Monthly Archives: September 2022

Generator Day

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Today was Generator Day. Interestingly, it is also apparently Generator Day in a large part of the southeast US.

The purpose of Generator Day is to, periodically, run the generator under load for an hour or so in order to make sure everything functions and doesn’t get stagnant or stale. Usually I fire up the EU2000, plug in an electric leaf blower, and do some yardwork.

It’s been a while since I started this thing up. (Bad survivalist!) I had actually forgotten the startup procedure. Fortunately, part of my generator prep plan includes copying the startup/shutdown instructions from the .pdf, printing them out, putting them in a sealed page protector, and attaching them to the generator. As a result, I quickly had my memory refreshed. Started on pull #9.

This is, I believe, year nine for this particular EU2000. According to the run meter I put on this thing when I bought it, I’ve run it for about a total of 30 hours. Thats some pretty low miles.

The EU2000, when I purchased it, was the big thing in portable generators. Since then, upgraded versions have come out and when I get another spare or two, I’ll get the upgraded version. But, so far, for nine years this thing has been sitting quietly in it’s Hardigg case awaiting the infrequent power outage. Been quite pleased with it so far.

Of course, no man is an island and not piece of expensive gear is without support materials. The Hardigg case that houses the generator also contains a cable lock, spare air filters, printed directions, heavy duty extension cords, spare fuel cans, PRI-G, etc, etc.

In the nine years I’ve had this thing I’ve only needed to genuinely use it twice. Both times for only a few hours. And both times I felt pretty darn smug as I sat there with cable and internet as my neighbors suddenly became involuntary Luddites.

So, if you haven’t gotten one yet….thumbs up on the Honda EU series.

Cascade of fail

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“Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.” – B. Franklin

Buddy of mine gets a call from his 30-year old son. Son shot an elk 6.5 miles off the road in the backcountry and needs help hauling it out.

Turns out, the young man and his buddy were out bowhunting and shot this elk 6.5 miles off the road…at the end of the day. No way they were going to get it out in the dark, so they gutted it and prepared to spend the night outdoors. They built a fire and had their cheesy little space blankets so all was…ok. Next day, both their phones are at 2% from constantly looking for a signal. Neither guy thought to bring a small charger with them. And, most critically, after starting to haul the elk out, they had no water to drink. The place was lousy with creeks but they wouldnt drink from the creeks unfiltered.

Dad shows up, finally, after playing Marco Polo with handgun fire to locate each other. When he finds them, theyre both exhausted, theyve stopped sweating, and son is shaking from dehydration.

It was at this point I interjected that I had given dad one of these as a Paratus gift, and he needs to hustel junior and his buddy up to CostCo and buy a few for their hunting packs. If theyd had one of these things they could have drunk their fill from any of the creeks they were crossing. I always carry one of these in my bag anytime I’m out in the field.

Same thing for whistles. I always have at least two loud-as-funk whistles…one in my bag and one on my person. Thats the easiest and most efficient way to do that Marco Polo where-the-heck-are-you dance short of having a radio.

And speaking of electronics, I also carry a small battery pack to recharge my phone off of. Sometimes theres no signal when youre out in the sticks, but more often than not you can get a signal these days.

I would have thought his kid knew better, but I guess not. Moral of the story: even if youre not planning on spending the night afield, have some gear with you just in case.

 

Best millimeter

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Crossed another one off my wish list. I’ve been wanting one of these as a trail gun for quite a while and the stars just lined up today to present me with the opportunity to acquire this lovely paperless hand cannon:

This is not my daily driver. I’ll leave that to the likes of Ted Nugent. I’m quite happy toting a 9mm around for my day-to-day. But, for tromping in the woods, this little number is exactly what I’ve been wanting. I need to swap out the factory sights for something nicer, and I’m on the fence about the red dot, but once that’s done all thats left is a good field holster and I’m set.

