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by Jesse Mathewson

It is no secret that I enjoy firearms as well as knives. Having spent much of my life using tools in the projectile and bladed category this enjoyment is well founded. My first memories of shooting were having my father assisting me in holding his venerable 10/22 as we shot at a truck tire with a piece of cardboard in it that had been rolled across the barnyard, I was 3 or maybe 4 years old at the time.

My review of the Colt LE6920  M4 carbine (and others) is a result of the love and respect instilled in me by my father.

Colt LE6920  M4 carbine History

Colt began as a company in 1855, Samuel Colt, arguably one of the most influential firearms manufacturers and designers at the time already had several firearms designs under his belt. He is best known for the Dragoon, Ring Lever Rifle and the most famous old west handgun, the Colt Walker 6 gun. Obviously I am leaving out many valuable additions, however, this is a review of the more modern AR15 variant the Colt LE6920 M4 carbine.

It should be noted that one of the chief benefits of the firearms he originally manufactured were the parts interchangeability and the production line approach to manufacturing. Henry Ford was not really the first, though he was the most famous in this regards.

For anti-gun naysayers, there is a truly amazing history to be found, and many advances that were made in manufacturing, parts interchangeability, and metallurgy that directly impact all life in a positive way that came from firearms manufacturing.

When I first got the Colt LE6920 M4 carbine I was underwhelmed, after all, I had just plunked down almost $1000 for a non-precision, non-hunting, defensive firearm. This is not small change for someone making under $25,000 annually. My opinion of the firearm was quickly changed by the reality/facts of the firearm itself. This is a very well-built firearm.

While not as accurate as an LWRC or Daniel Defense premium model, it is very much capable, with good ammunition, of seeing 1-2 inch groups at 100 yards while benched and using only a sling rest I have easily put 30 rounds into a 3” circle with it.

Specifications of The Colt 6920

• gas operated
• 223 rem/ 556 NATO
• 16.1” chrome lined 4150 (industry standard steel) barrel
• A2 flash hider (still my favorite non-suppressor muzzle device)
• flat top, Magpul rear sight
• 1:7 twist (I have and use twists from 1:7 through 1:12 and prefer 1: 7 for most applications)
• 32 to 35 inches in length
• M-16 or full auto BCG (fully staked etc.,)

Lower and upper are made of 7075 aluminum and forged by Cerro (mine was, some may not be!) it is a low shelf lower.

As we can see it is really just an AR-15 with the capability of being a bit more. It was designed for Law Enforcement and military use and the version we can buy as civilians is literally identical to what is sold to LE (minus the potential for burst/full auto which many LE agencies avoid for standard patrol people anyhow.)

It allows mounting of optics easily with the standard 1913 rail on the top of the receiver. Though the handguard is a standard patrol/ milspec approach, it can be swapped easily for a Magpul MOE for-end for added versatility.

Colt LE 6920 M4 Carbine Accuracy

Accuracy was a mixed bag, this is the reality for most firearms. Even with modern machining and computerized approaches accuracy is flexible at best and depends on ammunition type, bullet weight, and even the sun, wind and whether the moon was full or not.

Seriously, I have two very expensive firearms that shoot best on new moon months, (I am obviously joking folks). I found my LE6920 did best with MEN 56 grain NATO spec and Fiocchi 69 grain 223 rem. Both groups of 5 rounds with these loads were under 2 inches off of a sandbag at 100 yards, it was a clear day with a small breeze and it was hot. Standard Arizona shooting weather includes breezes, heat and a clear sky.

My worst groupings with this firearm were with Federal big box 55grn and Wolf standard 55grn, both were over 4” with the Wolf loadings coming in slightly under the Federal. I should mention that I do not use bi-metal bullets in my firearms anymore. It is not because they are not reliable or accurate, which with some is an issue.

It is simply because when you calculate the heat of the round and steel on steel wear, the life of a barrel does, in fact, go down enough to make it difficult for me to justify even at 2-4 cents difference per round. I have worn out several barrels over the years, and simply do not enjoy replacing barrels before what I believe the lifespan should be.

