Gun Bed???

Found this cruisin' for gun safes. Pretty tricksy.

Not sure how I feel about all that leopard print...

Lee Loader - 12 Gauge

Heading down the black hole that is reloading...

I've been looking for a decent price on one of these for a while. 'round about when Dave Canterbury started promoting the 12 gauge single as the ultimate survival firearm and running through a variety of field expedient reloading methods, these long out of production reloading kits started selling like hotcakes - commonly in the $75+ range.

This one ran me around $35 on eBay. There are a couple nice ones up there now in a similar price range right now.

Look at that honest wear...isn't it purty?

If you've never seen a Lee shotgun loader at work, I've embedded a video tutorial from YouTube after the jump. Shotgun reloading is very simple - you just need to stick to the recommended recipe. You can get even more basic than the Lee loader, but the Lee can give you a more refined, finished looking end product.

If you're just looking to reload shotgun shells from home on a bench, this system really offers no advantage to something like a $50 Lee Load-All. The portability and field expediency factor are what make the Lee Loader in 12 gauge interesting.

While not particularly fast, you can kick out around a 25-shell box in around half an hour. If you're a high volume skeet shooter, that's not going to work. But, for the occasional shotgunner or putting food on the table, a box of shells in a half an hour isn't bad.

Thoughts on Fighting Gear: Guns

Thanks to all those who have commented so far on the 'question' post from Monday. It's good to get a gauge for where everyone is before launching into any discussion on a topic.

Based on those comments, I wanted to talk through the firearm part, since several folks seem to be figuring that out. There's no reason to worry about a holster before you've bought the handgun, a sling before you've bought the rifle or how you will carry magazines if you have neither.

And, I will preface this and future conversations by recommending having some emergency savings, food and water storage and other basics before diving into the deep end of fighter gear. I'd also recommend an assessment of risks that you see yourself facing and whether you would play an active role in the defense of your community or whether a support role might be more appropriate.

If you are skeptical of the need for a citizen to take up arms in defense of his community, religion, nation or liberty, please keep your skepticism to yourself and do a little bit of reading on both historical and current events.

Anyways, onto the gun talk!

The Last Thing you See when Raiding Dave Canterbury's Camp

Dave shared this on his Facebook page along with a quick announcement:

Introducing the New Triple Threat Pathfinder Edition 12 GA Shotgun, being released soon for sale! Nation wide!

Some of you may remember the Chiappa Triple Threat that made it's debut at the SHOT show earlier this year. While fun/different, the $1200-ish street price make it pretty much a non-starter.

Looks like Dave & the Pathfinder School are getting their own version...maybe they'll bring the price down to 'common man' levels. 

Magpul (finally) releases Mossberg Stock, Forend

Pre-order on Brownells.

While I'm content with Project 590A1's current stock, I'm curious about the Magpul offering. Might pick one up for review if there's interest.

A Slew of Shotgun Loading Techniques

Given their comparatively limited capacity, reloading is an important skill for combat shotgunning. When you've only got a few rounds to work with, you need to be fast at topping off in an emergency.

Three gun and cowboy action shooting, both prominently featuring scatter guns, have helped push the envelope in terms of shell carrying gear and reloading techniques.

Here are a bunch of YouTube videos to showcase some of the techniques. All of these will require special shotshell carriers and lots of practice to get any good at--but that's part of the fun, right?

Some of these are cool but less useful outside of competition - keeping eyes up on target and maintaining mobility are important. And, most competition gear is not designed to stand up to the rigors of combat - roll down a hill with some of these and you'll have shotgun shells all over the place.

Pull 1/Load 1


About 48 seconds in. One round at a time, via the port. You can do this from belt pouches, your stock, or a side saddle.

Project 590A1: Railed Forend

Looking at light options for the 590A1 led me to consider a variety of routes. The easy answer for putting a combat worthy light on a shotgun is usually to just buy a Surefire forend for $270-ish and slap it on. Unfortunately, Surefire's forend apparently doesn't work well with the 590A1's bayonet mount/sling mount--you have to basically file that part of the shotgun off, which was a no-go for me.

Yes, there's always the options of just drilling out the existing forend and adding a piece of Magpul railing - cheap, and generally works. But, I wanted something a bit less redneck and a bit more sturdy for Project 590A1.

