Monthly Archives: January 2016

Clover

by Woodsbum

Another plant that is found in the Pacific Northwest is clover. This plant can be eaten in a variety of ways. Here is a great picture of clover in bloom.

Clover

Clover

All above-ground parts can be eaten raw. It is best when cooked or dipped in saltwater to counteract bloating. The flowerheads can eaten raw, dried or cooked. They can also be dried and ground into flour. The seeds can be processed in the same manner. The sprouts actually have the best taste, but even the creeping stems and roots can be cooked.

Clover grows in all sorts of terrain, but look in disturbed soil areas. The four varieties that grow here are the red, alsike, white and springbank clovers. Each one is edible, although red clover should be avoided in fall due to alkaloids.

Just be aware that it can be difficult to digest and can cause bloating.

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WASR 10 Update

by Woodsbum

I wanted to shoot out an update on my WASR 10 that I picked up recently. This last weekend I was able to take it out and do some plinking with it. Ultimately, I was VERY pleasantly surprised and impressed by this rifle.

Every other time I have shot an AK, I have complained about the cheek slap and difficultly associated with getting my head low enough to see the open sites. This has always been my complaint about these rifles and I was quite sceptical as to whether this one was going to be the same. With the ATI stock on it, I really had no issues with the cheek slap. I was able to tuck my face down into the stock and clearly see the open sites without the customary smack. It was actually quite comfortable and ergonomic to shoot. The pistol grip is phenomenal and I am going to see if ATI makes a similar grip for AR’s.

The other thing that blew my mind was the rifle’s accuracy. Mind you that I am not a paper shooting type person. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time shooting paper and am MUCH more accurate when I shoot an object or critter. This being the case, it does make it difficult to take a picture of a destroyed piece of wood to prove accuracy. Verbally, I can describe the results……

Anything that we aimed for was hit. Seriously, the sights were dead on and it consistently hit where you aimed it. We were shooting small chunks of wood, soda bottles and beer cans at 30-40 yard distances. It was like shooting an AR or a Ruger 10-22. It just worked flawlessly and hit what you shot at.

Now that I own and have shot my AK, I can see how people fall in love with them. I am not going to sell off my AR’s and probably will not buy another AK unless I get into building them, but I do like the way that mine is set up. Without a doubt, I feel that I chose wisely for a GHB (Get Home Bag) rifle. If I need it, there is no doubt that I can depend on it.

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Ruffwear Boots

by Woodsbum

Not only for supreme cuteness factor, but for real reasons I decided that my dog needed some shoes. Since dogs tend to get hurt at one time in their life or another, I really thought that getting mine used to having things on his feet was important. Since I don’t tend to do things very half-assed I went all out and got some Ruffwear Boots for Angus.

Angus in boots

Angus in boots

As you can see in this picture, I started him young with the whole shoe wearing thing. Here are a few interesting things that I have learned about dog shoes during this whole training and wearing process:

  • Dogs don’t really like shoes at first.
  • Puppies think shoes are actually boxing gloves so be prepared.
  • Plan on being OVERLY watchful so that your dog doesn’t eat the shoes.
  • Dog shoes are OBSCENELY expensive considering what people pay for Pro Wings.

These Ruffwear do have a few issues that I have run across. The back ones flip over when Angus is running around and playing in them. He will come back with the rubber on top and the Lycra stuff on the bottom. I think that he might need a smaller set for the rear, but at $90 for a set of 4 I am holding off to see if I can find something more hunting style that won’t come off in the mud. Before anyone comments, YES THEY FIT AS DESCRIBED IN RUFFWEAR VIDEOS.

Oh, yea….  The back ones come off in the mud…..

I have also found that Angus actually has a tremendous increase in traction with these boots. He is able to do weird fakes and jukes that leaves our malamute a bit annoyed. It is such an increase that Angus will slip out and fall after I take them off, then come over to me to put them back on so he can mess with our malamute some more.

If I were designing these things I would have made them high tops or something. This would keep them from flipping over on the back feet and help protect the lower leg a bit more.

Here is a good picture of the fit on front and back feet.

Angus just chillin

Angus just chillin

As a final comment I will say that both Angus and I like the idea, increased traction, increased protection and comfortable feel of these Ruffwear Boots. I just think that they need better sizing options, such as ability to pick different sizes for front and back for dogs that have different sized feet. I also feel that the back ones need a bit better design so that they don’t tend to flip or come off as badly. Although I do have a few annoyances, I am glad that Angus has these things. If nothing else, they help protect the leather seats in my car….

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AK Resource

by Woodsbum

I know that lately, I have done a lot of gun type posts. It probably is getting a little overloaded with them to be totally honest. The reality is as such: I do a lot of gun related things and have to answer LOTS of gun related questions. As I have mentioned before, I use my site as more than just a repository of information for web surfers. When I teach classes I include quite a few links during my lectures and reference my posts for people during discussions. This allows me as close to a walking library of outdoors references as I can get.

Keeping that in mind, I have decided to just post an entire website as a resource. This guy is really knowledgeable due to having had lived in a communist country and been a member of their military. He has actual military training this the AK, unlike 90% of the US guys acting as if they truly know something about this rifle. Considering that this rifle is quite different in many regards that its Western equivalents, both new and old AK owners should check out his site.

The site that I am referring to is AK Operators Union. He does a wonderful job of breaking down the AK into easy to digest chunks, keeps things simple, and actually assumes nothing during his instruction. He just instructs and allows you to follow along and fill in any gaps you might have in your knowledge.

