Gun & Prepping News #66

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:

• "Cold Weather Carry"--Handguns Magazine.  Richard Nance begins:

    As a native Californian, I sometimes forget the whole world doesn’t walk around in T-shirts, shorts and flip flops year-round. Recent trips to northern Illinois and central Pennsylvania reminded me not everyone has it so easy when it comes to concealed carry. Clearing a baggy T-shirt to draw your handgun is a lot different than having to fish your handgun out from under layer after cold-blocking layer of garments.

    Add a pair of cozy gloves to the mix and getting to your gun in a hurry can be next to impossible. Even worse, if your gun snags on a garment during the draw stroke, it can be dropped with the muzzle pointing who knows where. If moving to a warmer climate isn’t in your plans, here are a few tips for cold-weather concealed carry.

He has some tips for concealing, drawing, and reholstering a handgun. For instance, if you are wearing multiple layers, he recommends carrying the gun outside all but the outermost layer which will act as the concealing garment. 

• "Handguns: Carry Rotation Downside"--Shooting Illustrated.  The author discusses some of the difficulties had has experienced in switching between different firearms, and concludes: "For a pistol that’s intended as a lifesaving tool, there’s no reason to switch heaters because you’re in a 'different gun mood.' You don’t move the brake pedal around in your car on a whim, so why would you want to randomly cycle through carry handguns to essentially the same effect?" 
• "Underestimating Your Opponent"--Tactical Professor. He comments on a photograph circulating on social media showing an anti-ICE protestor with a an M&P 15-22 .22 rifle with a partially loaded magazine and the mocking comments:

 Within their performance envelope, which covers many urban situations, .22 rifles are incredibly lethal. One of my colleagues calls them ‘three step guns.’ After being shot with one, the shootee takes three steps and falls down dead as a hammer. Underestimating their lethality is a grave mistake. I have many incidents in my database of people killed by a single round to the chest from a .22 rifle.

• "How To Shoot Long-Range Consistently: Rifle Setup"--Rifle Shooter Magazine. An excerpt:

 Whether it’s a stock or a chassis, consider getting (or doing it yourself) the action bedded into that stock or chassis. A lot of stocks and chassis claim that they don’t need to be bedded but I’ve found that even those need to be to get the best, consistent performance out of your rifle system. This creates a 1 to 1 fit of your action to that stock or chassis. This will keep things from moving around under recoil or while you are driving down a bumpy road. This will help ensure first-shot accuracy. On top of bedding the action, make sure you have proper clearance in the barrel channel. The stock around the barrel must not contact (be free floated) the barrel for the most consistency.

• This looks fun: "Automatic For The People: Now You Can DIY A Gatling Gun"--The Firearm Blog.  The article explains:

The M1337 uses AR-pattern barrels and other parts, with all the mechanical hard parts held together by 3D-printed parts. The files for those 3D parts are freely given away online. The creator sells a parts kit that has some of the parts that you don’t make yourself, and you can source other bits yourself.   

It is belt fed according to the article. You can learn more at the designer's website here. Per the website and videos, it uses disintegrating belt links. Per the author's website, he has also been developing a suppressor for it to be used with .300 BLK. 

• "SAINT Victor 7.62 20": The Do-Everything Rifle?"--The Armory Life.  There seems to be a lot more interest in a "do-everything rifle"--truck gun, ranch rifle, scout rifle, are common types of rifles being thrown around in that regard. The author of this article offers both a review of the SAINT Victor rifle and an argument on why .308 makes an ideal "do-everything" round. The article doesn't mention it, but the rifle is 8 lbs. 1 oz. according to the manufacturer. 
• And Ruger re-imagines their scout rifle: "Ruger American Gen II Scout: Built For The Real World"--The Firearm Blog. The older Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle was based on the Ruger M77 rifle which used a Mauser style action, including push feed and large claw extractor. It was also more open at the top allowing better access to the chamber. As the name indicates, the newer rifle is based on the Gen II Ruger American rifle. Both feature 16 inch barrels, but the new rifle is lighter than the Gunsite Scout at about 6.5 lbs. The iron sights on the new rifle seem better than the older models, which were based on the sights of the Mini-30. 
• A different type of do-it-all weapon: "EAA Brings Back Affordable Combo Guns"--The Firearm Blog. Most of the article is about what is a combination gun and some of the models historically offered in the U.S. (they are far more popular in Europe than the U.S. and never achieved lasting success). But it mentions:

Now, EAA says it’s bringing combination guns in from Turkish manufacturer Balikli. We’ve seen these guns before; Balikli was exhibiting them in a corner of the SHOT Show basement in 2024. At that time, we noted that they had some unusual chambering choices, including .300 Winchester Magnum, .30-30 and .357 Magnum—not that there’s anything out of the ordinary with these calibers, but they’re rarely found in combination guns made in Europe. 

No word on what calibers or prices, yet.  

• And on the topic of "do-it-all" rifles: "Best Ranch Rifles: A Modern Ranch Rifle Revival"--Recoil. The author defines a "ranch rifle" as "a handy, compact, intermediate-caliber rifle, carried around all-day long from dawn to dusk while on a ranch." And, in that regard:

While an AR-15 fills the same role very capably, some might prefer the slim profile and feel of a traditionally stocked rifle. Many shooters find a traditional stock to point and handle very naturally and intuitively. When transporting your gun, such as in a scabbard on horseback, a ranch rifle is slimmer from top to bottom than typical pistol-gripped modern sporting rifles.

So of the four rifles that are considered, the author's top three picks are all AR variants that mate an AR to a standard style stock: the CMMG BR4 Dissent, the Fox Trot Mike Ranch Rifle, and the now discontinued SIG Sauer MCX Regulator. Rounding out the list is the Mini-14. 

• "Free SBRs Are Coming! A Horrible Idea"--Guns America.  The author warns: "Zero-dollar NFA transfers sound amazing until you hit the real costs. Before you turn that brace AR into an SBR, read the travel rules, trust traps, penalties, and long-term risks that most shooters ignore."
• Some firearms history: "First M16 Rifles in the Vietnam War"--The Armory Life. ARPA (now DARPA) and Project Agile.
• "AR-15 vs. Bullpup Rifles: Which One Is Right For You?"--American Rifleman. The author goes over the advantages and disadvantages of both. The bullpup has the edge with providing a full length barrel in an SBR length package. But it does not do as well shooting off a bench or from a bipod and I've heard complaints that they aren't as accurate as an AR with a free-floated barrel. The article also mentions that they aren't as easily accessorized. In fact, from a military perspective, one of the issues I've heard complaints of is that even with additional rails, most bullpups don't have the room to mount all the lights, lasers and emitters, optics, and other stuff that commonly show up on modern combat rifles. I'll admit up front that I have zero experience with bullpups, but I've long thought that they would be better for the home defender and prepper because they are more compact which will be a major benefit moving in and around a structure or in and out of vehicles, whereas the disadvantages won't be as significant to the majority of civilian shooters who will not be mounting the full panoply of gear to their rifles as military operators. 
• "The 6mm ARC Cartridge: Why the Military Needed It"--Guns & Ammo.  The reason it was developed:

    America’s military has been at war against terror for 20 years. We have certainly learned a lot along the way, but so have our enemies. For example, the Taliban in Afghanistan knew that most of our guys shoot carbines chambering 5.56 NATO; if they stay 600 yards away, there’s no need to fret small arms fire much.

