Zastava ZPAP92 AK Pistol

Shortly before the election I ordered a Zastava ZPAP92 Kalashnikov pistol from a Gunbroker seller and had it shipped to a local FFL to handle the transfer. I decided to pull the trigger on it (sorry) because if Harris had won, she'd be more able to mess with acquiring such a gun down the road since POTUS has more leeway to affect imports than domestically produced firearms.

As we now know, the American people resoundingly rejected her flavor of Marxism, so I now consider it a celebratory purchase.

The gun is essentially a "pistol" version of a "Krink," chambered for 7.62x39 with a 10" barrel.

This ZPAP is fitted with "Serbian red" wood furniture and an SB Tactical TF1913 brace attached to a Picatinny rail attached to the rear trunnion.

It came with a single 30 round polymer magazine with metal reinforced locking lugs. Like other mags from the former Yugoslavia it has a bolt hold-open follower, which I'm not really a fan of. Most of my shooting with the gun so far was with Hungarian 20 round "tanker" mags.

A nice feature is that the safety selector has a notch in it for use as a bolt hold-open. It's a little awkward to use but simple and works.

The receiver cover is hinged at the front, with a two-leaf open rear sight graduated for 200M and 400M mounted to it. There's a short section of Picatinny rail mounted between the rear sight and the hinge.

The front sight base has left hand 26mm thread, instead of the more common 24.5mm threads. It's fitted with a Krink-style booster.

Because the short barrel has a lot of blast I also picked up a Midwest Industries Blast Can, which is designed to redirect blast and flash downrange.

Yesterday I put 80 rounds of Vympel 7.62x39 through the gun for a basic function check. As expected it ran perfectly, but shot about 8" low at 15 yards. I used the front sight adjustment tool from an AK cleaning kit to raise the point of impact, but I will do a final zero at 50 yards.

I also tried both the Krink booster and the Blast Can to see if there was any difference from the shooter's perspective. I didn't notice much of a difference. I'll try them side by side again but for now I have the booster on the gun.

The Vympel ammo has corrosive primers so I wanted to do a basic cleaning before packing up. So, I hosed everything down with DRNCH (pronounced "dirnch"), which is imported by Zastava USA from Serbia. It's a CLP type aerosol cleaner with a mild smell. I don't know if it's specifically rated to clean corrosive primer residue, but if that residue is saturated with oil it won't be able to absorb atmospheric moisture to cause rust. I'll do a thorough cleaning today.

So why a Krink? Because:

The bag is a Sarma assault pack, which is a knock-off of a Maxpedition bag.

Going forward I need to zero it at 50 yards and put some kind of a dot sight on it, and run a pile of ammo through it.

Prvi Partisan Stars and Stripes 12 Gauge 00 Buckshot

Yesterday I patterned some Prvi Partisan Stars and Strips 12 gauge 2.75" 9-pellet 00 buckshot. It's made for Prvi in Italy by Cheddite. I shot them through my Mossberg 500 Mariner pump action shotgun, which has an 18" cylinder bore barrel with a bead sight. It also wears a Magpul SGA buttstock setup for my short length of pull.

With the factory bead the gun shot a little high, so last week I added a Hi Viz clamp on fiber optic front sight that clamps onto the barrel. It has a notch at the front that mates with the factory bead and keeps it from rotating. It just clamps onto the barrel but is tight enough that I have no concern it will come loose.

Aside from better visibility, the Hi Viz bead lowered the point of impact so that it coincides with my point of aim out to at least 20 yards.

Anyway, here are the patterns with the Prvi buckshot.

5 yards:

10 yards:

Two rounds at 20 yards:

The shells I normally keep loaded in the Mossberg for home defense are Federal reduced recoil 2.75" 00 buckshot in Flitecontrol wads. At about 12 yards that ammo patterns about what the Prvi did at 5 yards, and at 25 yards will keep all 9 pellets on a paper dinner plate.

While the Federal Flitecontrol patterns much tighter than the Prvi, it's a lot more expensive which may be important for people on lower incomes. Regardless of cost, the Prvi patterns well enough for inside the home engagements. A 10 yard (30 feet) shot would be a long shot inside most homes.

Indeed, at typical inside the home range, the wider patterning Prvi buckshot may cause more severe wounds to an assailant than Flitecontrol, due to the more dispersed wound channels.

