Did some re-organizing in the bunker last night. I most definitely need to put more shelving in there.
=====
I am still saying that the elections will bring terrorist action designed to influence the election. If youre in a city where the conventions are being held, I hope youre getting ready for..whatever.
=====
Friends came to visit the other day. They have 320 acres in New Mexico. Half a section of land with a reliable 50-year-old well. Mmmm….build a nice bunker on 320 acres. Heck, thats about, what, one mile by a half mile….of course, its in a desert but once you have water youve pretty much got your biggest problem licked, Id imagine.
=====
Shot the AK on paper this weekend. Its tough with the black-on-black sights shooting at a black target. However, it shows definite promise and is more accurate than the Chinese versions Ive had in the past. Before I get completely swayed by it, I should drag my HBAR out for a spin and remind myself that accuracy counts.
=====
A little under two months until the assault weapons ban comes up for renewal. I have no idea how its going to go but the obvious thing to do is to prepare on the assumption that it will be renewed and made worse.
=====
Ive a little four-day field exercise coming up. Backpacking off into the boonies and testing gear. My feet hurt just thinking about it. But, its an excellent way to test gear in ‘real world’ conditions as well as work on the usual map/compass skills.
=====
My library is getting stale. Ive re-read all the books in there a dozen times. I need some new ones…esp. regarding home construction/fabrication inc. earth-sheltered homes, geodesic domes and concrete structures.
Notes From The Bunker
Where are the party conventions going to be this time around? Do you know?
I just got back from a 10 day road trip through northern New Mexico. I had many of the same thoughts you did as we were driving through the area. My only concern is that with the apparent climate shifts we’re experiencing, New Mexico will be getting much dryer in the future.
FYI, our local Costco having 225-pc First Aid Kits for $20. Nice kit, with zip-up semihard case, tabbed folders, and includes all the standard stuff plus a trauma kit and a pocket-sized mini-kit.
AKs are impressive on the reliability scale. Looking at your groups though, I would not think you could engage somebody at 150-200 yards with much hope of accuracy. Then again, it may be the aforementioned sights. AK sights suck donkey balls.
One of my ARs, with absolutely no accurizing, shot a .5″ 3 shot group at 50 yards with XM193 surp ammo. (This with my loser ass behind the trigger.) Note that this rifle has a 5.56 nato spec chamber, not the tighter SAAMI spec chamber, and the stone stock crappy single stage 8lb AR trigger. Oh yeah, and the light profile barrel, not HBAR. (Wasn’t free floated, either.)
Ive a little four-day field exercise coming up. Backpacking off into the boonies and testing gear. My feet hurt just thinking about it. But, its an excellent way to test gear in ‘real world’ conditions as well as work on the usual map/compass skills.
No GPS? I realize that one still wants to develop compass and map skills, but it’s still worthwhile to develop skills with one.
My library is getting stale. Ive re-read all the books in there a dozen times. I need some new ones…esp. regarding home construction/fabrication inc. earth-sheltered homes, geodesic domes and concrete structures.
I just built a 37′ diameter geodesic dome for shelter at Burning Man, which is an exercise in preparedness in and of itself. In any case, while reading about building a dome, I learned that the latest popular thing for building cheap housing is ferro-cement structures using inflatable forms. I found a website that was essentially an archive of a mailing list that had a lot of excellent information. Unfortunately, I can’t find the link for it any more (though I’m still looking).
need books?
try the used booksellers about. found many usefull yet no longer available books on various topics, sometimes newer books at a cheaper price.hope you construct a seperate fuel and ammo dumps far from your sheltewr as shit happens occasionaly to the best. always take the time to over build a solid good building to minimize future maintainace and inreased longevity. hope amongst your prepareness are plans and equipment to prevent or put out fires. a romour is that the kerosene may be in the wrong type of plastic container, so check for leaks occassionaly. live long and free! Wildflower
What we’ll be doing is using a transparent overlay on a USGS map to get the UTM coords for our final destination (a lake) and then using map/compass for shooting the angles.
We all have GPS and know how to use them. If I DO mention GPS somone invariably posts with ‘dont rely on technology, you still need to learn map and compass’ and if I DONT post about GPS I get flak anyway. sigh.
The AK shows promise for minute-of-badguy. Shooting a black front post onto a black target circle isnt conducive to accuracy. Fortunately colored replacement front posts are available. For my way of thinking the AK is great for an ‘urban’ type environ where shots arent far and your doing more of a house-to-house. (Think Stalingrad or LA riots). For longer range accuracy at more distant targets the AR shines (Think Red Dawn.)
We can hit the steel tanks at 100 yards pretty regularly and thats without dicking with the sights. The sights need some sdjusting I just have to pick up a tool for it. The acetylene/oxygen tanks are about 4’x1′ so if you can hit that fairly regularly I’d say thats your proverbial ‘man sized target’.
Additionally, the AK is just smart to have since the ammo and mags are cheap and everyone has an SKS or AK so theres a good chance you’ll scrounge up some ammo.