Author Archives: Commander Zero

Article – Outlaw Country

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A fascinating article about someone who, admittedly a ‘hard luck case’, moves to ‘survivalist country’ and winds up in the sort of situation that has no good resolution.

The takeaway here, as I see it, is that while we like the idea of a place out in the middle of nowhere, that middle of nowhere also appeals to another subset of people that we may not particularly want to share oxygen with. In short, the ‘wide open spaces’ and ‘lack of oversight’ that make a place appealing to you and I also appeal to some less savory types who might be your neighbors. And, sometimes, it can turn ugly in a big way.

Whatever terms he initially plugged into Google or Facebook or YouTube, he was soon frequenting websites promoting far-right conspiracy theories, watching videos predicting imminent social collapse, and reading how-to guides on survival preparedness. Over a few months in late 2012, the content of Taylor’s Facebook posts shifted from topics like trucks and music to videos from the hacktivist group Anonymous and posts about pandemic disease, the threat of GMO foods, the rise of Islam, and the Obama administration’s purported plans to confiscate everyone’s guns. Taylor devoured TV shows like Doomsday Preppers, Survivor Man, Live Free or Die, and Man, Woman, Wild. The notion of living off the land allowed him to imagine ways he might escape the wage economy and finally make something of himself.

RTWT.

Wayback Machine: Ruger/Smith ad flamewar

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I was talking to someone about Ruger revolvers today and it reminded me of one of the more direct in-your-face advertising tit-for-tats that Ruger and Smith and Wesson have back in the late 80’s/early90’s. Ruger had some print ads out stating that their guns were more stout that the Smiths and you could tell this immediately because the Rugers were thicker, beefier guns.

S&W didn’t take this laying down and came up with an awesome drop-the-mic without using Ruger by name, but those grips left no doubt who the ad was pointed at.

Smith goes on to call out the ‘bulkier’ competitor revolvers and their porous castings. Honestly, I hadn’t seen a flamewar between two bigtime gunmakers like this since then.

And, you can really tell how old this ad is by the fact that it’s two big name manufacturers defending revolvers.

Ah, those were the days.

Moar Ruger

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Annnnd…that happened:

A Ruger SP101 in..wait for it….9mm.

Why? Well, thats a case of numbers trumping tradition. I have a couple 5-shot snubbie Smith and Wessons in .38 Spl and they are, no two ways about it, fine guns. But the Ruger product, while just s tad bulkier, is substantially more rugged. And, when I buy guns for the long haul, ruggedness, durability, and survivability are what I’m after. Love or hate Ruger, the fact is they make extremely durable products.

I’d been wanting to up my snubbie game and was thinking an SP101 in .357 Mag would give me some nice options. But then I started reading and it appears, as I read it, that when you get into stubby barrels and cylinder gaps you wind up losing so much energy that a cartridge like the .38 Spl actually gives worse performance than the 9mm. Head on over to Ballistics By The Inch and you can look at the numbers.

What about .357? Surprisingly, not much difference when fired from the 2″ barrel. The 9mm and the .357 wind up being close enough, in some loadings, as to be virtually identical. However, .357 does it at the expense of significantly more muzzle flash and recoil.

So, since my handgun choices are predicated around 9mm and .38/.357 it seemed to make ballistic sense to go with the 9mm. As an aside, it appears I can also shoot .380 ACP as well using the moon clips. Why I would want to is a bit of a mystery but, hey, the option is there. What I would really love, love, love to see is a ‘convertible’ SP101…something where Ruger sells the gun and a spare cylinder so you can do .38/.357 and 9mm. They used to do it in their single actions, and even a few convertible .30/9mm autos.

Taurus was supposed to have the ‘Triad’ years ago that would shoot 9/38/357 interchangeably but it appears to have been vaporware. Colt experimented with the Survivor which eventually wound up as the Medusa…(or maybe it was the other way around)…and went nowhere. And, of course, Smith experimented with a 9mm (the Model 547) that did not need moon clips to eject. It was supposed to be the vanguard of a line of revolvers meant for rimless cartridges but, again, it never materialized. The relative small run of 547’s that did get made bring crazy prices now. Interesting to note that years later at least two gun companies, Ruger and S&W, brought out revolvers for the rimless 10mm cartridge. (And, come to think of it, while Im not 100% sure I think Taurus or Charter had a .40 snubbie at some point.)

