Why I Hate Preppers, by Allen C.

I may as well go ahead and apologize to anyone who is already offended by my title without apologizing for offending you.  I do not actually hate preppers.  I’m just fed up with them.  While I’m at it I may as well apologize for generalizing.  I don’t like putting labels on anyone any more than I like being labeled, but it is necessary to generalize in this case so if you consider yourself in one group, but the other better describes you then I accept that in advance.  If it sounds like I apologize a lot it is because I do.  Survivalists being antisocial in nature, I sometimes say things that are inappropriately blunt and get criticism for doing so.  You may disagree that I distinguish between the two, so let’s defer to an objective third party on the differences.  Popular Mechanics magazine did a fair job of explaining it:

Preppers call themselves Preppers, in part, to distinguish themselves from survivalists, a term that conjures up images of a paranoid loner hiding out in a cabin.  The Preppers focus on reaching out to other people, and they are avid social networkers. They share tips on things like canning, Port-a-Potties, and other useful skills to have for natural disasters. And they say the effort does not stem from fear. “It’s encouraging, uplifting,” insists Janet Liebsch, a dedicated prepper, who, along with her husband, publishes guides like It’s a Disaster. “Once you start learning, you get addicted.”

If you are a survivalist you may have already asked yourself why in the world anyone would want a Port-a-Potty.  You may also be thinking “I wouldn’t be so paranoid if everyone wasn’t out to get me.” I know I am.  I’m that paranoid loner hanging out in the woods.  At least I was before I got married in my forties and started a family.  I was first labeled a survivalist by local authorities in the 1980s and it was a pretty lonely twenty years so I was originally excited about the blossoming of the prepper movement, but after meeting hundreds of them I must admit I am disappointed.  Here are some reasons why.  

Preppers Are Presumptuous      
The prepper movement has boomed in the last few years and I must admit I resent being lumped in with the suburban grandma who goes online in the morning and orders some MREs, a can of bear spray, and a Gold Eagle coin.  In the afternoon she plants a container garden and fills some soda bottles with water. Viola, she’s a prepper and despite the fact that I have done none of those things apparently I am too because prepper equals survivalist.  If it says so on Wikipedia it must be true.  At least that is apparently the mantra.  The fact that I am willing to have an online discussion with her does not make us the same.  To a lessor extent preppers are also attempting to also envelop homesteaders. But that’s a discussion for another day. 

It has been said that to a man with a hammer every problem is a nail.  I found this to be especially true in Prepperdom.  First they assume that because they “woke up” and “saw the writing” on the wall they are now supernaturally endowed to survive what is coming.  They also think those who do not possess that one piece of prepper gear they hold most dear will be beating on the doors of the ark while they sit smugly inside watching the water rise.  The truth is there are a lot of people who do not own a gun, a bug-out-bug, or have anywhere to go who are going to feed on preppers like piranha.  For example, my home state recently rewrote laws to allow early release of nonviolent offenders.  These are felons who either did not get caught committing violent crimes or was not charged for them as part of a plea agreement.  Whether they committed them is a question of debate, but I know for sure they have mingled with those who have for years.  I visit one such person with whom I attended high school, but is now in prison and he tells me about post-release crime plans he did not have before he went in.  Although felony convictions prevent them from legally owning a firearm, it will not keep them from dispatching a prepper on the way to the Port-a-Potty and taking theirs.  The motivated ones have already downloaded a list of suspected preppers in their area from ARRL.org.    

Preppers Are Know-It-Alls
Later the same evening suburban grandma is in a user group regurgitating a half digested piece of prepper knowledge she picked up on another web site without ever having to actually fight anyone, kill anything, or spend a week in the woods.  Since most of those repeating these tidbits have not actually tried them, the knowledge usually changes a little like the party game where you whisper a secret in someone’s ear who passes it down the line until the last person says it out loud to see how much it changed.  Sometimes it changes a lot.  As I will show later the belief the average grocery store carries only three days worth of food is one example.  It is a corruption of the valid opinion that store shelves would empty within three days of a trigger event.   

A recent volley with a prepper is the one that pushed me over the edge. I’ve met hundreds of preppers online, individually, and at conferences, but this short exchange was the straw that broke the camel’s back prompting me to blow off three preppers in the anonymous “let’s meet for coffee” pipeline and stop developing lopsided relationships with people I would not want to help me build a shed.  As with most tipping points, it was about something small.  It was about not being online on the weekend because I am at the retreat.  I agreed to move to town when I got married and since I get to keep all my stuff the price of having a great wife and family is worth the hour drive from the national forest.  It went  something like this:

(Me) High speed Internet is unavailable at my retreat location. I can’t even get cell phone service unless I hike to the top of the mountain and then only digital roam text messaging.
(Them) {Immediately} Satellite works everywhere.
(Another Guy) Sometimes terrain or trees get in the way.
(Them) {Immediately} #^@#snet works ANYWHERE. Their web site says so. 
(Me) I’m in the North side of a mountain covered with trees.
(Them) {Immediately} Cut down some trees.
(Me) I’m not in some subdivision where my homeowner’s association can force the rancher that owns the top of the mountain to cut a swath of fifty foot trees so #^@#snet can site in my dish at an 80 degree elevation because there would still be a mountain in the way.

This is a harmless example, but he could have just as easily been giving advice on food storage, how to treat a gunshot wound, or any number of possible life-and-death circumstances.  If there is only one ill consequence of the prepper movement it is the avalanche of inexperienced people giving advice in users groups when their only qualification is that they read something similar elsewhere on the net. 

Preppers Are Gullible
No where have I seen this more prevalent than in predicting the timing of total collapse.  Many preppers are disciples of nationally known doomsayers who have been predicting since at least 1999 that we are six months away from anarchy.  When confronted with the obvious they sometimes revert to the argument that collapse has already come.  I wish that were true because having hit rock bottom we could start rebuilding.  The economy may be held up like a horizontal mine shaft about to collapse, but when we run out of bread and circuses these preppers will see what total collapse really looks like.  The different federal agencies who are stocking up on ammunition are going to need it.

