Feature Articles

The biggest news in single-stack 9mms for 2015 has been the GLOCK 43. But the year’s not over yet. The crowded field of concealed carry 9s just got a bit more crowded, and the Honor Guard is, by far, the most single-stack for the money. This brand new gun from a brand new brand is offering options that some wait months for from custom shops.

I try to take nothing for granted. For some people it is probably a no brainer to have a couple hurricane kerosene lanterns on hand, and I’m sure a lot of you have at least one Coleman white gas lantern with mantles. But did you know that both of both of those will work with much more common fuels, and have you thought about whether you should store some extra wicks and mantles? How long does fuel last? How cheap can you get extra lanterns, and what is the best choice for fuel conservation? There are also some really good and cheap LED options for survival lighting these days as well. So for this week we take a opportunity to consider a few inexpensive approaches to light. There is a pretty good chance you will want to see at night once the lights go out. And you may feel confident that you have a plan for emergency lighting, but what will you do when the lights go out for good?

Want to round out that perfect AR-15? Check out Gemtech’s 5.56 suppressor and the bolt carrier they’ve built to go with it. Serious sound suppression from a can that’s easy to use.

I’m sorry that I didn’t get this out quicker for those of you who have deer season kicking in this week in your state. This product, the Walker Game Ear, shocked me when I got to test it this summer, and I had in mind that I should run the story before deer season, because it is an absolute secret weapon. If you haven’t tried these things, they have super sensitive microphones embedded in them, so they not only protect your ears from your eventual gunshots, they also allow you to hear like…well, a deer.

It seems like everything that I look into when it comes to survival is not simple. You would think that the extent of survival dentistry you need to know doesn’t extend further than “yank the darn tooth,” but that is not the case. I sat down and actually read the book, “Where There Is No Dentist,” by Murray Dickson, and I highly suggest that you buy this $16 book, and some of the tools and medications that will make substantive dentistry possible. There are very few non-fatal injuries as debilitating as tooth pain (disk pain of the back being the only one I can think of worse), and if left to fester, tooth maladies themselves can be fatal. The book was apparently written to help volunteer medical workers in African villagers, but it includes everything that you will need in a survival situation.

Looking for a way to take that boring old black rifle and bring it back to life? Bump Fire! Full auto fast from a $99 add-on, and no messy NFA paperwork or tax stamps–what’s not to love? This is one of the easiest to use systems I’ve used. Go ahead–set the gun on fire.

Red dot optics for handguns have traditionally been very expensive. You need milled mounts, a special holster… in short, they haven’t been practical for most of us. Now UM Tactical has an optic, mount, and holster that changes all of that. And it isn’t going to break the bank.

Bob Marvel builds exceptional custom 1911’s. For decades he has built pistols for world champion competitors. His guns are accurate and they don’t malfunction. And now you can learn from the master. I recently had the opportunity to build a 1911 from scratch, with the help of Bob Marvel, and here’s the result–step-by-step.

About the scariest thing I can think of is to lose contact with my children in a world over the brink of collapse. Most young people don’t even have a land based phone line these days, so if the cell networks go down, that’s it. But there is a way, if you do it now, to establish a communications protocol with loved ones who are hundreds, or even thousands of miles away. As I’ve discussed a few times before in this column, the Amateur radio bands, otherwise known as the Ham bands, under 30 megahertz, are capable of reaching around the entire globe at certain times of the day. Full access Ham radios, covering several bands, or even all the Ham bands, sell for $300 to $10,000, but I found some small radios that cover only one frequency for as little as under $10. You have to still buy an antenna, but the overall cost could be as little as $50. As a bare bones mode of communication on a very tight budget I don’t think you can beat these little radios.