All it Needs is a Built-In Can Opener
November 11th, 2008Little Guns for Hard Times
We have a gun-grabber headed for the White House, and he is going to appoint gun-grabbing judges at every level, so people are going nuts, buying guns. That will work fine, as long as old guns are “grandfathered” past the fascist laws and executive orders and rulings that are likely to hit us in the near future. Of course, it won’t be as helpful if Obama manages to fix it so existing guns can be confiscated. And that’s a possibility. Gun-grabbers like to use grandfather clauses to reduce opposition from people who already own targeted weapons, but if they ever get powerful enough to come after the guns you already have, they’ll do it, and they’ll melt them down. Rosie O’Donnell is probably salivating.
We Second Amendment supporters like to bluster about “cold dead hands,” but the reality is, nearly all of us will obey the law and hand over our weapons. Would you commit a bunch of felonies, knowing there were people in your community who could inform the cops and the BATF that you own guns? Guess what. In prison, you won’t even be allowed to carry a sharpened toothbrush. On the whole, it’s better to avoid arrest and stay free. Or relatively so.
Have you ever had a couple of beers and told a liberal acquaintance you have guns, just to irritate him? Do you have liberal relatives? Someone outside of your household probably knows enough about you to get you put on a list. You may be on one already. The odds are good that someone out there will have the knowledge and the inclination to send the storm troopers to your door.
I guess it’s a good idea to stock up before Obama starts rewriting the Constitution, even if your purchases won’t guarantee anything. Still, it seems pointless to rush out and buy guns in November. You’re driving prices up, and you may end up settling for weapons you don’t want, because dealers’ shelves are bare. It will take a little time for the new regime to put new policies in place. You have a couple of months left for shopping.
I keep thinking it would be nice to have something handy for short-range encounters, beyond a pistol yet not as hard to use as a big rifle. If you have to defend yourself on your property, you won’t have much need for deer-rifle-size loads that can kill people at a thousand yards, and you won’t want a really long gun that gets caught on things when you try to move around indoors.
One of the guns that caught my eye a year or two ago was the Thompson .45-caliber rifle. You can buy these with removable buttstocks, and you can add hundred-round drums. That’s not bad. It’s a short weapon with no recoil to speak of, and it will shoot a hundred marvelous .45 ACP rounds as quick as you can pull the trigger. Aiming becomes nearly optional. It’s heavy, and I’m not sure how reliable the drums are, and it will cost over a grand, but it seems like a surprisingly nice defensive weapon.
Here’s something else that seems like a sleeper. The M1 carbine with a folding stock.
I know everyone makes fun of this round, but think it over. It’s faster than a .357 or .44 Magnum. The bullet weighs about as much as a 9mm round (let’s say “.357,” since it’s the exact same round but sounds better). The Box o’ Truth confirms that it penetrates nicely, regardless of the funny stories about Chicoms in fluffy jackets. And you can shoot it from a pleasant carbine that takes a 30-round magazine. And unlike the Thompson, it will reliably hit things at distances greater than a hundred feet. The sights on a Tommy gun are just plain weird; I shot one, and I had to guess what the POA was. The M1 comes with a nice peep sight.
I checked out Kim du Toit’s site yesterday, and he has a lot of SHTF stuff up. In case that acronym means nothing to you, “TF” stands for “The Fan.” He stores water and dry food, and he even found himself an entrenching tool, which people like me call “a soldier’s shovel.” As I understand it, the entrenching tool is the Holy Grail of survival supplies. It has magical powers non-veterans such as myself cannot comprehend. It’s even better than a towel; don’t listen to Ford Prefect. Guns play a big part in SHTF lore, and I’ve noticed that the M1 is mentioned at times. Maybe it would be a fine thing to have. It seems to combine the handiness of a .22 with the short-range deadliness of a centerfire. Rabbits, squirrels, your starving liberal neighbors who suddenly regret making fun of your SHTF plans…it will take down a wide variety of prey.
