Wednesday, May 23, 2018

guest article post 2 of 2 today

Article title : Rifle feud, the Henrys vs the Ars
As it is detailed below, we can have two different platforms to arm our family members with, for 450 dollars each, including the ammuntion. What standard will be superior in this context ?
The argument is academic, because A.you all have your rifles already B. You have a variety of that serve different functions, covering more situations, just like an infantry squad. Typically you will have at least a .22LR rifle and a shotgun, and probably an accurate long-range rifle as well.
That said, a standard weapon platform has its merits in terms of unified training (and as we will see, tactics), procurement cost and logistics.
Part one : price equivalence
I have 1800 dollars and there are four people in my household. Should we be armed with Henry single-shot rifles or AR15s ?
As we've seen previously, 1732 dollars buys me four Henry single-shots in .44 Magnum, 200 reloaded cartridges for each, and on top I have my reloading equipment for them. With the 68 dollars left I 'll purchase another 100 Magtech FMJ cartridges because I can't find FMJ bullets to reload with (?), leaving me with 225 cartridges per rifle.
The Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Rifle is the cheapest I could find online, at 400 dollars per unit, and one magazine only per unit : http://www.gunwarrior.com/2286/ar-15-400/
The problem is, it lacks a back sight. The cheapest I found costs 12.97 USD
https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/trinity-force-ar15-match-grade-detachable-rear-sight-fs66-856444005671.do
So 413 x 4 = 1652 USD, leaving me with 148 USD for ammunition.
A box of 20 rounds of Tulammo costs 4.38 dollars, I can thus buy 33 boxes, or 660 rounds. I will optimistically consider that five rounds per rifle are necessary to zero it, while the Henry rifles are already zeroed (and typically nobody touches those hunting sights anyway). So I have 640 rounds left, or 160 per rifle.
I would like to point out that the single-shots have 40% more cartridges than the ARs, although they will consume much less.
Part two : the controls
When you hand out your AR rifles, this is what your average family member sees :
https://i0.wp.com/mobilessooq.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/the-wandering-minstrel-ar-15-rifle-features-and-controls.jpg
Now just memorize every part and its function, see how much time it takes you. Welcome to his mind.
(Probability is high that this training session takes place just after some traumatizingly bad event on the news or a prolonged blackout or something, so part of his brain is furiously processing some other information right now)
One of the reason the AK is so popular in shitty countries with no education (I should be writing presidential tweets) is that its controls are easier to grasp than the AR's.
Your aunt now has to be armed and is actually pretty serious about it.
But what she sees are SEVEN buttons or parts that can move (apart from the magazine and other stuff) :
1. The trigger (it's the only one she knows, from TV, it's the “work” button, to her it's the on/off function)
2 and 3. The charging handle, which even has another latch inside of it (fractal design). The handle moves but you can't see what it does (Oh my gosh something moved inside the gun. Was it supposed to ? Have I broken something ?)
4. The bolt catch/release button, which is suspiciously close to the
5. Magazine catch, that gets activated by the magazine release button from the other side of the thing.
6. There's also the Forward Assist Knob, which is the Bullshit Button.
Question : What is this ?
Answer A : don't touch it (but what if I do ?)
Answer B : it helps you pushing the cartridge forward in case it doesn't feed well (okay so I'm going to do that every time now. But wait, did he just say the cartridges don't feed well ? What is this piece of crap ? Other guns on TV always work, why doesn't mine ?)
Answer C : it doesn't do anything (Who designed this shitty rifle ? Steve Jobs ? And why couldn't my nephew buy something better?)
7. The safety selector level, which will prevent you from firing just because.
Not only there are seven (thankfully, binary) controls but they have to be activated in the proper sequence, which is not intuitive at all. There is also other stuff (telestock latch, ejection port cover) and screws (especially in the line of sight, with the back sights) the function of which is not explained. Your people will tinker with everything because that's what everybody does when they don't understand how something mechanical works.
This is what the complete procedure looks like, explained in three and a half minutes by a very calm guy : AR15 Load and Unload  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYlpueCvxA
For an untrained person this is a Monthy Python sketch. But even if you do train them, it will cost everybody an inordinate amount of time and patience.
Compare this to a break-open single-shot rifle : it's an expresso machine.
1. This opens the rifle (expresso machine). You insert the cartridge (coffe capsule) there. Then you close the rifle.
(Note : the Henry single-shot has in-built safety features that prevents accidental firing, there is no manual safety. It makes it even easier to use, especially under stress.)
2. This is the hammer. It will make the cartridge go bang. Feel its power when you cock it back.
3. This is the trigger. It will release the hammer. Now dry-fire.There.
4. Now you will learn to decock. (External hammers are wonderfully intuitive controls)
Now you will have time to explain the safety rules, and the very basic combat use you can have with it (mostly how to aim, and anticipating a target in movement). Which is already a lot for your aunt, actually the maximum she can afford in an evening (especially under dire circumstances).
Bonus : If your aunt is in complete darkness she will not know how to operate the AR, but she will be much more successful with the break-open rifle.
Your aunt is the weak spot in your defenses. The weak spot is where your demise will start.
While you are asleep( let's say, between 6 AM and 12 AM) she will be on guard duty. If she has to fire at intruders but can't because her weapon is impossible to use, things will go bad from that moment on.
It is my belief that in the first days bad people will not engage armed families but will select defenseless people instead. I also doubt that street gangs will make banzai charges against a place that has four rifles trained at them.

