HSG mag pouches

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A while back I decided I wanted a belt to keep a ‘ready’ amount of gear on. The sort of thing that you’d grab to go investigate something rousing the dogs in the yard or that sort of thing. Regardless, I wanted something where I could just wrap a belt around my waist and have the basics.

I wound up purchasing the Viking Tactical Skirmish Belt.  In conjunction with my Safariland holster its a very nice combination. But..I need a couple mag pouches for the AR and G17 to add to the belt. (I’ll also be adding one these .) So what pouches? Well, I wanted something without the usual over-the-top retention bungees. So I looked around and found what seemed like a good choice. Wound up with the High Speed Gear Tacos .

I rather like these. The MOLLE attachments are easy to use, the retention tension is adjustable, and there’s a good bit of rigidity to the pouch but the magazines pull free easily. I’ll need to take this setup to the range this weekend and play with it a bit, but I’m rather impressed with the HSG product. Made in the USA, which puts it a notch of Blackhawk and a host of other pouch makers.

I’m not looking for a Batman-belt of every possible survivalist advantage. I just need something with a gun/holster, some extra mags, a first aid kit with TQ, and maybe a flashlight and multitool. Thats it. If I need six AR mags, three Glock mags, a huge sheath knife, radio, medkit, and a dump pouch…well…thats a whole different bunch of kit. I just want a fairly straightforward rig for when you want something a bit more robust because the times have gotten a bit more interesting than usual.

But..this is about the pouches. I’ll be playing with them at the range shortly, but so far they look like theyre exactly what I’m looking for in this particular usage.

MP5 magazine issue resolution

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I had mentioned a while back ( here and here ) that I was having some trouble with MKE metal MP5 mags in my MP5k clone. I diagnosed it as some sort of issue with the magazine catch. Plastic mags worked fine, but the metal mags just would not seat and lock in the gun. I tried the mags in my other MP5 copies and they worked fine. No doubt, the problem was this particular gun.

I contacted Bill Springfield, whom I have used for at least eight or nine guns by now, and he said he could fix the issue. So, I sent the gun off to him and received it back about a week and a half later. All my mags seat and lock just fine. I asked him what the problem was. Apparently the catch that engages in the magazine notch of the mag was just slightly (he said .5 mm) off spec. I can’t imagine that half a millimeter makes a difference on anything, but, whatever, all I care about is that the gun does what it’s supposed to.

This is the second time I’ve had to send an MP5 clone to him. Both were PTR’s that exhibited magazine lock/release issues. On one gun, the magazine release lever wouldn’t budge. And on the other gun the mags wouldn’t lock. In both cases, Mr Springfield fixed the issue and got the gun back to me quickly.

While I am a bit disappointed with PTR’s QC, I can unreservedly recommend Mr Springfield for the work that I had performed. I can’t say anything about the other services he performs on other guns. But…for putting paddle mag releases on G3 clones, and for diagnosing and solving magazine seat/lock issue, I recommend him.

Now, you may ask why I didn’t send the guns to PTR for warranty work. Easy reason – my experience with returning guns is that a) they often take forever to get returned and b) too often the problem is never fixed to my satisfaction. To me, it was worth the $60 I paid to get my gun back to me in a hurry and to know the job was done right. YMMV.

Now, don’t think I’m dumping on PTR. The MP5 is a relatively new offering from them so maybe theyre still cutting their teeth. I own eight of their HK91 copies and havent had a problem with any of them…but then again they have had a longer history making those than they have making MP5’s. I have high hopes for the .5.56 gun they are working on but I have no intention of being an early adopter. Let someone else find the land mines.

Anyway, for the work I’ve had done by Mr Springfield, I am quite pleased and wouldnt hesitate to use his services again.

Best millimeter stuff

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Took the 10mm ( aka Best Millimeter) out for a spin this weekend. I was curious to see how it shot with the .40 barrel in it vs. the 10mm barrel. The difference in point of impact was negligible which makes me think that there is some merit to the notion that most factory 10mm isn’t  different, in terms of exterior ballistics, from factory .40 S&W ammo. So..I’ll order up a shiny new set of Redding reloading dies and start loading my own 10mm.

