Saving Money and Ammunition in Small Arms Training, by Jeff T.

Several factors have resulted higher prices and in shortages of ammunition. These include higher commodity prices, recent political developments with many people buying to prepare for uncertain availability as well as demand from the military for the ongoing war on terrorists. This storm of demand has resulted in very real shortages of many common calibers. Although the situation is easing in some ways it doesn’t require an above average IQ to realize this condition could reverse and quickly get much worse. Developing skill in marksmanship and gun handling is not difficult but does require some training and regular practice. These …


Letter Re: Seeking Advice on Safe Food Storage, and Recommended Sources

Good Evening, I recently purchased your book, How to survive the end of the world as we know it. I wanted to say that I have found it to be extremely useful and very helpful. I have been researching everything that I need to do to keep my family safe WTSHTF, but I have not been successful at finding information on how to properly prepare and safely store food for my larder. My second problem is were to find a store that sells bulk oats, wheat, flour etc. I live in northeastern Ohio and have not been very successful at …


Three Letters Re: Getting a Christian Wife Involved With Preparedness

Mr. Rawles, Thank you for the time and energy spent on your blog and your books. I read your blog and static pages often and own most of your books. Your writings offer a deep perspective not often found. Your writer from Idaho has hit on one of the most debated topics that has ever been discussed between a man and his wife. How does a man prepare his family without frightening, boring or going overboard? I’ll tell you what has worked in my family. The most important point is to bring your spouse on board, slowly. Rome wasn’t built …


Economics and Investing:

Flavio liked this interview with Robert Kiyosaki, where Bob is blunt about who really call the shots in the US, and he reiterates his advice to buy silver. GG flagged this: World economy setting itself up for a bigger bust, says Marc Faber El Jefe Jeff E. sent us a piece about the 124th US bank failure in 2009: Florida regulators close bank Items from The Economatrix: Karl Denninger Says Watch This: Glenn Beck and the Dollar Carry. Even if you don’t agree with Glenn Beck, watch it, it’s important The New Yorker: How The Tax Code Encourages Debt Downbeat …


Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog’s British-born Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson sent this: British Navy was within 50 feet of Somali Pirates as they Kidnapped British Citizens. Mike’s comment: “Their poltroonery in letting the pirates do this may be related to the advice that no pirate should be taken on a British ship in case he might apply for political asylum. Words cannot express how far this is from the Nelsonian tradition.”    o o o Also sent in by Mike: No, they’re not kidding: UK proposal to ration carbon usage on an individual basis.    o o o Attention South Carolina Citizens: …



Note from JWR:

The special sale on the “Rawles Gets You Ready” family preparedness course is in full swing. There are just a handful of copies of the bonus book still available. (A free copy of my latest nonfiction book, “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”.) Today (Friday) is the last day to order to get your bonus book. By the time Saturday’s blog goes up this evening, the free books will no longer be available.


Letter Re: Short Term Survival or Long Term Self-Sufficiency?

Hi James, You have an excellent blog. It is good to find another right-wing Christian who thinks we’re going down the wrong path, and someone who cares about other people. I have to take issue with your blog though. It focuses on survival in the short term (maximum five years after collapse). It does not give direction for how to proceed from there, how to thrive, how to rebuild society (or rather, how to build a better society). Surviving the collapse on modern medicine only to die from disease when it runs out is pointless. Surviving only to find that …


Letter Re: Converting Precious Metals ETFs to Physical Metals

Dear CPT Rawles, To follow up on the recent thread about cashing out of precious metals ETFs: Long ago, I took your advice and got out of stocks for my IRA and switched to a Gold IRA with Swiss America . It’s done quite well and I was fortunate to read your advice several years ago. [Since then, most stocks went down substantially. Meanwhile gold has appreciated substantially, at least when denominated in US Dollars.] My question and I’m sure I’m not the only one, is this: I will soon be 59-1/2 years old. Should I continue to keep my …


Six Letters Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions

Jim, During my many travels in Asia and Central America I never brought along medications to stop diarrhea, only to prevent it. Diarrhea is natures way of getting rid of something your body doesn’t want in it. Preventing that can lead to serious problems. Water and food born bugs (bacteria, not parasites) can be dealt with by taking Doxycycline Hyclate as a prophylactic. Prior to the likely encountering of suspect food and water, such as a bug out situation, a pill a day will keep you reasonably safe. You should be able to talk your doctor into proscribing for emergency …


Letter Re: Parabolic Dish Shoutcasting

Mr. Rawles, Regarding Skyrat’s and other SurvivalBlog.com readers that may be interested in obtaining large C-Band dishes for Shoutcasting, I have a potential free source: I work in the satellite industry and often receive calls requesting that decommissioned and obsolete C-Band dishes be removed from the roofs or ground mounts of hotels throughout the country. When the hotel management receives the estimated cost for the removal, more often than not, they reluctantly decline to have the eye-sores removed. Some enterprising readers may be able to negotiate a deal with a local hotel manager to remove a dish at no charge …


Economics and Investing:

Jesse sent this: Short-Term Economic Boost from Fiscal Stimulus Outweighed by Long-Term Output Loss Also from Jesse: Why the Stock Market Should Crash From reader HPD: Bank Regulators “Reign of Terror” on Small Business Loans Items from The Economatrix: Stimulus Watch: Did the White House downplay errors in rush to take credit for job data? Stronger Dollar, Weak Economic Data Pummels Stocks Dollar Gains as Homeowners, Job Seekers Struggle Weak Jobless Claims, Future Economic Activity Data Foreclosures Hitting More People with Good Credit AOL Offers Buyouts to 2,500 (33% of their workforce) Treasury to Sell Warrants as Three Banks Exit …


Odds ‘n Sods:

We’ve had a tough deer and elk season here at the Rawles Ranch. Thusfar, we’ve filled just two deer tags, and haven’t yet got an elk. The season has been difficult because there have been two hard winters in succession with deep snow that have taken their toll on the herds. The local wolf population seems to be increasing as well, and their depredations have been obvious. (And so are their big piles of scat that we see all-too frequently when we are out in the woods!) After they’ve cleaned out the deer, I suspect they’ll move on to consuming …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The new danger was that when the peasants finally refused to deliver produce to the towns, the towns would go and fetch it. It had happened in Austria during the blockade. It had happened in the Ruhr and the Rhineland under the provocation of French militarism and enforced idleness. Now there were reports from Saxony -unoccupied Germany — that bands of several hundred townspeople at a time had taken to riding out into the countryside on bicycles to confiscate what they needed. Anna Eisenmenger’s diary included a first-hand account of the plunder of Linz and its neighbourhood in Austria — …


Letter Re: Oral Rehydration Solutions

Sir: My recent trip to the library and skimming through a few books on diseases led me to the conclusion that some of the secondary or follow-on effects are often bigger killers that the diseases themselves. I’m talking about pneumonia and diarrhea. Respiratory bugs often develop co-infections like pneumonia. And stomach bugs often cause diarrhea, which can cause such severe dehydration, that the patient dies. Obviously, [some forms of] pneumonia can be avoided by getting a pneumovax innoculation. So how do we deal with diarrhea? It can be controlled with over the counter (OTC) medicines. According to FamiliyDoctor.org, some of …