Koch blocked

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I’m not necessarily an HK fanboy. I don’t believe that the sun shines out of their Teutonic fundaments and that every product out of the Fatherland is a shining monument to Germanic engineering. But, I do recognize that they make some stuff that is pretty darn good. For me, most notably, it’s their rifles.

Back in the old days if you wanted an HK-pattern rifle you got it from…HK. Around 1989 an import ban was put into place and the lovely HK 91, 93, and 94 guns were verboten. A few half-hearted rulebeater models were brought in but the pipeline pretty much slammed shut in ’89. There were a few clones on the market for the 91…Hesse Arms springs to mind, as well as one or two others. And, of course, the drunken monkeys at Century Arms tried their hand at it as well. They all uniformly sucked. If you wanted roller-delayed goodness you had to shell out the shekels for the real deal…when you could find one. And those prices did nothing but go up, up, up.

Nowadays it’s a slightly better story. There’s a decent G3/HK91 clone out there from PTR, a 93 clone that didn’t suck was brought out briefly by Century a couple years back, and PTR is now making MP5/HK94 variants. It’s not a bad time to be a fan of roller-delayed systems as long as you’re willing to live with the off-brands.

Years ago, I made the decison that, as for me and my house we shall wield the G3. While I like the FAL, and think the AR10 platform is probably the best choice these days for a .308, I’ve invested enough in guns and logistics to stick with the G3 pattern. No regrets there. Although were I to do it all over again, it would be AR10 for the ergonomics.

For years, I’ve been wanting a little 9mm carbine that could be highly portable but still throw a goodly amount of lead downrange. My first effort was to serendipitously acquire an Uzi carbine. A fine gun, no two ways about it. The only drawback was that it was heavy and not readily acceptable of things like optics or lights. Reliable as a rock, though. Straight blowback, so a bit clunky and heavy.

Next on the evolutionary highway was the CZ Evo. Same blowback system, half the weight, and accepts railed accessories. Also has a thriving aftermarket. If you want the ‘semi-auto subgun’ (oxymoron) experience but don’t want to shell out $1600+ for an MP5 clone, the Evo is a great gun.

Feeling experimental, I dipped a foot in the Ruger pool and picked up a couple of their takedown 9mm’s. The carbine is a handy little thing and I like it alot. Their takedown pistol, with an arm brace, is a very handy little thing that makes up into a tiny package. Again…straight blowback, so heavy spring ad heavy bolt.

Recently I sucked it up, opened my wallet, and bought an MP5 clone from PTR. I picked up a 9CT which is a pistol version of the regular MP5. With an arm brace attached it is a wonderfully comfortable, compact, and decidedly handy little carbine. I mean it just fits the hands perfectly and handles like a dream. And since it uses roller delayed instead of blowback, it can be lighter and less ‘ka-chunk’-y when you shoot it.

Drawbacks? Price. Here’s the part that I don’t understand – HK stuff is never, ever cheap (except for that brief window where G3 mags were $1). But even the cloned stuff is expensive. Case in point: I need MP5 magazines. Genuine steel HK mags are just north of about $80 each. Even polymer third-party mags come in at around $20-$25 each. Compare with Magpul mags for my Ruger and CZ that are only $14 ea. I’ve picked up some ETS mags, which get mixed reviews, and I just bought a bunch of Unity brand (Yugo) mags that also are basically advised to be kept as practice-rather-then-operational mags. For metal mags, I am told that MKE and Korean-made are the only real alternatives and even those arearound $50+ per mag.

And thats the one big drawback to the brute ruggedness and reliability of the HK system of firearms – the ridiculously expensive environment it creates. Scope mounts, slings, mags, spare parts, etc, etc….all wildly more expensive than almost any other platform. And thats not just the OEM stuff….even the third-party stuff is expensive.

So…if any of you fine humans have a source for decent MP5 metal mags at a price that won’t break the bank….help a brother out and let me know, hm? Or, if you used to have an HK/clone MP5 and you got rid of it but found a box of mags in your gun room, let me know and let’s see what we can work out.

