Take 5 of these and call me in the morning

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A while back, I had to have a tooth pulled. I hate dental stuff and I hate the weirdness of how the geography of my mouth feels so different to my tongue.Anyway, when it was time to check out I asked what they were going to do for painkillers. I was rather looking forward to fortifying my hoard of oxycodone. Nope..they said to take three Advil (ibuprofen) and two Tylenol (acetaminophen) and it would work just fine.

Look, I’ve taken ibuprofen for pain before and I know it does a decent job, but this is for the pain of having a part of my skeletal structure forcibly removed. Im gonna need something with a little more horsepower than a fistful of OTC stuff.

Turns out I was wrong. I’ve had some serious pain since then from other events and injuries and, to my utter surprise, I’ve discovered that for all of it the 3/2 of Advil/Tylenol stomps that stuff down darn near just as good as the hydro. (Thats 200 mg Advil, 500 mg. Tylenol.)

Obviously a steady diet of ibuprofen is not a good idea for anyone’s liver, but we aren’t talking about a steady diet of it here. We’re talking about a temporary, short-term use because I broke a finger, cracked a rib, got an infected suture, shingles, or whatever else fires up the ol’ nerve clusters.

I now carry, always, in my Bag O’ Tricks a couple ‘pocket size’ tubes of Advil and Tylenol specifically for emergencies where serious pain relief is called for and I’m not near my in-home pharmacy. As it turns out, there seems to be a synergistic effect when combining the two.

The more professionally medically astute of you may have known this all along but, hey, its news to me.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but next time you really wanna smack down some strong pain give it a shot. Anytime you can get high-level pain relief without resorting to the prescription-only stuff…thats a win.

ETA: Apparently the Advil folks are offering a combo pill with acetaminophen and ibuprofen together. Two great tastes that taste great together. Brand name is ‘Advil Dual Action‘ with 125 mg ibuprofen and 250 mg. acetaminophen, which means you need to guzzle about four of these to get the 3/2 effect I mentioned earlier. Guess I’ll hit Walgreens and get some to keep in my Bag O’ Tricks.

Link – Descend Into Great Britainā€™s Network of Secret Nuclear Bunkers

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An interesting article about Britain’s collection of now-disused-and-abandoned bunkers from the Cold War. I’m always fascinated by these types of articles because, in true Jerry Ahern fashion, I’ve always not-so-secretly longed for a hidden bunker out in the middle of nowhere.

Weā€™re standing in a room buried 10 feet below the North Yorkshire moors in northeast England, near the village of Castleton. The wind howls over the hatch above our heads as Hanlonā€”no expert, just an enthusiastā€”describes how the room would have been used, as an outpost of English civility and resourcefulness in the face of a nuclear attack. This bunker is one of hundreds just like it, scattered across the country. Theyā€™re no longer in use, having been decommissioned for decades, but theyā€™re a nationwide network of relics of fearā€”a fear that seems never to have left.

The closest thing I’ve ever come across in regards to something like this is an old AT&T fortified microwave relay station in Whitehall MT that I looked at about twenty years ago. It had walls a foot thicj, blast shielding around the vents, and a wonderful flat-topped tower to emplace a .50. Didn’t get it, but there are many of them still out there now in private hands.

Someday I’ll probably just put a cargo container on a slab, encase it in concrete, and call it good. But until then, articles like these give me ideas.

Ruger Security-9 Closeout at PSA

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When it comes to a cheap-but-unkillable 9mm handgun that I’d feel comfortable trusting, I lean towards the discontinued Ruger P95 series of guns. I used to be able to pick them up off Gunbroker for around $200 if I was persistent. As of late, theyve gone up a tad but you can still find them in the mid-$200 range.

In another failed attempt by Ruger to get their polyguns into holsters everywhere, they came out with the Security-9…an affordable 9mm with the usual features. Turns out that Palmetto, makers of the JAKL that I’ve become enamored with, are closing them out for $230 which is about $70 cheaper than what they normally dealer out at. This is actually cheaper than the Palmetto Daggers that I’ve been buying lately.

In short, this looks like the cheapest way to get a truck/cabin/hideout/disposable 9mm that you can trust more than a HiPoint and for less than a Turkish 9mm. I’ll probably get a couple just to compare against the old P95’s, but I figured I’d pass it along.

JAKL and AR-180

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So I’ve been kinda experimenting with the AR-180 and Palmetto JAKL. Both are AR-type guns that utilize a different gas system than the usual AR-15. In addition to the different gas system, they also both incorporate a recoil assembly system that allows for a folding stock, unlike the AR-15 which requires a buffer tube in the stock.

