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Boutique or niche items

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Years ago, I had a buddy who thought that, for his needs, the ideal ‘battle rifle’ was a 1941 Johnson. You can go on GunBroker and look up the going rate for a Johnson….I’ll wait.

Kinda makes your eyes water, doesn’t it?

He was adamant that the rifle afforded him all the qualities he wanted in a rifle for the lawless apocalypse he envisioned. And, to be honest, it did. Problem is, he had a rather short-sighted list of qualities he wanted. One of the qualities that he soft-pedaled was affordability and logistics. Break the rear sight on your AR-10 and you can get a new rear sight (or mount a scope) with parts that you can find pretty much in any gun shop. Not so for the Johnson rifle. And affordability-wise, you could get two M1A, three PTR’s, or a couple FALs for what you’d pay for the Johnson.

I was reminded of this today because I took the Ruger Mini-14GB to the range and, unsurprisingly, had problems with the one aftermarket magazine that came with the gun. It didn’t surprise me; my experience with Ruger Mini-14 magazines has been that there are no aftermarket mags that are as reliable except for (in my experience) the old Eagle 35-rd mags that haven’t been made since the last century. In short, unless Magpul cranks out some Mini mags, your only real choice is the expensive factory mags.

Tangent: Tapco, apparently, has evolved a Mini-14 magazine that seems to do a very good job for about half the price of the Ruger factory mag. Might have to try a few.

So, after leaving the range today, I headed over to the local Cabela’s looking for a Ruger factory Mini-14 mag. None. Ok, try Sportsman’s Warehouse. None. And that is, in a nutshell, the problem with niche or ’boutique’ gear: you can’t just find the part or accessory you need as easily as other platforms.

Here’s another example. Years ago Streamlight made a little LED flashlight that I was very impressed with. BUT….it took AAAA batteries. Not AA, not AAA, but AAAA batteries. Good luck finding those in the battery rack at the supermarket.

Sometimes the boutique gear does 100% of what we want whereas the lesser, easily supportable version may only do 85% of what we want. But…when  you cant find a Mini-14 magazine or a set of AAAA batteries, that system is now doing 0% of what you want. I’ll muddle along with 85%.

Does this mean that I’m getting rid of the Mini-14GB? Nope…because the AR’s and AK’s are my ‘grab and run out the door’ guns, and they are a legacy weapons system that has a logistics base that is enormous. The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.)

 

For science!

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Well, I can’t say Im surprised but Joel over at TUAK called it quits on his storage food experiment after a couple days. Yes, I kinda predicted it but you gotta give the man credit for giving it a shot.

The big takeaway from all this is that, like first aid kits, you’re probably better off building your own ’30 day kit’ rather than stocking up on an under-caloried, over-salted, under-flavored, and over-priced packages.

Here’s a website that I really found fascinating: Safely Gathered in: Recipes. The recipes all use foods that store well and are therefore excellent candidates for your pantry.

Sadly, they haven’t updated in a while, but the info there is, in my opinion, highly useful.

Prepology 101: You prepare for bad times during the good times

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Unemployment is a tad under 4%…according to the graphs I was looking at, it’s only been that low twice in the last almost-50 years. What’s that mean? Broadly, if there’s anyone out there who wants a job, there’s one to be had.

Unemployment is down, the markets are doing well, confidence in the economy seems high. This is exactly the time you should be nailing down the acquisition of preparedness items and getting things taken care of.

It’s a lot easier to prepare when you have a good job, the economy is strong, and all seems rosy than it is to prepare when the market is tanking, you’ve been unemployed for two months, and you’re down to your last twenty bucks. Sure, that bonus you’re going to collect in two weeks will buy you that jet ski or 60″HDTV… but when we hit the other side of this moment of prosperity (which we always do) you’re gonna wish you’d used that bonus to pay down your debt, put away food, fund your HSA, or just tucked away in the bank. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy the current situation, just that you might want to use it to your advantage for later down the line.

So, just a reminder: this is the ‘fat’ season that you should take advantage of to put away for the ‘lean’ times. Could be guns, could be food, could be gold, could be cash in savings, could be paying off the house, could be getting those nagging dental issues fixed, could be paying off the truck……but now is the time to get ready for what may be coming next.

