Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on Snow Camouflage. (See the Books and Gear sections.)
Books (Snow Camouflage):
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Field Guide to Tracking Animals in Snow: How to Identify and Decipher Those Mysterious Winter Trails [2]
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The Snowshoe Experience: Gear Up & Discover the Wonders of Winter on Snowshoes [3]
Movies:
Ken Burns: The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray [4]
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Building Your AR-15 From Scratch [5]
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Heirloom Sewing Techniques for Today’s Quilter [6]
Instructional Videos:
Ian McCollum: The Israeli Galil [7]. This is a fascinating historical and technical review. He missed mentioning what parts of the design were borrowed from the Finnish Valmet. There were quite a few, including the gas tube mounting arrangement, and the night sights.
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Learn from this gent’s experience and mistakes: Rich’s Box Truck to RV #107 – Anniversary Edition: full project review [8]. Note: With a 16-foot box truck, he ha
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HK91 (and HK clone) owners take note: Tac Latch Review – Gimmick or Godsend? [9]
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Building sawhorses [10]
Gear (Snow Camouflage):
For many years, I’ve relied on the classic military surplus West German snow camouflage ponchos [11]. Though their price has crept up in recent years, they still are a bargain. Even if you only have a few weeks of snow cover each year at your intended retreat, I recommend buying one for every family member. They make a quick cover-up, to keep you concealed. They are long enough to also cover a backpack. And it bears mention that pair of these ponchos draped over a two-man tent will do a respectable job of making a green tent blend in to a snowy grove of trees.
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I just checked and saw that KeepShooting.com [12] (one of our long-time advertisers) is presently out of stock of West German snow camo ponchos, but they still have some Swedish Army M62 Snow Camo Suits [13], and some French Army Alpine Snow Camo Parkas [14]. They also sell other winter field gear. Check out their web site. They sock some amazing surplus, mainly from the U.S. and NATO countries.
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Ready Made Resources [15] (our first, and longest continuing advertiser) sells super-insulated white mil-spec Bunny Boots [16]. These are very well-made and very well insulated, so they can put up to the rigors of regular winter use. They are great for ice fishing, too!
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Red Rock Outdoor Gear Men’s Ghillie Suit, Snow Camouflage, Medium/Large. [17] Note: I haven’t used these, but they have good reviews. Since they are priced so inexpensively, I assume that they are made in China.
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These are handy for temporarily snow camouflaging any large items fo gear such as rfle, spotting scope tripods, et cetera: IUNIO Camouflage Netting, 6.5ft x 5ft / 2m x 1.5m Custom Snow Camo Net [18]
Comments Disabled To "JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:"
#1 Comment By LargeMarge On January 23, 2019 @ 3:39 pm
re:
Rich’s box-truck RV
I glance at these RV conversion videos as I wonder about their intent.
For our Expedition Vehicle, we used a 7.5ft x 12.5ft box 7ft high on a Class 8 heavy truck.
Because we back-up to rivers and shores, we built a rear entry. Over it we built a steel roof of 2″ black steel pipe with a 20-gauge sheet-metal panel atop. Backing-up and smashing the occasional branches is a ‘so what?’.
We boondock exclusively, often in remote areas accessed by dirt tracks, so we enjoy our ‘pin-stripes’ from busting through narrow lanes as we forge ahead.
Our porch floor is ‘expanded’ steel, framed with hinges to access the battery bank == six Group 31 AGM plus the two starting batteries built interested the truck frame. O-bolts secure the roof panel plus hold the shower curtain while in use.
For showers, we use a couple new garden sprayers on the porch. And yes, a shower is mandatory.
Aft of our porch is the combination hitch == fifth-wheel, gooseneck, bumper-pull.
Our conversion took less than one week. Since 2003, we did South America twenty-four months twenty-four thousand miles, Alaska Panama, all over North and Central America.
We usually winter on the beaches of Baja. Caravan out onto those perfect beaches, set-up camp for the kayaks and SCUBA. Nobody else around for months at a time.
Using a similar commercial chassis, we built our fifth-wheel toy-hauler with a 7.5 x 16 box with Tuck-Away lift-gate. We mounted a 120-gallon fuel tank ‘saddle tank’ from a heavy-truck wrecking yard.
Our ground-clearance == 16″.
Our GVWR == 29,000#.
Weight across to scales == 14,000#.
We have a nice 15,000# cushion of cargo capacity.
1997 Ford CF8000 Cummins 8.3 250/800, Allison 3060.
Rattle-canned a nice shade of ‘blend-in tan, orange, black’.
In theory, our fuel tank range == Anchorage to Acapulco.
We see one problem with Rich’s conversion == he seems interested in getting his rig to look right.
We are interested in our rig to full-time travel.
And yes, we are way too busy to YouTube our conversion and travels.
#2 Comment By John On January 23, 2019 @ 3:56 pm
Just a note on the West German snow camo ponchos – I have a couple and they’re made of 100% cotton, so make sure you apply some water repellent before using them. Otherwise they can get waterlogged and freeze up into a solid block. Another alternative is to buy some white silnylon, sew it into a poncho and add a few splotches of brown/grey paint.