This particular video discusses how to identify, diagnose, and correct common pistol malfunctions. I enjoyed watching it, and I learned some new ways to share information with others. It is worth the time to watch.
Pistols are relatively simple machines, only a few things can go wrong and of what can happen, only are common pistol malfunctions. Watch the video to see how an expert discusses ways to clear those common issues defensive firearm users may have to work around.
As I said before, I find Mr. Smith highly entertaining, but that only enhances my respect for his skill.
Clint Smith is an expert on the use of Defensive Firearms. He is a Marine Corps Infantry vet, SWAT officer, and has been running Thunder Ranch since 1993.
I like his style, this thought process, and how he teaches. When I teach firearms classes, there are several techniques and lessons that I share that I gleaned from Mr. Smith.
I have searched YouTube for good training videos to share, and I have found several clips of Thunder Ranch training videos. Think of them as advertisements for their full length training videos. (I don’t gain anything from this, but I do think there videos are a valuable and worthwhile purchase.)
At the best of times, survival situations are highly daunting and require a level of mental and physical alertness that is destroyed by alcohol. But what if your situation is not so dire? Your supplies are well stocked for months and you are not going to be in any danger for the foreseeable future, then it might be time for a bit of a drink.
If the local stores have ran out of stock, you are just going to have to rely on yourself to make your own alcoholic beverages. A good supply of alcohol is not just good for personal consumption. You could also be used to barter for items that you don’t have.
Did you know that you can make wine out of almost any plant? It requires no special ingredients and the only thing that you might need is some sugar, yeast, acid and whatever you are going to make your wine out of.
The most common garden item that most wine makers choose to use, is the humble dandelion. You could make your brew out of any thing else that you have lying around like tomatoes or other vegetables. However, dandelions are abundant and don’t really have any other great uses. Except for the leaves which are edible.
All the equipment that you need, is a sealed container to ferment your wine , an airlock to let air out of the sealed container but not let air in, and some bottles or jars to store and age the finished product in.
Making wine is an easy process and anyone can do it if they have the slightest bit of knowledge on the subject.
How to make dandelion wine
Ingredients:
Quart of yellow dandelion flowers. Rinse them thoroughly
8 cups of sugar
Gallon of boiling water
Lemon slice
Orange, sliced
Packet of yeast. If you do not have yeast, then you are not going to want to completely seal the container that the wine is fermenting in so airborne yeast can get in.
Procedure:
You are going to want to place your well rinsed dandelion flowers into boiling water and boil them for 5 minutes. Then remove the blossoms, discard them and let the water cool to about 90 degrees F.
Make sure that your sealed container is sterile before you add any thing to it. You can easily sterilize your fermenting container with boiling water but make sure that you are thorough about it because any bacteria left in there is going to destroy your wine.
Put the dandelion juice that you have created into your seal-able fermenting container. Then add the rest of the ingredients and stir them in thoroughly.
Attach the air lock, which can be made out of tubes and pill cases, similar to a water bong. Then let your wine ferment for about 13 days. The best way to tell when fermentation has stopped is when bubbles stop forming inside the airlock.
Siphon your dandelion wine off of the sediment in the fermentation container and seal it in preserving jars and let it age for about a week.
Wait a week and enjoy your dandelion survival wine.
That is how easy it is to make your own wine out of whatever you can find lying about. If your wine does not taste right or tastes like vinegar it is probably because there was too much bacteria in the wine which killed the yeast, ate the sugars and excreted acetic acid. This is easily solved but not everyone has packets of yeast in their bug out bag.
Today I want to share a AR-15 Rifle Safety Tip for those that have decided to keep an AR-15 rifle in Condition 3 (The chamber is empty and hammer is down with a charged magazine in the gun). Typically this is used for “trunk guns” or law enforcement patrol rifles. Occasionally someone in a rural area may choose this combination of firearm and condition of loading for a home defense firearm. However, living in a subdivision, I worry about over penetration so I use a shotgun instead.
Soooo, let’s say you hear a bump in the night and choose to get your AR and slingshot the charging handle and load a round into the chamber. You take whatever tactical measures your plan calls for and the situation resolves itself without your having to fire your rifle. You then drop your magazine, and eject the spent round. Most people will then put that round back in the magazine and topping it off to full capacity.
AR-15 Rifle Firing Pins Dimple Primers Upon Chambering
This seems a reasonable action doesn’t it? Unfortunately, due to the design of the AR, this could lead to a Negligent Discharge (ND) at some point in the future. You see, an AR-15 style firing pin is free floating and when you chamber a round the firing pin will continue forward and slightly contact the primer. If you look closely at the primer of your ejected round you will notice a slight firing pin indent on it. This is not even close to the indent needed to cause the primer to ignite, but it is enough to compress the priming pin cup closer to the anvil. If you keep using the same round as the first round of your ready magazine, eventually the CUMULATIVE impacts will be enough to cause the round to fire.
This is one reason military specification (mil-spec) primers for 5.56 are harder than civilian primers for .223.
The solution is simple. Since you are never going to be in a hurry to clear your firearm (always holster reluctantly), instead of topping off the mag with the ejected round, strip a random number of rounds out of the mag and replace the dimpled round in the middle of the pristine rounds. That way an undimpled primer is presented to the chamber. Obviously, you’re also going to have to rotate magazines after some point. But, I would suggest if you are chambering a live round for tactical situations that often without firing, your either have a VERY high risk lifestyle, or are doing something wrong, and in either case you should schedule more range time to practice and to burn off all those dented primers.
This is an older video that I posted on google videos several years ago. Now that google owns YouTube, they made me either delete the video or transfer it to YouTube.
Since this video is one of the first three I ever made – I choose to keep it for sentimental reasons. I have learned a lot about making videos since those first videos.
This one on Unloading a Semi-Automatic is pretty good information even if the camera work is not the best.
No matter what type of firearm you have ensure that you follow proper safety procedures. Ensure that no matter what, you follow proper firearm safety rules and treat every firearm as if it was loaded.
Never point your firearm at anything you do not wish to shoot.
Keep your firearm on safe until you are ready to fire, and keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
When I bought the micro compact 1911 I was ignorant enough to think that all 1911s were the same, but with comparing the tiny little one with a normal sized 1911A2 I realized that I did not know as much as I thought about the model.
This Unloading an AR-15 video is an older one that I posted on google videos years before YouTube. Now that google owns YouTube, they made me either delete the video or transfer it to YouTube.
Since this video is one of the first three I ever made – I choose to keep it for sentimental reasons. I have learned a lot about making videos since those first videos.
This one on Unloading an AR-15 is pretty good information even if the camera work is not the best.
No matter what type of firearm you have ensure that you follow proper safety procedures. Ensure that no matter what, you follow proper firearm safety rules and treat every firearm as if it was loaded.
Never point your firearm at anything you do not wish to shoot.
Keep your firearm on safe until you are ready to fire, and keep your finger straight and off the trigger until you intend to fire.
I learned how to unload an AR-15 in the service, and while this one is the semi auto AR version of the M-16 the Marines gave me, the principles are the same.
Learning the AR-15 Platform of Rifles and their manual of arms is worthwhile because they are so common.
This Unloading an AR-15 video is an older one that I posted on google videos years before YouTube. Now that google owns YouTube, they made me either delete the video or transfer it to YouTube.