Tag Archives: what could possibly go wrong

A mystery solved

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18

I just installed the new game camera Thursday. Between then and this morning this is whats taken place on that one camera:

Bobcat?

Why so busy?????

When I was up there Thursday I noticed a weird smell near the cargo container area. It reminded me of the zoo. My first thought was that one of the container delivery guys had taken a dump in the woods. The more I thought about it, I figured I had rolled through some cow patties on the way up there and thats what I was smelling. Satisfied that was the source, I didnt give it any more brainpower.

Rolled in there early this morning and as I puled up several large birds took to the air. “Somethings not right”, I said. A couple turkey buzzards took off. “Something’s dead”, I said. Got out of the vehicle and caught that smell again. Now I knew what it was. Somewhere around there was a dead…thing. An animal, most likely although I wouldnt be too surprised to find a dead human. Stuff happens.

Donned my 10mm, grabbed the AK and descended into the brush. I followed the smell and it got way stronger. I flipped the safety off the AK just in case, and found this poor bastard:

That upper jaw I’m poking with the AK had all sortsa fresh blood around it…grass was still red with the vibrancy. And more than a few mounds of what was quite obviously bear poop. I think I figured out why the sudden influx of predators. So, now that I know theres a dead animal there that the bears and lions are munching on, what should my course of action be?

Mount a game camera over it, of course! Should be some very interesting pics coming from that!

So one mystery solved. Fall bear season opens in three weeks. I was on the fence about whether to ruin a bruin or let them be. Might buy a tag ‘just in case’.

Enjoy the pics, guys. And, for those curious, container leveling went okay but it was a bit of work. I’ll have a post about that at some point

Big Barretts Bring Bellowing Booms

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Ok, I’ll admit that I was so wrapped up in wondering what it would be like to fire the M82A1 that I may have forgotten to take into consideration  little details like, oh, muzzle blast.

And what would happen to anything I left on the shooting table I was shooting from.

The good news is, Otterbox protective cases did a fine job protecting my phone as it, my targets, a few boxes of ammo, a full Nalgene bottle, and an iced coffee were suddenly accelerated to near-c velocity.

Lesson learned: clear off the shooting bench.

Recoil was not as bad as I thought it was going to be but, great googlymoogly, plan on being in the eye of the hurricane as everything around you and the gun becomes a blur. And double up on ear pro.

Do you have any idea what it feels like to try and sight in a rifle when every time you pull the trigger it’s around $4?

I sorely need to reload for this beast but I can see the bottleneck will be….no surprise….primers.

Also, there will be a second Barrett, an M99, at some point. One Barrett for busting up things, and one Barrett for more precise shooting.

And, yes, it was a show stopper at the range.

Article – Survival camps cater to new fear: America’s political unrest

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Ah, another ‘tactical timeshare’.

 

FORTITUDE RANCH, Colo., Dec 23 (Reuters) – Aiming an AR-15 rifle across a Colorado valley dotted with antelope and cattle, Drew Miller explains how members of his new survival ranch would ride out an apocalypse.

The former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer said his latest Fortitude Ranch community, under construction below mountain forests, will shelter Americans fleeing anything from a bioengineered pandemic to an attack on the electricity grid.

For an annual fee of around $1,000, members can vacation at the camps in good times, and use them as a refuge during a societal collapse.

“If you’ve got a lot of weapons, if you’ve got a lot of members at guard posts, defensive walls, we don’t think we’re going to need to fight,” said Miller, crouching on top of a fortified position on the camp perimeter.

The expansion of Miller’s camp chain underscores the growing mainstream appeal of the “prepper” movement long associated with anti-government survivalists.

I am all about entrepreneurship. But next time you’re in a crowded elevator imagine having to ride out Ragnarok with the people standing next to you. The notion of running off to some heavily fortified Holiday Inn has some appeal but, geez, even when it isn’t the end of the world your average co-op board is a pit of vipers. Now imagine that co-op board wearing multicam.

What makes a ‘survial group’ or ‘mutual aid group’ isn’t the gear, it’s the people. Twenty strangers in a fortified compound will be less effective and less efficient, I wager, than twenty close friends or close family members camped in a burned out WalMart. Community is about people, not buildings. We like to say that spending all the money in the world on super-high-speed gear will not make you an ‘expert’ (or whatever)….same story with people. You can’t really expect that just because you’ve built an awesome Führerbunker it means that throwing a random selection of people in it will create a close-knit group that is willing to take risks and look out for each other. When it’s the end of the world and I need someone to keep an eye on things while I catch some sleep, I’m going to feel a lot better knowing its my buddy I’ve known for twenty years and not some manager from a Kansas Best Buy I just met yesterday.

Your mileage may vary, but any ‘stronghold’ whose requirement for admission is the ability to have their check clear seems like a bad place to ride out a rough episode. I’d rather take my chances with a half-dozen longtime friends and family in the shattered remains of my house than share a communal bathroom with a hundred armed strangers whose main bond is a shared zip code.

 

That Tapco deal

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Sadly, will not come to pass. While I was able to get a good deal on the mags themselves, the vendor wanted, and I kid you not, $314 to ship. Now, I ship stuff for a living so I know how much it costs to ship things and it does not cost that much to ship a couple hundred plastic magazines across the US. So, with the shipping charges wiping out any gains from the discounted mags, it’s pretty much a non-starter. But….I’ll keep my eyes open.