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Modern Problems Require Modern Solutions

By
P.E. Fitch
-


I am a left handed pistol shooter who also enjoys shooting and carrying certain firearms that happen to lack decent holster availability. It’s even more challenging as a left handed AIWB holster choices are also more constraining than right handed ones.

Enter the PHLster Floodlight.

I’ve put a decent amount of 9mm ammo through a couple of Brigadier slide topped Beretta 92 handguns I have owned for some time now. I got my first one, a 92G-SD from the 2014 production run, within the year they became available. I used my Beretta 92G-SD to start shooting more seriously when I decided I wanted more out of life than merely turning money into noise vis-a-vis my actual shooting skills.

The problem with Brigadier slides on Beretta 92s is that they have a slightly thicker overall width since their whole purpose is having a beefier and more robust slide. (They do, at least, have with dovetails cut for front and rear sights)! Holster selection for these pistols has always been somewhat of a challenge as most Beretta 92 holsters are designed around the standard with FS/G/D/Vertec aka “normal” slide. Frankly, during this time I started carrying Glocks out of sheer practicality and the fact that holster selection is more manageable for left handed shooters.

I am aware that there are a few decent made to order Beretta 92 Brig thickness left handed AIWB holsters available. (Shoutout to JMCK)! But between the heat, humidity, and the fact that they weigh less, I have been quite happy just carrying full size 9mm Glocks. And I still do especially as I don’t want to rust up any of my nice pizza guns.

Due to past employment involving driving thousands of miles of roads and highways across the American West, where it gets pitch black and desolate after sundown, I impulse bought a Surefire X300-U 1000 lumen weapon light to take with me on the road. I also ordered the PHLster Floodlight holster as I now needed a light bearing holster and my interest was piqued when I learned these were universal. I was not sure what to expect at the time but I loved, on principle, that this holster was designed to be fully ambidextrous from the start.

Companions of the road
Just add lawyers


The PHLster Floodlight is a fully ambidextrous universal light bearing AIWB holster; it is designed to “grab” the weapon light affixed to a pistol’s accessory rail directly. It never touches the pistol. Versions for various weapon lights such as Streamlight TLRs, Surefire X-300Us, or Modlite PL350s are available. Its construction allows it to accommodate virtually any traditionally designed handgun. I think I’ve even seen someone use a Floodlight with their USP 45 on social media.

Remember the part where I said I had a job that involved driving basically all of the Western Eleven? It wasn’t before long that the Floodlight rode with me throughout all of these trips and I really came to appreciate not only how comfortable it was (since it is a relatively large holster), but also how concealable it truly can be in spite of its size. According to my personal experience concerning appendix carry, I think this particular holster carries very flat against the body. I have worn it for hours on end to the point where it came to feel like an extension of my body.

The longest I had carried with it continuously was about 32 hours—until I was able to stop sleeping in the truck and find lodging in a hotel room in eastern Idaho. I wasn’t only driving while carrying either, as I’ve also done a decent amount of physical labor while wearing it. It will easily stay in place which is one of the biggest concerns of any good concealment holster. I was initially worried about how “loose” it felt when reholstering a pistol because I am used to very “clicky” holsters. However, between the end-user rubber spacers and the bungee cord system it has, it has never caused me issues and there is obviously enough friction acting upon the body of the weapon light. It just took some getting used to not expecting the “click.”

As with other similar holsters that utilize hardware fasteners, it is important to tighten them down and inspect all hardware for looseness or rust. I have always carried mine with the soft loops it shipped with, but many carriers like to use DCC clips or other means of connecting their belt. Because of who PHLster are as a company, if you visit their website, they provide ample documentation and instructions for their products.

A selfie I took the day I wore my Floodlight for the first time. I was carrying a Glock 34.


Here’s the real sales pitch for the Floodlight as far as I am concerned: this holster is not only fully ambidextrous, but if you already have a compatible weapon light, that light can be your “key” to carry any pistol with an accessory rail by also saving you the money since you won’t need to buy an extra holster. Sometimes if I am out shooting with friends and I want to try their pistol, I’ll just pop the Surefire light on it and then holster it in my Floodlight. I can see what it feels like to shoot and draw that gun from the holster which is honestly pretty cool. And I won’t lie that perhaps I am enthusiastic about it to the extent I am because the Floodlight becomes even more convenient when you are left handed and enjoy shooting and carrying less mainstream handguns. I am saying this as someone who has had to adapt their wrong handedness to firearms since day one.

And back to the Beretta Brig issue I had—since I literally do everything with this holster, from EDC to going to USPSA matches (more so that AIWB and WMLs are now allowed), I just pass weapon lights and pistols around and holster up as needed. Guns like my 92-GSD, Brigadier Tactical, or 92X Performance all have accessory rails, so naturally I shoot my stages while relying on the Floodlight to get me through the match day. I understand that I will not have the competitive advantage shooting from concealment and with concealment gear as opposed to a properly set up gaming rig, but that is not the fault of the holster. In short, while carrying with it “hard”, and playing with it “hard” I have found that this truly is a modern solution to this modern problem of mine.

You gotta love modern solutions!

Since the time I purchased my holster, PHLster has also released an outside the waistband belt holster version of the Floodlight. I want to clarify that my thoughts are solely regarding the original appendix concealment Floodlight as I haven’t had a chance to try the latter.

Editor’s Note: I have the OWB Floodlight and it rocks too.

The only ‘problem’ I stumbled across was with a P320 (a very tall pistol) and using an X300U-A. The A model’s use a rear tensioner that tightens and tilts the light body against the pistol’s rail, the B models using a more normal lateral clamp to the light rail and keep the light. With the A model on the P320 the angle that I had induced to keep the light tight was too great to allow holstering/unholstering. I didn’t catch the problem at first and instead set the tension in the OWB Floodlight to almost nothing, while running the P320 decided it was escape time and I left it in the grass between two VTAC barricades. After that little problem I dug into why, discovered the angle/tensioner issue combined with the 320’s slide height/size, bought a B model X300U instead, and it’s back to working as designed.

