Guest Post: Commander Zero on Preparedness, Spreadsheets and PTR-91 Magazines

Click here to read more.

Preparedness is all well and good, but without a bit of accounting it can be difficult to know what you have, where you have it, and how old it is. Commander Zero talks about the use of spreadsheets for tracking his inventory of foodstuffs and other preparedness items. Later in this article he discusses the PTR-91 as a main battle rifle (MBR) and the current availability of low cost magazines.

A fortuitous episode while grocery shopping the other day. An item that we normally find for $10 was on sale for $8.89. Ok, not a huge sale price but saving something is better than saving nothing. Problem was, they were out. I went to the customer service coutner and asked for a rain check and for them to order me a case. When the case showed up the other day it was in the midst of another sale and the price had been reduced further to $4.99. Well, half-price is sort of a magic threshold for me…I cleaned out the stock on the shelves and order another three cases. Took our goodies back to the house and added them to the food stockpile. Once thats done it’s time to update the spreadsheets.

I cannot emphasize enough the sheer utility of spreadsheets for keeping track of stuff like this. I use Excel and am fairly good with it. I found this thread over at arfcom about how to have your spreadhseet automatically note when a product is nearing its expiration/best-by date. When we upgraded out phones to Blackberry devices I discovered that the crippleware version of Excel in the BB would read my Excel spreadsheets. Joy! I now keep a copy of the spreadsheet in my cellphone. If we happen to be out shopping and discover something is on sale at a ridiculous price I can pull up a copy of the spreadsheet and see if the quantity we have on hand is sufficient or if we should go ahead and get more. Very useful, that.

The spreadsheets I use for tracking our food arent fancy, they just give a general description, brand, quantity, amount and that sort of info. I keep it on a clipboard with a pen and the clipboard is hanging off the steel shelving by the food. When food is taken (or added) its noted on the spreadsheet and then once a week or so I update the spreadsheet on the computer and cellphone. Once every few months I do an inventory to make sure all the numbers jibe. Usually they do…however, sometimes someone in this household will forget to update the clipboard…usually because their hands are full at the time. By and large, however, the accuracy of the count is never off by more than two or three items. Not bad when you consider theres about two hundred on the clipboard.

As of late I’ve been thinking that I need to expand this spreadsheet/clipboard system to some of the other consumables around here, most notably ammo. I have a reasonably good idea of how much ammo we have but I cannot say with 100% accuracy. Ditto for cosnumable gun stuff like spare parts and magazines. Really, I need to take a long weekend and work up a ‘master spreadsheeet’ with all of this stuff.

=-=-=-=-=-

Speaking of mags, I had a customer who did a very very smart thing the other day. He’s been wanting a .308 battle rifle and I sold him on the PTR-91. He’s been dragging his feet but last week I gave him the hard sell with the same seriousness and somber tone as if I was telling him he had cancer. Look, I said, one of my vendors is having a sale on these things…it’ll cost you $1000. Cheaper Than Dirt still has mags for $1 ea. and spare parts are still abundant. If you dont buy now youre going to regret it later. I know its a pile of money but youve been working ten, twelve hours of overtime every week, right? Buy this. I guarantee you that you will never regret this.

He handed over ten $100 bills and I ordered his gun. I then admonished him to get on the phone to CTD today and order at least fifty magazines. Since the vendor ships the rifles ‘free shipping’, I added ten more Glock magazines for me and the missus. Strike while the iron is hot and all that.

Then, because I know the customer (who is also an LMI and a good friend) had to reach deep for the money for the rifle, I called CTD and ordered twenty magazines for him. I’ll stick them in the closet and if he winds up not being able to come up with the scratch to get some magazines in a timely manner I’ll give these to him as an early Christmas gift. He’s a good guy and I don’t want to see him get caught flat-footed if something goes weird in the world. This way if between the time he gets the rifle and the time he can actually get some mags he’ll at least have twenty mags to keep the gun running.

