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

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed into law a bill that requires buyers of handgun ammunition to leave thumbprints and detailed personal information with registered ammo sellers, as well as put restrictions on online bullet sales.

Not surprised about this. Notice that the moron writing the article uses the term ‘ammunition’ and ‘bullets’ interchangeably. I haven’t read the bill, but I would bet that it says nothing about bringing in bullets, only ammo.

Regardless, if youre in California you’re about to have a very interesting situation. Most folks will, Im sure, simply drive to NV and buy all the ammo they want and bring it back, possibly for a healthy resale. Others may do the smart thing and learn to reload. Of course, the truly smart thing is to move the hell out of California.

But if, for whatever reason, you continue to live in that socialist pit (notice that the big socialist places begin with C and end in A? California, Cuba, China, Canada, etc) spend the $400 and buy yourself an RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Reloading Kit, pick up every scrap of brass you find at the range, stock up on powder and primers, buy some bullet casting or swaging gear, and position yourself to be ahead of this nonsense.

ETA: I emailed the guy who wrote the article telling him his use of bullets/ammunition was making the article murky. His reply:

Thank you for taking the time to write.
As a life-long hunter and gun owner, I’m very familiar with reloading
and the terms associated with each.
However, the overwhelming majority of people who read this aren’t going
to notice (or even care) about the distinction.

Or, put another way, since no one will notice he’s going to be inaccurate and use shoddy style. There’s the hallmark of a good journalist, eh? Reach him here.

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

Apparently the fates have seen fit to completely skip the autumnal season and head straight into fall here in western Montana. Its been downright chilly here the last few evenings. This particular region of Montana is, for whatever reason, one of the warmest. We refer to ourselves as the Banana Belt, so if its cold here its damn cold everywhere else. So the cold winter gear comes out of storage, the hats and coats and gloves are moved to the closet for use, and the cold weather gear goes into the truck.
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When I was younger and a bit newer to this whole preparedness things I would spend a lot of time wandering gun shops dreamily fantasizing about all the awesome firepower I would someday accumulate in the name of ‘survivalism’. (Back then the term was ‘survivalism’ before the term got clouded with other less-than-flattering connotations. Nowadays we use the less dramatic ‘preparedness’) But, as time goes by and your ideas about what you really need and want to prepare for develop, you find that the Ahern-esque arsenals might be a bit less important than some of the other staples. Case in point: I now show the same level of enchantment and daydreaming when I prowl the aisles at the local super WallyWorld. Cases and cases of food, pouches of meat, mountains of canned goods, food and drink mixes, toilet paper and paper towels by the gorss, batteries by the pound, and every other item necessary to keep from starving to death.

It’s just my personal opinion, and its worth whatever you pay for it, but I think when your focus and fascination shifts from firearms to foodstuffs you’ve crossed a maturity threshold in your attitude towards preparedness.

While I derive a great deal of satisfaction from a gun safe full of firearms and cases of ammo, I get an even larger amount of satisfaction from the stockpile of food and other essentials. Not saying the boomsticks aren’t important…they help to keep that mountain of food MY mountain of food…just that it seems the cases of soup and canned vegetables may come in to play long before the cases of 7.62×39.

In many of the after action reports out of Katrina there are plenty of cases of people using guns but nothing that required copious applications of ammo. There were, however, plenty of tales of people needing plenty of food. While Joe Average may have loosed ten or twenty rounds over the course of a couple weeks, he used far more food than he did ammo.

And this is why, though we have plenty of firepower on hand for pretty much any eventuality, I probably derive more peace of mind from the stored food than the stored armaments. (Of course, when you couple the two together it really pegs the needle on the ol’ Satisfaction-O-Meter.)
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As it stands now, I’m fairly satisfied with the level of preparedness that the missus and I enjoy. (And we do enjoy it. We both feel a good bit more secure and relaxed knowing that we have the things we need to ride out the bad times.) This isn’t to say that there aren’t things that I still think we should have, but I think that in a Katrina-style disaster, with its several weeks of chaos following, with just what we have at the moment we would come through it just fine. There’d be security, communications, food, fuel, light, water, sanitation and everything else we’d need to thumb our noses at the .gov.