Colt LE 6920 M4 Carbine Reliability

Reliability was very good, again this is sometimes an ammunition based metric. Of the AR-15s I use, this is among the most reliable one I have owned. Every single new gun I buy gets stripped down and cleaned before shooting. No factory lubrication on AR15s can make up for sitting on a shelf collecting dust while waiting to be sold.

Take your gun apart and clean it well, then lubricate it per the accepted approach. I use 2-4 drops of Ballistol inside the channel where the bolt carrier group will ride, cycle the bolt several times to get the oil spread about well and add a couple drops to the side of the BCG you see through the ejection port. Cycle the bolt a few times again and go shooting.

After around 50 rounds of initial use, remove the BCG and wipe it down, replace the BCG and put 2 drops or so on it. Then run it through the next 450 or so rounds. My standard initial testing is 500 rounds for reliability. This includes 3-4 magazines or 120 rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger, without a cool down in between.

This stage is essential as fast, high rates of fire will raise the temperature substantially and will quickly show problems if they exist. While I have never found a perfect firearm as far as reliability is concerned, this one is very close to that. In fact, I did not have any issues until I was over 1000 rounds in with it.

It had begun cycling sluggishly and failed to eject a round, and I quickly remedied this and have not had any non-ammunition related issues since.

Shooting The Colt LE 6920 M4 Carbine

Shooting this firearm is not difficult, though the trigger leaves a bit to be desired. It is a milspec trigger, nothing special and allows function well. The premium trigger from Palmetto State Armory is a much better feeling, though, the Colt trigger works very well. It is very easy to polish the trigger, or just shoot it a few hundred times and it will polish itself.

As with most well made defensive firearms, I do not suggest adding things to it, this approach leads to more failures than any other. If you want a sporter AR-15 with a 2lb or less trigger and sub moa groups, build one from scratch. This particular gun is designed for use as a defensive tool and excels at the role!

Negatives are quite a few in actuality. From the factory, there is no ability to mount a light, something I really need on my defensive tools. Additionally, it is very expensive for what amounts to being a standard, well made, but a still standard milspec firearm. If you have the money, or if you are not looking to collect multiples of this type firearm and just need one good performer, this is the tool for you.

However, if you are outfitting more than yourself and like myself make substantially less than Bill Gates, there are other choices that will function perfectly well and do the job for substantially less.

My only other real complaint is that for the money you spend there is no reason that Colt does not manufacture all parts in-house, they do outsource many of the major parts for this and other firearms they sell. None of the “issues” are really a problem, except for people who nitpick, like myself.

Overall this is a firearm that with a little care from you, can be passed down to your children. It is well made, durable and on the higher end of cost, but not exorbitantly so. I can recommend the Colt LE6920 M4 carbine with two thumbs up and would not feel under armed using one for personal defense or for patrol as a combat person. There are other versions of the 6920 available and right now is really a buyers market for firearms of all types.

Be sure to comment below if you have had any experiences with a Colt LE6920 and let us know. As I have only used this one carbine, I cannot speak to the overall ability of the 6920 series. Again, comment below and let me know how yours run.

Free the mind and the body will follow…

by Kim B.

Many years ago, my family knew a gentleman in his late fifties whom was living off-the-grid. He had his own garden to supplement his grocery bill, used lanterns for lighting his home and outhouse, heated his home and cooked all of his food with a wood stove and even caught fish once or twice a week right from his own back yard setup.

In all the time that we knew him, normally running into one another at our local post office, we had visited his residence only once as we had not received an invitation until one special day in which he wanted us to see what he had just installed onto his land.

Taking him up on his invite, we drove to his house and upon arrival we received a smile and an outstretched hand. After a bit of conversation and explanation about how he was living he excitedly began to tell us that he turned a pickup canopy upside down and filled it with water which he let warm up for a few weeks before putting several Gold Fish in. He explained that he set it up so that if the fish were to die then he would know that the water was not safe to drink.