    The unit that adopted the 6mm ARC decided that they still wanted to get good hits at 600 yards and beyond, so they started issuing more rifles chambered in .308 Winchester because it is capable of that kind of performance. The problem is that the rifles and ammunition are both heavier than their 5.56mm NATO counterparts.

The solution was the 6mm ARC which "can keep a 108-grain bullet above 1,800 fps out to 580 yards" and stays supersonic out to 1,350 yards from an 18-inch barrel at chamber pressures of just 52,000 psi. And it does this using the AR-15 platform. 

• "Fanny Packs Can Add Versatility to Everyday Carry"--Handguns Magazine. And one important point:

First impressions are important, and the goal is for your fanny pack not to make one. Avoid a pack that appears overtly tactical. A pack that hangs from your belly button to your knees, or one with MOLLE webbing and emblazoned with gun-themed patches, will garner unwanted attention. While the interior of your fanny pack should be specifically designed for carrying a handgun, the exterior should look like any other pack. 

And for goodness sake, please avoid black unless it is leather. To me, at least, nothing screams "gun" more than a black Cordura fanny pack. 

•  Knives: "Skallywag Tactical Riptide Review"--The Armory Blog. These look like they would be good tactical or survival knives. Blades are a little over 6 inches long with either a Tanto or spear point style, with either a partially serrated edge (which I dislike) or a plain edge. However, there are a lot of good knives out there, so for me I tend anymore to look more at the sheath than the knife. In this regard:

The Riptide family of knives comes with an ambidextrous, pancake-style Kydex sheath. The sheath features a unique dual-retention system. The form-fitted sheath provides a secure, rattle-free friction fit. It’s augmented by a spring-release tab that further secures the knife in the sheath. It’s easily released in a single motion when drawing the knife by simply pulling up on the ambidextrous button on the tab. Skallywag Tactical is incorporating the dual-retention system in the sheaths of all of its new knives. 

That sounds good. The question I always have to ask myself with gear anymore is "does it do anything better than what I already have or a less expensive option," and, if so, "is it that much better that it is worth spending the money on it"?

• And speaking of "does it do anything better" and "is it worth the added cost" is this article: "Gen 2 vs. Gen 3 Magpul PMAGs – New Tech Worth Extra Cash?"--The Shooter's Log. Probably not enough of a benefit unless you need to buy it because of the particular caliber of your weapon or you have a weapon that is not compatible with the Gen 2. 
• And on the topic of Magpul magazines: "Quick Magazine Tip"--Arctic Specter. Using luminescent tape so you can more easily locate your magazines in the dark. He recommends removing the floor plate, cutting out a bit of tape large enough to go across the tab at the bottom of the floor plate, and when you put the floor plate back on it will cover the extra bit and hold it in place. 
• "Best 243 Ammo for Deer & Other Hunts"--The Shooter's Log.  Some ballistic charts for different commercial loads. 
• "Why You Don't Need "Survival Food" Until You Have Months Worth of Regular Food"--The Late Prepper.  The author advises:

    It’s not a great situation if a family is already breaking into their survival food that has a 10+ year shelf-life a couple of weeks after a long-term emergency strikes. Instead, individuals or families should have several months worth of “regular” food rotating in their pantry. Much of this will be medium-term food such as canned meals, pastas, grains, and even dehydrated meat.

    Keep in mind that I own a long-term storage beef company, yet I still advise not buying any of it until a family has at least several months worth of normal foods. It doesn’t make sense to have to bust open a bucket of freeze dried lasagna on week 3 of bugging in.

    The reason is simple: Freeze-dried meals and meats are more expensive than their canned or boxed counterparts. Canned tuna, chicken, and beef can supply a lot more protein per dollar spent than survival meats. Granted, canned beef is, in my humble opinion, far less appetizing than tuna, chicken, or even Spam, but it fills its purpose.

• "How a Simple Piece of Advice from John “Shrek” McPhee Helped Me Drop 25 Pounds"--Fleeting Survival. The advise was simply to start walking. He has some tips to help you get into the habit and stick to it. 
• Related: "I lost 50lbs thanks to a tiny lifestyle change after years of failed diets and workout plans"--Daily Mail.  The woman in the article lost her weight by adopting a challenge of walking 20,000 steps per day. 
• "How to improve your flexibility – the body’s secret weapon for staying healthy and active"--The Conversation. The article discusses the benefits of stretching and flexibility and includes advice for different stages of life, e.g.:

    For older adults, flexibility is crucial for maintaining mobility and independence.

    Gentle stretching exercises, such as chair yoga, are great options for improving flexibility without putting too much strain on the body. These exercises can also prevent stiffness, which is common as we age. Research also shows older adults who regularly stretch have a lower risk of falls and better quality of life. Older adults should also aim to stretch 2-3 times weekly.

•  "The forgotten art of squatting is a revelation for bodies ruined by sitting"--Quartz. An excerpt:

    “Every joint in our body has synovial fluid in it. This is the oil in our body that provides nutrition to the cartilage,” Jam says. “Two things are required to produce that fluid: movement and compression. So if a joint doesn’t go through its full range—if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees—the body says ‘I’m not being used’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid.”

    A healthy musculoskeletal system doesn’t just make us feel lithe and juicy, it also has implications for our wider health. A 2014 study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that test subjects who showed difficulty getting up off the floor without support of hands, or an elbow, or leg (what’s called the “sitting-rising test”) resulted in a three-year-shorter life expectancy than subjects who got up with ease.  

•  "Are You Emotionally Ready for the Coming Collapse?" (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) by Peter Cannon. From the authors introduction:

     Much has been written about physical prepping for a future societal collapse. However, what about the mental and behavioral side of preparation? Is it possible that Christians will live through part or all of the Tribulation? If your children are crying due to hunger, would you accept the mark of the Beast to feed them? Are you willing to die for your faith and/or other convictions? These are tough questions, but we need to face them. In the future, whether it’s a grid-down blackout, an economic depression, riot-ravaged neighborhood, war-torn country or a pandemic-plagued world, are you emotionally ready for the coming collapse?
    
    This five-part article series will include excerpts from my book, “Revelation: Illustrated and Explained.” It is a study of the final book in the Bible, including verses, commentary, photos, and illustrations. ...

American Partisan: It Was Always Going To End Like This

American Partisan comments that it was “Always going to end this way”. Key bit:

    There is no way to de-escalate. Our system was designed to avoid an existential political crisis, not adjudicate one. Everything we have, our elections, courts, laws, constitution, and legal system are all built on the presumption that all existential political questions have already been answered. They have no way to arbitrate between one side that demands remigration as a matter of national survival and another that demands dissolving all borders as a moral imperative.

    Precisely how things will eventually come to a head or under what pretext, I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that it’s an inevitability at this point. We are dealing with the political equivalent of Chernobyl Reactor #4.

    It’s too late to put the brakes on this train. We’re in a race to see which side destroys the other first.

Weekend Reading

 Some longer or more involved reading:

• Another Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training.  Some of the more notable links:
• Concealed carry considerations for someone in a wheelchair. The author of this piece preferred a strong side, IWB holster. I knew a guy when I was younger that liked using a fanny pack.
• Greg links to an article entitled "The Self-Aid Imperative: Why Misunderstanding IFAKs Undermines Responder Survival" which discusses why it is a mistake to view the IFAK as a source of supplies for others and not your own first response to an injury.
• An article listing what the author believes to be the 5 best rimfire defensive loads, to which Greg also recommends Federal Punch whether in .22 LR or .22 Mag.
• Pew Pew Tacticals list of the best prepping and survival websites. 
• Downloadable photo-realistic sniper targets. 

