You guys know that saying about how when it comes to war, the amateurs talk strategy/tactics but the pros talk logistics? I think when it comes to preparedness the amateurs talk guns, the pros talk logistics. And, yes, this is new nothing new….I’ve said it before. But, the fact I’ve said it before doesn’t detract from it being true (IMHO).

In the last 365 days I can count the number of times I needed a gun, body armour, and night vision on one hand. However, on virtually every one of those 365 days I had needed food, water, clothes, shoes, toilet paper, etc. So, when apportioning money for resources, where does the lion’s share go? Yup, to the unsexy things like paper towels, socks, canned goods, toothpaste, and that sort of thing.

There is no doubt in my mind at all that there is definitely going to be a time when an M4, ceramic plates, hands-free commo, and a buncha webgear is going to be exactly what the moment calls for. But, that’s one time out 100…the other 99 times out of 100 I’ll be needing/using all the unsexy preparedness stuff.

I was reminded of it yesterday as I was going over my budget for the month. I got hungry and it was time to make dinner. Felt like some chicken and rice would be just the ticket. Reach deep into the freezer and find this:

Yup…five year old chicken. Been sitting in the freezer quietly for the last five years. Is it good? Yup…cooked up and went down just fine. But because of foresight five years ago, it was there for me last night when I was hungry. And there’s also a couple cases of 7.62×39 sitting next to the freezer, because that same foresight says that someday I’ll need that too. But which one usually winds up getting used soonest? The unsexy stuff.

Being something of a Ballistic-American (aka “gun nut”) I loves me some thundertoys. And preparedness is definitely one of those interests where you get to justify to yourself (if you are the type that needs to do that sort of thing) your purchases of guns and ammo. But its ‘preparedness’, not ‘warfighting’….and preparedness encompasses a lot more than guns. Thats why we have “guns and…” Guns and…toilet paper. Guns and …canned food. Guns and…extra clothing. Guns and…Ham radios. you get the idea.

But, what’s the first thing people jump at doing when they decide it’s time to ‘get serious’ about preparedness? In my experience, nine times outta ten it means the go buy some guns and ammo. Which is fine, but the apocalypse (no matter what flavor of it you expect) is going to be so much more than guns and ammo. The AR and M855 are just one instrument in the orchestra that plays the preparedness symphony.

Unfortunately, the sexy stuff like guns, ammo, armour, smoke grenades, night vision, etc, etc, are subject to more scrutiny than, say, a case of Spam and a bucket of rice. There is always the real possibility that you could wake up tomorrow and find that, on a local/state/national level your access to ownership of those things is cutoff or severely curtailed (looking at you California!)…the same risk to, say, freeze dried food, buckets of rice, AA-batteries, quality boots, and neosporin is virtually nil.

This is why, for me, I’m “heavy” on guns and ammo. I want a lifetime supply but I don’t have the luxury of a lifetime to collect it. Since tomorrow could possibly the last day I have to acquire a ‘black rifle’ and ‘hi cap’ magazine’, I would like to have as many as I can in place just in case some sort of regulatory shenanigans takes place. Succinctly, I’m virtually 100% positive I won’t be prohibited from buying canned tomatoes and paper towels a year from now, I cannot be so certain on the gun stuff.

And, yes, tomorrow could also be the last day I have to acquire canned bacon and frozen pizza as well. But, historically, the threat/risk to one has been greater than the other.

My personal flavor of apocalypse is economic. It could be a worldwide depression that throws us into a Third World life of living like Venezuelans, or it could be me breaking a leg and not being able to work for two months…but, in my world, thats the most likely apocalypse I see coming. And in that case, I’ll probably get far more mileage out of my blue barrels of rice and my #10 cans of freeze dried pork chops than I will out my HK91 and Lake City ball.

So, I would never discourage anyone from buying guns and ammo, but I do suggest tempering the buying spree with a little prudence and logic about how much of a percentage of your budget should be spent on things you shoot versus things you eat or use every day. It’s the unsexy and unfun part of preparedness but it is probably the most important part.

(Which reminds me, finish off your ‘hicap’ AR mag needs in one fell swoop.)

