If Things Go Back To Normal I Will Buy….

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

This is from our buddy Ryan over at TSLRF.

Broadly speaking, if all this eventually blows over and there’s no hideous new gun control that prevents us from owning the thigns we can own now, what will you do differently?

Me, I’ve seen this movie before back in ’94. When ’04 rolled around I went out and made bloody sure to buy as much stuff as i could against the possibility of a repeat performance. BUT….I got complacent as the years went by. If all this blows over, I’m signing up for the Stripped AR Receiver Of The Month Plan. I’m just gonna call Stag, give them my debit card number, and have them automagically ship me a stripped lower (or two) every month. Like clockwork.

What about you?

Fenix E11 and Streamlight Nano flashlights

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

For Chrismahanakwanzakah I received, among other things, a nice down jacket. I’d been wanting something that I could compress down to about the size of a Foster’s can and tuck away in my bag. I was up at REI looking to buy some sort of stuff sack for it and stumbled into a closeout sale. I really wasnt looking for anything but this flashlight caught my eye. (I’m a sucker on a deal for a good flashlight.) It’s the Fenix E11LED flashlight. (Fenix 105 Lumens Flashlight) What jumped out at me was that it was a good output (100 lumens), had the usual tailcap switch, had two brightness levels and..this was the clincher….ran on a single AA batt.

Now, I love my SureFire lights. While I understand that performance does not come cheap, there are times I don’t need a $100 flashlight that uses $4 batteries…..like when I’m picking up Nuke waste on our midnight walks. The Fenix E11 was on sale for $19.95 so I grabbed one. I figured it would be a good ‘disposable’ flashlight and if I liked it I would get a few more to salt away in my various packs and bags.

Loaded it up with a new Duracell AA and was mightily impressed. I like this little flashlight. It throws a somewhat unfocussed beam thats good for about 50′, is very compact, has a lanyard attachment, and uses cheap readily available AA batts. I’m liking this light a lot.

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Biggest drawback is that it is, dammit, Made In China. Of course, thats also why it was $20 and not $120. I’m gonna have to go get a few more, a package of lithium AA batts, and these will be the flashlights I leave in the truck and shop kits. It’s not something that will replace my primary lights, which are SureFire and MagLite, but for those times when I want a light that I dont care if it gets lost or damaged this would be an excellent choice.

On Amazon they go for about 1/3 more than what I paid but you’d save that after a few battery changes where you weren’t paying for expensive CR123 batts. So far, Im very, very pleased with this light.

To my surprise and delight, one of these (Streamlight 73001 Nano Light Miniature Keychain LED Flashlight, Black) showed up in my mailbox a week ago…a gift from a thoughtful reader. (….who now gets a shout-out and sincere thank you from yours truly.) Normally, I like the little Photon microlights for keychain/zipperpull lights. But…I’m mightily impressed with this little Streamlight. The major negative review about it is that the twist-to-turn-on/off head can twist a little too easily and come on in your pocket. This wasnt a big deal for me since I planned on using it as a zipperpull, but buried in the reviews on Amazon was a comment from a fella telling how he removed the head, wrapped a little teflon tape around the threads, put the head back on and the problem of the too-easy-to-twist was solved.

This is an excellent light for finding your keys/keyhole in the dark, looking for stuff in your truck at night, etc, etc. Best part is that the darn thing is always with you if you have it hooked to your zipper. The wife an I were unloading the truck in the dark and I let her use it…she was so impressed with it she got on her computer and ordered up five more for her other coats and jackets. She doesn’t get excited easily about preparedness toys so this must be a really good piece of gear. Use itty bitty coin batteries but at about $7 per light, I’m rating these as ‘disposable’ although if you wanna buy a buncha those little batteries you can certainly replace then. Battery life is said to be about eight hours…that’s a long time whe you think about the intermittent use of a product like this.

Anyway, two really cool, really handy lights that I thought I’d bring to your attention.

(Did I mention the E11 takes a single AA batt? Thats my favorite thing about it!)

