Inexpensive Expanding 7.62×39 Ammunition, by Tunnel Rabbit

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Most people have ARs that they do not know how to keep running long term. If folks will not get the training needed to keep the AR reliable, then they would be far better off with an AK variant rifle or carbine. I have both.  My handloaded 5.56×45 ammunition using Hornady 55 grain FMJ bullets with 23.4 grains of IMR 3031 powder is right at 1 minute of angle (MOA), and 2,900 feet per second (fps) out of a 16-inch barrel.  I would have used a soft point, but the FMJ was all that was available for the trade made to acquire it. BTW, Varget is not the only powder that produces accurate loads in 5.56.

While I appreciate the fact that “only accurate rifles are interesting”, I am also interested in the superior knockdown power, or ability to quickly incapacitate, and the simple manual of arms of the AK-47 variant rifles that are well suited for the untrained masses, that are most folks.  I am still concerned that the first four AR-15, and one AR-10 rifles that I handled all failed with in the first few rounds. This is because the untrained owners handed me their AR’s that were not properly maintained.  I did manage to clean and lubricate three of theses rifle for their owners.  Unfortunately, all but one of the rifles was put back in storage, and the owner never learned.  One of the owners was a combat vet who failed to lubricate the rifle properly.  Another rifle needed the chamber honed, and better springs. That rifle was brand new from the factory and yet it still failed.  Fortunately, my experience with AK rifles has been far more positive.  Not only are these rifles reliable when not properly maintained, but they are simple to use, and are much more potent than 5.56 rifles within the range most combat occur–150 yards or less– if the correct ammunition is used.  In this article, I will explain briefly why.

Because 7.62×39 FMJ ammunition lacks the velocity and energy of 7.62mm NATO, it has earned a reputation for wounding. 5.56mm NATO also deserves that same reputation.  Fortunately, there are now inexpensive and reliable expanding bullets made for 7.62×39 that are game-changers.Continue reading“Inexpensive Expanding 7.62×39 Ammunition, by Tunnel Rabbit”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. Note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

This past week we did some hiking and caught up on our chores. We also took a trip to the vicinity of Lewiston, Idaho, to pick up a set of shelves. These large, adjustable plywood shelves were a swap for some autographed books, a SurvivalBlog archive stick, and some consulting time with “R.” — one of our blog readers.   This unit is six feet wide and seven feet tall. It has more than 100 horizontal slots. Those shelves are now used to house the pistol and revolver inventory for Elk Creek Company. There is plenty of extra space for holsters, un-barreled Mauser actions, bayonets, Savage Four-Tenners, bags of gun parts, and other small items. It will be a welcome change to have all of that inventory available, well-organized, and available at just a glance. That will sure beat digging through a pile of pistol rugs!

Now, over to Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

 The Lord hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.” – Lamentations 4:1-14 (KJV)

 

Preparedness Notes for Friday — July 17, 2020

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July 17th, 1889 was the birthdate of Erle Stanley Gardner. He was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.

The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.

—

In honor of the birthday weekend of both Samuel Colt and Gaston Glock (both were born July 19th), I am running a special sale at Elk Creek Company. Many antique gun prices have been reduced, and I’ll include the bonus of an autographed hardback copy of my novel Expatriates with the first 20 orders. The sale begins today (Friday, July 17th, 2020 and will end at 9 PM Pacific Time, on Sunday, July 19th, 2020.

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 89 ends on July 31st, 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.

Hawkeye’s First Gun – Part 2, by The Novice

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(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.)

—

First Impressions

The safety on the MAPP FS 9mm was a little stiff at first, but became easier to manipulate with use. The grip was comfortable, unusually small for a double stack 9 mm. The grip angle is also good, so that the sights line up naturally when the handgun is raised to eye level.

There was some initial creep in the single action trigger before a crisp break. The double action pull was long and hard, but since there is no decocker, I would not recommend using the gun in double action mode anyway.

The finish on the parkerized slide matches the polymer frame well.

I read the entire manual, and did not notice anything particularly surprising. They do recommend not firing +P ammunition in the firearm.

The slide is a little stiffer to rack than I would expect.

I attempted to attach a Mantis X10 Shooting Performance System device to the integrated accessory rail, and found the rail just slightly too large to accommodate the device. If I owned the gun, I might polish the rail down a little, but did not feel at liberty to do this with a borrowed firearm.

I function checked the magazines and verified that they do indeed hold 16 rounds each, although the last couple of rounds are somewhat difficult to squeeze in.

