So that happened…..
Monthly Archives: May 2019
Poll – $100
[yop_poll id=”18″]
Too many
I think I must be sleepwalking or something because I have no recollection of bidding on GunBroker for this thing.
On the other hand, if I was, in fact, sleepwalking my way into Gun Broker at least I maintained the presence of mind to not bid more than $150. Whats really interesting is that I have a line on an old-style Ruger PC9 carbine in 9mm that someone wants $375 for. Now, I already have two of those but both cost me significantly more than $375. And since I now have…uhm…:::checks spreadsheet::: fourteen (WTH!) of these P95’s sitting here, another PC9 to go with them seems reasonable. Kinda.
I still need to get the new model PC9 that takes Glock magazines though.
But, that’s going to have to wait because there’s another Ruger showing up on the doorstep this week that is going to set me back on gun acquisitions for a while.
Article – The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready?
An interesting article about disease-laden Africa and how all the plagues and pestilence in any part of the world is just one Boeing away from becoming our problem.
Zombie are the new normal in EOTW fiction, but before then the big science fiction threat was some sort of superflu (“The Stand”, anyone?)
We’re kinda seeing it now in NYC with their measles episode. Heck, right here in my college town we’re having an outbreak of whooping cough. Not to get anyone’s tinfoil hat into a twist, but that whole “I don’t need to vaccinate my kid if everyone else is vaccinated” doesn’t seem to be working very well.
It’s tough to avoid people, but I suppose if you live out in the desert where you can go quite a while between human contact you might wind up missing the whole pandemic. Or you might die alone drowning in your own fluid-filled lungs. :::shrug:::
The folks at Fatherland Homeland security used to tell us to keep duct tape and plastic sheeting around for this sort of thing. Remember that? (And remember that awesome color-coded alert system they introduced?)
I suppose the only thing you can really do to mitigate your chances of being a victim of some pandemic is avoid people, be prepared to stay indoors for a length of time, and bleach/sterilize/sanitize the hell out of everything. I know that I could lock the doors and not leave my house for a couple months. Thats no guarantee against catching Captain Trips but it seems that your chances of catching something from someone is greatly reduced when you avoid all contact with those someones.
The article linked above is pretty interesting. It just reinforces that the African continent is well and truly screwed.
Video – Dangerous Things Are Dangerous
A very interesting video from Ian McCollum (aka ‘Gun Jesus’) detailing the time a trip to the range put a chunk of shrapnel in his chest.
There’s a lot in here about the importance of medical training and equipment when you spend a bunch of time out in the desert shooting hundred year old machine guns. However, whats really interesting is something that is sort of oblique to the main issue – how do you direct help to your location when you’re “in the middle of nowhere”?
The range I shoot at is an established shooting range in the sense that if you called 911 and said “Im at the So-N-So Range” they would know where that is and how to get there. But, what about when you go off the beaten path? At that point, you’re going to have to try and meet folks halfway by getting your bleeding butt to some sort of common rally point that the medics actually can find.
While I try to maintain a pretty decent degree of situational awareness I am surprised to say that when I go hunting I never take a moment to notice what mile marker I’m parking at when I disembark and make my way into the timber. It occurs to me that I need to take note of the sort of information that would come in handy if I had to call for assistance if I got hurt out in the sticks. It would be nice to be able to tell the dispatcher “Yeah, its along Highway 200, just after mile marker 27 theres a logging road heading east. Im parked four miles up that road.”
Of course, I also usually carry a couple signalling devices (flare/smoke) so that “close” becomes “close enough”.
It’s always a good idea to have an exit strategy and to ‘begin with the end in mind’. Which means when heading out into the sticks I need to start thinking about “what if”. Obviously I carry a certain amount of gear in case things go sideways, but I need to start being more cognizant of where I am and how I would direct others to that location. While I know how to use UTM coords, I wonder if the 911 people would have a clue.
Regardless, an interesting video to watch and a reminder that shooting guns can sometimes turn dangerous and therefore it’s always a good idea to have some gear (and training) to stay on top of things in case someone gets a hole punched in them.
Speaking of Gun Jesus, have you guys seen his Kickstarter? The man wrote a book that he hoped might garner $25,000 in sales. He failed to take into account his internet notoriety and he leaped past the $25,000 to almost $270,000…and thats with three weeks still left on the kickstarter.
Practicing with .22 kits
Pretty much in every piece of survivalist fiction there is always at least one big shootout scene. It can be the brave townies against the invading cannibal army, the plucky conservative group against the dastardly UN troops, etc. It makes for entertaining reading but is it likely that at some point youre going to go to war with New Bern? I doubt it. Oh, I have no doubt that during Katrina and a few other major events there might have been a few people who were forced to play Blackhawk Down as best they could (Roof Koreans!). But I believe those were the extreme outliers. Unless you’re Harry Beckwith (record holder for most amount of shots fired in defense of self), I’d bet most people never even needed a mag change.
