Young men know nothing

Don’t know if “they” put something in the water or if I look like easy prey but lately young men have been challenging me left and right.

Lucky for me they don’t know a fucking thing.

It started a while back when some young millennial/ older gen Z dude wanted to play the handshake of death game. Which earned him my you’re a dumb ass look, he grinned and I put my full man strength into it.I crushed down hard enough he tried to get away. I held on until I was done.

Then some dumb ass in a new’ish naturally aspirated Charger tried his luck aginst my 71 mach 1. Spoiler alert, dodges are heavy, slow and don’t hook up well. Would have been worse for him if I was in my 04 terminator but the take away here is 2 fold…. #1) dodges suck ass #2) it takes money to go fast, old men have money. He whined like a little bitch but he did pony up the money.

I went to help a young man get his service body truck out of a ditch. He pulled over, got them right side wheels in a small but muddy as fuck ditch and all them wheels would do is spin. I asked if he needed help etc and he said yes but didn’t think my truck would pull him. Told him something like “$20 says under 20 mims”. He laughed, I shoved some 2×4’s under his wheels and they did shit. 18 mins left….. Out came the fiddle snatch blocks and a couple of his traffic cones. I walked away with $20 and new friend. He’s a goodman man. Young and somewhat dumb but a good man. 24 years old, a diesel mechanic in the national guard, went to community college for it too, and now an on the road service tech. Making good money, a good wife, a fat baby boy who makes a lot of noise. Very pleased to have him around but this weekend he wanted to test my strength at the bbq I was throwing. Once again I took his 20 bucks.

Through him I meet another young man. A guy who thought he could out fish me. On my fucking pond! $100, dawn to dusk, by total catch weight. Asked him what rules we were working with and his only stipulations were no boat, one rod. He showed up with a rod, his own gear and bait etc etc. I showed up with a trout line, 5 fishing yo-yo’s and a couple of pool noodle float rigs. He wasn’t real happy about that but young men know nothing

Across the way is two brothers living on the same plot of land. They are industrial control electricians, learned their trade on aircraft carriers , working in the same plant togther and pooling their resources to get their own horse operation going. They grew up doing team roping and want their own place to train. They are serious young men and their place is going to be legit. We got to talking about some trees they wanted removed but they didn’t have a chainsaw big enough and didn’t want spend serious cash to drop 3 trees. I told them we could pull them down with their truck. They called bullshit and they were probably right, their dodge probbaly couldnt. Any rate after about 3 mins of shit talking I was over at their place with my truck, my rigging and cellphone. Used the cellphone to FaceTime my tree guy, who talked us through the rigging and down came 2 out of the 3. I couldn’t set the rigging for the 3rd tree. We chainedsawed some of it, used a guide rope and a different kind of pulley and pulled it down. Barber chaired the shit out of it but we weren t close enough to worry about that. Haven’t figure out how to remove that stump but that’ll happen one day.

I like these young men, well not the asshole who thought he could out fish me and he don’t come around here no mo but the brothers and the diesel mechanic are are good to go.

The problem is they don’t know anything. They are smart enough dudes, and have their shit togther for young men. The mechnic is over all the time, helping me when I’m doing projects around Camp Ton, the brothers never fail to help The Girls when I’m on the road or on some other project. And they are handy young men, capable with tools, home repairs, keep their trucks on the road with their own hands etc. but folks these days don’t learn how to do things. We live in a wealthy, techincally advanced society, which is a full on blessing. These young men grew up rural/ small town america and not in the best of times economically speaking but they didn’t grow during a time where harvesting food was crucial. They arent “privileged” etc in the way my younger children and grandchildren will be but they grew up in a society where cellphones can get you a tow truck and credit means most folks can “afford” to buy speciality tools they don’t use often and can swing the very occasiaonl tow bill…… they bitch about it but most folks drive really new vehicles and don’t ever need a tow truck.

These young men aren’t lesser. What they don’t know is because older men didn’t teach them, and older men haven’t taught them because for two generations now, wealth, technology and increasingly urbanization of america means you can get by just fine without knowing these old school tricks of the trade but knowing these old school tricks of the masculine trade will earn you much status among men with useful skills and it’s tricks like that will help an older man keep his alpha cred as his body decays and technology passes him by

The Ton on the legendary 10/22

As a select few of you may know, The Ton has a slight love affair for firearms. I grew up hunting, just like milions of kids, and I grew up doing NRA long distance shooting comepetions with my father and grandfather. I never stopped hunting and spent much of my life using a rifle to earn my daily bread. At one point, at an elite level but lately it has become a somewhat waining affiar. I still hunt but I do almost 0 tactical shooting because I am bored with it.

Mascuilne sovereignty requires proficiency with violence and firearms are one of the most important tools for a man to master. Money 1st. Guns second because gun skillz take cash to develop.  The Ton still loves to hunt and I still shoot a fair amount but my shooting these days consist of doing dumb shit with a .22LR or long distance stuff. I’m probably averaging 3k rounds of .22LR a month right now vs way less then 300 rounds of .308, .338 Luppa and .50 BMG. Probably less then 100. Partly becuase I can fire .22 where I live full time and have to travel for my long distance range.  Partly because I don’t care if I ever do another tactical anything but I have an old-school book on trick shots I am working through.

As The Ton goes, so does Clan Ton. Mostly because I’m an asshole that likes to throw money around partly becuase I am trying to establish a larger then life legend for my decendants to remember and partly because if we stay here my lineage wil be balls deep in the up coming shit storm…. Clan Ton is gunned the fuck up. I’ll be banging on about tuning  up one of my favoitre rifles,  the Ruger 10/22’s.

There are 2 reasons I customize them, and they are interdependent. Improve useability and to improve reliability. Which makes it sound like the Ruger 10/22 is unreliable. It ain’t. But .22 ammo is cheap and trying to fire large volumes of it will cause problems. You can address that with higher dollar ammo or upgrading certain aspects of the rifle. Improving the rifle is a one time fixed cost. Expensive ammo is a never ending cost.

Improving useability makes shooting more fun. Especially for chidlern and new shooters. The main focus on that is scaling the weapon to childern and reducing the decibels. Again to make it more kid friendly. Sound and kids is a werid thing. #1 They hate to wear ear protection, #2 kids are fucking weird. My 2 year old gets stoked of 12ga booms! Really dislikes rifle fire….. Fucking bastards are weird. Any rate, M4 style collapsible buttocks will reduce the effective size of the weapon. It also expand as the child grows. I also put rail systems on the rifle but don’t mount optics. That is something kids have to earn. When I do, it’s typically a small red dot. Not much recoil on a .22 so not much point in dropping a ton od money on a red dot. Scopes come later.  They need the basics down 1st. Suppressors are the only thing I have really standardised becuase I get a discount as a reliable customer. I’m not runing the most decibel reducing can around but it’s a quality product that is easy to clean. I still have the kids wear ear pro but the can makes it less critical if they are being shitheads about it. Bi-pod legz are hugely popular with the little ones. Helps them mange the size of an adult sized rifle but also dramatically improves accuracy.

An upgraded trigger will almost always improve accuracy. Ruger makes one and I like it alot. For the moeny. I don’t think kids really need the better trigger kit when they 1st start out but I want a rifle they can grow into. Physically speaking and as a shooter.

Large fingers, small mag release…. I put the extend mag release on them. For my sanity as their instructor if nothing else same for charging handle but really it seems to help kids with their small, weak hands manipulate the weapon correctly.

Last for me is tuning up the bolt. Two main issues here. #1 Is the extractor. Like I said .22 ammo is cheap ie dirty and fouls your firearm. Upgrade that extractor so it can deal with the mess and get your spent brass out of the way. .22 rim fire means the propellant is all around the rim of that fucker. Upgrade the firing pin to one that strikes the rim better…. Which will also help burn more of the propellant leaving less of a mess.

