Monthly Archives: September 2024

Livable, cozy even….

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I’d mentioned a while back that someone I know was living in a not-quite-tiny-house. The interior dimensions, I believe, were something like 17’x15′, including a closet and bathroom. There was a sleeping loft upstairs and despite the small size, I thought it was rather adequate and comfortable for one person. A small enough footprint that you could tuck it away somewhere ‘just in case’ but if you had to spend a winter in it you’d be comfy and not get claustrophobic. They were nice enough to send me some pictures, so I thought I’d share. Keep in mind, this doesnt really meet the definition of a ‘tiny house’ but it is very compact and, in my opinion, efficient.

The kitchen sink doubles as a bathroom sink, which works surprisingly well. There is no stove, which I thought was odd, but a couple electric conduction hotplates (as well as a microwave or instant pot) bring up the kitchen features.

For someone like me, who doesnt really care about aesthetics or decor, its enough space for me to line the walls with wire shelving full of supplies and gear and still have space to live and sleep. For two people…well…they better be pretty close.

This particular place has no basement. If I could, I’d build something like this as a hidden getaway but build it on a basement for storage purposes. But, still, I rather like this little place. It’s in someones backyard in town so it has sewer and electric, but I would think a small place like this would function in an off-grid environ as well.

This is the only house like this I’ve gotten to actually examine close up. For one person who doesnt want anything glamourous it seems pretty nice. Its inspiration for future projects, methinks.

How would you………

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Hypothetical situation: you have a piece of property that is uneven ground and you have a 40′ conex (empty) sitting on it. Your goal is to move it to a different location a couple hundred yards away through the brush, not necessarily a straight line journey. Assume that trees, stumps and the like are not an obstacle but depressions, slopes, uneven terrain, etc. are. You can only use hand -tools including Hi-lifts, pulleys, ropes, jackstands, etc…anything except a Bobcat, forklift, frontloader, or other vehicle.

How would you do it?

I know there are trucks you can mount under either end of a conex to put them on wheels but that is mitigated somewhat by the uneven overgrown terrain. Assume no more than three or four people to work this task.

Suggestions?

ETA: a portable 12v winch is an option in this scenario. Something that can be carried in, along with a couple 12v batts.

The Ruger P-series fetish continues

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Been a good boy and not bought any guns in a couple weeks. But….gun accessories, on the other hand…

I was doing well until an email landed in my box asking if I was interested in some factory mags for the Ruger 9mm P-series….you know…P95DC mags.

Me: How many do you have?

Them: *sigh*

Interesting thing is, this works out to about three mags per gun.

Portable and potable

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Have you ever watched a movie where the hero is off in some sort of arid environment and there’s that classic scene where he tilts the canteen to his lips, a single drop drips out, he looks disgustedly at the canteen, and then throws it away?Why would you do that? Just because you don’t have any water at that moment doesn’t mean you’re not going to come across some later. And if you do come across some, and drink your fill, how are you going to carry some of that water with you since you threw your canteen away?

I mention this because I posted earlier about those water pouches and the conversation developed into a discussion about various water portage options. I always keep one heavy-duty-plastic bottle of water in my Bag O’ Tricks(tm) because you never know when you’re gonna get stuck somewhere. (I also keep a couple small ‘lifeboat’ ration bars in there too. If I’m gonna be stuck somewhere I’m not gonna spend the time listening to my stomach growl.) But in addition to the plastic water botle, I also keep one of these guys rolled up and tucked away. Although I like the Platypus, I go with the Nalgene because the mouth of this bladder takes all Nalgene lid accessories, including this one which I highly recommend. Importantly, the Nalgene version has the wide mouth so you can fill this thing in a hurry and even throw in snow/ice if you have to. And..I can fill it from a questionable water source and be abble to fit a LifeStraw through the mouth of it.

I carry it in my bag because I simply cannot carry as much water with me as I would like….its heavy stuff. But I can keep a water container with me in my bag so that if I do run across a water source…a natural body of water, a hose bib, an unattended faucet, or that sort of thing, I can supplement what I have.

You might ask, since I’m already carrying a plastic bottle of water, why not refill that? If it wer eempty, I absolutely would…every chance I get. But in a crisis I want more water than just the one bottle’s worth…more is better in this case.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but if you’re going to carry around a  (insert acronym here) bag, you may as well take the two ounce weight penalty and have the option to carry around extra water when you come across the opportunity.

Ruger 10mm Carbine

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Figured it was just a matter of time.

The 10mm Auto Ruger LC Carbine

Good caliber, good idea, bad platform.

Well, at least they tried. I expect this and the .45 version to be discontinued within the next five years. By then Ruger will have developed the PC Carbine II which will be  a larger frame. Ruger will drop the original 9/40 PC Carbines and make all the new ones on the one-size-fits-all frame that supports 9/40 and 10/45.

