Tapco 20 round SKS Magazine – Review

I have an old Yugo SKS.  The SKS is a WWII era Soviet Block semi-auto weapon with a ten round box magazine that is loaded via stripper clips.  Tapco, which makes pretty good after market products, makes a twenty round detachable magazine for the SKS.  I bought a Tapco replacement stock for my SKS (the subject of a future post) and I decided to go ahead and get the twenty round detachable magazine to go along with the new stock.  This is my personal experience with the Tapco 20 round detachable SKS magazine.  It should be noted that the SKS was widely manufactured in several Soviet Block countries, so what I experienced with this magazine is not necessarily what you may experience.

This Tapco magazine is made of the same polymer material that Tapco uses for its stocks, magazines, and other after market products.  I have purchases several Tapco products and found them to be reliable and of good quality.  In appearance, the SKS magazine has an ungainly nose piece that extends about two inches from the front of the magazine.  The purpose of the nose piece is to lock the front of the magazine into the retainer that secures the front of the original box magazine.  The extension makes this magazine rather difficult to store in a mag pouch.  For this reason, and because I wasn’t going to buy multiple mags until I knew that they worked, I bought only one magazine and planned to reload it either manually after removal, or using stripper clips while the mag was still attached to the rifle.

To prepare the rifle for accepting the removable magazine, you must first remove the original box magazine.  This is a simple operation that involves only removing the stock and unhooking the box magazine.

Once the rifle is re-assembled, you should be able to attach the removable magazine by inserting the nose piece into the front attachment point of the old box magazine and then pressing the rear of the magazine up until it locks into the rear tab that was used to release the rear of the original box magazine.  Because the SKS was not originally designed for a removable magazine, it does not have a magazine well like an AK or an AR.  Consequently, there is nothing to really guide the insertion of the removable magazine.  It is not a smooth operation.  You have to feel around to get the magazine seated correctly.

It seemed to me that since magazine transitions would be pretty slow, loading the still seated magazine from stripper clips might be the way to go.  I grabbed a stripper clip, inserted it into the slot on the bolt, and pushed.  No luck.  I tried several different clips, I cycled the bolt thinking maybe something wasn’t lined up right, it just wouldn’t work.  I’d get one or two rounds down into the magazine and then everything would lock up and no more rounds would feed down into the mag.  Pretty disappointing.

Once loaded and in place the magazine fed without problems, and it looked really good along with the new stock, but I just couldn’t see any practicality to it.  It would be a situation of firing twenty rounds and then having a very slow transition to a fresh mag.  I feel certain that I could fire twenty rounds out of the box mag using ten round stripper clips faster than I could make a magazine transition using the removable magazine.  Add to that the space that is required to store the removable mags, and I just couldn’t see it working out.  I could carry fifty rounds in stripper clips in the same space that would be required for one twenty round removable magazine.

It was with great disappointment that I removed the stock and re-installed the original box magazine.  Maybe it’s just me and my particular rifle; but, in this case, the removable magazine was a definite bust.

Survival Gardening Takes Practice

Any of you who are experienced gardeners will recognize these simple truths. 

(1) It takes practice to become a successful gardener.

(2) Gardening skills developed in one location will not necessarily transfer to another location

(3) Even the most experienced gardeners have bad years

Let me address these statements one at a time:

(1) It takes practice to become a successful gardener.

It never fails to amaze me that perfectly intelligent and rational people think that they can read a book about gardening, buy some seeds, and think that they will be able to produce enough food to feed themselves and their family in an emergency.  If you told the same person that they could read a book about golf, go buy some clubs, and then provide for their family by becoming a professional golfer; they would say that you were crazy.  Making things grow is a pretty complicated skill set.  There are so many variables.  Even commercial farming operations, which try to carefully control all the variables possible, still have disastrous years.  I would say that it takes a minimum of three years of gardening, in the same location, to come anywhere close to understanding how to cultivate a successful garden, and it will take that long or longer to get your soil built up to the condition that you want.  You will probably need to turn in compost and mulch.  You may need to add crushed limestone if the soil is too acid.  Remember, survival gardening will mean organic gardening.  Commercial fertilizers, soil amendments, and insecticides will be hard to come by in a post catastrophe world.  My advice would be to start gardening now.  If you don’t learn how to garden before the collapse, you would be wise to have several years of food storage so that you don’t starve during the learning curve.

(2) Gardening skills developed in one location will not necessarily transfer to another location

When I first started gardening I lived on the Texas Blackland Prairie.  The soil was black, heavy and very alkaline.  We received about 35 inches of rain a year.  I only gardened there a few years, but I was starting to get comfortable with my gardening.  Then I moved to East Texas about a hundred miles away.  Sandy loam soil, very acid, and about 45 inches of rain.  Hardly anything that I learned on the prairie did me any good in the Piney Woods.  For one thing, the plants that were hardest to grow in the alkaline prairie soil were the easiest to grow in the eastern acid soil, and vice versa.  Fortunately I moved from West to East and the elevation was about the same, so there wasn’t a huge difference in temperatures or planting dates.  If you move North/South, or change elevation by more than a hundred feet it can make a big difference in planting dates and length of growing season.  Other local gardeners and your local feed store owner can be a big asset in choosing the crops and varieties that will grow best in your location; and how and when to plant them.  So the best thing to do is practice gardening where you will be trying to produce your survival crops.  This may not be possible; but you should, at least, be aware of the differences that you may encounter when you move.

(3) Even the most experienced gardeners have bad years

I have been gardening and raising fruit trees for years.  This year we had a late frost and I did not get one piece of fruit off of any of my ten fruit trees.  No amount of experience could have overcome this.  Just ask a Florida orange grower.  Some years it doesn’t rain enough, some years it rains too much. One year the coons got in my corn field and wiped it out.  One year the deer cleaned out my pea patch.  These things just happen.  An old neighbor of mine used to say, “Plant enough for yourself, then plant some for your neighbors, and be sure and plant enough for the bugs.” The best plan is to always have a year’s worth of food and two years worth of heirloom seed stored.

Some Links to Electronic Projects for Survival and Preparedness

I know next to nothing about electronics which is kind of embarrassing since my dad was an electrical engineer.  He designed missile guidance systems, and I can barely operate a flashlight.  I must have missed out on that gene.  Anyway, if I’m doing any kind of project that involves electronics I have to have the real dummy’s version of how to do it.  There are some things that I would like to do or know how to do to help with my survival preparations that involve electronics.  I haven’t done any of these projects yet, but I have searched the web and bookmarked several sites that have instructions that I feel like I could follow.  And if I can follow them that means that pretty much anybody can follow them.  Besides simple and clear instructions, my other criteria for choosing these sites is lots of pictures to illustrate the process, and few or no exotic parts required.  I can’t vouch for the info on these sites, and I don’t know how long they will be active, but you might want to take a look at them if you are interested in building any of this stuff. 

How to build a simple crystal radio using household items and commonly available parts -  http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/radio/homemade_radio.html

How to build an electricity producing wind turbine - http://www.mdpub.com/Wind_Turbine/

How to build a simple telegraph set - http://www.w1tp.com/perbuild.htm

How to build a hand cranked generator - http://www.zetatalk.com/energy/tengy05n.htm

How to build a generator powered by a lawnmower - http://theepicenter.com/tow082099.html

How to build a generator powered by a bicycle - http://www.thediyworld.com/DIY-Bicycle-Powered-Generator.php

How to build a solar battery charger.  This is one that you would have to do before TEOTWAWKI because it does involve some parts that are not going to be found in your garage; but it is a good step-by-step article on how to do this project - http://www.solarjourneyusa.com/installguidesmall.php

Long Term Storage of Dried Beans

Dried beans are a must for any food storage program.  Beans are cheap, they are a good source of protein, they taste good, and they are easy to store.  You can buy sealed, nitrogen packed, buckets of dried beans; but that is not really necessary unless you just want to do it for convenience and you have a lot more money to spend than I do.  One problem with buckets of dried beans is that when you open a bucket, you now have about five gallons of the same kind of beans to eat.  If the only reason that you are buying the beans is for emergency food storage then that’s not too big of a problem.  But, I like to eat and replace my stored foods, and I don’t want to eat five gallons of pinto beans before I can get my first bowl of black-eyed peas.  So here’s how I store my dried beans.  I don’t know if they will last 30 years like the nitrogen packed ones, but I am eating beans that were stored 8 years ago and they are perfectly fine.

First buy your beans.  You can go to places like Sam’s Club, Costco, or many health food stores and buy them in 25 to 50 pound bags or you can buy them at the grocery store.  Most grocery stores don’t carry bags larger than 5 or 10 pounds.  I usually go to the grocery store and buy bags of pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, garbanzo beans, lima beans, lentils, and etc.

When I get home I repack the beans into 1 quart storage bags filling the bags as full as I can and still get them sealed.  

I use a marker to mark each bag with the date (this is easier to do before you put the beans into the bag).

I place the quart bags of beans in the freezer and let them stay in there for a week.  This kills any bugs or larvae that may be in the beans.

After the beans have been in the freezer for a week, I take them out, open each bag, drop a 100cc oxygen absorber pack into the bag, and reseal the bag.

Next I place the assorted bags of beans into a 5 gallon food grade bucket that has been lined with a plastic trash bag. 

Be sure that the trash bag is not treated with a deodorizer or insecticide (the cheap bags usually don’t have any of these fancy additives).  A lot of people recommend using food grade mylar bags, but in this case I don’t really see the point.  The food is actually contained in food storage bags.  The plastic trash bag is just another layer of protection against moisture, and the food never comes into contact with it.  Now, just seal the trash bag and seal the bucket. 

If you want, you can place a small piece of dry ice in the bucket before you seal it.  The dry ice will sublimate into CO2 gas which is heavier than air and will force the air out of the top of the bucket.  If you do this be sure to not seal the top of the bucket until the dry ice has melted down to a sliver about the size of a nickel.  If you seal the bucket too early, the CO2 gas that is forming will expand the bucket and possibly blow the lid off.  Not good.  I personally don’t go the CO2 route and I have never had a problem with the beans going bad.  Which ever way you do it, be sure to label the bucket “BEANS” and put the date on it.

Now you have a sealed bucket full of assorted bags of beans.  You can remove a bag of pintos, and when they are used up, you can pull out a bag of navy beans.  This keeps your diet from becoming too monotonous.  When you have gone through an entire bucket of beans (probably a couple of years depending on how many you are feeding and often you eat beans) you can refill and re-label the emptied bucket and start eating out of the next bucket in your rotation.

Are You Fit Enough to Survive?

The worst has happened and the social order is in a state of break-down.  You had hoped that this wouldn’t happen, but you were smart enough to plan ahead in case it did.  You have a comfortable home in the country.  You have stored food, medical supplies, hunting and defensive weapons, a good stock of ammo, garden tools, and heirloom seeds.  There’s no live water on your land but you had the foresight to have a 75 foot deep well drilled.  You installed a good wood burning stove in your house and cleared off a good size piece of land where you can plant a garden.  You and your family are safe; it’s day one and you are ready to survive.

First things first, you need water and fire wood to start the day with breakfast.  While your wife is digging through the food storage you go out to draw some water from the well.  There’s no electricity so it’s a rope and bucket.  You need water for 4 people to wash up, fix breakfast and do the dishes.  Three buckets ought to do it.  So, you spend about 15 minutes pulling on the rope, hand over hand; and then haul the five gallons (41 pounds) of water up to the house.

Now for the fire wood.  There are plenty of downed and seasoned trees from where you cleared your garden spot, but you will have to cut them up with a crosscut saw and split them with an axe.  You could use your chainsaw but you know that’s not a good idea.  Too much noise that might attract unwanted attention, and besides you need to save the gas.  So, you spend the next 45 minutes sawing, splitting, and carrying firewood for breakfast.  You can come back after breakfast and cut more for the rest of the day’s cooking and to heat the house tonight.

After breakfast you decide to get started on the garden spot.  You have food stored, but it will eventually run out so you need to start right away getting the ground ready for a spring garden.  This will require digging up three or four stumps, digging up roots, hauling out rocks, and hand turning the soil.  You want to put in a 40 foot by 60 foot garden so preparing the ground will occupy most of your working days for the next several weeks.  Of course then it will be time to start building a fence around the garden to keep deer out.  You walk to the tool shed and get out your grubbing hoe, shovel, long pry-bar, and a pair of leather work gloves.

OK.  Now go look in the mirror.  Are you physically ready to live like this?  Everything that you do will involve muscle power.  We are so used to modern conveniences that we have totally lost sight of how physically challenging life is without them.  Our great-grandfathers had to consume about 4000 calories a day just to maintain their body weight.  Today many of us gain weight on 2000 calories a day.  We have to make a special effort to indulge in any physical activity.

In our very uncertain future, the term “survival of the fittest” could mean exactly that.  The physically fit may be the only ones that survive.  I would suggest to you that physical conditioning is just as important to your survival plans as food storage, or self defense.  You could join a gym and take the traditional route of jogging, resistance training, aerobics, and etc.; but I’ve never really understood the logic behind paying one guy to do your yard work and then paying another guy to let you work out in his gym.  Wouldn’t it be more productive and more realistic to get out and do some physical labor similar to the types of things that you would need to do on a self-sufficient farm.  How about starting a garden using only hand tools, splitting firewood with an axe, or hand digging post holes for a new fence.  You’ll get some great exercise, and you’ll have something to show for it besides muscles.   If a survival situation never arises you haven’t wasted any effort.  Being fit will improve the quality of your life no matter what happens.

Pancakes and Syrup from Your Food Storage

For years I made pancakes using a recipe that called for eggs, milk, and oil.  The pancakes were good, but they were kind of a hassle to make.  Also, eggs and milk kept me from making pancakes when going light-weight camping because it would entail taking powdered eggs (yech) and powdered milk and reconstituting them before cooking.   About 20 years ago I went camping with a friend of mine who taught me how to make pancakes the quick and easy way, and I’ve been doing it ever since.  The nice thing about this recipe is that you can make these pancakes using nothing but items from your food storage.  I have also thrown in my mother’s recipe for pancake syrup; again, this requires only ingredients that can be part of your food storage.

Here’s the pancake recipe.  It will make four to six pancakes depending on the size.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose, or whole wheat, or fresh ground flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4  teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar, honey, molasses, etc

water

1 tablespoon shortening, lard, or oil

Yes, that’s all there is to it.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together.

Add water a little at a time, stirring until the batter is a little thicker than heavy cream

Use shortening, lard or oil to grease your skillet or griddle

Pour out batter onto griddle in pancake size pools

Cook until bubbles form in the top of batter and burst

Flip pancakes over and brown the other side

Stack pancakes on a plate

Add butter, margarine, or butter spray if desired

Cover with syrup

Eat and enjoy

The great thing about this recipe, other than tasting good, is that you can pre-mix the dry ingredients and carry them trail camping.  Another alternative is to by self-rising flour which is nothing but flour, salt, and baking powder already mixed together.  My friend that taught me how to make this kind of pancakes always carried some brown sugar on the trail.  He would mix a little water with the brown sugar to make syrup.  Not as good as maple flavored syrup, but not bad at all.

When I was a kid there was no way that we could afford fresh maple syrup.  Mama made our pancake syrup.  Here’s her recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

1 cup water (yeah, that's right, twice as much sugar as water)

1 teaspoon of maple flavored extract

Mix sugar and water in a cooking pot

Heat over a low flame. Do not boil

Stir as the mixture heats until sugar is dissolved

Add maple flavored extract and stir

That’s all there is to it.  Enjoy.

Mossberg 4x4 .30-06 - Review

I have been in need of a new deer rifle, so I recently traded for a bolt action Mossberg .30-06.  The rifle that I acquired is one of a family of Mossberg rifles known as 4 x 4’s.  They come with either a long-bolt or short-bolt action depending on the cartridge length.  Mine, being chambered for .30-06, is a long-bolt.  The 4 x 4’s are available with a variety of different stocks including synthetic, wood, and laminated wood.  Mine is a plain Jane with the black synthetic stock. 

The barrel is free floating and fluted to reduce weight and help dissipate heat faster, although I don’t anticipate firing enough rounds fast enough to overheat the barrel.  Not at a dollar-and-a-half a round, anyway. 

The barrel also has a nice threaded muzzle brake to help reduce recoil. 

My 4 x 4 has a 4 round box magazine, which is a feature that I prefer over the tube feed magazine.  Replacement mags are available for around $20.00, but I figure that anything I can’t hit with five shots is going to be long gone anyway.

These rifles come equipped with weaver bases and can also be purchased as a package with the scope already mounted.  Mine already had the scope when I traded for it.  Mossberg has the retail price for this rifle listed as $534.00, but I have checked on the internet and found prices of around $450.00.

Now for my impressions about this rifle:

First the stock.  As I said, I have the black synthetic stock.  It is not pretty.  If you are looking for skip checkered, burl walnut, this is not your gun.  The stock feels fine, and it comes with a recoil pad which is nice because the .30-06 is not a gentle round, especially with a light stock. 

Sling mounts are molded into the stock which looks kind of cheap, but they hold a sling just fine.  All of this is fine as far as I am concerned because I hunt to eat, and neither I nor the deer are interested in style points.

The bolt on this rifle is very smooth, much smoother than on my son’s Remington 770.  My rifle is used, but it has not been used much, so I am assuming that it comes out of the box with a pretty smooth action.

A small, push-down button located to the left rear of the bolt allows for bolt extraction, which makes it easy to examine and clean the bore.

The thumb lever safety is located just behind the bolt handle when the bolt is closed.  The safety is crisp and firm so that you will know if it is engaged.

My 4 x 4 already had the scope mounted. It is not a high quality scope.  The brand name is CP (never heard of it) and it is made in China.  That being said, it seems to be a decent enough scope, only time and use will tell for sure. 

One feature that I like about the scope is that it has attached, flip up lens covers.  I have a hard time keeping up with the removable lens covers that are connected with an elastic string. 

I fired a few rounds on the range to make sure that the scope was sighted in correctly.  I had to adjust it just a little, probably due to my glasses which seem to make me group a little low and to the left of where other people shoot with the same weapon.  Grouping was good and the bolt cycled smoothly. 

Trigger pull was smooth and crisp; not to long or short. 

The trigger pull is adjustable.  If you want to adjust the trigger pull you will need to use a 5/32” Allen wrench to remove the two bolts that are located just to the front and rear of the magazine well.  This allows you to lift the barrel and trigger assembly clear of the stock.

The trigger pull adjustment screw is located on the front of the trigger assembly.

The trigger pull felt fine to me, so I left it where it was.

I added a padded sling and an adjustable bi-pod to my rifle and I am good to go.   

I am happy with this rifle.  It is no work of art, but it is a good, solid, functional firearm.  It will put meat in the freezer.