Okay, which one of you humans sent me this:
I know I didn’t order these..and Paratus was two months ago. So who do I have to thanks for these? I have my suspects, but I need to know who to thank.
Mailbox surprise
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Monthly Archives: November 2023
Redirecting resources
Here’s an interesting thought for you to bounce around in your noggin: if you no longer had to direct any of your resources towards the firearms aspect of preparedness (that means guns, parts, optics, ammo, holsters, etc.), where would you direct those resources and how would that impact your timetable of being prepared in those other fields?
I ask because I may have hit the point where it’s just downright fiscally ridiculous to buy any more guns specifically for the sake of being prepared. I mean, I have, literally, dozens of AR-15’s, and the number of Glocks (and PSA clones) is right up there too. I mean, extra ammo is always a good idea, but realistically I can afford to shunt all the financial resources that have been directed on gunstuff into a new direction. I just need to examine what direction that should be.
Obviously the most glaring choice of a new target would be my land fund. Im getting older and I feel no closer to getting my Chunk Of Nowhere. But there’s also an appeal to beefing up the supply of gold and silver. Or, I suppose, a more resilient vehicle. Funny how theres never a shortage of things to spend money on, isn’t it?
Even when you factor in Primary, Auxiliary, Contingency, Extra, and Redundant levels of arms I’m still pegging the needle. Magazines? Literally in the thousands. Ammo? Well, the fire marshal would probably have nightmares if he knew.
Didn’t happen overnight, although it did pick up quite a bit in these last few years as my career path changed. But, still, I’ve got over thirty years of accumulating and accumulating to fall back on. With the addition of the Barrett I’ve pretty much checked all the boxes on the Post-Apocalypse Party Pak checklist.
I have some numbers in my head about what I’d like to have available to me in terms of precious metals and I can probably make that a reality in less than a year if I really throw everything at it. But at the same time, dang it, Zero wants that ground. I think what I’m gonna have to do is split it 50/50. Whatever I spend on PM’s, I put an equal amount in the land fund. And vice versa.
But the question remains: if you ‘finished off’ (although we all know youre never really finished) the gun aspect of your preperations, where would you refocus the resources and how would it change your timetable?
Amplifying the signal: Article – I’m an American spending Thanksgiving as a combat nurse under fire on the frontline in Ukraine
This article was linked to by someone in comments a few posts back. H/T to them for bringing it to my attention. I thought it was worth sharing. Regardless of your stance on this war (or any war), there are objective facts in this story worth noting. Apparently those knockoff tourniquets really do cost lives in the field.
So when I say that it’s worth the extra $ to make sure youre getting the real deal rather than a ‘close enough’ cheaper Chinese copy, it’s not just me.
Read the article, its short and a bit empty but if you Google the gal in the article there’s some interesting stuff about what she’s doing.
In the meantime, the moral of this story is: some stuff is not worth choosing based solely on cost.
Thanksgiving leftovers
Now is the time to hit the supermarkets for remaindered turkey and associated foods. I hit my local Albertsons and bought way too many of these lovely bacon-wrapped turkey breasts for 1/2 price:
I’ll head to the other two local stores tomorrow and Monday to catch the rest of them as they get marked down. Fortunately I have just barely enough freezer space to get these guys tucked away for later consumption. I’ve eaten turkey out of the deep freeze that was over five years old, so I have absolutely no doubt these guys will get used up at some point.
Is it a bit of work to trot around town hitting all the supermarkets looking for leftovers? Well, a bit….but to me it’s worth it. As a survivalist I try to have everything I need for whatever calamitous event I anticipate. But over the course of a year I wind up using my stove a heck of a lot more than I use my Glock. What I’m saying is, I eat every day…I don’t shoot looters every day. Thus, some emphasis on food is warranted.
What with Bidenflation, it’s a pretty good bet that next years groceries are gonna be more expensive than this years groceries. So…why not stock up? Buy that extra freezer too, ’cause it sure won’t be cheaper next year either.
Survivalism is more than just guns and camo, guys… you know that. The most likely TEOTWAWKIs will be the intimate personal ones….job loss, illness, blizzards, hurricanes, that sorta thing…and when those happen (and they most assuredly will) the odds are pretty good you’ll use a lot more food than you will ammo. Have both, of course, but be realistic: you eat far more often than you shoot.
So, go stock up while there’s bargains to be had.
Nuke ’em till the glow
Its always an interesting development when package shows up with this curious label:
No, it isn’t depleted uranium .308 rounds. (Those get hand delivered by guys who don’t like to use their real names.) Nah, its a very mundane and unexciting set of Trijicon HD night sights for my Glock 10mm.
Fiber optic is used alot for front sights these days and while they glow nicely in most light my experience has shown them to be fragile, prone to breaking or falling out, and susceptible to damage from gun cleaning solvents. I’d rather spend the hundred bucks and swap out for some heavy-duty steel sights with self-luminating dots than be surprised when I pull the gun from the holster and wonder where the orange glowy thing at the front went.
I’d shopped around a bit and looked at the various brands of night sights…Trijicon, Ameriglo, Glock, etc…and decided that for the difference in price I may as well go with the Trijicons. They are kinda the big name in radioactive glowy sights.
