Category Archives: Uncategorized

JAKL at the range

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This was interesting. It was not the quick and easy “Take it to the range and make sure it works” trip I as expecting.

Loaded up a Pmag with some Federal 55 gr, racked a round in, pointed downrange, pulled the trigger and -bang-. Just so. Pulled the trigger again. -click-. Round ejected but didnt feed next round. Hmm. Racked it and ran it again. Same result. Over and over.

Ok, now I’m annoyed. You spend a grand on a gun you expect it to work, y’know. So, when something doesnt do what you expect it to, you start methodically changing the circumstances. I tried different magazines, different ammo, and different gas settings. (Say what you will about HK stuff….lack of a gas system to futz with is a nice thing.)

Took it home, disassembled, lubed it all up, read the manual (again), and headed back to the range. Annnnndd…I think I figured it out.

It’s short-stroking, but why? Well, its a ‘pistol’ right? But you don’t hold it like a pistol. You hold a pistol with two hands out in front of you with, usually, one arm locked. (yeah, yeah, I know…but work with me here.)

But a ‘pistol’ like this doesn’t lend itself to that sort of thing. You basically hold it at your hip like a submachine gun. And thats where, I think, the issue was. By holding it that way, the guns recoil carried it backwards to such an extent that energy that would go into throwing the bolt all the way back was throwing the gun back as well and the gun was short stroking. Or, in pistol terms, limp-wristing.

Interesting theory, right? How do we test it? Well, we hold it in an isoscoles stance and, sure enough, reliability was suddenly there. I experimented some more, different mags, ammo, etc., and quite clearly the gun functioned much more reliably (not 100% but pretty close) when there wasnt enough ‘give’ in the way I was holding the gun for it to move backward very much.

For those of you who are physics challenged, look at it this way: if you’re in a swivel chair, put your feet on the wall, and shove off, you go sailing down the hallway, right? Because the wall had no give you wound up with all the energy going into moving your fat butt. Now, imagine your coworker is also in a swivel chair and you put your feet against his chair and kick off…same amount of force exerted but you don’t go as far because some of your energy went into pushing the coworkers chair away from you.

So, to cut to the chase, this thing is really meant for a wrist brace but we all know how that turned out.

So, without putting a stock on this thing, what can I do? Well, I can be aware that I need to hold it in such a manner as to give a rock-steady hold that will allow the gun to cycle with all its energy going into the operating system…or…I suppose I could contact the folks at PSA and see if they offer a gas plug with a slightly larger setting.

But, its also entirely possible I simply need to shoot a few hundred dollars rounds through this thing to ‘break it in’. I guess I’ll just have to experiment and find out.

Also, the handguard heats up a it so a VFG would be a nice touch but, due to VFG not being kosher on a pistol, you’d have to go with an angled foregrip.

So, for now, it’s a ‘pause’ on if this gun is a buy or not buy.

Sustainability by another name is…survivalism.

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Man, I wish I could embed this rather than just have it as a link. Ronda Roussey, most recently of note for this:

Apparently has some mad prep skills as displayed in this Covid-panic-influenced video. Doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes, confident, and can take you to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Gotta admit, thats a pretty sweet setup

.Source:

10 Celebrity Preppers Ready for Anything

Day of the JAKL

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Ok, a .223 that isnt an AR or an AK. Why not?

Yes..given a choice I will cerokote everything in green.

The lack of a buffer tube would seem to suggest this thing uses the AR-180-style system that every 5.56 in the last thirty years seems to use but, no…..Its actually a long-stroke system just like the AK.

Why? Well, I wanted a .223 that was more compact than the AR pistols out there which require buffer tubes. The lower on this is pure AR15 so parts, including the lower, interchange. Its only the upper that is unique. This, by the way, is quite similar to Brownells BRN-180, which is a short stroke system, which I hope to also have at some point.

This is a relatively new offering from Palmetto State Armory…the guys that make the Dagger pistols that I’ve been picking up here and there. PSA designates it as the JAKL. Its offered in carbine and pistol versions. With the maybe-maybe-not arm-brace situation the pistol’s utility is questionable but I’m an optimist and got the pistol version anyway. Worst case i can always SBR it.

Gonna take it out this weekend and test it out. But, others have beaten me to it:


It comes across as sort of a poor man’s SCAR, at least aesthetically. Does it do anything an AR doesnt do? Nope. But for a pistol, it provides a smaller package than your typical buffer-tube’d AR pistol so it does wind up being a bit more compact. The gas system is, in theory, a bit less prone to fouling issues than the AR’s direct impingement (yeah, yeah, I know…not a true DI, but…) but with an accuracy tradeoff due to the moving parts up on the barrel.

