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

A lot of the stuff we acquire for preparedness is fairly middle-of-the-road in terms of  cost. Some stuff is cheap, some stuff is mid-range, and some stuff is just downright spendy. Take those spendy items and put them in the environment that we are preparing against (earthquake, flood, fire, zombies, etc.) and you’ve got a recipe for frustration and loss. Some of the more expensive items are things like guns, radios, optics, GPS, range finders, cellphones, etc. So it stands to reason that we want to protect those items as best we can until such time as we need them.

There is no shortage of scenarios that damage gear – it’s 2am and its time to leave in a hurry. Its pouring rain, the ground is muddy, and the only space left in the vehicle is in the back of the uncovered bed of a pickup truck. You drag your radio gear out of storage, trip on the steps and it goes flying to land in the mud. You pick it up, run to the truck, and heave it into the back where it sits in the rain for twenty minutes as you frantically run back and forth from the house grabbing as much as you can. Then it’s a two hour ride in the rain, gear bumping and jostling against itself, gravel and dirt flying around, and crushing weight as the load shifts back and forth on the rough roads. But, finally, you make it to your destination of relative safety and you start unpacking. Now there’s two endings to this drama – your radio gear is either in more pieces when you started, and soaking wet to boot or its dry, intact and ready for use. The biggest factor in the outcome is how you protected it. And the same goes for your guns. Or your binoculars. Or your laptop.

To me, the qualities Im looking for in a hard storage case are pretty straightforward: durability, survivability, adaptability, utility, and affordability. Not necessarily in that order.

The best things I have found are the hard plastic cases made by Pelican and Hardigg. Hardigg was doing a great job of giving Pelican a run for its money so Pelican did what any smart business would do – buy them out and recapture market share. I’m going to use the term ‘Pelican case’ to describe the hard plastic cases made by Pelican and Hardigg interchangeably. In its simplest form, the Pelican cases are briefcase-shaped cases of various dimensions made from near-indestructible plastic, gasketed to be watertight, and foam padded on the interior. They are pretty much the last word in readily available consumer-marketed (meaning available to average joes and not just .mil) cases out there. I bought one of their big rifle cases for my .308 bolt gun and have been very pleased with it. I can heave it into the back of the truck, take it to the range and know that the gun will be just fine. This sort of security and peace of mind doesn’t come cheap, though. The rifle case cost me $200 all on its own. Would a $75 Dosckocil case have done the trick? For a while, maybe….but I’ve ‘sprung’ a few of them in air travel and while theyre great for traveling and keeping a gun in the closet or basement they wouldn’t be my first choice for fleeing advancing hordes of zombies in the rain or snow.

The guys at Pelican offer their cases in various sizes from stuff small enough to fit just your iPod to cases the size of footlockers. All of them are quite durable and all of them aren’t cheap. But, you do get what you pay for. On the bright side, Pelican (and Hardigg) cases can be found new and used on eBay at big savings. Often they’ll be without the foam inserts or the foam will have been cut to a shape that doesn’t suit your needs. Not a problem, the foam inserts are replaceable and can be ordered from Pelican. I often remove them altogether and put my gear in nylon pouches and then pad it with some eggshell foam…this way the gear is ready to go and still protected for transit and storage. If you can afford them, the Pelican cases are outstanding ways to ‘ruggedize’ your gear for travel and storage in adverse conditions. A year or two ago I found a closeout on small Pelican cases that had been used by Nikon for their digital cameras. Other than a Nikon sticker (easily removed) these were brand new Pelican cases. I bought all they had, sold a bunch and kept a few for myself. One of them serves as my “Glock first aid kit” containing a bunch of spare parts, disassembly tool, test cover plate, and a few other items. They also make excellent indestructible containers for personal pocket/pack-sized first aid kits.

Of course, not everyone wants to spend $125 on a Pelican case the size of a phone book. I can totally relate to that, Im one cheap bastard myself. The next step down from the Pelican case is the tried and true surplus ammo can. Assuming that the ones you get are in good shape and haven’t been dinged up too badly they are usually watertight and their metal construction certainly affords a great deal of protection to whatever you put inside. Drawbacks are the limited sizes, sketchy availability, rather distinctive military look, and lack of internal padding. On the other hand when you can find them in the size you need almost nothing works as well. I have far more ammo cans than I do Pelican cases and I use them for storing all sorts of stuff that needs to stay dry, protected, and clean.

Other than expensive electronics and guns what else needs this level of protection? Well, pretty much anything that absolutely needs to stay dry, clean and in one piece. First aid gear comes to mind. I’ve a couple Pelican cases that I bought used for about $20 each. Theyre kinda cube shaped and just the right size to hold a large first aid bag. Some folks get a large rifle case and make it into a ‘backup gun package’ – a rifle, shotgun, pistol and a couple magazines all in one place ready to be tucked under a house, left in the loft of a barn, or hidden under some deadfall. One of the larger Pelican cases or 40mm ammo cans make an excellent bombproof container for complete kits or storing a 3-day bag.

Although I try to take good care of my gear I do realize there are going to be times when babying stuff just isn’t going to be a possibility. For those times I want my gear packed in such a manner I can throw it around, leave it in the snow, bounce it around in a truck, lash it to a pack from or cache it somewhere.

As I said, eBay is an excellent source for used Hardigg and Pelican cases. Many military surplus cases are on the market these days and although they may be scratched, nicked and painted they are usually still just as good as they were when they were new. While they aren’t cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, they most certainly are cheaper than having to replace a critical piece of gear that got destroyed because you left it sitting out in the open.

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

Yoyo = “Youre on your own”

A brief article, with a link to a very interesting .pdf, on how the .gov response to a nuclear ‘incident’ might take a little while. But don’t worry, “What citizens need to know fits on a wallet-sized card”.

I’d expect that theres going to be a delay of a lot more than several days before .gov can mount any real, meaningful response. Partly because .gov isn’t the best at responding to disasters of any magnitude and also because, realistically, if someone nukes Denver the .gov is going to be too busy doing ’security’ stuff to focus on the aftermath…they’ll be shutting down borders, mobilizing response teams, staging military units, etc, etc. In short, they’ll have their hands full doing the ‘Homeland Security’ thing. Another reason to have your own ducks in a row…when the .gov finally does get its act together it’ll most likely consist of guys with guns forcing people to stay indoors ‘for your own protection’ as they try to find their butt with both hands.

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

One of these days I’m going to take a high-quality pictureo f my bookshelf and post it so you can zoom in and see all the titles of the various books in there. I have one seven-foot high bookcase that is dedicated to nothing but preparedness-related books. Of course, deciding what texts are and are not related to preparedness is pretty subjective. Food storage, first aid, gun stuff, beekeeping, water supplies, home improvement, etc, are all fair game. I dont think many of us would disagree that those topics would fit in. Then we get a little more esoteric – cookbooks, politics, history, economics and a few other unexpected subjects.

Cookbooks are pretty easy to figure out. I like to eat. When the economy finally runs off the rails, infrastructure fails and the dead walk the earth Im still going to like to eat. So, I learn to cook. In addition to the usual stuff I cook I also check through cookbooks and cooking magazines for recipes that involve foods that store well. Theres plenty of books out there that are dedicated to cooking with food storge but, honestly, some of those recipes are pretty unappealing. I’d rather go hunting through Food Network, Food & Wine, Sunset, and a few other cooking magazines and hunt down recipes that I can look at and say “Hey, if I used canned [ingredient] instead of fresh [ingredient] I could make this using only stuff I have in storage!” I get to expand my skillset, add a new recipe to the Post Apocalyptic Lunch Menu and get to eat more yummy food. Win-win. So…cookbooks.

History books are fairly specialized. When I was a kid I had very little interest in history. As I get older I discover that everyone, once they hit a certain age, start developing an independent interest in history. Some guys become fascinated with the Civil War. Some guys become World War Two buffs. A lot of guys get into the frontier/Old West stuff. My interest in history almost always revolves around misery and suffering. I’m fascinated with historical accounts of famines, plagues and disaster. I’m always keen to read first person accounts of the Great Depression, behind-the-lines refugees, lost-at-sea stories, etc, etc. Anything that recounts in detail how a person (or persons) coped with terrible hardship and trial is something that I find fascinating to read. I’ve no idea why, I suspect its because I dont ever want to be one of those people. As of late, the last year or so, I’ve been fascinated in the day-to-day lives of people in occupied Europe during the war, the partisans living in haylofts, the refugee family eating boiled grass and hay, the dissidents living in hiding, etc. I’ve also been especially drawn to accounts of peoples experiences in the times that preceded those events…Im guessing thats probably just my paranoid side wanting to find eerie parallels to todays situation and hopefully discovering insight into figuring out when its all going to come to a head. Regardless, theres more than a few books on the shelf about that sort of thing.

Politics is always a tricky subject. I have several books on the American revolution, biographies of Franklin, Washington, Reagan, etc. and a few of the standards like Common Sense and that sort of thing. How they relate to preparedness is a bit hard to describe but I think it goes towards understanding government better (if such a thing is even possible) and thereby gives me a better baseline of measuring just exactly when .gov gets a little too big for its britches. Its all fine and dandy to stand up and yell “Thats unconstitutional” but you have a bit more credibility when youve actually read the Constitution and the history behind it. Theres also a few more current books on politics in there too.

One shelf is mostly fiction. I do believe that fiction has a place in preparedness. Remember the scene in ‘The Matrix’ where Neo is first dropped into ‘the construct’? Morpheus explains to him that the construct is a computer generated reality that they use to practice and learn their skills…if youre a Star Trek fan, you could liken it to a holodeck. To me, fiction is that ‘practice arena’ for exploring concepts and ideas. No one really believes that zombies are going to start shambling down the street and start munching on your neighbors. However, the books like ‘World War Z’ are useful because they make us think about situations we may not have thought of before. Yeah there are no zombies but what if the bridges were choked off and we had to get outta here? How would we do that? That sort of thing. So I have Pournelle, Ahern, Ing, Straub, Frank, Smith and others sitting there on the bookshelf. One thing I dont normally advertise is that I have some …questionable…books there in the fiction section as well. The most notable is The Turner Diaries, a white supremacist manifesto in fiction form. Why is it there? Well, I dont support the ideas espoused in it, but I am interested in how cell structures are formed, underground movements are organized, and insurgencies planned…these are things this book covers so I read it. Too many people assume that if you read something you must believe in it. Hardly. I read stuff because I want to hear all sides of the argument, all sides of the story, see all the perspectives. I’ve read white supremacist literature and I’ve read Reconquista literature. I’ve read the Christian bible and I’ve read the Muslim Koran. I’ve read Ayn Rand and Ive read Abbie Hoffman. I’ve no problem exposing myself to new ideas… deciding which ones to keep and which ones to discard is probably the thing I most equate with freedom – the freedom to make up my mind for myself on an issue. I suspect that this is why the notion of censorship and bookburning always enrages me.

Economics didnt used to interest me and it still doesnt. I mean, Im not interested in it for its own sake…Im interested in economics for what learning about it will do to help me survive these bizarre times we live in. Theres some books like ‘Conquer the Crash’ and similar titles telling how to make it through recessions, depressions, inflation, deflation, etc, etc. The best book I’ve read so far has been Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson. Its a dated book that explains various economic policies and why they dont work. I cant be dure I agree with all of it but its fascinating to read about the fallacy of The Broken Window, why a machine that replaces fifty workers won’t lead to unemployment, how rationing increases shortages, etc, etc. An excellent book.

The very bottom shelf is where I keep references. Mostly military TM and FM manuals, gun catalogs, maps, dictionary, thesaurus and stylebook (yes, theyre preparedness related…you cant learn if you cant communicate, and if you cant learn you cant survive), Flaydermans, world atlas, etc. These are books I dont get into too often unless I need to shore up my understanding of something. Wouldnt want to be without them, though.

Often Ill randomly grab one book off the shelf and read it while in bed. When I finally turn out the lights I can mull the information over in my head until I finally fall asleep. Good stuff. If you havent started a similar bookcase for your own collection, I highly recommend it.

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

You guys remember a few weeks back I posted about a company that was making a 50-rd drum for the HK91 rifle? I said that while I admired the company for making a product like that available, I would probably have to take a pass on getting one because..well…I’m poor. (Hangs head in shame.) But, I didn’t feel bad about it because it really seemed to me to be a niche item that, in some circumstances, might be just what the doctor ordered but more often would simply be a pile of money tied up into something whose practical application (doing a real-life version of The Omega Man and fighting to escape zombie hordes) may be quite a while in coming. (However, to be fair, when you do need heavy firepower you usually need it badly and then you’ll become quite the believer in the phrase ‘money is no object’.)

I guess I made an impression somewhere because a fella from the company that manufactures the drum magazine commented to the post saying that for the guy who needed a large volume of fire this thing was just the ticket and that it was a crowd pleaser at the rifle range. I respect the honesty of someone who says how their product has a practical use and in the same breath says ‘and it looks cool too!’. The only thing that would have pushed more Guy Buttons would have been if he told me each one is hand delivered by the Swedish Bikini Team. I said that if they’d send me one to try out I would be happy to play with it a bit and post the results. I warned him that I’d write about what happened, good and bad, and he said that was perfectly cool with him. So…he said he’d get one in the mail to me and for the first time in a while I have been as excited as a kid waiting for Christmas morning. While waiting, I figured I should start thinking about the criteria for evaluating this magazine. After all, if they trust me enough to send me one to try out the least I can do is give the thing a good, honest test drive.

A box arrived the other day and its funny…you wouldn’t think you could fit so much excitement into a little cardboard box but I pretty much shredded the cardboard open with my bare hands. I might have run a couple stop signs getting back to the house in my rush to put this thing into the PTR and see how well it fit and how cool it looked.

The very first thing I noticed upon opening the box was that this magazine is not the plastic-bodied feeding device I thought it would be. The magazine body is aluminum with a Cerakote  finish that seems to just suck all the light from around it.   It has a very no-nonsense appearance and everything about it gives the impression of quality. Its almost elegant in its streamlined, no-frills appearance. The magazine came with a several page set of instructions and a few spare parts. The back of the magazine is clearly marked:

Marketing 101

Now, I recall the 1994-2004 stretch of magazine insanity that was the Clinton Assault Weapons ban. Mags made during that time, if they held more than ten rounds, had to be marked as law enforcement or military use only and be datestamped. Possession of a ‘restricted’ magazine was against the law for us mere civilians.  It was an insanely stupid law and once it ’sunset’ in 2004 you could have all those ‘restricted’-marked magazines with no legal issues (in most jurisdictions..some states/cities kept their own version of the ban. Fortunately, they’re places where you probably wouldn’t want to live anyway). Those magazines are now reminders of those unhappy days and I always chuckle when I come across one. Why is the Allied Armament X-91 marked this way? Good question. I fired off an email asking why and promptly received a reply.

The answer, I’m told, is pretty simple – people want something more when they think they can’t have it. Thats right, its a marketing gimmick! Unless you live in one of the enclaves that still has magazine restrictions (NY, CA, etc.) you can own this magazine with no problems despite whats written on the back.

For testing and demo purposes I’m using two rifles – one PTR-91 that is a couple years old, and a genuine HK-91 that is more than a couple years but in like-new shape. I’ve shot both guns before and know that both are good, reliable shooters and perfect platforms to test the AA X-91 drum.

50 rds. + drum + HK91 = !!!!!!!

The first test is the most simple – how does the magazine fit in the magazine well? Tight? Loose? Easy in/easy out? Initially its a bit awkward because after years of using a rectangular magazine it takes a moment or two to figure out just how to grasp the bulbous drum and position it in the hand to seat it in the magazine well properly. The magazine required a sharp upward tap to get it to seat and lock in the magazine well. Fit seemed quite good although there was some forward/backward play, however it seemed to make no difference in performance. The magazine release operated as it should..no drag, tension or other concerns. The magazine didnt drop free when empty but was easily removed with the off hand. The magazine body, as opposed to the magazine feed tower, is at a slight angle so if you grab it and pull/push it into the magazine well youre pushing it at a slight angle off of the angle you would normally insert the magazine. This is just something thats part of the learning curve- having used regular 20-rd magazines for the last several years it takes a few manipulations and some time ‘playing’ to find what works best. In both the PTR and the HK it seemed that when loaded the magazine needed to be seated in the gun with the bolt open. The magazine fit into the magazine well of each gun just fine, although in the HK it was bit looser fit than in the PTR. On the other hand, the HK has almost 20 years of age to it so perhaps things have loosened up a bit. Giving the mag a little love tap on the bottom will ensure that the magazine is seated solidly and locked in place. More about that later.

This picture contains 200% USRDA of Awesome

Loading the magazine is pretty straightforward. The easiest way, and the way advised in the accompanying instructions, is to turn the ‘ratchet’ at the front of the magazine slightly to relieve the upward tension of the follow. Ever slide the follower in a .22 pistol magazine down with your thumb so you could load rounds into the magazine easier? Same idea. The magazine loaded easily and without problems. I would give the ratchet at the front a turn, load four or five rounds in, shift my grip to give it another turn, repeat. I had never loaded this magazine before so I timed myself. The first time it took 3:08 minutes to load all 50 rounds . On the second loading, having gotten the knack of things, the time was reduced to 2:21. Once you develop your own ‘rhythm’ (turn ratchet, add four rounds, shift grip, repeat) it goes much smoother and faster. A stripper clip guide arrangement would be nice but even without it getting the magazine loaded wasn’t as onerous a chore as one might think…especially when you’re  anticipating the fun of emptying the magazine.

Shooting was accomplished in the following manner: the magazine was loaded with 50 rounds of military ball ammo and inserted into the rifle with the bolt open. Once the magazine was seated the rifle would be worked to load a round from the magazine. The rifle would be rested on an object and be fired one round per second. Any failures to feed would be noted and compared against a similar test in the other test gun. The instructions that came with the magazine said, quite clearly, that the magazine was designed for optimum use with FMJ military-style ball and that use of softpoint, hollowpoint or other non-FMJ ammo ‘may’ cause reliability problems. I normally jealously guard my supply of South African battle-packed ball .308 but if this magazine was designed for military FMJ ammo then thats what it was going to get tested with.

Military ball ammo ready for loading

First up was the PTR. I seated the magazine, got comfortable, let the bolt ride forward, flipped the safety off, pulled the trigger and was rewarded with a bang and the magazine dropping out of the magazine well. Ooops. Replaced the magazine, gave it a firm tap on the bottom to make sure the magazine catch engaged it and went back to sending bullets downrange. Fortynine rounds later the hammer fell on the empty chamber. Other than my little goof, the magazine functioned without a hiccup.

Next up was the HK91. Same drill, except this time making sure I seated the mag properly, and fifty rounds went downrange with no drama whatsoever. In fact it was rather monotonous in its reliability which is actually a good thing.

What does dumping fifty rounds out of the rifle in under a minute do to your barrel temperature-wise? Glad you asked. A buddy brought a digital infrared thermometer and each rifle had its barrel temperature measured before and after shooting. All temperatures were taken from an average of five readings. Keep in mind the PTR has a thicker, heavier barrel than the HK91. The PTR, before our little bullet party, clocked in at 58 degrees. Fifty rounds later it registered 340 degrees. The HK91 started the day at 52 degrees and after fifty rounds of fun was a smoking 320 degrees. Both barrels cooled pretty quickly, dropping into the 200 degree range in a couple minutes. You definitely did not want to touch the barrel and, in fact, even the handguards were a little toasty.

The barrel does get a bit hot

The magazine, fully loaded, weighs a bit under five pounds but, as Im sure you can imagine, it gets lighter as you shoot it. Does it change the balance or handling characteristics of the rifle? Not as much as you might think. Sure, you’ve added five pounds to the weight of the basic rifle but the gun swings just the same and balances almost the same. The magazine, because it is wider than a 20-rd magazine, does bump against you when you have the rifle slung or carried with the 3-point sling. Even with the drum the rifle was still comfortable to carry in a low ready or ‘patrol’ position. Where this sort of thing shines, however, is as a static weapon. The drum only protrudes about an inch longer than the regular twenty round magazine so there was plenty of clearance for getting flat on the ground, flipping out the bipod legs and becoming a one-man roadblock.

Naturally, there are going to be comparisons between the Allied Armament X-91 drum and the Beta C-mags. I’ve a little experience with the C-mag so I can make some observations. First and foremost, the C-mag is plastic bodied while the X-91 is aluminum. While I wouldnt want to drop either one on a hard surface if I could avoid it I suspect a fully loaded x-91 would survive the impact better than the C-mag. When fully loaded the C-mags are a bit noisy..they rattle. The X-91 didnt have nearly the noise signature..loaded, partially loaded, or unloaded. The C-mag does have an option to have a clear back to allow the shooter to keep track of how many rounds are left in the magazine whereas the X-91 has no way of showing how many rounds are left. Witness holes might be a possibility but I’d imagine that any holes would let in dirt and grit which wouldn’t do anything beneficial to the magazine. Personally, I would throw a few rounds of tracer in there to give myself a visual reminder if it were really important. Beta is showing on their website that they are offering a C-mag for the M1A now so in terms of .308 drums, the C-mag is twice the capacity of the x-91 at around the same price. But, the C-mag isnt available for the HK platform and the x-91 mag isn’t available for the M1A platform. (Although both companies are working to correct that.) If you are talking solely in terms of the HK91-style rifles, as far as I know no one is offering anything close to the magazine capacity Allied Armament is offering in their X-91 (unless you find an original HK drum on Gunbroker…be prepared to pay close to two grand for it!)  At the moment Beta seems to have sewn up the drum magazine market for .223 but AA seems to have the potential to do the same in .308. AA’s website says that they’re working on drums for the popular .308 platforms – the M1A, FAL, AR-10 and SCAR-H. (At the moment CMMG offers an AR-10 lower that take G3 mags. If this drum works with those lowers then AA will have been the first to the punch with getting a drum into the AR-10 platform.) With several outfits bringing gas-piston AR-10 rifles to the market I’d be mightily interested in getting one and kitting it out with a drum (or three).

Would I make any changes to the AA X-91 drum? I’d like to see a protective plastic cover or cap for the magazine to protect the feedlips when the magazine isn’t in use…the magazine isnt cheap and I’d hate to drop it or ding the feed lips and watch my expensive magazine become a paperweight. A carrying pouch of some kind would be nice. Milling a flat spot on the bottom of the mag so it will sit upright would be handy (or adding a couple nubs to act as legs to keep the mag from rolling around when you set it on a flat surface.) Making the follower in a high-visibility color would be a nice touch as well.

So to wrap it up, what did I think of the AA X-91 drum mag? In a word ‘cool!’ If I could use three words the third would be ‘cool!’ ,  the first would be ‘very’ and the second would be unprintable. The magazine is very well made and finished, reliability was flawless, loading was simple (if tedious) and the unloading process was awesomely fun. For the fella that wants or needs to have a compact package of firepower this thing is, at the moment, unique in the marketplace of HK accessories. If the FAL and AR-10 versions  come to pass I suspect AA will have its hands full keeping up with demand, especially if the quality, finish and function are as good on the FAL and AR drums as they are on the HK drums.

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

And how was your day today?

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

I’m what economic experts would call ‘a cheap bastard’. I’ve got no problem paying the big bucks for something if I think it’s worth it. At the same time, though, if I can save a few bucks and not compromise my goals too badly I’ll do just that. Which brings us to today’s topic- the cheap surplus gun market.

Theres actually a pretty good amount of decent surplus firearms on the market these days. Some are better choices for folks of our mind than others. Of course, these are just my opinions and your mileage may vary.

The most common and cheapest rifle on the market these days are the Mosin Nagant rifles from the old Soviet/Russian/Communist arsenals. The two most common are the flagpole-like 91/30 and the compact and brutal M44 carbines. Both are chambered in the 7.62×54R cartridge…ballistically somewhere between a .308 and a .30-06. The guns are simple, utilitarian bolt guns of varying degrees of quality in terms of finish. The 91/30 rifles go back a ways and are usually huge long affairs with enormous bayonets to turn the rifle into a 6’ pigsticker. Prices have been running all over the place as supply dwindles but expect somewhere between $100-175. If you see one for more than $200 be sure to ask how many hookers come with it.

The M44 was a slightly ‘modernized’ version of the 91/30. Instead of being a flagpole, it’s a carbine. The bayonet was replaced with a side folding cruciform-style bayonet…much like an SKS. The carbine is short and ideal for use as a truck gun or leaving at a hunting cabin or other location. It can be a little…stiff…to shoot with that smaller size and steel buttplate. Forced to choose between the 91 and the 44, I’d go with the handier, newer M44. They’ve started to become a bit difficult to find but you can still get them at reasonable prices.

The guns have typical Communist ergonomics – the safety is a device better off being ignored. (You don’t point a loaded gun at anything you weren’t planning on shooting, do you?) It’s a pull-and-turn style like what you would find on an Arisaka. Difficult and awkward to use. On the infrequent times Ive carried a Nagant I have let the firing pin down and carried the gun with the safety off. When I was ready to shoot I simply grabbed the cocking piece and re-cocked the gun. A faster and less awkward move than manipulating the cocking piece to use it as a safety.

I normally do not like buying guns in ‘oddball’ calibers for stockpiling because the ammunition can be a trick to get. Currently 7.62×54R is one of the cheaper surplus cartridges to buy. You can still get spam cans of it at very reasonable prices. One rifle and two cans of ammo tucked away in safe, secure location could come in handy sometime and still not put you out a whole lot of money. Bullet diameter is, nominally, the same as a 7.7 or .303 ….. .311”~. Lee makes an inexpensive set of dies and there is reloadable brass out there if you feel the need to reload. For someone who wants to drop the minimum amount of money but have a decent rifle and a pile of ammo to squirrel away, these are one of the better choices.

For a bit more money you can pick up some of the Yugoslavian Mausers that are on the market. I’ve got a dealer catalog here that shows them around $275 … for that money you could buy a more ‘mainstream’ gun like a Remington 770 or other ‘bargain’ bolt gun. However, one appeal of the Mauser is that its an excellent platform to customize and 8mm ammo is quite cheap these days. My catalog says it can be had for twentyone cents a round.

Next up are the SMLEs that are on the market. Again, about twice the price of a Mosin Nagant, they clock in at around $230 dealer. Robust and with a 10-round capacity theyre a solid performer. Again, youre locked into slightly oddball ammo with the .303 cartridge. Nice guns, and quality is generally pretty good. A lot of them are still bumping around the hills in Afghanistan so thier durability and ruggedness isn’t really an issue.

If youre like me you probably would rather have something that shares ammo commonality with your other guns. Mausers in .308 do turn up infrequently but they cost almost as much as a commercial gun. My absolute favorite of the .308 Mausers is the Israeli version. I’ve had them in the past and they were great guns. Although some people swear its perfectly safe I generally avoid .308 Mausers built on anything other than the 98 action. Swede Mausers in 6.5 used to be common as grass but those days are long gone…they were excellent guns in a good caliber though. The 96 in 6.5 is about the only non-98 Mauser I’d mess with, but, again, that’s just my personal tastes.

Theres a .308 version of the SMLE out there as well, and they still turn up with good frequency. In addition to being made in .308 the 10-rd magazine was replaced with one that held 12 rounds of .308. Either the Mauser or the Enfield would be an excellent choice in .308 for an ‘extra’ rifle to keep around. I prefer the Mauser but wouldn’t feel bad if all I had available to me was the Enfield.

What about the Swiss K-31 rifles that were on the market? Amazing guns. Magnificent craftsmanship, excellent attention to detail, awesome metalwork. They all seem to shoot better than most people can hold a rifle. When they first came into the country they could be had for about a hundred bucks. Prices have climbed a good bit but even then theyre an excellent value for the remarkable quality you get. The only drawback is that the ammo is a bit hard to get…harder than 8mm and .303. Being Swiss, they didn’t really export many of these things to other countries so there weren’t a whole lot of people cranking out 7.5 ammo. Hornady offers ammo and brass but its in the special order realm and it isn’t cheap and availability is spotty. The surplus 7.5 that you do come across is almost always Swiss manufacture so you know its good, but it is often out of stock or backordered. A great gun hampered by ammunition logistics.

One in a while a MAS 49 or 49/56 comes up. Again, a great gun (despite being French) but ammo is ridiculous to find. Some guns have been converted to .308 but results have been mixed. Fascinating gun for a hobbyist but not worth sinking money into if youre looking for something to lay back in quantity.

That’s really about it for the ‘cheap’ surplus rifles. What about the Garand? The Tokarev rifle? The Nazi K98? The FN-49? Those may indeed be surplus guns but they aren’t cheap.

Not worried about ammo availability or plan on stockpiling a large quantity of matching ammo? Get a stack of M44 Nagants or some 91/30’s. Don’t mind paying a bit more? Get the Mausers in 8mm and a couple cases of ammo. Want to keep caliber commonality with your HK,M1A, FAL or AR10? Get an Enfield or Mauser in .308.

Right now, though, the best value out there is the Mosin Nagant and the cheap ammo that matches it. Like everything else, it’s day will fade and we’ll wonder why we didn’t buy a garage full of them when we had the chance, ‘back when they were cheap’.

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

A fortuitous episode while grocery shopping the other day. An item that we normally find for $10 was on sale for $8.89. Ok, not a huge sale price but saving something is better than saving nothing. Problem was, they were out. I went to the customer service coutner and asked for a rain check and for them to order me a case. When the case showed up the other day it was in the midst of another sale and the price had been reduced further to $4.99. Well, half-price is sort of a magic threshold for me…I cleaned out the stock on the shelves and order another three cases.  Took our goodies back to the house and added them to the food stockpile. Once thats done it’s time to update the spreadsheets.

I cannot emphasize enough the sheer utility of spreadsheets for keeping track of stuff like this. I use Excel and am fairly good with it. I found this thread over at arfcom about how to have your spreadhseet automatically note when a product is nearing its expiration/best-by date.  When we upgraded out phones to Blackberry devices I discovered that the crippleware version of Excel in the BB would read my Excel spreadsheets. Joy! I now keep a copy of the spreadsheet in my cellphone. If we happen to be out shopping and discover something is on sale at a ridiculous price I can pull up a copy of the spreadsheet and see if the quantity we have on hand is sufficient or if we should go ahead and get more. Very useful, that.

The spreadsheets I use for tracking our food arent fancy, they just give a general description, brand, quantity, amount and that sort of info.  I keep it on a clipboard with a pen and the clipboard is hanging off the steel shelving by the food. When food is taken (or added) its noted on the spreadsheet and then once a week or so I update the spreadsheet on the computer and cellphone.  Once every few months I do an inventory to make sure all the numbers jibe. Usually they do…however, sometimes someone in this household will forget to update the clipboard…usually because their hands are full at the time. By and large, however, the accuracy of the count is never off by more than two or three items. Not bad when you consider theres about two hundred on the clipboard.

As of late I’ve been thinking that I need to expand this spreadsheet/clipboard system to some of the other consumables around here, most notably ammo. I have a reasonably good idea of how much ammo we have but I cannot say with 100% accuracy. Ditto for cosnumable gun stuff like spare parts and magazines. Really, I need to take a long weekend and work up a ‘master spreadsheeet’ with all of this crap.

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Speaking of mags, I had a customer who did a very very smart thing the other day. He’s been wanting a .308 battle rifle and I sold him on the PTR-91. He’s been dragging his feet but last week I gave him the hard sell with the same seriousness and somber tone as if I was telling him he had cancer. Look, I said, one of my vendors is having a sale on these things…it’ll cost you $1000. Cheaper Than Dirt still has mags for $1 ea. and spare parts are still abundant. If you dont buy now youre going to regret it later.  I know its a pile of money but youve been working ten, twelve hours of overtime every week, right? Buy this. I guarantee you that you will never regret this.

He handed over ten $100 bills and I ordered his gun. I then admonished him to get on the phone to CTD today and order at least fifty magazines.  Since the vendor ships the rifles ‘free shipping’, I added ten more Glock magazines for me and the missus. Strike while the iron is hot and all that.

Then, because I know the customer (who is also an LMI and a good friend) had to reach deep for the money for the rifle, I called CTD and ordered twenty magazines for him.  I’ll stick them in the closet and if he winds up not being able to come up with the scratch to get some magazines in a timely manner I’ll give these to him as an early Christmas gift.  He’s a good guy and I don’t want to see him get caught flat-footed if something goes weird in the world. This way if between the time he gets the rifle and the time he can actually get some mags he’ll at least have twenty mags to keep the gun running.

I really should nag him into some spare parts while Im at it. Hmmmm.

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

I get the most interesting things in the mail these days…..

So awesome, it hurts just to look at it

More details and much, much better photos to follow.

EDIT: Commenting disabled for now. This is just a teaser for a much longer post later.

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

Imagine, if you would, that your favorite pistol manufacturer (Glock, Ruger, Sig, Kimber) was offering a new model that was exactly like their regular models except that it fires only one round. Same price as the other models though, but only fires one round. Would you buy it? Would you plunk down $550 for a single shot Glock or Sig? Im guessing the answer is ‘no’. Why wouldn’t you buy such a gun? The answer, Im pretty sure, is because a single shot semiauto pistol is fairly useless. If they had a similar model, the same in every way except that it fires fifteen rounds before reloading, and it cost an extra $25 would you get it over the $550 single-shot version? Yet, if you buy a cheapo magazine that doesn’t work you have, essentially, turned your $550 gun into a single shot pistol.

Yup, he’s talking about magazines.

With a few exceptions, I try to stick with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) magazines whenever possible. That means that for my Glock I use magazines made by Glock. For the Ruger MkII I use magazines made by Ruger. Notable exceptions are military weapons…magazines made by contractors have to meet specs to ensure reliability and interchangeability. Usually, theyre okay although sometimes a contractor can be pretty off-spec. For my ARs I have no problem buying non-Colt magazines as long as those magazines are made by one of those outfits that make mags under contract for Uncle Sam or have proven to be an excellent product.

Glock – I stick with OEM Glock mags. On average theyre about $17-25 each and that’s a bargain for a mag that you’re going to have 100% faith and confidence in. I have used the Scherer aftermarket mags and found them to be a waste of money. Theres some Korean contract mags on the market and I haven’t heard anything bad about them, but I don’t want to trade my peace of mind that I get from OEM mags for saving $3 per mag with the Korean mags. To be fair, I haven’t tried them but I just don’t feel a need to. Recommend: Buy genuine Glock

AR – The usual suspects seem to do well…Okay, AdventureLine, Parsons, Colt, etc. I’ve been very pleased with the aluminum mags from CProducts and they can usually be found on sale somewhere for around $11-15 each. Theyre excellent magazines with MagPul followers and I recommend them unreservedly. I have no experience with the 100-rd Beta C-Mags but Ive read mixed things about them. In plastic mags, Ive only met a few that seemed worth a damn. The Eagle clear plastic mags with the constant-spring followers were actually quite good but I don’t think theyre made anymore. I haven’t had much experience with the MagPul Pmag but I just cant shake the feeling that theyre going to be a bit more fragile than the aluminum mags when it comes to dropping them on hard surfaces…I need to spend some time abusing one.
Recommend: Buy genuine military surplus mags (try before you buy) or buy the CProducts mags.

AK – Interestingly, its hard to find a bad mag for these things unless you buy an American one. Even the Chinese mags seem to work across the board. In terms of personal preference, I go for the Eastern European manufacture ones. The ones with the ‘rib’ running down the length of the spine of the mag seem to be of mostly European manufacture. I’ve had a little experience with some of the US made AK mags and while some are good they tend to be overpriced compared to the foreign made stuff. In terms of drums, the Chinese drums seem to work just fine. I’ve not met a plastic AK mag I liked and Im not sure theres an advantage to them.
Recommend: Eastern European made mags. Chinese mags as a second choice.

1911 – Everyone makes these things. I’ve been very pleased with Chip McCormick Shooting Star mags. Priced between $10-20 depending on where you find them, I’ve found them to be excellent magazines at a great price. The Wilson mags are very good but theyre usually around twice the price.
Recommend: Chip McCormick Shooting Star or Wilson.

P35 – I either use military mags (harder and harder to find) or OEM Browning mags.

