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

Here is something I don’t understand. If the .fedgov is suing Arizona over their new law against illegal aliens under the argument that enforcement of borders is the federal governments domain, then aren’t all those other things that law enforcement cover for the feds also as equally exclusive to the feds? What I mean is, if the feds say that the Arizona cops should not be enforcing immigration law then couldn’t you say that they shouldn’t be enforcing federal gun laws either? Or any other law that is federal? If that’s the case, AZ should shrug and say they wont enforce immigration law or any other federal law…see what happens then..

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For better or worse, theres a fairly substantial amount of homeless people in this town. Homeless, transients, bums, whatever….what it amounts to is a large group of unwashed, smelly people who are, 9 times out of 10, soaked in alcohol and their own urine. I lost my compassion for the majority of these people a long time ago. I know that the proper and correct attitude is to believe that every human being is a special and unique precious snowflake just as deserving of our love and compassion as any other special snowflake…but the simple fact is that, like it or not, some human beings are more valuable and more worthy than other human beings. If you disagree ask yourself which one you would give one of your kidneys to…your son or daughter or some homeless guy that drinks whiskey for breakfast. (Someone will, Im sure, say that theyd do both since their kid is one of those homeless wretches.)

You see that 9 outta ten number I threw around back there? In the summertime here in Montana theres a small influx of what might be termed ‘functional transients’ or even ‘recreational homeless’. These are people who, for whatever reason, have their poop in a group – they stay sober, travel smartly, make the most of their gear, and if you gave them a half hour to clean up could pass themselves off as productive humans. For lack of a better term, theyre sort of 21^st century hippies but without the tie-dye pattern VW minibus. Theyre usually young, in their twenties, and seem to have decent gear and do a good job of keeping themselves fairly clean. They don’t pass out drunk on sidewalks, splayed out in puddles of their own urine, or seem to get in too much trouble. They just travel, for whatever reason, and move from town to town.

Every so often I get the urge to study these critters. They are, after all, living what we might term a post-apocalyptic lifestyle. They live off of scavenged and begged food, sleep wherever they can set up a camp, travel on foot ( or bike for the smart ones), live out of their gear, and face the weather and seasons with whatever they have. They say that the only thing to survive a nuclear war will be cockroaches , but I think the ‘functional’ homeless will probably be there too. Theyre already used to living that kind of existence…its just another day for them.

I noticed the other day that the drunken homeless tend to use a lot of military surplus gear…BDU pants, field jackets, ALICE packs, sleeping bags, etc. The functional homeless seem to use more commercial gear…not necessarily high-speed-low-drag stuff, but good commercial packs, hats, pants, etc. I suppose in some ways they aren’t much different than the American college kids that grab a backpack and decide to bum around Europe for a summer.

One major difference between these people and the post-apocalyptic archetype is that right now these folks derive a good bit of their existence from the generosity of others. Once things get weird in a major way that degree of charity and benevolence will come to a screeching halt as folks stop giving away resources theyre going to need for themselves.

Still, its interesting to note how these people survive (although not necessarily thrive) without the gear that we think of as being absolutely necessary…guys wrapped up in wool blankets and blue polytarps versus you or I wrapped up in Holofill and GoreTex, that sort of thing. They live a refugee lifestyle and while it doesn’t look too comfortable or glamourous it does seem to work in its most basic requirement – it keeps them from dying (usually).

To go off on a tangent for a moment, yes I know that not all homeless people are alcohol-soaked, lice-ridden, greasy-haired wretches of humanity. I fully realize there are folks living out of their cars who get up every day, shower and shave in the local gym, go to work or look for a job, and struggle along as best they can in a bad situation. Bully for them. I’ll be the first one to give ‘em five bucks if they ask for it. When I say ‘homeless’ I am specifically referring to the useless sacks of flesh that have given up trying to better themselves or their situation and exist as nothing more than social detritus that accost pedestrians for change, urinate in peoples doorways and look like they brushed their teeth with a hammer.

