Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Ice storms are giving people back East a hard time. I haven’t had the pleasure of being in one for about seven years or so. They can be pretty excinting, especially from a driving standpoint, and they are all but guaranteed to throw your electrical capability into the Bronze Age.

Other than trees falling, the problem with an ice storm is that heavy ice forms on power lines, the lines sag and eventually break. (Of course, lines also go down when cars plow into the power poles and snap them off at the base.)

Last ice storm we had made a heck of a mess but power wasnt out for more than a few hours. I wasnt nearly as prepared then as I am now for it. We have plenty of fuel, heaters, water, food and communications gear so all an ice storm would do for us is make leaving the house even less attractive.

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Returned from the Hamilton gun show. I only saw a couple things I wanted (S&W 686 4″, Mossberg 590) but nothing I wanted enough to spend precious resources on. Problem is, no one at the show wanted to risk what money they had for something as superfluous as a gun show acquisition. Its hard to justify spending $250 on AK ammo when you dont know if youre going to have a job in three months. however, judging from the buying habits of those who were actually spending money…the natives are restless.

Enjoy the gun shows while you can folks, ’cause you really cant be certain what’s coming down the pike from Washington next.

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According to at least one self-proclaimed prophet, this holiday season is the last one since we’re all gonna get nuked.

Listen, there is no one who knows precisely when the world is going to end except the guy who is actually going to push the button, light the fuse, release the microbes or set the timer. Oh, sure there are folks who will claim that it’ll be ’soon’, ‘within our lifetime’, ‘when the signs are nigh’ or something equally vague and nebulous. But in narrower terms, even down to within 12 months, no one ever seems to want to go on record.

So, yeah, its gonna happen someday but anyone who says they know when is just smoking crack.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Gun show…what to say..well, lets hit the ’ssocial barometer’ signals…

There was no ammo in large quantity to be had. A box of .223 here, a box of .45 there. I saw no table with more than three boxes of the same caliber on it.

If there was any AR that was less than $1200, I didnt see it.

I did see, however, an AK underfolder for..hang onto your hernia belt….$3000. Or, put another way, 1.5 DSA FALs, 3 PTR-91s, or a genuine Steyr AUG would all cost about the same. Out-freaking-rageous.

Only a few AR mags. Almost all were aftermarket and going for $20-30. I did find a guy selling genuine Colt (and one marked Armalite/Colt) 20-rd mags for $15 ea. along with a few of the infrequently seen 4-mag pouches.

Come to think of it, handguns were a bit sketchy too. Alot of overpriced, 2nd gen Glocks for $500. I can buy used 2nd gen Glocks for $360~ all day long so these guys were definitely in fantasy land.

Did I see anything I wanted? I saw a Ruger SP101 in 9mm that was kinda cute. Also a Steyr SPP with a buncha mags for $900. Not an Uzi, like I wanted, but still kinda cool.

All in all, the gun show demonstrated that folks are holding onto their money, holding onto their guns and that everyone seems to be adopting a wait-n-see attitude on things as the increase their ammo and mag stashes.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

I was strolling through one of the local gun shops yesterday and found the most overpriced AK I have ever seen. I thought $600 was an outrageous sum when we got our Arsenal AKs (although, in retrospect, it was worth it) but these guys feel the Polytech (Chinese) Legend National Match AK they have is worth north of $2500. What the hell, man? “National Match” AK? So that means it’ll do, what?, keep all your rounds in 6″ at 100 yards instead of 10″? Sure its a heavy barrel and a nice milled receiver but for that kinda money I could buy a NM M1A or a nice DSA FAL…or something accurate in a better caliber.

Scary thing is, with the way the gun market is at the moment, they’ll probably get that. Oh, and that $2600 doesnt include any mags.

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I was talking to a customer yesterday who was telling me that he was dissatisfied at his job and was thinking of quitting. “What would you do?”, I asked. He said he didnt know. He just felt confident that he could get another job with no problem almost immediately. I told him that I cant imagine anyone would be thinking of voluntarily unemploying themselves right now. Theres no certainty that people who even want their jobs will have them in the next 12 months. Then again, maybe I was just projecting my own fears on this guy.

