Battery-in-a-box buffoonery

I was up at CostCo the other day and saw this:

The semantic part of me recoils at the advertising calling this a ‘gasless generator’. A generator…generates…electricity. This thing stores electricity, it doesn’t make it. Calling it a ‘gasless generator’ is at best a stupid mistake and, more likely, at worst, misleading. Its like calling a 55-gallon drum of water a ‘portable well’.

What is it? Basically its a big lead acid battery with a built in inverter and some bells and whistles. What does it do? Absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell, that you can’t do for a fraction of the price with some wires, a couple AGM batteries, and a battery charger.

It’s 55Ah, which is, really, kinda puny. What it does have is a built in ‘solar controller’, the ability to be used as a UPS, visual metrics, and a few bells and whistles. But, really, it’s just this with a nicer casing:

If you zoom in on the packaging you can see it boasts that it’ll run an LED lamp for 48 hours. Color me unimpressed. I ran one for almost 4x that long with the battery jump box and it cost 1/5 the price.

While I like the turnkey plug-n-play approach this thing represents, the frugal part of me is aghast thinking what I could (easily) put together for $500 that would perform the same basic functions (albeit without the bells and whistles of automatic low-discharge shutdown and solar controller) at an exponential increase in capacity/runtime.

The utility of vacuum sealers

Fella I know, who is getting started in the realm of preparedness had his birthday earlier this month.  I got him what I think is one of the best gifts you can get a fellow survivalist: a vacuum sealer. For the record, the best gift you can probably get for a survivalist is a huge chunk of land in the middle of nowhere. For this survivalist, the best gift you can get is a slightly drunk and mildly self-esteem-challenged Jennifer Lawrence. Or, if you’re on a budget, her body double.

Thing is, most people have a very narrow view of what a vacuum sealer is good for. In fact, the gift was met with a ‘my freezer is already full’ response. A lot of folks, in my experience, don’t think creatively about the uses for one of these things that have nothing to do with food. So, lemme mention a few of the non-food things I do with mine and maybe it’ll send you down a new road of thought in regard to using yours. (Or getting one.)

  •  Compressing high-loft items of clothing so they take up less space in a pack
  • Preventing powdered items from clumping – The cleanser that comes in the cardboard cans? I put each can into a bag and vaccuum seal it so that after years of sitting on the shelf it hasn’t drawn moisture and caked into a rock-like consistency.
  • Water bottles that get left in the vehicle in the winter are vacuum sealed in a bag so if the plastic bottle does explode from freezing (which almost never happens) any leakage is contained. And the water is still potable.
  • All the fire-starting materials in my hunting/bushwhacking packs are vacuum sealed to keep them dry, clean, and in one place.
  • Small first aid items get vacuum sealed for rather obvious reasons.
  • Critical documents are vacuum sealed so they are protected from moisture, wet, etc. For example, my birth certificate(s) and passport(s) are sealed up and sitting in the safe. (Uhm..yeah…plural….I know a guy…)
  • In the Pelican case I keep in the winter vehicle kit there is an an entire change of clothes that has been vacuum sealed to consere space and keep the clothing clean and dry so that in an emergency it’s ready to use.
  • Bulk first aid gear that would normally take up space gets vacuum sealed to allow me to pack more of it in a smaller space, as well as to protect it.
  • Have a dog? Dog food MRE’s. Phydeaux’s kibble and treats packed into individual servings.
  • Toilet paper that you keep in the truck or at the cabin. If you’re putting together a bugout bin or kit you really, really wanna make sure the TP is protected.
  • Medications in tablet form. Most pills come in plastic bottles that offer good protection, but a lot of stuff comes in blister packs and although you’d think those foil and plastic sheets would offer good protection…not always. So, into the sealer they go. Try to keep stuff in original packaging when you do this…last thin you want is a little vacuum sealed bag of unidentified pills laying around with nothing to tell you what they are or how much to take. And the cops really get curious when large quantities of pills are loose in a plastic bag.
  • Bars of soap. Bar soap seems to ossify over time. Seal ’em up so theyre still useful years later.
  • Road flares. Seal ’em up, wrap in cardboard to protect the integrity of the plastic bag, and tuck ’em away in your vehicle. Wet flares are the literal damp squib at a rescue.
  • Small electronics that absolutely need to be protected. Handheld radios get vacuum sealed with dessicant and then tucked away in a protective case of some kind. Suspenders and a belt, perhaps… but its an extra step that costs virtually nothing and makes sure that you have communications when you really, really need it. And thats worth pretty much anything.
  • Batteries. Water and batteries do not mix..at least, not in a good way. I store batteries in plastic tubs but I also vacuum seal the large CostCo-sized bulk packs of batteries.

