Adventure Medical Kits A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicineby Eric A. Weiss, M.D.
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Schindler’s List (BTW, it is too bad that Spielberg didn’t show Oskar Schindler arming his Jewish employees, which is what actually happened.)
Ferguson PD Tell Gun Stores and Pawn Shops to Remove Guns. – T.P.
I would also like to point out that as far as I can ascertain, the Redoubt remains riot free. – HJL
o o o
o o o
Forget your robot overlords: Watch out for Lethal Autonomous Systems that make mistakes. – T.P.
o o o
Video: How to hunt your own Thanksgiving dinner – Georgia Pellegrini – T.J.
Also see her book: Modern Pioneering: More Than 150 Recipes, Projects, and Skills for a Self-Sufficient Life.
o o o
Water War Amid Brazil Drought Leads to Fight Over Puddles . – H.L.
“Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival.” ? Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
November 25th is the birthday of economist and comedian Ben Stein. His unscripted monologue on economics from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of the most memorable scenes in American cinema. By the way, Stein spends part of each year at his second home in Sandpoint, Idaho, so he is an honorary Redoubter. I’ve heard that he plans to retire here.
o o o
Today, we present another entry for Round 55 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 55 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.
This isn’t as much of a “how to” as it is a “how I have done it” in the spirit of sharing my “experience, strength, and hope” instead of giving advice or instruction.
I am a little over two years into my own serious preparations as well as recovery from my own personal TEOTWAWKI. Prior to August 12, 2012, I had been sort of a hobbyist or dabbler but mostly a self-absorbed guy. I was working 55 miles from home in my chosen career, which I will acknowledge will never be worth more than about 45K a year. My wife was earning about the same as I was at the time. We had two car payments, a small mortgage on an old frame “fixer upper”, and a small handful of high interest credit cards. Officially, we were living paycheck to paycheck, but we were not struggling as long as nothing went wrong. I had gotten deeply into home improvement, by necessity but also interest. I was also gardening and raising rabbits and chickens. The garden and animals I had gotten involved with to help feed us but also because it was “fun” and different. In my forties I had gained a little weight and decided to get back into shape. Being compulsive and having a previous history of competitive cycling, it wasn’t enough to just start running a few times a week; I dove head long into triathlon, marathons, long distance swimming, and 100+ mile bicycle rides. Nearly every hobby I have embraced turns into a cash pit, and this was no exception. I was so absorbed into this, with the tacit support of my wife, that the bills suffered, the home suffered, and my marriage suffered. One Saturday afternoon, I returned from an early morning bike ride to discover she was gone. There was no warning; she was just gone. Without boring anyone with all the details, the bottom line is she was gone, her income was gone, and though I was able to establish contact with her, there was no clear explanation what was happening or going to happen. She had established a life of her own and seemed determined to live it.
Within a matter of weeks I had eaten every morsel of food in my house, was walking to the convenience store to use the bathroom, then later stealing toilet paper from work because I was out. My truck was briefly repossessed, and I was on the verge of permanent self destruction. I had resources available, but I was pridefully refusing to tell anyone I needed help. I thought she would return any day and things would get better. Eventually, I had to reach out to my family. I filed for chapter 13, cleaned up and rented out the master bedroom and bath as an apartment, and began to climb out of my financial and spiritual hole. Through this process came a resolve to never be in this situation again. Coincidence or providence had surrounded me with people who gave me some clarity– political, spiritual, and professional clarity. My personal fragility opened my eyes to the fragile nature of the entire system we live under. The concept of being a “survivalist” gave me a renewed focus and something to pursue that had more than one aspect. I had grown up two generations removed from the Depression, and that background had influenced some of my core values. I tended to be “right of center” politically, with a strong libertarian streak, but I had simply not paid much attention to any of that. I called myself “spiritual but not religious”, which is still largely true. However, that label was mostly used as an excuse to not have to commit to anything. Stripping away my own religious bias and prejudice opened my eyes to some very good people I had dismissed because I did agree 100% with everything they “seemed” to stand for. My willingness to ask for and receive help unconditionally made greater things possible and saved me from my own tendency to make radical moves in the face of minor inconveniences.