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Gas prices continue to fall in my region with a gallon fo gas now hanging out at around $1.55. The lower gas prices makes traveling in the great state of Montana a little cheaper so I may attend some out-of-town gun shows over the next few months and see if I can find some bargains. I have a gun show this coming weekend and it’ll be the first gun show Ive been to since the elction…Im curious to see how the market for various guns and gun-related items goes.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

The whole reason, for me, to plunk down $500 on a G3-to-.22 conversion kit was so that I could practice things like quickly getting a sight picture from a ‘ready slung’ position, practice shooting while walking, weak-hand shooting, etc. So today I headed out the the range with a brick o’ Federal and did exactly that. And it was great. Had a wonderful time. Most of the shooting was done at fifty yards since I figure thats probably pretty close to the distances that are present when one really does need to snap a rifle up for a hasty shot. Moving-n-shooting was challenging as was weak-hand stuff. The range has some empty oxygen cylinders hanging from a rack that are used as targets. Just about the right height and width of your average bad guy so they were an ideal target with audible feedback.

All in all, alot of fun. I shot about 200 rounds of ammo..put another way, I shot $0.50 of ammo and saved almost $100 of actual .308. (ALot of the surp .308 is clocking in at almost fiftycents per round these days.)

Now I just need to get the .22 conversion for the Glock so I can practice transition drills.

By the by, the previous couple of times I took this kit out I had a few jams and stoppages. This time everything ran like a Swiss watch. No malfs of any kind..slow fire, rapid fire, dump-the-mag-in-3-seconds fire, etc….not a prob. Same ammo as last time, so I dont know what was different but it was a real joy to shoot. Takes a little of the sting out of the cost of the kit.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Received one of…well, actually more than one…of these today. It comes with this filter which pretty much stops everything (”..Sarin, nerve gas, mustard gas, cyanogen, phosgene, radioactive dust, toxic particles, aerosols, tear gas, bacteria, viruses, anthrax, smallpox etc. — Also provides protection against industrial gases such as ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acid gases, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and many more…”)

Price was right, quantity was right, and, well, why wouldn’t you if the price was right? Naturally the missus and I have the older M 17a1 series which I suppose is better than nothing but filters are rather dated, you cant change them without taking the mask off, etc, etc. So, when these newer masks were offered to me, I figured “Why not”?

Never know when theres going to be some sort of chaos that makes breathing a tad difficult. And oxygen is alot like sex…you dont give too much thought to it until you arent getting any…then it becomes mighty important in a hurry. Am I expecting a little nuclear or biological ‘event’ in my neck of the woods? Nope. But you never know whats going to happen and its always nice to be prepared, no?

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Put in another order with Stag Arms today. I asked the usual question of ‘how long?’ and was given a firm, no-nonsense reply of “twenty weeks”. Thats damn near April, folks. Over two months in the Carter II administration. Woe unto he that ain’t got his evil black rifle by then.

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By the by, got a few cases of Mountain House freeze-dried pork chops on the way. When they originally ran these things off for the military they canned ‘em up as whole pork chops. Sometimes things dont go as planned and the freeze-dried pork chop breaks in half. Well, the broken pork chops get set aside and canned all on their own. …. And find their way to a guy like me who doesnt care if a pork chop is in two pieces instead of one when it results in a huge savings in price. ‘Cause when the apocalypse comes I am not spending it as a freakin’ vegetarian. Sure, I could go out and knock down squirrels, cats, and birds for meat but if things are that desperate Im prolly gonna wanna stay indoors where its relatively safe. Open up a can of pork chops, instant potatoes, corn, some fruit for desert and wash it down with some instant iced tea or fruit drink. Sitting in the dark eating cold Spaghetti-O’s out of the can is not an option. If I gotta spend the day cleaning up the rubble of society, shooting looters, bandaging the injured and lugging fuel around the last thing I want is to be rewarded for it at the end of the day with a styrofoam Cup’o’Noodles and some sardines. Bleah.