Notice I didn’t list which kits to use….. I’m not sure it matters. All of them seem to do well. And I don’t have bipod legs on my personal .22’s.

Not much else to say. They are fun to shoot, cost effective to run/ train with and they do an ok job as a farm gun out here in rural NC where we don’t have a large size predator problem

 

How many guns are enough

My son in law called me today. I don’t much speak about my family like I use to. Internet folks have made that unwise. Any rate my son in law is an ok dude. West point fucker, SF officer, combat vet, engineer, MBA,  regional manger for a huge retail outfit by profession….. all around normal, everyday, upper middle class,  BMW driving “conservative”. As in pretty fucking liberal and retarded but thinks he’s a conservative because he voted for Trump and mittens and mccain. He would die if anyone called him right wing.

Not the kind of guy you would expect to worry about the future because those sorts are idealistic beyond all reason, but he’s worried.

SIL is gunned up. Nothing I would call a majorly armed household, but surely a statistical supper gun owner… which I think means 7 guns or more. I’ve found more guns then that by accident while looking for the gun I wanted. Heck, I think I built like 7 FAL’s before I was doing a good enough job to keep them for myself vs selling them so I could build more.

Today he was almost culturally enriched driving from one buiness meeting to the next. BLM was stopping traffic and harassing passengers. When he saw what was going down, he found a gap in the peaceful protesters culturally enriching the car in front of him, filled it with his sedan and got the fuck out of there.

Which is what any smart person should do. He called 911 once he was clear, 911 told him the law was already responding, and he made his meeting on time.

Any rate, we talked. About a lot of shit. He’s still not ready to leave America. Which makes him a dumbass. He thinks he can bunker up on their  4’ish acres, surrounded by other semi rural upper middle class white folks with big yards, sport sedans and mostly soybeans for neighbours. And they can for some unknowable amount of time because trouble won’t be looking for them out there. Until it is.

SIL is a combat vet. 12A and 18A, with 3 combat tours but he’s never been through a siege and he has some idea about bunkering up in his 3200 sqf, 3 car garage mcmansion…… Most days on the job your M4, 15 mags and maybe a side arm will get you through. You are with a group of guys who are armed and trained wth back up a raido call away. You don’t have to do everything yourself and I think a lot of folks would be surprised just how little shooting and how much directing and talking squad leaders and officers do.

Down to brass tacks. He asked me how many guns should he own to be ready for what’s coming.

I had two answers.

If that is a serious question, then the correct answer is getting the fuck out of Dodge and living somewhere you don’t expect to be a combat zone.

Answer #2) there is no answer.

Because records are impossible to keep and no one really remember any way, we don’t have any idea how many shots are typically fired when civilians use fire arms to defend themselves. All the various studies have huge flaws in them but most “experts” seem to agree it’s 4-5. Experts in quotes there because it’s a topic no one can be an actual expert on. To many variables, the largest variable being people don’t ever really know. As way of example, during training missions most men couldn’t accurately say how many rounds where fired until rounds remaining were counted. Let that sink in. Trained shooters in a non life threatening situation where unable to accurately guess how many rounds they fired while practicing reglaur every day stuff like clearing a few rooms. I had 10 mags on me for my 1st fire fight. I burned through 7 but could have sworn it was 2-3. and yeah I was heavy on the trigger until I settled in to the job.

Answer #2 will always remain unknowable.

I have been through countless fire fights but only one siege. Sure I have been on camps or ECP’s and what not that have been attacked but none of those lasted very long. I’ve been places that got hit nearly every day, and operations that lasted a few days with constant resupply and contact with the enemy but I have been through one balls to the walls non stop event. And that was as a PMC in Iraq.

I have no idea how many rounds I fired. My hands were raw and what not from loading mags. I stopped using my duty rifle. It was taking to much time to break down linked 7.62×51 to keep the mags loaded and they ran out of snipers. I was a dumbs ass for sticking with that rifle for so long.   Moved to  an M4 that wasnt mine, replaced a guy on a crew serve and went back to an M4 when an rpg fucked it up. Never fired my pistol. I know I got some sleep. Cant tell you how much. They were not real serious at night but they kept pressure on us. Probably just trying tomwear us down. I ate a lot. I remember 3 semi meals. Mostly just a lot of bullshit to keep from crashing.  It lasted 72 hours, give or take a few hours…. depending on which report you read and when you think the siege started. I was in contact before most guys. Nature of the job at the time and we were trying to be discriminate initially until things got out of hand. I had ammo dropped on me twice by helicopter. Cant say how many times we were resupplied. Almost all of us were injured. Generally nothing serious. But we were all cut and what not from spall. Brused and beat up from laying on cinder blocks and what not.  Lots of sprains, busted up hands, fingers, burns, bullshit in eyes, busted up ears etc etc. A few guys were hit pretty hard but not so bad it was worth risking an evac.

Point of all that  is….. this

You and your small nuclear family won’t surrive anything like a serious attempt to take your home. You don’t have the man power or resources. Heck 20 dudes and some Molotov cocktails and you are fucked.

If you think things will get that bad your plan has to be better then some lone wolf bullshit.

The 1st thing you should work on is location. (2nd thing if you don’t have a carry gun). The absolute best thing to do with trouble is avoid it.

If you are in someplace like St Louis and that one couple you’re going to need back up. Dial 911. That’s a must and helps protect yourself legally but you’re going to need friends and a plan

1 would suggest every man own an AR-15, (100) full 30 round mags, soft body armor, plate carrier, full-size 9mm with spare mag, a pocket 9mm a helmet, decent 1st aide kit etc and a couple of flashlights.

Scale it from there. Wife? Skip the rifle and 100 mags. Unless you habe the money to spend. Get her the rest of that shit 1st. Someone has to watch your back and the overall situation. Kids? Depends on the age. Have a plan to fall back into your house. A spot to make your last stand and a plan to get in the car and haul ass.

But mostly be somewhere you don’t have to worry about your home turning into a mini Alamo

 

 

Quoted for truth and being zeroed out

By Looking Glass

We’re at a pivot point within all Western cultures. We’re clearly headed for interior wars before 2050. They are going to be ugly and you’re likely to still be around when they start. You have been warned. So, what are you going to do about it? This is the “Question” every Man is going to need to answer for himself.

You were robbed of your grandparents ability to enjoy their twilight years because those same grandparents refused to kill the people that were necessary. Our Institutions have been badly corrupted and you’ve been sold out. So, what will you do? That’s what this is really about. “What will you do?”.

Whatever you chose, plan then start building.

https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2017/12/14/no-respect/#comment-254351

I got jack and shit to add to that. Hell I don’t have a crystal ball so I won’t argue with the date. One of the best statements ever written about the times we are living in. Shit storms come in various sizes, personal size shit storm, local level shit storm, nation wide shit storms and damn near global. All of history is either a shit storm in progress or waiting for the next shit storm to hit. Wise man deal with this fact head on.
…………………………………………………

There has been a fair amount of talk lately about men hitting rock bottom then zero’ing themselves out. Hell one dipshit advocates divorced men kill their ex wife, the judge and themselves. I have noticed the jerkoffs who advocate this going out in a berseker rage lack 1st hand experience with death and killing and ain’t big on putting their own precious selves in harm’s way.

Death is never far from my mind. A very real professional hazard of mine for most of my adult life and my hobbies arent exactly the safe kind either but that’s not what I think about. I have burried 24 brothers over the years. That’s a lot of tears. A lot of broken families, broken lives, missing sons, brothers, husabnds and fathers. Thats what I think about. Good men gone for shitty causes. Life is to valuable to toss away on some sort of hissyfit.

