Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
From the USAToday website:
Fascinating, isnt it? What me and, hopefully, you would call ‘common sense’ during these times is considered noteworthy. From the article it sounds like what these people have done is to rework their lifestyle so they a) live within their means and b) take more responsibility for their own well-being. Live on less than you earn…a novel concept, no?
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
The problem with stockpiling guns, ammo and food is that if for any reason the cops show up at your house, you get painted as whacko. Case in point. ‘Self inflicted’..maybe accidental, maybe not. Either way, its a little disturbing that the cops who, presumably, are supposed to know the law so they can uphold it can’t determine if this poor bastards guns are legit or not so they bring in the fedgoons.
This is why someday I’m going to make it a point to keep at least half of everything offsite at a secondary (or even tertiary) location – so that when some idiot seizes all my stuff because its scary looking I’ll have a couple completely redundant sets of backups to fall back upon.
I’d love to see a followup to this story and find out if any of this guy’s stuff was verboten or not.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Got a phone call last week from a gal who was handling the estate of her recently deceased brother. There were a bunch of guns and could I come by, look ‘em over and give her an idea of what they were and what theyre worth? Suuuuuuuuuuuure.
Went there today. As almost always happens in the case of an estate sale, once the other family members heard someone might actually be coming by to buy the goodies they all suddenly start clamoring about stuff they want. More than once I’ve tried to buy an estate, had the money in hand, and had a Suburban full of relatives show up at the last minute and leave me holding an empty gun case. Apparently, that was the case in this one. By the time the relatives got through there were only a handful of items left. Out of what was left only two things interested me. A new Rem 870 Magnum (extra 870’s are always nice) and a Contender package deal. The Contender package is pretty sweet: frame, wooden pistol grip, wooden rifle stock, 16″ 45-70 bbl., 10″ 44 Mag. bbl., 10″ .357 Mag. bbl., and a 14″ .223 bbl. I already have a 14″ .44 barrel, and the .45-70 barrel does nothing for me, but the rest of it has some attraction. All new in box, too. Made ‘em an offer and we’ll see what happens.
Only other gun of interest, to me, was a Winchester Garand. Had import marks but was otherwise nice. Trouble is, it fits nowhere into my plans. I think the Garand is a less than good choice as a semi-auto rifle for anyone unless theyre stuck in someplace like California with its ‘assault weapon’ nonsense. Told her it was worth upwards of $600 and that she should see if maybe someone in the family doesnt want it after all.
While the 870 fits into the scheme of things here, the Contender is a bit esoteric. I was thinking of having the .357 barrel threaded for use with a suppressor, which would make for a slick little package. What I’ll probably do is part out the barrels I dont want and use the money for other acquisitions.
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My tomatoes and peppers have sprouted. I have a little box in the window full of tiny seedlings that, hopefully, will get transplanted outside next month and start the long journey towards my pressure canner. I picked up some heirloom seeds from Victory Seed Co. and was interested especially in some of their offerings for the colder climes like Montana. We have summers that are nice enough for growing but at night the temperatures can drop thirty degrees or more and thats a bit much for some plants. Someday I’ll have a nice glass-block greenhouse to allow me to grow stuff year round but until then Im stuck with the usual assortment of garden vegetables…but someday…Montana-grown okra.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
As you know I wanted a .22 option for my AR. I picked up a couple used Ciener kits last year and had nothing but utter, total and epic fail with them. To be fair, they were used so perhaps the fault isnt with the manufacturer. Regardless, it left me soured on the whole thing. I was at the Kalispell show last week and came across the CMMG conversion which appears to be an exact copy of the Ciener. The conversation at the show was almost verbatim to this:
Me: I have a couple Ciener kits and the damn things never work right.
Vendor: AR or M16 kit?
Both.
Hmm…I hear if Ciener gets a kit that works they mark it for the M16 and the ones that dont get marked for the AR-15.
Whaddya know about these CMMG kits?
Sold a bunch today. I use ‘em and they work fine.
I got a bunch of Black Dog Magazines (BDM) for the Cieners, will they work with the CMMG.
Yeah.
Alright. Look, you know me, you know my wife, we see you all the time at these shows. If this thing doesnt work I can bring it back, right?
Absolutely.
Ok. Wrap it up.
So, a trip to the range for a quick evaluation. Test platform is a Bushy Dissipator. Ammo is Rem. bulk and CCI Blazer. Three BDM mags.
