Tuesday, March 27, 2018

gun fads 1 of 2


GUN FADS

It shouldn’t need to be repeated, but I think we all lose sight of the fact that for the most part most of our arsenal choices are nothing but fads.  I’m just as guilty, if not more so, as anyone else.  We seem to think that those in the business of selling firearms place as much importance as we do in a tool that should be able to save our lives, but I would submit to you that this is certainly not the case.  Let us take a related subject.  Survivalist or prepper literature.  The Internet is chockablock full of scumbags offering sadly deficient advice, all to make money off of you and your very real concerns of safety.

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Now, how much money is involved in being an author?  Up until about or around the turn of the century, computers were still expensive and a major investment.  Now they are half the price of a refrigerator, rather than ten or twenty times their cost.  It used to be I always lost money writing, if for no other reason than the computer never got paid off.  Now, one good month of income buys a new computer.  Even a Windows computer WITH the updated deluxe word processor ( not that I care for MS or Word, but they make my job way easier ).

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You didn’t run across too much ultra-crappy survivalist advice back when computers were pricey.  Now, between Kindle and $120 barely used computers, there is almost nothing BUT crappy survivalist advice.  Blogs certainly didn’t help, but cheaper computers caused it all ( cheaper computers led to cheaper servers, etc ).  My point is that with lower barriers of entry into publishing, purveyors of product had no problem selling you live threatening advice.  Guns, however, do not show the exact same business model.  They are worse.

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Getting into the gun manufacturing business is NOT cheap, outside the AR clones ( since you don’t actually need to manufacture anything.  For the same reason everyone went towards Windows OS ( much lower cost of entry because of standardization ), now everyone is pimping AR’s.  Not because they are better but because they are cheaper.  So, yes, the AR business is exactly like Kindle book publishing or blogs, but all the rest of the gun manufacturing business is pretty much a proprietary equipment investment heavy endeavor.  Just as with a Hollywood movie, there is a lot of investment to pay back.

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Does Hollywood care that you just dropped $12 on a total crapfest of a movie?  With terrible tasting popcorn because tasty fat costs a few cents more, grievously digging into the profit margin of a $6 tub of popcorn, added to a nasty tasting soda because the chain went with Pepsi rather than Coke to save another 1% in costs.  I want to go to the theatre and watch the new Die Hard 9 ( sorry, I mean the remake of Death Wish ), but I would then be supporting a deservedly dying industry.  I’ll wait for Redbox, since the idiots can’t wait more than six months to get my several cents worth of entertainment dollar. 

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Go to Death Wish, you all chorus, if we pay for good stories, we’ll get more of them.  Ah, no.  The industry is indeed dying.  As long as there is profit in screwing the US customers to appease the foreign ones, our vote doesn’t matter.  If the Star Wars movies take a turn to non-PC story telling, a highly doubtful prospect, it will because no one in China wanted to watch the turd, not because the US consumer opted out.  When the entire US corporate paradigm is “quarterly profit uber alles”, screwing over your customers is all we will see.  And, I shudder to think you don’t get this, that includes American gun manufactures.

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In fact, American gun manufacturers have been screwing us over nigh thirty years.  Fifty years, with Colt ( hump you Colt, you mighty hunk of fresh beaver crap ).  The last ten years of declining quality after the Greatest And Lastest Depression is just the next phase in screwing their customers.  Gun manufacturers are manufacturing a profit.  Which is only nominally tied in with saving your life.  Is it any surprise that customer fads are as rife in this industry as in the automotive one?  Both sell on artificial demand, since each is really only a one a lifetime product.

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If you lived your life like you didn’t need or want a car, just buying a single one would last you your whole life.  And as long as you don’t try to burn out the barrels of your semi-auto, buying one gun per application would mean you are only a one time buyer.  Those making guns need you to buy far more than one gun.  So gimmicks and artificial demand ( as well as planned obsolescence, such as in the case of cheaper barrels on semi’s or plastics in rimfire ) are given extra consideration.  Not that there is a huge amount of problems with this.  Yes, it is nice to have more options.

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The problem comes about when the customers both ignore the industries greed and immortality, and when they themselves don’t see the difference between want and need.  This is a modest issue when it comes to sporting guns, but I’ll contend that when the guns are for the apocalypse, we gain to lose far more than just a little money.  We are gambling with our lives.  And not because Manufacture X installed a front site with cheaper glue.  Because like a car, we confuse social approval and herd mentality for actual usefulness.