Breaking In

Many firearms makers recommend a breaking-in period of between 200 and 500 rounds or so. I wanted to simulate that process without using up a large amount of ammunition in the midst of an ammo shortage. So in the course of the next couple of days I racked the slide and dry fired the handgun a total of more than 500 times.Continue reading“Hawkeye’s First Gun – Part 2, by The Novice”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at four inflated currencies headed for the ash heap of history. (See the Forex section.)

Precious and Base Metals:

U.S. Mint Bullion Coin Shortage Continues During Pandemic

o  o  o

William Luther at the Cato Institute: Where Have All the Coins Gone?

o  o  o

Interview: Gold FAQs: Prices, Privacy, Taxes, Portfolio, & Storage — Andy Schectman

Economy & Finance:

From a liberal think tank:  Chart Book: Tracking the Post-Great Recession Economy

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: The “Too Big To Fail” Banks Are Getting Ready For Their Worst Quarter Since The Financial Crisis

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: Unemployment Claims Hit New Record: 32.9 Million State & Federal. Week 16 of U.S. Labor Market Collapse

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Take heart in knowing that this fight is far from over… Conditions are difficult, but we must press on. Even when defeat seems to be a foregone conclusion, it is not inescapable, and victory may actually be close at hand. Leftist Tyrants, Marxists, Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, and Agitators want you to believe that a second term for President Trump will lead to more hardship, and surely they will try to make it so — at least in the short run. But remember this… If the Left installs Biden (a Trojan horse), there will be no end to the suffering or the severity of it. Muscle through this, America. Vote in November, and vocally hold your election officials to the requirement that election results be free and fair. Stay the course. Do not waiver. Every one of us who believes in the cause of our Constitutional Republic, and everything good for which it stands, is counting on every other believer to stand up and speak, to stand up and vote.” – SurvivalBlog Reader Telesilla of Argos

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — July 16, 2020

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July 16th is the anniversary of the first successful atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945. This portentous event heralded the advent of the age of nuclear weapons. Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939. In 1940 the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research, but in early 1942, with the United States at war, the limits on spending were removed. The total cost was in excess of $2 billion. Germany was also feared to be working on a bomb as was Japan, though neither of those nations could bring the requisite resources to bear in time before their defeat. With that, the nuclear age was born.

o o o

July 16th is the anniversary of the death of American volunteer Hugh John McCall, in Rhodesia, in 1979.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 89 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  4. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  5. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 89 ends on July 31st, 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.

Hawkeye’s First Gun – Part 1, by The Novice

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We saw images of looting and burning everywhere. In the midst of chaos, some civic leaders promised to eliminate their police department. Other civic leaders abandoned a portion of their city to anarchists. The world seemed to be going mad.

Some people paid attention. They decided they needed to take steps to protect themselves from the madness. One of these people was my friend, “Hawkeye.” He stopped by my office one day, concerned about what he was seeing in the news. He asked, “Can you help me find a gun for home defense?”

I knew Hawkeye was from a family of gun owners and was most familiar with shotguns. So I expected that he had a shotgun in mind. But he surprised me by indicating that he was looking for a handgun. Hawkeye has three young children at home. He wanted something that he could put in a moderately sized safe and place high on a shelf. He wanted advice on what to buy and how to use it.

I told him that there is an almost infinite variety of choices. I said that all other things being equal, I would probably recommend something in 9mm because it is typically widely available and relatively inexpensive. He gave my heart joy by responding that 9mm would be good, because he wanted to be able to afford to practice a lot. Hawkeye indicated that he was looking for something in the mid to full size range, since it might be easier to control while firing than some of the smaller options.

I told him that I could set up a range day with some mutual friends. This would give him the opportunity to try a variety of different handguns. Then he would have a better sense of what might work well for him. I also said that I would try to get my hands on at least one “entry level” gun, since cost was a concern for him.

Eventually, he settled on a SIG SP2022 (pictured at the top of this article.) But in the interim, we did some shooting with several other guns–including a Rock Island Armory MAPP FS, which is described in detail in this two-part article.Continue reading“Hawkeye’s First Gun – Part 1, by The Novice”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at a new Native Bee pandemic.

Boom in Camping After Months at Home

‘Everyone wants to get outside’: boom in camping as Americans escape after months at home

A Fast-Spreading Mutation of H3N2 Common Flu

Reader B.C. sent us this: Fast-spreading mutation helps common flu subtype escape immune response.

“Crunch Time” Arrives for Coronavirus

Here is confirmation about my prediction on declining Wu Flu case fatality rates: “Crunch Time” Arrives And… Was Everyone Wrong About The Coronavirus?

