Category Archives: Uncategorized

.357 rambling

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Someone was nice enough to send me an early Paratus gift the other day…a Priority Mail box full of fired .357 Mag brass. Much to my surprise, it turns out that while I have, literally, buckets of .38 Spl. brass I was a bit light on .357 brass. So, this was a very welcome gift and I am grateful to the person who sent it.

Although I like the .44 Mag as much as the next guy, and I carry a .44 when I’m in the woods, my preferred revolver cartridge for survivalist needs is the .357 Magnum. Bullet selection is absurdly large, I can shoot light, cheap, and pleasant .38 Spl. interchangeably, and the guns can be a tad smaller than the .44’s. Is it my first choice for things with teeth and claws? No..although it’ll suffice in a pinch. But it is my first revolver choice for things with language skills and lapses in respect for individual rights.

Although the ‘ideal’ is a 125 gr. JHP, I prefer a bit more bullet weight…I usually go with the standard 158~ gr. JHP. If I’m after penetration, I switch over to the 125 gr. Lyman #358093 cast from linotype. It’ll penetrate everything that isn’t from Krypton. Realistically, though, a good hard cast bullet of just about any shape will outperform a jacketed one in terms of penetration, assuming equal velocities for both.

As for the launching platform, I am a fan of the Ruger GP-100 for my .357 needs. This is based on a criteria that is heavily weighted towards durability and ruggedness. The GP is about the same frame size as a Colt Python or Smith L-frame (and I do love me some S&W 681) and, often, holsters and speedloaders between the three will interchange. The GP has a couple features that, in addition to its Ruger ruggedness, make it a winner for me….the easily swappable front sight inserts are sweet, and I like the modularity of the trigger group for disassembly.

Ruger’s SP-101 series of snubbies is also a winner if you’re willing to tote the weight of a five-shot snubby made out of stainless steel. But, for the end of the world, a little extra weight might be an acceptable tradeoff for a gun that is nigh unkillable.

Out of a carbine, like my lovely Marlin 1894, the .357 Mag picks up a bit of velocity and becomes a very zippy, very controllable carbine cartridge for less-than-intermediate range. Basically, any distance you’d be comfortable with open sights will work. For my needs, thats about 100 yards.

While I’d rather ride out Katrinaville with a Glock and an AR, I wouldnt’ feel terribly undergunned with a pistol/carbine combo in .357. And, of course, being chambered for one cartridge makes logistics a bit more streamlined.

Although I carry a Glock as a matter of routine, I do carry a revolver from time to time in my daily life. In a post-apocalyptic world, the revolver has a lot going for it in terms of ammunition flexibility, retention of empties for reloading, and ability to digest ammo that might choke an auto. The drawback, of course, is that when a revolver has an issue you pretty much have to have a gunsmith….with something like a Glock all you need is some drop-in spare parts.

But, I digress…..I likes me some .357, and I thank the thoughtful reader who sent me the brass (and winds up getting on my Paratus card list). There’s no such thing as ‘too much’ when it comes to reloadable pistol brass.

 

Seven year sugar

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A while back I had posted that Winco has seen boneless skinless chicken breast increase by 40% over six months.  Was up there the other day and, surprise, it bumped up another ten cents a pound. How’s that Inflation Reduction Act workin’ for ya?

Speaking of food, I had to refill my sugar container that I keep in the kitchen. No problem, check the stockpiles and I have several 5# bags of sugar vacuum sealed for just this sort of thing. Todays volunteer was a bag of sugar that went into storage back in 2015.

How did it fare? Why, just fine. There were a few clumps in there that were easily broken up by shaking the container thoroughly. Other than that, it stored just fine…as expected. The vacuum sealing protects from moisture and bugs quite nicely and, really, thats the two biggest threats to storing sugar. I wish I had written down the price I paid seven years ago because it is always interesting to see how these things change.

When it comes to storing sugar, by the way, my usual policy is to drop the bag of sugar into a vacuum seal bag, seal it up, date it, and put it in a 5-gallon bucket with the others. Then it goes into the basement and sits on a shelf until needed. I keep about 40 or 50 pounds of sugar on hand this way. More than enough to get me through a crisis. I also store salt this way as well…not so much for the concern over bugs, but rather over keeping moisture away.

If you haven’t already got a vauum sealer, I cannot recommend them enough. They are one of the most useful tools for stockpiling things. You have to think outside the box, because these things are great for more than just putting away food.