Kalispell Gun show, new shop

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Went to the Kalispell gun show today. I saw no AR on dealers tables for less than $2k. That doesn’t mean any of them were selling at that price, as evidenced by the fact that the ARs were still there…but thats what they were asking. No AK’s for less than $1k. And even SKS rifles were up in the stratosphere. There was one lone PTR-91 for $2100. Cheapest AR mags were about $30 ea. I saw absolutely nothing I would want to spend money on.

Cool part was that I found a little gun/preparedness shop on my way back. Last time I was in Kalispell, there was a new gun shop being set up. That was six months ago so I figured I’d go see what it was like. To my delight, it was a small gun shop with a large emphasis on preparedness…they had #10 cans from MountainHouse, AlpineAire, etc, first aid supplies, Gamma Seal lids, buckets, books, etc, etc, etc. Prices were good on some stuff, not so good on others. The Mountain House cans were at a pretty good price, though. If youre up in that neck of the woods, it’s Big Bear Firepower 115 Main St., Kalispell.

 

KSG Price increase

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

And in other hysteria-related news, KelTec just announced a $300 increase in the price of their KSG shotgun. Their rationale is that since it is specifically named in Feinsteins ban bill, they need to recover the development costs before theyre forbidden from making any more of them.

It’s an interesting gun, but its no Remington 1740 (thats 870 x 2).

ETA: So much for only semi-automatics being targetted, eh?

Article – 15 Year Old Uses Dad’s AR-15 to defend his home from burglars

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Video news report.

 

While this is, of course, no laughing matter I cannot help but giggle at the thought of two criminals stumbling all over themselves to GTFO when Junior opens up with dad’s AR. I would love to hear about how many hits were scored and where they were located. And dad should take Junior over to Bass Pro and buy him his own AR tout suite. Junior has already proven he’s plenty responsible.

Instant justice, man…sometimes it sounds really, really loud.

Neologism – ‘gunfaced’, 4473 stuff

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

I learned a new word today – gunfaced. It’s a verb to descrive the action of shoving a gun in someones face to get them to stop what they’re doing. A fella was talking to me today and telling me about a almost home-invasion that occurred at his house. He says when he opened the door there was a guy standing there who looked like some sort of ‘Alabama meth head’ and that the guy started yelling and screaming at him. As this happened, the fella noticed this guys buddy creeping up along the side of the house. The storyteller then said “so I gunfaced him and told him to get off my porch…he fell all over himself getting out of there.”

“Gunfaced”. I like it.

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There’s been some discussion in comments a few posts back about ATFE Form 4473 and how it will lead to dastardly things happening.

I’ve been selling guns for a number of years, let me tell you how it works here in Montana. You buy a gun from me and fill out the ‘yellow sheet’. If you have a carry permit, I dont have to call for the NCIC background check…you fill out the form, collect your thundertoy and go. If I call the NCIC background weasels, they do get your personal info but they dont get to know what you purchased…(oh, they know “handgun, long gun or other” but thats it…they’ll know the call is about you trying to buy a pistol…they won’t know its make, model, serial, caliber, etc.)

So, you fill out the yellow sheet, collect your gun and head home. What happens to that yellow sheet? Well, here in Montana there is no state requirement to do anything like fax it to the state police or something, like in other states. So, all I do is what the feds require. Here’s what that is – the yellow sheet goes into a filing cabinet and after twenty years it goes into the shredder. (They may have changed that last part.)

So how does .gov track you, then? Well, they’d have to send someone to the shop and have them demand to go through all the sheets looking for the one with your name. Other than that, they dont get that info…the notion that a week after you buy a gun from an FFL (in Montana, anyway) your name is in a federal database somewhere with a serial number and all is kinda silly. Unless the feds are psychic and have mastered ‘remote viewing’ a’la Art Bell, there’s no way for them to know until they come and pick up those sheets.