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

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

I took advantage of the fairly nice weather the other day to reseason my cast iron cookware. Simply put, you heat the cookware up, slather the insides with Crisco, and then heat the stuff up so that it bakes on, forming a non-stick (usually) coating on the cookware. As you can imagine, if you do this in your oven at home it can be a bit funky and smoky. I usually dump a bag of charcoal in the barbecue, let things heat up nicely, and then go do my cast iron seasoning outdoors. A lot less muss n’ fuss that way. For the love of Crom be careful…that cast iron gets hot. I mean, really hot. I use a pair of channel lock pliers and oven mitts to handle the cookware in the reseasoning process and that is *not* being overly cautious. The cast iron stays hot enough to be dangerous for quite a while afterwards, so when you pull it off the grill and put it somewhere to cool make sure everyone knows to stay the hell away from it. Burns are nasty business.

I like the cast iron for its ability to hold heat, distribute it fairly evenly, durability, and utility. The classic Dutch ovens are wonderfully useful pieces of cookware that lend themselves to cooking in less-than-opportune venues. That is to say, whether it is on top of a gas burner or on top of a fire made from salvaged 2×4s the cast iron cookware handles things with equal aplomb. Another very nice thing is that with the cast iron I can use all my metal utensils without concern, unlike with some other types of cookware.

I’m a snob, so I usually go for Lodge brand cookware when I go for the ‘uncoated’ stuff. I love the ceramic coated cast iron (Le Crueset, for example) for stovetop use but it’s a bit delicate, in my opinion, for rough-n-tumble outdoor usage. It is also tremendously expensive but it sure is a joy to cook with. There are other brands of cast iron cookware, to be sure, but I stick with Lodge mostly out of familiarity and a staunch refusal to buy Chinese products whenever I can. (Theres tons of cheap cast iron cookware out there from China but I don’t mind spending a few bucks more for the American made stuff. I feel the quality is better and therefore the value is better. Additionally, with the Chinese, who the hell knows if its really cast iron or just the melted down slag from a recycled nuclear reactor?)

In the past, just for giggles, Ive used the Dutch oven to cook chicken and rice on top of my kerosene heater in the winter. I’ve also used it in the past in conjunction with my Volcano cookstove, which works out quite well The cast iron cookware lends itself very well to disaster-scenario cooking. I have a couple Dutch ovens and a few covered frying pans but the one cast iron piece of cookware I am currently drooling over is a cast iron wok. That baby, once brought up to temp, should be the bee’s knees when it comes to stir frying. Pound of chopped meat, some assorted vegetables, some peanut oil, and a bunch of spices should do pretty well in a blazing hot cast iron wok. My birthday is coming in August so perhaps the fates will smile.

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

I think its interesting to note how preparedness has gone mainstream. Right off the bat, the fact that the poisoned term ‘survivalism’ has been rebranded as ‘preparedness’ says a lot. Although you and I know that there is no difference between the two, in the eyes of the public survivalists are confederate-flag waving, gun-toting, misanthropic racists who wear combat boots everywhere they go while preparedness conjures up images of a kinder, gentler Martha Stewart style of survivalism. To the general public, preparedness is survivalism without the guns and camo.

I generally go with ‘preparedness’ just because, for better or worse, its less inflammatory. I cannot, however, bring myself to use the term ‘preppers’. Don’t know why, it just sounds so….I dunno. Geeky? Dimunitive? Dorky? I do, however, have no problem with ‘prepping’ to describe the activity of becoming prepared.

Prior to my own interest in the subject (which I’ll put at around 1980 when I was 13) I’d never met anyone (at least, not that I was aware of) who was a survivalist. I did have a distant relative who, I think, dabbled in it a small bit but other than that I never met anyone I’d consider a survivalist. In retrospect, I had one neighbor when I was a kid who was very handy with tools, did all his own automotive work, grew a small garden and that sort of thing. I doubt he was a genuine survivalist as we came to think of them back in the 80’s but he was probably the closest thing I knew to one. It is interesting to note that he retired to the great survivalist dream – a nice place on a piece of property out in the sticks where he could take care of himself as he saw fit.

Moving to Montana, those many years ago, changed all that. Being something of a hardcore gun crank, I eventually wound up meeting and befriending other Ballistic-Americans and through those connections discovered that many people who take their firearms seriously are of the same mind as myself when it came to notions of preparedness. I’ve met ‘casual survivalists’ and some pretty hardcore ones. I’ve probably met many more that were simply so low profile I didn’t know they were survivalists.

