Michigan police went to an ammunition manufacturer and asked them to donate some ammo so the police could practice shooting. For free. The response is hilarious.
That alone makes me want to buy their ammo.
And no, I don’t have any interest in Fenix Ammo and have never been a customer of theirs.
You will notice that I have added a link to a new page at the top of the page. This is a permanent link to the rules of commenting here at the blog. They are there permanently for your reference. They are simple and easy to follow. I like the way that Miguel over at gunfreezone put it: don’t be a dick. If you want to know what it means to be a dick, read on.
The overriding concept here is that I am paying for this server, the software that runs it, and providing the content. Since I am the one paying for it, that makes it mine. Some people have a problem with this and begin shouting about free speech. Free speech doesn’t apply here on my property. Want free speech? Pay for your own blog. I will even rent you some server space. You can say whatever you want on there, including calling me names. Your space, your rules.
I allow comments here because I enjoy the back and forth of a good debate. However, commenting here is the virtual equivalent of talking to me while sitting in my living room. Debate is a good thing. A well reasoned debate changes minds and can influence the opinions of others. If you make a good case for your opinion, you can win over the opinions of others by presenting them with a perspective or situation that may not have occurred to them. Name calling and shouting at people does not change the opinions of others, generates hard feelings, and is nothing more than chimps shouting at each other inside of the monkey house.
If you and some of my acquaintances are sitting with me in my living room having a conversation, there are things that you wouldn’t say without expecting either a punch in the mouth or being asked to leave and never return. Try to think of comments here as a face to face conversation, and don’t type a comment here that you would not say to someone’s face while sitting in their own home.
So with that out of the way, here are the rules for commenting on this blog:
Those are the rules. They seem rather easy to follow. I am resisting the use of registered accounts for the reason that I don’t like registering anything. However, if too many people violate these rules, I will be forced to have accounts. Please don’t force me to do that.
I have only banned a handful of people (less than 5) in the sixteen years of this blog. I think that makes me pretty tolerant.
Of course, you can always ask me any questions by email: Divemedic@areaocho.com
Once you pick your flavor of ammo as we did earlier this week, how much of it should we have on hand? Some people say that the most handgun ammunition that you need on hand is 250 or 500 rounds. That’s ridiculous. I have more than that in any given caliber.
For starters, there are two types of ammo: range ammo and war shots. PewPew Tactical recommends 500 rounds as a starting point, with 150 of those rounds being war shots. I still think that’s low. So what do I consider to be a good amount of ammo?
For range ammo, I buy in bulk because it’s cheaper, meaning in 1,000 round cases. If I find a good deal, I snap it up. That’s how I scored 9mm FMJ for 15 cents a round back in January of 2020, when I got 2,000 rounds for $300. Of course, that was pre-COVID. Good luck getting 9mm at that price now.
For starters, .22lr comes in bricks of 500 rounds. I own a few .22 firearms, both pistols and rifles. You will seldom see me with less than a couple of thousand rounds of .22 lying about. Of course, there is really no such thing as a “war shot” with .22lr. A brick of .22 will cost you about $30 at today’s prices, making it the cheapest way to shoot. It’s also great for squirrels and rats. That’s why I keep a bunch on hand.
When it comes to range ammo, I try to stock a minimum of 500 rounds per caliber. For the high use calibers of 9mm and .45, I find that 1,000 rounds on hand is a minimum.
For defensive handguns, we need to consider war shots. For semi-autos, I try to keep a minimum of 500 war shots per handgun. For revolvers, 150 war shots per handgun. So if I have a pair of 9mm handguns, that’s 1,000 rounds.
When we get into 5.56mm and 7.62x51mm, we get into a whole different ballgame. For the AR, all I stock in 5.56mm is Green Tips. I don’t do different war shots and range ammo, because I want my war shots to perform identically to my range ammo. For that reason, I try to keep a minimum of 5,000 rounds on hand of 5.56mm.
Likewise for the 7.62x51mm, but my round count there is lower simply because it is more expensive and takes up more room. So I want my minimum there to be no less than 2,500 rounds. With the 7.62, I look for nothing but the 147 grain. That way, every round is similar in performance to every other round.
For shotguns, all I have are 12 gauges. I stock 250 defense rounds in buckshot and slug, and 250 rounds of #7 shot (for hunting).
Toss in a few smoke grenades and a couple of pepper grenades, and the fire marshal’s office will shit themselves if they ever find out about that stash.
So as you can see, that means a lot of ammo on hand. We are talking about more than 20,000 rounds of ammo. I didn’t get there by buying it all at once. I just buy ammo on a regular schedule, buy a case at a time when I do buy, and try to get more than I shoot. Eventually, you get a decent stockpile.