A models will work in the OWB Floodlight on other pistols, like the above mentioned 92’s, because they have shorter slide heights. If you have a P320, get a B model.

The Gerber Gator Jr. – A Mean Machete

By
Travis Pike
-

The Marine Corps is full of a bunch of dudes who love gear. I’ve never seen bigger, often impractical knives mounted to gear than a boot infantryman. When we deployed to Afghanistan, there was seemingly at least one Gerber Gator Jr per platoon, if not more. Have been the hottest selling item at the Seven Day Store. Everyone had them, and believe it or not; they proved to be incredibly handy.

As Marines, our institutional knowledge was all about fighting in urban environments in vehicle-borne patrols. In Afghanistan, we rode the shoelace express and lived in what was essentially the 1800s with machine guns and IEDs.

In the cold months, we made fires, and oftentimes we cooked over those same fires. Tree lines hid Taliban fighters, so we’d often clear the brush in these tree lines to deny the enemy concealment.

If we didn’t have those Gerber Gator Jrs, life would have been a fair bit tougher. I can only imagine mounting bayonets to clear brush. After that deployment, I was a believer, and when I saw a Gerber Gator Jr sale at my local Academy, I snagged it for old time’s sake.

Breaking the Gerber Gator Jr.

I didn’t carry a Gerber Gator Jr. or any machete. In fact, all I carried was a pocket knife. In my defense, I was already hauling around a belt-fed machine gun, and more ammo than all the riflemen in my squad put together. Weight was the last thing I needed, but we all took turns wielding the machetes when it came time to work. Picking up the Gerber Gator Jr. was a bit of a flashback to simpler times.

The Gerber Gator comes in the standard size, and the Jr. The Jr features a daily short 10-inch blade with an overall length of 18.75 inches and a weight of 14.3 ounces. The blade is stout, with a big rounded belly of a blade you’d expect from a machete. It’s not too heavy, and the handle is fairly large for the short blade. At the end of the blade sits an integrated handguard that is a natural extension of the grip itself.

The Gator, in the name, most likely refers to the massive saw sitting across the back of the blade. The saw blade is almost the exact same length as the rest of the blade and packs a serious bite to it. It’s a sharp saw.

Chopping Away With the Gerber Gator

I live in Northwest Florida, and it’s basically a jungle out here. It’s a constant battle to fight against the jungle that’s always encroaching on whatever bit of property you have. Summer means I’ve been hustling, trying to keep the jungle down on both my property and the property I recently purchased.

With the Gerber Gator in hand, I’ve chopped, split, and cut my way through weeds, often at knee height. I’ve sliced through the small oak saplings, vines, and more to win my fight against nature or to at least come to a draw. The Gerber Gator absolutely chews through materials that are both thick and thin. The blade is impressively capable, and even light slices deal serious damage to both the thin and thick brush.

The handle is nice and comfy with a soft grip that’s highly textured and easy to grip. It stays put even when my hands are nearly dripping with sweat. The thick and soft nature of the handle prevents it from causing blisters or hot spots even during the longest day of work.

The saw blade on the back of the Gerber Gator really digs into thicker materials and cuts through them fairly quickly. I had some trees getting a bit long in the tooth, and after climbing a ladder, I was able to cut through four branches between two and three inches thick without much difficulty. Admittedly a gas-powered pole saw made faster work of the rest of the limbs, but the Gerber Gator was as good as I remembered it.

Small Size Big Bite

The Gerber Gator Jr. is paint sized machete that borders on just being a big knife. However, the little Gator packs a big bit. The small size was a big reason why the little guy was so popular with Marines in 2009. It could be strapped to your flak and pack and not take up much room.

The Gerber Gator Jr. is a pint-sized powerhouse that chops, slices, and cuts through your typical yard debris. If I had to go to the Colombian jungle to fight a Predator, I’d take a Gerber Gator with me.

An Appreciation Of Fonts Of Knowledge

By
P.E. Fitch
-

I have always been fascinated by firearms; their history, the way they work, and the way they look. During my middle school years, I remember the first laptop my mother gifted for my 8th grade school year. This was right around the time Web 2.0 was starting to get traction and we were seeing more sophisticated websites and front-end DOM features, but for me this was my first time getting to know the Internet on a personal level.

With the intense level of curiosity that I still possess, that laptop truly felt like a window into the greater world. I certainly made no haste in using my access to the Internet to satisfy my rampant and natural curiosity about firearms. I remember back in those days when I literally knew nothing about the topic, that any informative video on the then up-and-coming YouTube website or any article evoked a feeling that a bespectacled scholar would probably experience upon finally seeing some long lost manuscript that held the glue to the theory of his life’s work.

Mr. Maxim Popenker holding an AS Val suppressed assault rifle chambered in 9x39mm Soviet. image credit: modernfirearms.net

In those days in particular, I fondly remember the website “worldguns.ru” which is now called www.modernfirearms.net. This website is curated by Maxim Popenker and in those days it truly felt like a treasured personal encyclopedic collection of information. Through Mr. Popenker’s work I was able to establish my foundational knowledge of actual firearms that existed in the real world, especially with regards to XXth century designs. What I especially enjoyed about Mr. Popenker’s website is that he not only covered his bases with regards to Western firearms, but at the time it felt like his site was the only place for information about esoteric or lesser known Soviet and Russian designs beyond the AKM assault rifle or PK machine gun. Being exposed to prototypical weapons such as the Korobov TKB-022PM experimental bullpup assault rifle or all of those carbines chambered for 9x39mm cartridges (like the AS Val or the 9A-91) felt like seeing that strange marine life that lives in the deep darkness of the greatest depths of the ocean—where things just work differently.

Soviet bullpup rifle prototype by German Korobov. This is a TKB-022PM chambered in 7.62x39mm Soviet. Its bakelite shell design makes it very distinctive amongst any experimental rifles of the 20th century. image credit: modernfirearms.net

Admittedly I have not visited Mr. Popenker’s website as often as I used to, but it’s nice to see that the website is still up and active and has grown since those halcyon days of my first forays into firearms discovery.

High Ready vs. Low Ready – One Dumb Gun Debate

By
Travis Pike
-

I’ll go ahead and give you guys the bottom line up front, and most dumb debates come down to a simple answer. Use what works. There are right ways and wrong ways, to be sure. When there are multiple right ways, it typically comes down to what the situation requires. Engage the six inches between your ears. When it comes to ready positions, the two that are dominant are high ready and low ready. These are also high port and low port/entry ready. It all boils down the place the gun points when your moving, not shooting. 

Both are valid, and can both can be used effectively. Some situations allow one to clearly make sense over another, but it’s tough to say one is objectively better than the other. Today we are going to dive into the world of the ready positions debate and dissect the two. Sometimes this debate comes down to an almost Army vs. Navy thing. 

 

The Army prefers the low position, while SEAL teams have always been high port fans. As a Marine, I guess I got to experience a bit of both. There was plenty of training with both positions. A Staff NCO once said something to the effect of “Low port on helicopters and high port on boats, boys.” The Marine Corps, at least the east coast Marines, preferred to be positionally agnostic. 

Low Ready/Alert/Entry Ready Points

The a low ready, or Marines often called it ‘Alert’ too, has a number of strengths, and for an infantryman, the first will be comfort. It takes a lot less effort to hold the weapon in a low position or something close to a low ready for a 10-klick patrol. 

In an open patrol status, the low ready also helps prevent flagging as you cross uneven terrain. If someone climbs a hill or wall in front of you, they aren’t going to put themselves in front of your muzzle. When the weapon sits in the low port, a shooter has a full field of view and doesn’t have their weapon obscuring part of their FOV.

We’re talking about every variation of the muzzle down positions here, but whatever names you’ve heard them. 

Your rifle is less likely to snag or bounce off something slightly above you in the low ready. As a tall dude, I can barely avoid smashing my head in short doorways. I doubt I’ll always be conscious of how high my muzzle is, especially in a wooded environment where the ceiling changes every step. 

High Ready Points

High-ready makes a lot of sense in several contexts, CQB especially. When clearing rooms, a high ready position makes a lot of sense. In a stack, it’s a lot easier to keep your weapon from pointing at your buddy if it’s up and away instead of awkwardly downward angled away from his feet, your feet, and all the other feet close together.

When you come into a room, it’s easy to bounce from high ready to ready with a quick movement. There is no need to sweep an entire gun upwards and against gravity. A high position allows you to drop the gun into a shooting position that is pointing at the general lethal area of an opponent IE their head and chest, very easily. 

In a close-quarters fight, it’s easy to bring the gun down for a quick muzzle strike to dissuade a grab. It’s also easier to run with a rifle in a high position without flagging another person. 

It’s easier to move in general with the muzzle high and the stock trapped under arm. It also allows you to use your support hand for all the things you might need it for from turning a doorknob to grabbing onto someone.

Be Positionally Agnostic 

There are plenty of situations where a high ready and low ready can be used interchangeably. Other situations dictate how the situation is unfolding. For example, what if you are dealing with stairs? If you are going up, then high ready is the way to go. If you are going downstairs, then low ready makes sense. 

I would avoid getting too wrapped up in which position is ultimately better. Figure out which position works best for whatever situation is ahead of you. The best way to learn is to obviously train and always keep an open mind. 

Institutions have a tendency to hamstring a single position without much context, unfortunately. Be aware of this also that just because _______ organization made you always use low ready so your muzzle would never be higher than the berm, that was an administrative call for safety and not a tactic. 

In Unsurprising News: Gun Buyback Is Huge Waste Of Money, Yet Again

By
Lars Smith
-
Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

A collection of popular, dirt cheap, barely functional 3D printed guns were turned into a Houston gun buyback over the weekend. Reports differ on what was offered for each gun, but between $50-150 was offered, depending on whether the agency running the event deemed them “functional” or not.

Whatever the price tag per unit, the manufacturer with a box of extruded filament and balls of solid brass, walked away with thousands of dollars of Houston police budget, and likely an impressive sense of satisfaction. Rarely has anyone so thoroughly warped the intention of pointless anti-gun showmanship as this man.

We all have probably heard of people doing this to some extent in the past. A decade ago, a group put the word out for broken, non-functional guns, and even BB guns nobody in their community wanted, drove to Chicago, and exchanged them for cash at the “Don’t Kill A Dream, Save A Life” event. What made that story extra spicy was that the funds extracted from Chicago PD were then turned around to buy new, functional guns for an NRA shooting camp for children.

Whether it’s BB guns or barely functional plastic “guns”, this seems to be a theme that’s catching on, likely to the chagrin of those organizing such clown shows. This of course, is really just the consequences of the poorly thought out and executed concept that is the “buyback”. Even the name doesn’t make sense, as you can’t buy “back” something you never owned in the first place. If you have the means to take advantage of this “loophole” you might want to get moving on that before regulators and police agencies catch on and close up this “loophole”, though how they’ll manage that without acknowledging that how the ATF classifies guns… we can’t imagine.

