Well, if you’re gonna have an Uzi (or two), you’re gonna need mags….right?
Fifty oughtta be a good start. And I’ve a few other accessories for the new acquisition that have started trickling in.
This was a 50-mag package from Atlantic Firearms. These are 25-rd mags and, thoguh used, they appear to be in pretty good shape. I need to thoroughly examine each one closely, but so far they all look good.
I’m continuing to try to find a piece of dirt that meets my anticipated needs and desires. It’s been a bit of a slog, but I am noticing prices are coming down. Also, the markets (stock and metals) have been nice to me over the last six weeks so I have about 10% more to spend on an acquisition than I previously had. As I peruse the various real estate listing websites I do come across the occasional piece of property that makes me wonder what the previous owner was thinking. One such piece is this guy. I am really curious about this piece. The description says that the whole 11 acres is, to some degree, fenced. Okay thats kinda nice…a bit unusual but nothing really eyebrow-raising. But then theres an inner perimeter fenced with chain link. Ok, it’s bear country and maybe they wanna keep the deer outta the garden. Totally plausible. The three strands of outward-facing barbed wire atop the tall fence, on the other hand….. Barbed wire does nothing to deter deer and bears will go through it like it isn’t even there.
I get the impression this was either someone’s bugout location or there’s a serial killer out there who couldn’t meet his mortgage.
Regardless, its a hard no for me….$20k per acre, even with a well, is absolutely ridiculous. But its certainly an interesting piece of property and rather interesting to ‘read between the lines’ with.
Spend any time in survivalism and you eventually get to the topic of caches. And, before I get too far down this particular rabbit hole, I just want to say that “cache” is pronounced “cash” as in “Johnny Cash”. If you pronounce it “Cash-ay” you come off sounding like an illiterate redneck. Moving on now.
Everyone at some point talks about hidden or buried caches. The notion being that someday, when your life has taken a profound and undeniable turn sideways, you will be on the run, find your hidden cache, and increase your odds of survival by replenishing and re-equipping yourself with what you prudently packed away those many years earlier.
What people decide to cache away is highly subjective. Some people might pack away everything but the kitchen sink. Some people might just tuck away some fake ID, a pistol, and a whole bunch of cash. And some people might go a bit further. What’s important, though, is that whatever you store for a later date has to be protected in such a way that the cache is impervious and invisible to the world around it. A good way to do that is to bury it. What do you bury it in? There’s a lot of chatter on that topic but many people like genuine military ammo cans. Get one big enough, with good seals, perhaps paint it with some sealant like roofing tar or somesuch, and pop it into a hole in the ground. Which brings us to this video from the, unfortunately, soon-to-be-departed Paul Harrell:
An excellent video showing what to expect. Those tall mortar cans can sometimes be had at gun shows, and can definitely be found online. Also Craigslist if you’re lucky.
One thing that is not touched on, and that I’m sure you’ll figure out on your own, is that while GPS is awesome for getting you back to “X marks the spot”, you have to plan on it not being available. Could be a buncha things….gov turns it off, degrades its accuracy (which used to be policy), satellites get knocked out by China, etc, etc. So, by all means, take GPS coords and save ’em, but also hide your stuff in such a manner that a simple hand drawn map and compass will work too. The guideline I personally would use is to do it in such a manner that I cold tell someone where it is, hand them a hand drawn map and a compass, and they’d have little trouble finding it.
Anyway, a good video on a topic that is something we’ve all thought about (and probably done) from time to time.
Ok, lets ignore the first rule of Bunker Club for a moment….
If you had a bunker, wouldn’t you keep it quiet and empty for that time when you might actually need it, rather than rent it out as some sort of AirBnb? The level of PerSec violations here is pretty high. But, I suspect he person who bought the house probably thought the bunker was a quaint and silly remnant of a previous ‘paranoid’ owner.
However, the description of this persons experience living in the bunker is rather encouraging. Its quiet and temperate…nice qualities to have. As far as underground bunkers go, it looks rather appealing.
Its the start of what I am hoping will be a quiet weekend. People ask me what I do on weekends and the answer is resoundlingly boring…I do all the things that I was supposed to do during the week, but never got around to doing. Things like laundry, housekeeping, grocery shopping, banking, etc, etc. In fact, I get up earlier on weekends than I do on weekdays just so I can try and get it all in the 48 hour window of the weekend.
On top of that normal stuff, I need to do survivalist stuff….run the generator, read the news, see what needs to be purchased or rotated through, work on projects I’ve been wanting to do, find new projects, that sort of thing.
Im hoping that this weekend, if the weather stays nice, I can get out an do some bicycling. Its good exercise and a nice practice for when/if things go sideways and pushing pedals is my only way to get out to safety.
Since the warmer weather is here, and the snow is mostly gone, it’ll be time to go and actually view properties soon. I’ve seen a few that appeal to me, but theyre all a bit east of here. Closer to Great Falls than here. But its a nice excuse to drive along highway 200 and maybe bring a fishing rod along.
My other project, at the moment, is trying to see how many Form 1’s I can push through before my wallet explodes like a hand grenade. I’ve started the paperwork to SBR an Uzi, two MP5 copies, and I think up next will be a Ruger 10/22 Charger Takedown that I’ve kinda fallen in lust with.
So thats it…thats my anticipated weekend – laundry, housekeeping, groceries, and some survivalist stuff if I can fit it in.
