Monthly Archives: February 2020

MH pulls the blinds and turns off the porch light.

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Just for giggles, I headed over to Mountain House’s dealer website to see if there were any noticeable changes.

You might say that………

I like MH for their product, and I’ve never had problems with an order, but their customer relationship model would give HK (or Colt, for that matter) a run for it’s money. Not “We’re sorry for the inconvenience. We are working hard to get caught up and provide you with product. Thanks for your understanding.” Nope. That would be too…smart. Instead, we get “We’re busy. Go away.”

I have seen them do this before.

But…it shouldn’t matter to you because you’ve stocked up at one of the several group buys I’ve orchestrated in the past, right? Right???

The biggest change to your and my life over the ChinaFlu will not be the flu itself. It will be the millions of minor changes in lifestyle, routine, procedure, and practice that concern over the ChinaFlu will cause. In other words, our suffering won’t come from being eaten by the bear, our suffering will come from the worrying and defending against the bear.

9mm Korean Glock mags

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If you travel the gunternet you will, eventually, come across the Korean-made Glock magazines. They are variously called KCI, Kang, and a few other names. The story I heard was that Glock made a sweet deal to the Korean military for a contract and figured they’d make it up on the magazines. The Koreans, as I hear it, surprised them by buying the guns at the promotional price and then said “We’ll take care of the magazines ourselves, thanks for the deal on the guns though.”

True? Probably not. But, it seems plausible enough.

Anyway, for the last decade we’ve seen Korean mags coming in to the US in standard configurations and as happysticks and drums. I went and bought a bucket of .40 mags when they first came in and was severely disappointed. So much so, in fact, that I returned them to the vendor. However, at some point I came into a large (ahem) quantity of the 9mm mags. I stuck them away in an ammo can figuring I’d wait for the next mag ban and unload them then since I had no intention of using them. Fast forward a few years and I came into the Ruger 9mm carbine that takes Glock mags. I decided that I really didn’t want to shuffle my existing stash of ‘ready’ mags around so I pulled a couple of the Korean mags out of storage to use with the Ruger. To my surprise…they worked fine. The feed issues I had in .40? Not there. The swollen magazine body sticking int he mag well? Not there. Thinking it might have been the gun, I also tried the Korean mags in my G17 and…worked fine.

I’m not going to say they are something I’d ‘go to war’ with, but as range magazines it looks like they might be a good choice. Although, at this point, they sell (dealer cost) only a buck or two away from a Magpul Glock mag. And I’d rather have the Magpul mag over the Korean mag, and I’d rather have a factory Glock mag over either. But…it looks like the Korean 9mm mags of normal capacity seem to be an okay purchase.

LDS cannery trip

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Trip to the LDS cannery today. Not that I really needed anything, mind you, but rather to introduce someone to the place. As usual it was a pleasant experience although this time the guy running the place was polite but once he found out I was not one of the flock there was a noticeable-but-not-offensive coolness that presented itself. And…that’s fine. The Mormon church ain’t in business  to gear up slobs like me, they spend that money to protect their own…and that’s as it should be. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve caught a whiff of…disdain?…distaste?…for me when they ask me what ward I am from and I tell them, sorry, I’m not a member. (Which I always say politely, almost apologetically, and never mention that I’m about as unbeliever as you can get…atheist-ish and all that, y’know.)

But, to get #10 cans of foodstuffs at cost I will happily put up with a barely discernible smidgen of condescension. And, as I said, out of a couple dozen trips to that place this is the first time I’ve ever had someone generate a negative vibe about me not being part of their tribe.

Anyway……

I expected it to be busier up there, what with all of us destined to come down with the ChinaFlu, but it was quiet and virtually deserted. I suppose the faithful already have their stockpile and the infidels like me are, mostly, oblivious that the place even exists.

Still, I always like going up there because every single person in that building thinks as I do about the benefits of being prepared and it’s always nice to be around people who don’t think you’re weird.

So, believer or unwashed heathen infidel, if you’re looking to stock up on the basics, your local LDS cannery is pretty much a perfect resource to take advantage of. Yes, you can go there as a non-member….no, you don’t need to go with a member…no, they don’t try to convert you. Really, no reason not to take advantage of the opportunity.