• "SHOT SHOW 2026"--Active Response Training. A bunch of Shot Show links with commentary by Greg Ellifritz.
• A little off the beaten track: "Collections: Roman Infantry Tactics: Why the Pilum and not a Spear?" An excerpt:

How would this perform in combat? Older testing by Peter Connolly and newer testing by Tod Todeschini both seem to confirm a maximum effective range of around c. 25-30m or so; as ranged weapons go, these are relatively close-in ones. The shield and even armor penetrating potential of the weapon is considerable: once the point has punched through a shield (or armor), the long shank is thinner than the hole the point has created, allowing the weapon to continue moving with the momentum (and if thrown in a relatively high arc, the weight) of the heavy wooden haft pushing it forward. With long shanks anywhere from 50 to 100cm, that’s enough length for the weapon to potentially punch through a shield and then keep going to strike the man behind it and experiments with reconstructed versions generally seek to back up this application.

• The truth is out there? "Inside the 70-Year Military Investigation of Aliens in Brazil"--Folha de S. Paulo. 
• "The Trillionaires of Mars" by Devon Eriksen. He argues that the first entity to establish a Mars colony will be the universe’s first trillionaire. Mars is the gateway to the asteroid belt. 

    The value of Mars isn’t the balmy weather, the fresh air, or even Deja Thoris in a chainmail bikini. 

    It’s the fact that here you have a planet, where people can live in sealed habitats (above or below the surface), and it’s really, really easy to throw things into space, and get them to and from the asteroid belt.

    In other words, if Earth is the suburbs, and the Belt is the mine, Mars is your industrial zone.

    Hell, you don’t even need to mine asteroids in place.

    Depending on the delta-v cost, you can just attach boosters to your smaller rocks and push them right into Mars orbit. It’s called a Hohmann transfer. But whether you are moving metal from a mobile refinery, raw ore, or entire rocks, cargo is cheap to move in space, at least compared to space launch from Earth’s surface.  

And what will we find in the asteroid belt? An example from the article:

One single asteroid, 16 Psyche, some 140 miles across, has an estimated [mineral] value at today’s market prices of 100 quadrillion dollars. You read that right. That’s roughly 900 times the value of the entire world economy.  

Don Lemon Arrested For Terrorizing Church Goers

From the AP: 

Journalist [sic] Don Lemon and three other people were arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and federal officials.

Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.

Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.  

If you believe that, you might be interested in buying a bridge in Brooklyn. The article adds:

Kelly McBride, a senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said these arrests and the recent search of a Washington Post journalist’s home send a clear message discouraging journalists from documenting opposition to the Trump administration

“This is all about intimidation. And it appears that this administration does not like being scrutinized by the public and journalists. They don’t want people to see what they’re doing,” McBride said. It’s an additional burden on independent journalists who don’t have the backing of media organization to pay for their defense.  

    This is very different from how the AP addressed the topic of journalists arrested regarding the J6 protests: "Some Jan. 6 defendants try to use journalism as riot defense." That article states:

    The Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January created a trove of self-incriminating evidence, thoroughly documenting their actions and words in videos and social media posts. Now some of the camera-toting people in the crowd are claiming they were only there to record history as journalists, not to join a deadly insurrection.

    It’s unlikely that any of the self-proclaimed journalists can mount a viable defense on the First Amendment’s free speech grounds, experts say. They face long odds if video captured them acting more like rioters than impartial observers. But as the internet has broadened and blurred the definition of a journalist, some appear intent on trying.

    At least eight defendants charged in the Jan. 6 riot have identified themselves as a journalist or a documentary filmmaker, including three people arrested this month, according to an Associated Press review of court records in nearly 400 federal cases.

And these weren't just nobodies. Those arrested included Steve Baker (Blaze Media) and Owen Shroyer (Infowars), as well as others that, like Lemon, were simply "independent journalists". Just another example of the bias and hypocrisy of the Associated Press.   

    I would also note that multiple federal judges refused to sign off on charges against Lemon, but not a single judge to my knowledge questioned the propriety of the arrests of the journalists covering the J6 protestors that entered the Capital Building.  

VIDEO: Test Of 20 Year Expired Kevlar Body Armor

 Occasionally you will see surplus Kevlar body armor go on sale for low prices. Typically, the reason it is surplussed is because it is past it's expiration date--essentially the date after which the manufacturer will no longer warrant the armor. But like a food's "best buy" date or a medication's expiration date, that doesn't mean that the armor is bad. Greg Ellifritz has written about this before. From his article, "Body Armor for Armed Citizens," he explains: 

    Most soft body armor has an expiration date approximately five years after its manufacture.  The armor will slowly lose some of its protective abilities over time, but it won’t suddenly “go bad” at the magical five year mark.  When I was the training officer at my department, I regularly shot old vests that our officers turned in once they got their newly issued armor.  I never had a single vest fail to stop a round it was rated to protect against, regardless of age.  I shot dozens of vests, some going back to the 1970s and never had a round penetrate.

    With that said, almost all of the vests I shot were very old, but they’d only been actually worn daily for five to ten years.  Daily wear for 20+ years may increase exposure to heat and moisture, which may reduce effectiveness.

He adds:

Heat, moisture, and UV light are body armor’s worst enemies.  They will make a soft vest degrade more rapidly than it should.  Be cautious about how you store your armor and purchase a moisture resistant carrier.  Don’t buy used armor if you don’t know how it was stored.  With that said, most police body armor worn for fewer than 10 years will still stop all the rounds it was originally rated against no matter what it’s chronological age may be. 

(See also his article, "Seven Things You Don’t Know About Body Armor").  

    In the video below, the host takes a Kevlar vest that is 20 years past its expiration date (and 25 years after it was manufactured) and shoots it repeatedly with a handgun (I presume 9 mm). Even though the strikes were all close together, there was no through penetration of the bullets even after multiple strikes.

 VIDEO: "Body Armor Expired in 2006… Does It Still Stop Bullets?"
Tap Rack Bang, LLC (7 min.)

Shadaversity Starts LDS YouTube Channel

Shad Brooks runs the long running YouTube channel, Shadiversity which mostly covers medieval weapons and society, as well as being a fantasy author. Some of you may be aware that he is a member of the LDS Church. He has started a YouTube channel called the Latter-Day Knight (see the introductory video below). His channel introduction warns that it may have irregular posting because it will just be his thoughts as to certain Church and religion matters as they come to mind. 

VIDEO: "Welcome to The Latter-Day Knight"
The Latter-day Knight (4 min.)

The Coastal Marten Not Extinct?

CBS News reports that trail cams have captured the image of a coastal marten (aka Humboldt marten), which scientists were concerned had gone extinct. According to the article, "[o]nly four isolated populations of the species still exist, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Two colonies live in northwestern California. Another two live in western Oregon." Of course, if I were to approach this from the same perspective as evaluating evidence of Big Foot, I would have to conclude that the photograph was just a ferret dressed up in a fake suit. 

What Happened To The Dragonriders of Pern?

    Jon Del Arroz of Fandom Pulse posted an article on "The Dragonriders of Pern: How One of Science Fiction’s Most Beloved Sagas Faded from the Zeitgeist," and a corresponding video on his YouTube channel. 