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Even folks who ignore trends and fads and insist that the old stuff is just fine thank you very much, even they can be blinded by fads.  A case in point there is the 1911A1 .45 auto.  Nothing wrong with them per se.  They are dependable and solid, good for reliability and beating in close quarter combat or trench warfare skulls.  But they were THE fad at one time, supposedly better than revolvers.  I would argue that at the close ranges the average factory 45 could hit something, it didn’t matter how quick you reloaded since they were too close to begin with, but I’m sure I’d be shouted down by Semi Simians.  I’m going to continue tomorrow.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2GRqZJn )
 
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27 comments:

  1. Although I carried a 1911 in the service. I've never owned one, simply because I'm not a fan of the cocked and locked fan boy club ! Instead I chose the Sig 220 in .45 for my semi auto, no safety ,DASA, Utterly reliable safe gun and very accurate too. Yet when hunting, for a backup weapon, I carry a Ruger single action .45 LC because of the ultra reliability and the fact that you can shoot hot loads from a Ruger !

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    1. This is an area I have little knowledge of. So, are you saying the DA design needs a regular/lower powered round and SA has no issues? Or is it just the model SIG cannot use the higher powered rounds? Not that is matters personally as I'm sticking with 357/38, but it never hurts to know more about everything.

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    2. The Sig is double action on the first shot and single action after that. Or, because it has an exposed hammer, you can go straight to single action mode.
      The Sig is .45 ACP but will handle +P rounds.
      On the other hand, my Ruger revolver is single action only. It is .45 long Colt and can be loaded equal to .44 magnum. Do not try this with something like a Tarus or other cheap guns.
      The .45 long Colt can be a much more powerful round than .45 ACP.

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    3. I've got my heart set on a Ruger SP101.

      I seriously doubt it's ever going to happen (legislation) but I can always dream

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  2. Off topic http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article206950449.html#fmp

    Got Wheat Berries?

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  3. James, what do you think about a single shot shotgun? Could save the brass and replace the primer then load it with blackpowder. You could shot anything.

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    1. I do not like shotguns, Sam I Am, but I do like the idea of them PA. As you say, you can use BP and they are the easiest to reload. The break open is the best gun for that. Cheapest and least likely to break. I even advocated single shot rifles for a long time but once I found out the accuracy is inherently poor, the ease of repair and only marginal cost savings doesn't make up for wasting ammunition. Best to stick with a bolt.

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    2. @DG. You probably already saw this, but Dave Canterbury used a shotgun in such a fashion by utilizing just the brass base and using it as a muzzleloader. Just remember that if you wish to use blackpowder in plastic shotshells as well, that the blackpowder will eat the plastic up something fierce, and hull life will be greatly reduced. In this latter scenario you’d be better off with paper hulls, or best of all, the solid brass hulls (I believe you can get them at ballistic products and Cabela’s). I’m told that youtube will be censoring all firearms related videos, so download any now if you want them.

      Using the H&R 12GA for a Muzzleloader

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES59LtA7XE8

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  4. Actually, the Henry & TC (No Iron sights) single shot rifles are very good, from what I hear. Henry always makes great firearms.

    I prefer lever action myself.

    Too many bolts don't even come with basic sights anymore.

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    1. I can live with my rimfire not having an iron site. I have plenty of centerfire scopes for it. And you really need it for your 100 yard shots. Any higher powered rifle I would never buy without iron sites, as scopes are too problematic long term on those.

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  5. I came across this article earlier about a man that lived through martial law in Serbia. As I read through it, I thought about how scary some of the parallels in this article are to what we see today in Murka with the modern police state, and I do fear that this is not such a remote possibility in the not too distant future. I think that it would make for a great future article, but that’s entirely up to you of course.

    Below the link to the article is a partial comment that I gleaned from a different site that was in reference to this article. I’m not saying that I’m in the same camp of thought. But I hate to say it, he’s probably right in large part. A bugout bag will be more supplies than most people will survive long enough to get through. My personal thoughts are that the largest survival demographic to make it through a hard collapse will be the remote lone wolf survivalists (think the Claude Dallas types here). The few female stragglers to get through it (think Mia from The Survivalist movie here) will be taken in by these types, and these folks will be the re-genesis of civilization.


    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/02/daisy-luther/selco-on-martial-law-forget-your-movie-illusions-about-being-a-freedom-fighter/



    Apex_Predator wrote:


    “The link tells you basically everything you need to know and its why I largely ignore keyboard kommandos and preppers. There is a saying attributed to Mike Tyson but it rings true in life in general: “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” There is great wisdom in that simple quip, even from Tyson.

    Your plan WILL fail. Period. In fact, your “plan” should be TO fail. Worst case scenario is where you need to constantly operate from. Keeps your frosty and on your toes. All your little canned goods and secret bunkers, and rifles and ammo mean fuck all when 2 APCs roll into your front yard, innit?

    You better have a shape charged launcher in your little “kit” because you will need it. Prepping is one of the dumbest fucking ideas ever actually. You paint a big target on your back and you are a SITTING DUCK trying to protect “mah resources”.