I am still on the text messaging group that my (now former) job uses to communicate with employees. I just got a text message that all employees need to attend a mandatory training session on Tuesday the 23rd so they can be trained on the new Philips cardiac monitoring system that is being installed on Wednesday the 23rd. It seems that they just spent a quarter of a million to replace 3 year old monitoring system with a new monitoring system. Now I know why they can’t afford to pay anyone.
From Seattle:
Good thing Washington state passed all of that gun control. This is the reason why I have told you that all of Washington State is considered to be Zone 5:
Areas in zone 5 are areas where the government has ceded or lost all control and/or has openly declared that they cannot and will not provide basic government services like police, fire, and EMS. These areas are completely out of legitimate governmental control and can best be described as being behind enemy lines. Anyone who finds themselves in one of these areas is advised to leave immediately, even if this means abandoning property.
The Senate has introduced a bill that would establish a federal agency to regulate AI. This agency would be Federal Law enforcement, complete with police powers, and there is no doubt in my mind that it would have a SWAT team with a million rounds of ammunition. That is because they want you to believe that AI will someday send Terminators out to kill you.
“There’s no reason that the biggest tech companies on Earth should face less regulation than Colorado’s small businesses – especially as we see technology corrode our democracy and harm our kids’ mental health with virtually no oversight,” [the Senator who introduced the bill] said in a statement. “Technology is moving quicker than Congress could ever hope to keep up with. We need an expert federal agency that can stand up for the American people and ensure AI tools and digital platforms operate in the public interest.”
Experts like the ones at ATF who ruled that a shoestring was a machine gun? Made pistol braces illegal after more than a decade, turning 40 million gun owners into felons overnight?
Nope, to understand what the new law is for, simply read the bill and not the hype. Here is a pdf copy of the bill that I got from Bennett’s Senate page. The bill would “empower a new federal agency to create a board that establishes ‘applicable codes of conduct’ on social media and AI platforms. This board will include ‘disinformation’ experts’ whose job it will be to determine what is true, and what is not. That which they deem to not be true will be illegal.
What can they regulate? Here is one definition:
The term ‘‘digital platform’’ means an online service that serves as an intermediary facilitating interactions between users
Twitter, Gab, YouTube, even blogs would fall under the purview of this commission. First Amendment, you say? Well the media (as defined by the commission) gets a carve out:
The term ‘‘digital platform’’ does not include an entity whose primary purpose is the delivery to the public of news that the entity writes, edits, and reports
The Commission shall have jurisdiction over any digital platform, the services of which—
(1) originate or are received within the United States; and
(2) affect interstate or foreign commerce.
So basically, the commission has jurisdiction over the entire Internet. So what will the commission be doing?
The purpose of the Commission is to regulate digital platforms, consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity, to promote to all the people of the United States, so far as possible, the following:
(1) Access to digital platforms for civic engagement and economic and educational opportunities;(5) A robust and competitive marketplace of ideas with a diversity of views at the local, State, and national levels.
(6) Protection for consumers from deceptive, unfair, unjust, unreasonable, or abusive practices committed by digital platforms.
I wonder who gets to define what is deceptive, unfair, unjust, or unreasonable? Volunteers that the commission selects, of course.
The Commission, for purposes of monitoring violations of any provision of this Act (and of any regulation prescribed by the Commission under this Act), may—
(i) recruit and train any software engineer, computer scientist, data scientist, or other individual with skills or expertise relevant to the responsibilities of the Commission; and
(ii) accept and employ the voluntary and uncompensated services of individuals described in clause (i).
Those people online who constantly are offended at anyone expressing an opinion that they don’t like? Yeah, they will be volunteer Social Media law enforcement.
The law also requires that social media verify the age of everyone on their site. This means that you will have to provide ID in order to post on social media. That is when this becomes important:
SEC. 14. INVESTIGATIVE AUTHORITY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission may inquire into the management of the business of digital platforms subject to this Act, and shall keep itself informed as to the manner and method in which that management is conducted and as to technical and business developments in the provision of online services.
(b) INFORMATION.—The Commission may obtain from digital platforms subject to this Act and from persons directly or indirectly controlling or controlled by, or under direct or indirect control with, those platforms full and complete information necessary, including data flows, to enable the Commission to perform the duties and carry out the objects for which it was created.
Since the media site will have a copy of your ID, I am betting that a person that posts what is determined to be “disinformation” will then receive a friendly visit from the FBI. Repeat violators will then be vzyali.
Even worse? There is a private right of action, meaning that someone claiming to be offended can sue a digital platform and receive damages.
Any person claiming to be damaged by any digital platform subject to this Act may—
(1) make complaint to the Commission under subsection (b); or
(2) bring a civil action for enforcement of this Act, including the rules promulgated under this Act, in any district court of the United States of competent jurisdiction.
Then the commission gets to:
If, after hearing on a complaint under this paragraph, the Commission determines that any party complainant is entitled to an award of damages under this Act, the Commission shall make an order directing the digital platform to pay to the complainant the sum to which the complainant is entitled on or before a day named.
Even worse, is that the platform doesn’t actually have to do anything in violation of the act, all that has to happen is that the commission thinks that the platform will do so at some time in the future.
If the Commission believes that a person has violated or will violate this Act, the Commission may issue and cause to be served on the person an order requiring the person, as applicable—
(A) to cease and desist, or refrain, from the violation; or
(B) to pay restitution to any victim of the violation.
Make no mistake, this bill is intended to give the left full control over social media during the 2024 election year and beyond. This is repugnant to the First Amendment, but the likelihood that there will be a resolution in court before the election is nil. Our court system is too slow for there to be any meaningful resolution. We best hope that this doesn’t go anywhere, or free speech is dead.
Baltimore is suing some car makers whose cars are being stolen because their cars are too easy to steal. Next up: suing rape victims for dressing like they clearly want a cocktail, hold the tail.
Maybe those car makers should sue black people for stealing everything that isn’t (and some things that are) nailed down. Maybe they can take some of those future reparations payments.
Anti-gunners claim that you don’t “need” an AR-15 because it is a weapon of war(tm) that is only good for killing large numbers of people. However, what if where you live has become a war zone?
This isn’t what I think that a civilized society should look like. People shouldn’t have their property stolen by roving gangs of armed thugs threatening to kill them. In the old days, they would have been killed and their heads displayed on pikes as a warning to the others.
Oldvet50 asks:
How long can you safely store a loaded mag before the spring weakens and causes misfires?
The answer to that depends on the magazine manufacturer. Cheaper magazine manufacturers, especially ones with polymer feed lips, are more prone to failure. Not of the spring, but of the magazine itself. Scorpion had a well documented issue with that. It turns out that the factory Scorpion magazines would dry out when left in a dehumidified safe for long periods. That’s why the Scorpion PMAG is a better choice than the factory one.
With a quality magazine, the answer to that is decades. Magpul themselves claim that they have had magazines fully loaded for eight years, and they still function.
The damage is done by compression and decompression of the spring. The more cycles that a spring goes through, the more it weakens it. I wouldn’t worry, however. It takes thousands of cycles to wear out a spring. Still, I think of magazines as consumable items, which is why I have so many of them.
SmileyFtW asks:
Why the waste of space with the foam? Load the cans tight for maximum capacity I would think. Same stuff in one can; label the can and move on. If one can is to be an assortment, say so on the can and ID the contents so it is obvious to what each one is
That was actually what I was doing up until now. What I got was cans that either contained a bunch of different mags in the same can, or the can wasn’t full. Example. Let’s say that I have a bunch of Smith and Wesson magazines:
That’s 80 magazines. They will likely fit into one caliber can, but they aren’t cross compatible. The worst part is that some will fit in the handgun, but not function. For example, an M&P9 magazine will fit in the M&P40, but you don’t want to attempt to fire it like that. So with this system, good luck finding the right magazine in a hurry.
Another reason for padding them is preventing damage. One of the biggest reasons for malfunctions in a quality handgun (that isn’t a 1911) is a damaged magazine. My carry guns are life saving equipment, as far as I am concerned. The number one quality that I need in a carry gun is reliability. I need to know that it will go ‘bang’ every time I squeeze the trigger. Since quality handgun magazines cost anywhere from $35 to $60 each, having 100 magazines is a significant investment. By padding my magazines, I am protecting them and my investment. I lower the chances of malfunction which will, at best cost me some range time and money replacing it, and at worst will cause a malfunction during a firefight.
That’s also why I number my magazines. I know which ones have malfunctions. Note that number 2 and 5 are both missing in this picture. It’s because they are currently loaded and ‘in use’ by one of my handguns.
It’s a simple numbering system. If it starts with a 9, it’s a magazine that will fit the S&W9. If it ends in a “c” it’s for the M&P9C. This makes sense in my mind, because the compact can accept the full sized mags (but not vice-versa). The magazine numbers that start with a ‘G’ are for the Glock 19. (That’s the only model of Glock that I have, thanks to Project Gaston)
A similar code works, with the M&PShield Plus mag numbers all starting with ‘P’, the 45 magazines starting with ’45’, etc. I have a spreadsheet* that I use to track magazines, ammo, firearms, and firearm spare parts.
*I also keep a list of spare parts on hand: springs, firing pins, sights, and other fiddly bits. That’s why I have so many M&Ps: common spares, and the best spare part is simply having a spare pistol. Not only that, but I also know how to detail strip and troubleshoot the M&P series very well, which simplifies repairs. The Glock is easy to do the same with, but I generally don’t like the way that the Glock fits my hand. I’m still learning all of the ins and outs of the AR system.
One of my issues with red dot sights is that they make it difficult to find a holster. That looks like its been solved, if this sight is any good. Anyone have one, or know someone who does?