HK91 – With genuine German military mags, many made by HK, for a lousy one dollar each why would you buy anything else? There are surplus steel mags as well as aluminum and the steel ones are usually around $5-10 each. If there are any aftermarket mags out there I’d just pass on them. The 30-rd mags that sometimes turn up are disturbingly primitive. There is one company offering a 50-rd drum for the HK91 but I haven’t tried it…yet.
Recommend: Genuine military surplus mags for $1 ea.

Ruger 10/22 – Ruger OEM or Butler Creek. In the Butler Creek the steel lip mags are the best but the cheaper Hot Lips mags are great too. Black Dog Machine is making a drum for the 10/22 and while I have no experience with it, people whose opinion I respect have reported positively on them. Eagle also makes a ‘hi-cap’ magazine and the ones I’ve used seem to work fine and are a good value.
Recommend: Butler Creek magazines or Black Dog. Eagle as 2nd choice.

Ruger Mk II/III – Ruger OEM. Possibly MecGar. Nothing else.
Recommend: Ruger OEM

Generalizations:
Anything marked “USA Brand” is utter crap. Maybe you have a few USA mags that work but I’ve had a lot of experience with them in a variety of guns and they are headaches waiting to happen. MecGar probably has the best reputation among aftermarket mag manufacturers and is known to make mags for some of the larger gun manufacturers. Triple K? Better than USA but not too much so from what Ive heard. Broadly speaking, any military-style gun is going to have a good selection and availability of magazines (AR, AK, FAL, HK91, M1A, etc) unless its an oddball that was never seen much in this country to begin with (FNC, HK93, Valmet, FAMAS, etc.) Sometimes a magazine will be made from a magazine of another type and modified to work in a different firearm. Examples of this would be AR-15 mags modified to work in original AR-180 carbines, magazines modified/welded to work in 7.62×39 ARs, M1A mags modified for AR-10s, and the worst offender – the Ramline ‘Combo Mag’ that was supposed to work in Mini-14, AR-15 and AR-180 carbines and didn’t seem to work reliably in any of them. These modified magazines are often problematic. Sometimes they are the only option against having no magazine at all but if you can find a magazine that is correct for your gun its probably a better buy, even at the higher price, than one of these shop-class project magazines.

If youre stocking away magazines for the uncertain future there are almost no special tricks involved in storage. Make sure the magazines are clean, perhaps a very light coating of oil on the surfaces, stack them in an ammo can, toss in a pack of dessicant, seal it up, see you in twentyfive years. From experience, a .30 can will hold 8 or 9 HK91 mags, 9 or 10 FAL mags and a 40mm can will hold around 75 HK91 mags if you stack them right.

For range trips and practice sessions, I try to use the same magazines over and over. My ‘range mags’ usually have a piece of orange duct tape wrapped around them at some point to identify them as range mags. These are the mags that get loaded/unloaded frequently, dropped, kicked, stepped on, bounced off concrete, muddy, dirty, wet, etc. I almost never use the magazine of the gun I carry daily…I might use them for a few rounds of practice just to check their function but normally I use a dedicated range mag. The idea is that the magazine in the gun you carry needs to be in top condition..once Im sure that the magazine works reliably I stop using it for anything other than daily carry. Why introduce unnecessary wear and tear and possible problems if I don’t have to? New mags are always tested at the range several times before being added to inventory. Never just buy a mag, assume its ‘good’, and toss it in with your others. Very bad. If you want, take it a step further and discretely number each mag so that if one gives you problems consistently you can sort it from the others for repair/cannibalization/destruction.

Magazine maintenance is pretty easy. Learn how to take apart your magazine and clean out the insides. Springs do go bad after a while and while it’s a good idea to have extra springs its almost easier to simply have extra mags. Some magazines (AR mags, for example) can benefit from having newer designed followers installed, and some magazines (1911 mags, most notably) have aftermarket springs available that provide more reliable feeding. Almost all my magazines, regardless of gun, are stock magazines with no aftermarket accessories or modification. The only exceptions are older AR mags that I sometimes swap out the followers.

I’ve gone on and on before about that classic argument “How many magazines should I have” so I won’t get into it here. I’ll just say that its hard to have too many. Any ‘extras’ will never have a problem finding a home..either with a buddy who got caught short, as a stash at the weekend place, as dedicated range mags, or as spares kept in stock against future restrictions. When HK91 mags hit $1 ea. I went long on them and have, no lie, about 500 of them sitting in storage. When people ask if I have enough magazines for a particular gun I usually say I’m “okay” on a particular magazine, except for the Hk mags…those Im “fine” on. Reality is, though, that “fine” for a particular gun is usually far, far, far less than that. How much is up to you.

I usually keep one magazine with each gun when they are stored. I don’t keep guns separate from magazines when theyre in the rack or the safe. The magazines may be unloaded but theres always a magazine with the gun. For pistols, if theyre still in their cases I usually keep an extra one or two magazines in the case. If you have to grab your guns and go, go ,go at least you have one or two mags. Running around with a single-shot AK or single-shot AR is embarrassing. I’d rather show up in Haiti with a 10/22 and a 25-rd magazine than an AR with no magazine.

As of today, you can still by the ‘normal capacity’ magazines pretty freely. That may change in the future so unless you like playing with the 10-round handicap that we had to endure in 1994-2004 you should inventory your stuff, see what you need, guess what you’ll need for an additional gun purchases, and get out there abd fill the holes in your magazine supply.