Back then, being a survivalist was like being a member of some sort of slightly-illegal and very ridiculed club. To some degree it’s still that way. But nowadays it’s become far more accepted to be prepared as long as you don’t go too far and start doing things that are ‘out there’…like buying guns or precious metals. That remains the line-in-the-sand separating the ‘Security Moms’ (remember that term?) from the tinfoil-hat-wearers like myself.

The ‘Golden Age’ of survivalism was probably the late 70’s and early 80’s. (Although some might argue the real Golden Age was the bomb-shelter and Civil Defense movements in the 50’s and 60’s) As we all know, it waxed and waned until coming back with a very brief vengeance in the pre-Y2K hoopla. When that fizzled it seemed headed back into obscurity until the 9/11 attacks took place. When that happened it came back with a slightly new twist to it – there was a much greater sense of urgency and reality. The Cold War survivalists were, classically, preparing for the big Soviet-US nuclear missile exchange but that seemed very abstract…mostly because no one had nuked anybody since WW2. But this, the 9/11 events, was real. There really were people who wanted to pull off violence on a grand scale and here it was happening live on TV…reality, not theory….it was really happening and could happen again. And the face of survivalism changed. People still laughed and rolled their eyes at the topic of survivalism but more and more people started thinking about it a little more carefully. After Hurricane Katrina the pendulum had swung firmly into the camp of those who thought that maybe being cautious and taking a few steps to prepare might not be a bad idea. Survivalism became preparedness and even the .gov jumped on the bandwagon with it’s lame ‘ready.gov’ program.

That brings us to today, stuck in one of the biggest economic messes since the Carter administration. People are again thinking about what they need to do to be safe in troubled times. Those of us who came to this party early are, by and large, quietly sitting back and watching things unfold.

In the almost thirty years I’ve been following this interest I would say now is the time when survivalism has become most accepted. Also, it the best time I’ve seen in terms of availability of gear and information. The internet has made a huge, incalculable difference. A million years ago the only way you met other like-minded individuals was through personal ads in sketchy magazines. Nowadays theres dozens of forums, thousands of websites, and even YouTube channels. Exotic gear that normally was impossible to locate is moments away on Ebay or GunBroker. Its practically a renaissance.

I’ve mentioned that when the dust finally settles from this economic crisis that people will probably, for a very long time, have their behavior changed in regards to spending and saving money. I think this will also have the affect of making more and more people ‘come around’ to the basic ideas of preparedness – being prepared for a crisis, including economic ones.

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

Talking about preparedness is like talking about sex – you either embellish and exaggerate because you want to impress, or youre into some pretty wild and bizarre stuff and you downplay it to try to sound average.

I mention it because every so often I’ll be talking to someone and they’ll mention their friend of a friends cousin who has a neighbor who knew a guy who….has an underground concrete missile silo, a garage full of armored cars, a railroad car full of food, a key to the National Guard armory and his own gas well on the property. Someone, mighta been Jeff Cooper, said that when someone tells you about how big the crocodile that almost killed them was you get the real size by dividing the reported size by two and adding three feet. I suspect preparedness is a bit like that. Divide the divulged quantity of [food/ammo/fuel/acreage/group size] by three and add three to come up with a more realistic number. Crazy Louie’s 24 month food supply? 11 month. Gino’s 100k of ammo? 36k. Donna’s 150 acre homestead? 53 acres.

I mention it because I had such an encounter yesterday with a customer who was telling me about how he’s working with a buddy of his on his buddy’s aunt’s acreage. The aunt, he says, is ‘Mommy Warbucks’ in terms of having a good bit of money. She’s building an ‘off grid’ house. I said great, more power to her. He said it doesn’t stop there. According to him, she has a 1000 gallon underground propane tank, took delivery of a truckload of buckets of food, has ‘plenty of ammo’, a couple 2500 gallon cisterns, etc, etc, and is gearing up for a projected core group of twelve family members. He calls it her ‘Doomstead’. (Get it? It’s a homestead for doomsday – Doomstead.) I didn’t want to get into specifics but I think her particular flavor of apocalypse was Yellowstone caldera.

