All quiet on the Zero front. Interestingly, I think I’m running a bit light on 9mm ammo these days. After that class I need to replace about 1,500 rounds. The Remington yellowbox of 250 seems like the best deal in name-brand, reloadable, factory ammo these days. Its what I shot at the class and it seemed to work just fine.

By the by, what does the Zero carry in his everyday Glock mags? 115 FMJ actually. Mostly because I have so much of it. The nightstand gun is loaded with old style Black Talons.
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Had some pleasant experience ‘pouch cooking’ a few weeks ago. The principle is simple: put food ingredients in a pouch of aluminum foil and put pouch on/in heat source (fire, barbecue, oven, etc). The sealed pouch keeps in steam and moisture, food cooks, you then eat from the pouch and when done simply discard the ball of foil. No cookware or servingware to have to deal with. Certain foods lend themselves to this method more than others…some peppers, onions, garlic, stock, couscous, spices, and thinly sliced pork came out quite nicely. I’ll have pics up in a few days.Works great tossing ’em on the ol’ Volcano stove.
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I need to get a Lone Wolf Distributing catalog. I want to change out the sights on my Glock to something a little less ‘coarse’ and a bit more precise. Also, I’d like to get a sight adjustment tool as well as a few other goodies. (Like more colored basepads.)
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In other news, and this is somewhat interesting, a visitor to the website actually used the ‘Donation’ button and gave the Zero a few bucks for his ‘Im gonna make it through this apocalypse’ fund. Darn nice of them. Almost pays for a months bandwidth.
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I was supposed to go on the July 4 field exercise with the LMI but its not looking like thats going to happen. My civillian life has taken way too much time off recently and I need to stick around to try and make money. Maybe later in the year I’ll be able to run off for a three day weekend or something, but not now. Too bad, Id get to try my new Eureka combat tent.
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One of the LMI stopped by this afternoon. We got to talking and I mentioned that I stillhad about half a case of Kerlix bandages and asked if he wanted some since I had more than enough and was distributing them amongst the LMI. Needless to say, he replied with an enthusiastic affirmative and I gave him a bag of 20 bandage rolls. Still leaves me with plenty of extras.

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

Man, I'm beat.

I'm back from gun camp, which was a very enlightening experience. Its always nice to find out exactly what you don't know. Sobering too. And it was a very good chance to learn/observe what works/doesntwork in terms of gear.

Since Im a gear-queer, lets talk toys:

In the handgun class there were 10 people. Thusly, 10 pistols. Of those 10 pistols 1 was a SIG 9mm and the rest were Glocks. Of the 9 Glocks there was one .45 GAP. So, out of ten guns there were eight 9mm Glocks.

All holsters, except mine, were kydex and I switched to a kydex holster early on. The only gun to experience malfunctions was the Glock .45 GAP which seemed to double-feed alot. This was believed to be a magazine related problem. Personally, I think its new-gun bugs being worked out.

Of the eight 9mm Glocks there were no malfs. I personally put almost 600 rounds through my early-model 17 (Stock gun, no mods) had no problems of any kind. Needless to say, my faith in the ability of a stock Glock to perform with quality commercial ammo is quite strong.

Not as strong on the AR's though. The carbine class was tiny – three people. Me, the girlfriend and an older fella with a scoped Mini-14. Me and the girlfriend were carrying ARs..mine was a fullsize A2 with open sights. She had a shorty carbine flattop with a red dot. After about 300 rounds on this hot day I started getting jams. Mostly the bolt failing to go forward with sufficient force to completely strip the next round off the magazine. Solution was to , with the bolt closed, squirt a healthy dose of lube onto the bolt through the ejection port and work the bolt a few times. I have utter confidence that the AK's would have handled this situation with ease…however, I thought we were going to do one handed mag change drills (which we didnt) and that the AK-style magazine release would work against us. The instructor advised lubing using FP-10, saying that other lubes (like Tetra, which Ive come to prefer) offer no benefit once they dry out/cook off. The guy runs an AR course and has experience, it would be foolish not to listen to him and give the stuff a shot.

The AR course was exhausting. Shooting from different angles as well as axes. (Difference, it seemed, was that angle was your up/down/sideways range of motion and axes was where your body was oriented….example, face away from the target and your axis is away from the target.) SOme of the drills were spectacularly difficult and in some ways painful. For example, face away from the target and twist your torso to the left (normally, your weak side) and shoot behind you. Or, my favorite for crunching internal organs, stand facing the target, shoulder the rifle and lean over to the side like your trying to look under a table. Your basically holding the gun upside down…now, start shooting and keep a good sight picture. Ow.

