Author Archives: Commander Zero

Scenes from a gun shop

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Locus: Bob Wards & Son. Regional outdoors chain.
Me: Can I see that AR in the rack please?
Him: Here you go. [hands me carbine]
Me: [Looking at tag] I don’t see a price on this. How much is it?
Him: Hang on, I have to go back and ask. [Leaves and comes back]
Him: $2600*
Me: You guys don’t put the prices on there?
Him. We’re not putting prices on any of the tags right now.
Me: Because the prices are constantly changing?
Him: Well…Yeah.

I want you to roll that thought over in your mind for a second. Seriously…think about the possible (although possibly unlikely) implications of that sort of pricing. In retail, the price you charge is not always based on some factor of the price you paid…its based on the price to replace what you sell. If I bought an AR for $400 last year, and I normally sell for, say, 25% over, I sell that AR for $500. And when I sell it, I order the replacement for $400. Cut to today: I paid $400 a year ago, but replacing it will cost me $1000. So do I sell it for $500? No, of course not, I have to sell it with a price that reflects the fact the next one will cost me $1000. And if I don’t know, with reasonable certainty, what the next one will cost me…well…then I can’t really be sure what to charge. Saw this at the gold and silver shop earlier this year.

Reminds me of the hyperinflation stories where prices were changed every hour or so to reflect the devaluing currency. In this case, it’s to reflect perceived availability.

So what you’re seeing is a level of uncertainty that is so pronounced that a middlin’-sized retailer is willing to look like a jerk and not put prices on stuff. That should give you pause to think about what you need (or want) and how willing you are to do what it takes to get it (assuming you don’t already  have it).

Are ARs and ammo available? Of course they are. Everything is available to you for the right price. If you have enough money you can buy yourself a nuclear artillery shell and go hold a city hostage somewhere…with the proper amount of greenbacks there is nothing you can’t buy. Guns and ammo just aren’t available at prices you want to pay.

Between Covid, ‘race discussions’, and an upcoming election, this is the worst possible time in a long while to try and stock up on guns and ammo. This is why, since the begining of this blog those many years ago, I have always harped on you to buy the things that will be easiest to render scarce.

My point, if there is one, is that even in a relatively bucolic minimally-affected place like Montana, the fallout of ‘the Covid tax’ and it’s attendant effect on the various markets (food, guns, metals, etc) cannot be avoided. Succinctly, unless you are willing to part with a rather larger dose of cash than you normally would, you are not going to be getting your boogaloo guns & ammo anytime soon. So I hope you already had them.

* = Colt-made modern repro of XM177. This is why Colt is not a going concern, folks.

Link – RIP: Ol’ Remus and the Woodpile Report

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Unverified by me, but, hey, thats not my job……..

On July 8th we lost a legend in the online patriot community – Ol’ Remus. As you may recall, he had previously lost his wife in March of 2020 and had been posting intermittently after that. His blog had not be updated with a post since June 9th and people were starting to get concerned because, even after losing his wife, he was only disconnected for a couple of weeks. Over at Western Rifle Shooters, it was reported in a screenshot from the comments of this article at American Digest that Ol’ Remus succumbed to cancer on July 8th (he had been diagnosed only three weeks prior).

H/T to AmericanPartisan.org

I’d only started reading it in the last year or so, but I liked what I saw.

Sad story that the guy’s wife died but it’s a little less sad, IMHO, that he followed her so quickly. I’m sure the months after her passing must have been tough. It comes for us all…memento mori.

So, there’s the answer, it seems, to something more than one person asked me in comments.

Another weekend, another fifty bucks

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It’s the weekend, therefore it is time for me to spend another fifty bucks on getting the Preponomicon into the green. And, as more and more things are approaching the 100% level, it’s become greener and greener on that list. Today I rang the bell on dental floss, iced tea mix, spaghetti sauce, cleanser, and toothbrushes. Boring stuff, right? Well, yea, actually…it is. Seems unlikely that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina there were people sitting on the roof of their house saying “Thank science you had all that dental floss!”. But, it’s those mundane and boring things that often add to the quality of life. And, really, if the world has gone downhill badly enough that you need to get into your stockpile of emergency dental floss then it’s also bad enough that the last thing you need is dental problems. Plus, dental floss grows wild out here. That crap is everywhere.

