Tag Archives: guns

It just…happens

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Crom hates me. I had to go buy some housewares and as I’m walking across he parking lot I think “Hmm..let me go check the used gun rack at the gun shop next door”. And thats when I saw this:

3Rd Gen (my fave), G19 with two factory mags, case, sights have been swapped out for the exact same set I just installed on my G17, G34 extended slide release, aftermarket recoil spring assy, decent stipling job on frame, and G34 extended mag release.

But, really, I was sold once I saw the price tag of $325.

I’ll probably put the factory mag release back in for something a tad less prone to getting accidentally released while carrying, but other than that….nice gun.

And all I was shopping for was a stupid mattress pad.

 

Too many

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I think I must be sleepwalking or something because I have no recollection of bidding on GunBroker for this thing.

On the other hand, if I was, in fact, sleepwalking my way into Gun Broker at least I maintained the presence of mind to not bid more than $150. Whats really interesting is that I have a line on an old-style Ruger PC9 carbine in 9mm that someone wants $375 for. Now, I already have two of those but both cost me significantly more than $375. And since I now have…uhm…:::checks spreadsheet::: fourteen (WTH!) of these P95’s sitting here, another PC9 to go with them seems reasonable. Kinda.

I still need to get the new model PC9 that takes Glock magazines though.

But, that’s going to have to wait because there’s another Ruger showing up on the doorstep this week that is going to set me back on gun acquisitions for a while.

Practicing with .22 kits

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Pretty much in every piece of survivalist fiction there is always at least one big shootout scene. It can be the brave townies against the invading cannibal army, the plucky conservative group against the dastardly UN troops, etc. It makes for entertaining reading but is it likely that at some point youre going to go to war with New Bern? I doubt it. Oh, I have no doubt that during Katrina and a few other major events there might have been a few people who were forced to play Blackhawk Down as best they could (Roof Koreans!). But I believe those were the extreme outliers. Unless you’re Harry Beckwith (record holder for most amount of shots fired in defense of self), I’d bet most people never even needed a mag change.

But…we never know what the future holds, do we? So, we practice. Today is a range day to practice fast target acquisition and some shoot-n-move stuff with the HKlone. Given the always high price of ammo, it makes sense to try and save money when possible. To that end, the Germans, always looking for an excuse to engineer some new form of Teutonic brilliance, made a very nice .22 conversion kit for the G3. I bought one of these years ago and although it was rather expensive at the time (and still is), it pays for itself rather quickly.

.22 conversion kits for guns are an extremely handy thing if you’re going to take your practice seriously. They arent really about accuracy as much as they are about gun handling. Practicing bring your AR up from a low ready, getting a fast sight picture, and snapping of a shot that hits a steel plate….you can do that at $9 per mag of 30, or you can do it for $1.20 per mag of 30. I prefer the more bang-for-your-buck approach. For practicing things like shooting while moving, weak hand shooting, transitions, etc, there’s no reason the .22 conversions shouldn’t be used.

For the AR, I very much like the CMMG conversion and recommend them.Although there are plenty of .22 conversion kits for your AR out on the market the one that seems to get universal approval is the CMMG. Ciener conversions, in my experience, are…’lacking’. If it were me, I would recommend a CMMG conversion, and four mags. Why four? Start your drills with one in the gun and three in your plate carrier or GI mag pouch.

When I practice with the .22 conversions I’m usually doing stuff like:

  • Bring rifle up from low ready, get fast sight picture, fire one round at steel plate for a hit.
  • Same drill, from weak side
  • Shoot while moving..forwards, backwards, sideways, etc.
  • Shoot from non-facing positions. That is to say, shoot at target when your facing away or oblique to target.
  • And just the run-n-gun of shooting three or five rounds, run to new position, shoot another 3-5 from prone, run to new position, 3-5 from kneeling, etc, etc.

Make up your own drills. Get a #50 bag of something and drag it to safety with one hand while covering with your rifle in the other, pie some corners, do some fire/movement drills with your mates, etc, etc.

Odds are pretty good that you’ll never need to do an Australian peel or anything like that, but any drill that improves your gun handling, gun safety, and tactical options is worth doing. And with a decent .22 conversion kit you can spend a long afternoon drilling with your buddies for the cost of two bricks of .22

.22 conversion kits for pistols have been, in my experience, a bit hit-n-miss. Tactical Solutions made one for the Glock but it never seemed to be reliable enough for a day of practice at the range. If anyone can recommend a good G17 .22 kit, I’d like to hear about it.