Auto-Ordnance makes a nice folding M1 carbine, and it costs less than a good 1911.
Maybe some day.
Oops…maybe some day before the inauguration.
Kim has a nice, brief Veteran’s Day post up. Take a look, and think about the men who bought the rights our President-Elect wants to take away.
November 11th, 2008 at 1:47 PM
While you’re laying in supplies, don’t forget:
Cosmoline
Trash bags
Folding shovel
GPS unit
November 11th, 2008 at 2:21 PM
Because of the meds I require, I’m not too invested in a SHTF scenario where there is no electricity or deliveries to a local pharmacy. I’m all for some semblance of civilization.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:31 PM
The M1 Carbine is a fine choice. Hollowpoints help make it a nicer choice.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:43 PM
…and a nice piece of land where you can bury your soon to be illegal weapons and ammo until needed.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:06 PM
I think the people who won’t hand over their weapons are the ones least likely to bluster about it.
And, for most home defense scenarios, nothing tops a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun with an extended magazine and 18.5″-20″ barrel.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:28 PM
Don’t you lose the versatility with a shotgun? Hmm…maybe you would get more versatility, since you could kill birds on the wing with it.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:51 PM
M-1 Carbine is sweet.
Get loading dies – it’s just like loading a pistol cartridge.
You will see what it can do with some good projos – hollow points, as og mentioned, will take this thing quite a ways. Same with soft points.
Jim Cirillo rated the M-1 Carbine as the best stopper when he was on the Stakeout Squad. Probably because it’s basically a very hot pistol load, with low recoil, accurate and precise, and fast-handling.
You would be well-served with getting a case of ammo and a few thousand projos. The cases tend to last quite a while.
My wife LOVES the M-1 Carbine.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:07 PM
1. Am getting mouthy.
2. Civilians don’t get in running gun battles or long range stuff.
3. Recommend a shot gun -Remington or Mossberg pump probably most reliable.
4. On the SHTF stuff:
A. Where are you bugging out to?
B. If you put yourself in the hands of the authorities, your
weapons will be confiscated -and probably a lot of
your other gear, as well.
C. Life in the boonies gets old fast.
D. Can’t imagine what “C” would be like with women along.
E. Think a reliable car and a wad of cash backed by several
credit cards with large balances will be of most use.
F. Either head for Idaho and try to hook up with one of the
survivalist gurus, or
G. Go to Vegas and forget about your problems while making a
pig of yourself.
5. Know what I’d choose, but it wouldn’t fly with my wife.
V/R J West
November 11th, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Why can’t I bug out at home? The fruit trees are coming on, and there are lots of fat squirrels.
November 11th, 2008 at 4:30 PM
“We Second Amendment supporters like to bluster about “cold dead hands,” but the reality is, nearly all of us will obey the law and hand over our weapons. Would you commit a bunch of felonies, knowing there were people in your community who could inform the cops and the BATF that you own guns? Guess what. In prison, you won’t even be allowed to carry a sharpened toothbrush. On the whole, it’s better to avoid arrest and stay free. Or relatively so.”
Not what the Founders intended at all. The Founders of Marxism, yes, not the Founders of this country. Very disappointing paragraph…
November 11th, 2008 at 4:49 PM
As bad as I hate to say it, the AR15 might be a better choice. The Carbine is fine but it can’t compare with the .223 round. Pound for pound its a better choice. I resisted the “dark side” for a long time, now I’m old and somewhat crippled and that makes my beloved M1A hard to deal with. But at the same time, I would not feel naked with only a .30 carbine.
I have heard that a pistol is only useful to fight your way to a rifle;^)
November 11th, 2008 at 4:57 PM
1. Sounds great!
2. Preferable to a townhouse in the DC suburbs.
3. Nothing but oak trees and scraggly oak afflicted grass here.
4. The squirrels spout liberal aphorisms.
5. Excuse me, those might be my neighbors -a group who distrust creaky military retirees.
6. Suspect sitting tight when the SHTF is usually the smart thing to do.
7. BTW, read a lot about burying firearms. Useful weapons disposition, that.
V/R J West
November 11th, 2008 at 5:15 PM
The AR15 somehow seems more high-maintenance and more like a real centerfire rifle. Looks like it’s harder to reload, too, and the ammunition is more expensive.