As far as becoming a “prepper”– a moniker I really still dislike but understand its use over “survivalist”– the process was not hard or complicated, but it does require some thought and discipline. I couldn’t just “buy in” and be done. I applied one of my talents– the ability to find and absorb every tid bit of information on a topic that has my interest and completely submerge myself into it, breaking the process into stages and small goals. I began with a goal of obtaining a one-month supply of food and three months cushion on my bills. I don’t “save’ well, so having a credit on my bills instead of having three months in the bank worked for me. The bankruptcy, as humiliating as that was, gave me the breathing room to make it work. Very few people in my city of 35,000 drink the tap water. It is “safe” but not appealing, so accumulating water was natural and easy. There is an industry of kiosk-style vending machines for drinking water at roughly $0.25/gallon, and I set a goal of keeping 100 gallons of drinking water on hand in 7-gallon containers. We rotate these so it never gets very old. I also have several 2-liter bottles of tap water and a rain barrel. As tempting as the bulk purchases of food were from Wise foods and others, I kept it simple and simply purchased more than I needed in each trip. With an eye toward meal planning in the future, I accumulated things I knew I would eat, that could be prepared in different ways– stove or microwave, if electricity is available, or on a camping stove or over an open fire. I accumulated non-food items as well with the number “twelve” in my head or multiples of twelve. (I think twelve months or twelve weeks.) I sharpened my canning skills, dug out my old dehydrator, and filled my freezer with something more than just a few pizzas and bags of ice. I have some relatives staying on a farm 300 miles away with two wells, a flowing creek, two ponds, a garden, and solid neighbors all within a few miles, so I have a place to “bug out” to also.
As I reached a degree of food security and was reasonably sure I would not be homeless soon, I branched out, starting with some shotgun shells for my old shotgun. My mother had gotten back into shooting sports and that spurred me into getting my concealed carry permit. I have put together a small collection of weapons, which include nothing expensive or exotic but serviceable. My SKS with the 20 rd detachable magazine is solid; my Glock 26 is reliable and easy to carry; my little LCP is convenient in certain situations; and the two inexpensive handguns I have stashed around the house are reassuring. Add to that three shotguns and I feel okay. (The obsessive guy I am always wants more though.) At my family’s farm, there are many more firearms that will likely be passed down to me. I have a small stash of ammo and have participated in some small shooting competitions to develop a skill set. I also got involved in krav maga training and some weight lifting to compensate for the runners physique I had developed. I have added some additional camping supplies, fuel for my camp stove, and two back packs; one I keep stocked in my truck. Also in my workshop and truck are extras of almost everything. When I bought a set of tires, I kept the old set in my shed out back “just in case”, and this has come in handy. I have extra bottles of oil, tire repair tools, plenty of screws and nails, and some plywood. I have also gathered first aid supplies, OTC meds, some veterinary supplies (with human applications) and a small library of survival literature– both fiction and instructional. With the exception of big ticket items, which for me is anything over $50, I strive to acquire at least two of anything I identify as a “need” in the spirit of “two is one and one is none” and the theory that if I need one now, I will need one later. Working on my own bad habits and no longer having credit as an option, I am better at making what I have last and have actually managed to accumulate a little cash reserve and started buying small amounts of silver as a backup.
My home is starting to come back together after a period of neglect. I am in the process of putting a metal roof on myself, hardening the defenses and clearing old trees and shrubs, bringing my garden back on line, and getting my chicken house back in order. I live in a poor area with transients and renters, but I have developed relationships with the two neighbors nearest me who own their homes, and we can be trusted to look out for one another.
My job recently changed, so I can commute only 15 miles now (a huge gas savings). Though I laugh at the irony of it, I work for the County but as a State Employee. I have learned that not all government employees are mindless bureaucrats, and there are patriots amongst us. Because many of my co-workers are also “gun people”, with military and law enforcement backgrounds, I have learned a great deal more and have even more resources available. I also have networked within the law enforcement and local government circles, which might prove helpful. This summer I earned my Technician License and acquired a pair of inexpensive radios and have begun adding to my skill and knowledge set. This is another potential money pit hobby, so I struggle to stay grounded. Occasionally, I catch myself being the paranoid conspiracy guy, instead of the smart, prepared, and rational guy. I don’t want to forget to live in the moment while preparing for the unexpected.
