Monday, July 30, 2012

BMQ 1182

I took some picures during my basic military qualification course (boot camp as some call it) a earlier this year, and I never got around to posting any until now.  Actually, I took over 2,000 pictures so these are just some of the highlights.  BMQ 1182 was one of the more memorable experiences of my life.  There was a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming, a lot of physical training and indoctrination into military rules and regulations, a lot of struggling to stay awake during the lectures, but there was a lot of fun stuff as well, including safe weapons handling, first aid, and working in a team to accomplish a common goal.  I enjoyed my BMQ, and there were moments when I couldn't believe we were being paid to do it all.  Some people pay to do this kind of stuff.  Why do that when you can just sign up and get paid to do it?  I've only been in for less than two years, but I haven't looked back since.

Our course consisted of about 50 people at the beginning of course, and we were divided up into four sections.  I was placed in #4 section, or just 4 section with nine others, but we lost one just a few weekends in.  Our course was a weekend course, basically just a few weekends a month which lasted 4 months, and on top of that, it was a city course, which meant that the staff had to really improvise when organizing a lot of the lessons.  I took this course with a good group of people, from the staff to the other recruits.  It's a shame we weren't all able to continue training together on the next course, BMQ-L.


My buddy Mok standing sentry over the C7s


Mr. Keeso cleaining his C7, Vanderzalm in the background. 


This is what happens when I'm left to my own devices and friends entrust me to watch over their C7.


Another member of 4 section - Duncan.


Duncan again.


Andrews with his C7


K.O.  His real name was long and hard to pronounce so we just called him by his iniials.



Mckay, Parker and Regala, my friends from course who's home unit (Brtish Columbia Regiment) was hosting the course we were on. 



Weibe using the C4 gas mask


Duncan doing pushups with his ruck on.


One of the staff looing at Braun in dismay, wondering why he's in the sleeping bag during kit familiarization. 


Sentry duty at 0200. 



Me, posing for National geographic, haha!


Mok in the foreground, me on top of the G-Wagon during an IED/Patrolling exercise.  Yes, we're not just posing to look cool, it was an actuall exercise. 



The four kids from 39 Svc Bn (my home unit).  From left to right, Mr. Sihota and Ki standing, myself and Dominici in the front.


Regala, myself and parker in one of the tents during our range weekend.  The best weekend of the course.


Haha, my tent leaked a bit and in the morning, I had an ice cold pond in my sleeping back and cot. 


Marching to the range at about 0700.   




Lunch between shoots.






The fog started to roll in, and there were times when our targets were completely invisible.  Haha, I still somehow managed to pass though.


The recruits from my tent, and a mix of all sections.


The crew waiting for CS gas training.


But before that, we were treated to a little fun with the C7s on full auto, as well as a demonstration from the staff.





Then it was back to the gas hut.  We were kind of hoping the staff might have forgotten about it, but they didn't, haha!




It wasn't so bad, and I think only one person threw up.  Not everyone got the MOP suits.  Those of us who didn't had to make due with our rain gear.  Mr. Keeson with the new CADPAT raingear, me with the older  OD green rain gear. 


Group study for First Aid.


4 Section and our staff group photo on grad.
Back row, left to right: Sgt Blair, Pte Vandersalm, Pte K.O., Pte Duncan, Pte Andrews, O.C. Keeso, Pte Pao, and MCpl Pesklevitts.
Front row, left to right: Pte Wiebe, Pte Mok, and Pte Fomin


The four kids from 39 Svc Bn. 


Our friends from the unti that came to watch our grad.

Possible Gas Tube Issues with my AR *UPDATE*

Well, as I posted last time, I cleaned the hell out of my AR.  I did a detailed strip, took the BCG down, right down to the extractor, cleaned the rear end of the gas tube, ran some pipe cleaners through it even though they were coming out clean, lubed up all the working parts, cleaned it some more and lubed it all up again.  I drowned the thing in G96 (I love the stuff, doesn't it smell great?) and left it for a few days, then took it up to PoCo Outdoor Range.

When I got up there, I popped in a mag, fed a round into the chamber and squeezed the trigger, holding my breath.......bang!  The round went off as expected, but this time it felt different than last time.  I tooked at the ejection port, and the bolt was forward, just like last time, and I was positive I saw in my peripherals a spent casing being ejected.  I squeezed the trigger again and bang!  Another round.  I let off the last three in quick succession and popped in another mag and send some anger down range.  Ten rounds cycled flawlessly.  I was so elated, I went around telling my pals and all the range officers that I knew how happy I was, haha!  That really made my day, knowing there was nothing wrong with the gas system.  It was probably just bunged up and the solution was to clean the hell out of it, and sometimes you just have to shoot it clean.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Zombie Preparedness

Haha, I don’t know if there really are people who are taking the impending Zombie Apocalypse seriously, but it’s there are a lot of manufacturers out there who are making a killing off of selling zombie related items. I was surfing on http://www.midwayusa.com/ and found all these goodies. Just check out ammo for example:



They have ammo in all my favourites: .45ACP, .223 Remington, 12 Gauge 2-3/4, and 308 Winchester

Even some reputable optic companies are getting on board like Leupold and Eotech:




Furniture for your AR and your shotty are available in Zombie green, however I’m not so sure you want anything that looks fluorescent or glow in the dark if you need to hide from zombies or other baddies.

Hogue for your Remington 870s


And Hogue for your Mossberg 500s

These are for just in case you run out of ammo. For me though, I’d prefer my Tozando shinken or even my PPK from Paul Chen


Haha, this one's called the Chop Stick

Some other goodies that are available:

I wouldn't mind getting some of this stuff either, haha, could always use more ammo boxes!


Not quite a daisho, but pretty close.

 Not quite a daisho, but close at a quick glance.  A lot of times, daisho didn't have perfectly matched koshirae, or even blades from th...