Category Archives: Uncategorized

Pontification

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One constant about this interest of ours…

There will always, always, always be someone better prepared and worse prepared than you.

I’m not a slouch in the preparedness department, but I know firsthand several people who are far more prepared than I. While I don’t think anyone ever feels they are prepared as much as they like, I think there are points when we feel we are prepared enough.

Some folks prepare for World War III (or IV, if you prefer), others for that whole ‘Tribulation’ nonsense, others against natural disasters and still more people prepare against some sort of Bird-flu-infected-asteroid-crashing-into-a-nuclear-plant-awakening-Godzilla-who-summons-aliens-etc. Certainly the amount of preparation for one scenario may or may not be enough for the other. However, if youre pretty confident that the event youre preparing for is, say, a hurricane, then it seems a little silly to get upset because you feel youre not, and never will be, as prepared as the guy stockpiling against a Chinese invasion.

I am the first guy to admit that you are far more likely to be inconvenienced by a hurricane or earthquake than you are by North Korea dropping the bomb on your state. Part of preparedness is evaluating the risks and threats to your safety and planning accordingly; the likely risks are given higher priority over the less likely.Some risks are so unlikely we either ignore them entirely or prepare for them as an ‘extra credit assignment’ when we have a few extra bucks or are feeling particularly cautious.

Preparedness (generally) is not about relativity. Your level of preparedness isn’t determined by comparing yourself to other people. Your level of preparedness is determined by comparing your present to your past.

I don’t make fun of the guys who stockpile seven years of food against some biblical period of hardship. Why? Because when something more likely, such as a flood, earthquake or depression occurs those people will still be prepared to deal with it. So, more power to ‘em. I also don’t make fun of guys whose levels of preparation are small or less than my own. Why? Because at least they are doing something and taking responsibility for their safety. The ones I make fun of are the folks who don’t prepare at all or who make fun of those who do prepare.

In a nutshell: its not a competition and it isn’t some sort of clique where if you don’t have five M4geries and a 500 gallon fuel tank in your basement youre some kind of wimp and not one of The Cool Crowd.. The only person you need to compare yourself to in terms of preparedness is the person you were a week, a month, a year ago.

Glock armorer = girlfriend

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The girlfriend has returned from her Glock armorers course with abuncha swag, a very nice book, some misc. accessories and a certificate of,well, certification, I guess.

She did learn one thing that surprised even me – how to tell the difference between pre-ban (pre-1994) and post ban (after 2004) magazines. This is important because many places still have this evil ban in effect and it would be very tempting to take recently made mags, which lack the ‘law enforcement only’ markings and claim they are from before the ban. Well, here’s the deal, as related to me by the girlfriend –

Pre-ban mags had the caliber marking stamped on the back of the mag between the top of the witness holes and the ‘U’ shaped cut out at the top of the mag
During-ban mags had the caliber markings moved up higher to accomodate the ‘LEO/mil’ warning that was stamped on themag
Post-ban mags keep the caliber marking in the same location but it is no longer centered between the witness holes and the top of the mag. Basically, its in the same location as it was during the ban but the warning text was removed, leaving a larger space under the caliber.

If your mag has no caliber markings it is an ancient magazine that was from when Glocks only came in one flavor, and is definitely pre-ban (and isnt drop-freee either).

So before you buy a stack of recently mafe Glock mags figuring the cops won’t know the difference…..(Well, most probably won’t and have better things to do than go after people for these types of things. But some dont and will be happy to cause you grief.)

Lotsa interesting stuff was taught, it seems.

CZ .308 goal achieved

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Took the CZ out for a spin the other day. I’ve become way too dependent on sandbags. Since we had no bags, I just shot off the bipod and rested my elbow and the riffles buttstock on my backpack. My groups at 100 yards were about 1″-1.25″. Craptacular. And, highly embarassing since I was at the range with a buddy of mine..an accomplished 1,000-yard shooter. “I know I can shoot better than this!”, I kept saying defensively. Down to my last five rounds I took a deep breath and stopped taking so long to make each shot. Concentrated, tried not to overthink things and boom,boom,boom,boom,boom. Buddy went downrange to retrieve target while I packed up our gear. Good thing he retrieved the target and not me, that way he’s a perfect witness that I didnt just run down there and poke the holes in the thing myself.