A couple of his videos that I highly recommend are the ones on cheek slap and the one on AK sites. The way that you are supposed to hold an AK is quite different than what you would think if you were used to shooting firearms based upon European/US design. Instead of just laying your head against the stock, for instance, you are supposed to choke your head up closer to the receiver on the AK. Your cheek bone is actually forward of the cheek rest. In regard to the sites, I was quite worried that my front sight post was off center quite a bit. He says that this is quite common and as long as it dials in accurately, the pin being quite off to one side is nothing to worry about.

I highly recommend the AK Operators Union site to anyone owning or thinking about owning an AK. The time spent searching and watching videos will help you out tremendously with your AK experience.

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CAI WASR 10 Upgrades

by Woodsbum

Last night I broke down and couldn’t handle it anymore. I finally purchased an AK variant. Having been in the military and the fact that stock AK’s really don’t fit me, I have been very leery about getting myself one. After years of debate and research I went out and got myself a CIA WASR 10. Again, I still had to find a way to be able to comfortably shoot it without giving myself a bruise on my cheek bone from the stock.

Here is my newest toy as it came out of the box.

CIA WASR 10 All Stock

CIA WASR 10 All Stock

The wood furniture did not even last more than an hour from the time I got home from work. I immediately started ripping into it and swapping out parts with the ATI Strikeforce kit I picked up at Cabela’s.

It now looks like this.

CAI WASR with ATI Furniture

CAI WASR with ATI Furniture

What I like about this kit is as follows:

  • The cheek piece is lower than the wood one so I don’t get a bruised cheek bone when shooting it.
  • The folding stock allows me to put it in my backpack.
  • I now have rails.
  • The pistol grip is really soft and “cooshee.”

Not everyone is a fan of the “Tapco” AK. I did not do this swap because I wanted a “tacti-cool” rifle. I have many “tacti-cool” rifles, shotguns and pistols. This was done so I could carry it in a pack and shoot it without getting a bruise on my face.

This now said, I would like to tell you what I learned about this swap.

First, lets talk about the stock. There is a new mounting piece that comes with the kit that replaces the stock one used to mount the pistol grip. YOU HAVE TO SWAP THIS OUT!!! Don’t do what I did and think that it is just a waste of time. This piece is needed for the new stock to fit.

Second, are the upper and lower fore end pieces. These are a Royal Pain to put on. Don’t think that they are a simple swap. You must do some prying on the plastic when you go back together or it will jam up on you. The bottom piece must be pried onto the barrel and the top piece must be squished so as to fit INSIDE the lower piece. There are little nipple type things that slide into the bottom half. Since I had so many issues while I was working through it, you only get a picture of what it should look like finished.

Forend

Forend

The bottom is rough too. I mentioned it before and am mentioning it again. Don’t get in a hurry or think it will just snap in. If you don’t expect to have to fight with the pieces, you should get Legos or an AR.

The top piece here at to be forced a bit to make it fit as well. It didn’t want to fit properly into the plastic channel. Once it snapped in and was in it’s proper place, I left it alone.

Muzzle end of ATI furniture

Muzzle end of ATI furniture

No matter what I did, I could not get rid of this gap. This seems to be the way that it fits. So far it has not shaken loose or had any issue so I think that I am ok, but there it is not easy to get this bad boy to fit. I had to pry the edges away from the barrel and then swat it repeatedly with the palm of my hand. I did what I call “bear paw” it. Finally it went.

Receiver end of furniture

Receiver end of furniture

Even though it was a bit rough and I was not expecting to have to fight with it as hard as I did, I am quite happy with the final product. It really adds a lot of functionality and comfort to this rifle that was lacking with the OEM furniture. If I was to recommend an AK configuration to someone, I would DEFINITELY start with this one. I like it a lot and know that I will have quite a bit of fun shooting it for years to come.

Before I get a lot of questions as to what optic I plan on putting on this bad boy, I will answer you now. I don’t……  Let me say that again: I DON’T plan on putting an optic of any sort on this rifle. Here is the way that I see it:

  1. AK’s are notorious for being anywhere from 1.5+ MOA with military surplus ammunition. It can get as bad as 2 – 3 MOA for really crap stuff. This means that I could have an effective range of only 300 yards if I want to put 100% of all rounds on center mass, depending on the target.
  2. I plan on using cheap ammunition in this rifle.

It might also help to explain WHY I wanted an AK/AK variant rifle.

  • At present, I did not have a rifle that was small enough to fit into my GHB (Get Home Bag) that wasn’t either a pistol or a .22 lr.
  • Since I always have a pistol with me, I thought that I should have a rifle of some sort for the bag to kind of round things out a bit.
  • Since this rifle uses a 30 caliber projectile and has the power to even put down a deer if I have to, I figured that would be an acceptable round.
  • I then added the caveat that I wanted something simple and rugged that I could hastily load/unload/reload.
  • The requirement pretty much stuck me with rifles that had detachable magazines.
  • Since I have never seen a takedown Scout rifle and the AK is tougher than over cooked fried squirrel, this family of rifle went to the top of my list.
  • Then I took aftermarket modifications and upgrades into account. Because I needed something that could be VERY compact, everything but an AR pistol type configuration was ruled out for the most part. Then again, I didn’t want another pistol.
  • The final factor was ammunition costs. Like I mentioned above, I wanted cheap ammo that I don’t feel compelled to reload. The AK can be fed for a very inexpensive price even without reloading.

Now don’t you leave here thinking that I am suddenly a huge AK fan. I am a gun fan and the AK and AK variants definitely have earned their place in history as well as my GHB. If you decide to get one, just make sure you get what you want that you can do what you want to it. I have made that mistake a lot over the years. Aftermarket items are important to consider when you make a choice, so don’t discount the AK like I did. It is actually quite a nice system.

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