Tag Archives: gear

TechSights install

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The TechSights I ordered arrived today and, naturally, that means I spent some time getting them mounted on one of the recently acquired Mini-14s.

From a functionality standpoint they seem superior to the Ruger factory sights…the adjustments aren’t as coarse. Only drawback seem to be that the aperature is a tad smaller than what was on the factory sight. This would contribute to accuracy (or what passes for accuracy in a Mini-14) but it would slow down your fast target acquisition. Fortunately, other aperatures are available and I’ll be getting a slightly larger one.

Having used the Tech Sights on the 10/22 rifle, I’m pretty confident these will work out just as well. Obviously I still need to head out to the range and re-sight things, but so far I like what I see.

If you get a set of these, a couple caveats:

  • There are some really small parts. Work over a flat, smooth surface or some other environment that will make finding dropped parts easier
  • It looks intimidating, but following the instructions shows that it isn’t nearly as complex as it looks. Probably took me fifteen minutes and about half of that was looking for a punch and a few other niceties.
  • Trickiest part was putting on a tiny e-clip onto the end of a screw. That’s the part that, if it goes flying, you’re never going to find…so keep a handle on it.

Mini-14 sights

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Sp I picked up a couple Min-14’s here recently, and while they are so low on the ‘just in case’ totem pole that they don’t even come out as a quinary-level of backup, there are still one or two things I need to do in regards to their care and feeding before I put them away.

The Mini’s have never had decent sights. Ever. Thats why they made the ‘Ranch’ versions. So, when you Google ‘aftermarket mini-14 sights’ what do you think  Google spits out? Yup. These guys.

I put a set of Tech Sights on my 10/22 a few years back and they are a very worthy improvement. They are, unfortunately, made in Taiwan but the market for good aftermarket Mini sights isn’t exactly known for breadth and depth.

Since I originally only planned on having the one lonely Mini-14 sitting in Deep Sleep, I’m going to have to order up another of the excellent Tapco Mini-14 mags. And then I should be done. Unless another stupid Mini-14 makes itself known to me at a too-good-to-pass-up-price.

 

AA battery case and pouch

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Battery standardization is kind of an important thing. When I need batteries for my flashlight, radio, or other geegaw, the last thing I want is to discover I’m out of the battery I need but I have zillions of the batteries I don’t.

For my general needs, it’s just three battery sizes: CR123, AA, and D. End of story. Sometimes it requires a compromise when one product might use one of those batteries but another, better, product might use something like a 9-volt or C-battery. In cases like that I usually fall on the side of logistics because even if the product is a bit better, when the batteries fade and it’s non-functional it will be a lot less than ‘better’.

For stuff that I carry around in the Bag O’ Tricks there is no room for argument – one battery size. Period. Full stop.

For that task, I go with AA lithium batts. They are expensive, yes. The advantage is that they are far less vulnerable to temperature, and they tend to keep their charge over time. The problem is, how to carry spares. I used to just take an Altoids tin, line it with plastic, put tape over the ends of the batteries, and  store ’em that way. Cheap, but there are better ways. A fella handed me a Maxpedition catalog years ago and they had this little guy:

It has been my absolute first choice for storing spare batteries in my gear. It keeps them separate from each other, protects the important ends, and conveniently splits apart and is colored to help differentiate dead from live batteries. (Whys ave the dead ones? Might be rechargeables that you want to save for later recharging.)

I’ve used this thing to carry around my spare AA batts (and it’ll carry CR123 batts as well) for years and can’t think of a problem I’ve had with it. I keep it in the nylon pouch as an added measure of safety and security, but the plastic sleeve by itself would seem to work fine in a tucked away pocket on your gear.

The things I carry in my bag that need those batteries? A couple small LED lights, a small AM/FM/SW radio, and the very small and very useful ICOM R6 receiver. All of those run on AA’s and therefore I only need to keep the one type of battery in my bag. (Also means that, in a real crunch, I could swap batteries as needed between devices.)

While the pouch has MOLLE webbing to let you mount it to your gear, I find it more useful to carry it inside my gear. Why leave it outside your bag to get banged around?

As I said, I’ve used this sort of thing for carrying around spare batts for years and haven’t had a single problem with ’em. Recommended.

TacTool

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One of the things in the Bag Of Tricks? This monster:

It’s really just a sharpened crowbar with a handle. I have it expressly for the purpose of cutting, chipping, prying, hacking, hammering my way out of or through whatever is between me and safety. Prying open doors, busting windows out of frames, hinge pins out of doors, and all that sort of thing. I have a more ‘regular’ knife or two in my bag as well, but this is the big kahuna for when something needs to be destroyed.

