Practicing with .22 kits

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Pretty much in every piece of survivalist fiction there is always at least one big shootout scene. It can be the brave townies against the invading cannibal army, the plucky conservative group against the dastardly UN troops, etc. It makes for entertaining reading but is it likely that at some point youre going to go to war with New Bern? I doubt it. Oh, I have no doubt that during Katrina and a few other major events there might have been a few people who were forced to play Blackhawk Down as best they could (Roof Koreans!). But I believe those were the extreme outliers. Unless you’re Harry Beckwith (record holder for most amount of shots fired in defense of self), I’d bet most people never even needed a mag change.

But…we never know what the future holds, do we? So, we practice. Today is a range day to practice fast target acquisition and some shoot-n-move stuff with the HKlone. Given the always high price of ammo, it makes sense to try and save money when possible. To that end, the Germans, always looking for an excuse to engineer some new form of Teutonic brilliance, made a very nice .22 conversion kit for the G3. I bought one of these years ago and although it was rather expensive at the time (and still is), it pays for itself rather quickly.

.22 conversion kits for guns are an extremely handy thing if you’re going to take your practice seriously. They arent really about accuracy as much as they are about gun handling. Practicing bring your AR up from a low ready, getting a fast sight picture, and snapping of a shot that hits a steel plate….you can do that at $9 per mag of 30, or you can do it for $1.20 per mag of 30. I prefer the more bang-for-your-buck approach. For practicing things like shooting while moving, weak hand shooting, transitions, etc, there’s no reason the .22 conversions shouldn’t be used.

For the AR, I very much like the CMMG conversion and recommend them.Although there are plenty of .22 conversion kits for your AR out on the market the one that seems to get universal approval is the CMMG. Ciener conversions, in my experience, are…’lacking’. If it were me, I would recommend a CMMG conversion, and four mags. Why four? Start your drills with one in the gun and three in your plate carrier or GI mag pouch.

When I practice with the .22 conversions I’m usually doing stuff like:

  • Bring rifle up from low ready, get fast sight picture, fire one round at steel plate for a hit.
  • Same drill, from weak side
  • Shoot while moving..forwards, backwards, sideways, etc.
  • Shoot from non-facing positions. That is to say, shoot at target when your facing away or oblique to target.
  • And just the run-n-gun of shooting three or five rounds, run to new position, shoot another 3-5 from prone, run to new position, 3-5 from kneeling, etc, etc.

Make up your own drills. Get a #50 bag of something and drag it to safety with one hand while covering with your rifle in the other, pie some corners, do some fire/movement drills with your mates, etc, etc.

Odds are pretty good that you’ll never need to do an Australian peel or anything like that, but any drill that improves your gun handling, gun safety, and tactical options is worth doing. And with a decent .22 conversion kit you can spend a long afternoon drilling with your buddies for the cost of two bricks of .22

.22 conversion kits for pistols have been, in my experience, a bit hit-n-miss. Tactical Solutions made one for the Glock but it never seemed to be reliable enough for a day of practice at the range. If anyone can recommend a good G17 .22 kit, I’d like to hear about it.

 

Video – Should I Buy A Used Ruger P95

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An interesting video:

I’ve made no secret that I rather like the P95, but I like it for one very simple reason: for about $200 it’s the best gun you can buy. Thats not to say its the best gun out there, or that its even a ‘very good’ gun. Rather it means that if you have $200 in your pocket, unless you get extraordinarily lucky, the Ruger P95 will be the best gun you can afford.

But…there’s some other things to think about.

On the police trade-in market these days there are tons of Glock and S&W .40 caliber pistols. For about $250 you can have a S&W M&P or a Glock 22/23. And, honestly, both of those guns are better than the P95.

Why don’t I get a stack of those pistols if theyre better than the P95 and only a few bucks more? Well, first off, I already filled my need for some cheap disposable pistols…I already have a dozen of the P-series so there’s really nothing to be gained by picking up the other ones. Additionally, I’m not a .40 guy. I prefer the 9mm.

However, if you’re looking for something that is ‘affordable’ and far better than a HiPoint, Bersa, or Taurus, head over to Kings and check the used pistols. Or, you can cruise Gunbroker and try your luck at scoring some $200 P95’s. They don’t usually go that cheap, but there’s always plenty to bid on and if you bid often enough you’ll get one at that price.

Guns like these are not really my first choice for carrying around everyday (although you could), but rather they are ‘loaners’ or ‘expendable’ handguns. Guns that you don’t mind loaning or giving to a friend who needs a gun, that you can leave in a truck or cabin and not be heartbroken if it gets stolen, or that you can abuse by getting wet and banged up as you rough-n-tumble your way through some disaster. They are like Bic lighters…they work quite reliably but they are basically disposable and cheap enough that you can have several.

I’ve ordered up a few of the police trade-in M&Ps for a friend and I have to say, I really like the gun. We got a .45 ACP version with three magazines for, I believe, $270 which is a smoking deal for a .45 with spare mags. What amazed me was how narrow and comfortable the grip was for that double stack mag. Very impressive.

