Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Local gun show this weekend. About the only thing that I was looking for were some small rifle primers. No luck. Or, more precisely, no luck at less than $30/m. Sorry, Im not paying that. My usual vendor had primers at $25/m but no small rifles. Once I accepted that defeat it was time to look around for the stuff that I just absolutely needed to have but just didnt know I needed. First up, and this was fate having a laugh at my expense, was a Filson Double Mackinaw Cruiser for $125. Size? 44-46. Okay…shrug outta my jacket…try it on …and…..just a tad small in the shoulders. Dammit, a 48 woulda done the trick. And it didnt help that when I started trying it on the guy said that he’d take $100 for it. I called a buddy of mine whom I thought it might fit and told him about it. He said to pick it up for him but, alas, when I went back the next day I had missed it by just ten minutes. Not meant to be, I suppose.

Firearms-wise, I didnt see much I couldnt live without. There seemed to be less ARs and AKs than at previous shows and magazines were a little thin too. Plenty of hunting arms of various calibers and configurations. In a sign of the times, there was a fella walking around with an ALICE pack on his back and a cardboard sing taped to it that read “BUG OUT BAGS $20, $40 WITH FRAME”. I wanted to get a picture of it but its always a dicey thing to start snapping pictures in a gun show.

Johnny Trochmann wasnt in attendance which was kind of a letdown since I wanted to pick up a few parachute flares and some other specialty items. This was a smallet-than-usual show so perhaps he was attending a larger one elsewhere.

Ran into a handful of people who I knew from the shows. A lot of these guys are up in their years and invariably the conversation turns to ‘did you hear about…’ and I learn that onel of the old timers has passed on. Gun shows, at least attending them habitually, is an old mans game. A lot of these guys are retired and gor them its a fun social thing to do, travelling to a different town every weekend to sell guns and swap stuff with each other. I remember when I started doing gun shows I was the youngest person at the show with a table. That was …hmmm….about 20-someodd years ago. Of course, gun shows were a bit different then. For one thing ours was held in a Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge so, since they had a liquor license and bar, as the evening wore on the deals became more and more interesting as the constituency became more and more tipsy. Good times.

Totally absent from this show was the guy who was here last time with the FN-made FAL that he wanted $2500 for. Sure it was in great shape and all, but $2500 was pushing the envelope. Nonetheless, a friend of mine, who loves him some FAL action, offered the guy a 100 oz. bar of silver. At the time silver was right around $24.75 an ounce, I think. The dealer, who really was a bit of a jerk, declined. Had he showed some brains and accepted my buddy’s deal he would have about $4000 right now for that FAL that is still worth ‘only’ $2500. I was hoping to see him there so I could remind him of this but it was not to be.

Anyway, I wound up with an 8# keg of powder for $45, a new Safariland paddle holster for my Glock for $20, a few shellholders and some other sundry items. Anytime I get out of a gun show without spending more than $100 I chalk it up as a win.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

There’s a lot more than five, but this hits some of the highlights.

Finished up an inventory the other night. I was mentioning to the missus exactly what we had in the way of long term food storage (which is completely different from the short- and mid-term storage we have) and she nodded approvingly and said “Sounds like we’re done on the long term food”. I blinked a couple times and for some reason my brain seemed to have a hard time getting into gear after that. She was, for the most part, right and it had never occurred to me that there actually might be a point where you could say “We’re done”. So I mulled it over, looked at the numbers, did some sample menus in my head, and it looks like it actually might be at the stage where its ‘enough’. I would like to round off a few ‘broken’ cases where a box of six only has five in it, but otherwise…. Of course, more is better but I think we’d be okay with just what is on hand at this moment. How odd…I’d never thought that there’d be a point where I could wrap up this particular aspect of preparedness and move on to another. I knew that, in theory, theres a point where you sit back and say “Ok, now we’re good to go” I just didnt think I’d actually hit it.

Of course, this is just on long term foods. Theres still plenty of other things to work on, and some stuff is always ongoing, but the most urgent and obvious ones seem to be taken care of to the point that they are at a level I can feel comfortable with.