I really should nag him into some spare parts while Im at it. Hmmmm.

Commander Zero makes his home in Montana with his wife where he is an active member in the preparedness community. You can visit his blog at CommanderZero.com

Guest Post: Mr. Completely With More On Rimfire Magazines

Click here to read more.

Rimfire expert Mr. Completely continues his excellent series on maintaining rimfire pistols with his third article on rimfire magazines.

A letter and number sized drill bit set. This set came from W.W. Granger's and the quality is very good.

In addition to a "Magazine Lipper" tool, as previously described, another extremely handy tool to have along when tuning rimfire magazines is a full set of number and letter size drill bits. The difference in size from one bit to the next is too great with a fractional drill bit set, but with a number and letter sized set the increments between sizes are small.

You can pick up a cheap set of these drill bits for around twenty bucks, and as gauges, they work just fine. As drill bits, however, they pretty much suck. If you can swing it, for somewhere around a hundred dollars you can get a pretty decent set of drill bits that will last you a very long time, at least, if you take care of them and don't break any!

Trying to measure the gap between the lips of a rimfire magazine with dial calipers is difficult due to the odd shape of the lips, but using a drill bit shank makes it a lot easier.

Using a drill bit shank to gauge the distance between magazine lips.

Hopefully when you get to the range to dial in your magazines you will find one or more magazines that seem to work just fine, and some that have problems. If that's the case, use a drill bit shank to determine the gap between the magazine lips of the working magazines and then carefully bend the magazine lips of the magazines that aren't feeding properly to match. If luck is with you, this may be all you need to do to get your magazines feeding properly. In the real world, however, there always seems to be at least one "Problem Child" of a magazine in every bunch. For these, you need to determine exactly what it's doing and then bend it accordingly.

There are a number of different types of failure to feed situations. If you can't get the rounds smoothly out f the magazine, no amount of magazine lip adjusting is going to help. When you load your magazines, do the rounds slide freely up and down with the follower, or do they tend to hang up a bit? If there is a bit of a tight spot perhaps the magazine has been slightly squeezed narrower, and a little careful spreading of the magazine from the inside is in order.

One of the more common FTF's is "Feeding Too High". Usually the bullet is jammed against the top edge of the chamber. There is usually a big dent in the nose of the bullet, and often times the bullet is actually partially dislodged so that it is no longer straight with the case. These situations are also just about the worst to clear in a hurry since the slide has usually hammered the cartridge into a solidly wedged position. Feeding too high is usually caused by the magazine lips being to far apart, or too high in the gun relative to the chamber.

A classic case of feeding too high.

Find the drill bit that just fits between the magazine lips. Now pick out the next smaller bit. Using the magazine lipper, carefully bend the lips inward until the smaller bit just fits between the lips. Keep in mind that the change will be approximately the thickness of a sheet of paper, so it doesn't take much bending to close the lips to the smaller gap. Once you have narrowed the magazine lips to the new dimension, give it a try and see if you have made any improvement. If it's still feeding high, try going down another step. If you go too far you will end up with the bullet hitting too low, and it will then usually kick up and look like a case of feeding too high, or it may not get out of the magazine at all.

When I stated that feeding too high was usually caused by the magazine lips being too far apart, this is the exception. If the magazine is feeding too low the bullet may hit the ramp leading up to the chamber and bounce past the opening into the chamber, ending up either jammed up like a regular case of feeding too high, or sometimes it will caught between the slide and the breech face, pointed almost straight up. This is a fairly rare situation, and if you look carefully at the bottom side of the nose of the bullet you will often see the beveled flat spot caused by hitting the ramp. A regular case of feeding too high will not have the dent.

When the magazine lips are too close together they won't let the rim end of the cartridge rise enough for the round to enter the chamber.

Notice the cartridge rim is still below the extractor.

The bottom corner of the extractor has snagged on the side of the cartridge just in front of the rim, keeping the cartridge from sliding all the way up the face of the slide.

If the round is feeding too low it will often hang up with the cartridge rim still held under the magazine lips and the bullet partially in the chamber. The top of the bullet is jammed against the top of the chamber, the bottom of the bullet is jammed against the lower edge of the chamber at the breech face, and the rim is still under the magazine lips.

Keep in mind that this as also what you get with a dirty chamber, so before you get carried away bending up your magazines, make sure your chamber is really clean. In fact, polishing the chamber can resolve a lot of problems that appear to be caused by the magazines. Really close tolerance "Match" chambers are especially vulnerable.

There is also another failure to feed that can easily be blamed on the magazines, and unless you look closely, it would appear to be a case of the magazine lips being too close together. However, in this case it's the extractor being a bit too tight to the face of the slide, not allowing the rim to slide up between the hook of the extractor and the slide face.

In the above picture you can see that the rim of the cartridge is fully out from under the magazine lips. The cure to this failure to feed is simple. Lightly stone off just the tiniest amount of the bottom corner of the extractor. When I say a tiny amount, that's exactly what I mean, as anything more will create a whole new batch of problems related to failure to extract. It's really closer to de-burring, rather than actually removing any metal.

When you are at the range and you get a FTF, the natural reaction is to clear it as quickly as you can and get to the next shot. However, if you take a moment to look closely at the situation, then carefully remove the round and look closely at the nose of the bullet, you'll have a much better chance to correctly identifying the exact cause of the FTF, and you'll have a lot easier time of resolving it. All magazines have a "Sweet Spot" where they are extremely reliable. If you are at one end or the other of the envelope the magazine will work really well almost always. Tuning your magazines, sometimes only an extremely small amount, will make them significantly better.

I should mention, though, that I have seen the occasional after-market magazine that absolutely refused to feed reliably. I attribute it to the after-market magazines sometimes not being quite as accurately made as the factory originals.

Rimfire magazine tuning can be something of a black art, but with a bit of patience, and trial and error, you should be able to get the results you are looking for. Failing that, you may want to consider a different pistol, or possibly a revolver..............

Mr. Completely makes his home on Whidbey Island in Northwest Washington with his wife and fellow blogger, KeeWee, and their rabbit "Bun". He organizes the annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, Nevada, and also runs regular e-postal matches coordinated with other bloggers.

Blackdog Announces New Ruger 10/22 Magazine

Click here to read more.

Black Dog Machine brings their 50 round drum technology to your Ruger 10/22.  Based on their previous drum for the AR-15 platform in .22 long rifle, this 50 round magazine for the Ruger 10/22 brings the same reliability and fun factor to the millions of 10/22 owners.

Available soon, you can watch the test video here.

New Choate PMAG Magazine Clamp

Click here to read more.


We recently picked up a new product from Choate Machine and Tool at the SAR Show West in Phoenix Arizona this December.

Choate's newest offering is a magazine clamp for the enormously popular Magpul PMAG polymer magazines. It simply clamps two PMAGS together. The clamp is made up of a polymer center section with a steel front and rear sections, all held together with a long flathead bolt.

This magazine clamp feels substantial and looks like it is a quality product. It is hefty and looks overbuilt.

We tested this magazine clamp with two standard PMAGS. Fully loaded the two mags were of course over twice as heavy as a single mag, but the balance of a standard M4-style AR was not significantly negatively affected.

The PMAG magazines can be clamped up high, but not high enough to interfere with the magwell, or lower toward the bottom of the magazine.

We also performed some impromptu drop testing with the two fully loaded clamped PMAGs on the office floor and the magazines did tend to slide when subjected to this type of mistreatment, but they were still in the clamp solidly and did not move or rattle or slide inside the clamp once picked up off the floor.

