Bayonets & Subcaliber Devices

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Unbeknownst to me, the US Marines decided to opt for a new bayonet in 2003.  Luckily, I approve of this :-).  Their new bayonet is called the OKC3S, and it rocks.  It looks very much like a KA-BAR and appears as if it would function like one (unlike many bayonets that have no use as knives).  I liked the M7 bayonet that it replaced, but never was a fan of the Army's M9 bayonet (still in use).  The M9 just doesn't look right - what can I say, it's too short and stocky.  A bayonet should be long and thin, so you can really spear the shit out of your enemy.  So there you have that.

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I'm pleased to announce to the many, many readers of this extraordinary blog that there are now several sources of subcaliber devices and barrel inserts on the internet.  These include:

Short Lane - Offers a range of rifled and un-rifled shotgun inserts in multiple lengths, as well as un-rifled revolver inserts.  They appear to be high-quality, and competitively priced.  Their selection appears to be growing, with new inserts available for pre-order.

GaugeMate - Their Silver Series adapters are made of stainless steel and are competitively priced.  Their Cartridge adapters are un-rifled but come in a range of pistol calibers.

Dina Arms Corporation - Honestly, the machining on the pictured inserts doesn't look too refined to me, and the 1 review I found was not flattering.

MCA Sports - Located in Anchorage, Alaska, this company has offered hand-made barrel inserts and subcaliber adapters for many years.  I have read many good things about them.  My 2 attempts at calling them and 1 attempt at emailing them never resulted in any response from them, BUT, to be fair, I never placed any orders, just asked questions about their products.

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IMHO, the ultimate survival gun might just be a 12 gauge Stoeger over-and-under Double Defender, with a dozen or so subcaliber barrel inserts stashed on the side (running the gamut from 20 gauge to .410 to rifled .22LR, .32, .357, 9mm and 44 Magnum).  Add to that a hollow stock, a bandolier sling and a bayonet lug.  Hey, if we're dreaming, we might as well dream big.

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Bat Cat

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I am Bat Cat. Yes - Bruce Wayne's mansion kitteh. On cold nights I slip thru the cat door into the basement and curl up on the hot, ticking hood of the Batmobile.  Cat Woman and I have a "thing" for each other, as you might well imagine. Robin, however, pinches me and pulls my tail when no one is looking.  And Alfred Pennyworth has chased me with a broom on more than one occasion. I wear a little cape that allows me to sail long distances when I jump off of tall perches. I then land on Bad Guys' heads and shred them silly. Also, my purrs have a narcotic effect on criminals, lulling them into hypnagogic incapacitation until Batman is able to bash their brains in with the Baterang.  I am friends with the mice and all furry brothers, and I wander each night in search of other Bat Things.

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October Notes

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Cool stuff:

A ceramic razor blade, available online for $12.  I do not own one, and because it is so small - about 1-inch long - I probably won't buy one.  However, it's a cool survival item, one that could be sewn into clothing and won't set off metal detectors, should you ever find yourself imprisoned by Bad Guys after the Zombies take over the world.

A screw-on bayonet lug for your AR-15, just $20.  Just what I would want if I had an AR-15 that didn't have a bayonet lug.  Now, I wish someone would design a similar bolt-on gadget that would allow you to attach a bayo to a Mossberg 590A1 with an 18.5-inch barrel....  Really.  I'm not just saying that.

Speaking of accessories for Mossberg 590A1s, check out this after-market heat shield, available by AimPro for $59 with a choice of Parkerized, OD, flat black, gunmetal gray or Flat Dark Earth finishes.  Folks, this is the only heat shield available ANYWHERE for the venerable 590A1...I'm so glad it's now available!

Two companies that offer souped-up, tactical Mossberg 590A1s: AimPro Tactical and Vang Comp Systems.  The AimPros look better to me, but then I have a penchant for heat shields and breacher barrels.  Both companies offer ported barrels!

The Mossberg 930 Special Purpose is looking mighty fine these days, available in many different configurations with several after-market parts (including numerous enhanced charging handles).  The 930 is an autoloader and one of the things I like about it is that the 18.5-inch barrel models have barrel-length magazines, offering +2 capacity over the equivalent 590 pump models.

Ah, speaking of which, there are mag extenders available for the 590A1.  Vang Comp makes a 1-round tube extender.  Choate makes a 2-round extender.  If you scroll down this page you will find descriptions and links to every extender made, complete with pricing and photos.

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I recently took a combat shotgun class and have the shoulder bruises to prove it.  I couldn't imagine more fun.  If I ever doubted that happiness is breech-loading bird shot rounds into a 590A1, I don't now.  I know that shotguns are limited by range and ammo capacity, and that the Mossberg 590A1 is a heavy bugger, but we are all prone to our individual predilections and skill sets, and if you are willing to do the sniping, I will engage the zombies head-on with my heavy-barreled hand canon.  :-)

My 590A1 has a Hogue foregrip and a fiber optic sight.  I had a really nice and effective Knoxx recoil-absorbing pistol grip with folding stock attached to it, but I removed it after quickly realizing - in class - that it obstructed the magazine release.  So much for that awesome gimmick!  So I'm back to the factory (plastic) stock for now.  But I have a Hogue 13" LOP stock on order, along with a +1 mag tube extender, a high-visibility follower and a heat shield.  When I finish kitting my Mossie out, it will be very heavy, but it will be Terminator-worthy, and slugs will not kick so hard.  I used to think I wanted a tactical Double Defense coach gun as backup, but after finishing the class I think I'd prefer a tactical 930 instead.  Something about the feel and sound of the charging handle and the semi-auto action...

Good night, good people!

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One Future Moment (Blackout Vehicles)

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There was a time when we used "blackout vehicles" (BVs) extensively.  This was shortly after the First West Coast Onslaught, when San Francisco and Los Angeles got pounded into rubble and Chinese troops were infiltrating Northern California in ever-increasing numbers.  We all became Freedom Fighters during that moment, and played endless cat-and-mouse with the Chinese forces throughout the coastal mountain range.  Because the Chinese had limited air superiority in the form of drones, helicopters and fighter jets, we found that BVs were an effective way to travel at night.  We mostly used pickup trucks, but we also used older cars.  Most BVs were gasoline-powered, but we rigged some up to run as series hybrids, because they had a low heat signature in all-electric mode.  

The first thing we did with any BV was remove any-and-all unnecessary or excess weight.  That included windshields, windows, doors, mirrors, carpeting, trunk lids, extra tires, all lights, wiring, hoods, bumpers, insulation, trim, rubber molding, plastic, seats, license plates, dashboard gauges, etc.  What we would be left with was a husk of a functioning vehicle - just the chassis and some body panels, the tires, the engine and a driver's seat.

The next thing we did was paint the entire vehicle flat black, inside and out.  Then we would beef up the suspension, add off-road tires and max out the engine HP in any way we could -- detaching catalytic converters and smog pumps, adding headers if possible, installing high-end air filters, even adding turbo chargers or superchargers or 4-barrel carbs to older vehicles -- before adding an additional gas tank and welding on lightweight tube bumpers and rails.

Finally, we would have a BV.  They were ugly as hell and looked like burnt, home-made dune buggies.  But they were very hard to spot at night without night vision gear.  The idea was that the BVs could get us around the mountains at high speed.  Their only purpose was to transport fighters.  They were without armor or armament, and relied on speed alone to evade the Chinese patrols.  Everything depended on reducing their weight to a minimum.  The drivers wore night vision goggles so they could see where they were going.  In the hotter months, some fighters would strip down to shorts when we went on ambush.  They'd rub ash into their skin and even go barefoot, just carrying their weaponry and nothing else, because every pound in a BV meant less acceleration, less power.  When you had 9 men crammed into a stripped down, souped-up '67 Mustang - 2 in the trunk, 1 on the roof, 3 in the back and 3 in the front, every pound added up and slowed the vehicle down that much more when you had to accelerate or hit the uphill on a dirt fire road.

One problem we encountered with the gas-powered BVs was the engine noise they emitted.  Because of this, we took to coasting downhill whenever possible, with engines off.  Sometimes we even pushed them uphill.  In time, they all became hybrid electrics, but that was much later, after the Dark Days, and by then their role had changed and they were heavily armed battlewagons, not transporters.

At the height of the initial conflict, there were over 500 BVs cruising the back roads and fire trails of the Emerald Triangle.  We did tremendous damage, killing thousands of Chinese soldiers in an endless series of ambushes.  There were dozens of firefights every night as we clashed and engaged them, then ran away.  The rednecks and hippies of Northern California protected their world with every calorie and every drop of blood and courage that they possessed, but the Chinese outnumbered us and their machine guns and RPGs and Air-to-Surface missiles took their toll.  The action was so intense that our men and machines sometimes only lasted days, and in a few short months the original BVs were all blown up, their crews either dead, on the run, or hiding out along the high, starved mountain ridges.  No matter how many Chinese we killed they kept coming, inexorably infiltrating the mountains, mining the roads, burning down towns and houses, killing every American they encountered, and razing everything in their path until they left total destruction in their wake.

After that, Dark Days set in and famine gripped the land and we resorted to hiding underground and walking and riding mountain bikes and turning ourselves into human bombs and eating the dead, but those are other stories.

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Friday Night News

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My cousin, the outlaw.  A modern day Clyde Barrow.

Spanish miners, going up against police.  Note the heavy duty metal shields they are using, the burning tire barricades they have set up, their use of tree branches to block the road, and last but not least, their home-made rocket launchers.  Also note the odd gas masks, hoodies, bandannas and particle masks they use to block smoke and gas and hide their identities.  One can only guess that these tough bastards gave the authorities a run for their money.

The Earth, as seen from Space.  It's all we have, Folks!  The surface and atmosphere of this planet sustain us.  Our Mother planet floats in a sea of infinite black void which is Death to all life as we know it.  If we fuck this planet up too much, we will kill ourselves and everything else on it, and it will keep floating through the vacuum forever, with no passengers.  All of our petty human thoughts and wants and needs lose significance when we view the Earth from this vantage point.

 A vehicle comprised of a motorized push-plow and a trailer.

A quality copy of the Blade Runner pistol.

Two Wasteland Weekend off-road buggies.

  

I bought a pair of these studly shoes (below), and when I'm not bar hopping in them I'm aerating the lawn with them.  They only cost $15, with shipping.  The chief complaints against them online are that the nuts unscrew by themselves and get lost in the lawn, and the strap buckles don't work right, allowing these studly shoes to fall off your feet.  To remedy these ills I modded these green bitches by using lock nuts on the spikes, and army surplus belts with actual buckles in lieu of the chincy straps that were provided.  You can also use a bit of epoxy on each provided nut, but that seemed like a too-permanent solution.  I might want to take these emerald motherfuckers apart one day and make weapons out of them.

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Piss, Poop, Coke & New Guns

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I like simple & effective.  Always have.  Not in my women, mind you (well, effective, yes!) -- I'm talking about tools & solutions here.  No, I like my women to have cognitive capacity.  But when it comes to living in this world, why not choose the simple & effective path?  It makes the journey that much easier.

To that end:

1. Human piss is nitrogen-rich & makes a good, FREE fertilizer for plants when mixed with water.  Seriously, we flush it down the toilet every day when it could save us money, enhance our food production in the garden, & reduce all costs (environmental, fiscal & otherwise) associated with purchasing manufactured fertilizers.  Dilute it down to a 10 - 20% mixture, then water the roots of the plant, taking care not to get it on the foliage.  For more basic tips on using piss in the garden, go HERE.  Seriously.

P.S. I am told that blueberries LOVE to be fertilized with urine, & am experimenting with that now.

2. Human poop has been used for millennia to fertilize croplands & gardens.  In China it is known as "night soil".  Now, TAKE NOTE: RAW HUMAN POOP IS A HIGHLY TOXIC SUBSTANCE THAT CAN KILL YOU IF INGESTED.  And I mean kill you BADLY.  Like, if you don't die, you'll beg for an end to the pain.  BUT, if composted correctly, poop can be used effectively in the garden.

