Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:
- First up, Jon Low has a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter. I'm still going through it so I don't have a list of articles or advice that especially piqued my attention, but at the top of the newsletter and in the email he sends out to subscribers, Jon linked to an article entitled "The Second Amendment: Understanding The Militia Clause" by Alex Ooley.
- For those that handload, or are interested in learning how to handload, RCBS has a "Reloading Hub" with various articles and tips on handloading ammunition.
- "Seeing Red – Red Dot Drills to Master Your Pistol"--Ammo Land. For those of you new to using a red dot on a handgun, Travis Pike has some drills to help you practice the transition; especially learning how to pick up the dot reticle when you first draw and present the firearm.
- And another drill, but for a group of people: "My Favorite Pressure Testing Drill"--Tactical Professor.
It’s called ‘Everyone shoots against everyone.’ Using an execution matrix, I have every student shoot a short bout against every other student. Not consecutively, though. It’s not a mystery, I just run down the matrix and pair up names.
Logistically, all that’s required is two pepper poppers and two shoot boxes. The shooting is static. The drill is simple. Two shooters, two poppers, one signal. First to drive his/her popper down is the winner.
Where it gets difficult for the shooters is ramping their focus up and down over the course of an hour or so. Shooters do a lot of standing around and then get quickly called to shoot while the poppers are being reset. I do that timing deliberately.
- "Straight Talk About Reloading In Gunfights"--Revolver Guy. Boiled to its essence, the author reminds us that reloading in a gunfight is not like reloading at the range or what you see in action movies: you can't just stand in the open and do a quick reload, you need to get to cover where you will have time to reload without being shot.
- A couple from The Firearm Blog on less-than-lethal defensive tools:
- "A Better Way to Zero and Sight in Your Rifle"--Outdoor Life. This is a detailed article. The author's method uses only 20 rounds. And the reason it is so high is because the author advocates for using groups larger than 3 or 5 rounds, but says we need to fire at least 10 rounds, and preferably 20 rounds, to get a real ideal of what our firearm is doing.
Getting 20-shot group data is easier than you might think. You simply shoot a series of [3 to 5 round] groups at different aiming points without adjusting your scope and then break out your first-grade art skills to plot them on a single piece of paper around a single aiming point.
Once you have all your dots on the paper, you can use the group analysis tool in the Hornady 4DOF app to calculate the group size, mean radius, and where the center of the group is in relation to your aiming point. This last bit allows you to make one accurate adjustment to your scope to truly zero your rifle. The basic 4DOF app is free, but the group analysis upgrade costs $4.99. The Ballistic X app also does this and can be purchased for a reasonable fee of $7.99.
There is a video included in the article, as well as links to targets to download to use in this process. Be sure to read the whole thing if you intend on trying this out. In fact, you probably will want to print it out.
- “Safety? Who Needs a Safety?”--Tactical Wire. The author reviews Ruger's new version of the LCP Max sporting a manual safety. But he does briefly address the issue of whether a safety is needed:
Of what import is a safety lever? On a gun to be regularly carried in close concealment (this LCP is supplied with a nylon pocket holster), the safety can “take the worry out of being close.”
The general complaint about manual safety levers is “You’ll never remember to take it off when you need to shoot.”
Cool story. But the chances are greater that something will encroach on the trigger when trying to place the gun in deep concealment, with loud and embarrassing consequences.
A new report from the Council on Criminal Justice revealing an increase in firearms thefts from parked cars over a five-year study period (2018-2022) overlooks one major component of the problem: the necessity for legally-armed citizens to leave their firearms before entering so-called “gun-free zones,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms observed.
This is how it works: Step one, acquire statistics on firearm-related deaths among children ages 0 to 14. Step two, combine that relatively low number with the far greater number of firearm-related deaths involving juveniles and young adults ages 15 to 17, 15 to 19, or even ages 15 to 24. Step three, present the resulting data as the shocking number of “children” (ages 0 to 17, 0 to 19 or 0 to 24) who are subjected to “gun violence” each day/week/month/year. Step four, use the disingenuous statistic to advocate for pre-determined gun control policies by claiming “gun violence is the leading cause of death of children.”
