Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 17, 2019

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July 17th, 1889 was the birthdate of novelist Erle Stanley Gardner. He was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.

The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 ends on July 31st, 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.

Family Medical Preps – Part 1, by Doctor Dan

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As Americans, we live in a time of relative peace and prosperity and are blessed to enjoy the most advanced healthcare system in history. Yet, as good as we have things now, we do not know what the future may bring. How can we find better health now, prepare for medical emergencies we may encounter in daily events, and also prepare for an uncertain future where medical resources may be limited or completely absent? The latter is commonly called a When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF) scenario. Here are a few suggestions from a practicing physician:

Preventative Health:

Prevention is superior to treating diseases or injuries after they occur.

  • Immunize against preventable diseases. (This may be a controversial topic to some readers, but vaccines do save lives from many preventable, deadly diseases.)
    • Communicable diseases will become more prevalent in a WTSHTF situation simply due to lack of sanitation, medical care, and antibiotics/antivirals.
    • These problems will be exponentially magnified if a pandemic is a major component of a TEOTWAWKI scenario.
    • Young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the immunocompromised (those whose immune systems are weakened due to other diseases) are especially vulnerable to all communicable diseases and should especially be immunized according to recommendations.
    • The CDC publishes a list of recommended immunizations by age, which serves as a good reference for consideration.
  • Diseases which are preventable by immunization and “herd immunity” (such as measles and whooping cough) are especially prevalent when large groups of prisoners, refugees, and illegal immigrants…many of whom are unvaccinated…are concentrated. In a WTSHTF scenario, the likelihood of ordinary law-abiding citizens becoming refugees (or being falsely incarcerated as political prisoners) is greatly increased. Being immunized ahead of time may thwart a preventable death from a multitude of diseases.
  • Take advantage of the modern preventative care options you have while they exist:
    • Visit your Primary Care Physician regularly for a general physical exam to screen for diseases.
      • Ladies, this includes screening for breast and cervical cancer; Men, this includes prostate cancer.
      • Yes, I realize everyone dreads the thought of a colonoscopy, but I’ve witnessed them save many lives throughout my career. Most colon polyps can be found early enough with scheduled colonoscopies that they can be removed through the scope before they become life-threatening cancers. Most caught in this stage do not require any surgery other than the removal via the scope, with the patient returning home within a couple of hours. (I frequently perform the anesthesia for these procedures, and they are not painful. Most patients say the 1 day of diarrhea from the bowel prep was the worst part of the entire ordeal. This seems like a small price to pay to avoid a life-changing cancer.)
    • When working with your PCP, you should optimize your management of any chronic diseases (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.) and prevent them from taking as many of the long-term effects on your body.

Continue reading“Family Medical Preps – Part 1, by Doctor Dan”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies that have any tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food as and food storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. This week the focus is on Milwaukee brand cordless chainsaws. (See the Gear & Grub section.)

Books:

Alone at Dawn: Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World’s Deadliest Special Operations Force

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Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods

Instructional Videos and Vlogs:

Dr. Bones Nurse Amy: Boiling Water To Make It Safe To Drink: Disinfection, Filters and Fire. “Many sources of water, even sometimes from a tap, are contaminated and unsafe to drink. Using filters and boiling water will go a long way towards making the water safer to consume. Boiling will not remove certain toxins nor kill all pathogens. Learn more with Dr. Joe Alton’s sound advice.”

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Of interest to those who own metal detectors: Unexpected Discovery Forces Treasure Hunter to Question Everything He Knows. JWR’s Comment: My guess is that with that many discarded broken shoe buckles, the scissors, the hammer head and the thimble, the original owner of the property was a cobbler. It bears mention that the hammer head he found was the right size for cobbling work. Take a look at his other videos. It is nice to see that he packs a Glock, when he’s out in the woods. And there is more than just metal detecting in his videos. He often points out the wild edibles that he finds.

o  o  o

Reader Tim J. mentioned this video from Wranglerstar: Close Call Caught On Tape.

