Not to come off as a spammer, but… this Wednesday is the last day to get in on the Mountain House pouch order. After that, the next opportunity will be a #10 can buy around June. Heres the original post with link if anyone is interested. Unlike the #10 cans, these pouches are practical for shorter term emergencies (although rated shelf life is 7+ years) and are great for camping, hunting, vehicle kits, three-day bags and other applications.
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Found this little jewel while cruising the MilitaryMorons.com website. Theres a write-up about them here. They do mention that there is a quantity discount available so perhaps if theres enough interest a group purchase may be in order.
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Clinton vs. Obama, Obama vs. Clinton, and who knows who else wants to get in on the action. Even if Im 110% wrong about the Democrats and their gun control agendas in the coming elections (what are the odds, hm?) do you really think you’ll regret having stocked up on mags and other related materials? Of course not. So, really, skip eating out this week and buy some magazines and ammo. If you’ve got a decent paying job and haven’t wiped out your Christmas bonus yet, pick up some AR lowers.
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I’ve been wearing the Wilderness Instructors belt for a month now and must say that as a gunbelt I’m pleased with it. I’d replaced my DeSantis gunbelt after almost twenty years of daily use with another DeSantis, but I’d been wanting the Wilderness belt for a while now. I like the ‘infinite adjustment’ provide by the Velcro closure and, although this is totally irrelevant, it looks really good. The ability to use it to ‘tie in’ for certain applications (which I’ll probably never do) has some appeal but overall it’s a good piece of gear. I hope I get 20 years use out of it. By the by, it was a Chrismahanakwanzakah gift from the always thoughtful girlfriend.
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The more I read about them the more I think I want to try on of the new gas-piston AR uppers. I’d love to get my hands on an HK416 upper but I would imagine those are big money when you can find one. Anyone have any experience with any of the other AR uppers out there?
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Speaking of boomsticks, it appears Savage has reintroduced their Scout rifle, now with AccuTrigger. $432 dealer cost. I dunno, I’d be tempted but I think the Ruger version might be the better value in terms of workmanship and durability. I’ve heard that the Savage’s had issues with detachable magazines not fitting the guns properly. Usually the mag(s) that came with the gun were fine but if you ordered spares they often didn’t fit without some modification.
Tag Archives: gear
HK91 mags, FSBO: nation, WW2 B24, mag theory, Flectar redux, 1911 mags
Received my HK91 mags from Lew Horton today. They are all datestamped in the mid/late 1960’s and are in outstanding condition except for some minor wear marks. These are quite obviously ‘war reserve’ mags..probably housed in a big warehouse in West Germany that had a sign on the door “Do not open until Russians advance”. For those interested, esp. since it seems they’ll work in the CETME, the part # is SCHG3E, price was $1.43 ea., and after having 75 of them sent to my door (well, the door at the shop, really) the final soup-to-nuts cost was $1.75 ea. Now let me put that into perspective: during the dark years of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban a good HK91 magazine couldn’t even be shipped for less than two bucks.
Half of these will go to the good Captain as a somewhat late Chrismahanakwanzakah gift. Should be very interesting to watch his eyes bug out when I pull the cardboard box from under the counter.
Folks, if you’ve got an HK91 or a CETME, skip ordering pizza tonight and get yourself ten magazines. Theyre always a good idea to have and someday they may be worth a lot more than $2.
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If Claire Wolfe wants to put her money where her pen is, theres a private country for sale. Remember the Brit that bought the old coastal defense tower and had it declared a country? Well, its for sale. I can see it now – less than a few acres in floorspace but home to seventyfive different banks.
This was actually the premise for an excellent book called “Island” by Thomas Perry. Guy finds an atoll about the size of a pool table and starts sinking barges on top of it until he’s created an island. Sets it up as his own country and winds up having a grand ol’ time…at least until the mob decides they want it.
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From todays email comes a link to the heartbreaking tale of a missing WW2 B24 that was thought to have crashed in the Mediterranean. It was found almost 15 years after the war in a Libyan desert. The survivors tried to walk out and their written record is painful to read.