The 5 and 10 yard patterns also demonstrate the necessity for aiming a shotgun, in contrast to the myth of pointing it in the general direction of a threat.

How to Report Election Fraud

If we work together, we can make this election too big to rig!

Virtually all of us have the tools to report election interference, voter intimidation, and illegal voting in near real-time: smartphones with Internet access and the X (Twitter) service. If we use them, it will be much more difficult for the Democrats to steal this election.

Unlike 2020, we have a major platform on which to report election shenanigans, thanks to

@elonmusk

. We saw the effectiveness of this earlier this week when polls in Bucks County, PA were shut down early during early voting. Because it got reported on X, a lawsuit was filed and the court issued an order to extend early voting through Friday, November 1st. That got us a couple more days of early voting!

We also have a better ground game due to people like

@ScottPresler

in Pennsylvania. Scott worked his ass off getting voters registered and mainly due to him, Bucks and Luzerne Counties flipped from blue to red. He's also taken to task misbehaving county boards of electors.

Additionally, the RNC is now chaired by

@LaraLeaTrump

, not Rona (Romney) McDaniel.

First, join the X Election Integrity Community:

https://x.com/i/communities/1848518910653415584

If you see any irregularities at your polling place do your best to gather evidence:

• Take pictures and or video.
• If there's a vehicle involved, e.g., dropping off boxes of ballots, get a picture of the license plate.
• Report your findings to the X Election Integrity Community.
• Tag
  @ScottPresler
  (if you're in PA),
  @GOP
  ,
  @RobertKennedyJr
  ,
  @realDonaldTrump
  ,
  @TuckerCarlson
  ,
  @LaraLeaTrump
  and any other large pro-Trump account on X.
• Report what you've see to your state's Department of State or elections commission. Here are links for the swing states:
• PA:
  https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/vote.html
• NC:
  https://www.ncsbe.gov/about-elections/election-security/investigations-division
• MI:
  https://www.michigan.gov/sos/report-fraud
• WI:
  https://elections.wi.gov/elections/election-security-integrity/election-complaints-concerns
• NV:
  https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections/election-information/report-potential-election-law-violation
• GA:
  https://law.georgia.gov/resources/election-fraud-complaint-hotline

Please repost this for a wider audience.

Let's go!

#election

#electionfraud

#CitizenJournalists

50% off Anker SOLIX C1000 Portable Power Station

 If you are in need of a portable power station with a built-in inverter, this Anker unit is 50% off today at Amazon.

https://amzn.to/4eRh0Co

Revising Our Vehicle Bags

The last couple of days I've been putting together/revising get home bags/bugout bag to keep in all four of our vehicles, because of the state of the country and potential for post-election unrest.

The bags are more urban/suburban focused than "head for the hills." My wife works in the city, one daughter commutes about 30 miles to a suburban college, the other daughter works a couple miles away but sometimes goes on short road trips, and I work about 25 miles away. We are in SE Pennsylvania near Philadelphia.

Note that the links below are Amazon Affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking through I'll get a small commission at no additional charge to you.

I already had the bags. Mine is a 5.11 Rush 12 (https://amzn.to/47SU17Q), one is a Maxpedition Falcon II (https://amzn.to/47QTUcR), one is an older REI Trail 25, and the last one is an older Nike daypack. 

I already had a lot of the contents in my accumulation of camping gear. Some of these are on the way and should arrive in the next few days. The bag in my truck will have some variances but I wanted to ensure the girls all have some basic survival gear.

