Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Its so hard to stay focussed on the day-to-day nuts-n-bolts of preparedness when I get distracted by the latest schemes, scams and outright outrageousness that oozes out of Washington. But, its exactly because of those weasels and their fellow travelers that the missus and me need to have our ducks in a row.

Did a cursory inventory of primers the other night. We’re good on pistol but light on rifle. Okay on powder, but could be better. If youre like me and wanna be able to reload for everything with minimal headaches, pick up some IMR 3031 and some Unique. With IMR 3031 you’ll be able to reload, for the most part, any rifle cartridge you may need. Same for Unique – it’ll work in just about any handgun cartridge. Are there better powders? Absolutely. Are there any with that amazing versatility? Not many. An 8# keg of 3031 and an 8# keg of Unique will let you reload almost any cartridge you come across.

Don’t reload your own ammo? Then, my friend, you are a fool. I don’t take namecalling lightly but if, in this time of uncertainty, you havent bothered to take the steps to secure your ammo supply then youre just being foolish. The money you would save alone makes it worth it. Example: I have customers that shoot weird stuff like .378 Weatherby or .416 Remington Mag. This is stuff that’ll set you back $70 for a box of 20 cartridges. Or, put another way, more than $3 per cartridge. Now, assuming you saved your brass, all you need is powder, primer and bullet. Fifteen cents worth of powder, four cents worth of primer, and maybe forty cents of bullet. That $70 box of cartridges now costs $12.00. Take the $58 you saved and buy more reloading components.

I have in front of me catalogs from the major manufacturers. All of them sell kits that provide you all the equipment you need, less dies, to reload. Some are cheaper than others, some are more expensive, some are better quality, some are lower quality, all will do the trick.

Lee Challenger Press Kit, with dies – $53

Lee Anniversary Reloading Kit – $120

RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Kit – $407 (total BS..I sell them all the time for $300)

Lyman, Redding and a couple other outfits all offer similar kits.

I tell customers, if youre not sure if you want to get into reloading and don’t wanna spend a lot of money just to find out youre not into it, buy the Lee kit. If you don’t like reloading, youre not out a lot of money; if you do enjoy it and plan to stick with it, get yourself the RCBS kit.

Lets say youre someone who just wants to be prepared ‘just in case’. You own a couple 1911’s and a .357. You want to have the fixin’s to make your own ammo in case someday ‘they’ say you cant have any more. Here’s your shopping list:

Lee Challenger Kit with Lee dies in .45 ACP and .38/.357

A powder suitable to both cartridges…Unique will work in both. You’ll get about 1000 rounds per pound.

Large pistol primers for the .45, small pistol magnum primers for the .357. At least 1000 of each.

Lee bullet mould for .45 ACP and .357, with handles

Lee bullet sizer for .452” and .358”

Lee bullet lube

Lee lead furnace, dipper, ingot mould

Cartridge cases, .45 ACP , 500 pieces

Cartridge cases, .38 Spl or .357 Mag, 500 pieces

All of this will fit into a milsurp rocket case…a container about half the size of a dorm fridge. With a setup like this you could keep your pistols fed for as long as your primers and powder last. (Yes, you could make your own black powder and possibly re-use your primers…but thats alot more work than I’d wanna do.) Bullets are easily made from scrounged lead (wheelweights, linotype, old lead pipes, etc). This is the absolute cheapest setup that would work without getting into the super-cheap Lee Loader or Ideal 310 tools. The quality of the equipment is okay, but if youre on a budget this is the way to go. If money isn’t an issue swap the Lee gear for RCBS. 1000 primers and 1# of powder is a bare minimum. A ‘case’ of primers is 5000, and a ‘keg’ of powder is usually 8#….thats enough primer and powder to provide you with a lot of pistol ammo. And this doesn’t take into account the possibility of what you may scavenge from odd ammo that you cant use.