There are times a man, or more accurately, men, should give up their lives. History is full of these stories, The 300 Spartans being the most famous but such paragons are easy to find in military history. History is also full of single men stepping forward to fight and die so the men in their crew can live. There are times men tried to make these last stands and their lives bought their people not a damn thing. The Ton salutes them all. The Ton always salutes courage. Here’s what the uninitiated don’t understand. Those men choose life. They choose life through damn near eternal glory in the hearts and minds of future generations of fighting men. They choose the lives of their brothers in arms and the lives of their kin over themselves. Fighting men choose life. Yeah I know, you don’t get that but something’s have to be lived to understand

The Ton advocates life lived to the fullest but that can’t always be so. A life of hardship can still be a life of joy but only if the hardships are the sort that build you up as a man. I have had friends kill thenselves. I had a young trooper kill himself over the phone. No idea what he wanted to prove but he was arguing with his cheating whore… I mean wife, said fuck you, put his 9mm to his head and zeroed out his cpu. Yeah she was messed up for awhile but she was back to fucking other men in a few months and now his young son is being raised by another man while his father has no one else to carry the family name into the future. What a fucking waste. To die and accomplish nothing is a horror all men should avoid.

I have had friends kill themselves because their was no other way out. They choose life on their terms then the end game of cancer. A man can respect that. One day, at band camp we were doing our normal training deal. At the end of the day we were worn the fuck out, feeling completely energized and right before our last run, our team chief looked at us with this shit eating grin, said I love you guys and went out the door and to his death. Happy as hell as far as we could tell. What we didn’t know until a few days later was cancer had already killed him. There is no way we can ever know for sure but odds are good he died on active duty because the death benefits were better for his family. That’s the kind of man he was. He choose to spend the last moments of his life with his boys, doing what he loved. He choose the best possible life for the ones he left behind. He choose life and we still respect him.

So a man gets hammered in divorce courts. Looses his house, his ass and his kids. He goes to what was once his house, shoots his old lady in the head at 0200, bang bang bang. 3 .45 size holes with blood and brains leaking out. By 0300 he is shooting the judge in the head while he sleeps. Bang bang bang. 3 .45 size holes in the judges head. He puts the gun to his own head and bang. It’s done. Now what? Do all the other divorced men rise up and over throw the courts and government? LOL nope. Do family court judges change their ways? Nope. They get sheriff deputies posted on their door steps. Do the kids get to live in the memory of their father the revolutionary hero or do they live through the hell of foster care and what not?

No one respects that bullshit. No one respects butt sore betaness and that killing your ex, the judge and then yourself is pure butt hurt. Everyone respects the 300 Spartans because they chose something bigger then themselves. They choose eternal glory(in their minds), they choose to up hold the highest virute of their forefathers and they choose to buy their homeland more time. The Spartans had Dead Game butt sore betas who do the murder suicide don’t.

If there is ever a time you have to trade for life for something else, make damn sure that something else is worth the price

Vehicle recovery operations

Vehicle recovery operations….. The back story to this post is helping a guy help a guy get his luxury SUV out of the sand. Not even sure of the brand of the SUV. They aren’t my thing and forgein shit really ain’t my thing but it was 4wheel drive and shouldn’t have gotten stuck. Which brings me to my main point

Don’t get stuck. Easier said the done? Nope. Learn a little about off roading and don’t do dumbshit. I don’t rock climb or go mudding which are different critters entirely but I also don’t get stuck very often because I don’t do dumb shit and I have never needed help getting out of the shit I got myself into. Fact is I get down this stretch of beach in 2 wheel drive so the SUV should have made the trip. Main reason he failed? Lack of experience. The driver had never been off road before, had all the air in his tires, tried to cross the little mini berms other trucks made before him instead of following a proven route because he didnt like how the tire groves messed with his steering and when he got stuck he stomped on the throttle, causing the wheels to spin and dig down deeper for nothing.

Guy #2 had a jeep which was more show then go. It was 4wheel drive, had some extra lift and bigger tires so the sand was no problem but he had a small winch. Not to small just for the much heavier SUV but just to damn small for much of anything. Why? Because he didn’t understand how friction adds weight to the load. In practical terms at any rate. Friction from sand adds about 25% to the weight of your truck, mud adds 50% or more. Mud can be some nasty shit and has stopped more then one army over the years.

Outside of being a Vet and knowing where to go for the information, the army does a damn good job of explaining certian things. One of their better reads is FM 20-22….. Vehicle recovery operations. You can find it online easy as pie. Hell TC 21-305 will even cover the basics of off road driving and I promise you, unless you off road as a sport, the basics and common sense is all you need

Make sure you put your truck in 4wheel drive before you need it. Its pretty standard to let 2/3’s of the air out of your tire before you drive on sand or mud. I don’t let air out myself, but I have aggressive off road tires on my truck and a shit ton of experience. I do carry an air pump you plug into the cigarette liter, but even better I know where to get air a mile or three from where I camp and fish. A few miles of slow speed driving on hard top roads while low on air won’t hurt. Much.

The best thing you can do if you are stuck is stop. The more you try to fight out of it the worse the problem will get. Stop soon enough and you can shove branches or 2×4’s under the tires and away you go.

I carry some 2×4’s in my truck(6). I have holes drilled into them so I can tie them to each other and them to the truck. Last time I got stuck was because I went through some heavy clay/ mud before trying to drive up a rather long sand hill. The tread was full of clay and I got no traction in the sand. Once my forward progress stopped, I stopped, put the 2×4’s under my tires, tied the the boards to each other, them to my truck and off I went. To the top of the hill, dragging the 2×4’s behind me. Which is handy so you don’t have to go back and get them. Don’t get much simpler then that

Next on my list of gear is a Hi-lift jack. . Ain’t nothing but an old school tractor jack but they are rugged as fuck and can be used as a come along too. If I got stuck deeper then the 2×4’s would do for, I’d jack up my truck, then stick the wood under the tires and drive out of it.

My least favorite method is winching. It’s a pain in the ass. I have a 12,000 pound military grade hydraulic winch. It’s a fucking beast. It’s also over kill but I got the damn thing for free so what the hell…. plus nothing works better then over kill. Any rate I have a 6000 pound truck, and realistically don’t need anymore then a 9000 pound winch, weight of my truck plus 50% extra for friction caused by mud or sand. A 9000 pound winch will do everything you need to do… plus I am fixing to teach you how to cheat and double that. Buy a 9000 pound electric winch, read up on it and follow the duty cycle when you use it…. duty cycle is the work vs rest time for the electric motor in the winch

Not only is 9000 pounds enough winch to solve your problems, it’s easy to support regarding rigging. You can find 10,000 pound shackles, wire rope, chain and tow straps with ease at anything like a tractor supply store. I have 4 shackles on my truck, 2 front and 2 back to hook up to if I need to winch myself out of something. Use 10,000 pound shackles to match your 9000 pound winch without worrying to much about shit breaking. Don’t ever attach a winch cable to two points on your truck. You’ll stretch your trucks frame which ain’t good. I would put two 10 foot lengths of 10,000 pound chain in your truck. Make sure each length of chain has grab hooks on each end…. grab hooks which will grab the chain itself. I’d also get a goodly length of 10000 pound eye to eye nylon strap. This gives you options on what you tie off to.

Now…. here is how you ccheat your winch into doubling it’s capacity….. The word is Snatch Block which will double your pulling capacity through the magic of mechanical advantage…. that FM 20-22 will explain the how and the why of it but basically it allows you to add a second line of wire rope off your winch to give you a combined pulling power of 18000 pounds. Fuck you mud! But this is where that warning about never hooking up a winching cable to two places on your truck. That 18000 pounds of pulling will fuck up your frame

How to use the snatch block…. well you set up your winch anchor point…. which is any damn thing you would use to tie into to so the winch can do it’s magic. Then instead of hooking your winch up to the anchor point you hook the snatch block to the anchor point, run your wire rope through the snatch block and back to ONE of the shackles on your truck. 18000 pounds of pulling power. Now some folks will make the case that you only use a snatch block when you need the extra force. To that I say… fuck no snake. Use that bitch every time.

Out there on your own and no truck or big ass tree to use as an anchor point? Get something like this

Personally I love this kind of shit and camping, off roading etc is easier to get into then a lot of stuff out there but I also think these sort of things are entry level man card shit…. old school knowledge damn near every man use to know. It’s the kind of toxic masculinity shit that makes vags drip and soy boys feel even worse about themselves

Ranger the fuck up my friends

Easy Rider; 30 days in the wind and under the sky

Well I am planning my next ride. Not my most challenging ride ever so I am being slack on the planning but this post should help folks who are sort of new to long distance ridding or camping or the combination of both.

I want to do 30 days under the sky, the bike (and sidecar) dog and me. This will be a proof of concept test ride for my trip to Alaska next year. I will meet up with a couple of friends, test out the gear, see how things go with the dog and side car plus route recon ie explore some areas so I won’t get sidetracked when I do the Deadhorse AK  run, tryout some camping spots, meet some guys who own bike shops along the route in case I have problems etc etc.

I have done some hard ridding over the years, and loved setting out with nothing much more then a saddle roll, a gun, pocket full of cash and a toothbrush stuff into my boot top. I took a great deal of pride in ridding coast to coast with limited gear or old-school gear our great-grandfathers would have used. The wear and tear has added up and I got to start throttle back some so I can stay on the road longer. Plus Alaska is a no shit kind of ride and I want to ensure my gear is good to go and comfortable for 11000 miles, round trip.

The 1st thing I tend to before rolling out on long rides like this is the bike. If I had a particular destination in mind I would start with route selection, but I’ll be mostly fucking off on this ride.  I keep my bikes in good working order and all I needed for this trip was new break pads. Because I ride often I understand how long tires and breaks last given my bike and ridding style.  Because I ride almost daily, the battery stays charged and healthy. All my lights work, all oils, break and clutch fuild checked out fine, both in quantity and quality. I tightened every mounting bracket and hardware I could get a tool one without removing the tank or fairing. Anything that was loose got some thread locker to help keep things in place. I also readjust my highway pegs. They always slip on long rides and I want to start off in the most comfortable position.

Next I look at my tools. Normally I am a tool snob but snobbery is wasted on roadside tools. These things stay in my saddle bags for months at a time. Typically they don’t come out of their bags unless I am cleaning them for a road trip. They all got a nice WD40 bath/ rub down. I carry a toolkit I picked up from Cycle Gear  for $40. I use to cary a lot more tools but bikes have improved, a lot and so has my tool skillz and my thinking. Fact is you only need a few tools to help get yourself back on the road, and the more experience you aquire the easier it becomes to get by on less. My tools are in small zip lock bags, and then placed into customs tool bags designed to fit into some of the dead spaces of a Harley’s saddle bag. They look like “L”‘s and i bought them at a bike rally years ago. These are nice because space is at a premium on a bike. There are a lot of small, clever items like that out there for biked, especially Harleys. I have a small electrical repair kit, wire, fuses, circuit tester and some bulbs. There are fuel cans designed to fit into the dead space of a Harley’s saddle bag. In theory they hold a gallon of fuel, I figure it’s more like. 8 gallons when you figure in spillage but I have one in each saddle bag plus a quart of oil in each bag and a small, unopened bottle of DOT 5 break fuild, which for me takes care of both the clutch and breaks. 1.6 gallons of fuel extends my range by 45+ miles. Not to many places in the lower 48 where you are more then 45 miles from gas or help.

Because I ride often, I get the maximum life out of my batteries but I still cary one of those portal jump start boxes. Any one of us can leave the lights on over night and drain our battery. No point be stranded when $80 will get you back on the road if you do something dumb.

By far the most common problems I see on long trips is shit falling off bikes and tires. People tend to strap shit everywhere on these long trips. I bring a goodly number of zip ties in a variety of sizes, plus duct tape and electrical tape. I bring 3 ways to repair and inflate tires. The most simple is fix-a-flat. You can find small bike size cans of it on the interwebz. I bring two tire patch kits, two -45 gram size cans of compressed air, two cans of fix-a-flat and a small air compressor that plugs into the cigarette lighter on my bike. I keep the fix-a-flat handy but it’s all cross loaded between the  bags.

I always cross load my gear so loosing a bag or something loosing it’s water resistant seal or a bag opening up on the road and dumping its contents while I ride or any number of things won’t leave me zero balance on something important.

I also keep a set of frog togs for riding in bad weather on my bike, two cords to charge my phone/ tablet, WD40, JB weld, super glue, thread locker, roll of quarters, 3 hondos stashed in 3 different places, two lighters, ear plugs, ear buds, baby wipes, sun block, rubbers, spare set of sunglasses, two sets of clear eye protection, pair of smart wool socks, baby powder and more zip lock bags. Just about everything goes into a zip lock bags before being packed into a weather resistant bag. Double the water proofing. Ever and always double down on water proofing your shit

One of the reasons I suggest Harleys to folks is the support gear that goes with them. I have a set of these that pair up with the fuel cans. Very helpful product. Easy to get in and out of your saddle bags even after you pack a lot of shit into them. Something like this let’s you keep all manner of small stuff handy. Like chapstick, sun block and bolts to throw through windshields. My least favorite way to add extra storage but they are helpful. These sit on top of the saddled bags. They look like ass but are hella convient, easy on and easy off.  I keep stuff I need quickly or stuff I need everyday in these bags. Fix-a-flat, socks, toothbrush etc and stuff I want to take indoors with me if I am saying in hotels or with friends. Two easy quick connect fasteners and off you go with the shit you need for a night or two. My camping stuff goes into one these, with the tent and sleeping bag rolled up and stuffed into the bag on top.

I use a homemade version of this to hold my tablet to the gas tank. Again, looks ugly, works like a boss, putting my map/ navigation and music within easy reach. Use to be back in the day you had to stop to read your map, or write your exits numbers and milage on your tank with a grease pencil. Now you look down and there is a 10 inch, live update map, turn by turn directions and local weather reports courtesy of Google, not to mention Molly Hatchet pouring out your speakers .

I have a lot of storage on my bike and yet space is a major factor when camping off a bike, even more so when you plan on staying out for 30 days. A lot of shit will happen in 30 days, some you can predict. Some you cant. Somethings will certinaly happen, but you can’t predict when. Like when you will get rained on. You need to pick gear that will cover more then one oh shit or you will consume your space in no time. I will have the side car, but that will be full of dog and dog stuff. Normally how you pack, with the weight evenly disturbed is an important factor as well, but the side car makes it less so.

The number one way to save space is to cut down on the clothes your bring. Which means buying a new shirt and new pair of socks every few days or doing a small load of laundry every few days, or getting really fucking nasty. Or some combination of all three. Well I don’t wear underdraws so that will save space. I will  be wearing under armor shirts and socks ie $$$ so that will mean laundry every few days or smelling really, really bad. Body order and wood smoke gets rank. I’ll probably do laundry every 4th day. Which means packing 4 pairs of socks, 2 extra shirts (one long sleeve, one short sleeve) and one pair of gym shorts for when I am washing my britches. Weather can vary a lot during this time of year but not so much I need to bring a lot of winter gear. Once again it will be under armor stuff, this time the long John type. That plus ridding leathers, gloves and a pair of smart wool socks will get the job done and then some.

Ps don’t forget the shower shoes

Part two will cover the camping gear I plan on bringing, how I will eat and drink and sleep.

 

 

Prepping for a road trip

I’ve been home for to long. To many nights sleeping in a bed is bad for the soul. The road is calling. The solitude is calling. Wind burn, sunburn, the cold, the rain…. the desire to see just one more mile of road, to see what’s around the next curve, to find that perfect spot to camp for the night…

Heading out on a bike for a few weeks isn’t a trek to the Artic Circle, but it does take some planning. Most folks plan routes. I don’t cotton to such things myself. Lest wise not most trips. I have an agenda in mind but no time line. I’m headed South. I want to hit Miami to meet up with a potential business partner, then I’ll run down to the Keys to link up with a dude from my Ranger Batt days. After that? Who fucking knows? I’ll figure it out as we go. We? Me and my Lady Pit will be on the road for 2-3 weeks.

I don’t know how many bike trips I’ve done, so this is routine for me. What will be new is taking the dog and the side car. Oh, and the bike is relatively new to me. I’ve put about 2500 miles on her. It’s an ’09 Electra Glide, 96″ motor, 6 speed transmissio, a 6 gallon tank, I bought it a few months ago just for the trip. I picked this bike because she is stock, which means less vibration, which means less mechanical problems, less fatigue and no searching for aftermarket parts in strange towns when I run into mechanical problems. I wanted an 09 or newer for a few features. 6 speed transmission for one. The 6 gallon tank extends my saddle time between fill ups, an extra concern with this trip because of the weight of the dog and side car. The 96″ motor gives good power and the extra weight hasn’t caused the power plant to struggle at highway speeds. This is also the year Harley made some changes to reduce engine heat. It breaks well, and withought the side car, handles better then my 04. I also wanted stock exhaust. Makes it easier on my doggies hearing, and noise can increase fatigue. I’m feeling my age and the little things adds up these days.

The interwebz has a lot of pre-trip checklists so I won’t speak on that much. Same thing with toolkits, but have one and do the other. Start with fresh tires, breaks and oil. Well not to fresh, but more then 200 miles on them, and hopefully most of those miles on one run. I don’t require a lot of personal gear, I’ve done coast to coast trips with a sleeping bag, tooth brush and ridding leathers. I do carry a fair amount of gear for the bike.

One of the nice things about owning a Harley is options. In this case luggage options. There are kits that will let you get the maximum use out of the limited space in your saddle bags. Use them. I carry a fairly extensive tool kit; with the right aftermarket tool bags they all fit into what would have been dead space in the saddle bags. I also have 2 one gallon fuel cans that also tuck into some not very useful space in the saddle bags. I always carry two quarts of oil, a small bottle of break fuild, Marvin’s Mysrty oil, octane boost, wd40, duct tape and a shit ton of zipties plus three different ways to repair tires along with two ways to inflate my tires. Method #1 is an electric airpump you can pick up at Napa. I have a hand full of air cartridges that you screw into the val stem, takes a couple per tire, but they can get the job done.

I’ll still have room in the saddle bags for my leathers and some water.

I… not sure what you would call them but I have a set of bags designed to sit on top of the saddle bags. I love those things. They are super easy to get on and off the bike and I can get all I need for short trips/ non camping trips into those two bags. Couple of quick releases, they come right off and are easy to carry into the hotel. Toothbrush, couple pair of socks, maybe a clean shirt, sun screen, spare glasses, gloves, long sleeve shirt… all the small things you like to have easy access to while your on the road. You can also fit rain gear in them if your a pussy and use those types of things.sisoursly though, lots of folks love rain great and it’s smart to keep it handy, I have never liked rain gear and would rather put my leathers on. This trip will be mostly camping and everything I want in the tent will be in those bags.

Lots of folks have touring packs/ trunks on their glides. I dislike them for several reasons. I go old school, a nice tall sissy bar, bags and zip ties. These days I have some luggage designed to be used/ strapped to the sissy bar. This is where all the camping stuff and a full face helmet goes.

As a rule, I hate helmets, but a full face helmet is nice to have when it rains. It’s winter time in the South, so I will for sure get rained on. Which is why my socks and what not will be in zip lock bags. Same with the box of spare ammo and mags for my XDM. I’ll also take some under armor in case it gets cold, 2 sets of gloves, hand/ foot warmers and a spare pair of boots

The main topic I wanted to address is camping gear. There is some cool camping shit out there but storage space is limited on a bike, you have the shit you would like to have with you like a towel and a bar of soap and you have shit you absolutely need like moonshine and condoms. Weight is an issue as well, and you need to pack all that shit on your bike in such a way you can get to your stuff in a hurry when you need it and in such a way as it doesn’t negatively affect your bikes balance and center of gravity. Camping in cool places is a big deal to me on this trip. I want to do a little fishing, a little drinking and a lot of sitting around the fire drinking, grilling and singing Johnny Cash songs with my dog so on top of the stuff you need like a tent and a sleeping bag, I want to bring a fishing pole, camping stool, hatchet and some cooking gear.

I’m not going to tell you what gear to buy but I am going to tell you a group of people who have successfully solved the camping gear vs size and weight problem

Backpackers have all that shit figured out. Light weight sleeping bags, light weight tents, stoves, cooking gear, dishes…. they sell all that shit and for less money then the places selling motorcycle gear.

Also I recommend a 2 man tent for the extra space and sleeping bag good to 20F with a poncho liner for extra weight. Saves you money and space and between the 3 things you’ll stay pretty warm even when it’s balls cold

Cut off and happy

I loved watching the storm last night. I opened all three French doors, pulled the recliner over, grabbed a bottle of apple wine, put my Lady Pit in my lap and settled in. The Girls slid up next to me before long.

I am, at this moment, physically cut off from the rest of the world. Its a good feeling. The road that takes us from my little sliver of the inter-coastal waterways to the main land is under water. Not sure how deep, don’t much care, but it’s a couple hundred feet wide. Don’t much care about that either. If I did, I’d put my kayak in the water and find out the depth, maybe find the road under the water, mark the path and drive my truck into town. If driving to town is posdible. Doesn’t seem to be much of a current but if there was, it woukd only take me to town. Which I am happy enough to be separated from.

It’s a peaceful easy feeling. We lost power some time back. Made our inlet nice and quiet. Of sorts. The storm was noisy, but there is no hum from the refrigerator either. I have a generator. Haven’t used it yet. I am enjoying the sounds of nature, family and my neighbors to much. Maybe I’ll crank it up when I run out of ice. Yeti coolers are money, so maybe I won’t run out of ice.

I was up early as I always am and the 1st thing I noticed (beyond the Hell jounds and the Girls) was the silence. No wind, no rain, no sound from the refrigerator. Quick check of the house while Girl glares and my Lady Pit bounces around. Neither would go out for the bathroom in the rain. Ton Spawn was sleeping in, the storm kept him up, the house was intact.

The water is high, maybe 5 ft, right at the edge of our retaining wall and over lapping my dock. We use to be surrounded by wet lands. To our front, the river/ bay, ocean and one of our larger and more popular barrier island. Which i am sure did its protecting us from the wind and storm surge. On the other three sides was wet lands and a road. Now  they are under Lord only knows how much water. I climbed up to the roof/ bbq area of my boat shed and checked out my street. We all did well. The one tree in my street, happens to be in my yard, fell. Ground was to wet to hold it, and it fell across the street. Not much of a tree or obstacle but since you can’t really drive around it now, it needed to be #1 on my to do list. Our little road was cut, and since no one was hurt, or in immediate danger, restoring our high speed avenues of approach became the priorty #1.

I love the silence. We are always quiet,  but this morning it was silent. I wanted to keep it going so I used a pocket saw instead of a chain saw. Made two cuts, which made three peices of tree and cleared the road. A short walk took me tout the next obstacle. Water. The road was cut at the community boat ramp. Not much one can do about that so I turned around and walked back.

And I do have power of sorts. Couple solar panels, couple of deep cycle marine batteries and we have been keeping our phones and tablets fully charged. Could do the same with either the truck or the SUV, but I haven’t cranked either. My neighbors have. In fact the guy at the far end of the road has a small generator going. I hear it occasionally and he came by to let us know we could stash food in his freezer, charge our phones etc. Which we took advantage of. The food storing.

He laughed when I told  him I had a generator but wasn’t using it. They all think I am crazier then a shit house rat but seem to enjoy my company any which way

I did cook for everyone earlier today. By God’s good graces we don’t have much clean up to do. Us even less because I stashed most of our stuff. Nothing major, burgers and dogs, some chicken and fish. Stuff we needed to cook before it went bad. I cooked, kept an eye on some older kids and drank slightly chilled homemade wine while they all worked.

One of the other guys tried to AMOG me.  Some lame joke about me cooking and baby sitting. I laughed, said I didn’t want to break a nail and took a long pull off my bottle of wine. Amature. There he was picking up various bits of debris,  there I was enjoying myself, grilling, drinking and watching the kids and dogs run.

It’s a pretty good life

Truly we are blessed

Life is funny. I could tell the road being cut bothered some people. A quick plan, made up on the fly settled them down. Overt displays of masculine confidence and mastery over the world around you always settles the bitches. Of both sexes. The Girls slid up next to me after the ad-hoc meeting. Daddy likes

All the shit I have on hand for emergencies and I’m not really using any of it. It’s been a very mild disaster for us. More like camping at home. I could be bossier, but why?

I had some regular non treated 2×4’s stashed in the rafters of my garage. A little work with a hand saw and now we have some fire wood. I invited the neighborhood over, all 5 families but not sure any will show up.

Almost everything amuses me. This storm hasn’t been any different on that front. Was interesting watching the Betas be stoic and sort of flippant about the storm. Good, strong  family men. Yeoman worthy of the tittle. The kids have had a blast. My Lady Pit has run wild today because there is no place for her to run off to now that we are a mini island. She has knocked all the kids down at least once. On purpose each time. Girl hasn’t left Ton Spawn or the Girls alone. She sticks to them like glue these days.  I can tell the other dudes wives are happy. Their men were right, no need to evacuate, they can now rest in the strength and decsion making skills of their man. Lest for a few days.

Everyone enjoyed that feeling you get when things are better in the morning. I could tell they all took pride and enjoyment out of cleaning up after the storm, pride and enjoyment in the various clever tricks they came up with to over come the obstacles of having no power, running water and what not. Plus the shared experience of sheltering in place

Time to go put sauce on the chicken and check my trout line before it’s fire pit, wine and pitching woo time

I know many folks are suffering right now, but the Lord was kind to me and mine last night.

Y’all take care now

 

Sell me on….

Saving Western Civilization

Another pretty typical man up and marry some bitch to save Western Civilization diatribe is making the rounds, and as is typical their marketing sucks ass. As in it is all sreech and no sales pitch. It and the comment section is filled with the typical feminist and posturing beta shaming attacks. Pretty boring shit; mgtow are genetic dead ends, they’re fags, pussies, defeatist etc etc.

Let’s face it, there is some percentage of men who could never marry under any social climate(which does not merit our ridicule)but I reckon the majority of mgtow probably could pull  a bride. The issue is could they pull a girl decent enough to offset the various risks. Asking that question is smart pool. The Bible tells us a lot of things. One is a wise man counts the cost before setting on a course of action. The Bible praises prudence and fools rush in where angles fear to tread.  Another bit of Godly  wisdom is….its better to live outdoors then with a bitch. Genetic dead-end, fag, pussy…. not much there to motivate the mgtow men on the bubble. And nothing there to offset legitimate concerns

Of course hit pieces like that are not about challenging and elevating men; they are about rallying the feminist/ tradcon troops, keeping them fired up to feed the meat grinder

Now on to this saving Western Civilization bidness…. my question is why?

The value in Western Civilization is directly propionate to its ability to ensure and protect the rights, property and faith of individual God fearing White men. Western Civilization is only worthy of protection and preservation to the extent it does those three things. Doing those 3 things allowed White men to create unparalleled advances in science, technology, wealth and art. To name a few. Beautiful art; music, sculpture, paintings… words…. all inspiring and elevating men, life saving medical advances… air conditioning…. those are not the purposes of Western Civilization but subset benefits to ensuring an individual White man’s rights, property and faith.

Does Western Civilization do any such things these days? Has it done any such in the last 3 generations? Or more? No says I… yes lots of new things in the science and technology but no to the rest. For me, a civilization that creates new gadgets doesn’t off set killing it’s unborn

As I have said before, civilization is a crutch, it gives women and weak men skirts to hide behind. It also gives unscrupulous men the ability to fleece honest men by the millions… never mind. I can on for sometime on that one

Also most men cannot grasp concepts like Western Civilization. You have to give them missions that hit close to home. That line will be relevant in a bit

When I do the math, I cannot see the value in preserving Western Civilization. It no longer serves its purpose or its masters. The bill will come due one day, and proping up a dying system only delays the day of reckoning which jacks up the bill

I don’t know when the wheels will fall off, I don’t know when the debt will be called in, I don’t know what, if anything, will replace it. Nor is it my concern

I want to preserve people, my people, my blood kin, the Ton progeny, my extended family, my brothers from my army days, my employees and in the big picture, Southern Whites, then kind of sort of White folks in general. The closer to home whatever you want to persevere is, the easier it is to plan for

the Ton Life priority of fires is short and sweet

Right relationship with the Almighty. I have various bits of paper from the Army saying I am a certified bad ass. I am nothing compared to Him who made me. It is only right to acknowledge those who are greater then us.

Making money. Money is the most useful tool you will ever have.  And by make money  I don’t mean having a job. You need to own assets. You will always make more money having employees then you will being an employee. In this world you are either a pimp making money off his ho’s and their tricks, a ho making money off tricks for your pimp, or a trick giving your money to the ho so she can give it to her pimp. It’s better to be a ho then a trick and it’s better yet to be a pimp

Next is your Frame, your reputation, masculine pride…. your mental, emotional, strength, toughness  and abilities.  It requires more brain power and balls to be the master of your own destiny then it does to be a worker been. Trust me. Any military or small business man will tell you that. And you need Game. Soical skills are an important aspect of your frame, reputation and standing among men

Number 4 is your ability to commit violence. This is about your physical strength and toughness. Which you won’t have if you are not mentally and emotionally tough.  This is about how good you are with a gun, how quick your fists are, how cunning and ruthless you can be… and knowing when to be ruthless, cunning and violent

Did you notice what isn’t on the list? Know why they aren’t there? It’s because you can not have those things on your own accord without getting those 4 things in order.