Part three : forcing more realistic tactics
Let us imagine for a moment that every member in your family now knows how to operate an AR-15. Will they make every bullet count ? Of course they won't. Why should they ? The enemy is right there, and the situation is the most stressful they ever experienced in a lifetime. Jim has gone over this numerous times, so I won't insist on fire discipline, but you know that these 160 rounds are not going to last long.
My point is a different one, it revolves around the limitations of the single-shot rifle : you can only shoot one bullet at a time. Which is exactly what your family members should be doing.
The AR-15 has been designed for modern infantry tactics in which covering fire is a central element. It takes a lot of time to train for this, with young men in their prime and screened for their sportive nature (infantry combat is a very specialized thing). Your whole family will not fight like that. (Hey maybe it will (*cough cough bullshit cough cough*), but then it will be the exception and not the rule).
Of course the AR-15 can be used for the same defensive role as the single-shot rifle. The perceived blessing that it can do that and also much more is actually a curse : it will be used for more, every time.
Here is the rub : tactics are a very difficult thing to master, and this is when standards have a simplifying effect.
If you have to devise tactics with your current arsenal it is not going anywhere : Gary has the pump shotgun, Little Jimmy the single-shot .22LR rifle, Amanda her concealed carry 9mm pistol, Grandpa his scoped .270 hunting rifle and you have your AR-15 (with the red dot !).
(Say what you will but there's nobody out there who is going to mess with that bunch anyhow)
When everybody has the same weapon, tactics get simpler, and training is unified. It's the same weapon, with the same limitations. The single-shot limitation removes the rate of fire & refill aspects (now try to enforce that with ARs). Also note that a rifle is already a versatile weapon in itself because it can reach out, to 200 yards if need be.
Of course in this context repeaters like lever actions or bolt-action rifles would be more efficient than single-shots (and then only with intermediate or pistol cartridges), but they cost twice as much, so you can have only have half the number. (Note : several bolt-action in .243 are available at about the same price as the Henry single-shot rifle, but they typically lack iron sights. It would be interesting to know how much it would cost to have some installed).
In conclusion for 450 dollars per family member you are better served with a single-shot rifle than an AR because it's much easier to use and forces you to more realistic tactics.

75 comments:

  1. So you drop one or two ARs from purchase and buy ammo first. 400 is roughly 2000 rounds of the cheap steel case. And you can still gain and maintain fire superiority over the single shot family of 4.
    Buy ammo, add rifles as you can. Maybe get low cost .22lr AR trainers for the kids and Aunt retard (who probably shouldn't be taught if she's that dense)....you do have .22s right?

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    1. Just remember steel case is BTN ammo you buy first and hope you can get better. Every one seems to agree the accuracy blows chunks.

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    2. I described the “aunt” after training people on firearms at the shooting club for twelve years. This is how non-gun people process information.

      Maybe you have another proficient shooter in your family, and it's great if you do, and then do buy two AR-15s and establish fire superiority.

      I didn't write this post with regularly trained people in mind, but rather for all the other people who wish to arm themselves with limited means, limited knowledge and limited time.

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    3. Right, right! I'm getting to really appreciate your stuff, Ave. I once told an Army Nurse (in one of my many, many training sessions) to just hold the .45 'so it feels natural.' She turned around and gave me a most expressive look. I realized I had just made a very silly comment.

      Of course, the pistol couldn't feel 'natural' to her. She had never had such a thing in her hand before. She lived in a different world. My little badge identifying me as "Distinguished" in pistol didn't mean anything to her.

      I had to reassess my approach to familiarizing Nurses with the pistol. It is hard to understand the honest ignorance of the non-gun person. It is even harder to understand the false ideas they have, or how strongly they hold those ideas.

