Cutting a bolt hold open notch in your ak 47/74 safety selector

Today I decided to add a notch in my safety selector to function as a bolt hold open. Unlike the AR platform, or even this 74'2 cousin, the PSL, the bolt will not automatically hold open after the last round is fired. Rather, you have to manually move the charging handle to the rear, engage the safety, and therefore "lock" the bolt in the rear position. Depending on how lose your safety is, if shaken or dropped, the safety may disengage, allowing the bolt to ride forward. If this happens with rounds in a magazine, beware that obviously a round will be chambered at that point.

Step 1:
Here you can see the safety selector in its traditional fashion. I pulled the charging handle to the rear at the position where I wanted my bolt to rest, and with a pencil marked where the charging handle was. This step may be easier if you take your spring out first, as shown in the next picture.

By removing the spring you can manipulate the position of the charging handle, without the forward tension.

Step 2: Now that the safety is marked you can take out the spring, if you have not already done so, and also the bolt assembly. Position the safety selector upwards to give you access.

Step 3: I found with the specific Dremel I was using, it was hard to get a good angle to cut. I could have remedied this by completely removing the safety selector, but that was more work than I felt necessary, although slightly awkward, I was able to cut along the lines.

Step 4: At some point you will have to make the horizontal cut, which can be difficult with the circular cutting bit. I cut as much as I could on the front, then flipped it over and cut from the back as well. If the scuff marks went beyond the parameters of the 2 vertical cuts, it would be hidden.

I added this picture to give you an idea of the depth your vertical cuts should be, The neck of the charging handle that will be housed in this notch is fairly thin, and therefore your cuts do not need to go too deep into the safety.

Once your 3 cuts have been made, cleaning it up and making it look nice can be done with a variety of Dremel accessories. I did this entire project with just one cutting wheel. To get the horizontal line straight, and the corners fairly "sharp" I dragged the wheel across the horizontal line using the face of the wheel versus the edge. The motion was similar to how you would attempt to spread pizza sauce with a pizza cutter.


Here you can see the safety selector does not engage all the way to the top. I went back at it and took off another layer of metal to seat the charging handle deeper in the notch.

This was the safety before reworking the notch deeper. You can see the scuff mark below the cut.

After making the notch deeper, the scuff was minimized as well.

Finally we see the safety selector fully engaged to the top of the dust cover.

When the bolt is forward there is a small hole.

Canning onions

Onion are one of the greatest things to have in my opinion. They are easy to grow, have numerous storage methods, and can be cooked along side just about anything.

Canned onions go very well with Burgers, Hash Browns, Casseroles, etc

Step 1: Cut your onions.

Step 2: Cover in pot with water.

Step 3: Boil 5-7 minutes or until translucent.

Step 4: Fill jar. Sorry for the sideways picture.

Step 5: Pressure can them at 10 Lbs for 40 minutes. You're done!

Canning blackberry cobbler and pie filling

Blackberries grow all over the US. In my area there are vacant fields left and right that have plethora's growing. This year I went all out and took advantage of that.

It took me a few weeks to collect just over 7 gallons of these berries. To keep them from going bad I would fill the freezer after each trip, until I got an amount I was happy with. This is a handful of frozen berries right before I started cooking.

This is 1/2 of my stash. The recipe called for 3 gallons of berries, so I used a little extra.

Supplies list: Sugar, Berries, Lemon Juice, Water, and Clear-jel, OR Sure-jell.

Note: EVERY where online says to use Clear-Jel, and I did not find anywhere that advised the use of Sure-jell in its place. However, I went ahead and tried, and I have been VERY pleased with the results.

Once again for emphasis: I USED SURE-JELL AND LOVED IT.

Step 1:At the bottom of this post I have a chart that will give the amounts of each ingredient based on the size of batch you want to make. For that reason, I will just say the ingredient and not the amount. So, combine the sugar and pectin in a bowl, and slowly add it to the boiling water, stirring to prevent clumps.

Step 2: Once your water, sugar, sure-jell solution is mixed and simmering, add the lemon juice and berries.

Step 3: Turn down heat and stir, A lot, you don't want scorched berries at the bottom. The length of time you stir, will depend entirely on the consistency you want. If you like it with more whole berries, don't stir as long, but if you like it more liquid-ey, stir longer while on heat.

Step 4: Once the berry mash has attained the consistency you are aiming for, ladle the hot mash into your jars. Once in the jars get them in your boiling water in the water bath canner.

Step 5: Keep them covered in the boiling water for 30 minutes. At this point they will be done and you can remove and let cool.

You can see the mash seems to separate slightly once in the jar. The berry bits and solids float, while the more dense liquid sinks. I think this makes for a cool looking effect, and plays no roll in the usage of this filling.

Also, This stuff makes for a great addition to a homemade milk shake.

