So wheres my .45? Sitting in an oversized ammo can. Why? Well, glad you asked….

All the guns I own that are ‘dedicated’ TEOTWAWKI guns are packaged in air-tight, water-tight oversize ammo cans. In addition to the gun itself, the ammo can also contains literally every support item needed to go with the gun. What I mean is, if you had to leave your abode in a hurry and grabbed your .45 and a couple mags on the way out the door what would you do for cleaning gear? Holsters? Ammo? etc, etc…..

My .45 sits in a pistol rug(with dessicant) in a tall .50 can. Included in the can is :
.45 ACP ammo
Cleaning kit
Bore-Snake
Squib rod
Spare parts (triggers, assorted springs, extractors, firing pins, bushings, grip screws, etc, etc)
Mag pouches
Holster
Belt
Cleaning rag
Lubricant
Extra recoil springs
Exploded diagrams
Pistol lanyard
About 25 spare magazines
Dental picks & toothpicks
Screwdrivers
Brass hammer
Extra grips
And a few other things that escape me at the moment. Its a snug fit, but it all fits in the ammo can.

The nice thing is, I can grab that ammo can and have everything I need for that particular pistol. I’ve similar setups for my revolvers and my P35.

All of my AR support stuff fits in a 40mm can (except the rifle itself, of course).
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How does a person live in Florida and NOT be prepared for a hurricane? Especially when you just had one last month?
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One week until the Assault Weapons Ban expiration. Will it stay? Will it go?
Im going to be talking to one of the local gun store people tomorrow to talk about pre-ordering magazines and seeing if he’s been approached by any distributors yet. If the prices are right, I’ll take 20 Glock mags, 20 10/22 mags, another dozen P35 mags, another 30 AR mags and two dozen AK mags.

Well, the decommisioned Radio Relay Facility that you see a couple posts back turned out to be a bust. It was located exactly 15 miles down a two-lane county road. This road ran the length of a valley that had maybe less than a dozen houses in it. The nearest house would have been over a mile away. Once you drove the fifteen miles you then opened a locked gate and had a 1.1 mile drive (and 500 foot climb) to the top of a hill/mountain where the station was waiting. The station building sits on an islnad of 1.77 acres. On three sides its bordered by National Forest land on the other side by a ranchers land. The 1.1 mile road has an easement, so basically, someone elses land is your buffer zone. And, of course, The Tower…..mmmmm….recon-a-rific!

So far so good, right?

The building itself is 8″ thick concrete walls covered with 4″ of foam insulation. The windows all had steel shutters over them. The inside of the building had 14′ ceilings and approximately 1600′ square feet. Really, it would have been *perfect* except for one huge, niggling detail – no water. The place was designed as, essentially, an unmanned remote-control facility. Hence, no water. You could, I suppose, try to drill a well but you’d have to go 500′ just to get to the level of the road you came in on. Now, yes, you could put in a cistern but they were talking about a 1500 gallon number and that aint nearly enough water for someone who doesnt want to have to leave the safety, security, and phenominal sniper vantage point that is this place. So why not put in two 1500 gallon cisterns? Youre missing the point, man…..at some point you have to a) find a vehicle to haul water (at 8# per gallon), b) find a container to haul water in, c) find a source of water thats clean and cheap, and d) do this every two or four weeks.

What was taken away from this experience? A newfound respect and appeal for concrete construction. This place was , essentially, a concrete shoebox but some paint and a couple skylights would make it really quite nice. The thermal mass would have made heating/cooling a breeze.

So, this wasnt the new Rancho Ballistica. (Although I already had a snazzy name picked out for it – ‘The Box’)

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

Hmm..you know, having a tall, flat, oil-rig type platform in the backyard would make an absolutely bitchin’ place for a wind-turbine generator…..

Hmm..you know, having a tall, flat, oil-rig type platform in the backyard would make an absolutely bitchin’ place for a wind-turbine generator…..