I have lost count of how many preppers I’ve heard from over the last three years who knew someone who knew someone in some branch of intelligence that had inside knowledge of pending collapse.  In one particular case I replied to the email several months later pointing out they had been worrying for nothing.  The sender immediately shot back that the original message only said SOON.  Apparently SOON is not necessarily within the same year.  She wants to meet with me personally. I told her we will get together SOON.       

Preppers Lack Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is a type of reasonable, reflective thinking that is aimed at deciding what to believe or what to do.  Preppers want to believe the worst to justify expenditures of time and money.  Since this diagnosis in not one preppers will accept without proof, check for yourself to see if you blindly accepted a couple of the more popular prepper myths currently circulating:

Government Study on EMP: 90% Would Be Dead
Grocery Stores Only Carry 3 Days Worth of Food

Neither of those are true and despite the fact that I can prove it preppers with whom I discussed these myths were so adamant about believing the worst that they completely lost their critical thinking skills. My experience was similar to when I worked with shock victims at accident scenes.  It took several repetitions of the evidence before it finally sunk in.  Keep an open mind and see how you do.

Government Study on EMP: 90% Would Be Dead
Several Internet sites have recently been repeating a quote from The United West that in the event of an EMP our population would decrease by 90% within 12-18 months. ”Forstchen cited a 2004 study on the impact of such an assault on America. ‘Testimony in that study said 90 percent, let me repeat that, 90 percent of all Americans would die within 12-18 months of an EMP attack,’ he said.”

I’ve scoured the 2004 report and testimony he mentions documented as THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION TO ASSESS THE THREAT TO THE U.S. FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE ATTACK by the COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES and found only a question by Representative Roscoe Bartlett in the hearing asking if our population might shrink by two-thirds following an EMP and a noncommittal response by Dr. Wood that the population in the late 1800s was one-tenth the size it is today.

The earliest published document I have found containing the “90% fatality rate” is page 338 of the hardcover edition of Forstchen’s novel One Second After.  This same author was a speaker at the seminar the aforementioned article was written to promote.  Could it be preppers are relying on a retrospective discussion between two fictional people?  I posed that question to United West directly via email and using the contact page on their web site, but received no reply.  Since no one can provide the source data for the 90% fatality rate, the reasonable conclusion is that it does not exist.  Certainly an EMP event would be disastrous, but to simply pick an arbitrary survival rate and declare ourselves in the fortunate minority sounds equally so. 

Those on airplanes, or in hospitals, hospice, and nursing homes and others like outpatient dialysis patients would be immediate casualties, but even if we include those over 85 and everyone living in communities with populations of 2,500 or greater the rate would still only be about 82%. Since there exists no historical data on EMP deaths, we can debate indefinitely what the death toll might be.  We can only say for sure that the 90% rate attributed to the congressional hearing is not supported by the actual testimony

Grocery Stores Only Carry 3 Days Worth of Food
The second example is even more concrete than the first because it relies entirely on basic math and accounting principles.  You do have to learn one accounting term – Inventory turnover or inventory turns for short.  Inventory turnover is the number of times during the year that a retailer sells an amount equal to its average inventory.  A simple example that assumed beginning and ending inventory is the same would be this:

If a grocery store carried $10 Million worth (at retail) of inventory and they sell $100 Million worth a year, their inventory turnover rate is 10 (100/10) because they sold ten times their average inventory.  According the the Food Marketing Institute, the largest grocery store trade association, the average store level turn rate for grocery stores in 2010 was 14.4. This excludes any inventory at company owned distribution centers, wholesalers, and producers.  It averages beginning inventory and ending inventory at retail, and sales at individual stores.  Average days of inventory carried is easily calculated by dividing the number of days in a year by the inventory turn number (365/14.4 =  25.35).  This means the “average” store has a little over twenty-five days of inventory [with normal demand].  Stores where retail space rents are high tend to have less variety and faster turns while those in rural states like mine with few distribution centers usually carry more inventory.   

I understand why people might think there are only three days of inventory because high-profile items like produce (56.4), dairy (36.0), and meat (35.3) have higher than average inventory turnover rates. Dry goods, the kinds of foods people should be buying in an emergency, are the bulk of inventory and have a lower inventory turnover rate.  This is where those who have drank the Kool-Aid start attacking the data by mentioning nonfood items, but toilet paper flies off the shelf and even pharmacy has a turn rate of 12 so nonfood items being in the minority and not turning at significantly different rates than food items have little effect on the turn rate. 

Those trapped by prepper bias often respond by stating an obvious truth that has nothing to do with the topic, but appears to contradict the revelator.  Someone may say, for example, that WTSHTF stores will be cleaned out immediately.  That is another discussion on the effectiveness of martial law.  In no way am I advocating waiting until the last minute to stock up.  The data supports an alternate response.  It shows that contrary to the opinions of other authors, we are not going to emerge from our cocoons two-months after an event to scour the country for other survivors.  The fact there is nearly ten times as much inventory in stores as preppers want to believe is one more reason to expect the violent transition to a third world country will be a long one.  Forty years ago 16 plane crash victims survived 72 days in the desolate Andes Mountains.  They did not have all the food we have in our system.  They did not have nearly one deer for every citizen as my state does.  All they had was each other – whom they ate.

Desperation will make people who did not “wake up” and “see the writing on the wall” a lot more resourceful than preppers want to believe.         

Conclusion
Does living in a prepper free world mean I am going to go it alone?  Certainly not.  Community is important to long-term survival, but instead of meeting up with the local prepper group who has no bug out location when the city becomes uninhabitable, we will be leaving early and alone for our secluded retreat community whose location I did not disclose to any of them.  I am using the time I redeemed from migraine inducing discussions with preppers to build stronger relationships with my retreat neighbors for whom heating with wood, gardening, hunting, and animal husbandry is not something they are preparing to do, but already a part of their every day lives.   

