Monthly Archives: September 2020

Send it

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Paratus cards (and, in some cases, gifts) went out today. There are a few people whom I do not have current snail mail addresses for and am waiting to hear back from.

Didn’t get a Paratus card but want to be like the cool kids and get one next year? Easypeasy: either bribe me into it with a subscription to Patreaon or an Amazon gift card, or interact with me on a more-than-superficial level. Also, if you’re a blogger and you pimp my blog a bit…that works too.

Anway…cards are on the way and I’ll post a picture pf the cards Friday on Paratus. In the meantime, get your last minute shopping done. And be sure to ask your favorite freezedried/ammo/gear vendor if they have a Paratus sale, and if not, why not? (And when they say “Because i never heard of it” you can send ’em here.)

Kalispell Gunshow

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First gun show, for me, since March and it was such a welcome experience…………

Five bucks to get in the door, masks optional (yay!), and they were temperature scanning everyone who came in the door.

Lotsa tables, big crowd, zero bargains. People see where the money is at and the usual assortment of plinkers and hunting guns was severely outnumbered by the ‘assualt weapons’. Apparently, Black Rifles Matter. Saw a lot of stuff that I don’t normally see at shows including Uzi, Valmet, DSA Fal, HK, PTR, Arsenal, Sig, and pretty much every other outfit that ever made something that took a 30-round mag. Come to think of it, the only thing I didn’t see were Mini-14’s. Although I did find a Mini trigger assembly that mysteriously seemed to have had its disconnect sear ground off. Funny that.

Ammo was plentiful if you had the money. A lot of money. Same for mags.

And, for the first time in several years, I ran into Johnny Trochman..he of Militia Of Montana fame. I think I spoke to him for about ten seconds before he started in with New World Order plans that were being leaked. Whatever. We both wear tinfoil hats, it’s just a matter of whose got the shiny side in and who has the shiny side out. But, he thinks of me as a like-minded soul so he gave me a double handful of parachute flares to tkae with me after I bought some smoke cannisters and other goodies from him.

Things I almost bought? Blued 4″ GP100 for $500, looked hard at the Valmet in .223 but figured logistics would be easier with a 7.62×39, another Ruger PC Charger came close to coming back with me but I managed to keep my resolve. I discovered MagPul is making polymer replacement lowers for the Hk-series ‘Navy’ (plastic) lowers and came close to getting one but, again, managed to keep a cool head.

Also ran into a few people I knew, which is always fun.

All in all, a really good show….a lot of tables, good turnout.

Paratus approaches!

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Next Friday is Paratus…get your shopping done now and avoid the rush!

I’ll be dropping cards/gifts in the mail next Monday. As always, if you want to get your buddy Zero a little something for the holiday you can find the details here.

One other thing I’m exceptionally excited about: Gun shows! There are finally some gun shows going on around here. First ones since March. I’ll be up in Kalispell this weekend getting my fix.

Thought for the day

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Every so often you read about people who let their dogs run loose and those dogs start terrorizing neighborhoods and chasing down deer. These are, for the most part, “good dogs” who, once they start hanging out in groups, tend to let the pack mentality make them do things they otherwise would not. I suspect rioters are the same way. Put twenty college kids, who would normally shrink from violence, into a group and watch them egg each other on to things that they never woulda had the cajones to do on their own.

Thats why any group of people is more dangerous than a single person. Not because of the numbers, but because with others encouraging or ‘backing him up’ someone is more likely to behave in a manner that they would not have before. A rioting mob is an example of the ‘herd’ mentality at its worst.  A person is smart, people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals…and you know it.

I’d be curious to see if the election, regardless of how it turns out, convinces a lot of otherwise peaceful people to be less-than-peaceful because ‘everyone is with me on this’.

I expect plywood sales to explode in early November.

.357 ammo security

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I have a lovely stainless GP-100 that I consider to be my ‘primary’ .357. That is to say, of the half a dozen in the safe it is the one I take with me nine times out of ten when I need a .357. I got it from Caleb  years ago after he stopped using it for competition. Its been slicked up a bit and shoots rather nicely. (Trivia: serial number ends in 1337 so…its my Leet gun)

A few weeks ago I stumbled into a decent deal on 2600 158gr. JHP bullets. Before I load up 2600 rounds of .357 I’d like to find a load that shoots well in my gun. So, off to the range today to try out a few loads. Best results? 8.0 grains of the old favorite, Unique. On a side note, I find Unique to be the most versatile powder for reloading…if you have a can of Unique you can load pretty much any pistol cartridge.

Anyway, the 8.0 of Unique shot controlably , ejected cases cleanly, and shot a lovely group in the 2″ orange sticker at 25 yards. Seems like a winner. So…next step is to set up the DIllon RL1050, run some brass through the tumbler, fill up a buncha primer pickup tubes, and get ready to crank out an apocalypse worth of .357.

I stuff fifty rounds into some cardboard boxes I got from repackbox.com. Theyre smaller than the usual plastic boxes which lets me pack more into an ammo can. I have them for pistol calibers and rifle calibers…pretty handy.

Oh, and why .357? After all, I have a lovely (and, it appears, rare) Ruger .44 Mag. Well, the .44 Mag is for when I’m out wandering the boonies and am worried about the four-legged. A .44 Mag is a bit of overkill for the two-legged and I really prefer the controlability of the .357 vs the .44 for fast DA shooting. And I doubt very highly that there are any two-legged that would fall to a .44 that wouldn’t fall just as DRT to a .357. ( I know, some retired badge will chime in about how when he was a rookie they encountered some drugged up monster that took five 12 ga. slugs to the head and they finally had to put him down with a Carl Gustaf.) But for normal day-to-day situations, I think the .357 is about as good as you can get in a revolver cartridge for when you’re carrying a full-size pistol.

 

Prescience

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2020 is approaching. I am dreading it. Historically, years that were divisible by five have been very bad for me. I expect 2020 to have no shortage of kick-to-the-jimmies episodes.

Man, I have a talent for understatement. Historically, years divisible by five have been really bad ones for me. While 2020 has (so far) been annoying on a bunch of levels I like to think I have (thus far) weathered it better than many folks. ‘Course, the year ain’t over yet….

Paratus approaches!!

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Two weeks from today (Sept. 18, 2020)  is Paratus! The holiday of, for, and by survivalists.

Everything you wanted to know about Paratus is here in the glorious Paratus FAQ.

Got a business that’s running a Paratus sale? Lemme know and I’ll post a link. Let’s drive some traffic and get this holiday off the ground!

As for me, well…..I’m  easy to shop for. Which reminds me, if you’ve signed up to support the blog on Patreon, send me an email with the email address you used to sign up and your mailing address if you would like to receive one of this year’s Paratus cards.