A New Pup for the Homestead

I'll be honest, my wife is pretty amazing. What she sees in me, I don't know, but everyday I'm thankful she chose to fall in love with me. I've told her, more than few times, how much I miss Katniss, and she was listening. I think my wife may know me better than myself.

Sophia's dog Bear, has been awesome to work with. He's kind, patient, and a really a big cuddler. In short order he's learned to sit, shake, lay down, roll over, and wait to be released outside. Yet, as well as he and I get along, he's Sophia's dog. His temperament has really impressed me though and I've said as much to my wife several times.

I sent her a link on a German Shepherd and Great Pyrenees puppy that popped up on my local Facebook feed. Little did I know that she had already contacted the family and made arrangements to pick up the puppy prior to me sending the link. I come home to an empty home last night, assuming she stayed late at school or stopped by the store on the way home, only to be surprised with a new pup. He's around 9 weeks old, black as midnight, minus a tiny white streak on his chest, and like all puppies cute as a cow's ear.

In less than 24 hours he's already taken a shine to Bear, and vice versa. Benji on the other hand does not seem to appreciate a puppy bigger than himself. Right now I'm basically serving as a shuttle service to try to get him outside before he relieves himself on the tile, but when he plays with myself or Bear he is quite cute. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more posts about him here in the future.

Every Day Carry - Maglite 3 D Cell Flashlight

Most mornings when I feed, it's still dark outside, and from mid-November until early spring most nights it's dark by the time I get to the barn. I carry the 300 Blackout a lot, but with the addition of the hogs and the FrankenChickens I went back to a Glock and a big flashlight, the Maglite 3 D cell LED. 

I bought this light back in mid-May of 2016 and changed the batteries the last week of October after using it at least twice a day 5 days a week over that 5 month period. Battery efficiency, check. It has an aimable beam that goes from flood to spot. It's water proof, and if need be you could brain several would be prowlers and keep on working.

Yes, it's $23, but for something you're going to use daily for years, it's cheap. Don't hesitate, pick one up today!

300 Blackout on the Farm

If you're a backyard homesteader, this post may not be for you, unless of course you ever think about home defense...

The pistol above is a .300 Blackout in an AR platform. I put in a heavy buffer and attached a hog light (it's just a green LED flashlight, but hog light sounds way cooler). It has a Geisel two stage trigger, Magpul grip and BUIS, and the red dot is the best value I've found from Primary Arms here in Texas. I've put several hundred round through it, and it has become my go to platform on farm for when I walk the fence or respond to bumps in the night. That platform used to be a suppressed .22, but after the "Skunk Incident" I transitioned to the Blackout. You can see the disaster that was my encounter with a skunk here.

The .300 Blackout on skunks has been a one shot affair. It's made it's name here in Texas by being able to be easily suppressed and also capable of dropping 300 pound hogs with one shot. I shoot a 220 grain Hornady Whisper round that has made short work of feral dogs and is what I have loaded for the home defense round as well. Anyone who supports a 10 round mag ban has never had 8 feral dogs tear through their livestock or seen the damage feral hogs do in the Southeast.

There are a ton of things left for me to get done on the homestead list, but buying a suppressor for it is on my short list.

The Great Caliber Debate - What I Rock and Why

Hits a little too close to home...

Coach - Mercenary - Farmer Podcast Episode 7 - Thoughts on the Caliber War

Before my first all expenses paid trip to the Middle East, I didn't own a gun. Seeing a solidly second world country descend into a all out civil war changed my views. In hindsight, my only force projection response to violence would have been my little league baseball bat. Not the best choice in hindsight. 

My first purchase after getting home was a .40 caliber Glock, law enforcement trade in. Solid choice and my thinking at the time was .40 has to be better than 9 mm, it has a heavier bullet and is faster down the pipe (feet per second). After going to a handgun class and shooting from the hip, I realized that the .40 wasn't pleasant to shoot, and started looking at the 9 mm round.

I picked up an 870 shotgun, and a 30-06 Savage rifle. The shotgun was a solid choice, and the Savage was as good a value, but I don't know if I would buy the same rifle again. More on that later.

We'd been loaned to the Army, and sent with battered magazines and shot out range guns, so out of ignorance, I thought all ARs jammed all the time, I had soured on the AR platform. I bought an SKS, and later an AK and they were, and are, fun to shoot.

As I got more into shooting, I learned what worked for me, versus what other folks told me was best. I went to a range and rented a 9mm Springfield XD, a Glock 17, and a Taurus 1911 in .45. I went in thinking the XD would be the gun for me. It just didn't point well for me. The 1911 pointed (think hit where I was pointing) extremely well, but held only 8 rounds if you carry one in the pipe. The Glock was the sweet spot in between for me. Nothing sexy about it, it's a Volkswagen bug, 

I bought a Ruger 10/22 along the way, but have since gone to the Smith & Wesson 15/22. It's about double the cost of a Ruger, but the muscle memory advantages of running a .22 platform set up identical to all of my ARs. When .22 ammo was plentiful I was buying a box of 500 every payday. Not a bad investment. When .22 ammo disappeared I just transitioned to 12 gauge, 5.56, and 9 mm. Someday, it'll be readily available again on the shelves, right? Right?

Here's where I'm at, I've standardized to 12 gauge in the shotgun platform, 9 mm Glock model 17 (soon to add a 23 for concealed carry), a Kel Tec Sub 2000 carbine that uses my existing Glock mags, my AR platforms are all set up with the B.A.D. Lever from Magpul and BCM Gunfighter Charging Handle these two items allow you to take out two steps out of the manual of arms for clearing misfeeds and malfunctions. It took a few hundred rounds to get the muscle memory changed, but I can't imagine going back now.

The Aught Six is still my deer rifle, but a long range precision rifle is probably going to be in my future, in the .260 flavor, along with a suppressor in .30 cal that can be used on multiple platforms.

Thanks again for reading and listening. As always your comments are welcome.