Letter Re: Velcro on Tactical Gear

Dear Hugh, Regarding the use of Velcro on tactical gear, I have something which might be of importance that I would like to share. Due to an old athletic injury, I wear an ankle brace for both stability and compression on a daily basis. I have been wearing a brace of one kind or another for more than 40 years. I currently use a brace employing an elastic wrap around with a Velcro closure. It is both convenient and holds tight. Until, that is, the Velcro begins to wear out. With daily use it does wear out rather quickly. I …


Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Movie recommendations from DMS: If you don’t have time for a movie, Best speech ever to a father/ future husband. Finding Normal (it’s not what you have, it’s how you live). The Book of Esther. Do You Believe? Escape. Just Let Go (a true story of forgiveness) Like Dandelion Dust (yes, this actually happens) The Greening of Whitney Brown. The Railway Man (WW2 true story/parental warning: graphic torture) o o o Reader STS wrote in to suggest “The Great Human Race” on NatGeo, suggesting that those with an interest in early bushcraft techniques might find it interesting. o o o …


Surviving the 2015 Fire of Lake County California- Part 1, by B.G.

This is a true story of a thirty-something survivalist/engineer and his family as well as some lessons learned in the second most destructive fire in California history. I had seen other large fires in Lake County over the years, and they would arrive in apocalyptic fashion, as the up swelling of a mushroom cloud. This one started no differently on a windy afternoon as I was pulling pork chops off of the grill. At about one o’clock in the afternoon, the wall of black smoke that erupted to our south immediately flattened out due to the wind. It formed an …


Letter Re: Velcro on Tactical Gear

Hi Hugh! Concerning your Velcro usage information request, it is possible to snow/ice load Velcro in transitional weather until it functions poorly. Specially, if the loops are a bit “used”, the stuff can end up nearly dead. We end up replacing Velcro on snowmobile suits and other winter gear if it gets like this. Personally, I have a hypothesis that sometimes the stuff gets beat up by the cold/wind/wet combination, as covered areas of Velcro on the same suits/gear seem to hold up longer. Another issue, and why years ago my unit didn’t allow any Velcro in our deployment gear, …


Recipe of the Week: Hamburger Soup

Ingredients: 1 lb lean ground beef ¼ tsp pepper ¼ tsp basil ¼ tsp oregano ¼ tsp seasoned salt 1 (8oz) can tomato sauce 1 tbs soy sauce 1 cup sliced celery 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup macaroni, cooked and drained ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 envelope onion soup mix 3 cups boiling water Directions: Crumble beef into slow-cooking pot. Add pepper, oregano, basil, seasoned salt, and dry soup mix. Stir in water, tomato sauce, and soy sauce; then add celery and carrots. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Turn control to high and …


Letter Re: Velcro on Tactical Gear

Hugh, I have had the opportunity to serve as an 03 with the Marine Corps, an officer with a small police department and in private contracting. During that time, I have been able to use all sorts of nice kits, and my experience stems from that. I would say Velcro is not a good idea in my opinion, unless you include silencers (additional pieces of Velcro) which can be used to silence the hook and loop tearing noise. We often would sew extra Velcro into magazine pouch closures of similar on radio pouches, et cetera. So if you are headed …


April in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover the price action of gold and examine the “what” and “why” behind those numbers. What Did Gold Do in April? Gold started the month under $1,220 an ounce and went on a roller coaster ride. Luckily, there were more ups than downs. Gold prices spent the last week of the month bumping up into the $1,290 range, a thirteen month high. Silver woke from its slumber and got down …


Two Letters Re: Velcro On Tactical Gear

HJL, You asked about the use of velcro. This is more in the way of everyday carry, but my cover vest has a large velcro panel that the holster for my BUG hangs from. The pocket that this panel is inside of has a velcro closure. I don’t care for the noise of the velcro for tactical reasons, so I have placed a strip of loop on about half of the velcro (hook & loop) to reduce the sound and yet maintain the closure. The gun is a Kahr PM9 so it is light weight. A number of velcro covered …


A Holistic Approach to Packing a 72-Hour Bug Out Bag- Part 2, by C.T.

Water. Though you may die after three days without water, that is most likely in ideal conditions with low exertion. If you have ever gone hiking before, you know that after an hour or so you are pretty parched already, and by the end of a single day you will be pretty much functionally depleted of water and in desperate need of rehydration. Especially if your bug out happens to be in the summer or a very hot time of year, water is going to be the most important element you need to keep going effectively. This is where knowing …


Letter Re: Velcro on Tactical Gear

Hugh, Concerning your request for information, I have never had issues with Velcro on my dive gear. (It’s found on Buoyancy Compensator pockets mostly.) However, on tactical gear, snaps or magnetic clasps are the most silent and easiest to use without issue. With Velcro there is always the possibility that a second, third, or fourth “tear” will be needed if all the hooks haven’t disengaged. With snaps or magnets, it’s far easier and undeniably quieter. If I’m changing mags in a hot zone, the last thing I want to telegraph is my current position by a “riippp” of the Velcro …


A Holistic Approach to Packing a 72-Hour Bug Out Bag- Part 1, by C.T.

A 72-hour Bug Out Bag (a.k.a. Get Out Of Dodge bag) is a pack filled with the necessary items to sustain you while you walk from an unsafe location to a safe location. Usually the scenario is that “home” is no longer safe and you need to go to some predetermined “bug out” spot. This could be either a friend’s or relative’s house, a family cabin, or a government shelter. Basically, you are going on a hiking trip with an expected start and end point on a pre-planned route during what will most likely be a time of great personal …


Letter Re: Felons Voting

Here’s a list of states that allow or don’t allow felons to vote. I really don’t know how I feel about this, because I know several people personally that have been to prison who truly turned their lives around and are good people now. I’m also a little unsure about restoring 2nd amendment rights to them, too. Shouldn’t a person be able to defend himself? On the other hand, I don’t want predators running around armed. Like the law will stop that, but still… I guess restoring rights could be on a person-by-person basis, but the time and resources that …


The Disgruntled Man Epidemic and More Destructive Effects of Feminism, by J

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”1 (C.S. Lewis) Postmodernism willingly allowed for and encouraged the feminist hate we witness spewed nearly everywhere today. There is no censuring the hate, only censuring of objective truth. There is no censuring immorality, only the censuring of natural law. Building on the topic of my previous submissions (Seven Survival Tips for the Modern Feminist and Seven Survival Tips For the Modern Feminist- Take II), I would like …


Letter: IR Floodlights

HJL, I recently had my vehicle broken into in the wee hours of the morning. While we had video surveillance running and though it did indeed capture the image of the perp, I was entirely unsatisfied with it. The camera has built-in IR illumination, but it is only good for about 20 feet. The driveway camera is almost 100 feet from where the break-in occurred and the only reason it got a clear picture is because the dome light in the vehicle turned on illuminating the thief. The camera was unable to see his approach. A quick search of Amazon …


An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure- Part 2, by L.W.

Clean Clothes The first line of defense in protecting the skin is your clothing. Protect the hands by always using gloves appropriate to the task at hand—medical gloves for caring for the sick and injured; heavy duty rubber gloves for washing dishes and a completely different set for bathroom cleaning; garden gloves; and leather work gloves. Beyond the gloves, we also need to use clothing to protect the rest of the body. The better covered the body, the better the defense. Understand that sunscreen will eventually run out or lose its efficacy, so protecting the skin from sunburn (and the …