Why the interest in this sort of thing when the AR-15 is the undisputed king of .223 carbines these days? (And by king, I mean most prolific and ubiquitous, not necessarily ‘best’.)

Well, I’ve always had an interest in guns that were compact. The Ruger A-Team Special, the HK93A3, the Daewoo K series, side- and underfolder AK’s, etc, etc. But when it comes to logistics, there is absolutely no intelligent dissent that the AR series is the most easy-to-feed carbine.

The original AR-180 used proprietary mags, scope mount, and a bunch of other features. From a logistics standpoint it was suboptimal. The JAKL was built from the ground up to have a large amount of commonality with the AR…in fact, other than a minor tweak to the bolt release, the JAKL uses a completely bog-standard AR lower…thus, your supply of AR lower parts is completely useful. The Brownells AR180B also uses, with zero mods, a stock AR lower.

The JAKL uses a forward mounted non-reciprocating charging handle on the left side of the gun. I like this much better than the right-side reciprocating bolt-mounted handle on the AR180B. I find it handy since I’m right handed..I can hold the gun in my right hand, swap a mag and charge wth my left hand.

Both guns, though having different operating systems, have a tendency to heat up the handguards. My experience is that youre going to really want a vertical foregrip. Both guns, since they dont use a buffer tube, have a pic rail at the back of the receiver so you can mount whatever 1913-compatible stock you may want. On the AR-180B I purchased a original-style sidefolder from Midwest Industries, and for the JAKL, I rather really like the JMAC side folder skeleton stocks. The JMAC aren’t cheap, but they appear to be exceptionally well made and solid.

Functionally, both should, in theory, have an advantage over the AR-15 in terms of reliability due to the gas systems of the 180 and JAKL not venting gases into the receiver. Although, to be fair, if you fire enough .223 in one session to gum up your AR you probably have a much bigger problem on your hand. But, on the other hand, a system that can be indifferent to the occasional benign neglect is always nice. You don’t always have time to detail clean your gun at the end of the day.

For my needs, a compact .223 carbine is what I want to tuck away in the truck. A full size M4-style is compact but not as compact as a gun that doesnt have 9″ of buffer tube hanging out the back.

Both guns, by the way , are a good bit more money than your average mid-tier AR. This is what happens when you haven’t achieved sales figures to get you into the economies-of-scale territory.

Depending on how the ‘arm brace’ thing goes, one of the JAKL pistols with an arm brace would be a super sweet and compact package…not to far from the SIG Rattler. A specialty gun, to be sure, but when you have that one-out-ten occasion when its exactly what the doctor ordered…..well, it’ll be handy.

Further updates on both of these platforms as warranted.

AR-180

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I assure you that it wasn’t planned, but it seems that I am, inadvertently, testing all the non-direct-impingement AR clones these days. I picked up a couple JAKLs which are using the long stroke gas system of the AK. And, for no reason that I can think of except for a wild impulse, I seem to have picked up one of the new Brownell AR-180 reintroductions. This particular flavor of AR-wannabe uses the short stroke piston system. What both of these designs have going for it is that they allow for a folding stock, and they are a bit more hygienic in terms of keeping fouling out of the action.

Years ago, I took a defensive carbine course. Unsurprisingly everyone was using some flavor of AR-15. I recall that I could fire about 400 rounds before the gun needed a couple squirts of lube or some quick cleaning to keep it running. In theory, the non-direct-impingement guns should run way past that without needing cleaning. Guess I’ll find out.

For those who are a bit unfamiliar, Brownells took the concept of the AR-180 and ran with it. They updated the design to work on any milspec AR lower, which is a huge win since it allows the gun to use plentiful AR mags rather than the proprietary AR-180 mags. (Although, yeah, you could modify an AR mag to work. Usually.)

The tradeoffs are the usual ones when moving away from the direct impingement system…a hit to accuracy since there are now moving bits along the barrel. In fact, best I can tell, the only semiauto .223 carbines out there that dont have moving parts on the barrel are the direct impingement ARs, the gasless HK93, and the wierd lever delay of the FAMAS.

If someone would bring out an HK93 that takes AR mags and has a bolt hold open I would buy a dozen. (And, interestingly, Hk did exactly that.)

So, as soon as a couple accessories show up for this thing, I’ll take it out and see if it’s got anything going for it. Right now, the most interesting thing about it is that….its NOT an AR.

Travellin’ man

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Still here. Every once in a while, for various reasons, I have to travel. When I travel I try to update the blog but sometimes scheduling won’t allow it. And, for PerSec reasons, I usually don’t mention I’m leaving town until after I return.

So…where was I? America’s first post-apocalyptic city: Detroit. Which, as it turned out, wasn’t as inhospitable as I thought but, then again, I was probably only seeing the better less bad parts of it.

