Guns, Gear & Guy Stuff

Hill People Gear - Recon Kit Bag Review - First Impressions

2013-02-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

For some time now I have been very intrigued by the Hill People Gear line of Kit Bags. If you have never heard of HPG, go familiarize yourself pronto. They are as of this writing a smallish company creating some extremely innovative and high quality products.

They have a few different offerings in their kit bag line depending on what you are looking for. I went with the Recon Kit Bag because I felt it had a lot to offer in terms of modularity. It is thin and light weight and has a lot of flexibility with the MOLLE webbing. This way I figured it could fill the roll of a full size kit bag by slapping an admin type pouch on the front, or I would still have the option of going thin and light. My only hesitation was the MOLLE making it stand out and look "tactical", but I decided the flexibility was a worth that trade off. It also has the potential to go "tactical" and be used as a mini chest rig. The pistol pouch could turn into a larger carrying pouch for extra ammo, first aid, food, tools or anything else you wanted to keep quickly accessible.

One thing that I had a difficult time with when researching these was getting a feel for how large they are, so this article will attempt to address that specifically. As this bag gets more use in the field, there will probably be some additional follow up posts.

So to start, here is a picture of the bag itself with an evil "high capacity, assault magazine clip" otherwise known as a PMAG on the front for scale:

The Recon Kit Bag has only two compartments in it, the concealed carry compartment and the small zippered portion you see on the picture above. I believe that all the kit bags (except maybe the Snubby since it has a smaller foot print) have this same pouch so this info should be useful for anyone looking to buy.

Here is that pouch empty. You can see a couple pockets for organization and there are also two loops for tying dummy cords to.

Here is that view again with two decks of cards in each pocket to give you an idea of the size. There is still plenty of space left to fill.

There is that evil magazine again (True story: All my mags, guns and accessories fell into the water during a deep sea fishing expedition. Honest. It was tragic.) along with a couple of medication bottles to fill the remaining space. The pouch is pretty much full at this point. You could stuff a few more odds and ends in there if you really wanted to.

Here is to give you an idea of the thickness with all of that stuff in there. Note that there is with a pistol in the concealed carry compartment in this pic, so the kit bag is pretty well fully loaded. One thing that surprised me a bit about the kit bag was how much you can feel the stuff in the front compartment. If you don't pack it well you'll know.

Now for a little story. After tearing open my USPS box like it was Christmas and installing the Vanguard Glock Holster (Also available on HPG's site) by tying it to the anchor loop inside, I tried a few draw strokes to see how it felt. After about three strokes the knot slipped and needed to be tightened it up. That is when I discovered that the anchor loop had either ripped or had been cut by the tether on the Vanguard.

I sent an email with some pictures to Hill People Gear explaining the situation. HPG has a good reputation for customer service so I wasn't too worried. Sure enough, by morning there were two responses in my inbox from different people both essentially saying that they had never seen a failure like that before and both of them gave different options on how they could take care of the situation. The details I will leave out but I will say that they took care of me and absolutely deserve the reputation they have for outstanding customer service. I am very excited to see what other products they come out with in the future.

BCM Jack Carbine and why ALL rifles should be ambidextrous

2012-12-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

Switch Hitting

Recently, Bravo Company in partnership with Haley Strategic released a new rifle called the "Jack Carbine". Essentially if you took the attention to detail that produces the highest quality AR-15 parts on the market and built an AR-15 from the ground up you get the Jack Carbine. They missed something though.

On the Firearm Blog they did an article about this rifle and linked to a youtube ad at the bottom. The video has some very intense looking scenario training at both the beginning and ends of the clip. If you jump to 8:20 in the video you will see some interesting things that are the reason for this article.

As Shooter #1 approaches a passageway, he switches the rifle to his left shoulder since that appears to present a lower profile to his target. Look closely at his thumb on his shooting hand. I suspect that he used his thumb to disengage the safety but did not have time to reacquire a proper grip before he had a "problem to solve".

Shooter #1 peels off and Shooter #2 fills the space. At 8:24 you see him juggle a bit before he switches grips and that to me appears to be him taking off his safety before bringing his weapon online.

Just to be clear, I am in no way criticizing these shooters tactics or techniques. They are obviously VERY good at what they do, and I'm pretty sure the bad guy in this scenario didn't really care what kind of grip the shooter had as he was getting ventilated. My point in this article is that had these rifles been configured with an ambidextrous safety, I contend that you would not have seen the very minor hiccups displayed in the scenario. Did it factor into the end result? Absolutely not. Could it improve the performance in a product that is already a top tier weapon? Ya you betcha.

The current doctrine of running an AR-15 involves a lot of engaging/disengaging of the safety. As a left handed shooter, it is very easy for to put the safety back on with the knuckle of the trigger finger, but a bit slower to take it off. The two ways I know of to disengage the safety are to break your grip with the firing hand and flick it off with the thumb. The other which was advocated to me in a class I took with Larry Vickers was to use the knuckle of the index (shooting) finger. Neither of them is ideal.

For right handers it is just the opposite, it is very easy to flick it off with the thumb but putting the safety back on is a bit awkward. Having an ambi-safety is the best of both worlds. Safety off with thumb, safety back on with index finger. Done. Righty or lefty doesn't matter.

Obviously I was not on the design team for the Jack Carbine, so I don't know if Mr. Haley considered running an ambi-selector or not. In keeping with the quality components of the build, both Troy Industries and Battle Arms Development both make a ambi safety selector that appear to be of superior quality. The BAD Safety selector in particular is intriguing since they offer different lever sizes for greater modularity and comfort.

Generally we are talking fractions of a second for these motions, but in a CQB situation fractions of a second can matter. This video also shows that in certain situations, being able to shoot from either shoulder is beneficial. It is for those reasons why I advocate that all weapons should be as ambidextrous as possible. Not only so left handed people don't have to adapt and invent different techniques but because sometimes you need to be "other" handed.

Reaching out

2012-09-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I ran to the hills with a group of friends to do some long range shooting. We got another guy hooked on it and he will be purchasing a rifle of his own within a week or two.

The weather was still and crystal clear so we were able to push the .308 out to 1100 yards. That was a new personal record and we were making hits much easier that I normally would have expected.

