deal.