All five shots touching forming a ragged hole. And, this is the big one kids!, I can just cover the entire five-shot group with a quarter.Pictures later to be posted in the guns community.

Details? The usual load of Varget, in Lapua cases (neck sized) with a CCI BR primer and Hornady AMax 168 gr.

Dude! Covered. With. A. Quarter.

And thats with a basic 3×9 scope too! A bit more magnification and it will be teh aW3s0m3.

Gun Show

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The girlfriend is now into me for twnetyfive bucks to replace the shotgun slugs she took to her competition today. I hit the Hamilton gun show and found some lovely 50-round boxes (5×10) of Federal Tactical slugs (thats #LE127 RS for you folks keeping track…HydraShock-y goodness!)

Also picked up a brand new , never-been-used set of Dillon .308 carbide reloading dies for $50. Just the thing now that I have the Super1050 sitting on the bench. Time to feed the FAL.

And finally picked up a few ‘raindrop camo’ surplkus Russian-type AK mag pouches.

Things I saw that I wanted:
A couple thumbhole stock Arsenal AK’s for $500
South African battlepack .308
A couple nice HiPowers

Im lucky I escaped with spending only $87

AN/TRC-3A

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Happiness.

I picked up a cheap old Radio Shack scanner today for about $30. The reason I needed one was that my AN/TRC-3A seismic intrusion detectors (the wireless ones…I have both kinds – wired and wireless) didnt come with the receiver for the frequency they operate on.

The scanner, however, picks up that freq. juuuuuuuuuust fine. So, I threw some 9v batteries in my ‘#4’ unit and set it on the floor, turned up the sensitivitiy, walked into the kitchen, turned on the scanner and tapped my foot on the floor a few times.. beepbeepbeepbeep. Ah….four beeps, indicating that something has tripped sensor #4.

Setting it up in the yard and adjusting the sensitivity it would go off whenever a vehicle went by on the road about 20 yards away.

Handy devices.

What do I need them for? Well, for one thing, theyre darn handy if youre going camping or hiking and want to know if anyones mucking with your stuff while youre away. I’m sure you can figure out the other useful applications.

Where do you get such fine defensive technology? Why, eBay, of course!

Article – Natural selection in action

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Theres always the question of what do you do about the unprepared during a crisis. Do you take upon yourself the expense of ‘extra’ preparations for those ‘poor unfortunates’? Read this article and see if you come to the same conclusion I did: they had their chance, theyre idiots, they deserve what they get.

As Hurricane Season Looms, States Aim to Scare



“The big shortfall is complacency with the community,” said RandallWebster, director of Horry County Emergency Management. “Our main theme is, take interest as an individual and make preparations.”
…..

In Nags Head, N.C., Jimmy Austin, a former commercial fisherman whonow operates his own seafood market, said he was unfazed by this year’spredictions, some of which suggest that the Carolinas will beespecially hard hit. He keeps his insurance current, Mr. Austin said,but sees no need for special precautions.

“I don’t pay these things a whole lot of mind,” said Mr. Austin, 69,a native of the Outer Banks. “Because they say so doesn’t mean it’sgoing to happen that way.”

In Galveston, Tex., Keith Patterson, a resident there for 30 years,dismissed the urgency of a hurricane survival kit on Thursday. No useworrying about a hurricane until it is near, he said.

“When one is coming, I’ll make preparations,” said Mr. Patterson,68, a retired purchasing clerk. “I’ll get what I have to get then.”

…..

“We got food, but I got none saved,” said Ms. Williams, 17, the single parent of a 2-year-old, who lives in public housing.

Ms. Williams said she would have to sacrifice buying diapers and baby clothes to afford a hurricane survival kit.

Amazing, isn’t it? I mean, seriously, how utterly clueless can a person be about these things especially after already getting their asses handed to them not once, but twice last year?

See you at the Guantanadome, idiots.

