Boutique or niche items

Years ago, I had a buddy who thought that, for his needs, the ideal ‘battle rifle’ was a 1941 Johnson. You can go on GunBroker and look up the going rate for a Johnson….I’ll wait.

Kinda makes your eyes water, doesn’t it?

He was adamant that the rifle afforded him all the qualities he wanted in a rifle for the lawless apocalypse he envisioned. And, to be honest, it did. Problem is, he had a rather short-sighted list of qualities he wanted. One of the qualities that he soft-pedaled was affordability and logistics. Break the rear sight on your AR-10 and you can get a new rear sight (or mount a scope) with parts that you can find pretty much in any gun shop. Not so for the Johnson rifle. And affordability-wise, you could get two M1A, three PTR’s, or a couple FALs for what you’d pay for the Johnson.

I was reminded of this today because I took the Ruger Mini-14GB to the range and, unsurprisingly, had problems with the one aftermarket magazine that came with the gun. It didn’t surprise me; my experience with Ruger Mini-14 magazines has been that there are no aftermarket mags that are as reliable except for (in my experience) the old Eagle 35-rd mags that haven’t been made since the last century. In short, unless Magpul cranks out some Mini mags, your only real choice is the expensive factory mags.

Tangent: Tapco, apparently, has evolved a Mini-14 magazine that seems to do a very good job for about half the price of the Ruger factory mag. Might have to try a few.

So, after leaving the range today, I headed over to the local Cabela’s looking for a Ruger factory Mini-14 mag. None. Ok, try Sportsman’s Warehouse. None. And that is, in a nutshell, the problem with niche or ’boutique’ gear: you can’t just find the part or accessory you need as easily as other platforms.

Here’s another example. Years ago Streamlight made a little LED flashlight that I was very impressed with. BUT….it took AAAA batteries. Not AA, not AAA, but AAAA batteries. Good luck finding those in the battery rack at the supermarket.

Sometimes the boutique gear does 100% of what we want whereas the lesser, easily supportable version may only do 85% of what we want. But…when  you cant find a Mini-14 magazine or a set of AAAA batteries, that system is now doing 0% of what you want. I’ll muddle along with 85%.

Does this mean that I’m getting rid of the Mini-14GB? Nope…because the AR’s and AK’s are my ‘grab and run out the door’ guns, and they are a legacy weapons system that has a logistics base that is enormous. The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.)

 

10 thoughts on “Boutique or niche items

  1. During Sandy Hooks mess I lived in a smallish town in Arizona. A guy came into a gun shop looking for 10MM. He bought the two boxes they had and went towards the other gun store.

    A employee of the gunstore and I figured there were also maybe a couple boxes there. So there were 200-250 rounds for sale within a one hour drive.

    Incidentally if Safariland doesn’t make holsters for it you should probably stay away from a logistics angle.

    Though like you said where it fits in your battery matters a lot. If you are stocked deep with common guns then get that 6.5 creedmore/ .357 Sig, etc all for fun. It’s the guys who have one pistol that is a no name/ oddball caliber and one rifle that’s something you’ve never heard of who are destined for logistical issues.

  2. I hate the M-16/AR with a purple passion. But what else is available with options for those on a low budget? With a logistics base stretching to the smallest burg in the middle of nowhere? Ammunition commonality isn’t a huge deal, what with reloading. Firearms are a different matter. Every one out there ( long arms ) needs a mail order part. The AR has parts ready for you in every second gun owning household. And if you need to stock parts, they are so cheap it is near criminal. The only game in town, really. Give me lots of money and I would stock up on parts galore and pick almost any other gun, but that isn’t going to happen. The 80/20 Choice-most of the performance for a fraction of the cost. I’m not writing this to hear myself yammer on agreeing with the author, but to point that that I’ve railed against the AR for thirty years, and if I can be forced to change my mind due to those pesky facts, they are very hard to refute indeed. Logistics is THE war god.

    • With bargain basement AR builds running at $320, I don’t think there’s anyones budget who can’t afford an AR if they are willing to actually put in some work somewhere.
      flyer

  3. I LOVED that streamlight pen light and bought a dozen as gifts. It happens that our local supermarket DOES have AAAA batteries so it wasn’t that big of an issue. Over time though, I replaced them with the Pelican 1920 which is brighter and uses AAA, so two things in the plus column.

    I also discovered that many 9v batteries are really built out of AAAA batteries, and in a pinch I could strip out a 9v and be good to go.

    In any case, AT THE TIME the streamlight met my needs so much better than alternatives, that I was willing to work around the limitation. Not any more, as alternatives are now available.

    n

  4. “The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.” – Plus you can also figure as popular as the Mini-14 used to be, there will be a pretty respectable supply of magazines in other people’s stashes. The firearm which was gifted away – sold but they still are sitting on a few magazines they could barter away later.

    The Ruger semi-automatics (excepting the centerfire pistols, you have to do a little looking for those) spare magazines are like that.

    • “…sold but they still are sitting on a few magazines they could barter away later.”

      That’s what I did. Sold the aftermarket mags 10-15 years after the mini-14 got sold. Not Eagle. Something like PSI, or PI. They disappeared due to the AWB, I think. When I got them, they were supposed to be the equivalent of the factory mags. Looked identical (rifle came with one OEM 20 rnd). Never used them, so no feedback on quality, but I was told that they were the actual manufacturers of Ruger’s mini mags. I’d be surprised if there was only one supplier of mags to Ruger, as no maker wants to be chained to a sole source.

  5. Kind of sounds like the Cz Scorpion I just picked up a few weeks ago. Have always wanted one, I couldn’t beat the price that was offered to me for it because I could sell it today and still make cash on it. I’ve been paring down to just 22/12ga/223/9mm lately and I still think that’s too many calibers.

  6. With bicycle stuff you can go down the boutique rabbit hole so far that you might never see daylight again. 😉

    These days, I stay away from it.

  7. And I ran across this today on Gab. A $DUDE posts a photo of a 223 AK. Nice looking gun. I commented how an AK that shot 223 and took STANAG mags would be perfect for a SHTF gun. He basically kept on about how he’d carry what he could and reload those mags. I pointed out how FUSA is loaded with 223 and AR mags. Good luck finding 223 AK mags if he were to break or lose them.

    Anyhow, after a bit of back and forth I gave up because he did not ‘get’ it. He made a comment how nobody was going to share mags in a SHTF situation. I pointed out how if nobody was going to share he did not have a team and so forth…

    I really need to learn not to argue with some people. Sorry for the rant. That reminded me of this post.

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