Letter Re: The Female Side of Surviving

Jim et al, Having seen [the movie] ‘300‘ this last weekend and the cable documentaries about the Spartans, one particular concept stood out. Debates about the culture, the movie, and such aside, I was stuck by the idea that to raise strong and capable men that it was essential that they be born of strong, independent and capable women. Elite Spartan women had a level of freedom that was nearly unprecedented in the ancient world and as young girls went through much of the same training as the boys. This is not generally the case today. As I’ve been learning …


Letter Re: Selecting a Retreat Location in Australia, by Mike McD.

Jim, To answer your key question: “Are there some particular towns that are well-removed from the major population centers on the east coast –perhaps up in The Wet– that would be well-suited as safe havens?” You would need to define what constituted a major population center. There are five cities/regions with a population over a million [people]: Sydney (due to their close proximity to Sydney I would include the cities of Newcastle [pop 510,000] and Wollongong [pop 275,000] as part of Sydney), Melbourne (including the city of Geelong [pop 165,000]), Brisbane (including the Gold Coast/Tweed region [pop 485,000], the Sunshine …


Letter Re: Stocking Up on AR-15 Lower Receivers?

James, I have been reading SurvivalBlog for a few months now, and I have to say that you are doing a great job! I have taken your Ten Cent Challenge, and look forward to renewing for next year. I have been following [the U.S. Congress] bill H.R. 1022 and your advice to stock up on “assault weapons” and/or high capacity magazines. If one cannot afford multiple weapons would you recommend buying a quantity of [AR-15] lower receivers in the hopes of building them up to full guns at a later date? – Kevin JWR Replies: That is a good idea. …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Investment Guru Jim Rogers Sees U.S. Property Crash   o o o Any SurvivalBlog readers that are considering relocating to northern Idaho should contact Todd Savage of Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He specializes in what he calls “tactical real estate.” At any given time, he has several “off the beaten track” properties available with either spring water or shallow wells. Properties with contiguous U.S. Forest Service or state land are also fairly common in the region. Todd is a SurvivalBlog reader, so he understands the unique requirements of survival retreats. He won’t waste your time showing …



Note from JWR:

The high bid is now up to $200 in the current SurvivalBlog benefit auction for several items that are being auctioned together as a lot: 1.) A late-1940s-vintage Airline brand all vacuum tube (highly EMP resistant) AM tabletop radio in a attractive bakelite cabinet. It works very well. and, 2.) A special five book package including: one autographed copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, one autographed copy of Rawles on Retreats and Relocation , one autographed copy of SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog – Volume 1, one autographed copy of my novel Patriots: Surviving the Coming …


From #1 Son: Update on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)

The USDA‘s NAIS program is now in the “convince the angry crowds that there is no problem” stage. They are constantly spouting phrases like, “We’ve made it clear, and I can’t stress this too often or too much that NAIS is a voluntary system.” That’s a voluntary system at the federal level, with a capital “V.’” However, no matter how often they say that it is voluntary, it will not prevent it from becoming mandatory at a later date. States can still make it mandatory, and if all do, it would still be “a voluntary system at the federal level”. …


Three Letters Re: Comments on High Capacity .45 ACP Pistols

James, In the late 1990s I bought a Para Ordnance P-14 [double column magazine M1911 variant], without first test shooting one. I never could get it to shoot well, the sights sucked and the grip turned out to be too fat (this was before somebody invented the slimming grip panels.) Anyway I sold it after about 1,000 rounds. The good news was I sold it just before the California magazine ban went in[to effect in January, 2000) and I just about tripled my money on that gun and all the magazines that I had. There is not really any group …


Letter Re: Stocking Up On Full Capacity Magazines

Jim, I took your advice and recently purchased some more full capacity mags for my Glock. Glockmeister has new mags for $20.00 a piece right now as well as +2 extensions for $15.50-to $18.00, Glock 33rd(!) 9mm mags for $39.00 and rebuild kits for $20.00. Another great deal is at Dillon Precision. They sell Arredondo’s [Glock magazine base pad] extenders that increase the capacity of smaller calibre mags by 5-6 rds and larger calibers by 3-4 rds. These aren’t cheap at $39.95 each but quality is reportedly very good and really adds firepower to your pistol. If the socialistas have …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Someone over at The Claire Files mentioned a thread on one of the BlackRifles forums about how to make soap. It might be a good idea to print out a hard copy of that one. There is also a lot of useful soap making information in “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by the late Carla Emery   o o o Activity discovered at Yellowstone supervolcano    o o o Interfaith group braves snow storm in global warming march. I think that they’d better schedule their next event for August, just to be on the safe side.



Notes from JWR:

I just received another case (10 copies) of “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by the late Carla Emery. This book is a “must” for the bookshelf of every well-prepared family. For any of you that would like to buy several copies for gifts, for the next 10 days I’m offering special discounts on quantity purchases. See my mail order catalog for details. Today we present another article submitted for Round 9 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. This one is from a certified Glock Armorer. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable …


Ensuring Glock Pistol Reliability, by Frank Hawkins

Failure to go “bang” when you need it is a frustrating experience that could produce a sinking feeling in your stomach if the situation is desperate enough. For the Glock pistol, this failure is rare, but it does happen. If you keep your Glock clean, then debris won’t be the problem. With a clean Glock, failure to fire is because of the failure of one (or both) of two different springs: the Trigger Spring or the Firing Pin Spring. Original Equipment Manufactured (OEM) Glock parts seldom fail. Such failure usually has one of several antecedents: (1) someone has replaced the …


Letter Re: Stocking Up on Augmentin–the Antibiotic of Choice

Jim: I’m somewhat reluctant to offer blanket medical advice to non-patients, but after reading SF in Hawaii’s comments about Augmentin (Amoxicillin-clavulanate) bears comment. There is no ‘one best antibiotic’ for all purposes. Antibiotics have to be administered based on the specific type of bacteria causing an infection. Administering the wrong antibiotic doesn’t just not work, it causes bacteria that are not killed outright to become resistant to it – which can cause problems down the road. People have pathogenic bacteria in and on them all the time, when something causes them to go out of balance and cause disease. At …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Jon H. forwarded an article that indicates that the mainstream media may be catching a clue on food storage preparedness: The emergency fund you can eat   o o o Matt B. sent a link to this video on how to escape from handcuffs, using a bobby pin. (The chances of being handcuffed by looters or home invasion robbers is small, but you never know what might happen.)    o o o Feds say Family has No Rightful Claim to 1933 ‘Double Eagle’ Gold Coins. What ever happened to our legal system’s foundational presumption of innocence?