It’s made by Becker Knife & Tool which is now a part of Ka-Bar. Made in the USA although the sheath is made overseas. I’ve been a fan of he BK&T products for years…they have a brute ruggedness that meshes nicely with my ideas about the qualities I look for in just-in-case-the-world-ends gear. Not cheap, and you could probably get similar results with something cheaper… but I like BK&T and I don’t mind paying a bit extra for something that I might someday need in a very, very bad way.

This thing sits in its scabbard at the bottom of my bag, and it’s my first choice for deconstruction of my surroundings. Of course, it also can cut things but it’s main function, as I said, is for breaking things. Never know when you’re going to need to break down a door or window for a quick getaway, y’know?

Choate Mini-14 stock

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As you may recall, I picked up a Mini-14GB last month. Fine gun, nothing wrong with it. (The magazine was a different issue.) But…that wooden stock…..

An email to the fine like-minded individuals at Choate for a replacement stock revealed that not only did they have the stock I wanted, it was available in something other than the ubiquitous black – a nice shade of green. Yes please! Arrived today. Thus:For my anticipated needs, I really like rifle furniture that is something other than black. Black just jumps out at you since large pitch black objects are not something you normally see everyday and when you do, well, isn’t your attention drawn to them? This is the reason I went with the green laminate on my Scout rifle and the green laminate on my .22….. I think they blend in with my environment much better than black.

Why get rid of the wood stock? Well, Im not getting rid of it as such…I’ll keep it for some tinkering projects, but if the time comes when leaving the house every morning includes throwing a rifle into the back of the vehicle or slinging it into a scabbard on a motorcycle, getting rained on, dropped, banged around, and generally abused….well, the Choate products are, literally, pretty tough to beat.

The stock itself is deliciously rugged, it took all of a couple minutes to transfer the hardware from the wooden stock to the Choate stock, nothing needed fitting, and although I havent checked it yet, I think it might be a tad lighter.

When I buy gear for the sake of increasing my odds of survival and comfort in the uncertain future, one of the rubrics is durability and survivability – in short, I need things that can withstand abuse or neglect and still perform all or some their function. This is why I’m a huge fan of the Choate replacement stocks for my shotguns. A Mossberg 500 that was buried in mud after Katrina will probably be rusted and need a couple parts replaced, but you could hose off that Choate forend and stock and you’d never know they spent a month under a mountain of wet sewage and sludge. Thats the sort of property that I want my gear to have… I try to take care of my gear, I try not to abuse it, but if the time comes where I have to neglect it and let the chips fall where they may..well..it’s nice to know they’ll hold up juuuuuuuust fine.

Other than a couple factory mags, this concludes my financial expenditures into this gun. I have enough ARs and PTR’s that it would be a strange circumstance indeed that this gun becomes my go-to carbine. But…it is an uncertain world, after all.

Ruger Mini-14 magazine followup

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So I had a fairly lousy experience with the aftermarket magazine that came with the Mini-14GB I picked up a few weeks ago. I really shouldnt have been too surprised since the prevailing wisdom is that, currently, there are NO acceptable aftermarket mags. Now, as much as that was a bad experience at the range, paying $30 (dealer cost, mind you) for a factory magazine is an even uglier experience.

Now, an important distinction really needs to be made here. I almost always prefer factory mags (or .gov contract mags) to aftermarket mags for my guns. BUT…for a non-critical gun, or what we can basically call a ‘range toy’, I don’t mind aftermarket magazines. (I mind junk aftermarket mags, but a good aftermarket mag is acceptable.) So, since this Mini-14 isn’t really on my radar for an End Of The World sort of thing, I don’t mind using aftermarket mags if they are good aftermarket mags.

(However, in the name of transparency, I will say that I am going to pick up four factory mags ‘just in case’.)

Anyway…

Over on YouTube there’s a gear/guns channel I watch from time to time that does the sorts of gear evaluations I like – they buy the gear, they test the gear, they beat the gear, the review the gear. They had a video up on the Tapco aftermarket mags and they got great reviews. Ok, let’s get a few and see what they’re offering………

  • Overall Impression
  • Metal reinforcement and lockup
  • Basepad and follower
  • Legacy gear compatability
  • Pricing

Overall Impression

Tapco has been (and somewhat still is) the source of many memes and disdain in the gun community. Their name has even been made into a verb – “Bubba got that SKS and he Tapco’d the hell out of it. Look at all that crap!” But, apparently, they are making a pretty slick Mini-14 magazine.