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Speaking of magazines, someone asked why I need so damn many magazines. Arent fifteen magazines more than plenty? Mmm. Well, lets say that you get a Clinton-style magazine ban with NO provision for a sunset. And, lets say youre forty years old. Statistically you’ve got, barring any shootouts with the feds, another 30 years in front of you. Now, over that thirty years youre going to lose mags, have them get damaged, have some stolen from your truck, leave some at your summer cabin or retreat, keep some with the gun, keep some (maybe more than ‘some’) squirreled away, keep a few for spare parts, keep even more for ‘trading stock’, drop some in the field and lose them, leave some behind when you need to leave in a major hurry, keep some with your emergency gear, maybe a mag or two for your friends who may be short a few mags, etc, etc.
Now all the magazines you’ve got in your gun cabinet don’t seem like very many when you think that those may be all you have for the rest of your terribly shortsighted life.
So… that’s why I need so many magazines. And spare parts. And guns.
When youre working on the assumption you may never be able to get more, there is no such thing as too much.
Now, go call Lew Horton and get some HK91 mags.
By the by, if youre stocking up for your Glock CDNN has used LE-marked Glock mags for $10 ea.
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Sportsmans Guide ‘HQ’ catalog arrived today. The fabulous $20 Flectar parka/liner combo is still there (#AX7M-105655X). If you haven’t gotten one yet they get a thumbs-up from me and about a dozen other people reading this who ordered them. They be good lovin’, mon! I’ve worn mine in some bloody cold Montana weather and have absolutely no complaints. Warmer than any US field jacket/liner and worlds more comfortable. And they look sharp too. They roll up nicely and can be stuffed into the hood to make a basketball-size bundle that’s perfect for tossing in the back of the truck.
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As long as Im blathering on about magazines…
My preference for 1911 .45 mags are the Chip McCormack ‘Shooting Star’ 8-rounds w/ pad. These mags are steel, blued, hold eight rounds, come with a handy removable basepad and function exceptionally well. Best part it that in quantities they are about $10 ea. I see them at most gun shows for around $17 a mag. Retail is for suckers, kids! CDNN has ‘em. Stainless? Add another couple bucks. As a good all purpose mag I cannot recommend another that gives such performance at such a bargain price. Wilson mags are great but I can buy a couple of the CMC’s for the price of one Wilson. And since both are quite reliable, why not go with the deal that gets me two reliable mags over one reliable mag?
Batteries
I see by the note on the refrigerator that its time to buy more batteries. For the longest time I’ve tried to standardize batteries. The commonly used sizes are AAA, AA, D and 9v (which probably do have a letter designation…Im just not feeling its particularly necessary at the moment). Theres also those nifty little lithium batts which are, I believe, designated CR123. (And, yeah, theres the AAAA and other size batts but the operative word here is ‘commonly’.)
I have tried to streamline my battery needs to just ‘D’ and ‘AA’. There are things in the house, such as tv remotes and smoke detectors, that run on different sized batts but for the preparedness stuff I try to limit it to those two sizes. (The one glaring exception is the damn Seismic Intrusion Detectors which run on 9v. but I could always rig something up, I suppose…) Makes it easier to store spares and allows more interchangeability if I have to ‘borrow’ batteries from one device to run another. (Which has happened…a few months back I discovered my GPS batts were dead and I took the 4 AA’s outta my Streamlight. Since then, I carry six spare AA batts in my bag. An empty Altoids tin, lined with bubble wrap, holds six spare AA batts securely. The bubble wrap keeps em quiet and keeps em from grounding out on the metal case.)
Unfortunately, my perfect world of Only Two Battery Sizes has been disrupted by the need for the lithium CR123’s to power me and the girlfriends tactical lights. On the bright side, they don’t need replacing that often since they are infrequently used and the spares will keep a nice long time.