Much more than most survivalists I know who just want to be left alone, I have found the vast majority of preppers to be well intended and it is for this reason that I wrote this critical essay.  Those who think they are ready because they are stockpiling provisions and having Internet discussions really need to “wake up” and “see the writing on the wall” that these things alone will not save them.  Survival is more about skills than stuff.  We are on the cusp of a violent transition to a third-world country which will include an equally violent redistribution of hard assets.  I little humility and critical thinking will be worth far more than that single can of beans that preppers have been telling me they will one day trade for an ounce of gold.



Remember the Little Things, by Bear

This is not your typical “How To… for Survival” or “Best Gear for Survival” blog article. Instead, I am asking you the reader, to read this with an open mind. This is much more than that and I believe it will be the difference between you surviving… and not.

Nothing can take away from the importance of being prepared. Nor can the necessity of training and practicing certain survival skills be trivialized. Preparedness and practice are a couple of necessities of survival. But there is more to life than just surviving. the famous psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, summed it up best when he said, “everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” What is life, truly, if there is no enjoyment? While I do understand that standing in your stockpile room, surveying all of your supplies (the stacks of water bottles, the vast array of number 10 cans, the gun safe with all its hidden treasures, the neatly organized bug out bags, etc.) can bring a certain satisfaction, it is quickly fleeting. That is because you spent so much time and effort compiling these things and now your mind is running through the completed checklist, making sure you didn’t miss anything. Nope, it’s all done… so now what? (Cue that emptiness thing from earlier) The intangibles like relationships and the joy they bring will be just as important in a bold new world as the tangibles like your stockpile. I had the opportunity to learn this, quite humbly I might add, the hard way recently when I took my 9 and 15 year old sons on a backpack adventure for four days. My intent was to teach them practical skills while knocking the rust off of my own. But as Robert Burns said, “The best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry”.

I began our adventure 48 hours prior by utilizing my Army training and conducting PCCs (pre-combat checks) and PCIs (pre-combat inspections). Yes, I know that this was not combat, but the fundamentals of preparedness are never-the-less just as applicable. I went over every item in my boys’ packs with them so that they understood what it was and how they will be utilizing it. I showed them how best to pack their gear by having repacking mine before them. At this point, I left them to repack their stuff a couple of times (so that they were comfortable with where they put their gear). The night before we left for the woods, we did one final walk-through to make sure we weren’t missing anything. As my 9 year old starts to lay out his gear, he is coming across a deck of cards and a pack of dice. I, being the prudent and pack-weight conscious man that I am, proceed to lecture him about how extra items mean extra weight that he has to carry with him everywhere and that he needs to leave them out. No soon as I get it all out of my mouth, I look over to see my 15 year old pulling out his art pad and some pencils. So, obviously, I look at him and ask, “really?” I then begin to lay on him the same lecture his brother got.  At this point (as you could imagine), my kids are less than excited about going.

Fast forwarding to us on a National Park trail the next morning, we are 45 minutes behind my super strict schedule. Frustration gets the best of me when I turn and see that my boys continue to drag their rear end. I begin to lay into them, chastising them for not staying focused and on track. Well, they let me rant for a couple of minutes before my 15 year old interrupted and said, “Dad, we are not lagging behind on purpose. We are just looking for all the things you told us to look for. See look, right here looks like the boar hoof prints. See? Right here. I think it’s a mom cuz look at all the smaller hoof prints.” as you could imagine, I’m feeling a bit like an a-hole for trying to rush to find a spot to setup camp while my kids are doing exactly what I told them to do. They are taking in their environment and looking for things like game tracks, wild edibles, possible dangers. Feeling a bit like a heel, I apologize and then join in with them. While it took an extra hour and twenty minutes to get to a suitable camp, they got to experience many little things that they would have otherwise missed if they stayed with my pace.

Jumping to Night 2 of our outdoor adventure, after we have finished all of the stuff that needs to get done, we are sitting by the campfire when my 9 year old coyly asked if I would play cards with him. Without thinking, I begin to get on him for not listening to me. With a bit of sadness in his voice, he simply said, “I’m sorry dad. When you said it wasn’t a good idea to have extra weight, I thought it was worth it to bring them in case you and me had a chance to do something together. Since we were just relaxing and hanging out by the fire, I thought it would be fun.” Man oh man, was I on a roll. All he wanted to do was to spend some time by the fire, enjoying a little thing that life has to offer. I promptly apologized and he began to school me in rummy for the rest of the night.

However, not to be bested…by myself, I managed to step into it again. This happened just after breakfast, the next day, when my 15 year old, sat about 20 feet away, with his back to us. Curious, I begin to approach him, when I realized that he is drawing on the art pad I told him to leave. I startled him when I forcefully asked him why he brought that stuff. I did not even give him a chance to answer before I started in about coming out to enjoy what was around us instead of drawing more cartoon characters (he is, by the way, very good with a pencil and paper). With an angry look, he held back what he really wanted to say and respectfully looked at me to say, “I am enjoying what’s around me. Until you came up… I was trying to draw a cardinal that was on that branch over the creek. See?” I look up and see a branch he is pointing to but there was no bird. Now, I am no small man. I stand 6’5”, 300 pounds but after he held up his pad and I beheld a half-drawn bird, I felt no more than two inches tall. He was doing exactly what I wanted him to do (enjoying the little things), and I admonished him for it. Not only that, but I inadvertently scared away the bird which meant he would no longer have a model to draw inspiration from. It was at that moment that I realized that how much of this adventure I had missed because I was only focused on the big things: water, food, shelter, shelter, safety, etc. it was my children that showed me how much more life has to offer than simply survival.

When we got home, both of my boys were non-stop chatterboxes to their mom about all the awesome stuff they got to do. “I caught a squirrel”, “I got to make the fire”, “I made a fishing gig”, “we saw pig tracks”, “I got to put a splint on Dad’s leg”, and on and on and on, back and forth they went, bombarding my wife with snippet after snippet. I gave them fifteen minutes or so to get it all out and then told them to go get their stuff unpacked. With an exhausted look, she turned to me and said, “Wow! It sounds like they had a great time and learned a lot.”. I said, “They did, but not near as much as me.” She shot me a puzzled, inquisitive look and I began to explained all of my misadventures.