Are night sights really a necessity? Especially when every gun on the market these days usually comes with a rail to accommodate a light? Mmmmm….its subjective. For guns that I carry all the time, I definitely want the night sights. It’s dark half the time, right? And while I could buy a holster that would accommodate a mounted light, by the time you buy that particular specialized holster, and add a good light, you’ve spent what you would have spent on quality night sights.
Am I saying that night sights are a substitute for a mounted light? Heck no. I’m just saying that most of the time we don’t carry a mounted light on the gun we carry every day under out jackets and shirts…so having night sights is good idea.
One other thing I like is that for my nightstand gun (which does carry a mounted light) having night sights makes the gun easy to find in the dark.
Oh, and before I forget…..sight adjustment tools are very much worth the money to have. A hammer and punch is no way to sight in a pistol.
Friday of Color – NAR TQ $22.11 after discount
I mentioned it a few posts back, but when it comes to tourniquets you wanna make sure youre getting the real deal. So….:
After using the discount code you’re at $22.11 each. Thats good enough for me to order a handful. This is a prime opportunity to make sure youre getting the real deal from the source and getting it at a better price.
Thanksgiving sales
Happy Thanksgiving. When you’re giving thanks don’t forget to take a moment and thank yourself. After all, you absolutely coudn’t have done it without you.
So, now that thats out of the way, lets talk Black Friday Friday Of Color sales. Your fastest and most prolific place to find them will be on Reddit. r/gundeals is where you’re gonna wanna spend your time (and money…youve been warned.)
However, here are two I wanna point out while I have your tryptophan-addled attention:
Palmetto is at it again with the deal on MP5 magazines.I bought ten of these last time and they were all MKE manufacture, which is apparently a good manufacture. (Yes, I know the history of MKE…the usual “build it for our military in our country and then when the contract is over we’ll take over the factory and make them ourselves”)
I’ve got three MP5 clones so I can always use some quality mags, but I’ll be danged if I’m gonna buy a dozen OEM HK mags when they clock in at around $70@. They really do hate me and think I suck. So…ten more from this deal to put back in the Deep Sleep for Der Tag.
Next up: how does major manufacturer 9mm ammo sound for $190/1000 and free shipping? That catch your attention? Yeah, me too. Limit one per customer from the guys at Cheapammo.com . Same story on Fiocchi .223…$375/1000 with free shipping. Sale starts at 9am EST Friday. Snooze and you lose. They did a similar sale last Thanksgiving, as you may recall, and your buddy Zero made sure to get some. Glad I did because this stuff never goes down in price or down in demand. Can’t be too thin, to rich, or too well-stocked.
Friday of Color is, effectively, here and it’s time to be strategic. Remember: amateurs talk tactics, the pros talk logistics.
Followup – Article – An AR-15 ammunition factory built to supply the military shifted to commercial sales and is now tied to more than a dozen mass shootings
The usual statements, from the usual people, about the usual ‘solution’. The free market abhors a vacuum, and while any departure from the 5.56 ammo market will eventually be filled it would be unreasonable to not expect economic law to occur in the short term: when supply is low and demand is high, prices go…up.
No one has enough ammo. More is, by and large, always better. Unless you’re swimming or on fire you cannot have too much ammo. The savvy survivalist, if they don’t already have a goodly amount of the stuff, should take this as a warning that there may be some changes coming up in the market and prepare accordingly.
Freeze dried ice cream sandwiches
ETA: The Aborted Launch and Meteoric Rise of Astronaut Ice Cream
CostCo has been, as of late, carrying some Mountain House freeze dried meals in an ’emergency pack’. This is in addition to a couple other ‘survival bucket’ products that CostCo is carrying. Personally, I’d buy the MH product rather than the other survival food available at CostCo. At least the MH includes some minor degree of real meat…not TVP or ‘chicken flavor‘. (For example, these kits don’t offer ‘chicken soup’. No no no. They offer ‘Chicken flavored soup’ or ‘Beef flavored stew’. Because if you say ‘chicken soup’ then you better have some actual chicken in there or you could be construed as having misled the buyer.
Anyway…
In addition to the Mountain House emergency pack, I noticed that CostCo is also carrying these:
First off, you do not add hot (or cold) water to reconstitute this stuff. You simply eat it as is. I’ve had these before and many people have as well…theyre kind of a novelty in the world of survival food. Does it taste like ice cream? Well, yes. But it gets a bit gummy in your mouth. Still, its pretty cool and a nice treat.
Would I buy these? Nah. I mean, if you want something to hand out to impress your friends at a picnic, yeah. But its kinda expensive. Still, when you’re manning that roadblock after the fallout settles it might be a nice break from the MRE’s and Spam.
Trolling ATFE
I had to order up a new stack of 4473 forms (“yellow sheets”) last week. Apparently I can just go online and order them so thats what I did. Now, I really can’t stand the ATFE but the hard truth is that I have to put up with them to have an FFL, and having an FFL makes things a lot more economical and beneficial for me in terms of gun acquisitions and value to the tribe. So, I put up with them.
But sometimes….you just wanna poke the bear.
The bundle of forms arrived at my PO box yesterday:
Yeah, I know it was thirty years ago….so probably the drone at the ATFE clearing house has no idea of their history….or simply doesn’t care….but I still find this amusing.
