Monthly Archives: September 2018

Prepiquette

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“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke

You’re a survivalist, Im a survivalist, we’re survivalists. And although we’re on the same page on a bunch of things, one of the things we really need to be on the same page about is privacy and not being offended when someone leaves you out of the loop, to a degree, to protect their privacy.

Example: I’d had some back-n-forth online with a fella for a while and we agreed to meet for lunch one day to talk about guns and generally get to hang out with like-minded individuals. As we wrapped it up and we were leaving the BBQ place, it turned out we were both walking in the same direction to our vehicles. And walking. And walking. And…walking. See, he didn’t want to get into his vehicle and have me know what he was driving (and, presumably, catching his license plate info) so he walked past his vehicle. And I walked past mine for the same reason. And…kept walking. We still laugh about that.

Unless you’ve been friends for years, try to be mindful of the other person’s privacy and desire to keep some things private:

  • Ask what they like to shoot, don’t ask how many guns they have
  • Don’t ask where they live (or work), although you can ask what they do for work
  • If someone politely declines to answer your question, or tactfully evades a question, recognize that they are very politely trying to tell you it’s none of your business…accept it gracefully and move on.
  • Do not ask if they know so-and-so or if they are related to someone
  • Let them be as vague as they want to be
  • Don’t follow them to their vehicle as you leave
  • If you are joined by a friend/relative of theirs, assume that those people are ‘outside the loop’ in regards to what you’ve been discussing. If you’ve spent a half hour talking to your new friend Steve about his $10,000 Barret 82A1 and his wife sits down to join you, do NOT say to her “Steve here was just telling me how much he enjoys his Barrett” because the last thing you want is her saying “What Barrett? You told me you weren’t going to buy that thing!” Don’t be that guy.
  • Never ask for someone’s contact information, instead offer yours and if they want to give you their info they will reciprocate.
  • Don’t overshare. It makes the other person uncomfortable and puts them in the awkward position of feeling like they aren’t being equally forthcoming.
  • Don’t name drop.

Obviously, if you’ve known someone for years to the point you’ve had then to your house, then it’s obviously a different story. These suggested guidelines are for new people you meet.

And for Crom’s sake, don’t overshare. It’s better to hold back too much info about yourself than it is to go dig a six-foot hole in the National Forest because you told someone too much too soon. (See, ya gotta have that hole already dug…cause if you don’t, you could be digging it and someone comes along and sees what you’re doing. Now you gotta dig two holes. You could be out there all night!)

 

 

Feeding the monkey on my back

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I am a weak, weak man…..

Me: This Glock has been sitting in the case a while.
Him: Make me an offer.[Gun is marked $500. Crazy money.]
Me: Meh..not really my kinda gun. I’d go [$XXX.XX]
Him: Sold.
Me: Dammit. I need to put a bit more english on those lowballs.

This is the second baby Glock I’ve bought in a caliber I don’t want. But…at the price I paid, my goal is to trade it for a 9mm Glock.

So…if any of you people have an interest in a .45 or .357 baby Glock, and have a 17,19,26, or 34 you don’t want (Gen3 preferred)..lemme know.

Ruger Mini-14 magazine followup

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So I had a fairly lousy experience with the aftermarket magazine that came with the Mini-14GB I picked up a few weeks ago. I really shouldnt have been too surprised since the prevailing wisdom is that, currently, there are NO acceptable aftermarket mags. Now, as much as that was a bad experience at the range, paying $30 (dealer cost, mind you) for a factory magazine is an even uglier experience.

Now, an important distinction really needs to be made here. I almost always prefer factory mags (or .gov contract mags) to aftermarket mags for my guns. BUT…for a non-critical gun, or what we can basically call a ‘range toy’, I don’t mind aftermarket magazines. (I mind junk aftermarket mags, but a good aftermarket mag is acceptable.) So, since this Mini-14 isn’t really on my radar for an End Of The World sort of thing, I don’t mind using aftermarket mags if they are good aftermarket mags.

(However, in the name of transparency, I will say that I am going to pick up four factory mags ‘just in case’.)

Anyway…

Over on YouTube there’s a gear/guns channel I watch from time to time that does the sorts of gear evaluations I like – they buy the gear, they test the gear, they beat the gear, the review the gear. They had a video up on the Tapco aftermarket mags and they got great reviews. Ok, let’s get a few and see what they’re offering………

  • Overall Impression
  • Metal reinforcement and lockup
  • Basepad and follower
  • Legacy gear compatability
  • Pricing

Overall Impression

Tapco has been (and somewhat still is) the source of many memes and disdain in the gun community. Their name has even been made into a verb – “Bubba got that SKS and he Tapco’d the hell out of it. Look at all that crap!” But, apparently, they are making a pretty slick Mini-14 magazine.