This also really reinforced the fact that while high magnification is a bonus, it is not necessary to make hits. I can now better understand why a fixed 10x was chosen for some military sniper rifles for a long time. That really is all you NEED to hit a man sized target out to a grand. A few years ago I would have skeptical that a 3-9x would be adequate for shots out to that range.

Afterwards was steaks and beer. An excellent day overall.

762Tactical.com - Kudos

2012-08-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

The other day SoldierSystems.net ran an article on the Partisian LBV (which is a really cool looking piece of kit) made by 762Tactical.com and that got me cruising around that site. When doing so I stumbled across the QRF Rig which I really like the looks of as well. The integrated hydration carrier along with a simple no frills design is very appealing.

The only problem is that it is clearly configured for a right handed shooter. The medical pouch would inhibit access to the magazines for a lefty. On a whim I emailed the company and asked if they would be willing to do a left handed configuration and switch around the mag pouches and the IFAK, and if there would be an additional charge for doing so.

To my surprise I got an email back within a few minutes saying that doing a left handed config would be no problem and with no additional charge. In addition he said he would add that option to his website. Within an hour it was done! How is that for customer service?

The 762Tactical site is sporting some unique designs for very reasonable prices. They also cater equally to both the M4 and Kalashnikov platforms. Typically you can request which style mag pouches you want for each product; so AK guys take notice. This site is worth a look.

CamDesk

2012-08-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Watch your six

One of the guys I work with discovered this cool little open source program called CamDesk. What it enables you to do is set up a video feed from a USB camera plugged into your workstation. It has a little window that hovers on your desktop that you can move around and will show you whatever the camera is looking at.

Several of our desks face away from the entrance to our department and we started using this program so we could just glance down and see who is walking into the department.

It takes up hardly any resources on your computer and you can also make the window semi transparent so you can see stuff that you are working on behind it. I believe you can also plug in multiple cameras for multiple feeds as well. It also has some recording options that I have not yet explored. It supports multiple OS's (not sure if the Linux version will run on OS X or not).

I ran into some compatibility problems with cameras on my computer (which to be fair, is long over due for a rebuild). I couldn't get the Microsoft LifeCam camera to work but we have several old Cisco ball cameras laying around and that works fine.

You could probably get pretty creative with uses for this program, just keep in mind it isn't meant to be a full blown security system. Just a widget for displaying a camera feed.

MosquitoHammock.com Jungle Hammock - Review

2012-08-17T00:22:00.001-07:00

"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage." -- William Shakespeare

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to take my Jungle Hammock from MosquitoHammock.com for a test drive. In short I am extremely pleased with it and slept very well in it. Rather than put the money towards a hotel room for two nights, I opted to purchase a Jungle Hammock and have a more adventurous weekend.

During my last camping trip, I came to the conclusion that sleeping on the ground sucks. I don't recall the last time I have had a restful night sleeping on the ground, even using a sleeping pad. Since this trip to the woods was coming up, this was a perfect opportunity to try something different and give hammocking a shot. That was a good choice on my part. Those two nights were probably the most comfortable nights I've ever spent out in the woods.

Unfortunately I did not have a camera with me during the trip but if you look around at the MosquitoHammock.com page, there are plenty of good pictures to show you what the set up looks like. If anyone really has a desire for a picture of something specific about the hammock, please post it in the comments and I would be happy to get it out and shoot some pictures.

Set up it pretty straight forward. There are a couple of knots that the site suggests that you use but if you are handy with knots and rigging the possibilities are endless. I do suggest trying to use knots that you can undo with just a pull of the rope, otherwise takedown can become difficult since everything tends to tighten up once you lay down inside (or slip and fall apart if you do it wrong, ask me how I know). The hammock is a side entry design, and one of the first things I did was to add some 550 cord to the zippers to help make them easier to find and manipulate in the dark. You can use sticks to create stakes for lashing the tarp down and giving structure to the mosquito netting. I opted to get some aluminum stakes and bring a couple wood dowel rods for the netting so I wouldn't have to try and find materials for it and have an increased chance of them breaking on me. One less thing to go wrong during the middle of the night when it is cold out.

After a bit of reading, something I learned about hammocks is that one of the difficulties is keeping your backside warm. Since you are elevated the air tends to circulate beneath you and robs you of heat. There are several solutions to this problem including sleeping on a foam pad, or using an under quilt which is something else that you must string up beneath you. One of the really great features about the Jungle Hammock is that there are two layers to the bottom portion and that allows you to slide in a foam pad for insulation. I used a Thermarest RidgeRest pad and it fit inside that pocket perfectly. It also stayed put reasonably well when I was changing positions inside the hammock.

The rest of my sleep system consisted of a North Face sleeping bag and a Grand Trunk pillow. The temperatures in that area were pretty mild, it never got below 50F at night. I stayed plenty warm in the sleeping bag and wearing a set of thermal underwear. The weather was fair and clear so I can't really comment on the wind and/or rain shedding qualities of the tarp. Given that this system was designed to work in a jungle environment, I would expect it to handle foul weather pretty well. The pictures and commentary on the MosquitoHammock.com website also suggest as much.

The built in bug netting also made this setup an attractive choice. There were definitely skeeters buzzing around in the area I was in but I felt no evidence of them chewing on me while I slept. The netting uses some light weight shock cord in order to keep the net suspended. This cord seems extremely fragile to me but it could easily be replaced with 550 cord if need be.

The price tag for this hammock looks like a lot at first but if you price out all of the components to accomplish the same things that this system can do, it is actually priced quite reasonably.

So far my only complaint was that the hammock seemed to fold up on me like a taco more than I expected it to, but that might have been because of the location I had chosen. If those trees were thicker, than maybe it would have laid more flat. Or maybe I didn't have it strung tight enough. I'm not really sure. Since I'm a newbie at hammock sleeping it isn't really fair to blame the product when the problem is more likely my ignorance. It wasn't unbearable and being a side sleeper helped in that respect.

Overall this is a really good choice for someone who is interested in giving hammock sleeping a try. It is a good middle of the road choice in terms of price and several people out there will tell you that the Jungle Hammock can hold it's own against the more expensive products out there. There are also cheaper hammocks on the market but they do not have the same capabilities that this system does. This is a very well rounded and thought out sleep/shelter system.

Please feel free to post any questions you might have about the Jungle Hammock and I will do my best to answer them. Thank you for reading.

Keeping Perspective - The Flatline Ops Scout Level

2012-08-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ” -- Archimedes

In an earlier post I made a comment about the Flat Line Ops Scout level that is attached to my SWFA scope. Today I discovered that having your rifle level absolutely makes a difference down range. In theory I already knew this, but today I got to experience it for myself.

While out in the hills shooting at some far away steel, I snapped a couple of rather poor quality pictures which illustrates the results. The terrain I was on was so slanted and skewed that I felt like I was shooting in the M.C. Escher picture above. I had to put faith in my equipment, in this case the Flat Line Scout level to keep the rifle straight.

Here is a picture of the Scout Level showing that the rifle is pretty well straight. And below is what my sight picture actually looks like.

850 yards

That looks all kinds of jacked up doesn't it? Not only is the target itself hung a little crooked, the ground it is on is obviously sloping; AND the ground I am laying in is sloping as well. There were a couple of shots where I lined the cross hairs up on the target all pretty like without thinking about it and completely missed. That meant that my rifle was canted at an angle to fit my perception of what "straight" looked like, and that threw the shot off by at least a mil. Which according to this chart by Millet Sights, means the impact was at least 30 inches off. Solely because of a canted rifle.

If you are into long distance shooting in field conditions, then adding a level to your weapon system may be a prudent investment. Rough terrain and environmental conditions can deceive your senses; sometimes it is nice to have a fixed point upon which you can depend.

Hammer of the Gods

2012-07-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" -- George Santayana

A week or so ago the Art of Manliness blog ran a fascinating article entitled The Generations of Men: How the Cycles of History Shape Your Values, Your Idea of Manhood, and Your Future. It is quite a long read and I will need to go over it a few more times to grok until fullness. The title really screamed out to me because I have been trying to understand the times I live in from a cyclical/historical context and how that should shape my choices for the future.

Lets face it, the writing on the wall isn't pretty. Many people are concerned about the future and what is in store for ourselves and our children. As of this writing, SurivalBlog.com has over 44,034,245 unique visits since July 2005. The Discovery channel is running shows about Doomsday Preppers and even Costco and Walmart are starting to sell prepackaged emergency food supplies. Our currency is seemingly on the track of doing this:

And current legislation paints a pretty dim picture for individual liberty. But something that a good friend reminded me is that time and history are cyclical. Civilizations rise and they fall. Trends come and go. I really take solace in that. The trick is to understand what part of the cycle we are living in and what lessons can we learn from previous cycles.

The reason having an understanding of the cyclical nature of history comforts me is that the things we are experiencing now have happened before; and life continued to go on. One must still keep the sober thought that very hard and dark times may be experienced before the beginning of the next cycle. During some of those downward periods in history, millions of people died and/or lived through hundreds of years of oppression. It is still a terrifying prospect. But having a guess of where we are and how things have gone down in the past can give a clue as to how to prepare for, survive and maybe even thrive through those situations.

As I was munching on the AoM article, I had a flash of insight as to one reason why the prepping community is often mocked and not taken seriously. My belief is that it is because too many preppers focus on when the cycles of history stop. TEOTWAWKI. The Apocalypse.

That is essentially a religious belief. It is a matter of faith that the zombies are going to come for you. Not all that different from believing in the second coming of Christ, or the 12th Imam, or Odin riding down from Valhalla on a hammerhead yak to punish the treacherous who gave up the old ways and started rooting for Christ instead. In each of those world views, when the last cycle stops, those who lived "correctly" will be "saved". As for the rest of you, well too bad, you had your chance to convert. In the Religion of Preparedness (coining a new term?), those who do not store months and years worth of beans, bullets and bandages will be the ones who miss out when the "ballon goes up". This is where a lot of people get turned off by "those wacko survivalists". History tells us that cycles repeat, the circle doesn't completely just flatline. I'm not saying it won't happen, but odds are the sun will still rise tomorrow.

Part of the reason why I think preparedness turns into a religion is that becoming prepared is so incredibly open ended that there never is an end. It's like trying to completely master a skill. It is not possible because there are always different depths and layers of subtly to discover and refine. When is someone completely and utterly prepared? You can't be, hence the temptation to devote one's life to it and become a little fanatic about it.

Coming back to the AoM article (did you notice the cycle there?), they discuss one way to try to understand the cycles of history and the reasons for them. Based on that, one could possibly glean a rough understanding of what is to come. Then by studying that particular kind of cycle throughout chapters in history, one can determine what worked for those who survived through it, and learn from the mistakes of those who didn't. Armed with this knowledge, one can begin to prepare for the probable, not the remotely distant possible...

The reference to Hammer of the Gods in addition to being a really awesome book about Led Zeppelin, is also about how some have observed that when somebody fails to learn the lesson from a situation in life, God tends to use bigger and bigger hammers to get it through our thick skulls. Learn the lesson, break the cycle.

ESEE-6 & DIY Sheath Ideas

2012-07-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

Man's First Tool

If I were to be stranded on a deserted island and could only take one knife with me, my ESEE-6 would probably be the one. If you know anything about the ESEE brand then you probably already know that they have a solid reputation

for making very rugged knives for a reasonable price. Street prices hover just over $100 usually. Breaking one or leaving one behind won't break your heart quite as much as a $300+ Strider would. In the event that you manage to break an ESEE knife, they have an outstanding warranty and will replace it. (Not that a warranty will help much on a deserted island).

This knife is one of the old school ones when ESEE was still going by RAT Cutlery.

ESEE's product and reputation speak for themselves so I am not going to talk much about the knife. What I wanted to share in this post was the current evolution of the sheath system I have put together for it. The inspiration for the design probably came from an older generation SpecOps Brand sheath that I have. Clicking the link you can see the similarities.

The SpecOps sheath has very good construction but there was some things that I didn't like about the design. One is that it does not come with a leg loop. If you are going to hang that sheath on your belt then a leg loop is pretty much mandatory. Without it the sheath pulls up with the knife and it is a pain to get out. To be fair, one could be added easy enough, but I didn't have any webbing available and used some 550 cord and a cord lock and that solution just felt ghetto to me. The version that I have also has a zip up utility pocket and did not include a covering flap like the current generation does, so I didn't like that the pouch was left exposed.

Hence the design you see here that fixes the things I didn't like about the SpecOps sheath. ESEE sends you a kydex sheath with some MOLLE clips right out of the box. What I did was take the kydex sheath and attach stuff to it.

Some of you may recognize the Safariland 6004 holster straps present. After a brief phone call Safariland was willing to ship me the holster components. To wear the knife all I have to do is thread the velcro through a belt and then snap the leg strap on. As a side note, my interaction with Safariland completely surpassed my expectations. They have outstanding customer service.

To attach it to the kydex I drilled holes in the drop leg strap and zip tied it on. To be honest I am a little concerned that the zip ties will eventually deteriorate and break on me, but so far they have been very secure. If they do end up breaking, the problem is cheap and fast to fix (providing there are some additional zip ties handy). The zip ties did need to be sanded down a bit after being clipped off. They had very sharp points that may have cut into the drop leg strap.

You can also see some ranger bands in between the zip tie spaces. That idea I picked up from watching Dave Canterbury on YouTube (not that anyone cares, but I've been a fan of Dave long before the whole Dual Survivor thing). Those enable me to secure a firesteel or some cordage or whatever in that extra space. Dave on one video mentioned the idea of magnetizing a needle for an emergency compass. One of those could be secured to the back of the sheath with the ranger bands and take up no additional room at all.

For the pouch I picked up a Tactical Tailor knife pouch and secured it with the zip ties and provided MALICE clip. There is a little bit of slop with the pouch moving around but nothing to stress over. I tend to keep some fire starting tools or a multi-tool in there.

The biggest downside to this setup is that it is large and a bit cumbersome. However the blade is also 6 inches long so it isn't exactly a low profile knife. If this blade is out then it is usually being used in a setting where having a full drop leg rig isn't a problem. The placement and kydex sheath make the knife very fast to get to as well. So far it has been a solid platform for a solid performing knife. Hopefully you will get some inspiration of your own from this post.

SWFA & Weaver Scope Comparison

2012-06-28T23:21:00.000-07:00

SWFA SS 3-9x 42 Tactical 30mm scope compared with the Weaver Tactical Grand Slam 3-10x 40mm

When I was putting together my 10/22, I knew that I wanted to make it an accurate gun, so I decided to try and make it match my .308 as closely as possible with how it was set up so it could be a kind of "trainer" rifle. Some people have gone so far with trainer .22's as to put them in Accuracy International Chassis and put high end glass on them like Nightforce or Schmidt & Bender's to match their big boy rifles. Since I haven't won the lottery or anything, that wasn't really an option here.

What I did manage to find however was a scope that very closely matches the features of my SWFA SS 3-9 (SWFA henceforth) for a very reasonable price.

A little history on the SWFA optic. Legend has it that this scope was originally designed by Tasco and called the Super Sniper. The quality was questionable and somewhere down the line, SWFA picked up rights to the design and made it their own. For the price the SWFA SS 3-9 is an exceptional scope. SWFA sells optics and accessories from several manufacturers but the SS is their own house brand scope. They make several different models, including some 1-6x's, some fixed power scopes (with crazy amounts of adjustment in them) and a 5-20x50 30mm that I would love to get my hands on.

This Weaver scope is a special design that can only be purchased at Midway USA. Pretty frequently it goes on sale for $100 off and that is the time to get one. For the money it is a very good scope. If a SWFA is outside of your budget, give the Weaver some serious consideration. As you'll see soon, they are very similar. Bushnell has some designs that are similar to these scopes as well. Those can be found at Midway as well.

One of the coolest features about the SWFA scope is that it has a First Focal Place (FFP) reticle with .1 miliradian (MRAD) turrets and a mil-dot scope. For those who may not be familiar with those terms, a mil-dot scope is a certain kind of reticle that looks like this: (image taken from http://www.mil-dot.com check them out to get a basic understanding of mil-dot reticles )

In short, it allows the shooter to estimate ranges to targets of known approximate size. MRAD turrets are calibrated to be used with a mil-dot reticle. What that means is instead of thinking in inches of drop or windage, the Minute of Angle system, you simply use the reticle you have in front of you as a ruler.

For example, if you take a shot and you can see the impact hit exactly one dot low (termed "one mil low") through the scope, then you simply have to dial up 10 clicks/one mil and you should be on target. You don't have to estimate how many feet or inches your shot was off at hundreds of yards away. The mil/mil (mil-dot reticle with matching MRAD turrets) is a much more precise way of dialing in corrections. There are also MOA/MOA scopes out there but I'm really not sure what they have to offer over using the milliradian system.

First Focal Plane has to do with where the reticle is placed within the scope. Most traditional scopes available in the U.S. are called Second Focal Plane (SFP) scopes. When you increase the magnification on a SFP scope, the reticle size stays exactly the same. On an FFP scope, when you change magnification, the reticle adjusts in size to match. For example, here are a couple shots through the SWFA scope, one on 3x and the other on 9x, notice the size of the mil dots (click to enlarge)

And now the Weaver SFP scope on 3x and 10x

Notice how the reticle stays the same size in relation to the background. So why is this important? One thing to understand about SFP scopes is that the ranging reticle is only accurate on one magnification; typically the highest. In other words, in order for the mil-scale to be accurate such that the reticle matches the turrets, the Weaver scope must be on 10x. If you are in a situation where you are in a competition, hunting, or doing bad things to bad people and must make a fast follow up shot, being on the wrong magnification with a SFP scope can cause you to miss under stress when you try to dial/hold a correction since your ruler will be wrong. A FFP scope will not have this problem because the reticle changes size accordingly with the magnification. 1.5 mils is always 1.5 mils regardless if you are on 3x or 9x.

For whatever reason, FFP scopes tend to cost more money. I do not know if they are actually more difficult/costly to make or that is just a desirable feature which can fetch a higher price. Since my Weaver was going on a .22, it wasn't worth the extra cost to me to find a FFP scope. However matching mil/mil turrets is something that was a requirement for this optic because I didn't want to have to switch between thinking in mils and MOA. One of the really great features about the Weaver Tactical Grand Slam is it's MRAD turrets.

SWFA

Weaver

Very similar. The little blue line you see is a small piece of painters tape to mark what revolution my zero is at. Doesn't work in the dark, but the reticles don't illuminate either so that shouldn't really matter.

If you are interested, the level you see is a Flat Line Ops Scout model level. It is a very recent addition to my .308 and so far is working well. It is particularly useful when the terrain is cockeyed relative to your position and makes you want to tilt the rifle to match the background. I can't say for certain if that is making any difference on paper yet.

When popping the turrets off, you can see that both scopes have nice brass internals. It stands out when adjusting the turrets as they both make very crisp clicks that can be easily counted by feel. Both of them from my experience have been true to scale with the reticle. That is to say, if I see a clay pigeon 2 mils to the right and 1 mil up on the berm, I can hold the cross hairs in the same spot, dial 2 mils right and 1 mil up and the clay pigeon is done for.

SWFA

Weaver

Another thing I will point out is the magnification rings since they are slightly different. The SWFA ring is much tighter and more difficult to turn than the Weaver. SWFA sells a throw lever if the slick design bothers you.

To my eyes, the glass is acceptably clear. I know of no way to objectively compare the clarity and picture between two different rifle scopes, and my photography skills are likely not up to the task anyway. Where the difference in price comes in is in the construction and likely the FFP vs SFP reticles. The Weaver scope does not feel cheap, but it definitely does not feel as rugged as the SWFA scope. That is one of those things you can only appreciate by getting your paws on them. Everything about the SWFA scope feels tighter and more solid.

Considering my objective of trying to find a scope that was similar to the SWFA without spending a ton of cash, the Weaver fits this bill exceptionally well. It is also a testament to SWFA's quality that two very established companies, I believe, have had scope designs inspired by the SWFA SS line. Credit of course also goes to the guys at Tasco who initially created the Tasco Super Sniper.

----

Since I have both rifles out and am comparing the two, this would be a good time to give a hat tip to the Karsten Cheek Pieces that they both wear. If you find yourself having to pick your head up to get your eye in line but don't want to spring for a new stock, Karsten might have the answer. To my knowledge, his is the only product like this on the market. They can also be found at TacticalWorks.com

Here also is the Tac-Ops cheek pad on them both

Link update

2012-06-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason the Wildwood Survival link has been broken for several days. I changed the link to Wildwood Tracking which is a sister site and still seems to be up and running. Well worth a look, there is material on that site that I have never seen the likes of anywhere else.

Gun Cleaners and Lube

2012-06-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

Everybody has one, and I'm going to show you mine

Having a discussion about cleaning and lubrication products for firearms is borderline like having a religious discussion. Both parties minds are usually made up before the talk even starts and occasionally by the end of it somebody is dead. Thankfully that doesn't happen very often though.

Here I am going to discuss my favorite products and why I like them (or not) and if there is something you want to try, then give it a go.

Hoppes 9 Gun Oil

When I first got into shooting I knew a bottle of gun oil would be required so I grabbed something off the shelf and this was it. After about 10 years this is my second bottle. It is a very good generic lubricant. A lot of lubes out there are specialized in some fashion but this stuff is like vanilla ice cream; it's simple and it works. I've even used it with ok results in hair clippers. If you want an oil to wipe your guns down with this stuff is good for that as well as it doesn't leave any kind of sticky film or residue.

Militec 1

This is one of those specialized lubricants. I say that because the way you are supposed to use it is apply it to your firearm and then toss it in the oven to bring it up to "operating temperature". Or apply it and shoot the gun to get it hot. It is supposed to be a dry lube that as I understand it forms a molecular bond with the metal when it is heated up and lubricates the surface.

Personally, I've never actually used it that way and I apply it like regular gun oil. I figure if it heats up while shooting and forms a passive lubricant then awesome. Double protection. This is the primary lube I use for my weapons and they all run reliably.

As a bonus, the stuff smells REALLY good. Kind of like how some chicks get all hot and bothered by the smell of solvents, this is kinda like that.

TW25B Grease

This is the only grease I have any personal experience with, and unfortunately my experience wasn't a good one. I was using it for lube on my AR-15 and took it to the range after the rifle had sit in storage for several weeks. What I experienced was multiple failure to feeds. The grease had evaporated and since the bolt carrier group was dry it was short stroking and not feeding the next round. The screws on my gas key happened to shear off during that trip as well. I don't *think* that was due to a lack of lubricant, but I'm also not an armorer so I don't really know. For the time being it will be chalked up to coincidence.

If you use this stuff, be fore warned that it does evaporate over time so it is better used right before you are planning to shoot. I decided to shoot my rifle as is without checking to see if it was dry just to see what would happen had I needed a rifle right then. If I had tried to use that rifle in a self defense scenario I would have been hurting big time. That was also a lesson for me to check on guns every week or two that are kept in a "ready" condition to make sure they are properly lubricated. Especially AR's. Had I done that then I'm sure the TW25B would have performed fine. That being said, I don't really use it much anymore because of that incident.

Ballistol

If anything is going to give WD-40 a run for its money then this is the stuff. Lately I have been using it as a case lube for resizing. The RCBS lube is a pain to squeeze out in sufficient quantity onto that little green pad and I had a can of this sitting next to me and had one of those "I wonder.." moments. I've stopped using the RCBS lube.

According to the labeling, you can use it for damn near anything. Including leather and plastics which I believe is outside WD-40's scope of practice. I have not tried it as a weapons lubricant but this is handy, handy stuff to have around so it is worth mentioning.

Frog Lube

"Rendered from the ball sweat of Navy SEALS". It says so right on the bottle. No not really. This stuff is supposed to be the new cool CLP out on the market that both eco-friendly and non-toxic as well. It was created by a former SEAL as a result of his dissatisfaction with products on the market. Someone with that kind of operational experience striving to create a better mouse trap is IMHO more than worthy of taking notice of. Since I had some free Brownells money I figured I'd get a bottle and give it a go and see if I like it better than Militec1. Other than a fresh winter green scent, I can't really comment on it either way... yet.

On to cleaners

Mpro 7

Liquid awesome! The first solvent I ever worked with was Shooters Choice and I hated it. It just did not seem to work for me and I probably would have failed a DUI test every time I finished a cleaning session. I forget if I just pulled MPro 7 off a shelf or if it was recommended to me, but I have used it for the majority of my cleaning ever since.

It is a water based cleaner so it does not have those harsh solvent fumes. Carbon just seems to dissolve off of the metal. To use it I hose down what ever it is I am cleaning, give it a scrub with a brush and then wipe it down. Done. The only place I'm still not 100% convinced is using it on a really fouled .308 barrel. But, I might not have given it enough time to work.

Gun Slick Bore Foam

When I was suspecting that my .308 wasn't getting quite clean enough with MPro 7 and a boresnake I gave this a try. This was when I was coming to the conclusion that I really should invest a bit more into my cleaning kit for the .308. I definitely noticed a difference. You can really see the copper coming out of the barrel with this foam. It squirts in kind of like shaving cream expands to fill the entire barrel. If you aren't using a sealing bore guide, be careful it doesn't squirt back into the receiver. Again, ask me how I know.

I don't have a bore light or camera to really give a scientific evaluation on it but my impression after using it was that the barrel was much cleaner (as evidenced by the ton of fouling and copper that got cleaned out of it) and my groups settled down a bit. Take that for what it is worth.

Butch's Bore Shine

Last but certainly not least is Butch's Bore Shine. My introduction to this product came after baby sitting a good friend of mine's rifle. This is what he wanted me to use to clean it, and so it was. It has since been added to my repertoire. This stuff is hard-core. I'm actually not sure it would be wise to use it for every cleaning, but if you want to REALLY clean a gun, this is a good choice.

My impression after using to clean an AR-15 was that it completely degreased the metal, and seemed to suck out any residual moisture or lubricant from the steel. I took extra care to thoroughly lubricate the bolt carrier group after cleaning it with this. Given my fancy for Militec1 I have a suspicion that Butch's Bore Shine may be counter productive towards any passive lubrication ambitions. If you are of the white glove cleaning persuasion, then Butch's Bore Shine is highly recommended.

That folks is my current list of go to chemicals for keeping my boom sticks in working order. If you are dissatisfied with what you are currently using for any reason or just curious, perhaps one of these will be your answer. Until next time.

A Fire Success

2012-06-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

The World is Always Burning

This is just a quick post about an experiment that worked tonight. I have plans for some more meaty posts later.

Fire building has always been difficult for me and it is something I've put a lot of time into trying different things because I *want* to be good at it. There is another link I need to add to the blogroll and I'll do that shortly, but the host of RealitySurvival made an awesome fire building video. I've been playing with that method and it has been working really well for me. You can check that out here (it's longer than it needs to be, you'll get the idea within the first few minutes):

There is a BushcraftUSA video that is similar and shorter, but uses the same method of kindling prep and stacking. It just doesn't have the extra cool factor of having a bottle of water dumped on the kindling.

One of the important points brought up in both videos is to not add your next bundle until you see the flames start to burn through the top. Have faith and let the fire grow.

So for my tinder, I tried a bundle of jute twine and I got some small flareups using the fire steel but not a good flame. In a fit of inspiration, I grabbed a piece of charcloth and got that lit with the steel. Then I put the jute knot on top of the charcloth, blew that into flame and then put my pencil lead sized twigs on top and it pretty well burst into flame. The material I had was so dry that I worked my way up to a sustainable log fire in less than 2 minutes.

I'm not real sure how well the jute would have worked if my kindling was wet like in the first video. I have a feeling the flame might not have burned long enough. A few nights ago it was rainy out and I used a Vaseline soaked cotton ball with damp kindling and the methods described above worked fantastic. Those Vaseline cotton balls burn for a very long time.

So what I learned was that jute twine has potential and charcloth is still great stuff. I made a bunch more of it tonight.

As a side note, I didn't fluff out the jute like the guy in the charcloth video linked above did. I tied mine in a kind of knot like shown in the picture. I bet his method will work better if I can figure out how to quickly break down the jute twine like he has it. Also, I found that video to illustrate the making and usage of charcloth for this post. I didn't watch it before tonight so it wasn't where I got the idea for the twine or for using charcloth to light it. However his method of breaking down the jute into fibers looks much more effective than what I did, but also much more time consuming.

8541 Tactical Ammo Burrito - Review

2012-06-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

The Tactical Ammo Burrito

This is a clever product from John McQuay of 8541 Tactical. He was *I believe* a former USMC scout/sniper and has been actively building a name for himself in the tactical long-range shooting community lately. You may see him in various gun forums under the name LoneWolfUSMC. In addition to his own website he has been doing a weekly Q&A session on youtube called Mail Call Mondays that provide excellent information for precision rifle shooters of all skill levels. If you are into bolt guns with bipods and expensive pieces of glass

then you will likely find something useful in his video series. Plus you can field questions to the expert himself which is outstanding. John also has a small product line on his website and I am going to talk about one of those products in this post.

To set the record straight, I haven't been an operational anything so I'm not sure how the professionals carry their ammunition in the field; but prior to ordering a couple of these burros I had been carrying my rifle ammo in one of those plastic reload boxes. It got the job done but there were a few things that drove me nuts about them. One thing is that they are bulky and can easily pop open in your bag and dump cartridges everywhere. Ask me how I know. They also make a whole bunch of noise rattling bullets around. I like my gear to be quiet. Mr. McQuay came up with a simple but ingenious way of carrying a bunch of rifle rounds in the field in an easily accessible manner. You can pretty much already see how it works from the picture, it is self-explanatory. For just about the same size footprint in my pack I can carry more ammo and it is quiet. Problems solved.

A very handy feature that I haven't taken advantage of yet is an area to put reference cards. Most likely it would be used for bullet drop and wind data but obviously any information you felt was prudent could be put there. One word of caution is that ink and/or printer toner can imprint itself on the plastic screen there. The documentation you get with the ammo burrito suggests that you either laminate your range card or cover it with packing tape.

These are the 30 round models and John also makes 20 round models as well. Currently there are two common caliber options available, .308 or a .30'06 model. There is also a Magnum Burrito for those of you using .300 Win Mag or .338 Lapua. John also says on his site you can contact him for custom caliber designs.

The construction feels solid. The elastic loops are snug and everything is neatly put together. I haven't had the opportunity to take mine to the field yet but I expect they will get the job done. If you have read this far into the post then check out the 8541 Tactical Site and have a look around. I bet you will like what you see.

Off The Map Knives - Review

2012-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

Functional Art

About a year or so ago, I had a hankering for a custom blade. I have a handful of very good production
knives (mostly ESEE) but wanted something a little more personal. My search eventually let me to the knife maker Brian Andrews. His site is The Backyard Bushman and his brand is called Off The Map Knives.

Brian has a very large selection of knives on his site, each with a ton of options. One of the great things about him is that he is also willing to do completely original work. Several of the knives he offers initially came from drawings and discussions between himself and individual customers. Knowing this, I approached him asking if he could tweak one of his designs for me.

What I asked for was basically a Tony's Bushcrafter handle with his The Bushcrafter blade. I also wanted the blade slightly longer. Brian tends to favor 4" fixed blades and my EDC folder has a 4" blade so that seemed a little testosterone deficient to me. Here are the specs per the options on his site:

Knife: Tony Knife handle, bushcrafter blade shape, additional .75" of length
Steel: O1
Grind: Scandi
Thickness: 5/32"
Handle: Desert Ironwood Burl with Jeweled cross pins
Liner: Black
Other: Matching firesteel

Here's the mockup drawing (the Tony and Bushcrafter are below)

And the finished product

Here's a better picture of the blade with the Scandi grind. I don't know why it got so washed out in the previous one.

The knife is an absolute work of art. I went with the heavier 5/32" blade thickness so it can better standup to batoning through wood, and it hasn't let me down. Here it is next to the 1/4" matching firesteel. The black scaling mentioned in the specs can be seen here, they separate the tang of the blade from the wood of the handle. He also gives the spine a sharp 90 angle for striking on the firesteel, and when you feel the edge of the spine, it is very pronounced.

Brian prides himself in the design and comfort of his knife handles, and he did an exceptional job with this knife. The handle fills the palm of the hand quite comfortably, more so than any other knife I own. You can see how the handle swells to fit in the palm of the hand in the picture above.

I got lucky with a beautiful piece of desert ironwood. The cross pins give it an elegant look. Something that I wasn't aware of until after I placed the order is that desert ironwood only grows in the Sonoran desert, which as I mentioned in the last post is where I grew up. That gives this knife an extra personal touch for me. The grip here is something that Brian wanted to change, one thing I guess he didn't like about the Tony's Bushcrafter was he felt the grip needed to be brought closer to the blade to give a little better leverage. Since grip comfort is something Brian prides himself on, I trusted the expert.

Needless to say, I couldn't be happier with the knife. It is everything I was looking for. A perfect blend of beauty and function. The craftsmanship is outstanding as well. The accompanying sheath is a hard leather which is simple, functional and well made. Getting the knife back in can be tricky sometimes because it is so sharp and can bite into the leather. Keeping the spine of the blade against the sheath and using a light touch usually does the trick. If you know the proper way to sheathe a katana, it is kind of like that.

Ordering was easy. Like I mentioned earlier I got in touch with Brian via email about what I was looking for and asked how long his wait times were running. At the time it was about 3 months so keep that in mind if you want to order. Eventually as the wait time expired we started hammering out the details via email and chat. Brian was extremely easy going, professional and easy to work with. If you have an idea for a custom knife and are looking for someone to create it, Brian Andrews may be your man.

Survival Defined

2012-06-25T00:12:00.002-07:00

Thus spake the Norseman

In the future I plan to have a blogroll up featuring some of my favorite places on the internet. In this post I am going to highlight one of them. This man goes by the title Norseman and is a USMC survival instructor. He knows his stuff, and explains it in an easy to understand fashion. Here is a link to his blog. I believe he is still active duty so he doesn't post very often. One of his youtube videos had a pearl of wisdom in it that
really made lights go on for me. He was giving a lecture to a group of adults about wilderness survival topics.

The bit that really stood out went something like this 4:44 "A survival situation is defined as any time a person or group of people need to meet their basic needs in order to survive... Whenever your plans for shelter, food, water or intended duration of stay fall apart, you are now in a survival situation." That is a fantastic way of keeping your ego in check when evaluating your situation. The first rule of battle is to know when you are in one. Using these criteria allows you to easily determine when your trip is not going according to plan and as he puts, "you need to start paying attention", rather than allowing your ego to convince you that everything is still okay.

The way I typically plan for excursions is to first identify what resources I can expect to have available during my trip along with the expected weather. Then using this information along with the Rules of Three, I'll lay out any gear I feel I might need to make up for my gaps in skills/knowledge and to help cover any likely problems.

For example, I live less than 5 miles from my workplace in a region with typically mild weather. Bringing along MRE's or water purification just doesn't make any sense. If need be I could walk home in less than an hour. I'm not going to die of dehydration or starvation in that period of time. Some extra layers in the winter is all I am likely to need.

Taking my family on a road trip is a different scenario. One of the worst problems there is our vehicle breaking down in the middle of nowhere. In that case bringing extra food, water, clothing, tools and signaling devices make sense. Acknowledging that something has gone wrong is easy if your car breaks down. Even if the solution is simple and not necessarily life threatening (ran out of gas), technically you are in a survival situation. My survival kit for this kind of trip might include water purification, high calorie energy bars or MRE's, a fire kit, emergency blankets, that kind of thing in case the extra stuff we would normally bring is not enough for whatever reason.

Where people can run into trouble is when things start going wrong and they refuse to acknowledge it, or out of ignorance or just plain boneheadedness they do not prepare properly. For instance I grew up in the Sonoran Desert. In that climate it is very easy to become a heat casualty. If your source of hydration, let's say a Camelbak in this case, springs a leak on the first morning of your two day hike and you refuse to "pay attention" to that fact, you may easily find yourself in a life or death situation in the desert when you prematurely run out of water. (3L probably isn't enough to begin with but I digress).

Using the Rules of Three to establish your equipment priorities and Norseman's definition for survival to acknowledge when one or more of those priorities has been compromised is, IMHO, a very effective way to keep your ego out of the equation when evaluating if "shit just got real".

...

If you haven't heard of the Rules of Three principle, it is a way to determine your most imminent needs for survival. It goes like this:

You can survive for:
3 minutes without air
3 hours without shelter (or 3 hours exposed to the elements is another way it is commonly worded)
3 days without water
3 weeks without food

Sometimes you'll see "3 seconds if you panic" thrown in there as well.

I tend to include clothing, fire, signalling and navigation all in the shelter category. Clothing and fire help keep you warm. Signal and navigation are ways to get you back to shelter.

Your current situation will dictate your most pressing needs. The idea is if you are in a survival situation it does not make sense to start worrying about being hungry if you are already thirsty, darkness is falling, it is starting to get really cold out and you haven't done anything to secure a warm place to stay for the night. Oh by the way, you know that since you are thirsty you are already dehydrated right? Your belly might feel like the most important thing right now, but food can be postponed for a couple of days while you take care of more pressing needs.