As for the gun itself, I had swapped out the factory sights for a set of quality night sights. In addition to that, I think I might actually go down the rabbit hole of finding a better trigger. Although this gun is specifically for shooting things at a range that is close enough to let you find your target using the Braille system, I’d still like to be able to have a trigger that doesn’t work against me.

And, I hate to sound like a wuss, but that stippling on the Gen4 frames isn’t terribly comfortable under recoil. But, as I said earlier, this is a gun for emergency use so I think that when I do have to shoot it I will have bigger (and furrier) things to worry about than a little abrasion.

Regardless, its always nice to get to spend some time at the range. I’ve a pile of guns here that need to go out and have me do some work on them…maybe with there being a tad more daylight after I get off work these days I can finally get on top of that. It’d be rather embarrassing to go through the apocalypse with a gun that I cant hit anything with because I was too busy to go to the range and sight the bloody thing in.

Kerosene stove

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I live in a house that is plumbed for natural gas. I use it for heat, cooking, and clothes drying. Broadly speaking, when the power goes out, I still have natural gas available for my use. However, this will not be the case in every circumstance. A power outage caused by a squirrel humping a transformer three blocks down the street will not affect natural gas delivery to my house… a large natural disaster or distrubance, on the other hand, may impact delivery. (Could be anything…union goes on strike, pipeline damage, etc, etc.)

So, to me, it makes sense to have another way to cook. And, really, cooking is a bit of a luxury in a crisis…I can live a long time eating unheated food out of its can. But, being able to create a big pot of steaming hot water…that has a tremendous value.

For my cooking needs I have a couple small camping stoves. One, a Coleman Peak 1 stove, will run on white gas or on kerosene. The other stove, a Primus multifuel, will run on literally any hydrocarbon I can find. But those are small stoves that don’t lend themselves to real cooking. Great for backpacking, though. I need to pick up a small two burner propane stove and that’s on the list as soon as I do some research. But…one thing I’ve wanted for a while is a kerosene stove. I have kerosene lanterns, kerosene heaters, and a rather healthy amount of kerosene on hand. Its the hottest burning of the liquid fuels, stores well, and is safer than gasoline. I can, and have, cooked on top of my kerosene heater but it doesn have nearly the heat control I’d like.  So, whats the options look like for kerosene stoves?

Well, there’s a buncha sheet metal stamped kero stoves that are out of China and India. They all look a bit flimsy and their sharp edges of stamped steel could give you tetanus just by staring at them too long. But I did a bit of research and came up with this:

Seems pretty solid. Not made in China or India, which is nice. If you get one of these, you really need to follow the one big cardinal rule of any kerosene appliance: when you fill it for the first time, or you are using a new wick, give the wick plenty of time to soak up fuel before you light it. Seriously. Fill it with fuel and then go forget about it for at least several hours. Otherwise trying to light it will only result in the wick burning rather than the fuel. Here endeth the lesson.

Like most kerosene appliances, there is some smell when you start it up and when you shut it down. I’d normally say you would want to do those procedures outside but I think this is a product that you really should be using in a wildly well ventilated space…like maybe a garage with the door up.

It takes a bit of fiddling and adjusting to get things just the way they should. What youre looking for is for a blue gas-like flame. Not the cheery yellow of a kerosene heater. It takes a little learning curve to figure out just how much or how little wick to give it, etc, but once youve got it dialed in the results are pretty good.

I was able to put a covered dutch oven with one liter of cold water on this and it had it at a rolling boil in seventeen minutes with an ambient outside temperature of 37 degrees. I’d imagine that building a screen or shield around it to keep the cold away would help quite a bit.

I see this as a choice for tailgating, car camping, picnic tables, and other outdoor venues where you want a long-burning heat source to cook with. In a crisis, I’d see no trouble sitting in my yard boiling up water for freeze drieds or frying something. I suppose that i a well ventilated indoor space you might be able to use it, but I’m going to have enough problems going on around me at that point to want to add another one like CO poisoning.