Put five rounds of Rem. in each mag and fired em all. No problems. Repeat. At round #17 the bolt started to no fully go into battery. A little nudge on the bolt with a finger would be enoughu to close the bolt to allow it to fire but I was concerned. However, lets eliminate some variables. Pulled the mag, swapped out all the ammo for CCI Blazer. No hiccups. Took the conversion out of the gun and made sure to lube it thoroughly with LSA and replaced it in the gun. Fired another 50 rounds of CCI Blazer with no hiccups at all. The instructions recommend Federal bulk, which is what I stockpile, but I didnt bring any with me because I was too cheap to want to open a fresh package. However, the el cheapo CCI Blazer did a sterling job.
The BDM mags are highly recommended and I say that if you want to get the CMMG conversion, which I am going to give a tentative recommendation to, start getting some mags now even if the conversion isnt in your immediate future. The mags are a bit longer than a normal AR mag so they will be too long for most closed-top mag pouches.
Speaking of CMMG, head to their website. Holy crap have they got some cool stuff. Tactical bacon! .308 AR lowers that take HK91 mags (brilliant!). Buncha other cool stuff too. I may have found a new place to waste my money.
TPIWWP, so here we go:
Now I just need a .22 conversion for the Glock and I’ll be able to practice handling techniques and shooting drills on my limited budget.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
This is the shelf at my local Sportsman’s Warehouse where, normally, all the bullets for reloading would be. Only calibers there are .30 <125 gr., .303, 8mm, and some .405 Win. Total of maybe 30 boxes all together. I have more bullets than this on my reloading bench at this moment. Those powder containers on the top of the shelf are for display…all empty. When will they restock? No one knows.
Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
“If you cant take a little bloody nose maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under the bed. Its not safe out here, its wondrous with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but its not for the timid.” – Q
I’m guessing that I don’t need to tell you that the world isn’t a safe place. That isn’t necessarily a bad or good thing, it’s just the way things are. Most folks, like me, who live in a quiet world of doing the same things every day, seeing the same people, and dealing with the same problems, get pretty insulated from the rest of the world.
Other folks, like military, police, paramedics, firemen, etc., go the other way. The typical day for them puts them dealing with the things that are exceptional and completely out-of-the-ordinary to folks like myself.
My point is that its easy to get complacent and forget that there really are people out there who don’t care about your safety, don’t care about your rights, and do see you as an opportunity for some personal gain (or entertainment) at the expense of your safety and security. In short, sometimes we forget there really are bad people out there.
These are, to be sure, stressful times. That’s not just good old-fashioned survivalist paranoia talking, either….this is fact. And it’s looking like more folks are reacting to stress in a bad way. In the latest cases, by shooting up places, killing total strangers, and then killing themsleves (or getting themselves killed.)
In Starship Troopers, theres this quote about people who go nuts and commit horrible violence, “I suppose he was one of those pathological personalities that you read about – no way to spot them. Well, if there was no way to keep it from happening once, there was only one sure way to keep it from happening twice. Which we had used.”
A lot of times you can’t tell whose gonna go sideways and shoot up the schoolyard but you can make darn sure they don’t do it a second time. Of course, a minimum amount of equipment is required along with a maximal amount of determination and fortitude. Talent and skill would go a long way too. But more than anything else, being armed is the biggest thing.(“Why do you carry a pistol?” “ Because carrying an AK all day is awkward and makes driving difficult.” )
Running and locking yourself in a basement or hiding under a desk is certainly a better option than getting shot down, no matter how you look at the equation. Certainly the best, easiest and safest option when someone comes through the front door flinging bullets is to simply go out the back door and let your tax dollars take care of the problem. After all, isn’t the whole point of being a survivalist to survive? But most people, myself included, would probably have some issues with just saving our own skins and letting defenseless others get killed if we had the means to respond aggressively and decisively. “Aggressively and decisively” is gunspeak for “draw your gun and shoot the bad guy”.
My point is, as things are getting weird around us with the economy making a lot of people nervous theres going to be more cases of disgruntled people taking things out on their families, ex-employers and us innocent bystanders. Folks are scared and uncertain, who can blame ‘em? Guys are going home to a wife and three kids trying to explain that theres no work to be had and it might be time to go live with the in-laws until things get better. Some folks cant handle that. They think somehow the better alternative is to drown the kids in the tub, shoot mom and then themselves. I suppose once you commit yourself to a course of action like that its pretty easy to think “Heck, in for a penny in for a pound…might as well head back to the office and shoot that damn manager and supervisor too.” Next thing you know, its on CNN.
Some folks just can’t handle the stress…some feel that they’ve been ‘unfairly’ singled out and persecuted…some are just gonna be downright pissed and not care anymore. Either way, its apparent that things are becoming simply more and more unstable out there and leaving the house in the morning with the trusty sidearm and a spare mag may not be the ‘paranoid thinking’ that youre friends tease you about. Its a more dangerous world out there today than it was yesterday. Tomorrow it’ll probably be more dangerous. So….be prepared.
