Gun & Prepping News #84

Some links that may be of interest:

• "Concealed Carry Permit Holders Remain Among America’s Most Law-Abiding Citizens"--Ammo Land.  The article notes that "[t]he arrest rate for concealed carry permit holders is about 1.7% of the arrest rate of the general population," and about 1/5 of the estimated arrest rate of police officers. 
• "CMP Doubles Lifetime Limit on Surplus 1911 Pistols"--Guns America.  CMP has been trickling out the military surplus 1911 and 1911A1 pistols, but I suppose that even with that the pistols must not have been selling as strongly as they hoped, because the lifetime limit has now increased from 2 to 4.
• "Century Arms’ Centurion 11: Can A $400 1911 Be A Good Buy?"--The Truth About Guns. The reviewer thought it was a pretty decent firearm for the price, but it comes with standard 1911A sights, so not easily adjusted. 
• "The Magnum Legend: Ruger Super Redhawk"--The Mag Life. The author relates:

The Ruger Super Redhawk is a large-bore revolver that hit the gun market in 1987, meaning it has nearly 40 years of use under its belt. That first model was released in .44 Magnum—understandably so—with later models including .480 Ruger and .454 Casull. The Super Redhawk came on the heels of the Redhawk, launched in 1979. Unlike the original Redhawk, which is designed more for carry and self-defense, the Super Redhawk is definitely a hunting handgun. There’s no denying it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to shoot in general, though, because it is.    

It is long barreled weapon designed to mount a pistol scope. I've shot the Redhawk (I know a guy that has one in .45 Colt/.45 ACP) but never the Super Redhawk. 

• "Concealed Carry Corner: Is The Glock 48 the New Standard?"--The Firearm Blog.  The author essentially is arguing that with the new higher capacity magazines available for the Glock 48, it will replace the Glock 19 as a default "do it all" self-defense, concealed carry weapon. He writes:

For over two decades now, the Glock 19 has been the golden child of concealed carry pistols, with what many call online the perfect blend of size, capacity, and weight to be an all-season carry gun compared to other options on the market. Combine that with the reliability that Glock is notorious for and there was a gold standard born. If you read online forums where people debate the best carry gun of all time or even read a Top 5 article about carry guns, the Glock 19 is almost always on the list, if not on top of the list. Being a mid-size option on the market with 15+1 capacity and being bulletproof reliable makes it a tough option to rule out for something to depend on to protect yourself day in and day out. 

 But, he adds:

[I]f we are looking at a direct comparison to the Glock 19, the Glock 48 has a number of similar features while being almost half the width. With the release of Glock’s factory 15-round slimline magazine, the Glock 48 becomes a slim variant of the Glock 19 with the same length and height but significantly thinner than the Glock 19, while offering the same capacity. The most important factor after overall weight when it comes to a carry gun is the overall thickness and size. The length of the Glock 48 doesn't affect concealability, but being a slimmer version of the Glock 19 makes carrying it all day, every day in hot weather much easier.  

• "The SIG P365 Family: Still the Benchmark for Everyday Carry"--Guns America.  I think the author of this piece may disagree with the author of the article just above this. This author claims: "The plain SIG P365 still earns its place as a daily carry pistol because it balances concealability, capacity, shootability, and trust better than almost anything in the micro-compact 9mm world." The author also states:

    The standard P365 is still the heart of the lineup and, for my money, still one of the best pure carry guns ever made. Mine wears a Wilson Combat grip module, a red dot, an aftermarket slide because my original slide is too old to be cut for an optic, and that is the extent of it. The Wilson grip improves the texture and the feel in my hand without changing the footprint, and the optic does what optics do, which is let me put rounds where I am looking faster and with less thought under stress.

    What I want to emphasize is that those two changes are preferences, not corrections. Out of the box, the P365 ships with steel tritium night sights, a usable trigger, and a degree of reliability that has been proven across millions of rounds in the field. I have never felt undergunned with it, and I have never felt the need to fix anything fundamental about it. It conceals so well that I genuinely forget it is there, which for an all-day, every-day carry gun is the whole point. This is the one I trust when the day is ordinary and when it is not.  

He also discussed the P365X, XL, and Fuse. Frankly, I wonder if the P365 or one of the larger variants will be the one to inherent the generalist pistol category from the Glock 19. 