• Canteen / water bottle (2 Swiss surplus with cups, a French surplus canteen with cup, and a stainless 40 oz. Klean Kanteen with cup.) The bottles are filled halfway.
• Fire making kit (matches and a Bic lighter.)
• Coghlan's 36-hour Survival candle (https://amzn.to/3Y7oUSB) One of these can warm a small space like the inside of a car a few degrees to take the edge off. They come with a book of matches inside the tin.
• Bandana and/or USGI triangular bandage .
• Headlamp + spare batteries (https://amzn.to/4dC2o95)
• Mossy Oak Multitool (https://amzn.to/4dFd5rb) I'm impressed with these for the price.
• Silcock key for opening spigots on commercial buildings. (https://amzn.to/3TSPcpa)
• Flat pack duct tape. (https://amzn.to/3zIbXp5)
• About 50' #36 bank line (https://amzn.to/4823RUT) I prefer this to 550 cord because it's much thinner so you can pack a lot more for the same volume.
• AMK .3 Med Kit (https://amzn.to/4gLW8OR) (This is in addition to each car's FAK.)
• Water filter (https://amzn.to/3YcNXDG) These can thread onto a standard plastic water bottle or use the included dirty water bag.
• Long aluminum spoon (https://amzn.to/3zHNosl) (When I was in the Civil Air Patrol in the 80s, my WW2/Korea/Vietnam vet mentors beat it into to me to ALWAYS have a spoon. Also, sporks suck unless the spoon and fork are on opposite ends of the utensil.)
• Lifeboat rations (https://amzn.to/3BvNXGl)
• Work gloves
• Space blanket (https://amzn.to/3Ukmfmv)
• Mylar survival poncho (https://amzn.to/3XUndGR)
• Aluminum cookset (https://amzn.to/47V0qiM)
• Ziplock with instant coffee, chicken boullion, tea bags, and Gatorade powder
• Esbit stove and fuel (https://amzn.to/3zNDEwM).
• Hexamine fuel tablets for the Esbit stoves (https://amzn.to/4emGs2R). These also make GREAT fire starters.
• Socks in a Ziplock.
• We all wear glasses, so some Zeiss lens wipes in a Ziplock. (https://amzn.to/3XSpJgW)

Each vehicle has a blanket and a spare hoodie or coat, and a knit cap. I also want the girls to keep spare boots in their trunks. Each vehicle will also have a 6-pack of bottled water.

All vehicles have a Noco Boost Plus GB40 Jump Packs (https://amzn.to/3ZRJjw8) in case of a dead battery. The Nocos are in hard cases (https://amzn.to/3zMOgf8). They also provide USB out, so I'm including a multi-plug charger cable (https://amzn.to/4ePGv7d).

Is this a comprehensive, end-of-world survival kit? Of course not. The idea behind these is that if any of us are stuck away from home and need to hoof it we have some basic supplies for a day or two of walking.

Yom HaBiperim and the Threat of Supply Chain Attacks

First of all, "Yom HaBiperim" is one of the funniest things I've read in the past 24 hours. Mad props to @RUOC90177786 on X for coining that one.

On a more serious note, Israel's amazing strike on Hez'balless yesterday should give everyone in security field pause. It demonstrates that if you don't own and control your entire supply chain you are incredibly vulnerable to attack. This applies to pretty much everything that security breaches can impact. It's not just an issue for NGO terrorist organizations, in the age of globalization it's also a major vulnerability for nation states that depend on a vast array of items from other countries. E.g., IT assets, software, or munitions.

The pager attack was a respin of Project Eldest Son. This was an operation during the Vietnam War in which various types of small arms ammunition were modified to explode when a Communist soldier attempted to fire his gun. It was done by replacing one cartridge in a box of ammo with one that was loaded with C4 high explosive, instead of smokeless gunpowder. This caused pressure in excess of what the gun was designed to handle and it would then explode in the user's hands.

Further back, the British did this in the 1890s and 1930s against tribes they were fighting.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Eldest_Son

Even when buying equipment from supposedly reliable vendors, the problem of counterfeit products is severe enough that even Cisco has a web page about it. See https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/brand-protection/identify-counterfeit-products.html

If I was a nation state, I'd look at augmenting IP-addressable hardware with a chip that periodically phones home to a controller, or maybe even sniff network packets for things of interest. It wouldn't have to be a computer or router. It could be a network printer, webcam, or any other device connected to a network. IoT devices in particular are notably insecure out of the box which allows millions of them to be coopted into botnets.

But it's not just network and telco gear.

In the past 10 years or so, China has flooded the world with dirt cheap handheld VHF/UHF transceivers. The Baofeng UV-5R is the most well know of these. They've seen use in Ukraine, Syria, and are extremely popular in the US amongst various groups ranging from Antifa to right-wing militias. They're also popular with ham radio operators. Heck, I have three within arm's reach right now.

The Baofeng is a software defined radio (SDR). That means that much of the RF signal processing that would traditionally be done with hardware is actually done by software running on the radio's chip. That means that within the limits of the hardware, functionality can be added or removed with a firmware update.