That is, in my opinion, the least amount that would give the most result. Even then it’s still a couple hundred bucks. But whats it worth to you to be able to have ammo for your guns in five years? Or fifty years? Stored properly this stuff will last a long, long time. I routinely use powder and primers ten or twenty years old. I’ve used primers as old as I am and never had a hiccup.

Now, ignoring the tinfoil-hat-quotient of the above paragraphs, here’s another reason for you to reload: economy. Assuming you’ve saved your brass or picked some up off the ground at the range (or scrounged through the garbage cans there like I do) your brass costs $0.00 after the first firing. If I load for my .38 Special and I just use a cheap lead bullet, Im at about $6 a box of 50 to reload for it. Want to do the math on your own? Here’s your factors:

Brass – After firing it once, its cost becomes $0.00

Powder – Divide price of powder per pound by 7000 to get cost per grain of powder ($20/7000 = $0.002 per grain…10 grains of powder = two cents)

Primer – Bought by the thousand, around $0.03 @

Bullet – Cheap lead bullets for as little as six cents apiece, all the way up to high performance jacketed stuff at twenty cents each.

Figure youre going to save at least 50% off the price of factory ammo. Or, put another way, you can have twice the ammo you would normally be able to purchase.

Safety issues? Sure…use the wrong powder or use too much and you’ll wreck your precious firearm. So RTFM and double check your data and you’ll be fine.

I started reloading when I was 19. I loved guns and had no money for ammo so the only way I could afford to shoot was to reload. In that time I have seen powder go from $13/# to $20/#, primers go from $12/m to $25/m, and bullets go from as low as $.05/@ to $.20@ and it is STILL cheaper to reload them all.

So…get yourself a reloading kit, find a buddy who reloads to show you the ropes, and start saving some money and securing your ammo supply.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

For those keeping track of such things, about a year or so ago the stock market was twice what it was today. Or, to put it more accurately, its dropped by 50% since then. Whats it mean to me? Not much..I have almost nothing in the stock market. However, the blowback is totally different….I (and you) are affected indirectly as unemployment rises, people who were counting on the market to fund their retirements become broke, municipalities become money-starved, etc, etc, etc. Interesting times. But youre ready for it, right? Right?

So, we have an official definition of a recession…but what about a Depression? How do you tell when a recession becomes a depression?

Here’s an article speculating that we may be in one now.  The article goes on to state that we may not be in a depression. In short, a depression, it seems, is oneof those things that you dont know youve had one until youre past it. Its obvious though that even if this were a depression no one in power is wanting to be the one to slap the name on it. Its a recession, a prolonged recession, a severe recession, a lengthy recesssion…but its not a depression.

This sort of Orwellian newspeak is going to become more common here as things progress. The unemployed will be ‘underemployed’, the morons that bought $700,000 houses on $40,000 incomes will be ‘victims of greedy banks’, and people who, as Santelli says, “carry the water instead of drink the water” will be ‘the rich’….and we all know that the rich are evil, mean, nasty people who deserve to have 40% of their paycheck go straight to someone else.

Are we in a Depression? I dunno….The lefties and Clinton apologists are quick to point out that during Slick Willie’s administration things were just wonderful. Well, the stock market and unemployment numbers are pretty much where they were when he gave a state of the union address that called the nations situation good.

Whats this got to do with anything relevant to the usual topics? I suppose the important thing here is that it really doesnt matter what anyone calls it…recession, depression, stagflation, recovery, etc. What matters is the result it has. If the talking heads on the television said that we are ‘officially in recovery’ and that all economic indicators were pointing to a bull market just around the corner it would be meaningless if, the next day, you lost your job.  Don’t think that just because some pundits say things may get better towards the end of the year or next year that we’re out of the woods. Heck, Im pretty sure we’re not even as far in the woods as we’re gonna get.