My wife is back in town but not home. We see each other often but are cautious. She was humbled also by her experience, but both of us are trying to be more mindful and certain of our choices now. This is a small sampling of what I have been able to achieve on a small income. Some writers seemed to be preparing for very specific SHTF scenarios. My personal life experiences and what I have observed in my professional life, working with others, is just how unpredictable any SHTF can be. With that in mind I try to be a well-rounded prepper and a well-rounded person, a good employee, neighbor, et cetera. I consider myself a Christian and recognize Jesus Christ as my savior, but I still eschew organized religion for the most part. I have added The Bible and other text to my readings, and although I had prayed most of my life I am working to be more “prayer-full” in my approach to life. That being said, I am still impulsive, prideful, a little hedonistic, and lustful. However, I feel more grounded than ever before. I still have a long way to go and many strategic and tactical decisions to make with plenty of personal and existential uncertainties, but the events of the previous few years, as sad, painful, and humbling as they were, may have saved me.
Well Hugh,
What JC describes is pure citizenship. If we had a lot more of that, we would only have to prep for natural disasters.
I do what JC does, but I do it from my Rotary Club. I am complimentary and polite at the tax office, election office, school office, city hall, and building department. My truck got stolen and returned a year later. The nice lady at the tag office just took my word for it and over-rode the extra fees for not having a tag. I was pulled over for no seat belt last month. Driving a plain, late model pickup truck makes you a mark with the police in my town. Rather than a ticket, I get “Wear your seat belt Mr. V.” and sent on my way. I made sure I secured a good republican election sticker in the last cycle so that does not happen again. I got into a mess with a transmission light, and replacement and tag deadline. The wife got ticketed. The prosecutor cut the fine in half; the judge cut it in half again and acted embarrassed that he had to charge that. The stinking transmission started out as a $4,500 problem but was finally resolved down to $1,000. Still, you cannot get the tag with the orange light on.
A key piece of advice is to always have your coat and tie on when you have your drivers license photo taken. I have tried returning merchandise at a big box store without a receipt while covered with plaster waste and seen the conversation turn from “No way” to “Yes sir, Mr. V.” with the passing of the license as my i.d. It is a shame it is that way, but it is.
RV
This Lewiston Tribune story was featured by the AP wire service: Men charged after Idaho Fish and Game truck taken (I was sort of believing their story, until the Tequila bottle was mentioned…)
o o o
Big Horn Sheep Killing: A Betrayal of Trust JWR’s Comment: So wait a minute… It was the undercover fish and game agent who killed the ram???
o o o
Montana: More than 800 roadkill salvage permits issued in first year
o o o
I noticed that Primary Weapons Systems (PWS, in Boise, Idaho) has expanded their product line substantially. In addition to ARs and components, they also make precision bolt action rifles, 10/22 target variants, and a full line of muzzle devices (flash hiders, compensators, and suppressor adapters). Their CNC machining is superb.
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.” ? Mahatma Gandhi
JWR’s License Plate Collection
I have started collecting license plates from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. My goal is to collect pairs of modern (recent issue) plates from all 50 states (or single plates from “one plate states like Florida and New Mexico.) I’m also interested in getting unusual plates, such as trailer plates, “Permanent” plates, and truck plates. And I also collect novelty front license plates that show state flags, branches of military service, and so forth.
For your privacy and mine, please DO NOT send me any e-mail mentioning particular plate numbers. Also, put my address in both the “To” and “From” address blocks on the package. (Since Uncle Sam now scans and archives the exterior of all mailed envelopes.)
If you have any plates that you can spare, just throw them in a flat rate box or a padded envelope, and mail them to:
Jim & Family
P.O. Box 303
Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845
Many Thanks! – JWR
As we prepare our lives for the unknown, the various categories needing attention are overwhelming. Many start with the obvious: water, food, security, defense, and self-reliance. Once we secure our basic survival needs we almost all come to the same next dilemma: money. How do we shelter the fruits of our labor from the coming storm?