    The series was written by Anne McCaffrey--now deceased--who was one of the top women writers in science fiction and fantasy in her day, and the Dragonrider books were her most popular series. Although a lot of fans characterize the Dragonrider books as fantasy, it is actually science fiction, taking place far in the future on a human colony world, Pern, that for some reason lost contact with the rest of human space. At several hundred year intervals, a planet (the Red Star) passes close enough to Pern to cause alien worm-like creatures ("thread") to drop onto the planet devastating the areas where it lands. The early colonists responded by using genetic engineering to create telepathic, fire breathing dragons from smaller "fire lizards" native to the planet. (They are also able to teleport which gives them a huge advantage when combating the thread). 

    While immensely popular in the 1980s and into the 1990s, the series has largely disappeared from the zeitgeist as Del Arroz explains. The reason, according to Del Arroz, is that (i) the author died and the authors that tried to continue the series weren't able to capture the same spirit that made the series popular in the first place; and (ii) it has never been adapted into a movie or television series which would draw the attention of a new generation of fans. 

    It is actually surprising to me that the series hasn't been adapted into a movie or television series because it features quite a few strong female characters central to the different stories. You would think that the female directors and producers in Hollywood would be falling all over themselves to get the rights. But I suspect that they are not interest is because while Anne McCaffrey had strong female characters, she also had strong male characters as well, and she did not use the female characters to demean or tear down the male characters. As Del Arroz explains:

    ... McCaffrey created a world where women were dragonriders, leaders, and heroes at a time when most fantasy relegated female characters to supporting roles. She blended science fiction and fantasy in ways that felt organic rather than gimmicky. She built a universe with deep history, complex politics, and a lived-in feel that made readers want to stay.

    The dragon-rider bond was the emotional core of the series. The telepathic connection between dragon and rider, the Impression ceremony where young candidates bonded with newly hatched dragons, and the idea that losing your dragon meant losing part of yourself—these were powerful, resonant concepts that gave the series its heart.

And that complexity and real human drama is probably too much for modern Hollywood to stomach, particularly in a science fiction/fantasy setting. Again, as Del Arroz continues:

     ... It requires a creative team that understands what made Pern special—the dragon-rider bond, the existential threat of Thread, the blend of medieval society and science fiction underpinnings. It requires a studio willing to spend the money on CGI dragons and large-scale production without demanding the story be dumbed down or modernized into unrecognizability.

    Until that happens, Pern will remain what it is now: a beloved series that older fans remember fondly, that younger readers have never heard of, and that the culture has largely forgotten. It’s a tragedy, because Pern deserves better. Anne McCaffrey created something special, and it’s a shame that the series she built has faded so completely from the conversation.

    Maybe one day, someone will give Pern the adaptation it deserves. Until then, the dragons sleep, and the world has moved on.   

I will do my own small part to introduce a new generation to Pern. My youngest son has started reading one of the Pern books--one that I had first read while back in junior high school--and tells me he is enjoying it.  

VIDEO: Review of DNT Hydra HS219 Thermal Scope

This looks interesting: a budget (~$700) thermal scope designed to be mounted to a weapon. It's obviously not going to compete against even mid-tier thermal units. But as the video's producer notes, it might be useful for the "68%"--the majority of preppers that don't have a lot of cash to drop on what would be, for most people, a very specialized tool. 

From my own perspective, there are a couple things that have held me back from night vision and thermal vision. First is the cost-to-value ratio: high cost but limited use to me in a suburban environment. A good pair of binoculars that can pull in the light works better for me in most circumstances because there is so much ambient light in my locale. And because I live in a suburban environments, I don't have livestock to guard or a large piece of property to patrol.

The second factor is that the few budget options available weren't really designed for mounting on weapons. This one, on the other hand, comes with a couple of mounts to attach it to a Picatinny rail: a more permanent mount and a quick release mount. The latter gives you more flexibility and allows it to be detached to use as a monocular. 

Unfortunately, there is little in the video as to its performance in the field.  I would like to see a real world review on how well it works at detecting a person or animal at various distances as well as battery life. 

 

 VIDEO: "Prepper Review: DNT Hydra HS219 Thermal Scope - Budget Option for the 68%?"
Mike Tango Whiskey (13 min.)

VIDEO: The Population Collapse

 Overpopulation was one of the great lies of the past century. Even when Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich published The Population Bomb in 1968, demographers had already recognized that population growth had precipitously slowed in industrial countries. For instance, in 1900, the average family size in the U.S. was 4.76 people, while in 1960 it had dropped to 3.29; the fertility rate in 1900 was approximately 5.6 (down from around 7 a century earlier), and by 1960 the fertility rate had already declined to 3.6 (keeping in mind that was still at the tail end of the baby boom). The decline in France was even sharper and had set in by 1800 (graph showing fertility rates). 

    Sure, one could point to high fertility rates in third world countries, but that was not how the Ehrlichs' work was used. It was, instead, used to brainwash people in industrial countries that they needed to have fewer children.  For instance, the novel Logan's Run (not the movie which had a different premise for why there were population constraints) postulated a future where, to combat world overpopulation and ever larger cohorts of young people, no one was allowed to live beyond 21 years, having to report to a "Sleepshop" to be be euthanized with a pleasure-inducing toxic gas. 

     In the video below, the host explains why the population decline is actually worse than we think. Most of it has to do with the economic impacts of declining working age populations versus growing populations of retired people, and the effects of declining demand as population shrinks. But he also notes that even the pessimistic population projections are based on unrealistic assumptions that the birthrates will, at some point, rebound.  

 

 VIDEO: "The Population Collapse is Worse Than We Thought"
Economics Help (12 min.)

RINO Defeatism

In the aftermath of the shooting of Alex Pretti a lot of RINOs are suddenly bleating that Trump needs to tone things down, reduce ICE operations, and so forth. Much of this is based on making a mountain of a mole hill by focusing on what happened to Pretti. For instance, WRSA linked to a piece from the Sonar21 blog where the author discusses what he believes was the problem in the Pretti situation but then writes: "While I am personally in favor of removing the hordes of illegal migrants that have flooded into the United States during Biden’s four years in office, I believe it must be done according to the law."

    First, I would note that what happened to Pretti is only tangentially related to removing illegals, and only because Pretti was part of an organized insurgency directed at disrupting ICE enforcement operations. It could have happened in other circumstances. There is nothing special about Pretti: we've seen these types of incidents--what I've called "feeding frenzies"--many times over the years whether its cops going to a wrong address and encountering an armed home owner, arrests of homeless people or people having mental health issues, drunks encountered in motel hallways that can't follow multiple conflicting commands from officers, people pulling wallets from a back pocket to show ID and being subjected to multiple mag dumps, and so on. For many law enforcement, when they hear someone yell "gun" it isn't interpreted as a warning but as a command to begin firing at a suspect. 

    But what happened to Pretti should not be allowed to be a distraction from the goal here which is to deport all illegal aliens. Pretti was part of an organized effort to shut down deportations by creating incidents in the hopes that officers will respond with excessive force. He did so because he valued foreign murderers and rapists and child molesters--which are the illegals ICE has been concentrating their efforts on--more than his own safety or that of his neighbors and fellow Americans. He died protecting violent criminals from arrest and deportation so they could continue to prey on Americans. He wasn't a passive observer, but had attacked ICE, including kicking out a tail light on a vehicle. There was nothing noble or honorable in what Pretti did. He was a traitor at heart. We cannot let him and his comrades win. His death should put fear into his comrades' hearts, not ours. 