Ingredients for Quart Jars	Per Quart (32 oz.) Jar	6 Quarts	8 Quarts	10 Quarts	12 Quarts
Blackberries	5 cups	30 cups or 2 gallons	40 cups or almost 3 gallons	50 cups or a little more than 3.5 gallons	60 cups or 4 gallons
Granulated Sugar	1/2 cup	3 cups	4 cups	5 cups	6 cups
Water	1 cup	6 cups	8 cups	10 cups	12 cups
Lemon Juice (required for canning)	1 Tbsp.	1/4 cup + 2 Tbsps.	1/2 cup	1/2 cup + 2 Tbsps.	3/4 cup
Sure-Jell	1/4 cup	1-1/2 cups	2 cups	2-1/2 cups	3 cups

Homemade dehydrated hash browns

This is a very simple recipe. You should try it.

Step 1: Get potatoes and rinse them.

Step 2: Boil them until tender but not mushy.

Step 3: Skin the potato.

Step 4: Grate the potato. You can see the outter portion is cooked, but not all the way through. If I would have cooked them longer to get the middle tender the outsides would have been too far cooked. The worst that will happen if you have uncooked centers, is that some of the hash browns will loose their nice white color and get partially brown. Not a big deal for me, but it may be for you.

Step 5: Dehydrate the grated potatoes.

To cook these up, all you must do is cover a bowl of the dried pieces with water and throw them in the microwave for 1 and 1/2 minutes. let them sit and absorb the water, then dump them on a hot skillet with a little oil.

Training

Over this last weekend I had the opportunity to go with a good friend to a defensive carbine course and hone my skills, or start to develop them, after all, I was not very good to begin with.

Either way, I feel more prepared, more confident and more able to be proficient since the class took place.


Underestimating training or skill building activities is something I hope to never catch myself doing.

Anyone can survive a disaster if they have MRE's, a location so isolated defending it is not a concern, access to a spring, a shelter to support them, and some form of entertainment to prevent insanity or suicide.

But for me, I don't have that set up. It is my skills that give me the advantage. Every thing from building fire from flint, a battery, a magnifying glass or 2 sticks, to purifying water with charcoal, sand, and a t shirt. I can create shelter from what I find in the forest, I can catch small game while I sleep from my knowledge of snares.

These are things that you don't go buy at the store and package in mylar bags. These are not things you store in the corner of your basement for a rainy day.

Skills and training take time to develop, and energy to maintain, but they are what can give you the advantage over others you are competing with.

I cannot give a simple guide with 10 pictures to lead you through building these skills. It is something that takes hands on practice. That is why I am making a goal to more consistently spend time building my skills, and you can do the same.

Homemade seasonings

In the post I made after Christmas I gave a short "how to" in reference to dehydrating bell peppers.

I recently bought a seasoning package and noticed one of the seasonings contained dehydrated bell peppers, that appeared to be ground up.

I'm great at borrowing ideas.

Note: This is very similar to the tomato powder.

Step 1: Start with dehydrated bell pepper.

Step 2: Throw them in a coffee grinder, blender, food processor etc. and blend

Done. Add to an old spice container if desired.

This is such an easy way to store bell peppers. It is quick and easy, and the results are great.

I added 1/8 teaspoon pf this powder to 4 scrambled eggs and it was phenomenal.

With the similar tomato powder, I will add that to mayo which then gets slathered on a sandwich and it is great.

Or you could add this to some chili, for a more enhanced bell pepper taste.

The possibilities are endless.

By the way that little spice container held the powder of 11 green bell peppers, Talk about a light weight, low volume way of storing stuff. I bet this has a close to infinite shelf life as well.

Enjoy!

My homemade tortillas

In the post from the other day I identified breakfast burritos as a great cheap meal. In order to keep it at it's cheapest, you have to make your own tortillas.

If you have more time than money, like me, its 100% worth it. If you are an attorney, doctor, etc, spending an hour to save $3 isn't quite the ROI you're looking for.


Anyway the 411.

For the individuals concerned with organic eating or if you have a general concern with the stuff you're consuming, check out store bought tortilla's ingredient lists. They have like 25 items. The truth is, you only need 4.....

Step 1: Combine your flour and salt.
Step 2: Add your shortening. Don't stress too bad about getting the shortening totally mixed.

Step 3: H2O

Step 4: Stir away.

There comes a point where mixing with a fork or spoon or whatever, just doesn't really do the job. It is here, that you will get your hands messy and start to kneed.

Step 5: Knead for a few minutes. I try to knead the entire dough ball for 2 minutes and then knead the individual clumps that will form the tortillas, for another few minuets a little later on in the process. You can rub it down with some oil and set it in the fridge for 4+ hours if you want. It's supposed to make the dough more workable down the line.

Step 6: Break the dough ball into 8 evenly sized balls. It does not need to be exact.

Step 7: Before you roll out the dough knead the crap out of it. The more you knead the easier it will be to work with the dough. Roll it very thin. It takes a good amount of flour on the counter and rolling pin.

Step 8: On an ungreased HOT pan, throw the rolled out dough. It will accumulate bubbles, and turn a slightly different color. It's not like french toast, that breaks apart if you flip it a million times, which is good. You can flip it every 10 seconds if you want. I do that to ensure it doesn't get over cooked on either side.