Retirement accounts are among the largest asset for the average American. Many people have five and six figure sums of money in these accounts. Whether you’re concerned about a currency collapse, government theft, or complete societal breakdown, finding a good home for these assets could be life changing on the other side.
For the self-reliant individual, a self-directed IRA is the perfect fit. This strategy allows the individual to take control of the account investments, stretching far beyond the typical basket of mutual funds. Self-directed accounts are designed for investing in precious metals, real estate, and much more. With one unique type of account, an LLC IRA, you can take home delivery of gold, silver, or platinum eagle coins purchased entirely by your IRA. The below guide can help you determine your options.
Retirement Account Types:
All of the above mentioned accounts, except 401k type plans, are eligible to be setup or rolled over to a self-directed plan, like the LLC IRA. Only about 16% of employer-sponsored plans (401ks) allow for in-service withdrawals, whereby you rollover your balance while still employed. A simple question to your administrator or HR person will clarify your eligibility.
Traditional retirement account investment options are limited. These limits are placed by the administrator that holds the account. Options typically include a myriad of mutual funds, individual stocks, and bonds. Granted, you can get a wide range of asset class exposure from currencies to commodities but all within the stock, bond, and futures markets. What if you want to own tangible, physical assets with your retirement account?
Non-traditional administrators allow for alternative investments inside of retirement accounts. In fact, they are built for them. There is an entire industry that brings these investments to market. Some investment options include real estate, physical precious metals, private equity, energy leases, and loans.
There are a few ways to purchase property with an IRA. An account designed for real estate investment can be setup directly through any number of self-directed administrators and is fairly inexpensive, typically $200 to setup and $150 per year. However, these accounts have their limitations in that each transaction must be approved. An LLC IRA is a preferred method used to purchase real estate, as it offers more freedom and flexibility for the individual.
You can setup a traditional PM IRA with a company, like Goldstar Trust or Equity Institutional. Such an account will cost about $225-600+ to establish, and $175-500+ annually to maintain, including bullion storage. The cost range is based on account size. Although somewhat cost effective, many see a risk in having a third party hold their precious metals.
The solution to this third party storage risk is setting up an LLC IRA to invest in precious metals. With an approved LLC IRA formation, you can take home delivery of gold, silver, or platinum eagle coins, purchased entirely by your IRA. This is not a taxable distribution; you are legally storing the exempt bullion coins on behalf of an LLC, which is owned by your IRA or like account.
The complete creation and funding of the LLC IRA takes about two to four weeks. The process can be cumbersome, as there are numerous legal drafted documents needed. A good facilitator will do everything for you, keeping it simple. You should only have to sign a few rounds of documents and open a bank account for your LLC IRA.
Your retirement account is transferred from your current administrator to a self-directed IRA administrator. Once the LLC is created and the administrator approves the investment, your funds are sent to your newly-created LLC bank account. From here you have complete checkbook control of your retirement account.
As the manager of your LLC IRA, you can write checks, purchase and sell assets, and store specified bullion at home. The range of available investments is almost unlimited, except for collectibles and life insurance contracts. Once established, the IRA account administrator acts as a silent custodian. They do not police your investments or activities. Thus, it is important to follow IRS-prohibited parties rules. For example, you could provide seed money, in exchange for equity, for your neighbor’s new start-up company but not that of your child, spouse, or parent.
Whatever your choice for sheltering the fruits of your labor, be prudent. In these questionable times, responsibility falls upon the individual. Money is the stored capital of our past efforts. Protecting it helps ensure our future survival.
We celebrate these opportunities with passion. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can help in any way. – Will Lehr www.perpetualassets.com
Disclaimer: This article is meant to serve as an informational guide. I am not a CPA nor professional accountant nor attorney. Nothing authored shall be interpreted as accounting, investment, nor legal advice from Perpetual Assets nor any of its officers, affiliates, media partners, nor employees.
