Mags Came In

Woot, my twenty C-Products mags with Magpul followers came in last night. They look to be excellent mags from what I can tell. Nice and stiff construction. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. Should I leave them in their plastic wrappers up on a shelf, or load them all up with ammo, and store them in my ammo locker (otherwise known as my closet)?

AR Mags

I am not going to get stuck paying $50 for a 30 round magazine again! While I am fairly confident John McCain is going to defeat Obama in a landslide, it is better to be safe than very sorry later. I remember the price of mags during the hellish AWB years.

Yesterday I got permission from the CFO to order 20 C Products AR mags with magpul followers. They are on sale at AIM Surplus for $9.95 each. I have a couple C Products mags currently and have been very happy with them. Now I just need to order 500 rounds of ammo to fill them with. Hopefully I can do that in the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, I also ordered a brass catcher for the AR from AIM. I will report on it as soon as I get to take it to the range.

Never Talk to the Police

Everyone needs to watch the following two videos. As much as we like to believe the police are our friends, they are not. It is very easy to get convicted and sent to prison for a crime you did not commit. Whether the police know you were innocent or not does not matter. You are still sitting in a cell wondering how the hell this happened to you.

Neat Emergency Headlamp

I was perusing some camping sites and saw this little jewel.



It is the Petzl e Lite Emergency Headlamp. It is a waterproof, explosion proof, long lasting emergency headlamp. The batteries apparently last for up to 10 years in it's little storage case. Pretty versatile little gadget really. I think I will order a couple. One for the boat, and one for the SHTF bag. Of course, actually having a SHTF bag would probably be a good idea as well. :(

Edited to add: This is a french company. Here is a goofy video that describes the device. It is cooler than I thought.

Video

Should I abandon the venerable 5.56?

We were watching Futureweapons last night and I saw something rather interesting. This is a great show. Of course not a lot of the stuff is actually futuristic, and the host kind of makes me giggle with some of the stuff he says. It is good entertainment nonetheless. Last night they were showing the difference between the 5.56x45 and the 7.62x39. These of course are the two rounds used by the M-16/M4 and the SKS/AKM. The basic thesis was the 5.56 is very accurate and fast, while the 7.62 is slower and less accurate. His conclusion was the 5.56 doesn't have the knockdown power needed by our soldiers and Marines. The AK round has the knockdown power at shorter ranges, but struggles with accuracy at longer ranges. As everyone has heard before, shot placement is the most important factor when you are trying to kill a deer OR a human. There is something to be said for hitting something real hard though. More energy hitting your target is always a good thing. The 5.56 doesn't have the punch. It was thought, when the round was made standard, that it's high speed created devastating wounds. That turned out not to really be true. It has killed many, many people, but it is not all that hard hitting. Terrorists fight until they are no longer breathing quite often. You need a round to put them down.

The conventional wisdom has been to step up to the 7.62x51 when you need more firepower. It is an awesome round. No doubt. It has killed lots of Nazis and Chicoms to be sure. It is a knockout punch. It is also has a large casing and is heavy. This limits the amount of ammo the common soldier can carry due to weight and bulk.

The 6.8 Remington SPC was brought up in the show as the perfect solution. It combines knockdown power with high velocity and accuracy. It shoots as flat as the 7.62x51! The round it fits the AR-15. All you need is a 6.8 upper, and slightly different magazines. That is a huge benefit to me and of course our military. You can load 15 rounds in a 5.56 20 rounder and 25 rounds in a 5.56 30 rounder apparently. The round has lower chamber pressure than the 5.56. It apparently is a big enough round to take out medium size game easily according to some of the hunting crowd. The round was derived from using the old .30 Remington case, and necking it down. It uses a .270 bullet. The .270 is a very popular hunting round. Not as popular as it should be perhaps. We Americans tend to think anything less the 30 caliber won't get the job done.

Brass and bullets are available, though quite spendy. Of course what ammo is not expensive as hell right now? I paid $118 for 500 rounds of Wolf .223 this past weekend. That is a $25 price jump in the last month.

I will not be 'switching' to this round for a couple reasons. First I have two 5.56 rifles. They are accurate, ammo is relatively cheap, and available. I am confident any bad guy I have to deal with will be dispatched fairly well with either rifle. The other main reason I won't switch is the US Armed Forces have not switched. I believe it to be a good idea to use the same round they do for emergency situations. The .223/5.56 is the most available round in the country, and will continue to be so for some time.

At the same time, I do plan to build up a rifle using this round. It is a neat round, and I think I will use it to fill the intermediate slot in my arsenal of black rifle goodness. It will make a good lead weapon if the FreeFor ever needs to be put into action.

Here is a pic of the 6.8 Bushy upper. Sure would look good on top of mine! Actually it would look even better on top of another lower! :)



For some history behind the round check out Chris Byrne's excellent article over at Anarchangel.

http://anarchangel.blogspot.com/2007/02/okay-so-why-did-we-choose-556.html

Reloading

I have decided to get into metallic cartridge reloading ASAP. This is the science and art of manufacturing one's own ammunition from purchased and/or collected components. There are many reasons one may want to do this. Here are a few of them.

• Ammunition Cost - Ammunition has gotten fairly expensive over the last several years. This is do to a few factors. The raw materials (copper, lead, nickel, etc.) have shot up in price due to increased energy costs and global industrialization. Copper for example has more than doubled in cost in the last couple of years. It is used to gild jacketed bullets, and is a primary component in brass, which is used to manufacture ammunition cases. We have all heard of the dregs that go around stealing copper out of new houses so they can buy crack. They aren't doing it because the stuff is cheap.
  
