Who doesn't make a dozen different AR models these days, right? They are everywhere. Or at least they were.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at complete rifles at Buds Guns and Palmetto State Armory this morning, and there were exactly two models of .223/5.56 AR15 variants in stock. Both being high-dollar, niche-style models. The hundreds of other models were all gone. Not a surprise there, but still, it is something to see and I bet it won't change anytime soon.

Local shop is swamped with first time buyers, and “reformed” new gun owners - the majority are buying an AR, or at least a mid-grade handgun.

First time buyers are generally the younger folks that are still tightly managing a budget, and want a firearm.

The “reformed” are mostly older, and hadn’t believed they needed one before now...

That could be a good thing.

I was looking at PSA uppers online yesterday evening. Only about four available. None were 5.56 NATO. One 223 Wylde offering was left.

Anybody awake in class can see that they will need to provide for their own defense, if things go sideways in their locale.

So, to get into an AR style rifle is there a "basic" style or offering? How about for us southpaws?

I shoot lefty and I've never had any problems shooting right hand semi autos,...never really gave it any thought, actually.

I'm a southpaw, but have been making due with right-handed M16's and AR15's since 1979.

I think it's Rock River Arms and a few others that make lefty versions though if you really want one.



I suppose 'basic' in todays world would be something along the lines of an M4 carbine. 16" barrel, collapsible stock, carbine or mid gas system with front sight base and flat top upper receiver, and a detachable carry handle with rear sight.

J&T Distributing has a lot of uppers in stock.

https://jtdistributing.com/index.php/ar15/upper-half/complete-uppers.html

Palmetto has complete lowers.

https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-15/lowers.html

i bought ar15a4 from stag arms a few years ago, left hand bolt.

Aero Precision upper/lower here

Shilen 300 BLK

It'd be interesting to know the total number in the U.S., but hard to track with kit builds.

For the last few years you could buy ARs at prices that have not been seen in a decade. Amazingly low, yet people still did not buy, same with ammo.

Now people cannot get the rifle or handgun they want, and are surprised.



Here is a suggestion for TODAY. Put some food away. A few months worth would be very smart. things can get MUCH worse than they are. This is nothing.

I have seen bad. I have seen what a country looks like that is torn apart by factional violence. When people can't get food, and the government is ineffective/unable/unwilling to help.



.


If you have a rifle and a bunch of mags, but don't have a trauma kit with a bunch of blood stoppers, then you are doing things wrong.


BTW, I would rather have a good .22 rifle with ammo and a great trauma/first aid kit, than a tricked out AR and no med gear.

Everybody on the fire has been talking about all the shooting they will do, but nobody has mentioned what will happen if they, or a loved one catches a bullet. What happens when the hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties and your kid has to wait an hour or 3 before a surgeon will get to them? You might want to plan for that now instead of getting that 5th handgun.

Gauze, blood stoppers, dressings, etc are a lot more important than your 15th AR magazine.

Well said.

A good stock of antibiotics is important, too; if SHTF there's apt to be a significant lack of sanitation. Even a minor cut could become a serious health risk.

Where did I copy this from... 🤔

14 gauge 3.5" catheters. Shorter catheters have sometimes been known to fail to penetrate into the chest cavity.

Hemcon bandages. Like I said earlier,they can be easily cut by med shears, folded and stuffed into large wounds, where they absorb blood/swell up, to stop/slow down hemorrhaging.

Green packages at 1 o'clock are Israeli multi purpose bandages.

2nd row.

Compressed sterile gauze x3.

nasopharyngeal tube/ AKA nasal trumpet. I don't carry lube for it. In a crisis, the reality is that you can use the victims spit or blood for lube.


Asherman chest seals x2. (occluded dressing). These get wet with blood and can fail so multiples are a good idea.

The rest.

CAT tourniquet, multiples are better.

Med shears.

tape for securing catheter(s).

small white card is a "9 Line" card for calling in a medevac.

cauterizing pen.

Reading these post have cost me some coin. I've got a RR Varminter, a little heavy for working around my house and subdivision. That's all gonna change when the brown truck pays a visit in the next couple of days.

You got it !

Reference the 14 gauge 3.5" catheters. They can get clogged with blood, mucus, whatever, so you may have to re- dart a person, so multiples is advisable. In a jam it is possible to blow them out, but it is easier to just stick the person again.

Stopped in at the LGS In Camarillo CA this morning, they very a few minutes opening up and at least a dozen buyers were in line including a few cute young ladies.

This shop is not much bigger than a one car garage but is stacked from floor to ceiling with old and new guns. The 2 owners plus 6 younger sales guys were there, I told the owner he looked like crap and he explained they have been working until 3 AM the past several days get caught up and processlng paper work for a lot of first time buyers. He stated if it didn't slow down soon he was checking into the hospital.

Alantic Firearms
Has wpns in stock.
Your average schmuck Liberal Socialist Democrat buys at LGS cause the online buying process is beyond them unless having a LGS order them something.

They aint savvy enough to by face to face same state resident deals either with sources.

Catheters and such. Unless you're an EMT or paramedic, WTF you gonna do with all that s hit?

Trade it for a tricked out AR.

You guys all into your AR15s.....pffft

Just got email notice today that my AR14 lower shipped from PSA.