The order can be flipped if necessary as well, if a member of your party is diabetic and starts to crash and needs sugar, well food just jumped up in the priority list. You get the idea.

The Rules of Three can be applied even as you sit right now. I assume you are breathing or at least wearing a gas mask or SCBA or something, so air:check. Shelter; you are probably in your residence or nearby it or another structure of some sort (a coffee shop counts). Either way if you are spending your time reading this I doubt you are suffering from exposure. Water, get some from the tap. Food, open the fridge. We have it pretty easy don't we?

Kidd 10/22 Barrel Review

2012-06-25T00:03:00.002-07:00

Kidd 10/22 Barrel

Up this week is the Match Bull Barrel from Kidd Innovative Design. They are extremely accurate barrels for a very reasonable price. Kidd offers pretty well everything you could ask for to accurize a Ruger 10/22. They even offer their own complete receivers and rifles if you want an even better quality product from which to base your build off of. If you are considering upgrading your 10/22, give Kidd a visit.

A friend of mine has a very nice 10/22 with a Volzquarten barrel and that inspired me for a 10/22 build. I really didn't want to spend $300 on a barrel however. After cruising around the internet and reading several posts at Rimfire Central, I came across the Kidd company. Everything I read said that their barrels were just as accurate as Volzquarten and they also had a more acceptable price point. So I gave Kidd a go, and I'm glad I did. They offer several different barrel models to choose from including lighter weight and fluted barrels. They also include a threaded option for those of you running cans. The finish you see here is the bead blasted one, which Kidd doesn't really appear to show on their site. It is really hard to capture the look of the bead blasting on camera. Initially I was going to have this Cerakoted but I liked the look of the bead blasting so much that I let it be.

Install was very easy. Check out videos on youtube if you want to watch others install it. As lame as it is, the one thing I needed but didn't have was a bit of sand paper to clean up the receiver a bit. Some TLC with a rubber mallet did the trick however. Make sure you align the barrel properly so the extractor can move freely and also protect the crown of the rifle if you are struggling with a tight fit. Damaging that crown could cost you accuracy and money to get it fixed.

You may notice that this crown is dirty. Kidd recommends only cleaning the barrel every 500 rounds or so; which I'm sure reading that just made somebody somewhere throw up in their mouth a little. They also recommend not shooting for groups until you have 10-20 rounds of a particular ammo through the barrel. I can attest to that statement because I have seen the groups tighten up after a couple mags of different ammo. That makes me wonder if the same is true with all rifles. I have read many times that a barrel shoots more consistently after it has been fouled a bit. The first few rounds from a squeaky clean barrel will almost always be off zero. Speaking of groups:

Here is one of my best groups out of this rifle. This was shot using Wolf Extra Match. I'm usually around a 1MOA shooter on a good day so I'm not the ideal candidate to show off what Kidd's barrels are capable of, but this group has at least 20 rounds through about half an inch at 50y. Naturally match ammo will give better performance out of your rifle (garbage in, garbage out), but the Kidd barrel will handle cheap plinking ammo and still give great results. Please note that these barrels have a match chamber and will not accommodate stinger ammo. See the fine print on Kidd's website.

Perhaps I just wasn't looking in the right places, but I had never heard of Kidd until really digging for ideas for a 10/22 build. VQ gets most of the noise on the internet. This company absolutely deserves some extra publicity for selling some high quality products.

ETA: Grant Cunningham's blog recently had a post discussing .22 accuracy and ammunition quality here

Tactical Operations Ammo Cheek Pad Review

2012-06-22T14:50:00.003-07:00

Tactical Operations Ammo Cheek Pad

First up, and ever, is going to be the Tactical Operations Ammo Cheek Pad. They can be found at tacticalworks.com. One thing to know about me is that I am a dedicated south paw, so this particular model is a left handed one in Multicam. As a side note, my transactions with the folks at tactical works have been outstanding. Their customer service is excellent. Take a few minutes to check out their site.
Initially after trying to find an Eagle cheek pad that was in a color and configuration that I liked without success (meaning left handed and something other than black), my internet scouring turned up the TacOps cheek pad. I have never looked back and liked them enough that two of my rifles now wear them. Any future bolt gun is likely to wear one as well. The construction and materials are excellent and from what I can tell should have no problems standing up to hard use. I apologize in advance for the photography skills.

Here is the top view. The black area where your cheek rests is quite comfortable. It is slightly padded and has a felt like texture to it. It does tend to collect DNA samples in the form of dead skin from your cheek. Call it seasoning if you will. You can kind of see that in the picture above. The multicam material as you can see is mostly covered by the bullet loops. They hold 8 rounds of .308 quite securely; I don't anticipate any lost ammo due to the elastic.

Here's the view from underneath. I show you this to point out that the straps are fully adjustable. The black area here is velcro for the straps to hook on to. They are guided through some webbing to help keep them in place. In the upper left area there is a strap which hooks onto the end of your butt stock should you so choose. The entire unit can be cinched down very tight and will not move around on you. The tacticalworks website shows it actually on a rifle if you want that perspective.

A nifty little feature the TacOps cheek pad has is this little area in between the main pouch and the pad itself. It Velcros shut and is very small, my fingers barely fit in there. As to what to put in it? The main pouch has a taper to it so that makes this area not ideal for a dope card; but it could be done. A Mildot Master almost fits in there but again the taper makes that unworkable. You could stash some cordage of some sort. Maybe a boresnake, some condoms or beef jerky might be able to be crammed in there. Honestly I haven't found a good use for it.. yet. If you have any good ideas, lemme know.

Here's the top view of the main pouch area. I'll try to update this to give you a better idea of the capacity of it.

Lastly, here is what I keep in mine. This particular cheek pad rides on a 10-22, so I have some ammo (since guns are just expensive clubs without them), a small bottle of lube, a small wrench and various allen wrenches for screws on the gun and scope. I forget where I got that wrench exactly but I picked up a few of them because they just happen to fit the nut on the scope rings perfectly. This kit allows me to help keep the gun running in the field and also reset the scope turrets on my Weaver scope. In closing, I am very happy with this piece of kit and highly recommend you check it out if you are in the market.