Notes from JWR:

Production will end temporarily on Monday, August 1st for the SurvivalBlog 5-Year Archive CD-ROM. (Since Lulu.com is leaving the CD-ROM production business.) The good news is that it has been reduced to just $14.95. We hope to have new production available from a different vendor within a couple of weeks, hopefully at the same price. Thanks for your patience. — Today we present another two entries for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of …




TEOTWAWKI Planning From the Perspective of a Former SF Operator, by SAV

When starting the process of preparation for TEOTWAWKI we must first plan for the most likely scenario that will cause the survival situation you are prepping for. When contemplating the TEOTWAWKI scenarios, one is confronted by a plethora of daunting challenges and theories from Magnetic pole reversal, getting hit by a rouge asteroid (don’t worry about this one Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis will save us) to solar flares knocking out technology, and the list continues.  My fear is that the end will not come from a major event but from a minor event that triggers a chain reaction of …




Choosing a MBR: The M1 Garand or the M14/M1A?, by Zorro

I am getting along in my years but, I recognize that I may need a high power Main Battle Rifle  (MBR) in the future if significant issues surrounding our standard of living within the US remain unresolved. So, what rifle should I choose Let me start by saying that a 5.56/.223 in a AR-15 or any other light caliber rifle does not qualify as a MBR with me. The 5.56/.223 55 grain round requires 2,800 fps at impact to produce a large wound cavity. When shot from a  20″ barreled  AR-15 the round is below that impact velocity at about …




Letter Re: Plan B–Call Them Your Hobbies

JWR: Some of us don’t always have a spouse that is 100% on board with prepping.  So I thought I’d send a list of some hobbies that help with prepping in a SHFT situation, and have a non-SHTF function too.  Most have worked out well for me, some my wife has become more avid than I, the remaining she tolerates. Flower Gardening – Allows for purchase of gardening tools, composting, development of good growing beds, fertilizer, books on growing and seeding, and pest control products. You will have to pay attention to vegetable safe products, but in SHTF you will …




Economics and Investing:

More Shrugging: Alabama coal mine owner Ronnie Bryant became so exasperated by over-regulation that he declared: I’m quitting.” (BTW, I just added this article link to my American Redoubt page.) Here’s a dip in spot silver, just like I mentioned. Buy on the dip days! Jeff B. sent this: Proposed road rules for farmers anger some. Note that this newspaper article comes from Montana, where in 2009 they enacted a gun law that amplifies the 10 Amendment. Predictably, Federal legislators want to deem purely intrastate commerce somehow interstate. That is utter nonsense. It is high time for the Supreme Court …




Odds ‘n Sods:

Prepping goes gourmet! Reader Steve O. was watching a Food Network cooking show and spotted this: Wheat Berry Salad.    o o o B.H. sent this: As Criminal Laws Proliferate, More Are Ensnared    o o o The first hint of real release date for the remake of Red Dawn came recently when it was announced that it would be released on September 8th in Denmark. Could that be the global release date? Things have been up in the air, ever since MGM transformed the villains in Red Dawn from Chinese to North Korean, after the film was already “in …