Monthly Archives: September 2023

Standardization

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So this popped up in comments from the last post, and there’s a lot to unpack, so it becomes a post all its own:

At what point is it a good idea to standardize?
Lets say you plan to use 308, 9mm, 12g and .22.
Other than some “trade goods”, why carry other calibers…
Having just to have costs – either financially or in storage space.

“Standardize” means different things to different people. Are you standardizing on a particular caliber? A particular firearm? Both? Theres some big differences there. Lets give a couple examples and the problems they incur.

Let’s say you standardize on caliber. Everyone in your family/group/clan/stick/team/cadre/cell//whatever decides that .223 is the way to go. That way everyone can use the same ammo. You’ve got an AR,, Bob has an AUG, Uncle Billy has a Mini-14, and Crazy Steve has a .223 AK. You guys can all eat from the same pot of .223 ammo. And then…Steve loses some magazines in an impromptu bugout, or Billy only had a few to begin with and needs more, or the feed lips on your mags are getting tired and you think its time to swap out for some new mags. Well, you’re all shooting .223, which you standardized on, but everyone has their own magazine logistics. Billy can’t give Steve any of his mags, and your mags wont work in Steves gun, and you see where I’m going with this?

So, maybe you standardize on a gun (‘platform’). We’re all gonna rock the AR. For the most part, we’re all gonna be able to swap parts and accessories if we need. Your AR is 7.62×39, mine is .223, Steve’s is .300 Black, and Billy has gone way off the res and adheres to the 6.8 SPC. But we can all swap small parts, optics, lights, accessories, and we all share the same manual of arms. But…I’ve got plenty of .223, Billy is having trouble finding ammo, Steve can’t give any ammo to you, and .300 Black isn’t found at the local trading post. Again, see where Im going with this?

For me, I’m thinking long term. As far as guns go, my thought process is “If I can’t buy more tomorrow, will I be able to spend the rest of my life with what I have?” And spending the rest of my life with what I have is a lot easier when its common to what my buddies and the locals carry.

For me, the end of the world looks like an AR in .223 and a 9mm Glock. Two platforms so widely supported that you can literally build them from parts you purchase online and a receiver you make yourself.

Other than some “trade goods”, why carry other calibers…

Because not every problem has a solution that can be optimally met with the survivalist’s classic calibers. Do you have livestock? Do you have bears? When you’re woken up at 2am to the sound of your goats/chickens/cattle getting mangled by a bear you’re probably gonna want something with a bit more horsepower than a .223 or .308…and out comes the Marlin in .45-70…or the Mauser in .35 Whelen…or the Browning in .338.

And you may have a gun/ammo preference for hunting that you’re comfortable with. For example, I have rifles in .308 to hunt with but I have sentimental attachment to a 7mm Mauser I had built up years ago and prefer hunting with that. Logistically it makes no sense, but since I have three dozen AR’s, a thousand magazines, and piles of .223 ammo, I don’t feel that having a little boutique gun/caliber is creating a risk for me.

Having extra guns/ammo in ‘non standardized’ calibers does cost, financially and in terms of space. I agree wholeheartedly. But I have the financial and spatial margin to have a few things just because I like them or think theyre cool. I wouldn’t run out the door to WW3 with my Marlin .357, but I enjoy it enough that I don’t mind making room for it in my gun safe. If youre living on a tight budget then, yes, be as practical as you can…get your AR or AK, your 870 or 500, and the ammo you need. But once youve done all that, if theres a toy or two you want where is the harm? Just know that it isn’t part of your preparations and is just a ‘want’.

As for trading purposes…we’re seeing that now. There are plenty of people who went heavy on primers, for example, who are making crazy money selling them off and using the proceeds to plug whatever holes are left in their checklists. If you have the space and money, by all means, have something for trading purposes so that one day you can get the extra ammo or extra mags you thought you didnt need.

But the standardization thing goes beyond guns, as you know. Batteries are a great example. CR123, coin batts, AAA,AA,C,D batteries are needed for all sortsa useful gizmos. Who wants to keep that many different types of batteries around? And its virtually a promise that whatever battery you need will be the one size that youre out of. For me, its AA and D batts. Thats it. Anything that runs on AAA, C, or CR123 is either available in another battery format or is available as a USB rechargeable.

Same for fuels. You have a diesel truck, propane stove, kerosene heater, gas generator, and white gas lanterns.Thats just asking for troubles.

If you can afford the money/space, then logistics may not be an issue for you. You can have a steel building full of cases of different calibers, different size batteries, different types of fuels, and therefore don’t have to worry about each piece of gear requiring a different item to make it work. More power to you. But I want the smallest, most efficient, logistical footprint possible and for me that means standardizing on things.

