Question: Winchester 1894 Basic Spare Parts Setup

What would you consider a basic spare parts setup for a Winchester 94 30-30?

 My initial thoughts are extractor, ejector, firing pin, tube spring (whatever it's called the spring for the tubular magazine), hammer spring and the 6 or so the screws/ pins that hold the gun together. If you have an opinion on this please let me know in the comments section. I'm looking to stash some spare parts for my Cowboy Assault Rifle. Thanks

Edited to include: Somebody asked about Marlin spare parts. If anyone can help on that front please do so in the comments section.

RE: Parts and Springs

In my recent post on Standardization of Weapons I received a comment that was worth replying to on the main page. 

"Been through several Gun and Ammo buying panics and shortages. Learned my lesson and have ample supplies that will last me for my remaining years.

Common calibers are still a good bet. 30-06 is the most popular hunting round and will be easier to obtain than some oddball caliber. Also having reloading equipment is vital. And tools and spare parts for your chosen arsenal. How many of you Glock whizzes can gunsmith your guns? Most of us old farts with our 1911's can replace most parts and have the tools and spares ready. I bet most Glock shooters do not have even the simple punches needed to fix their guns.

Have tools for your AR? How about the Shotgun, can you remove an 870 forend without damage? Know how to clean and repair mags? Have extra springs?

Have reloading manuals, and more reloading manuals. Know which powders can be used in multiple platforms?

Lastly how about bullet casting tools?

It's more than just the guns."

Ryan replies: I would bet a very high percentage of gun owners do not have basic manuals let alone tools or spare parts.

As discussed earlier I agree about common calibers. It helps that Glocks do not break very often. Have got punches, a modest stash of parts and a good reference book for the Glocks. Am doing OK on AR spare parts. Could use a good M16/AR reference manual but that will be taken care of in the near future.

In time I would like to stash some spare parts for our ancillary guns. Maybe I should start doing some analysis on that.



Haven't taken the forend off an 870 yet, though I will be doing that in the near future to rattle can a gun with a rough finish. Got some spare parts and springs. Can clean mags but haven't really every felt the need to. Do keep a few springs but mostly went long on the mags themselves.

At this time I do not reload. The ability to store components and flex them to whatever you need the most has some allure and I would like to be able to shoot cheaper so eventually I will start reloading. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.Honestly I don't consider it super important. Seeing as I cannot make quality smokeless powder or primers reloading only goes as far as stored supplies or what you can buy anyway. To me it's sort of like saying you have food security because instead of buying canned chili you make your own from canned beans, canned tomatoes, frozen meat and the packet of chili powder that all come from the same store that sells the chili.

I do agree it is more than guns but the streamlining of a well though out battery sure helps. Stocking spare parts for 5 types of pistols, 3 makes of shotguns and a bunch of rifles would be a headache for sure. 

Diane Feinstein's AWB Version 2

The much dreaded Assault Weapons bill was presented. I urge you to write your representatives and tell them in a nice polite way that criminals by definition break the laws and this will only hurt law abiding gun owners. If you are lazy like me Ruger makes it super easy by having a nice form letter ready to go and looking up your reps automatically. Seriously if you care about anything I say take the time to let our representatives know that you are against this.

Also if you have not already JOIN THE NRA.  They are not perfect but are big enough and strong enough to actually do something. Join some other organization(s) if it makes you happy but send the NRA some love first.

If your personal 2A preparations are not where you want to be I would think about working on it. Do not spend the rent money or max the visa but if you want it and can afford it then think about buying. Yes AR's that cost $650 2 weeks ago are going for 1,400ish BUT THEY ARE AVAILABLE. Cannot say that will be the case in 2 months.

Some folks might want to think about caches. I have heard 6" PVC pipe and end caps as well as PVC glue can sell out in a hurry. Spare parts and manuals (a weak point of mine) are good things to have also. The cleaning stuff to put a greased up gun back into action would be smart also.

This weekends coming purchase binge will take care of most of my lingering accessory needs. Thankfully the stuff we need (vs want) is not targeted thought the overall everything with or around a trigger buying binge is affecting things all the same. Sure there is more stuff I want thankfully these are wants not needs. Some will be purchased when available like ammo and other stuff might be indefinitely postponed depending on how things go.

Honestly I am getting pretty bored of talking about this all the time. Think it is time to talk about other stuff and begin to resume normal operations.