Although we have never seen him since, I have never forgotten him and I still think that his creativity was unique and interesting even though it may not have been a foolproof means of ensuring the safety of that water. Personally, I would not use a canopy because it is made of metal that may not be good for ingestion but I think that if he had lined it with the right materials he would have had something there.

Currently, I am preparing to return to an off-the-grid lifestyle on five acres and planning for a live food supply. To save myself some money, time and labor, I have decided to build a few four-foot long by four-foot wide, two-and-a-half to three-foot high, wooden frames in the style of boxes with the corners reinforced with two-by-two’s, line the bottom with several inches of sand and the interior with a thick food-grade plastic. To not only clean up the exterior but to give the walls a little extra support, which I know is not necessary as I have already built and used an identical tank for years, I will use some small concrete blocks all the way around.

Because there may be little to no usage of the grid for many people and stores may no longer have fish and other “cold” or “frozen” foods available, I have planned to fill a few tanks with Gold Fish of different ages so that when I want a fish dinner I can go to the tank, slide open a lightweight one-fourth inch Carpenter cloth-covered top frame that will help to keep vipers and other creatures out, and catch and supplement my diet with the oldest of them. Unless I have enormous tanks with hundreds of adults and babies in them, the supply will not be for eating from on a daily basis but will be there when truly needed.

Fish are cheap to feed, easy to care for and have quite a few offspring when the time comes due and, with proper quarantine, I should be able to keep many of the babies from being eaten by their grandparents and thus a food supply going and ready for another day.

When Winter comes along, an unprotected tank will freeze over pretty good and I was taught by my mother, which also has an outdoor tank, to set a pan of hot water on the hard ice at one of the corners to help melt, or soften, the surface so that a hole can be cleared to let out any built up gases. If at first she does not succeed she will refill the pan and continue the process until she does.

I do not want to have a supply of fish that I cannot get to in the Winter so I will park each tank against or very near to the walls of my house, on the shady side for the purpose of keeping it cooler in Summer, and place a tarp over the wire-covered frame with six to eight inches of materials over it to help insulate the water from the cold. I know of several ways to protect the water from freezing and one that I have chosen, secondarily, is to lean a sheet of plywood from the outer edge of the tanks to against the wall, to sit at an angle, and protect the open ends with several layers of tarp which should insulate them enough and allow me easy access.

Even a space-limited prepper, if they have a few extra feet of space and something that will support the weight of a tank’s water, can have Gold Fish for the future. For the land and indoor limited preppers, they might do better to use a glass tank because when a wooden one leaks the locations can be difficult or impossible to detect . I would like to note that with a glass version, the only areas that will spring forth are where the edges are glued or cracks have been made. Relining a wooden type is generally the only option and will therefore require that the occupants are relocated to holding tanks with a proper saltwater solution to help with the stress of the moves from and to their home, the interior fully emptied of the few hundred gallons that it holds, completely relined, filled with cold water and left devoid of life until the correct temperature has been reached which is entirely dependant upon when the process is undertaken.

Some people raise fish as pets and their minds and hearts form attachments to them. Anyone that intends to kill and eat what they obtain for future meals, especially if they have a soft spot in their heart, should avoid talking to or interacting with them too much because when the time comes to sever their heads and slit their bellies to open and clean them, they may not be able to do it. The truth is that fish were not meant to be kept as pets but they have been marketed, like all animals for sale are, for the financial rewards that they can bring.

To watch fish in their natural environments it would become evident that one fish will eat another and they are a nutrition supply for other animals as well. For the soft-hearted to survive, they are going to have to look at the facts pertaining to fish which may not be very easy to digest when what they have learned has been distorted mostly by money hungry or other soft hearted individuals.

This is not to say that having a heart is bad or wrong nor that to love another living creature is either but there may come a time when a choice has to be made and it will be to either eat the fish or go to bed with a painfully hungered stomach.

Every person’s survival will depend upon having as many resources available as they can possibly have and fish, that can be raised cheaply and easily at home, are no exception.

by Lindsey J. from Pa

Will you be ready in a moments notice? I have asked myself this question on a daily basis. I just wanted to send along some things that I do, to make sure that if I would have to leave now, I would have less to worry about.