    You want to know my prep? A bug out bag and 3 days of freeze-dried food. That is about all the life-span you can count on in a TRUE SHTF situation. More than that is mental masturbation.”

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    1. Apex is probably spot on, but this ignores that any plan is better than no plan, and even failed plans are better than fatalistic attitudes and preps. Reminds me of the McPherson cry that species failure is within a half decade. Having said that, using the above fatalistic attitude to modify even your worst case can't be a bad idea. I like your idea on lone wolves and lone females repopulating. For if no other reason this collapse will be a species bottleneck ( no way species die-off however ).

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    2. *plans to fail*
      *fails while failing*
      *dies*

      - I don't know what I was expecting -

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    3. Apex Predator probably intends to "predate" all the thousands of people who have, just like him, about three days worth of food in their cupboard. Which is a great plan until the dawn of the fourth day.

      Or maybe he intends to "predate" a well-stocked, well-armed "prepper loser". Which is much more trouble than acquiring preps in advance (something called "foresight").

      Perhaps he doesn't have any money, just the illusion that he is somehow superior to other people and families, a belief which is common to daydreamers and delusional fucks who can't even make it in peacetime.

      I fear stupidity (from me or my people) much more than I fear stupid people.

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    4. Of course he is superior to everyone else, the world is out to get him. He actually accidentally stumbled upon truth, but he got scared and lashed out in fear and anger.

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  6. Why 3 days of food? Just put that lead in your head now and be done with it.

    My plan started about 15 years ago and the major part was to locate myself as far from proven criminal jungles as possible and live below the radar sweep as simply as possible.

    The country now is slammed with criminals and wanna be's so everyone is suspect.

    Regarding computers, if all you're gonna do is text oriented stuff than any old $50 tablet will do that. But if you want to do, say AutoCAD or 3D design you have to spend the bux for the blower and headers version, no way around it.

    Same with AR's. Yeah, you can go grab one off the shelf for $400 and show it off to your friends that have no guns or cheap used stuff and be Mr Bigdik in the neighborhood.

    But when you want to blow up yellow water filled milk jugs at 300 yds you just hafta spring for the big dawg. Again, there's no way around it.

    All depends on what you want to do.

    Last weekend I put all 30 rds into a milk jug screwed to a log in about 45 seconds at 300 yards. Now I'm looking around for some property where I can get 600 or 1000 yards of distance. I'm pretty certain my $2000+ self built AR will do it.

    I'm also shopping for the parts to put a quick change adapter on my upper so that I can switch it out in less than a minute, and a 24" barrel with the piston driven gas port. There will also be a Barska 10-40x50 varmint scope on this upper. My current upper has a 1-6x32 tactical scope.

    It's coming, sooner than you think, and I plan to see it through to the end.

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    1. In no way am I diminishing your choices, but the $400 AR does have a place. If nothing else, it gets you started while you save up for better, it provides a 2 is 1, more than likely you can sell it later at a profit. If all else fails, it is the gun you have on hand the day you get a pink slip and can afford no more. If you have already chosen to Go Galt, it will be your 80/20 gun. I agree it is coming sooner than any of us think. And now is a great time to sacrifice, to liquidate, etc. Just don't set your sights unrealistically. Food out the wazoo, a paid off hide, before the best gun.

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    2. Perhaps, but it requires the knowledge to be able to assess the individual parts in the $400 AR.

      You might be buying an AR that can't easily be modified.

      The most expensive part in an AR is the barrel, mine was about $300, and they can be changed as needed as long as the upper has the proper connection.

      The 2nd most expensive part is the bolt carrier group (bcg), mine was about $250, and they don't always play well with the upper receiver. The bcg is the working part of the gun and requires the most maintenance as that is where all the powder residue accumulates. Neglect the bcg and it will neglect you in time.

      All the other stuff is generally interchangeable but again, you have to know what you're buying.

      If I lost everything would I buy a $400 AR as my first gun?

      No.

      I'd buy a $300 semi auto .22 with a 4x scope and leave it alone. Then, with the knowledge I already have or was acquiring, I'd start to buy the AR I always wanted 1 piece at a time.

      Keep in mind that any AR is an expensive gun to own and use compared to a .22. If money is tight I'd stick with .22 in a rifle and a pistol.

      Specifically, a Marlin 60 rifle with the black poly stock and stainless metals, and the same with a Ruger Mark model semi auto pistol, stainless and black. Then I'd acquire as much ammo as possible (build it into my monthly spending budget), cleaning supplies, couple speed loaders for each, ballistic nylon cases and holsters, etc. And shoot, Shoot, SHOOT all the time.