• "Harry’s Holsters IWB Speedloader Carrier"--Revolver Guy. The article outlines the process the author went through with designing a product in conjunction with Harry's Holsters and some experimentation on where to carry such a speedloader carrier. As for placement, the author states: "I think the most promising place to carry a speedloader on the belt, when you’re carrying your gun AIWB, is to take advantage of the hollow created by the gun’s cylinder, immediately forward of the gun." As for the final product:

The Harry’s Holsters IWB Speedloader Carrier is composed of a tall and thin body with an IWB clip on the outside, and a leather backer on the inside. The body is 3-D printed, and sized to accept a specific model of speedloader. My two samples were for HKS J-frame and K-frame .38/.357 revolvers, but there are available carriers for 5-Star and Safariland loaders, and .32/.327 caliber options as well.

They are selling for about $90. The article also covers the author's testing of the product.

• "The MAC IX Review: An MP5 Alternative Most Shooters Can Actually Afford"--The Truth About Guns. It's almost $800 which is nice, but it is a direct blowback design, not a roller delayed like the MP5. About the only similarity is that it uses MP5 magazines. 
• Related: "Best MP5 Clone Buyer’s Guide [Field Tested]"--Gun Digest. This 2025 article covers some non-HK clones (although some are built on HK machinery).  But their prices, as of last summer, were also $1,300 or more (unless you wanted the .22LR version).
• "Best Ranch Rifles: A Modern Ranch Rifle Revival"--Recoil.  By "Ranch Rifle" the author is looking at something that is semi-auto with a traditional butt stock, using a detachable box magazine, and shooting .223 or an intermediate cartridge like .300 BLK or 7.62x39. Like Ruger's "Ranch Rifle" back in the day, which was simply a Mini-14 with the cuts necessary to mount scope rings. The rifles the author is comparing are the Ruger Mini-14, CMMG BR4 Dissent, Fox Trot Mike Ranch Rifle, and SIG Sauer MCX Regulator. The latter three are AR-15 derived weapons mating an AR style upper with a redesigned lower that could accept a traditional style stock. While the free-float barrels and skeletonized hand guards are great for attachments and help with accuracy, they lack the clean lines of the Mini-14 and look "tactical" rather than "ranch". 
• "How to Start Dry Fire Training (Without Overthinking It)" by Grace Torrence, The Firearm Blog. The author explains: 

    I define dry fire as the act of practicing firearm handling and shooting skills without live ammunition. It allows shooters to build repetition and consistency without having to make a range trip or spend large amounts of money on ammo. While I was in college and then in grad school, dry fire became crucial to my development as a competitive shooter, and I attribute much of my success to it.

    Many skills can be improved through dry fire, including trigger control, sight alignment and acquisition, draws and presentations, reloads, and target transitions. More advanced shooters can even train movement and firearm transitions. Dry fire is a great way to develop these skills at home while simultaneously building muscle memory.

    Although dry fire can never fully replace live fire, it can make live fire training more productive. As you develop new skills, the muscle memory you’ve built will help make the application of these skills to your live fire practice much easier. Dry fire can also help with skills maintenance for shooters who have limited range access. By using dry fire to routinely practice specific skills that don’t necessarily require ammo, like draws and reloads, you can free up your limited range time to focus on shooting-specific skills.

• "Can Civilians Buy Body Armor? Laws and Restrictions Explained"--The Tactical Gear Blog. Not something I have to worry about in Idaho, but something that might be an issue in some states or jurisdictions. 
• "Caches – Preps of Last Resort"--Gat Daily. The author explains: 

Caching is a concept that’s been around for a very long time. The basic idea is to stash gear and supplies in a hidden location so that they can serve as either a resupply point or a backup to your primary equipment. This presupposes that your cache remains undiscovered as well as undamaged between the time you place it and when you go to retrieve it.

He then goes on to discuss appropriate containers, contents, and what can go wrong. For instance, writing about containers, the author notes:

Traditionally, these sorts of caches are buried, so the container needs to be able to withstand the pressure and weight of the soil above and around it. While there are numerous ways to pull this off, one of the most common approaches is to use PVC pipe as the cache container. That’s what was recommended in Ragnar Benson’s book forty-odd years ago, and it’s still a workable solution today. 

One of problems that is too infrequently discussed is the difficulty in retrieving a buried container. If you have watched any videos of people trying to recover buried containers, what they often discover is the pressure of the earth packed around the outside of the cache makes it extremely difficult to remove the cache container from the earth, particularly if it is in a tube buried perpendicular to the ground surface. And it is problematic if you are having to quickly retrieve material from a cache but it is going to take hours to dig out the cache tube. The author suggests using two tubes: an outer tube into which a smaller tube (with the cached materials are stored) is inserted. Make sure you have a strong enough strap or handle attached, however, to lift the full tube out.