Also, I believe Ruger was supposed to be coming out with a DA revolver that took .45Colt/ACP interchangeably. Not sure where they landed on that one.

Oh, and Charter also experimented with the ‘9mm Federal’ which was basically ‘9mm AutoRim’….a rimmed version of the 9mm cartridge, identical in all respects except for having a rim to facilitate use in revolvers. Why haven’t we heard more about it? Because it would fit and chamber in ancient .38 S&W break open revolvers and turn them into hand grenades when you pulled the trigger. (.38 S&W vs. 9mm = 14,500 psi vs 35,000 psi max pressure) [Similar to the problem with .375 Winchester being dropped into old .38-55 guns.]

The SP101 is also available in .327 Federal, which, ballistically speaking, is quite the cartridge. However, I own nothing in .327 Federal whereas I have a metric buttload of .38, .357, and 9mm handguns. So….no .327 Federal, thanks for asking.

This gun can shoot the 9mm cartridges without the moon clips if necessary, you just have to eject them with a stick. I’ll pick up a dozen more clips just for the sake of future availability. This is a gun that you really don’t anticipate reloading, although I’ll keep a spare clip handy just in case. Which reminds me, it is darn tough finding someone who makes a belt carrier of the non-competition style for 9mm clips.

Off to the range tomorrow to test fire and then go shopping for a holster.

 

Bag O’ Tricks – AM/FMradio

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Every so often I go through my Bag O’ Tricks and think about each item that’s there and whether it’s utility and likelihood of use warrants it’s inclusion.

One item that I keep that I never question is the classic palm sized little AM/FM battery radio. In an era where, literally, the entire collected knowledge of humanity is sitting in my pocket on an internet-enabled smartphone there is still a need for the simple ‘transistor radio’. (Although, to be fair, pocket radios have evolved tremendously.)

A reasonable question to ask would be “Zero, I have the internet in front of me, a smartphone in my pocket, there’s a TV in the breakroom, and my office plays XM radio all day. Why would I need a tinny little radio to hump around in my already overcrowded EDC bag?”

Electricity. Power goes out and your office loses its XM, internet, and TV. If its a widespread outage you lose your cellphone too. (Because although those cell towers are supposed to have back up generators and batteries.. well…they were meaning to get around to that preventative maintenance but got busy.) Or, if its a big enough emergency, the phone system will be way overloaded.

So what just happened? Why’d the power go out? How widespread? Is it the result of some bad actors? Is it just a squirrel immolating himself on a transformer? Don’t know, right? So…you reach into your bag, pull out your little AA-batt radio, and start roaming up and down the dial listening for news.

This isn’t theory, I’ve had that exact situation. I’ve been sitting at my desk, theres a snapping noise, and all the power in the building goes out. A small battery radio tells me a lot when I start dialing through the frequencies…if theyre all just static or quiet, then I know its a widespread outage. If they’re carrying on like nothing happened, then I know its pretty localized. Of course, in addition to a little AM/FM/SW radio I also carry the ICOM R6 (highly recommend) so I can keep tabs on the local cop/fire response.

The folks at CountyComm have an interesting little radio that seems ideal for the task. It’s not a $12.99 WalMart radio, but then again when the power is out and I’m wondering what all the sirens are about, I suspect I’ll be glad I spent the extra money on something like that.

And, of course, since this thing gets carried around in the Bag O’ Tricks it has to be compatible with the battery logistics for the other electronic devices (and spare batts) I carry. So…AA batts.

(l.) Icom R6…tiny enough for carrying around but has tons of features. (r.) Discontinued pocket AM/FM/SW AA-batt radio from CountyComm w/ earpiece. Always pack earphones…less battery usage using earphones. Both radios fir in the Pelican 1010 case.