Still one of my favorite prints. An artistic representation of the Ant & Grasshopper fable. The grasshopper, the girl with the mandolin who spent all summer playing music and not working, faces the harsh winter and must beg to the ant, the industrious woman with the well-fed household, for help. Note the looks on the two women’s faces…the scorn, the humility.

Remaining mags

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I have four packages of the 14-for-$100 Butler Creek Hot Lips .22 mags sitting here if anyone wants to take ’em off my hands. Already got rid of all the Steel Lips, I’d like to wrap up the Hot Lips and move on.

Adventures in food storage

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You guys remember a few months back I posted about a guy who was crackin’ open some decades-old Mountain House and having himself a little taste test experience? Well, he’s at it again.

He’s got himself one of those buckets that claims to have X amount of days worth of food in it. Read it at his place…….

I’ve been ‘into’ food storage for twenty five years….and I’ve done tons of research on the subject, bought and tried all sortsa food, and created darn near Montana’s largest privately owned Safeway in my basement…..so I feel fairly qualified to say that this will end badly.

Here’s the thing: these types of kits are usually calorie-deficient, somewhat monotonous, and often not terribly appetizing. It is (in my opinion) a panacea to people who want to be prepared but don’t want to have a lifestyle – theyre for someone who just wants to make a quick online purchase, stuff it in the garage, and feel like they’re ready for the crash.

A guy I know was just telling me that he was thinking about purchasing such a kit ‘just in case’. I’m trying to steer him towards a more practical, albeit more expensive, route using regular off-the-shelf stuff from the supermarket.

You know who has this figured out? The Mormons. (No surprise, right?) These guys literally have graduate-level research labs working on just this sort of thing. And having done the research, they actually package and make available these storage-suitable foods. Go read their list of what you can get from them.  And they sell it cheap enough that even the most niggardly ‘poverty prepper’ can afford it.

I have a lot of freeze dried Mountain House here for my future needs. But it’s not my primary ‘go-to’ food in a crisis. What is? My stash of ‘everyday’ food. The pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, spices, cooking oil, canned and frozen meat, flour, cornmeal, canned and jarred vegetables, oatmeal, hash browns, etc. that I have in large quantity. All things I use everyday and all  things that store well.

But, to be fair, a ‘bucket’ as mentioned at the opening of this post, makes it’s strength on the portability and convenience. In theory, you can run out the door with it and know you’re not gonna starve for a month. Perhaps. I’ve taken it a step further and just put together my own ‘bucket’ for those moments when you need to run out the door…specifically, a couple 15-gallon ‘blue barrels’ loaded with freeze drieds.

Reviewing what I have in storage, post-apocalyptic meal planning would look something like this: pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuits, pork chops, strawberries, orange drink, milk, and oatmeal. And thats just breakfast. Lunch and dinner would be equally as broad, equally as long-term, and equally as tasty.

Just write a list of everything you’ve eaten in the last week and figure out if you could recreate it using foods that store well in the long-term. Then go buy those foods. Then when the wheels fly off civilization you’ll be eating pretty much just as well as you were beforehand. Heck, considering the erratic and horrible diet I live on now, I’ll actually eat better after the apocalypse.

My long winded point, though, is this – before you get lured into these sorts of ‘bucket kits’ do some research on calories, taste, and texture, and then see if you can’t put together something on your own. When the apocalypse hits, I have no intention of eating 3/4 of a cup of cheesey broccoli soup every lunchtime for thirty days. Given the stress and physical strain that the end of the world will put you under, I think you’re going to want more ‘stick to your ribs’ fare.

Conclusion: ‘Food buckets’, like first-aid kits, are better for your needs when you assemble your own.

 

Paratus 2018 is here!

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Happy Paratus, fellow survivalists/preppers/doomsters/bunkerdwellers/anti-government extremists/etc!

Go do something awesomely preparedness-related today. Go buy those mags you’ve been wanting, order up those solar panels, purchase that ICOM radio, get that Burt Gummer tattoo you’ve been wanting….today’s the day you don’t need to justify to anyone why you’re doing what you’re doing. (And that’s actually a trick statement….you should never feel the need to justify all that ammo and freeze drieds to anyone.)

My plans? Head to the range and put some ammo through my Low Impulse Control Mini-14GB to make sure the dumb thing works. After that it’s some time at the reloading bench. Then, a little bookkeeping to see if todays the day I pull the trigger (ahem) on the .338 Lapua that I’ve been lusting for these last couple years.