This isn’t to say that we have everything I want. I’m always willing to add more ammo, more arms, more freeze drieds, more money and more food to the current inventory, and at some point a generator and a nice place out in the boonies will need to be acquired…but we’ve certainly achieved what you could call a ‘minimum acceptable’ level. Enough to easily handle any hurricane, blizzard, ice storm, infrastructure failure, outbreak or civil disturbance.

But, as I said, there’s always room for improvement.
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A local source came to me the other day with a bunch of these for sale:

Formerly used to hold fruit juice, im tempted to pick up one or two and see how difficult they are to clean out. If worst comes to worst, I can always cut them in half and use them as planters in the spring. Be nice to have an extra 50 gallons or so of potable water around.

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

Put the Cold Weather Module back into my bag today. Its been rainy and cold the last day or so, and it’s the beginning of October, so it’s probably about time to go ahead and start getting the cold weather gear out.

I’ve posted it before, but since Im too lazy to go link it, here’s whats in the CWM: OD wool scarf, OD polypro neck gaiter, triple-thick forest green knit cap, pair of gloves, pair of military overmitts, pair of military wool mittens, hand warmers. Then, just for giggles, I usually throw in an extra pair of mittens or an extra cap…for the sake of redundancy and in case whomever Im with needs them. The whole thing goes into a zippered cordura pouch that sits in the bottom of my bag. Have I ever needed it? Sure. Times when Ive gone to the range and it got a lot colder than expected, when I was bike riding and the weather changed, that sort of thing. What I really need to do is vacuum seal the individual components to reduce space and protect them. Maybe I’ll do that later today.

I also take one of the fabulous flectar parka/liner combos and roll it into a ball, stuff it into its own hood, and tuck it behind the seat of the truck. Cheap insurance against getting caught in something. Come to think of it, theres also an old down comforter stuffed into a pillowcase back there as well. Its not paranoia, and it isn’t overkill…its just simple fact: you get stuck in your car in the winter, you die.
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So we’ve been in this recession now for, what?, a year..two? How have we been faring? Well, all things considered, not bad. I believe the missus’ retirement investments may have taken a hit but otherwise we’re doing okay. We wouldn’t be doing okay if she lost her job, but hers is a pretty secure career. More importantly, though, we aren’t carrying a huge mortgage (we do have a mortgage but its pretty small), no car loan (truck is paid for), no credit card debt (we don’t use ‘em), no student loan debt, and although we do have a few luxuries (WarCraft accounts, cell phones) that’s pretty much the extent of our decadence. We don’t buy a new vehicle every four years, we don’t but ATV’s or jet skis, we don’t spend huge amounts on entertainment, we just generally live within our means. Is there anything wrong with buying a new car every four years, buying a jet ski, or eating out three nights a week? Absolutely not…if you can afford it.

So, from our point of view, we’re doing okay. We’re pretty secure in being able to keep a roof over our heads, we’ve plenty of food, we have breathing room with very few bills to worry about, we have some money in the bank and, most importantly, we have the attitude that the way we live right now is the right way for us…with careful spending, thoughtful planning, and never feeling that we’re living a life of denial and deprivation. We may not emerge from the recession (or depression) better than when we went in, but we will almost certainly not come out very much worse.

The moral here, I suppose, is that preparedness isnt just about zombie apocalypses and hurricanes…its also about being prepared for the unsexy and undramatic stuff…like recessions and high unemployment. If we didn’t have the preparedness mindset we might be in the same situation as many other folks…overstretched, overextended and over a barrel. But we think about the future and the ‘what ifs’ and as a result, we’re doing okay.
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Big game gun season opens here in a few weeks. I’m thinking I’ll use the Win 70 6.5×55 this year. Its relatively light, the cartridge is good for deer, and its got a decent piece of glass on it. I’m hoping that the last six months of CrossFit will have a positive effect on my ability to carry a pack and rifle up and down the hills. I came into the Model 70 Featherweight in 6.5×55 from a buddy who passed away. It was one of very few guns out of his collection that I actually found useful. I’ve thought about swapping it out for something in .308 (which would make my logistics easier) but I’ve plenty of ammo and components for the 6.5 and I really only plan on using it during hunting season so I suppose it won’t hurt to keep it around. Plus, the missus shot her first deer with it and I think that’s given her a sense of ownership of it. Fair enough, I’m always in support of her owning more guns.
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There was a gun show at the fairgrounds this weekend. Most mag prices are down and availability seems good. Ammo and component pricing and availability, however, are still out in uncharted country. While some components were available, many more were not and what was available was pretty pricey. Cheapest primers I saw were $25/k which is down from $40/k a few months back.