For example, until the FCC mandated that Baofeng remove the capability to transmit on FRS, GMRS, and MURS frequencies, the UV-5R could do so even though it is type accepted in the US only for ham frequencies. Baofeng modified the firmware to block transmission on these frequencies on new radios sold in the US, but this didn't affect existing radios.

The problem from the FCC's standpoint is that because of how that Baofeng implemented the frequency restriction, the radios can be unlocked so that they're capable of transmitting on the forbidden frequencies. A search on YouTube for "Baofeng unlock" gets you the info needed to do so. The actual unlock procedure takes about 10 seconds. I've confirmed it myself.

These radios can be programmed using a special USB cable that connect to a computer and a free, open-source software package called CHIRP. This is probably the most common and definitely easiest way to program in frequencies in the radio's memory channels.

Now imagine that the firmware has a backdoor in it that allows features to be modified or cause the radio to transmit, after receiving a specific RF signal over the air. For example, suppose you are fighting an opponent known to use Baofengs. You want to locate enemy fighters. Broadcast a signal that triggers any Baofeng receiving it to transmit a reply. Because it's an SDR you can write the firmware so that the radio's transmit light doesn't come on, so the user is none the wiser. The force that initiated the ping then uses direction finding equipment to locate the radios and then drone strikes their enemy.

I really don't think this is far-fetched.

Guns for Jews

On the eve of the Holocaust in 1939, the world Jewish population stood at about 16 - 17 million. By 1945, it was 10 - 11 million.

In 2024, it's at about 15.7 million. In 80 years we still haven't recovered the numbers lost due to the Nazis. 

We currently make up about 0.2% of the world's population and about 2.4% of the population in the United States.

Antisemitic trope is that the Jews control the world. Just going by the numbers this is laughable, smooth-brained thinking. Sure, we're prominent in many fields, but that's due to our culture which emphasizes learning and hard work. There are plenty of Jewish losers, too.

If the events of the past 11 months have taught us anything, we are a very small part of the world and that a vast number of people don't like us and don't want us defending ourselves. Thus, Israel must become independently able to defend itself. Likewise, Jews in the United States must embrace their Second Amendment rights so they can defend themselves against modern day Nazis, especially those being imported wholesale by the Democrats from assorted third world countries.

If you're a Jewish American looking to get equipped to defend yourself, check out my ebook "Guns For Jews" to help you get started. Get arms and training.

The 3-3-3 Radio Plan for SHTF Communications

I mentioned this in my post the other day but want to call it out for greater exposure.

As far as I know this originates in a 2013 post at the RadioMaster Reports blog.

Essentially, it's a basic communications plan explaining when, where, and how to use your radios in the event of an emergency where other forms of communication fail.

• Turn on your radio every 3 hours at the top of the hour local time.
• For a minimum of 3 minutes.
• On Channel 3 (whether it's CB, FRS, GMRS, or MURS).

That RadioMaster Post has reference cards you can download and print, or keep in the notes application on your phone.

Buytwowayradios.com sells a printout of the plan which is laminated, and also offers a PDF download version for free.

Disseminating this procedure among the people you plan to communicate with if the SHTF will go a long way to maximizing the value of your radios.

Hard Case for my Yaesu FT-187ND

Last week I took advantage of the most recent Harbor Freight Parking Lot Sale and picked up an Apache 3800 hard case to use with my Yaesu FT-817ND. The Apache case is a Pelican knock-off at around 1/3 the price. It's plenty good for my needs.

The label on the bottom of the case:

The pressure relief valve:

The case has two layers of pluck-to-fit foam. I have the radio and LDG tuner in the bottom:

I then created a tray using a thing piece of nylon, the top layer of foam, and some Gorilla tape, to hold various cables, some 550 cord and bank line, and a power cable.

This is not a self-contained go-box, since it doesn't include an antenna, power supply other than the small FT-817ND battery pack, and a tablet or laptop for digital modes. However, I can combine this with another box that will contain the other items. It's designed for vehicle-mobile operations, not manpack ops.

Getting Comms Squared Away

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

After a couple years away from doing anything with ham radio, a coworker has rekindled my interest in the past couple of weeks. He has a GMRS license and is studying for his Technician license. His primary interest is backup comms with family and friends who are within a few miles.

That said, we're hoping that after he gets his Tech license we'll be able to communicate via simplex on 2M with the use of directional antennas at a distance of about 20 - 25 miles. Several years ago a ham friend and I did just that, over a similar distance. I may need to go to a higher elevation, however.

Aside from all that, the state of the country worries me and has had me wanting to setup emergency backup comms with my brother and mom, who live in the same subdivision that I do. It's unlikely that both our Internet and cell service would both go down, but the possibility is non-zero.

Since GMRS covers immediate family regardless of whether they live with you, I've set them up with an unlocked Baofeng UV-5R programmed for GMRS and MURS, for emergency use only. (I am well aware that the UV-5R is not type accepted for GMRS or MURS, so it will not be used for non-emergency commo.)

The variant of the UV-5R that I've owned for years is the discontinued UV-5RA. As far as I know the guts are the same but the case is shaped differently so some accessories like higher capacity batteries are incompatible.

Therefore, today I got a 2-pack of current production UV-5Rs. The package I ordered included:

• 2 radios with standard capacity batteries and antennas.
• 2 3800 mah extra capacity batteries.
• 2 antennas that are better than the regular OEM Baofeng antennas.
• 2 desktop chargers.
• 1 programming cable and a mini-disc with CHIRP on it. (I recommend downloading CHIRP directly from the developer's website.)
• 2 earpieces.

Additionally, I have order in with Amazon for an additional programming cable, 2 battery eliminators (that allow you to power the radio off a 12 VDC outlet), and a 4-pack of speaker/mics.

Much of this will go into a radio go-bag along with extended patch cables and various coax adapters. I'll keep one my old UV-5RAs in my truck, where I also have a Tram mag-mount antenna.

Earlier this week I received one of Ed Fong's J-Pole antennas to improve performance in static situations. J-Poles are one of the more popular options for HT users seeking to improve the performance of their radios, and Ed Fong's has been well-regarded for years. It's very well made. It worked well for reception in my brief test but I've yet to transmit on it. 

I also picked up a 1/4 wave 2M ground plane antenna from Zulu Delta Antennas on eBay. The "Jungle Antenna" is similar, except that this has 4 ground radials instead of the Jungle Antenna's 3. I bought it mainly as a curiosity but from my understanding, J-Poles and 1/4 ground planes perform roughly comparably.

As an aside when I've tried to build a J-Pole I always had problems stripping the twinlead without cutting the conductor. As long as you have a SO-239 bulkhead socket and the ability to solder, I'd find a ground plane antenna easier to build.

But gear only gets you so far. Technology without knowledge is useless. I therefore went over how to use the Baofeng with my brother and gave him a reference card for the 3-3-3 radio plan so that we're both on the same page if we need the radios.

For anyone looking to really improve their commo game, ham or not, I highly recommend the book, The Guerrilla's Guide To The Baofeng Radio, by NCScout. While the book contains a large amount of information that is Baofeng-specific, the meat of it is about technique. Beware of and avoid other similarly-titled guides that are knock-offs.

NCScout's other book, The Guerrilla's Guide to Signals Intelligence, is also worth reading. This knowledge may come in handy if there's unrest following this Fall's election.

I urge everyone to get their communication plans in order well before the election.

Using the RTL Dongle and SDR on Apple Silicon

It's been a few years since I played with a software defined radion (SDR). I have one of the inexpensive RTL dongles and on Intel based Macs or Windows and Linux machines, there's a variety of SDR applications you can use. I tried a few but they kept crashing on me so I settled on gqrx.

Gqrx is built for Intel CPUs but it runs OK under Rosetta 2 on my M1 MacBook Air.

To install Rosetta 2 from a terminal prompt type this and hit Enter:

    $ softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

(Note: The dollar sign is the prompt, don't type it.)

Then install gqqrx using Homebrew. If you don't have Homebrew installed you'll need to do so first.

Install Homebrew:

    $ /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install gqrx:

    $ brew install --cask gqrx

When you first start it up you'll need to select your device on this screen:

After it starts check this out for instructions on getting started.

My RTL dongle has a USB A connection so I needed to use a USB A-to-C adapter to connect it to the Mac. For an antenna I used my Comet GP-3 2M/70cm mounted on my chimney.

2M and 70cm were quiet in my area last night but I was able to receive the local NOAA Weather station clearly:

And the FM broadcast spectrum was full. Here it is tuned to WMMR Philadelphia:

I'm thinking about picking up one of the receivers from SDRplay which in conjunction with their software, which is built for Apple Silicon, should perform better and be easier to setup. The SDRplay also receives a wider spectrum than the cheap dongles (which are good for the money).

Kosher Meal Review 2

Continuing my post from yesterday, tonight I had another one of the KJ Poultry kosher long-term shelf-stable meals I got from Amazon. Tonight's entree was Chicken Meatballs with Rice and Mushrooms.

After heating in the microwave for about 2.5 minutes:

There were five of these meatballs in the dish:

Like the Beef Stuffed Cabbage I had last night, this was very tasty. I found this meal more filling since there was more solid food in the form of rice and mushrooms, compared with the gravy in with the beef.

So far, KJ Poultry is hitting it out of the park.

Kosher Meal Review 1

Something I'm trying to do is get more prepping info out to my fellow Members of the Tribe. Observant Jews will follow the laws of kashrut and only consume kosher foods. So, I decided to order some shelf-stable kosher meals and try them out.

I bought a six pack of Kosher meals by KJ Poultry from Amazon:

• Beef stuffed cabbage
• Beef rib steak
• Chicken meat balls
• Stuffed chicken
• Chicken soup
• Chicken chow mein

One of the meals has an sell-by date of October 2027, while the other five were November 2027. Note that those are sell-by dates, not expiration dates. If you keep them in a cool, dry place out of the light they should last a few years past that.

Tonight I tried the beef stuffed cabbage for dinner. Pics of the box, front and back:

You should be able to click on the images to view them larger. The ingredients and prep instructions are on the back. I warmed it in my microwave.

The sealed meal you'll see when you remove it from the box:

After heating and opening:

Lots of sauce with two lumps of beef and rice stuffing. One of them had come unwrapped. The other was still wrapped in cabbage.

A closeup:

It tasted excellent. The portion size was small for me. I could've eaten two of these meals for dinner. Alternatively, a side would have been nice. It would probably make a decent lunch.

Is it worth it? By itself this is not a full meal. But it's kosher, shelf stable, and can be heated a few different ways. If necessary it could be consumed cold. In my opinion they are a good option for including in a long-term kosher food supply.

I'll post reviews of other meals as I eat them.

Water for Emergencies

I've been more active on X (Twitter) recently. I published an article, Water for Emergencies, over there. Please go check it out and if you're a user, give me a follow.

I'm @davemarkowitz on X.

Thoughts on the Crowdstrike Outage

By now you're probably aware of the massive outages caused by a bug in Crowdstrike. The bug is the result of an update pushed out overnight, which caused Windows systems to become unusable. Unfortunately, Crowdstrike is very widely used by large corporations so the impact is immediate and widespread. A Symantec Enterprise Antivirus update had a similar effect about 12 years ago, but this one is much more widespread.

We are lucky that only Windows systems were directly affected. Crowdstrike also makes endpoint protection software for Mac and Linux. We use it on everthying. Several of my coworkers who use Windows were dead in the water this morning. The fix was to reboot into safe mode and delete the affected file. PCs with Bitlocker disk encryption enabled needed a recovery key from IT. I use a Mac so I wasn't directly impacted but because user authentication servers run on Windows I had trouble accessing some systems.

This could have been a lot worse. If this had affected Linux systems, it potentially could have taken out DNS and NTP servers, and the Cisco Network Registrar systems used to provision cable modems. That would have killed voice, video, and Internet service for any customer's device which rebooted. Recovery would have been greatly impeded because IT personnel wouldn't be able to communicate or get the fix easily.

AIUI, it's taken out several airlines, shipping companies, banks, and various point of sale systems.

It's a perfect example of the dangers of IT software monoculture where one bug can take out a huge swath of systems.

Consider it a sign to increase preparations for grid (power and Internet) collapse.

Prime Day Deal on the Frankford Arsenal Hand Priming Tool

It's Prime Day at Amazon and something that's on sale is the Frankford Arsenal Hand Priming Tool. I bought one a couple months ago and have primed at least 500 cases with it. Compared with the Lee Hand Priming Tool I used for years, the FA is much better built, robust, and also allows adjusting the primer seating depth.

