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

As is almost always the case with thise little ’snapshot’ articles, the comments are more interesting than the article itself.

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

Oh sweet Crom, I want this…………..

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

The novelty of this white stuff on the ground is fading fast….

Last year I was thinking it might be nice to have a set of these:

And, like an idiot, once the snow faded away I didn’t follow up on it. Now I’m cursing myself because I could really use a set of these things right now. So, I checked the SG catalog this morning and not only do they have the ‘classic’ style of snowshoe they also have the more popular version:

What’s the difference? Well one is more maneuverable than the other, mostly. For the price, I’m thinking I’ll get a pair of each to try out.

What i really could have used yesterday was this little number to haul my stuff back to the house yesterday.

We usually don’t get this kinda weather in this part of Montana but that’s really no excuse…there’s nothing to say I will always be in this part of Montana and, apparently, from time to time we do get a bit of a snowpocalypse going on.

Looks like I’m gonna have to free up a few bucks and get these snowshoes before they sell out like all the other cool stuff I want and never seem to get around to getting.

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

Well, it’s officially more snow than I’ve seen dumped at one time in about, oh, fifteen, maybe twenty years. The wife called for a ride back from work last night and I said “Ok, I’ll be there in five minutes”. Hell, it took me twenty minutes just to shovel the truck out and push it outta its parking space. The snow is already over the top of my pac boots. Driving anywhere is either an exercise in stupidity or a challenge to four-wheel drive. Me, I’m no fool….rule number one of avoiding any disaster is to not be there. Hence, the truck stays parked and if I need to go anywhere, I’m going on foot.

I’ve already helped dig out two stranded motorists…both people who should have known better than to be driving in this crap in their Tauruses and Camrys.

Supplies? Well, I need another 12-pack of Coke but otherwise there’s nothing we need that would warrant a trip through this crap and it’s attendant risk. I’ve enough beef and chicken in the freezer to keep me going for a couple months. This weather has me wishing I had gotten one of these. After walking to the shop in the morning it would be nice to have a hot bowl full of chili or soup to have for lunch.

The dog, of course, is thrilled with the snow. He winds up having to bound through it like a dolphin breaking the surface…yes, he’s a dog with porpoise.

The forecast is for more of this stuff, which means I really shouldnt plan on being anywhere the next few days except at the house or at the shop. Fortunately, because we are a prepared and practical household we’re in a good position to simply ’shelter in place’ and stay put. Heck, between Netflix, Warcraft and internet porn there is pretty much no reason to leave the house.

So, let it snow…if nothing else it’ll be some vindication and perhaps some bragging rights, depending on how bad it gets.

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

It was only a matter of time ……..

From the folks that brought you The Chainsaw………

Part of me is appalled. But the intellignet part of me says that this is actually not a bad idea. Folks have been tacticooling leverguns for a while now, but this is the first one from the factory like that. If youre in a locale that prohibits a semi-auto this might be a good choice. It’s very much a ‘rule beater’ like Remington’s 7615P carbine.

The flash supressor is a nice touch since that means a fella with a sound supressor could thread it on and have absolutely zero noise from the action cycling after the round is fired. Not sure about the need for a telestock, but, as long as youre pimping it out…. I do like the rail option for a tactical light, though. Put on a regular stock, keep the rail for a light, keep the flash supressor, add a forward scope mount fo a ‘Scout’ scope and you’d have a handy little carbine.

I’d love to see this offered in a ‘Combo-Pak’ like their shotguns were. Get the 464 carbine and it comes iwth regular wood furniture and a thread protector so you can swap out the parts between a ‘tactical’ gun and a ‘hunting’ gun…..similar to the package they offered where you got a 500 shotgun with a hunting barrel and a short barrel, and a woodstock and a pistol grip.

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

You guys remember Sarah Connor Jr.? The mom with the scattergun who made a home intruder into a six-column-inch article in most major media outlets? Well, apparently she’s received a bit of an upgrade. (Only really good linkage I found was on Facebook)

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

An ‘all you can eat’-type of place down the street from me has shuttered up and is selling off their fixtures and supplies. Why, oh why, does this happen when I have no money? What do they have that I want? Well, there’s actually a good bit of stuff in there that lends itself to the preparedness lifestyle.

First and foremost, there are shelves to accommodate #10 cans…the kind of shelves where the cans roll to the front so you use up oldest stock first. That could be handy. More handy, there are bunches of #10 cans of foods that I actually use.

One thing they have that I really have a desire for are cafeteria trays. Yeah, cafeteria trays. Not the compartmented ones, just the normal flat ones with a raised lip at the edges. Why do I need them? These things are perfect for cleaning handguns. Everything is in one place, parts cant roll away and any solvent issues stay on the tray. Definitely gonna get some of those.

Then theres a few sundry items….cheap bowls and plates, gallon jugs of sals, hotsauce, etc….I’m sure that if I wanted I could buy a lifetime supply of paper napkins but those arent as useful to me as other items.

I was hoping for some steel wire shelving but that was one of the first things to go, unfortunately. The larger fixtures, like the ginormous Hobart mixers, ovens, etc, are way too big for me to get any use out of them. Some of the utensils might come in handy though.