Didn’t really see anything I wanted (except for a lovely old 8mmMauser with set-triggers, claw mount scope and rings, German post scope, and express sights for $400…a damn tempting rifle except I’d prefer it in 7×57, not 8.)

I did finally pick up some military extreme cold weather boots…referred to as ‘bunny boots’ or ‘Mickey Mouse’ boots, these boots are about as insulative as you can get when it comes to footwear. Wouldn’t wanna have to walk far in them, but if I had to stand around in the wet and ice these babies will help me keep all my toes attached. The guy had to go home to get them, but he did indeed have a pair in 10W and 10R. I tried the R and while it was comfy, I got the W becayse, dammit, I have wide feet and you add a couple layers of socks and youre gonna need that W.

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

Today is October 1st, and, as I read it, a day when a Montanan can make a suppressor without having to notify the dorks at BATFE.

Be nice if this meant there were a little window between now and when the courts shut it down where a fella could walk down to the gun shop and buy a suppressor with the same ease as buying a rifle case.

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

Ok.
Didnt die.

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

If I start pulling meat out of the freezer thats any older than the stuff I had tonight, Im going to need a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of electricity to retrieve it.

I actually set a record this evening. According to the datestamp on the vacuum sealed package, tonights chunk o’ cow started its journey into cryonics in April of 2004. Thats right, tonight’’s steak was five and a half years old. Probably older than the cow was when the hammer hit its brainpan lo those many years ago at the stockyard.

And…it tasted just fine. To be fair, I won’t be 100% sure until ….:::looks at watch:::…oh, Id say noon tomorrow. But I figure it was just fine. Nutritionally it may have degraded a little but who cares? I almost never eat a meal because of its nutritional value, I eat a meal because Im in the mood for whatever tastes it offers.

The practical upshot here, assuming I’m still alive tomorrow, is that next time you pull well-packaged and well-preserved meat outta the freezer and wonder if its okay to eat after a year or two the answer seems to be a resounding ‘yes’. The usual caveats apply, of course: you sealed it up airtight, it was kept in a true freezer where it gets below zero…not the little box on top of your fridge, the temperature was maintained for all those years, etc, etc.

This is actually pretty useful information since on occasion we purchase some large quantities of meat and it can take a while to go through it all. I know for a fact theres some chicken down there thats about two years old and I think theres a humongous Butterball down there thats at least twice that.

On the flip side of the coin, while I wasnt too concerned about five year old frozen steak I might be a little leery of five year canned food. Usually the canned goods around here dont go more than a year or two before use, but you never know…might be an ancient can of something tucked ina forgotten corner of the cabinets.

Anyway, today’s experience (assuming Im alive tomorrow) shows that you can, under proper storage conditions, keep something like meat safe, edible, and tasty for at least half a decade.

Oh…the steak was seasoned with some Montreal steak seasoning and then broiled. Good stuff.

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

Went up to the LDS cannery today. While there I couldnt help but notice the shiny Iridium satellite phone sitting on the desk. I inquired as to what the story was with it. I was told that all the cannery/storehouse administrators were given them so they could be in touch in case of a communication failure. Now, I can not imagine those tings come cheap but then again the church doesnt exactly seem to be hurting for money. Still, its an interesting sign that someone is thinking pretty far outside the box…especially since the cannery already has a very nice, very professional ham radio setup for communications purposes. Suspenders and a belt…I knew there was a reason I liked these people. If I had to guess, Id say that theres a focus group in Salt Lake City working up some hamthrax contingency plans and setting up the logistics. Speaking of signs, there was one on the front door of the cannery saying that if you had flu-like symptoms to please come back some other time. Serious business, these folks.