I got mine offa Amazon for about $140 and I think that was about the right price for that. The build quality seems better than what I’ve seen in the China/India versions, and it appears well made although realistically it isn’t a terribly complicated device. As always, while you’ve got your wallet out go pick up a spare wick because.

For me, since I’m a bit heavy on kerosene, this was a good choice for an alternative cooking method. A small propane stove would probably be more efficient and easier to work with, but I have a  lot of kerosene so for me this makes sense. I’m still going to get a small two-burner propane stove that runs on the 1# bottles, and when I do I will report back on it. In the meantime though…I rather like the cheery heat and warmth of kerosene.

Keystone Beef II

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As you may recall, I earlier mentioned that my local WallyWorld had started carrying some Keystone meats. I’m not a huge fan of canned meats, but I’m even less a fan of going through any type of prolonged crisis having to forego meat.

I had tried the diced beef and found it quite good. Todays adventure is the ground beef. The biggest drawback I’ve heard regarding canned ground beef is that, since it is pressure cooked, the meat gets quite tender. So much so, in fact, that some people have mentioned the consistency of the ground beef as ‘mushy’…similar to the beef youd get at a Taco Bell.

One way to find out…..

I would definitely remove as much of the fat as possible before cooking. I went ahead and cooked it as-is out of the can and it created a lot of liquid.

I understand that in a survival situation ( a la ‘The Mandibles‘) you’d want that energy-rich fat, but it sure takes a while to cook off.

Consistency-wise I would not say it was ‘mushy’. It just wasnt firm and crumbly like most ground beef. What I did notice was that it had a much beefier flavor than normal ground beef. That can be good or bad depending on what youre planning on doing with this stuff, but for something like tacos (or taco sald) this would be a fine choice. Probably a go-to for sloppy joes as well. Didnt try it in a spaghetti sauce but the strong flavor might require you to adjust your seasoning in that particular entree.

For my needs, I’d combinethis with some salsa and cooked rice with maybe a lttle taco seasoning thrown in for a fast purely ‘storage food’ meal. Might also add some crushed tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices, rice, and go that route. Up to you, man…ground beef is just a sort of ‘basic building block’ to create a meal around. Sure, I can get protein from beans and rice just like the rest of the Third World, but why Third World it if you don’t have to?

As I’m sure someone will mention in comments, yes I know I can pressure can my own ground beef and save some money. Absolutely no doubt there….I have the skill and equipment. But there are times I prefer the resilience and durability of a can rather than the fragility of glass jars. Also, and this is a very -low-on-the-totem-pole consideration, if I ever need to trade or sell these to someone in Mad Max world the commercial product will be more attractive than the home-canned version.

 

Return of the Ruger Mini-14 GB

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Further proof that Bill Ruger is, in fact, still dead:

I suppose this was to be expected. Samson got into bed with Ruger to make these stocks, and for Ruger it’s a no-brainer to let Samson handle that end of the supply chain. Its my understanding the current crop of Mini-14’s are much more accurate than the minute-of-bad-guy accuracy that the originals offered. In a world of mid-tier $700 AR’s that deliver better ergos, modularity, and logistics, why would you spend (dealer price) $1230 for something thats gonna take special mags and be a pain to mount optics?

But…I’ll get one just because. I’m actually starting to amass an interesting array of non-AR .223 guns…. Mini-14, JAKL, BRN-180…..as soon as PTR gets that new roller-delayed .223 out, I’ll definitely be on the line for that one.

It’s nice to see that with Billy Ruger gone Ruger has finally been what it could have been all along…a responsive, market-driven, innovative gun business. With Billy R. outta the way we got Ruger AR’s, 1911’s, PCC’s, PDW wanna-be’s, takedown guns, and 30-rd mags. I used to have a negative opinion of Ruger, but since they changed directions I have been quite impressed with them. And, just from a survivalists standpoint, they make the guns I’d want to carry in the zombie apocalypse…rugged, durable, and nigh-unbreakable.

Glock 40 replacement barrel in .40

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Its only been in the last few years I’ve been able to buy the guns I’ve always wanted. The catalyst was after finally sucking it up and getting my degree, I started making okay money. I have an advantage in that I don’t have any debt..no mortgage, no car payments, no nothin’. As a result, whatever I do make, I wind up keeping a large chunk of. This means that what might be considered ‘just enough to get by’ for some folks is ‘plenty’ for me….although more is always better.