Lightsticks above the doorway

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While investigating other blogs, I found this post: The Light Stick Over The Door Trick

This is something I’ve been doing for almost thirty years. I leave a lightstick on the top of each doorway in the house. They are unobtrusive, mostly out of sight, but when the power goes out you know theyre always there and they are just what you need to find your way to a real flashlight. (Assuming you don’t already carry a small flashlight in your pocket at all times…which you should.)

I might have mentioned this before but, honestly, I don’t have time to trawl 20 years of blog posts. I will say, though, that with lightsticks being relatively cheap, it’s worth it to replace them every couple years. And always keep them in the foil pouches until ready to use. I’ve never had one fail, but I tested one last year that was almost 15 years past its expiration date and it worked just fine. But for less than a dollar each, why take chances?

As an aside, I also keep a couple lightsticks inside any container of emergency gear so that if I need to use that gear in the dark, I have a light source of some kind. I tape them to the inside of my Pelican gear cases, and I always have one or two in every larger first aid kit. (Thats in addition to a small, lithium-batteried light.)

Power failures have a habit of being unplanned, which means next time youre in the bathroom and the power goes out, it’d be nice not to stumble your way outta the bathroom, down theahll, to your computer room or wherever you keep your emergency lighting tools. Instead, find any doorway, reach up, and -presto- illumination.

It warms the cockles of my heart…and even the sub-cockle region

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I don’t get around the internet as much as I used to, so I am way behind the curve and this video is a couple years old…but, dang if it doesn’t fill me full of warm fuzzies like watching a bin full of puppies:

Apparently, not satisfied with the world seeing him go from badass fed to crybaby whiner in mere minutes, Mr James Burk also has a history of shoplifting….which ATFE, naturally, chooses to overlook whereas in just about any other police agency he’d get shown the door.

Mr Burk, naturally, sued for ‘excessive force’…which is odd since he works for an agency that  incinerates buildings full of children. And, worst of all, shoots dogs.

But, for my money, you just can’t help but smile at watching an ATFE goon go from ‘Cool dude’ to crying little girl when someone treats him the way his agency treats everyone else.

Step one: turn public opinion against them

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Every morning, one of the first things I do is hit the various newsfeeds. After all, you can’t be prepared against something if you don’t know its coming (or going on, for that matter).

Todays headlines as I woke up:

The Inside History of How Guns Are Marketed and Sold in America

Manufacturers of AR-style rifles would see 20% tax under proposed bill

‘It’s just insanity’: ATF now needs 2 weeks to perform a routine gun trace

Look, you and I both know that one of the very first steps towards ‘controlling’ a particular demographic is to create an atmosphere of animosity towards that demographic that the general public can get behind. Most notably, Hitler and the Jews. If he’d walked up to the podium and said “Today, we’re gonna wipe out the Jews” just out of the blue like that he probably would have not gotten very far. Instead, he creates a poisonous atmosphere for them (so to speak). He spends years telling the public how this group has misled them, bled them, is a threat to their values, etc, etc. He paints them as the threat for so long, and so intently, that after a few years people start thinking “Yeah, those people are a real threat to me. Someone should do something about it.” and the next thing you know the boxcars are steaming down the tracks.

An extreme example, yes. But it’s an accurate one: to oppress/marginalize/eradicate/control a particular segment of the population you need to get the broad public behind you. You do that by demonizing that particular group so that after a while the general public says “Yeah, those people have it coming.”

And these headlines? Thats what it looks like. I’m not saying they’re planning to throw gun owners into camps. What they are planning is to throw your gun rights (and your guns) into the shredder. Theyre fine with the people who own guns, its the guns themselves theyre after.

So, they load up the media with articles about AR-15’s being evil, ghost guns are everywhere, a national registry is needed, manufactures are profiting over dead children, no one needs a 30-round clipazine, etc, etc, etc. And they keep shoveling this stuff into the media outlets so that, after a while, the public can’t see things any other way….and thats when those ‘reasonable’ and ‘common sense’ bans and prohibitions start coming. Because, after all that indoctrination, how can anyone possibly disagree that all those evil black rifles rifles of color need to be taken out of the hands of those evil would-be insurrectionists and white supremacists.

But…you gotta start somewhere. And that starting place is by making out the guns and the gunowners to be out-of-touch racist anti-government social reprobates. Make the public believe theyre the bad guys and no one will speak up for them when the hammer comes down.

We saw this in the 90’s with the whole ‘militia/anti-government’ movement. Randy Weaver, for example, gets virtually no sympathy outside of our circles because even though his wife was gunned down for basically no reason, he was an evil ‘militia type’ who harbored ‘anti-government views’.