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An important recent video from “Max Velocity”: How Not to Shoot Your Buddies – Drills to Avoid FratricideContinue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Vices are simply overworked virtues, anyway. Economy and frugality are to be commended but follow them on in an increasing ratio and what do we find at the other end? A miser! If we overdo the using of spare moments we may find an invalid at the end, while perhaps if we allowed ourselves more idle time we would conserve our nervous strength and health to more than the value the work we could accomplish by emulating at all times the little busy bee.

I once knew a woman, not very strong, who to the wonder of her friends went through a time of extraordinary hard work without any ill effects.

I asked her for her secret and she told me that she was able to keep her health, under the strain, because she took 20 minutes, of each day in which to absolutely relax both mind and body. She did not even “set and think.” She lay at full length, every muscle and nerve relaxed and her mind as quiet as her body. This always relieved the strain and renewed her strength.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — July 16, 2019

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July 16th is the anniversary of the first successful atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945. This portentous event heralded the advent of the age of nuclear weapons. Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established as early as 1939. In 1940 the federal government granted a total of $6,000 for research, but in early 1942, with the United States at war, the limits on spending were removed. The total cost was in excess of $2 billion. Germany was also feared to be working on a bomb as was Japan, though neither of those nations could bring the resources to bear in time before their defeat. With that, the nuclear age was born.

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Amazon Prime Day (now actually two+ days) is now underway. If you decide to order anything, then please start out with any Amazon link from SurvivalBlog. That way, even if you delete that first item from your cart, we’ll get a little piece of the action on your entire order, to help pay for our server and other expenses. Thanks!

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 83  of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical 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,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 83 ends on July 31st, 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.

Storing Meat, by Pete Thorsen

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While some people are vegetarians and get by just fine, I feel that is not the normal eating habits of humans. Humans are omnivores who are designed to eat both meat and plants. Most preppers have the plant part down with growing their own vegetable gardens, foraging wild plants in their area, or a combination of those two. Meat is a more difficult food item for many preppers.

Edible plants and sprouts can be grown even in an apartment or a small outdoor space. But growing meat in a small space is more difficult, but perhaps not impossible. Fish are a possible answer that can possibly be grown in a small area as long as you have the required food for your fish. Rabbits require only a small area as long as you have access to food and water for them. Chickens are often allowed to roam or are caged in larger pens but could likely be grown in much more confined cages.

Larger livestock require both more space and more food. For instance, a cow or goat can be kept in a very small pen but would require a much larger area just to store the required feed. That is why these animals are often allowed to graze in a large area to reduce the amount of stored feed required.

There are also a large number of wild birds, animals, fish, and crustaceans that can be harvested by preppers in the United States. Meat contains nutrients that humans require to stay fit and healthy. Meat is different from plants in many ways. One difference is that many plants can be eaten raw and in fact, are usually consumed raw. For the most part, meat has to be cooked before we eat it.Continue reading“Storing Meat, by Pete Thorsen”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the Redoubt region. Today, we focus on Cougar Gold canned cheese from the Washington State University Creamery. (See the Washington section.)

Region-Wide

Top 10 Drives in the Northern Rockies

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2019’s Most Patriotic States in America. Predictable results for the Redoubt states.  Oregon and Washington surely would have ranked higher, in their eastern “dry side” halves.

Idaho

I just heard that Kathleen “Kathy” Sims–former Idaho State Representative and State Senator–died on July 5th. My condolences to her family.

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Redoubt News reports: Yankee Fork Restoration Project Disturbs Groundwater

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A television news story from Pocatello: Fish and Game gets girls ready for hunting season

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we take another look at Civil War 2.

Volcanic Activity May Cause Crop Failures

I recommend reading this piece at Cold Climate Change, which perhaps has some alarmist predictions: Hiding Volcanic Eruptions. But even if there is just an outside chance of this coming to pass, then it would be prudent to seriously stock up on storage foods!