Overall, at the $25 MSRP proposed price point, the Choate clamp represents a significant value, and the only option for clamping magazines for those using PMAGS. This clamp is far less expensive than the other options available for carrying two magazines at the ready, and this setup fits non-AR type guns, as well as non-standard AR-15 lowers.

Guest Post: Rimfire Magazines by Mr. Completely

Click here to read more.

Mr. Completely, one of the foremost authorities on rimfire pistols on the internet has added another primer on Rimfire Magazines. This is only part one of his essay on rimfire magazines, so keep your eyes peeled for part two of his series.

A typical rimfire semi-automatic pistol magazine. This one's for a Smith & Wesson Model 22A. Note the round cutout at the bottom of the slot.

One of the most common problems with rimfire semi-automatic pistols is failure to feed. Back when the rimfire .22 cartridges were designed, semi-automatic rimfire pistols weren’t around, so the cartridge rim wasn’t a problem. When you stack ten of them up on top of each other in a magazine, though, the rims keep the cartridges from lying flat and parallel to each other. By slanting the magazine, at least the rims aren’t up against each other, but are staggered one in front of the other, making things a bit better, but still far from ideal.

"Special Factory Service Tool" being used to hold the follower at the extreme bottom of the magazine.

Rimfire failure to feed problems can be caused by one or even several different things, so solving the problem often isn’t easy. One of the possibilities is a problem with the magazine itself. Before doing anything else, disassemble and thoroughly clean the magazine. Most rimfire pistol magazines can be disassembled for cleaning.

To disassemble the magazine, I use a thin piece of wood, or whatever else might be handy, to compress the follower spring and to hold the follower all the way to the bottom of the magazine. This will allow you to grasp the follower pin with a pair of pliers and pull it out of the follower through the larger round hole at the bottom of the magazine slot. The follower pin has a small flange on it that keeps it from coming out, being kept into place by the sides of the magazine slot. Once you have removed the follower pin you can let the follower back up to the top of the magazine body. On some magazines the follower is thin enough that it can now be taken out through the top of the magazine, along with the follower spring.

Compressing the follower spring to allow removal of the floor plate. The floor plate is almost removed.

Other brands of magazines may have a removable floor plate, or magazine bottom. Often the follower spring is also the retainer for the floor plate. On the Smith & Wesson magazines used of the Model 22A, for example, slip a small rod, punch, drill bit, nail, or whatever’s at hand through the slots on the side of the magazine and pull the follower spring away from the bottom of the magazine a bit. Once you have done so, the plastic bottom piece will slide rearward off the magazine.

The fully disassembled magazine.

Now you can clean everything and inspect the parts for any obvious burrs or defects. A little bit of smoothing and polishing with some very fine “Wet-or-dry” sandpaper is not a bad idea while you’re here. After everything looks good, thoroughly clean everything, lubricate the pieces, and put it back together. From my experience, the tension of the magazine follower spring is not particularly critical. I’ve seen a wide variation in spring tensions all work fine, as long as the magazine and follower are free and smooth from top to bottom of their travel.

There are a lot of things you can use for lubricating a rimfire magazine. A dry lubricant such as CRC 5-56 Silicone or LPS dry lubricant work well, particularly in a dustier environment where oil tends to attract and accumulate dust. I use Tri-Flow, a spray oil with Teflon, most of the time. Any oily lubricant should be used sparingly, though. Brownell’s also has excellent oil under the Brownell’s brand name.

Model 22A magazine catch holes, a source of mis-feeding problems.

Speaking of 22A magazines, they have a “Designed-In” feeding problem that affects some types of ammunition and not others. There are two small square holes on the front of the magazine about half way down. These are for the magazine retention catch. Depending on the shape of the nose of the bullet, it can snag in one of these holes and the rounds won’t move up in the magazine as the top one is removed. The somewhat “squared-off” hollow points seem to be the worst, and fairly narrow round-nosed bullets like CCI Standard Velocity seem to feed the best. On later production of the S&W 22A magazines the factory has dimpled-in the spot between the two square holes to reduce or eliminate this problem. In most cases it seems to have solved the problem. The magazine pictured has a thin aluminum liner glued to the inside front of the magazine. It never hangs up, regardless of bullet shape. I’ve also experimented with a very thin stainless steel liner, and it also works well.

