Tag Archives: gear

Trying the new Gen III ECWS

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Bloody cold today. Actually, it’s not that cold…it’s simply what its pretty much supposed to be in Montana around this time of year. Currently? +3, although I expect below zero as the night progresses.

Since it was so cold during the day today, I figured I’d try out a new piece of cold weather gear. See, usually I wear my heavy Carhart coat in this sort of weather. It does a decent job, and its tough as nails, but it’s pretty bulky. I picked up a Gen III ECWS parka a few months back and this has been my first chance to try it out and I’m very pleased with it. Like most cold weather gear, it helps if you dress properly underneath it – you cant just put it on over a t-shirt and expect to be toasty.

gen3_level7_400x408One nice thing, right off the bat, is the compressability….the Carhart coat cant be stuffed down into a small(er) package the way this thing can. I was out this evening walking Nuke and I was wearing the parka over a longsleeve ‘waffle’ pullover and a ECWCS undershirt (which I recommend highly for its warmth and low bulk. Buy ’em cheap by the dozen on eBay) and was warm and comfy. I suspect I’ll troll eBay and pick up two or three extras for myself and one or two for the missus.

Not all military surplus lives up to the hype, but I have to say that thus far I’ve been pretty pleased with it. If you’re hunting for something warm but not overbearingly heavy/bulky you might wanna check these things out.

Non-Commie caliber = non-Commie manufacturer, Commie caliber=Commie Manufacturer….

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As everyone knows, a gun without ammo is just a very inefficient club. Unless you’re on fire, there’s really no such thing as too much ammo.

Personally, I’ve been pulling triggers for just less than thirty years. I’ve shot some really broad varieties of ammo, from lotsa different countries, and from lotsa different eras. When I go to buy ammo I want the most reliable, consistent, affordable, quality-made, ammo I  can find.

American manufacturers:

Rattle of the big brands off the top of your head – Federal, Winchester, Remington, Hornady, Speer… if you buy this stuff you are pretty much guaranteed to be getting good ammo. Sure they have recalls once in a while, but I would take a box of Win White Box 9mm or Federal American Eagle 9mm over a box of Wolf any day of the week. The ammo from the large American companies is usually exactly what Im looking for.

Now, there are, of course, smaller manufacturers and some who are actually reloaders rather than manufacturers. Outfits like MagTech, Black Hills, etc. I used to shoot Black Hills ammo way back in the day…remember those 50-round American Flag boxes? It was usually ‘good enough’ ammo but accuracy was sometimes not as good as one might expect. Pricing, however, was good so if the weekend called for a day of busting rocks that was the ammo du jour.

Locally, we have the old Hunting Shack (HSM) ammo and BVAC (Bitterroot Valley Ammo Company). The nicest thing I can say about Hunting Shack ammo is that usually it goes ‘bang’ every time you pull the trigger. They had the local contract for practice ammo and results were…uninspiring. BVAC, which has/had an interesting pedigree as an offshoot of HSM, is slightly better but the company has had some fluctuations in QC and I’m just not willing to stockpile ammo I don’t trust.

Summary: Buy ammo from one of the big US makers and be confident you got good stuff.

European manufacturers:

I’ve been pleased with Sellier & Bellot, Fiocchi, Norma, Lapua, and Hirtenberger. Lapua is probably the best ammo in the world but expect to pay for that. S&B has been very good and reasonably priced. I use them for my 12 ga. needs. A couple drawbacks to these brands is that they just aren’t represented very well. Find something you like and its very possible it may be unavailable at a later date.

The Russians:

Ammo of last resort. If I’m shooting a Commie gun (AK, Makarov, Tokarov, SKS, 91/30) then I go with the spam cans of ‘surplus’ ammo. The guns are designed around those steel cases. Although they now offer other calibers like 9mm, .308, .223, .45 ACP, etc, they are all steel cased and, in my opinion, usually pretty dirty to shoot. You can point me to all the FAQ’s on arfcom but I am not running steel cases out of my AR…or any of my other non-Commie-caliber guns. The only exception I have is I wouldn’t hesitate to run steel .223 out of a Mini-14.

