Monthly Archives: April 2025

Ammo older than me

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Went to the range today to, among other things, function test the GP100 I picked up the other week. I brought along some of my usual .357 ammo, but I also had a dog’s lunch of .38 Special that had been cluttering up my shelf for a while. It was a mix of factory ammo, including tracers, going back quite a ways. None of it was newer than the 1990’s and some of it, like the tracers, were well past 50 years old. (Peters went defunct just after WW2)

How’d they shoot? Well, I’d like to say it all shot fine but that’s not true. I had two failures due to light primer strikes. Both on the same brand/headstamp. I think what happened there was that the primers were seated a bit high. Both fired on the second strike. Everything else shot fine. And, yes, the tracers lit up…not 100%, but most of them. The ammo, however, did function and the bullets went downrange which is the important part.

I bring this up because there is often the question of ‘how long is ammo good for’ or ‘how long will ammo last’. In addition to today’s episode, I’ve shot stuff a hundred years old that fired no problem. Heck, I had a buncha 1950’s vintage FN .30-06 ammo a few years back that fired perfectly. The answer to the question of how long ammo will last (and by ‘last’ we mean how long will ammo perform properly) is, basicaly, forever IF stored properly…in an airtight, moisture proof container, like an ammo can.

Now, having said that, do you know where the not-optimum storage place for ammo is? Your gun. The ammo you carry around in your gun on a day-to-day basis is exposed to elements, moisture from your body, and a few other environmental factors. And it will still work just fine years down the road. However…there is no point in taking chances so I personally fire off my carry ammo every so often and replace it. Usually annually, but Im kind of a paranoid that way. You can probably swap it out every other year and be just fine. For me, though, I swap it out every year.

So there you have it…stored properly ammo, in this case some .38 Special, will last a lifetime…easily. Class dismissed.

Spraypaint

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As I’m sure you can gather from various posts I’ve made, I tend to go for military ammo cans as my container of choice. Unfortunately, theyve gotten harder and harder to get over the years and when you can find them they are often not in new condition. Most of the time, any ammo can you come across is in a more-than-used condition. Broadly, as long as the lids close, the mouth of the can isnt deformed, and the gaskets are present, they’re good to go. However, the do tend to get a bit of rust at the corners and on the bottoms where they often receive a good bit of abuse and scraping.

Usually, I just wipe the cans down and hit the high points with a quick spray of Rustoleum in an appropriate color. I was doing that the other day and I ran out of spraypaint. Ok, no worries..head to the store and get another can. Here’s where it becomes a pain the rear… what brand Y calls ‘Olive Drab Green’, brand X may call ‘Hunter Green’ or ‘Moss Green’. And while ‘close enough’ will probably suffice, I really prefer to get the paint color as close to original as possible. In fact, I did pick up some spraypaint the other day that looked like it would be the right color but, no, when the spray hit the ammo can it was quite clear that while it was a nice matte green, it just wasnt the right green. Grrrr.

So, I decided I’d hit the major stores here in town and see if I could find the ideal paint. Was up at Lowe’s shopping for spraypaint (Home Depot’s selection of green absolutely sucked.) Found this:

This was absolutely perfect. Blended almost perfectly with the color of the ammo can. The nozzle produced a wide vertical spray, so a couple quick side-to-side passes did the trick, it dried fast, and it didnt drip or run. So impressed I went back for an extra can. So, if you’re needing to touch up your ammo cans, military gas cans, etc, and want the near-perfect color…this is what you want. “4293 OLIVE” UPC 7 24504 06895 2

I found it at Lowe’s for a few bucks cheaper than Amazon. High recommend.

 

Complacency…the curse of the prepared

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I’ve mentioned it in the past, but it really is difficult to maintain one’s focus and intensity in preparing for the end of the world when you have electricity, hot water, a freezer full of food, and a job. And we know that graveyards are full of people whose secondary cause of death was complacency. We let our foot off the gas and we don’t notice it until we suddenly realize we’re miles from where we want to be and time is almost gone.

I often joke to people that I do my best, fastest, copious, and efficient work when I have gun pointed at my head. And, if you really think about, there’s always a metaphorical gun pointed at our head – our own mortality. Memento mori….we’re all gonna die. But it’s easy to forget that and we wind up dawdling and wasting time.

It’s just so easy to forget that there are wars going on…military wars, culture wars, economic wars, and personal wars. It’s easy to forget about the unpredictability of groceries when you’re fat and not hungry. It’s easy to forget about the fragility of power systems when the lights are on. It’s easy to forget about the vulnerabilities of supply chains when there’s gas in your truck. You get the idea.