Crimson Trace is a Wilsonville, Oregon based company that sells laser sights and weapons lights. They have two basic strategies to attach them to firearms– dedicated ones that work with a particular model gun and universal ones, which will attach to the rails found on more and more of today’s firearms. The dedicated laser sights for handguns are subdivided into two variants– ones that are attached to the handgun’s grips and larger ones that attach to the front of the trigger guard.
The ones that are part of the grip offer the most compact package and can often be used with a standard holster. Some of these replace the grips on the pistol, while others work with pistols, such as the Glock that have integral grips, by clamping onto the pistol.
I’m writing about the two universal mount lasers Crimson Trace was kind enough to loan me. One, the CMR-201 Rail Master Universal Laser Sight is a red laser, while the second– the CMR-203 Rail Master Universal Green Laser Sight– is, as the name says, a green laser. Both sights can mount on Picatinny or Weaver rails, so they will work on many handguns, rifles, and shotguns. The red one goes for $115, and the green one for $220. Both are made in the United States.
The red one is smaller, perhaps the size of a box of matches, while the green one is larger, about the size of two boxes of matches stacked one on top of the other. They red one weighs less than an ounce, and the green one is less than two ounces. Both have rugged-looking polymer housings.
I was more interested in the universal rail mount lasers so I could try them on an assortment of weapons, which I couldn’t, of course, accomplish with the dedicated ones. They spent most of their time on AR-15’s but also got to visit with a Glock 19.
The dedicated lasers have an easy-to-hit switch that is generally activated by simply gripping the pistol. The rail mounts have ambidextrous paddles that work well, as long as you pay attention when installing it and put it in a good spot. It is more obvious with a pistol, but I had to tweak it some to get it right on the AR’s. When you install them on a handgun, the switch paddles can extend back and around the front of the trigger guard, making them very easy to operate them as part of the draw stroke.
I should probably back up a wee bit here and explain what a laser sight is. The basic idea is that it shines a laser at the target, and the laser can be adjusted so the bullets hit the indicated spot at a certain distance. In short, instead of using pesky sights, one simply puts the laser’s dot where one wants to hit something and then press the trigger. As with all sights, the bullet will hit somewhere else at any other than the zero distance, and it is our job to know that difference and allow for it.
The concept is simple and appealing, but in my view there are caveats. First, these things require batteries. I spent years as a photographer depending on batteries, and I learned to mistrust them deeply. All too often, they fail when most needed. The sights are obviously electronic. So, while electronics these days are very reliable, those years of taking pictures and dealing with computers have also left me apprehensive of electronics.
I have no idea if they can handle an EMP or Carrington Event, and the batteries would be hard to come by in a grid down scenario. I was unable to locate a rechargeable for the 1/3N used in the red laser, but Tenargy does make rechargeable CR2 cells, which are used in the green laser.
We are more familiar with the red lasers, but I think the green ones have a lot of advantages, particularly in daylight. Our eyes can generally see green a lot better than they can see red, and that means the green laser is really pops out better, which is what we need for a sighting system. Some subjects show the dots better than others, but I was surprised at how far I could see the green one, even on foliage. It seems to have better contrast on almost everything I tried it on. More things seemed to absorb the red light. This might be due to my individual eyesight, but I read similar comments by other shooters.
While I don’t see the need to use a laser with a red dot sight, if you do, another advantage of the green is that there won’t be any confusion between the dot in the sight and the dot projected by the laser. I tried the red one on an AR with an Aimpoint and found it very confusing. Since the laser and the red dot sight can’t be mounted in the same spot, they are pointing in different directions. The dots will, therefore, at best, only intersect once. At any other range, you will see two; it certainly confused me. There are some optical sights now that offer a selection between red and green dots, so if you really want to use a red laser with a dot sight, you could look for one of those.
While we can see the green laser better, there is a price in battery life. Crimson Trace gives the red ones four hours and the green ones two hours. Both put out the same amount of energy, so apparently green lasers consume more power. They have an auto shutoff after about five minutes, which should help save batteries at the cost of having it switch off when you would prefer that it stay on. It does start blinking to warn you to cycle the power switch before it switches off, but you have to be watching the dot to notice it. There are situations where you might have the gun in a guard position with your eyes searching your surroundings and you could miss it blink.