      BTW, Nurses are very good students; they do what they are told. You want a tough class? Try dealing with the officers in a JAG unit. They are convinced they were born knowing everything. I have been reduced to reminding them that the only person with rank on my range is me.

      Again, good insight. There is more of what a call 'honest ignorance' out there then most of us appreciate. At least the Nurses were willing.



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    4. I've known plenty of great nurses, but also plenty with that JAG unit mentality. Perhaps it is the same in any profession? Some just more lopsided one way or another? Very few good lawyers, almost no good politicians, perhaps a few good officers, but I'm waiting to meet some. Good meaning willing to learn, humble and little hubris. I'd ask for moral but that might eliminate far more.

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    5. Anon 6:22, I am relieved that somebody experienced the same things I did and shared it here. I will write a separate post about that, later on this same page.

      I completely agree about nurses and many women in general, they apply what they just have been taught and it works well. At my range we often had the situation when a newbie gun enthusiast comes with his completely non-gun girlfriend or wife and she shoots much better than him (or even other club members) on the first try.

      From my background I an a Business School graduate and used to work as a consultant and business analyst. Such graduates behave exactly like the JAG officers you describe, including the need to pull rank etc. This is also why their bosses have to call in people like me for troubleshooting, because very often these people had several ways in which they were disconnected from the physical reality but also from the social and human reality. They were resorting to cookie-cutter approaches on everything, which leads to obsolescence and worse.

      When I made this series of articles I had a paper in mind about small arms in Somalia. Somalians arm everybody in their households. Nomads arm boys when they reach the age of three. It is a different view than in our societies, except we think that our societies will fail, and thus will be replaced by something else. We have to think accordingly.

      Again, thanks for your reply, much appreciated.

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  2. The King Dingo said we pups aren't allowed to have pump action shotguns, but we're allowed to have pump action rifles (long story but it's a funny one).

    So I looked at getting a pump action rifle, I couldn't work it out intuitively. By that I mean, yeah, I could work it out. But could someone (who refused to even humour Commander of the Dingo Survivalist Militia, Babysitter Division) work it out under pressure whilst the Gender Reassignment Enforcement Unit are kicking your door down? You might laugh at the thought of the GREU kicking down your fortified door but think it through, some of them prepositioned serious amount of calories on their body for this famine.

    If anyone is interested I'll tell you what I saw during the gun "buyback" of '96

    Also - Australia just experienced it's first grenade attack committed by criminals. Exciting times

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    1. Dude, you have great stories. I'd love to hear on the buyback.

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    2. Hey Dingo I didn't want to mention the GREU and their excess body caloric reserves but indeed their (un)natural protection is a strong argument for proper caliber selection. Some body types absorb bullets !
      https://www.oddee.com/wp-content/uploads/_media/imgs/articles2/a98687_fat-survive_2-bullets.jpg

      I have this image in my head of 22LR bullets stuck in the outer perimeter of GREU agents. Firing more .22LR at a higher fire rate won't solve the penetration issue (GREU agents have severe issues with penetration, this is often why they joined in the first place).

      :)

      Your testimony about handling the pump-action rifle under pressure is very appreciated, it is exactly what I'm saying. While some people who train often have no qualms with complicated weapons, some of them tend to forget that the vast majority of people would be better served by very simple weapons.

      Simple doesn't mean ineffective, and it certainly means reliable, especially when you factor in stress, no visibility etc.

      Cheers mate :)

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    3. Also, the gun buyback story is must-tell because for us it's certainly a must-hear :)

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    4. Yeah Dingo, and about all those pre buy back guns got stolen just before the ban heh heh

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    5. Ave-am I an idiot? I thought seven rounds was it for a revolver in centerfire rounds, nine for rimfire. The article said an eight shot. I know I'm showing my ass here, but...

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    6. The cop must have reloaded, or there were two of them.

      That said, the press is notoriously bad with technical details, you often find such gems as "he was shot with a 38mm bullet". Translators for TV series are also super confused when going from the Imperial system to the Metric System...

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    7. I've had police officers in SWAT classes who could not avoid short-stroking the Remington 870 they had been issued. Maybe they worked it out later, but not during my classes.

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    8. Anyone should be confused when going from Imperial to metric. Why can't you just say "half mile"? Why does it have to be klicks? Why 2 liter? A half gallon isn't good enough? Anyone who is a scientist or engineer or whoever needs extreme precision, fine. Use your damn metric. Leave the rest of us alone with that bullcrap. Damn commie soda companies and military.

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    9. Because 1 liter is a cube of 0.1m x 0.1m x 0.1m and a liter of water weights 1 kilogram.

      And water freezes at zero degrees Celsius and boils at 100 degrees Celsius and water is the most important thing on this planet.

