PRN Episode #40 Introduction to Prepper Kits

Where to Keep Your Car Survival Kits

Where to Keep Your Car Survival Kits
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Car survival kits are specifically designed to provide survival supplies if you are trapped in or become disabled or lost in your vehicle.  Automobile emergency kits are not the same as a Survival kit.  An automobile kit generally contain flares, jumper cables, spare fuses, etc.  They help the car, not you.

Most folks don’t understand why a car kit is important.  However, those same people can vividly recall the news reports of a person pinned in their wrecked car for days.

A Truck is Not Always the Best Place for a Kit

Your supplies may be inaccessible in your trunk if you are actually trapped in your vehicle.  This depends on you vehicle.  For such a scenario, you’d want supplies within reach of the passenger compartment. This may not be a problem for a pickup truck, minivan or SUVs where there is access to the entire vehicle and you or your passengers can reach the supplies.

However, sedans with a separate trunk are trickier.  You could be trapped in the driver’s seat and be unable to access your supplies. Although, such scenarios have a very low probability.  Most victims are found before they needed life saving supplies.

Although, when it is just my wife and I, I move our kit to the backseat of our sedan. Keeping your car survival kit in the trunk would prove effective for the majority of your scenarios. However, an extended jam could have you wishing for water. Just think about the parking lot known as Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston any time an evacuation order is given for a hurricane!

Hot Trunks Will Reduce Storage Life

Keep in mind, the storage of food supplies in a hot trunk will shorten the shelf-life of most food products.  Refresh them annually. Similarly, certain first aid supplies can become unusable if exposed to long periods of intense heat.  Consequently, check your supplies at the end of summer and refresh what is not useful.

While there may not be one right answer for where to keep your emergency kits.  Any amount of forethought will do you well in locating your kits. Keep in mind that every area of the country has different hazard considerations.  Your car survival kits and storage location should be based upon your higher probability disaster scenarios.

How to Replace a Remington 870 Shotgun Barrel

How to Replace a Remington 870 Shotgun Barrel

 

How to Replace a Remington 870 Shotgun Barrel
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I get questions on occasion about “sawing off” shotguns. My first question is why – what do you want out of it, and my first comment is about the legal ramifications.

There are some legitimate uses of a short barreled (under 18.5 inches), and I do think the idea is cool so don’t Zumbo me, but in general for home defense use I do not think a regulated short barrel shotgun is worth the hassle and a standard pump with an 18.5 inch barrel gives you everything you need.

However, if you want a shorter barrel on your 870 shotgun you need to know how to replace a Remington 870 shotgun barrel

If you want to cut down the total length of a shotgun so that you can maneuver it easily 18.5 inches works fine. This length also balances spread with energy transfer – if the pellets have too extreme a spread then less of them with strike the target.

Besides that if you go with a 18.5 inch barrel it is easy to buy a new barrel and just replace the barrel that came with your shotgun. That way if you ever want to go hunting or shoot skeet or trap you can just put the older barrel back on.

If you cut your barrel down it’s a permanent solution…

As I said in the video, a coworker asked me to show him how to switch barrels – since we both commute to work, and work is a national guard armory I could not bring in my gun to show him or store it in my car until after work. Besides, this gives me a legitimate reason to make a video – and you know how I need that…

I made the video and burned it to a disk – when he watched it he said “Is that all there is too it, anybody can do that”. I agree, and if you have a pump shotgun I think you should consider getting a few specialty barrels – a 18.5 cylinder or improved cylinder bore for defensive work – a longer hunting barrel, maybe a slug barrel for deer – they are cheaper than buying new guns, and turns your shotgun into a true multi-purpose arm.

Procedure

  • Clear the firearm. In the video I reversed the steps.  I checked the chamber and then the magazine.
    • In my defense I did it prior to filming.  The shotgun used is my home defense gun and was loaded and had the 18.5 barrel on it.  No excuse I know.
  • Pull the slide to the rear.
  • Unscrew the magazine cap. The magazine cap is located at the very end of the slide, just underneath the barrel.
  • Grip the barrel just in front of the magazine tube and pull it straight out. It should come out easily, but you may have to twist it a little
  • Insert the new barrel into the receiver and push it back as far as it will go.
  • Screw the magazine cap back on
  • Function check your firearm to ensure you installed everything correctly

Army Pro Tips: Shotgun Reloads

 

Army Pro Tips: Shotgun Reloads
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Robbie and Daniel with the United States Army Marksmanship Team show you how to be faster with shotgun reloads.

Like the Army Speed Reload video, the key to this is first understanding the motions and the practicing them perfectly.

There are two types of reloads taught in this video.  The side saddle reload and the weak hand reload.

The weak hand reload the Staff Sergeant shows in the video is functionally very similar to the combat load that I learned from the Department of Correction.

I like it better because it allows for more situational awareness and you keep your dominant hand on the gun.

However, the side saddle reload may be a little faster.