The Tapco Mini-14 magazine resembles a Magpul PMAG in many ways. The follower is very reminiscent of the Magpul, and the overall ‘feel’ of the polymer/plastic is also very similar.

Metal reinforcement and lockup

These mags are the second generation of Mini-14 mags from Tapco, the first generation did not have a metal reinforcing tab where the engagement/lockup of mag-to-gun took place. As a result, wear and deformation could occur that would cause magazines to seat improperly which, naturally, leads to reliability issues. Case in point: look at this aftermarket metal magazine which it appears could have stood a little heat treating. The post-in-hole lockup area is pushed inward from repeated magazine insertions. As the metal pressed inwards, it made seating the magazine securely more difficult which exacerbated the problem by trying to ‘force’ the mag to seat…which just pushed the metal further inwards.

The Tapco magazine has a steel clip surrounding the front of the magazine to take the wear and resist this sort of issue. Lockup in my particular Mini-14 was good. There was some play, as is to be expected, but it was ‘play’ not ‘slop’. More importantly, there were no reliability issues with feeding. (This can be seen on AK mags, which use a somewhat similar method of magazine retention…there’s usually some play, but nothing that affects function.)

Basepad and follower

The magazine basepad and follower are going to seem familiar to anyone with a bunch of Magpul PMAGs. The followers are very non-tilt and they move smoothly up/down within the magazine body. The basepad is a bit chunky, but has a very easy to manipulate locking mechanism making magazine disassembly a breeze…much easier, IMHO, than GI AR mags.

Legacy gear compatability

A big problem with polymer mags is that, dimensionally, they do not have the same ‘footprint’ as their metal counterparts. For example, a metal Mini-14 mag and the Tapco both hold 30-rounds but the Tapco is longer and a bit wider. This can cause problems in terms of fit in pouches that were designed, ostensibly, for AR mags. ‘Legacy’ gear..those AR pouches you’ve collected over twenty years…may not be the best fit for the bulkier Tapco mag. Modern pouches, though, often have adjustable flaps on them and those help tremendously.

I found that the mags did fit in open-top pouches, although they were a tiny bit snug. In magazine pouches that utilize a flap closure, they did not fit unless the flap was adjustable.

AR mag pouch with a non-adjustable closure flap. Tapco mag is too long to allow flap to close. Fortunately, most mag pouches with flap closures these days are adjustable.

Tactical Tailor stock-mounted mag pouch for AR mags. Note that it has a velcro adjustable closure flap.

This mag pouch can do double-duty …. AR or Mini-14 mag. Or, really, any other similar magazine since the adjustable flap closure provides the ability to accommodate other mags.

Single-mag pouches like this one work fine except the retention straps, though elastic, are a bit too short to accommodate the longer Tapco mag. Left: Metal Mini mag, Center: Tapco mag, Right: GI AR mag. SpecOps magazine pouch.

Double-mag pouch with velcro adjustable flaps holds two Tapco mags with no problem. Heavy ribbing on mags makes withdrawing one mag a little tricky. Pouch: Blackhawk

A possible issue (or non-issue) I noticed is that the Tapco mags have aggressive ribbing on the magazine bodies. You will get a sure grip on the magazine. However, stack two mags together in a pouch and one mag will get a sure grip on the other. If it’s a snug fit for two mags in your mag pouch, expect some ‘rim lock’ as you try to pull one mag out. Again, a single-mag pouch should be fine.

No stripper clip guides on the Tapco mag. Not sure if that’s important to you or not, but sometimes it’s a ‘nice to have’.

So, how’d they shoot? Shot fine. Put about a hundred rounds through them and didn’t have a hiccup. Mags fed fine, locked open on last round, seated and extracted just fine. Certainly a better performance than I got from the no-name aftermarket mag and about the same performance I would expect from a Ruger factory mag.

Pricing

Pricing? Well, retail is for suckers so I usually pay dealer prices. Dealer on these was around $12, so I would expect to see them in the wild around $19.99. For comparison, a Ruger factory mag is, dealer, $29.85. And that’s dealer price.

As I said, this isn’t a run-out-the-door rifle for me, so I’m okay with quality aftermarket mags. But…I wouldn’t feel terribly disadvantaged with these Tapco mags if I got dropped into Katrinaville with a Mini-14 and a dozen of these.

Historically, it has been a bigfoot-hunt to try and find an aftermarket mag for the Mini-14 that was reliable. The only aftermarket mag I ever found that worked perfectly in the Mini-14 platform was the old Eagle 35-rd mags and they haven’t made those since the ’90s. These Tapcos seem to have cleared the bar on a good aftermarket mag finally coming to market. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I ordered a dozen more for myself and think it was a very good purchase.

Boutique or niche items

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Years ago, I had a buddy who thought that, for his needs, the ideal ‘battle rifle’ was a 1941 Johnson. You can go on GunBroker and look up the going rate for a Johnson….I’ll wait.

Kinda makes your eyes water, doesn’t it?

He was adamant that the rifle afforded him all the qualities he wanted in a rifle for the lawless apocalypse he envisioned. And, to be honest, it did. Problem is, he had a rather short-sighted list of qualities he wanted. One of the qualities that he soft-pedaled was affordability and logistics. Break the rear sight on your AR-10 and you can get a new rear sight (or mount a scope) with parts that you can find pretty much in any gun shop. Not so for the Johnson rifle. And affordability-wise, you could get two M1A, three PTR’s, or a couple FALs for what you’d pay for the Johnson.

I was reminded of this today because I took the Ruger Mini-14GB to the range and, unsurprisingly, had problems with the one aftermarket magazine that came with the gun. It didn’t surprise me; my experience with Ruger Mini-14 magazines has been that there are no aftermarket mags that are as reliable except for (in my experience) the old Eagle 35-rd mags that haven’t been made since the last century. In short, unless Magpul cranks out some Mini mags, your only real choice is the expensive factory mags.

Tangent: Tapco, apparently, has evolved a Mini-14 magazine that seems to do a very good job for about half the price of the Ruger factory mag. Might have to try a few.

So, after leaving the range today, I headed over to the local Cabela’s looking for a Ruger factory Mini-14 mag. None. Ok, try Sportsman’s Warehouse. None. And that is, in a nutshell, the problem with niche or ’boutique’ gear: you can’t just find the part or accessory you need as easily as other platforms.

Here’s another example. Years ago Streamlight made a little LED flashlight that I was very impressed with. BUT….it took AAAA batteries. Not AA, not AAA, but AAAA batteries. Good luck finding those in the battery rack at the supermarket.

Sometimes the boutique gear does 100% of what we want whereas the lesser, easily supportable version may only do 85% of what we want. But…when  you cant find a Mini-14 magazine or a set of AAAA batteries, that system is now doing 0% of what you want. I’ll muddle along with 85%.

Does this mean that I’m getting rid of the Mini-14GB? Nope…because the AR’s and AK’s are my ‘grab and run out the door’ guns, and they are a legacy weapons system that has a logistics base that is enormous. The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.)

 

For science!

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Well, I can’t say Im surprised but Joel over at TUAK called it quits on his storage food experiment after a couple days. Yes, I kinda predicted it but you gotta give the man credit for giving it a shot.

The big takeaway from all this is that, like first aid kits, you’re probably better off building your own ’30 day kit’ rather than stocking up on an under-caloried, over-salted, under-flavored, and over-priced packages.

Here’s a website that I really found fascinating: Safely Gathered in: Recipes. The recipes all use foods that store well and are therefore excellent candidates for your pantry.

Sadly, they haven’t updated in a while, but the info there is, in my opinion, highly useful.

Prepology 101: You prepare for bad times during the good times

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Unemployment is a tad under 4%…according to the graphs I was looking at, it’s only been that low twice in the last almost-50 years. What’s that mean? Broadly, if there’s anyone out there who wants a job, there’s one to be had.

Unemployment is down, the markets are doing well, confidence in the economy seems high. This is exactly the time you should be nailing down the acquisition of preparedness items and getting things taken care of.

It’s a lot easier to prepare when you have a good job, the economy is strong, and all seems rosy than it is to prepare when the market is tanking, you’ve been unemployed for two months, and you’re down to your last twenty bucks. Sure, that bonus you’re going to collect in two weeks will buy you that jet ski or 60″HDTV… but when we hit the other side of this moment of prosperity (which we always do) you’re gonna wish you’d used that bonus to pay down your debt, put away food, fund your HSA, or just tucked away in the bank. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy the current situation, just that you might want to use it to your advantage for later down the line.

So, just a reminder: this is the ‘fat’ season that you should take advantage of to put away for the ‘lean’ times. Could be guns, could be food, could be gold, could be cash in savings, could be paying off the house, could be getting those nagging dental issues fixed, could be paying off the truck……but now is the time to get ready for what may be coming next.

Still one of my favorite prints. An artistic representation of the Ant & Grasshopper fable. The grasshopper, the girl with the mandolin who spent all summer playing music and not working, faces the harsh winter and must beg to the ant, the industrious woman with the well-fed household, for help. Note the looks on the two women’s faces…the scorn, the humility.

Remaining mags

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I have four packages of the 14-for-$100 Butler Creek Hot Lips .22 mags sitting here if anyone wants to take ’em off my hands. Already got rid of all the Steel Lips, I’d like to wrap up the Hot Lips and move on.

Adventures in food storage

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You guys remember a few months back I posted about a guy who was crackin’ open some decades-old Mountain House and having himself a little taste test experience? Well, he’s at it again.

He’s got himself one of those buckets that claims to have X amount of days worth of food in it. Read it at his place…….

I’ve been ‘into’ food storage for twenty five years….and I’ve done tons of research on the subject, bought and tried all sortsa food, and created darn near Montana’s largest privately owned Safeway in my basement…..so I feel fairly qualified to say that this will end badly.

Here’s the thing: these types of kits are usually calorie-deficient, somewhat monotonous, and often not terribly appetizing. It is (in my opinion) a panacea to people who want to be prepared but don’t want to have a lifestyle – theyre for someone who just wants to make a quick online purchase, stuff it in the garage, and feel like they’re ready for the crash.

A guy I know was just telling me that he was thinking about purchasing such a kit ‘just in case’. I’m trying to steer him towards a more practical, albeit more expensive, route using regular off-the-shelf stuff from the supermarket.

You know who has this figured out? The Mormons. (No surprise, right?) These guys literally have graduate-level research labs working on just this sort of thing. And having done the research, they actually package and make available these storage-suitable foods. Go read their list of what you can get from them.  And they sell it cheap enough that even the most niggardly ‘poverty prepper’ can afford it.

I have a lot of freeze dried Mountain House here for my future needs. But it’s not my primary ‘go-to’ food in a crisis. What is? My stash of ‘everyday’ food. The pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, spices, cooking oil, canned and frozen meat, flour, cornmeal, canned and jarred vegetables, oatmeal, hash browns, etc. that I have in large quantity. All things I use everyday and all  things that store well.

But, to be fair, a ‘bucket’ as mentioned at the opening of this post, makes it’s strength on the portability and convenience. In theory, you can run out the door with it and know you’re not gonna starve for a month. Perhaps. I’ve taken it a step further and just put together my own ‘bucket’ for those moments when you need to run out the door…specifically, a couple 15-gallon ‘blue barrels’ loaded with freeze drieds.

Reviewing what I have in storage, post-apocalyptic meal planning would look something like this: pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuits, pork chops, strawberries, orange drink, milk, and oatmeal. And thats just breakfast. Lunch and dinner would be equally as broad, equally as long-term, and equally as tasty.

Just write a list of everything you’ve eaten in the last week and figure out if you could recreate it using foods that store well in the long-term. Then go buy those foods. Then when the wheels fly off civilization you’ll be eating pretty much just as well as you were beforehand. Heck, considering the erratic and horrible diet I live on now, I’ll actually eat better after the apocalypse.

My long winded point, though, is this – before you get lured into these sorts of ‘bucket kits’ do some research on calories, taste, and texture, and then see if you can’t put together something on your own. When the apocalypse hits, I have no intention of eating 3/4 of a cup of cheesey broccoli soup every lunchtime for thirty days. Given the stress and physical strain that the end of the world will put you under, I think you’re going to want more ‘stick to your ribs’ fare.

Conclusion: ‘Food buckets’, like first-aid kits, are better for your needs when you assemble your own.

 

Paratus 2018 is here!

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Happy Paratus, fellow survivalists/preppers/doomsters/bunkerdwellers/anti-government extremists/etc!

Go do something awesomely preparedness-related today. Go buy those mags you’ve been wanting, order up those solar panels, purchase that ICOM radio, get that Burt Gummer tattoo you’ve been wanting….today’s the day you don’t need to justify to anyone why you’re doing what you’re doing. (And that’s actually a trick statement….you should never feel the need to justify all that ammo and freeze drieds to anyone.)

My plans? Head to the range and put some ammo through my Low Impulse Control Mini-14GB to make sure the dumb thing works. After that it’s some time at the reloading bench. Then, a little bookkeeping to see if todays the day I pull the trigger (ahem) on the .338 Lapua that I’ve been lusting for these last couple years.

So…get out there! Get together with your fellow LMI and have a Lenny James marathon of ‘Jericho’ and ‘Walking Dead’, go to the range, order pizza and sit around planning your future off grid bugout locations. And let’s hear about what you did today in the name of preparedness.

But..whatever you do today, make it prep-y!

This post brought to you by The Committee To Advance The Paratus holiday.

ETA: A couple folks dropped some folding money in the tip jar as an act of Paratusian generosity. Much obliged!