Wolf has tried, with some success, to clean up their image these days but, to quote Big Bang Theory, you’re trusting the technology of a country that couldn’t catch Rocky and Bullwinkle. When the apocalypse comes and I’m down to my last mag of M855 I’ll grab the packet of Wolf steel cased .223 thats offered to me…but I’ll have misgivings the whole time. On the other hand, if I’m using my AK then I’ll take the Wolf 7.62×39 and feel just fine.

The Chinese:

You don’t see much of this anymore since Slick Willie banned it from import, but it isnt hard to figure that it’s a grey-market product that probably turns up in the US. The Chinese move it to the Russians or other Eastern Block countries, they repackage it as their own, and move it to the US. FIlthy, inconsistent, unreliable stuff in any caliber other than 7.62×39…..then its just inconsistent and filthy. I recall one particular batch of ammo (and ‘gunpowder’) that came into the US that was loaded with what was essentially fireworks powder.

The Koreans:

PMC is actually, in my experience, pretty good stuff and I have no qualms using it. When youre just a short-range missle-launch away from North Korea you take your ammo making fairly seriously.

Misc. Surplus:

Used to be you could get South African, W. German, and other surplus ammo in good quantity at decent prices. (I’ve a dozen battle packs of .308 S. African that I paid something like $20 ea.) It turns up rarely, but when it does I have no problem with it if it’s from a country whose national airline you’d feel safe flying on. I’ll take South African .308 ball over Pakistani .308 every time.

These are all personal preferences. Im sure there are folks who’ll tell me they regularly compete and win in their IDPA division using steel cased .38 Super from Glorious People’s Tractor Factory #54 in China but that’s between them and their guns.

For my AR’s and PTR’s, Glocks and Rugers, its brassed case commercial ammo made in non-Commie countries. For my SKS and AK’s, its Russian or Chinese 7.62×39. If I were to check the stockpiles in the bunker right now it’d be Chinese and Russian 7.62×39, Federal .223, S&B and Rem. 12 ga, Federal .22, South African and PMC .308, Win. 9mm, and a hodgepodge of .357, .38 and .45 ACP (but American manufacturers).

Your milieage may vary, of course, but if someone was to ask me which to get, Federal or Winchester 9mm versus Wolf or Armscor 9mm…..well, you’ll get less of the Federal for your money than you would of the Wolf but I’d feel more confident with the Federal. Or, put another way, when you’re standing in front of your family-owned jewelry store in Ferguson MO and the cops are nowhere in sight will you be thinking “Wow, Im glad I saved nine cents a round on this steel cased Russian 9mm ammo”? Don’t underestimate the value of having faith and confidence in your ammo.

 

 

That long, quiet nap that guns take…………

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There was a time in my life when I had very few guns to my name. I can recall some money-tight college days where my personal collection was whittled down to three or four guns. Nowadays, its a different story. I’m not going to say how many because telling folks how many guns you own is a lot like bragging about the size of your johnson – unless youre ready to show it off to disbelievers, shut up.

Anyway, I’ve hit the point where I’m getting too much gun clutter around the house. Quite a few of these guns are ‘just in case’ guns. Tertiary-(or more)-level copies of things I already have. As such, there is the very high likelihood that once they get an initial once-over and range trip to verify function they will probably not be handled again for many years. So, really, it’s time to put some of these things away in deep storage.

My usual choice fo packing away things long term are Hardigg and Pelican cases. For handguns, I rather like the Pelican 1170 case for holding a handgun and a couple magazines. Theyre about $40 and worth every penny. But if you’re going to salt away a large quantity of handguns, it can add up in a hurry. As I was diddybopping around the internet, I found this..pre-cut foam inserts that turn a .30 or .50 caliber ammo can into a gun case. Since ammo cans are still pretty reasonable, this shaves the cost down and they stack nicely.

Here’s a couple of reviews elsewhere..here and here.

For my intended purpose, which is sealing up a pistol, some mags, and maybe a little ammo, sticking it on a shelf in my basement and forgetting about it for a decade….this should be perfect. For those of us who may need to sock away a pistol for some long term planning, these may be a good choice.

 

 

Heavily armed nature hike

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Went hunting yesterday, although  it might be more accurate to describe it as a heavily-armed nature hike, As the day went on, some weather moved in and it became prime hypothermia country – lowering temperatures (45~ degrees), freezing drizzle, and gusty winds. The classic scenario for hypothermia. I’d been wandering up and down the hills so I was pretty warm but I decided to find a comfortable spot under some cover and have some lunch and just wait a while and see if something walked by. Problem is, once you come to a stop you start to cool down.

When I was getting ready to leave that morning I was debating on what to wear. I didnt want to wear too much and overheat, or have to carry discarded clothing….but I didnt want to underdress and be cold and miserbale. I went with the ECWS undershirt with a Woolrich wool shirt over it. (And although they are expensive, and they require a certain degree of specialized care, everyone should have a couple quality wool shirts) I was wearing an orange hunting vest over that, so that was pretty warm. I was originally gonna wear the synthetic gloves but went with the wool mittens since I figured if they got wet theyd stay warmer. As it turned out, that was the good call.

So I found a comfy spot under some low branches and set up to have lunch.

IMG_1904[2]It’s hard to tell in the image, but it was a steady drizzle. Fortunately, it was time for lunch.

IMG_1901[1]

Lunch was some Mountain House spaghetti which has either gotten spicier since I last had some, or my growing old has made me more sensitive to such things. Still, just about anything eaten out in the sticks tastes good. The Esbit stove worked well and got 12 oz. of water to boiling in a few minutes with time to spare. The Mountain House is in their Pro-Pack packaging. This differs from their normal packaging in that they vacuum seal it to reduce the overall size of the package…this makes it a bit smaller to pack into a bag. Other stuff: titanium spork and Snow Peak Hybrid Summit Cookset. The cup normally has a silicone lid with it and a silicone bottom cover to protect the hand from heat. Since I normally stuff a Nalgene bottle into the cup, that leaves no place for the lid. But, the bottom cover fits over the top to act as a lid, so I use that.

So I had lunch and sat around in growing cold waiting for Bambi to show up. No luck. So, I figured the day was pretty much a bust so lets take advantage of the crappy weather to test some gear.

I used to pack the classic mylar ‘survival blanket’ in my gear. You guys have seen them, right? They’re about the size of a pack of playing cards and gossamer thin. In fact, theyre packaged too well for such a thin material…try opening one up sometime with frozen fingers. Imagine taking a stack of Kleenex out of the box and soaking it in water…now try to peel away one tissue at a time….thats what its like. I went old-school to one of the older style ‘blankets’..specifically the older space blanket. It is a bit more bulky (you can see it folded up on the ground in the second picture, next to the binoculars on the ground) but it is a much more durable material. I figured I’d wrap myself up in this one and see how it fared against the wind and rain.

IMG_1907[1]

It actually worked quite well. You have to understand, the material has virtually no insulative value. Wrap a piece of aluminum foil around your finger and then lay it atop an ice cube. Finger gets cold, right? The value of the material is in its windproofness and its reflective properties. Or, put another way, if you wrapped your finger in a piece of insulative material (a wool glove, for example) and then wrapped your finger in foil, you wouldnt feel the cold from that ice cube. So, in this case, draping the space blanket around myself, and drawing it closed around me created a nice pocket of warm air and the warm package of food held in my lap certainly heated things up nicely. (In fact, this sort of arrangement with a small tealight-style candle [or candle lantern] generates plenty of heat in that enclosed space. The space blanket did a very good job of keeping me warm and keeping the wind and wet at bay. Drawback: It would be nice if there were a velcro closure system..I had to grasp the edges of the blanket and hold it around me to keep the wind from pulling it open. In a real pinch, though, I could just use the medical tape out of my first aid kit. If you had some compact insulative layer like a Woobie or poncho liner with you, you’d be in awesome shape. The tradeoff, of course, is just how much crap youre willing to carry around.

So I sat around for a couple hours in the weather waiting for Bambi to show up and was pretty comfortable all things considered.

So there you go – minor field testing of some gear under the guise of a hunting trip. The next day, by the way, we had a blizzard-like weather system move through. Temperature dropped 30 degrees, powerful gusty winds, and a good deal of snow and sleet. So, good timing.

Gear – ‘Seek’ thermal camera attachment.

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Ok, this is, like, ten shades of cool. Here’s a few articles for background:

Heat seeker: Meet the thermal-imaging camera you can afford

The Seek Thermal Infrared Camera for iPhone and Android

Seek Thermal, a $199 Thermal Imaging Camera for Your Phone

Short version: for $200 you can see in the dark if there’s bad guys, warm car engines, animals, or other heat sources lurjing around your AO. This really is one of those products that is ‘limited only by your imagination’. Pour hot water down a clogged pipe to find the clog, see how much propane is in a tank, see if the dog was sleeping on your couch, see if the cars in the driveway/parking lot have been used recently, where is the deer you shot just before sundown, is that a SWAT team hiding in the bushes, which beer in the fridge is the coldest, and, possibly, is that gal across the room really into you or not.

For the survivalist I can see this thing having all sorts of uses…seeing if something is out there in the dark, checking the ground for heat sources from recently extinguished fires, seeing what guns in the rack may have been handled/fired recently, etc, etc.

I’m tellin’ ya, man….we’re living in a Star Trek world more and more everyday. And while the technology is interesting enough on its own, it isnt that new since its been around a while. Whats new is dropping it down to the price of HiPoint pistol and a box of ammo.

I think I may have to get one of these.

Food and edged instruments

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

:::carefully lights the candles and incense burner:::

:::consults the oracle [teh interwebtubes] and sees the signs look favorable:::

:::begins Gregorian chanting:::

OhBigBrownTruckOfHappinessArriveTodayyyyyyy……..

OhBigBrownTruckOfHappinessArriveTodayyyyyyy……..

OhBigBrownTruckOfHappinessArriveTodayyyyyyy……..

And…it works! What sort of goodies has pre-apocalypse consumer America deposited on my doorstep today? Well, lets take a look.

First up, a nice little collection of #2 cans of goodies from Augason Farms. Before I buy anything in a #10 can I try to get it in a smaller serving so I can see if it’s something I’m going to enjoy or did I just waste ten bucks on wallpaper paste? Sure, after the meteors hit and we’re living in Lucifers Hammer country, what with the murdering cannibal armies and all, we’ll be happy to eat wallpaper paste. But why if you don’t have to? Franklin said that hunger never met bad bread, but I’m sure hunger would prefer awesome bread if it had a choice. I’f I’m eating out of food storage I plan on eating more than just rice-n-beans (which I actually don’t like), or whole-wheat-everything. Man does not live on grains and legumes alone. Third World diets are for Third Worlders. I live in a country where I can make a world-class gourmet meal using nothing but a credit card and a cel phone…why wouldnt you take advantage of that? What did we get this time? Glad you asked:

  • Dehydrated Diced Red & Green Bell Peppers
  • Freeze Dried Banana Yogurt Bites
  • Freeze Dried Pineapple Chunks
  • Freeze Dried Sliced Strawberries
  • Freeze Dried Strawberry Yogurt Bites
  • Spiff-E-Whip Dessert Topping
  • Chicken Bouillon

Interesting choices, no? I’m sure the more drug-centric will make jokes about ‘Spiff-E-Whip’. Whatever. Ever go and do the MRE gourmet routine using the MRE components? There’s something about mixing the non-dairy creamer and the hot chocolate powder to make your own field-expedient chocolate mousse. I admire that kind of culinary creativity so I figured an instant ‘non-dairy desert topping’ would be a good base to mix with, say, orange drink powder or similar to achieve mousse-like results. Yes, the apocalypse is gong to feature shortbread with frosting…my end-of-the-world is not for diabetics and paleo freaks. After a long post-apocalyptic day of hanging quislings from lamposts, clearing roadblocks, and cheerfully relocating the contents of the local National Guard armory who wouldn’t want to relax with luxury food?

The fruits and ‘yogurt bites’ are mostly for grabbing a couple fistfuls, shoving them in a ziploc bag, and putting them in my cargo pockets for later consumption during those slow times as we repel looters and man checkpoints.

I’ll have some write-ups on these and some of the other Augason’s products down the line.

Next up, a box ‘o knives. The amazing irony was that I had nothing on me to cut open the box. :::facepalm::: I like the Glock knives for their utility, ruggedness and price but sometimes you need a big hunk of sharp steel for getting medieval on something that needs..uhm…medievaling. Anyway…another knife I rather like for sheer brutality is the Becker Knife and Tool (BKT) series of knives. With full-tang construction, 1/4″ thick blades, and somewhat-indestructible handles, these things have been moving up on my list. I have their ‘TacTool’ which is really just a sharpened prybar with a handle…and it looks like just the ticket for getting myself out of any situation where the things standing between me and safety are things like windows, doors, debris and the like. This trip I picked up:

What can I say? Knives are like guns…no one item does it all. I figure the BK7 is sort of a GP large fixed-blade knife…enough heft for chopping things, enough length for big tasks, amd if it had a bayonet attachment it’d be right at home on the end of my AR. But, for those quiet non-zombie-filled walks in the woods during fishing, hunting or geocaching trips something with a little less weight and bulk would be nice…hence the BK2 to try out. The little BK11 was just an impulse buy. I usually carry a Benchmade folder that was a gift from one of the LMI but an EDC little sheath knife might be nice to have. Cool part is if any of these wind up not really fitting my needs I can always give ‘em away as Christmas gifts or something.

The Walking Dead, new breathable emergency bivvy, export bans?

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Man, the latest episode of The Walking Dead had what everyone has been clamoring for since first season: heroic Davy-Crockett-at-the-Alamo zombie killing. Honorary Superman Cape awarded to Daryl. Cuisinart Medal of Achievement to Michonne.

Static defense is always tough. It’s great to hole up in a fortress, but if youre locked inside that gives everyone outside all the time and space they need to do recon and move in forces. Smart money would be to always have assets outside the wire who can surprise attackers from the rear and lend a hand as needed. Team Rick managed that only by accident.

Note: I have shot Webleys from time to time and they have trigger pulls that are only slightly better than your average staple gun. Kudos to the panicked extra who actually made it look like a smooth DA pull. (Although, really, they probably just CGI’d the muzzle flash. Still, the Webley Mk I just has classic lines. Love the birdshead grip. I had to freezeframe to amke sure it wasnt a Merwin & Hulbert.)

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A while back I posted about the AMK Bivvy Sack a nice piece of gear to keep in any kit. Turns out they make an improved version that combats the biggest complaint about the product: moisture. Since it wasnt terribly breathable, it kept humidity/moisture in there with the user. That leads to clamminess which is rather unwelcome. Turns out they have a new version that is breathable (AMK SOL Escape Bivvy ). A step in the right direction, to be sure. What I find even more interesting is that they are going to offer it in a color other than blaze orange…green! So no more looking like a giant orange baked potato. Sometimes you  want that hi-viz color, sometimes you dont. The green ones aren’t available yet (as best I can tell) but I’ll definitely be swapping out my older non-breathable versions for the new ones.

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I received an interesting email from someone overseas the other day. He asked if I had heard anything about a magazine export ban. He had been going to his usual sources  and found that they were not shipping internationally. Perhaps there’s some new program or policy review going on? If anyone can shed some light, I’d like to hear about it.

Zombies, MTM ‘Survivor’ and MonoVault burial/cache tubes

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

So I watched the new mid-season premiere episode of The Walking Dead. On a day when a Montana news alert said the dead were rising to prey upon the living. Before bed. I guess it’s no surprise that my dreams involved zombies.

On the bright side, remember this post where I was wargaming the best 10/22 for that sort of situation? Well, I had it with me in this particular zombie dream and it did a great job against the undead and the evil, predatory survivors.

Of course, goofy nerd-dreams mean very little in real life. I do need to pick up some accessories to tweak out the Rugers, most notably I need a good suppressor, but I’ll wait until the current hysteria dies down.

Cool dream, though.

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I might have mentioned in the past about an outfit in Idaho making burial vaults for guns. A little more purpose-built than your average DIY sewer-pipe project, I’ve been meaning to get one of these things to evaluate. One feature I very much like about them is that theyre made to take the GammaSeal lids that I’, so fond of.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and MTM/Case-Gard appears to be flattering the MonoVault guys. No sign of it on their website, but CTD (home of the $60 P-Mag) has a little piece up about it on their interesting blog. According to CTD, the MTM product is about 12″ deep and 7″ wide. Enough for a handgun and some small essentials. I think I’d rather spend the bucks and get the MonoVault and be able to tuck and 870, 10/22 and AR in there. For those of us truly on a budget, theres still probably a few of the sonobuoy cases still out there somewhere.