Someday.

Ruger GP-100 .22

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I took my new Ruger GP-100 .22 pistol to the range the other day to sight it in and familiarize myself with it. I’m not going to get into why I think a .22 revolver has high value as a resident of a good survivalists armory…you may agree, you may disagree, but that has no bearing on how my shooting experience went, so why bring it up?

I have a very nice S&W K-22 pistol that I’ve had for a number of years. No two ways about it, its a fine gun. But while its a great gun for taking out to the range and on gopher shooting adventures, it’s not as well suited for survivalist needs as other options. What, specifically? Well, a few things: six shot capacity, blued finish, K-frame size, non-replaceable front sight, and a few other details.

I picked up a Ruger GP-100 in .22 and am so far pleased with it. It is stainless steel, carries ten rounds, has interchangeable front sights, is on the same L-frame-size as my .357s (thereby giving some holster cross-compatability), and is wildly overbuilt for a .22.

The biggest advantage this thing has over the K-22 is that it holds 66% more ammo. Cases ejected cleanly with no hangups, the ejector rod throw was plenty long to clear the chambers, and the chambers are close enough to each other that loading three rounds at a time is do-able with practice.

Accuracy, I thought, was quite good. I was shooting Federal bulk hollowpoints…you know, the brick you get at WalMart, and it shot rather well after I moved the sights up a few inches. The limiting factor when it comes to accuracy, in my experience, with a .22 is more about the ammo than the gun. Federal bulk is kind of the Norinco 7.62×39 of the .22 world – it’s cheap, its abundant, it usually goes bang every time you pull the trigger, but some corners had to get cut somewhere to make that price point. Now, I could have thrown some Eley in there and seen how that shoots but this is my survivalist’s .22 revolver. It will spend its entire career eating bulk Federal ammo unless some bizarre situation forces me to some sort of ‘dogs lunch’ of mixed .22s.

Trigger was a tad heavy but..its a new gun. Shooting it frequently will eventually smooth things out. I don’t really care for fiber optic sights…I’d prefer a Patridge or Baughman ramp, but since the front sight is replaceable, I’ll probably hunt down an alternative.

Being on the L-frame-size (interestingly Smith L-frames, Ruger GP-100, and Colt Pythons are approximately the same frame size and often holsters wll interchange) and having a tiny .22 bore, theres a lot of metal in the gun. The weight is nice for steady shooting but it might wear on you if you’re carrying it on your belt all day as you climb hills. For situations where weight isn’t as big a factor, perhaps in a light plane’s survival kit, this thing would be hard to beat.

Pricewise its about as expensive as a .357 GP-100…and I suppose that makes sense. Other than the smaller holes in the barrel and cylinder, its the same as a .357 GP-100 in terms of materials.

Alternatives? Smith makes the 10-shot 617, and I’m sure its a fine gun, but its actually more expensive than the Ruger. Taurus makes 8- and 9-shot DA revolvers that cost less but…Taurus. Colt, desperately trying to remain relevant (and solvent) has a 10-shot .22 version of their King Cobra and its right up there with the Smith in terms of price…but you get the bonus of knowing you have a collectible because Colt will probably discontinue it after their next couple of successive bankruptcies.

So, overall, my impression of the Ruger GP-100 .22 is that its a good candidate for an end-of-the-world .22. It’s overbuilt, even by Ruger standards, and should last for generations. I’d say the only real apples-to-apples competition it has would be the S&W 617 10-shot. As much as I like Smith revolvers, I’d probably have more confidence in the Ruger for getting banged around in mud, blood, sand, snow, wet, and crud. But…either one will probably serve admirably. Ruger has always had a reputation for making products that are built like tanks (usually at the expense of ergonomics and aesthetics) and that durability and survivability mean alot to me…so, for me, the Ruger gets the nod. You do you, man…but I’m pleased so far with the Ruger .22.

Kalispell gun show

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Was up in Kalispell for the gun show today. I don’t know whats going on but there were more FAL’s on dealers tables than I have ever seen before. Mostly DSA’s and STG-58’s, but I must have seen at least a dozen, including a couple para’s. You know what I didn’t see? A whole lot of FAL magazines.

Other things I saw were a couple grossly overpriced Uzi’s. Look, I know they haven’t been imported for darn near 30 years, but a bog-standard 9mm is not worth $4k.

Other notable guns were a couple Steyr .50’s, again at stratospheric prices.

I was pretty pleased with myself because I didn’t buy another gun. I spent a total of $35 on flares and smoke from Johnny Trochman and he even kicked in a 5-pack of 26.5mm flares for my HK P2a1‘s.

