Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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A fascinating video about Finland, and its preparation for near-future arctic warfare: Inside the Most Prepared Country on Earth. JWR’s Comment: I’ve concluded that the reason Johnny Harris was given such great access to do this reporting was because Finnish officials could see that he had handled his previous reports on Switzerland so even-handedly.
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SurvivalBlog Editor-At-Large Mike Williamson suggested this video: 7 Of The Worst Cartridges For SHTF.
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Some news from Nanny State England: Sword owners offered £5 compensation to hand in blades.
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I just heard that Ready Made Resources (a SurvivalBlog advertiser for 19 years) is running bonus specials on several items, for just a short time. These include:
- Wondermill Junior Grainmill with the bonus of a free Motorizing Pulley (normally $65), and a free Masa/Nut Butter Auger (normally $65), and,
- Any of their in-stock Mira Safety Gas Masks (CM6, CM7, or CM8) will include the bonus of a free NBC-77 Filter (normally $80).
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This video shows some clever and innovative camouflage: Camper Disguised As Pallets.
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Reader Tim J. sent this very useful e-mail:
“G21 .45 ACP Gen 1 pistol disassembly issue:
A few months ago, I started to clean an early model Glock 21 .45 ACP, Gen 1, about 10K rounds fired, that had been relegated to the safe when newer more compact & concealable models became available over the decades.
I pulled the slide back all the way, but it wouldn’t go forward the last 1/2 inch, so I couldn’t pull the trigger to get the slide off the frame. When I pulled the trigger, the slide moved backwards a bit, when I released the trigger, the slide moved forward a bit, still short of all the way forward.
Looking the slide over, behind the extractor, where the spring and plunger are at, was some kind of fouling, rust, that almost looked like steel wool, that I had never seen before. But, that seems to be unrelated to the disassembly issue? I applied a heavy coat of CLP every place that I could.
For a few weeks, I tried everything I could think of to get this pistol apart, short of using a hammer.
I searched the Internet looking for a similar incident or post to no avail.
Finally, I sent an e-mail to glock.us, they told me to send it in or find a Master Glock Armorer, which I did.
At the gun shop, with the Glock Master Armorer, he and all his associates tried for over an hour before someone finally got it apart.
All the internal parts were heavily corroded, so I had to leave it for a rebuild with parts from Glock US.
A few weeks later, I picked it up, Glock.us did not warranty the parts, so that plus the labor came out to a little over $90, which I was very happy to pay to get a functional pistol again.
Glock does not carry the Locking Block part, SKU: 805010, which needed replacing as well, but would function after some ultrasonic part cleaning.
I was able to get a new Locking Block from Numrich Gun Parts Corporation.
After replacing the locking block, I took it to the range and ran a couple of boxes through it, it performed flawlessly, as it had for over three decades.
So, the big question is: How could this have happened?
The folks in the gun shop insisted that the pistol had been exposed to salt water, but I told them it never had been…
No other firearms stored in proximity was having this issue and the firearm was disassembled and cleaned routinely, like all the others.
Finally, the Glock Master Armorer said that the only thing left was corrosive ammo, powder or primers, and I would have to agree with him on that.
Decades ago, I did buy a lot of economically priced or surplus ammo, Norinco, IMI, Wolf in the recent decade, WWII surplus a long, long time ago, I used to buy all of this by the case.
Some of the younger folks had never heard of Norinco ammo before, I guess it has been a while since that was available…
It is conceivable that I shot a whole case corrosive ammo through just this one pistol over the space of a month or two.
Standard disassembly and cleaning is not enough, the whole pistol needs to be stripped down and cleaned.
So, I would encourage others to buy the tools, watch some videos, or buy Lenny’s disassembly DVD, and do a more thorough cleaning to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I am unfamiliar with ultrasonic parts cleaning and probably need to research that.”
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And, lastly, reader H.L. sent this news from Connecticut: Residents say bears are attacking livestock in the Bethlehem area.
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