So remember, survival preparedness is not just years-worth supplies for every situation. Water, food, gear, and a plan is great. But It’s the little things too. You’ve got to remember the little things. It is entirely too easy to get wrapped up in your preparations for tomorrow and let today slip right through your hands. Be sure to take a minute and see the world through a child’s eyes. There is soooooo much that happens at their level that we miss because they are the little things to us. You will be amazed at just how blind you’ve become.



Letter Re: Training Combatives: The How, What and Why of Acquiring Hand-to-Hand Skills

Hi Mr. Rawles,
I’m a seasoned martial artist and self-defense instructor.  I teach Western Boxing, Jeet Kune Do (Concepts), Kali, Submission Grappling (mainly Sambo and Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), and mixed martial arts (MMA. ) I regularly instruct law enforcement officers and military personnel who go into harm’s way.  I agree with much of what Legionnaire wrote, but must take exception to his statement that most fights go to the ground.  This is a myth that has been bandied about since the early days of the UFC, and the only notable support for this assertion is a “use-of-force” study conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department (specifically Sergeant John L. Sommers).  The study was conducted to review officer use of force and restraint and is not applicable to civilian self-defense.  The study was later co-opted by the Gracie marketing machine to support their franchise and was regularly misquoted.    

Having trained and interviewed numerous police officers, I can say unequivocally that police officers almost always bring suspects to the ground in order to subdue them and are rarely brought to the ground by their adversaries.  This isn’t to deny the importance of ground fighting, because it certainly is valuable, but with only limited time to train and prepare (not to mention that most people have little inclination or facility to train effectively to begin with), providing accurate data regarding physical self-defense is imperative.  Unless you’re fighting in a ring, ground fighting should always be a last resort for the simple fact that it places you in direct physical contact with a possibly armed, diseased, or insane opponent.  Keeping a fight standing and controlling the measure is vitally important for many reasons, not the least of which is to increase the likelihood and rapidity of escape.  As much as I love grappling, when it comes to real life scenarios, I have never met a seasoned professional soldier, peace officer, or pro-fighter who would countenance going to the ground when other viable options remain available. 

Sincerely, – Adam H.



Economics and Investing:

The Secret Panic of European Banks

G.G. flagged this: Government officially tops $1 trillion in deficits

Reader H.L. sent: As the Euro Tumbles, Spaniards Look to Gold

Pierre M. was the first of several readers to mention this: Pig farmers quit as feed prices soar

Items from The Economatrix:

Job Growth Cools, Posing Challenge for Obama, Fed

Why a Drop in the Unemployment Rate is Tragic

Homebuilders’ New Problem:  Too Few Workers



Odds ‘n Sods:

Karl G. recommended a great video with yet another use for IBC totes: Building an IBC aquaponic system, along with this instructive PDF. Karl notes: “You just have to make sure that the tank wasn’t used for some nasty chemicals before making this.”

   o o o

Rewarding Idiots with Democratic Totalitarianism

   o o o

I heard about an interesting new blog from a libertarian Christian philosopher who has emigrated to Chile: The Fifth Stage Blog

   o o o

Havana’s blackout.

   o o o

Tom of CampingSurvival.com co-produced this instructional video: How-To Roast Green Organic Coffee Beans at Home



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Between the far away past history of the world, and that which lies near to us; in the time when the wisdom of the ancient times was dead and had passed away, and our own days of light had not yet come, there lay a great black gulf in human history, a gulf of ignorance, of superstition, of cruelty, and of wickedness. That time we call the dark or Middle Ages. Few records remain to us of that dreadful period in our world’s history, and we only know of it through broken and disjointed fragments that have been handed down to us through the generations.” – Howard Pyle



Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 42 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 42 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.



Prepping for a Different Herd, by Xaidin

I’m a prepper, however my situation is a little different than most.  I wanted to write an article explaining my unique challenges.
My family has a small ranch in New Mexico.  In the old days when it rained more often we ran about 100 head of cattle.  With the drought that has hit the southwest so hard, we’re down to about 50.
I know most of you are thinking, oh my goodness this guy is so lucky.  He can eat all the beef he wants when TSHTF.  The answer is yes, and no.  I had about the same initial reaction when I first started prepping.  I thought I’d just go home, to the ranch, from my day job and be safe.  I read all the books and browsed all the prepping blogs, then began to realize it wasn’t so simple.  Not only did I have to prep for myself, I had to prep for 50 head of cattle!  Plus a lot of other animals like chickens and dogs.
After I got my beans, bullets, and band aids squared away, my family and I started prepping for the cattle.  There’s little question that they are our greatest resource.  Imagine what half a beef could net us in a barter situation when everyone is starving.  Provided I can defend the livestock, and keep them happy, healthy, and alive. 

  1. Water

Everything needs water.  There are dozens of articles about water on survivalblog.  One gallon per person per day seems to be the golden rule.  For a cow in 100 degree summer heat its 50 gallons a day!  Crunch the numbers and that’s around 3,000 gallons of water per day worst case.  Some days they don’t need near as much.  We’re in the high desert, and do not have surface water.  No streams, lakes, ponds, etc.  Our current water source is pumped via an AC pump from a depth of ~600ft.  Running a generator to pump the water we would need isn’t feasible.  Solar was the solution.  We ended up drilling a new well and equipping it with a solar pump that can produce about 2,500-3,000 gallons a day in the summer.  To supplement this we installed a very large and complex rain catchment system.  All in all we have ,7500 gallons of potable (people) water and 38,000 gallons of stock water that we keep on hand at any given time.  This is fed all over the place via gravity to stock troughs and solar powered booster pumps to other areas such as the house.  As you can imagine this cost a great deal of money and my income is lower middle class.  It was a matter of priority setting for us.  In a grid down situation the cattle would all die without water.  That is not acceptable.

Here’s some advice about drilling a new water well.  I did a lot of the work on the well myself to save money.  Of course the actual drilling was done by a “professional”.  When you interview your well driller be sure to ask the following question, “Are you the actual person who will drill the well?”  Make sure it’s not his cousin, son, or some neighbor down the road.  We ended up with an inexperienced guy.  Our well also proved to be extra difficult to drill, because soon after drilling started he ran into caves and basically freaked out.  This ended up costing more money.  Ask around for recommendations and don’t just go with the lowest bid.