- "Why Squirrel Hunting is Better Suppressed"--American Hunter. Basically the same concept as when hunting wild pigs: the suppressed shot is less likely to scare away other squirrels. Also a good overview of suppressors for .22 and a couple recommendations.
- "Why Every American Should Own a Plate Carrier (And Plates)"--SOFREP.
Ajita Sherer boils it down to this simple reason: for the modern
militiaman, or anyone fearing civil unrest, your load-out starts with a
rifle and armor. But if you plan on being a militiaman, you also need to
include a helmet. In any event, Sherer also briefly goes over different
types of loadouts and the pros and cons of different types of hard
armor. Unfortunately, he doesn't discuss the composite ceramic and
polyethylene armor that we are seeing for lower priced Level III+ and IV
armor.
- "Prepping isn’t just for preppers anymore—it’s time to get a go-bag"--Popular Science. The article describes "[h]ow to pack a go bag, a shelter-in-place bag, an emergency car kit, and an everyday carry." A pretty decent article (complete with graphics) on basics to include in various types of kits or bags. But the author also tries to explain why everyone should at least try to have some minimal preparations:
The very idea of a “prepper” being some societal outlier would have been laughable to our ancestors. I’ve learned, in my two decades studying how human communities react to stress and even disasters, that prepping used to be built into our cultural practices. What changed? Our modern Western, market-integrated lifestyle puts forth the illusion that we don’t need to be prepared. We all drank that collectively comforting Kool-Aid that said there was no need to have supplies on hand in case of an emergency—you can just go to the store. Nor would you need to consider what you’d do in the event of a fire or a flood—insurance will take care of the damage, and surely FEMA or some other government agency will take care of you and your loved ones in the wake of a disaster.
But not only is it unwise to depend on institutional power to manage risk on our behalf, it also deprives us of something fundamental to who we are: managing our own individual risk and participating in collective risk management, which are things we have done for as long as we’ve been human. In other words: humans are good at taking care of each other, and my research shows that we come out of hard times happier and healthier when we do so.
- "A doomsday prepper’s survival skills for women have gone viral. Here’s why"--The Independent. A look at prepping "influencer" Sari Sanchez who, according to the article, "has amassed more than 50,000 followers and millions of views on her TikTok account @prettyinprep by sharing her top survival guidance, self-defence tips and emergency essentials." The article also mentions:
Sanchez’s advice is tailored to women, including how to use a steel pen or hot coffee for self-defence, the dangers of driving with a claw clip in your hair and a recommendation for a portable toilet which can fit in your purse.
Liberal preppers differ from their rightwing counterparts because the calamities they anticipate have different characteristics. Rightwing bugbears like civil unrest and globalist tyranny lead to a focus on the stockpiling of weapons to defend one’s property and family from hostile adversaries. But concerns about global heating point to different notions of readiness. Climate breakdown – the destabilization of the entire ecological system on which our lives depend – is not a fleeting crisis one can ride out with a well-stocked arsenal and a few pallets from Costco. As Margaret Killjoy, who launched the prominent anarchist-prepper podcast Live Like the World Is Dying at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, put it: “There’s not much preparedness you can do for the end of the world.”
Rather than shake our heads at their ignorance and surprise when someone steals their food and rapes and murders their families, we should look to see if they have anything useful to offer:
For Steffen and other preppers on the left, threat analysis begins with an understanding of network effects: how various social and economic systems work together to support our ongoing survival, or undermine it. Bald and bespectacled, with headphone wires dangling from his ears, he explained that the effects of climate collapse will be experienced as a series of localized disasters – flooding here, wildfire there – each requiring planning and forethought.
“Every piece of infrastructure, every home, every community, every business, every industry, was built to work in a world that no longer exists,” he told us, adding that this ever-widening gap will be “ripping through every single person’s life”.
Steffen’s prescription was “ruggedization”, a term borrowed from the military. Ruggedization, he explained, was “the design of a system such that it can take unexpected punishment and retain its core functions”. Its opposite he termed brittleness – “the condition of a thing being subject to sudden failure”. Our primary goal ahead of climate chaos was to recognize brittleness in the systems around us – from failing infrastructure to political ineptitude – and either remedy it or avoid it altogether.