Life for a man will fall into place once he’s about 80% in each of those 4 things. Once you in that Grove, you stop worrying about how society or women or the government fucks up your life. You don’t worry so much about staying on top or losing a round or two because you know you can bounce back. You rely on yourself and your own resources vs needing the protections of far away concepts like Western Civilization

Ton’s Gunz….. not talking about my biceps

I have done two posts on guns, both were a practical intro to firearms on the cheap, I hope. This will be about some of my guns, and what I think is a much better package then a combat rifle or shotgun and a pistol( though those will do the job)

I will start off with pistols. FBI research shows 9mm, .40 & .45 in a statistical tie for most effective pistol calibers. I believe .40 edges out the other two, but does so with in the margin of error. I haven’t looked at that report in a long while and don’t plan on it either. The results are close enough that any of those three rounds are good choices. On top of that .38 and .357’s have been getting the job done for a long, long time. Something like 1902 for the .38 and 1934(I think) for the .357. Each round fell out of favor based on the limits of revolvers round capacity vs a lack of performance. You literally cannot go wrong with any of these 5 calibers. All the big name brands make great guns. A Colt, Smith and Wesson or Ruger revolver will last you a life time. I beat a Charter Arm’s .44 to death when I was a kid, but it was a damn fine gun fun the money and didn’t deserve the abuse. For semi autos again you cannot go wrong with the big names; Glock, S&W M&P, XD, H&K, Sig if you have the money… They are all great fire arms.
I carry an XDM, Kel Tech or a Ruger LCP all in 9mm. The XDM’s and Ruger’s have CrimsonTrace lasers on them. The smaller pocket guns make it easy to conceal. Recently I had to play dress up for some formal events. The Ruger in an ankle holster ended up being the best carry choice. Slimmer then the Kel Tech and carrying the XDM would have required leaving the jacket on all night. I sweat like a pig in August when I have a suit/ tux on. It’s nice to have options. In the past I have carried…. Well lots of things. Colt 1911’s, Ruger SPS101’s in .357, Colt detective in .38…. Never once felt out gunned. A while back I cut my pistol collection to the bone because it things were becoming difficult to manage. Keeping track of the guns and calibers and ammo was taking up to much time. The kicker was finding a box of .32 ammo in my undershorts drawer and not remembering owning a .32, sending me on a 2 hour quest to find the .32. It was a nice Berretta .32. . I consolidated on shotguns and rifles as well for the same reasons and around the same time.

I settled on 9mm as my basic carry round because #1 the already mentioned FBI research; #2 ammo cost, making it cheaper to train and store ammo and #3 faster times on the pistol qual course. Less recoil means quicker shots and speed kills; #4 more rounds is always better then less. I sold most of my older pistols and the ammo but kept a few that have sentimental value to me. I have a 1858 Remington, with the family rumor being it belonged to an ancestor who rode with Col Mosby; a pair of Colt 1911’s, one belonging to my grandfather, the other my father; a Colt Python with an 8 inch barrel; Ruger Vaquero in .357 (want to do cowboy action shooting one day and again I got a great price on it);a Thompson Contender( Encore actually but folks know the Contender name better) with a couple different barrels because it is fun to shoot rifle rounds out of a pistol and to have a pistol you need a scope for and lastly….. .22 pistols. I have Browning and Ruger competition .22’s and a Ruger threaded for a suppressor, with a mini red dot on it. I also have a custom built 9mm that is threaded for a suppressor with a mini red dot. Not sure what to say about any of these. I love them all. I have only shot the Remington once, with an expert in antique firearms but it is prominently displayed in my house. The9mm’s are carry guns, but XDM’s are the only semi auto pistols I have ever picked up and wanted to shoot. I rarely shoot the 1911’s. Grew up shooting them and they are iconic but not a joy to shoot like the XDM. The Colt Python is the best shooting of all my pistols but at $1800 it fucking ought to be. I think they run about $2200 now. I also have a .44 magnum (Ruger SuperRedhawk) I only own those three revolvers these days. Mostly I shoot the .22’s. They are fun, cheap and don’t bug the neighbors.

I use to have shotguns by the tons but I consolidated here as well. I own a coach gun (short double barrel shotgun), and a lever action shot gun, because I like the guns vs any tactical advantages etc.. I use a Remington 11-87 for my shotgun hunting needs. It is easy to change out the barrels on the 11-87 so there is no need to have more than one shotgun for my various hunting needs (yet I own 2). One shot gun with a rifled barrel for deer (took a deer at 176 yards with this set up), a longer bird barrel and a turkey barrel covers all my hunting needs for less cash then three different shotguns. Tactically I use 870 Remington’s or theor 11-87’s with extended tube mag, ghost rings, and shell carrier. Simple and effective. I have 5, and just recently sold my last Mossberg.

Riffles…. Where to begin? ….. Barrett model 82a1 in .50. “Thanks” to someone else’s divorce I got a great price on it. Some UH60 pilot out @ Simmons Army Airfield. I reckon he rarely fired it. I get ammo from an Army friend who takes it off the range. I rarely shoot it and think it’s of limited tactical use in my AO but it makes a semi frequent appearance at work and I feel it’s important to have the tools I use down range here at the house to keep my skill set up. I will probably sell this rifle if I don’t go back down range in the next three years. I have a Remington 700 in .338 Lupua …. But this one is tuned the fuck up. It is one of two rifles I have where I buy ammo custom built to the rifle. Might also sell it if I don’t go back down range. Less sure about this rifle then the Barrett. Next is a Remington 700 in .308. Tuned up of course and this is the other rifle I buy custom built ammo for. This is the most expensive rifle I have. I hunt with another Remington 700 in .308; as well as one in .270. Notice that trend with Remington 700’s? If you ever want to ask what type of rifle I suggest….. Course there are a lot of other brands out there. My father has a shit ton of Ruger rifles and they are fine weapons. When I was a kid and broke I used a Savage and have no complaints but Remington 700’s are the most common sniper rifle in the USA, military and LEO(or was last time I checked). They aren’t all that costly to get into and are easily tuned, but you can get into a Ruger or Savage for less money. 700’s are super common and gunsmiths will be familiar with the rifle. I have three lever action rifles a . 22, a 30/30 and a .45-70. All three are Marlins. I love the power of the big bore .45-70. Rumor has it the round was developed to kill grizzly bears. I have had the .22 since I was 8. There is something satisfying about working the action of a lever action rifle. I have taken a few deer with the 30/30 and a couple of pigs with the .45-70. That round takes the starch right out of a pissed off 400 pound hog. Reality is I could do the same job with a shotgun and deer slug. I also have a pair of Ruger 10/22’s. Those are .22 rifles. I have them set up fairly well, adjustable M4 style stocks so my nieces and nephews can shoot them. I shoot them pretty damn often myself. I have AK 47’s out the you know what. I only have one with any money invested in it. I picked up a couple AK 74’s over the last few years. Not a bad rifle but I am not into the Soviet Surplus stuff to much myself. Great weapons for what they are, not my bag or 1st choice. Same with the Mosin Nagants I have. Mostly I keep them around because they cost me nothing and who knows when I’ll have to arm a couple of platoons’ worth of folks? AR15’s, I have them. One with a short barrel, select fire and a suppressor. A friend of mine built this for me at cost. Otherwise I think it would be cost prohibitive to me. Most of my AR’s are Colts, though I have a pre ban Bush Master that is still going strong. My favorite is the Ruger SSR 556. It is the most accurate out box weapon I have ever purchased. Which is why it’s my favorite. I am pretty spun up about accuracy, way more than required to be an effective hunter or to defend yourself effectively. Main battle rifles in .308 are next. The 1st one I picked up was an old CETME for like $500, including some gun smithing to clean up the action. Once that was done, it has been a great weapon. At the time mags for it were a dollar and I could walk off the range with all the .308 ammo I could carry. I have two FN FAL’s built from kits; an AR 10, by Armalite which I might sell and use the money to buy a Ruger SSR 762; a Springfield Arms SOCOM “Scout” with an Eotech; traditional M1A1 (civilian models of the M14) My M1A1 is pretty well tuned up and has a suppressor. The 700 and M1A1 are big deals to me as they are the primary work tools. I have an M1 Garand as well.

