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

Link to a large selection of army field manuals in .pdf.

Some useful, some not so useful. All, however, are interesting.

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

All right, lets say youre in the market for:

• A semi-automatic centerfire carbine
• Pistol or rifle caliber
• Must have aftermarket support for parts, mags, etc.
• “High capacity” magazine availability, pref. 25-32 rd. range
• Rugged
• Can be broken down into a package no longer than 18″ (fold in half, take down into subassemblies, whatever) but can be made ready in under a minute
• Not be AOW/SBR

I come up with only a handful…Uzi, Feather, KelTec.  CatCo had a BATF-approved Sten a few years back but I dunno if they were able to be broken down.  Any ideas?

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

Should Americans view these kinds of scenarios as extraordinary circumstances — or a warning sign of a darker future?

Duh..any blackout is a ‘darker future’.

But seriously, folks………

Is it a sign of a ‘darker future’? (Pun not withstanding.) Hmmm…lemme think on that one (/sarcasm)

Annnnnd the captain has turned on the ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign as we begin our descent into a greatly diminshed standard of living. Please make sure all your firearms are in a locked, loaded and upright position. Portable electronic devices should be used at this time. On behalf of the governemnt and myself we’d like to thank you for your patronage and next time your travel plans include a trip to 1979 please keep us in mind. Lame ducks, prepare for departure.

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

The big Missoula gun show is this weekend. Thus far, Ive been able to show some pretty good restraint. Although…there is an IMI/AA Uzi Model A in 9mm that is sorely tempting me. $900, used. Hmmm.

Primers seem to have come down a bit. Theyre in the <$30/m range.  I might be tempted to get a few bricks. No sign of match primers though.

Saw plenty of the usual stuff…a lot of AR’s, a smattering of FALs and AKs. Magazine prices were reasonable and ammo was still in short supply.

Interestingly, there were more ‘personal’ guns for sale than usual. The economy has hit people hard and some of them are suddenly deciding that the gun safe could use a little more room and they could use a little more money in their pocket. Its still early, but I suspect its a buyers show.

Ran into John Trochmann, of course, and said hi. He has a very nice Barret with scope, case, spare mags and ammo for $10k. A serious piece of hardware, but then again these are serious times we live in.

Tomorrow is my birthday so perhaps I’ll treat myself to some cheap little luxury at the show. We’ll see. I received a birthday gift today from my dad, a gift certificate to Kifaru so suddenly I have some choices there that I wasnt expecting. Love the Kifaru gear, though, so this was a wonderful and very generous gift.

Other than the Uzi did I see anything at the show I couldnt live without? No, actually. There were plenty of things that would be nice to have, but nothing that I regard as ‘must have’. Which is good since money is so tight these days anyway. By the by, everything you wanna know about Uzis.

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

What do you suppose Custer thought as he saw the increasing number of Indians circling his position and his own forces dwindling under their attack? I mean, yeah, he probably thought “Crap, I shouldn’t have left those Gatling guns behind” but do you think there was a point where he figured there was no way out and that any further fighting would be pointless? I imagine there was a point where he knew there was no way he could save himself or his men and that he was going to die. So, I wonder, why didn’t he just drop his pistols and wait for the inevitable end?

In the heyday of survivalism one of the common comments made about the possibility of a US-Soviet nukefest was the classic “If it happens I hope Im sitting right under where the missle hits”. Another great standard of stupidity was “If it happens we’re all dead anyway”. These statements were usually given by people when confronted with the option of preparing for surviving a nuclear exchange or doing nothing. The worst of the bunch not only resigned themselves to the defeatist attitude of “we’re all dead anyway” but would discourage others from preparing because if no one was prepared to survive such an exchange, the logic goes, theyd be more likely to avoid one. Those who thought they could survive a nuclear war would, they said, be more inclined to participate in one…remove their chances of survival and they won’t throw nukes around. (A fascinating idea that only really works if both sides play by the same rules.)

Fact of the matter is that regardless of what you do, youre gonna die eventually.  Superstitions about an afterlife aside, once your dead you’re pretty much done with existence. The only variables, really, are how long you live and how well. (And, to a degree, how well you die. Technically, we’re in control of that to some degree but theres still plenty of room for the unexpected terminal event.) Personally, Id rather die fat and well-rested in my sleep in a warm bed, in a nice house, on a quiet, cool peaceful night than to die emaciated and filthy, on my knees, coughing up blood as I watch joyous thugs ransack my house before setting it ablaze.

So, if we accept the fact that we are gonna die someday (and if you can’t accept that fact, boy are you in for a surprise someday) whats the point of preparing to weather life’s disasters? You die two years from now or thirty years from now youre still dead, yes? So why go through all these expensive and elaborate steps that we take to preserve our safety and comfort? Same reason that, as I read it, Custer kept going until he was dead – our number one motivational imperative is to survive.

Look at what goes on in the animal kingdom…pretty much every animal’s number one priority in life is to survive, at least long enough to ensure a new generation of that animal. Only under the most extreme circumstances do animals willingly risk their survival … almost always in defense of their young or defense of their social group (hive, pack, whatever). When we see animals exhibit behavior that is counter to their survival we usually discover those animals are diseased or deranged in some way. Theyre ‘mad’.

