Thursday, June 28, 2012

Five Types Of Looters?

An excellent article on a blog I have not seen before (may add to the list). Visit and read, it is worth the time.

secretsofurbansurvival.com

Five Types Of Looters You Must Prepare For

Get Into The Heads of Those to Watch For

In a collapse, not all looters are created equally. There will be varying degrees of how far a person is willing to go to survive. But even the best, most honest of people will be desperate for food and water. It’s a good idea to consider who might be approaching your doorstep before trouble shows. Stan, the Family Man Toni, the Prisoner Scorpion, the Gang Member John, the Tactically Trained Brenda, the Naysayer


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Sunday, June 24, 2012

Personal critical perspective, The Kel-Tec PF-9 subcompact 9mm pistol

Personal critical perspective, The Kel-Tec PF-9 subcompact 9mm pistol.

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Our additions to the collection, a pair of consecutively numbered Kel-tec PF9 pistols.

The Kel-Tec PF-9

Kel-Tec CNC Industries, an interesting little power-house of a manufacturer, the third largest handgun producer in the U.S. George Kellgren as Chief Engineer will likely continue to make a huge impact in the firearms industry for many more years.

This example of a subcompact pistol, taking the features and design work from the P-3AT and his earlier P11, is outselling the competition by a large margin.

Personal - This is a small lightweight cary pistol that has many points that make it well suited for concealed carry.

Small and thin
Can fit in a pocket
Quick reliable operation
Simple take-down
Double Action
Reasonable trigger and reasonable accuracy
Capable of shooting hand-loaded ammunition

The PF9 fits this list well and I was shocked at how accurate this little pip-squeak actually is on the range.

I do not “enjoy" shooting this pistol, more on this as I progress, I don’t have to love this pistol its reason for existing in the collection has nothing to do with recreation or even open carry, but a down and dirty backup or concealed carry.

Function - Using reloads, white box, bulk Remington and federal and my premium ammunition all worked with excellent results and without incident. I found a distressing problem with feeding with lead bullets as they would simply not function reliably, ever, this is not a huge loss because the pistol will not be used all that often and saving money on ammunition is not the priority.

The PF9 is a miniature 9mm with a high-power inspired tilting lock barrel that keeps the size very very small for a full powered handgun round.

I guess you could call the pistol ambidextrous but there are just not any features to speak of, at least not many that need any ambidextrous access for the use this pistol will fill.

The magazine release could be an issue, as it is with any small pistol there is simply just not much room and the magazine release button is at thumb level. Thinking clearly about the issue this pistol is just not designed nor would it be used for fast magazine changes - it is a “holy shit” self defense handgun for concealment - a concealed option with a full-power punch.

Take-down for cleaning is simple but not as fast as you would get with a more feature packed full-sized pistol. There is an unusual pull-pin that requires the rim of a case or a thin pry tool to remove the subsequent take-down is simple.

This pistol actually has a small mini-hammer in a protected rear slop that is double action only and non-recprocating - that is, it will not reset until the firearm is operated or the slide is actuated again.

Design flaws - The double action trigger on this pistol is smooth enough but is long as would be expected but exists inside a small trigger guard and is “pinch-prone” for larger fingers. The trigger has an exaggerated forward and lower angle with a relatively thin and pointed end. In examining the trigger it looks very similar to the profile of the trigger from the Russian Makarov pistol, but for whatever reason, unlike the Mak this tends to catch the trigger finger inside of the trigger guard and of course leaves little room in the guard for large fingers.

The non-recprocating hammer in double action is simply annoying - if it has to be double action with no single action feature at least make it capable of snapping twice if needed on a primer that is not cooperating as needed.

Small and lightweight, great for carry, painful and at best excessively “snappy” with this full sized round.

Magazine release at thumb-level can be a problem for some, in this case I would think that a rear frame mounted bottom of the magazine release would actually make changing the magazines quicker, a release similar to the Makarov pistol.

While not exactly a design flaw the heavy part of the pistol, the slide, is of course on top, the lightweight handle is very lightweight so the force of the 9mm is increased in its leverage making the pistol have a very unpleasant hard “snap” when firing, I found that after as little as 50 rounds I want to put it back in the box and go to another handgun, for most normal people that would be about a magazine of rounds down range.

Quality - Quality, safe-to-use "state of the art” manufacturing but the fit and finish tends to be, well, kel-tec ish, functional but not all that finished rough and ugly would be descriptive.