      And it's french. :D

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    10. Sure, you put it that way, it seems natural and intuitive. Just that learning to switch to it, it loses the connection to biology the Imperial system has. Inch is a finger digit, an acre is what an oxen plows in a day, the foot is as long as a foot, etc. Metric is perfect for the eggheads, not the peasants. I love the French ( mayonase, bayonets, lusty gals, kicked Britain's ass ), but they got a few things wrong. Asparagus and metric, primarily.

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    11. 6:34-who needs a shotgun anymore? Glocks and AR's spray just fine.

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    12. @ James & Ave

      Why do Commonwealth Nations drive on the left hand side of the road? Because in days of yore people rode horses and most people wield weapons (whips for use against minions & swords against enemy knights) with their right hand.

      Why do the French drive on the Right hand side of the road? Because the English drive on the Left ;-)


      Funny story. As a young not-yet-man but not-a-boy I was giving my father assistance with some house maintanance. One of us was in the roof cavity the other on a ladder with reaching up to the ceiling. My father gave the instructions to drill a hole (or was it drive a nail through?.. I dunno, but I do know you don't want me doing house maintenance). I was to perform said task x inches from the wall. WTF? x inches? So I took a wild guess. My father roared "I Said x inches. NOT X feet!!!". Then my mother came to my defence and said "Kids aren't taught imperial measurements they only know metric"

      That's my two groats

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    13. I can't help myself.

      One time I did have imperial measurements described to me and they made a lot of sense. Long story short a lot of measurements were based off parts of the body. As Lord Bison said it works for peasants but not for things that need to be precise. We all know about rail road tracks meeting up only to be different widths (but both being the same "feet")

      Fahrenheit is dumb. Is 32 cold or hot?

      Base 10 number system is OK until you need to divide the 10 cans of liberated Heinz Chunky Soup amongst the 3 or four tribes that joined the raid against the GREU(ms) (Gender Reassignment Enforcement Unit - Mobility Scooter division). That's a tragedy waiting to happen

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    14. I can see a lot of fun with GREU's coming down the pike. I believe railroad tracks were the width of two horses asses. Some areas must have had better forage than others :)

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    15. Because the English drive on the left. LOL. Good one. Just saw a clip on an old comedy stand up routine.
      "How do blind people know when they're finished wiping their ass?"

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    16. Rest assured Dingo, the GREU's Popular-Mobility-Scooter (PMS) divisions don't have to know how to divide because math is a tool of the patriarchy :
      https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/01/womens-studies-meets-math-new-book-arguing-more-inclusive-cultural-approach-numeracy?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=aa73b3ee28-DNU20170301&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-aa73b3ee28-197461701&mc_cid=aa73b3ee28&mc_eid=4657545bdc

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    17. First they conquered engineering, now addition and subtraction are next after division. It is actually quite funny, even if it is an indicator of civilization collapse.

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  3. I balance out reserve stocks of steel cased and brassed case ammo. The steel case can be practice ammo, so as to not have to bend over picking up the brass. (I shoot open desert/run drills-contact exercises so it gets thrown about)it can also be barter stock. A ratio of 10-25% is o.k. It is dirtier and loose groups, but still lethal.

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    1. So, should steel case be considered a 50yard max round?

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    2. No real limits on the steel cased ammo, really not a noticable differance to layman standards. Rifle rounds go down range just fine and impacts target-suspects nicely. Handgun steel cased ammo same thing, goes bang-suspect goes down. It is only substituting case materials: steel (really a metal mix,not hardened)nazis-russians had to cause of war shortages) for brass. All other components perform up to or mostly equal to western types of constructed ammo. It's cost savings can go to buy more food!

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    3. Personnaly I don't use steel ammo at all. Once a fellow shooter complained about his groupings, we both had our .223 weapons, so I offered him some of my ammo (Plain Jane Sellier & Bellot - honestly you don't need more than decently made ammo, also true for PRVI Partizan) and e offered me some of his (I think it was Tulammo).

      I sued a HK SL8 with heavy barrel which is very accurate. At 50m bullets were keyholing.
      On the other shooter's side groupings were great again ;) He was super relieved.

      He never bought steel ammo again, and now he shoots happily ever after.

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    4. No.

      Both 5.56 & 7.62x39 are just fine to 300 yards.

      5.56 non-Tula is as good as brass, just not in group sizes.

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    5. Still confused with the conflicting reports, but I'll just keep steel case under "BTN only".

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    6. If you look at the nutnfancy video for the Ruger American Ranch in 7.62x39,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1RwUFIMoqg

      He is getting 1" group with Wolf FMJ ammo where with an AK, he is getting 4-5 inch groups.