The pistol course featured the entire gamut of what youd expect: strong side one hand, weak side one hand, on hand reload, shooting from around cover left and right handed, shooting while moving, etc, etc. I remember how we had the courses of fire set up and will be replicating them at my local range with the steel plates.

Although the Glock performed spectacularly, I think its accuracy isnt as good as, say, my Browning. I'd very much like to take this course again with my beloved P35 and see how I do. I wouldnt mind trying it with a 1911 but one course of fire required almost 40 rounds if you didnt miss any shots…thats 6 .45 mags right there. No, I'd like to try it with the High Power though.

As an aside, this was my firs experience with a shooting course of any kind. The instructor was Pat Goodale. The courses were Def Handgun III and Tactical Rifle I. Mr. Goodale was very patient, more than willing to answer questions to my satisfaction, and generally had all the qualities you'd want in an instructor.

Man, I’m beat.

Continue reading →

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

Off to gun camp with the girlfriend. Two days of defensive handgun and 'tactical rifle' (read: AR1-15).

Its a fairly healthy haul to Billings (5-6 hours depending on conditions). I really need to come up with a standard list of items for roadtrips. Something I can throw in the back of the truck and be done with. Maybe thats what I'll do while riding as passenger…work on lists.

Its rained for the last several days here and I cannot remember the last time that happened. (Okay, maybe I can…summer of 2000 when we had the really bad fires. Never been so glad to see rain.) Gotta pack some raingear for this trip as well as some cold gear since you just never know around here. (We did, after all, have a 4th of July snowstorm once.)

This class is giving me the opportunity to swap out some 55 gr. ammo from stores with some 62 gr. M855 steel-core green tip. (Or maybe its ss-109… I keep mixing them up. And, yes, I already have the link to the AR-15 Ammo Oracle, thanks) A little bit of extra penetration is always nice, although, really, the softpoints are probably a better choice from the terminal performance standpoint.

I wanna bring the FAL just to give it a go at this course but thats too many guns to haul around. I also wonder if they'll let me do Glock reloads using my 33-rd mags….Im betting the answer will be 'only if those are what youd actually carry as a spare mag'. Funny thing is, I sort of already do…I've three of them on my TT pack in an MP5 mag pouch.

9mm ammo is running low what with these classes. I need to pick up at least another couple cases. Same for .223. Doing good on .308 though..I bought a couple cans of the very nice Radway Green stuff a few years ago and have shot almost none of it.

I need to sit down and inventory all the ammo anyway. I know I've got about 12k in .22, another 1k in 12 gauge, and probably 3k in .38…. not sure what else (although I know theres a good bit…I've got shelves five layers high loaded with full ammo cans).

Of course, as we all know, TEOTWAWKI might not require very much ammo at all but why not play it safe, y'know?

Off to gun camp with the girlfriend. Two days of defensive handgun and ‘tactical rifle’ (read: AR1-15).

Its a fairly healthy haul to Billings (5-6 hours depending on conditions). I really need to come up with a standard list of items for roadtrips. Something I can throw in the back of the truck and be done with. Maybe thats what I’ll do while riding as passenger…work on lists.

Its rained for the last several days here and I cannot remember the last time that happened. (Okay, maybe I can…summer of 2000 when we had the really bad fires. Never been so glad to see rain.) Gotta pack some raingear for this trip as well as some cold gear since you just never know around here. (We did, after all, have a 4th of July snowstorm once.)

This class is giving me the opportunity to swap out some 55 gr. ammo from stores with some 62 gr. M855 steel-core green tip. (Or maybe its ss-109… I keep mixing them up. And, yes, I already have the link to the AR-15 Ammo Oracle, thanks) A little bit of extra penetration is always nice, although, really, the softpoints are probably a better choice from the terminal performance standpoint.

I wanna bring the FAL just to give it a go at this course but thats too many guns to haul around. I also wonder if they’ll let me do Glock reloads using my 33-rd mags….Im betting the answer will be ‘only if those are what youd actually carry as a spare mag’. Funny thing is, I sort of already do…I’ve three of them on my TT pack in an MP5 mag pouch.

9mm ammo is running low what with these classes. I need to pick up at least another couple cases. Same for .223. Doing good on .308 though..I bought a couple cans of the very nice Radway Green stuff a few years ago and have shot almost none of it.

I need to sit down and inventory all the ammo anyway. I know I’ve got about 12k in .22, another 1k in 12 gauge, and probably 3k in .38…. not sure what else (although I know theres a good bit…I’ve got shelves five layers high loaded with full ammo cans).

Of course, as we all know, TEOTWAWKI might not require very much ammo at all but why not play it safe, y’know?