The Ergo railed 500/590 forend was just the ticket. Remove the factory forend/pump and this baby slides right into place, giving you three sections of mil-spec picatinny railing to slap whatever tactical accessories your heart may desire.

Disassembling a Mossberg shotgun is not particularly hard and there are an abundance of videos on YouTube to help with the job. Switching out the forend is more involved then changing out something like the stock, but it can be done in 15 minutes with minimal tools on the kitchen table.

I'm very happy with the Ergo rail--it's rock solid and does the job well.

Project 590A1: Sling

I'm of the mind that fighting guns need slings on 'em. Heck, I think even range guns need slings on 'em. But especially fighting guns, because, while you can hold the gun in your off-hand and shoot with your strong hand, it's not ideal.

I wanted to keep the sling simple on this beast. No frills but functional. Simple equals cheap, so that's good to. Basic 2 point slings work plenty good for most things and that's what I was going for.

Parts:
- Uncle Mike's QD Sling swivels (only used one)
- Cheap-o Blackhawk! sling; basically just a piece of webbing and two tri-glides. Yes, you could make it yourself for cheaper if you had the materials on hand.

Cost out the door: Less than 20 bucks.

You can see how I've attached it to the shotty. The Choate stocks offers numerous attachment points, which is a plus.

Can't say I've run a class with it, but it has held up totally fine in the dry fire drills that I have run with it. Not much to go wrong with it, and that's a good thing in my book.

Food for Thought: Long guns for home defense

Good video from the HossUSMC on various cornering techniques with a shotgun, which of course can be applied to a rifle as well. The longer the barrel, the more of a problem you'll have.

I would add that if you need to enter a doorway, you want to get through it as quickly as possible - you're most vulnerable to a gun grab if you're slowly edging your way into a room. You're also usually silhouetted in the doorway, making you an easier target - hence the nickname "funnel of death." Don't hang out their any longer than you need to.

No one will argue the superiority of a long gun in a firefight, but when bringing 'em indoors or in vehicles, they bring some special considerations - compromised maneuverability and leverage during a gun grab being two of the biggies.

Another consideration - it's tough to use a shotgun one handed - same goes for rifles, but to a lesser extent. If you need to open a door, pick up a child or shove a loved one out of the way, that long gun can be sub-optimal.

While the long guns win in terms of terminal effectiveness, they have their own tradeoffs that you need to be aware of and train for. And, for many, a handgun may be the better choice for use in the home.

There's an interview floating out there on the interwebs with Chris Costa, where he talks about his choice for home defense: a suppressed handgun. Costa is a guy who has access to pretty much any kind of firearm he wants and has more than a fair amount of knowledge and experience with long guns. He's weighed the options and chosen a handgun over an AR or a sweet Benelli semi-auto for defending his home, at least in normal times.

Interested to hear your thoughts, experience and personal choices.

Project 590A1: Esstac Shotgun Card Sidesaddle

For the Project 590A1 shotgun, I've added a patch of industrial Velcro to the left side of the receiver and attached an Esstac Shotgun card. When empty, the shotgun card can be peeled off and a new one slapped in its place.

The elastic shell loops on the Esstac card are quite tight, which means they have great retention and a firm grip on the shell. But, that also means they can be a bit difficult to load the shells onto the Shotgun case. and a bit slow to retrieve. They should loosen up well with use, though. I doubt they will be as fast as a kydex type material, but they are pretty good.

Running a shotgun is a lot about managing your ammunition and regularly topping off. The shotshell cards are excellent for this--fire one, load one; fire two, load two.When the card is empty, slap on a new one and continue.

The shotgun cards are $15 a pop, so you can pick up a few for what you'd pay for a decent conventional side saddle. And install takes all of about 5 minutes--cut Velcro, add to receiver and then let the adhesive set.

The cards will also fit in most magazine pouches--I've run mine in my Costa Leg Rig, where they work quite well. The Leg Rig's mag pouches, at least, oddly had some loop strips on the inside, which needed to be removed/covered, else the shotgun card's Velcro hook would latch on and make drawing the shotgun card quite difficult.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the system. If you're planning on running a sidesaddle for reloads, this is probably the best way to do so.

The Shotgun cards are available from SKD Tactical or direct from Esstac. Industrial strength velcro can be found at your local hardware store.

