Monthly Archives: December 2023

Closing of the year

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Well, its another year in the books. 2023 was a mostly quiet year. Didn’t have any tremendous disasters, I’m still alive, house is still standing, truck is still running, still have a job, and I didn’t have to use my AK. (But the Glock……..)

I crossed a few things off my wish list this year…the Barrett, more armour, BBQ gun, ICOM 7300, more precious metals, etc. but I’m still not where I want to be on the land purchase. The markets have not been as cooperative as I would like, but I’m hoping that will change when (fingers crossed) Biden leaves office.

As in previous years, the focus is less about acquiring more things but rather holding on to what I have. Remember: its not about what you make, its about what you keep.

I congratulate all of you on, mostly, surviving 2023. Between record inflation, higher interest rates, higher gas prices, global instability, and higher crime rates, making it through this year unscathed was never really a fait accompli. But…here we are.

How did I do at predicting 2023?:

Forecast for 2023? Inflation continues and blame for it goes everywhere except where it should. Wuhan Flu continues to be an issue until finally we develop natural immunities and it becomes a seasonal nuisance like the regular flu. China continues to a) duck the blame for the Wuhan Flu, b) continues its incremental imperialism, and c) keeps feinting at Taiwan. The Russians continue their low-key war against the rest of the world in the form of cyberattacks and state-sponsorship. On the domestic front, I think we’ll see the whole BLM/Antifa/Woke nonsense hit a nadir as people start getting tired of paying high taxes just to have ‘marginalized groups’ threaten to kill them and burn down their neighborhoods. Gun and ammo availability? Guns up, ammo down. “Supply chain issues” becomes the catch-all phrase and excuse for people and businesses not living up to expectations. Cubs do not win the Series.

No idea what next year holds, but I’m sure that like every year there will be no shortage of high points but also no shortage of nadirs. I prepare for it, I hope it doesn’t happen, but when (not if) it does I’ll hope to be the guy who gets up after getting knocked down…although my Plan A is to avoid getting knocked down in the first place.

Good luck in 2024, guys. You’ve done something right to make it this far into the 2020’s…keep up the good work.

Take us out, Mr Domingo…

 

 

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”

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It’s the dang near last day of the year. I thought I was done buying guns for 2023. Done, I tell you!

And then I get the text message from a gunstore  buddy: “You might wanna come by”

Well, poop….this is not gonna be cheap. Let’s open the chute and ride this thing:

Beretta Cougar in .40. Nothing special there. And a Colt Series 80 Combat Commander that someone put some work into. Check out that squared triggerguard. Red Ramp front and an ancient MMC rear sight. Extendo beavertail and aftermarket trigger. Other internals seemed factory. Needs a cleaning badly, has some minor freckling.

“But..but…Zero, you said three guns. Where’s the third?”

Ah, the third one. The third one, me boyo, is the whole reason I bought this package. The third one scratches a 30-year-old itch. Notice that the two guns above are sitting on a wooden presentation box. Whats in the box? Why…the stuff that dreams are made of:

That, mi amigos y amigas, is a Smith and Wesson Model 27 with a factory five-inch barrel.

:::mic drop:::

Back in the mid-90’s I had a lovely 5″ Model 27 and in a college kid cash crunch I pawned it for $150 and never got it back. There are two guns I have bitterly regretted selling in my life…My HK93A3 (bought for $600 in 1986!) and that Model 27. And now, I have another.

But, my tastes have changed a bit since then. While I love S&W revolvers, I keep a practical eye on things like durability and reliability…which means a 5″ GP-100 would be a better choice than this 5″ M27. But nostalgia. And it does no harm to have a few safe queens.

That M27 was the reason I bought the other two guns. The Cougar is nigh-impossible to sell. Since Stoeger made their version no one wants the oddball Beretta. The Colt will probably go out the door too….I’m not a 1911 guy. But that Smith….hmmmmm.

Divisible

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Swung by to say hi to my buddy at Grizzly Gold and he had these for me:I’m always a sucker for these discontinued ‘divisible’ silver rounds. Although, really, a hammer and chisel makes any round divisible.

The Metals Pimp is enjoying a semi-retirement so I don’t bother him for much in the way of metals these days. As always, I recommend him as your first choice, but be warned…he’s not answering the phone for anything but larger orders. However, Ive no doubt he will continue in his reduced role with the same integrity and efficiency that he has demonstrated since Day One in that business.

If you’re in Missoula, go talk to Bob over at Grizzly Gold and tell him Commander Zero sent you.

Four-day weekend

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At work, we get the usual paid holidays, and we accrue about five hours of paid time off (PTO) every month. I famously don’t take any PTO until I have let it max out at 120 hours. I do this because the company, when I leave, have to pay out that 120 hours. So I try to keep it maxed as a ‘parachute’ in case I get fired or something. But, we also get a free ‘personal day’….eight hours of time to use whenever you want. Use it or lose it. So, tomorrow being the last workday of the year, I am taking off.

Tomorrow is the start of a four-day weekend of trying to get caught up on prep stuff. Filling gas cans, rotating gas, run the generator, reconcile the preponomicon, make lists of things to buy in 2024, do some research, etc, etc.

What I am desperately hoping doesn’t happen is….I just sleep through all four days.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

News- GLOCK Founder Gaston Glock Has Died: 1929-2023

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GLOCK announced today that their founder, Gaston Glock, died Wednesday, December 27th 2023 at the age of 94.

Man left behind a tremendous legacy…..that old rich men can still get hot young wives.

Glock Perfection

I also hear he designed some cool guns.

But seriously…no idea who the next ‘disruptive designer’ will be in the field of firearms, but if you’re carrying a plastic handgun you can thank Glock for making it mainstream (even though HK did it first.)