International Precision Rifle World Championship: USA leads the World

By
Anna Martinez
-

About the International Precision Rifle Federation (IPRF)

https://www.precisionrifle.org/

Most Recent Press Release:

FOR RELEASE ON FRIDAY THE 29th OF JANUARY 2021

[Dublin, Ireland – 27 January 2021]

The International Precision Rifle Federation (IPRF) was established to create a nationally constituted world precision rifle sport body with the aim of building uniform, international rules and regulations to lay a level playing field for internationally recognised Precision Rifle competition.

The IPRF is excited to announce the inaugural Precision Rifle World Championships to be held in Europe from 14 to 17 July 2022. (date has changed) This event will see the world’s leading precision rifle athletes from more than 12 countries competing against each other in what will ultimately become the pinnacle of precision rifle competition worldwide…..

The Championship format will incorporate a team and an individual event with four different divisions – Open, Limited, Factory and Classic. The Open Division is further split into five sub-categories – Men’s Open, Ladies’ Open, Junior Open (18yo and under), Senior Open (55yo and over) and MilLEO Open (Individuals on Active Military or Law Enforcement duty). This brings up to 32 athletes from each country to compete for team and individual championships.

Currently the IPRF is constituted by 12 nations (Australia, Canada, Czech, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Namibia, Norway, South African, Spain, Sweden, United States), who have all committed to establishing a national democratically constituted sports association within each of their countries to continue to develop the sport of precision rifle. Many more countries are expected to join in the months leading up to the Precision Rifle World Championships.

“You only have to look at IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) and its growth from a fledgling organisation in the late 70’s to the dominant international organisation it is today with more than 100 regions. It’s exciting to be at the start of a world precision rifle federation that we hope will follow the same path.” says Grant Anderson Vice-Chairman of PRS South Africa. “

The International Precision Rifle (IPRF) was founded in late 2019 and aims to unify the sport of precision rifle worldwide and set international standards for competition enabling a level playing field at Regional and World Championship levels. Scott Satterlee is the organisation’s first president and was elected to this position at the organisation’s first meeting in Ireland. Scott needs little introduction and is well known among precision shooters and is a leading competitor in both NRL and PRS competition in the US. Scott is backed up by vice-president Rob Ramsden (RSA), secretary Tiff Dew (GBR), treasurer Michael Ward (IRE) and 2 representatives from each of the affiliated national precision rifle association“

To Qualify

Each country has their own association that will represent their country within the IPRF. The United States Precision Rifle Association takes on the job of allowing shooters to submit an application to represent our Nation. From there, the USPRA looks at that applicants prior match finishes and decides on who makes the team. Here is the list that show the specific matches that can count for finishes.

The division slots available this year for the United States are Open, Open Ladies, Open Senior, Open Mil/LEO, Limited, and Factory. Worth it to note, this year not all match slots were filled, such as Senior Open, Ladies, Factory and Mil/LE open.

This years list of competitors consist of names that most of us know if you compete in the precision rifle world such as Rusty Ulmer, Allison Zane, Morgun King, etc.

Thank you Riflemans Path for sharing so many photos and updates of the team.

Ultimate Ballistics gives us a full list of competitors, their results/rankings, and what they’re running for weapon and cartridge. The fact that you can go onto a website and see what the BEST IN THE WORLD are running for cartridges is a pretty cool thing. Maybe it can make the decision a little easier when it comes to 6dasher, 6br, 6mm, etc..

A few competitors within the competition showing their squad number, country, division, maker of firearm, and cartridge.
https://competitions.ultimateballistics.com/competitions/9/competitors

The numbers for competitors competing in the precision rifle world championship in France ended around up being around 24 countries and 250 participants.

Final Standings for Team USA

USA won it all...and HERE is how that trophy arrived..ghillie suit and all by the French.

Not only did we win 1st in almost every division, we took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on.

CONGRATULATIONS TEAM USA!!!!!
Austin Bushman, World Champion in Open
Payton Grimes, World Champion in Ladies Open
Coulter Mariott, World Champion in Limited
Rusty Ulmer, World Champion in Senior

Open

Austin Buschman – 1st

Morgun King – 2nd

Tate Streater – 3rd

Clay Blackketter – 4th

Gregory Bell – 5th

Austin Orgain – 8th

Ladies Open

Payton Grimes – 1st

Lauryl Arkenhead – 2nd

Allison Zane – 3rd

Limited

Coulter Mariott – 1st

Buck Holly – 2nd

Leon Weatherby – 3rd

Matt Partain – 4th

Senior Open

Rusty Ulmer – 1st

Paul Higley – 2nd

Final Results for TEAM USA. ultimateballistics

Aridus Industries’ New Beretta 1301 Charging Handle

By
P.E. Fitch
-

Aridus Industries, the Pennsylvania based manufacturer best known for its aftermarket shotgun accessories, recently started shipping a new charging handle for the Beretta 1301 semi automatic shotgun.

A close-up shot of the new 1301 Charging Handle. image credit: Aridus Industries FB page


The new charging handle features a concave design intended to meld with the fingers of the shooter’s hand that manipulates the shotgun’s action. Instead of the typical knurling texture as found on similar cylindrical shaped charging handles, Aridus has opted to mill their handle with a very unique geometric oval shaped pattern which also intersects at various points to create a textured pattern. Furthermore, Aridus’ 1301 Charging Handle is also designed with the original “tail hook” on the stem. Not only is the tail hook a part of the original Beretta specifications for 1301 or A400 shotgun charging handles, but this structure also serves to keep the bolt together with the bolt carrier. The 1301 Charging Handle retails for $80 and while the first batch already sold out, more are on the way.

After speaking to Adam Roth, the founder and owner of Aridus Industries, he explained that he conceived this charging handle concept some time ago. He added that there were several designs for Beretta shotgun charging handles on the market, but nothing like his idea was available. Due to recent investment on a specialized lathe, he was finally able to execute on his ambition. This late allows him to manufacture these charging handles in house exactly the way he envisioned them. In addition to this new lathe, Aridus has been busy boosting their productivity with a trio of Haas CNC mills. The new lathe and CNC mills (along with the small team and the workshop they now sit in)—are all fairly recent augmentations to Aridus’ capabilities. It wasn’t that long ago that Aridus’ entire operation was based off a single consumer grade mini mill housed in a garage run by one man.

New York State Moves To Limit Body Armor to “Eligible Professions”

By
Lars Smith
-
A patch on a tactical vest is seen during a gun rights rally outside of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia on January 17, 2022 (Photo by Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Except for police, NY state seems to think there’s only a narrow window of humanity who might want to own body armor in a country they keep trying to convince us is awash in crazed mass murderers with rifles. “Not only should you not be able to shoot back at the unstoppable horde of school/mall/movie theater killers, but you shouldn’t be allowed to passively protect yourself with body armor either!” is a hell of a message to push, but somehow, they persist.

So in light of the apparent waves of wild-eyed gunmen they keep shouting about, who should be allowed to protect their body with steel, ceramic, or even L210 plates? Well, naturally its those who are on the front line of this epidemic of Violence That Only Happens Here (except for everywhere else), right? Cashiers, church staff, teachers, the guy who pops popcorn at the theater, are all natural choices for the narrative they push. Well, in a word, no. While the list is still “under review”, the currently anointed few include process servers, building inspectors, journalists, and private investigators.

Private investigators makes some sense. It’s not like in the movies, but being investigated without knowing can really piss some people off. Similarly unlike the movies is Process servers. They don’t dress up as janitors and ambush people in real life, and violence is unusual in that profession from everything one can glean online, but it’s possible, sure. Building inspectors provoked some head-scratching though. I don’t think it’s ever come up, and the most dangerous thing about inspecting buildings has to be climbing around on top of, or under them. Journalists I can actually understand. Given how much people seem to hate them nowadays, it seems both prudent and wise to give them body armor.

So, to summarize, the supposed reason for all this restriction of freedom is the idea that people are getting shot in public places nonstop, (which is of course why we’re told we have to give up our guns) but the people most at risk from this inflated wave of violence can’t armor themselves either. Well, it seems they either forgot their own narrative, or they never believed it in the first place. We know which one we’re betting on.

Preserving Onions Brings a Tear to My Eye

By
Dr LateBloomer
-

Remember when I talked about running out of onions last year? Well this year I tried some new things and planted more, and yeah well now I’m up to my eyeballs in onions!

The first thing I tried – growing “bunching onions” in the window – never really took off. I got a few spindly stalks but not enough to do more than chop a few greens into a recipe. I was disappointed, but soldiered on.

And by soldiering on I mean that I went crazy in the planting onions outside department. It was more of an accident or an insurance policy than actively TRYING to overwhelm myself with alliums, but here we are nonetheless.

Onion Seeds

I had never grown onions from seed before, I’d only grown from “sets” from the store. Trying to be more self-sufficient I decided to try seeds this year. The variety I chose – Walla Walla – is a sweet northern onion, but it has a rather long growing season so I started those seeds in several egg cartons in my window in fricken January. I’m not kidding, it’s right there in my garden journal. And by starting seeds, I mean I planted ALL the seeds. Every single seed in the packet went into my window. Because when you have the winter blahs and are desperate to see greenery, and know that some seeds never germinate, you way over-plant just in hopes of getting SOMEthing.

Hello my little green seedlings!

Fortunately I got lots of somethings. Those seeds apparently really like egg cartons because I had something like a 80% germination rate. I babied those little onions and they flourished in my window for two months. Onions are supposed to be very frost tolerant so I then transplanted the few dozen -odd seedlings outside into one of the survival/inflation garden raised beds on March 19th. 

Onion Sets

There’s frost-tolerant and then there’s really fricken brrrr. We had a pretty deep cold snap a few weeks later and my baby onions looked pretty droopy. I was worried. So when the local farm store chain advertised that they had onion sets in stock I scooted on over to have a look. They didn’t have sweet onion sets, but they had yellow and they had red. 

“Oooooh, I’ve never grown red onions before, that might be fun”, whispered my garden addiction to myself. So that is how I came to have not just one, not just two, but three different varieties of onions growing in my garden. Because naturally since I bought more, my original planting survived and did well. And so it went until July.

Harvest

You know it’s time to harvest the onions when their green tops droop over. Whereupon you are supposed to pull them up and lay them out to dry so that the tops turn brown. This allows the onion bulbs to seal over so to speak, and then and only then can you store them for a few months or all winter. It’s a bit of a process.

Drying in between rain storms

So naturally as soon as I started to pull onions to dry, the weather decided to be stormy off and on nearly every day for three weeks. Onions don’t “dry” in the rain (duh) so I had to bring as many as I could into the house. For almost a month I have had onions draped over every conceivable surface in my kitchen. I still had to leave some outside, but as I processed them I brought more indoors as I went.

Onions, onions, Everywhere!

Basement Storage

Some dried perfectly, got topped and tailed and are now hanging in my basement tied into old pantyhose. Yes, I am of the generation that wore pantyhose and yes I still have some in my drawer – get off my lawn and don’t judge. Some of the dry ones I put into saved plastic netting from my last few frozen turkeys. (I am not a hoarder.)

Dry and ready for storage.

Then there was the problem of the fact that some didn’t dry at ALL. Some were threatening to get soft and rotten because of the rain. Assuming my controlling mother attitude of “Oh no you DON’T!”, I marched those onions over to the cutting board and started chopping them for dehydrating before they went bad.