So…get out there! Get together with your fellow LMI and have a Lenny James marathon of ‘Jericho’ and ‘Walking Dead’, go to the range, order pizza and sit around planning your future off grid bugout locations. And let’s hear about what you did today in the name of preparedness.

But..whatever you do today, make it prep-y!

This post brought to you by The Committee To Advance The Paratus holiday.

ETA: A couple folks dropped some folding money in the tip jar as an act of Paratusian generosity. Much obliged!

My lightweight 30-30

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I was so pleased with the you-cant-kill-it shotgun stock I got from Choate a few weeks back that I ordered four more to dress out a couple current and future boomsticks.

And while we’re on the subject of Choate, I picked up another of the somewhat-difficult-to-find pistol grip stock and forend combos they made. It’s my understanding that Choate didnt plan to make these, they were kind of a slight modification to some M1 Carbine stocks they were running off. (Or some similar story like that…I’ve no doubt I’ll get an email setting me straight on that.)

Anyway…..

I have a 21″ 30-30 barrel for the T/C Contender. For my needs, the .30-30 is a pretty good hunting cartridge in this part of Montana. I rarely shoot more than a hundred yards, and what I was really after was light weight and durability. So..when I found this stock and fitted it out on my .30-30 it was love at first heft.

I should throw it on a scale and see what it weighs.

Hmm. I always figured it was about five pounds. Turns out I’m off by half an ounce. Eh, I’d say with one in the chamber it would be an even five pounds. You gotta admit, five pounds for a rifle in a somewhat-respectable caliber is pretty freaking handy. This thing packs around in the woods like it weighs nothing.

With a shorter barrel, like a 16″, I could see this thing easily remaining below 5#…. maybe even the 4.5# range.

I’ve carried this thing around in the woods for a number of hunting seasons and absolutely love the light weight. Range is a bit limited since I’m sticking to open sights in order to save weight, but it’s easily a hundred-yard gun. I need to swap out that rear sight for a nice peep sight. (hey, there’s your Paratus gift giving idea right there!) Since it’s a single shot gun, I can load any pointed bullet I want in it since flat-nosed bullets in the .30-30 are only there to prevent magazine tube problems.

Anyway, I came across one of the stock sets at the gun show and felt like it needed to return to the house with me. I already have the .30-30 barrel but what I’d really like, and is dang difficult to find, is a carbine length .357 Magnum barrel. That’d be a fun little gun to play with, although a.357 Max might be even more interesting.

Still not learning

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Well, nuts….another gun show where I had the best of intentions and still managed to return to the house with something that made absolutely no sense to purchase….

The fine print:

A little something from the Slick Willy legacy… a ‘restricted’ marking, denoting that this particular boomstick was only to be possessed by Only Ones. Someone at the Mohave Sherriff’s Office is missing a Mini-14GB.

Back in the old days of survivalism, if you wanted a .223 semi-auto rifle your choice was limited to either an AR or a Mini-14. (Yes, you could get an HK93 or an AR-180…..maybe a Valmet …or some other equally obscure gun, but broadly your choices were just between the AR and the Mini.) The Mini-14 was about as accurate as your average AK, but also about as reliable as your average AK. And it was a bit cheaper than the Colt (which was virtually the only outfit making AR’s back then).

The GB models were targeted (so to speak) at law enforcement and, amsuingly, military markets. (Yes, some tiny jerkwater nations did issue the Mini as their primary long arm.) When Bill Ruger decided to start throwing people out of the lifeboat, he yanked the GB models and the ‘high capacity’ mags from the public marketplace. Fortunately, Bill Ruger has left the biological stage of existence and the company has largely undone the damage he wrought and has come out with many awesome products since.

Anyway, the GB was not on my shopping list and I genuinely have no use for it…but it’s kind of a novelty with the police markings and the ‘Restricted’ stamps. And the price was right. I have no idea what I’m going to do with it. I suppose in for a penny, in for a pound….I may as well hunt down a GB folder to put on there and go full A-Team with it. Or I may just pick up a half dozen mags, stick it in a soft case, and use it as a tertiary level ‘just in case’ carbine to store somewhere. Or I may sell it to the first person I can make a hundred bucks off of. Who knows. But, it will definitely go out to the range for a spin.