    Another great piece of advice: "The biggest rule of caching is never put anything in a cache that you’re not comfortable never seeing again. This isn’t the place for treasured family heirlooms or anything exceptionally valuable. Instead, think along the lines of you’re down to nothing, and you desperately need to resupply as you travel from Point A to Point B. What would you want or need?" 

• "Power Outage? What Size Generator for a Freezer (And How Long to Run It)"--Modern Survival Blog.  The author outlines the issue:

    A long power outage doesn’t just mean the lights go out. It can quietly wipe out hundreds of dollars of frozen food sitting in your freezer.

    Meat, garden harvests, bulk buys… all of it starts warming the moment the power stops. And the worst part? You often don’t realize how close you are to losing everything until it’s too late.

    The good news is that keeping a freezer (or refrigerator) cold during an outage is much easier than most people think. You don’t need a huge generator. You don’t need to run it 24/7. And you definitely don’t need to burn through fuel unnecessarily.

    That means even a small portable generator can prevent hundreds of dollars of food loss.

 He also notes:

You don’t need to run a generator continuously. A full chest freezer can stay frozen 24–48 hours without power. During an outage, many people run a generator about 1 hour every 8–12 hours to maintain safe freezer temperatures. Use a thermometer and keep food below 32°F (0°C).

The wattage you need will vary according to the size and type of freezer, with the author giving the numbers for a small chest freezer, a medium chest freezer, and a refrigerator/freezer combo. He also ran a test using his freezers. He has a lot more advice and tips on the difference between starting watts versus running watts, suggestions as to types of generators, how long to run the generator to keep the food frozen, and more, so be sure to read the whole thing.

• "An ancient solar storm left clues in tree rings and a famous poet's diary: 'Red lights in the northern sky'"--Space.com. From the lede:

The solar cycle was several years shorter and the sun was experiencing an unusually active phase at the beginning of the 13th century — at least, that's the story told by evidence left behind in tree rings and historical records that suggest a burst of protons and enhanced coronal mass ejections battered Earth between the years 1200 and 1204 CE. 

•  "The 2026 Hybrid Survival Kit: Smart Tech Gear With Analog Backups"--Survival Life. The author explains:

    A Hybrid Survival Kit is a deliberate pairing of modern, battery-powered technology with a mechanical, physics-based backup. It means building a loadout where your Plan A runs on microchips, but your Plan B runs on gravity, friction, and magnetism.

    For every digital tool in your bag, there is a low-tech, bombproof equivalent sitting right next to it. It is not about “buying more stuff” to be a gear collector; it is about building a Silicon-to-Steel Bridge. You use the silicon (chips) to buy you time and awareness, and you use the steel (analog tools) to ensure you don’t die when the chips fail.

An example: a GPS unit backed up with a map and compass; or a USB-rechargeable dual-arc plasma lighter backed up with a ferro rod. 

•  I had included this in a recent Weekend Reading post but thought I would include it here in case you missed it: "Government Food Confiscation Laws: How Private Food Stores Were Seized in History and What Legal Mechanisms Still Exist"--Preppers Will. The author begins:

    Most people assume that the food stockpiled in their pantry, freezer, or basement belongs to them unconditionally. Under normal circumstances, they are absolutely right. But history tells a far more complicated story, and the legal frameworks governing food supply, distribution, and access during emergencies reveal a side of government power that most people rarely think about until a crisis forces them to.

    Government food confiscation laws, whether formally codified or embedded within broader emergency statutes, have existed in various forms across nearly every major civilization. And in the modern United States, the legal infrastructure for federally directed food resource management remains very much intact, even if rarely invoked.

    Understanding the history of how governments have seized, rationed, and redistributed private food stores is not just an academic exercise. Whether you are a prepper planning for long-term food independence, a policy researcher, or simply a curious citizen, knowing how these laws work and where they come from gives you a clearer picture of the relationship between individual property rights and state power during crisis scenarios.

    From Stalin’s grain brigades to the U.S. Office of Price Administration during World War II, and from the Defense Production Act of 1950 to the FDA’s modern mandatory recall authority, the legal machinery behind food control has always been more extensive than most people realize.

While we generally think of OPSEC regarding food stores as necessary to prevent a mob of hungry people from showing up at our doors, the more likely scenario might well be police or other law enforcement showing up to confiscate your food items. You might also want to check out my post, "An Example of Why OPSEC is Important" for an example of the application of anti-hoarding laws in place during WWI which resulted in the prosecution of a couple living in Washington D.C. for hoarding. As I noted, "The 'offenders' were caught because they were informed on by a friend of the local 'Food Administrator.'"