I’ve been very taken with the lithium AA’s and use them in my GPS and radios. Flashlights get along just fine on run of the mill Duracells. (Esp. with the LED models of lights that have lower power requirements.) Being much more tolerant of extreme temperatures, they are an excellent choice for flashlights that youre going to leave in your truck all summer/winter. Lithium 9v can be found at Home Depot for use in smoke detectors. Still having difficulty finding lithium D’s anywhere but online. And, yeah, theyre spendy but they have a shelf life of ten years with minimal power loss and can handle being left in a glove compartment all winter…that’s worth it to me.
I’ve been buying Duracell AA and D batteries up at Costco in 36 and 24 packs, respectively. I try to keep at least one or two packages on hand at all times and as I go through batteries, I use up the stored ones. In this way they get rotated out and I always have at least one pack of reasonably fresh ones available.
Rechargeables are, of course, an option. Rechargeables, however, are only a good idea when you have a means to recharge them and most circumstances when Im likely to be going through batteries are circumstances where electricity is probably not available. Fortunately the internet is full of DIY solar battery charging plans and these are in the future at some point. Then again, I’ve got several Baygen radios and lights stocked away as well so battery recharging is a fairly low priority. For extended power loss situations its worth getting into, but for the short term (less than a week) I figure Im served with a couple dozen extras.
There are also, by the way, battery ‘inserts’ that let you use a smaller size battery in your gear. They let you use C in a D, AA in a C, etc, etc. Usefull for when youre scrounging batteries but a simple grasp of basic electronics tells you that some wire and electrical tape will let you rig any AA, C, D or 9v. device to run off different batteries.
Fortunately, most of the really cool toys run on AA or D…big MagLites, MiniMags, FRS radios, portable AM/FM radios, etc, etc. The small Photon microlights run on small ‘coin’ batteries but I’ve yet to actually run down the battery in one. At $5 per light its almost cheaper to just have extra lights rather than extra batteries for it. On the other hand, I could always cannibalize batteries for it out of a digital watch.
So, if you’ve got a handful of ‘essential’ electronic gizmos that run on batteries you might wanna think about getting them all on board in the battery compatability department.
MagLite, force multiplying, DPRK, Jericho musings
Picked up the latest incarnation of the ubiquitous MagLite today. This is the new LED MagLite (~$35). Its major difference from the usual MagLites is that it uses a 3-watt LED lamp rather than the krypton or incandescent bulbs we normally use. Advantages are increased battery life and a much, much greater resistance to shock. (We’ve all had a situation where we’ve dropped a flashlight and it goes out, right? That’s the filament in the bulb breaking from the shock of impact. Not an issue with LED.) Additionally, bulb life is greatly(!!) enhanced. The only other change I could discern other than the bulb was the reflector…it was more rounded and ‘egg shaped’ than the usual ‘funnel shaped’ reflector. I’ll be taking this and a ‘normal’ MagLite out tonight to try them out in the dark and see how they perform. A ‘conversion kit’ is also offered to allow you to retrofit your existing MagLite to LED. It’s the wave of the future, gang. Flashlights with filament bulbs are going to be right up there with rotary dial phones very soon.
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The fold of local LMI’s may be increasing with the anticipated relocation of some folks I know. Its always nice to have people to hang out with, go to the range, and otherwise be yourself around….esp. when they don’t think its weird to have conversations about MRE’s, freeze-dried foods, alternate energy supplies, battle packs of ammo and gold coins.
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North Korea is saying theyre going to have a nuclear test going on sometime soon. This country couldn’t successfully launch a couple missles a few months ago. If they cant even get the delivery system to work….
I’d be surprised if those idiots have a working nuke and I’d be more surprised if they had enough to be able to afford setting a couple off for ‘testing purposes’. On the bright side, perhaps it’ll malfunction and take out the ruling government.
In reality, this is just a ploy to get international aid. “Give us money and food or we’ll start building nukes”. Things in that particular workers paradise aren’t as rosy as they’d like and it seems that short of welcoming capitalism the only way to relieve the suffering (and perhaps stave off a popular revolt?) is to extort international aid. I say let ‘em starve.
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New tag added for Jericho
Jericho spoilage
Fuel
Gas was down another four cents today so I swapped out some of the stored gas.