The Tapco Mini-14 magazine resembles a Magpul PMAG in many ways. The follower is very reminiscent of the Magpul, and the overall ‘feel’ of the polymer/plastic is also very similar.

Metal reinforcement and lockup

These mags are the second generation of Mini-14 mags from Tapco, the first generation did not have a metal reinforcing tab where the engagement/lockup of mag-to-gun took place. As a result, wear and deformation could occur that would cause magazines to seat improperly which, naturally, leads to reliability issues. Case in point: look at this aftermarket metal magazine which it appears could have stood a little heat treating. The post-in-hole lockup area is pushed inward from repeated magazine insertions. As the metal pressed inwards, it made seating the magazine securely more difficult which exacerbated the problem by trying to ‘force’ the mag to seat…which just pushed the metal further inwards.

The Tapco magazine has a steel clip surrounding the front of the magazine to take the wear and resist this sort of issue. Lockup in my particular Mini-14 was good. There was some play, as is to be expected, but it was ‘play’ not ‘slop’. More importantly, there were no reliability issues with feeding. (This can be seen on AK mags, which use a somewhat similar method of magazine retention…there’s usually some play, but nothing that affects function.)

Basepad and follower

The magazine basepad and follower are going to seem familiar to anyone with a bunch of Magpul PMAGs. The followers are very non-tilt and they move smoothly up/down within the magazine body. The basepad is a bit chunky, but has a very easy to manipulate locking mechanism making magazine disassembly a breeze…much easier, IMHO, than GI AR mags.

Legacy gear compatability

A big problem with polymer mags is that, dimensionally, they do not have the same ‘footprint’ as their metal counterparts. For example, a metal Mini-14 mag and the Tapco both hold 30-rounds but the Tapco is longer and a bit wider. This can cause problems in terms of fit in pouches that were designed, ostensibly, for AR mags. ‘Legacy’ gear..those AR pouches you’ve collected over twenty years…may not be the best fit for the bulkier Tapco mag. Modern pouches, though, often have adjustable flaps on them and those help tremendously.

I found that the mags did fit in open-top pouches, although they were a tiny bit snug. In magazine pouches that utilize a flap closure, they did not fit unless the flap was adjustable.

AR mag pouch with a non-adjustable closure flap. Tapco mag is too long to allow flap to close. Fortunately, most mag pouches with flap closures these days are adjustable.

Tactical Tailor stock-mounted mag pouch for AR mags. Note that it has a velcro adjustable closure flap.

This mag pouch can do double-duty …. AR or Mini-14 mag. Or, really, any other similar magazine since the adjustable flap closure provides the ability to accommodate other mags.

Single-mag pouches like this one work fine except the retention straps, though elastic, are a bit too short to accommodate the longer Tapco mag. Left: Metal Mini mag, Center: Tapco mag, Right: GI AR mag. SpecOps magazine pouch.

Double-mag pouch with velcro adjustable flaps holds two Tapco mags with no problem. Heavy ribbing on mags makes withdrawing one mag a little tricky. Pouch: Blackhawk

A possible issue (or non-issue) I noticed is that the Tapco mags have aggressive ribbing on the magazine bodies. You will get a sure grip on the magazine. However, stack two mags together in a pouch and one mag will get a sure grip on the other. If it’s a snug fit for two mags in your mag pouch, expect some ‘rim lock’ as you try to pull one mag out. Again, a single-mag pouch should be fine.

No stripper clip guides on the Tapco mag. Not sure if that’s important to you or not, but sometimes it’s a ‘nice to have’.

So, how’d they shoot? Shot fine. Put about a hundred rounds through them and didn’t have a hiccup. Mags fed fine, locked open on last round, seated and extracted just fine. Certainly a better performance than I got from the no-name aftermarket mag and about the same performance I would expect from a Ruger factory mag.

Pricing

Pricing? Well, retail is for suckers so I usually pay dealer prices. Dealer on these was around $12, so I would expect to see them in the wild around $19.99. For comparison, a Ruger factory mag is, dealer, $29.85. And that’s dealer price.

As I said, this isn’t a run-out-the-door rifle for me, so I’m okay with quality aftermarket mags. But…I wouldn’t feel terribly disadvantaged with these Tapco mags if I got dropped into Katrinaville with a Mini-14 and a dozen of these.

Historically, it has been a bigfoot-hunt to try and find an aftermarket mag for the Mini-14 that was reliable. The only aftermarket mag I ever found that worked perfectly in the Mini-14 platform was the old Eagle 35-rd mags and they haven’t made those since the ’90s. These Tapcos seem to have cleared the bar on a good aftermarket mag finally coming to market. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I ordered a dozen more for myself and think it was a very good purchase.