I work part-time, so whenever I take my son to his grandparents for half the day, I always make sure that he has not only his regular clothes on, which would be socks, sneakers, undershirt, jeans, long sleeve shirt, and coat. He also always has a sweatshirt, gloves and hat. No matter where I am going these are always a must! I wear dress clothes to work, so I always have a spare set of clothes, and shoes in my car.

Now, I am sure that many of you already do this, just view this as a quick reminder.

This is a list of some simple things in my day-to-day life that I make sure are always done.

First off would be dishes. I despise doing them, until I got to thinking. What if the power went out tomorrow, and never came back on? Then doing dishes would be even worse. I would have to go get the water. Boil it to make sure it was sanitized, wash my dishes in one bucket, and then dip it in my rinse bucket after it was washed.

It is much easier to just fill up one side of the sink, wash the dishes and then turn on the spicket and rinse. Now don’t get me wrong this doesn’t make me like doing them any more, but I now do them immediately! You never know when your power may be gone whether it’s from a storm, or teotwawki.

This realization got me thinking about all the other tasks around the house that would become more difficult. These are just a few others that we as preppers, male or female should keep up with. Since, you never know when that task may become for difficult.

What about your laundry. There are six people in my household and at a minimum I do one load of laundry a day. So lets say I decide to skip a day or two and then the powers out. Now I have to wash them all by hand…just because I couldn’t stop for two seconds to throw a load of laundry into the washer. Let’s also not forget how fast our clothes currently dry in the drier. Now I will have to hang them outside and wait for what could be quite awhile, depending on the day. Does everyone have a scrubbing board?

Now cleaning bathrooms and mopping the floors is much easier with running water. But I have to admit that I don’t look at those tasks as needing to be done every day, since we as a family will not be bugging in. But, every couple of days, absolutely.

Think of it this way, the cleaner and more organized your household is the more prepared you will be. If I am not organized and there is some warning that we need to bug out I will have an easier time getting the things that I want, along with any extras.

However, if I am not well-organized then the situation will easily become more stressful than it already will be. I think of it this way, because say we have some warning a bank run or you name it, my son and I have a bug out location.

If there is warning, my family has calculated that we will have about an hour to get everything in our vehicle and go. Our plan from there is to get to my parents house, and from there we should have approximately a 3 to 4 hour window from their location. That being said, there is a lot that can be done in that time period. Extra food, clothes, blankets, equipment. You name it, so having everything in your household well-organized is key.

For our household, I keep everything in labeled boxes such as batteries, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soup,…you name it. When I have completely filled boxes, then the next time we are going to our bug out location it goes with us and is placed in the appropriate location, where everyone knows it is.

Then I start on my next box. Stacked nicely in the same closet with our bug out bags for quick access. I always have extra boxes and plastic bins on hand, so if we have time, all our boxes and bags are a quick load, and we can then move on to the rest of the food in the house, some extra clothes and bedding. I keep our drawers as organized as possible, with a bag right next to them, so I could potentially just dump, zip and go. I have a set of clothes in different sizes for my son at our bug out location.

This was hard for me to decide how to do. He is currently a size 2T and I have up to size 5T stored for him. This would include about 6 different long and short sleeve shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, and 3 pairs of shorts and 2 sweatshirts. A pack of socks and underwear in each size, and at least one pair of sneakers and boots in each. Along with any winter gear that may be needed. For myself there is 3 of each, shorts, shirts, pants. Along with boots and shoes.

Keep a list for everyone, that in the event of bugging out, they can follow who grabs what, if there’s time what extras would you want your kids or spouse to throw in the car? Knowing these things before hand is what matters! It’s about being well-organized down to that last moment of whose shutting out the lights and locking the doors.

Hopefully we all keep our vehicles gas tank at at least half full, and keep any extra gas cans full. But what about the rest of your vehicles maintenance? Do you make sure that you get your oil changed when it needs it. Do you make sure your tires have good tread and are pumped up? Are all of your fluids full…windshield wiper fluid, antifreeze…you name it make sure that these simple to do things are always taken care of.

