Gun & Prepping News #68

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

• "How to Shoot Faster (and Actually Hit)"--Armory Life.  Advice and drills to help you shoot faster while maintaining acceptable accuracy. An excerpt:

    For me, one of my bigger challenges as an instructor has been helping people with a modest level of proficiency reach the next level. They may very well be safe gun handlers and capable of posting a satisfactory score on a course of fire, but are locked into their comfort zone and are not especially confident when it comes to pushing the gas pedal just a little bit harder.

    By reinforcing combat shooting fundamentals such as grip, index on the target, and trigger management and slowly introducing them to a few different drills, I often see great improvement. The ultimate goal is to set each individual’s mental clock so they can strike that ideal balance between speed and accuracy.

    What follows are a few exercises that I have used over the years to teach people how to shoot faster. Perhaps there is something you can use in this mix to improve your skills. 

• "Physical Fitness; The Foundation of all Training"--Combat Shooting & Tactics. As the author points out: "Again, what good is your rifle marksmanship if you’re not strong enough to carry the weapon and spare mags? What good are your hand to hand skills if a 30 second scuffle leaves you bent over, hands on knees, gasping for air."
• "Escalation of Force: How to Choose the Appropriate Response to Potential Violence"--Organic Prepper.  A big issue with self-defense is that the amount or level of force must be reasonable or proportionate to the threat. An excerpt:

    We’ve all heard the saying, “When your only tool is a hammer, you treat everything like it’s a nail.”  The same is true when your only tool is deadly force.

    Obviously, there are life and death situations in which deadly force is the only possible response if you want to live. When someone bursts into your home waving a gun screaming that they’re going to kill you, when someone in a mask is trying to drag you into a van with dark-tinted windows, when someone is clearly intent on beating the crap out of you until you’re dead – all of these things are situations in which your use of a lethal response is entirely justified.

    But… a lot of situations require more finesse unless you want to risk a) spending the rest of your life in prison and praying you don’t drop the soap or b) waiting for bloody vengeance from your adversary’s friends or family or c) criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits forever and ever until you die. 

This is an important topic so please read this. 

• Mossad Ayoob: "Firearms Refresher" (Part 1 - Handguns) (Part 2 - Shotguns) (Part 3 - Rifles). Just a quick review of basics for each type of firearm: checking your weapon and ammunition, checking if it is loaded, weapons handling and safety considerations, tips for drawing the handgun, ammunition selection, straps and slings for the long guns, and more. Just a good review of the basics, but still some tips or ideas for the experienced shooter. If you are teaching someone about shooting, these would probably be good articles to supplement what is your class or teaching session. 
• Some firearms history: "M1 Garand vs. M1941 Johnson Rifle Debate"--Armory Life.  The Johnson rifle was a semi-auto rifle that competed against the M1 Garand. It used a 10-round rotary magazine and saw some very limited use in the war. However, it was too little, too late and so it never replaced the M1 Garand with US forces. 
• And some more firearms history: "The MAT-49: France's Mid-20th Century SMG"--American Rifleman. At the end of WWII, the French were left with a multitude of different weapons and embarked on a program to standardize what they had. The MAT-49 came out of this.

    ... The MAT-49 was simple and rugged featuring a retractable stock made of heavy gauge wire. With its stock retracted the MAT-49 is just 18 inches long—with its stock extended, it is 28 inches (with a 9.1-inch barrel). 

    A unique feature is the folding magazine well, which tucks in neatly beneath the barrel—allowing a safe, compact carry that was particularly appealing for paratroops and vehicle crews. The magazine well could be quickly folded back into the firing position, and the well provides the forward hand grip. The weapon has a bit of heft, weighing nearly 9.5 pounds with a loaded 32-round magazine.

    There is no manual safety on the MAT-49, rather, there's a prominent grip safety. The gun is blowback-operated, firing from an open bolt, with a cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute. An experienced shooter can easily trigger single rounds. The MAT-49 uses a 32-round, double-stack, single-feed magazine—spring tension is tight, and the magazine loading tool is essential. There was also a 20-round, single-stack magazine, designed to be more resistant to sand and grit, and this was issued to troops in desert environments. 

• While most of us probably think rifle accuracy begins and ends with free floating the barrel, that is not really correct: "Understanding Barrel Bedding"--Rifle Shooter Magazine.  An excerpt:

There are a number of ways a bolt-action rifle can be bedded. Bull barrels and heavy varmint/target barrels oscillate less violently than sporter-weight ones as a bullet accelerates down the bore and generally shoot just as well when free-floated as they do when bedded. Some competitive shooters, however, have been known to glass-bed the barrel and leave the action floating while others permanently bond the barreled action and stock together by not using release agent. Most sporter, carbine and ultralight hunting rifles, however, respond better to other bedding dynamics.