Pmags – $10 ea. – Have about 80 left.
————————————————-

I see that another episode of ‘Sudden Jihad Syndrome’ spontaneously occurred in the decidedly diverse city of London over the weekend. Weapons of choice? Vehicles and edged pointy things. The police, when they finally got a handle on it, did the logical thing and killed the “knifemen”. (That’s the Brit term for a knife-wielding maniac….”knifeman”. I suppose if he’d beaten them to death with his bare hands he’d be a “Fistman”…which very much sounds like something you really don’t want to do a Google search for when “Safe Search” is turned off.)

Knives are interesting business…it is, generally, thought of as a close contact weapon (as opposed to a ranged weapon like, say, a crossbow or a Glock 40) but even a gun-toter can be bested by a guy with a knife at a distance IF the gunman is even slightly off guard. Mythbusters did a fascinating experiment where they gave one guy an airsoft, one guy a knife, stood them apart at various distances, and on the buzzer the knife guy charges the gun guy while gun guy tries to draw and shoot before he gets stabbed. Result? If someone has a knife and is within several yards of you, you’re in big trouble unless you already have gun in hand and are aware of the situation. See for yourself.

Now, a huge caveat here is that, for whatever reason, Adam is doing the so-called “Israeli carry” * of carrying his pistol in Condition Three… and empty chamber, hammer down. These guys aren’t gun guys, and they’re in California, so they probably aren’t used to the notion of carrying a gun for self-protection. But..the data is still extremely useful.

Here’s one very determined guy with a knife putting the hurt on several armed police officers who, I’m guessing, didn’t immediately shoot him because “he only had a knife”.

And, that “he only had a knife” statement comes up from time to time in this country when a cop shoots some guy with knife. Disparity of force? Absolutely. But, as we’ve seen, a man six yards away with a knife is virtually as dangerous as a man with a gun. Shooting him when he starts advancing on you from that distance may look bad or excessive to the uneducated, but in reality it’s the only thing keeping the gun user from becoming something that looks like an elephant’s tampon.

Living here in the somewhat quiet environment of Montana, I don’t worry too much about Sudden Jihad  Syndrome. But if it does happen, the odds are much higher that the aggressor will encounter much stiffer (and possibly louder) resistance than a bunch of unarmed Britons who have been culturally beaten into believing that physical resistance trying to kill you who look different from you is ‘intolerant’.

:::Shrug::: It’s a dangerous world out there. That’s why we have hollowpoints.

* = I take issue with the article about Condition Three carry. In particular:

Let us assume that racking the slide adds a half second to your total presentation time (which is pretty slow, by the way). And let us assume that you can draw and fire at the 2 second mark. If the attack comes before you can draw and fire (2 seconds) having the chamber loaded or not doesn’t matter, as you don’t have time to draw and fire at all. If the attack comes after a 2.5 second time frame having the chamber loaded or not doesn’t matter, as you have time to chamber a round. Only if the attack happens in that critical time frame after 2 seconds but before 2.5 seconds does the chamber condition matter.

But at that point you are now in a bear hug with a guy trying to kill you with a knife. You’ve, presumably got one hand trying to keep him from shanking you, and your other hand is holding an unchambered pistol. You’ll rack the pistol with your..what?..third hand? If the round was already chambered you’d connect the muzzle to the medulla and let terminal ballistics handle the rest. So, yes, chamber condition matters.

Twenty bucks gets me 4# of 85/15, a nice flank steak, and a couple party packs of steaks. It’s all about being unafraid to say to the guy behind the meat counter “Hey, you wanna mark down some steaks for me?”. Already marked to 30% but if they don’t sell it by the end of today it’s a loss. So….half a loaf is better than none, as far as theyre concerned. As for me, it’s bargains like these that are keeping me from becoming a vegetarian.

————————
Want some Pmags?
————————-

Weather is turning into summer out here. 85 degrees during the day and about 55-60 at night. I’m hoping to get out this weekend and try the DMR-build AR. We shall see. More than enything else, though, I’m gonna be standing in front of the grill with some tongs, a Coke, and a buncha dead cow happily sizzling away.

My vendor dropped a bunch(!) of Gen2 Black Magpul AR Pmags on me the other day. I’m dumping most of them into the “Next Election This Becomes My Retirement Fund” stash. However, I still have couple hundred left over. If anyone wants, they’re $10 ea. Minimum order is 10. Shipping is $12.40 Priority Mail flat rate for as many as you want over ten.