Currently, I keep fuel in two different containers: Longterm (one year or longer) fuel goes in the standard metal Blitz jerrycan. Shortterm (less than a year, usually six months between rotations) fuel goes in 5- or 6-gallon plastic cans. Larger containers do have their place but they are less easily transported…and I really like to have all my gear in a form that allows it to be hurriedly heaved into the back of a vehicle. A 40# gas can is a lot easier to handle than a 400# drum.
The military uses the Military Fuel Can (MFC) as manufactured by (and available from) Scepter of Canada. These are nice cans but they are plastic. A very heavy, very durable plastic, but still… My concerns with plastic are its expansion in temperature ranges (expansion/contraction when left in the heat/cold), the ‘off gassing’ through the porous plastic material, degradation from sun exposure, and resistance to puncture.
I worry less about these things with the metal cans but they aren’t without their drawbacks either. First off is the cost. The plastic cans from Blitz or Briggs and Stratton are ridiculously cheap. About $6 or less. A metal can goes for about 5-6 times that. The metal Blitz cans seem to have ‘issues’ with the paint coming off rather easily. Keep in mind that youre supposed to have your gas cans colored bright red, so while I don’t care if the paint comes off since I can just degrease the whole can and paint it a nice flat OD, such would be, in the eyes of .gov, ‘wrong’. Mala per se versus mala prohiba.
One other nice thing about the metal cans is they lend themselves to being locked. (Although there are locking racks for plastic ones) You can fab up a locking arrangement fairly easily or just buy some aftermarket lock-up kit. When traveling long distances, I leave the cans in the back of the truck with a cable lock running through them but I put the cans in the backseat of the truck if stopping overnight (and with the metal cans, this leaves no lingering gas smell in the vehicle.)
Both styles of cans use spouts that affix to the main large opening in the can. Here’s where more headaches start. Even with everything going well, these things drain slowly. Mind numbingly slow. Like an 85-year-old-man-at-a -urinal kind of slow. You stand there and think to yourself “It only took me 90 seconds to put 5 gallons of gas in at the pump, whys it taking me fifteen minutes here?”. One reason, your fuel can is gravity feed versus electrically pumped. Another is the venting of the cans to allow air to enter and gasoline to leave without creating a vacuum (which, I am sure, has a technical or scientific term to describe it.) A very nice end run around these problems is simply to get a funnel. Most automotive sections at WalMart, Kmart or whathaveyou will have long plastic funnels made for just this sort of thing. The ones I got were also made by Blitz, a buck each, and I paracorded one to each plastic gas can. (Although the gas cans come with their own nozzles that are hit/miss in terms of efficiency.) With the funnel, things go much faster and being able to quickly fill your vehicle can come in mighty handy…esp. when you don’t want others to see that you have ‘extra’ fuel.
The two big choices these days for gas stabilizers are PRI-G and Sta-bil. As we all know, gasoline degrades over time as various additives and whatnot evaporate out or start to change. By adding a gasoline stabilizer you extend the ‘shelf life’ of your fuel. PRI-G claims that their additive will actually recover ‘bad’ gas and make it more palatable than it would otherwise be to your vehicle. I’d read other reviews of PRI-G and have been using it, although Stab-il is much easier to find in pretty much every auto store. The girlfriend got me a large (enough to do 512 gallons) bottle of PRI-G about two years ago and I’ve been pleased with it, although I do also have some Stab-il on hand.
As usual, when handling stuff like gasoline you want to observe some minimum safety precautions like ‘keep it outta your eyes, off your clothes and vehicle, and try not to breath it in’. A pair of gloves and safety goggles, kept in your truckbox, is never a bad idea…yeah, you’ll look like a dork but when youre staggering around clutching your eyes and trying to find a garden hose you’ll wish to hell you’d cared less about looking cool. A couple of those little ‘pocket packs’ of bleach wipes (whcih, btw, you should always have in your pack or bag…they make using public bathrooms alot less germtacular. Seriously.) or babywipes is also handy for getting the inevitable smell of gas off your hands.