Midway is Pushing Partial Back Orders Out The Door

 I ordered a bunch of different AR parts from Midway a couple weeks back. A full BCG, a spare bolt, a couple receiver extensions and some other stuff. The stuff that was in stock shipped and the rest was on back order. I wasn't worried about exactly when it showed up as it was just spare stuff anyway. This morning I got an email. It is unchanged except that obviously my last name is not XXXXXXX.

-Email follows-

Dear Ryan XXXXXXX,

We have been holding some products for you, waiting for other items to arrive so we could ship your order complete.  However, we believe an Executive Order could be released any day prohibiting the sale of certain products such as high-capacity magazines and AR-15 parts and accessories.  Therefore we have done a partial release of your backorders to ensure that any of these items and other items we had in inventory waiting to ship complete are all on their way, in case such an Order is forthcoming.  You will receive a shipping notification shortly.  Other items on backorder, that we have not yet received, are not affected by this partial release.

We appreciate your understanding and your business.  We always put Customer Satisfaction first and believe this action is in the very best interest of our Customers.

Sincerely,

MidwayUSA Customer Service

-End-

Maybe they are just doing this to appease customer concerns or do they know something I do not? Thoughts?
 

Southern Prepper 1 Video and Tab Clearing

Hat Tip to Modern Survival Online for highlighting this excellent video by Southern Prepper1.

The points about working on your fitness, confirming zero's and testing weapons are excellent. Also the reminder about web gear/ chest rigs/ something to carry ammo, spare parts and such is very valid. Personally it reminded me that we need a couple of good schematic books and do not really have a solid dedicated rig for the AK. Sure I could slap something together from the various pouches that are lying around and worst case could use one of those com bloc 5 mag(?) pouches that were tossed into mag deals forever but but that is not idea. More stuff to add to the list I guess.

French soldiers are joining the fight against Islamic rebels in Mali. 

Dangerous Old Men. I would humbly submit that the last decade of war has produced a whole lot of dangerous young men. Many of whom are right minded and bought an AR on leave or shortly after getting out.

Precedent Teaches Us The Left Really Wants ALL Our Guns by Charlie Daniels. Yes, that Charlie Daniels.

Saw this picture of Rick Perry on the drudge today and could not help but share it. It went up awhile back in conjunction with Texas allowing law abiding concealed weapons permit holders to carry on campus. While he came off as the stammering idiot of the group during the Republican Primaries, which says a lot; he actually seems legitimately pro gun which is cool.

Anyway I hope you all have a great Sunday.

Happiness is a Brownells Box at Your Door

I ordered 10 more PMAGs and some various spare parts from Brownells on the 17th of December and it showed up at my door this evening. In the time it took for them to ship the price I could get for them has multiplies 3-4 times. However those are just paper gains because I am not selling them.

We did not need them but I wanted more PMAGs. Wish I would have ordered 4 more so we would have a nice even number. I'll tack them onto my next order and if they show up that is nice and if not oh well. Honestly we are above ratio (20 per gun) so they aren't needed but I like PMAGs and want the option to continue using them. Spare parts were to replace some taken from inventory to finish (after me losing/ breaking a couple things in my AR-15 lower receiver build) and fill some holes we had.

5 Lessons from the Panic in 2012 at Teotwawki Blog was worth reading and thinking about. All in all if things get ugly we are not in a bad spot. Mostly this is because we were not in a bad spot before this whole current mess. The vast majority of this preparation was done over a few years at normal prices and deals when I could find them. We have picked up a few things including this order but they were really just rounding things out. This mag order was icing on the cake so to speak.

Also I knew what our shortages were and acted upon them. Not perfectly.  The day those mags were ordered I SHOULD have purchased an AR-15 stripped lower for a pistol build when prices were sane. Don't have a great reason why, this just didn't happen. If something sticks I will really regret that mistake. Beyond that anything I would want (a complete AR pistol to go with that lower or a PTR-91) would have been cost prohibitive for us.

The only thing that really came to mind except the stuff covered in Alexanders post is the benefit of having some money lying around. We have been able to surge on some things because at little to no notice there was money to do so. If we had no money that would not have happened. 

Anyway those are my thoughts on that. Hope you are doing well filling whatever shortages you may have.