If you choose to install the pump and pipe yourself be sure to put more check valves than you think you’ll need.  I put one every 200 feet, and it’s not enough.  Install a good brass check valve every 100 feet. Do your own research about the gauge of wire to be used.  I ran number 10 wire down to the pump at 575 feet.  To compensate for the DC voltage drop I added another solar panel to bump up the voltage instead of buying the recommend more expensive number 6 wire.  The new well is working better than I dreamed it could.  Solar water pumping is amazing.

Nutrition/Health

To feed cattle; it rains, the grass grows, and the cattle eat the grass.  Unfortunately for good healthy critters you have to add to that diet.  At the very least you must give your cattle some salt and minerals.  You’d be amazed at how much salt we use in a year.  I have food for myself stashed away, but also we’ve included several thousand pounds of bagged stock salt, and minerals.  We went with granulated bagged salt instead of blocks because it could be used for other things like salting beef. 

Sick animals need medical care too.  In my band aids section there’s plenty of the normal veterinary supplies we use on a regular basis.  Many of these items can be used for all types of animals including the two legged kind.  I did not include vaccines as once TSHTF the cattle should not be exposed to other cattle that could be carrying something nasty.  Of course that isn’t 100% certain but one must pick their battles. 

Security

If you think your retreat security causes you to lose sleep at night imagine securing seven square miles of land.  Without an army; it can’t be done.  I don’t have an army, so another solution had to be found.  The current plan is to pen the cattle up at the ranch house during the night, and then send a small patrol with them during the day to graze.  We’ve erected guard towers at the retreat and at least one of them will be manned at all times.  I hope however that our remote location is adequate to keep the golden hordes at bay, because defending our retreat properly would need a very large force.  I suppose that could be said about any location.  I’m still searching for more people to join me at the ranch, and as many of you know, it’s very difficult to find like-minded people.  I’ve been fortunate so far and have some great folks who will stay with us in the event of a disaster.  We have a doctor and a dentist as well as some ex army guys.  I don’t know what the magic number of people needed is but there’s safety in numbers.

Bartering of beef

Without the power grid, cooling and preserving raw meat will be a challenge.  Currently (if you want really good meat) after you dress out an animal you typically hang them in a cooler and let the meat age for a couple of weeks.  This allows the natural enzymes in the muscle tissue to break down some of the harder parts of the meat.  Aged beef is quite simply the best food there is!  I’m sure 99% of the population has never had it.  The fast paced production slaughter plants today don’t age meat more than a day or two.  To age and store the meat we kill we have two large deep freezes.  I’ll soon be installing a solar system to run them.  One of the freezers will be equipped with a thermostat to regulate the temperature so the freezer can be used as a cooler.  Without the solar freezers processing and selling meat during the summer will be all but impossible unless of course I try to make 600 pounds of jerky.

To supplement the beef sales we also have a milk cow and lots of chickens.  If you have a bug problem, get yourself some chickens instead of an exterminator.  You’ll be amazed at the result, plus free eggs!  Our chickens and guineas roam free, but generally lay their eggs in the hen house.

Miscellaneous

We’re going to need more flexibility than other groups when we’re hunkering down on our ranch.  For this reason a blacksmiths shop has been setup.  Not only is it fun to learn how to make metal parts with nothing but a hot fire and a hammer.  There will certainly be a need for building things.  I don’t know what those will be; otherwise I could go buy a few.  
Heat in the winter is an issue too.  Our ranch house has no central heating.  We have a large fireplace and a wood stove.  I was 19 years old before I lived in a house with a thermostat.  A wood stove is a great way to heat a space but it uses a lot of wood.  We burn between 3 and 9 cords of wood a year depending on how cold it is.  I can only imagine how much wood the folks up north are going to need.  If you live in the colder areas of the country you had better get a spare chainsaw and all the stuff needed run the heck out of it!  I’ve stashed gas for the sole purpose of hauling wood from the pasture to the house, as well as a spare chainsaw (don’t buy a cheap one).  There are no trees around our house.  That makes for great sight lines from the guard towers, but it’s a long way to haul wood for the stove.

I know the EMP group out there must see that my plans would come crumbling down in the event of an EMP.  I just pray it’s not an EMP or CME that kicks off the SHTF chain of events. 

In conclusion: next time you feel overwhelmed about your prepping remember the poor ranchers out there who are responsible for a great many more mouths to feed and water.  I envy your relatively simple preps often, but this is the lifestyle I’ve chosen to keep.  I also feel that after the collapse, if I can pull my family and herd through, ranching won’t be such a hard way to make a living as it is in our current society. 



Secure Signals for a Survivalist, by Fred J.

This subject is a much overlooked area in the survival community and sorely neglected. I hope that the following synopses of this crucial topic will inspire an invigorating awakening in this area that I feel is vital to our collective success, without which our endeavor could well be doomed.

Every country and every military around the world through the ages has employed codes, ciphers and signals as well as signets et cetera for security and authentication of messages. Sending messages via couriers, as well as during times of war and peacetime to prevent their opposition from learning their secrets and their plans. They are crucial to any groups survival and successful operations especially in matters of cover and concealment which is of utmost importance to the modern prepper/survivalist who wishes to successfully maintain operational OPSEC as well as communications security (COMSEC.)

Most apropos to the survivalist is the aspect of camp security or camp entry codes in the ares of individuals securely moving in and out of camp as well as moving securely between friendly camps as well as sending and receiving light or radio signals to members of ones own camp such as in the area of LP/OPs (listening post-observation post) and in communicating with other friendly camps to coordinate movements and plans as well as advise other of enemy actions including METT-C. and size activity location unit/uniform time and equipment (SALUTE) reports. Not to mention something as basic as your challenge and passwords.