How much fuel to keep on hand is a strictly personal choice…much like ‘how much ammo/food/gold/condoms do you need?’. I’ll offer my opinion. Many of us will probably stay pretty close to home in a crisis, but think of the furthest distant place you are likely to go to if you were to leave during a crisis…Unlce Billys farm, your hunting cabin in the hills, etc. Calculate the miles and mileage of your vehicle. Have enough gas to make two complete round trips. Why? Because youre gonna spend a lot of time idling in traffic (if youre unlucky enough to get caught in one of those county-length traffic jams), youre likely going to have to detour and take alternate routes that may be longer than ‘the usual way’, and you may find it useful for bartering or sharing (if youre inclined towards that sort of thing).
And fer cryin’ out loud, try to refuel where no one can see you. In a crisis theres a few things that are going to immediately be high demand (‘high demand’ as in ‘give me your [item] or I’ll kill you’) and fuel is one of them. (Others include ammo, water, food, etc). So get off the main drag, find an out of the way spot away from prying eyes and do it there. Try to cover or hide the fuel cans so the stranded and desperate motorists don’t get any ideas. And, of course, think about exactly what youre going to do when someone says ‘Screw you, I need gas and I’m taking yours’.
Obviously if youre planning on running a generator youre going to want to keep as much fuel as necessary for that as well. Always try to store more than you need. And don’t forget to sock away some oil as well. All the gas in the world won’t help if the engine is seized because you ran your genny for three days with low oil pressure. (Side note: portable generators can become very portable in a crisis if you don’t chain them to a solid object. Store some heavy duty chain and a user-programmable combination lock. [No keys to lose or to have to share. Come up with an easily remembered combo, maybe the last four digits on the serial number plate, and share it with those who need to know it. Keys get lost or there aren’t enough to go around.)
CZ magic, IQ Switch, gas rotation
Love my CZ550. It seems that when I concentrate and try to let the break of the trigger be a ‘surprise’ I get okay groups. However, when I hurry and consciously pull the trigger I get outstanding groups. Go figure. Today was another 5-shot, 100-yard group that I could cover with a quarter. And thats using a plain Jane 3-9x Leupold VXII hunting scope so if I drop some better glass…who knows. The thing is, the gun has proven that it is quite capable of excellent groups. I am teh pleasedzor.
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Bought one of these:
for my MiniMag lite and I am thus far finding it to be an excellent addition. This thing is a tailcap press-to-operate switch that also gives five different functions. Plus it has a little ‘locator’ blink every few seconds. Check out the product spec page. Pluks, it’ll work with the LED conversion so when running the light at 25% power you get even more life out of your batteries. Looks like a very cool gadget. Price? I think mine was about eight bucks. Made in China, unfortunately.
Im telling you, folks…LED flashlights are going to relegate the old incandescent flashlights to the ‘specialty’ categories. You’ll see them for big X-Files style searchlights and maybe for the uber high-intensity lights but for typical day-to-day stuff its going to be LED’s from here on in.
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Gas has dropped below $2.50/gallon locally so I’ll rotate out some gasoline this week. Two cents cheaper up at CostCo.
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Summer hats. MHFD, books
They may have lost the war, conducted Mengele-ish medical experiments, pressed wome into service for ‘comforting’ their troops and generally have been as bad as the Nazis but they did have a nice hat.
Observe the Japanese soldiers hat for tropical wear:
While most Japanese military gear was outdated or inadequate (relying on a soldiers fanatical loyalty to make up the difference) this hat must have made an impression because its so damn ubiquitous in most outdoor catalogs:
LL Bean makes one
As does REI
Patagucci Patagonia too
And here’s the Columbia version I was generously gifted with last week
So I’ll be trying it out in the summer Montana sun and will let you know how it works out. I’ve usually just used a boonie hat andhave been overall satisified with it so we’ll see how this fares. For the record, this type of cap is referred to as a ‘bimini cap’ in many places.
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The Mountain House ‘three day emergency kit’ of food I ordered from Amazon arrived the other day. They were closing them out at 1/3 off regular price. Its basically just a cardboard box with the standard foil pouches inside. I didnt really need it but I figured I might as well get it since there wasnt much at Amazon I wanted at the moment.
