Sipsey Street Irregulars: Praxis: Random Thoughts on Previous Praxi.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Praxis: Random Thoughts on Previous Praxi.

OK, folks the comments on Monday's "Praxis: Improved M16/M4 Magazine Followers and Springs" are now closed. The comments turned into an insulting pissing match over the merits of the AK versus the AR. There are merits to both side's arguments but I am not going to referee the bout here. It is like arguing religion. To each his own. Like religion, I have my own opinions. They should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention to what I have been writing over the years, but I am not arrogant enough to believe that my solution must be adopted by everyone else. Like religion, the proof will be in the end result. Until then, stop shouting insults about it on my blog, please.

Now, that said, my son Matt has some opinions on the magazine question:

Here is my .02 USD's worth on the question of Mags. I have not seen a significant difference between 50$ HK steel mags and well cared for USGI mags.

The spring is the key here as is the follower. CMMG makes a juggernaught of a spring for a pricey 6$. But as most malf's from those beloved M4geries come from the damned magazine, it is an investment.

Please see the link below.

http://cmmginc.secure-mall.com/shop/?cart=2089479&cat=152&

Description from CMMG site:

CMMG Braided Wire Replacement Spring

CMMG braided wire replacement spring. Combined with the CMMG SSAT follower, CMMG's braided wire spring delivers AK reliability in an AR15 mag. Spring gives 40% additional pressure over standard USGI springs. Nano-ceramic coating protects against salt spray for 400+ hours. This will be the last spring ever needed! Braided wire springs are run max length and may be customized by cutting of 1-3 coils. This ensures optimum performance for those running mags fully loaded or downloaded.

Matt also has this comment on canteens:

Not a whole lot I can add to the canteen praxis. Not being one who is a slave to gear trends (okay maybe I am, what's it to you?), as my division goes back to Iraq I have seen one new item for hydration that has become in vogue for soldiers who are sick of the Camelbak. Blackhawk produces a mini Camelbak that you mount on the side of the IOTV (or rack). As jumping in and out of vehicles can pop a bladder if you are not careful, this is seen as a better alternative. I will stick with my old OD canteen as it is the same principal but I certainly see the utility in a side mounted bladder.

http://www.blackhawk.com/product/Side-Hydration-Pouch,893,1407.htm

From the Blackhawk website:

These hydration pouches were designed for those missions where you don’t need or want 100oz of water on your back. They hold 40oz each, and can be mounted anywhere on a vest or pack with S.T.R.I.K.E./MOLLE. Originally designed by warfighters to mount on their sides during vehicle ops, they are adaptable to almost any hydration need. Carry more than one and use our patented quick disconnect to switch tube from one to another.

Mount on side, back, front or on a pack with our patented speed clips

Drink system protected by Microban® antimicrobial technology

Market-proven bite valve and patent pending quick-disconnect system

New quick disconnect bite valve that allows back filling through delivery tube (requires 26FV0000)

2 comments:

III more than them said...: I hear ya. In our group, we may make fun of differing weapons choices on occasion, but in the end we WORK TOGETHER to make sure that, whatever the choice one makes, he is SUPPORTED. Some things work better mentally for some guys and gals, and if it can be made to work, then why the hell not? I'd rather have a group that can team-up and man-up with a hodge-podge of weapons than some monolithic collection of piss ants that are more effective at berating each other than engaging a threat.

Good Lord in Heaven above... does BROTHERHOOD mean anything???; December 26, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Sean said...: Mea Culpa, oh mighty Dutchman 6. Brotherhood? I got five brothers, and only three are worth a damn. Yeah,III more than them, I hear you. You are right. III.; December 27, 2009 at 7:35 PM

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.