Anyway, I was perusing YouTube and saw that video and thought I’d pass it along since I’ve mentioned my penchant for cheap, uber-stout handguns more than a few times.

Not quite the good old days….

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But remember a couple years ago when a brick of .22 ammo was like finding a four leaf clover? And those insane prices? Yeah, well….

Trivia:knock off the bottom row of this endcap and you get an accurate representation of how much .22 ammo I have in Deep Sleep.

Not as great as when it was ten bucks per brick, but at least its available. Did I buy some? Of course! Because theres Ammo To Shoot and Ammo To Store. I have plenty of Ammo To Store but Ammo To Shoot is always in flux.

Plus, someday I might get $60/brick like I did a few years ago. 😉

 

Generator day

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Rather nice day out there today. Good day to crack open the Hardigg case where I store the EU2000 and make today into Generator Day.

I’ve had the Eu2000 for about five or so years now and I have been quite pleased with it. There have been a fw short-term outages where I’ve had to run it for a few hours and I’ve been very pleased with it. I have no real need to run the entire house, rather my needs are extremely simple..keep the freezers freezing, and the router routing. Thats pretty much it. Heating is taken care of with the kerosene heaters, lighting is taken care of with the Goal0 lights and some AGM batteries, and everything else is mostly a non-critical system.

Although the EU2000 has been a reliable piece of gear, I will probably at some point get a second one. There’s a lot of piece of mind to not having all my eggs in one basket and the two generators can be daisychained to provide higher output should the need arise.

When I got mine, I think they were on sale for about a grand. They’re a bit more nowdays but still, in my opinion, a very good purchase. If you decide to get one, don’t forget all the ancillary gear that goes with them..air filters, oil, gas can, fuel funnel, heavy-duty extension cords, cable lock, etc, etc.

Rack numbers

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Went shooting this morning and I was going to take one of the 870’s that I picked up a few months back but hadnt had a chance to shoot. I opened the shotgun cabinet and looked at the row of identical 870’s and it occurred to me: I actually have to start putting rack numbers on the guns.

Anyone of you who have worn dogtags or badges know what I’m talking about. Those big stenciled numbers on the butt of a stock for quick ID among several identical guns.

Yeah… gonna have to go that route, it seems.

On the bright side, thats a fairly good indicator that I might be done with acquiring 870’s for the forseeable remainder of  my life.

Patriot’s Day

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Think, really think, about what it must have been like to literally bet your life and the lives of those you love on what was, at the time, treason.

Sure, everyone says they’ll pick up a rifle and ‘fight for their freedom’ but these guys actually did it.

While we may not know if we’re made of similar stuff until called upon, we can at least try to be ready. So…head to the range and put some metal in the air.

Fire when not ready

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That was a pretty spectacular blaze they had going on over at Notre Dame. Of course, when you let your kindling season for around 800 years you should probably expect a rather cheery glow.

You know, back in the 1700’s right up until the late 1800’s a house fire in a large population center could wipe out a huge chunk of the metropolis. We all hear about the Chicago fire but there were quite a few similar conflagrations through history. … The kind that were so dangerous that the people responding would literally dynamite entire rows and blocks of houses to keep it from spreading.

Nowadays you don’t really see those kinds of blazes very much anymore. Sure, industrial fires occur and there’s always that one propane tanker that just has to become a freeze-frame moment on he national news. But residential neighborhoods going up? Seems like it doesn’t happen very much. Wildifres, sure. But someone left-the-stove-on-and-burned-down-twenty-homes doesn’t seem to happen very often at all.

Of course, whether its one house or one hundred, all that really matters is when it’s your house. After the apocalypse you can’t really count on the local fire brigade to show up and you might be on your own.

For a couple years I’ve tinkered with the idea of a small hose bib and coil of flat hose hidden in a strategically located closet in the house to keep the small fires form becoming Big Fires. But, in addition to that I also keep a rather generous amount of fire extinguishers.

But you know what really sets the stage for being prepared against that sorta thing? Prevention. I simply try not to burn down the damn house. Whats that mean? Well, for starters, if I’m not at the house I don’t leave things like crockpots, slow cookers, rice steamers, or other ‘slow cook’ devices running. Thats just asking for trouble. Of course some devices run when Im not around…refrigerator, hot water heater, furnace, etc, but those are kinda designed for unattended operation. (And, nonetheless, I keep an eye on them anyway… keep those things clean from dust and any nearby materials that might wanna go poof.)

And, of course, smoke detectors. And I’m not some idiot who just slaps a 9v into $10 detector, mounts it on the ceiling, and then thinks its a job well done. No no no. You gotta test that mofo. A wooden kitchen match and a stepladder. Every. Smoke. Detector.

Afew years ago someone gifted me a CO detector. These are actually probably even more useful than a smoke detector because while I can get the hint that the sofa is on fire from that bright red glow, I am completely oblivious to the CO building up in the house because the vent to my hot water heater got iced over or something. And, if you’re going to heat with a kerosene heater or other portable device in the winter then you really need a couple of those things.

