This is an absolutely fascinating post about small-unit communications. It’s quite informative and worth reading. I’m not qualified to say whether it’s good information or not but it appears quite useful and, if nothing else, is food for thought on the subject. Go check it out.
Article – Texas is creating a gold depository to rival Fort Knox and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Texas does a lot of things that I think are just for posturing and maintaining their image, but I rather like this:
On Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation that will create a state-run gold depository in the Lone Star State – one that will attempt to rival those operated by the U.S. government inside Fort Knox and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s vault in lower Manhattan.
“The Texas Bullion Depository,” Abbott said in a statement, “will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.”
There’s the story that when a couple nations approached the US about repatriating their gold from the US depository there was some…concern…that the gold was ‘unavailable’. I’d be very interested to know if Texas gets to take their gold back or if some excuse will pop up about how they have to get it back over a lengthy period of time (if at all).
This is why I don’t believe in any of this we-hold-your-metals-for-you scams, or any paper representations of precious metals. If you have a certificate that says you own 100 oz. of gold in a repository in California, you don’t own anything except a piece of paper. If you’re going to go down the road of owning precious metals, then own precious metals…not a piece of paper saying you own gold or silver. Promissory notes with questionable redeemability is the whole reason we buy gold and silver to begin with.
I (usually) get my PM’s from the Metals Pimp. You may have your own ‘guy’, but if you don’t you might wanna give the Pimp a holler.
H/T to Ryan at TSLRF (which apparently is just TS these days).
Unwanted linkage
Every so often I head over to Google Analytics to see where my website traffic is coming from. Apparently, I received a fair bit of traffic from Reddit under the keyword ‘racewarpreppers’.
WTF?
The link they posted to was this one about panic buying. It appears that they linked to it, not because of racial content, but as an adjunct to discussions about preparing for some future Great Race War or whatever it is they expect.
Frankly, I’m a little annoyed. I’m *alot* of things….I’m sexist, somewhat of a jingoistic nationalist (America first and all that jazz), capitalistic, fiscally-conservative-with-a-little-libertarian-bent (really, kind of a Goldwater Republican), etc, etc….but I’m quite certain that I’m not cross-burningly racist. As someone once said “Racism is silly. If you take the time to really get to know someone and understand them you can find a much better reason to dislike them.”
Being a survivalist means you get painted with a pretty broad brush. You’re automatically anti-government, racist, uneducated, and homophobic. I hate that. I don’t mind getting in trouble for things that I actually am or things I actually do….it’s when I get accused of things that simply aren’t the case that I get annoyed.
Interestingly, though…if you checked my browser history (and for everyone’s peace of mind, it’s probably a good thing if we don’t) you’d find that I visit quite a few…questionable…forums. (And, really, I should visit them through a proxy, but….lazy.) Stormfront, Democratic Underground, New Black Panthers, VPC, etc, etc, etc. Why? Mostly curiosity to see how different groups see events that are occurring. Same reason I check foreign news services…for a different opinion or a different view of things. Reading some of the stuff that gets posted on those places reinforced my belief that while I may be a jerk I am not, to quote Star Lord,”100 percent dick’. Those people….well, they’ve got some serious issues.
Clearly the linkage wasn’t because of racial content or context in t his blog. It was simply because a post about buying guns and ammo happened to be on-topic for this group of people…but it still annoys me because I don’t like being associated with that sorta thing.
This is why we can’t have nice things
Man, every time I think that things might be quieting down in the land of panic buying and going long on magazines, something new happens.
Given the pre-convention jockeying and positioning of potential presidential contenders, I have no doubt that this will all play into future campaigning. Promises to eliminate ‘easy access’ to fire arms, eliminate ‘assault weapons’, ban ‘high capacity’ magazines, etc.
If I had the money, I’d be on the phone right now to CDNN and ordering Glock, 10/22, and AR mags. And even if this most recent event doesn’t wind up being responsible for any changes, the upcoming political season is still a good reason all on its own.
For those keeping track, the last time a racist shot up a large captive audience we wound up with an assault weapons ban nine months later.
Interesting Craigslist find
Looks like someone’s project stalled. I like the idea of repurposing a cargo container but I’d never bury it..I’d go the other direction and berm it or seal it up in concrete.
This particular Craigslist listing tells a story if you know what to look for. Only a certain kinda guy does a project like this.