Ammo counting

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‘Tis an eye-opening experience to actually go through the ammo in the bunker and see whats what. Theres an old saying in this …hobby…that the first looter you have to watch out for is yourself. That is to say, your supplies are most likely to be pilfered and stolen by yourself. You need batteries for the TV remote and dont feel like going to the hardware store so you figure its no big deal to pull some out of your emergency stash, figuring you’ll replace them later…and, naturally, you never do replace them. Apparently Ive been looting my ammo stash. I have two different hordes of ammo…the Stockpiled Ammo which is what sits in the bunker awaiting Der Tag, and the Everyday Ammo which is the lets-grab-a-box-and-head-to-the-range stuff. In a crisis, I can always transfer the Everyday Ammo into the Stockpile to supplement things. As it turns out I have absolutely no 9mm Stockpiled. None. Nada. Zip. In the immortal words of Burt Gummer…..”I am completely out of ammo! [perplexed pause] Thats never happened to me before.” So, I’m pulling 1m out of the Everyday pile and shuttling it into the bunker until I get a dedicated amount of 9mm loaded up. Other inventory was okay…some good, some not so good. Not exactly ideal. My spreadsheets call for at least 5,000 of each of those except for .22 which calls for at least 10,000.

So, I’m bumping some of the Everyday stuff into the bunker to fill some gaps and build the numbers up a bit.

As ive mentioned before, reloading 9mm doesnt realize any spectacular cost savings…however, reloading for .45 ACP, .38/.357 and .308 will net me at least a 40-60% savings…and that means more bang for your buck.

Is 5,000 rounds of AK ammo alot? Not really. Divide it amongst 4 guns and thats 1,250 rounds per gun. If you’re using 30 round mags thats 40 loaded mags per gun….period. Now imagine yourself in Katrinaville with 40 loaded magazines….a couple in your pack, a few on your belt, one in the gun, the rest stashed away safely….it doesnt add up to much. Esp. if you lose your vehicle or house where you had at least half of them stored. So, no, 5k is not alot of ammo….esp. if thats all the ammo your going to have for the next six months or longer.

Dillon RL1050, ‘Front Sight’ snake oil pitchmen

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Well, years ago I had a Dillon RL1050 and when I got rid of it I made it a point to save the expensive .223 conversion (with carbide sizer die) because I figured someday I’d have another one. Well, I have another one. And, after rooting around in the basement for ten minutes, I found the conversion kit. According to this reload calculator I’m looking at around twelve cents per cartridge assuming i’m saving my brass…so thats aroudn $125/1000 which isnt too bad considering what commercial stuff is going for…a quick look over at ammoman shows most .223 going for around $220~ a case or better.

By the way, with a .223 carbide sizer die you still have to lube your cases. So whats the advantage? Its a carbide die, son…no scratches, nicks or gouges even if your brass isnt 100% clean.

So, Tuesday I’ll call up to the place the girlfriend got her 9mm stuff and see if I can snag a good deal on an 8# keg of BLC2 or similar powder. One of my vendors is closing out Hirtenberger 55 gr. FMJ bullets for $40/1000 (postpaid) so I’ll need a buncha them too. I havent shot the AR very much in the last year or so because it was always cheaper to shoot the AK’s but thats just not the case anymore.
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Hey, speaking of shooting, I got a phone message on my answering machine from Dr. Obnoxio Piazza of Front Sight fame. His cold-calling telemarket machine wanted to tell me about the exciting envelope full of new stuff that he sent to me. Actually, he sent it to the girlfriend. It was a pitch for not a gun class but some sort of Tony-Robinesque self-improvement/empowerment class that was ‘only’ $17,000 (but if you pay up front its reduced to $12,000). I was wondering what was next from this guy..timeshares? And then I recalled that he’s already got ahis foot in that door with his development community that he’s currently being sued over.

Jeff Cooper may be fairly irrelevant and overhyped in terms of the value of his observations, but at least he isn’t using the Gunsite mailing list to hustle EST seminars or condos.

Front Sight should show some concern about what happens to their reputation when their higher-ups start coming onto people like used car salesmen at a Powerball winners convention.