We all know about composting toilets.  I have also read stories by modern homesteaders who have experimented with reducing human poop to a usable substance.  In particular, one awesome story involved a guy pooping into a small wooden box, then adding worms & sealing the box for several months.  When he opened the box back up, he found that the worms had reduced the poop & THE TOILET PAPER to excellent castings/soil, which he used in the garden.

That is my favorite poop story.

P.S. I am not ready to experiment with raw poop.  Much too dangerous in an urban environment.  But it is a resource I can draw on if TSHTF (so-to-speak!).

3. Coca Cola has many uses, as delineated HERE.  Recently, on a whim, I poured 1/4 can down my blocked bathroom sink.  I waited 3 minutes, then flushed it with hot water...no more blocked drain.  I plan to experiment with rust removal & loosening frozen bolts next.

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But on to the fun stuff: New guns!

OK, so Stoeger is now offering an additional "Double Defense" model (HERE), this being an over-under rather than a side-by-side.  I LOVE side-by-sides, but there is a problem with them.  You see, I want a double barrel shotgun that can be outfitted with barrel inserts so that I can fire an array of ammunition ACCURATELY thru it.  The trouble with a side-by-side is that the accuracy will be highly impaired when firing pistol or rifle ammo thru it, because side-by-sides only have a single, centered bead sight.  The over-under, on the other hand, has an actual fixed sight!  Maybe not the best sight available on the free market, but certainly more effective than an off-center bead.

The new, tactical Stoeger offering is blued, with top and side rails, as pictured below.  MSRP is under $500.  Add a few choice sub-caliber barrel inserts and what you have is a very compact, simple, multi-use survival weapon that can fire an array of ammunition.  My kind of weapon.

Next up, a strange offering from Italy: The Mateba Autorevolver.  Honestly, I don't know what to make of it, but you have to give it an A for innovation.  Follow this LINK to learn the inside scoop.

Lastly, an idea from the salty depths of my own demented mind: The "ElectroVolver".  What we have here is a MetalStorm-type revolver, wherein each chamber in the cylinder is actually an independent barrel loaded with multiple, in-line rounds.  Yes, the cylinder IS the barrel -- there is no additional pistol barrel on the end of it.

Furthermore, there is a small electric motor located under the cylinder, & it drives the cylinder.  Let's say that the cylinder has 7 chamber-barrels & each chamber-barrel holds 3 rounds, giving us a total capacity of 21 rounds.  When fired in full-auto mode, the cylinder rotates like a gatling gun, releasing one round from each barrel in turn, thus nullifying the chance of overheating.  When re-loading this weapon, you pop out the entire cylinder & replace it with a pre-loaded spare.  Give this puppy voice-recognition software, a battery in the grip & a laser...& go retire some replicants with it.

 P.S. A non-motorized version of this weapon would simply fire each chamber-barrel empty, then you'd manually rotate to the next chamber-barrel & continue firing.  It would not require a motor or a powerful battery (The amount of energy required to ignite each in-line round is negligible).

Hey, enjoy the Spring weather & stay out of trouble!  This is the Hippie Survivalist, signing out.

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More Thoughts On The Collapse-Proof Housing Tract

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Variations.

I re-read the previous post and got to thinking that the layout I proposed was very large and space-intensive.  It might work in a relatively isolated area that has not previously been built up and does not have easy access to grid utilities.

In space-constricted areas, the housing could be clustered together in a more traditional tract blueprint.  Yards could be small.  The housing area could be surrounded by a wall, and fortified.  It could contain a tight micro electrical grid, a community garden, a few community buildings, perhaps a commercial area.  Farmland could be nearby, divided into personal holdings, or perhaps it could be within the compound.  The clustering of households together would allow for security and energy conservation.

Perhaps housing could even be in fortified apartment blocks, rather than houses, for added efficiency and safety.  Of course, this design would be less like a tract and more like a village or fortress town.

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