The list goes on, but I think you get the idea. And, yeah, they are also handy for food as well. If you haven’t bought one already, do yourself a favor and don’t cheap out. Yeah, there are some models that are $50-$75. Skip them. This is not the kind of item you want to cut corners on. Get the Foodsaver brand, not the Cabelas, not the Walmart, not the other brand you’ve never heard of. Get the Foodsaver branded rolls of material as well. Plan on spending about $200. I absolutely promise you that it will be the best $200 you can spend on preparedness gear. Do it.

 

Nudge to pick up an E12

I’ve given away a couple of the Fenix E12 flashlights and have recommended them to a few people who actually took me at face value and went and purchased one. To a man, every person who got one from me or bought one on my recommendation has been extremely pleased.

I was reminded just how freaking handy these things are the other day when the power was out. Since the E12 is so small, taking only one AA batt, it’s small enough to carry in your pocket without losing much pocket real estate. But disproportionately big performance.

I love SureFire for their stuff, and even Streamlight makes a couple things I like, but these things are the absolute shiznits. About $20-25 at most places, but absolutely worth it. I have several that I keep scattered about. Drop in a lithium AA, leave it in the console of the rig, and you will be extremely happy someday when it’s the middle of the night, the weather has turned to crap, and you need to exit your vehicle to investigate something. Lanyard one to the inside of you EDC bag. Or just carry it religiously in the pocket of your jeans like I do. But….handiest flashlight ever.

This is one of those items that when I recommend it to a friend I tell them “Look, this is an excellent piece of gear. Buy it and if you don’t agree I’ll buy it from you.” That, mi amigos y amigas, is a ringing endorsement.

Ruger Mini-14 magazine followup

So I had a fairly lousy experience with the aftermarket magazine that came with the Mini-14GB I picked up a few weeks ago. I really shouldnt have been too surprised since the prevailing wisdom is that, currently, there are NO acceptable aftermarket mags. Now, as much as that was a bad experience at the range, paying $30 (dealer cost, mind you) for a factory magazine is an even uglier experience.

Now, an important distinction really needs to be made here. I almost always prefer factory mags (or .gov contract mags) to aftermarket mags for my guns. BUT…for a non-critical gun, or what we can basically call a ‘range toy’, I don’t mind aftermarket magazines. (I mind junk aftermarket mags, but a good aftermarket mag is acceptable.) So, since this Mini-14 isn’t really on my radar for an End Of The World sort of thing, I don’t mind using aftermarket mags if they are good aftermarket mags.

(However, in the name of transparency, I will say that I am going to pick up four factory mags ‘just in case’.)

Anyway…

Over on YouTube there’s a gear/guns channel I watch from time to time that does the sorts of gear evaluations I like – they buy the gear, they test the gear, they beat the gear, the review the gear. They had a video up on the Tapco aftermarket mags and they got great reviews. Ok, let’s get a few and see what they’re offering………

  • Overall Impression
  • Metal reinforcement and lockup
  • Basepad and follower
  • Legacy gear compatability
  • Pricing

Overall Impression

Tapco has been (and somewhat still is) the source of many memes and disdain in the gun community. Their name has even been made into a verb – “Bubba got that SKS and he Tapco’d the hell out of it. Look at all that crap!” But, apparently, they are making a pretty slick Mini-14 magazine.

The Tapco Mini-14 magazine resembles a Magpul PMAG in many ways. The follower is very reminiscent of the Magpul, and the overall ‘feel’ of the polymer/plastic is also very similar.

Metal reinforcement and lockup

These mags are the second generation of Mini-14 mags from Tapco, the first generation did not have a metal reinforcing tab where the engagement/lockup of mag-to-gun took place. As a result, wear and deformation could occur that would cause magazines to seat improperly which, naturally, leads to reliability issues. Case in point: look at this aftermarket metal magazine which it appears could have stood a little heat treating. The post-in-hole lockup area is pushed inward from repeated magazine insertions. As the metal pressed inwards, it made seating the magazine securely more difficult which exacerbated the problem by trying to ‘force’ the mag to seat…which just pushed the metal further inwards.