Project 590A1: Stock Swap

The 590A1's factory stock has a very long length of pull - 14.5 inches, I believe. For a modern shooting/fighting stance, standing squared up towards the target, it just does not work unless you have very long arms. It's just too darn long. So, pretty quickly after purchase, I went out in search of a more useful stock.

Originally, I went with Hogue's 12 inch length of pull stock. Despite great reviews, I was unimpressed. The build quality was no better than the stock Mossberg, and, instead of being too long, the 12-inch length of pull was too short. Doh!

In working with these conventional style stocks and the 590A1, I also began to notice the shotgun's weight, especially during reloads and one-handed manipulations. The 590A1 is not a light gun, and when you add 8 shells to the tube, it only gets heavier.

So, I decided to stop screwing around with different fixed length stocks, and try out something with an adjustable/collapsible stock length. I was also curious to see if a pistol grip stock would help better control the 590A1's weight.

I contacted Choate Machine & Tool and asked to give one of their telescoping shotgun stocks a try. I've previously reviewed their AR-15 collapsible stock and knew their shotgun stock would be solid and sturdy, certainly what I'm going for with this build.

Project 590A1: Tritium Bead Nightsight

View down the barrel after swapping in a night sight bead.

First up in our 590A1 upgrade series is some work on the sights, or perhaps more correctly, the sight, as the stock 590A1 ships with a plain jane bead front sight.

Bead sights on shotguns are fine and dandy, but when things get dark and chaotic, they can be tough to see. Sure, you might say "Bro, it's a shotgun--who needs to aim?". To which, I call BS. Yes, buckshot will spread, but only a few inches at home defense distances we'd be employing a shotgun in. Aim poorly and you can miss, and who is to say if you will get a second chance to hit.

So, aiming is important, and having every edge to help you get buckshot on target is smart. And that's why they invented night sights, which we're used to seeing on pistols but maybe not so much on shotguns. Replacing a stock bead with a tritium night sight is a simple, inexpensive project that takes only a few minutes to complete.

Project 590A1: Intro

A few weeks back, I picked up a Mossberg 590A1, with some uncertain plans for performing some upgrades to the shotgun. Taking a cue from TSLRF's Project 870 (Thanks Ryan!), I thought I would let the T-Blog Tribe follow along as I went through the upgrades--and some trial/error--to the 590A1.

The 590A1 is, of course, an already upgraded version of the popular Mossberg 500. The 590A1 is the heavy-duty, milspec version of the 500, with all metal parts, a thicker barrel and a different magazine tube--the mag tube opens at the end, facilitating cleaning. Parts between the 590A1 and other 500 series shotguns are largely interchangeable; if you've got a 500 or 590 (or Maverick--I'm pretty sure those are patterned after the 500), you'll be able to follow along, too.

What have done lately to better prepare?

Been fairly good 'round here.

TEOTWAWKI wife volunteered me to give a disaster prep workshop for our church's women's group. Horrible operational security (opsec), but it was a small group of maybe 10 women - moms and so on - who are already of the same mindset and friends of the family.

That motivated me to put a few finishing touches on our bug out gear - namely stuff for the new Son #2; cloth diapers, some formula packets, etc.

So, our bug out stuff got sorted through and repacked. I'm pretty happy with where we're at with that stuff. I'll do a show-and-tell with my Eberlestock GS2 here in the next week or so. I know there are more than a few of you waiting on that one.

And, of course, to get all of our stuff to the meeting, we had a trial run of loading up the family Assault Utility Vehicle. I didn't time it, but with just me working, everything was loaded up in around the 5-minute mark that is the usual benchmark. We've got the bags, a big food bin, a cooking bin and propane stove, and then water and gas cans, which can ride on the roof rack.

At the workshop, I ended up talking for about an hour and a half--went a little long--on everything from everyday carry through to bug out bags, water filters, cooking and all kinds of things. Talked really fast and still didn't cover everything I wanted to, but it seemed to be well received by those in attendance.

One to-do that I walked away with was the need to put together a real budget sensitive kit, and from off-the-shelf stuff. I did the $40 a week series, but even that's out of reach for a lot of people. A $150 or so total investment is probably a good starting point. Will probably end up looking more like a fairly capable everyday carry bag than a typical bug out bag, which is generally where I lean for what's more practical anyways.