Dehydrating

Which was a good idea and frugal on my part, except for the fact that these yellow onions were a bit more pungent than the ones I dehydrated last year. Two dehydrator batches of several trays each, over the course of two and a half days made my house smell like a Philly Cheese Steak Shop – except stronger. Not only did my eyes water while I was chopping those rogue onions, It was pretty bad in the house for three days too. I could smell onions all day at work for two days as well, so it was undoubtedly in my clothes and up my nostrils. But I at least have three jars full of dehydrated onions for winter soups and cooking to show for my suffering.

This times three for shelf stable storage.

I could have put the dehydrator outside on the picnic table like I did for the jalapeños the other year, except the same rain that wasn’t allowing the onions to dry properly also impeded my use of an electric appliance outdoors on an uncovered deck. ARGH.

There are still a few onions left which aren’t drying well, so I’ll be using those up in canning some salsa this weekend. Whatever STILL isn’t dry might have to go into another dehydrator load. Next time I think I’ll try putting it all on a folding table in the garage.

Canning

I also have plans for some of the red ones to go into home pressure-canned French Onion Soup. This is a shelf stable and delicious way to preserve garden onions. You don’t have to eat it as soup, although I love it with salad croutons and melted cheese. Some people use it to cook their pot roast in or make Salisbury steak with. There are all kinds of possibilities if you are an onion lover like me.

There’s one last thing I want to experiment with. I have read that if you slice the onions (instead of chopping) and then blanch them before dehydrating (instead of doing them raw) that you end up with  crispy onion ring snacks to eat right out of the jar! I definitely NEED to try this.

Yeah I love onions. I am up to my eyeballs currently, but I’ve got plans for every single one of them. I suppose there are worse things to have your house smell of in exchange for a winter of yumminess. Just don’t stand too close or smell my clothes for a few more weeks, mkay?

5.11 A/T HD Boot – Beat the Heat

By
Travis Pike
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It’s hot y’all. Florida temperatures have hit over a hundred degrees for a few days in a row, and it can be downright miserable. At the same time, most of my outside work is in the summer. I’m a fan of jungle boots for such adventures, but I gave the new 5.11 Tactical A/T HD boot a try for the entire month of July. Jungle boots are fine, but the new 5.11 A/T HD boots are specifically made for the heat and do more than just add a couple of vents to the design. 

I asked and received the boots from 5.11 Tactical for review. I specifically went with the 8-inch tall, all-black models. They harken back to days gone of polishable boots, and these were days before I joined the military. I liked the look, and they met my agency’s requirements for boots. This includes the color, length, and specific specs, and the fact they were built to beat the heat was impressive enough to get me interested. 

The A/T HD Boot – What’s In A Name

The A/T in the name signifies they use 5.11’s new Atlas system. Atlas, aka the all-terrain load assistance system, is designed for those carrying a load. It’s a clever reference to Atlas, the guy who carried the world on his shoulders. I’ve used this system before and found it to be incredibly comfortable and great when carrying weight. 

HD stands for heat deflecting. 5.11 Tactical says that they use a heat-reflective Strobel sock that reflects heat from the ground. A Strobel sock, in case you didn’t know (because I didn’t), is the bottom part of the inside of the shoe. Additionally, 5.11 Tactical uses infrared refracting leather to drop the temperature inside the boot. Oh, and the tongue is also perforated to make the whole boot a little more breathable. 

With all this said, I took the boots on for the last month to see just how well they worked. Let’s see if the A/T HD Boots live up to their reputation. 

First Steps with the A/T HD Boots 

Like all boots, these things needed a good breaking in. While they were still new, I strapped them on and wore them around the house for most of the day. I did this for hours until my feet got sore, and I would take a break. The breaking-in took a couple of days on non-serious use before they stopped making my feet cramp. 

This month was also an interesting one for me. I took a vacation to the mountains and began an 8-week workout program designed for those looking to become Green Berets. This SFAS program has tons of hikes and is a perfect testing medium for these boots. On my first three-mile hike with 35 pounds, I admittedly got a little crampy but not bad enough to tap out. That 3-mile over-the-road hike really finished breaking them in. 

By the time I got to the 8-mile road march, this wasn’t an issue anymore. The Atlas system is fantastic for providing support, especially with weight on your back. Zero hot spots popped up and blisters weren’t an issue, and after the hike, I didn’t have sore ankles, calves, or more. I laced my boots down plenty tight, and the A/T HD boots provide wonderful ankle support. I hike on a dirt road, and it’s not exactly even ground. I’ve yet to roll an ankle, even when I zone out at about mile five and stop paying attention to the terrain. 

What About the Heat 

I paired the 5.11 Tactical A/T HD boots with some merino wool socks, and that was the ticket to comfy feet. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to how my feet felt. It wasn’t until I was a few days in that I realized, holy crap, my feet aren’t soaked with sweat, my socks aren’t saggy and gross, and I didn’t go through my cold feet cycle. 

My cold feet cycle is what happens when I work outside or hike and then come in and cool down. My sweat-soaked feet would then get cold because of central air conditioning rocks. I don’t feel the heat of the ground, and even when standing in full sunlight, I don’t have a problem with the boots getting hot and uncomfy. 

Everything Else About the A/T HD Boots 

While the boots are big with their 8-inch sides, they are fairly lightweight and won’t break you down. The tongue is super comfy, and there is nothing in the boots that pokes and prods like an errant seam. The traction is robust and digs into the ground to make anything slip-free and safe. Wet terrain, sand, dirt roads, and beyond won’t trip you up. 

Plus, I like the look of the boots. Looks matter when it comes to clothes, and these boots look good. They are professional and subdued, without any kind of craziness to them. The 5.11 Tactical logo is very small and subdued as well. I think the 5.11 Tactical A/T HD boots are my new summer love. 

AK Armorer Tips: Ensuring Your Recoil Rod is Seated

By
Anna Martinez
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With AK’s taking over the market, more classes being held, and Rifle Dynamics Red Oktober event coming up, it is critical to ensure that simple things are installed on your AK correctly. One of those main things being the recoil spring.