Wouldn’t a decent AR15 with a folding stock cost considerably more than the Auto-Ordnance?
November 11th, 2008 at 5:48 PM
WASR10s are still relatively inexpensive. Popular worldwide. More stopping power. Reliable. Easy on the shoulder. Lot’s of neat palstic stuff can be aded cheap. I’ts a tool. You don’t have to treat it like it might be a collector’s item someday. It won’t. Unless the collector is the BATF.
November 11th, 2008 at 8:12 PM
[…] The Hog likes tools that serve more than one function. One of the guns that caught my eye a year or two ago was the Thompson .45-caliber rifle. You can buy these with removable buttstocks, and you can add hundred-round drums. That’s not bad. It’s a short weapon with no recoil to speak of, and it will shoot a hundred marvelous .45 ACP rounds as quick as you can pull the trigger. Aiming becomes nearly optional. It’s heavy, and I’m not sure how reliable the drums are, and it will cost over a grand, but it seems like a surprisingly nice defensive weapon. […]
November 11th, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Watching one of the Discovery channels a while back, I think it was the Military channel but not totally sure, there was a program about the M1 Carbine. It seems the French Foreign Legion preferred the carbine in the Indochina wars–when they reached out and touched a Viet Minh, they stayed touched!
November 12th, 2008 at 6:42 AM
Too late. I already bought my AR-15. And a 1911. And a British Enfield, because it was there.
November 12th, 2008 at 6:59 AM
The M-1 carbine is very nice. I can whack 6 bowling pins at maybe 40 yards in like 10 seconds with it. The peep sites allow me to acquire the target quickly. It is very “pointable;” i.e. lends itself to instinctive shooting. Get two of ’em. They’re great to cling to.
The wife fired for the first time last week – an election induced new hobby. She wants to go again.
Oh yea – get bottled gas for your stove, when the grid goes down for any reason you can still cook your pizza.
As for bugging out – if you’re going to bug out, do it now else the question becomes where are you going to go? Don’t come to my place; you’ll not be welcome. Living in urban areas sucks and leaves you at the mercy of an interdependent and complex food delivery system.
My guess is the first thing for gun control nuts is going to be conceal carry prohibition on a national scale which will add to the greater danger of a universally unarmed populace.
Good luck to us all. I really thought the NRA could pull PA and OH out for McCain. They’re looking ineffective compared to the old days.
All guns on Guam are registered and each firearm owner has to have an ID card with them when in possession of the weapon. It’s not constitutional, but what are you going to do? I comply and it’s not been a problem to date.
November 12th, 2008 at 8:16 AM
It would be interesting to see the internal conflicts between gun grabbing and not being a stoolie. I suspect that the instinct most Americans have against informing hasn’t died. Some of the left’s most fervent rallying cries in the last 8 revolved around the patriot act’s attacks on our essential freedoms. Dumbass, yes, but fervent.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Have you looked at anything by Kel-Tec? I love that company. It seems like every other week they come up with some new plastic gun made specifically to push the legal envelope and scare piss out of the ‘phobes. Folding pistol-caliber carbines, teensy pistols, rifle-caliber handguns, stuff like that.
It’s true, they’ve had manufacturing quality issues. But their designs are super-nifty, and if your gun doesn’t work, they fix it. Wonderful customer service.
November 13th, 2008 at 6:01 AM
My gunclub has a Ruger Mini-14. IMO very comprable to a M1 carbine, but shoots .223. Fun little rifle.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:28 PM
I love my Marlin Camp-9. Great companion carbine to my various 9mm pistols. There’s also a .45 variant, but hard to find. Expect to pay around $350.