• Related: "How To Adjust Forearm Tip Pressure"--Shooting Times. The author's experience is that most rifles will do best with a free floated barrel. "But in perhaps less than five to 10 percent of the rifles, I run into one that will not shoot well after my initial accurization work. At that point I look at the possibility that this rifle may need some pressure on the barrel. In these cases a pressure point in the stock may help to stabilize or dampen erratic or nonsymmetric barrel movement."
• Related: "Use of Barrel Harmonics For Rifle Accuracy"--Tactical Link.
• Related: "What are barrel harmonics?"--Gun Tweaks. 

• You can't stop the signal: "Airsoft SCAR SMG conversion gang caught"--Impro Guns. The illicit manufacturers here took Airsoft versions of the SCAR, and replaced the guts and barrel with those for a simple submachine gun. Gave the user a nice stock and appearance. There are some photographs showing how things were fit into the Airsoft shell/chassis. 
• "Luth-AR Globe Charging Handle: Why Didn’t I Think Of That?"--The Truth About Guns.  Something that might be useful for those with arthritis. Essentially a ball like that on the bolt handle of a bolt action rifle attached to one side of the cocking handle for an AR. A lot of the comments complain that the ball would hang up things, but since generations have survived using bolt action guns with a ball sticking off the side on a cocking handle, this seems more an imaginary concern than a real one. You know what really hangs up on things with an AR? The pistol grip and long magazines and weapon mounted lights and the tall sights and stocks shaped like giant hooks. 
• "Choosing Your First Hunting Rifle"--Armory Life.  If you are like me, your first hunting rifle was probably a gift or hand-me-down. But if you are looking at getting your first (or just getting another rifle) this article has some tips and pointers starting with cartridge selection, type of action, the importance of keeping the weight down, what game species you are going to be hunting with it (which, frankly, should have been at the top of the list of considerations), and accessorizing it. 
• Related: "Top 5 All-Around North American Big-Game Cartridges"--American Hunter.  
• Related: "The Top 10 Rifle Cartridges for North American Big Game"--Peterson's Hunting.
• "25 Most Popular Survival Books (My Favourite is #5)"--More Than Just Surviving.  This is originally from 2014 and updated in 2015, but is still probably a pretty solid list. I've read 5 of the first 6 books and several of the books in the remainder of the list. I would note, however, that it is mix of wilderness survival and prepping books. I was somewhat disappointed though that the list did not include Cody Lundin's book, When All Hell Breaks Loose, which I consider the best overall prepping book as it goes over mental/emotional preparation and concerns, then goes into topics of shelter, water, food, sanitation and hygiene, and other topics for someone surviving a major disaster, with the emphasis on people surviving in their homes. 
• "Choosing the Best Water Purification Tablets – Everything You Need to Know!"--Alpha Survivalist. The article says that it is reviewing 5 different brands, but only 4 are discussed. There is a brief overview and review of each brand. The author also discusses historical (mostly military) experience with water purification tablets and practical uses. The article also discusses the three general chemical compounds used in such tablets. But this may be the most important tip of all from the article:

    It makes sense to use multiple water purification methods, you can not be careful enough right? Purification tablets work best when they are paired up with quality water filters like the Lifestraw or the Sawyer Mini.

    Specific protozoa species like cryptosporidium usually have a strong resistance to chemical purifiers, however, they are too big to go through many water filters including the two just mentioned above.

    Always keep this in mind when choosing a purification tablet.

• "Seasonal Changeover"--Tactical Wisdom.  The author, Joe Dolio, discusses what he does with his vehicle bags, get home bags, EDC/Patrol bags, and full ruck as the season shifts from winter/early spring to warmer weather, including updating clothing, checking that MREs and other gear is still current and so on. He expects the readers to be familiar with his recommendations for such kit set out in his book, Baseline Training Manual, but the general concepts are valid no matter your set up.
• "15 DIY Instant Soup Mixes"--Urban Survival Site. This is exactly what it sounds like: some recipes of dry ingredients that can be stored in Mason jars or Mylar bags, needing only the addition of hot water to make soup. He warns that some of the ingredients, such as freeze dried chicken, may be hard to source, however.  
• "36 Cool Ideas For Your Paracord Survival Projects"--Survival Life. Belts, keychains, monkeyfist slungshots, chair, sling, etc. 
• "Frightening reality of California’s homeless epidemic laid bare as disease outbreak could threaten LA"--New York Post. 

    The bacterial disease leptospirosis was found in rats at encampments in the hippie college town of Berkeley, leading health officials there to issue an urgent warning to the homeless to clear out.

Per the article, "Flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache and vomiting appear between five and 14 days. If the infection isn’t detected and treated with antibiotics, it leads to organ failure, internal bleeding, meningitis — and death."

     Officials told them to relocate at least a third of a mile from the “red zone” encompassing several square blocks as soon as possible. The warning comes as authorities attempted remove the encampment last year but were blocked by a federal judge. 

I find it interesting that the judiciary had no problems with locking down the population for a largely imaginary threat, but suddenly find it objectionable to address a real public health threat.