Anyone know where Ticom/Sparks31 is hanging his online hat these days? I have several URL’s for his various blogs and they’re all coming up empty.
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Gun show
Hamilton gun show this weekend.
Came >this< close to picking up an Arsenal SLR-95 for……$650. In fact, I’m kinda tempted to go back and get it. But, no, instead I consoled myself with picking some magnificent Hensley & Gibbs bullet moulds (four- and six-cavity) for the .38, .44, and .45 Keith bullets. Oy, the quality….oy, the craftsmanship….oy, the wieght! But, seriously, wonderful moulds.
Went looking for a holster for the Ruger 5058 and brought it with so I could try on holsters. I had at least three people ask me what the gun was, marvel at how it was ‘perfect’ with it’s round butt and full underlug, and did I want to sell it. Uhm..no…finding it was kind of a bigfoot-riding-a-unicorn event to begin with, so I’m not terribly likely to sell it.
Also picked up some reloading dies and that was about it. AR’s were well represented at the show, but the AK selection was a little thin. Found an M1 Garand for $750 which is the cheapest I’ve seen one in probably ten years but while they are a fun gun to shoot I think they are stupidly impractical for my needs when there are 20-rd detachable mag .308 rifles all over the place. “But..but…walnut! Steel! Iwo Jima!” Yeah, so what? You dont think every one of those guys in WW2 would have pitched their 8-shot, ten pound Garands into the ocean to get a gun that was about a pound lighter, held 2.5x the ammo, had better ergonomics, and could mount an optic?
Most interesting thing at the gun show? I ran into the folks from Blue Line Coatings and said hello. They were talking to some people and mentioned “Oh, this is the guy who had that HiPower we told you about”. I had the Watergun with me so I let them hold onto it to show people while I walked the floor. Again, if youre in the region and want some coatings on your gun, give ’em a holler.
Only other gun I saw that tempted me was a Ruger Scout rifle that had been coated to ‘coyote’ and had its Scout rail replaced with a full length rail from XS. Was really tempted to pick that thing up. But….I’ll instead just order the rail for my current Scout.
And that was about it. Gun show, fun show.
MH pulls the blinds and turns off the porch light.
Just for giggles, I headed over to Mountain House’s dealer website to see if there were any noticeable changes.
You might say that………
I like MH for their product, and I’ve never had problems with an order, but their customer relationship model would give HK (or Colt, for that matter) a run for it’s money. Not “We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We are working hard to get caught up and provide you with product. Thanks for your understanding.” Nope. That would be too…smart. Instead, we get “We’re busy. Go away.”
I have seen them do this before.
But…it shouldn’t matter to you because you’ve stocked up at one of the several group buys I’ve orchestrated in the past, right? Right???
The biggest change to your and my life over the ChinaFlu will not be the flu itself. It will be the millions of minor changes in lifestyle, routine, procedure, and practice that concern over the ChinaFlu will cause. In other words, our suffering won’t come from being eaten by the bear, our suffering will come from the worrying and defending against the bear.
9mm Korean Glock mags
If you travel the gunternet you will, eventually, come across the Korean-made Glock magazines. They are variously called KCI, Kang, and a few other names. The story I heard was that Glock made a sweet deal to the Korean military for a contract and figured they’d make it up on the magazines. The Koreans, as I hear it, surprised them by buying the guns at the promotional price and then said “We’ll take care of the magazines ourselves, thanks for the deal on the guns though.”
True? Probably not. But, it seems plausible enough.
Anyway, for the last decade we’ve seen Korean mags coming in to the US in standard configurations and as happysticks and drums. I went and bought a bucket of .40 mags when they first came in and was severely disappointed. So much so, in fact, that I returned them to the vendor. However, at some point I came into a large (ahem) quantity of the 9mm mags. I stuck them away in an ammo can figuring I’d wait for the next mag ban and unload them then since I had no intention of using them. 
Fast forward a few years and I came into the Ruger 9mm carbine that takes Glock mags. I decided that I really didn’t want to shuffle my existing stash of ‘ready’ mags around so I pulled a couple of the Korean mags out of storage to use with the Ruger. To my surprise…they worked fine. The feed issues I had in .40? Not there. The swollen magazine body sticking int he mag well? Not there. Thinking it might have been the gun, I also tried the Korean mags in my G17 and…worked fine.
I’m not going to say they are something I’d ‘go to war’ with, but as range magazines it looks like they might be a good choice. Although, at this point, they sell (dealer cost) only a buck or two away from a Magpul Glock mag. And I’d rather have the Magpul mag over the Korean mag, and I’d rather have a factory Glock mag over either. But…it looks like the Korean 9mm mags of normal capacity seem to be an okay purchase.