    Second, responding to the comment about illegals being removed in accordance with the law, my belief is that the task of removing 30+ million* illegal aliens is beyond the capabilities of the law, at least as it exists now. 

--------------------------

*I know the estimates that the elites push generally put the number of illegals at around 11 million, but that number has been asserted for over a decade--as if the number of illegals is static--and has previously been debunked. For instance, a Yale study in 2018 estimated that there were at least 22.1 million at that time. But that was just the mean of their results. The upper limit was 29 million.

Robert Rector, a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation stated in testimony before the House of Representatives in 2024 that 6.7 million illegals had entered the United States during the Biden Administration. But even Rector's estimate was based on estimates that the Border Patrol successfully intercepted twice as many illegals as "got away" which seems unlikely. A Fox News study pegged the number at 7.2 million entering under the Biden Administration. 

Three Videos On Wilderness Tracking

The YouTube channel "The Deerskin Diary" has a trio of videos on the tracking. In keeping with the theme of his channel, the first video is about the importance of tracking on the American frontier. The second video demonstrates some basic techniques, and the third is on evasion techniques to foil someone tracking you.  

 VIDEO: "Tracking Skills on the Frontier (Part 1)"
The Deerskin Diary (9 min.)

 VIDEO: "Tactical Tracking (Part 2)"
The Deerskin Diary (13 min.)

 VIDEO: "Frontier Escape and Evasion Tactics (Part 3)"
The Deerskin Diary (10 min.)

Ancient Diseases in the Americas

I grew up being taught in school and university that the contact with the "Old World" (particularly Europeans) was the source of many of the diseases in the Americas. But more and more evidence is emerging to push back on that idea. From "Ancient DNA pushes back record of treponemal disease-causing bacteria by 3,000 years":

    Scientists have recovered a genome of Treponema pallidum – the bacterium whose subspecies today are responsible for four treponemal diseases, including syphilis – from 5,500-year-old human remains in Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. The research expands knowledge about the history of this infectious disease and its occurrence in human populations, with findings now published in the journal Science.   

    The individual was archaeologically recovered from a rock shelter near Bogotá, Colombia, dating back roughly 5,500 years. The discovery pushes the genetic record of this pathogenic species back by more than 3,000 years, strengthening evidence that these infections have circulated in the Americas far longer than previously known.   

More: "Syphilis microbe circulated in the Americas thousands of years before European contact"--Science. 

Refueling in Space

I was recently watching a video describing Space X's plans for a lunar landing system and one of the points raised in the video was the difficulty of refueling spacecraft in space. Thus, I was intrigued from this tidbit from an article on Space Force's proposed  RG-XX "neighborhood watch" satellites. Among other capabilities Space Force will be requiring, the satellites "will be the first Space Force satellites capable of refueling in orbit". It will be interesting to see how this technology develops. 

NY Post: "Trump claims Rep. Ilhan Omar ‘probably had herself sprayed’ in syringe attack"

Per the article:

    President Trump derided Rep. Ilhan Omar as a “fraud” Tuesday night before suggesting the Democrat arranged an attack in which she was sprayed with an unknown substance by an audience member during a town hall event.

    “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump, who has previously called for Omar (D-Minn.) to be either jailed or deported, told ABC News when asked if he had seen video of the incident. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.

    “I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother,” he added.

 He's probably correct. The facts are certainly suggestive that the event might have been staged, as Matt Margolis writes in "Here’s Why Many Say the Ilhan Omar Assault Was Staged." Specific points (from weakest to strongest evidence):

• She appeared to nod at the attacker just before the attack as if signaling him.
• She doesn't appear to be concerned about the attack: "She barely flinches when she’s sprayed, and instead of backing off, she approaches the attacker. And despite being sprayed with an unknown, pungent substance, she continued the town hall."
• And "the attacker was perfectly framed by the cameras before the event". 

Amelia

Probably like many of you, my YouTube feed has been featuring a lot of videos featuring a purple-haired, young British girl called "Amelia" who is proudly nationalistic. (See, e.g., the video below featuring a cover of the song "Jerusalem" which is often characterized as the unofficial British anthem). But why has Amelia become the face of a backlash against multiculturalism in the UK? Because the government created her as part of a program to brainwash young Brits into accepting their replacement. The article "Amelia Victorious: How to Lose the Culture War With a Video Game" by Jamie Wilson explains how a post 9/11 program meant to steer teens from Islamic jihadism morphed into a program to mold young people into accepting government policy concerning immigration and multiculturalism:

    The concern, as always, was “radicalization.” They [the British Home Office and the media nonprofit Shout Out UK] thought the solution was inspired: a choice-based video game. Kids like games. Games involve decisions. Decisions shape values. What could possibly go wrong?

    Thus Pathways was born, a government-funded interactive morality play designed to gently shepherd British children toward being properly antiracist, properly accepting, and properly enthusiastic about the ever-increasing number of migrants reshaping their country. Civics class, but fun. And digital. And corrective.

    As part of this effort, the designers introduced a character named Amelia, a cute, purple-haired, vaguely goth girl who carries a Union Jack and talks about Britain being for the British. She was meant to function as a warning, a living illustration of how nationalism can look attractive, even charming, and yet be dangerous to the impressionable youths of Britain who may not have fully internalized the idea that Brexit is bad and they are to obey their elitist overlords.

    What they did not anticipate was that the public would take one look at adorable, charming Amelia and decide she was the good guy.

More:

•  "Amelia was not created by the 'extreme right'"--Quotulatiousness. 
• VIDEO: "Who is Amelia, the poster-girl of the far-right?"--History Debunked (5 min.)
  
  

 VIDEO: "Jerusalem - Cover by Amelia | Pathways Meme | Music"
Epochalypse (3 min.)

Tucker: Demographic Changes In Key American Cities Since 1950

Tucker Carlson goes over the demographic changes to the four largest American cities in 1950 versus today.

On a related note, see "Pictures from the Past are Immensely Radicalizing" from The American Tribune. An excerpt (footnotes omitted):

    Footage and pictures from the past really are something. The people are well-dressed and healthy-looking, not obese and in t-shirts or pajamas. The population is sociable and happy, not a rotten collection of migrants and criminals. Even where the footage shows relatively poor people, particularly by modern standards, it is evident that Western civilization was intact.

    Take, for example, this video of English village life in the 50s:

[snip]

    This is even more pronounced in what footage of the world before the Great War exists. Europe, before the carnage in Flanders wrecked its soul, was atop Olympus, and footage of everyday life from that period shows it. This footage from Great Yorkshire Show in Leeds in 1902 is an example. Just look at the detailed and ornamental architecture, the care the average people there put into their everyday dress, the lack of crime and chaos, and all the other little things that make civilization more pleasant and constructive than barbarism: ... 

 [snip]

... Take, for example, the below three pictures of Chamberlain Square in Birmingham, England. The top photo shows what was built before the Great War. The middle photo shows what was built in the civilization-killing ‘60s. The third image is what it looks like today, when the Brutalist monstrosity was torn down and replaced by a marginally less horrendous one. 

[snip]

    Meanwhile, here’s what life looks like in Birmingham, England, formerly one of the nation’s foremost industrial centers and now one of the epicenters of the “Grooming Gangs” scandal:

[snip]

     As went the architecture, so went the city. Embracing the Third World’s characteristic values of equality, high time preference, and resistance to cultivation, while also importing the Third World, Birmingham became it. Now England’s second-largest city is a foreign slum.