So, the stockpiling continues… It’s worth pointing out that the stuff I’m stockpiling, in terms of foodstuffs, is all short- to -mid-term foods. The long-term stuff, like the #10 cans of freeze drieds, were purchased years ago and have been securely packaged and laid back for the Deep Sleep. Pretty much everything I’m stockpiling now is day-to-day stuff that I want to have a large enough quantity of so that if I’m unable to resupply for any reason I can go a long time before having to explore less attractive options.

The stockpiling has progressed to the point that of the 85 items (thus far) on the list, 60 of them are at 90% or better. There are 18 items below 50%. All in all….progress.

By the by, what goes on and off that list changes over time. Some stuff just doesn’t need to be kept ‘live’ in terms of updates to quantity. Stuff is always changing. One week I might find something and think it definitely needs to be added to the mix, and the next week I might determine that a item is superfluous and remove it. Adaptability.

Cruising through CostCo doesn’t seem to indicate any ‘second wave’ of panic buying yet. Yet. However, some items, like bleach wipes, are still a no-show whereas items that had previously vanished, like TP and rice, are plentiful. I’ve got plenty of both, so I can be a detached observer.

Other than dedicating about fifty bucks a weekend towards preps, I’m being rather tight-fisted with the greenbacks these days. There is just too much uncertainty in the air for me to feel comfortable letting go of the Ultimate Multitool (which is cash). Between a pandemic-ravaged economy and political turmoil, there is less certainty that things will ‘be okay’ fiscally and that naturally makes a fella wanna circle the financial wagons. So…no impulse buying, put the vacation on hold, drive the same car for another year, skip the new iPhone, and make the most of what you’ve got.

No one knows with certainty what the future is going to bring. That’s kinda obvious. But there are times when we’re comfortable with that uncertainty (“might rain, might not”) and there’s times we’re very uncomfortable with it (“Might lose my job today, might not…better hold off on the Harley”). Right now, it’s the latter kind of uncertainty…the kind with big consequences. For me, anyway. But, that’s cool because me is the person I’m most concerned about in all this.

So…progress. More food on the shelves, supplies in the bins, money in the bank, silver in the safe, and peace in the mind.

Annus horribilis

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(Not to be confused with anus horribilus, which is the Latin name for Nancy Pelosi.)

One thing about running around all the time yelling that the sky is falling is that, on a long enough timeline, eventually you’ll be right.

This year has been an unholy trifecta of factors that make the guns and ammo market a bit…challenging…right now.

  • Pandemic
  • Presidential election
  • Race riots

Other than an invasion by Communists or the election of a Democrat President (But I repeat myself), I don’t think you could do much more to generate demand.

I keep an eye on the gun and ammo markets and right now it’s readily apparent that prices and availability have changed dramatically from what they were at the beginning of the year. This is, pretty much, one of the worst times to get into guns and shooting in recent memory.

Remember the gun-glut hangover after Trump got elected? You could practically get an AR free with an oil change at most garages. Rather a different story now.

What I’ve seen so far is availability of guns, when they’re not out of stock, is light and prices are a solid 25-50% higher than what they were at the beginning of the year. Ammo is, especially, a bit difficult and pricey. The sweet deal on 9mm I got in January is now showing up at twice the price, when available, for the same ammo.

.22 ammo, which was starting to amke a bit of a comeback, is drifting back into unobtainium country.

But…after my years and years of non-stop Chicken Little-ing about looming gun bans, you’ve gotten your stuff squared away, right? You’ve got your thousands of rounds of pistol and carbine ammo, the couple dozen magazines, the spare and backup redundancy guns…right? Right?

I’ve been at this sort of thing for almost thirty years so I’ve had time to do it gradually…an AR here, a case of mags there, a couple cases of ammo here…that sort of thing. Stretch that out over thirty years and it isn’t difficult at all. But if you’re new to the game, or if you’ve been a tad lackadaisical in getting stocked up….well….you’ve got two choices right now and neither one is great: don’t buy it or buy it at higher prices.

“My VA check is late”, “I need new tires”, “The wife wants to go visit her sister”, “Rammstein is playing at the stadium”….whatever excuse you’ve used in the past to justify why you didn’t spend the $100 on mags, the $300 on ammo, the $750 on the AR…..they all seem a little small right now, don’t they?