Once you have your magazines all cleaned up and lubricated, put a mark or a number on each one so you can tell them apart. Make sure your pistol is also nice and clean and properly lubricated too, while you're at it. Grab a brick of .22 ammo and head out to the range. For testing purposes I'd go with something like Federal Bulk, or CCI Blazers, as they should both run well in just about any rimfire semi-auto.

Mr. Completely makes his home on Whidbey Island in Northwest Washington with his wife and fellow blogger, KeeWee, and their rabbit "Bun". He organizes the annual Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno, Nevada, and also runs regular e-postal matches coordinated with other bloggers.

AR-15 Magazines

Click here to read more.

There are so many choices when it comes to AR-15 magazines that one can easily become confused as to which one is the best choice for their AR-15 rifle, carbine, or pistol. In this installment in our series on the AR-15 rifle, we'll discuss the various types of AR magazines available.

Let's start with the "tough as nails" PMAG. Magpul PMAGS are some of the best quality magazines on the market today. These mags are in extremely high demand because of their ruggedness, durability and relatively low price. The MagLEVEL PMAG has transparent windows and a painted spring for quick determination of approximate round count.

CProducts aluminum mags are another outstanding choice for AR-15 mags. They feature Magpul brand self-leveling followers for improved feeding reliability. These mags have a moly coat finish and are designed to exceed the USGI specifications.

Another choice to be considered is the Cammenga EasyMag. This magazine features an open case design, tip-proof follower, and a chrome silicone main spring that allows for fast loading, unloading, and cleaning. Constructed of high-strength spring steel and finished with anti-friction coating, the Easymag eliminates the need for separate loading devices, but can also be used with conventional stripper clips.

If you are looking for a standard AR-15 magazine, check out our Government Contractor Magazines. These are new, current production magazines made by various government contractors to the strict guidelines our military demands. These mags feature the standard green plastic follower and grey Teflon coating. Why is the color of the follower important? The original AR-15 magazines came with black followers. It was found that these followers could tilt in the magazine during use and cause feed malfunctions. An upgraded follower was introduced to correct this problem and was colored green for easy identification. Since then, there have been other colors introduced like gray and orange. These are supposedly upgrades or different generations of certain companies’ followers. Some even claim to be self lubricating. Avoid using black followers and tilting shouldn’t be a problem.

Loading 75 Round Bulgarian/Romanian/Chinese Drum Magazine

Click here to read more.

The Bulgarian drum magazine is from one of the finest firearms arsenals in the world, the famed "Circle 10" in Bulgaria. Rest assured that you have the finest in this type of drum magazine. Loading is easy, but the first time out may take a few minutes longer than after you have done it a few times - like anything else in life

This magazine has two features that are an improvement over the original Russian 75 round drum. The spring tension can be left off until ready to fire which preserves the life of the main spring.

Follower at the beginning of the spiral track. Click to see full size.

First 5 rounds loaded. Click to see full size.

After the spring has pushed the rounds into the tower. Click to see full size.

The drum fully loaded. Click to see full size.

The follower in the correct position for a partially loaded drum. Click to see full size.

The Russian drum must remain under full tension as long as it is loaded.

Also, if the driving force of the main spring is not enough to completely empty the magazine, more turns can be added to improve function. To adjust spring tension on the Russian drum, you would have to disassemble the drum to adjust the main spring which is not an agreeable task. Basics Some terms we will be working with here are important to define.