I’ll take it out this weekend and play with it. In a world of $600 M4 clones everywhere I’m not sure this amounts to much more than a niche gun, but, hey, its new, it’s .223,  and it isn’t an AR so thats kinda noteworthy.

You can’t control what happens, you can only control your response to what happens

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Unless you’re a maritime engineer and have a trained crew and materials to work with, the best thing you can do when the ship hits the iceberg is put on some warm clothes and head for the lifeboats.

I’m one person in a voting bloc of approx 168,000,000. It’s ridiculous for me to think that of the handful of issues I vote on each election that every one of them will go my way. Quite simply, there arent enough people who think exactly like me for my will to be enforced.

So, when I watch the news and see things that are going on around the world and in this country, it isnt too hard to make the leap that I cannot fix the situation, but what I can do is prepare myself and my world for the consequences. And thats pretty much what a survivalist is.

I can’t control the economic policy of this nation, I can’t control the Ukes and the Ivans, I can’t control the weather, and I can’t control the job market. All I can do is control my response to them. My response to these uncontrollable (by me) things has, and continues to be, to prepare for them as best I can.

Imagine two engineers standing on the deck of the Titanic as it is sinking, and they’re arguing about the best course of saving the ship. As they argue, the ship continues to sink further and further into the water. Instead of watching the two engineers argue, perhaps the best course of action is to head to the lifeboats.

Maybe the engineers can fix things, maybe not. But there’s no point in standing around wasting precious time watching them argue and, perhaps, uselessly trying to fix things when the lifeboats are filling up.

Maybe the world will straighten itself out. It usually does at some point (often after a really bad time). But instead of waiting around for things to get better, perhaps its a good idea to get ready for what happens if they dont get better.

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.

Link – Tactical Flashlight Review

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Its a golden age of lumens these days…what with rechargeable batteries and retina-scorching LED technology. I rather like the Fenix brand of lights, but here’s a fairly in-depth review that you might find interesting: THE BEST TACTICAL FLASHLIGHT – TEST DATA & RESULTS

Your mileage may vary, of course…but for me I have found that a well-built LED flashlight that takes a readily available battery (or a rechargeable that offers the option of using the rechargeable battery or a common battery interchangeably) is the way to go. I rather like the Fenix PD35.

Whatever you do, make sure to get at least a small pocket flashlight to carry everywhere everyday. I have the little AA-batt Fenix 12 and I can’t begin to describe how handy it is to always have a small, bright flashlight on hand.

 

Right place, right time IV

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Trolling through Craigslist and came across this little number, brand new and unused for….$25. Yes please.

It’s a very nice, very new Aladdin oil lamp. If youre going to do kerosene lamps for emergencies, this is the guy you want. I’ve been meaning to get a couple more but hese last few years these things have been quite difficult to find. Most places are always out of stock and the prices….well….$150-$200 for one of these isn’t unheard of. Fortunately, you can sometimes find these in junk shops or yard sales for significantly less.  You can order up a lampshade and lampshade hanger to go with these, which makes them wonderful lighting for cold dark winters nights. And they even throw out a little heat.

Spare mantles, chimmenys, burners, wicks, and that sort of thing are always a good idea. I have one of these that I’ve carried around for the last forty years and it works just fine.

Since my ’emergency fuel’ of choice is kerosene (stoves, lamps, heaters), this lamp fits into my plans quite nicely.

The fact that I also got it gor about 1/8th the price of a new one is just icing on the cake.

Moral of the story: don’t discount Craigslist for getting the things you need to increase your resilience.

Revisiting Tappan

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with his works, Mel Tappan was one of the leading voices of survivalism back in the ’70s. His two most classic works are “Survival Guns” and “Tappan On Survival“. Like a lot of scribes on this topic, he appeared in various gun magazines as well as, from time to time, popping up in Soldier Of Fortune (remember them?).

Tappan’s opinions were based on the times he lived in. The US was facing inflation and unemployment, as well as a Cold War, when Tappan was doing his writings. As such, his worldview was predominantly of the economic collapse being the most likely catalyst of TEOTWAWKI, In typical 70’s survivalist fashion, Tappan’s work was long on guns and everything else got far less ink.

I’ve been re-reading his book, Tappan On Survival, and it’s interesting to see how dated it has become. You have to remember that at the time Tappan was hammering his typewriter there were no Glocks, .40 or 10mm, most AK’s were bringbacks from VietNam and finding ammo was unheard of, your only choice for .223/5.56 guns were AR15’s and Mini-14’s, revolvers ruled the cop world, and the ‘wondernine’ was still a good five years away from becoming a thing.