This issue was found during a standard inspection of a large batch of American Made (well..American assembled and partly American made if we want to be particular..) AK-47’s. The Company will not be named.

The Function

A standard recoil spring on an AK has a rear guide that fits into a slot on the rear trunnion. Once that rear guide is seated the hinged or free dust cover is meant to basically pop over the back of the rear guide and click into place. Thus making the recoil rod have two jobs, cycle the weapon and hold the dust cover in place.

The Issues

The recoil rod is constantly getting pushed during cycling and also during assembly and disassembly. Anytime there is friction burrs can be made. It is a very normal thing and can happen to any firearm. In this case, on the rear trunnion where the rear guide fits into burrs can sometimes be found. With how tight that trunnion is where the guide seats the burrs can be minimal and it could still cause two major issues.

First Issue

Burrs found in the rear trunnion slot can cause the rear guide to not fully seat to the back of slot. This can cause issues during cycling or even permanently damage your guide rod, such as bending it.

Shown from left to right. The first photo (with a red X) is showing the recoil spring rear guide not fully seated into the back of the trunnion due to small burrs. The second photo (with a green checkmark) is showing a properly fully seated rear guide.

Second Issue

An even more dangerous issue..remember that the recoil rod has two jobs, one to help cycle the gun and two to seat the dust cover. If the recoil rod does not fully seat to the rear the back of that will not have enough tension to allow the dust cover to be held in place. It acts almost like a button that is stuck in place. When installing the dust cover it will seem like it snaps into place however if you don’t see the back of the rod essentially “pop” out of the back of the dust cover the cover could not be held on by anything. During firing this can cause the dust cover to fly off.

From left to right..The first photo (with a red X) is showing the guide not fully seated and not “popped” into place thus nothing is holding the dust cover on. The second photo (with a green checkmark) is showing the guide fully seated into the rear trunnion and entirely holding onto the dust cover.

A sharp piece of metal flying through the air under pressure of gas expelled from a firearm. Fun.

The Fix

To fix these two possible issues all it takes is a skinny hand file. A few quick passes of the hand file inside the trunnion slot should remove the small burrs that are there. To verify, replace the spring and ensure it reaches all the way to the back of the trunnion. Install the dust cover. During racking and a functions check keep an eye on that rear guide now seated in the dust cover. If it “pops” into place during racking then obviously it wasn’t totally seated in the first place. Disassemble and take a few more passes with the hand file.

Note: Lube should still stay on just the bolt on AK’s so focus on removing the burrs and not immediately going to lube.

Seeing with your eye if the guide is seated in the trunnion takes time and honestly just takes a number of AK’s being in your hands and eye sight to start noticing when it’s not seating. You won’t notice the burrs with your eyes but you’ll notice the placement of the rod in the back of the dust cover.

New Shooters 101 – How To Start Your Shooting Adventure

By
Travis Pike
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This summer, my son has embraced shooting a little more. He’s shot before, but typically just for fun without anything beyond safety training. In teaching him to shoot, I realized that I’ve been taking my own experience and fundamentals for granted. I’ve forgotten that learning is like learning to walk and can be a slow, confusing process. So I decided to try to put together a little guide for both new shooters and those teaching new shooters. 

Where to Start With New Shooters 

It’s best to start at the boring basics. This should be short and user involved. The basics should be explained, but make it interactive. If you’re a new shooter, you must first learn the basic safety of firearms handling. Don’t just read the rules but absorb them and question the rules versus how you handle firearms. 

First, treat every weapon as if it’s loaded. This first rule is the core of all firearm safety rules. Treating a weapon as if it’s always loaded requires you to treat it with respect at all times, and if you follow the rest of the safety rules, you’ll do just that. 

Second, always keep your firearm pointed in a safe direction. A safe direction is a direction you wouldn’t mind shooting in. So not at people, pets, and other living things. 

Third, keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire. This is fairly simple. The trigger is not a place to rest your finger. Straight and off the trigger is fairly clear and easy to do. This will prevent 100% of negligent discharges. 

Editor’s Note: Cooper’s Rules Work! All the time! Weird how that works. 

Those three rules are the most important for a new shooter to know. There are more, but for now, memorize those three. 

Next, learn how to load and unload your firearm. If it’s new, it has a manual worth reading. You’ll find a treasure trove of information there. Most important new shooters need to know how to clear a firearm. Clearing is unloading the firearm completely. 

Learn The Basics of Shooting 

If possible, take a basic gun safety and use class. The NRA’s basic courses are perfect for this information. The NRA’s firearm training division has several very basic classes that teach shooters the basics of pistols, shotguns, and rifles. These courses are hosted in person, and distance learning is also an option. 

Learn how your firearm functions. New shooters should learn the proper grip, proper sight picture, and the basics of trigger pull without their trigger pull affecting their grip or sight picture. These three basic things ensure a safe experience and lay the groundwork for more advanced training. 

These three small skills can be done without ammo and can be done with an airgun, a SIRT pistol, or just a dry firearm. Always follow gun safety rules during this practice and training. 

If you are going about this by yourself, Youtube is your best friend. Not all information is equal. As a new shooter finding good information can be difficult. With that in mind, there are a few channels with great information. Check Out: 

Sage Dynamics for Sight Picture and Handgun Trigger Control, Beretta For Proper Handgun Grip, and the NSSF and SIG-Sauer Academy for a wide variety of beginner-friendly subjects. These channels are all excellent sources of information. They aren’t the only source, but they do have a wide variety of experts and produce great information. 

Going Live 

When it’s time to start shooting, you can just plink away without any goals, but that’s not always beneficial. New shooters likely aren’t ready for doing 10-10-10 drills or failure drills. What exactly can they do to improve their skills and avoid wasting ammo? 