 

Video – Should I Buy A Used Ruger P95

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An interesting video:

I’ve made no secret that I rather like the P95, but I like it for one very simple reason: for about $200 it’s the best gun you can buy. Thats not to say its the best gun out there, or that its even a ‘very good’ gun. Rather it means that if you have $200 in your pocket, unless you get extraordinarily lucky, the Ruger P95 will be the best gun you can afford.

But…there’s some other things to think about.

On the police trade-in market these days there are tons of Glock and S&W .40 caliber pistols. For about $250 you can have a S&W M&P or a Glock 22/23. And, honestly, both of those guns are better than the P95.

Why don’t I get a stack of those pistols if theyre better than the P95 and only a few bucks more? Well, first off, I already filled my need for some cheap disposable pistols…I already have a dozen of the P-series so there’s really nothing to be gained by picking up the other ones. Additionally, I’m not a .40 guy. I prefer the 9mm.

However, if you’re looking for something that is ‘affordable’ and far better than a HiPoint, Bersa, or Taurus, head over to Kings and check the used pistols. Or, you can cruise Gunbroker and try your luck at scoring some $200 P95’s. They don’t usually go that cheap, but there’s always plenty to bid on and if you bid often enough you’ll get one at that price.

Guns like these are not really my first choice for carrying around everyday (although you could), but rather they are ‘loaners’ or ‘expendable’ handguns. Guns that you don’t mind loaning or giving to a friend who needs a gun, that you can leave in a truck or cabin and not be heartbroken if it gets stolen, or that you can abuse by getting wet and banged up as you rough-n-tumble your way through some disaster. They are like Bic lighters…they work quite reliably but they are basically disposable and cheap enough that you can have several.

I’ve ordered up a few of the police trade-in M&Ps for a friend and I have to say, I really like the gun. We got a .45 ACP version with three magazines for, I believe, $270 which is a smoking deal for a .45 with spare mags. What amazed me was how narrow and comfortable the grip was for that double stack mag. Very impressive.

Anyway, I was perusing YouTube and saw that video and thought I’d pass it along since I’ve mentioned my penchant for cheap, uber-stout handguns more than a few times.

Rack numbers

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Went shooting this morning and I was going to take one of the 870’s that I picked up a few months back but hadnt had a chance to shoot. I opened the shotgun cabinet and looked at the row of identical 870’s and it occurred to me: I actually have to start putting rack numbers on the guns.

Anyone of you who have worn dogtags or badges know what I’m talking about. Those big stenciled numbers on the butt of a stock for quick ID among several identical guns.

Yeah… gonna have to go that route, it seems.

On the bright side, thats a fairly good indicator that I might be done with acquiring 870’s for the forseeable remainder of  my life.

Article – Judge blocks California’s ban on high-capacity magazines over 2nd Amendment concerns

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If you want to buy a ‘hi cap’ magazine these days, you might notice that prices are a bit higher in many places. Reason?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — High-capacity gun magazines will remain legal in California under a ruling Friday by a federal judge who cited home invasions where a woman used the extra bullets in her weapon to kill an attacker while in two other cases women without additional ammunition ran out of bullets.

“Individual liberty and freedom are not outmoded concepts,” San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez wrote as he declared unconstitutional the law that would have banned possessing any magazines holding more than 10 bullets.

The market for magazines just suddenly grew by several million customers who are going to ‘panic buy’ as many freedom sticks as they can ‘while the gettins good’. Supply and demand.

It is a tremendously un-9th-Circuit decision. Historically the 9th Circus has been pretty far to the left in terms of it’s decisions. It’ll be interesting to see if this one sticks.

Does any of this affect the average survivalist? Well, yes. First, if youre a survivalist in California you are probably maxxing out your credit cards at this very moment. Secondly, if you were planning on a large purchase of magazines in preparation for next years election…you might want to double check availability and pricing.

I’m sure the folks in California are besides themselves with disbelief. I wonder what this bodes for other states with similar laws.

Strange bedfellows

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There’s that old expression about the ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’. It sounds nice, but in practice the enemy of your enemy is your friend up until your enemy is defeated…then the odds are pretty good that new friend will be your next enemy. (cough*WW2 and the Soviets*cough).