 

Assault Weapons Band and Matthew Bracken Radio Interview

Matthew Bracken comes on about an hour in. Worth listening to as Mr Bracken always is. Maybe he is right and maybe he is wrong; I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I do not take easily to panic but if the Dem's could pull something off this is the best opportunity in awhile. [Well since the two years where they had the house, senate and presidency but did nothing.]

After looking at our inventories I saw some holes. AR mags are in an OK spot but I want more PMAGs. Also AR spare parts could be better.  Brownells has PMAGs for $12.50 a piece as well as a variety of AR-15 spare parts. Our ammo situation is not great but decent. Code for I want more ammo but these days even the best priced ammo is expensive and there is other stuff on the list. Sure if I had a few hundred bucks sitting around I would like another case of 9mm ball, one of 9mm JHP and 250 rounds of 12 gauge buckshot. Those needs will addressed over the next year or so as finances allow. The holster situation could be improved as I need a nice Safariland holster as part of a war belt setup and a nice range bag would be cool but those are low on the list.

This all depresses me and I am headed off to bed. Anyway figured I would let you know what I'm up to.

You Can Haz AK Parts?

Cope Distributing has Romanian WASR Parts Kits for $179. If you have an AK and are not squared away on parts this is a good way to get there. Assuming you have the available funds this would be a prudent purchase.

What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?

I put some time into my systems over the long weekend. I need to find a few things and order some odds and ends in the near future. Still good progress was made. Will get off my lazy butt and do some posts on this stuff soon.
As Zero noted it is about time to freak out that the next administration, in this case most likely a lame duck Democrat will bring about another AWB or whatever. If I was just a shooter this would be easy as I would toss all available resources towards guns, ammo and mags. However since I need to worry about eating, drinking clean potable water, communication, shelter and such there are certainly trade offs. Luckily I have had a few years working a decent paying job to fill most of my needs and some of my wants. Thus I don't need to freak out but looking at where I am and prioritizing filling a few holes is not a bad idea. I sort of overlayed my biggest holes with the stuff most likely to be easily taken out of circulation (at current prices) and got a shopping list.
The stuff I see as most vulnerable are imported items and magazines. For example imported Siaga shotguns and dirt cheap HK G3 and AK-47 mags could be gone in a single executive order or a change in import regulations. I don't own or have a huge desire to own a Siaga, though if I did I would get one and plenty of mags. Since I picked up some mags for the PTR-91 I may get some day that is off the list.
Today I ordered an AK-47 spare parts kit and 10 more European surplus AK mags. I don't really need the mags but at $9.95 a piece they are a great deal.They give me enough to comfortably equip another AK which is a nice option to have. If I never get there they will go into the barter/ charity pile. This purchase is the last I really want to make before November timeframe.

However if I can get around to it picking up 10 more PMAGs, 10 more Glock 9mm mags, and an AK drum would be nice. Speaking of which does anybody have experience with an AK drum that doesn't suck and is currently available at a reasonable price? I have to weigh it up against other things on the list and am not sure where this stuff will fall. Still though November is a long time away.

It is probably not a bad idea to take a look at your situation. If you have a gun lying around with just 2-3 mags, especially one that you rely on it might be prudent to order a few more just in case.

Question- AK Parts Kit?

Hi All, I am tentatively in the market for an AK parts kit (gun sans barrel and reciever). The usual places I shop do not seem to have them. If you know somebody that has them in stock please drop me a note in the comments section. Thanks,
Ryan

Reader Questions: Springs and Followers instead of Magazines

Sam asked... I agree in having lots of magazines, but what do you think of fewer mags and lots of spare mag springs and followers? This means less cost and less storage space of course and it is another way we might reduce our prepping costs.

 [To recap I personally like to have 20 magazines for a defensive rifle and 10 for a defensive pistol. These are minimums PER GUN. Less for non core weapons, hunters, plinkers, etc]

To answer Sam's question we need to discuss the reasons for storing extra magazines.

If you are reading this blog I probably don't have to make a hard sell as to why you would want to keep a  stock of magazines. Fundamentally they are a semi disposable item that are essential for the full operation of firearms. Without a magazine a semi automatic weapon is an awkward single shot. They are useful for all kinds of nasty survivalist scenarios. It is prudent to be prepared in case of some kind of future ban on politically incorrect magazines. This has happened in the past, most notably from 1994-2004. I know a guy who paid $160+ in 1990's dollars per magazine for some stuff he was caught short on. Also magazines in general and particularly military surplus type magazines can decrease in availability over time and prices of mags are not going down any time soon.

Now let us look at the reasons we might find ourselves raiding the stash of magazines we have to supliment those in our general load out. The first would be to replace magazines that we have been using which are no longer servicable. A mag wears out or breaks and needs to be replaced. Mags can wear out of break in a variety of ways. Springs can wear out and feed lips can be damaged or work beyond use. Bottom plates or mag bodies can break. My anecdotal observations show that rifle magazines usually fail by worn/ damaged feed lips or worn out springs and for pistols it is usually springs or mag bodies.

The next would be replacing magazines that are lost or misplaced. In fights or tough realistic training that require reloads magazines can get lost. Maybe you can't conveniently put a mag into a pouch or pocket or they fall out and either you can't come back and look or they get lost in the brush. Occasionally a mag could be left at the range or whatever. These things don't happen a lot but they do happen. For me the culprit has been misplacing magazines. A mag gets put in a backpack or a drawer or whatever and gets forgotten about. Once I was moving and emptied out a closet to find aproximately 15 magazines and 500 rounds of ammo. If you only have a few magazines, particularly in an environment where they are difficult or impossible to replace this sort of thing could be devastating. If you have a healthy stock of magazines it is just mindly inconvenient.

The last reason would be the all encompasing "other". Other could be deciding that you want to carry four magazines instead of two. It could also mean deciding that you want to keep some loaded mags in the car or at some alternate location. Maybe you have a friend (who uses a compatible gun because you are smart folks) is caught at your place and things get hairy or they don't quite do the best job of preparing and need a hand.

So back to the question at hand what you think of fewer mags and lots of spare mag springs and followers? No, I don't really recommend fewer magazines and lots of springs and followers (on a tangent I have never seen the actual follower really fail). The numbers I recommend are what I decided were good based on my experience and overall situation. They are what I personally use. Buying a lot of mags sucks, even relatively common and inexpensive ones add up in cost fast but it beats getting caught short.

That being said I suppose one could reasonably decide to get a couple fewer magazines and store some spare springs as long as it doesn't get too extreme. If you get maybe get seven pistol mags and 14/ 15 rifle mags and keep some springs around that would probably work. However I certainly wouldn't suggest only having three pistol mags and eight rifle mags with extra springs. The reason is that spare springs really only cover you if the spring on a magazine wears out, not if other parts wear out/ break or the whole thing gets lost. Also extra springs do not equal extra magazines. Furthermore low levels like that would make you too vulnerable to the damage or loss of a single magazine and give little ability to have a heavier load out or cross level/ trade magazines as needed.

I hope that answers the question or at least gives you something to think about.

Thoughts?

Oregon Trail Series #2 What The Oregon Trail Taught Me About Survival

1. Mr. "I'll take 4 oxen and all the bullets $1600 will buy me" was amusing. At least he was amusing to me, Wifey who played the game as a kid also didn't see the humor, I think that was because every boy went the all bullets route at least once. Our results were invariably unsuccessful. Breaking down or starving to death way before getting anywhere near running out of bullets. You have got to allocate your resources to meet many different needs. All the bullets in the world will not feed you. All the food in the world will not help a sick kid. Medicine doesn't make up for not having a spare jacket or a broken axle. Prudent people allocate their resources diversely to meet their many needs.

2. To capture this significant issue in its own lesson; bullets will not solve every problem or keep you reliably fed. Sure you can hunt but even a great shot might not see game that often. You need to store food.

3. Sanitation and hygiene are important lest you want to die of dysentery. That pretty much speaks for itself.

4. Something will happen so you don't want to spend all of your money. If anything the game under emphasizes this point. You don't know what is going to happen. It could be running low on oxen or the need to replace that extra spare axle. People take cash so you better have some available.

5. People die and not just random strangers but people you know. The game made this almost laughable with like a 30 percent mortality rate but lets not ignore the point. To think that your family will get through a prolonged dangerous period without outside assistance is probably naive. [Especially if that time included multiple violent confrontations it is almost laughable. If you think some guns, maybe a bit of body armor and a day once in a blue moon in the backyard trying to do battle drills will mean you come out heroically and surprisingly and completely unscathed you're more optimistic than I am. Once you consider that these contacts are more likely to be defensive than offensive the odds get even worse.] Getting your medical training and supplies squared away is a darn good start. Being careful and using proper safety equipment is prudent also. Someone truly out in the hinder boonies probably needs to worry a lot more about a slip with an ax then a gunfight. However while I encourage you to prepare as fully as possible for all these situations it is worth squaring yourself up with the fact that someone could die.