Boutique or niche items

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Years ago, I had a buddy who thought that, for his needs, the ideal ‘battle rifle’ was a 1941 Johnson. You can go on GunBroker and look up the going rate for a Johnson….I’ll wait.

Kinda makes your eyes water, doesn’t it?

He was adamant that the rifle afforded him all the qualities he wanted in a rifle for the lawless apocalypse he envisioned. And, to be honest, it did. Problem is, he had a rather short-sighted list of qualities he wanted. One of the qualities that he soft-pedaled was affordability and logistics. Break the rear sight on your AR-10 and you can get a new rear sight (or mount a scope) with parts that you can find pretty much in any gun shop. Not so for the Johnson rifle. And affordability-wise, you could get two M1A, three PTR’s, or a couple FALs for what you’d pay for the Johnson.

I was reminded of this today because I took the Ruger Mini-14GB to the range and, unsurprisingly, had problems with the one aftermarket magazine that came with the gun. It didn’t surprise me; my experience with Ruger Mini-14 magazines has been that there are no aftermarket mags that are as reliable except for (in my experience) the old Eagle 35-rd mags that haven’t been made since the last century. In short, unless Magpul cranks out some Mini mags, your only real choice is the expensive factory mags.

Tangent: Tapco, apparently, has evolved a Mini-14 magazine that seems to do a very good job for about half the price of the Ruger factory mag. Might have to try a few.

So, after leaving the range today, I headed over to the local Cabela’s looking for a Ruger factory Mini-14 mag. None. Ok, try Sportsman’s Warehouse. None. And that is, in a nutshell, the problem with niche or ’boutique’ gear: you can’t just find the part or accessory you need as easily as other platforms.

Here’s another example. Years ago Streamlight made a little LED flashlight that I was very impressed with. BUT….it took AAAA batteries. Not AA, not AAA, but AAAA batteries. Good luck finding those in the battery rack at the supermarket.

Sometimes the boutique gear does 100% of what we want whereas the lesser, easily supportable version may only do 85% of what we want. But…when  you cant find a Mini-14 magazine or a set of AAAA batteries, that system is now doing 0% of what you want. I’ll muddle along with 85%.

Does this mean that I’m getting rid of the Mini-14GB? Nope…because the AR’s and AK’s are my ‘grab and run out the door’ guns, and they are a legacy weapons system that has a logistics base that is enormous. The Mini is pretty much just for fun or a waaaaay down the line level of backup rifle. But the experience at the range, and the subsequent experiences at the local gunmarts, kinda demonstrates something that is worth keeping in mind: logistics and support for a piece of gear should factor in to your decision about getting it. (Or keeping it.)

 

Estwing tomahawk

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Well, it took about six years but I finally came across one of those Estwing tomahawks in the wild. I could find one on eBay or Amazon, of course, but I was curious when I’d run across one at Lowes or Home Depot. The answer, it seems, was six years.

I am just underwhelmed with the whole tactical tomahawk niche. Yes, if your defending Alexandria from zombies it’s probably a decent tool. But, short of that, or doing some sort of heroic ‘last man standing’ in a Mogadishu hallway, they seem fairly useless. From a weapon standpoint, I kinda like those long-necked framing hammers.

I’m sure theyre useful for opening ammo crates, breaking windows, forcing entry, and that sort of thing…but so are a dozen other multitaskers. I realize that when youre diddybopping through downtown bazaars and narrow hallways in a ‘stan somewhere you’re going to want something to chop/pry open doors, bust windows, cut cable and wire, etc,etc. And I suppose the tomahawk does that…I just can’t imagine theres other stuff that doesnt do it better and more efficiently while still maintaining the high-speed-low-drag qualities we all know and love.

Nonetheless, it appears to be a solid little item that will stand up to whatever it is that is was designed to do…which still kinda escapes me.

For a general ‘multipurpse’ tear-stuff-up-tool…I have two. For when space and weight aren’t a big deal, one of these will pretty much get me out/in to whatever it is I’m trying to get in/out of, and when space is at a premium and your limited to something one-handed…I like this guy.

But, what do I know?, perhaps someday when I’m in a partially collapsed building or have to hack someone out of a car wreck I’ll think “Man, this would have gone a lot better with a tomahawk”. I doubt it, but could happen.

And ‘Tomahawk Axe’? WTF? That’s like having a ‘Pebble Boulder’ or some other equally diametrically opposed term.