      AKK47 Union has had test videos showing that most of the Russian steel case ammo is more consistent than the American brass ammo.

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    7. So, a case by case basis if it will work ( pun alert ).

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    8. Somewhat true, as all firearms seem to have a preference when it comes to ammo, even the same makes will vary as to ammo it works with the best.

      A lot of the "bad" steel ammo is internet myth run amok.

      Remember back when it was the lacquer from steel cases that was ruining all the guns?

      Well, somebody took a blow torch to one and what should appear?

      Nothing.

      No lacquer, nothing at all. And a firearm dosen't even begin to give out that kind of heat for that second the round fires off.

      And that internet "fact" has long died away.

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    9. EasyCompany, indeed we must check everything in reality, internet is full of exaggeration but also statistical anomalies etc.

      That said, that day at the range two people were evidently convinced about the need to avoid steel ammo. Maybe it was a bad batch or something, but if it could happen once it could happen again (Murphy's Law).

      I never had a problem with Plain Jane brass ammo (S&B, PRVI Partizan) but I also never went below that with any hard-discount brass ammo, so I can't say anything about these.

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    10. I suppose as in anything new ( cough, metric system ), the old school refuses it until death, then when only the young remain it because normal rather than new.

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    11. Isn't the Metric System almost 300 years old? It's fine for some things, just not things that use screws with ratios. It's easy to estimate tank volume by outside dimensions.

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    12. I think the French Revolution saw the metric system introduced. Our elite thought it was a wonderful idea, but didn't have the public funds to spend converting. Communism averted by frugalness.

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  4. I've asked it before, but when did guns become "platforms?"

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    1. When they became plastic? When they started using multiple calibers? When you could hang more crap on them than the gun weighed? When a FLIR scope is too expensive to be attached to a mere weapon?

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    2. It's what people now say when they want to say "type of action" or "type of firearm". It's more convenient.

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  5. In the Philippines we cook and eat the rice. The next day we fry the left over rice. The next day any that's left gets fed to the chickens.

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    1. With or without refrigeration? Or is it a taste preference rather than a spoilage issue?

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    2. No refrigeration most of the time. Waste not want not.

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  6. On Bison Prepper the articles quickly fade away from the first page, so now is the time where I have to give feedback on my experience with this series of three articles.

    In any forum or online community there is a nucleus of people who share the same premise about the place. To me, Bison Prepper is the place where the BTN (“Better Than Nothing”) concept has been defined. It was great to see many different anwsers to these three articles that go in this direction.

    On the Australian aussurvivalist forum, I posted under the name of Solsys from 2004 on. It was a tremendous, very inventive place until something went wrong from 2008 on, when we had to constantly fight cookie-cutter answers from newcomers who would blindly repeat the general consensus about the superiority of AR-15 and such other drivel. Then interesting people began to leave, the exodus snowballed and then the place cratered. Hard.

    In these past few days I found myself having to repeatedly contradict Ghostsniper and his clones (who don't give a fuck about BTN or anything Jim has to say), and it reminded me of such past experiences (also on neardeathexperiments, on the french survivalist forum Olduvai etc. etc.), to the point where in my first reply above I basically said to myself “fuck it” and told that guy to enjoy his Full Spectrum Dominance. At that moment I knew that the AR-15 also conquered Bison Prepper, the place where Jim used to mock it so bitingly, apparently with his own blessing. So fuck it.

    I was relieved to read the answers of Dingo and Anon 6:22, but to me the damage was done. I don't see the point of spending so much time thinking things over and writing it down just to have to spend the same effort I would on any Yuppie Survivalist's Forum on establishing very basic things.

    I've seen places crater before (last one was Vault-Co), and now is the exact moment when these things have to be said. Exchanging far-reaching, original or even distrurbing ideas requires a certain state of mind that can't be reached when you have to fight rigid old fucks who think that “everybody would be better off with a smorgasboard of humble pie and just shut the fuck up already.”

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    1. In my defense, as to the apparent AR blessing contradicting my previous hatred of the weapon, the articles said nothing new I haven't been saying for years. As a semi they suck, as a mid range sniper they do rather well. The only thing different is the insanely low cost they now go for. And I thought I was clear that the cheap one is a huge pile of crap. A BTN gun just like the Mosin-Nagant. We both know the cheap AR's won't last much longer. This is a one time quasi-love fest. Plus, I did sort of go long gun articles just now. That rarely happens, either. I hear your frustrations on not being heard. Especially as your writing is uncompensated. Unfortunately, that is never just in a forum in decline. There have always been readers commenting like that. Don't you remember the flaming douchebags commenting on the first blog, before I began moderation? I try not to get frustrated by the dismissal of most of my work ( semi's, car ownership, debt, urban living ), just attack the argument from another angle. But I do understand where you are coming from. I just don't wish to lose your voice.