So, no, its not a depression. Not yet. And we won’t know until its over. But in the meantime don’t be lulled into complacency because its ‘only a recession’. Personally, I can look around me and see the failing businesses, empty storefronts, banks with non-existent interest rates, lots full of new cars, and houses with ‘price reduced’ signs and get a far better indicator of the current economic situation than Ill ever get from official sources.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

And, 10,000 primers later….we’re back.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Off to Hamilton for the gun show. Priority #1 is primers. Priority #2 is cartridge brass.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

It was pointed out at TSLRF that “people are starting to get shell-shocked out of blogging because of the large amounts of bad news which seems to be the world nowadays.” Theres a bit of truth to that…but on the other hand, being aware of the bad news is far more important than being aware of good news.

However, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are subjective. For example, I see nothing but ‘news’:

• People are going to be scraping to put food on the table, but we’re going to have no problem feeding ourselves.
• Folks are going to be dreading their mortgages becoming millstones around their necks, but we’ll be okay with our small fixed rate mortgage.
• People will have to choose between heating and lighting or having food on the table, but we’ll have both.
• Crime will increase and some people will be afraid to walk out of their homes, but we’ll be going on with our heavily armed and armored lives without interuption.
• People are going to have to face the consequences of their suffocating debt load; we’ll have no debt at all except the small mortgage.
• Inflation, deflation, recession and depression will be weighing heavily on peoples minds; we’ll look at our almost non-existent debt load, cash reserve, paid-for vehicle, small stash of precious metals, and our mountain of food and ammo and think that we’ll be okay.
• When the stresses of unemployment, worrying about the future, and the crushing sense of doom cause people to start snapping at their loved ones and sabotage their relationships we’ll be  pulling together for our common and shared future.

So, you see, for us it really is pretty much just ‘news’…it isnt ‘bad news’ because we’re situated so it won’t affect us in a majorly negative way. And, not to sound like a motivational speaker or anything, if youre willing to sell the jet ski, stop buying $25,000 cars and think strategically (and enforce some self-discipline) you can feel just as secure.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Speaking of securing our future, a late night trip to Albertson’s caught the meat counter at that magical time of day when they put out the remaindered meat. Mmmmm…meat. Ground beef at $1.69/#….darn well better believe we picked up a bunch. Brought it home, divvied it up into smaller units and they are in the freezer now in preparation for vacuum sealing and then the great cryo-nap…see you in three years.

As an aside, they had individual 1#~ units of this stuff for $1.99/# but if you bought the ‘bulk’ ( a giant snowball of meat weighing around 6#) it was $1.69/#…save thirty cents a pound for just repackaging it at homeinto smaller units? You bet! Thats about a 15% savings and thats the same as one free pound for every seven.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I told you so.

Im going through everything Ive read in the last four months where the Obama apologists said “He’s not going to take your guns!”.

Although, technically, the 1994 ban didnt take anyones guns from them. It just made it so you couldnt get another one, couldnt get a new magazine for it, etc, etc.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

The Helena gun show was last weekend. My needs were small…I saw the handwriting on the bunker wall quite a while ago…but I go anyway since gun shows are a wonderful barometer of public mood.

First of all, the lowest price for a stripped lower was $185. A few were in the $275 range. Various manufacturers. AR stocks, like Magpul and Vltor stocks, were in abundance as were parts. The AR’s that were there were all in the $950 and up range with some going for over $2000 for a lousy Colt HBAR Sporter. A lot of ‘no name’ and smaller brand AR’s. I saw no Stag, a handful of Bushmasters and only two Colts.

What was interesting, though, was that magazine prices seemed to flatten and even retreat a bit. Most mags were $20 with a few in the $16-18 range. BetaMags were back up over $350. I think the market has hit a point where everyone who wants ‘em has ‘em and as a result the prices have to come down a bit to make sales. However, that can change, literally, in an instant…all it takes is an AP or Reuters headline saying ‘Obama team ponders new gun laws’ or something similar to cause another run on mags and guns. I would almost say that we’re in a lull right now and this might be a good time to find a ‘baragin’ on mags.

