Year: 2021

Becoming a Hunter – Part 2, by Remington Smith

(Continued from Part 1.) Becoming a true marksman does not come overnight. It comes over many trips to the range. I was blessed to be going into my first season of hunting already knowing of what I was capable. I had nothing to prove regarding my shooting. I have been involved in one of the Olympic pistol disciplines for seven years. Through competitive shooting I have learned many, many valuable lessons. Some of these regard shooting under stress. Others involve simply the basics of shooting taken to a competitive level. Aside from competition, my dad and I regularly shoot a …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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 look at low-tech tractors. Midwest Farmers Want Older Tractors They Can Fix Reader Jim L. suggested this sign of the times:  Midwest Farmers Are Tired of Tech-Loaded Tractors They Can’t Fix. Here …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — August 11, 2021

On August 11, 1857, N. H. Wolfe and Company, the oldest flour and grain company in New York City, failed. This failure shook investor confidence and began a slow selloff in the market which continued into late August. Several other failures followed, and this cascaded into what was later called the Panic of 1857. — In honor of gun designer James Paris Lee’s birthday, we are running a two-week sale at Elk Creek Company. I’ve set sales prices with discounts from 5% to 25% on nearly all of our inventory. Get your order in soon, while the selection of antique …


Becoming a Hunter – Part 1, by Remington Smith

The mention of hunting will most likely bring two responses. The first of the non-hunter, sometimes anti-hunter, and that is of disgust. The other is of the hunter himself. It is one who smiles widely and tells a couple of hunting stories, however true they may be. When I was young and growing up my response would have been the first. That is not entirely my fault because most of the so-called hunters in my area think nothing of killing an immature animal, or worse yet, not being a marksman and wounding the animal. For me, wounding an animal and …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. We may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — We’ll start with this advice on growing peppers, from Sean B.: “Although I have been saving seeds from my garden vegetables and fruits for more than five years now, this year I am harvesting the result of a rookie mistake I made last year. Not knowing that bell peppers and jalapeno peppers can cross-pollinate, my bell pepper seeds from …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — August 10, 2021

On August 10th, 1984, Red Dawn, the first PG-13 rated movie, starring Patrick Swayze was released. The movie (the 1984 original, not the 2012 remake) is a favorite of both JWR and HJL. This fine John Milius movie embodies the independent, indomitable spirit that created this country. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 96 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. …


Bitcoin for Preppers, by S.C.

“Oh no, not someone else talking about Bitcoin!” That is what you’re probably thinking right now. I know Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been a hot topic of late. And there are more than enough “wanna-be” experts out there. When looking through SurvivalBlog.com, I realized that it’s been quite a while since there was a dedicated piece on cryptocurrencies. Since the technology (and the economy) is changing so rapidly, I wanted to do a primer on Bitcoin for Preppers. I’ll include Use Cases and some How-To. In this article, I’m going to make the case for Bitcoin, not as an …


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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 American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on the politicized — and botched — prosecution of some “Soviet Moscow” protestors, as reported by Redoubt News. (See the Idaho section.) Idaho Over at Redoubt News: City Fumbles Prosecution of Teens over ‘Soviet Moscow’ Sticker. o  o  o Idaho vaccine rate among …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.” – Norman Maclean


Preparedness Notes for Monday — August 9, 2021

August 9th, 1831was the birthday of James Paris Lee (August 9, 1831 – February 24, 1904). He was a Scottish-Canadian and later American inventor and arms designer, best known for inventing the bolt action that led to the Lee-Metford and Lee-Enfield series of rifles. But most notably, Lee was the inventor of the spring-loaded detachable box magazine that has become standard in the vast majority of modern rifles and pistols, worldwide. Starting today, in honor of James Paris Lee’s birthday, we are running a two-week sale at Elk Creek Company. I’ve set sales prices with discounts from 5% to 25% …


Springfield Armory AR Pistol, by Pat Cascio

It is really hard to keep up with all the new firearms coming out of the Springfield Armory company. They don’t sit back on past accomplishments. Nope – they keep coming out with new or improved designs. That is commendable. I’ve tested several of the Springfield AR rifles and pistols over the years, and loved every one of them. Today, we’re looking at their newest AR pistol design, and it is simply called an AR Pistol. The lower receiver has a “Saint” logo, so i suppose this is considered part of their Saint series. The Springfield Armory item number is …


Recipe of the Week: Gwen’s Cajun Goulash

The following recipe for Cajun Goulash was kindly sent by SurvivalBlog reader Gwen. It is Gwen’s original recipe. Ingredients 1-to-2 lbs of ground meat 3 cups of Basmati Rice (or whatever quantity you desire, as a bed for your goulash.) 1 can petite tomatoes Corn starch or arrowroot powder Avocado oil Use any fresh vegetables you prefer. These are what I use: Mushrooms Green beans Sweet yellow pepper Zucchini Directions Start a batch of Basmati rice. Meanwhile, chop the veggies and sauté them in avocado oil or oil of preference. Season with Slap Your Mama. Scoop cooked veggie mix into …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we again look at investing in military surplus (“mil-surp”) rifles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Friday’s news: Why did gold price drop 2% today? More downside coming? Gareth Soloway on metals, stocks, Bitcoin.  JWR’s Comments:  I expect the futures and spot prices of gold and silver to recover, certainly by …