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

Went on a little geocaching the other day. Gave me a chance to try out the Blackhawk Hydrastorm Predator that I picked up a few weeks ago. I've lately come to eschew Blackhawk gear for its Made-In-Vietnam angle, but I'd already plunked the money down on this thing so I'll go ahead and use it. The bladder features a seam running down the middle which effectively forms two channels for liquid to fill…what this does is keep the bladder from blowing up like a balloon. nice touch. The new Bite Me valve did seem nicer than the Camelbak's and it definitely delivered more water. Shoulder straps were comfortable and generally the product performed well. Some sort of retainer for the tube would have been nice to keep it from flopping around but thats a quick fix with a rubber band or spring clip.

My GPS uses 4 AA batts, like many other GPS. I stuffed mine with lithium batts since the GPS sits idle for long periods of time and that can sometimes be a drag on regular batts. I think I put those lithiums in three years ago and I now finally need to swap them out. So, with infrequent use, three years out of the lithium batteries. More expensive up front, but worth it.

Cant say enough about UTM. Some people still want to use the long/lat hour-minute units. This is fine until you get a question like how far is a minute? A degree? An hour? With UTM you subtract one number from the other number and thats your distance in meters. Piece of cake. Where its really, really handy is for using pythagoreum (sp?) theory to figure your distance. Take your location on a map and draw a dot, draw a dot at your target location. Draw a line between the two. Draw a triangle so that the line you drew is the long leg of a right triangle. (a^2) + (b^2) = (c^2), right? So measure leg a, leg b and do some math and you know exactly how long leg c, the line you drew, is. Try that with degrees sometime.

Other gear this trip:
UM84 holster for the Glock 17 – Good protection, easy attachment to belt, protects gun nicely. Good holster.
Boonie hat – run that baby though a stream, shake excess water off, put hat on head and brace for the glacial cold that will wash over you. And it keeps the sun out of your eyes to boot.
Motorola radios – Litte Talkabouts came in handy. I crossed the stream and hunted for a trail on the one side while the girlfriend waited on the other and I could let her know what was going on. Handy that.

There was also sundry gear that was taken that simply wasnt used so I wont go into any detail on that.

The trails immediately split right at the trailhead and I think we took the wrong one which is why we didnt find the cache we were looking for. Next time we'll take the fork on the right and see what happens.

Went on a little geocaching the other day. Gave me a chance to try out the Blackhawk Hydrastorm Predator that I picked up a few weeks ago. I’ve lately come to eschew Blackhawk gear for its Made-In-Vietnam angle, but I’d already plunked the money down on this thing so I’ll go ahead and use it. The bladder features a seam running down the middle which effectively forms two channels for liquid to fill…what this does is keep the bladder from blowing up like a balloon. nice touch. The new Bite Me valve did seem nicer than the Camelbak’s and it definitely delivered more water. Shoulder straps were comfortable and generally the product performed well. Some sort of retainer for the tube would have been nice to keep it from flopping around but thats a quick fix with a rubber band or spring clip.

My GPS uses 4 AA batts, like many other GPS. I stuffed mine with lithium batts since the GPS sits idle for long periods of time and that can sometimes be a drag on regular batts. I think I put those lithiums in three years ago and I now finally need to swap them out. So, with infrequent use, three years out of the lithium batteries. More expensive up front, but worth it.

Cant say enough about UTM. Some people still want to use the long/lat hour-minute units. This is fine until you get a question like how far is a minute? A degree? An hour? With UTM you subtract one number from the other number and thats your distance in meters. Piece of cake. Where its really, really handy is for using pythagoreum (sp?) theory to figure your distance. Take your location on a map and draw a dot, draw a dot at your target location. Draw a line between the two. Draw a triangle so that the line you drew is the long leg of a right triangle. (a^2) + (b^2) = (c^2), right? So measure leg a, leg b and do some math and you know exactly how long leg c, the line you drew, is. Try that with degrees sometime.

Other gear this trip:
UM84 holster for the Glock 17 – Good protection, easy attachment to belt, protects gun nicely. Good holster.
Boonie hat – run that baby though a stream, shake excess water off, put hat on head and brace for the glacial cold that will wash over you. And it keeps the sun out of your eyes to boot.
Motorola radios – Litte Talkabouts came in handy. I crossed the stream and hunted for a trail on the one side while the girlfriend waited on the other and I could let her know what was going on. Handy that.

There was also sundry gear that was taken that simply wasnt used so I wont go into any detail on that.

The trails immediately split right at the trailhead and I think we took the wrong one which is why we didnt find the cache we were looking for. Next time we’ll take the fork on the right and see what happens.