Ammo, however, was going out about as fast as it could be brought in. Obviously .223 and 7.62×39 were the big movers. Even the grossly overpriced and underperforming Wolf stuff was in short supply. Ditto for components…a lot of overpriced .223 55 gr. FMJ bullets. Come on, ten cents apiece for a .22 bullet that isn’t even a hollowpoint? Insane. Might as well get used to it though…I don’t see it changing for quite a while.

I did get to see one of the new ‘fourth gen’ Glock pistols with the new slide serrations and sharkskin-texture grips. Looks a little too pretty for my tastes. I like the industrial-destructionalist look of the third gen ones. It appears mags will interchange just fine, so that’s all I was worried about. Speaking of, the average Glock mag was around $20-$25. I saw none of the 33-rd Glock mags, although there were a few of the Scherer-brand versions that suck. The Taiwanese Glock mags were there as well…haven’t tried them but I haven’t heard anyting bad about them either. Still and all, I stick with OEM whenever I can.

So what did I pick up for myself? Well, I toddled over to John Trochman’s table since he always has stuff that is of interest to us LMI. John, by the way, was the voice of the Militia Of Montana back in the day when that sort of thing was newsworthy. He pegs the needle on the Tinfoil-Hat-O-Meter but as long as you don’t engage him in discussions about Trilateral Bilderberger Illuminati UN conspiracies he’s a pretty decent guy. He wants his customers to buy his books, bandages, ammo, and gear not only because it makes him a little money but because he genuinely believes that by buying that stuff he’s helping you to secure your safety. He is what we would call a True Believer.

Anyway, I picked up a couple packages of QuickClot and a handful of the Israeli combat bandages because, you know, sometimes bad things happen to good people. Good compress bandages are always a welcome addition to any first aid gear.

All in all, a decent show. Managed to not buy any guns although there was a roundbutt S&W 4″ 686 in the ‘midnight stainless’ finish. A bit spendy for my tastes though – $540.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

For a while I’ve been wanting a softside case for my AR. Something that would hold the gun and a decent amount of gear to go with it. I was using the Blackhawk Homeland Security case which worked really quite well but still looked somewhat like a gun case (although slapping some ‘Yamaha’ patches on it would have made it look more like the carrying case for a digital keyboard).

As i was cruising the interweb I found a takedown AR case. You break the gun into its two major assemblies and they store securely in the bag along with some mags and ammo. The case is from Castle Rock Tactical and is, at the moment, 20% off according ot the website. My cost, soup to nuts, was $108. One interesting thing about this case is its potential to be free of any suggestion of gunny-ness. The bags have no MOLLE webbing on the exterior to ‘tacticalize’ it, and the colors offered include some pretty non-tactical colors that would make anyone think that the bag contains nothing more than a folding lawn chair, diapers and formula, or some type of tools.

The interior compartment has a divider velcroed to the floor of the bag. The divider keeps the two halves of the AR from banging against each other. Tie downs inside the bag help hold the assemblies in place and keep them from sliding around in the bag. On the interior of each side of the bag is a row of 3 mag pockets and a large utility pocket. My Bushmaster Dissipator, a SpecOps 6 magazine pouch, a couple 20-rders, and a half dozen boxes of 20 rd. .223 fit inside handily.

The case has D rings to attach backpack straps (included) for ease of carrying. Please view the pictures at the link above for more detail.

The advantage to a case like this, in my opinion, is that you can transport your rifle in a compact package that is less likely to draw attention to yourself. If you can afford to stash a rifle somewhere this case would be an excellent way to do it…you could carry it into an office building, past the reception area and put it under your desk and no one would know its there.