Like the Icom R6, the AM/FM/SW radio sits in a little Pelican case to protect it from the rough and tumble life of being in a bag that gets thrown around a lot. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can just wrap a radio in some bubble wrap and cardboard and it’ll be okay. False economy there. No one hands out awards to the person who made it through a crisis using the cheapest gear… spend the money.

And, as always, periodically inspect your gear! Check those batteries!

 

 

 

Link – Police surplus….M249S?

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Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch and starts chest-beating about how police departments have no need for a semi-auto M249, it is worth noting that this is advertised as new condition and never been unboxed. Likely some department ordered these at the 11th hour to use up their budget so it wouldn’t get cut the following year.

But, if you have $7k to spend….although dealer on a new one is $7700 so its really only a 10% discount.

However, it is also worth pointing out that some departments actually use the M240…most notably, some Texicans.

Battery inspection day

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‘Tis battery inspection day. Back around the beginning of the year I made a list of all the devices I leave batteries in during the year and decided that every month I would inspect each device to make sure the batteries hadn’t crapped the bed.

So far, so good. :::fingers crossed::: Haven’t come across any that are startingt o go bad.

Yeah, it’s kind of a pain to run around thehouse hunting down a half dozen flashlights and radios to open their battery compartments and check them out, but when a good LED MagLite is twenty bucks all it takes is catching one set of batteries early in the act to pay for itself.

So…if you’re like me and are tired of throwing out Maglites that had batteries go bad and weld themselves to the inside of the tubes…. go check your battery devices today.

It just…happens

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Crom hates me. I had to go buy some housewares and as I’m walking across he parking lot I think “Hmm..let me go check the used gun rack at the gun shop next door”. And thats when I saw this:

3Rd Gen (my fave), G19 with two factory mags, case, sights have been swapped out for the exact same set I just installed on my G17, G34 extended slide release, aftermarket recoil spring assy, decent stipling job on frame, and G34 extended mag release.

But, really, I was sold once I saw the price tag of $325.

I’ll probably put the factory mag release back in for something a tad less prone to getting accidentally released while carrying, but other than that….nice gun.

And all I was shopping for was a stupid mattress pad.

 

Garbage

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Something that I thought I’d mention in case anyone ever has the same situation….

So, a few posts back, you saw that I picked up a new Ruger rifle, yes? Big rifle comes with a big box. With big lettering that says “RUGER” running across it. Now, I am not one of those guys that saves the boxes that guns come in with the idea that twenty years from now I will have saved the box, it will be in immaculate condition, and it’ll add 20% to the resale of the gun. Why? Because when you get into as many guns as I have, if I saved all the boxes I would literally need a shipping container to store them all. Plus, Im not much for reselling a gun once I take it into my collection.

So..what to do with thebox. Well, it sure as heck isn’t going out in the alleyway to await the garbage collection. Why? Because doing so announces to the world that there’s a guy in that house right there who has a nice shiny new expensive rifle. Who wants that kinda info sitting out there for the homeless dumpster diving wretches to discover? Next thing I know some tweaker is staking out my house waiting for me to leave on a shopping trip or something so he can kick in the door and hope to snatch whatever rifle that cardboard box housed.

So. No. The box goes elsewhere. Where? Well, logically you might just kick the can down the road and leave it in your neighbors garbage a block away. Two problems with that – first, it just transfers the same risk to my neighbors which isn’t really a nice thing to do even though they are complete strangers to me, andsecondly putting your garbage in someone elses garbage collection is a pretty sleazy thing to do, as well as being a theft-of-services kinda thing.

So..where does it go? Easy…just about any gun store will either take the box for themselves for use in shipping, or if you ask nice they’ll let you toss it in their dumpster once you explain why you don’t want it at your own garbage collection point.

Paranoid? No, I don’t think so. I do the same for any high-end item…computer, television, etc. Why let the dumpster divers know that there’s cool goodies at this address just waiting for them?

Alternatively, I could chop up the box into small pieces and mix it in with my usual garbage but thats too much like work. The point here, though, is that this is just another angle of PerSec that might not seem obvious to most people. but..there it is.