Pic Post

I really hope this one ends badly for the folks of Westboro Baptist. Those hate mongering assholes have been screwing around at funerals asking to get stomped for years. If there is any ambiguity in my statement I really hope a mob of angry Slayer fans inflict seriously bodily harm to every member of this protest old enough to legally drive a car.

Picture of the Day

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Fearless, Pretty cool but a scary thing for parents.

Project 870: I Can Haz Sling

I was watching a Youtube video this morning and had a blind flash of the obvious, a single point sling. Duh! Generally I am a fan of 2 point adjustable slings or baring that 2 point slings. However in this case the 1 point has some benefits. Specifically that for many guns, including shotguns, they require no attachment hardware. The other benefit is that I already have one, somewhere. Started looking for it and ended up finding the stuff to make one from my old ghetto rigged 2 point sling. So I decided there was no need to tear apart the house to find the ready made one. A 1 point sling is really just a loop of nylon webbing, a buckle and something to attach it to the stock. In about 5 minutes I had it set up and Project 870 has a sling.

 

 

 

 

 The key to 1 point slings is that the loop which goes around your neck and across your chest under the arm has to be pretty tight. When you get go of the gun the attachment point will drop to the lowest place on that loop. If that loop is big and floppy your gun is going to be in the dirt. Mine is as tight as it can be and still slip on easy.

 As you can see I took an 8 inch piece of gutless 550 cord, looped it through the buckle and tied it together with a double overhand knot. That cord is just looped under itself around the gun's grip. Simple but pretty effective. Also you really cannot beat the price.

The sling had a loop on one end. I hooked the other end through that and held it in place with a generic metal sling thingie. Left about a foot of extra just in case. Better to have extra adjustment and not need it than need it and not have it.

One point slings aren't my favorite for patrol rifles because they are less comfortable for long term carry and when hands free or loosely holding the grip with 1 hand the gun swings around a lot. However for a shotgun that's going to be in my hands for very short periods of time those issues are minimal. Also the price of free is hard to beat.

Spring Carry and Gardening

The weather here in Southern Arizona seems to have decided to stop snowing and that it's Spring. A pleasant change but pretty fast. Suppose that's the nature of the desert. This brings up a couple issues worth discussing.

Carrying a gun in the fall and winter is easy. Pack whatever you want then put on a coat. It's the good times for sure. The benefits of packing a full sized piece without any of the issues of concealment. Spring and summer are what separates those who practice high percentage/ consistent carry from the fair weather strap on a heater in the winter or when they are going to wherever and want to pose.

Warm weather carry is not hard with a bit of planning. Get an inside the waistband (IWB) holster and get started. Blackhawk makes a decent one at a great price. You can choose to carry a compact pistol like a Glock 19 or subcompact pistol like a baby Glock or J frame which makes things easier. While I do not like following the rabbit hole of smaller guns down to a really small gun like a Beretta 21A/ NAA .22 revolver, etc but  they certainly beat not having a gun at all. On the other side of the coin you can dress around a bigger gun (though most won't and it will stay in the glove box/ nightstand/ safe) or open carry.

The endstate is to not let the weather getting warmer stop you from carrying.

The garden is coming along pretty well. The green onions from the store definitely sprouted in the cup of water. Turns out the roots need space below them and once I lifted them off the bottom of the cup they went crazy.  Now they are sitting in a pot of dirt. The potatoes (also from the store) are sort of going. They definitely have white shoots coming from the original taters and a couple are growing some leaves. I am optomistic that the rest will catch up. Hopefully they will get to growing and in a week or so I'll put them into a container.

The garden is coming along. So far I am really enjoying it and find the whole thing quite calming. Maybe I will try to do a second wave of stuff and or try to grow some more herbs.

Pic Post

I save good pictures onto the desktop until I find a use for them. Every so often it gets overcrowded and I do one of these posts then drag them all to the pic file. Warning, some mild profanity.

Yeah I know the picture of the gun is not a Glock. Still a good one though.

Five For Sure

I like this saying. Would argue that a Glock 19 (and its S&W MP and XD contemporaries) is 15 for sure but this package is smaller and a lot lighter. It is a catchy saying all the same.