Caliber / Ammunition - 9x19 in a subcompact - damn thats both useful and painful. The PF-9 will accept +P ammunition with the recommendation of using it only “from time to time” +P - double damn!

Ergonomics - Ergonomic design to this pistol would be like talking about ergonomics for a smart-phone, it is just not the primary aim. This handgun’s design revolves around the ability to be small and lightweight in that it is tops in the market.

Current production - Production of the PF9 is priority out of the factory in Cocoa, Florida, while you cannot get some of the more interesting firearms due to backlogs this pistol seems to never have much of a lag in availability. The US factory produces a wide range of colors and finishes including camouflage base colors like dark brown, tan, gray, olive green, navy, and of course black with slides of colors, hard chrome plated and blued.

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 Nice little plastic boxes come with the pistols as a retail package.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Personal Critical Review - Savage Mark II FV-SR Bolt action .22 LR rifle

Personal Critical Review - Savage Mark II FV-SR Bolt action .22 LR rifle






Personal - I have posted in the past about how the lowly .22 lr is my "secret sin,” to this day the simple act of hunting, shooting or plinking with .22 firearms is my “hands down” favorite way to spend my shooting time.

In the last few years I have been spending quite a bit of money and time thinking about, researching, testing and shooting to find the “best .22 rifle” for prepping. I am never sure just what makes something “the best” because the subjective nature of our personal bias and the almost endless applications that could be applied to test “the best” it is an enigma.

Because I was never happy with the accuracy of the semi-auto rifles I got rid of all but two and replaced them with bolt action rifles two of them you see above. I habitually and continually end up with the bolt action .22 rifles again and again. Even with the recent and mostly successful try with the Marlin autoloading .22 rifles - the accuracy was just not in the same class with the bolt actions.

Function - Mongo grab bolt, Mongo turn bolt, Mongo pull trigger with bugger hook, fire stick go BOOM there is something elegant in the simple function of the bolt action rifles.



The top rifle is wearing a 3x9 one inch Nikon Buckmasters and the bottom rifle in green is attached to a fixed 6 power scope with a 30 mm tube. The rifles come with the plastic stocks shown, but the colors we added later. The Savage is simply excellent in it’s reliable function, the five round magazine fed without scraping or deformation and sent the rounds perfectly into the chamber.

This Savage .22 is similar to just about any other bolt action I have ever fired with one BIG addition, this rifle features an over-sized bolt handle that has proved to be worthy of mentioning and making a big review point about. Check out that Weaver/Picatinny type rail mount, that comes with the factory rifle.




Quality - Top notch high quality fluted barrel, the magazine release is a bit cheesy as is the cheep plastic stock. We were forced to use sand paper an a big dowel to sand out the barrel channel in the cheep stock to get a reliable free-float. The Savage Mark II FV-SR has a steel receiver made of good quality material as is the bolt itself. Both the receiver and bolt are a bit typical in the lack of refined edge de-burring, finishing work, and polish (I guess we just cannot expect what was normal in the 1950’s). The magazine is made of steel and is of high quality and as described works great.


Caliber/Ammunition - .22 LR is comparatively inexpensive ammunition with almost no recoil. Of course bulk-box .22 LR is available at any big-box store great fun for the range and can be reasonably accurate. If you choose target grade ammunition try out several types, speed, weight and brand for accuracy that is often hard to believe. High velocity .22 LR is effective for hunting and available in hollow points that actually work at shorter ranges.


Did I mention accurate - how about 10 rounds at 25 yards... I added that green square to gauge the measurement, that is an inch! This target was punched with a premium target-grade lead bullet selection, the best of 12 different brands, weights, and speeds (FPS) we tested.


Use - Easy to strip and clean, but the main attractant is the adjustable “Accu-trigger” I cannot say how impressed I have been with this addition to Savage products, it takes this little bolt action to the next level. One nice touch is that this particular rifle comes with a STANDARD scope mount already factory installed anything is better than the stupid air gun cuts that are normal.


Current production - Available now, have your local gun shop - order yourself one.


Additional points - This is a silencer ready rifle with threads at the end of the barrel for 1/2 28 and are machined true to the barrel (important to prevent baffle strikes). I was never a big fan of “silencers” I remember the ones from the 1980’s as heavy, easy to damage, and just not all that effective (far louder than any of the movie crap). I have several friends and two relatives that have become “converts” to the “brotherhood of science” and took the plunge and got the BATFE stamp - I am suitably impressed with the modern silencers available now that I am considering filling out paperwork myself. Below is the little rifle with a typical AR birdcage used here to protect the threads.