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    2. Jim, to be clear I'm not taking you hostage on my voice or something. You know I'll be around.

      It's just that these people (or this single person, who knows, anonymity breeds cowardice) are writing like rabbits are shitting, but it's up to me to clean the droppings.

      On the second article (http://bisonprepper.blogspot.fr/2018/05/guest-article-2-of-2-articles-today.html ) there was some anonymous pompous fuckwit who insisted on military calibers, even though we all know how retarded this line of reasoning is. I took time to thoroughly destroy that argument.

      Do you think that guy acknowldged anything ? Of course not, he wouldn't be a pompous fuckwit if he did. He just went on and dropped new shit somewhere else. He's anonymous, he doesn't have to concede anything or even just to be accountable for what he writes.

      I know from Aussurv and other places that if there are no consequences for breaking the rules of intellectual exchange then idiots win. I can't spend one hour to demonstrate the idiocy of one adjective (“military”) with no consequences for the other side.

      Eventually you'll end up in Idiocracy (“Florida is in Georgia, you dumbass”), and then you'll be just one of thousands of other blogs celebrating Valentine's Day or something (or you'll be the Desert guy, oh so edgy, ooh ooh).

      Assess who is in your readership and what they're ready to endure – or not.

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    3. Yes. Cheap AR is like cheap oil. Make sure to get some and stock some ammo. Ignoring any weapon that Uncle Sam uses commonly is a mistake: there are 9-digit stockpiles of ammo out there!

      Cheap (vs. wages, not cheap like 1997).22lr with decent availability is also a temporary gift. Since I got the Rascal, a 10/22 Takedown or Carbine seems heavy-clunky, but manageable. I should spend more time walking with a full-size .30 to keep it real.

      You may find a bolt action that is .223 to use your piles of ammo along the way, or even better, find enough money to build a precision boltie in .223 that uses the common magazine and ammo. I'd lay in a supply of stainless steel 20 or 30 round magazines to use with that AR-common mag-fed bolt gun ASAP (aluminum M16-AR magazines were designed to be semi-reusable/disposable as the feed lips bent/cracked), as well as a couple of 5-round SS magazines to carry if an inspection encounter with a ranger is possible "not-hunting, protection and signalling".

      pdxr13

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    4. Mossberg MVP is one AR mag bolt. Most folks like them-I have no opinion. Supposed to be really accurate.

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    5. Ave-the last thing I want to be is another Yuppie Scum blog. But I've never moderated the comments except for N-Bombs and once for such a sexually explicit comment I felt uncomfortable publishing it. I tried not to let that one incident be the camels nose under the tent. Once you start denying someone a voice, you end up worse than a generic blog, you become Facebook or the Gestapo. I don't think I'd let things get as bad as Zero Hedge, but I think if we just treat Z or J Bombs as N Bombs I'll keep things under control. I think ultimately it is going to be up to the minions. If someone is that intolerable, you just don't respond. Don't feed the trolls. I mean, look, Greer kept a very civil forum. And why would you have read the comments? On the other hand, nobody can allow unlimited racial slurs or Google yanks the blog. I'm very fortunate so far that all minions are civil here, with exceptions. At least compared to normal sites. If I ever have to change article content to be a drone, I'll publish somehow else. Right now, it seems you are suggesting a sort of censorship. It seems a slippery slope to me. I already feel bad I have to approve comments to gain 99% civility. But I don't disapprove anyone, except as above-just the threat keeps things self-policing. There really is no right answer here-I'm winging it as I go trying for the lesser evil. But I know it is imperfect.

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  7. Ave,

    Stick around, things come and go.

    I've watched many a good survivalist board burnout and be nothing more then Yuppie survival ( that you damn well better believe in!)

    Just think of the new guys looking in for the first time.

    They need the help the most.

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  8. Ave -

    LOL - I forgot you posted under Solsys on Aussurvive. I was on there & even got into the inner sanctum (you didn't miss anything). I also met Cleve of Vault-co fame. I'm gutted that Vault-co is no more. A lot of what he covered went straight over my head. Put that down to part his talking around a subject to cover himself and part I'm not as smart as I think I am (that's a kick in the guts when you realise that, but in my defence being aware of deficiency / weakness allows you address things in an honest manner).

