Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Two more weeks until the wedding. It should prove to be an interesting experience. First off, we’re encouraging our guests to be armed. Because of this we’re also keeping it a booze-free wedding. A friend of mine with a nice 1/3 scale Revolutionary War cannon will be bringing it along for a salute. Theres a scheduled ‘range day’ the day after the wedding and that should be quite interesting as well. Finally, there’ll be the final round of gift-giving and the determination of whether the gifting was enough to cover the cost of the .50 BMG rifle we’ve got listed on our registry. I do believe this will be an event that will be unmatched in the gun community for a while and may very well become the stuff of legends on the various gun boards. Obviously, much photography will be taking place. There’ll be at least one well known photographing gunny in attendance – Oleg Volk. And Im sure there will be no shortage of people with digital cameras floating around.

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Remember a few weeks ago I had my first trip to the LDS cannery? I received an email from the fella I went with telling me that, for the first time, they are closing their doors for a short while due to a lack of food products. When I was there the shelves were, in some spots, pretty bare. Now they’re taking a break while they try to get their stockpiles back up. The natives, it seems, are restless. When the Mormons go to ground, take note.

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Received a new catalog from CDNN. Right on the cover they say Glock mag prices will be going up 40%. This will put Glock mags in the $22~ price range. Theres no such thing as too many magazines, guys. Mags are a consumable. They will get broken, they will get lost, they will get damaged, they will get stolen, they will get left behind, they will get confiscated, they will be restricted, they may become illegal. Your gun came with one mag in the gun and two spares in the box? You seriously think those will last you for the rest. Of. Your. Life?

Pull $100 out of your wallet, skip eating out this month, and buy some spares, will ya please?

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Speaking of CDNN, I called and they do indeed have PTR-91 rifles in stock. $900-1000~ depending on model. An outstanding gun that has cheap magazine availability. (See above paragraph.) Heres putting it in perspective…

$1500 will get you, as far as a 308 battle rifle goes:

• Armalite AR-10 and 4 extra mags
• SA M1A Standard and 8 extra mags
• DSA FAL and 20 extra mags
• JLD PTR-91 and 250 extra mags (or 50 mags, a tactical sling, cleaning kit, spare parts, claw mount and some ammo)

Excellent ‘bang for your buck’ right there folks. Personally, I prefer the ergonomics of the FAL but I realize that I need to spend what little money I have on something that will provide the greatest return. In this case, it’s the PTR-91…I get .308 performance, accuracy, HK reliability, dirt cheap spare parts, $2 magazines, and all of it at a realistic price.

Oh, sure, I could buy about 6 SKS rifles for the cost of the PTR-91. And I do have several SKS rifles. But they’re not my first or second choice for running out the door. They’re nice ‘last ditch’ guns, good for handing off to guests, and are ‘disposable’ in the sense that if they get stolen out of a vehicle or building I wont really care. But they are not my first choice for defending life and property.

Have your dealer call CDNN and score you a PTR-91. Then have your dealer call Lew Horton Distributing and order up some $2 mags. You’ll never regret it. Esp. after November.

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I am still looking for recommendations for bicycle repair/maintenance/modding books. Leave in comments or email to zero@commanderzero.com .