Now, I bet youre just chomping at the bit to ask what the duration of that food supply is…six months? A year? Two years? Five? Something I’ve noticed is that no matter how much of something you have, there is always someone who wants to bust your stones about it. If I said I had two years supply of food someone will say ‘but what are you going to do after two years?’. If I said I had a five year supply theyd ask ‘what are you going to do after five years’. And, honestly, I think its a pretty annoying game of one-upmanship and I don’t want to get into it. Theres a point where you have to figure that civilization will get back on track and the stores will have food on the shelves again. We have enough that Im comfortable that if the wheels fly off of civilization in a major way we’re going to be just fine for quite some time.
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How do I do inventory? Usually its pretty simple. I grab a clipboard, pen, paper, and start making lists. I find it to be a relaxing activity. Its usually late at night, I have a small radio tuned to Coast-to-Coast or some other bizarre talk format, and I go through boxes and shelves making lists as I go along. When its done I usually transcribe everything into spreadsheets and print out copies to keep and use as checklists as things get used up. At a glance, I can tell you how many AA batts, packages of freeze dried chicken, or paper towels we have tucked away. If youre going to take your preparedness seriously, you really have no choice but to keep inventories…otherwise you waste resources buying things you dont need any more of.
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Ordered a bunch of the Korean Glcok mags for the wife’s ‘new’ .40 competition gun. I’d tried the 9mm mags in the past and found them to be virtually indistinguishable from the factory Glock magazines in use and construction. So much so, in fact, that I have several dozen of them tucked away. So when we needed some .40 mags it seemed like a good idea to get the Korean ones for about $7 each. Unfortunately, while the 9mm ones were great the .40’s are all getting returned. Quite simply, they dont fit in the magazine of the gun…oh, they’ll go in if you really work ‘em in with some elbow grease but any idiot can tell from the exertion that there is something Not Right. Tried several of the mags in three different guns. All were lousy fits. Not a really big deal, they’ll be returned with no problem; but theres an important lesson here – try any new magazine in the gun before you tuck it away somewhere. I have a huge(!!!) pile of G3 mags and I sat there and ran every single one through the rifle to make sure they fit the magazine well. Tedious process, oh yeah. Worth it for the peace of mind? Most definitely.

So, the Korean mags, which are at various times referred to as Kang or KCI or Korean contract mags, are, in my experience, just fine in 9mm but should be avoided in the other calibers.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Which just underscores that I really need to get up to the cannery and round out a few things.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

On the whole, Montana has been, for me, a rather safe place to live. I’ve felt exactly one earthquake in 25 years, had no blizzards, and have just generally been living a queit and safe existence. Oh, 2000 was a remarkable year for forest fires and the town filled with smoke, but other than that….nothing.

Some say that they Yellowstone ubervolcano will begoing off soon and that anyone within several hundred miles will be toast, but I’m pretty skeptical.

This is not to say that Montana doesnt have its moments….there was a pretty big quake back in the 50’s, superstitious religions set up camp here from time to time, some parts of the state are getting pretty dry, and, of course, our economy has always been a little shaky. Still, I’d say its a better place in terms of safety than many other states…especially the coastal ones with large populations, or the southern ones with immigration issues.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Spring is, eventually, approaching. Montana has a few nice things going for it but short winters and early springs are not among them. We refer to spring as ‘mud season’ around here and with good reason. However, since we live in the ‘city’ here the problems arent mud as much as it is just the detritus of an entire winters worth of road sand and gravel. The point, though, is that it is rapidly approaching bicycle season. Bicycle season, by the way, may accelerate it’s arrival in direct proportion to the arrival of $4/gallon gasoline.

I’ve said it before, mountain bikes are a lovely way to move from point a to point z in a crisis. I’ll bet you a whole buncha yen that if you look at pictures from whats left of northeastern Japan theres far more bicycle traffic than private vehicle traffic. Even in the best of times, which these arent, bicycles give you a bit more mobility in a crowded environment. This isnt theory, you can see it proven if you live in a large city and have bicycle messengers. Sure, they ride with the same sense of self preservation as the typical Japanese Zero pilot, but the results speak for themselves.

For general preparedness, a decent mountain bike beats the crap out of walking. Can’t haul huge amounts of gear beyond a backpack or two, and if its raining or snowing youre probably going to be miserable, but when the gas pumps are locked up, the roads are jammed, and its time to head for greener pastures youre going to be glad you have one.

Like guns, you’ll need some reference manuals, tools, spare parts, and a small amount of mechanical knowledge. In my town, which is a college town, theres literally free bicycles if you scavenge around the dumpsters and such. Heck, the local police auction of lots of them from time to time…some cheap ones, but some good ones in there too.

I’ve been riding the same bike for a number of years now. I can be at my shop, from my house, in about six minutes if I really work at it. For a very long time all I had was a mountain bike and I never felt terribly inconvenienced by not having a vehicle. I wouldnt recommend having just a bicycle and no vehicle, Ill take internal combustion over infernal pedaling any day of the week.

I’ve been meaning to modify my bike and just havent gotten to it. More than anything else I want to strip the frame and have it powder coated a nice subdued color. Although, really, I could also just pick up a couple rolls of camouflage tape used for bows and guns and just wrap it around the frame when the need arises.