And, as always, flying sucks and the grepos at TSA will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution gets here. That and the idiots who recline their chairs all the way. And people who travel with babies. And ESPECIALLY people who bring a sandwich onto the plane and funk up the atmosphere next to me with pepperoni or whatever the heck was in that thing. C’mon people, have a little consideration for your fellow passengers who have to sit next to you.

Need to inventory

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I need to do some inventory this month. I’ve been a bit lax about adding things to the preponomicom and I simply cannot afford to be caught unprepared (or overprepared) given how it seems like everything in the country is in some sort of race to Third world lifestyle.

By the way, how can you be overprepared, you ask? Simple….you inadvertently acquire more of something than you could realistically need and that commitment of resources prevents you from being prepared elsewhere.

I’m reasonably confident that the future of me needing to use my preps does not look like Red Dawn, Jericho, Last of Us, or Walking Dead. I am more inclined to believe it looks more like …what it is now – inflation, scarcity, violent crime, homelessness, reckless government, and that sort of thing.

I know I keep saying it, but it’s true: Your likelihood of being in an emergency that requires remediation using $50 bills is magnitudes of order greater than being in an emergency that requires remediation using .50 BMG.

Not saying it won’t or can’t happen the other way, just saying that my experience says the odds favor the personal EOTWAWKI occurring more than it does the civilization-wide one.

A personal EOTWAWKI is something that directly impacts you a lot more than it impacts society as a whole. Job loss. Health crisis. Divorce. A close death. Bankruptcy. House fire. These are all things that bring your life to a screeching halt but barely make a blip on the radar of anyone outside your immediate circle. Those are the things that will happen far more often than UN troops going door-to-door giving forced Covid vaccinations.

So..I need to print out the preponomicon, grab a clipboard, and hit the shelves. Its a not unpleasant way to spend the afternoon when it’s 95 degrees outside. Hanging out in a cool basement working on that warm fuzzy feeling from knowing you can take care of your needs for the next year or so……not a bad way to spend a few hours.

 

The new economics of ammo

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So, while some opportunistic Ferengi at the gun show was trying to get $110 for a brick of small pistol primers, it appears that even at dealer prices its around $.07 for primers. Lets run some numbers:

  • Primer = $.07
  • Jacketed bullet = $.13
  • New brass = $.15
  • Powder = $.02

Thats about $.37 per round to reload a simple 115 gr FMJ 9mm. Now, to be fair, if I use once-fired brass the price drops to $0.22 each. But, here’s the thing, I can buy factory ammo at about $.24/round.

It’s hit the point where it is literally cheaper to buy factory ammo than to reload your own. And that isn’t because the price of factory ammo has come down, but rather because the individual components for reloading (esp primers) has gotten so ridiculous.

Well, if itsĀ  a case of pay me now or pay me later…I guess I’ll just buy factory ammo for now and spare myself the work.

There’s a reason to stockpile things, especially consumables, in large quantity and this is a good example of why.

Its heavy even when empty

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SO, just got back from the Missoula Gun Show.

It’s always a good show with lotsa interesting stuff. First thing I want to say is, if I were selling a brick of small pistol primers for $110 I would be ashamed of myself. Yes, I want to make as much money as possible, and I won’t tell you that you’re wrong for doing it…but I couldn’t do it.

For the first time in a couple years I ran into Johnny Trochmann, the in-your-face ‘leader’ of the Militia of Montana back when stuff like that was all over the news. He’s a nice guy, friendly, polite, and waaaaaaay out where the buses don’t run. Conspiracy du jour was blue helmeted UN types being hired for law enforcement roles here in the US. Ok, John….whatever.

However, Johnny T. has always treated me right since we both wear the same brand of tinfoil. (Mine is shiny side out, though.) He had several hundred rounds of once-fired commercial .50 BMG for sale and I got it at a little discount of $0.90 each. Good guy, that Trochmann.

And, by the way, even empty that .50 BMG stuff is heavy. My hands were cramping trying to carry two 100-rd bags of the stuff to the truck.

As for .50 BMG primers….well….I guess $0.80 each is a bargain in some circles these days but my brain could not reconcile paying that kinda money. No doubt I’ll regret this down the line when they either $1.50 each or completely unavailable. A good case for the .338 Lapua whcih does a decent job of being a ballistic Pareto’s Law example compared to the .50.

All in all a good show. Saw some familiar faces, got a deal or two, saw some nice stuff, and didn’t go too overboard on spending. (Although I might go back and pick up a Ruger M77 in 7×57 that looked pretty sweet.)

Still gotta drop the money and get the BMG presd and dies. That Barrett is an expensive mistress.