Sam Culper: Breaking Down “Civil War 2”

Samuel Culper of Forward Observer has now posted two follow-ups with quite cogent analysis, to his Breaking Down “Civil War 2” video:

Part 2. American Balkanization. (He discuses the American Redoubt region, starting at the 15:50 mark.)

Part 3. The Fate of Emrpires.

Part 4. Insurgency vs. Civil War

Tolerance to Degeneracy

Devon at Black Pilled asks: How High is Your Tolerance?

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“As a writer, politician, scientist, and businessman, [Ben] Franklin had few equals among the educated of his day-though he left school at ten. (…) Boys like Andrew Carnegie who begged his mother not to send him to school and was well on his way to immortality and fortune at the age of thirteen, would be referred today for psychological counseling; Thomas Edison would find himself in Special Ed until his peculiar genius had been sufficiently tamed.” – John Taylor Gatto

Preparedness Notes for Monday — July 15, 2019

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Please pray for the millions of our fellow Americans who face flooding from Tropical Storm Barry.

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I’d like to make special mention of two new retreat properties listed on SurvivalRealty.com:

First, the Rural Revolution homestead, near Plummer, Idaho. This farm was developed by Don and Patrice Lewis of the great Rural Revolution blog. It is an amazing well-developed place with great neighbors and it sits on a very defendable plateau amidst farming country in north Idaho!   I’ve personally visited this property several times and can vouch that it is retreat worthy.

And second, a “Fortified house of character situated in an inlet by the sea on the popular safe-haven island of Malta.” Well, folks, a fortress on Malta is something you don’t see listed for sale very often!

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On July 15th, 1888, the Bandai Volcano erupted on the Japanese island of Honshu killing hundreds and burying many nearby villages in ash. While Honshu is in an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, this eruption was surprising. The volcano had erupted only four times in the 1,000 years prior and none had been particularly deadly. However, this eruption was different. The rumblings started just after 7 a.m. Within 30 minutes there was an explosion on the north side of the mountain and over the next two hours there were dozens of explosions giving villagers very little time to escape.

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Ruger Wrangler .22 LR SAA, by Pat Cascio

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Its been quite a while since Ruger has offered a new SAA (Single Action Army) style revolver. I used to do some hunting, many years back, with Ruger’s big bore revolvers chambered in .44 Magnum or .45 Colt – and to be sure, you can handload the .45 Colt to where it is more powerful than standard .44 Magnum – but that’s for another story. But you can’t do that with much of anything other than a Ruger.

I was more than a little excited when I got the press release from Ruger, announcing their new “Wrangler” .22 LR SAA revolver, especially the retail price – more on this later. I rarely, and I mean, rarely, shoot in competition these days, if I do, some of it is little side-bets with friends, and they regret it. I’m not the world’s best shot with handguns or long guns, but I did shoot competition many years back. I don’t try to sucker anyone into any bets as to who is the better shot, but when push comes to shove, and they want to see if I can really shoot, I figure its best to teach them a lesson – usually lunch.

Make no mistake about it, Ruger is well-known for the strength of their handgun frames – all of them. If you want to hot-rod a load, when handloading, you need a Ruger – they are “that” strong! However, remember to keep within reasonable limits or you will have a blow-up. There’s no problems when it comes to .22 LR chambered handguns – no one reloads this round – they are what they are, from the factory, and you can get different levels of power, depending on the ammo off-the-shelf. I see the .22 LR as mainly a plinker round, or for small game like rabbits or squirrels. However, it can be used as a caliber for survival as well, so keep that in-mind. A .22 LR chambered handgun wouldn’t be my first choice for self-defense, but it can be used to effect, if need be.

Continue reading“Ruger Wrangler .22 LR SAA, by Pat Cascio”

Recipe of the Week: Eloise’s Grayling á la Redwall

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The following is a Grayling á la Redwall recipe suggested by our #1 Daughter, Eloise. She is a great fan of the Redwall fantasy book series by the late Brian Jacques.  She notes that this recipe can be used for several other type of freshwater fish, and that many other berry wines can be substituted. This serves six adults.