Still, you cant really have too much stored food.
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Hey, speaking of…Im reading a new TEOTWAWKI book…“Dies The Fire”…part, apparently, of a trilogy of books. Sure, its no ‘Survivalist’ series 😉 but it reminds me very much of Lucifers Hammer which I think we can all agree was a pretty good read.
The one thing harped on in this book over and over and over is that when you have food and others dont, those normally peaceful civilized soccer moms and golfing dads become real dangerous, real fast. All the more reason to make sure that those kitchen shelves stay full. Im about 70% through the first book and I like it very much. The reason for the EOTW in this book is insanely stupid, but the resultant situations and scenarios are not and thats making it worth reading.
Multitool, gas price nostalgia, Nalgene love
I continue to be pleased with the Leatherman Wave multitool that I got for my birthday. It does nothing supremely well, but it does everything well enough. No multitool is going to be perfect, since therell always be a need or function that is either unaddressed or not handled perfectly by the tool inquestion, but 9 times out of ten it’ll do the job well enough for the immediate need at hand. In fact, I like tis little thing so much that Im going to have to pick up a couple spares. It certainly beats the snot out ofp rety much any Swiss Army knife. McGyver coulda used one of these (and a set of balls).
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I was re-reading some of my older entries from about two years ago and recall bitching that gasoline was $1.86 per gallon. Good times.
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Im still deeply in love with the Nalgene water bottles. I’ve been tryng like hell to break one with various impacts and it just aint gonna happen. Im sure some folks will chime in and say ‘I can get an empty one-liter pop bottle for free that will do the same thing!’. True. Tell you what, you fill up that pop bottle and:
1) hurl it as high and as far as you can across a parking lot so it impacts on the ground and skids thirty feet
2) drop it from shoulder height, repeatedly, onto various uneven surfaces, including sharp rocks
3) Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, repeatedly
4) Clean with simple soap and water and remove all traces of previous flavorings
5) Find an aftermarket water filter that screws directly to the top of your pop bottle to make filling from a filter at streamside a breeze
Now, an empty designed-as-disposable pop bottle that does none of that for free, or something that will do all that and last pretty much the rest of my life for, oh, eight bucks.
Im all about saving money but not at the expense of utilitarianism, ergonomics and durability.
Birthday gear
My birthday came and went… a few of the highlights, in terms of gear and equipment:
A Coleman 530 from one of the LMI. Have to replace the fuel cap (uses the same fuel cap as modern manufactured lanterns so thats no biggie) and I may or may not have to do some other work to it…not sure yet. Heres the original 1950’s user manual.
The very cool Leatherman Wave multitool from the girlfriend. In using it, Ive discovered several very nice features. First of all, you can use either knife blade without having to open the tool, the blades are designed for one-handed ‘Spyderco’-type use, and the serrated blade has small serrations on the thumbpiece so you can tell without looking which blade youre about to open…a very subtle but very nice touch. Me likes this tool very much.
My brother sent me a nice Blackhawk tactical vest, which I’ll probably rig up set up as a spare or secondary vest for use at off-site locations. Which model? This one in this color. Also a copy of The Poor Mans James Bond…sort of a slightly updated ‘Anarchists Cookbook’.
All in all a pleasant birthday.
FAL probs an solutions, JFPO DIY KT AR, CZ wants, bicycle stuff
I’d been having on-and-off problems with my FAL and I think Ive ironed them out. The problem was that sometimes I’d have the bolt ride over the next round in the mag, stopping the bolt halfway in its closeward travel and putting a nice gouge in the case that was unlucky enough to be under the bolt. I thought perhaps it was an issue of gas system adjustment…perhaps more gas was needed to cause the bolt to travel more enthusiastically …it sorta helped but not completely. I then decided it might be an ammo problem…maybe the overall cartridge length of my reloads was not long enough to assure smooth feeding – so I loaded everything out to 2.800” and still had a few probs. Magazine? Maybe…but it happened with other mags too. Then I figured it out (I think). The mags I use are the used $5 mags from DSA. DSA started sending extra mag springs with them when you order them. Could the mags have weak springs and thus the cartridges are not being fed up through the magazine with sufficient force to put them in the ready position for the homeward-bound bolt? Certainly, it would mean the problem is more likely to be encountered when theres only a couple rounds in the mag rather than when the mag is full. But, theres an easier tell…it’s the same one you use to tell when its time to change the recoil spring in your handgun – compare an old spring to a new one. If your old one is significantly shorther than the new, swap it out. So I pulled the mag springs and compared them against the extras sent by DSA. Sure enough, they are at least a coil shorter. Swapped springs, took the mag out and loaded it with 20 rounds…boom, boom, boom..no problems. Tried a few in a mag that I hadn’t swapped the spring out..boom, boom, nada… aha!