To me, I think a few thousandths of a second difference is not as important as keeping your head up and the shooting hand on the gun.

I also don’t think the differences in either method of shotgun reloading are as important as a good combat mindset and the willingness to practice a shotgun reload method diligently enough to get it down to an unconscious effort.

Practice makes perfect, perfect practice makes a shot-guner fast.

If you want to see what practice can do, look up Clint Smith’s video on his shotgun technique.  He runs an old double barrel like these soldiers run their semi-autos.

How to Replace a CETME Stock with HK Parts

How to Replace a CETME Stock with HK Parts

 

CETME Stock Replacement with HK Parts
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I have done several basic gunsmith videos with my CETME rifle.  As I have said before it is a very decent and inexpensive 7.62×51 battle rifle. In this article what I am going to do is show you how to install a HK G3 stock set on your CETME rifle.

A CETME Stock Replacement with HK Parts really isn’t a necessary change to your gun.  However, I like having my equipment match.  I have a green Glock and wanted green furniture on my CETME.

I know this is borderline to breaking my “don’t modify your firearm without a purpose” rule.  However, the new stock has a place to hold the retaining pins during field stripping.  It also has a place for a sling both features my original black stock set did not.

There are a couple ways to use HK stocks on CETME rifles.  Some work better than others. If you can keep your CETME buffer do so.  It is a little better for your rifle.  The HK equipment is supposed to be easier to cock. In my experience neither are readily user apparent.

I tried to go the cheaper way from the first. I bought a green HK stock set and tried to bolt it directly to the CETME Buffer and recoil assembly. This did not work, some skilled individuals are able to grind away the internal stock to fit the buffer, as well as find the proper bolts.  The bolt that connects the buffer to the butt stock is larger and larger on the CETME. The buffer on a CETME also has a single bolt hole on its face, whereas a HK has two. I quickly gave up as I did not want to make any permanent alterations to my stock or my firearm

Next I ordered a HK buffer and install parts set. While this connected perfectly to the stock, the CEMTE recoil assembly is slightly different, and I could not the buffer to fit flush inside the assembly. I tried grinding some metal off of the upper buffer bolt hole so it would not catch on the recoil spring. But even with the buffer fitting in the recoil assembly, the lower bolt hole on the buffer did not line up with the single bolt hole on the CETME recoil assembly. I tried smoothing out and shaping inletted area of the butt stock to better fit the buffer tube, but it quickly came to the point where I had to decide to take my chances and majorly alter my parts or take a different approach.

What I did was to buy a G3 recoil assembly. This fit my CETME receiver perfectly. All I had to do was to sand down the nylon recoil spring bushing slightly so that it would fit in the bolt assembly. Being a HK part – the G3 buffer and the G3 stock bolted to it correctly.

Now I have a CETME Receiver, Trigger Assembly, and internals, with a HK G3 stock set mounted to a G3 Recoil Assembly with A G3 Buffer.

Not counting tax and shipping here are the parts and their costs from http://www.robertrtg.com/g3.html (once again they are not the only source – just the one I used)

Parts Ordered

3-Pack: German OD Green Surplus Stock Sets $30

Complete Recoil Assembly complete and assembled $24

Nylon Guide Ring Surplus $2.50 (I bought a few nylon buffers just in case I damaged one shaping it to fit but I did not need them)

Buffer $6 (complete with internal parts)

Mounting Hardware Set $6.50 (3-screws, 3-washers, lock plate)

Large Push Pin $2.25 (While I was at it, I also got 2 new large retaining pins for the buttstock)

Total

$77 (plus tax and shipping)

I am pretty pleased with the results.  In my opinion. the rifle looks really nice with the green furniture.  I am thinking about welding on a HK Shell Deflector or a port buffer to keep the brass from getting thrown into the next county, and I may get a scope mount.  However, I probably won’t as I like iron sights.

All in all, it was a nice project.  I am quite pleased with the gun.  Now that it is looking good, and I bought several action proving dummy rounds I am going to start collecting magazines.  I also need to look for a good way to accumulate some 7.62 NATO rounds.

Army Pro Tips: How to Call Your Shots

Army Pro Tips: How to Call Your Shots
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Obviously this is not my video, this is a video from the US Army Marksmanship team and it shows an amazing first person look at what Travis’s sights look like when he breaks a shot, a course on how to call your shots from one of the best.

Knowing how to call your shots is a vital skill that you need if you want to improve your shooting skills.

What this does is allow you to know what you were doing at the moment you fired the shot, by knowing this and the shooting fundamentals you can instantly know where your shot went so you can make adjustments to get the next one where you want it to go.

As a young marine, the ability to call shots was emphasied to me on the rifle range, to the point that I (along with every other Marine recruit) was issues a small ledger that allowed me to copy down how my sights were set, the wind,  where my shot landed, and where I thought it would land.

Proper use of this book would allow me to grow in my shooting skills and become a better marksman.

Like that book, listening to the shooter in the video below will help you become a better shooter.