I must say, the satphone was pretty cool looking.

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

Old news to us, eh?

America armed, but guns not necessarily loaded

NEW ORLEANS – Bullet-makers are working around the clock, seven days a week, and still can’t keep up with the nation’s demand for ammunition.

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

Well, its no swallow coming back from cappucino, but the first sign of fall is here: the heat kicked in this morning. I’m not looking forward to going out nad seeing how the tomatoes are faring. However, I did ostensibly pick up one of the varieties because it was supposed to be pretty tolerant of the cool weather so we’ll see if that works or not.
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While I very much like my Hk P2A1 flare guns, they do have the typical drawback of anything made by HK – theyre a bit…robust. This is a polite way of saying “Big and heavy”. (You know, kinda like how fat chicks are now “curvy”.) Anyway, while I do love me the HK flare gun, I also love having a pack that weighs as little as possible. When youre running around in the boonies its always nice to have some options in case you get in over your head, the flare gun is one of those little things that tips the odds in your favor. But the weight…the bulk…. meh. An option is the pen flare launchers. These things are tiny little flare launchers that, while slightly bigger than an actual pen, are still pretty compact but give good performance for their size. I was diddling around online the other day and found this place which sells the launchers, flares and cracker/noise bombs.

The items and their intended application are interesting, of course. Whats also interesting is the non-typical applications these things lend themselves to. The first thing that springs to mind is that these things would be an excellent starting point for making your own trip-flare warning system. A quick trip to Home Depot, some time at the workbench, a little camo spraypaint and you could probably put together an excellent perimeter warning system.

I may get one of their packages just to test out .
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Speaking of winter and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, it’s probably that time of the year where we should put the winter emergency gear in the truck. Because you don’t wanna wind up like James Kim, a classic case of the big-city guy dying in the boonies from bad judgement and poor planning.

The list of stuff you would want to keep in your vehicle varies from person to person so Im really not going to get into a huge list here. If you really want to know, and youre really serious, spend a winter night in your parked car and think about what you would like to have there as you sit in the dark with your teeth chattering. Winter sleeping bag, candles, water, food…..thats a given, work from there. One thing I’ll recommend is that in addition to the candles, get a good candle lantern. Its safer to use, provides the same heat, more illumination and can be hung from a rear view mirror. Contrary to what was portrayed in ‘Titanic’ theres nothing noble, romantic or cool about dying of hypothermia.

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

Took a little trip to the LDS cannery Friday. Man, I love being there. I think the reason it appeals to me is that everyone there is ‘on the same wavelength’ as far as preparedness goes. (Although admittedly we’re not on the same page about much else.) These are people who think the only strange thing about stockpiling food and gear is not doing it. If it weren’t for the religious aspect, I’d sign up in a heartbeat….although when I said that to the fella I was there with he said that there were plenty of people who probably were members who felt the same way.

I’m always tempted to take pictures of the place and post them but I think that would be an extraordinarily uncool thing to do. They’re nice enough to let me use the place, I should be nice enough to respect their privacy.

Regardless, I need to reciprocate at some point. Maybe talk to the guy up there and see if theres a fund or something I can donate to. Or maybe I’ll buy a couple missionaries lunch or something. Or take them to a strip club.

Didn’t pick up anything terribly interesting. I was going to ‘round out’ the odd-numbers of stuff I have. Six #10 cans fit in a box so my goal was to round up things I had that were in quantities that weren’t divisible by six. Picked up some sugar, dried apples, and quick oats but they were out of some of the other stuff I wanted like onions, drink mix and carrots. But that’s okay, it gives me a reason to head up there again some time.

I do believe that if we had to we could live off our stored food (inc. whats in the deep freeze) for probably a very comfortable six or nine months. Longer if you don’t mind fairly boring menus. I suppose that when youre hungry enough you don’t mind eating the same food over and over when the other choice is no food at all. I don’t really forsee much likelihood of a situation where there is simply no food available but rather something where we don’t have access to it for various reasons (financial hardship, etc.) However, I do feel pretty mellow when I think that if we had absolutely no money for food we could still feed ourselves for quite a while. Peace of mind is on of those things that makes the effort and expense worthwhile.