It’s a sad thing when a business goes under. It’s the death of someones dreams and hopes. But, the business circle of life goes on and scavengers like me come in and pick the carcass. Opportunity is sometimes pretty tacky in how it presents itself, but present itself it does………
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Honest to Crom snow day today. Probably about five inches of the stuff so far. I’m tempted to put on the winter whites, the bunny boots, and take the bioweapon out for a romp in the snowy hills. He loves him some snow. This weather is also a reminder that I need to go through my bag and make sure I have the proper cold weather gear in it, just in case. As you may recall, I wound up with an embarrassment of riches in terms of gloves/mittens so a few of those will get packed with the usual gear as ‘extras’.
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Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Nice article with a happy ending. Two things jump out at me here….

First, this guy kept his head together. It sounds like he didn’t panic and, most importantly, he didn’t give up. He simply accepted the situation and figured he was just going to wind up being really late. Attitude, as we all know, makes a huge difference. None of his comments in the article sound the least bit defeatist…this is a guy with the classic ‘positive mental outlook’ and he made it just fine.

Secondly, important pieces of gear need to be secured. He lost his radio in a subsequent fall. I don;t want to Monday morning quarterback but a critical piece of gear like that, especially once he realized he was lost, should have been secured with a lanyard or in some sort of pouch that would have kept him from losing it.

I’m betting next time he does this sort of thing he’ll carry some different gear, maybe something with more emphasis on fire/fuel, but this could have been a lot worse and it sounds like he did pretty well for himself.

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

The lovely lass at The Trooper’s Gal pointed this deal out. It’s the Hardigg Medical Chest with drawers. I got one of these last year without the drawers and it’s a nice piece of gear. With the drawers? Ten shades of awesome.

Sportsman’s Guide apparently has some. Price? $199.99…about a twelfth of the new price, if SG’s listing is to be believed. SH408 is a code for free shipping, but you’ll still be on the hook for the ‘heavy item’ fee.

Overkill? Probably. Pretty much any waterproof large container would work for this sort of thing but these cases are purpose-built for keeping your emergency medical supplies safe, dry and clean. Like a lot of really cool military surplus stuff, I expect that these will be ‘out of stock’ shortly.

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

A couple folks commented about my last few posts on the price of silver, and infrequently I get a couple emails asking about it. I’m not going into the ‘why’ part about it, that’s between me and my lizard brain…but I’ll share with you the ‘how’ part.

I get my silver from this guy. Being an ‘irregular income’ kind of guy, I don’t take advantage of his his ’subscription’ plan…but if I did have a regular income, and I wanted to start stocking the stuff away, that’s the way I’d do it. No muss, no fuss, no watching the markets everyday trying to time it like a shuttle launch. Just pick a day of the month, an amount, and every month you get $x worth of gold or silver. I’d explain the dollar-cost-averaging part, but I’ll let him do it:

You select the amount you want to spend on silver each month ($100 minimum). You choose the product you wish to purchase- Generic Rounds, Branded Rounds (Sunshine, A-Mark or Pan American), Branded 5 oz bars (currently we have Pan American) and Branded 10oz bars (either Sunshine or A-Mark). You could also choose 90% Silver US Currency. Products shipped will depend on availability.

On the same date each month (based on your start date) your bank account, credit card or Paypal account will be billed for the amount you choose, your silver will be purchased at the current price and mailed to you by the following day. Partial ounces will be carried over to the next month. If you decide to cancel your subscription eligible remaining fractions will be repurchased by Montana Rarities.

So if you’re overseas in Afghanistan, on the road driving truck, or just darn too busy to keep track of markets and whatnot but want to start squirreling the stuff away, this is an excellent ‘fire-n-forget’ way of doing things. Set it up, pick a day, pick a metal, pick an amount of money to spend every month and you’re done.

Personally, as I said, I have an irregular income so when I’m flush, I buy, when I’m not, I don’t…so I just buy every so often when I see him. But for the guy who wants to start building up a stash without a lot of dicking around, this is a good way to go.

Is he the cheapest guy around? Well, he’s the cheapest I’ve seen here in town, and he seems to fare pretty well against many places that don’t demand you buy 50 ounces at a time. Maybe you can find a better deal elsewhere, maybe not…I’m just telling you who I use. I will say, though, that for customer service he’ll bend over backwards (or maybe forwards, depending on if you buy enough) to make sure everyone is happy with the deal. I’m not kidding, I’ve seen him make a deal to buy coins from folks, agree on a price, get the coin, and then send more money than he agreed to because the coin was nicer than he was expecting and he wanted to be fair. That’s the kinda vendor you wanna do business with…a guy who looks out for the customer’s interests as well as his own.

He’s a very honest and fair guy to do business with and, very importantly, he’s on the same page as many of us in regard to why we buy precious metals. So…he won’t think it’s weird or alarming if, like me, you’re buying because you’re worried about the end of the world and the upcoming global economic collapse. Yeah, he’s a like-minded individual.

If you wind up doing any business with him, and, really, you should, please mention that it was your buddy Zero who sent you….he’ll know who that is and maybe he’ll thank me with a couple silver halves or something.

Anyway, for those of you who asked, that’s where I get my silver from.