My new Mossberg 590A1 got a new buttstock. The factory stock has a very long 14 1/2 inch length of pull on it, which is awkward to shoot in the squared-up style that I shoot in, and even worse if you've got something like body armor on. So off it went and was replaced by a Hogue 12 inch length of pull stock. The Hogue stock is nothing to write home about, but it's substantially shorter and makes the gun handle and seat on the shoulder the way I want it to. If you've got long-stock problems with your shottie and don't want an AR-style buttstock, I'd check 'em out.

I want to throw some old-school wood on the Mossberg, but it looks like it's going to take some time to find the right wood pieces, since most of what I like is out of production at the moment.

Also got in some 12 gauge snap caps and have been practicing loading, combat loading, etc. with the shottie as well, as it is a new platform for me and significantly different from the semi-auto long guns that I'm used to. The goal is to get as fast as the competition guys are (or close), but not there yet.

Anyways, those are the highlights from around here. What's happening in your neck of the woods?

The Great Panic Subsiding Pt. 2

Got a chance to attend a local gun show this weekend. Nearly froze to death waiting to be amongst the first few thousands through the doors. It was PACKED - they started limiting the number of people in the buildings due to fire marshal/fire code.

Lots of people selling ARs in the $1400 price range, on up, but no one was taking. I did not see a single purchaser of an AR...so lots of people hoping for a sale, but not a lot happening.

Several dealers had AR lowers; polymers were $150 to $200, and one guy had aluminum Del-Ton lowers for $200. Not great prices, but less crazy than we were seeing in early January. These seemed to be selling, but not flying off the shelves.

AR magazines were plentiful - the best price I saw was $18 for some lightly used USGI magazines in decent condition - I'm unsure of the brand, but they looked pretty decent...would have gone for maybe $11 a piece in November. One guy had PMAGs for $30 - new in baggie - and another had 20 round PMAGs for $25. Again, not a lot of buyers - I walked back by these tables an hour or two later and they still had a plentiful supply on hand. At the opening of the show, some dude walked the entire 1/4 mile line with a box of Promags, asking $50 a piece...I don't think he sold a single one.

Glock magazines were $45 - that was the best I saw. I saw one dealer who had three Ruger BX-25 magazines on sale for $129 EACH. There aren't a ton of these out there, and I think Ruger may take a while to fill the million or so back orders that are probably out there. I didn't see any of the Surefire 60 or 100 round magazines.

All kinds of Glocks, M&Ps and XDs were available, at what seemed like mostly normal prices - I almost bought a Gen 3 Glock 19 that was $515 with two mags.

Ammo was the craziest - $1 a round was common; a case for $1000. I didn't look too closely, as the ammo sellers were probably the most crowded, so I guess folks were buying some at least. The run on ammo surprises me a bit, as no one is even talking about an ammo ban. But, I guess all the people who bought up ARs at the start of the Panic probably needed a half case or case of ammo, which adds up pretty quickly.

Anyways, interesting to see how the supply chain and demand for these things has reacted. Despite high demand, AR mags are fairly easy to get a hold of - multiple manufacturers and decades of supply out there. BX-25s and Surefire mags on the other hand are only made by one company each, and they're relatively new designs, so they are quite a bit harder to get one's hands on.

I'd say that the panic is on its way out and prices will continue to fall over the next few months. We'll see how long it takes for the market to return to normal, and certainly need to keep an eye on legislation both at the national and state level. Example - Magpul may be moving out of Colorado, which would certainly mean limited production of PMAGs and Magpul stuff for several months. Stay politically active!

I ended up buying a Joe Biden approved firearm - a pump action shotgun. My humble end of the world/home defense arsenal lacked a shotgun of any variety, so I figured it was about time for me to pick up a 12-gauge. A Mossberg 590A1, to be more specific. I was looking for a plain 590, but there are zero out on the market right now, and the 590A1 is basically an improved version of the 590, so that doesn't hurt. Price was a fair market, non-Panic inflated price because, well, it's a shotgun and Joe Biden himself gives them the thumbs up for home defense. This will be a bit of a project gun for me, so you'll be seeing a bit of it in the future.

Something Fun: Random shotgun loads

Something a bit lighter...these guys load up all kinds of random stuff and shoot it through a 12 gauge. Most don't work very well.

Do not try this at home!

Review: Operation Z Vol. 2 - Carbines, Rifles and Shotguns

Note: Please wear a shirt during the zombie apocalypse.