  The GWOT(Global War on Terror) has caused ammo to skyrocket as well. I see two causes for this. Military ammo demand, and people's fear over the state of the world. The military, thanks to forward thinkers like President Bush I and Bill Clinton, can not make enough bullets on their own for Iraq and Afghanistan. As shocking as this may be to some, there is now only one federal armory that makes regular bullets. They are and have been at full production for some time. Companies like Federal are taking up the slack. They are making ammo for our fighting men to use. There have also been rumors that we have had to purchase ammo from Israel. That is a whole other topic!
  
  At any rate the war production takes away from civilian production. There are shortages of affordable military caliber ammunition as a result. Additionally cheap mil-surp ammo from all over the world is drying up at the same time. This results in newer production ammo being all that is available to the civilian market. The costs of materials, energy, war, and no surplus ammo has resulted in the cost doubling in many cases.
  
  Reloading your own ammunition can save you money. Especially when you are looking at buying commercial grade ammunition. Let's look at how prices have changed. A few years ago you could get 1,000 rounds of surplus .223, .308, 7.62x39, and other common military calibers for $80-100. Now all that is really available cheaply is ammo like steel cased, Russian made Wolf. It is dirty ammo, is not reloadable due to the steel case, and is not nearly as high in quality as some of the various old surplus rounds. It also costs about $180 for 1,000 rounds. Lake City modern .223 surplus on the other hand is going for upwards of $300 per 1,000. That is very expensive. Regular civillian production ammo is in the same price range. As you can see, ammunition price is a big factor. If you can reduce that cost by say 50% you can shoot twice as much!
  
  Reloading may not be worth the effort if all you are looking for is cost savings. After all, you can just shoot cheapo Wolf to save some money. Cost is not nearly the only benefit to handloading.
  
  
• Customization - There are many different types of ammo on the market for most popular calibers. Most have several different kinds of bullets and bullet weights to choose from when they go down the ammo isle at their local sporting goods store. This is a good thing. The varied bullet types and weights allow people to decide which one is appropriate for their purpose. The target shooter is not going to go with the same bullet type as the big game hunter. Most people don't use practice ammo in their handguns for self defense purposes. Hunters can choose a different type of bullet based on the toughness of the hide of their quarry for example.
  
  This, as I said is a good thing. Reloading makes it much, much better. You can manufacture ammo that is not only cheaper in some cases, but much more accurate than factory loads. Sure there are some great 'match' factory loads out there, but they are not cheap at all. Reloading allows the individual to customize his load for not only his purpose, but his specific gun. That is, the reloader can custom tune his load for his individual firearm.
  
  This brings up cost again sort of. You can spend a little more on your bullets, and other components and get a very superior piece of ammunition to any factory load for the same price. Sometimes in reloading you may not 'save' any money, but you will get more for the money you spend.
  
  
• Sense of Accomplishment - I don't have first hand knowledge of this. At least not in the handloading arena. I have however crafted things with my hands before, and was pleased with the results. The thought of perfecting a round for one of my rifles, learning the rifle, and putting it together for accuracy appeals to me.
  
  
• Stockpiling - I plan to stockpile several 1,000 rounds of a few different calibers, and I believe a lot of these rounds will be handloads. I don't want to trust Wolf crap for SHTF/This is my ammo supply forever duty. I also don't want to go broke buying inferior civilian ammo.
  
  
• Practice / Plinking Ammo - Back to saving money. Actually saving the wrist as well. It is possible to load .45 ACP(and other rounds) very cheaply using cast lead bullets. These bullets are cheap and you can use less powder too. You basically can make your own cowboy action loads. They have hardly any recoil, are more accurate than factory ammo, and are cheap as hell to boot.
  

I am sure there are other reasons to reload I have not gotten into. The fun of it as a hobby is a big one for lots of guys. It is relatively cheap to get into as well. I plan to start with an inexpensive single stage press. Once I get the process down I may invest in more production oriented equipment.

The wonderful evil black rifle

As most people that pay attention to the goings on in Congress, I noticed that a new AWB was introduced a few weeks back. It is HR 1022 (ironic isn't it). For anyone interested (if you value your God-given rights you better be), check out the text here.

This abomination will outlaw many, many guns that millions of people legally own now. It goes much farther than the Clinton Gun Ban. It apparently would make it illegal to transfer the banned weapons from owner to owner. They of course don't have the balls to try to confiscate existing weapons, so they would be grandfathered in. You would never be able to sell them though.

In the spirit of 'fuck you, you won't trample my rights', the better half and I decided to buy an AR this weekend. Specifically a Bushmaster XM15. This one in particular.



Actually ours is slightly different. It has an A3 detachable carry handle. It came with one 30 rounder(which would also be banned), a sling, manual, and case. We took it out to the range Sunday. It shoots great! I managed to put about 40 rounds in a 4" circle. Pretty good for iron sights and my bad eyes. I was shooting cheap commie ammo, so I am sure I can improve the performance with some more practice and better ammo.

We bought an extra mag for it as well. I plan to buy a few dozen mags for it, and hopefully another rifle or two.

I will do all I can to fight the new AWB(Assault Weapons Ban for the uninitiated), but if it does go through I will be somewhat prepared. I won't be stuck with 10 round bolt actions for my family's self defense.

I also plan to buy quite a few mags for my XD-45. They hold more than 10 rounds so they would be illegal as well.

We will most likely get an AK or two when funds allow as well. These will be cheapo WASR-10s most likely, but they will kill just as well as the $800 Ruskie versions.

I love my black rifle. Eugene Stoner was a genius, and we must do what we can so that future generations will be able to enjoy his wonderful rifle.