Link – Tactical Flashlight Review

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Its a golden age of lumens these days…what with rechargeable batteries and retina-scorching LED technology. I rather like the Fenix brand of lights, but here’s a fairly in-depth review that you might find interesting: THE BEST TACTICAL FLASHLIGHT – TEST DATA & RESULTS

Your mileage may vary, of course…but for me I have found that a well-built LED flashlight that takes a readily available battery (or a rechargeable that offers the option of using the rechargeable battery or a common battery interchangeably) is the way to go. I rather like the Fenix PD35.

Whatever you do, make sure to get at least a small pocket flashlight to carry everywhere everyday. I have the little AA-batt Fenix 12 and I can’t begin to describe how handy it is to always have a small, bright flashlight on hand.

 

Right place, right time IV

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Trolling through Craigslist and came across this little number, brand new and unused for….$25. Yes please.

It’s a very nice, very new Aladdin oil lamp. If youre going to do kerosene lamps for emergencies, this is the guy you want. I’ve been meaning to get a couple more but hese last few years these things have been quite difficult to find. Most places are always out of stock and the prices….well….$150-$200 for one of these isn’t unheard of. Fortunately, you can sometimes find these in junk shops or yard sales for significantly less.  You can order up a lampshade and lampshade hanger to go with these, which makes them wonderful lighting for cold dark winters nights. And they even throw out a little heat.

Spare mantles, chimmenys, burners, wicks, and that sort of thing are always a good idea. I have one of these that I’ve carried around for the last forty years and it works just fine.

Since my ’emergency fuel’ of choice is kerosene (stoves, lamps, heaters), this lamp fits into my plans quite nicely.

The fact that I also got it gor about 1/8th the price of a new one is just icing on the cake.

Moral of the story: don’t discount Craigslist for getting the things you need to increase your resilience.

Revisiting Tappan

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with his works, Mel Tappan was one of the leading voices of survivalism back in the ’70s. His two most classic works are “Survival Guns” and “Tappan On Survival“. Like a lot of scribes on this topic, he appeared in various gun magazines as well as, from time to time, popping up in Soldier Of Fortune (remember them?).

Tappan’s opinions were based on the times he lived in. The US was facing inflation and unemployment, as well as a Cold War, when Tappan was doing his writings. As such, his worldview was predominantly of the economic collapse being the most likely catalyst of TEOTWAWKI, In typical 70’s survivalist fashion, Tappan’s work was long on guns and everything else got far less ink.

I’ve been re-reading his book, Tappan On Survival, and it’s interesting to see how dated it has become. You have to remember that at the time Tappan was hammering his typewriter there were no Glocks, .40 or 10mm, most AK’s were bringbacks from VietNam and finding ammo was unheard of, your only choice for .223/5.56 guns were AR15’s and Mini-14’s, revolvers ruled the cop world, and the ‘wondernine’ was still a good five years away from becoming a thing.

So, after re-reading Tappan, what seems like it would have been updated to reflect the modern times, had Tappan made it this far? I think that he might have moved from being a 1911 devotee to enrolling in the church of the double-stack 9mm. With the advent of bullet technology gains, the 9mm of today would far surpass the limited and limiting offerings of his day. Perhaps Tappan would have remained hidebound in his relation ship with the 1911 and the .45 AARP ACP cartridge, but at least the modern 1911’s would run out-of-the-box.

As far as rifles, Tappan disliked the .223 and preferred the .308. In his world, the only real choices in .308 were the HK91, the M1A and the BM59. Today we have the AR-10, SCAR, FAL, AK, and a few other platforms to choose from. Even if Tappan eschewed the .223 I would think he could have appreciated the ergonomics of the AR-15 and found one in .308 to be a ‘best of both worlds’ sort of thing.

Would Tappan have been a Glock guy? Maybe. Perhaps in .45. Or maybe he’d crunch the numbers and find that he preferred the .40 Smith for its increased capacity of .45, and for its heavier weight and larger diameter over the 9mm. Or maybe he’d have decided that the new crop of defensive 9mm ammo was so good that a 17-rd pistol was just what he wanted.

