Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
I was talking with someone today and I mentioned that little gives me more satisfaction than pantry shelves filled with food, a gun safe full of arms and ammo, and a bit of money in the bank. I can pull a lot of satisfaction out of those simple things.
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Replaced the rear sight in my HiPower. I had an early adjustable sight (ca. 1970) in there that used two opposing screws to make windage changes. Loosen one, tighten the other. Well, one screw worked itself loose and I was never going to see that thing again so I went with a later manufacture OEM replacement. I also had a helluva time getting the damn thing installed. Im not going to go into the gory details, I will simply say that whatever you pay for a professional quality sight pusher is worth it. Go to Brownells and order one up because swinging at your slide with a brass hammer like your aiming for the center field fence gets really old really fast.
Speaking of tools, lets talk about tools. Specifically, gun tools. One of the things I’ve come to like about the Glock is that, by and large, you don’t ‘smith’ a Glock – you replace parts. Theres nothing, AFAIK, that requires fitting. You drop in your parts and go. If only everything else was that simple. AR’s require a few tools, but nothing really special. 1911’s require staking tools and a few other goodies. AK’s require..well, nothing really.
More than tools, you need references. I can only speak from experience. For Glocks, The Complete Glock Reference Guide from the guys at Lone Wolf is the best book I’ve seen. If you own a Glock it’s something you’ll really enjoy having…you’ll learn all sortsa cool stuff you probably didn’t know. Also, a small punch and a Leatherman tool will be all you’ll probably ever need for a Glock although a sight adjustment tool (see earlier paragraph) is nice to have. I dropped $125 for the Glock OEM tool and after taking a handfull of Glocks to the range with the intent of tweaking the sights I can say that its $125 well spent. I cant imagine having tried to make those adjustments with a hammer and punch. Sure you could do it, but you wouldnt unless you really had no other choice.
Its really worth dropping the few bucks for spare parts for your important guns. A little thing like a broken trigger return spring (Glock), broken magazine release (1911), or broken case (AR-15) can take your gun out of action for as long as it takes to get it repaired and you may not have that kind of time or opportunity. (And the three examples given have happened to me or the girlfriend at some point.)
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I might have mentioned it before, but a post elsewhere about rural firefighting issues and how to save one’s home reminded me of a product I’ve been rather taken with. The building materials illustrated at this website are for folks who want the look of a log home but without the maintenance and fire issues. These logs are, in fact, concrete rather than wood. I got to examine a cutaway display of these things firsthand and I was impressed. On the exterior they are a dead ringer for hewn logs, but theyre actually concrete about 6-8” thick with all the benefits of concrete. Fire resistance is, naturally, pretty high and I would imagine theres a certain amount of ballistic resistance as well. If youre going to build a little place out in the sticks, and you don’t want the place looking like the furheurbunker, this might be a very nice choice.