 

When the cure is as bad as the disease

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There’s a scene in some movie, I forget which one, where the one character is about to do something nefarious to another and they say:

“Don’t move. If I do this wrong it will hurt a little.”
“And if you do it right?”
“It’ll hurt alot.” <evil grin>

That about sums up government’s latest efforts to curb inflation by inflicting ‘pain’ on the average American. In short, the plan is to purposefully throw us into a recession to slow inflation. Trying to purposefully put the US into a recession at this point is like shooting out streetlights to make the sun go down.

First off, given this administrations clueless efforts at economic manipulation, I could totally see them oversteer and give us a depression rather than a recession. But, more importantly, how far down the path have we gone where a recession becomes the more attractive solution an economic problem?

If you never saw ‘World War Z’, a rather bad zombie movie, there’s a scene where the hero realizes that the zombies only attack healthy people. The zombies ignore the diseased and sick. So the hero injects himself with something fatal but curable. He injects himself, walks through the crowd of zombies unmolested, and when he gets to safety he is injected with the cure to what he injected himself with earlier. This economic strategy of purposeful recession to stem inflation is the economic analog to this.

Also, this doesn’t take into account that we’re already in a recession and, surprise, inflation is still a problem. (And, mind you, in the 70’s inflation was calculated in a different way than it is now. If we used the same method we used in the 70’s inflationary period we would see that our current inflation rate is rather significantly higher than what is being reported now.)

As the saying goes, there is no problem so difficult that government cannot make it worse. George Washington died not from illness, but rather from the treatments given to him at the time. It is ironic that Washington (the person) died from treatments meant to heal him from illness, and now we’re looking at Washington (the .gov) inflicting treatments for an economic illness that will be  more punishing than the illness itself.

So, even if we weren’t in a recession (but we are, despite the hastily redefined term ‘recession’) we can expect one as .gov tries to stem inflation by any means except the most logical one – stop the free money express.

Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods. At least, thats one of the definitions. By that definition the solution is to either reduce the amount of money being spent or increase the amount of goods. Since we’re still dealing with ‘supply chain issues’ from when .gov mandated businesses close up or run at half-strength, increasing the supply of goods might be tricky. Easier to reduce the amount of available money. How’s that done? Well…youre going to find out. Gov could stop with the handouts (student loans, extended unemployment, etc.) but what are the odds of that. A recession, though….unemployment goes up, people hold onto their money, they stop spending, prices come down, inflation is tamed, and all it cost you was the jobs, homes, and financial security of millions of citizens.

he trick is going to be being one of those citizens who isn’t negatively affected. How do you do that? Shoot, man…you already know he answer to that. Get out of debt. Yes, in periods of high inflation you are at an advantage by paying off debt with devalued money…but you still have to have the money. And if your job suddenly goes tango uniform, the last thing you need is to be sending your remaining dollars to the bank rather than to the grocery.

Get out of debt as fast as you can, buy in large quantities things you anticipate using up over time, try to have more than one revenue source, and spend deliberately and carefully.

Midterm elections are coming, and as unpalatable as this stuff is, it is going to be even worse when the elections are over and they can roll out the stuff that will really get the masses reeling.

Skip the jet ski and new car this year..and next year. Work on your economic resilience instead. There’s gonna be plenty of jet skis and like-new cars at bargain prices being sold by short-sighted sheeple before this is all done.

 

Late to the party – the end of ZS

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Anyone remember Zombie Squad?

Briefly, Zombie Squad (ZS) was a forum that used the metaphor of zombies to promote preparedness and survivalism. A very good strategy, in my opinion.

Anyway, I’m apparently the last to know but it seems they shut their operations down last year, including nuking their forums. Too bad, their tongue-in-cheek approach to things was actually rather clever, I thought.

They did a good bit of community services such as advocating for people to be more prepared and ready for whatever comes. And, once in a while, they put out some enjoyable videos:

 

Having been founded in 2003 (same year as this blog, interestingly) it may have run the course of the ‘zombie craze’ (Remember Hornady’s anti-zombie ammo?). But, the goal was pretty noble.