So how do guns get traced? Well, let’s say little Leroy blows away a 7-11 clerk in Los Angeles and for some reason ATF decides it’s worth following up on. They call Remington and ask who they shipped that 870 to. Remington says it went to Jovino’s in 2005. They call Jovino’s and ask who they sold it to. Jovino’s calls them a few days later and says that after checking their books, they find they sold it so Joe Blow in ’06. They contact Joe Blow and Joe says he sold that shotgun probably around ’08 at a moving sale when he moved to Iowa. Some guy came up and offered $150..he had a receipt but he lost it in another move recently.  At that point, the trail ends. Unless….in ’09 the guy who bought the 870 pawns it and never redeems it. The pawn shop logs it in and know its back ‘in the system’ in the sense that the next person to buy it has to fill out a yellow sheet. But tracing the gun from Remington will dead-end at the point where the new owner didn’t do any paperwork…that on-the-lawn moving sale.

Or…….They call Remington and ask who they shipped that 870 to. Remington says it went to Jovino’s in 1978. They call Jovino’s and ask who they sold it to. Jovino’s calls them a few days later and says that after checking their books, they find they sold it so Joe Blow in ’79 but tossed all the yellow sheets in ’99 when they hit the 20-year-mark. They have a name, “Joe Blow”, copied from their in/out log, but no yellow sheet..no address, no DOB, no POB, no nothin’. Sorry.

Or…ATFE checks their records from gun shops that were closed and finds the last known person who bought it, and he says he sold that shotgun probably around ’08 at a moving sale when he moved to Iowa. Some guy came up and offered $150..he had a receipt but he lost it in another move recent.y.  At that point, the trail ends.

So let’s review….the only way your purchase, on a 4473, gets into the ATFE’s hands is if the gun shop you purchased it from has gone out of business OR they are tracing a particular firearm and that firearm never changed hands without going through a dealer. The notion that they just do a couple keystrokes and find you bought a 10/22 last week is a bit far-fetched.

Now, some states do require the gundealer to send the records into a state agency and the state agency may have a database. Thats up to the state. In a place like Montana, and many other states, there is no state registration. What about ATFE just coming into a shop, grabbing all the 4473′s and going door-to-door? I suppose they could but the idea that they have the manpower for such an activity is absurd. Oh, they might try to recruit local law agencies but I bet that wouldn’t go very far. And, honestly, if they ask where that AR is you bought in  ’04 and you say you sold it at a yard sale to some college kid..well, that’s legal (in this state) so..sorry, can’t help ya, guys.

Does that mean there’s no advantage to buying unpapered guns? Well, I prefer unpapered guns but I can’t really put my finger on why. Intellectually, I know that the guns I do the yellow sheets on for myself aren’t going in a database somewhere…but I still like to get those free-range guns when I can.

 

 

Biden: Obama Might Use Executive Order to Deal With Guns

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

There seems to be some disagreement on precisely what an EO could or could not do vis-a-vis firearms regulation. Something to think about: even if a law is found to be unconstitutional or illegal, until it is proved to be that (or a process is started to determine that…usually with an order to suspend enforcement pending further court drama), it is treated as legitimate. So, if an EO came through saying something bad, even if it were illegal and unconstitutional, it would still be the valid until the court challenges start.

 

“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”

 

Article – Brass vs. Steel Cased Ammo – An Epic Torture Test

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

I only use steel cased ammo in guns designed for them (‘Commie’ guns). I’ll run steel cases out of AK’s, Mosins, Makarovs, etc. since those Commie guns were pretty much designed around them. I try to avoid shooting steel cased ammo out of my non-Commie guns (AR, Glock, P35, 1991, etc) since, usually, those guns are more valuable than the Commie guns and I think it’s asking for trouble to fire steel cased ammo out of it.

I never shoot steel-cased out of my AR’s. First, the notion of steel cases bouncing around in an aluminum receiver gives me visions of horrible gouges and scratches. Additionally, I just dont think there’s enough definitive data to show whether firing stee-cased ammo out of AR’s increases malfs and extractor wear.

This post, however, seems to show some interesting data on the subject and I highly recommend you read it.