6. Whatever the risk don't be afraid to seek opportunities. There are always risks in life. However if you refuse to pursue any opportunities because there is some risk involved you won't get much of anywhere. It could be moving to another state for a new far better paying job with some real potential or deciding to become a single income household. It might be moving to a rural home, into alternate housing or even off grid. All of these possibilities have some risks (though death from dysentery is low on the list) that need to be accepted. Don't be afraid to accept some risk.

7. Be prepared for a long journey. No matter how much you spend or how hard you work the road to preparedness, like the trail from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley, is very long. Some times it is going to seem like it will never end but unless you keep moving the end never comes. Then you just end up in Nebraska or Wyoming which are nice enough places but much harder to farm in than the Willamette Valley.

Funniest Thing I've Seen Today

AR Spare Parts

 I recently got an email asking about AR spare parts. Here were my thoughts.

Basically speaking I saw 3 options when it comes to spare parts for the AR platform.

The cheapest is a roughly $20 repair kit. I got one of these at some point in the past from cheaper than dirt. It has a spare firing pin, firing pin retaining pin, extractor, extractor retaining pin, etc.

What I recently purchased was a more extensive repair kit. It is $70 and a spare butt stock. This mid range plan is pretty good. IMO if you get one of these repair kits and a spare butt stock per rifle it will meet most any foreseeable needs. Also pick up a broken shell extractor.

Personally my next step in AR parts is going to be spare complete bolt carrier groups. Might be excessive but it it would give me peace of mind.

I got this stuff from Brownells and was pleased with their selection, price and service.

Hope this helps. If you have any followup questions do not hesitate to ask.

Ammo, New Years Resolutions and Extra Magazines

Today I bought a case of .223 ammo. It is 75 grain match JHP's made by Prvi Partisan. For what it is I am pretty happy with the price. So that takes another resolution off the list which is sweet. I got to thinking about my other ammo resolution  

13. Half cases each of 7.62x39, 9mm and just maybe .38. Full ones if I am feeling rich. Decided to go in a slightly different direction. I am going to get a full case of 9mm, some sort of JHP ammo. After the rest of my goals have been met I may look at some 7.62x39.

Also as per #14 I will get 20 Glock 9mm mags before moving onto more spare parts or after that some M1a mags. Who knows what will happen and it would be nice to have enough extra mags that I could pass a few to a friend if need be or get another gun and not be short mags. As I discussed earlier it would be nice to be able to stash a few here and there just in case.

Oh yeah and since I made the jerkey #18. Get a dehydrator and dehydrate something.  is complete. Speaking of which I am doing pineapple slices right now.

Reviewing New Years Resolutions

About a year ago I made my New Years Resolutions. Figure this is about the time to look over them. It isn't quite the end of the year yet but if it hasn't been done it probably isn't going to be.  I will comment in italics.

Fitness:
1. Stop gaining and loosing the same ten pounds, get to and stay at my goal weight of 175lbs.
Fail. I seem to be 'sticking' at 177-180. The good news is I can eat and drink just about whatever I want and stay there. The bad news is that it is really hard for me to get below there no matter what I do. Decided I am happy enough here.
2. Run two miles in 13:30 or less. Might not be maxing the APFT but being within spitting distance is good enough for me. Fail. I am running faster than I was this time last year but not that much.

Financial:
3. Rebuild our emergency fund and increase it to three months wages.
Almost Complete. We are 3 paydays away from this being complete so since it was an annual goal I will call it complete. Saving 3 months take home pay in a year is pretty awesome. For the sake of full disclosure we were able to stash about a grand we got from the move. I can honestly say I am really proud of this one. It has taken a lot of dedication and stick to it ness. The peace of mind which is coming from having a good emergency fund is pretty darn nice.

4. Add a little bit of money to the stash.

Complete. We added some cash to the stash. Since it wasn't specific I will call it complete.