Ingredients
  • 4 whole 1-pound graylings–or other freshwater fish–filleted
  • 2 c. butter
  • 4 tbsp. minced garlic
  • 2 lg. white onions
  • 2 bunches fresh rosemary
  • 4 tbsp. thyme
  • 2 c. chopped beechnuts
  • 2 c. honey
  • 4 c. fresh cream
  • 1 bunch mint leaves
  • 2 1/2 c. white gooseberry (or other berry-based) wine
  • Flour
  • Cooking Oil
  • Salt, to taste
  • Ground Pepper, to taste
Directions

“Season and flour fillets well. Pan fry filets until lightly brown – not well done. Remove from pan and set aside on paper towels. Remove oil from frying pan and sauté rosemary, thyme, beechnuts and garlic in butter until tender. Add wine and stir well for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add fish fillets to sauce. Let simmer until all fillets are cooked. Warm cream, mint and honey together and pour over the fish. Sprinkle the entire thing with lemon juice before serving and garnish with leftover mint.”

Further Reading

Eloise notes that there is an entire book of recipes inspired by the writings of Brian Jacques: The Redwall Cookbook.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we are traversing from our normal column items to focus on investing in Colt 6920 variants.

The Elusive Colt 6920 “M4”

There is one tangible investment that I haven’t seen discussed much elsewhere on Zee Interwebz: Colt 6920 variants. These didn’t formally hit the civilian until around 2013 which was long after there were dozens of competing brands crowding the market, the Colt-made M4geries really stand out. Not only are they made to full military specifications, but they also have the panache of the Colt name. The later-production ones have their lower receivers prominently rollmarked “M4 Carbine”, and those seem to have the best collector appeal.

Used (police trade-in) semi-auto Model 6920 carbines sell for $500 to $700. And new ones seem to start at  around $750. But there are some 6920 variants that were sold in very small numbers that now are selling on the secondary market for $1,400 to $2,500. As time goes on. I expect many of those Colt M4s to creep up closer to $3,000. That is, if they are still “new inbox” (NIB) or “like new in box” (LNIB).

A few of these are are still in production and hence quite reasonably priced. But most of the many variants  are now “discontinued” and therefore their prices are rising. Here are some descriptions, with links:

  • Colt M4A1 SOCOM. The Colt web site describes this variant: “The barrel is a true SOCOM 14.5 heavy barrel with the iconic M203 flats under the Knights Armament Rail System. Extended flash hider has been pinned and welded to achieve a non-NFA length of 16.1″. Includes the side sling swivel at the gas block and an ambidextrous safety selector.”
  • The MagPul FDE Sporter. Here is a 2015 review, over at TFB: New Colt LE6920MPS Rifles.
  • 6920 were also made in small numbers, in Stealth Gray.
  • Recently, there were also some “contract over-run” semi-auto 6920s with Mexican Police rollmarks released on the U.S. civilian market. It might be a good gamble to grab one of those.
  • For a while Colt also cataloged 6920s in assorted camouflage colors. Of these, the Carbon Fiber finish had a quite high MSRP, and now fetches $2,000+. Since most these variants only had a few hundred of each produced, then they are worth buying IF you can find them with their original box that has that all-important label, with the correct variant model number and serial number, to match.

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River, she’s a-goin’ dry
The interest is up and the stock market’s down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun a rifle and a four-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

I can plow a field all day long
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn (Yeah)
We make our own whiskey and our own smoke too
Ain’t too many things these old boys can’t do

We grow good ole tomatoes and homemade wine
And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive

Because you can’t stomp us out and you can’t make us run
‘Cause we’re them old boys raised on shotguns
We say grace, and we say ma’am
If you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn

We came from the West Virginia coal mines
And the Rocky Mountains, and the western skies
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trot line
And a country boy can survive

Country folks can survive.”   – Hank Williams Jr. – A Country Boy Can Survive