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

has a post ( http://www.livejournal.com/users/smjayman/266827.html ) about $15 Glock mags if anyone needs to pick up a few extras.

Crossed to

Wandering the streets of Philadelphia is an interesting experience when your good Commander is on an expedition. Having not lived in the confines of a city for a very long time I had forgotten how much welded steel and iron fencing people can slap up over their windows and doors. And riot gates…I had almost forgotten what riot gates look like. (And, now having been reacquainted with them, I may have to get some for the someday Rancho Ballistica). Id also forgotten what its like to walk and be around people whose main concerns in life seem to be having louder car stereos than their neighbors, wearing as much team-logo-festooned clothing as possible, and buying useless crap. Sadly, when Things Get Ugly these same people will be the ones expecting government to ‘do something’ and if those needs arent met will be the ones pulling apart that welded steel and iron fencing that is so decoratively covering someones basement windows.

For me a trip to the city is like spearing your hand in and out of a candle flame….if its fast and youre quick..in and out as fast as you can..you probably wont get hurt. But if youre too slow or stay too long youre going to get burned.

All things considered, Im not in a bad situation. The folks Im staying with have a small(!) amount of firepower and they are tucked away and hidden in a quiet neighborhood…but I’d feel better with my Glock, AK, armour, a supply of chemlights and radio gear.

I think the biggest cosmic practical joke that could be played on me would be the end of the world when Im 1,991 miles (according to my GPS) away from my happy, fortified, well-armed home.

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

Wandering the streets of Philadelphia is an interesting experience when your good Commander is on an expedition. Having not lived in the confines of a city for a very long time I had forgotten how much welded steel and iron fencing people can slap up over their windows and doors. And riot gates…I had almost forgotten what riot gates look like. (And, now having been reacquainted with them, I may have to get some for the someday Rancho Ballistica). Id also forgotten what its like to walk and be around people whose main concerns in life seem to be having louder car stereos than their neighbors, wearing as much team-logo-festooned clothing as possible, and buying useless crap. Sadly, when Things Get Ugly these same people will be the ones expecting government to 'do something' and if those needs arent met will be the ones pulling apart that welded steel and iron fencing that is so decoratively covering someones basement windows.

For me a trip to the city is like spearing your hand in and out of a candle flame….if its fast and youre quick..in and out as fast as you can..you probably wont get hurt. But if youre too slow or stay too long youre going to get burned.

All things considered, Im not in a bad situation. The folks Im staying with have a small(!) amount of firepower and they are tucked away and hidden in a quiet neighborhood…but I'd feel better with my Glock, AK, armour, a supply of chemlights and radio gear.

I think the biggest cosmic practical joke that could be played on me would be the end of the world when Im 1,991 miles (according to my GPS) away from my happy, fortified, well-armed home.

Got the new Blackhawk catalog today. Although I am loathe to buy stuff made in Vietnam, they do have a few things I havent seen elsewhere and that would be the only reason I’d buy from them. Prices are comparable at Tactical Tailor and a few other MadeInUsa outfits.
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In my civillian life, Im trying to get dealer status with the guys at Mountain House. If that happens, I’ll be interested in seeing what the discount is on their stuff. While you can buy the pouches of fodd at any camping store, the #10 cans, which keep much longer, arent exactly available everywhere. Mountain House will sell directly off their website with free shipping on orders over $50, but I still am curious what the discount is on dealer pricing….esp. on the FD meats.
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At some point over the summer, i should jump on eBay and pick up an extra Eureka USMC Combat Tent…spares are always nice to have and its proven thus far to be a very good tent…esp. at the prices you can find them for on eBay.

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

Got the new Blackhawk catalog today. Although I am loathe to buy stuff made in Vietnam, they do have a few things I havent seen elsewhere and that would be the only reason I'd buy from them. Prices are comparable at Tactical Tailor and a few other MadeInUsa outfits.
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In my civillian life, Im trying to get dealer status with the guys at Mountain House. If that happens, I'll be interested in seeing what the discount is on their stuff. While you can buy the pouches of fodd at any camping store, the #10 cans, which keep much longer, arent exactly available everywhere. Mountain House will sell directly off their website with free shipping on orders over $50, but I still am curious what the discount is on dealer pricing….esp. on the FD meats.
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At some point over the summer, i should jump on eBay and pick up an extra Eureka USMC Combat Tent…spares are always nice to have and its proven thus far to be a very good tent…esp. at the prices you can find them for on eBay.

