Review: MS Clean kit

This is one of those items that I really picked up for the show-factor alone, rather than for any real practical need. I saw it come up on my Kickstarter feed, as well as on Soldier Systems, where I find a number of cool pieces of tech and tools. So, first up, my admissions: I don't own any fire-arms, but I do a variety of costume and Live-action roleplay events, which is where my "for show only" interest lies.

This is the MS Clean kit.

Whilst I don't own or operate any myself, I appreciate the need to maintain and clean both firearms, and all the tools of the trade, so to speak. I also have a LOT of pouches, and have on occasion had small needfuls drop out and get lost as a result of being adventurous with them in a pouch designed to hold magazines.

I've regularly used my Platatac FUP and other mag pouches to carry my gear, and I saw the utility of a case that married with my existing pouches. The guys from MS Clean offer the cleaning kit to fill the gap they felt existed with the current issued cleaning kits in the US military, and wanted to take advantage of the prevalence of magazine pouches.

The case is curved like a 30 round STANAG or MagPul P-Mag and initial designs looked a little like the P-Mag, with surface ribbing for grip and structure. Made of an injection molded polymer, crush-proof cases prevents spillage of lubricant and bending of rods that they say current issued kits don't. The cases are long enough to old 3x sectioned steel rods, required to remove barrel obstructions like mud, stuck cases or squib rounds. They also include a couple of brush heads, and eyelet head, and a T- handle to drive the lot of it.

The production models include bore brushes for 5.56 as well as 7.62 and 9mm, as well as a dental pick, for all that carbon scoring. The polymer is chemical resistant so the case can be used as a miniature solvent tank, as well as acting as a container to place small parts of a firearm while cleaning.

They also offer them in a couple of different colours, black, tan, green and red. The internal dimensions are 1.8cm (0.72") x 5.3cm  (2.10") x 19.3cm (7.62") and externally 2.4cm (0.95") x
6.7cm (2.65")x  20.3cm (8").

I will be setting mine up as snack and tool carriers, perhaps using the red one as a dedicated boo-boo set, with alcohol wipes and small dressings, maybe even one of the Z-Medica quick clots. I can't comment on the quality of the cleaning tools myself, but I asked out one of my trooper friends to trial it out for me.

"The cleaning kit was a great bit of gear. First i would like to say that the case it comes in is a fantastic piece of gear. It fits in a spare mag pouch nicely and is easily accessible. The frogman lube is a great and does a good job. I found the wire brushes a bit too harsh though and the pull through rods rusted up very quickly. I was impressed with the extra brushes it came with. Its definitely a cleaning kit I carry in my webbing now." - K Taylor WA


The folks at MS Clean copped a lot of flack over the shape and design of the cases, being so close to "real" magazines. Here's what they had to say:

MS CLEAN may be mistaken for an actual magazine 
MS Clean is designed to utilize standard magazine pouches; however, these pouches are modular in nature and as such, the pouch selected to store MS Clean should be mounted in an area where it is not easily confused with an actual magazine.

What happens if I am in the dark and I go to change my magazine and try to put my cleaning kit in my rifle and get myself killed?
You won’t. You are a professional soldier or law enforcement officer, you have undergone months, if not years of training and you would never be so daft as to put your cleaning kit among your actual magazines. You would put it in somewhere else on your gear that wasn't on the front of your vest.

They are pretty prefect for my applications, and I look forward to kitting out my adventure gear (not to mention my kooky-costuming) with them.


To add to the mix, they now have a second Kickstarter underway for the DOUBLE sized kits. Twice the storage, twice the options, including a dedicated medic options, a trauma kit and super-deluxe cleaning options.

Home Front: Bunnings as a bug out location

Following on from my recent article on Ikea as a bug-out location,  which I talked about using the big Swedish household-building company's warehouse stores as a place to refit and inhabit following a society crumbling disaster event (short to medium term). The principle being that Me and mine need somewhere to go and shelter for however long, and there is no appreciable government relief on the way. Pretty unlikely in a stable first world nation right? Well, the folks of New Orleans might disagree. 

My like-minded friends and I have also discussed the various merits of other sites, such as a self-storage facility, in a basement bunker (if you have one) or even in your long term off-grid, eco-village. But one place that most of us agree would be a good site to hold up in and recover, would be a big-box hardware store, like Bunnings.           As far as disaster, apocalypse survival and reconstruction goes, it's hard to imagine a better equipped storehouse for raw materials than a facility like these. Aisle after aisle of tools, fittings, construction and fortification materials fill the cavernous warehouse. 

Anyone with a DIY bent that I know find it hard to walk around without getting itchy fingers at all the stock. Whilst they may not have -everything- you need to rebuild, or in the quantities required, they certainly have enough for any small-scale reconstruction you'd need. The facility itself is none too shabby either. Whilst open and well lit, they are often hot in summer, and cold in winter, but well enclosed and sheltered from the environment. If whatever disaster befell your area didn't damage the superstructure, it would make a good place to shelter. 

With simple layout, large roller-door as well as fire-door access, there isn't much to do in the way of barricading. The outside areas are high-fenced, to ward off present-day looters, and will offer the same protection in a disaster area. Of course, this could be improved with the addition of more barricades and area-denial tools like barbed-wire (Aisle 12, people ...) as could the main entrances. You could easily build up bigger and better walls around the inside of the existing  walls, and maintain a low-key presence, or turn it into a fortified looking castle. 

The key thing to note is that the large range of raw-materials and hand-tools. A facility like this is a treasure trove of pre-fabricated parts and construction materials, supplies and if push comes to shove, weapons.

It also features quite a wide array of potted plants and seedlings. Very little of it is immediately edible, certainly not sustainable, but if set up as a garden, you could make quite a bit of food from it. It would take time however. Food is not something that is a ready resource at a place like this.