Pic Post-Emptying Out The Desk Top

Monkey with a gun. Not sure why this amuses me but it sure does.

We will close with my favorite of the bunch.

Stuff From The Web: It's About Controlling People Not Guns

Turns out that hammers and clubs kill more people than rifles in the US.

We do not have to imagine a world without guns. Humanity already lived through it during the middle ages.

Merry Christmas To All!

Our Christmas got off to a great start with Walker sleeping in until 8 o'clock in the morning. Kiddo was mad that Santa was in our house (he does not like the man after a bad mall experience) and after finding a couple matchbox cars in his stocking decided he was done opening gifts. We helped him with the rest and then had some breakfast.

Kiddo got a cowboy outfit for Christmas and somehow it ended up on the dog. Dog is not amused by this. Anyway the picture came out well and we had to share it. Don't worry Dog is being well rewarded with all manner of (dog safe) people food so his Christmas is still going well.

Wifey got a nice designer wallet, a wool coat and some end tables. I got a CMMG Conversion kit for the AR and an IPOD Nano.

After breakfast we have just been hanging out. Kiddo played with toys and generally was himself and is down for a nap. Dog is sleeping. We are relaxing before dinner and doing some light snacking.

I pulled out my rifle (calling it Project AR Upgrade is getting old) and fiddled with the conversion kit a bit. It is a nicely manufactured little piece of kit. "Installation" is stupidly easy. Just take out the bolt and put in the kit bolt then insert a .22 magazine. I'm looking forward to testing it out at the range later this week. Will check the darn schedule this time though.

To me there are two real roles for this kit. As a survival toon and for affordable short range training with the AR. For me being able to carry a little bolt with a mag or two and shoot .22 ammo through my rifle would be really nice. A great option if I have to travel light for whatever reason. Secondly I can't afford to shoot anywhere near as much .223 as would be ideal but a trip to the range with this sucker won't break the bank.

For me two criteria will determine if this bolt is a useful tool or a little gimmick decent accuracy and OK reliability. What I want to be able to do is shoot .22lr accurately at 25, or ideally 50 meters, sufficiently to do SRM, plink and if need put some meat into the pot. Don't need or expect it to win small bore competitions, just to be accurate enough to fill a legitimate role. As to reliability I am a bit less concerned. So long as it doesn't jam every third round or in complicated unpleasant ways that make the whole thing a hassle I am prepared for a few eccentricities. Absolute best case some duds are inevitable with rim fire ammo anyway. I'll share some more thoughts after it gets some range time.

Well kiddo is up and it is almost time to start moving towards dinner so it is time to wrap this up.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas

Body Armor: A Tale of Two Vests

Well my rifle plates finally arrived yesterday from Spectre. From  making the order to my doorstep took a day short of 7 weeks. The plates are covered in this thick foamy stuff which isn't a bad thing.

In the meantime I kinda stumbled into a nice set of soft body armor.

I was going to write a post about body armor but realized I have already done that. We will hit some new points and rehash the older ones.

Some folks folks argue that armor slows them down. Sure there are some situations where you are best off with a rifle, camelback, 2 spare mags and an IFAK but those are few and far between. Long fast movements with a very low probability of contact like say an old school foot messenger in a pretty safe area would be a good example. To put it into perspective a PC with a set of plates weighs about 20 pounds. Assuming you are of a healthy weight and in shape it is pretty doable for most situations.  Everyone makes different choices but there are few situations where I would choose not to wear armor.

It is true that body armor will not stop everything. It is not a magical talisman that prevents being shot in the pelvis, face or extremities. That being said it is the best compromise between protection and mobility for most scenarios.

A plate carrier with rifle plates is a good option for a rather crazy scenario. They probably would have sold really well during the LA Riots or Katrina. Max Velocity said something worthwhile on the subject "Overall, I feel that anytime I am going to be carrying my battle rifle, for whatever reason, I want to be wearing at least a plate carrier with load out to carry my first line ammo scales plus IFAK and ancillaries. I could be wearing that in the low profile way I described, or openly in a tactical way."