Food:
5. Cook with more whole foods (meat, eggs, flour, rice, etc) and stop eating so much ready made frozen stuff.
Complete. We eat real food now and frozen and pre prepared stuff is for rare occasions. We might go get some feel good frozen stuff once a month or so.

6. Going along with #5 I want to eat more canned and shelf stable stuff regularly.
Complete.
7. Add some serious long term storage freeze dried type food to the pantry. Maybe a months worth of Mountain House? Fail. Not sure I am that concerned with it at this point.

Firearms:
8. Start working with a purpose on a stash of spare parts.
Complete.

Falls into no good category:
9. Start working on grid down power solutions. Some sort of compact solar panel setup to charge batteries and power some lights would be good.
Fail. Looking to address this one soon.
10. Get some LED lights and stuff.
Complete.
11. Be a better husband to my wonderful wife.
Complete. Of course you can always be a better spouse but in general I have made improvement in this area. 

7/11 isn't too bad. I would rather aim high and not get everything done than have stupid goals I could all knock out in a weekend. Got to think about next years goals. Think the categories may be different.

Spare Parts, Fully Equiping A Gun And The Like

Today I was able to successfully purchase a bunch of Glock spare parts from Lone Wolf Distributors. This finishes off my initial push to get spare parts for my primary battery. I do need to pick up some spare springs for mags and such at some point but that isn't a huge concern. I am very glad the initial spare parts push is over.

I got pretty much what I wanted and have right about $20 leftover. Taking the Wife out for some Turkish Pizza tomorrow night which we always enjoy.

I find myself thinking about what it actually costs to fully equip a Glock.

Well first you need to buy the gun itself. Lets say you want to get a brand spanking new one. I think $500 is probably reasonable as most prices are within about 10% of there.

Now you need some mags. There is a semi consensus that 10 mags is a good number and you would like a few of those big Glockamole mags just for fun. We will call that $300.

You want some spare parts so that will be a couple hundred bucks depending on what exactly you buy and in what quanities.

So we are sitting at about a grand with no holsters, mag pouches, cleaning gear or ammo. Of course you need load out gear and ammo. Depending on exactly what you want to get (holsters vary widely in price) and how much ammo you desire to have the total price of this is going to be at least a couple hundred bucks or so.

To equip a Glock in what I consider the desirable manner it costs something in the neighborhood of $1,200-1,300. Someone who wants more mags and more ammo and likes more expensive holsters could easily drop more like $1,500 -2,000.  Someone on a tighter budget could get more like 6 mags and skip the Glockamoles. They could also get one holster and just a few hundred rounds of ammo while putting off spare parts for down the road. Still these folks are probably looking at $750-850 for a real minimalist setup.

It is important to remember that you don't need to get all of this stuff in one day. A person can certainly buy a gun with just a holster and a couple boxes of bullets then pick up ammo over a couple months, then mags, etc. Spread it out over a few months or a year and the cost is a lot more managable.

My goal is just to share my experiences in properly equiping these very popular handguns.

Thoughts?

What I am Going To Do Prepare This Coming Week?

Yeah some smart guy might observe that it is Wednesday. The 4 day weekend sort of skewed my calender a bit and I wanted to figure out what my preps were going to be.

1. Buy the mags and parts I meant to last week.
2. Make a decision about a wheat grinder. I have looked at the info and just need to weigh it and come to a decision. Either buy said wheat grinder or plan when I will be able to do so.
3. Pick up a couple gallons of coleman fuel.
4. Make some yummy biscuits.
5. Crock pot some beans. Now that Wifey is volunteering it might be good if I do a bit more cooking. Also getting into the habit of cooking good beans (cheap) may help us make meat (more expensive) a slightly smaller part of our diet.
6. Finish the book I am reading.

I am thinking that just maybe I need t do more active planning of my preps and goals. Starting with big longer term goals and then breaking it down into monthly goals which will make figuring out the weeks plan a snap. That however sounds like it will take some thought and effort. I will work on the thought now and then get to the effort later.

Thoughts?

What I Did To Prepare This Week?

This is my review of the beginning of the weeks goals. For the sake of cohesion I am going to do it separate from my plans for next week. Comments will be in italics.