Using the Lee tool I'd usually lose 1 or 2 primers out of 100 due to them seating sideways. I haven't lost one primer yet with the Frankford Arsenal tool.

Normally it's priced at $79.99 but for Prime Day it's $59.99. It's worth it at the normal price. The Prime Day price is a great deal.

Guns for Jews v3.1 Now Live

My ebook, Guns for Jews v3.1 is now live. Compared with the earlier versions it is greatly expanded including additional gun recommendations, discussion of ammunition, child proofing your guns and safe storage, and much more.

Get it here and please share:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qR9S2erlML7xpfHhcx1yjpRKWk41U7If/view?usp=sharing

Sig Sauer P365X Micro 9mm

The other day I traded off a few guns and came home with a Sig Sauer P365X. The gun comes with two 12 round magazines. I had enough store credit that I also got another 12 rounder and a 17 round extended magazine.

The P365X is part of Sig's family of compact and micro-sized 9mm semiauto pistols intended for conceal carry. The original P365 is exceptionally small, while the P365X is just slightly larger with a longer grip, and has a slide already milled to accept RMS-c footprint dot sights.

Overall the P365X is a tiny gun, especially when you consider its capacity. It's 6" long, 1.1" thick, and 4.8" tall. The barrel is 3.1" long. The slide is fitted with Sig's own night sights and is cut for an optic, as mentioned above.

Top-to-bottom, P365X, S&W Model 640-1 .357 Magnum, S&W M&P Shield 9:

The P365 family is very modular because the actual "gun" for legal purposes is the fire control unit (FCU), which includes the major mechanical components. You buy different grip modules and mix and match barrels and slides to create the configuration you desire.

For several years I've owned a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9, which is in the micro-9 class, but never really warmed up to it. (In contrast, I like the mid-size M&P 9 2.0 and full-size M&P 9 1.0 A LOT.)

Before shooting any new gun I always field strip it, remove any factory oil, and lubricate it per the owner's manual. I do this as a quality control check and to familiarize myself with the gun in case I need to resolve any issues at the range.

Field stripping is very simple and doesn't require any tools. First clear the gun to ensure it's unloaded. Then lock the slide to the rear. Next rotate the takedown lever on the left side of the frame downwards. Release the slide (which is under spring pressure) and pull it off the front of the frame.

Then pull off the recoil spring assembly and pull the barrel out of the slide.

Reassembly is in reverse order.

To remove the FCU, first clear the gun, then field strip it as normal. Then drive out the pin at the rear of the frame, from right to left. Next, tilt rear of the FCU up and pull the unit out of the grip module.

To drive out the pin you need a 3/32" punch. A Glock disassembly tool works well.

Strangely, Sig doesn't include a printed version of the owner's manual with the gun, which comes in a nice lockable plastic box with an extra mag, chamber flag, and a cable lock. There is a basic safety pamphlet included, which has a QR code on it to scan which takes you to the Sig website where you can download the manual.

In this litigious age I am amazed Sig's lawyers approved shipping a gun without a full owner's manual. You can call Sig to have them mail you a hard copy of the manual, which I intend to do so it can stay with the gun. Seriously, Sig Sauer, what are you thinking?

Yesterday I took the P365X to the range and put a mix of S&B 124 grain FMJ and Wolf Polyformance 115 grain FMJ for a total of 105 rounds through it. It had 3 or 4 failures to fully go into battery, which were resolved with a gentle tap on the back end of the slide.

Today, I did a quick field strip, clean, and relube, then took it back to the range and this time it ran flawlessly through 152 rounds of Wolf and 14 Speer Gold Dots that I had in my range bag. Today it ran flawlessly.

The P365X weighs just 17.8 oz. (500 grams) unloaded. As expected, recoil was pretty snappy. Compared with the M&P Shield, the grip is a little rounder in cross section and more comfortable for me.

The Sig's trigger reminds me of a double action revolver trigger but lighter and  with a shorter stroke. But, unlike a DA revolver trigger I can't stage it.

Shooting such a small pistol well with its short sight radius and level of recoil demands good form. If you don't have the fundamentals down pat you won't shoot well. It is not forgiving. Yesterday, I was definitely not in the zone. Today I really concentrated on my form more and shot better.