AR Seized from Missouri Home Defenders

Readers C.B. and A.K. both suggested this news item: Missouri couple who defended home have rifle seized during police search: report. JWR’s Comment:  So much for  “Castle Doctrine” legal protections…  A.K.’s Comment:  Not sure why it was okay for the police to seize their gun? If they can legally possess them, why should they be taken away? The wife shouldn’t have had her finger on the trigger but other than that, they were right to feel threatened. It seems to be okay for black-clad gun-armed BLM sorts to march through communities threatening them like in Stone Mountain Park and no one says anything but they take the guns from a white couple?Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Man’s cleverness is almost indefinite, and stretches like an elastic band, but human nature is like an iron ring. You can go round and round it, you can polish it highly, you can even flatten it a little on one side, whereby you will make it bulge out the other, but you will never, while the world endures and man is man, increase its total circumference.” – H. Rider Haggard

Note From JWR: We Took a Day Off

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In August we will be celebrating our 15th blogiversary.  In all of those 15 years, I’ve only missed a couple of days of posting. (That lull was just after my first wife passed away.) But generally, I have always posted seven days a week with one feature article per day, along with my regular columns, and quotes.

Once in a long while, Lily and I need to take a full day off. Tuesday was such a day. We traveled from 5 AM to 11 PM (with several stops), to pick up a large set of shelves. We also have an enjoyable afternoon picnic with some old friends. We’ve just returned to the ranch. Sorry that we didn’t have a chance to moderate comments for more than 12 hours.

Since we typically do our editing a day in advance, all that I’ll be posting today (July 15, 2020) is this note and a Quote of the Day. Sorry to disappoint you. Thanks for your patience and understanding. – JWR

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

7

“‘Tis easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong;
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
But the smile that is worth the praise of earth
Is the smile that comes through tears.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Worth While

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 14, 2020

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July 14th is the birthday of Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom. He was born in 1907 and died August 21, 1954 near Great Falls, Montana, in the crash of a T-33 jet. He was a decorated Air Force pilot, a Luft Stalag POW survivor, and test pilot. Malmstrom AFB was one of the settings for my novel Founders. (The base was named in his honor.)

—

I just heard the news that the Washington Redskins have bowed to the Altar of Political Correctness and are soon changing their name and logo. I have a recommendation for the team’s new name:  The Washington Greenbacks. Their logo could be a Dollar symbol ($). That would be apropos since the entire District of Criminals (DC) is mainly motivated by greed.

Back On The Reservation: Implications of McGirt v. Oklahoma

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Most SurvivalBlog readers have seen news and commentary pieces like this one, inked over at the Whatfinger.com aggregation site: Supreme Court Just Gave Back Half Of Oklahoma To Native Americans, Leftist Judges Uphold 1866 Treaty.

The ramifications of the recent McGirt v. Oklahoma decision are huge. I predict that this court ruling will be a key precedent and have some far-reaching Implications. It may even open the door for the Balkanization of the United States. This case sets a key precedent. Folks living on land that was formerly part of a reservation should particularly take note. Many reservations have had their boundaries truncated, over the years–and many of those boundary line changes were made at the state and federal level in abrogation of original treaty terms.  That was the crux of the McGirt decision.

In the 21st Century it is difficult for most Americans to recollect the broad expanses of land that were once inside of tribal boundaries. Most of these lands were expropriated more than a century ago, long before most of us were born. Here is just one example: The Nez Perce Tribe’s original and later tribal reservation boundaries. If subsequent court cases that rely on the McGirt case as a precedent side with the tribes, then a lot of land area may end up back inside of new, much larger reservation boundaries. Here a link to a zoomable map to study. It was drawn circa 1892. (This map is also shown in low resolution at the top of this article.)

Take a close look at the zoomable map that Tim Pool referenced. That map shows not just reservation boundaries but also “traditional” tribal land areas–some of which overlap. With those boundaries in mind, the McGirt ruling could have ramifications in just about every state in the Union except for within the original 13 colony states. As western expansion continued, America’s aboriginal tribes were progressively pushed “out of sight, and out of mind.” The Trail of Tears experience–with forced relocation of tribes to Oklahoma and then the subsequent Cherokee Strip land rush debacle–are black marks on American history. And the case might even have a secondary effect in places where no treaty was ever in force, but where “traditional tribal lands” have been identified. For example in Florida, the Seminole tribe refused to enter into a treaty with the United States government. If the courts are sympathetic, then they might be seen as holding antecedent rights not protected by a treaty, but rights, nonetheless.Continue reading“Back On The Reservation: Implications of McGirt v. Oklahoma”