Annnnnnnnd….new tag: Craigslist
Bandoleer stuff
Unsurprisingly, I had a bunch of loose .223 ammo sitting aound that really needed to be organized better. A cardboard box full of 1000 loose rounds of ammo is no way to show up for the apocalypse.
When I go to the range, and I’m shooting .223 (or 5.56 [and, yeah, I know they’re different]) I usually pack them in a plastic 50-round ammo box. Other than keeping things neat and tidy, it also keeps me from turning too much money into noise.
But…for packing ammo away for that rainy day, I rather prefer to store .223 in bandoleers.
Classic four-pocket bandoleer set
If you’re not familiar with them, a proper bandoleer contains a cloth bandoleer, ammo on stripper clips, cardboard inserts for the bandoleer pockets, a stripper clip guide (‘spoon’), and a safety pin to hold the spoon to the bandoleer. This is pretty much how they’ve been packing the stuff since Vietnam.
New-style four-pocket set
The idea is not, as some geniuses would have you think, to carry this stuff around and then load magazines from stripper clips in the heat of battle. The idea is that it’s a convenient way to stage and transport a basic loadout of ammo. Original bandoleers were seven pockets holding 20 rounds each, for a total of 140 rounds. Of course, that was back when 20-round magazines were the norm. Nowadays there are bandoleers out there that are four pockets holding 30 rounds each. I’m a bit of a worst-case-scenario kinda guy, so I go with the seven-pocket bandoleer but put three clips in each pocket.
The bandoleers, spoons, and stripper clips are quite reusuable and its the rare survivalist that doesnt have some of them floating around in the garage or in his junk bin. But those damn cardboard inserts….they tend to get lost, destroyed, and they’re kind of a pain in the ass to source out. Now, I’ve got a shopping bag full of stripper clips, a cardboard box full of bandollers, and no 3-clip cardboard inserts. What to do, what to do…….
Naturally enough, a quick trip to Amazon showed that, yes, you could get the 3-clip cardboards there. Gotta love that instant gratification enabling that is Amazon. Ordered ’em up and a few days later -voila-:
So what do you do with them once they’re loaded up? Well, I dunno what you do with ’em, but I pack ’em away in some .30 cal. ammo cans until the day when I need them. Then I can grab a rifle, a couple mag pouches of magazines, throw one or two of these bandoleers over my shoulder, and head for the hills.
Is this superior to storing your ammo loose in an ammo can? I think so. For one thing, it makes an easy and quantifiable amount…one bandoleer is 210 rounds. (As opposed to a couple fistfuls of .223 which may or may not be enough to fill all your mags.) The stripper clips keep things nice and tidy, and load mags a heck of a lot faster than by onesies.
For range trips, I still use the plastic ammo boxes..but they don’t fit into BDU pockets very well, are noisy, and still require you to load your mags one cartridge at a time…all things that arent really a big deal at the range. I suppose some might question the utility and practicality of the bandoleers but I find them to be a convenient way of grabbing a ‘pre-measured’ amount of ammo, and also a convenient way to carry it.
Back into the breach with MH
Much like the slapped-around trailerpark housewife who goes back to her drunk, abusive husband I have renewed my dealer account with Mountain House.
Years ago I got dealer status with them to punch up my food storage. The plan was simple – sell enough of their product that it would finance my own acquisition of that product. It actually worked pretty well. But then…MH came home drunk one night and things got dark.
More specifically, there was a period a few years back where MH stopped selling to small-time dealers. The thing that was especiialy hard to find were the #10 cans. There were all sorts of rumours swirling about trying to come up with a reason for MH freezing out its small-time dealers. The most popular rumour was that MH had gotten some big .gov contract and was purposing as much of their production as possible towards filling those contracts….thereby leaving the little guys out in the cold.
MH denied the .gov contract angle, but then again wouldn’t the terms of any .gov contract require them to keep hush-hush about it anyway? So for a year or so MH was in high demand in the preparedness community and in low supply. Eventually, MH started shipping again and things resumed an even keel….except with me. I was kinda annoyed with MH for their actions.