“Having just to have” does, in fact, cost. But if you’re able to absorb those costs then there’s not really a problem. When I was but a wee baby survivalist in my early 20’s, I had no margin in my life at all. I had an AR, an 870, a 10/22, and a.45. That was it. Money was very tight and rather than pick up a gun I wanted for fun, I kept that basic survivalists battery. Nowadays, money is less of an issue. And I’ve had over 35 years to acquire the basics. So, if I want, I can (and do) buy a gun that absolutely does not fit anywhere into my preparedness plans….and it’s fun. I’ve got the basics covered so thoroughly that if I want a .22 caliber copy of the MP40 to play with at the range, I can do that and not feel that I’ve neglected my other responsibilities.

Not sure that addresses the initial questions, but thats where it took my mind.

Standardization is important. You need to really think it through. When it’s Day 37 in the post apocalyptic world the last thing you want to have to worry about is where to find a replacement oddball-size battery or hard-to-find magazine.”Most common denominator” is the way to think on these matters.

No doubt the comments to this post are gonna be full of “I went with this caliber…I went with these guns..” and everyone will list off their ideal mix. Thats fine, although unnecessary. More interesting comments would be from people who didnt go the ‘usual’ route and why.

Ok, sure, why not….

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Minding my own business, I walk into the shop and ask my buddy how he’s doing. “Just the guy I wanted to see”, he says as he plops two cardboard boxes on the counter. “I just got these over the counter. Three hundred bucks. If you don’t want it, it goes out on the shelf for more than that.”

Ok, so I look through it….full boxes, factory ammo, of 9mm, .45 ACP, .30-06, .22, and one lonely box of .444 Marlin. Did some math in my head annnnnd….

“Okay.”

Funny thing is, I don’t even have a .30-06. And I own exactly one pistol in .45 AARP and i never shoot it. But…for the price it seemd like a reasonable deal, And I can always sell it off for about twice what I paid.

The .22 ammo will go on my ‘range ammo’ shelf, and I’ll probably squirrel away the 9mm ammo somewhere. I suppose I should get a .30-06 at some point for the same reason everyone should have a .22 rifle – the ammo is pretty much everywhere.

So…thats what $300 gets you in todays market.

Article – Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California dies at age 90

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It appears Feinstein became a good Democrat:

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a centrist Democrat who was elected to the Senate in 1992 in the “Year of the Woman” and broke gender barriers throughout her long career in local and national politics, has died. She was 90.

I’m just gonna leave it at that and go buy some Pmags out of spite.

ETA: I cannot post about a Democrat hitting the non-biological stage of existence without telling one of my favorite Democrat jokes: Did you hear the one about the Illinois Democrat who said that when he died he wanted to be buried in Chicago so he could remain active within the party.

Fake tourniquets

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I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but if a price on a CAT-style tourniquet seems too good to be true, it probably is. And, unlike many other counterfeit products, getting caught with one of these and having it fail when you need it is, literally, a matter of life and death.

I got a reminder about this in my email today from NAR. If you think about it, t his thing is simply injection moulded plastic and some nylon webbing. That means the barrier to entry for making a knockoff is pretty darn low. As a result, these things are all over Amazon and eBay. Yes, there are other wendors with nigh-impeccable creds selling the genuine product….but I’m just not willing to take the chance that their purchasing agent made a mistake that month and got some knockoffs from Glorious Peoples Plastic Factory No. 55 in Changzhou.

This is one of the very few products that I will not buy, no matter how discounted, from anywhere except NAR. I will spend an extra ten bucks or so to ensure that I’m getting something that actually does what its supposed to do when its supposed to. There are times to shop around and save money but when it comes to things like scuba gear, defense lawyers, parachutes, heart surgeons, and critical life saving equipment,  you’d have to be a fool to make cost the deciding discriminatory criteria.

I’ve a bunch of the CAT tourniquets, and every single one of them came straight from NAR. Sometimes NAR will have a sale and I’ll pick up a couple more as gifts or extras, but I never buy them from anywhere else no matter how discounted they are. I would recommend you do the same.

When it’s 3am and youre laid out in the back of a pickup truck speeding to a hospital with a fountain spurting from your leg,probably  the last thing youre going to think before passing out from blood loss as you stare at the broken tourniquet windlass won’t be “wow, I’m sure glad I saved that ten bucks.”

Even without TEOTWAWKI, stuff happens. Get a couple tourniquets, practice with them, carry them, and stay safe(r).