Theres a couple schools of thought on the idea of keeping gold (or other precious metals) in your stockpile of supplies and gear. On belief is that since it has no practical use (you cant eat it, shoot it, heal with it, etc) its not worth keeping. The other side of the coin (so to speak) is that gold always has a value and is worth having.

Im of the second camp. Heres why:

Yes, you cant shoot gold, eat gold, heal with gold, burn it for fuel or anything like that. Golds purpose, to me, is twofold. It preserves wealth and it is a universal currency.

The Bad Things that are coming dont happen overnight. Its usually a gradual slide (picking up speed) into chaos. When that happens, a few things almost always happen – credit becomes fairly worthless (cant run your credit card if theres no electricity and if theres a chance your bank no longer exists), checks are utterly worthless, and cash reigns supreme. Now, what if your cash suddenly starts to be worth less and less and inflation starts taking its toll? We’ve all heard the stories of Germany’s hyperinflation…a bottle of wine costs 50 marks in the morning and in the evening the empty bottle was worth 5000 marks. Did the value of the bottle increase? No, the value of the money decreased. So if you get $500 a week and then it starts taking $500 to buy what cost $400 last week, thats your dollar being worth less.

Im very bad at explaining this and I know there are people here who could explain it better than I can.

But really, I see it mostly as a hedge against inflation. If I stick $100 in the safe, in ten years it will only buy, maybe, $85-90 worth of stuff. If I throw $100 worth of gold in the safe, in ten years it will probably buy exactly the same things that it would have bought ten years ago…

Its hard for me to explain, but yes I think gold has a place in anyones preparations but as a long-term strategy. (Although in the short term its great for getting past a roadblock in Checnya, bribing border guards in Mexico, buying antibiotics in Baghdad or C-4 in Idaho) Should you buy as much gold as you can? I dont think so…I think you should first spend money on the things you need to prepare with…land, food, fuel, clothes, meds, ammo, guns, education, etc…then I think you should have ready cash available…and then, when all thats done, I think you should start salting a little bit of gold away. A couple coins every month or so….

Im the first to agree that there are times when, literally, gold will be worthless but thats the whole ‘prepared’ part of ‘preparedness’. If the world turns inot Mad Max, Ive got food and ammo…if it turns into a Soviet-style or ARgentine economy with people on line for toilet paper and food..well, thats where gold looks mighty good.

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

Theres a couple schools of thought on the idea of keeping gold (or other precious metals) in your stockpile of supplies and gear. On belief is that since it has no practical use (you cant eat it, shoot it, heal with it, etc) its not worth keeping. The other side of the coin (so to speak) is that gold always has a value and is worth having.

Im of the second camp. Heres why:

Yes, you cant shoot gold, eat gold, heal with gold, burn it for fuel or anything like that. Golds purpose, to me, is twofold. It preserves wealth and it is a universal currency.

The Bad Things that are coming dont happen overnight. Its usually a gradual slide (picking up speed) into chaos. When that happens, a few things almost always happen – credit becomes fairly worthless (cant run your credit card if theres no electricity and if theres a chance your bank no longer exists), checks are utterly worthless, and cash reigns supreme. Now, what if your cash suddenly starts to be worth less and less and inflation starts taking its toll? We've all heard the stories of Germany's hyperinflation…a bottle of wine costs 50 marks in the morning and in the evening the empty bottle was worth 5000 marks. Did the value of the bottle increase? No, the value of the money decreased. So if you get $500 a week and then it starts taking $500 to buy what cost $400 last week, thats your dollar being worth less.

Im very bad at explaining this and I know there are people here who could explain it better than I can.

But really, I see it mostly as a hedge against inflation. If I stick $100 in the safe, in ten years it will only buy, maybe, $85-90 worth of stuff. If I throw $100 worth of gold in the safe, in ten years it will probably buy exactly the same things that it would have bought ten years ago…

Its hard for me to explain, but yes I think gold has a place in anyones preparations but as a long-term strategy. (Although in the short term its great for getting past a roadblock in Checnya, bribing border guards in Mexico, buying antibiotics in Baghdad or C-4 in Idaho) Should you buy as much gold as you can? I dont think so…I think you should first spend money on the things you need to prepare with…land, food, fuel, clothes, meds, ammo, guns, education, etc…then I think you should have ready cash available…and then, when all thats done, I think you should start salting a little bit of gold away. A couple coins every month or so….