Sadly, few have planned, employed or even consider training in the area of signal security by broadcasting encoded Morse messages  which is imperative to any group’s survival in hostile territory, especially given this governments stated goals as well as those it consorts with! These  transmissions must be made carefully and remote from camp and kept very short…preferably in burst format which the receiver can then electronically slows down  to decode. This is only limited by your means and available equipment. You then establish an radio telephone operator (RTO) who would manage all frequencies, call signs master CEOIs, et cetera. Each member of the group should have a specialty, much like a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) while all members training in and being proficient in basic skills while having a working knowledge of all other in the event that person is lost.)

These signals not only encompass light and radio but human– for instance a messenger who carries  a memorized message encoded or sends them via light or hand  signals or in the form of hand gestures to form near and far signals, again for the purposes of camp entry codes. Or he or she may be carrying hidden messages. Thee can include embedded distress signals therein in the event one is captured or compromised so that those within the camp can know that there has been a compromise. These signals/signs should be relatively simple while unique to that group but have alternate but subtle variations in the event one is being forced to do harm.

More sadly, we now live in a formerly free constitutional republic. The reality is we now live in a soviet style clandestine environment where we can only speak openly and freely to our most trusted friends and family weather face to face or on the phone or on a computer.

There are many forms of code/cipher that have been employed by all the various governments and their militaries. For instance in the 19th and 20th Centuries there was the Pigpen cipher, Play Fair (used by the Australians), and the rail fence cipher. These are just a step up from simple substitution codes, and only a bit more secure–they can be broken fairly easily. When I taught my church’s and survival groups codes I would give them a breakdown of a few as here and then tell them that of course the best code is the code you conceive and employ yourself. I am not going to disclose the exact nature of our code of which I made copies and distributed. In that I have devised a combination of the military’s brevity codes (which are pretty much unbreakable unless the source is known or there is repetition) as well as substitution codes embedded with Morse code, possibly in different languages common to a group.

We had a lot of fun breaking into groups and I would give them brief messages to encode and decode using just the angle head flashlight….of course informing them that once you know a form of Morse you can send it in many ways including light, radio dits and dahs and finger and motions as well as written cipher in that way. You are already familiar with certain subversives who employ such “close signals” for instance the Masons who use a variety of hands signals and shakes to identify one another and their condition as well as the dizzying array of miscreant gangs who use hand signals to ident one another and their misguided loyalties.

One brief aside: it is noteworthy to mention that as well the military are using infrared tabs on their ACUs so that from afar in their night vision scopes they can discern friend and foe. Something to bear in mind!

So I will begin with the Morse code aspect of the encryption, every country has their own and their is a international code which is very close to ours. I have created Morse in a few different languages and keep them in sort of a S1 CEOI format, so that if one code or messenger is known to be or thought to be captured or compromised then you just break into the next set. (Such as Spanish or French whatever you are familiar with or not at all. Now, after mastering your Morse code skills in sending and receiving which is best accomplished by learning them in rhythm. You then break them down to 3 character codes. You might for example take a foreign language dictionary and start at the first word in its columns and start designating every word or field appropriate word if you prefer a 3 letter designation. This can be done in an English dictionary but if so you will not want to do so alphabetically as it could then easily be deciphered if you do not then combine the traits of shift code (of which there are several). E.g., If you want to start left to right as is done here and everywhere west of Israel…you can start at the beginning of the alphabet and skip say…three letters so that a becomes c. Or you could Start counting right to left as the original Bible does and shift that direction by a pre-designated number. You could choose this number by the day of the week, so if the code was sent on Sunday, and by the definition of the dictionary that is the 1st day of the week then it would be known to your group and allies to shift left by one. The shift could then or also be know to be shifted by a word or name. There is a near infinite series of alterations that a group could use to confound the enemy cryptologist (code breaker.) 

Okay, so starting again in your dictionary of choice-preferably a concise one that would easily fit in your ALICE pack or go bag but even better in your BDUs, and of course whomever you are sending or receiving from would have to have a duplicate set to decode from. If you choose in your system, you can start at the beginning starting with aaa and let’s say hypothetically that the first word in your foreign language dictionary means about so aaa is the 3 letter morse code designation for about, then the next word in your dictionary would be designated aab and the next aac etc., etc.. Now obviously your names/call signs and other words particular to your group and objectives might not be in a or that dictionary….so then you would create your own addendum where you would assign all members of your group their own 3 letter designations as well as say particular weapons or names of enemies or other actions for the purposes of brevity rather than having to scroll through the dictionary to find a particular word which is peculiar to you and your groups actions. So a 6 word message might look like this:jeb ofn pje suc jeu bhe and you may transmit them together and it be known to break them up in triads as such, jebofnpjesucjeubhe and that message might mean in your code: for enemy has captured friendly forces rally3.

Now, as you see “rally3” is not one word, in fact any 3 letter brevity code can not only represent one word but a phrase or direction such as proceed north or reinforce at 1200 hrs for example. This is why brevity codes combined in morse code configured with alpha/numeric shift is so valuable a cipher.And as you see I am only giving you a pattern in which to create your own without compromising mine! Now…once you and your group establish a platform to create your own cipher you then complete what is called a CEOI or “communications electronic operating instructions” card and make copies for your people. These cards must be laminated to be made waterproof, all team leaders and above having detailed copies while the individuals only needing condensed versions.This will serve as a baseline for you to create and employ your system in such a way that the enemy even if they capture you cannot necessarily break your code. You do this as you create your own computer passwords. This is something that is familiar to your group or established but in a regimented fashion. You should then create a system in your CEOI wher all your members names/call signs are encoded as well as a basic group of commands such as camp entry/denial codes as well as protocol for how to deal with stress signals and challenge pass words, remember it is your prerogative for these codes to move left right or vice versa! Or even up and down etc.,. In that you can employ colors or animals as authentication codes for each day of the week which may change for each week of the month…be creative!