Canned meats

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I usually avoid being in WalMart on weekends (and especially at the end/beginning of the month…the EBT crowd is pretty sketch.) but I wanted to restock a few things. Specifically, I was looking for the smaller cans of Hormel corned beef hash. Found them, but what caught my eye was that also on the shelf were these:Keystone is a brand that you see fairly often in preparedness circles. Their reputation, as far as I can tell, is pretty good and I’d probably take them over any canned meats from other countries. But, I’d never seen them for sale locally. Being in #2.5 cans is a bonus over the smaller cans that I get from CostCo. The CostCo is $0.375 per ounce. This stuff comes out to, for the beef, is $0.32~ per ounce. A material savings if your going to be buying cases of this stuff. On the other hand, the price savings is irrelevant if you wouldn’t eat the stuff on a dare. So, it’ll be food experimentation time later this evening. I’m quite pleased with the CostCo Kirkland beef, so this stuff will have to be pretty good to make me switch from the Kirkland for beef. The ground beef, on the other hand, will be interesting because there is no CostCo version. My experience with packaged ground beef has been that its a bit mushy. I’ll take half a can of this, fry it up to remove moisture, and try it with spaghetti sauce. Other half I’ll do the same with but go to taco town with it.

Whats your experience been with this brand?

Price increase

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About two months ago, back in July, I made a post about Winco having gotten in a bunch of Augason Farms products. Please pay attention to the butter powder: Twenty bucks a can for the butter powder. Hmm..okay, seems reasonable. Cut to today at Winco:

Thats about a 66% increase from what it was two months ago. Maybe the original posting was of a special promotional price. Or maybe that ‘transitory inflation’ has been busy. Or maybe Augason marked the MSRP up a whole bunch. Beats me. But here’s what I do know: if you had bought it back in July, your hundred bucks would have gotten you five cans. Today, you’d get three. Strike while the iron is hot, mi amigos y amigas, because you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

ETA: Yes, I know I can get this stuff cheaper on Amazon. The point of the post was to illustrate that sometimes savage price hikes occur with absolutely zero warning.

Outage musings

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We had a couple very, very brief power outages here over the weekend. They didnt disturb my life too broadly because 1) they were of fairly short duration..only an hour or so, b) I’ve long reconciled myself to the notion of how to live with minimal or zero grid delivery, and III) I have some backup systems in place.

There’s been a bit of a Streisand Effect on infrastructure disruptions. Our electrical, water, gas, and other utility distribution networks have always been, for the most part, unguarded and completely vulnerable to even the mildest attack. But…such attacks, at least as reported, were few and far between. But when they do start getting reported, it gives someone somewhere the bright idea to go cause some mayhem and they wind up shooting up a power transformer, busting up a rail switching system, or punching a hole in a pipeline just because.

And, as we’ve made our infrastructure more connected and more complex…well…As the patron saint of engineering said:

The point being, in this world we live in…where everyone with a grudge, real or imagined, is just a .30-06 or a backhoe away from turning off the power and water…things like electricy, gas, and water are going to be less certain than they are now. Add in the age and inadequacy of many region’s infrastructure and you have a recipe for more frequent disruptions, not less.

As far as electricity goes, years ago I evaluated what I considered absolutely necessary for my security and safety in terms of power. I have kerosene and propane for heating, lighting, cooking, and that sort of thing. My critical must-have electrical needs are to keep my frozen food frozen and to keep me security cameras camming. Thats about it. And those needs are easily met with a little ol’ EU2000.

My smaller electrical needs are things like flashlights, radio batteries, cell phone charging, and that sort of thing. Those are met pretty easily by rechargeable batteries and a small solar panel..although I can recharge off the EU2000 if I really need to.

After the freezer and security cams, anything else is a luxury. But the important thing is that at some point you need to sit down and examine what exactly are your must-have’s that will require electricity. For most of us, its going to be freezers. For some it’ll also be well pumps and maybe pressure tanks. Some folks in particular situations will also need sewage pumps. Or perhaps you’ve got a medical situation that requires electricity for a treatment device. There’s no shortage of things that are ‘must have’s when it comes to electricity. You just need to figure out what yours are and then plan accordingly.

As I said, power outages are just a minor hiccup for me…I know exactly what my needs are (freezer and cams) and what my ‘I can get by with less’ things are (everything else). But you have to at least have an idea of what you do and don’t need before you start shopping around for things like generators and kerosene lamps.

 

Bison goes extinct

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It appears that James Dakin, of Bison blog fame (notoriety?), hit the non-biological state of existence last year. You can never tell with bloggers….their deaths can be quite overstated. But, without proof to the contrary…

Announcement from from someone elses blog

I first mentioned his blog about 16 years ago in this post. My first impressions of him were that he was a bitter, classist, misanthrope. In fact, if you peruse my blog you’ll see me use the term ‘evil yuppie survivalist’ which I took directly from Dakin since he had a passionate disdain for anyone who spent money on ‘toys’ like modern firearms and freeze dried food.

He posted comments here from time o time and we had a agree-to-disagree sort of situation going on. I’m sure he saw me as an out-of-touch yuppie survivalist and I saw him as the Matt Foley of survivalism.

Nonetheless, he was entertaining and it was always interesting to read his diatribes. I’m sure that in person he was probably a nice fellow, but we shared little common ground about preparedness except for our utter certainty that it was necessary.

ETA: A quick check of comments showed that his last posting here was twelve days before his passing.

Sunday outage(s)

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This paid off.

Yesterdays power outage was not an anomaly, it seems. Power was out for about an hour today but over a much broader area of town. I went ahead and ran the generator for that hour, mostly because it was just time to unlimber it and let it get some exercise. However, buying the new UPS’ yesterday for the security cams worked perfectly. Cams, monitor, and DVR stayed up quite a while as I fumbled around getting the generator out of it’s Hardigg case and out into the yard. Very pleased.

Just a few blocks away, a friend of mine is without power and has been for an unusually long time….several hours now. I brought over the desklamp/batterybox combo referenced at the beginning of this post and said to go ahead and not even worry about using up the battery...running it six hours a night it’ll last a freakin’ month.

And, should the power continue to be spotty, I also have this little gem I fabbed up on a whim.

Not sure what’s going on locally in regards to this two days of spotty blackouts…Im guessing its something fairly minor…but it does give me an opportunity to test out gear and theories, and it also points out some holes I need to fill. Most notably, a better base-unit-style police scanner…..with UPS, natch.

Saturday outage

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An interesting day. Was on the computer this morning, going through emails, when without warning I hear the noise of the computer backup power supply kick in and start beeping. A moment or two later it was joined by the UPS for the security system. That’s pretty much the song of a power failure.

Ok, not a big deal. Its the beginning of the day, so lighting isn’t really an issue. What is an issue is determining how big and widespread this thing is. There’s a big difference between a squirrel tap dancing on a transformer plunging my little neighborhood into a blackout and someone EMP’ing my local power generation facility.

Pulled my Icom R6 out of my Bag O’ Tricks and dialed up the local police/fire scene. No chatter indicating a town-wide outage but lets go take a look ourselves. Slipped the Glock into its holster, grabbed an MP5 ‘just in case’ and headed to the truck. A quick drive around the neighborhood showed that, indeed, the power was out. However, when I got to the busy main street I could see far enough down the street in either direction to see active traffic signals. SO..its a localized outage, not the opening act for something more sinister.

Returned back to the house and listened to the scanner some more. Cops reported various traffic signals as inoperative and were directing traffic where necessary. All in all, it was something that didn’t require any real escalation of alert status. So, since we have an actual-but-well-in-hand ’emergency’ going on lets see how ready we are.

Biggest issue: the UPS for my security cameras faded almost instantly. After a couple minutes the cameras all went dark. This was a bit surprising. While there are about a dozen cameras, their draw shouldnt have been enough to wipe out a constantly-charged battery in less than a few minutes. However, this UPS is close to ten years old so perhaps it’s simply time to replace it. Replaced it with two UPS’ later that day.

The Icom R6 performed quite well within its design parameters…and those parameters are for a compact radio scanner. Since I was not constrained by size requirements, due to being at the house, I really should have had a larger, more eay-to-use unit available. I have a few handheld Bearcats of varying vintage laying around but this reinforced that I need to have a more modern full-size unit around. So, there’ll be some research on that and then a quick trip to Amazon.

As has been typical in 90% of the blackouts I’ve experienced here, power was restored within an hour or so. No need to break out the Honda EU2000 to top off the freezer or anything like that. But, of course, it’s there if I need it.

Of all the systems here in the house, the security cams are the ones that have the least amount of reasonable alternatives for a period of power disruption. I have alternatives for heating, cooking, and lighting, but there is only one option for keeping a video security camera system operational and that’s electricity..either stored or generated.

In practice, the UPS for the security system only has to run the system long enough for me to get the generator up and the system plugged into it. Setting up the generator from storage and getting it running is, at most, a fifteen minute job. Closer to ten in the warmer months. Any UPS only really has to last long enough for that period of time. But, no one ever really complained that their batteries had too much capacity. I suppose it might be worth investigating just building a larger capacity backup system with a few AGM batts, a charger, and inverter dedicated to just the security cams.

That was, thus far, the most interesting thing to happen here today. A learning experience for sure. If it had gone on more than a few hours it would have been a bit more interesting but those kinds of failures a few and far between here in town. But, of course, that doesnt mean they won’t happen or that I shouldnt be prepared for them.