    In the spirit of your recent guest articles I'm going to do a little experiment. I was going to hold off reporting until I'd performed it to my satisfaction. But long story short. I'm going to have people in my tribe (they don't know their my survival tribe... lol) perform a load - fire - reload - fire test with my guns. Also I'll be asking them to describe how they intend to care for the firearm. For the other minions the actions are break, bolt and lever. I suspect the lever isn't going to pass (especially the cleaning aspect)

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    1. Look forward to the report. None of us are as smart as we think we are. Perhaps why arguments get so spirited, the denial? I knew at a very young age there were plenty of people tougher than me. It didn't take long to understand most were smarter. I would be a lot more humble as a result, but my hair places me onto a exalted plain od existence.

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    2. Someone out there is smarter, stronger, meaner, nastier, hungrier, and better prepared than you are.

      Be prepared to deal with him.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Just think about how you meet your match every day. The wife is sneakier and the boss is more ruthless. Juan the taco truck guy has better business smarts. Kids are more cruel and your friend Don Juan has a better understanding of anthropology. Your doctor has a better memory, the homeless guy has a better understanding of survival. Let's face it, you and I are book smart and otherwise not so on the ball. Or at least I am. Relax, Francis!

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    5. >> Someone out there is stronger, meaner, nastier, hungrier

      He's 17 years old, does only sports and climbs and jumps over high fences like a squirrel. He's brutal because what serves as his family are mental & illiterate and everybody beated him until he beated back, and has never stopped since for obvious reasons. He has hormones pumping in his blood which makes him focused and assertive. However after having racketed future engineers he despises education, and while very apt at certain hyper-focused tasks like picking locks or rape-seducing chubby white chicks he has no concept of the bigger picture.

      This is why he usually gets jailed or starves pretty quickly when left to his own devices.

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    6. Quick, get him to join the Army!

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  9. Just beware of the fucking liars.
    They squeal real loud when you shove their face in it.
    That lets you know you have free rent inside their head.

    Once more, the universal firearm.
    A semi-automatic .22 rifle (Marlin model 60 for example).
    A 4x scope.
    1,000 rds of Federal long rifle ammo.

    Just hand it to granny in the iron lung and tell her to "figure it out" and she'll be pinging zombies at 1000 yds forever.

    Seriously, if you can find the gun used and in good condition and thus unregistered to you, you're that much better off.

    Those 3 items, gun, scope, ammo, can be had for less than $300. And yes, with a little practice anyone can put 3 in the bad guys head at 100 yards before he hits the ground.

    All the long lists of copy/paste can be ignored and the bullshit lies behind them. Keep it simple.

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    1. Universal firearm indeed. The only reason it lost the title for a time was when the industrial ammo paradigm faltered the first time. It is back, and you'd better take advantage before it loses the title again.

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    2. Agreed. Everything is getting faster, and worser all the time. There's no time like the present to do what needs done. Gotta go to rural king tomorrow and I'm getting another couple thousand. And some more bolts.

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    3. It is a shame that "boy called wolf" was standard for this industry. Now that it is more important than ever, few listen.

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  10. I'm Anon 6:22. I post as Anonymous because I couldn't figure out how to do otherwise. I don't have a Google Account, nor a URL. I try to stay somewhat grey.

    I'm also that guy Bison hates, a retired Intell Officer.

    I read this . . . what's the word? Forum? Board? I'm not a computer person.

    I read this stuff here because it gives me a different point of view. Sometimes quite interesting, even useful; which is meant to be a compliment.

    I am annoyed by the pretense of one regular in particular. I'd name him (her?) but have been admonished by Bison to 'Play nice.' That's tough for me, never having been known for my niceness.

    Ave. Hang in there.

    As to the value of the AR; well, that remains to be seen, doesn't it? All this prediction is chancy. We can do nothing but collect data, calculate probabilities, and take our chances. And hope for our share of luck.

    I've always liked this gem: No plan survives initial contact with the enemy.

    Stay alert. Make the best guesses you can. I've done what I can; I will deal with the rest.

    Cheers.

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    1. I guess I should listen to myself and Play Nice. I probably shouldn't hate on all officers-I just hated those I met or were effected by. I should hate the system rather than the people ( well, not always. I doubt I'd be wrong hating all ATF or IRS agents. Just kidding IRS dudes. I love you all. Please don't audit me! ). I'll try to work on that. Hey, you get extra bonus brownie points just for reading and staying here, so you can't be all bad.

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    2. I know. No offense taken. And I was Warrant, so maybe that softens your heart.

      Cheers

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    3. I never had anything but respect and good relations with Warrants, actual. Salt of the earth. They focused on skill instead of management. I knew there was something I liked about you :)

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    4. Then there's me too...
      Proof that stereotype's are often misleading.

