Year: 2024

Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation, according to thy word. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in thy word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” – Psalm 119: 40-45 (KJV) 


Preparedness Notes for Friday — September 27, 2024

On September 27, 1822, French scholar Jean-François Champollion announced that he had deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone. — We are running a 3-week-long sale at Elk Creek Company.  Until October 11th, 2024, all of our Pietta brand blackpowder revolvers and all of our M1891 Argentine Mauser rifles are deeply discounted. Take a look! — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 114 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 …


Prepper Group Training: Indigenous Guerrilla Teams – Part 2, by Bulldog

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) The Challenge To understand why I feel we are lacking in our preparation of these men and women, let us look at only one necessary skill set, team radio communications. Certainly we could agree that it represents one of the key core elements critically necessary to prepper and survivalist groups. Yet, in most cases it is overlooked or minimized by group leadership. Instead, we relegate programming to the “commo guy” and hope that after stuff hits the fan (SHTF), group members will somehow magically demonstrate more interest. Please understand that I am …


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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at the raging bull gold market. (See the Precious Metals section.) Precious Metals: With spot gold hitting another all-time high of $2,693.00 per Troy ounce on Thursday morning, it now appears that the U.S. COMEX short traders are near capitulation. (Meanwhile, spot silver hit $32.61.)  When the shorts finally give up their weekly see-saw …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — September 26, 2024

September 26, 1655, at the height of the Great Plague of London, 7,165 people died throughout the previous week.  The familiar cry in the street was “Bring Out Your Dead”, as the death carts circulated through the city. On September 26, 1396, Ottoman Sultan Bajezid I ordered the beheading hundreds of Crusaders after the Battle of Nicopolis. And on September 26, 1908 an ad for the Edison Phonograph first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 114 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First …


Prepper Group Training: Indigenous Guerrilla Teams – Part 1, by Bulldog

I would like to begin my topic by examining two concepts. I feel both ideas illustrate the hearts and souls of many men and women within today’s prepper and survivalist communities. The first one is an analogy. Its origins have most been often attributed to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Lt. Col. Grossman’s premise was that all people can be placed into one of three groups; “sheep, sheepdogs, or wolves.”


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is 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. In today’s column, we look at some “interesting” U.S. military deployments. Alaska Troops Deploy to Remote Shemya Island Alaska troops deploy to remote Shemya Island, less than 300 miles from Russia. JWR’s …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — September 25, 2024

On September 25, 1890, Sequoia National Park was established by US President Benjamin Harrison. This was California’s first national park and the country’s second. — On September 25, 1989, archaeologists opened the Titus of Rhine grave in Amsterdam. JWR’s Comment: Apparently it is no longer considered grave desecration if archaeologists do it… — On September 25th, 1789, the first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. — Today we feature a lengthy response to a comment to a writing contest entry. We are seeking entries for Round …


A Response to a Question on .45 LC in .410, by Tunnel Rabbit

If, in desperate times we need to take risks that would in normal times be unacceptable and possibly extra legal with the extraordinary circumstances.  Examining the limits of the risks that we would consider to be acceptable would be an individual’s judgment call.  Some of the contents of one of my recent articles is predicated on the situation when and where we might be faced with in a future dystopian world where we would be forced to hunt in order to supplement our limited food source to avoid starvation.  Some of the methods involving firearms are not now, or should …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Amid Growing Violence, More Churches Turn to Faith-Based Security Groups. o  o  o SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Mike Williamson sent us a link to some valid criticism of a prepper ad, over at  X/Twitter. JWR’s Comments: The rust on that saw shows that it isn’t used often, or well cared for.  And seeing him …



Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — September 24, 2024

On September 24, 1529, Sultan Suleiman and his Ottoman troops arrived in Vienna, beginning a whole series of smaller sieges in the region, culminating with the Turk’s failed Second Siege, in 1683. — Today’s feature article is a short guest post by former congressman Dr. Ron Paul, selected by JWR. It is reposted with permission. — We are seeking entries for Round 114 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.  More than $900,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll …