Monthly Archives: January 2021

If youre a survivalist, shouldnt you already have your ammo?

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Guns and ammo remain a bit hard to find these days. I am absolutely aghast at the prices 9mm, 223 and other calibers are bringing. I started preparing against an unsatisfiable demand like this many years ago. I am very much not concerned with my own gun/ammo/mag situation. But…I find it interesting how many people who identify as ‘preppers’ or ‘survivalists’ are frantically trying to source this sort of stuff. I suppose if you’re a relative newcomer to the game it would be understandable that you’re a little light in the ammo department… but I read some discussion forums where people have long histories of being ‘preppers’ and they’re moaning about how that can’t get ammo. Not sure how that works. Guns and ammo are, literally, the first thing most people buy when they decide to get into preparedness. How can you have been a survivalist for any length of time and not have a goodly amount of ammo on hand? Ok, yeah, if you had a house fire…or your spouse took it all when she ran away with her boyfriend…or your meth-addict nephew stole it all outta your garage…or a hurricane washed it all out sea….maybe I could understand it. But otherwise….nope.

Whats the local market like here? Armscor 9mm, which is pretty low tier stuff, is clocking in at around $0.75 per round. I see .223/5.56 going for$0.90. I haven’t even got a number for .22 LR because I almost never see it. Magazines are still fairly abundant, but the guns themselves are getting scarcer. Primers may as well be made out of unicorn farts. Oddly, shotgun shells aren’t terribly scarce. As I’ve said before, the Current Situation is proving a few things out…like the fact that this nation runs on .223 and 9mm. (But if you have a .40 S&W, you’ve got a better chance of finding ammo then pretty much anyone.)

Everything I read says not to expect the situation to change this year. And thats before the Biden gang gets their deranged mitts into all the ‘commonsense’ legislation they want to put forth.

For the umpteenth time in the last year, the Current Situation is making me think that my ‘unconventional’ lifestyle may not have been a bad idea…especially in regards to the stockpiling of ammo. Interesting times.

Seemed like a good idea at the time

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CostCo has a little cashback program when you use their card. I hate credit cards but at the time I was under the impression you had to have the card to continue to shop there. Regardless, I wound up with this card. It ‘gives back’ a few points per year on stuff you buy at CostCo, gas purchases, etc. I use it, trot to my computer, and immediately pay the bill online. I don’t want to keep a balance.

Anyway, last year I used that card to do all my gun and magazine purchases. The ‘cash back’ on those kinds of purchases is 1%. I got the email from CostCo saying my gift card for $249 would be on the way soon. Anyone who can do simple math can, from those figures, come up with what I spent on guns, ammo, and mags last year. Before anyone’s head explodes, a portion of the money spent on guns and mags was recouped in the sale of some of those same guns and mags. Expenditures for gunstuff that I actually kept and hold is a bit less (although not a huge amount less.)

It very much did not seem like that much at the time, I assure you. Regardless, I am fairly confident 2021 will not see anything like huge gun/mag purchases like last year….Crom, I hope not.

But, on the bright side, I’ve got almost $250 to spend up at CostCo on more canned goods, TP, and chicken. Or maybe another freezer.

 

Weaponized autism

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As my education has grown, I’ve been managing my own portfolios. Not to brag, but I do okay with it. In a case of right place, right time I seem to have inadvertently caught a break. (Like I did with the AirBnb IPO last month.)

There’s apparently a group of day trading kids on a Reddit group who have determined that if they all coordinate to buy the stocks of companies that are being held short, they can get the prices up and make a killing. Go Google ‘Gamespot’ and see how the stock has jumped a couple thousand percent in the last week. It seems this group has targeted several stocks that it thinks are being heavily shorted. Turns out one of those stocks is one I already have a strong position in. I woke up this morning, looked at my brokerage website, and found that my holdings in that stock were up about 350% overnight. (Whcih means my Roth hit its 2021 target almost 11 months ahead of schedule.) I, of course, don’t hang around and wait for the music to stop….I dump enough shares to get back my investment and the remaining shares are now free to go to the moon or drop like a lead balloon…won’t make a dollars worth of difference to me. If this thing goes the way Gamestop (GME) did, there’s an M82A1 in my future (assuming someone has one in stock somewhere.)

As a survivalist, it seems a tad incongruent to invest in the market when I  have a reasonable belief that it’s going to come down like a house of cards. I see that…but, I’ve been wrong before so I hedge my bets..I buy equities, I buy silver, I buy materiel, and I hold cash. That way I’m covered no matter what happens. Although life has a way of surprising you with things you never foresaw.

Anyway, I’m watching the markets closely for the next few days and searching my vendors for an M82A1…just in case the stars line up and this goes the way I would like.

Kifaru goodness

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I swear to Crom, the mail is so slow these days I could literally walk most of it to its destination before those idiots could get it delivered….

It shouldnt take 15 days to get a parcel from Colorado to Montana, but apparently it does. But that vote by mail thing? That’ll work just fine….

Anyway….

I have a collection of Filson outer wear. About six years ago I got a Filson Double Mackinaw Cruiser, which had been on my wish list for a long time.

A year or two ago Filson ran off a  limited run of a wool anorak. I desperately wanted this limited-run and very expensive item. By the time I got the money put together…*boom* they were out of stock with no resupply date. I was bummed. But the webpage for the anorak stayed up. I checked it, literally every day, for a year until a ‘coming soon’ banner appeared on it. When they finally had them available, I ordered one. And…it was everything I hoped for. Still wildly expensive, but it’ll last forever and I really, really like it. (Yeah, it’s spendy..and other companies do make a similar wool product. But this was a case of ‘I had the money’ and, honestly, a bit of brand preference. Once in a while, I’m a brand-name junkie. Not often, but in this case….yeah.)

And while I liked the wool product a lot for its ability to repel cold, evil, and shoddy workmanship, it was a bit bulky. It doesn’t compress very well. And although I like the Filson product, and have worn it pretty much every day this winter, I wanted something that would be just as nice but more compact for packing around when I didn’t need it at that moment. Ideally, I wanted something that would crunch down into a tight little package that would sit in my scout pack when I was out in the woods. And, sadly, the Filson wouldn’t do that.

Turns out Kifaru makes the same product, basically, but using the same materials as they use in their highly-recommended Woobie and Doobie products. It was on sale back in November for $200 and I ordered one up. Finally got it today. TPIWWP, so….

This is the Filson wool anorak/pullover which I cannot say enough nice things about. If you amortize it over the rest of your life it becomes more economical than first imagined. It is not cheap, but it literally will last you a lifetime. Problem is – bulky to pack. Enter the Kifaru product:

Heavy-duty (really heavy-duty) cordura on the wear points, detachable hood, drawstring waist…pretty nice. The color, which was advertised as coyote, is more gold than coyote. But…the elk won’t notice. More importantly, how does it compress? Well, Kifaru makes some equally nice and equally expensive compression sacks but for now I’ll just pick one up at REI.

This will be one of those pieces of gear that gets tossed in a bag ‘just in case’ when I’m off in the boonies because…a lot can happen in a hurry, and none of it good, if you aren’t careful. So..new piece of gear, Zero approves.

Said I wasn’t gonna, did anyway pt. II

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Everyone has a few moments in their life where someone told them something and it turned out to be a nugget of wisdom that they carry for the rest of their lives. Years ago, I was talking to one of the nationally known weapons collectors and I asked him how he managed to find all these amazing deals. He said, “When you’ve been in this business long enough, you don’t have to go looking for good deals…the good deals come looking for you.” And he was right. The more I travel in particular circles and network, the more often the materiel comes to me rather than vice versa. Todays example:

Singlehandedly fighting The War On The War On Guns

WASR-10, 2 mags, and 400 rounds of ammo. Annnnnd….(wait for it)……….$425.