So, after re-reading Tappan, what seems like it would have been updated to reflect the modern times, had Tappan made it this far? I think that he might have moved from being a 1911 devotee to enrolling in the church of the double-stack 9mm. With the advent of bullet technology gains, the 9mm of today would far surpass the limited and limiting offerings of his day. Perhaps Tappan would have remained hidebound in his relation ship with the 1911 and the .45 AARP ACP cartridge, but at least the modern 1911’s would run out-of-the-box.

As far as rifles, Tappan disliked the .223 and preferred the .308. In his world, the only real choices in .308 were the HK91, the M1A and the BM59. Today we have the AR-10, SCAR, FAL, AK, and a few other platforms to choose from. Even if Tappan eschewed the .223 I would think he could have appreciated the ergonomics of the AR-15 and found one in .308 to be a ‘best of both worlds’ sort of thing.

Would Tappan have been a Glock guy? Maybe. Perhaps in .45. Or maybe he’d crunch the numbers and find that he preferred the .40 Smith for its increased capacity of .45, and for its heavier weight and larger diameter over the 9mm. Or maybe he’d have decided that the new crop of defensive 9mm ammo was so good that a 17-rd pistol was just what he wanted.

Tappan was also a subscriber to the Elmer Keith school of revolvers shooting big heavy bullets. And, while I am probably the worlds #1 .44 Special fan, I think that as a general purpose revolver, the .357 is a bit more practical. Oh sure, for claws and teeth its the .44 Mag in a revolver, but for day-to-day around the ranch or whatever I think a lighter weight .357 (L-frame or GP100) is pretty much ideal.

If you get a chance to read Survival Guns, Tappan recommended something along the lines of two dozen different guns for the ‘survivalist battery’. It was quite a gamut….22 revolvers, .38 snubbies, .45 Colt, .30-06 bolt guns, .308 battle rifles, .223 carbines, etc, etc. I’m a major gun nerd and even I think it was a bit excessive.

But, as I said, we are all products of our time. Despite being written over fifty years ago, Tappan’s books provide something that is still relevant even half a century after his death. While the choices of tangible things like guns and gear may be outdated or even obsolete, his attitude, mindset, and outlook remain just as important and just as valid today. He had the view that something bad was coming and that the prudent and wise man should prepare for it. Once you’ve that idea in your head, the rest of it….deciding what guns and gear….is really secondary.

Anyway, if you haven’t read his books I’m sure there are online copies around you can view. They’re worth a read, especially Survival Guns, just for the step back fifty years to see what the survivalist of the day thought was necessary.

CostCo LifesStraw price reduction

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Typical. I buy something and then after I buy it they reduce the price:

Guess I’ll buy another one of these because.

$7.50 for a LifeStraw is a no-brainer for something that you can leave in a pack, vehicle console (almost said ‘glove compartment’), truck box, emergency kit, or what have you. And, at that price, also make good gifts for your like-minded friends. (And, really, at this point in our societal devolution, if they aren’t llike-minded why do you have them as friends?)

 

Dagger impressions

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So several weeks back I decided to order up a bunch of Palmetto State Armory (PSA) Glock knockoffs. The ‘Dagger’ pistol is basically a Glock with just enough tweaks to, I would imagine, keep Gaston’s lawyers at bay, but be Glock enough to be useful to folks like me.

Finally got around to taking a couple of them to the range today along with a couple P95DC’s I needed to test fire.

The Dagger shot very well. No failures of any kind, seemed as accurate as any other Glock, and even fit into the rather snazzy new Safariland 6390RDS ALS Glock holster I picked up.

The Dagger shot as well as the Glock, and fit my hand a little better. I don’t really have any complaint about it. I’d have to put a lot more ammo through one before I would stand on stage and declare it the equal of the Glock or that it was a perfect analog of a Glock. But….a lot of parts do interchange:

What’s the role of it in my world? Well, IF it has the reliability and durability of the Glock, then  it would make a no-brainer choice as a secondary or tertiary backup gun to someone who is invested in Glock logistics. If it takes Glock mags, Glock parts, Glock holsters, Glock sights, and Glock accessories, but is half the price of the Glock, then why wouldn’t you pick up a couple?

PSA has these things on sale…sometimes as a package deal. Let me see if I can find a recent one….Thats a pretty-much-as-good-as-a-Glock pistol and five standard Magpul mags and five happysticks for $370. For perspective, thats approx. $125, dealer price, of mags making the gun itself approx $245. That is a bargain no matter how you look at it.

I like to think I’ve got as many guns as I could possibly need for whats left of my checkered and tragic life, but at prices like these I’d feel no hesitation to pick up three or five as cabin guns, truck guns, tacklebox guns and, most importantly, gifts to people who I think need a good pistol and don’t already have one.

YMMV, of course, and I’d love to see Tam do one of her 2,000 round ammo tests with one of these (but who can afford that much ammo these days?). I’ll be shooting these things more in the coming weeks, but so far I like what I see.