We have covered signal security some in that those codes covered mostly some visual or radio signals now we can address some simple hand signals for CLOSE friend-or-foe or identification hand signals. Now…again…we have our established signals but for purposes of OpSec I will not give my examples. But again invite you to be creative and invent your own. As I alluded earlier as the decadent groups have their hand signals (which underlie their loyalties,) so do we. Now…it is for us to again be creative and establishing some group standards but also create alternatives in the inevitable event that one of our own is compromised and provide for that in the system!  In addition to employing hand signals for signaling and identification. I notice that everyone is sorely lacking in their hand signals for moving  as a unit or units in the field. This is underestimated as a prerequisite for successful movement and maneuvering bearing noise discipline in mind. Of course there are the pretty much standard hand signals for rally on me. Halt, danger I see…but what about formations such as traveling wedge formation and moving in bounds/bounding overwatch. There are standard signals for these as well that a leader should learn, master and impart to his or her group. But then what many may overlook is ammo count. When engaged or pinned down and the enemy is trying to outmaneuver your people need to be able to effectively communicate who has how much ammo. The team leader for instance using this signal could then decide who has suppressive fire abilities while another can take  well aimed shots to end the action. For this I use an extended hand with fingers straight out and rotate  90 degrees twice indicating an ammo count. The response from members should or could be  that of standard deaf signing numbers which all members should be savvy with anyway in indicating numbers.

Distant identification which is predicated upon environmental considerations, that is, how dense or sparse the vegetation is in your area of operations (A.O.) limiting visibility. So, if visibility of your observation post listening post (LP/OP) is a maximum of 100 yards, then that range should be considered your “long range signal.” and perhaps then 50 yards would be your established “close range signal range.” Now, at 100 yards small details of hand or arm motion may be confused so you want large pronounced movements that are not easily confused as your “challenge” arm signals. So you may want to employ a large circular movement mimicking the hands of a clock yet distinctive and these may again be tailored to the days of the week so that if an enemy observer is watching one day or so he may not easily determine what that long range signal is and counterfeit it to gain access to your camps mid range security threshold. So…let’s say your challenge signal for Tuesday is palm out and one full circle outward or clockwise to the challengers perspective and the passwords long range signal response is the left arm beginning at the upward 12 o’clock position moving to the 180 degree downward then palm to center and across the chest. Permission is then granted to proceed to the close signal where closer observation can be made to positively ident the incoming party. When the incoming party advances to the close signal range,they are instructed to halt at which time the close hand signals are exchanged. This may be as simple as a particular hand sign as the gangs and Masons are notorious for, such as the deaf hand symbol for the 4th day of the week or the phase of the moon being between 1 and 5 or even a smaller arm signal recognized by the groups in that Area of operation which of course includes distress/”I am compromised” signals in which the camp would be alerted that an attack is imminent. They are then directed to advance to be recognized and asked the verbal challenge and password. If all signals are within code parameters and given a small degree of variance for error…up to the verbal challenge….then the incoming party may enter upon authorization of the s1 intelligence officer of the group, In other words. the person responsible for devising and maintain all codes/ciphers and challenge passwords which all teams including the foragers, hunters, water gatherers and security or LP/OP teams must be drilled on for camp security!
   

The foregoing dealt with daytime signals. The same would be true of night time operations except you would want to use a subdued light source such as the common angle head flashlight with filtered lenses. A red lens is optimal, blue under certain conditions but that is mostly just for map reading. Now I have devised ways of covering the lenses so that they are half and half, that is: half the lens is red and half blue and another is half purple being a combination of red and blue and the other a red hemisphere. I provided these for my group along with a camp entry code card sort of a mini CEOI. I also created these light signal cards for camp entry codes with my particular signaling devises in mind and distributed to critical members of my group. In this way when the situation goes hot and we invariably find ourselves struggling to rally to our pre-designated points etc..  We can then safely regroup at a future point without being compromised by those whose charge it is to pick up as they say in the military police field manuals distributed to the various defense force people for instance “stragglers.”  

I also created similar waterproof cards demonstrating various hand and arm signals for this purpose…I sewed an extra pocket into my uniform to accommodate this information and waterproofed it inside and out as well. If you do not have angle head flashlights such as the GI issue, you can fashion you own favorite flashlight using red taillight repair tape. The Mini-MagLites are good and you can buy tail cap switch kits for them that allow you to tap out Morse code from the butt of the light. In my large angle head as well as the smaller ones I use rechargeable batteries. The D size rechargeables are immensely lighter. I use the solar powered battery charger to recharge them.

One last note on the use of brevity codes and your challenge and passwords. You can even use your 3 character brevity codes to designate a challenge and another for your password. Be creative have fun and get going cause the balloon is going up!

JWR Adds: As a former Army ASA SIGINTer with some cryptological experience I must warn readers that the foregoing simple ciphers are no match for any modern military or government intelligence organization. They would be able to fairly easily and quickly decrypt your signals, given a sample of sufficient length. However, it should work fine if your opponents don’t have any greater sophistication than the average outlaw biker gang. Something as simple as a traditional Play Fair or Four Square code would likely confound them.

Some advice: Never re-use brevity codes. Change your codes frequently. Keep transmissions short and use the minimum power to get your signal through. And remember that even if you use strong encryption, most radio transmissions can be quickly located via radio direction finding.



Letter Re: Fasting and Starvation

Dear Editor:
I am a practitioner of fasting. Having learned how it feels to go without food I feel it necessary to let others know. Hunger is a good thing, but letting hunger go too long is very bad. Let me explain how this works. Hunger and starvation are totally different. Hunger is the state that tells you that your body is not receiving food. Starvation is when your body is destroying itself to stay alive. As a geologist in the jungles of South America I had the not so pleasant experience of typhoid. Most of my time there (15 years) I was well supplied by the companies who hired me to explore. This one time the logistics failed. I went through one month of typhoid, and for anyone who wants to know the details I can provide, but the end result was starvation. I had no muscle mass, only gray skin and bone. The recovery period without exercise was two years. Internal damage remains.

You do not need typhoid to get to starvation. This letter is not to instruct you on starvation, it is how to handle hunger. As a fit man I have about liberally 15% body fat. Using fasting to clean my cells of toxins and accumulated vitamins I would need minimum three weeks of water fasting to achieve the goal. Juice fasting can do the same but failure is more likely since it takes longer.