A year or so goes by and, lo and behold, I discovered this. (Here’s the complete post.) By that point I had a pretty good amount of MH on the shelf and was branching out in the much broader variety of Augason Farms. I figured my needs with MH had been met, so I didn’t take any steps to keep my dealer account active with them. Then, the other day, I was up at REI and I was perusing the camping food section (because….why not?) and I saw some new things. Specifically, these. The Italian Pepper Steak, especialy, caught my attention.
So I called the guys (gals, actually) at MH and asked if my account with them was still valid and could be brought up-to-date. (See, MH really tightened up their dealer policy a while back and getting dealer status with them nowadays is a bit trickier.) They said they could do that and, by the way, we’ll send you some samples of those new products.
And then FedEx came by today.
Yay for free samples! Maybe..maybe he’s really sorry this time! Maybe I’m being to hard on him…maybe….
We shall see. In the meantime, I’ll be getting together with my local cadre of like-minded individuals and see if we can’t all pool our resources and needs to put in one big group buy.
Hows that CrossFit thing going?
Here’s a CrossFit joke for you:
An atheist, a vegan, and a CrossFitter walk into a bar…..and I know this beacuse they told everyone there within the first two minutes.
The humour(?) comes from the perception that people who are into CrossFit just will. not. shut. up. about how awesome their lifestyle is, etc, etc.
I bring this up because someone asked me, in comments a few weeks back, how CrossFit was going. I didn’t want to turn it into some sort of rabid kool-aid-drinker CrossFit post, but I figured I’d answer the question.
It goes. I hate going, I hate being there, I hate having it hang over my head during the day. But there’s no arguing that Im in better shape for it. Most of the metrics are right where they were when I was doing it more intensely four years ago, and some are not. My deadlift isn’t up to where it was, byt my numbers for snatches, presses, and cleans is a bit better. My squats have stayed the same. I can do more pullups now and I’m able to do more stretches of intense exercise with less breaks and timeouts.
Injuries? Sure. Had a few weeks with a shoulder issue, am currently going through some pain with my elbow, but over time that all clears up.
The upshot is that at 48 years old I’m in better shape than most guys my age. I could stand to lose a few pounds but Im kind of a squat, stocky, ‘fire hydrant’ shaped guy to begin with…being a lanky, wiry, runner-type was never in the cards for me. BUT…..when you’re pinned under heavy debris, dude, Im your man!
Serendipity
Oh, the things that people walk through the door with. No need to go looking for ammo, sometimes the battle packs coming looking for you.
Random musings
Paratus, the holiday of preparedness, is coming up. This year it falls on September 18th. There is a FAQ up about it if you care to read it. In the spirit of the individualist nature that Paratus represents, you don’t ‘make a list and check it twice’. Why? Because:
- We’re already on someone’s lists somewhere
- Checking it twice is the same as checking it only once, since one is none and two is one
- OPSEC
But in the back of my head I think I’ll probably have a few folks to send Paratus gifts to. It’ll be a fun and somewhat humourous diversion.
===================
Summer in Montana is here. This is the optimum time to do shooting and outdoor-related stuff that you really don’t feel like doing when it is ten degrees outside. My plan for the summer is to pick a small handful of rifles and laboriously work up ideal loads for them. My plans are to work with the Ruger GSR, my flagpole 7×57, and my .44 Contender. I am especially curious to play with GSR since it’s limited optics make tight groups a challenge…but its not a rifle meant for shooting groups, its a rifle meant for shooting objects. That means that while it may not shot a 1″ group at 100 yards, it will hit a mammal-sized target reliably at, say, 300. (Which, really, is kinda Coopers original spec for the thing.) Regardless, its a very pleasant, and satisfying solitary project. I look forward to it.
====================
There’s some buzz in the news about (yawn) new gun laws to be passed by the administration. The buzz is that ‘high-powered’ handguns like the AR/AK pistols will get dropped into some NFA classification or some such. I dunno, man…I think the barn door has been open too long on that one. Last time the fedgoons arbitrarily reclassified a firearms into that sort of category was back when the Street Sweepers, USAS/Daewoo shotguns got lumped in as Destructive Devices. There probably weren’t nearly as many of them in people’s hands as there are AR pistols these days. Still, stupider edicts have come out of the unstable minds at ATFE, so I suppose anything is possible. My money is still on this ‘wrist brace’ thing coming to a head. We’ll see.
====================
It’s still over a year until the Presidential election. Does that mean its too late or too early to start stockpiling?