 

 VIDEO: "Here’s Proof That the Great Replacement Is No Longer a 'Theory'"
Tucker Carlson Network (12 min.)

Leftists Threaten To Kill O'Keefe Unless He Leaves Minneapolis

James O'Keefe shared a text message he received from Leftists in Minneapolis saying that they knew he was in Minneapolis and identifying his car (including the license plate number) and threatening to kill him unless he left the city in one hour. 

VIDEO: The Kukri

 An overview of the Kukri knife: what it is, its history, the nomenclature for different parts of the weapon, and more.  

 VIDEO: "Kukri: Blade of the Gurkhas"
Our Own Devices (12 min.)

Hollywood Rolls Out New Anti-ICE Talking Points

Actors managed by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) seem to be reading from a script when it comes to their pro-invasion statements. 

 VIDEO: "This Is F**king Weird"
Paul Joseph Watson (12 min.)

Potatoes For Survival

I've mentioned before that, unless you have a working farm, growing potatoes is going to be necessary for self-sufficiency for most preppers. A couple sources that reinforce that point: 

    First, from an article at the Guardian entitled "A century in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot," is this bit:

    By 1995, the Russian government was out of money and Yeltsin needed funds for his re-election campaign. Through the “loans-for-shares” scheme, he essentially sold off Russia’s largest enterprises, including its oil and gas concerns. This cemented the position of the oligarchs, whose payments to Yeltsin bought them both Russia’s greatest economic assets and the support of its president. Russia was being sold for parts, the needs of ordinary people forgotten. After the 1998 economic crisis, life expectancy fell to just 58.9 years for men, an unprecedented decline for a country that was not at war. The change was due to a large increase in deaths attributable to social stress: heart attacks, strokes, suicides, homicides, overdoses, car crashes.

    When asked how they survived during this period, people often answered with one word: potatoes. Bags of potatoes were passed between relatives, friends and neighbours. Not even the skins were wasted. People slept at their fields near harvest time, guarding against potato thieves. In 2004, an elderly man in Novgorod oblast expressed Russia’s collective affection when he erected a monument to the potato. The inscription thanked Christopher Columbus and Peter the Great for bringing it to Russia. The world of the Lykovs, who thanked God for potatoes every day, felt surprisingly contemporary.

And the second is the video below from Townsends on how the potato became such an important staple in Europe.

    When I was young, growing your own potatoes was simple because you could buy most any potato at the store, wait until it started growing eyes, and cut it up to act as seed potatoes. It's more complicated today. Store-bought potatoes are generally treated with sprout inhibitors (like Chlorproham) to prevent them from growing eyes and often carry diseases. The best option is to get certified "seed" potatoes and, secondarily, to use tubers you grew yourself because you can avoid some of the issues with store-bought potatoes (although disease will still be an issue). If you are adamant about using a store-bought potato for some reason, here is an article that discusses using them as seed potatoes. 

 VIDEO: "How Potatoes Saved The Poor"
Townsends (14 min.)

Optical Illusion: Red Skulls

 

Source: "These skulls look purple and orange. They are both red."--Popular Science

Encrypting Your PC Diskdrive Without Giving The Keys To Microsoft

In "How to encrypt your PC’s disk without giving the keys to Microsoft" from ArsTechnica, its explains how to use Microsoft's whole disk encryption, BitLocker, without uploading the recovery key to Microsoft (who will give it over to government authorities if asked). The article is, by its own admission, intended for the Communists involved in the current insurrection, but who knows who the federal government will be targeting after the next election? The instructions in the article are for those using Windows 11 Pro, but it also tells you how to upgrade to the Pro version. 

VIDEO: More High Level Purges In China

 Xi Jinping has purged more of his senior military leadership. Some of the rumors and speculation is that high ranking leaders were selling Chinese military secrets to the U.S. or that there was an attempted coup. I wonder if it had to do with the poor performance of Chinese military systems in Venezuela. 

 VIDEO: "Xi Jinping Has Gone Full Stalin"
China Uncensored (6 min.)

Well, Actually ...

The Daily Mail has an article on some of the turncoat Republicans that want Trump to back off on the deportations (although Trump is running well behind Obama on the number of deportations). One of these was Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt who told CNN: "'Nobody likes the feds coming to their states,' Stitt said. 'And so what is the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-US citizen? I don´t think that´s what Americans want.'" I wouldn't be too sure of that. Especially as the scope of the fraud becomes more clear. 

Change

 A long time reader sent to me this quote from American Partisan:

The Left understands why it is armed. They hate you. The Right’s answer has been, until thus, simply “I am armed for the sake of being”.

No. I am armed because there is a Communist menace in this Nation that will, if successful, return to the killing fields. And they are armed because they hate me.

James O'Keefe Discusses The Leftist Insurrection

 From James O'Keefe on X:

 URGENT UPDATE: I’ve never experienced anything quite like today in my life. I’ve interacted with the Cartel and have witnessed some crazy things in the desert in ‘24. But what strikes me is how organized these agitators in Minneapolis are. They have spotters everywhere in the city and suburbs, on street corners, even 30 minutes away from downtown. They have people at hotels that work with them and signal to them which made it making it difficult for us to lose our tail once my cover was blown. Usually I lose a tail. Not this time. We switched locations THREE times. I recorded and posted this while leaving Wayzata, while they were STILL surveilling. We all agreed we must make the threats public ASAP,  even if we had people still in the field with the hidden cams.

Earlier around noon, while @camhigby released his report on the Signal threads, I was inside what appeared to be a fully autonomous Zone. No police presence. The police were told to leave. I  identified myself as Press and they said they will kill Press and will not let me leave. My skin was fully covered because it was so cold. But because they couldn’t verify who I was, they screamed and started throwing ice bottles at us. One hit, @SKRUCHTENMMA, a marine who was with me. They patted him down like THEY were the authorities, attempting to confiscate any weapons. They were set to destroy our vehicle before we even got to it. I will have a full video report shortly. 

I came across the O'Keefe post at Instapundit, but Anonymous Conservative has more of the same including this from Eric Schwalm on X:

     As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly.

    What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

    Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse.

    This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s.

Anonymous Conservative also links to a couples sources indicating that members of the John Brown Gun Club, Socialist Rifle Association, Redneck Revolt, and Armed Queers Salt Lake City are headed to Minneapolis. 

    And something to think about:

Weird that ICE are operating in dozens of states, but it only gets violent in the one where we just uncovered a billion dollar fraud ring with probable links to the governor.      

Virginia Dems Want To Encourage Rape and Manslaughter

"Virginia Dems propose law to drop mandatory prison time for rape, manslaughter"--New York Post. The theory being espoused is that it returns us to a time when judges had more discretion in sentencing; but it ignores the reason for the mandatory sentencing which was too many bleeding heart liberal judges letting people off for horrendous crimes with little or no prison time. 

This Is What People Who Support Immigration Want

 "11 dead, 12 wounded after gunmen open fire at soccer field in central Mexico"--New York Post.

Prehistoric Airburst Preceded Agriculture In Levant

 A 2023 article in The Current: "A prehistoric cosmic airburst preceded the advent of agriculture in the Levant." An excerpt:

    Agriculture in Syria started with a bang 12,800 years ago as a fragmented comet slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion and subsequent environmental changes forced hunter-gatherers in the prehistoric settlement of Abu Hureyra to adopt agricultural practices to boost their chances for survival.