Sure, life happens….hot water heaters fail, alternators crap out, plumbing does it’s thing….BT;DT…but those events eventually get resolved and you’re back to wandering around with an extra $20 in your pocket. And it’s those times when you’re caught up on bills, the truck is running, the job is secure, and all seems calm in your world when you think to yourself “Y’know, instead of buying that XM radio for the truck, I think I’d rather have a case of .223 in the basement.”

So, I hope all of you have, at some point, made the grown up choices to exercise a little restraint and hold off on the ‘fun’ purchases to fund the ‘just in case’ purchases. Right now, I can walk by the depleted ammo shelves at Cabela’s and the sparsely populated gun racks at Sportsmans Warehouse and be…unconcerned. And that feeling of being unconcerned makes the little sacrifices in the past worth it.

Harder Homes & Gardens – Hurricanes Destroy Beachside Homes, But Not This One

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Mexico Beach, which sits halfway between the two, saw three-quarters of its homes, municipal buildings, and businesses damaged. But one structure withstood the storm, despite its front step sitting only 150 yards from the wet and windy Gulf of Mexico. Christened the “Sand Palace” by its owners, the blocky beach home survived not by luck or magic, but good design, says Lance Watson, vice president of Southeastern Consulting Engineers and lead engineer on the project. Here’s how—with money and expertise—the crew outmaneuvered Michael, and made this home a model of resilient architecture.

If you build a home on a beach where everyone and the .gov knows there’s gonna be strong hurricanes, it seems that when your house blows away like something out of The Wizard of Oz you really have no one to blame but yourself. However, if you’ve got the resources, and the inclination, you can apparently throw in some engineering to make sure you have the last house standing.

I’ve covered my fascination with concrete dwellings in other posts (search for the HHG tag). But sheer strength isn’t all you need…you gotta have solidly engineered ideas, quality materials, and competent construction. In the example shown in the article, these folks were willing to make some tradeoffs and lose a battle (sacrificing the ground floor storage area) to win the war (keep the house standing).

It’s hard to find old construction that has all the features we wacky survivalists would like to have, and retrofitting an older place can be almost as expensive as building new. I’m inclined to go for a purpose-built place. When it’s time to break ground on Commander Zero’s Post-Nuclear Bunker O’ Love and Lingerie Proving Ground (also known as the Fortress of Derpitude) ypu can bet everything is going to be done with an eye towards surviving forest fire, gun fire, economic meltdown, and as many other forseeable events as possible. Won’t be cheap, I’m sure, but I’ll bet I’ll sleep real good when its all done.

Link – Germs on the Big Screen: 11 Infectious Movies

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News of a disease outbreak or possible pandemic may readily conjure up Hollywood fantasies of horrible disease symptoms, government crackdowns and mass death. The very notion of infection, or viruses and bacteria invisibly taking over the human body, creates a sense of both uncertainty and helplessness that can lend itself to thoughts of doomsday. Movies have not hesitated to play out those worst-case scenarios time and again.

An interesting list, to be sure. However, one that was neglected but, in my opinion, worthy of a watch, is “Carriers”. (Featuring the smoking hot Emily Can Camp). Most notably for the ride into grittiness and ruthlessness as the characters start facing harder and harder choices.

But, really, who needs to watch stuff like this when it’s happening, to a slightly lesser degree, in real life?

The media is telling us that a ‘second wave’ is on the way, or that reported infection rates are increasing (keyword: reported…by whom? Reported how?), and that we should expect worse times to come.

Well, yeah….is there anyone who really thought this was over? Even if they came up with a vaccine tomorrow it will still be months, if not years, before the consequences of this thing are behind us. Even if you snapped your fingers and it disappeared tomorrow, the effects will still be here…the economic, social, and political fallout will linger even after the Kung Flu is considered ‘no longer a threat’.

You and I, we’ve been expecting something like this for a while…some sort of event that makes us start locking our doors more often, keeping a wary eye open, and start circling the wagons. Now it’s here and it’s time to see if we’ve been making smart choices these last few years (or decades).

If this really is an escalation of the current situation, it’s been a quiet one. I haven’t seen an increase in panic buying at the supermarket. However,  guns and ammo are still virtually unobtainable without paying ‘the Covid tax’. Fortunately, for many of us, guns and ammo were the first thing we stockpiled when we were a fresh wet-behind-the-ears newly minted survivalist.