I can only speak for myself, of course, but I’m betting that some of you also slack off a bit in the good times (or the not-bad times). What do you do to regain that focus and intensity? Watch ‘Threads’? Start making lists? Resolve to be more diligent? I know I can’t be the only one who sometimes slows down and starts to lose steam in terms of living a life of improved resilience and decreased threats.

What do I do? I think back about times when I was living pretty close to the edge… no money in the bank, no food in the fridge, no marketable skills, that sort of thing. Days where twenty bucks was all the money in the world. You only have to be hungry a time or two to really appreciate the fundamental things that make life bearable – shelter, food, water, heat, and a way to pay for them.

I bring this up because I was thinking that I have gotten a bit soft lately. I used to have a somewhat intense focus on making sure I had the mechanisms and supplies in place to get me through pretty much anything that might come along and kick me back to those lean days. It seems like the further away I get from those times, the less focus and intensity I have… which is wildly counterproductive because, holy Crom, have you watched the news lately?

So…if you’re like me and think that maybe you havent been running the preparedness wagon on all eight cylinders lately and you need a little more octane in the tank, I suggest you settle into a comfy chair, relax, and think back to the utter and absolute craptacular moments in your past, be pleased that theyre behind you, and then use their memory to fuel your resolve to get back into the mindset that gets things done. Make a list if you have to. Get an accountability partner. Promise yourself an awesome reward if you hit your goals. Whatever it takes, man.

It isnt a certainty, but I’d say the odds are good that someday you, me, and everyone else are gonna get caught up in something thats gonna make us glad we prepared as much as we did and sorry we didnt prepare as much as we should have.

Only you know what works for motivating you, but whatever it is I recommend you start doing it if you havent already. The world is an uncertain place and there’s not a lot of room for complacency.

The dream is always the same

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Ugh…I had weird dreams last night. The most notable one was that something big had happened…the sort of event where youre definitely not showing up for work and its time to crack open the box that says “Do not open unless TEOTWAWKI”. Me and a friend were in my basement getting our gear ready because we were going to have to leave and be unable to come back. They were so panicked they just grabbed a small bag of essentials and beat feet. I was left there wondering how I was going to get all this important gear out of here without their help. And, naturally, I then woke up.

This is my subconscious’ way of telling me I a) need friends who won’t flake out at the first sign of trouble and b) I need to get the Beta Site purchased and up-and-running so I can split my preps between two locations and avoid these sorts of unpleasant-decision-making moments.

The fantasy I have, among others (looking at you, Jennifer Lawrence), is that I keep my current residence while I acquire the secondary property and build my little bunker. While thats going on I split half my gear between there and here. Once its done, I squirrel away most (75%~) of my stuff there, and keep enough here to enable me to get there or to sit things out here until I can get there. Then, when Im ready to sell the primary property, I take the rest of the gear, and my fat equity check, and head to the secondary on a permanent basis. Its a simple plan, it just isnt easy.

But, if you want to make Crom laugh, tell him your plans.

 

Patriots Day

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Its that time of year again. Head to the range and work on your freedom-maintenance skills. This year is 250 years of BFYTW.

“The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

But…freedom means other things as well. Being prepared gives you another type of freedom…the freedom from worry, stress, and insecurity. You can starve to death as a perfectly free man. Guns and ammo, absolutely….but the instruments of freedom don’t stop there. Gold, food, land, fuel, information, friends…all are arrows in your quiver. Don’t get pigeonholed into thinking its all about the guns.

Has it really been that long

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I had completely forgotten about it, and was reminded by someone who commented that they saw the notice over at SurvivalBlog, but today is he 22nd anniversary of the blog.

Thats just … incomprehensible.

I would be remiss to not take advantage of it by saying if you’ve found this blog useful or, more likely, entertaining over the last two decades (five presidential administrations!) please wander over to Patreon and give your ol’ buddy Zero some lovin’.

I’d also like to point out, in a very good naturedly petty way, that I just barely beat out ,Rawles in getting into the blogosphere. In fact, I recall when I discovered he had started blogging and saying to someone “Hey, that guy that wrote that book? He’s got a blog now!” Ah, good times.

And, for giggles, how many apocalypses have we gone though in that time….lets see….I count at least eight or nine, not including the perpetually right-around-the-corner Peak Oil drama. And yet, here we are.