I was done…done I tell you!…buying guns at the end of 2020. My needs were (mostly) filled. I would have been very happy to just ride out 2021 turning money into silver and food, not thundertoys. And yet…here I am. Can’t really complain, I reckon…I bet I could double my money by summer.

The deals come looking for you, alright……..

As an aside, I’m not really an AK guy. I respect them for what they are, and I have an excellent milled Arsenal AK for my AK needs, but I think that anything an AK can do I can do just as well, and more accurately, with an AR. And although the AK has a record of reliability, I think that any modern manufactured AR from a good manufacturer is right up there in reliability…but with the advantage of better sights, better optics, better accuracy, better ergos, better aftermarket support, and better standardization of parts. However, I will say that in a world of short-range (MOUT) environments I can see a case for the AK for it’s chunkier bullet. Anyway…..

The deals come looking for you, alright……..

Shelf stable milk pouch

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I know, I know…when you think shelf-stable milk pouches you think of something like this. (Yeah, it’s cheap humour…I’m not above being low.) I was up at CostCo the other day and beheld this:

Basically, ‘juice boxes’ of whole milk. No refrigeration required. I’ve talked about this before…the folks at Parmalat built an entire empire on UHT pasteurized products. Although not available everywhere, Parmalot milk can be found on Amazon. Problem is, it is quite difficult to find anything smaller than 32 oz. Oh they  make it, yes…but just hard to find. Why would you want the smaller? Because in a grid-down situation you may not need all 32 oz of milk and without refrigeration it sure ain’t gonna keep safely terribly long.

The stuff I found at CostCo is available (also on Amazon) in 8 oz. servings. That’s more suitable for a bowl of breakfast cereal or mixing with your ‘instant breakfast’ powder.

Personally, I don’t really like milk…but several recipes I do like call for it, and corn flakes taste pretty weird without it. So, for me, someone who uses miniscule amounts of moo juice, these are handy sizes.

The more savvy amongst you may ask, “Zero, why not powdered milk?”. A valid question. The answer is….fat. Most powdered milke products are reduced fat. Skim, low-fat, 2%, whatever….it is not whole milk. And although I suppose someone can get used to it, powdered milk tastes lousy and low-fat powdered milk is even worse. See, fat is something that does not lend itself to long-term storage. As a result, whole milk powder, when you can find it, isn’t as long-term as a milk powder that has less fat. But…who wants to drink low fat milk? Ugh.

Now, it took me a while but I did eventually discover powdered whole milk and it is surprisingly not difficult to find. However, it is most definitely not low fat milk..in fact it has about 7(!!!) times the fat of whole milk. My experience is that it is very rich. Very. Like drinking melted ice cream. Using more water than perhaps is recommended might bring it down a notch closer to real whole milk, but it is far more palatable (to me) than that powdered low-fat crap.

So if your the type who like to drink milk, or you’ve got a houseful of kids who you think need to, and you want to have something for when refrigeration is no longer an option, you can head up to CostCo and satisfy your lactose cravings with some reasonably-portioned packages of shelf stable whole milk.

Worthy Repost Of The Day:

Vacuum-sealed clothing after five years

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One of the tasks I performed the other day was reviewing and inspecting the various items I have stashed away in the vehicle for those unseen emergencies. Among all the items is a complete change of clothes. That stuff has been packed away, freezing and roasting, for the last several years and I figured it’d be a good idea to check on them and see how they’re doing.

Answer? They’re just fine. However, I did unpack the shirt and jeans and discover that the plastic bag had imparted a wierd smell to them. Not offensive, just odd…a vinyl-y plastic smell that, after a few hours in the open air, seemed to fade away. Other than that, clothing held up just fine…as I expected. I re-vacuum-sealed everything and put it away for the uncertain future.

