Monthly Archives: May 2012

APEX M&P Duty / Carry Action Enhancement Kit Review

by SurvivalGuy Posted on May 30, 2012

I purchased the APEX Duty / Carry AEK kit about a month ago. The installation was a pain in the ass because I did all the work on my kitchen table but the effort was well worth it. Keep in mind that you will not be able to install the Apex Ultimate Striker Block part of the kit if you do not have a bolted down vise or a SW MP Sight Mover. After you install the entire kit you will need a sight mover at the range so you can rezero your sights.

Before I installed the Apex kit the trigger on my MP9 was mushy and had a false reset.  After the kit installation the trigger was smooth and the trigger reset was pronounced. The trigger reset was a 100% better but it’s not as defined as in my Sig 229. The greatest thing about installing the Apex kit was that my groups at 50 feet were considerably tighter. You can see the before and after results below.

 

APEX Duty Carry AEK
APEX Duty / Carry AEK

 

Before Apex Aek
Before Apex AEK at Fifty Feet

 

After Apex Aek
After Apex AEK at Fifty Feet

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The Importance of Urban Gun Safety

by SurvivalGuy Posted on May 23, 2012

How many times have you turned on the TV and seen a horrific story of a child having shot his friend while playing or a troubled teen bringing a weapon to school and taking his anger out on his classmates? In today’s world, this is scarily becoming more and more of a prevalent news story, but when it comes to stories like this, who’s really to blame? It’s the parents or other adults who think that a shoebox in the closet or a case under the bed is “good enough” to keep their guns safe from anyone who might come looking for it.

When I was young, I knew my father kept a gun in the house and I knew exactly where it was, too. Top shelf in the closet on the left in an old shoebox, ammo was in his sock drawer in the back on the right. Of course, he also taught me how dangerous guns were and how important that it was only to be used by him for safety purposes. Having a gun in the house scared me as a kid, but as an adult I know I sleep safer knowing I have a gun in case of an intruder in my home.

With my son growing up, I’ve been doing my research and have gone a step further than my father did teaching me. Of course my son will know about the dangers of firearms and their safety precautions, but I’m also looking at gun safes from www.gunsafesstore.com to make sure he doesn’t become a tragedy on the elven o’clock news. If you have a gun, especially if you have children in your home, consider purchasing gun safes for them if only to keep your kids safe from the potential tragedy of a firearms accident.

pistol_safe

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Ontario RAT 5 After Action Report

by SurvivalGuy Posted on May 15, 2012

I took the Ontario Rat 5 with me to a bushcraft class about a month ago. The knife made short work of splitting pieces of wood in half using another larger piece of wood as a hammer. While using the RAT 5 for fine work such as making notches in branches in order to set traps and making frames it was lacking. The RAT 5 had a flat grind which did not allow me to perform fine woodworking easily. My lady had a Mora knife which had a Scandi /Double Bevel edge and she had a much better time performing the exercises during the class. Her experience with the Mora knife allowed her to make cuts in the wood easily. In the end it all came down to the type of grind a knife had when we were practicing our wood cuts.

The RAT 5 and Mora knives held up very well after 5 hours of wood carving. Both are carbon steel blades. I added Black Magic grip tape to the top and bottom of the RAT 5 knife in order to give it a better grip. I left the Mora knife as is because of it’s fine rubber grip. In an ideal camping / survival / bushcraft situation I would have both but if I were to consider just carrying one knife I would go with the Mora knife. I have some pics of the knives, wood carvings and knife edge types below.

Ontario RAT 5 Bottom

Ontario RAT 5 Top

Mora Knife

Bush Craft

Knife Edge Types

 

 

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Gotham Survival Site Redesign and Additional Pages Added

by SurvivalGuy Posted on May 8, 2012

I had to redesign the Gotham Survival website because the old version was causing me eye strain. I also added the following two pages: Firearms Manuals and T-Shirts. I’ll do my best to keep the pages updated. In the mean time let me know if you want to see any additional improvements. Thank you to all my long time readers for sticking with me.

9869646-20383757

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Car Emergency Kit / Go Bag

by SurvivalGuy Posted on May 3, 2012

I didn’t set out to build a car specific kit when I put this together. I just put any extras that I had laying around into a bag in the car and after some time I have what is listed below. A few things were specifically purchased like the Mainstay water pouches and the 3600 calorie food rations because they have a shelf life of several years and they withstand extreme temperatures.

I like to go over my car emergency kit / go bag once a year just to make sure everything is in good condition and nothing has expired. My friend asked me what I have in my fancy car emergency kit and what not so I listed everything below with relevant links. I doubled up on most items because my lady and I are in the car together most of the time so it only makes sense for both of us to be taken care of in case of an emergency.

Separately in the car I have jumper cables, a tow strap,  a full first aid kit, two flashlight, random tools, a tire gauge, a tire inflator and two pairs of leather gloves.

 

 

  1. One backpack holding all the contents – Any backpack will do. It can be a duffel bag as well, just make sure it has a shoulder strap in case you have to carry it.
  2. Twenty – Mainstay Emergency Water Pouches – These are great because they last several years without having to be replaced
  3. Two – Mainstay 3600 calorie Emergency Food Rations – These are awesome because they last five years and can withstand extreme temps
  4. Two – N95 Dust Masks 
  5. One 35 gram Celox powder
  6. One 15 gram Celox powder
  7. One CAT tourniquet
  8. Two 4 inch Israeli Bandages
  9. Two Adventure Medical SOL Emergency Bivvy’s
  10. Two adult sized ponchos
  11. One 50 feet of 550 cord
  12. One  Nalgene 32 oz water bottle with pouch
  13. One bottle of Potable Aqua iodine water purification tablets
  14. One Eton emergency radio with batteries
  15. One lighter
  16. One chapstick
  17. One generic swiss army knife
  18. Four pairs of vinyl gloves
  19. One bottle of hand sanitizer
  20. One SAS survival handbook
  21. One spair pair of glasses
  22. Two mylar emergency blankets
  23. One Mora knife
  24. One carabiner
  25. One magnesium fire starter
  26. One medical sheers
  27. One pack of Colgate wisps
  28. One eyeglass repair kit
  29. One roll of toilet paper
  30. Extra batteries for flashlights and radio
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