Gun & Prepping News #72

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

• One piece of advice you see over and over from trainers is to make use of a shot timer to accurately record your performance. But cost and size is an issue. TFB reports, however, that Walker's has released an affordable SHOTSYNC timer that you wear on your wrist that has a microphone and accelerometer to detect shots with the data going to an app on your smart phone to record and display data. MSRP is $59.99 and, per the article/press release, it ships for free when ordered directly from Walker's. 
• "PSA AK-47 GF3 Review: The Best Budget AK?"--The Truth About Guns. This is a bare-bone AKM (minus cleaning rod for some reason) with polymer  that runs $600 to $700. But it is reliable according to the tests.
• "Century Arms AP5: Semi-Auto MP5 Homage?"--The Truth About Guns. Made on tooling sold by HK, this is probably as close as you can get to a genuine HK product without having HK stamped on it. MSRP is still $1599.99, though. 
• Some firearm history: "The Story of Gunpowder"--The Armory Life.  An excerpt:

    While crude explosives date to ancient China, the English Friar Roger Bacon is credited with the first description of gunpowder in 1249. Rudimentary firearms soon followed. From the 14th century to the late 19th century, black powder furnished the high-pressure gas that hurled all manner of projectiles, from rocks to jacketed bullets, at animals and adversaries. Its varied blends of fuel and oxidants all contained saltpeter (potassium nitrate), charcoal and sulfur. In 1846, an Italian, Ascanio Subrero, discovered nitroglycerine. A clear, oxygen-rich solution of nitric and sulfuric acids plus glycerin, “nitro” could quickly rearrange itself into stable gases. No need for spark; a bump would set it off. In 1863, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel and his father, Emmanuel Nobel, learned how to put this volatile, explosive compound in cans. Still, it punished inattention. In 1875, after it leveled Nobel’s German factory, Alfred developed the relatively docile Dynamite.

    By then, the Swiss chemist Christian Schoenbein had discovered that cotton treated with sulfuric and nitric acids burned so fast, it turned to ash without igniting its bed of black powder! Efforts to throttle it and carelessness proved costly. John Hall’s guncotton plant in Faversham, England blew up. Stateside, German immigrant Carl Dittmar lost his New Sporting Powder factory to an explosion that erased much of Binghampton, New York. Some accidents tallied more victims than survivors.

    In the 1890s black powder gave way to nitrocellulose-based smokeless. Single-base propellants contained no nitroglycerin. England’s cordite, named for its spaghetti-like strands, was initially a double-base powder, with guncotton, nitroglycerin, petroleum jelly and acetone. Addition of nitroguanidine in the 1930s made it a “triple-base.” 

 The rest of the article is about modern powder developments. 

• "Building a Backwoods Carry Kit"--The Armory Life. Because it is a gun blog, the first half of the article is, of course, about what handgun the author carries--a Springfield XD-M Elite OSP 10mm--and the belt and holsters (he also includes a chest holster) he uses to carry it. But the latter half of the article goes over other gear he carries: a basic med kit for traumatic injuries; a tactical flashlight and a headlamp; a knife and multitool; an Exotac FireROD V2 Ferro Rod, supplemented with waterproof tinder and lighters; a Grayl GeoPress Purifier (he carries both the titanium and the regular model); compass, cell phone, and a portable power bank to recharge the phone; and, finally, a Grayl Mission EXP Daypack into which he can pack everything.
• On a related note, a 2022 article from Cheaper Than Dirt on "Best Guns and Gear for Hiking." The author writes:

    I have been hiking, camping, and hunting practically all of my life. I suppose the term “spelunking” might also apply to some of the caverns I’ve traversed. I have usually had a firearm with me, unless I was overseas, and generally not felt in any danger from assaults. The weather, injury, and cold are more likely to be a danger.

    Just the same, there have been times when I was glad to have a firearm. Beginning the research on this report, I found only a dozen or so murders along the Appalachian Trail during the past 45 years. That isn’t many, but is pretty important if you are the one at risk, and there are many more trails and open areas around the country, including the Adirondacks and the Rockies.

Firearms While Hiking?

    There is cause for concern. As an example, one of the sick monsters I read about during my research shot two men on the trail and is now out of prison after 15 years. If that isn’t motivation for you to carry a firearm, I don’t know what is.

    Folks traveling in pairs have been killed. In a particularly tragic case not far from my home, a young woman was murdered by a dangerous ex-con. The woman was skilled in martial arts. Her dog was later found wandering the trail. While a canine is an excellent warning system or alarm, very few are useful for protection, and if they are formidable against humans they are often too dangerous to have around the family. A hardened human can kick a 60-pound dog to death, and you as well. That leaves us with the firearm. We’ll also look at other means of protection. 

And there is always the possibility of stumbling across other criminal enterprises in the woods or remote areas. And its not just people you have to worry about: there is the possibility of bear attacks, increasing numbers of attacks by mountain lions, and I just saw a video recently made by a man walking his dog along a trail who encountered a pack (!) of coyotes, where about four of the coyotes pushed forward along the trail causing the man to retreat and then they suddenly encountered 3 or more that had circled around behind them. 

More:

• "What Is A Kit Gun And Why Do You Want One?"--Ammo Man School of Guns.
• "The Ultimate Trail Guns: Handguns"--The Writing Gunsmith.  
• "The Best .22s For the Trail"--CCI Stories.  
• ".22 Trail Gun Shootout – Auto vs. Revolver"--The Sportsman. 
• "Sampling .22 Kit Guns And Trackers"--The Gun Mag.  
• "Is This the Ultimate Backpacking Rifle?"--Meat Eater.