Here’s where things get to be over the top in most folks minds; ammo and magazines. A few years back I ordered a pallet of AK 47 ammo, and one of military surplus 7.62×51. “They” changed the laws/ regulations on shipping and you can no longer do this, or so I am told. I set aside 10% of my pay for ammo purchases. I already mentioned how I made a sofa( more like a love seat) out of boxes of .308 ammo. I no longer have the sofa, but I don’t have an “assault rifle” or a main battle rifle and don’t have 100 full magazines for it. I have over three hundred, 30 round mags for my AR 15’s. Basically when I show up to a shooting school, I don’t have to reload any mags. I have a closet dedicated to shot gun slugs. It’s a hallway closet so it’s not particularly large. Most of the ammo I store is cheap bulk ammo. I don’t keep much match grade or hunting ammo on hand. I have maybe 5k in 9mm ammo. Otherwise I’d keep about 1k of 9mm on hand. I have about that in match grade .38 and .357 ammo for the Python.

Military ammo creates more pressure and velocity then the same caliber civilian ammo. For the typical shooter, this is a non issue, but I don’t risk it since I shoot often. I do 100rounds a week out of my Remington 700. Mostly simple .308 rounds but I do break out the high dollar stuff every so often. I run maybe 3 mags every two weeks or so out of an AR and maybe 50 rounds every two weeks out of my XD and 20 or so rounds of birdshot every two weeks. That’s my ideal at least. Otherwise its .22 shooting for fun and whichever rifle I plan on using to hunt. I’ll be back to instructing next month and will get all my tactical rifle/ pistol training in there on someone else’s dime.

A number of firearms I own would be pointless for the typical shooter. In fact any of my tuned riles would be over kill. Optics are costly too. I figure a man would do just fine with two pistols, a large frame “combat” pistol and a small pocket pistol in the same caliber. I will always recommend the 9mm for reasons already listed, but any of the main 5 will work and have their advantages. Always use the best self defense ammo you can get your hands on and that your pistol feeds well. Use ballistic tips or good ol ball ammo during the winter if you live up north. The extra layer of clothes can fill the hollow point and keep it from expanding. Penetration counts for more than expansion…. That sounds vaguely naughty doesn’t it? A Remington 700 in .308 or .270 would cover most men’s hunting/ long distance shooting needs @ their skill level. If you want to shoot out past 300 yards or so, the .308 is a better option. I hate the recoil in the .270, much more like a punch then a push, so that is a factor as well. The .270 weighs less and is a smaller weapon, which is nice in the scrubby brushy swampy areas I hunt. Everything is a trade off. A Savage Arms in either of those calibers will be good to go as well. As always I don’t want men thinking they have to gun up like I am to see themselves and their beloveds through the zombie apocalypse or fill the freezer. Personally I think ammo storage is more important than gun selection. In a “battle rifle” I will always recommend the AR in 5.56 1st. Mostly because of training cost and recoil management. The AR uses a 30 round mag and it will take 5-7 rounds to kill a guy in close quarters combat (typically) allowing you to engage 4-6 tangos on a mag( don’t do this). My SOCOM has a 20 round mag and will take 3-5 rounds to drop a tango in CQB allowing you to engage….. 4-6 tangos per mag. Same same on that and you will reacquire the target much quicker with the 5.56. I am a controlled pair kind of man meaning, acquire the target, pull the trigger, reacquire, pull the trigger. Recoil with a 5.56 with barely take your barrel off target, given the size of the average mans torso; you’ll stay on target the whole time. The SOCOM has the advantage in longer distance shooting, but again that takes a particular skill set and practice. Most men won’t have the cash or time to develop that skill set. Which isn’t going to be a lethal liability when the EBT card stops working; you will do well enough if you always take into account your own liabilities in skills, tactics, technology etc. when you do your reckonings. In shotguns I would suggest getting a semi automatic Remington or Mossberg. I prefer Remington’s because I find tactical reloads easier but both are fine shotguns. I suggest semi auto over pump because rookies short stroke the pump action when the heat is on. Won’t be an issue if you buy the semi auto…. Or practice a lot with the pump action. In the long run, the semi auto will be cheaper because of lower training cost, and time is always a factor. Do you really have the free time to learn how to run a tactical shotgun? Train with bird shot, use hollow point deer slugs or sabots when it counts (slugs for smooth barrels, sabots for rifled shotgun barrels)
When it comes to reducing training cost and plan good ol Southern fried fun, I cannot recommend .22’s enough. You can eassyily buy a used Browning Buck Mark or Ruger mark2 or 3 for under 300 bucks and the same for a Ruger 10/22 rifle. The fundamentals of shoot are the same regardless of caliber and distances and I think the last batch of .22 I bought cost me $380 for 5k rounds.

Also I will recommend paying for quality training and fewer firearms over a shit ton of guns. There are some good tactical training schools out there. The training cost is high, mostly because of the ammo and needing a hotel room etc, but worth it. I would, if money allows take a class in tactical/ defensive driving, a tactical rifle/ pistol class combo class( or separate depending on your ready cash) and a tactical shotgun class. If funds are limited, do the driving class and the tactical pistol class 1st. Way more likely to come in handy.
Sooooo….. zombie apocalypse weapon selection: the gold standard in survivalist advise is pistol, combat rifle, hunting rifle and shotgun, or pistol, .22 rifle, hunting rifle and shotgun. Most advice in this area is…. Not based on professional assessments of tactical needs. If your budget allows, have 7 rifles. I would suggest two pistols in the same caliber. A large full frame semi auto and a smaller semi auto pocket pistol for easy concealment. Again I recommend 9mm. I would keep about 1k rounds on hand plus another 200 or so of quality self defense rounds. The up side to .45 is I would not feel the need to have hollow points in her. I suggest one shotgun. I do not recommend hunting with a shotgun if the EBT card stops working. I don’t recommend hunting small game at all. Trap them critters so I would suggest you get a quality tactical shotgun. Remington and Mossberg rule this market. Remington’s are cheaper on the initial entry and cheaper to tune up. I also feel they are easier to run in tactical situations because they are easier to reload on the move. Remington’s have been the shotgun of choice for every outfit I have worked with. Once again I suggest the 11-87 over the 870 because of the whole short stroke issues, but training will overcome that. Keep 400 or so slugs on hand, train with birdshot, and ignore buckshot. Rifles. I would suggest a Savage, Ruger or Remington in .308. With a decent scope and moderate training consistent 600 yard shots are extremely possible. I would suggest the AR over the AK 47, mostly due to improved accuracy, lighter weapon, and lighter ammo, easier to operate. I use to tell people I have never fired more than 15 mags in a firefight but that is no longer true. Twice over. I suggest 30 full 30 rounds mags, at the low end, plus as much ammo as you can afford to stack up. I would also think about getting a second AR or having an AK 47/ 74 with 30 full mags and maybe 1500 rounds in storage as a backup. I would suggest having 2 AR’s or an AR and an AK before having a tactical shotgun. Shotguns are not particularly tactically flexible weapons. I would delay the hunting rifle as well ( unless you are already a hunter then you are pretty much good to go and know weapons). Pistols are also not very tactically flexible but pistols are a must and should be #1 purchase item on your list because you can conceal one and carrying one leaves you hands free to do other shit (which is why cops carry pistols btw) I would suggest a .22 rifle, the options are endless but the Ruger 10/22 is the best selling .22 on the market for a reason. Last I checked Ruger was the biggest selling brand of fire arms. That’s a lot of satisfied customers. And of course a .22 pistol. I would keep a couple thousand .22 rounds on hand for training and fun. If you need to hunt for small game, the .22 will do the job.

 

Someone is going to get pissy about the timing but remember Christ tells us to sell our second cloak and by a sword. Every man, especially every God fearing man should be armed, the question is to what extent? That is driven by budget and need and the fun factor. Shooting is fun.