Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of …


Advice for New Members to the Survivalist Camp, by Ken in Ohio

A couple of years ago I took the “red pill”. Media led propaganda and the tales of success from my elder peers led me down the path of blindness. No problem there, it was, and still is, the norm. All of us are led until the day we decide to take flight on our own. Sometimes its one incident that starts us down that new path of enlightenment; Haiti, Chile, Southern Louisiana, 9-11-01. Sometimes it is a series of unfortunate events; loss of the head of household, halving of investments or retirement funds, cut in pay or hours or loss …


Letter Re: Advice on Pre-1899 Revolvers for Self Defense

James, The recent Webley letters are particularly interesting to me since I own a 92 year old Mk 6 Webley converted to .45 ACP. I reload for most of my 34 guns. 49 years of reloading with never even a blown primer, and only 2 duds (no powder) in 49 years with thousands upon thousands of reloads, makes me feel somewhat qualified to write this. castboolits.com is a lead bullet reloading and casting site to which I belong. Common knowledge there is that Webleys, even Mk. 6s are not suitable for even factory .45 ACP factory load pressures. One of …


Economics and Investing:

Reader S.M. pointed us to this article in The Washington Times: CBO report: Debt will rise to 90% of GDP From Zero Hedge: Higher Yields, Lower Equities? Another piece from Zero Hedge that several readers recommended: It’s Official – America Now Enforces Capital Controls Damon sent this: S&P Market Indicator Downgrades US Sovereign Debt to aa+ Travis recommended this alarming piece by Dan Denninger: On Deficits And Debt-Financed Government From George Gordon (“G.G.”) British credit rating ‘could be lowered’ The Adultsitter suggested this blog piece: FDIC Playing With Fire by Soliciting State Pension Money to Buy Toxic Assets Items from …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Trent sent this New York Times article: Push to Eat Local Food is Hampered by Shortage    o o o I just heard about a small company in Georgia that was founded by a retired USAF Tech Sergeant: Survival Solar Systems.    o o o A learning point (and OPSEC illustration) for SurvivalBlog readers: Militia group suspects charged with conspiracy. Don’t associate with mad bombers and radical “lunatic fringe” types! They are bad news and bound to suck a lot of innocents into trouble! Rest assured that there are a lot of good and honorable militias out there, but the …



Notes from JWR:

I just heard from SurvivalBlog reader Tom G. (who is presently deployed in Afghanistan) that a collection of my quotations is now available on Wikipedia’s “Wikiquotes”. — Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in …


Stealth Edible Landscaping With Unusual Berries, by K.W.

Want to eat a wolfberry? How about some vaccinium jam? Some chokeberry wine? They don’t sound too appetizing, do they? Few people know it, but the fruits of these plants are not only edible, but delicious. They have unappealing names and don’t look familiar to most Americans, so if you incorporate them into your landscaping you will have a supply of fresh, nutritious fruit that your neighbors won’t recognize as food. This makes them ideal for people who must shelter in place in a small-town or suburban environment, where houses are close together and others can see what you have …


Letter Re: Advice on Pre-1899 Revolvers for Self Defense

Dear James Wesley, I thought that it was about time you mentioned Webley revolvers and their variants in your blog, and was pleased to see you’re recommendation in last week’s content. I am a long time prepper, mostly through accident of geography, my family and neighbors have a unique support system and find your blog quite useful. I spent just shy of a decade in and around West Africa, and a year in Israel, which is where I first became familiar with Webleys. The British mandate left behind a wealth of practical firearms for their newly independent allies, some of …



Odds ‘n Sods:

Martin S. wrote to mention that he found some videotaped lectures from the University of California on Home Vegetable to be interesting.    o o o Grasshopper outlook strikes fear on Western range (Thanks to Jeff B. for the link.)    o o o SurvivalBlog’s Editor At Large Michael Z. Williamson sent us this You Tube clip: So Useless, It’s Awesome! Mike’s comment: “Tautological running”!    o o o There is an interesting post over at Leon Pantenburg’s site on survival knives.


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.” – Marko the Munchkin Wrangler, in his blog essay “Why the Gun is Civilization.”


Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 27 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include: First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of …


A Personal Journey in Preparedness, by Mountain Man

I’m fairly new to SurvivalBlog but now it’s an every day read. I wanted to write and share my own journey of preparedness with you and your readers. After living with three and a half million people for about 22 years, a move to the country was long over due. I made the decision to get out of the city back in 1999, when I starting to take things a bit more seriously with all of the talk about Y2K. I was really hoping that something would have happened back then so I could test my skills at being prepared …


Economics and Investing:

“H2O” in California sent this news item about Kern County, California: Kern unemployment continues to climb: 17.4% in February. H2O’s comment: “The bulk of Kern’s population is located in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, where agriculture and oil are the lynchpins of the local economy. With the legislative/judicial droughts being imposed on California, local farmers have been allocated just 15% of their annual contractual water supplies. This means that they cannot secure the crop loans necessary to grow the crops to feed the nation for the fourth year in a row. Food shortages are right around the corner, I fear.” …