The Tapco magazine has a steel clip surrounding the front of the magazine to take the wear and resist this sort of issue. Lockup in my particular Mini-14 was good. There was some play, as is to be expected, but it was ‘play’ not ‘slop’. More importantly, there were no reliability issues with feeding. (This can be seen on AK mags, which use a somewhat similar method of magazine retention…there’s usually some play, but nothing that affects function.)

Basepad and follower

The magazine basepad and follower are going to seem familiar to anyone with a bunch of Magpul PMAGs. The followers are very non-tilt and they move smoothly up/down within the magazine body. The basepad is a bit chunky, but has a very easy to manipulate locking mechanism making magazine disassembly a breeze…much easier, IMHO, than GI AR mags.

Legacy gear compatability

A big problem with polymer mags is that, dimensionally, they do not have the same ‘footprint’ as their metal counterparts. For example, a metal Mini-14 mag and the Tapco both hold 30-rounds but the Tapco is longer and a bit wider. This can cause problems in terms of fit in pouches that were designed, ostensibly, for AR mags. ‘Legacy’ gear..those AR pouches you’ve collected over twenty years…may not be the best fit for the bulkier Tapco mag. Modern pouches, though, often have adjustable flaps on them and those help tremendously.

I found that the mags did fit in open-top pouches, although they were a tiny bit snug. In magazine pouches that utilize a flap closure, they did not fit unless the flap was adjustable.

AR mag pouch with a non-adjustable closure flap. Tapco mag is too long to allow flap to close. Fortunately, most mag pouches with flap closures these days are adjustable.

Tactical Tailor stock-mounted mag pouch for AR mags. Note that it has a velcro adjustable closure flap.

This mag pouch can do double-duty …. AR or Mini-14 mag. Or, really, any other similar magazine since the adjustable flap closure provides the ability to accommodate other mags.

Single-mag pouches like this one work fine except the retention straps, though elastic, are a bit too short to accommodate the longer Tapco mag. Left: Metal Mini mag, Center: Tapco mag, Right: GI AR mag. SpecOps magazine pouch.

Double-mag pouch with velcro adjustable flaps holds two Tapco mags with no problem. Heavy ribbing on mags makes withdrawing one mag a little tricky. Pouch: Blackhawk

A possible issue (or non-issue) I noticed is that the Tapco mags have aggressive ribbing on the magazine bodies. You will get a sure grip on the magazine. However, stack two mags together in a pouch and one mag will get a sure grip on the other. If it’s a snug fit for two mags in your mag pouch, expect some ‘rim lock’ as you try to pull one mag out. Again, a single-mag pouch should be fine.

No stripper clip guides on the Tapco mag. Not sure if that’s important to you or not, but sometimes it’s a ‘nice to have’.

So, how’d they shoot? Shot fine. Put about a hundred rounds through them and didn’t have a hiccup. Mags fed fine, locked open on last round, seated and extracted just fine. Certainly a better performance than I got from the no-name aftermarket mag and about the same performance I would expect from a Ruger factory mag.

Pricing

Pricing? Well, retail is for suckers so I usually pay dealer prices. Dealer on these was around $12, so I would expect to see them in the wild around $19.99. For comparison, a Ruger factory mag is, dealer, $29.85. And that’s dealer price.

As I said, this isn’t a run-out-the-door rifle for me, so I’m okay with quality aftermarket mags. But…I wouldn’t feel terribly disadvantaged with these Tapco mags if I got dropped into Katrinaville with a Mini-14 and a dozen of these.

Historically, it has been a bigfoot-hunt to try and find an aftermarket mag for the Mini-14 that was reliable. The only aftermarket mag I ever found that worked perfectly in the Mini-14 platform was the old Eagle 35-rd mags and they haven’t made those since the ’90s. These Tapcos seem to have cleared the bar on a good aftermarket mag finally coming to market. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I ordered a dozen more for myself and think it was a very good purchase.

Link – https://intershelter.com/

These look very interesting. A couple things jump out at me. First, these seem like they’d be an interesting way to dump a small, easily concealed ‘cabin’ on a piece of remote property. Additionally, since they’re pretty much a ‘kit house’ I’d imagine you can knock it down and transport it if you needed to.

Not sure how much stress the design can handle, but it’d be interesting to use it as a ‘form’ and shotcrete over it or something similar. Byrying it seems unwiae but it looks like it wouldn’t take much to build up some railroad tie berms around three sides of it to make it all but invisible.