Tappan was also a subscriber to the Elmer Keith school of revolvers shooting big heavy bullets. And, while I am probably the worlds #1 .44 Special fan, I think that as a general purpose revolver, the .357 is a bit more practical. Oh sure, for claws and teeth its the .44 Mag in a revolver, but for day-to-day around the ranch or whatever I think a lighter weight .357 (L-frame or GP100) is pretty much ideal.

If you get a chance to read Survival Guns, Tappan recommended something along the lines of two dozen different guns for the ‘survivalist battery’. It was quite a gamut….22 revolvers, .38 snubbies, .45 Colt, .30-06 bolt guns, .308 battle rifles, .223 carbines, etc, etc. I’m a major gun nerd and even I think it was a bit excessive.

But, as I said, we are all products of our time. Despite being written over fifty years ago, Tappan’s books provide something that is still relevant even half a century after his death. While the choices of tangible things like guns and gear may be outdated or even obsolete, his attitude, mindset, and outlook remain just as important and just as valid today. He had the view that something bad was coming and that the prudent and wise man should prepare for it. Once you’ve that idea in your head, the rest of it….deciding what guns and gear….is really secondary.

Anyway, if you haven’t read his books I’m sure there are online copies around you can view. They’re worth a read, especially Survival Guns, just for the step back fifty years to see what the survivalist of the day thought was necessary.

CostCo LifesStraw price reduction

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Typical. I buy something and then after I buy it they reduce the price:

Guess I’ll buy another one of these because.

$7.50 for a LifeStraw is a no-brainer for something that you can leave in a pack, vehicle console (almost said ‘glove compartment’), truck box, emergency kit, or what have you. And, at that price, also make good gifts for your like-minded friends. (And, really, at this point in our societal devolution, if they aren’t llike-minded why do you have them as friends?)

 

Dagger impressions

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So several weeks back I decided to order up a bunch of Palmetto State Armory (PSA) Glock knockoffs. The ‘Dagger’ pistol is basically a Glock with just enough tweaks to, I would imagine, keep Gaston’s lawyers at bay, but be Glock enough to be useful to folks like me.

Finally got around to taking a couple of them to the range today along with a couple P95DC’s I needed to test fire.

The Dagger shot very well. No failures of any kind, seemed as accurate as any other Glock, and even fit into the rather snazzy new Safariland 6390RDS ALS Glock holster I picked up.

The Dagger shot as well as the Glock, and fit my hand a little better. I don’t really have any complaint about it. I’d have to put a lot more ammo through one before I would stand on stage and declare it the equal of the Glock or that it was a perfect analog of a Glock. But….a lot of parts do interchange:

What’s the role of it in my world? Well, IF it has the reliability and durability of the Glock, then  it would make a no-brainer choice as a secondary or tertiary backup gun to someone who is invested in Glock logistics. If it takes Glock mags, Glock parts, Glock holsters, Glock sights, and Glock accessories, but is half the price of the Glock, then why wouldn’t you pick up a couple?

PSA has these things on sale…sometimes as a package deal. Let me see if I can find a recent one….Thats a pretty-much-as-good-as-a-Glock pistol and five standard Magpul mags and five happysticks for $370. For perspective, thats approx. $125, dealer price, of mags making the gun itself approx $245. That is a bargain no matter how you look at it.

I like to think I’ve got as many guns as I could possibly need for whats left of my checkered and tragic life, but at prices like these I’d feel no hesitation to pick up three or five as cabin guns, truck guns, tacklebox guns and, most importantly, gifts to people who I think need a good pistol and don’t already have one.

YMMV, of course, and I’d love to see Tam do one of her 2,000 round ammo tests with one of these (but who can afford that much ammo these days?). I’ll be shooting these things more in the coming weeks, but so far I like what I see.

Admin – Word Press plugin to restore old editor

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If you’re not someone who is using Word Press for blogging then this post is utterly of no interest.

WordPress, in its most recent update, changed the editor into this horrible, unworkable mess that was so frustrating to use that it made me dread blog posting.

