Thats a nice unit but the wife will have to remain ever vigilant of whats inside and never set it down. One trick of the street people in big cities is to quietly walk up from behind on an unsuspecting woman, cut the shoulder strap and yank the purse away, then run off with the prize. Thats why I wo...

In 2001 the Marine Corps adopted a new kind of backpack called the ILBE, which stands for Improved Load Bearing Equipment. These packs rendered the old style ALICE pack system obsolete. The IMBE has a main cargo carrying area of 4500 cubic inches plus an attachable 1500 cubic inch assault pack that ...

There is no 22 ammo here either. The ammunition manufacturers are using their 22 making equipment to produce 5.56 for the military, same equipment but different tooling which can be changed over to make either round.

I have run out of BLC-2 powder for reloading 223 rounds so I substituted with Hodgdon 335 and was surprised to see my groups shot tighter with this powder. H-335 used with a 65 grain Sierra Game King bullet will track the same flightpath as the military M-855 or the new M-855A1 penetrator round out ...

Reloading components are still very hard to find. The DHS and military have issued large purchasing orders and suppliers must take care of them first, before anything can be released to the civilian market. For handloaders, all the powder is gone, primers are spotty and when you find them you can on...

Here is a picture of my 1250 gallon water storage tank after a windstorm snapped an oak tree and it landed on the tank.

The rabid enviro's at the EPA have decided to shut down the last lead smelter in the country. The Doe Run lead mine/smelter in the state of Missouri will be forced to close its smelting operation due to the new regulations from the EPA. This means all lead based products such as 22 ammunition and le...

Went to a small local gun show today and was surprised to see lots of ammunition in the most popular calibers for sale, at reasonable prices. There were several tables with reloading components so I stocked up on what I need and got a good price too. There was hardly anyone at this show, usually its...

For me the shutdown has changed nothing, other than bringing up the question of what is the true purpose of all this melodramatic nonsense? Is this part of the plan to initiate an economic collapse? Will it destroy the value of investments in the stock market? Is this the beginning of the final step...

So here I am, living in a huge forested area where firewood was plentiful and cheap, until this year. The state managed forestland, BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands were closed to the public due to last summers forest fires and they remain closed to the public even though the recent rains have exti...

I have been checking the stores every week for primers and just last week I found that the shelves have been stocked once again. I got a 1000 count box of small pistol primers to load this new style 45 ACP brass that takes the small primer. Seems to be some ammunition in the stores also, and the pri...

Both Ruger and Sig are manufacturing AR systems that incorporate a gas piston assembly instead of a direct impingement gas system. These rifles run cooler and cleaner because the gas piston chamber absorbs the heat and dirt being expelled from the spent cartridge. I have fired both the Sig and the R...

Need to do some heavy lifting? When in a remote location or when you are unable to afford to rent a boom truck or a crane for picking up heavy loads, setting trusses in place or lifting logs to construct a log cabin, you can build a set of shears to get the job done. Shears are 2 poles about 5 to 6 ...

I try to be prepared as much as possible for any mechanical breakdown. I carry 5 gallons of extra water, plus extra oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and spare fan belts. I always have a tool box full of every concievable tool to handle every type of breakdown so I can repair it, or at least g...

Every month I see an ad in the Midway sales flyer for a heavy duty canvas magazine pouch that holds 6 double stack pistol magazines. This month it was on sale for $11 so I ordered one and it came in the mail today. Real nice unit, heavy duty, well made with a large cover flap that is held in place b...

Thanks for that tip about Wolf. There is still a nation wide primer shortage and what few primers do show up at the stores are being sold with a 100 per customer limit. That is one envelope package of 100 primers to each customer! I paid $3.59 for 100 CCI small pistol primers and I was glad to get t...

This is one preparedness action that can be classified as a yearly chore but it must be done to insure proper function of the woodstove. Cleaning the soot and crud out of the chimney pipe is something I don't look forward to doing. I climb up on the roof and remove the chimney cap, then run a long h...

Alaskan Mill.jpg This is a real handy tool, lightweight, can be packed into remote areas and clamped onto a chainsaw to mill up lumber and beams. I attach an aluminum stepladder for a straight edge to make the first cut, use 60 penny bridge spikes to nail through 2 muffler clamps around ladder rung...

The original equipment used in the manufacture of American G.I. M14 20 round magazines was sold to S. Korea in the early 1970s after the M14 was replaced with the M16. Mags made in South Korea are as good a quality as the originals because they are produced with the same tooling and procedures altho...

A few years ago the U.S. military gave a contract to build 25 round capacity M14 magazines for use by our designated marksmen in the sandbox wars of the middle east. Lately I have seen these mags for sale at local gun shows so I took a chance and bought 2 of them. The writing on the package said mil...

The consequences of the nation wide ammunition shortage are having a noticable effect on weekend shooting activities at local gun clubs here in my area. Our Saturday defensive pistol shoot usually has 40 participants and yesterdays shoot had only 12. This is due to the lack of reloading components a...

There were over 8 million M1 and M2 carbines manufactured in the U.S. and many of these were sold to the civilian market when they became obsolete and were replaced by the M16 rifle. The carbines were sold at a low price and surplus ammunition was plentiful and inexpensive so this combination allowe...

Another rainy day, must find some indoor job to keep busy. I have several shovel handles that have started to split and crack open and this can be very hard on the hands while using these tools so today I will clamp the shovel head in a vise and sand down the handles till they are smooth again, then...

We had another day of April showers so I decided to go through my pantry and take account of everything in stock and verify what the expiration dates were on the canned supplies. We try to rotate the old and replace with newer stock but every once in a while something will slip by. My wife considers...

I bought 2 packages of "Quick Clot" and added them to the small emergency medical kit in my bug out bag. Quick Clot is a gauze type pad filled with a blood coagulent enzyme and when placed over a wound it stops the bleeding within a few seconds. It comes wrapped in a sterile foil package, ...