Pricing seems reasonable…for about seven grand you can get something that beats being homeless. If a fella had a piece of undeveloped property out in the sticks, this might make a nice weekend cabin sort of thing to hunker down in while you build the primary residence.

Also might make for an interesting ‘dual purpose’ building…plant int on your property as a shed or storage building that can be refitted as temporary housing in a crisis.

As I said, very interesting. I’d like to see one up close.

Savage stock options

Earlier this year I finally got my .22 suppressor. I had a few ideas about what i wanted to mount it on and wound up getting a Savage that really impressed me. The Savage had the AccuTrigger, a fluted heavy barrel, threaded muzzle, picatinny rail and a very nice price. But it had the most useless stock you could imagine. Whats the point of spending the money on a suppressor and a fairly decent rifle if the stock is so screwed up you cant even get a cheek weld. Here’s a crappy picture of the rifle with the ugly stock:

IMG_1984

See, the problem is the comb of the stock is so low that once you slap an optic on that rail your face isnt even going to be touching the stock. So….what to replace it with. Well, I was rather fond of the greenish laminate that came on my Ruger Scout Rifle:

Copy of IMG_1287

So I decided to get something similar. A lot of stuff I read said that the Boyd’s Tacticool gunstock was the way to go. Headed over there and was dismayed to learn that the Tacticool was no longer available. Bummer. A quick call to customer service (more about them later) revealed that the Tacticool was now called the Pro Varminter. Whatever, dude…just put one in a box and get it here.

Now comes the interesting parts. Originally I screwed up the order. I went online and ordered the stock and I thought I ordered the forest camo laminate. Turns out I selected the wrong part number and specified the painted green stock. When the confirmation email came I found my mistake and tried calling them. Closed for the day. Ok, call the next day. The woman at customer service says that its not too llate to fix the error. Sweet! A week later I get the box, open it and theres my stock….in green paint.

*sigh*

Ok, box it up and send it back to Boyds. And wait. And wait. Finally I call customer service again three weeks after UPS shows them getting the stock back. I ask what the story is. The customer service rep tells me that, yes the stock was received, no we havent written up a new order for you yet. Seriously? I paid for this thing five weeks ago, you got the stock back three weeks ago, and you still havent thought to send me a new one? So she promises to get on it and a week later (so it took a month to get them to rewrite and ship the order!) I get the UPS tracking numnber. Stock arrived today. Behold a thing of beauty:

IMG_1983

Is that not gorgeous? And once it was installed, it looked like this:

IMG_1987

Wow, those cellphone pics are pretty crappy, aren’t they? Well, either way, gun looks awesome. That scop eis just something I threw on there for looks (IOR M2 w/ ARMS rings/mount)…Im actually looking at this for an optic. But I am supremely glad to be rid of that worthless cheesey stock.

Ii rather like this stock enough that when Ruger finally makes a ‘tactical’ version of their American Rimfire model I’ll wind up doing the same stock swap.

So…thumbs up on the Boyd’s stock, but a thumbs down on their handling of the order. I accept blame for getting the wrong stock the first time, but once they got back the stock it shouldnt have taken a phone call and three weeks before someone thought “Hey, maybe we should get that guy the stock he paid for.”

Things left to do: decent sling and a stubby little Harris bipod.

Heavily armed nature hike

Went hunting yesterday, although  it might be more accurate to describe it as a heavily-armed nature hike, As the day went on, some weather moved in and it became prime hypothermia country – lowering temperatures (45~ degrees), freezing drizzle, and gusty winds. The classic scenario for hypothermia. I’d been wandering up and down the hills so I was pretty warm but I decided to find a comfortable spot under some cover and have some lunch and just wait a while and see if something walked by. Problem is, once you come to a stop you start to cool down.

When I was getting ready to leave that morning I was debating on what to wear. I didnt want to wear too much and overheat, or have to carry discarded clothing….but I didnt want to underdress and be cold and miserbale. I went with the ECWS undershirt with a Woolrich wool shirt over it. (And although they are expensive, and they require a certain degree of specialized care, everyone should have a couple quality wool shirts) I was wearing an orange hunting vest over that, so that was pretty warm. I was originally gonna wear the synthetic gloves but went with the wool mittens since I figured if they got wet theyd stay warmer. As it turned out, that was the good call.

So I found a comfy spot under some low branches and set up to have lunch.

IMG_1904[2]It’s hard to tell in the image, but it was a steady drizzle. Fortunately, it was time for lunch.