EDIT: according to Wiki, the doctor part of his title is from his chiropractic past. And he’s also apparently a Scientologist. I’ll bet you he was born in a California beach house and his real name is ‘Moonbeam Starchilde’ or something similar. The guys credibility as anything other than a flimflam man is seriously dwindling, in my opinion.

Reloading, Nalgene bottle, vacuum sealing, Carharts

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Been busy loading 9mm for the girlfriend. She’s burning up about 300~ rounds a week in practice and doing it on a single stage press is out of the question, and even on the Dillon 550 it still takes a bit of time. The solution, as mentioned earlier, was to acquire a Dillon Super 1050…in addition to pistol calibers it’ll do anything .30-06 length or shorter, which means I can set it up to not only crank out .223 but also .308.

Anyway, she managed to purchase:
8# of Universal Clays for $86 ($10.75 per pound)
5m Win SP primers for $75.55 ($15.51 per 1000)
5m 115 gr. FMJ bullets for $191.50 ($38.30 per 1000)
Brass is essentially free since I have gobs of it sitting here.

Before you ask, she got this stuff at the local ammo remanufacturing facility. Strictly a local thing.

Since we’re using 5.0 grains of powder, that’s about 1400 rounds per pound. In short, we’re looking at around $63.03 per 1000 rounds. Of course, 9mm is pretty cheap these days so the savings realized are less than, say, .45 ACP or .44 mag. Nonetheless, the Dillon 1050 is still an excellent purchase because it will be used on some of those higher dollar cartridges. Should be able to put together .45 ACP FMJ for around $5.95 per box of 50. And .357 Mag JHP for around $4.38 per 50. Naturally, that gets stretched if we switch from jacketed to cast bullets. The .38 Special, for example, with a 150 gr. LRN would run around $3.31 per box of 50. (All of these prices, by the way, assume reloading fired brass that you’ve already been saving.)

So, while the 1050 was a hideous up-front expense ($1500~), it should be a smart long-term investment just from the amount of money it saves on ammo. Also, its nice to be able to crank out lotsa ammo in a short amount of time and sock it away in the bunker. My supply of 9mm was getting low but now Im going to be upping the quantities of everything.

One of the LMI has 16,000 pieces of .40 S&W brass he was formerly trying to load on a single-stage press (sort of a lifetime project, I guess). I told him if he’ll pop for the .40 S&W conversion kit and dies he can come by and use this thing.
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Finally got around to picking up a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle to beat up. For trekking around I like the Camelbaks but for short jaunts the bottle is pretty good. Also, for small things that need to be protected from damage and moisture, they make decent little drysafes for all the little incidentals (esp. electronic incidentals) that you want to keep dry and protected.
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Went to CostCo last week and picked up some chicken. The boneless, skinless breasts are individually vacuum sealed and have the date stamped on them, making them soooooo perfect for the deep freeze. That’s how meat should be packaged, my friend. As an aside, if you haven’t gotten a vacuum sealer to use to take advantage of bulk purchases and sales of meat, you really should. Like many things, there is an upfront cost that can be a little intimidating but it literally does ‘pay for itself’. Example – ground beef is usually $2.99 a pound. I’ve mentioned this before, right? When its remaindered, the price drops to $1.69 a pound. This means each pound is saving me $1.30. Without the vacuum sealer, I’d not be able to store the meat for long term and would have to buy it on, generally, an ‘as needed’ basis. With the vacuum sealer I buy ten pounds and I’ve saved $13.00. After around 100# of meat, the thing has paid for itself…assuming I don’t get any even better deals. Point is, you have to be able to look past those initial startup costs and do the math. Yeah, youre gonna have to cough up $100+ upfront, but it really does turn out to be worth it in the not-so-long run.
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I’ve been wearing Carhart work dungarees lately and have been very pleased with them. They are stoutly built, reinforced, comfy, look like they’ll last forever, and come in a nice subdued olive-green color. I recommend them highly if youre looking for a pair of pants that can shrug off the abuse that would normally kill a pair of jeans. Not cheap at around $40~ a pair, but I would bet they’ll outlast a pair of jeans under the same circumstances. Only drawback – theyre a bit heavy, but like most forms of armour that’s the tradeoff.