When thinking about the pros and cons of these devices, another consideration is the question of range. The green one was pretty easy to see at 15 yards on a bright day, while the red one peters out at about three to five yards, depending on the target. At night, the red could make it to 50 yards pretty well, while the green easily did 100 and more. In all cases, some targets are easier to spot the laser on than others. In any event, at some point, we will want to hit beyond the distance we can see the laser, particularly in daylight. While I will admit to being somewhat astonished by how far I could see the lasers, particularly the green one, I can hit with iron sight or optical sights much farther than I can see either laser.
Crimson Trace, in one of their videos argues that you need both iron sights and their lasers with the laser being the way to go for low light scenarios while the iron sights are best for bright light. They make a good case, though I would still like to see people able to use iron sights in the dark, just in case their battery goes bad at the wrong moment. I was pleased that they recognize that the laser does not solve all problems.
You also have to look for the dot and sometimes you spend energy and time finding it that you wouldn’t have expended if you just lined up the sights and took the shot. As I mentioned, I had much more success acquiring the green one. If, however, I was trying to line up a target that was against a background that didn’t show the dot, it was hard to see where it was and bring it onto the target. This was especially true along the edge of the lake we live on as the dots didn’t reflect back off of the dark water. In these cases, I had to use the sights to get the dot on the target. It is far less of a problem up close, of course, and that really is what these sights are designed for.
There are times that the lasers really help. You might be in an awkward position and simply can’t get a good sight picture. The need to use cover or concealment comes to mind as well as odd positioning. Another thought is that some of us have eyesight issues that make iron sights hard to use.
As Crimson Trace says, darkness is where the lasers show their stuff. You may not be able to see the sights, but you can see the laser dot on the target. This occurred to me when we used them while hog hunting before dawn with scoped rifles. The black reticle was not going to show up very well on the usually dark feral pigs even in good light, and it would have been even tougher in the dark, even with lights. We didn’t get a shot with them, but we played with them enough from the stand to make it clear they were useful. I have to wonder if all the playing with the laser might have scared off the hogs, but I was with a very excited just turned 10-year-old, so we were not effectively stand hunting anyway.
It occurs to me that they could help untrained shooters. Learning the discipline to use sights properly, particularly with handguns, takes time and training. You could hand someone a Glock with a laser and tell them to put the dot in the middle and pull the trigger with a good chance that they would get a hit at close range. It’s not an ideal solution, but it would be better than nothing.
I didn’t get a chance to try them in smoky or foggy circumstances. I have played with laser pointers, however, in fog and noticed that the light beam becomes visible as a pointer back to the laser. This could present a problem in some defensive scenarios. I live on a lake, and the extra moisture in the air also helped reveal the path of the laser at night. You could even see it going out through the riflescope. The green laser was generally more visible under these conditions than the red one, to my eyes, at least.
The lasers showed up vividly in a CCD-style night vision unit I borrowed.
The sights were a wee bit fussy to install on a rail and don’t have a quick release-style mount. They are held on with two screws, and if you secure the weapon in a vise it is a lot easier to get it on. I initially tried juggling. The battery cover for the red one slides open, while the green one is held on with two screws. Thankfully, you don’t have to disturb the sight to change the batteries. As mentioned above, take a bit of care locating them so you can easily operate the switch.
You will have more decisions about how to locate them on a rifle, and this might be a good time to talk about parallax. Parallax is the difference between two lines of sight. It can be a wonderful thing, as it is what allows us to have depth perception, but when shooting, it causes problems. The farther the sight line is from the line of the bore, combined with the fall of the bullet as it moves along its path, the harder it gets to keep things going where we intend them to go. When we adjust our sights, we set them so that the bullet will intersect the line of sight at some convenient distance. If we are shooting at something at a different distance, we may have to adjust our point of aim depending on the size of the target. The big problem when we introduce the laser is that we add a second sight line, so we now have extra stuff to consider before pressing the trigger. The closer we can get the laser to the original sight line, the better off we are. It is extremely helpful if we can get the laser directly above or below the bore, so we are only dealing with a vertical difference and not a horizontal one too. The red laser is centered in its case, but the green one is slightly offset to one side.