IMG_1901[1]

Lunch was some Mountain House spaghetti which has either gotten spicier since I last had some, or my growing old has made me more sensitive to such things. Still, just about anything eaten out in the sticks tastes good. The Esbit stove worked well and got 12 oz. of water to boiling in a few minutes with time to spare. The Mountain House is in their Pro-Pack packaging. This differs from their normal packaging in that they vacuum seal it to reduce the overall size of the package…this makes it a bit smaller to pack into a bag. Other stuff: titanium spork and Snow Peak Hybrid Summit Cookset. The cup normally has a silicone lid with it and a silicone bottom cover to protect the hand from heat. Since I normally stuff a Nalgene bottle into the cup, that leaves no place for the lid. But, the bottom cover fits over the top to act as a lid, so I use that.

So I had lunch and sat around in growing cold waiting for Bambi to show up. No luck. So, I figured the day was pretty much a bust so lets take advantage of the crappy weather to test some gear.

I used to pack the classic mylar ‘survival blanket’ in my gear. You guys have seen them, right? They’re about the size of a pack of playing cards and gossamer thin. In fact, theyre packaged too well for such a thin material…try opening one up sometime with frozen fingers. Imagine taking a stack of Kleenex out of the box and soaking it in water…now try to peel away one tissue at a time….thats what its like. I went old-school to one of the older style ‘blankets’..specifically the older space blanket. It is a bit more bulky (you can see it folded up on the ground in the second picture, next to the binoculars on the ground) but it is a much more durable material. I figured I’d wrap myself up in this one and see how it fared against the wind and rain.

IMG_1907[1]

It actually worked quite well. You have to understand, the material has virtually no insulative value. Wrap a piece of aluminum foil around your finger and then lay it atop an ice cube. Finger gets cold, right? The value of the material is in its windproofness and its reflective properties. Or, put another way, if you wrapped your finger in a piece of insulative material (a wool glove, for example) and then wrapped your finger in foil, you wouldnt feel the cold from that ice cube. So, in this case, draping the space blanket around myself, and drawing it closed around me created a nice pocket of warm air and the warm package of food held in my lap certainly heated things up nicely. (In fact, this sort of arrangement with a small tealight-style candle [or candle lantern] generates plenty of heat in that enclosed space. The space blanket did a very good job of keeping me warm and keeping the wind and wet at bay. Drawback: It would be nice if there were a velcro closure system..I had to grasp the edges of the blanket and hold it around me to keep the wind from pulling it open. In a real pinch, though, I could just use the medical tape out of my first aid kit. If you had some compact insulative layer like a Woobie or poncho liner with you, you’d be in awesome shape. The tradeoff, of course, is just how much crap youre willing to carry around.

So I sat around for a couple hours in the weather waiting for Bambi to show up and was pretty comfortable all things considered.

So there you go – minor field testing of some gear under the guise of a hunting trip. The next day, by the way, we had a blizzard-like weather system move through. Temperature dropped 30 degrees, powerful gusty winds, and a good deal of snow and sleet. So, good timing.

Gear – ‘Seek’ thermal camera attachment.

Ok, this is, like, ten shades of cool. Here’s a few articles for background:

Heat seeker: Meet the thermal-imaging camera you can afford

The Seek Thermal Infrared Camera for iPhone and Android

Seek Thermal, a $199 Thermal Imaging Camera for Your Phone

Short version: for $200 you can see in the dark if there’s bad guys, warm car engines, animals, or other heat sources lurjing around your AO. This really is one of those products that is ‘limited only by your imagination’. Pour hot water down a clogged pipe to find the clog, see how much propane is in a tank, see if the dog was sleeping on your couch, see if the cars in the driveway/parking lot have been used recently, where is the deer you shot just before sundown, is that a SWAT team hiding in the bushes, which beer in the fridge is the coldest, and, possibly, is that gal across the room really into you or not.

For the survivalist I can see this thing having all sorts of uses…seeing if something is out there in the dark, checking the ground for heat sources from recently extinguished fires, seeing what guns in the rack may have been handled/fired recently, etc, etc.

I’m tellin’ ya, man….we’re living in a Star Trek world more and more everyday. And while the technology is interesting enough on its own, it isnt that new since its been around a while. Whats new is dropping it down to the price of HiPoint pistol and a box of ammo.

I think I may have to get one of these.

MH deadline approaches,TacPack,MilitaryMorons,Wilderness belt,gas piston ARs,Savage Scout

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.

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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