Overlooking for a moment the extremely catchy term of ‘doomstead’, it sounded like quite the operation…if it were true. I’ve met folks who talked a great lifestyle but didn’t have much more than a couple cases of ammo and some bags of rice, and Ive met some people who youd never guess were ‘into the scene’ but had some hellaciously well squared-away preps. And, yes, a few with genuine honest-to-Crom concrete underground bunkers. (One cleverly disguised with a brick barbecue to conceal the ventilation.) I know, with absolute certainty, that there are folks out there with awesome concrete houses, capacious basements, mini-hydro systems, racks of rifles, and industrial shelves stacked to the ceiling with freeze drieds. I like to think that this woman really does have her ‘Doomstead’ as my customer described…more likely its something far less ambitious though. But, so what? Even the lowliest van-down-by-the-river survivalist is still ahead of the curve if for no other reason than because even if he doesn’t have the goods, he has the attitude.

I’m sure theres folks that would jump on the ‘yuppie survivalist’-bashing bandwagon if this Doomstead story were actually as it was related to me. (‘Yuppie survivalist’ being code for ‘makes more money than I do, dammit’.) Hey man, if I had the money I’d have my very own heavily-armored and tastefully-appointed doomstead out in the sticks. When The Day comes there won’t be any commendations handed out to the guy that made it through with the least amount of gear…I got no problem spending money for what I think is a good and important cause – continued safety and security.

Back to our friend at the Doomstead, I told him that if Mommy Warbucks was in need of some gear or freezedrieds to let me know and Im sure we could work something out. Who knows, it might turn out that there really is some matriarch out there feathering her nest with concrete and concertina while dispensing copious amounts of cash. If it isn’t true, it’d be nice to think it is.

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

I know theyre not real, but I cant stop looking at them.

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

An article from the NYT about the folks that believe in Peak Oil.

Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready

Located somewhere between the environmental movement and the bunkered survivalists, the peak oil crowd is small but growing, reaching from health food stores to Congress, where a Democrat and a Republican formed a Congressional Peak Oil Caucus.

Wow, I know exactly where I am on that environmentalist-to-bunkered-survivalists spectrum.

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

Article on the rise of CCW in urban Pennsylvania.

I applied for my carry permit a couple days after the brady background checks started. Took 23 days, I recall. I got it mostly so i could avoid the headaches of the background check. Prior to that Id usually carried a gun anyway and just not worried about the legal implications. I figured that, Crom forbid, if I ever did have to shoot someone it would be such a clear-cut case of self-defense that something like a CCW would be a non-issue. Theyre pretty cool about that sorta thing here in Montana.  Additionally, if youre not in town limits, or youre engaged in an ‘outdoor activity’, you dont need a license to carry concealed.

Ive talked to quite a few cops here in Montana and the majority opinion is that if you arent otherwise breaking the law or causing trouble, no one seems too concerned if you have a concealed weapons license or not.

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

I should save this for Friday, which is where I normally restrict my firearms posts to, but its just so darn interesting. Underwater shooting. Its a fascinating YouTube video of waht does and does not happen when you fire a gun underwater. The most telling thing is that other than immediate close-range the bullets lose velocity and energy so fast as to be almost useless. At close range, sure. Anything more than ten yards or so appears to be a wash. It was also interesting to note that hammered guns like revolvers and some semi-autos had ignition problems because of the water slowing down the hammer.

The Glock did fire underwater as it is reputed to do, but several failures were observed. Glock makes the famous ‘maritime spring cups’ for enhancing reliability in these conditions and I may have to go purchase some. Not because I plan on firing a gun underwater (although it would be a nice option to have) but rather because someday my Glock (and myself) will wind up being up to our necks in a river or stream and once we’re out of it may not have time to shake the wet outta everything.  Officially, you have to order up the maritime spring cups on LE or .mil letterhead. However, capitalism being what it is, theres folks out there that’ll sell them with a bit less fuss. ‘Course, theyre a bit pricier that way…..