For those who do not know how to accessorize their AR-15s, here is the way to make then extremely effective.



L.W.

It's a list of items that Mackay suggested for a first aid kit quite a while back. I've got two RNs living next door to me that would be my first call should the need arise.

Ride the top curve of the 3rd rib below the clavicle to releive a collasped lung.
Or go thru the side ribs above diaphragm to releive one also.
Situation and location of wound if how it happened depending .

I had to put a chest tube in an 8 year old Palestinian boy that was hit by a car. He had a hemo thorax of his left lung and I was volunteering as a nursing student at a hospital.

I don't know where the Drs were but the nurses came and got me and told me I had to do it fast or he would die. They weren't allowed to do it or they'd loose their job so they figured they would blame it on the dumb american student.

They showed me where to cut with the scalpel and gave me this giant metal t handle thing with the tube in it. It was a terrible feeling as it popped going between the ribs. I fed the tube in a bit until they told me to stop. Then they brought out what I swear was three mason jars glued to a board with the tubes running from top to top and plugged it into suction. The first jar started filling with blood and the kid started breathing better.

Bb

Dogfaced Pony Soldier! (Those lowers crack me up!)


https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa...r-preorder-item-8-10-weeks-delivery.html

Full semi-auto?

Nothing if you don't know what you are doing.


However, for people who do, like all the people who have been trained in TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care), 3.5" catheters are used to treat tension pneumothorax wounds. AKA sucking chest wounds. In other words, when you get shot in the chest, and your lungs begin to collapse.

Air enters the chest cavity, outside the lung but does not escape. As more air accumulates inside the chest, but outside of the actual lung, it creates increased pressure, which interferes with both heart and uninjured lung function. When properly used, the catheter will release the air pressure from the chest cavity, and save the life of the person who has been shot.

That beats standing there saying "hang on buddy" and other worthless feel good crap.


You don't need to be a paramedic, but you do need to know what you are doing.

Recently my G/daughter was here from WY...

Wife needed an item from our 'Merc'

The basement storage room for food/sundries/paper products & yes ammo

G/daughter asks 'Do you have to pay for things you take from here?'

Stag makes LH.

I walked away from the M16a1 in 1983 and never did really feel like I wanted to own one. I don't consider them to be the "fun" side of shooting. I do recognize the utility of the platform and, while I don't think I'll need that kind of utility, I'm not the kind to ever say never.

I bought Rock River lower from a guy I work with. He and some others did a group buy a few years ago. It's been waiting in my closet for a good while now.
Last week I followed one of Bristoe's links and found this. J&T Upper

After a couple days shipping delays it arrived yesterday. I'll work it up and shake it out...

Youngest kid is loading mags as I type this

Report to follow...

That's funny.

I might be inclined to tell her "Yes, you need to help Grandma bake Grandpa cookies!"

It was 1981 for me, I didn't think I needed, or wanted an AR, until that harpy Pelosi became Speaker again in 2018. I decided I needed an AR then, just to stick it in Nancy's eye. The Rural King was running a sale on DPMS Oracles, so I rode over and bought one, and a few magazines. It works, shoots reasonably well, and was cheap. And the Dems hate them, all the reason a feller really needs to buy one.
No one seems to like the Oracles on AR.com, but mine has been pretty good. It works, and shoots pretty good. It'll do.

Mines got a 60 round Pmag drum in it. A SAW of sorts 😂

Merc, short for Tikkanut's Mercantile?

Lol.

"A good stock of antibiotics is important "

I couldn't agree more, but different ones work for different problems, & knowing what to administer could been learned on the net possibly.

But the big question is, how to obtain a supply? Seems I recall reading about suggestions, one being veterinary?

An AR shortage? not seeing anything like it was during Obammy, as anything would bring a grand then. Now I still see some on Armslist at just slightly elevated prices.Maybe I should keep my ear to wall though as I have at least 2, maybe 3 that I don't need.

I'm sitting here thinking about one of those.

I like the 10-rounders for shooting at the range and want to get a couple more, one of those drums would fill out the order quite nicely.

It ain't enough to just be able to make holes.

You also have to be able to stop them and plug them.

Ok... My kid and I put a couple hundred rounds through it. Function is great. Trigger kinda sucks.

Yesterday I went to the local fun store and bought the only rear sight available on short notice. It's a folding polymer/plastic bodied aperture from mag-pul. I will put a fixed metal bodied sight on it soon.

Accuracy is OK... Sorta... Maybe the pencil barrel heating up, or maybe that flip up sight shifts, but after a couple or three rounds groups open way up.

This is at 100 yards.

An AR with a good barrel is capable of some halfway decent accuracy.

MS,

Is 77gr mk262 going to shoot worth writing home about in a 1-9" barrel?

Some do, some don't.

MK262 is better suited for 8 twist and 7 twist.

The groups above were shot in a White Oak SPR gun I built for a guy. This was a test target before I shipped it off as I recall. Usually they shoot better once broken in. Plus handloads tailored will do better.

8 twist is what I would recommend for an all around . Not much an 8 twist won't shoot from 77s to 50s usually.

For 9 twist guns if you stick with 69 grain SMKs on the heavy end, will do great.

52 grain SMKs pushed by 25 grains H335 is a solid load to try for a 9 twist gun. Odds are it will shoot small groups if your gun is put together decently.


Cheers.