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

Holy crap, I think I found my new home.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4319044293

Holy crap, I think I found my new home.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4319044293

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

Interesting little News McNugget: Feds plan for next superflu
An interesting read. Let me hit the highlights:

WASHINGTON – The United States may have to close schools, restrict travel and ration scarce medications if a powerful new flu strain spurs a worldwide outbreak, according to federal plans for the next pandemic, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Millions of sick patients could swarm doctors’ offices and hospitals, says the plan, which stresses that states and hospitals must figure out now how they would free up hospital beds and perform triage.

There could also be an economic and social wallop from disruption of transportation, commerce, even routine public safety, warns the plan, to be released Thursday by the Health and Human Services Department.

Depending on where a pandemic begins and how virulent it seems, the first protections probably will include travel restrictions, schools closures, restrictions on public gatherings and even quarantines to limit the spread of infection, Gerberding said.
=========
My grandmothers sister died in the big flu epidemic of 1918.

But, my point…

So the feds are planning on how to isolate and quarnatine folks, shuffle resources and personnel, etc. Interesting. Heres the conspiracy theory part – these are the exact same precautions you would take if it werent bird flu but, say, some sort of bio-weapon. Could it be possible that the feds are actually planning a scenarion not about the flu but rather about a bioweapon release? And they cover their preperations with the flu angle to keep from alarming the populace? If they issued directives to hospitals and other organizations about how to run quarantines and isolations because of the release of some germ warfare contaminant we’d have all sortsa uproar…so they cover it by saying its about the flu.

Or, it may be that they are actually concerned about the flu. But even if thats so, if someone like me can see the parallel use of this plan then you can bet someone in Washington is saying ‘hey, lets add a few other goodies to this plan so we can use it as a model for a germ attack’.

Interesting little News McNugget: Feds plan for next superflu
An interesting read. Let me hit the highlights:

WASHINGTON – The United States may have to close schools, restrict travel and ration scarce medications if a powerful new flu strain spurs a worldwide outbreak, according to federal plans for the next pandemic, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Millions of sick patients could swarm doctors’ offices and hospitals, says the plan, which stresses that states and hospitals must figure out now how they would free up hospital beds and perform triage.

There could also be an economic and social wallop from disruption of transportation, commerce, even routine public safety, warns the plan, to be released Thursday by the Health and Human Services Department.

Depending on where a pandemic begins and how virulent it seems, the first protections probably will include travel restrictions, schools closures, restrictions on public gatherings and even quarantines to limit the spread of infection, Gerberding said.
=========
My grandmothers sister died in the big flu epidemic of 1918.

But, my point…

So the feds are planning on how to isolate and quarnatine folks, shuffle resources and personnel, etc. Interesting. Heres the conspiracy theory part – these are the exact same precautions you would take if it werent bird flu but, say, some sort of bio-weapon. Could it be possible that the feds are actually planning a scenarion not about the flu but rather about a bioweapon release? And they cover their preperations with the flu angle to keep from alarming the populace? If they issued directives to hospitals and other organizations about how to run quarantines and isolations because of the release of some germ warfare contaminant we’d have all sortsa uproar…so they cover it by saying its about the flu.

Or, it may be that they are actually concerned about the flu. But even if thats so, if someone like me can see the parallel use of this plan then you can bet someone in Washington is saying ‘hey, lets add a few other goodies to this plan so we can use it as a model for a germ attack’.