These small cabin plans were sent to me by B Fockler and with his permission, I’m sharing them here with you. If you’ve ever wanted to build a small cabin these are a great set of free small cabin plans.

To view the full-sized free cabin plans right-click on the image.

Well, folks, according to the latest reports old Joe Biden has tested positive for the the super deadly, (a 99.97 survival rate if you get it) Covid-19 or as we call it here the coof! Now my question is how did he catch it after all he has been double vaccinated and boosted.

One would think that he would be as healthy as a horse with all the jabs and pharmaceutical drugs he has running through his system. But nope coof positive! Who would have thought. He probably caught it sniffing someone or more likely a little girl.

After all, he loves sniffing those young preteen girls so much that he just can’t resist doing it whenever one is unfortunate enough to get near him. Yeah, old Joe is a sniffer.

But that’s not all… nope, wait… there is more!

According to him he also has cancer! But, then he also said that he was a truck driver… yeah, he said it, despite the fact that he never has done anything besides being a corrupt politician and child sniffer. So who knows…

Yeah, old Joe is a case… a nut case that is… and I truly hope that he gets everything that he deserves. What’s the earned punishment for being a life long pile of shit?

When old Joe goes, his druggie, whore hopping, pervert of a son Hunter will surely fall apart without his dad to help him along. I mean no more big oil company jobs and big money under the table to buy the pounds of coke and VD infected whores. He will be a basket case in an hour after sucking down his last bowl of crack.

But even with all his problems old dementia Joe is pushing forward the agenda of his WEF masters who pull his puppet strings and vows to push the “green new deal” through with or without congressional support. And he can get it done too with his almighty emergency powers and executive pen.

Speaking at a shuttered coal power plant in Massachusetts, Biden declared that “since Congress is not acting as it should,” he would use his “executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of executive action.”

Biden’s decision to rule by decree on climate issues came after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, told party leadership last week that he would not support a raft of climate provisions in the Build Back Better Act, a $2 trillion funding bill that cannot pass an evenly-split Senate without his support. Manchin said that such a massive spending bill would “add fuel to the inflation fire.”

Meanwhile, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warns Ukraine could ‘disappear from the map’ and dismisses Joe Biden as ‘a strange grandfather with dementia’. And he is correct on both accounts. From The Daily Mail:

Russia’s former president today warned that Ukraine could ‘disappear from the world map’ amid Vladimir Putin‘s invasion of the country.

Dmitry Medvedev, a Putin ally, also dismissed US President Joe Biden as a ‘strange grandfather with dementia‘ in a scathing post on Telegram.

Medvedev warned NATO was ‘creating a real threat of world conflict and the death of a significant part of humanity’ by sending military equipment to Ukraine and troops to countries on Europe’s eastern flank, such as Estonia and Lithuania.

His warning comes just days after he said Ukraine and the West will face a ‘Judgement Day’ response should they attempt to militarily dispute Russia’s control of Crimea. 

The refusal of Ukraine and Western powers to recognise Moscow’s ownership of the peninsula poses a ‘systemic threat’ for Russia, the former president said on Sunday, before declaring the Kremlin would hit back with maximum force if the territory is attacked. 

And let’s not forget about the quickly increasing inflation numbers, a national debt of over 30 trillion dollars officially, (in reality it’s at least 3 times that), the end of the dollar as the world reserve currency, a supply chain breakdown, an open southern border, a mega drought in the west, a crumbling power grid, a deliberate fuel and energy crisis. 

But don’t worry folks old Joe has got this… just give him an ice-cream cone to lick, wipe his bottom, a little girl to sniff, and his executive pen and he will sign whatever is put in front of him by his handlers. FJB, 

I’ve been telling you all what was coming for the past several years and now we see it more everyday. It’s becoming so obvious that even those who’ve had their heads buried deeply in the sand are starting to wake up to the fate that the nation, and in fact, the world is in trouble.

In the video below Mike Adams gives a great report and overview of what is going on right now.