Operation Z Vol. 2 picks up right where Vol. 1 left off - pretty much literally. If you haven't read that review, give it a skim to get some background on the series. Vol. 1 covered handguns, and this DVD delves into carbines, rifles and shotguns. Both were filmed over the same time period--probably a day or two on handguns, and then the next day or two on long guns.

Chris Costa seemed to spend less time on some of the fundamentals as he did the first time around, so you'll get less on things like trigger control, reset, sight picture, etc. He demonstrates proper technique and then hands off. Each shooter cycles through a couple long guns, firing off a magazine while Chris coaches. Most of the shooters are pretty bad, so there's a lot of teaching moments. Costa will occasionally interject, grab the long gun and start showing 'em how its done.

For the viewer at home, this teaching portion serves as a refresher on (or introduction to) the basics. The newbies' errors are fairly obvious and exaggerated, emphasizing why stance is important, why you don't want to flinch, etc. Seeing someone else making mistakes, Costa correcting them, and their shooting improving (a bit) is a helpful learning experience. Newer/non-shooters will of course benefit the most.

More budget firearm thoughts & run down

A few follow-up notes from the post below.

Remember the guy from Doomsday Preppers who almost blew off his thumb? He's selling a $450 collection of 10 caliber adapters for single shots. Check it out here at Soldier Systems. Lots of people trying to cash in and sell stuff for the "survival" single shot. Think carefully before you drop your dough.

Quick run-down of the sub-$400 options out there (for long guns):

One at under $200 that I haven't mentioned - the Hi-Point Carbine, which is hideously ugly, but is also cheap and apparently runs without troubles. I wouldn't buy one, but have heard good things in general about them.

Outside of a $200 price, you get into more pump action shotguns, and you can definitely get into a 10/22.

At around $300, more shotguns. I think $300 is the going rate for SKSs nowadays, too. Sad - they were a great buy at $150. Entry level bolt action deer guns here, too. But, you've generally got to throw a scope on those (no iron sights), so that generally knocks them outside of $400. The Kel-Tec Sub-2000 series of pistol caliber carbines are around $300, too.

At $400, you used to be able to get an entry level AK-47, but it looks like you're at at least $500 for those now. So $400 gives us some pretty nice shotguns, some more entry level bolt actions and we start getting into lever guns. You can also get into some of the WWII submachine guns like the Suomi and the Sterling, though I've heard mixed reviews of the quality on these kit guns, and they're a bit over $400 - around $420 from a little bit of price shopping. But most of the lever guns are a hair over $400, so we'll call it a wash.

So...shotguns at a variety of price points. Shotguns can do a lot - big game, small game, birds, bad guys. The range limitations aren't as big a deal when we're talking self defense, and in anything less than a near total collapse scenario. Heavy ammo issues don't matter as much in a home defense or bug in scenario. If you've got under $400 to play, a pump action shotgun is a pretty good choice.

A lot of people like bolt guns for all-around, knock around guns. As mentioned, you need to scope 'em, but let's say you found a deal on a used one or bought one for $300 and threw a $100 scope on it. Lots will dismiss bolt guns as long range only, but properly set up and with a good shooter, they can work for closer ranges too. Here's a pretty good example from some boar hunting in Europe - he's running a hunting-model Aimpoint and mowing down boar left and right. A bolt gun should have good accuracy, range and plenty o' stopping power if you need it. If you get into reloading or subcaliber inserts, you can press it into service for small game, or rely on a sidearm for bunny duty.

A lever gun ain't a bad choice, and they come with iron sights, too! 30-30 is pretty common, taken a bazillion deer, packs some oomph. Just checked, and with Hornady Leverevolution ammo, the .30-30 is capable of longer range work than I thought it was. Out to 200 yards easily without much in the way of bullet drop. A .357 lever gun is going to be hard to find for under $400, but if you do find one, you can share ammo with a revolver.

With AKs out of the price range, that leaves us with spendy SKSs and the WWII kit rebuilt SMGs. Even at $300, the SKS is a pretty good buy. I like the Norincos, personally.

If you could get a reliable Suomi or Sterling, you'd have a pretty sweet package, and my choice of the bunch for combat purposes. 9mm, so you could share ammo with your Glock, too. Both are heavy, limited production and reportedly spotty in quality/reliability. Sad.