    That’s the assertion made by an international group of scientists in one of four related research papers, all appearing in the journal Science Open: Airbursts and Cratering Impacts. The papers are the latest results in the investigation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, the idea that an anomalous cooling of the Earth almost 13 millennia ago was the result of a cosmic impact.

    “In this general region, there was a change from more humid conditions that were forested and with diverse sources of food for hunter-gatherers, to drier, cooler conditions when they could no longer subsist only as hunter-gatherers,” said Earth scientist James Kennett, a professor emeritus of UC Santa Barbara. The settlement at Abu Hureyra is famous among archaeologists for its evidence of the earliest known transition from foraging to farming. “The villagers started to cultivate barley, wheat and legumes,” he noted. “This is what the evidence clearly shows.”

 Read the whole thing. No reason a similar disaster could not happen again. 

Gun & Prepping News #65

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:

•  It's that time of year ... Shot Show:
• "Aimpoint A-Cut And COA Optic Become Widely Available"--The Firearm Blog.  Just noting that the A-Cut optic mounting system has been adopted by other manufacturers beyond Glock. Will this be the Key-Mod v. M-Lok all over again?
• "Winchester SXR2 Semi-Auto Rifle Keeps The Fudd Dream Alive"--The Firearm Blog. This is a hunting rifle that will be offered in 308, .30-06, 300 Win Mag and 9.3x62. Per the article, it is intended to be a less expensive option to the Browning BAR, although the MSRP puts it only a couple hundred less. Increasingly unusual for this day and age, it comes with iron sights. Unfortunately, the author couldn't spare room from his sarcastic commentary to give us any real details about the weapon. Per Winchester's website, the rifle is a gas piston design and uses a 7 lug bolt, and weighs 7 lbs. 4 oz. for the composite model. It seems to have already been sold in Europe. 
• "Blecher BrashZero Caseless Bullpup Rifle"--The Firearm Blog. So this is an interesting rifle. Rather than feed cartridges, it uses magazines holding the components: the bullet, the powder, and, I assume, some sort of primer. As the weapon cycles, the components are fed into the rifle. It reminds me of a couple rifle designs that had been developed in the late 18th Century that used hand cranks to feed powder and ball into the breach to allow more rapid fire. I believe one of these designs even saw service on the British side during the Revolutionary War. 
• "Beretta Introduces the A300 Ultima Patrol in 20ga!"--The Firearm Blog.  
• "14 Rounds in the Palm of Your Hand - KelTec’s PR-3AT"--The Firearm Blog. Another internal magazine design loaded via stripper clip. 
• "New Diamondback SDR-A Aluminum Frame .38 Special Revolver"--The Firearm Blog.  This is a "hammerless" design using a 6-round cylinder, with real pistol sights, and only weighing 15.6 ounces unloaded. 
• "Lyman Products Introduces Sonicore Suppressors"--Outdoor Wire. This is a line of different suppressors--apparently a European design--with the key selling point being that "MSRP will range from $199 to $299, depending on model." 
• More: "Lowering Decibels For Less: Lyman's New Sonicore Suppressor Lineup"--American Rifleman.
• "Tech Wisdom: Snakes vs. Patches"--Shooting Illustrated.  Basically, the bore snake is intended for range use while patches and rods are really needed for a more thorough cleaning regimen. 
• "MRAD vs MOA: How to Choose the Right Rifle Scope"--The Truth About Guns.  "Compared with MRAD, each MOA click moves the POI a smaller distance, so it takes plenty of clicks to move your POI any very far. American civilian shooters tend to use MOA, while the military and much of the rest of the world will use MRAD," writes the author. 
• On the topic of rifle scopes: "Scope Mounting: Do It Right Or Don’t Bother!"--Guns Magazine. The author writes:

There’s no way around it: to properly mount a scope, you need equipment. One option is to pay a competent gunsmith to do it — money well spent if the gunsmith does it properly — or you can invest $400-700 in proper tools and own them for life. Even if you only mount a couple of scopes a year, it pencils out over time. 

• Giving up on the scout rifle or finally bringing in mainstream? 
• "New for 2026: Franchi Momentum Mule Rifle"--American Rifleman. 
• "New for 2026: Ruger American Rifle Generation II Scout"--American Rifleman. 

These are two very similar rifles intended for similar purposes--a do-it-all type rifle. Both are bolt actions with similar caliber options (both have models available in .308 and 5.56/.223, although Ruger offers some additional choices); threaded barrels; long scope rail systems that allow the mounting of a standard scope, a forward (scout) long eye relief scope; built in iron sights; 16-inch barrels; and available with 10-round magazines. The Franchi is slightly over 7 lbs. versus 6.5 lbs. for the Ruger. The Franchi is also several hundred dollars more, but has some other features that might make it worth the price difference. 

• Definitely not a scout rifle: "PSA Unleashes the Sabre-10A2 Super Sass .308 Rifle"--Ammo Land. An AR-10 style rifle coming in at 11 lbs.
• "10mm vs. .40 S&W: Similarities, Differences and Uses"--Shooting Illustrated. Short take: "While the .40 S&W is a marginal hunting round, the 10mm is probably the best of the rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridges," but "the .40 S&W is a damned good defensive cartridge, giving a good balance of penetration, accuracy and portability."
• " .38 Special: What I’ve Learned After Over 20,000 Rounds"--The Truth About Guns. A very versatile cartridge. 
• "Concealed Carry Corner: Stop Carrying So Much Junk"--The Firearm Blog. An excerpt:

 When it comes to carrying a concealed handgun, less truly is more and if you carry more than the bare minimum, it's wasted energy in most cases. I’ve certainly been there where I was carrying two flashlights along with a small utility knife as well as a larger knife for self-defense on top of my main carry gun and extra magazines. I felt like my pants were a boat anchor and it just became a lot to the point where I wanted to leave the house without anything. The simple truth is, you need a small handgun to start out with basically nothing else besides a good holster.

•  "Rifles: Find the Right Ammunition"--Shooting Illustrated. The article discusses how sometimes what appears to be a crap barrel might just need a different load. For example:

     One rifle started the week with a dismal 6.9-MOA average of five-shot, 100-yard groups using a highly regarded, 77-grain match 5.56 NATO load. A popular 70-grain defensive load was even worse. The carbine’s like-new, 1:7-inch-twist barrel came from a pedigreed rifle maker and seemed just right for the task. Shaving slightly more than 1 MOA off the student’s average-group size (through rifle accurization) sounds good by itself, but that still left him with a 5.2-MOA best group at 100 yards.

    The rifle’s owner was ready to scrap the barrel, so I encouraged him to try a lighter-weight factory load that I sometimes use for accuracy testing: Hornady’s match-quality, 55-grain V-Max. His initial five-shot group printed less than 1 inch, and for the first time all week, this experienced rifleman was smiling. Another great V-Max group convinced him that the barrel wasn’t a lost cause. He used PMC 55-grain FMJ for the rest of his groups, which averaged a hair larger than 2 MOA at 100 yards.

• "M1 Garand Bucket List: Shoot The Legend"--Guns America.  Lots of photos and information about this great rifle. 
• When you absolutely need to start a fire: "AZAO TH3AZ Thermite Grenades"--The Truth About Guns. These are not regulated items, so you can purchase them without the ATF's permission. The article mentions that:

Much like Tannerite, AZAO’s thermite grenades come with the relevant chemical mixture separated. Coming in a couple restaurant style ketchup squeeze bottles, the iron oxide and aluminum powder are mixed on the day of use, on site. 