1. Cover Latches - The 2 latches at the top of the drum that secure the cover in place

2. Spindle - The circular device inside with cutouts for holding the rounds, rotates in a circular motion

3. Locking/unlocking shaft - The center spring-loaded device with a dished top.

4. Small winding key - Directly underneath the locking/unlocking shaft with two ears to grab onto

5. Follower - Located in the spindle and engages in the spiral groove or track. Pushes the last few rounds up the tower

6. Tower - The squarish part at the top of the drum that inserts into the mag-well of the rifle

7. Main Winding Key - On the cover that looks like a wind-up-toy key

8. Main Spring - Not visible, but under the spindle mechanism

9. Spiral track - Visible at the bottom of the drum

Loading the Drum

First thing you may want to do is to clean the heavy oil from the drum with some Gun Scrubber or the like. The drum comes shipped with this oil to prevent rust or corrosion in the shipping process. It's a bit more than you need for actual use. Re-oil with your favorite gun oil. Note: This entire step is completely optional.

Release the 2 cover latches at the top. Then open the cover. You will see a maze of slots and spirals on the inside. Don't be intimidated by the appearance. It is all very well thought out and easy to use!

Push the locking/unlocking shaft with firm, sharp pressure using your thumb to release any pressure on the main spring. This may take a bump with the outside of your fist. Don't be alarmed if/when the main spring releases its tension with a whir.

With the locking shaft still depressed, wind the spindle clockwise until the follower returns to the beginning of the spiral. Release the shaft.

With your ammo handy, load 5 rounds, point-down, into the top of the drum along the largest diameter of the drum, just under the tower, loading in a clockwise direction. While firmly holding the spindle (yes, firmly), add two clicks in a clockwise direction using the small winding key. Slowly release the spindle and allow the 5 rounds to load into the tower. Turn the spindle clockwise and remove 2 of the last rounds loaded and continue to turn the spindle clockwise until it returns to the end of the spiral track (starting position). Still holding the spindle, add those 2 rounds into the top of the drum about in the same place you just loaded the first 5 rounds. With these in place, the spindle will be locked in position and you can release it.

Continue loading your rounds in all the places they will fit all around the drum. When you have filled all the slots, you should have 75 rounds in the drum. Once loaded, close the cover and secure the latches.

With the main winding key, turn it about 10 good turns or clicks, if you prefer to count using that method. As you turn the key, you will hear and feel the spring as it clicks, At any of the clicks, you can release pressure on the key to get a new grip or relax. Over-winding is not recommended. If firing and you find that the rounds are not feeding solidly into the rifle, add a click or two right then and add those clicks to the total next time you load up.

If you are loading to put the drum in storage for future use, do all the loading but only wind the main key 2 clicks. Save the full-winding till you are ready to fire. This way, the spring will not take on a "set."

Also, if you fire half the rounds and want to leave them in the drum, just open the cover and depress the locking shaft to release spring tension. Add one or two clicks to keep some tension on the rounds and close it up. Next time out, just wind it up fully and go.

Loading Less than 75 Rounds

If you are out shooting and have, say, 20 rounds left over and no other mags handy, you can load those into the drum. Start off like above and just add the 20 rounds along the outer rim going clockwise from the top. The only difference is to start with the follower at the very top of the spiral and back it off enough to add just 20 rounds. Once loaded, close the cover and wind the key a few complete turns. You should not need full spring pressure for just 20 rounds.

Always remember that the follower needs to be able to push the last few rounds up through the tower. So, don't leave any gaps in the spindle feed pattern when loading.

Once you get the hang of loading the magazine, you can load it with any amount of rounds you desire and adjust the spring pressure as you see fit.

Cleaning

After a number of outings with the drum, you may need to clean out powder residue and any other trash. Open the cover and clean with gun scrubber or as desired. Most of the accumulation will likely be in the tower, so give it a good spraying out. Re-oil and that's it!

The Chinese drums can supposedly be taken apart to some extent for cleaning. However, this drum has resisted all efforts to disassemble. So, unless you have a bent or broken part, be happy just to clean with solvents and sprays.

Good luck and have fun with your new drum magazine.