 Anyway here is the Shellback Banshee PC with plates. To put the cost issue into perspective I am into this PC and plates for somewhere between $450 and $475. Not cheap by any means but doable with a bit of planning or by selling a gun that has been collecting dust in the back of the safe.

I think the reason body armor gets no love from a lot of the survivalist community is that it isn't sexy. Folks have no problem spending 300-500 dollars on a gun. Heck some folks do not have a problem spending that much on accessories for a gun or even on a new knife.  A blog friend of mine who no joke has well over 50 grand in guns described body armor as "ruinously expensive". He would be infinitely better off selling a couple guns and getting a PC for every family member.

As shown it is currently wearing a Condor double Kangaroo pouch because the cost was less than half the price of a set of HSGI double taco's. This is set up for home defense. (Yeah my load out is 3x rifle and 3x pistol mags. If I can't handle the job with that it's not getting done.) Not shown are a pair of pants with a holster and an IFAK stuffed in the cargo pocket. It is easy to take off that pouch and I am still kinda fiddling with whether the mags are best suited on the PC or belt.

You aren't going to conceal a PC with a bunch of pouches on it though a slick one is relatively doable. Worn under a sweatshirt or wind breaker (obviously in appropriate weather) somebody would have to be looking for body armor to see it. Keeping your mags and such in a chest rig lets you go slick PC, only mags/ kit or both which are options that suit a lot of scenarios.

The soft armor's role to me is for a variety of more mundane scenarios. Stuff like buying/ selling things or otherwise carrying around large amounts of cash. Maybe a trip to a stop and rob to get a few things when the situation is a bit iffy. There are a variety of scenarios that fall short of running around with an M4 and a full OEF style load out but aren't quite normal either. A glock, soft armor and a couple 33rd Glock mags in the cargo pocket or murse would be about as ready as you can be and still look fairly normal/ fit into normal society.

A line I wrote that Commander Zero quoted is worthwhile in terms of where body armor falls in the grand priority list. "There is a time for everything. If somebody asked me whether they should get a couple hundred rounds of buckshot and pistol ammo for guns they have less than a hundred rounds for and put the remaining bucks into a currently empty pantry or get a plate carrier I would say food and bullets. On the other hand if they were looking at getting a 4th handgun/rifle/whatever or a new optic vs body armor I would say to get the armor for sure. That 4th handgun/ rifle could certainly be useful but a plate carrier could save your life.

Finally to close I will paraphrase John Mosby aka Mountain Guerilla “If you have 6 AR’s in the safe but not body armor and night vision you’re screwing your friends and buddies."
 
Where does body armor fit into your defensive setup?

Are you one of those guys we talked about with a safe full of guns but no body armor? If so why?

Project AR Upgrade: 14.5in BCM Middy Pic Post

 This package was definitely a good start to the afternoon. It was expected (package tracking sort of ruins surprises that way) but still exciting.

The contents of the box. A 14.5 in Bravo Company mid length upper with a pinned Battle Comp, a BCM M-16 BCG, a Gunfighter charging handle, magpul forend and BUIS.

 Various swag that came in the package. It seems that if you buy  a pretty average mortgage payment worth of  Bravo company products they don't pull any punches. The hat that will be great for the range, some stickers, a small bottle of some sort of weapons lube with a cool name, a couple DVD's and a poster.

Project AR Upgrade all put together in it's current configuration with an ACOG and a lower that was already in inventory.  The magpul furniture was a hassle to put on but eventually I figured it out. Dog had to give it a sniff. After sniffing Dog moves on to continue his not so busy day.

Far too early for a review yet but everything looks great. The middy has sort of a different feel to it but that's not a bad thing parse, just different. I am going to try and get the ACOG bore sighted in the next couple days and take the rifle to the range this weekend or worst case next week.  Once I get a lower specifically for Project AR Upgrade it is going to get painted.

Obviously once I get some trigger time Project AR Upgrade will be revisited. Anyway right now I'm a pretty happy Survivalist.

Pic Dump