Prices for everything, it seemed, were ridiculous. I am rather pleased that, from a realistic standpoint, I have everything I need in large quantity. If there is anything I actually do need, the level of urgency is low enough that I can afford the time to order it online from someplace at a better price.

All in all, though…its always fun to wander the gun show and see stuff. In fact I saw some stuff I have not seen in decades….including one of these rare birds:

Thats an M1 Carbine that has been converted into a mag-fed pump-action .44 Magnum. I last saw one of these in the very early nineties. The guys that put these together also did a .256 Win mag version which was quite interesting. These were NOT the same guys who did the ill-advised .45 Win Mag conversions in about the same time period.

Never know what someone is gonna drag outta the closet and bring to the show………..

 

Pouch water

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Something that has annoyed me for a number of years is that while I can find fruit-flavored sugar water in tetra-pak ‘juice boxes’ or mylar pouches in just about every supermarket I walk into, I can never find that kind of packaging for just water. Invariably, I have to order offa Amazon or some other place on the internet.

Given how everyone is all about walking around with a plastic bottle of water these days, you’d think the more convenient forms of it would be readily available. Nope. (And before you send me a link to ‘beer can’ water, and other forms of the stuff please note that by ‘readily available’ I mean in Aisle Six of most supermarkets.)

I bring this up because this arrived in todays package delivery:

When a 12 ounce plastic bottle of water, in bulk, is around fifteen cents, these pouches are a rather expensive way to carry around some earth sauce. Quite honestly, the little hand-grenade sized plastic bottles are a better choice in almost every way.

But, the qualifier there is ‘almost’.

I think I have a couple pretty good reasons for using the pouches for emergency water to keep in my vehicle. Both reasons are seasonal. For some reason, I just feel that leaving plastic bottles in a hot car in the summer for months on end is going to wind up leeching plastic chemicals into the water. Do I have anything like research to back this up? Nope. The mylar pouches, in my twisted brain, seem less prone to that although you could argue the mylar is lined with a similar plastic.

Where these pouches really shine is in the winter. They don’t burst when frozen and, most importantly, because they have the general profile of a Pop-Tart they are easily and quickly thawed by holding one between your palms, sitting on it, or tucking it under your arm for a few minutes. Try thawing a 20 oz bottle of water using just body heat. Youre gonna be a while.

I usually tuck these things into a plastic ‘ammo can’ to protect them from punctures and they just sit in the storage box in the back of the truck, there if I need them.

If I go on any trip out of town, even if it’s just a couple hours to Kalispell or Bozeman, I throw a five-gallon jug in the back of the truck in one of the gas can racks. Unless you’re drowning, more water is usually a good thing.

I don’t need to tell you anything about how much you need clean water. Every one of us has heard that ‘three days’ thing. But long before Day Three you’re gonna be a hurting unit to the point that your ability to function and operate optimally is going to be severely compromised. So…extra water. And note I said ‘clean’ water. Drinking from an irrigation ditch by the side of the road will keep you alive in the short term, but whatever you picked up from that water won’t do you any favors a few days later. But..even dirty water is better than no water in the short term. But why take chances? Carry water and have some purification options.

The day will come, someday, when you may have to leave in a hurry with whatever you can grab in your two hands as you run out the door. It’d be nice to have one less thing to worry about knowing you’ve got several days of water in your vehicle ‘just in case’…winter or summer. And, not to get judgemental, you really should have a pack with the essentials and a sleeping bag in your vehicle at all times to begin with.

And, finally, when I was a very young survivalist, I bought a bunch of these water pouches from Major Survival (remember them?). This was back in the 90’s for crying out loud. I still have a few in the freezer. I thawed one a year or so ago and drank it. Water was clear, tasted fine, and I’m here today to tell you that water ‘expiration’ is meaningless if the stuff is stored right.

 

Storage project

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I have a lot of guns. I normally dont give out an exact number, but in terms of put-together-and-not-parts guns we’re looking at somewhere between 100-200. That takes up a bit of space. A good chunk of those guns, though, are packed for storage and the Deep Sleep. Packed away like this or this. But there’s also a certain amount of guns I don’t pack away because a) I want to shoot them every so often and b) I need to keep a certain amount of certain firearms in a ‘ready’ condition just in case Red Dawn kicks off.

So, whats a survivalist to do? Well, after staring at their link in my bookmarks toolbar for years, and drooling over their offerings, I emailed the guys at Gallowtech. I said, look, I’ve got this much wall to work with…here’s the dimensions. What sort of combination of hangars, trim, and panels will give me the most coverage? They were nice enough to calculate it out and even do a mock up for me. The end result is that I’m finally getting some serious weapons rack put in. I just can’t go on with rifles leaning up in corners everywhere, handguns scattered about, and magazines underfoot everywhere.

Details and progress reports as we go along. Tagging this one under the HHG (Harder Homes and Garden) tag.