Article – How Accurate Were the Survivalist Elements in The Last of Us? A Real Prepper Explains

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Episode 3 of TLOU was pretty much the reason I subscribed to the series. I’d heard they had a survivalist character from the game that was going to be shown and I wanted to see how it went. And, lets get the elephant in the room outta the way, the survivalist dude was gay. Ho-hum.

As the episode opens, we see an awesome hidden basement strong room, a man having an entire town to himself, all-you-can-take shopping trips, perimeter defense construction, active defense, and, ultimately, self-deletion.

It’s a beautiful story, but how does Bill’s prepper character stack up against the real thing? Is it believable that one man could defend a whole town from zombies and marauders and also live self-sufficiently for so long? To find out, Inverse spoke to Levi W., a prepper who requested anonymity for privacy reasons. To Levi, Bill reacts exactly how a prepper would in a SHTF (prepper lingo for “Shit Hits The Fan”) situation, showing just how important emergency preparedness is even if you’re not hunkering down for the zombie apocalypse.

Personally, other than ‘bugging in’ right in the middle of town, I thought it was pretty good. I really admired the secret entrance to the basement and the radio codes. Not sure I’d have been running around with a 7-shot 1911 and a shotgun, but you do you, man. (I mean, c’mon, theres an FAL right there on the wall!)

Was there anything to take away from the episode? Not really, in my opinion, except that apparently when all the other humans are forcibly relocated out of your AO, you can have a pretty nice quiet life. And, sooner or later, someone will want what you have and you’d best be ready to stand or run.

It’s unfortunate Bill won’t be a recurring character, but it was nice to see survivalists portrayed in a somewhat more sympathetic light.

It tolls for thee

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One of the blogs I read daily is The Field Lab. Basically, a guy in Texas moved to the middle of the desert and lives his life the way he likes…flying drones, building stuff, and doing life on his terms. (Basically, a  more theistic version of Joel over at TUAK.)

Right up until a tumor shows up in his pancreas. As you know, a pancreatic cancer diagnosis is pretty much a one way trip to the forever box. This guy, in less than a month, has gone from “Waitasec Doc, youre telling me….” to checking in to hospice. It happens that fast apparently.

While I am all for doing whatever it takes to preserve my comfort and life in a world that shows ironclad disregard for both, I am very cognizant that, eventually, the music stops. Its easy to forget that, but sometimes stories like this remind us to memento mori.

:::shrug::: Can’t fight it…sooner or later, you gonna dance wit da reaper.

I had planned on mentioning this last week, but I got sidetracked: don’t get so focused on the future (and preparing against it) that you don’t enjoy the moments in the present. Walking through the snow at night, watching stars twinkle, enjoying every sandwich, etc. The day will come when you won’t have the chance to do those things again, so appreciate them when you can.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled apocalypse…….

Article – Michigan sheriff Dar Leaf offers ‘militia course’

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Michigan Sheriff Dar Leaf is offering a “militia course” to residents, according to a Friday Facebook post.

The constitutionalist sheriff posted a graphic for enrollment to “learn a militiaman’s duty” for “potential jurors, homeschoolers, ladies & gentlemen.”

This goes one of two ways: either a) he’s a True Believer and this is something he’s doing in good faith, or, b) this is how you get a list of names and addresses for future roundups and surveillance.

I knew lots of ‘militia types’ back in the 90’s. Heck, I’ve chatted with Johnny Trochman dozens of times at gun shows, met Randy Weaver and Bo Gritz, and been to a few ‘concerned citizens meetings’. By and large it’s all been beer-bellied armchair warriors who would probably not pick up a rifle in ‘defense of liberty’ until the battle was 99% over and there was no risk to their retirements, jobs, mortgages, and dualies. On the other hand, I’ve also met some True Believers and often they were even more sketch because you got the feeling that they weren’t going to support a revolution, rather they were gonna start one. Again, stay away.

If you and four buddies want to take your preparedness to the next level and form a ‘mutual ad group’ or some sort of semi-organized club where you all look out for each other in anticipation of tough times, that is awesome. More people need to do that. And if it incorporates going to gun schools, medical training, finance classes, welding school, extension classes, backpacking weekends, and a touch of small group tactics….good on ya. But for the love of Crom, don’t give your group a name and fancy velcro patch to slap on your cammies. All the badges are gonna be extremely wary of those ‘Paul Revere Militia’ guys that they see tromping through the national forest every weekend in their cammies, and they’re gonna be a lot less curious about the four or five guys with binoculars and bird books they see tromping through that same forest every weekend.

Five Gulf War/GWOT vets getting together on weekends to hike the woods and look for morel mushrooms is a lot less attention catching than those same five guys hiking the woods in multicam and toting rifles. Use your head.

Would I go to a meeting like the one described in the opening paragraph? Probably not. But I wold darn sure find someone who did go and ask them to tell me all about it and share any materials that were offered just so I could evaluate it for myself.

 

YouTube videos re: canned meats and canned food

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Following a link from ,Rawles’ SurvivalBlog led me to this channel.

There is no shortage of preparedness-minded folks sharing their opinions and experiences on things like guns. Thats easy, low-hanging fruit that is always good for views. But preparedness is about a lot more than boomtoys. And, if you think about it, while you don’t need to shoot something three times a day, we all usually eat three times a day. So….food is kind of a somewhat bigger deal than guns when it comes to preparedness. Its just not as sexy.

So, I’m perusing this fella’s YouTube channel and while I may not be interested in everything he has to say, or even agree with it, I gotta give him credit for doing the work.

Food taste is very subjective. What you think tastes great might not taste great to me, and vice-versa. But it’s still good to at least see the options that are out there and let someone else take the financial hit of opening a dozen different cans of food, dumping them on a plate, and taking video.