LDS cannery trip
Trip to the LDS cannery today. Not that I really needed anything, mind you, but rather to introduce someone to the place. As usual it was a pleasant experience although this time the guy running the place was polite but once he found out I was not one of the flock there was a noticeable-but-not-offensive coolness that presented itself. And…that’s fine. The Mormon church ain’t in business to gear up slobs like me, they spend that money to protect their own…and that’s as it should be. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve caught a whiff of…disdain?…distaste?…for me when they ask me what ward I am from and I tell them, sorry, I’m not a member. (Which I always say politely, almost apologetically, and never mention that I’m about as unbeliever as you can get…atheist-ish and all that, y’know.)
But, to get #10 cans of foodstuffs at cost I will happily put up with a barely discernible smidgen of condescension. And, as I said, out of a couple dozen trips to that place this is the first time I’ve ever had someone generate a negative vibe about me not being part of their tribe.
Anyway……
I expected it to be busier up there, what with all of us destined to come down with the ChinaFlu, but it was quiet and virtually deserted. I suppose the faithful already have their stockpile and the infidels like me are, mostly, oblivious that the place even exists.
Still, I always like going up there because every single person in that building thinks as I do about the benefits of being prepared and it’s always nice to be around people who don’t think you’re weird.
So, believer or unwashed heathen infidel, if you’re looking to stock up on the basics, your local LDS cannery is pretty much a perfect resource to take advantage of. Yes, you can go there as a non-member….no, you don’t need to go with a member…no, they don’t try to convert you. Really, no reason not to take advantage of the opportunity.
Walking Dead observations
Ok, so the Walking Dead is now about…mmmm….seven years into the zombie apocalypse and it’s starting to look more and more like an SM Stirling novel. Ammo is virtually non-existent and edged weapons and arrows are the order of the day. Okay, fine. Here’s my question…they have a somewhat-genius in the form of Eugene, who has shown the ability to engineer and science his way out of some pretty tough situations. So, while expecting him to make nitrocellulose-based powders and percussion primers might be a little out of his league, surely he can make black powder and cobble together a flintlock rifle. Right? And even something as simple as a matchlock proves to be beyond his capabilities you’d think black powder for simple explosive devices would be within his capabilities. So…what gives, Eugene?
And, yeah, I binge watched to try and get caught up. Although if I do have to carry around some sort of headchopper in the zombie apocalypse, I’ll probably go with something like this from the local boys down the street at ZombieTools.
Convenience stores
Like every smart survivalist, I try to keep a fairly good amount (and selection) of short- to mid-term foods on hand. Mostly stuff that I normally use and therefore can rotate through within a period of time of less than a year or so. Things like salsa, spaghetti sauce, pasta, canned meats, canned vegetables, etc, etc. I was doing an inventory and thought that I needed to round off a few things and beef up the amount of others. Since it was going to be a goodly amount of stuff, I figured I’d really nerd out and price compare my usual local grocery suppliers on their websites. As it turns out, unsurprisingly, Walmart wound up being the most economic supplier for about 85% of the things I was looking for. Okay, fine..now I know where to shop. And as I was on Walmarts doing this, I noticed that I had the option to simply order the stuff up, pay online, and simply roll up to the store the next day and have everything all boxed up and ready to go. Hmm. Okay, let’s try that.
And..it worked out quite well. I simply dumped the email confirmation that Walmart sent into Excel, took thirty seconds to clean it up, and then had a nice record of quantities and price-per-ounce breakdowns for comparison shopping later. And, when I went to pick up the stuff, it really was all of about four minutes to pick it up and stuff it in the back of the vehicle.
Say what you will about Wallyworld, they do take a bunch of the friction out of stocking up.
I’d been a bit remiss in updating the food stash lately…being able to just flop into a chair and add a case of crushed tomatoes, a dozen jars of salsa, a half dozen bottles of Tabasco, etc, into one list, pay for it, and then schedule a pickup the next day….thats some living in future right there, boyo.
Read into it what you will
Im a cheap bastard..I have to be. Today, I’m going through my grocery list and comparing prices at Albertson’s, CostCo, and WalMart. (Yeah, I’m a math nerd when it comes to money.) On my list? Canned tomatoes. Didn’t see them on the CostCo website and on the Walmart website all the ‘store brand’ canned tomatoes (and a surprising amount of other vegetables) are out of stock.
Hmmmmm……….
Article – California couple who vanished for nearly a week found alive
You know, stereotypes are not always accurate…but…they save time and the exist for a reason. Part of me wants to say that this is a case of ‘academics’ who know their way around a college campus but have a total disconnect from the real world and it’s real world consequences.
If you’re going to go for a ‘walk in the woods’, take a moment and think about how in the span of an eyeblink you can get a broken ankle, weather change, crazed transient, medical emergency, or other sudden unexpected event that turns your walk in the woods into a scene from The Revenant. The stuff that would make a huge difference in these situations fits in a tiny daypack and between your ears.
Link – Post-apocalyptic book list
I posted this years ago and figured it was worth reposting.
Have at it: Post-Apocalyptic Book List
Also covers movie/TV , which is kinda nice.