As it gets warmer perhaps me and the dog will head up some of the riding trails. Be good to tire him out and get some exercise.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Its funny, youd think being freezedried and having virtually all the moisture removed would mean that these packages are lightweight. I guess they are, but not when you have a whole pickupload of them.

Pouches and the elusive #10 cans. Your envy….I feed on it. That and the lasagna.

(I apologize for the cell phone pic…too tired to get out the porn-quality Canon 7D)

The apocalypse approaches at a gallop, but we’re not worried………

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Most folks are familiar with the Greenbrier…the superbunker built under a luxury hotel to house Washington VIPs in case of a nuclear attack. Various tours are available of the facility and if I ever find myself on that side of the country again I’d surely love a tour. However, uber bunkers like that aren’t just limited to First World countries. I’d read that over in Canuckistan they had the Diefenbunker…designed to protect the Canadian government from…uh..errr..well, I dunno what. Maybe they were worried the Quebecois might get the bomb or something. Anyway, I found that there is indeed a site for the facitlity. Most .gov bunkers have really cool names attached to them. I can only imagine what the codename was for the Canadian bunker…Fort Molson? Mooseheadquarters?

No doubt every nation, in some capacity, has such a facility. The Swiss are famous for their bunker-building exploits. The Germans uncover a new one everytime they extend a subway line. Former Soviet satellite states are dotted with them.

Anyway, I bring it up because I always find it interesting to see these things and observe how they design for various contingencies. Plus, theyre just so darn cool.
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After a hiatus of a few years, the missus has decided to get back into IDPA shooting. Previously she used a G17 that she tweaked out after taking a Glock armorers class. Now she’s deciding she wants to compete with the .40 cal. Turns out that the finger grooves on the 3rd gen Glocks wind up forcing her hand into an unnatural grip, so we had to hunt down a used 2nd gen .40 that didnt have the finger grooves. Zanders has a bunch of Detroit PD trade-ins so we got her one. First time I’ve had a Glock fail the slide-return-to-battery-while-pointed-at-the-ceiling test. Now, admittedly, this ‘test’ is not without some controversy as to whether it actually has any merit. However, none of my other used Glocks have ever failed it, so perhaps there is something going on here. Regardless, we were planning to swap out all the springs anyway. A few interesting things…the Detroit gun has DPD in the serial number, all the mags are marked DPD, the slide is marked PROPERTY OF DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT and theres one of those hideous NY trigger modules in there. First Glock Ive ever seen with actual police markings on it. I’ll detail strip and clean the thing tonight, replace the springs, and we have a competition trigger group on the way. For the money, a good platform to build up a competition-styled gun. Wish they had some 9mm trade-in Glocks, but most of those seem to have dried up.
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So, to date, I’ve tried the Kifaru Wooby and the Wiggy’s Insulated Poncho. Both have their good and bad points. Between the two, I liked the Kifaru better but its a bit more money than the Wiggy’s. Well, there’s now a third contender in this race. And, as Im starting to notice, as I get closer and closer to exactly what I want the price goes up exponentially. At $225 theres no way in hell Im getting one of these but Im liking the design. Exped Dreamwalker 250 – wearable as a poncho, has a drawstring hood, zips together to form a sleeping bag, highly compressible, down filled. Except for the amzingly hideous color it looks like it would be a virtually ideal candidate for something to stuff in a daypack for those ‘just in case’ moments.

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

On the afternoon of Friday, March 11th, Hideaki Akaiwa was at his job, dully trudging out the final bitter minutes of his work week in his office just outside the port city of Ishinomaki in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture. What this guy’s day job actually is, I honestly have no idea, but based on the extremely limited information I have on the guy I can only presume that his daily nine-to-five routine probably falls somewhere between the motorcycle chase scenes from the movie Akira and John Rambo’s antics in the book version of First Blood on the ridiculousness/badassitude scale. But that’s only speculation.

I’m sure the real story behind this isnt as cool sounding but its nice to think that in a major disaster some folks first response isn’t “Where’s the Red Cross” but rather “Screw this crap, I’m gonna fix this.”

Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

From The Firearms Blog –

Smart. Go where the market is. Now, while this is a smart move on Fiocchi’s part, catering to an unserved market, its also something most hardcore preparedness freaks arent going to get too worked up about. Why? Well, when it comes to long term storage of ammo most of us are DIY-types. After all, surplus ammo cans are still available and it isnt too hard to pack ‘em up, wrap ‘em up, and put ‘em up. The suspenders-and-belt types will go a few steps further and vacuum seal or polymer coat the whole can.

Still, its nice to see ‘off the shelf’ solutions to the ammo storage issue.