Feature Articles

Do you have a “bug out bag”? Many of us do, but even if you are not planning on leaving your safe location should the Apocalypse arrive unscheduled, there is going to be a transition period between normal life, and survival life. During that time you have to be able to cook. Think about that, because if you are going to rely on freeze dried foods, as we suggested in an earlier installment, that means you should have some kind of cooking apparatus that doesn’t require setting up a stove. For this article we got to look at a fairly new product that is just now finding its way into consumer retail. It is called a “ration heater” from Milspec. This product was developed for heating military MREs, which for home prepping are way too expensive per meal, and they don’t have a 15 year shelf life like freeze dried. So we tried to use the Mealspec Ration Heater to actually cook a 4 serving rice meal from Wise, part of a popular pack carried by many gunshops, and even Walmart.

Smith & Wesson’s M&P line keeps getting bigger. Only this time, the M&P itself is getting smaller. The M&P22 Compact is a well balanced rimfire that is looking to put the fun back in the fun gun. It is brand new, and we have a full review.

The IWI Tavor battle rifle was a great addition to the field of tactical firearms. It is a bullpup design, so you get a really short and handy rifle, without having to register a “Short Barreled Rifle,” or SBR.” Short barreled rifles have their limitations. The barrel being so short, you tend to get a giant muzzle flash, a loud boom, and you lose a substantial amount of velocity because much of the gunpowder burns outside the barrel. Along came the Tavor, which has a full 16″ barrel, doesn’t require an SBR tax stamp, and you don’t have to wait 6 months for it while the BATFE reviews your paperwork. The big problem with the gun is that it has a dreadful trigger. Rather than do yet another review on the basic Tavor, replete with trigger complaints, we found a way to solve the problem with a new sear group from the folks at Timney Trigger. Their $352 completely self contained drop-in sear group solves the problem with the Tavor. Is it worth the investment to improve this otherwise awesome rifle? You be the judge.

I just checked on-line. A Savage Model 111 Long Range Hunter Rifle chambered in .300 Win Mag with a 26″ Barrel and equipped with an AccuTrigger, an AccuStock, and an adjustable comb, sells for $863. A Lucid L5 6x-24 50MM Rifle Scope can be found for $327. Yours Truly is no super sniper, military or law enforcement high-speed, low-drag, kind of guy, but I can consistently hit targets out to one mile with this set-up. This means you can too! And if you are a really disciplined shooter, your results should be phenomenal.

The Swiss are know for two things, neutrality and precision. There is a lot more going on over there than just those two things, but if you look at history, the Swiss are known for being a neutral country during both World Wars, and for their meticulous precision in things like watches. Swiss neutrality, in fact, could not have been achieved without the precision of the Swiss rifle, called the Schmidt Rubin. There is a famous question: “Why was Switzerland never invaded by the Germans?” The answer is simple. In 1912, the German Kaiser asked a Swiss soldier what Switzerland would do if Germany invaded with 500,000 troops, while the Swiss could only muster 250,000. The soldier answered: “Shoot twice and go home.”

It is almost laughable when you hear people say “I don’t want to survive in whatever world is left after the collapse.” I promise you that every one of them will be singing a different tune when they are wasting away from thirst and hunger. “I don’t want to die like this!” That is what they are going to be saying. You can bet on it. That also goes for injuries and sickness. Nobody is going to say “Nah, don’t try to stop the bleeding! Don’t give me antibiotics to get rid of my Malaria! I really don’t want to live anyway since the world is so crappy now. Go help someone else.” Nobody wants to die when the time comes. Nobody.

Believe it or not, a steel target is not something that you buy in anticipation of ultimately destroying it. Sure, we have all seen steel targets at the range that are shot up and shot through, but that is not what you should expect from a quality steel target. If the company engineers the target to not fail, and instructs you in the proper use of what the target can and can’t do, your target probably won’t even have any divots in it after a full day’s match. The key is to understand the nature of steel targets, and follow directions as to their limitations.

There aren’t many 300 AAC Blackout specific optics on the market and I can guess why. Imagine trying to design a reticle that can accommodate the incredible variety of ballistic performance of that round. With 300 Blackout ammunition and reloading, there is no “standard” ballistic performance profile. What can you do?

Beretta announced on Tuesday that it is uprooting its manufacturing facility from Maryland and moving it to Tennessee. What’s the reason behind this transition from the Free State The Volunteer State?