Turns out there is a plugin you can use that will restore the familiar old text editor. Head to your plugins and add one called “TinyMCE Editor”. Install it, activate it, and get back to blogging.

The people at WordPress should be beaten to death with their own keyboards for foisting that lousy Gutenberg editor upon us.

Article – No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster

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There’s an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn’t plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is “fat and happy”, but the grasshopper starves.

In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don’t brace themselves for future emergencies – they’re the grasshoppers.

 

Morrison is in the business of being prepared. He’s the president of the Desert Rats (or the Radio Amateur Transmitting Society), a club based in Palm Springs that’s dedicated to everything ham radio.

A nice article about the utility of amateur radio in a crisis and the people who appreciate that utility.

There’s the old saying that ‘knowledge is power’, and I’ve never disbelieved that. And, we are also familiar with the old expression that ‘forewarned is forearmed’, yes? When there’s a crisis it is often of tremendous importance to have as much information as possible about whats going on. You can get that information from ‘official’ sources, which is always a rather suspect idea.

So, yeah, having the ability to communicate with whomever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want, is something that is worth ensuring.

Remember, in some countries it is perfectly illegal for citizens to own radio communications equipment. Some countries it’s highly regulated. It doesn’t take much more than the stroke of a pen to suddenly turn your scanner or transceiver into a ‘clandestine radio station’ or ‘terrorist communication network’. It seems like it couldn’t happen here but the simple fact is, you dont know that it wont. So, while youre dropping coin for that new AR, don’t overlook spending a few bucks to make sure you know whats going on in the regions around you.

Video – WW2 US Navy ice cream

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This is an interesing video. It discusses how during WW2 ice cream played a big part in troop morale and he efforts by the military, esp in the far-flung hot Pacific regions, to provide ice cream to the troops.

What makes this interesting is that the military ice cream is made from shelf-stable powdered ingredients…most notable eggs and milk. Now, I loves me some ice cream and the notion of not having to ride out the apocalypse without ice cream has an attraction. That said…..:

Obviously you’re going to need a particular amount of electricity to cool things in your ice cream maker, but often times it’s a lot easier to produce electricity than it is to produce milk and eggs. And I rather like the idea that, once you have the basic ingredients in long-term form, you can whip up some homemade ice cream whenever you want.

And befoe anyone mentions Mountain House’s freeze-died ice cream…it’s not that great. I’ve had it before and its just a bit gummy.

LifeStraw at CostCo

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It appears that CostCo has the LifeStraws back in stock. For a fire-and-forget solution , these are pretty good. Throw one in your hunting pack, BOB, etc, and be done with it.

Note that CostCo was selling these last year around this time and they were $5 cheaper. Or, put another way, about 15% more expensive than last year. Thanks Brandon!

These make excellent gifts (especially for Paratus) to the rest of your team, cadre, clan, cell, unit, stick, squad, group, tribe, wing, detail, or gang. (Dang if there aren’t a lot of metaphors for ‘small group’!)

As you can see in the picture, CostCo is also selling some Mountain House these days. As the summer season approaches it seems CostCo is getting in ‘camping supplies’. And, lets not dance around it, on a Venn diagram there’s a lot of overlap between ‘camping’ and ‘preparedness’ supplies.

Anyway, head off to CostCo and grab a pack of these so you don’t wind up like these guys.

Video – Top 10 Post Apocalyptic TV Series

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An interesting lineup.

I’ve only seen a few of these, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Jericho…not the least of which was because of Lennie James portrayal of the one person who takes it all in stride (although, to be fair, he had inside information.)

I wish Jericho could have been on one of the non-networks like Walking Dead was. The ability to have a bit more violence, gore, and harsh language would have been a more accurate foretelling of what the apocalypse would be like.

I’m not sure what I would look for in a show these days. My interest is less the typical ‘survivors vs bad guys’ shootouts that seem to be a staple of things. I’m far more interested in stories involving the coping with failed infrastructure, supply shortages, medical emergencies, and that sort of thing.

Hmmm… a multi-part documentary on Haiti would probably be the same thing.