And, like every election, when these anniversaries roll around I feel like “Yeah, but this year is the year that will be worse than all the others.” And yet….still here.

How much longer will this blog keep posting? Beats me. Some people might say it jumped the shark years ago and is now just a fading starlet trying to vainly pretend she’s still glamourous. Others might think its ben pretty consistent over the year (good or bad). Regardless, Im not planning on going anywhere but life moves pretty fast. Anything can happen.

Anyway, for those who have been along since Day One, thanks for following. And for those who haven’t been around since Day One but have still become regulars around here, thank you for your interest. And, finally, for those who actually have ponied up a few bucks here and here , or sent me cool stuff in the mail, mucho thanks.

 

Heavy metal

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So here’s the thing about gold. If youre in the gold buying and selling gold business, one of the things you try to avoid is buying a large amount of gold and holding onto it. The reason is obvious – if you buy 100 ounces of gold from a customer and the price drops $20 overnight, you’ve just lost two grand. Now, yes, the market could go up $20 overnight and you’d be ahead two grand… but thats not a chance you really want to take in the metals business. I asked my buddy about this and asked why he wouldn’t simply refuse the offer and take a pass on the deal. His answer, which made perfect sense, was that in the buying/selling business (of any product) you don’t last long or get a good reputation if you turn away people who want to sell you stuff.

So, what does this lead up to? Well, my buddy at the coin shop texts me and tells me that a rare opportunity to get a supremely good deal on gold and silver is available.

Apparently, he bought out an estate and wound up with several thousand one gram Valcombi bars, and a whole mountain of 100-gram divisible Valcombi silver bars. How good a deal? Well, I was told not to say, but it was an exceptionally good deal. Good enough to the point that I moved a good chunk of cash into them. He did not want to get caught holding the bag if the market shifted, so he almost immediately turned around and sold the whole thing to a wholesaler. BUT….he knows that Im always willing to buy gold if I can get a good deal on it.

So, I beefed up my gold and silver holdings. I usually prefer 1 oz. bars for my silver, but the Valcombi bars are always interesting and the price was too good to pass up, so I got a big stack of them as well.

Expensive day.

Article – Americans Are Preparing for When All Hell Breaks Loose

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Once thought of as a fringe mind-set, the prepared citizen movement is gaining traction in a world shaped by war, the pandemic and extreme weather.

Ten men, some wearing camouflage, others in vests loaded with ammunition for their AR-15 rifles, gathered under the morning shade of oak trees in Central Florida last month. They were there to learn marksmanship tactics common among Special Operation forces and elite law enforcement units.
Their instructor, Christopher Eric Roscher, an Air Force veteran, introduced himself and then led the group in prayer.
“Lord, you would use them as assets, to be protectors in this world, in a world that’s full of evil,” he prayed.
The men gathered around him were not soldiers, police officers or right-wing militia members. They were mostly civilians, including two pilots, a nurse and a construction company executive. The class’s title — Full Contender Minuteman — even referred to the civilians turned soldiers of the American Revolution.
In a world shaped by war, a pandemic and extreme weather, more Americans are getting ready for crisis — whether it’s to fight a tyrannical government, repel an invading army or respond to a natural disaster.
They are known as prepared or professional citizens, part of a growing number of gun owners who are adapting their mind-set to uncertain and polarized times. And rather than being part of more fringe “prepper” culture, they are growing more mainstream, catered to by companies ready to offer them the tools and training to be ready.
Nothing we haven’t seen before, and definitely something we’ll see more of. Interesting read, though.

Green Machine II

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I mentioned a few posts back that I had put together an entirely ODG (olive drab green) AR. I like the color, it goes well with everything, and, honestly, black rifles get a little boring. On the other hand, finding accessories in basic black is a piece of cake. Finding accessories in ODG, however…that takes some work. Well, thats not really true…what it takes is money. But, Zero wanted an all-green gun and, dangit, thats what Zero got.
Sling – MagPul M4 Sling
VFG – Magpul VFG
Rails – Timber Creek aluminum rail segments in ODG
Sights – Magpul BUIS in ODG

I’m a bit disappointed that the QD socket attachments were only available in black, but you can’t have everything. I’ll be swapping out the muzzle device for some sort of QD-supressor-compatible device as soon as I figure out whats available. And, the glaringly obvious glaring barrel might just be left as is..or it might get the rattle can treatment…we shall see.
And since TPIWWP: