Ok, I don’t need another one, but I wanted another one.

And my vendor finally had one in stock after almost eight months.

And it’s only gonna be more expensive later.

And…and….and….

Well, dang it…I’m a survivalist, I don’t have to justify it. Gaze upon the latest addition to the Absurdly Redundant Gun Collection:

The real reason is because I kinda like the G3 platform for the .308. No gas system to worry about, excellent accuracy, reliability that is hard to beat, good aftermarket support, and most importantly…the previous negatives about the G3 platform have been addressed. And to go even further, the ‘modernization’ of the G3 has made it into virtually a completely different gun.

Unfortunately, about half my collection of PTR’s pre-date the improvements (paddle release, rail, muzzle threading) that were made a few years ago. So, I can live without a rail and with metric threads on the muzzle….but that paddle release is a big freakin’ deal. Fortunately, there’s a guy out there who does ATF-approved paddle conversions. (Long story short: unless done a particular way, installing the hole necessary for the paddle mag release also allows installation of full-auto parts. This is why the original HK91’s were imported without paddle release.) It’s about $200 to have the paddle release done, but with new PTR’s going for over a grand, it makes sense to spend the money and convert my $400-$600 PTR’s that were purchased long ago.

This PTR was ordered brand new and shot very nicely right out of the box. SOP is, according to HK, to sight in at 30 meters which puts you on at 200m.

Out of the box the thing shot about 3″ low at 30m but windage was spot-on. Fortunately, I have the necessary HK sight adjustment tool and was able to adjust the sight drum accordingly. Pro: once set you will never accidentally screw up the zero on your gun. Con: the reason you won’t accidentally screw it up is because it takes an obscure and expensive sight tool to adjust the sight. (Yes, you can use snap ring pliers…with all the attendant scratching and scuffing that will subsequently occur. Buy the sight tool.)

If I were not already committed to the G3 platform, I probably would go with the AR-10. Ergonomics and modularity are the biggest selling points of the AR-10 platform, along with a small degree of commonality with AR15 stuff. However, at this point it makes no sense to change over since I’ve gotten the G3 logistics of mags, parts, etc, fairly nailed down.

Used to be the PTR and 100 mags would cost you less than an M1A and a dozen mags. Times have changed. You can still find G3 mags for less than $5-$10 ea, but dealer on the PTR’s are now about $1050…about 10-15% higher than what they were a year or two ago. And thats dealer price. Still, for creeping around the post apocalyptic landscape it’s pretty hard to find something as relatively bulletproof as that HK platform.

I engaged in a search for instances where pistols were used to defend against bears. I and my associates have found 37 instances that are fairly easily confirmed. The earliest happened in 1987, the latest mere months ago. The incidents are heavily weighted toward the present, as the ability to publish and search for these incidents has increased, along with increases in bear and human populations, and the carry of pistols.

The 37 cases include one that can fairly be described as a “failure”.

Living in western Montana means bears (and mountain lions, some wolves, maybe a wendigo or sasquatch). I don’t get out in the hills nearly as much as I used to, or want to, but in over 35 years I have run into bears exactly twice. First time I had my HiPower with me and I did, in fact, feel undergunned. (Although the accompanying article shows that FMJ 9mm actually acquits itself nicely.) Second time I had a rifle and felt a bit more confident.

Most people’s knee-jerk reaction to bears is a .44 pistol and I’m no different. I picked up a lovely limited-edition Ruger specifically for bearbusting. What I think is a better choice is a Glock 10mm longslide….the Model 40. While .44 Mag is no slouch, the G40 holds two-and-a-half times the capacity at less weight. But, really, any gun is better than no gun.

The article goes on to mention that handguns succeeded in stopping bear attacks in about 97% of the reported cases. In several the human simply fired a round or two two scare the bruin away…in others, the bear had to be dissuaded in a more terminal way.

Bear spray? I met the guy who invented it years ago. True story: for a while the bear spray could not be marketed as such because it had not been proven to be ‘safe’ to use on bears. BUT it could be sold as people spray for use against criminals because there was no requirement to show it was safe to use against humans.

I seldom carry bear spray. I already have too much crap hanging off me when I’m running around in the woods. I’m not inclined to do an escalation of force in the few seconds I have between being a bears target and being a bears lunch. I ‘d go straight to the nuclear hand grenade if I had one. Until I get my Glock20 I’ll carry the Ruger .44 with some rather penetrative hard cast bullets.

For those of you who wonder about the efficacy of handguns vs. bears this article should prove interesting. But, keep in mind that a handgun is never the first choice if you have the option of using your rifle.

I picked up a KE Arms polymer AR lower a few weeks back. Palmetto was having a deal on a lightweight pencil-barrel upper with bolt carrier and charging handle. Well, why not? Put it together the other day and it is pretty light. Threw it on the scale and it came in at a touch over 5.5# with open sights. Its my understanding that if you spend the bucks and get a genuine WWSD rifle you drop the weight down to almost 5#. Thats about the same as an M1 carbine. And it’s about a pound lighter than a military M4 with 14.5″ barrel.

Gotta say, that poly lower seems pretty slick. I had heard good things about the old Cav Arms lowers and these are supposedly quite improved over them. I need to head to the range this weekend and dump a few rounds through it and get it sighted in, but it’s pretty nice.

Although I have a bucket full of stripped lowers sitting here, I think I might need to pick up a half dozen of these lowers and put together some more guns. I rather like the lightweight nature and how all the weight is carried out front.

You know, just because you can (somewhat) get away with selling .223 at eighty cents per round does not mean that all the other crap on your table has commensurately gone up in value. For example, the Smith and Wesson Model 10 has not been invented that is worth $1050. And you can cover that 4″ Highway Patrolman with hookers and cocaine and it is still not worth $1150.

I bought nothing. Nada. Zip. At least….not until I swung by a local gunshop on the way back to town. And…this followed me back to the truck:

Its a polymer KE Arms lower. The foundation for Gun Jesus’ project gun – the WWSD rifle. Now, I’d love to have one of those WWSD rifles but I’m not dropping that kinda  coin. But I am interested in the monolithic stock/receiver idea. As you know Cavalry Arms started this trend and these stock/frame combos are the natural extension of that. The notion is that by switching to a polymer lower you get a substantial weight and balance advantage. While telescoping stocks are fine, I never do anything with them that i can’t do with a full stock. And, I rather like full stocks but didnt like the weight. This gives me thebest of both worlds.

While I’d like to have a WWSD gun, I’ll probably hunt around for an upper that does what I’m looking for and mate it to this lower. I’ve always thought carbine uppers on full-stock lowers were a good idea and I’d be interested to see if this combo gives me that advantage without the weight penalty.

Well nuts…I purchased that milled Norinco MAK90 with all of its mags, drums, and ammo with an eye towards dumping it on GunBroker. And then…I made the mistake of shooting the bloody thing and now I’m wanting to keep it.

This happens far too often.

On the bright side, I think I havent bought a Ruger P95DC in over a year so…yay me!

This was brought to my attention and I am giddy over it. I hope they don’t screw it up.