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

Interesting post over in the Guns community. It lends a bit of validity to my idea that you dont put all your eggs (or guns) in one basket. Fella has a CCW. According to him, he's walking along at night and gets accosted by a homeless guy with a knife. Our guy puts his hand on the butt of his pistol and tells knifeguy to back off or else. Knifeguy exercises better part of valor…and then calls the cops on CCW guy who gets arrested and then has his house entered by the cops (while he is in custody elsewhere) who then take all his other guns. Heck, you can read it for yourself here:
So, unless this poor guy has some LMI's who can give him 'loaners' or has a separate stash of thundertoys elsewhere he is now gunless. Whats interesting to note is that this was out of nowhere…it wasnt ATF storming the place with tanks, it wasnt the UN and FEMA, it was mutant cannibal zombies. It happened in a non-TSHTF situation..just an average day.

Now, Ive been in this situation and lucked out in that I had buddies who were more than happy to loan me duplicates of what was taken. (Another very good reason for standardization…buddy loaned me a Browning P35 and I still had leather, mags, parts, etc, for it.)

Moral of the story: there doesnt have to be a societal upheaval for the cops to find a reason to get into your home. Once there theyre going to see all that 'crazy survivalist' stuff or your 'assault rifles' or your 'anti government literature' and what started as a dog-bites-child complaint or some other crap is going to become a 'Local area police discover weapons cache' sort of thing in the paper.

Resolved: Eggs. Basket. Basket. Basket.

Interesting post over in the Guns community. It lends a bit of validity to my idea that you dont put all your eggs (or guns) in one basket. Fella has a CCW. According to him, he’s walking along at night and gets accosted by a homeless guy with a knife. Our guy puts his hand on the butt of his pistol and tells knifeguy to back off or else. Knifeguy exercises better part of valor…and then calls the cops on CCW guy who gets arrested and then has his house entered by the cops (while he is in custody elsewhere) who then take all his other guns. Heck, you can read it for yourself here:
So, unless this poor guy has some LMI’s who can give him ‘loaners’ or has a separate stash of thundertoys elsewhere he is now gunless. Whats interesting to note is that this was out of nowhere…it wasnt ATF storming the place with tanks, it wasnt the UN and FEMA, it was mutant cannibal zombies. It happened in a non-TSHTF situation..just an average day.

Now, Ive been in this situation and lucked out in that I had buddies who were more than happy to loan me duplicates of what was taken. (Another very good reason for standardization…buddy loaned me a Browning P35 and I still had leather, mags, parts, etc, for it.)

Moral of the story: there doesnt have to be a societal upheaval for the cops to find a reason to get into your home. Once there theyre going to see all that ‘crazy survivalist’ stuff or your ‘assault rifles’ or your ‘anti government literature’ and what started as a dog-bites-child complaint or some other crap is going to become a ‘Local area police discover weapons cache’ sort of thing in the paper.

Resolved: Eggs. Basket. Basket. Basket.

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

Went down to the Deer Lodge gun show. It was held in the ancient prison there….25' high sandstone walls, lotsa poured concrete, very bunkerish. Picked up a pair of German surplus military ponchos. I like these better than the US ones for a couple reasons. First, the material is a bit heavy-dutier thatn the lightweight nylon stuff on the US model. Yes, it translates into more weight to carry but I think its an acceptable tradeoff for actually staying dry when you use it as a groundsheet or overhead cover. The snaps that run along the ledges are such that both sides ('heads' and 'tails') can be mated to each other so you can come up with some interesting fabrications using multiple ponchos.Another very German touch is that there is a snap in the middle of the poncho that the top of the hood fastens to. This means that when you have the ponch set up as an overhead cover the headhole is closed up and the hood isnt flapping around. … clever. Anyway, they were $13 each and very worth it in my opinion. They'll roll up into a roll the size of a 2-cell D flashlight so the space they take up wont be too bad. A good purchase. Without exhausting the list, in addition to keeping you out of the rain, they can also be used to create sleeping bag bivvy sacks, improvised stretchers, ford rivers by wrapping your pack in one, groundsheet on damp ground, etc, etc, etc. A very versatile piece of gear.
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Great news on the Preventing Starvation (And Bowel Activity) front. My contact in the WY NG is going to be coming up for a visit and wants to know if Im still willing to trade for late-production cases of MRE's. Hell yes! 12 meals in an impervious cardboard box that I can throw in the back of a truck and vamoose? Sign me up!
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Local gunpimp has some new .223. Polymer case stuff. Picked up a case of 500 rounds and was taken with how light the ammo was. I absolutely do not trust it to work flawlessly but its fairly cheap ($75 retail/500) so I might use it for practice or something while saving the SS109 for that rainy decade.
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Still havent gotten around to making that Mountain House order yet. Need a time when Ive got a hundred bucks that isnt doing anything…and that aint very often.