And although I think that couching preparedness in a fun and entertaining way like ZS did was clever, I have to wonder – if the only way you can relate to being prepared is to use the fantasy of zombies, then are you really serious about being prepared? But, I suppose it might have been a good way to move people who had been ‘prep curious’ into a more pro-active mindset.

Regardless, it was entertaining while it lasted.

Hamilton Gun Show

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Hamilton gun show was this weekend. I saw virtually nothing that looked even remotely like something I’d want to take home. Used gun prices were in the stupid-plus range. $550 for a Gen 2 used Glock? Srsly? I used to buy them by the bucket for about half that.

But, on the way back, I stopped at a gun store and found a cardboard box full of contract Beretta 92 mags. Well, I’ve managed to wind up with a pair of 92’s so…why not? Wound up buying 23 mags for $160..so thats..uhm…carry the one….$6.95 each. Hey, at that price theyre a lottery ticket against a future ban. But, since I have a couple 92’s, I’ll put half a dozen with each gun for the Deep Sleep.

Other than that, the gun show was pretty much a wasted trip…except, of course, for seeing a few people whom I only see when I go to gun shows.

Practice on the cheap

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Picked up a new Glock the other day. A Glock 44 which is a .22 caliber version of the Glock 19. Why? Because with 9mm at around forty cents a round, I can practice my pistol shooting technique for 1/10th that.

Look, good pistol shooting includes having the bullet hit the target, no two ways about that. But before that happens you need to grip, draw, present, acquire a sight picture, squeeze the trigger while maintaining that sight picture, and do followups. Doing that at forty cents per round adds up in a hurry. You don’t need full power 9mm for acquiring a sight picture….22 works just fine and it lets you know when it does (or does not) hit the steel plate if you got your sight picture correct. Same for your draw and presentation. And since the G44 fits the same holsters, mag pouches, etc, as the G19 it makes sense to use it for training.

What do I do with it? I practice drawing from concealment, getting a good sight picture, and placing the shot on the steel. Repeatedly. Over and over and over. And then do it from weak hand. And then from different positions. And practice mag changes. And..and…and.

These are all things that go towards improving and maintaining skill. If you can do it on the cheap, then absolutely go that way. I have .22 conversion kits for my G3 clones, my AR’s, and now for my Glock.

So how does the Glock stack up against some of the conversion kits on the market? The only one I have any real experience with is the Tactical Solutions kit from about ten years back. As I recall it was tempermental. This Glock 44 fired about 350 rounds, half of which were ancient Winchester Western, and had exactly 2 failures to fire. I attribute that to the sometimes sketchy nature of rimfire primer compound application. No failures to extract or feed, which kinda surprised me. Accuracy at usual pistol distances was surprisingly good. Sights were Glock adjustable white-dot and they worked fine although for true replication of your carry gun you might wanna drop some ‘real’ sights on it.

Mags are ten round, and two come with the gun. You’re definitely gonna want more. This thing was a blast to shoot. It is easily my favorite Glock and I’ve got a buncha drastic plastic in the safe…but this one is just downright fun.

Worth paying price of a 9mm Glock? To me, yes. Let’s say it saves me $.30 per round in practice ammo. That means it’s paid for itself after around 1200 rounds, or $50 worth, of .22 ammo. But more importantly, I can go spend and hour at the range doing nothing but draw-shoot-draw-shoot for an hour and be out less than $30.

I’m a Glock guy when it comes to the pistol I’ll run out the door with when the apocalypse gets here. That means I need to practice shooting it in all sorts of conditions…strong hand, weak hand, oblique angles, from retention, etc. Odds are pretty strong that any real-world episode will not be like standing patiently on a shooting line squarely facing a non-moving target. No, it’ll be fast, close, and using whatever position gets the sights on the target as quick as possible… and for that, you have to practice. Thus…the Glock 44.

Dealer prices was $319, and with shipping it as about $345~. Totally worth it.