So what does it say about people who refuse to prepare against threats to their own survival? Or about people who actively discourage or disparage people who take measures to protect themselves? Are they diseased and deranged? Are they somehow twisted in their thinking that they are going against their own instincts of self-preservation? I doubt it. I think that the people who do these things aren’t delusional, they’re either being purposefully ignorant of the threats against them or they’re quite aware of them but choose to pretend they don’t exists and prefer not to be reminded that they do exist. And, as Rand pointed out, reality exists whether you choose to believe in it or not.

On the other hand, one could argue that one thing that separates us from animals is our ability to control and regulate our instinctual behavior. If we were unable to do that, we’d be living in a fairly anarchistic and chaotic world. Those crazy preparedness freaks are people who can’t rationalize or intellectualize past their lizard brain instincts..theyre no better than primates in a jungle. Two sides to every argument, I suppose.

Reality has a predictable way of bending people to its will. (Or it crushes them completely.) I would bet you that there are less people today ‘against us’ and more people ‘with us’ in terms of being prepared. There will be huge differences of opinion as to just what exactly it is we are preparing for, but I think it is the rare individual these days who looks at the person cutting their debt, stocking up on food, cutting their living expenses and asks ‘why’.

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

Next Saturday is my birthday. If you have a few extra stun grenades or a couple acres of arable land you don’t really need, feel free to send it along with a birthday card. Crom will bless you for it.

My birthday list is actually fairly short this year. The economy sucks, people are losing jobs, so why would I ask someone to buy me something expensive? However, this year I only have three things on my list – a Kifaru Scout pack, a cast iron wok from Lodge, and a  SureFire E2D LED Defender. Pretty simple tastes.  Really, though, I’ve been quite happy when my friends just drop by a 12-pack of Coke with ‘happy birthday!’ scrawled across it.

My birthday will occur right smack in the middle of the three-day Missouula gun show – the largest show in the great state of Montana. I plan to spend all three days there looking at stuff I cannot afford and saying hi to familiar faces. Its a great show, always a full house, and tons of awesome stuff there. If youre in the neighborhood you should check it out.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Remember how after the feds pulled off their little stunt at Waco many people asked ‘why not just wait them out’? Well, here’s a case where someone did just that. A guy has been holed up on  his property for ten years and the local cops know he’s there they just don’t feel its worth the hassle of getting him. His original crime carried a sentnece of…you guessed it…ten years. And for ten years he’s been hanging out on his property. Its an interesting read with some humor and a good dose of WTF and tinfoil hattery.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

And finally, when shopping for that hideout pocket gun here’s a very handy chart showing the most popular and common ones with their relative sizes.

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

Nope, it wasn’t your imagination.

While I remembered to make sure the internet hosting bills are paid I kinda forgot the domain renewal was up.

Ooops.

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

An impromptu five-shot 100-yard shootoff with the local PD sniper.

I won.

To be fair, we swapped rifles and he won on the next five rounds so it isnt that he’s not a good shot, its that his department-issued rifle isn’t really as suited for the task as it could be. Im sure if he brought his privately owned .308 it would have been a different story.  Still….it was fun.

ETA: By request:

Me: CZ550 in .308, H-S stock, single set trigger, Farrell mount, IOR 10×56 scope with MP8 reticle, 26″ barrel, Harris bipod

Him:  Stock Rem. 700 heavy barrel .308 with Leupold 1-piece base and 3-10x scope with duplex reticle. Other than a camo paintjob it was pretty much a stock gun.

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

Hmph. For some of us, they never left.

Jason Hodge, father of four children from Barstow, Calif., says he’s “not paranoid” but he is concerned, and that’s why he bought space in what might be labeled a doomsday shelter.

It’s good that someone is thinking about the future and taking steps to protect themselves. What Im curious about is if this is some sort of ‘band-aid’ approach….will someone buy into this program and then figure they have nothing else they need to do. I mean, this isnt like buying homeowners insurance where you send a company the check and then your responsibility ends. However, I suspect thats whats going to happen. Folks will sign on for one of these time-share shelters and figure thats all they have to do…and when the power goes out they’ll stand around helplessly not realizing that theres more to being prepared than just sending a check to some yahoo with a refurbished missile silo. You and I know better, though….right?

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

A  nice article about artesian wells. I had heard the term in the past but it was interesting to read exactly how an artesian well differs from other types of wells. An artesian well figured prominently in the classic post-apocalyptic novel “Alas Babylon”. I remember as a kid drinking from fountains that had water that smelled as artesian water is supposed to smell – like rotten eggs because of all the dissolved minerals – but I dont think Ive ever come across an artesian well here in Montana. Perhaps our geological makeup doesnt lend itself to it. I’ve seen plenty of natural hot springs out here, but I dont think Ive encountered any artesian wells. If they do exist here, they’d certainly be a nice asset to have on a piece of property. Anyway, its a fascinating article and worth reading.