Some are going to say that this really isn’t that big an issue; truthfully, at most self-defense distances, they are right. We need, however, to be aware of the problem and the effect it can have, should we be outside those parameters. It could matter a lot on a head shot. We are more likely to encounter the problem with a rifle or shotgun than with a pistol for a couple of reasons. The sight offset on a long gun will likely be greater than on a handgun, exacerbating the problem, and we will probably use a shoulder weapon at greater distances than a hand one.
I have heard a lot of people tout the deterrent effect of the laser, and it gets some play on TV and in movies. The idea is that when the bad guy sees himself get lit up with the laser, he is going to stop what he is doing. That could well happen, if he is looking at himself at the time, but I think most of the time he will be looking at his intended victim or watching for police. I wouldn’t count on the deterrent of the laser but would welcome it if it happens.
On a long gun, like the AR, the best spot in my view is on the top of the handguard, but if you have a fixed front sight, it will probably interfere with the laser. The green one, thanks to the slight offset of the laser, may be able to get around some of the folding detachable front sights, but others will have to be removed. You could move the detachable front sight back a bit and put the laser in front, keeping in mind you need to be able to reach the switch conveniently. There are also short rails that can attach to the fixed sight tower, but then it is putting the laser switch in an awkward position.
The advantage of top mounting the laser is that the offset from the bore is in the same direction as your iron or optical sights. If you put it below the barrel, it is in the opposite direction, which compounds the number of things to think about while shooting. I would prefer mounting it on the side rather than below, but I already have lights mounted on one side with the tape switches for the lights on the other. I wound up putting one on the bottom of the one my son used with a fixed sight. The one I used went on the top rail, and I removed the front sight. If I were going to do this long term, I would work out another solution.
Adjusting the sights is pretty easy, assuming that your weapon is sighted in at the distance you want the laser set to. Find a way to set it up in a stable mount, aimed at a target at the right distance and then use the tiny included wrenches to move the dot so it matches the sights. It was easy to do with scopes, harder with red dot sights and iron sights, but still doable. You need, of course, to confirm it at the range. Crimson Trace has a video to help you along.
The size of the laser dot is about 0.5 inches at 50 feet. Crimson Trace says that if the dot gets irregular in shape, you probably need to clean the lens, and they provide tools to do it with.
Crimson Trace says the sights can handle heavy rain or being splashed, but you should not submerge them. If you do, the batteries should be removed and the unit allowed to air dry. They have a three year warranty on current products. They will send you a free set of new batteries once a year on some models but not the on the Rail Master units reviewed here or any that use the CR2 or CR 123 batteries.
Some instructors are using lasers to monitor student performance. I had hoped to try it but didn’t get a chance. The idea is that you watch the laser spot to see if students are holding steady, jerking the trigger, or poorly managing recoil. One strategy that sounds good to me is to adjust the laser so it is below the student’s sight line, so they can’t see it. This keeps them from being distracted by them or focusing too much on the sights, yet it is still useful to the instructor.
Crimson Trace has an excellent website with a lot of information on the use of laser sights. I particularly like their pages on training.
They have an instructor program, and not only do they give instructors a discount, they also make a donation to the NRA’s training endowment for each item sold to an instructor.
I am very interested in these tools, but I remain convinced that shooters need to know how to use sights and that sights should be the primary instrument in placing shots. I can, however, see situations in which a laser could be very helpful. I can see definite uses for training shooters and possibly helping people who have trouble using sights. Of the two sights, I am much more impressed with the green one, due to its greater range. Crimson Trace also makes these two sights with an integrated white light, which strikes me as a pretty useful combination. They are bulkier and heavier, of course, and have less battery life. I haven’t seen one, but if I were interested in a laser, I would want to take a good look at the light/laser combination before making the purchase. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor, Scot Frank Erie
This is an easy turnip recipe we love. It’s from The Redwall Cookbook by Brian Jacques, but I tweaked it just a little. (The Redwall series of books is geared toward upper elementary/jr. high students.) The name of it is almost as good as the recipe!
Serve with a green salad.
Hope you like this, Wendy
o o o
Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlogreaders? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!