Walking Dead observations

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Ok, so the Walking Dead is now about…mmmm….seven years into the zombie apocalypse and it’s starting to look more and more like an SM Stirling novel. Ammo is virtually non-existent and edged weapons and arrows are the order of the day. Okay, fine. Here’s my question…they have a somewhat-genius in the form of Eugene, who has shown the ability to engineer and science his way out of some pretty tough situations. So, while expecting him to make nitrocellulose-based powders and percussion primers might be a little out of his league, surely he can make black powder and cobble together a flintlock rifle. Right? And even something as simple as a matchlock proves to be beyond his capabilities you’d think black powder for simple explosive devices would be within his capabilities. So…what gives, Eugene?

And, yeah, I binge watched to try and get caught up. Although if I do have to carry around some sort of headchopper in the zombie apocalypse, I’ll probably go with something like this from the local boys down the street at ZombieTools.

Convenience stores

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Like every smart survivalist, I try to keep a fairly good amount (and selection) of short- to mid-term foods on hand. Mostly stuff that I normally use and therefore can rotate through within a period of time of less than a year or so. Things like salsa, spaghetti sauce, pasta, canned meats, canned vegetables, etc, etc. I was doing an inventory and thought that I needed to round off a few things and beef up the amount of others. Since it was going to be a goodly amount of stuff, I figured I’d really nerd out and price compare my usual local grocery suppliers on their websites. As it turns out, unsurprisingly, Walmart wound up being the most economic supplier for about 85% of the things I was looking for. Okay, fine..now I know where to shop. And as I was on Walmarts doing this, I noticed that I had the option to simply order the stuff up, pay online, and simply roll up to the store the next day and have everything all boxed up and ready to go. Hmm. Okay, let’s try that.

And..it worked out quite well. I simply dumped the email confirmation that Walmart sent into Excel, took thirty seconds to clean it up, and then had a nice record of quantities and price-per-ounce breakdowns for comparison shopping later. And, when I went to pick up the stuff, it really was all of about four minutes to pick it up and stuff it in the back of the vehicle.

Say what you will about Wallyworld, they do take a bunch of the friction out of stocking up.

I’d been a bit remiss in updating the food stash lately…being able to just flop into a chair and add a case of crushed tomatoes, a dozen jars of salsa, a half dozen bottles of Tabasco, etc, into one list, pay for it, and then schedule a pickup the next day….thats some living in future right there, boyo.

 

Read into it what you will

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Im a cheap bastard..I have to be. Today, I’m going through my grocery list and comparing prices at Albertson’s, CostCo, and WalMart. (Yeah, I’m a math nerd when it comes to money.) On my list? Canned tomatoes. Didn’t see them on the CostCo website and on the Walmart website all the ‘store brand’ canned tomatoes (and a surprising amount of other vegetables) are out of stock.

Hmmmmm……….

 

Article – California couple who vanished for nearly a week found alive

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You know, stereotypes are not always accurate…but…they save time and the exist for a reason. Part of me wants to say that this is a case of ‘academics’ who know their way around a college campus but have a total disconnect from the real world and it’s real world consequences.

INVERNESS, Calif. (AP) — An academic couple who got lost during a Valentine’s Day hike in the woods of Northern California was found Saturday by rescuers who spent almost a week looking for them and had given up hopes of finding them alive.

Carol Kiparsky, 77, and Ian Irwin, 72, were found in a densely forested area near Tomales Bay, a narrow inlet about 30 miles north of San Francisco, and were airlifted to a hospital for treatment of hypothermia, Marin County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brenton Schneider said at a news conference.

“This is a miracle,” he said.

They were unprepared for a long hike or the cold weather, when night temperatures dipped into the 30’s, and survived by drinking from a puddle, he said.

If you’re going to go for a ‘walk in the woods’, take a moment and think about how in the span of an eyeblink you can get a broken ankle, weather change, crazed transient, medical emergency, or other sudden unexpected event that turns your walk in the woods into a scene from The Revenant. The stuff that would make a huge difference in these situations fits in a tiny daypack and between your ears.