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

Mmmmph…buddy of mine just showed up with a used Ruger .308 ‘law enforcement’ model. The ugly part of this is that Ive really been wanting a tactical .308 boltgun. The really, really ugly part is that the shop he picked it up at had *two*. [grumble]
I dunno. I think Im going to hold out for the Savage for a couple of reasons…for one, I really think their AccuTrigger is the way to go. I also like the fact you can rebarrel the gun yourself without any special tools other than a wrench and a go-guage. Also nice, I could remove the barrel, send it off to have threads cut on it, and then have an M1A or Vortex style flash supressor put on.
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Had a visitor last week staying for a few days. It was nice because there arent alot of people you can talk about bunkers, bugout plans and alternative energy without sounding like a freak. Also, he brought some #10 cans of goodies and that sort of thing is always a welcome gift.
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The Sportsmans Guide milsurp catalog has, believe it or not, Carhart-brand military parkas made for a Dutch military contract. A Carhart field jacket..how utterly cool would that be? Fifty bucks and I think Im gonna have to get one.
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I am still confident Something Big will happen when the Republican convention in NY is underway.
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The local alternative-energy store has moved locations to a store only a few blocks from where I work. I may need to swing by there and see what they have. My ideal is to have a small panel on the roof to keep a couple deep-cycle batteries charged at all times. Not a huge battery array, mind you…just something small enough to run communications gear and some emergency LED lighting. (And LED lighting is cheap, cheap, cheap in terms of energy consumption.)
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Assault weapons ban expires in a few weeks. If not renewed my list of things to get, in this order:
Glock mags
Browning mags
AR mags
10/22 mags
AK mags

Although I shoot the Glock 19, I want the Glock 17 mags since they’ll work in the 17,19 and 26 and they’ll work in the Kelt-Tec folding carbine that I very much want.

As far as guns go, Ive pretty much got everything I want although I might swap out some fixed stocks for telescoping/folding ones on my AR and 10/22
=====
Picked up a 15-gallon ‘blue barrel’ yesterday to augment my stored water supplies. I try to usually use only 5-6 gallon containers since they are much more man-portable (water = 8#/gallon, or 35#/cubic foot [or is it 32#?]) but for a static location the 15-gallon would be a little more conveninet. Also, the barrels themselves can also be used to store dry goods like corn, wheat, rice, etc.

Mmmmph…buddy of mine just showed up with a used Ruger .308 ‘law enforcement’ model. The ugly part of this is that Ive really been wanting a tactical .308 boltgun. The really, really ugly part is that the shop he picked it up at had *two*. [grumble]
I dunno. I think Im going to hold out for the Savage for a couple of reasons…for one, I really think their AccuTrigger is the way to go. I also like the fact you can rebarrel the gun yourself without any special tools other than a wrench and a go-guage. Also nice, I could remove the barrel, send it off to have threads cut on it, and then have an M1A or Vortex style flash supressor put on.
=====
Had a visitor last week staying for a few days. It was nice because there arent alot of people you can talk about bunkers, bugout plans and alternative energy without sounding like a freak. Also, he brought some #10 cans of goodies and that sort of thing is always a welcome gift.
=====
The Sportsmans Guide milsurp catalog has, believe it or not, Carhart-brand military parkas made for a Dutch military contract. A Carhart field jacket..how utterly cool would that be? Fifty bucks and I think Im gonna have to get one.             
=====
I am still confident Something Big will happen when the Republican convention in NY is underway.
=====
The local alternative-energy store has moved locations to a store only a few blocks from where I work. I may need to swing by there and see what they have. My ideal is to have a small panel on the roof to keep a couple deep-cycle batteries charged at all times. Not a huge battery array, mind you…just something small enough to run communications gear and some emergency LED lighting. (And LED lighting is cheap, cheap, cheap in terms of energy consumption.)
=====
Assault weapons ban expires in a few weeks. If not renewed my list of things to get, in this order:
Glock mags
Browning mags
AR mags
10/22 mags
AK mags

Although I shoot the Glock 19, I want the Glock 17 mags since they’ll work in the 17,19 and 26 and they’ll work in the Kelt-Tec folding carbine that I very much want.

As far as guns go, Ive pretty much got everything I want although I might swap out some fixed stocks for telescoping/folding ones on my AR and 10/22
=====
Picked up a 15-gallon ‘blue barrel’ yesterday to augment my stored water supplies. I try to usually use only 5-6 gallon containers since they are much more man-portable (water = 8#/gallon, or 35#/cubic foot [or is it 32#?]) but for a static location the 15-gallon would be a little more conveninet. Also, the barrels themselves can also be used to store dry goods like corn, wheat, rice, etc.