One of the things I’d been wanting for a while was a Glock 10mm as a belt gun for when I was out in the boonies. And, I got one. I threw some quality night sights on it, bought a half dozen mags, a lovely flap holster, and thats pretty much all I really need to do. Except…10mm ain’t cheap. Nor plentiful. But what is cheap(er) and plentiful is .40 S&W. Turns out the folks at Lone Wolf Distributors make a .40 S&W barrel for the Glock 40. I suppose I might have to change the recoil spring out but given how factory 10mm is watered down to almost .40 levels, I’ll bet all I need is the barrel change.

This’ll be a somewhat more affordable way to practice since I have gobs of .40 S&W ammo laying around from the local PD. And, I suppose, from a preparedness standpoint it’s a good idea to have a couple Glocks laying around in .40 since there still seems to be a ton of badges out there still using the .40 S&W.

Personally, I plan on picking up some 200 gr. bullets and loading them up more to what the 10mm was designed for. If modern 10mm loads are loaded down to hot .40 S&W levels, why wouldn’t I just get a .40 S&W instead? Nope…this’ll be a bit of a project for the reloading bench. If I have to ruin a bruin then I want as much metal going downrange as possible.

It’s nice that I finally have the career path that lets me afford stuff like this. I just wish I had more time available to take advantage of the new toys. But, I guess thats the trade off…time vs money.

Article – Homeowner uses ‘one of the oldest forms’ of construction to build incredible fire-resistant house that could withstand the next major blaze

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One homeowner is demonstrating how the best defense against extreme weather events may be Mother Earth herself.

LAist’s Jacob Margolis shared pictures and video footage of an incredible fire-resistant house built into the side of an excavated hillside in Topanga Canyon, an unincorporated community in Los Angeles.

The only part of the structure visible from the outside is the white stucco front face, as the rest of the home is underground, but the inside appears spacious and comfortable.

I have mixed feelings about underground houses. On the one hand, I greatly admire the advantages it offers in terms of security, privacy, thermal regulation , and just general coolness. On the other hand…I like windows and secondary exits.

However, there are some arrangements and designs I see online that seem warmer and airier than the quonset-hut-built-into-a-hill model that many underground homes seem to fall into. For my needs, I think I dont want underground as much as I want bermed. The house in the article above isn’t necessarily underground. It looks like they built it and then put the earth over it to create a new hill. In other words, its not necessarily an underground home as much as it is an earth-covered home.

Regardless, its an interesting example of the type. Food for thought, as always.

Sig Romeo4T Pro followup

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Last year I purchased a Sig Romeo4T Pro as my entry into the world of dot sights. I was pretty taken with it at the time and I thought I’d revisit it since some time has now gone by.

Still think it’s great. I havent turned it off since I got it. It sits on top of my MP5A2 clone and its still functioning on the original battery. The ‘shake awake’ feature has performed as advertised – when I put the gun in the rack, the sight turns itself off after a couple minutes. When I pick it up the scope exits its sleep mode and is on. What this means is, I don’t ever need to turn the thing on or off. Just leave it on and when I put it down it’ll go to sleep and save battery life, and when I pick it up it immediately comes back on ready to use…no switches to fumble with. The 9mm in a carbine like this isn’t exactly a long-range cartridge so the lack of magnification isn’t, in my opinion, an issue for this particular type of gun and it’s particular anticipated use.However…I can ring the plates at 100 yards with it, so there’s that.

I’ve shot it a bunch and am still very pleased with it. So much so, in fact, that I’m gonna be picking up another one or two for some other longarms.

However, I decided to bump up a notch and get a Romeo8T. I’m gonna mount that on my JAKL and see how I like it.

So far, I’ve been pretty pleased with the SIG dots. And by the way, Palmetto has announced they are working on a .308 JAKL and I am very excited at the prospect.

The Romeo4T, by the way, is apparently what Obi Wan Nairobi used at his shopping mall bullet party. Who knew?