Building an AR pistol part 1

As I grow as a shooter I expect my firearms to grow with me. One of the beautiful things about the AR platform is that you can create anything from a 458 SOCOM moose exploding rifle to a 5.56 AR pistol all using the same exact components aside from some caliber specific upper parts.  Hell, you can even use the same lower receiver group and magazines for the .223, 5.56, 300blk, 25-45 sharps, and the 458 SOCOM!

I left my AR for an AK

WASR 10/63 in action

For the past 12 years I was a die hard AR fan boy, but was never a hater of the ultimate rival of my go to rifle. I just didn't pay any attention to it, similar to an annoying younger sibling. After some extensive research and peer pressure by Olmsted Risk Solutions I decided to go to the dark side

Trading Tradition for Function

1911 on bottom was traded for the AK

I recently traded my S&W 1911 for a Yugo M-70 AK-47. Some of you may believe I made a good move and some of you are considering tracking me down and kicking my ass. I debated doing this trade for quite some time and took quite an emotional beating from a good friend of mine when I told him I made the trade. Putting aside bias towards a certain platform and nostalgia for a tried and true piece of Americana, this was a smart move on my part.

My week at the Big Run Ranch

I was fortunate to be invited to the Defensive Preparedness Summit hosted by ORS to share ideas and philosophies on defensive shooting tactics and wilderness survival in a practical application environment. The ranch facility is a sprawling hilly terrain which is perfect for anything ranging from shoot and move drills to shelter building and animal tracking.

People who believe in “Absolutes” have not been in enough danger.



Lance (right) and I



Greetings, I consider myself to be a lifelong student because I firmly believe that once you stop learning you have stopped growing and have ultimately started your decline towards death. I do a fair amount of networking through electronic means and the old fashioned hands on approach as well and what I have come to learn is that there is no such thing as an “Absolute”.

Saiga 12 Afterthoughts

I purchased a Saiga 12 about a year ago and decided I would test it out in a variety of ways that I found suitable for my primary home defense shotgun. The Saiga 12 is one of the sexiest shotguns I have ever seen, unfortunately that is all I have to say about the Saiga in a positive manner. There is not much out there in the market for magazine fed shotguns and you have to wonder if it’s for good reason. Why would I need a 20 round drum weighing 10lbs in any scenario that is realistic? If you need that much shotgun ammo you should have grabbed your rifle. This shotgun on average weighs in at 8.5lbs. Throw a 10 round magazine that is about a foot long and weighing about 3lbs and you have one heavy ass gun.

How to choose your Doomsday arsenal and Range cards

Things to come to terms with when making a list of items for a long term survival; you WILL eventually run out of ammo, if you plan on hedging your survival solely on firearms make sure you stockpile extremely common guns in extremely common calibers. I suggest keeping the same calibers as the military and police such as 9mm, .45, and .223/5.56. If something were to go completely haywire, plenty of ammo and gun parts will be reasonably available. That being said, if you are a long term survival planner then you probably already have some form of back up weapon like a bow or edge weapon that you can use over and over again for years if need be. Remember, as long as trees have branches you have arrows.

Let’s talk guns

This is strictly from my point of view and obviously you do not have to have a gun or guns in a survival scenario but it would make a few key things quite simpler for you. I think long and hard about what I will have for protection and survival if something happens? I try to peer through a realistic lens when talking about these kinds of things, I know I will never have enough ammo or have every gun for every occasion, so I apply a simple approach to this, how can I be best suited for self-preservation with the smallest amount of crap to carry?

Drunk Ramblings Of An Idiot

It seems there is some sort of hysteria these days about these “Doomsday Scenarios” and the End of the World or Economic Collapse. People don’t want to die so they decide they want to know what sort of items to keep around them to be prepared for anything other than a sunny day, and it got me thinking that maybe I should try to put some on a different sort of spin onto which scenario most everybody assumes will happen, like thinking it's going to be complete chaos and people running around rampant in the streets like something out of a movie like Mad Max, or some weird zombie apocalypse, I feel none of those scenarios are accurate.
 If there were to be some sort of mass hysteria or zombie apocalypse or any sort of just boring old civil unrest it is not going to be crowds of people running through the streets screaming and lighting people on fire or suddenly feeling the need to just be mowing people down in their Prius while marveling how great the gas mileage is.

If I got a Facebook notification saying the world was having a catastrophic event what would I do?

1.      Like the status

2.      Change my undies

3.      Get to working on a plan to thrive

 I would actually assemble my so called “A-Team” established from people I know, who would be useful to me in dealing with an impending catastrophe. Would I need some liberal hipster who hates confrontation and has no actual skill? Hell no, let him and his skinny jeans fend for themselves.

Prepping For Dog Owners

How would I outfit my dog for the end of the world?

Molly and Maynard

 Would I buy a doggy flak jacket or some stupid useless crap? Or would I be able to focus on the actual fantastic resource my dog will be to me. If I was to take my dog and set her free in the middle of the woods alone with no food or water and did the same to an average citizen with no survival skills to speak of (besides an episode here and there of naked and afraid or whatever fake survival show is popular now) and left that person in the same conditions as a dog, who would fare better after 3 days? My money is on the dog; basically what I'm saying is we would need the dog more than the dog would need us.

Confessions of a Cross-eyed Dominant Shooter

I can recall the first time I noticed something was off about my eyes, I was issued my first ACOG while serving in the Marines. I was beyond excited to have something other than iron sights to go into battle with, we were instructed to keep both eyes open while acquiring a target and everyone but a couple people including myself had some difficulty. It was like my eyes were working in an opposite manner and that my left eye was the stronger eye and I was not even seeing the reticle from the ACOG.