Here’s how it goes: For the first four to five days I drink only water (bottled or well-filtered water is fine) and I have fierce hunger. At the fifth day hunger stops and the body realizes that it must draw upon stored energy. So, the body enters ketosis, which is the breakdown of fat to produce energy. The process will continue without any hunger pains until a very distinct signal, that is desire for food from the mouth and throat not the stomach. If you feel hunger from the stomach you have cheated and confused your body, keep going. When you feel that mouth and throat sensation it the time to eat, but eat sparingly. There is the urge to gorge, but resist and develop your food intake that equals the time spent off food. Fruit, juices, then more solid soft foods, then hard foods. Of course this will not be possible in a scarcity environment.

I drink only water for the full three weeks or until the signal arrives. The fasting initially may be a logical decision, the end of it is is not, it is very biological. During that time I experience the full range of effects from illness to euphoria, to true hunger.

Pushing beyond the signal is the beginning of starvation. You will know at that point, all your body fat has gone, it’s very visible.That body to dream of is not your friend here. As a survivalist your body fat, in moderation, is your friend and you must keep a decent store of it just in case.

Long periods of accumulation of toxins and fat soluble vitamins stored within the body will have a detrimental effect upon people during periods of stress and food shortage. When the body is pushed to fat storage utilization the toxins come out and you are sick. Under stable societal conditions this is ok. Under scarcity conditions you have a period of problem. Hang back for a bit and let the hunger pass then move forward.

Fasting is one more form of training not often discussed in SurvivalBlog. With fasting the body becomes accustomed to the initial cleaning, This cleaning is the removal of toxins the body has stored for so long. You will be ill for the first week, you will look horrible but it is okay. After that you will feel great and a wave of energy will come across you. This is the body supplying energy to your endeavors. This will only last as long as you have fat reserves to spend. Fasting removes the toxins and vitamins, but restores the vitamins as long as the toxins (smoking the most readily available toxin) is not restored. Smoking is not the only one. There are so many others. The cleansing is worth the effort if the body restores the fat and accumulates the vitamins. How do you know? You feel so much better than before.

In some cases the weight loss is permanent and some not. No matter, since the replenishment of fat to the cells is what you want prior to any crisis but without the accumulation of stored chemicals. Fasting is a short period where the body endures hunger. Experiencing hunger before a crisis is a valuable lesson. Hunger, going without food, for four days is difficult. Most people fail. But, to endure the hunger and let the body adapt has beneficial and some say enlightening effects. Hunger is not starvation. When a person feels hunger they are not starving. Starvation occurs when the body has no energy reserves.

Repeated training in fasting allows your body to learn that the current food stress is okay. The period of hunger is shortened. Again, once the feeling of throat hunger appears, eat, eat sparingly and you will come out of the hunger period cleaner, faster thinking and happier. – Wesley F.

By the way, for those who are currently experiencing addictions, this is another good way to kick the habit before the crisis, but only one habit at a time please. – Ex-Addict Faster

JWR Adds: Some words of warning: Always consult your doctor before fasting. Never fast if you suspect that you are pregnant. Never fast when you are living alone. Beware that you could have dizziness or fainting after just a few days of fasting, so never drive or operate machinery when fasting.



News From The American Redoubt:

It pays not to panic: Hiker escapes Pine Creek fire by trekking over divide

   o o o

State Impact: Guns for growth in Idaho–Idaho aims for jobs through manufacturing arms. (Thanks to R.B.S. for the link.)

   o o o

Yet another gorgeous flying video from Ttabs: The Ground Below. This one was filmed near Craigmont, Idaho, where the Camas Prairie Plateau drops off into the Clearwater River canyon country. (My old stomping grounds.) And in case any of you missed it, check out one of his most popular videos: Flying Through the Story of Patriots – Surviving the Coming Collapse.

   o o o

Another “Made In The Redoubt” company that deserves your business: Double Diamond Halter Company, in Montana. They are an innovator in braided parachute cord Mecates. In addition to tack, they also have DVDs and books by Buck Brannaman, Ray Hunt, Tom Dorrance, and Mike Major.



Economics and Investing:

Smith & Wesson Posts Huge Earnings

G.G. flagged this: To Save Money, Americans Buy Expired Food at Auctions

Also from G.G.: More older workers making up labor force

More monetization is in the works: Jim Rogers and Marc Faber Agree, Bombs Away

Items from The Economatrix:

Lackluster Economy Shows Stronger Pulse

US Job Cuts Hit 20-month Low, But Layoffs Heavy Overseas

Are You Better Off?  40 Statistics That Will Absolutely Shock You!

84 Statistics Showing The Collapse Of The Middle Class Is Real



Odds ‘n Sods:

Leauxryda sent an interesting article discussing the types of weapons used by criminals with facts that support a victim stands a better chance of defending themselves rather than passively submitting.

   o o o

Reader Pierre M. sent the link to a PDF of a classic public domain book that will be of interest to homeschoolers and to anyone who studies military strategy: History Of The Conquest Of England By The Normans, by Augustin Thierry. (Translated from the French.)

   o o o

This new group meetup page looks promising: PrepperLink Groups.

   o o o

You can now hear a podcast of an interview of SurvivalBlog’s Back Country Editor Matthew Stein, on Chris Martenson’s Peak Prosperity.

   o o o

Yet another member of Bloomberg’s “Crime Fighting” club has been put in Peerless bracelets: Trenton mayor, others arrested in corruption probe. Also arrested were Tony Mack’s brother and his “close associate”, Joseph A. “JoJo” Giorgianni. (Why do all politicians in New Jersey seem to have conections to guys that sound like characters from The Sopranos?) Mayor Tony Mack has had a tenure in office almost as interesting as Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick–another Bloomberg Gang anti-gunner–who is on trial for his second set of corruption charges this month. (Thanks to Donald G. for the link.)

   o o o

I found a source for an antique Schmidt Rubin M1896/11 rifle, but I’m still in need of some original cardboard and tin Schmidt Rubin 6-round stripper clips. I’m a cash buyer. I’m also willing to swap autographed copies of any of my books. Please e-mail me if you have some spares. Thanks.