Im the first to agree that there are times when, literally, gold will be worthless but thats the whole 'prepared' part of 'preparedness'. If the world turns inot Mad Max, Ive got food and ammo…if it turns into a Soviet-style or ARgentine economy with people on line for toilet paper and food..well, thats where gold looks mighty good.

I return to base the other day and find the girlfriends AR somewhat disassembled and laid out neatlyon the living room table. Hmmm. She bought a Vlt0r carbine stock and had managed to remove the receiver extension and old stock but that was as far as she got. I looked over the gun and figured that she musta been surprised when she pulled the stock off since theres two springs in there that will go into a low earth orbit if youre not careful. The Takedown pin detent spring was still there. Good girl. The buffer retainer pin spring, however, was missing. Makes sense..if you dont know its there, youd unscrew the receiver extension and then -sproing-. Fortunately, I have a spare set of springs for the AR. Retrieved one from the bunker and reassembled it for her and installed her new ‘tactical latch’ for the charging handle.

When she got home I gently reminded her that when takinga apart a gun past the simple takedown stage its a good idea to remove parts slowly in case there were springs involved and that next time she should let me watch and advise her until she learns how a particular gun comes apart. No damage. Had her order up a parts kit from Bushmaster so we’d have some more springs, pins and detents since theyre very easy to lose.

In honor of this experience, I am using the new ‘showing the girlfriend’ icon.

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

I return to base the other day and find the girlfriends AR somewhat disassembled and laid out neatlyon the living room table. Hmmm. She bought a Vlt0r carbine stock and had managed to remove the receiver extension and old stock but that was as far as she got. I looked over the gun and figured that she musta been surprised when she pulled the stock off since theres two springs in there that will go into a low earth orbit if youre not careful. The Takedown pin detent spring was still there. Good girl. The buffer retainer pin spring, however, was missing. Makes sense..if you dont know its there, youd unscrew the receiver extension and then -sproing-. Fortunately, I have a spare set of springs for the AR. Retrieved one from the bunker and reassembled it for her and installed her new 'tactical latch' for the charging handle.

When she got home I gently reminded her that when takinga apart a gun past the simple takedown stage its a good idea to remove parts slowly in case there were springs involved and that next time she should let me watch and advise her until she learns how a particular gun comes apart. No damage. Had her order up a parts kit from Bushmaster so we'd have some more springs, pins and detents since theyre very easy to lose.

In honor of this experience, I am using the new 'showing the girlfriend' icon.

“The first thing we revolutionaries lose is our wives. The last thing we lose is our lives. In between our women and our lives, we lose our freedom, our happiness, our means of living.” – Eden Pastora.
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Its a little odd, but of all the activities and forms of entertainment I could engage in, I find my Commander Zero activities to be the most relaxing.
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I want to point out that lately Ive been comparing various ‘ballistic nylon’ stuff (mag pouches, vests, gear pouches) etc. and noticed that the American-madeTactical Tailor stuff is, usually, the same price or cheaper than the Made-In-Vietnam Blackhawk gear. Obviously each company will have products that the other will not, but on the same (or very, very similar) items it seems TT has the edge. Now, some of you may not care where your stuff is made…and some of you may not care what your stuff costs…and thats perfectly cool. But, I take an interest in these things and figured I’d point it out.
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All is quiet in ZeroLand at the moment. That, of course, means nothing… The price of freedom is..uhm..is..eternal vigilance and a buttload of cash, it seems. I’ve got at least six pages of spreadsheets filled with things to buy and that does not include stuff that I already have and simply want more of (like ammo, food, etc, etc.)
On the other hand, I’ve come into some stupid bargains in gearing up for Ultima Thule:

• There was the time I took a nightwatchman gig for a sporting goods store and asked to be paid in store credit. Then used the credit to buy out their entire closeout inventory of #10 mountain house freezedrieds.
• The guy from WY who wanted to trade bullets for cases of current manufacture military MRE’s
• Those fun parachute flares for $4
• 20mm, 40mm, 60mm and 120mm ammo cans for a few dollars each
• Closeout at CostCo on Baygen flashlights for $20/@
• The leftover kerlix bandage rolls from a very generous VA hospital
• etc. etc.

Point being that if youre patient, shop around and know what youre looking for then getting geared up isnt as expensive as it could be. Of course, there are also goodies and gear that are just going to be spendy no matter how you slice it (real estate, vehicles, gold, etc.)
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Website update with a Product Review of the Streamlight 4AA Propolymer Luxeon, for thos who are interested.