Feature Articles

What would you do if survival arrived on your doorstep? Would you become part of the rescue effort? Or would you just hunker down and wait to see if the next wave is coming to wipe out the people who did rush in to rescue the survivors of…whatever? I recently got a sample of a really cool product from our friends at BriteStrike, and their multi-colored APALS personal light system made me think about the subject of triage. Back in August I wrote an extremely substantive article on “Survival Medicine,” in which I copied the title of a book you absolutely have to get. My approach is meant to be a compliment to the book, because I go through where you can actually buy stuff. Good intentions and knowledge are great, but you need the tools to do the job. And like everything for this column, I try to find useful stuff on the cheap. These APALS lights are not cheap, $50 for 10 of them (retailers discount them some), but even if you can only afford the much less expensive alternatives, this is a good chance to talk about triaging the wounded. It is hard to admit to yourself that someday you may have to label someone as “Expectant,” because that means expected to die, but that is the reality we all face.

Let’s assume you have some rimfire rounds on hand–and I know some of you do–what should you do with them? For those of you with an M9, I’d suggest this conversion kit. If you have the ammo, it makes training with the Beretta practical and economical.

Can You Shoot 1,000 Yards with a .308 AR-15 style rifle? Well, can you? Conventional wisdom says no. After all, AR’s are semi-automatic designs, with hot burning gas of doom smothering all the important parts like gravy over Cracker Barrel’s Chicken Fried Chicken. Heck, the upper and lower receivers are stuck together with simple push pins. AR-type rifles can’t be all that accurate, can they?

We are all living in a potential radiation hotzone of the future. Radiation is silent, invisible, has no smell, and there is a good chance that we all will have to deal with radiation in our lifetimes. It could be, as NWO kingpin George Soros says, an all out nuclear war with China and Russia. It could just be that a few nukes pop a couple hundred miles in the air, using our nationwide electrical grid as a giant antenna to wipe out our power stations (an EMP). That would lead to a meltdown of our nuke plants plants all over the country, which need a power grid to cool themselves. If you think you are “prepping,” but you aren’t prepared to measure both high and low levels of radiation (two distinct issues), it might be time to take a look at your options.

Some 9mm ARs feel a bit half baked, like the gun can’t decide if it wants to be a carbine or an AR pistol. Others cobble together parts to make the mags fit. Not this one. Stag’s new 9T is a full on rifle. There’s nothing about this gun that’s a compromise, and it may change the way you think about the pistol caliber concept.

Shhh! At the request of Springfield Armory, we’re going to keep quiet for a little while. I picked up a package yesterday from the folks in Geneseo, and in the box were too shiny new pistols. I mean really new, like not even on the shelves yet. And they’ve made some really big changes.

Those discerning single action aficionados amongst us already know the Nighthawk name. Their 1911s aren’t dressed up in elaborate finishes. They don’t have exotic grips. These are hard working guns meant to be carried, and shot. I recently had the chance to put the 9mm T4 through its paces, and the compact carry gun has changed the way I think about single actions. I’m a skeptic, but I’d carry this gun–no question about it.

Winchester’s Train and Defend line is a concept long overdue. Use range ammo to train, but carry the good stuff. And both are the same grain weight. The idea is that you save money, but the ammo performs exactly the same. How well does it work?

We’ve covered do-it-yourself lowers, but are here today with a new installment. This 80% lower is cut from an aluminum billet. And you can finish it off with a few simple tools. No milling machine needed. The jigs and instructions from 80% Arms make finishing their lower surprisingly easy. Check out or review of the process.