Make a particular group look bad and then you can do whatever you want to them without fear of the consequences. It’s a technique thats been around for thousands of years, the trick is to recognize it when it’s happening. We give it the benign name of ‘culture war’ but culture wars have a way of turning into real wars…or pogroms..or purges.

Watch the news, see how many pages of headlines you can scroll through before seeing yet another post about someone calling for AR-15’s to be banned, magazines to be limited, registries started, licensing mandated, etc. It’s not a coincidence.

You know what you need to do, get out your wallet and do it.

 

 

Wire cutters

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These were on sale a ways back and although the new price is not as good as the old price, for ten bucks these are a very good deal. I tested these out on chain link and barbed wire fencing and the work beautifully. I keep a pair in my truck box in case I need to make an exit off the interstate where these is none. Link.

Now, objectively, you are better off with a set of bolt cutters since they will cut padlocks as well whereas these surplus cutters will not. However, for the money, these are a fine tool to keep in your BOV, truck, or wherever for when getting through some fencing may be all that stands between you and something unpleasant.

I bought three sets last time. I keep one in the vehicle at all times because you never know when you might need to suddenly create your own exit off the roadway.

Article – Hikers had no gear on cold Colorado trail because it’s ‘so hot in Texas,’ officials say

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Idiots. It used to be that, in simpler times, natural selection would take care of this sort of problem and humanity, collectively, would be better off for it. Nowadays….well…

The hikers weren’t prepared for their trek. They didn’t pack extra clothing to stay dry, and their tent had no rain fly, officials said. The hikers also didn’t have extra food or water, and they didn’t have layers to survive the night temperatures.

“These hikers said they did not understand why it was so cold and rainy in Colorado, because it has been ‘so hot in Texas’ where they hike all the time,” rescuers said. “They never checked any weather forecasts.”

Because, of course, Texas and Colorado are climatically Identical, right?

Contrast this with some Japanese hikers who got caught out and survived ten days before being rescued, at which point they profusely apologized to rescuers for being such a burden.

Normally, I’ve no love for the Japanese but the contrast here is interesting.

Moral of the story is the same as always: you have to respect Mother Nature because she has absolutely no respect for you. Check the weather, take your Ten Essentials, tell someone where youre going, stick to your planned route, and if things look dicey…bail.

 

Augason at Winco II

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One of the nice things about blogging for twenty years is that I can go back and check details that would otherwise be lost in time.

The Augason storage food I mentioned yesterday? The price on the potato shreds is the same as it was last year. Interestingly, though, the butter powder is $2.50 cheaper than it was last year.

Storage food is insurance. Certainly it’s a nice hedge against the day the zombies arrive, Xenu comes back, the Chinese invade, the race war starts,  and the comet hits. But it’s also a comfort against job loss, economic troubles, and supply issues. In general, like all insurance, one of it’s great benefits is the peace of mind it offers.

We seldom see hunger in this country to the point that exists in other countries. (We’re the only country with obese poor people, so you know food isn’t exactly a problem for us.) But while as a nation we virtually never experience hunger, we can (and do) as individuals…we suffer individual setbacks like job losses, crippling injuries, etc. And while there may be miles of aisles of food at the Walmart, there may be none to be had by you. So….yes, a form of insurance.

Preaching to the choir, I know, but let’s be real….too many people emphasize the sexy gun stuff and under-emphasize the unsexy things like food. But your gonna eat a lot more often than you’re going to shoot things in most crises. So…yeah, lay back some .223 but spend at least as much in time, effort, and money on food as well.

 

Augason at Winco

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Was up at Winco today and, to my surprise, they had a bunch of Augason Farms. Last time they had the Augason Farms stuff was about nine months ago.

Not a huge selection, but certainly some good items there to fill in the gaps if youre not quite ready for the upcoming apocalypse. An LMI buddy of mine dragged his feet last time in getting up there and wound up kicking himself about missing out on a couple things. I told him, repeatedly, to not dawdle and get up there….but, he didnt and ha spent the last nine months regretting it. I immediately let him know these were back and that he should take a lunch break from work and go pick up the cans he missed. I also told him that he should let me know if he couldnt get away and I’d do it for him…. Because thats what survivalist buddies do for each other.

I didn’t pick up anything because…well…I’m Commander Zero and I stocked up on this stuff a long time back. But, I’m tempted to pick up a couple cans of the vegetable stew to try with a couple cans of canned roast beef.