Want 10? 10x$10 + $12.40. Want 15? $10×15 + $12.40? Want 37? 37x$10 + $12.40

You get the idea. Obviously the more you get, the less the per unit cost becomes as you spread the shipping over the quantity of mags.

Anyway, email me and lemme know. It”ll work just like the 10/22 mag deal.

A lousy week made worse by my long-suffering Galaxy4 deciding to go tango uniform on me. The annoying part, other than the expense, is that I lost a bunch of archived text messages I was saving for sentimental reasons. And some really good porn. And here’s something that really annoyed me – the new phone is X dollars. But they add it to your phone bill over 24 months. I asked how much if I just wanna pay for the stupid thing right now? Then its 1.25X. In other words, if you wanna pay cash right there and buy the phone it is more expensive that letting them break it up over 24 months. Seriously? So I let them do it over 24 months but after six months of payments I can pay the stupid thing off in total at the lower price. Im just lucky they didn’t send the phone cops.

———————

I ordered this up from an outfit called 0241Tactical. I’d been wanting a smock/anorak type of pullover in ATC-FG for a while and a review said that it seemed like a good piece of kit. Ordered it up on the 22nd of last month and am still patiently waiting.

Also ordered up a pair of simple, plainjane A2 AR stocks for a DMR project gun I’ve been tinkering with. Stag, whom I normally enjoy doing business with, has taken bloody near three weeks just to ship the damn things. Annoying.

All in all, a grumpy week.

On the other hand, our reporter-beating Republican candidate got elected, the weather is freaking gorgeous, and I started a new job this week. So..there’s that.

Still, I’m not ready to turn in my Cranky Old Man membership card just yet.

Just wrapped up in a few things…regularly scheduled brain droppings will occur over the weekend.

And, yes, our political race locally got interesting when the Republican candidate roughed up a reporter who let himself into a private meeting, pushed people aside, and confronted the candidate who, given the circumstances, did the reasonable thing.

Yes, I have the inside track. Yes, I know people in the candidates campaign.

Five bundles of 10/22 mags left.
———————————

A D.C.-based appeals court struck down a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule on Friday requiring recreational drone users to register their model aircraft with the federal government, in a major win for drone hobbyists.

Any time the .gov is told it can’t force you to register something with them…well…I do my happy dance.

Drones have an amazing potential for misuse. But I am more concerned about government overreach than I am about someone strapping a pound of tovex to a drone and flying into city hall.

I’ve never played with drones, but I think that they also have some amazingly useful potential. Regardless, I’m gratified that .gov was smalcked down in this case.

10/22 Butler Creek mags, $110 f a dozen, inc. shipping.
—————————————————-
Minding my own business and grabbing a Krispy Kreme before my computer modelling final. In front of me is a guy with a small daypack-type backpack. The pack is ‘coyote’ (or what we used to call brown) and he has his jacket rolled up and secured to the bottom of the bag with two straps. Now, see, this is unusual because I’ve noticed most people don’t do that..they just ball up their fleece and shove it in the bag or through a strap. Interesting. So I look closer. He’s wearing solid hiking-type boots, those hiking pants that are lightweight and zipoff at the knees (subdued color), a heavy leather belt that is absolutely a gunbelt, and a similarly ‘tactical’ 5.11 type shirt. On the straps of his pack are some small pouches and I can see a folding knife and a multitool. Hmm. Add it all up and you get someone who knows their gear and the gunbelt says they might be on the same page as me.

He’s talking to the clerk at the counter and he mentions that he’s a math teacher. There’s my in.

“You’re teaching math at the University?”
“Yeah, summer session.”
“Ah, I  have to take statistics this summer. Are you teaching it?”
“No, but I know the guy who is…”

And we go on to have some friendly banter. I decide to test my theory. “Yeah, summer school sucks. I was hoping to get to spend some time this summer catching up on my pistol shooting.”
“Yeah, me too. I just did my first three-gun match last week.”

Aha!

So we chatted some more for a while, and I’m now about 80% sure this guy is on the same page as me. I’ll have to see if I wind up taking any courses that he’s teaching. Could be useful.

But…that’s how you meet like-minded individuals. You encounter them organically. It just happens. Sure, he could have just been some guy back from the sandbox who likes gear, or he could just be a guy who works at Cabela’s and gets a deal on clothing, but if it dresses like a survivalist, has the gear collection of a survivalist, and has the EDC of a survivalist…well…you know the rest.