Just once, I’d like to have a weekend where I can sleep in, do nothing, go to bed early, and just not to a bloody thing. But.time, tide, and TEOTWAWKI wait for no man. Even me. So, off I go to my chores…..
What about you? Anything going on this weekend?
My hatred of BATFE is something that is in my bones right down to the molecular level. BUT, I have to play by their rules because.
However, I have to admit that once in a while they can take an odious and unconstitutional process and make it a faster, simpler, unconstitutional process.
Apparently, most of BATFE’s Forms are online now. I can go to a website, fill out the Form 1 to ‘make’ a short barrelled rifle, pay the $200 extortion on line, and then just wait for the stamp and approval. It took me less than ten minutes to do.
I still think it’s absurd that if I want a 10″ barrel on my Uzi rather than a 16″ one I have to pay $200 and jump through a bunch of hoops, but, sadly, this is the world we’ve let develop.
I’ll have the engraving done over at Lone Sentinel Engraving, the engraving wing of Zombie Tools, since they’ve got experience at this sort of thing. After that, I’ll order up a 10″ barrel and have my Uzi looking like it was intended to.
There’s a nationally famous gun collector who lives a couple miles from me…Hayes Otoupalik. Hayes has stuff that when you look it up in a reference book it will say “Twelve known to exist” and Hayes will have four of them…he’s that kind of level of collector. Once, a million years ago, I asked him how he manages to find such good deals. He said something that always stuck with me. He said, “When you’ve been doing this long enough, you dont have to go looking for the deals…the good deals come looking for you.” And he was 100% correct.
Todays deal that I wasn’t looking for but came looking or me:
It’s a Vector Uzi with mag purse, a dozen magazines, sight tool, mag loader, wooden stock, sling, extra foregrip, and a few other bells and whistles. Previous owner cerokoted it desert tan. The punchline: $1000.
Last Uzi Ii got was a genuine Action Arms B model and I paid, I think $900 for it. And that was with only one mag and no other goodies. And that was fifteen years ago.
The Uzi is a heavy gun. In a world of polymer 9mm PCC’s this thing is a chunkyboy. But….its a proven design that is, literally, bomb-proof. This package of goodies could get stuffed in a 40mm ammo can, tucked away for twenty years, and when it finally sees the light of day again it would still be a somewhat viable choice for running-and-gunning through a zombie apocalypse.
Very tempted to do the paperwork and SBR it. Might just have to go that route. That 16″ barrel is just ten shades of derp.
This is obviously a joke since I dont have that many friends. (Two observations: Lea Thompson can share my bunker any day. Swayze is rocking a sweet Valmet in that picture.)
It brings up an interesting question, though…how many friends (or family) would you feel comfortable riding out the apocalypse with as a trusted partner/teammember? Someone you could trust with the GPS locations of your cache, the password to the encrypted files, the directions to the BOL, the manifest of your hidden supplies, that sort of thing. For me, its probably…hmmm….three people.What about you?
Interesting article about a buncha kids that went into an abandoned missile silo and got more than they bargained for. Whats interesting to me is this part:
Old railway, you say? I’m wondering if thats simply some sort of short range rail system for transporting parts from silo1 to silo2, or something a bit more elaborate.
Honestly, if I knew there was an abandoned missile silo nearby I’d probably be eager to explore it too….mostly as a precursor to buying it. I need to test my Google skills and see if I can learn more about this facility……..
I have to remind myself that this year is an election year. As I’ve said in the past, election years are expensive. Invariably, as the elections roll closer, I get less and less confident in my supply of Uncertain Goods. According to the preponomicon, I’ve got something like a thousand assorted magazines in storage. (I know that sounds like a lot, but when you think about how they have to be distributed across many guns, and then have to last for the rest of your life, you start to see that perhaps it isn’t as much as you think.)
There are three things that rise to the top of my Be Concerned About This list during election years.
Potential gun legislation – this is a pretty simple one to wrap your head around. It’s most obvious manifestation was during the Clinton administration. Yes other presidents added their own twist, but the Assault Weapons Ban and Chinese Import Ban are the most visible examples of what I’m talking about.
Economic turmoil – “Tax them back to the stone age” seems to be the Democrats’ answer to everything. Or, as Reagan said, their policy is if “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
Social changes – This is subjective, but the it seems like when the Democrats have the reins there are more episodes of riots, mass crime, distrust, and political warfare.
The last four years have been good to me, but that wasnt because of anything Washington did but rather despite it. I don’t look to Washington for solutions to the problems in my life…heck, most of the time thats where the problems came from…and I hope you don’t either. I will say that for the things that are important to me, I prefer someone other than a Democrat at the helm of state.
It seems a forgone conclusion that its a Biden/Trump matchup this year and both candidates have enough stink on them that, under normal circumstances, they couldn’t win an election to be dog catcher. But, put them against each other and it becomes the political equivalent of two guys trapped in a closet dueling with hand grenades.
I voted for Trump in the last two elections, and I’ll vote for him again (if he’s on the ticket) no matter what the courts wind up doing to him. Not necessarily because I like him as a President (which I do), but rather because Biden is quite clearly an empty suit who mentally checked out a long, long time ago. Really, this election is Obama v. Trump.
Election years are always abnormal. The normal expectations and plans don’t apply. Unfortunately, that unpredictability means that there’s no reason to slack off on making sure my house is ‘in order’.