Something that will help accuracy especially under stress is a dot sight. I plan to get a Holosun green dot for it soon.

Because of the recoil I find that extended shooting sessions with this class of gun are taxing and my shooting degrades after awhile. Today I took a few breaks during the session to sweep up my spent brass and give my hand some rest.

The P365X fits a DeSantis outside the waistband holster I have for my Shield 9. It also fits a DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster but is a bit too big for my pants pockets. It would probably work OK in a large coat or vest pocket.

Overall, I am seriously impressed with the Sig P365X. It packs an amazing amount of firepower into a tiny gun that with practice is very shootable.

Concealed Carry Vest

I just got one of these vests in gray for $27 on Amazon Prime, for use as a cover garment. It looks more REI rather than tacticool. Actually, it looks more Walmart-ish than REI.

It is lightweight and uninsulated, which is what I wanted. I already have fleece insulated vests for colder weather. The shell is nylon with a polyester mesh liner for ventilation. It has four pockets: two handwarmer pockets, a chest pocket, and one inside pocket. The zippers and stitching seem pretty good. Unlike the pics on Amazon the zipper pull is American-style, i.e. with the pull on the right side. There is a hanging loop on the back.

The vest should roll up compactly so it can be stuffed in a bag when traveling. It'll be handy for when you need a few extra pockets but not something that's borderline LBE.

I tried it with a few different guns in OWB holsters. On me it’s long enough to cover a 3” S&W K-Frame if I don’t raise my arm over my head. A 2.75" Ruger Speed Six concealed a little better. A 2” barrel gives more wiggle room. A S&W M&P9 Shield concealed well. A 4" K-Frame stuck out the bottom. The guns remained covered if I bent over.

I also tried it on over one of my bulkier hoodies and it fit ok with no binding in the arm holes. So, it could work also as a windbreaker over a sweatshirt or sweater, depending on the thickness.

Revolver Chamber Brushes from Brownells

Cleaning the charge holes is an important part of maintaining a revolver. If you shoot .38 Specials in a .357 Magnum it's especially important to do so to knock back the crud ring that results. However, even using a bore brush this is a fair amount of work.

Brownells sells revolver chamber brushes for .38/.357 and .44/45. They are larger in diameter and longer than pistol bore brushes. This morning I used one when cleaning my S&W Model 64-2 snub .38.

(Yes, my workbench is cluttered.)

Note how much longer the chamber brush is than a bore brush. Also note that it's longer than the frame opening for the cylnder. Do not put the chamber brush down the bore because getting it back out is going to be extremely difficutl.

I ran the chamber brush dry through each charge hole once in each direction. It got rid of a lot of crud from the .38 Special 158 grain LSWC loads I fired yesterday.

Incidentally, after I finished cleaning the gun I replaced the wood grips and grip adapter with the set of Pachmayr Compacs it had when I got it. The Magnas with grip adapter were comfortable when dry firing but really whacked the inside of my left thumb when shooting the gun.

From last weekend:

The rubber grips are still pretty small so the piece should still conceal easily under a jacket or vest when Fall rolls around. This is a 6 shot K-Frame so it's not like I'm going to be stuffing this in my pants pocket, anyway.

S&W Model 640 Range Report

I'm pleased to note that the gunsmithing I did on my S&W Model 640 I did this morning worked out. I took it to the range tonigh and put 50 rounds of my handloads through it. The loads were a 148 grain button nose, bevel base wadcutter from Matt's Bullets, 3.3 grains of Alliant Bullseye Powder, and CCI primers in Winchester wadcutter brass. The gun functioned perfectly.

Something to mention is that of the major American primer brands, CCIs have the hardest cups. So, if the gun runs well with them it should work fine with Federal (the softest), Remington, or Winchester primers.

Note that the reason I needed to work on it earlier today was because I'd installed an Apex Duty/Carry kit in it, which has a reduced power hammer spring and extended firing pin. (The kit also includes a reduced power rebound spring but I managed to launch that into the ether so my gun has the OEM rebound spring.) Even without the lighter rebound slide spring it's much easier to shoot well than as it came from the factory.

This is 50 shots at 7 yards. All of my shots were on the target.

This gun will definitely be carried.