So my goals were:
1. Fill up water jugs.
Met
2. Pick up a good amount of flour, sugar and other staples. Wifey cooks enough that we can have a good amount of flour n such siting around just in bags and not need to worry about it going bad.
Met, Made a special trip to the store to pick up a couple bags of flour, a big bag of sugar, two jugs of oil and more yeast. It is hard stocking up when you have to carry it a half mile home but we are doing it.
3. Buy magazines and spare parts. Got the cash, need to drop it off at the bank and then do the buying.
Not met, Went to drop cash at the bank and it was closed. I didn't really know their hours well because they didn't matter to me as my pay is direct deposited into another bank. Not a huge deal though. Still got the cash and still got a plan so it will just happen a bit later.
4. Hit the weight room 4 times and lock down my diet at about 2,000 calories a day.
Close to met. Perfection is certainly ideal but if I lift a couple times and eat halfway reasonable it is still a win in my book.
6. Start Rosetta Stone for German.
Not met. Just didn't get to this one.
7. Learn to make bread. Wifey knows how and I probably should also.
Met. Had some fun in the process. Next week is biscuits.

So for the week I was 4/7 with a sort of mulligan (to next week) on the spare parts thing because putting money into the bank was sort of the lynch pin of that operation.

Got to think about what next weeks goals are going to be. Will post that tonight or tomorrow.

Big Spare Parts Purchase, Running It By You

I have been thinking about this for awhile. Sort of want to run it by you folks, also I just can't think of anything else to write. So here we go.

Between selling the Glock .40 and some saving I have a pretty decent wad of cash saved up. I can throw a hundred bucks at this or fifty at that pretty easy but big amounts of cash are pretty rare and I want to do this right.

I have $1,100 for this purchase.

First and foremost I am going to get enough 9mm Glock magazines to get me to the comfortable happy place. I will get 10 normal full capacity and three of the big 33rders because well they could be useful and might go up significantly in value. This will cost $300 or a shade more. I put this first for a couple reasons. First of all the stuff I am going to list evil high capacity assault weapons magazines have the most chance of a radical (and maybe permenant) spike in price. Second I may never need any spare parts but I know that as a Glock shooter I will find a use for mags. That takes us to $800ish.

Now it is time to get cracking on spare parts. I have put this off for way too long and want to be able to take a big jump toward keeping my guns running for the unforeseeable future. Having a couple dollar part sideline a several hundred dollar weapon for which I have taken the time and expense to stash a good amount of ammo would be a real waste.

First and foremost I need to secure AR parts. I am quite comfortable with this platform and have plenty of bullets for it. This kit seems pretty good to me and with a spare buttstock and pistol grip and a few other goodies and a broken shell extractor. Figure $300 will be plenty for this platform. Leaves us with $500ish.

Now to the Glock 9mm. Commander Zero wrote about this topic and well he knows guns and Glocks. Figure I can probably get a good stash of Glock parts for $200 or so. Leaves $300 to work with.

Now for the Remington 870. A field repair kit is always a good start and I will throw a few spare springs (w/ followers) in to boot. Can't see myself breaking anything on this gun and certainly not anything aside the stuff I mentioned. [When I have a couple of these I will get at least one spare stock but the thing is heavy wood and I've never come close to breaking a stock. ] Call that $100 to keep the math easy. So we are at $200ish now.

Things get a little bit muckier. First of all I would really need to see where I am at cash wise as my math was pretty approximate. Second of all my priorities become less clear. I am somewhat inclined to put some remaining funds I have toward Mossberg 500 parts. Don't plan to get another Mossberg but they are not bad guns and it was the first gun I ever owned so it does have a soft spot. Assuming my math is halfway accurate I would be able to get it pretty taken care of and then probably have some left over to pick up a due dad or a widget or three.

Then again a friend noted that I should get some mag springs for the Glock. I am definitely planning to do that but it may be another purchase for another day. I have a reasonable stash of mags and don't keep more than 3-4 loaded at any point in time so it is not a hugely pressing concern. However certainly mag springs and followers are something I should just throw a C note at for peace of mind. Come to think of it doing that for both the Glock 9mm and AR would probably be wise.

After making (more or less) this purchase I will still have a long way to go in spare parts. Possibly the Mossberg, the 1911 and my surplus rifles will need some loving too but with the bulk of my spare parts (at least for current armory levels) needs met it will be easy enough to finish up over time in a more gradual way.

Thoughts? Did I miss anything? Parts I should get but didn't list, mistaken priorities?