Sadly, the best laid plans of mice and survivalists often go astray so you gotta have a plan for when things start getting toasty. The most blatantly obvious is have a way to get outta the house. I live on the ground floor, so for me, defenestration is my number one method for heading to safety. But, if you live in a multi-story dwelling….well…might wanna think about how to get out without breaking both legs.

Might also wanna think about the critical stuff to keep in the gun safe. I don’t attach a ny sentimental value to my passport, birth certificate, college papers, or pardon from the governor….but I might like to not have to replace those documents. So, if its something you really don’t wanna replace and might need for running your life….it goes in the gun safe.

Thing is…we know all of this. Am I telling you anything that you don’t already know? Of course not. The big issue is do we act upon what we know? You  know the important docs should stay in the gun safe, right? So why are the sitting in the drawer of your desk? You know you’re supposed to change the smoke detector batts every time we set the cloks back/forward, right? So why is the detector in the laundry room chirping like a lovesick cricket?

Motivation, man. We know what we’re supposed to do, we just don’t do it. And then when we get caught….well, imagine how stupid youre going to feel then. Imagine coming home to this. This is probably one of the biggest reasons I can imagine for having a ‘secondary location’ where I can keep a portion of things like ammo, food, guns, fuel, gear, etc.

Anyway…I was reading an article in the paper today about a local-ish family that lost it all in a house fire and it reminded me of the subject. Oh, and before I forget, while it probably won’t come in handy after the apocalypse, some good fire insurance will be a nice bit of peace of mind the rest of the time.

 

 

Mag musings

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Real life intrudes. I got a couple things in my civilian life that I need to get on top of so it’s going to be thin postings for a couple days.

Meanwhile….

Various reports say that between one and five million magazines made their way into California during that little window of opportunity a few weeks ago. Everything I read, which may or may not be true, says that wholesalers, retailers, vendors, and pretty much everyone in the business made it a point to prioritize getting the California orders expedited. I would imagine its the first time in history so many have done so much for a state that they normally disdain.

It should be very interesting to see how this shake out in the courts (as well as seeinghow far it gets). Getting this sort of thing bumped up to the Supremes, could be very interesting and the stakes could be higher than some states are willing to risk.

My own magazine needs are pretty well met, but mags are a consumable. And, theyre a very portable commodity that can be sold or traded for rather easily. So, really, unless you’re running for your life or trying to swim, you can’t have too many.

And speaking of mags, this looked interesting: CDNN has ‘OE’ 20-rd straight Mini-14 mags for $15

Details

RUGER® MINI-14® 223 20RD MAGAZINE ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT

This magazine is original equipment; which means it’s manufactured in the same factory using the same process as the magazines that shipped with the gun originally.

Hmm. Aftermarket mags are always a crapshoot with the Mini-14 but these might not be bad. For $15 they might be worth a risk. If anyone tries them, let me know.

 

Blasts from the past

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Here’s why my Roth is underfunded:

But, with most .223 running around $0.32/@ it seemed like a nice way to get some blasting ammo. For you young bucks who are too young to remember, back before Slick Willy was flavoring his cigars with brunettes we could buy cheap Chinese guns and ammo. How cheap? You could get an SKS and a case of 7.62×39 for about $125-150. Seriously. My UPS guy hated me. Quality-wise it was…interesting. At one point even Chinese gunpowder (hey, they invented the stuff, right?) was on the market very briefly until it turned out that it was basically fireworks powder..it had a burn rate measured in Planck time. Their ammo was a mixed bag…always dirty, often underpowered, but always cheap. Kinda made Wolf look like Federal. All those SKS rifles you see these days were purchased because ammo was nine cents per round.

But, if you were just going to the range to break rocks and make noise…well, it was a pretty good deal. I know a lot of people who salted away cases and cases of this stuff. Not my first choice for Der Tag, but some ammo is (usually) better than no ammo.

This stuff? I’ll probably just use it for playing around with the Mini-14’s.Box says brass case but believe it when I see it. As Uncle Duke says…

Dreams and gear

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I cant recall all the details, but the dream was in some sort of new ice age scenario. Me and a group of people were trying to navigate these dark, narrow passageways under a building looking for supplies. Of course, no one had a flashlight. And then, in the dream, I remembered I had one in my pocket.

I really hate using trendy terms like ‘EDC’ but this little guy has been rolling around in my pocket for a couple years now and the more I carry it around the more I really like it. I’ve given away a handful to friends and every single one of them has commented on what a good light it is. I won’t bore you with details like lumens, weight, runtime, etc. You can look those up yourself. I’ll simply say that I have three of these sitting on the shelf as spares and there is always one in my pocket and one lanyarded to my Bag O’ Tricks…and I’m a tough customer on flashlights.

For about twenty-five bucks this thing does everything I need in a ‘non tactical’ flashlight. But its most important and most redeeming feature is that it is always there…so much a part of my everyday routing that even my subconscious knew that I’d have it with me in the dream.

I’ve mentioned these little Fenix E-series lights before, but I’ve found them to be an excellent light for toting around in a pocket every day and figured it was worth a bump.