The Kel-Tec Sub 2000 carbines are pretty much "the answer" if concealment is a priority. Neat design folds in half and allows the rifle to stuff inside an average backpack. Not only shares ammo with your Glock, but magazines, too! Light and generally reliable from reports. Cheesy materials, though. It looks like they're hard to come by these days though, and running over $400 on the secondary market - CDNN has them listed at $350, but I'm not sure if that's in stock or not.

Just as you wouldn't expect one tool to do the job of an entire toolbox, different firearms serve difference roles. Keep your future plans in mind as you start building your collection/arsenal/toolbox of boomsticks. What other guns are you planning on getting? If you have zero interest in getting a revolver down the line, then a .357 lever gun probably doesn't make a ton of sense. If you're planning on an AR-15 later on, a shotgun or a .22 make more sense than say an SKS.

Also keep in mind the role that you need the firearm to fill. Are you learning to shoot with it? A .22 is probably the best choice. Want it for home defense? A shotgun or pistol caliber carbine are probably your best bets. Deer hunting? A shotgun, lever gun or bolt gun could work. You get the picture.

Edited to Add: If you're new to shooting, get a .22 rifle. They're not expensive, ammo is the cheapest you can get, they're a great platform for learning on, and it will stay useful even as your collection grows. While you can certainly learn on other guns, you're probably going to enjoy your initial shooting experiences more with something manageable like a .22, and you can get plenty of trigger time for not so much money. The 10/22 is pretty much the best of the bunch.

If you've already got a firearm or two, look at where the gaps in your capabilities are. What will Firearm X get you that you currently lack?

Anyways, there's some rambling from me for ya. Now discuss amongst yourselves!

The Single Shot 12-gauge: Bad choice for survival long gun

I'm a huge fan of Dave Canterbury - the amount and quality of the content he gives away, for free, on YouTube is pretty amazing. But, he's been promoting the single shot 12-gauge as a primary, go-to survival firearm for a while now. He's not alone - seems the single shot 12-gauge has a lot of advocates out there.

Sure, you can pick up a new in box H&R 12 gauge for right around $100 bucks, and used for well under $100. And yep, there's not a lot to 'em - pretty simple mechanically. 12 gauge is certainly quite versatile; from bird shot to slugs to random improvised loads, there's a lot you can do with it. And, of course, there are readily available chamber adapters that allow you to shoot a variety of ammo - from .22lr on up - through a 12 gauge single shot. 

But, there's some deal breakers that need to be called out, that are rarely mentioned by the single shot's proponents.

Every entry from the Signature Apocalypse Weaponry contest!

From COBB - Another excellent entry in our latest contest!

Here it is - all of the entries from our wicked awesome Signature Apocalypse Weaponry contest in one place - for archiving, linking and your enjoyment! Again, great work everyone, thanks for your support and engagement on this contest.

Aside from gratiutous gun/knife/gear enjoyment, there's also some merit in checking out what others are going to be running after the apocalypse. Sure, more than a few entries went extra heavy on firepower, but when you're hunting for zombies, that can be a good plan. We had 32 entries, which is a decent sample size. Of those, we had:

• 13 entries running some variety of 12 gauge shotgun, either as a primary or backup
• 10 entries running an AR-15 or variant
• 4 AKs and 1 SKS in 7.62x39mm
• 9 with pistols in 9mm
• 7 with pistols in .45 ACP
• 6 with pistols in .40 S&W
• 3 running a pistol as their primary
• 5 with .22lrs of some variety - 2 running a .22lr as a primary, three others with a .22 in a secondary role
• 4 entries without any kind of firearm - two from Europe, one new prepper, and 032125, who chose to go with heavy Viking steel
• Biggest bore rifle was SC's .30-06 bolt action; I was a bit surprised to see nothing in .308. Guess JWR needs to get on his battle rifle soap box more often these days.
• Biggest bore handgun was Neuro's .454 Casull Super Redhawk
• 2 entries had body armor (plate carriers with plates)

If we take this as a somewhat representative sample of preppers/survival types, 12 gauge is the most common across the board, AR-15s are the usual rifle of choice, and pistols in 9mm tend to be a bit more common than .45s or .40s, though not by a wide margin.

I've got to round up my gear and channel some of the creativity seen in this contest to show you guys and gals my personal selections for when the Nazi Zombies come knocking. Stay tuned for that, though you've seen most of the pieces at some point or another here on T-Blog.

This will take a while to load - if you've got a slow connection, you have been warned!