Mythbusters did a few episodes on the subject and they were pretty enlightening. The biggest take-away from it was that bullets penetrate a couple yards, at most, of water and then pretty much come to a dead stop.  For more what-will-or-wont-stop-a-bullet I highly recommend the superawesome Box O’ Truth website…an invaluable resource. (I was especially taken with their ‘bulletproof glass’ testing…lotsa food for thought on that one.)

Anyway, figured I’d share a few links about shooting in the wetter envrions. And, yes, Im very aware of the designed-to-shoot underwater guns from the Sovs and HK. My interest isnt so much about firing guns underwater (why would I need to do that?) but rather my interest is towards guns that gun be fired when soaking wet without problems. (And, of course, a brief-yet-slightly-biased example from HK showing what happens when a direct impingement AR is submerged and then fired. [Love the German techno music.])

Yeah, I’ll probably be a goober and get the maritime spring cups. Never know when me or my gear will take a tumble while crossing a stream or river……..

People say that you should load AR mags with 28 rounds rather than 30 to prevent jams.  I read somewhere that the problem is that people (soldiers) would take the mags apart and put them back together in such a way that the springs didnt compress properly and when thirty mags did wind up getting stuffed into the mag there would be problems. So….logically, the answer was to play it safe and always go with 28 rounds rather than learn to re-assemble the mag correctly, I suppose. To each their own, I suppose.

Since the AR is so ubiquitous there is no shortage of manufacturers of magazines out there. “Contract mags” are what most of us wind up with. Simply put, these are magazines that are built under contract for Uncle Sam.

Theres three kinds of AR mags out there these days – plastic, aluminum and steel. Speaking from my own experience, I almost always go with the original aluminum mags. I’ve met very few plastic mags that were reliable, fit well, and could take abuse. Some folks love the Pmag from Magpul but I’ve read mixed things about them. The big drawbacks to plastic magazines as Ive experienced them have been durability and fit. I try to take good care of my mags and not drop them onto hard surfaces, etc, but when the zombies get here it’ll be nice to know that I can drop mags on the sidewalk at a dead run and not have them chip or break…I just havent met a plastic magazine yet that makes me feel comfortable in that regard. The other problem Ive had with plastic mags, and this was a problem on early first-gen Glock mags too, is that when the mag is fully loaded it swells a bit and makes insertion/removal from the magazine well a bit tricky. If it doesnt drop free from the AR when I push the mag release, I dont want it. The Pmags get great reviews but they also have their detractors. I have a couple of them and they seem to work okay, although I havent tested them to destruction yet. On the other hand, I have AR mags from waaaaaaay back that still work just fine.

The steel mags, which I understand are mostly surplus British SA80 mags although there are some commercial ones as well, seem to work but I’m squeamish about constantly inserting/removing a steel magazine into/from an aluminum magazine well…it seems like a recipe for wear.  I do have a few steel mags that Ive kept over the years but I almost never use them and they are relegated to tertiary-level spares. Given the low price of aluminum mags these days I may just strip them for springs and followers and toss them.

That leaves aluminum mags. Although the mags have pretty much stayed the same over the years, the innards have not. The biggest change has been in followers. I have original Colt mags with the alloy followers (thats old, baby!) Followers then changed from black plastic to green and now to tan. The latest feature is the ‘anti-tilt’ follower which seems to be becoming standard with almost everyones AR mags these days. While there are plenty of makers of AR mags out there, I’ve been stocking up on the ones from CProducts. Quality has been very good and they are priced extremely well. Often you can find wholesalers dumping them for less than $10 ea. in quantity.

For drum magazines, theres really only two options – the 90-round drum which is pretty darn big and bulky, and the 100-round Beta magazine. I’ve very little experience with either one but the Beta seems like a better choice just in terms of size and carryability.

Were someone to ask me what they should buy and stick away for that Rainy Day, I’d say get as many of the CProduct or genuine GI mags as possible. I prefer 30-rd mags although a couple 20’s are handy for carrying in your pocket.  I’d stay away from anything aftermarket like the dreded USA-branded mags, any steel mags, and most plastic mags. There are some 40- and even 50-round mags out there but I question their reliability and wouldnt advise getting them unless youre going to test them thoroughly.

Our buddy  ,Rawles has a FAQ about AR mags thats worth reading here.