Why the vacuum sealing? Well, biggest reason is because if you need a change of clothes somewhere other than home that means you probably got wet, messy, bloody, dirty, or some similar ugliness. That being the case, youre most definitely gonna want clean and dry clothes. And, of course, vacuum sealing also reduces the ‘footprint’ of the clothing by compressing everything down as much as possible. But, when you’ve had to change a tire on a slushy and wet roadway while freezing rain is soaking you through, that bit of vacuum sealing is going to seem more like a Nobel-worthy idea than it is overkill.

Other goodies in there stored equally as well, although I discarded and replaced all batteries just to be safe. And I I updated the spreadsheet I keep of this sort of thing to reflect any changes.

What do I keep around in the vehicle for emergencies? Well, you can get the links to that epic series of posts here.

And, in other news………

Oh boys…..look what I found

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Weren’t we supposed to be in some sort of violent civil war right now as Three Percenters, OathKeepers, patriots, assorted militias, violent racist groups, leaderless cells, and hordes of keyboard commandos ‘took back’ the government? I mean, everything I’ve read online since November says thats what was going to happen….thats what news media and every ‘patriot’ discussion forum kept telling me…

The passing of Commander Zero

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Commander Zero passed away from unspecified causes although there are rumours of Covid-19 infection. From the NY TImes (behind a paywall, so I’m not gonna bother linking.)

Edén Pastora, a hero of the 1979 Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua who was known by his nom de guerre, Commander Zero — and who later turned against his victorious comrades in arms in a long counterrevolutionary war of words and guerrilla attacks that failed to budge the socialist regime in Managua — died early Tuesday in a military hospital in that city, the capital of Nicaragua. He was 83.

A grandson, Álvaro Pastora Gutiérrez, said the cause was a heart attack. He said Mr. Pastora had been gravely ill when he was admitted to the hospital, though he did not identify the nature of the illness.

Mr. Pastora’s wife told a local newspaper that the cause was bronchopneumonia. His family had denied rumors that Mr. Pastora had contracted Covid-19. The government has been widely accused of listing pneumonia as the cause of death in Covid cases as a way to dispel reports that the pandemic was out of control in Nicaragua.

I hadn’t caught this story when it first broke back in June. Commander Zero ‘made a stunning debut’ in 1979 in a Castro-like underdog story but never followed up on it in terms of future successes. After becoming disillusioned with the victory he helped win for the Communists he picked up his rifle, went back into the jungles, and tried starting a revolution against them. He never had any great successes after his initial one and he eventually wound up as a somewhat charismatic figure popping up in the spotlight once in a while to tweak the nose of whatever government had caught his attention. Sort of a Central American Don Quixote, tilting at political windmills. I always kinda thought it’d be interesting to get a selfie with him someday just for fun. Plus, he probably could have used the money. Kinda funny…I like the HiPower and the G3, same as he did apparently, judging from the pictures.

““The first thing we revolutionaries lose is our wives. The last thing we lose is our lives. In between our women and our lives, we lose our freedom, our happiness, our means of living.” – Eden Pastora

For those who are curious, one of the qualities of any nickname is that you don’t get to choose it. Many years ago I was talking to someone about my preparedness projects and they said something along the lines of “Do they know about your secret life as Commander Zero?” and thats how that appellation came to be.

Video – Items to stock for barter

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An interesting video I recommend watching:

Why recommend? Well, I’m one of the most optimistic survivalists you’ll ever meet….I have a difficult time seeing things come to a point where we’re trading toilet paper and gold coins for antibiotics and motor oil. But…I do store things for my own use (mostly so I don’t have to worry about bartering, actually). Anyway, the items listed in this video are, of course, useful for trade but they are also items you should have on hand for your own use as well. So…thats why I’m recommending this video…watch it and see if theres anything you might have overlooked for your own use.

I can’t imagine there’s anyone who is unfamiliar with this guys library of videos but it’s mostly gun reviews and the occasional piece of gear. The gun reviews are actually pretty good and I find them more valuable than the reviews a lot of other Guntubers have out there.