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    5. On an individual basis, stereotyping is bad. As a species survival trait it works wonders. I'll never go wrong with racial profiling in Detroit, for instance.

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  11. Jim, EasyCompany, Dingo, Anon 6:22 (LOL that sounds like a quote from the Scriptures, and then out of curiosity I looked for Luke 6:22 and I was “this must be one of those nights”)
    There's a lot I want to say to each of you right now. Perhaps I'll do it later if I can still concentrate.

    As a grouped reply I won't even analyse further, I'll just say that whenever I wrote several such rants over the years, in each case it happened at a stage that was too late for the forum or blog. Because once discussion switches from whatever the forum is about to petty interpersonnal issues the whole place becomes uninteresting.

    I hope what I just wrote is clear enough because we are right now at the stage when these type of complaints drag the whole place down, and the place never recovers. It's been a while already when comments here have become full of this interpersonal drama, and I just skip the whole post and probably miss good things because of that.

    Jim, if you can admonish Anon 6:22 to “play nice” I don't see why you can't tell the guy who causes all this trouble to go away. You always say that you have to bear the brunt of his lousy character... WTF man ? The guy drags the whole place to a halt. Next time you'll have an idea drought (they always happen) you'll be like a barman who wonders where the regular customers have gone, and the only guy who remains is the mental guy with no hygiene.

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    1. You are correct-I shouldn't have stopped at one telling him to play nice. The whole thing did kind of escalate in nothing flat, and I was kinda hoping it would fizzle out. My bad. And to Anon 6:22, apologies for singling you out. But, I'm confused why you feel you must skip the article rather than just the comments? I get you had to because of your article, but when its the daily article? It seems it would lower your stress level. Some comments are nasty and pointless. Remember "You Know Who"? I took to calling him Mean Minion. When he has the time, he gets really nasty. Then he quiets down. Same with most others. The comments section is needed, but it will never to edited suitably enough to satisfy every body.

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  12. EasyCompany, you have seen the same kinds of things I saw, then. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU ) ;)
    When a newbie enters a forum that is burning down, he leaves for somewhere else just as quickly.

    Dingo, if you remember the Shillard stuff back in 2004-2006 (from memory), the core of the forumers was united against the prick and yet it took years before he left. Legion, Warrigal and others were experts in their realms, really advanced stuff, but their research was stiffled by petty disruption from people who were not only their intellectual inferiors, but inferiors to most forumers as well (more on that in another post below).
    Your experiment is going to be super interesting because those things don't happen often with experimental intent. I didn't even mention the vastly different cleaning procedures between the AR-15 and the break-open, because my text was already too long.

    Anon 6:22, I kinda see where you're coming from. This place here is super interesting to get different point of views. We don't have to like all these points of view, or be interested in all the topics but as long as they're made as genuine intellectual contributions they're at least useable.
    This place is especially noteable for its broad range of topics, and how they stay close to material details. Mathematically we can dream up billions of different BOB combinations, but I don't know many places where you have a detailed analysis of wheat grinders.

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    1. Shillard - Damn, I haven't read that name in years.

      Legions notebook was phenomenal work.

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    2. Good on ya. I'm not trying to be obscure, but I've spent a good many years professionally wondering how to predict the future. I could, and have, write a book on the topic. It all starts with data collection, or even further back, with the clear definition of 'data' in this sense. That gets me into 'intersubjective verifiableity' and I've lost my audience. Just as telling the Nurse to grip her pistol in a natural manner.

      My error, of course; since I hold that responsibility for audience understanding lies with the speaker. That's hard, I know; but it is a place for me to stand, from which to act.

      Bison doesn't know me, except as Anon 6.22. I like him because of his BTN approach to a problem. That's all that's important. There has to be standards, definitions. If you have a standard it must have tolerances; hence, a minimum. Bison says it much better with the 'BTN' label.

      Finally, and to the point, the internet is most impersonal. I would be stupid to take it otherwise.

      I have four dogs. They crap inside the wire. Occasionally I step in it. Can't hardly blame them.

      So, I have to zero a new sight on my AR this morning. Sometimes that goes easy; sometimes it is frustrating. Wish me luck today.

      And you take care of yourself.

      Cheers.

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    3. I'm blushing. I'm also figuring out the metaphor of dogs crapping inside the wire :)

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    4. You have to admit, James; this topic got you a burst of traffic. That's got to be good, doesn't it?

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    5. Where do these people come from? Why aren't they here every day? How did they know there was a food fight to come see? Just these questions alone hurt my head so much I rue the event. I hope they stay, but fear once the ruckus leads to boring 'ol Learning instead of Fighting, they will depart.

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