Buy now…just in case

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The democrats continue to cannibalize their reputation, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that one of those clowns could wind up being President. Although Beto “Hell yes we’re coming to take your guns” O’Rourke is no longer a viable candidate, his attitude marches on.

And, amazingly, there are still people who actually say things like “We don’t have anything to worry about with Trump in office” in regards to gun control prohibition. Why rely on the whims of other people when you could simply remove all the variables from the equation and get your stuff now so these sorts of issues become moot?

If I’m wrong, so what? It means you have guns and ammo that you would have eventually bought anyway. But if I’m right….we go back to $100 Glock magazines, $1900 M4geries, bare muzzles, and ten round magazines.

When the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban sunsetted in 2004 there were a lot of people who swore they’d never get caught unprepared for that sort of thing again. I suspect not many walked it as they talked it. It’s been 15 years since that expiration and for many of you that’s almost one-half to on-third of your lifetime…thats a long time to get ready. Did you? If not, perhaps it’s time to rethink your plans for that tax refund. Or it might be time to put off buying that jet ski.

Personally, I’m okay. I’ll always want more, but if they passed a law tomorrow I think I’d feel fairly okay with what I already have.

The panic buying comes in waves, guys. First wave starts a little before Election Day. Shop now while prices are down and availability is up. And don’t count on crazy bargains if Trump gets re-elected because manufacturers went into overdrive cranking stuff out in anticipation of a Democrat victory….they aren’t going to make that mistake again, assuming they survived it the first time.

Bargains are still out there. Shop wise, shop smart, but….do shop.

Identity survivalism?

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I’ve known quite a few survivalists over the years. Some better than others, but all survivalists, of some stripe, nonetheless. I’ve known left-handed survivalists, brown-eyed survivalists, and I’ve even known a bald survivalist. Now, if you re-read that last sentence you are, I would imagine, asking yourself “WTF cares about a survivalist being brown-eyed?” or some similar thought. I phrased it that way because I kinda get that some “WTF cares?” when I see articles about [gay/black/female/insert marginalized group] survivalists. Case in point:I Tried To Keep Up With Black Survivalists Who Are Ready For Any Disaster.

Do black survivalists keep different blankets in their car during the winter than white survivalists? (I asked this question rhetorically to someone and then flippantly followed it up with ‘although I suppose they don’t keep as many white sheets as the white survivalists’. Bad Zero, bad.) Do black survivalists use different brands of home canning equipment than white survivalists? Do black survivalists stockpile different mouthwash, batteries, band-aids, and bleach than white survivalists? Pretty much no. So why the need to identify as ‘black survivalist’? (as an aside, the article features a link to Aton Edwards, whom we first met waaaaaay back here)

I suppose the seemingly rational answer might be “Well, black populations earn less than white populations, live in completely different (meaning urban) environments than white populations, and face great disparity in how they are treated.” Ignoring, for a moment, that attributing particular traits and qualities to a particular demographic based solely on race is…well..pretty much the textbook definition of racism…..so what? Aren’t there plenty of ‘other’ that also earn less, live elsewhere, and get treated poorly?

I’ve met gay survivalists, female survivalists, Asian survivalists, and while I have never met a black survivalist (the odds are pretty strong against it in a state as homogenous as mine) I cannot fathom that we’d get along any differently than if we both racked the same numbers on the Pantone chart.

I’m not sure why anyone needs (or wants) to throw a self-descriptive adjective before the term ‘survivalist’ when identifying themselves (gay survivalist, black survivalist, wiccan survivalist, Armenian survivalist, flatulent survivalist, etc.) You’re a survivalist…period, full stop.

I suppose the one reason that might have some merit is to meet and join with ‘like’. The gay survivalist wants to associate with other gay survivalists, the Asian survivalist wants to hang with other Asian survivalists, etc. People, broadly, tend to be more ‘at home; with people who mirror themselves in some way…beliefs, race, orientation, age, etc…..so I suppose that could be a reason. But, generally speaking, just call yourself a ‘survivalist’ and leave it at that. After all no one responds to questions about their occupation with “Im an Italian accountant”, “I’m a Lutheran plumber”, “I’m a male housepainter”, “I’m a Jewish insurance claims adjuster”.

Identity politics has already led to all sorts of nonsense and problems…why bring it into survivalism?