Here’s an article about how the trend towards being a ‘cashless society’ will be racist, classist, and a host of other -ists because poor people and people of color somehow are unable to get a debit card. (“Retailers want to go cashless. But opponents say that’s discriminatory“) So, what these self-appointed guardians of equality are proposing is that it be legislatively mandated that a business must take cash.

Hold that thought a minute, and go read this article. (“New York Times Wants To Have Credit Card Companies Monitor Sales of Guns and Ammo. What Could Ever Go Wrong?“) Here, the NY Times, a bastion of journalistic…uhm…well, something…, feels that consumer credit companies (and I would imagine, by extension, bank debit card holders) flag transactions for ‘the authorities” when a customer purchases certain quantities of guns/ammo.

Many credit card companies already have positions on what sort of transactions they will not partake in. It’s not hard to imagine that with the ‘do it for the children’ crowd leaning on them , that they’d cave and prohibit the use of their services on ‘forbidden’ services/transactions.

So, it isn’t a stretch to imagine the day when many stores are cashless and your only recourse for payment is to use your debit/credit card. Except that when you try to buy a rifle or magazine or ammo….-DECLINED-. And since the vendor is cashless, you’re choices are now pretty severely limited. It’s a tidy end run around that pesky right to bear arms thing. There’s no right to purchase arms…so they’ll simply make the transaction as onerous and difficult as possible: make it so you can only pay with a card, and make the terms of the card such that you can’t buy guns.

Thus, strangely, I’m in the camp of those folks saying that businesses should take cash (although I disagree about forcing them to). Not because I care about some meth tweaker or welfare queen who can’t get a checking account, but because cash gives me a degree of anonymity and privacy that I demand. Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows.

As a businessman, I recognize that cash presents a bunch of challenges…miscounting, theft, attractive nuisance, disease vector, time sink,  etc, etc. And people paying by card are far more likely to spend more money and do it more often than those who use greenbacks. (Which is why Vegas gives you chips to bet with instead of real money.) But as a survivalist and lover of liberty and privacy, cash possesses some very handy qualities that I desire, not the least of which are privacy.

Its interesting how seemingly unrelated ideas or events – ‘going cashless’ and turning credit card companies into watchdogs of the public welfare – can combine to present such hazards to folks like you and I.

 

589 and counting

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It’s hard to believe, but next year is a Presidential election year. It really flew by fast, didn’t it?

Election day is…mm….well, hell, let’s let the internet do the math:



So 589 days until election. What can you do between now and then? Well, if you can promise to pay back $1 a day until the election you could pick up a midrange AR. Or about five dozen Pmags. Or, if you’re a careful shopper, three cases of 9mm. If you’re willing to save $1 a day until then.

But, what if you’re a tad more industrious than that? Maybe you’re willing to give up Starbucks or something. Pay yourself five bucks a day between now and then and you could have five AR’s, or a couple M1A’a, or four or five Glocks, or about 325 shiny new AR mags. Or a really nice set of body armour with room leftover for ammo.

It’s been 15 years since the sunset of the Clinton Assault Weapons Ban…thats four Presidential election cycles where we bit our nails every fourth November. And .22LR is still not anywhere near its old prices, although it is available.

Am I advocating panic buying? Of course not. Panic buying is waiting until a week before election day. I’m advocating that you get off your butt and finally get it done and out of the way so you can move onto other things in your life.

The reality is that every so often, for political expediency, someone gets thrown out of the sled to the wolves. Next week the ‘bump stock’ fiasco takes effect. That was the short-straw that was drawn to appease the clamoring anti-gunners. But…next time…it might be something else, something more important, something more useful. Thats the political reality. And, as Rand said, while you can ignore reality you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality. And for the last 15 years there have been quite a few people ignoring the reality that there is never a ‘safe period’ for your AR and magazines.

Me, I’ve got enough to take care of me and those I care about. At this point I’m just buying extras to sell to the head-in-the-sand ostriches at “Get the Kentucky jelly” prices.

It’s 589 days to the election. Why take chances? If you can keep a promise to yourself to set $1 a day aside until then, you can have at least one AR and/or a buncha mags to set back.

This reminder of the Bad Ol’ Days has been brought to you by this blast from the past: