The Fixer topics

The Fixer archives

news reports

I do not watch television. I get my news primarily from reading selected news online. I also watch some online videos and listen to audio online. Granted, everything online is not accurate, but more of it is than what the mainstream media monopoly puts out.

Here are two that I recommend. They are somewhat urgent and certainly should inspire further research on your part.

Please trust me enough to listen to the first and watch the second. Make your own mind up after that. This is very much along the lines I’ve been writing for 6 years over […]

scrappy foods

I am pretty sure this poster isn’t comprehensive, but it sure brings up a great idea. It also introduces me, and now you, to an interesting and potentially useful website.

Foods That Will Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps

There’s nothing like eating your own home- grown vegetables, and there are heaps of different foods that will re-grow from the scrap pieces that you’d normally throw out or put into your compost bin.

Remember though, the quality of the “parent” vegetable scrap will help to determine the quality of the re-growth.

To find out more, click here: wakeup-world.com: foods that […]

do-it-yourself desiccant

Desiccant are those wonderful beads that absorb moisture from the air where you need it dry. They are widely used in packaging to keep humidity, mold, rust and other problems at bay. Gun guys know desiccant well as a way to keep ammo and firearms from being moisture damaged.

Problem is the expense. By the time you pay the shooting gear store prices, you become convinced to treat it like precious metals (gold, silver and lead). Most of us know to spread our moistened desiccant on a cookie sheet in a warm oven until it turns from its wet […]

webmaster

I continue my education on website publishing.

I now operate a calendar at Ada Liberty .com. That site is evolving to be a local information resource for several activist organizations. It was begging for a coherent display of upcoming events. I looked at and tested a few samples before settling on the one I installed. With just a little more money I could get the premium version with more bells, whistles and a much easier time inputting new events. Not now.

Ada Liberty .com Calendar of Events

I could have back-filled the month so it would come out of […]

buying defensive guns

I’m an ex-certified rifle coach and action pistol range officer. I don’t shoot a lot by serious shooting standards, but I keep my modest level of skills current. More importantly, I am a very good teacher, have helped quite a number of people to a functional level of competency with defensive firearms and am respected for that.

Therefore, the question of what gun should I buy has come my way many times. The answer depends on the individual and circumstances they wish to prepare for. However, my recommendations are fairly consistent and simple. So I am sharing them here.

[…]

safety bra

The Flash-Bang holster fastens to a woman’s bra and holds compact handguns securely, conveniently and provides quick access. The video shows several women drawing from their flash-bang holsters. Forget the excitement guys, not even the bra is exposed when they draw.

Best of all, it is completely undetectable even under summer knit tops. Watch the video to see them in action. I do, however, recommend more power than a .32, with .38 Special being my minimum recommendation and 9mm being preferable.

Flashbang holsters in action

lessons from Sandy

This came my way via e-mail. It is someone’s notes who lived through the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. We all need to be occasionally reminded that life is full of the unusual. While we may not be able to foresee with perfect clarity, we certainly can plan past a daily trip to the corner grocery.

Sandy Things to KNOW FROM Someone WHO LIVED THRU IT

Things that I learned from Hurricane Sandy

1. The excitement and coolness wears off around day 3

2. You are never really prepared to go weeks without power, heat, water etc. Never!

[…]

load testing

Swiss K31

I built test loads for a couple of rifles. Monday’s weather was as suitable for testing as I was going to see for a while. It wasn’t real cold and very light winds grew into pretty light winds by the time I’d finished. I probably did my testing upside-down as the notch-sight rifle results are questionable anyway, while the scoped rifle would likely perform noticeably better with no wind.

The Swiss K31 will spend its entire life with challenging-to-shoot-well notch-and-post sights. Especially with older eyes, the rear sight is a vague flat top and fuzzy groove in […]

Shotgun muzzle energy

Hardly anybody talks about shotgun muzzle energy, while many do with handguns and rifles. It’s kind of an apples and apple sauce discussion. The problem is that shotgun projectiles are mostly round shot or fat slugs that lose velocity and energy rapidly. Worse, they are also commonly little BBs that on their own have little mass to carry their energy past the surface of whatever they hit at a distance.

Nevertheless, I think it is useful to use muzzle energy to put things in perspective. Up close, at home- and family-defense distances, this energy can be really significant […]

Handgun energy

There are probably several out there, but this table certainly provides a great summary to help sort through conjecture with real numbers on cartridge type-bullet weight-velocity-energy. I took a subset of his information to put it below, but you can see the whole thing at Chuck Hawks’ Handgun Cartridge Power Chart. His chart format is much prettier and contains more than twice as much information than I posted below.

Opinions are all over the place as are a lot of various test procedures and results. You can get someone to support just about any flavor, but personally I am […]