 These are also not the same as military thermite grenades which also include thermate. But apparently those are planned to be offered in the future. 

• "Buffer Zones and Bailouts: Navigating Urban Mobility During Unrest"--Option Gray. Advice on (i) planning multiple exit routes, (ii) identify protest prone zones, and (iii) fuel, stash, and fallback points. And some final thoughts:

     Urban mobility during unrest isn’t about fear. It’s about freedom. If you can move, you can adapt. If you’re trapped, options shrink fast.

    Treat your city like a terrain map, not a convenience. Study it. Walk it. And build your own escape routes now—while you still can.

• "EMP Proof Watch"--Modern Survival Blog. He believes that the best for this purpose is those with mechanical movements. His recommendation is the SNK805 – SEIKO 5, an "automatic" (self-winding) watch with date function and illuminated face. Sort of pricey, though, at $329 currently at Amazon. 
• "The Superior Hat"--Blue Collar Prepping. A review of the "Men's Superior Hat" from Duluth Trading Co. It is an insulated hat with a baseball cap style brim but but with fold down flaps to cover the ears.  

VIDEO: Winter Survival Belt

This belt is intended to be worn outside of a parka to augment what you would normally carry for use in the backwoods for specific winter conditions.  

 VIDEO: "WINTER SURVIVAL BELT | How To Make A Belt Kit"
SURVIVAL SCOUT (9 min.)

VIDEO: A Rabbi Calls For Unity With Muslim Invaders of Europe

An Israeli rabbi speaking at Devos said that Jews need to ally with Muslims against "old" (i.e., native) Europeans.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again: when Jews speak of "never again" they are specifically thinking of Europeans and the West. 

 VIDEO: "A Strange Thing To Say"
m o d e r n i t y (5 min.)

VIDEO: Packing For A Backcountry Hunt

A professional backcountry hunting guide details what he packs for a backcountry elk hunt. A lot of the gear is for surveilling an area for elk--binoculars, laser range finders, tripod, spotting scope--but he also includes first aid kit and other gear a woodsman and hunter would need.  

VIDEO: "Expert's Backcountry Hunting Backpack - What to pack for a SUCCESSFUL Hunt"
On The Scout (13 min.)

Weekend Reading

• First up is another Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. Some of the links that caught my attention:
• At the top of this list is an article form Guns Magazine entitled "No, The Sky Ain't Falling" which is a weird title for an article about really useful prepping gear that you may have overlooked: everything from water filters and dust masks, to dental repair kits and a crowbar. Go over it and see if there is anything that you are missing.
• An article going over the benefits and uses of a having a triangular bandage. The author really likes the "Cravat Triangular Bandage" from ChinookMed.
• On this note, Greg mentions that Amazon currently has a sale on Israeli style bandages.
• An article with advice on how not to get car jacked. I laughed at one of the specific, enumerated points: don't go to Detroit.
• An article looking at the pros and cons of red dots on concealed carry pistols. I've been experimenting with this lately, and I can tell you a couple real quick cons: the optic gets a lot of lint and dust on (I just carry it under a jacket), and it is just one more thing to dig into your side. I was also watching a video lately where the author had stuck a red dot on a pistol he normally carried in the pocket. Of course, with the optic, it would no longer fit in the pocket holster he had for the weapon; so he was having to get a bigger holster and I was left with the the question of whether he would even be able to fit it into a pocket. I think there is a definite place for optics on a duty sized pistol, but I don't see them working well for deep concealment or pocket carry; and in between those extremes, it probably is going to come down to a individual circumstances. 
• It appears that the Left is going to be trying to force the rest of the country to give into their demands, and so Greg has included a link to a timely article on the topic of "What If Your Neighborhood Is Attacked By An Angry Mob?"
• And an early look on the impact of the elimination of the $200 suppressor tax: "Knox Williams, executive director of the American Suppressor Association (ASA), reported after meeting with ATF officials during SHOT Show here in Las Vegas that, to date, more than 260,000 eForms have been processed this January."  
• "Woke never really died, it’s coming back with a vengeance — and we should be terrified" by Rikki Schlott, New York Post. 
• And some from Peter Grant at Bayou Renaissance Man:
• "Fifty people control the culture" - Media (streaming, movies, record labels) is highly concentrated. Google controls most of the internet. This concentration means that just a small group can choke off the flow of information to and between members of the public. 

    What it means, of course, is that if anyone wants to do anything that the "favored fifty" (or enough of them, at any rate) would rather not see succeed, they can throttle it to the point of strangulation without even raising a sweat.  If they don't publish it, nobody will be able to access it.  If they don't publicize it, nobody will know about it.  If it becomes any sort of a threat, they can buy it with their pocket change and simply shut it down.  The developer or author or owner won't be able to refuse their offer, because he/she/they will go broke if they don't.

    A prime example may be seen in Minneapolis and Minnesota right now.  All the focus of the news media is on ICE's law enforcement activity there - ignoring the truly massive fraud investigations going on into multiple aspects of the state's government, ...

•  "Minnesota: Both sides are caught on the horns of a dilemma" - This article begins with a warning of how the anti-ICE protestors going into a church crossed a red line, including a quote from, of all people, Rod Dreher warning that this type of behavior is how civil wars start because, at some point, conservatives are going to react. But I also found the second half of the post interesting because it notes how these confrontations are being orchestrated, to-wit, this example:

January 15, 2026. Tore Says monitors document simultaneous Zoom calls across every major activist network in the United States. Sunrise Movement. Federal employee resistance groups. Military reservist networks. Senior Executive Service officials. Antifa organizers. Ideologically opposed groups, different platforms, never having worked together publicly.

Jake broadcasts intent to burn a Quran to provoke the left.

Pink broadcasts alerts about an “anti-Muslim rally” to mobilize the Left.

They both specify the exact time. They both name the location.

On the surface, they are enemies. In the intelligence chatter, they are the same network. One operative amplifies the threat. The other provides the violence. Two hands of the same foreign-funded clock.

Every Zoom call Tore documented discussed the same objective: create sufficient unrest that the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

• "Minneapolis has been planning its insurrection for a long time" - Another post describing the organized efforts on the ground to identify ICE activity and provoke confrontations. An excerpt:

Minnesota has spent years building an infrastructure of ICE watch patrols, NGO backed rapid response teams, and politically wired nonprofits that can flip from ordinary life to street mobilization in minutes. 

The key to Minnesota’s rapid mobilization is not Twitter activism. It is an on the ground surveillance and response network that local reporters have already documented in detail. A Star Tribune investigation into the “organized resistance to ICE” in Minnesota reads like a field manual for modern grassroots intelligence operations.​

In south Minneapolis, volunteers spend hours driving what they openly call ICE patrols. Phones are mounted on dashboards. Every sighting of a suspicious SUV, every cluster of federal jackets, is recorded and dropped into Signal and WhatsApp groups that run silently in the background of daily life.​

•  "I agree" - Noting that there is a lag between the collapse of a central authority and full-insurgency. And in that lag period?

[There are] large numbers of people armed and ideologically primed for violence, yet most still hesitate to cross the line into open, sustained conflict. Instead, we see the precursors: fireworks thrown as provocations, screaming crowds, disruptive "stupid games," and tantrum-like escalations when people don't get their way. These are the behaviors of spoiled children testing boundaries. 

 He believes that we are in that lag period. But the key point, at the end of his post, is that we have a situation (he refers to the deportation of illegal aliens, but it also applies to many other divisive issues) where no reconciliation is possible.