Betalight

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I was visiting with someone at the gun show a few weeks back and, as sometimes often happens when you’re hanging out with like-minded individuals, the conversation turned to gear. As the person I was with was going thruogh their bag I noticed something…

“Is that a BetaLight?”
“Yeah, I got it….”, and I heard how this person came into it.
“Cool. I’ve always wanted one of those but they can be a little tough to get.”
“Here. You can have it.”
“!!!!!!”

Some people are just too generous to describe in a way that does them justice. I try to be as generous with other LMI, but it’s pretty hard to top giving someone a BetaLight. (Although, it can be done….rarely)

So what is a BetaLight? Well, the easiest way to describe it this: you know how those glow-y tritium dots on your pistol are about the size of a pinhead? Imagine if they were the size of a quarter. It provides enough light that, when its dark and your eyes have adjusted to the low light level, provides enough light for close-in tasks. And, since the thing is powered by physics and not batteries, it lasts quite a while.. (12.3 years half life, so it’ll be half as bright in about 12 years.)

Although readily available in the UK, they are a tough thing to get your hands on in the US.

Advantages? No moving parts, no batteries, no electronics, waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, everything-proof. Produces a useful amount of light for close-in tasks without being strong enough to draw attention to you.

Disadvantages? Small amount of light limits utility for anything other than close-in tasks. Cancer if you eat it.

So, naturally, I have to play with it. In a dark room, after your eyes have adjusted to the light, it generates enough dim light to see the walls of the room, and definitely provides enough light to read instructions, check a gun, examine switches, operate combinatin locks, etc.

It’s a cool piece of gear that I’ve always been fascinated by. I am very grateful to the person who gifted it to me, and I hope I can return the favor someday.

Choate stuff

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Remember a few weeks back I picked up a bargain 590 that needed just a tad of work? Well, one of the things I wanted to do was replace the gimmicky M-4-style stock with a more solid stock suitable for casual abuse and percussive persuasion. My exact words, in fact, were “Need to contact the guys at Choate and see what they have for a replacement stock/forend.” Well, as it turns out, Choate contacted me.

Some background: I’ve been using various Choate stocks since the late 80’s when they were all the rage in the preparedness (called ‘survivalist’ back then) community. I still recall their ads in gun magazines. I had a stock for my Mini-14 (remember those?), and later came across a really wonderful stock for the Thompson Contender carbine. (I was told that those stocks were kind of an oddball from re-utilizing M1 carbine stocks. Regardless it is the best stock for the TC carbine I’ve ever used in terms of weight, durability, and handiness.)

Anyway. Choate made a shotgun stock that I liked for those times when a wooden stock wasn’t tactical enough or resilient enough. After I got the 590 I thought I’d head over to Choate’s website and pick one up. Turns out they aren’t on the website anymore. But, the fine folks (and fellow like-minded individuals) at Choate managed to score me a stock and forend. You know what was really cool though? The forend even came with the little tool you need to remove those stupid forend nut. Very thoughtful.

Now, you may wonder why I prefer the non-pistol-grip stock in this case. Well, it’s really an ergonomic thing – the tang safety on the Mossberg is a breeze to operate with a ‘traditional’ stock, but with a pistol-grip stock your hand has to do more gymnastics to get to the safety. On the Remington, the safety is easily manipulated with either type of stock, not so on the Mossberg.

By the way, I have no idea what the story is with the coated green barrel. It’s not spraypaint, it’s actually a tiny houndstooth pattern of two shades of green very professionally applied. I’m guessing the barrel was a takeoff from a different gun. I really don’t care, it’s just a little odd looking.

So I disassembled the 590 and slipped on the new stock and forend. Gone was the gimmicky M4 stock and cheesy corncob forend (that still had velcro from where bubba had mounted some NCStar ‘tactical’ Chinese crap) and in its place was some very nice, very durable, very black, and very brutal furniture from our friends at Choate.

Now, thats a happy enough ending to a long story about a Mossberg 590, but the folks at Choate didn’t stop there. You know they make other molded products too, right? Like these ice scrapers. Yeah..ice scrapers. Ok. :::wink wink:::

And then this….monster….

I would like to have been in the office at Choate the day the guys from design came in and said “Hey boss..you know those ice scrapers we make? Well, me and the boys were thinking….”. This baby is definitely going in the pocket of the vehicle door. Yeah, a $3 ice scraper from the plastic bowl next to the register at the local QwikeeMart will scrape ice too, but this BAMF takes it to a whole new level. And…it’s a multitasker. For very particular tasks. How can you not admire that sort of creativity?

Anyway, big thanks to Choate for coming to the rescue on the Mossberg 590.

ETA: Yes, I do..and yes, it is.