Im pretty sure that’s the problem…especially since DSA is sending extra springs with the $5 mags. Tells me theyre aware of the problem. So, I now need to pull apart 40 magazines and compare the springs in all of them. However, I’ll be glad if that’s what the problem is. The FAL’s have a reputation for reliability and I was getting worried my Springfield Armory FAL was a lemon.
Before anyone asks, I have no idea what the gas regulator is set to..no numbers on mine. But I did do the usual ‘turn gas off and open one step at a time until the bolt locks back on empty, then go two more notches.”
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While we’re on the topic of guns, the recent Shotgun News has a fabulous article on the JFPO selling DIY AR-15 lowers. The ‘lowers’ are four pieces that are unfinished enough to not be considered firearms. You drill some holes in the conveniently placed starter indentations, thread ‘em, and bolt them together and you have an AR receiver…with absolutely no history or paper trail. Perfectly legal since the feds do allow you to make firearms for your own personal use.
At least, you did until the ATF raided the guy who was making these things for JFPO – KT Ordnance here in Montana. Apparently, ATF knew a good thing when they saw it and couldn’t have us peons with paperless AR’s.
I admire JFPO for its ‘in your face’ end-run around the feds. Anyone can say they’ll fight gun registration but how many actually go far enough to start selling DIY AR kits that don’t require paperwork? Another reason I like these guys better than the NRA.
Since I have no confidence in the 2008 election producing a pro-gun (or gun neutral) president, and am pretty certain it’ll put in a Democrat (usually a defacto anti-gunny) my personal strategy is to start socking away AR lowers at an alarming rate. AR parts will, I think, generally always be abundant and the AR is probably a lot easier to gunplumb on your own than, say, an AK. FALs might be nice but stripped FAL receivers don’t seem terribly common and the rest of the parts necessary are usually only available from one or two sources…and only really one domestically.
Needless to add, if I think it’s a wise idea to stock up on receivers before the election in 2008 you can bloody well believe I think its an even better idea to stock up on mags.
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Speaking of boomsticks, since I have reached the point that I am confident and happy with my CZ550, its time to shift from load development to ammo production and to getting all the necessary support gear for it…and one of the first things that I want is a Pelican case to protect my little tackdrvier. And spare mags. I currently have just two. I need about five more. And a nice dedicated bag to carry all the gear in…something with attachment points to be carried with other gear but with straps/sling points to be carried by itself. Something that can hold ammo, cleaning kits, maybe a spotting scope, and all the other gear-driven goodness that you need when putting the sneak on something 600 yards away. I likes my .308, I do.
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Got the new rack and bag for the mountain bike today. Also picked up a foot-powered pump. Additionally, I need to pick up a more compact pump to carry with the bike and I also want a 12v pump for use at the house. (Which can be used for several other things…like inflating those funky little inflatable guest beds, filling vehicle tires and pressurizing homebuilt flamethrowers.) Still need a fair amount of support gear for my bicycle but it’s a fairly low priority at the moment. The basic gear will be fine for now…I’ll get a spare wheel, spokes, chain, etc. at a later date. With gas around $3 a gallon it just doesn’t make sense to jump in the truck to go pick up the mail or a 12-pack of Coke. Plus, as local cops have opined, guys on bicycles are harder to catch than guys in vehicles…and me, Im all about the options. Still wouldn’t mind getting the frame powdercoated though……….