Made in USA, on sale, and seems pretty well made. To be fair, I just got the case today so it hasn’t had the chance for the abusive testing I like to give gear, but it looks like it’ll hold up pretty well. Check ‘em out.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Have you ever read about someone who robs a bank or steals a car and, somehow, they leave a critical piece of ID behind? Seems pretty stupid, doesn’t it? I mean, if youre going to commit a crime, or do something equally dumb, don’t you think you’d maybe want to NOT leave your name and address at the scene? I’ve always wondered how someone could be so stupid as to do something like that. Fortunately, I dont have to wonder any more. I can simply ask Mr. MMB of Billings MT.

Mr MMB, whom we first met a couple posts back, had the amazing misfortune to leave his drivers license on my front porch after trying to hammer down my door last week. Yes, thats right….the 6′0″, 175#, 21 year old, formerly of Billings Montana, executed the facepalm-worthy feat of leaving his most personal data at the scene of his drunken moronitude.

Truly.

Im sure you can think of a multitude of ways this development could open the door to some interesting times. I’ve thought of a bunch…but the one thats probably going to be the winner is to simply have the missus go return the young mans ID to him while she’s on her lunch break at work.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Went along to help a friend pick up a small trailer today. The trailer had been sitting since the summer and was surrounded by about a foot of snow on all sides. The problem this presented was pretty easy to see – the hitch was going to be at least a foot lower than the ball since the tow vehicle was on top of the foot of packed snow. The obvious solution was to get the trailer on top of the packed snow and hook it up that way. First thing was to shovel out some snow from around the wheels so that the trailer could ramp up to the top of the snow. Problem was, how do you pull it? Fortunately the tow vehicle had a winch on the front of it. We managed to winch it out partially but still had some disparity in ball/hitch height. Enter the Hi-Lift jack.

I’ve been wanting one of these lovely devices for a while now. I’ve read quite a bit about them, explored the wonderful accessories for them and given some thought to some of the non-standard uses they lend themselves to. In addition to being used to lift heavy objects, the jack can also be used to spread objects apart. The attraction there is that while you con certainly use it in a ‘jaws of life’ type capacity, it seems it would be the ideal tool for spreading apart a door jamb to ‘pop’ a door open. That has some mighty appeal to me right there. The jack can also be used as a comealong to pull object around like a winch would. Very versatile tool. Must. Get.

The folks who do a lot of off-road recreational driving carry these things and there are a few websites that review this tool’s use. In addition, doing a search for ‘Hi-Lift’ on YouTube brings up plenty of videos that describe this piece of gear better than I ever could.

Lets start off with a link to the company’s website. In addition to the jacks themselves, they offer some very nice accessories to make them even more versatile.

You dont have to be a visionary to see that a tool like this (or, really, a pair of them) would be outstanding for getting wrecked/disabled/abandoned vehicles out of the way, extricating your vehicle from problems (actually lift the entire wheel off the ground to put some traction aid underneath),  pulling obstacles from your path, etc, etc, etc. Oh…and you could probably use it for changing a tire.

Like any decent and useful tool, there are risks. Yes, you can pinch a finger if youre careless. Yes you can drop a huge weight on your feet if you dont pay attention to where your feet are. Thats the price we pay for self-reliance. Also, there are Chinese knockoffs of this thing out there. I am fully willing to pay a bit more to know that the product wasnt made from melted down aluminum pots and pans and whatever junk metal Factory Number 7 in China happened to have laying around.  Additionally, while Im not that nationalistic, I do try to avoid buying Chinese whenever I can..not only for quality and economic issues but also because I just don’t like them. If I ever do have to buy made in China stuff, I try to at least get it from Taiwan. Enough about that.

So…as I said, Ive been aware of these jacks for a few years but today was my first chance to get to ‘play’ with one and I very much like it and am going to have to start putting together a shopping list of accessories, spare parts, etc, for when I do acquire one. In the meantime, if youre not familiar with them I suggest you do some looking around…they appear to be an excellent item to have on hand for those unexpected situations that call for more force than one person can deliver without mechanical leverage.