But…we never know what the future holds, do we? So, we practice. Today is a range day to practice fast target acquisition and some shoot-n-move stuff with the HKlone. Given the always high price of ammo, it makes sense to try and save money when possible. To that end, the Germans, always looking for an excuse to engineer some new form of Teutonic brilliance, made a very nice .22 conversion kit for the G3. I bought one of these years ago and although it was rather expensive at the time (and still is), it pays for itself rather quickly.
.22 conversion kits for guns are an extremely handy thing if you’re going to take your practice seriously. They arent really about accuracy as much as they are about gun handling. Practicing bring your AR up from a low ready, getting a fast sight picture, and snapping of a shot that hits a steel plate….you can do that at $9 per mag of 30, or you can do it for $1.20 per mag of 30. I prefer the more bang-for-your-buck approach. For practicing things like shooting while moving, weak hand shooting, transitions, etc, there’s no reason the .22 conversions shouldn’t be used.
For the AR, I very much like the CMMG conversion and recommend them.Although there are plenty of .22 conversion kits for your AR out on the market the one that seems to get universal approval is the CMMG. Ciener conversions, in my experience, are…’lacking’. If it were me, I would recommend a CMMG conversion, and four mags. Why four? Start your drills with one in the gun and three in your plate carrier or GI mag pouch.
When I practice with the .22 conversions I’m usually doing stuff like:
- Bring rifle up from low ready, get fast sight picture, fire one round at steel plate for a hit.
- Same drill, from weak side
- Shoot while moving..forwards, backwards, sideways, etc.
- Shoot from non-facing positions. That is to say, shoot at target when your facing away or oblique to target.
- And just the run-n-gun of shooting three or five rounds, run to new position, shoot another 3-5 from prone, run to new position, 3-5 from kneeling, etc, etc.
Make up your own drills. Get a #50 bag of something and drag it to safety with one hand while covering with your rifle in the other, pie some corners, do some fire/movement drills with your mates, etc, etc.
Odds are pretty good that you’ll never need to do an Australian peel or anything like that, but any drill that improves your gun handling, gun safety, and tactical options is worth doing. And with a decent .22 conversion kit you can spend a long afternoon drilling with your buddies for the cost of two bricks of .22
.22 conversion kits for pistols have been, in my experience, a bit hit-n-miss. Tactical Solutions made one for the Glock but it never seemed to be reliable enough for a day of practice at the range. If anyone can recommend a good G17 .22 kit, I’d like to hear about it.
Video – Should I Buy A Used Ruger P95
An interesting video:
I’ve made no secret that I rather like the P95, but I like it for one very simple reason: for about $200 it’s the best gun you can buy. Thats not to say its the best gun out there, or that its even a ‘very good’ gun. Rather it means that if you have $200 in your pocket, unless you get extraordinarily lucky, the Ruger P95 will be the best gun you can afford.
But…there’s some other things to think about.
On the police trade-in market these days there are tons of Glock and S&W .40 caliber pistols. For about $250 you can have a S&W M&P or a Glock 22/23. And, honestly, both of those guns are better than the P95.
Why don’t I get a stack of those pistols if theyre better than the P95 and only a few bucks more? Well, first off, I already filled my need for some cheap disposable pistols…I already have a dozen of the P-series so there’s really nothing to be gained by picking up the other ones. Additionally, I’m not a .40 guy. I prefer the 9mm.
However, if you’re looking for something that is ‘affordable’ and far better than a HiPoint, Bersa, or Taurus, head over to Kings and check the used pistols. Or, you can cruise Gunbroker and try your luck at scoring some $200 P95’s. They don’t usually go that cheap, but there’s always plenty to bid on and if you bid often enough you’ll get one at that price.
Guns like these are not really my first choice for carrying around everyday (although you could), but rather they are ‘loaners’ or ‘expendable’ handguns. Guns that you don’t mind loaning or giving to a friend who needs a gun, that you can leave in a truck or cabin and not be heartbroken if it gets stolen, or that you can abuse by getting wet and banged up as you rough-n-tumble your way through some disaster. They are like Bic lighters…they work quite reliably but they are basically disposable and cheap enough that you can have several.
I’ve ordered up a few of the police trade-in M&Ps for a friend and I have to say, I really like the gun. We got a .45 ACP version with three magazines for, I believe, $270 which is a smoking deal for a .45 with spare mags. What amazed me was how narrow and comfortable the grip was for that double stack mag. Very impressive.
Anyway, I was perusing YouTube and saw that video and thought I’d pass it along since I’ve mentioned my penchant for cheap, uber-stout handguns more than a few times.
