On 5 August, 1923, Hinderikus (“Henk”) Lucas Visser was born in Groningen, Holland. A veteran of the Dutch resistance during World War II, he was later involved in the CETME rifle project, the HK G3 rifle program, and several of Eugene Stoner’s projects, most notably the Stoner 63A1. He also did weapons design and tooling development for Mauser and Oerlikon. He was an ardent gun collector, whose collection formed the core of what became the Rijksmuseum gun collection in The Netherlands. (Pictured.)
August 5th is also the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Waters by James Keelaghan.
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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
Today we present another entry for Round 102 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [1]. The prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon [2]. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course [3] (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses [4], excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees [5] in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product [6] from Sunflower Ammo,
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses [7].
- Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, [8] (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
Second Prize:
- A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime low-cost 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.
- A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord [9] (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections [10], a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company [11], toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!
Third Prize:
- Three sets each [12] 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)
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of [13] Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- A LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool [14] (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling [15] (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx [16], both made in USA.
- A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company [11], toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.
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More than $750,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 102 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail [17] 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.