Anyway, there you have it…a list of movies to download and watch in a darkened room while patting yourself on the back for your foresight and planning. You did stockpile popcorn, right?

 

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There’s a link at the top of the column on the right hand of your screen. I think what I’ll probably do is, on an experimental basis for now, post a footer in a random post once a week with a quick link. We’ll see if that doesn’t come across as too crass and self-serving.

Hindsight

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When all of this Kung Flu hit the fan, I stepped things up a bit and did a few things that, at the time, seemed prudent against threats that seemed reasonably possible. How’d that work out?

Cash – I pulled out a couple grand in cash to keep in the gun safe against the banks closing. As it turns out, the bank lobbies were closed, opened briefly, and closed again. ATM’s were always accessible but they limit your daily withdrawals. However, the drive-through lanes never closed so you could always get your money that way. So…was it necessary to pull out the cash and stuff it in the safe? No.

Gas – I beefed up the amount of gasoline I normally keep on hand. Again, this was under the threat of gas stations closing or fuel deliveries being disrupted due to quarantine, sick drivers, etc, etc. Best I can tell, no gas station was closed or was short on product. I did, however, beat the fifty-cents-per-gallon difference between then and now. So…gas stockpiling…unnecessary.

Consumables – I considerably ramped up the storage of food and other consumables, most notably cleaning supplies. Although there were initial shortages, and in some places there still are, the grocery shelves quickly were refilled. So, was it absolutely necessary to ‘go long’ on some things? No.

There’s three big things I did at the beginning of this pandemic that turned out to be unnecessary. Thus far. Do I feel I made any mistakes by doing those things? Do I wish I had not done them? Do I think I wasted resources?

Heck no.

Does anyone ever truly regret this sort of thing? (Stock photo)

Here’s why: this ain’t over. And even if the Kung Flu finally dies down and people stop wearing face masks and bathing in hand sanitizer I will be positioned exceptionally well for whatever comes next. Just because something hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t .

At the time I did the things I did, no one knew what was coming down the pike. As a result, I erred (if you want to call it an error) on the side of caution. And I have zero regrets about it. None. Nada. Because when the next Big Thing comes along, I will be even more prepared than I already was. This stuff is like any other form of insurance – if you get it and don’t use it was it a waste? No, it was not. Because the insurance did exactly what it was supposed to do – it transferred the risk elsewhere.

My risk of being hungry? Gone My risk of being unable to fuel my vehicle? Gone. My risk of having to wipe my butt with leaves? Gone My risk of having to meekly hand over my things to some horde of thugs? Way, way gone. My risk of not having access to the cash needed in an emergency? Gone.

When your spouse starts giving you crap about how you ‘wasted all that money’ on ‘all that crap you have sitting in the garage/basement’ because ‘nothing happened’, ask them if they felt better knowing that stuff was there just in case. If so, then it was not a waste. And, by and large, a lot of the stuff you and I put back is good for years and years, if not decades.

So don’t second guess yourself if you took all sorts of preparations at the beginning of this event and feel like they were unnecessary and unneeded.Keep doing what you’re doing. The day ain’t over yet.

Box O’ Joy

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This is what addiction looks like. Three Ruger PC carbines (the old style) and a half dozen P95DC pistols to match with the carbines.

It’s also a decent example of what will fit in the Boyt51 rifle cases that are for sale at the local CostCo right now. This is the sort of package that goes up in the rafters or down in floorboards to sit quietly for decades until needed. More importantly this frees up a bunch of needed space in the gun safe. I know that the fact that two of those pistols are blued versus the other four that are not is pegging the OCD meter on some of you..have no fear. I swapped them out after this picture was taken for a couple stainless ones that were in the safe.

Independence Day

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I don’t want to be pedantic but….we celebrate Independence Day, not the fourth of July.

Now, having irritated many of you, I suggest you take that irritation to the range and go shoot some guns. Independence…whether its from other nations, people, ideas, or paradigms…does not come peacefully and without incident*. Be ready… emotionally ready, mentally ready, and physically ready.

“The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.”  ― Robert A. Heinlein

 

* = I cannot hear the phrase ‘without incident’ without thinking of this incident.