Im not really much of a ‘bury your guns’ kind of guy. If I need to hide a gun somewhere I think I can do a little better than a gun-destroying, moisture-laden hole in the ground. But…products like these are nice for keeping a stash of gear at secondary and tertiary locations, or for travel needs.

Crasche not-a-helmet, Sony radio, seeds

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These look interesting. They’re knit caps that incorporate lightweight protective inserts. No substitute for a PASGT or similar helm, but when you want to have your melon protected from casual abuse and want to be discrete, these look like an interesting choice. Looks less dorky than your average bicycle helmet.

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Picked up one of these the other day. (Sony ICF-SW7600GR AM/FM Shortwave World Band Receiver with Single Side Band Reception, plus External Plug-in Antenna) I’d been wanting a relatively inexpensive portable battery-powered radio that would also pick up SW and this one seemed to get great reviews. I’ve been playing with it for a few days an am liking it quite a bit. At some point I’ll spend the big bucks for a more ‘serious’ receiver but for now this’ll do. I like listening to news broadcasts from other countries. It’s just good sense to get your news from as many sources as possible and I especially like foreign news services’ take on things.

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Our shipment of seeds from Victory Seed showed up last week. Personally, I like starting them indoors as early as possible so I need to get off my butt and get them going. Peppers and tomatoes FTW. Sometimes I am amazed at the size and productivity of plants that I can grow out of a 5-gallon-bucket. I have a fantasy about someday having a piece of property with a natural hot spring on it. One thing I’d do is run that water through some piping and heat a nice glass-block greenhouse with it. Year-round vegetables, baby. Man, that’d be sweet.

 

Tripwire alarms

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

http://minisentryalarm.wordpress.com/

This landed in my email the other day: http://minisentryalarm.wordpress.com/

I actually built something very similar a few years back out of plumbing parts from Home Depot. Difference was, instead of using a nailgun blank, mine used a shotgun primer….to ignite cannon fuse.

Years ago a fella had a couple options for this sort of thing ‘artillery simulators’ or ‘boobytrap simulators’ were available from some of the usual mil-surp sources and they were ten shades of cool. They havent been offered in many years. For a number of years, outfits like CTD, Sportsmans Guide, BQ, etc, etc, offered a trip-wire system that would let off a 12 ga. blank. (Homemade version here) Those were great but I guess some folks modified them into ‘trap guns’ or somesuch and they disappeared from the matket, only to be replaced with a Nerfed-down version that uses a cyalume lightstick instead of a 12 ga. blank. Lame.

If you hunt around a bit, you can find some slightly different designs ( 1, 2, 3 ) being offered.

These arent new ideas…about a hundred years ago there used to be cool little devices called ‘trap guns’. They were nothing more that short barrels affixed to an ation and the trigger was usually a long rod with some food attached. Youd nail one of these things to a tree and when a critter came and niggled on the food, the trigger would be activated and the gun would go off…shooting the animal in the head. Sort of a ‘fishing yo-yo’ for mammals. Of course, there was always the chance you’d wind up shooting a neighbors stock or pet.

The designs eventually led to ‘sentry guns’ or ‘burglar guns’ that were a similar design and meant to be affixed to a window or door. When the window or door was opened, it would trip the action and a small (usually .22 or .32) blank would go off. Most of these were big in the pre-War era of the 1920′s or so. They turn up as novelties at gun shows from time to time.

If I had a chunk o’ property and I wanted a fairly maintenance-free warning system I’d probably get something similar to the 12 ga. systems, but scale it up to 26.5mm, and a length of tubing to act as a barrel, and make sure I have a clear shot through the tree camopy and use 26.5mm flares. Illumination and warning at the same time…nothing makes folks freeze in their tracks like that popping noise and suddenly finding your stealthy ninja-approach illuminated in that ghostly flicker of a parachute flare.

Probably in about ten years even this stuff’ll be obsolete. We’ll have tiny copters the size of a deck of playing cards that will patrol our perimeters giving live-feed video. Or they’ll just have a few grams of explosive on board and a kamikaze subroutine when an intruder is detected. Seriously. You know someone somewhere is developing one of these things in their garage right now.