My son and I did the NRA Marksmanship Qualification Program. This program offers some very basic courses of fire to allow a shooter to have a goal when they start shooting. This program allows you to shoot very simple courses of fire with an accuracy standard and sometimes a time standard. 

The lowest levels of the quals are very simple and really allow new shooters to work on basic skills to become better shooters. My son practiced for the pistol qualification at the Pro-marksman level, and while simple, it forced him to learn a lot of the basics to pass the qual. 

The First Month 

The information in this article is something someone could do in the first month of owning a gun, and that’s a lot of time. These are things that can be done on weekends and in 15-minute increments at home. If you are a new shooter or are training a new shooter, start at the bottom and build those blocks to become a better, safer shooter. It’s not a race, and it should be fun. Everyone was a new shooter at one point, and as long as you prioritize safety, you’ll have a good time. 

Being new at something is the best because you can suck at it, and everyone wants to help you get better. Shooting is no different. 

Staying Fed Without Ruining Yourself: Prepping With Food Allergies/Intolerances

By
Lars Smith
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Photo Credit: Foodallergy.org

https://www.foodallergy.org/resources/food-allergy-emergency-and-disaster-preparedness

It seems like food allergies or intolerances are either much more common, or much more widely recognized and treated these days. Some people believe it’s a result of humanity being removed from the effects of natural selection. Others propose it’s a consequence how clean our environments are, leading an immune system accustomed to murdering novel pathogens 24/7 desperately searching for something to attack, and turning on us instead. Some even think it’s a result of gut permeability that may be linked to internal inflammation.

Whether this is a genuine increase in the number of people with dietary problems, better diagnostics, or something else, it is a fact of life that many people deal with daily. You may even have such a person in your friend/family group. If so, it makes the process of preparing for a disaster more complicated.

More common issues like nuts, gluten, eggs and dairy are relatively well-catered to nowadays though that certainly wasn’t always the case, but for whatever reason, many people now have issues with things like soy, corn, oats, spices, and even for some people, parsley. There are allergy/intolerance tests you can have done now with over 250 possible problem-foods. The symptoms of such an issue are often disparate and difficult to directly pin down to a particular food.

If you do have someone who you might wind up bugging out, or in with, in a possible disaster scenario, give the link a read and see if you’ve left anything out of your preps. Their suggestions are fairly simple, cover all the bases, and include things like personal care products that may need to be “special” to avoid provoking an immune response. Intolerances can make life awful, and allergies can kill, so it’s worth a second look if it’s something you need to consider for yourself or others.

Tired Of Hearing About The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine? Good News, Everyone!

By
Lars Smith
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Photo Credit: BBC via Getty Images

Just in time for the media’s attention span, a new/old conflict seems to be brimming on the horizon in Eastern Europe. Veterans of the last half of the 90’s will remember Kosovo and its conflicts well, but for the rest of us, NATO-KFOR (Kosovo Force)’s twitter feed dropped us a reminder of our involvement.

To be clear, if Serbia really were to attack Kosovo, under the terms of the peacekeeping mission NATO has been operating in Kosovo since 1999, KFOR says it would intervene. If this happened, it would pit the western military alliance directly against a long-time staunch ally of Russia. Even as Serbia has been looking more economically west of late, its cultural and political ties to Russia are not loosening. Oddly, the primary instigating factor right now seems to be license plates, if you can imagine. New rules in Kosovo would require residents replace Serbian-issued plates for new Kosovar ones. Serbia has yet to recognize Kosovo’s decade and a half old declaration of independence, and this reminder seems to have pushed some over the edge. There are no injuries as of this writing, but the situation is tense. Cooler heads seem to be prevailing for the moment, likely bolstered by NATO-KFOR’s summary declaration.

What exactly this would mean for NATO-Russia relations is unclear, but in an already hostile environment surrounding what amounts to a proxy war between Russia and the West, the list of options is not a happy one. Russia could decide that this is the last straw, and do all sorts of things that would ultimately harm itself as much as anyone else. They could also use negotiations surrounding Serbia as leverage to find a way to exit their current war of attrition in Ukraine while attempting to save face by coming to Serbia’s aid diplomatically. This might be the best possible option, but it’s at the top of a very short list of good ones.

If we’ve learned anything from the last 6mo of Ukrainian resistance, it’s that conventional warfare in the modern era isn’t likely to play out in real life the way it looks on paper. Whichever news source you believe regarding the Ukr/Rus conflict, it’s fair to say nobody expected it to last this long, and the Ukrainians have, in several arenas, seemingly made bricks without straw. From commercial drones carrying rifle grenades adapted into homemade aerial bombs with 3D printed fins and release mechanisms, to their rapid, effective implementation of lend-lease style weapon shipments they had no prior experience on, they’ve surprised just about everyone.

Serbia is no Russia, and Kosovo is certainly no Ukraine, but the Serbs have dragged us all into a meatgrinder once already in the last century or so. Lets hope they don’t stage an encore.

Gunday Brunch 64: There’s Never Been A Better Time for 5.56 Fans

By
Keith Finch
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We’re in a golden era of 5.56 rifles, and not just AR15s. Everything is good!*

*(almost… almost everything)

Seriously though, you have to go rather out of your way to ignore good advice and good buying habits completely to end up with a junk rifle these days. Will you get a better rifle by spending more? Usually, but even as you decide on a make/model or makes/models that you’re willing to pick up go hunt for a good price. I’m not saying quibble over $20 but there could be a $200 price swing between someone selling at or above MSRP and someone else who is comfortable moving them at MAP.

I found a screaming deal on a “used” unfired LWRCi M6-SPR. Deals exist if you can be patient and keep-a-lookout.

Snagged for $60 less than a new M6IC-DI, which generally cost around $500-$800 less than the piston guns.
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