I’m especially interested in the Unitized Group Ration – Express. I’m rather fascinated by the concept of a cardboard box of rations where you open it up, pull the rip cord, and a half hour later you and your squaddies have a hot meal.
Anyway, interesting link and worth a read.
Been busy these last weeks. A small portion of it is the usual Zero stuff…stocking away magazines, food, etc, but I’ve also got a buncha stuff in my ‘civilian life’ that I need to keep up with and, sadly, that’s cutting into blogging time.
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Paratus is a week from tomorrow. Feel free to tell your friends about it. Don’t we all need an excuse to legitimize the purchase of more gear, hanging out with like-minded friends, and going to the range?
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The election approaches. Not to sound like a broken record or anything but whoever wins the election isn’t necessarily our friend..oh, one may be friendlier than the other, but I’m not willing to chance it. Magazines, receivers, armour, ammo, components…..not necessarily in that order, but pretty close.
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Don’t feel ripped off…I have some more substantive blog posts coming up. Theyre sitting in the Drafts folder now and I’m just waiting to get some images to go along with them.
$149 for a Magpul’d complete lower? Yes please.
And then there’s this:
Like swallows returning to Capistrano, this is a sure sign it’s an election year.
The proposed directive, which applies to non-EU member Switzerland only because it is part of Europe’s Schengen open border system, has raised hackles among the Swiss, who resent intervention from Brussels.
Christoph Blocher, a leading voice of the Swiss right and a eurosceptic, says Switzerland should consider abandoning Europe’s Schengen system of passport-free travel if the Swiss people rejected the proposed measures in a referendum.
Drafted after militants killed scores in attacks in Paris last year, the EU plans on gun control aimed to curb online weapons sales and impose more restrictions on assault weapons.
But the initial proposal provoked an outcry in Switzerland because it meant a ban on the long Swiss tradition of ex-soldiers keeping their assault rifles.
I absolutely love some of the things the Swiss do in the name of national sovereignty and preparedness. Sure, they do some things I don’t like, but any country that encourages folks to keep their military guns, doles out ammo for a national shooting festival, and has survival bunkers dotting the landscape….plus, women in dirndl dresses…gets my seal of approval.
One of my bucket list items is to go to the big Swiss shooting festival they have each year.
The Brits have already walked from the EU and the world didn’t come to an end. The Swiss, as best I can tell, don’t really get anything out of membership so perhaps they’ll be next.
MGE Wholesale just sent me their usual sale spam…
SUb-$500 AR and if you buy two they throw in a party-pak of ammo. The industry is definitely thinking theyre going to move a bunch of ARs before the election.
So I was trolling through backpage.com craigslist and found this: Pelican 1700 Long Case (waterproof, crushproof, and dustproof) – $100
Hmm. A Pelican 1700 for a C note would be pretty sweet. But….
Let’s bring up an image from Pelican’s website.
Now lets snag the picture from Craigslist
Three things jump out at me:
Is any of this definitive? I don’t know. It’s possible this is an old Pelican case that predates the metal-reinforced lock points, is an older mould that has those projections on the end, and perhaps the logo did change. Also, if you look at Pelicans product page for the 1700, some do have those round doughnuts on the corners, and some do not.
Or its a fake from our Most Favored Trading Partners over in China.
I was a tad disappointed that I couldn’t find much on the internet about spotting counterfeit Pelican cases. And, as I said, this case on CL maybe the real deal….but I’m thinking it isn’t.
Moral of the story: know your dealer. I came *this* close to buying this case until the odd logo threw me and I started to get suspicious. Amazon sells the real deal and if you shop around on there you can often find a decent deal on shipping.
The selling point is the food lasts for years. For companies, that is also the drawback. Customers can stock up once—a “one-and-done purchase,” said Greg Allison, vice president of marketing for Blue Chip Group Inc., which makes hundreds of different freeze-dried entrees.
So he and others in the business are asking, Why wait for Armageddon?.
There is some truth to this article. Once you drop the coin for a five years supply of freeze drieds you pretty much never have to buy them again. So, the vendors need to find another way to keep the market active. Rather than sell the complete meals, they should focus on the components. FD veggies, fruits, meats, etc, in bulk are nice for making your own meals. That’s where the money is going to be.
The Blue Chip Group mentioned in the article is the outfit we know as Augason Farms … an outfit I recommend for their wonderful variety and convenient packaging.
Yup, freeze drieds (and other long-term foods) are expensive, but after a long day of hanging looters and fighting off UN troops nothing will taste better than those freezedried porkchops, mashed potatoes, corn, and apple sauce.
H/T to Friend Of The Blog, http://harryflashmansblog.blogspot.com/
From MGE Wholesale, in case you’re curious.
Personally, I wouldn’t trust my precious tuchas to a sub-$500 AR. I mean, they had to cut a corner (or five) somewhere, right? But A sub-$500 AR becomes a $900+ AR once the election is settled.
For what is basically dealer price on a Glock, you can drop this and a couple pmags in a box and double your money in three months.
Interesting video about one person’s experience with almost two dozen different flavors of AR mags. Worth a watch, even if you don’t necessarily agree with the opinions.
My own experience is that I prefer regular plain ol’ GI aluminum magazines over everything else. I used to swear by the CProducts mags but haven’t bought any from them since they had that ugly change of ownership a few years back, so I can’t speak to current quality.
Although I prefer GI aluminum magazines, I do stockpile Magpul Pmags as trading stock. I’ll use them if I have to, but I feel more comfortable with the aluminum mags in terms of reliability (which is everything) and durability. I’ve used AR mags from the Vietnam war with original followers and original springs and they’ve worked fine. Not sure I can find a forty year old plastic mag I can say that about.
Again, it’s personal preference…I’m sure you’ve had great experience with your carbon-fiber windowed magazine with round counter. Awesome. Good on ya. I’ll stick with the aluminum GI mags.
But….I’m a hidebound curmudgeon. I encourage you to research and try, try, try before making up your own mind.
H/T to guns.com
Someone very thoughtfully (thank you, DD!) sent me a link to this article:
For sale at $1.5 million: a five-story massive concrete building, on top of which once sat a 70-ton rotating radar.
This was during the Cold War, and the radar was part of a system on the lookout for incoming Soviet bombers. It was in a prime location to search the horizon, right by the Canadian border, with a magnificent view looking out at the San Juans.
Potential buyers ought to have no earthquake worries. Each floor has four solid concrete columns. Each column is 3 feet square. Outside walls are a foot thick and reinforced with rebar.
“It was explained to me that it was constructed to withstand a nuclear attack,” says Stefanie Fuller, who in 2003 was in charge of selling the surplus radar tower for the state.
But here”s the real money shot – ad with pictures!
Kinda looks like one of those old German flak towers that they can’t cheaply tear down these days.
I remember looking at one of those microwave relay stations that were for sale years ago…it was constructed in a similar ‘-nuke-resistant’ fashion. They’d make awesome retreats if you could modify them for full-time habitation without compromising their integrity.