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    3. Yes, you would be much better off with a rimfire you constantly shoot, verses owning one you cannot. Now. It is a winning strategy today, but it wasn't for seven or eight years. If you even think about a Forever Gun, buy 10k rounds now while affordable. If you are using rimfire during the Apoc, another 10k rounds for practice and 10k for fighting. If you can't afford to buy now, reject the strategy altogether. Perhaps go with 9mm and lots or reloading components. Either one, you need more than one gun each. Figure one gets worn out practicing.
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      As for the bolt and barrels not upgrading, what is the whole point of the AR being so modular and standardized, then? If I can't spend $400 now just to have something, then another $400 to upgrade the two most important pieces, I fail to see how the AR has an advantage. Now I'm just stuck with a poodle shooter.

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    4. The $400 AR is meant to shoot that guy in the house across the street, at 80 yards, and penetrate puny suburban walls.

      It will have just enough punch to do that, but it's OK. Good thing is, 5,56x45 is super cheap to reload, so I could really see a poor guy buying an upper + bolt group + cheap barrel for $200 (see previous post somewhere last week) and send another $100 on reloading components for brass found at the shooting range.
      (reloading equipment not included...)

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    5. Remember, this assumes poverty, gun control, other Non-Normal issues. Please don't comment about how this is a stupid idea-it could a viable option since things aren't going to stay the same.

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  7. >> The few female stragglers to get through it (think Mia from The Survivalist movie here) will be taken in by these types, and these folks will be the re-genesis of civilization.

    I haven't seen "the Survivalist" yet, but *spoilers*

    it seems a woman from a large compound manages to get impregnated from our main protagonist before he dies (or gets killed by her side)

    It reminds me of the first post-apocalyptic movie (apart from "Zero Hour") , "A boy and his dog", but this time inverted : Topeka (the organized city) wins, the lone survivalist dies.

    We can stockpile food and ammo and never leave the bunker / compound, but it's more difficult to stockpile wombs. "A boy and his dog" was visionnary because the real issue is repopulation, not survival (there always going to be survivors). In the setting of the movie, you know the surface are the New Natives, when the New Puritans (Topeka) are going to take over and exterminate them, if only due to their superior numbers : on the surface, in twenty years there will be only old men, whereas there are a lot of healthy young men below, and the shelters will lack space...

    My interpretation of the fertily crisis in Topeka is not sterility but inbreeding. this is why they capture men from the surface.

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    1. I didn't pick up on the part the mother/girl were from the group that attacks at the end. I haven't planned on watching it again-you don't get much darker/more depressing. Perhaps I should.

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  8. Hmm,
    AP sounds like some fat guy in his basement. Almost as bad as the real AP from Doomsday Preppers.

    I doubt the guy could probably survive three days in his backyard, yet a true wilderness.

    Yep, the old APCs are going to show up to take your stuff. Of course, if they did that for every wannabe prepper, even the govt would run out of gas during a collapse. And I don't know of too many infantry units stationed out in the boonies either.

    Almost everyone will need a shack/cabin to survive. No one would survive wood running during a collapse. Too few game animals will survive so you can burn the calories playing Davy Crockett.

    Plus, again, almost no one has the skill level to do it.

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    1. If you went Stone Age now, you could have stores cached. If you lack that experience/skill, you can cache dense calorie/fat foods as a short term wood runner you could improvise shelter with enough quality food stores. Not sure why you'd want to, unless you are waiting for a settlement to die-off before you moved in.

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  9. 5:49 here. Yeah, I guess I should have known that comment from Apex_Predator would incite controversy (which honestly wasn’t my intention) but I can’t help but feel that he is in large part right. Of course others don’t want to hear of this sort of thing, not that I could blame them, because I didn’t want to hear it either. To be clear, he was referring to a martial law situation. He was also mostly referring to those that have made their prepper ambitions well known. You might not get an APC out in the woods, but I’ll bet you can get one of those mini remote controlled door rammer tanks, with the explosive charge deals, out there easy enough. But never underestimate the tenacity of the PTB (just ask Randy Weaver if you ever come across him some time). I’m no expert on such matters, but many feel that martial law will be “the last hurrah” so to speak, before a dying empire finally expires for good. I tend to agree with this, as we are already seeing examples of this in our current police state.

    Caches people, that’s the key here. Well, that and keeping your damn mouth shut, and avoiding social media. Even visiting sites such as this one could possibly be putting you on “a list”, so you should do so anonymously if at all possible (TOR browser is your friend folks; endorsed and approved by Edward Snowden). I don’t even mention anything that’s safety sensitive in emails to friends, though I’m thinking of signing up for an encrypted email service. I’ll have to pay for it, but it’s probably worth it.

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    1. No matter what, ALL your data is collected. Maybe no one reads it. Just know nothing escapes their collection efforts. Hell, for all you know, you accidentally click on a book on the American Nazi Party at Amazon and-BOOM-you are red flaged. Don't even need to buy it. The state has come a long way from checking your library check-outs.

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