Another aspect of this is that Bunnings have a really good rainwater catchment system. Those big roofs catch a lot of water, and that is a valuable resource. It will water any crops planted, and also provide drinking water.

All in all, there are many valuable resources and commodities to be found at a Bunnings, its a reasonably
secure environment, but it has the drawback of not being set up to be habitable, and it is a well known treasure trove. This will make it a very appealing target for other survivors.

Review: TacticalKeychain - TiMaG Paracord system

Not only do I love titanium, and magnets, but also paracord, so when Brad Martin of Tactical Keychains put up a KickStarter project that combined all three, I jumped onboard. I have been collecting the Tactical Keychain range for a while now, with the classic WTF tool (and its variants) as well as the larger cousin, the Large WTF but also the very functional TiKeY key-keeper set, the very crafty TiPiK lockpicks and most recently the also magnet equipped TKMB pen.

The TiMaG project however has been one I haven't reported on for some time, even though I've had these little magnets on my person for quite some time (as astute readers may have noticed, as they sit on my pocket-keychain tool ring).

Billed as magnetic push-pins, and even as "the most overbuilt magnets in existence", these little milled Grade 5 titanium plugs, each with a 2.5kg (5.5lbs) draw neodymium-iron-boron magnet built into the plug. Three channels cut into the sides of the plugs allow you to grip, or or even fit them with o-rings (7/32" ID x 11/32"OD x 1/16"C) for even better grip.

As push pins, they work fantastically, fridge-doors, white-boards, car body. Metal surfaces are just the ticket.

 The standard TiMaGz have the magnet's polarity set in one direction so they repel each other, for ease of manufacture but the Paracord system TiMaG's are created with 50% N 50% S polarity, so they will stick together. (just like the unfortunately fictional MagHook) .

Where the TiMaG's come in handy in a survival situation might seem a little obscure, but with some lateral thinking, a myriad of options arise: Dead drops of keys, papers and the like, either held by the magnet, or attached through the drilled paracord channel.

 I have one threaded through the steel cable of my bundle of pocket keychain tools, meaning I can stick them to a surface and access them, or have my Jil Lite Constel lantern light up my space. I've used the paracord loop to allow me to dowse for dropped items, screws, bolts, knives, needles. 

All manner of ferromagnetic needfuls of a certain weight can be "harvested". The key thing is your imagination, and the contact area you can manage with the TiMaG. Even though the magnets are rated at 2.5kg, I found that the sides and even top of a 450g can of spaghetti needed some finesse to retain a positive lock.



For simple packages, like papers, a spare key, or even say a Oscar Delta - Deep Carry Tube these are an excellent system for anyone. More advanced uses, well, you take your chances, but they are a damn well made set of mini-tools, and I love the aesthetics.

Be sure to check out Mike's NEW Kickstarter, the all new, updated WTF2.0 and TiStiK combo, I'm already a backer, and looking forwards to seeing what they're like to use.

Home Front: Ikea as a bug-out location

In the past, I have discussed several different situations where relocating from the relative security and comfort of home might be useful or needed for your ongoing safety and well-being. I don't live in an especially rugged house, but it's what we can afford, and it's in a very good neighborhood. House-hopping to one our better equipped neighboring properties is an option we've discussed, in the event of a bug-in situation in a fall of society type event. I've also covered some of the strategies and philosophies regarding sheltering from fall-out and CNBR type events. Given where I live is rather close to the Port Phillip Bay, sea level rise and storm surge type events are a more likely type of natural event that would cause us to bug-out. I've investigated the suitability of a self-storage facility as a quiet, out of the way place to dig-in, and even discussed the relative security of major infrastructure facilities like a hospital.

But today, I'm going to discuss the relative utility and safety of bugging out to another kind of location, dear to my The main showroom, with its labyrinth of lounge rooms, kitchens and bedrooms is situated on the second level, at my local Ikea, which is itself two stories up, above a dual-layer car-park. The warehouse starts our under the showroom, but also runs beside it, and stretches three to four stories up. Stairwells and escalators give main entrance to the facilities, as well as lift wells, but the broad concrete construction is fairly stark. Exits are clearly marked, as per whatever construction codes that must be adhered to, but I also noted that there not too many "other ways in". heart. Ikea!

 Tall plate glass windows faced some walls, the rest were enclosed. Skylights dotted the majority of ceilings, allowing natural lighting. Exposed wiring and piping throughout the facility gives a clear indication of the infrastructure, and adds a sense of space.

There is loot, so much loot. Essentially, whole houses can be fitted out by what is in stock at Ikea, so as far as establishing a livable space, there is so much to choose from, and room to do so. Big spaces are hard to heat however, and leaks in the roof could make for a lot of cold wet concrete flooring on exposed levels.Being raised up two floors from ground level gives you a lot of clearance for the "livable" areas, assuming you don't have tectonic collapse to worry about. Lots of concrete and little to no fuel (other than stock) in the construction means it is pretty fireproof.

There are a lot of resources to be had at an Ikea, and our local one is pretty well put together. The concrete ramps and stairwells would be hard to blockade and fortify easily, but that's the price one pays for accessibility in a pre-Apocalypse shopping center.

It's not inconceivable to me that an Ikea could be converted into a reasonably livable village for a small community. It's not a fort, by a long shot, but it is a stocked piece of real-estate, and even comes with more than just Allen keys, these days. A small restaurant and deli section offer only limited edibles, and there are only limited spaces for indoor crop growing, but plenty of materials for glasshouses.Remember that other people might have the same idea, however, and might not want to share.

Something to consider when you are next at a big center like this; look around, check the exits, look for structural flaws and the resources on hand ... You never know where or when you might need to hole up...