Letter Re: The “House Gun” Pump Action Riotgun

Dear Jim, I’m leery of the “House Gun” that you linked to. First, the flared muzzle of a blunderbuss was for ease in loading, especially with improvised pellets. It had little effect on accuracy. As to the barrel on the house gun, I first notice it is mounted so the cone points slightly upward. This means it blocks any sights and will shoot high. Given that most people tend to shoot higher than they should at close range anyway, that’s a pending problem. Attempting to sight over the barrel will mean shooting low. I don’t believe the spread will be …



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of the republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." – Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, 1833


Note From JWR:

Today we present the first article eligible for judging in Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. If there are a lot of great entries this round of the contest, I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win …


Lasik Versus PRK Eye Surgery for Preparedness, by Simple Country Doctor

I’ve been reading through the survivalblog archives. I happened across a letter recommending Lasik for folks with significant refractive errors. I’m not an ophthalmologist, but I am a family and emergency medicine doctor, and I did a lot of research into refractive surgery before I had my significant nearsightedness corrected. I started out with [seeing only the] ‘big E’ [on the eye chart] (20/200) in one eye and [seeing] ‘white rectangle’ (worse than 20/200) in the other. I was always afraid I’d lose my glasses/contacts while out in the backwoods on one of my frequent solo adventures. I finally took …


Letter Re: Resources on the SurplusRifle.com CD-ROMs

Jim: It’s not often I recommend a web site, but this web site will disappear soon and your readers will want to check this out: SurplusRifle.com Jamie Mangrum has cancer and is shutting down the web site in three months. I bought the 2 CD set called “The BIG CD-ROM” 1 & 2. I think that the content is excellent. The web site includes instructions on how to disassemble and re-assemble many types of military surplus rifles and handguns. In addition, it also included videos on how to blue firearms and cast bullets. Anyone who does maintenance on their firearms …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I noticed that after a fairly quiet week of trading last week, the US Dollar is back to making some big “mood swings” versus the Euro, with moves of up to 140 points in as little as a few hours. That kind of volatility indicates that the US Dollar market has not found a clear direction. The dollar could still rally, but then again, it could “tank.” The Chartist Gnome tells me that if the Euro holds consistently above $1.332 for four days, then that will signal a renewed wave of bear market dollar dumping–possibly “the big one”: a major …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." – Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173


Note From JWR:

Wow! I just noticed that we’ve logged more than 875,000 unique visits! Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a huge success. It is gratifying seeing the readership continue to grow. I hope that you find what your read here is useful. (Or as my old buddy “Jeff Trasel” says “practical and tactical, high speed, and low drag.”) If you concur, I hope that you will go ahead and get a 10 Cent Challenge subscription. These subscriptions are entirely voluntary, and gratefully accepted.


Letter Re: The James Kim Exposure Death Tragedy: Lessons to Be Learned

Sir: I live in Curry County [Oregon], and on occasion travel the road over the mountains to Galice. I think that the primary lesson to learn from his tragedy is that you have to know where you are. The SOP for being lost in the woods is to “hug a tree” and wait for rescue. That doesn’t always work around here, and Mr. Kim wasn’t necessarily wrong in trying to walk out for help. Several years ago, in March, a guy was found on that same road, frozen, sitting in his pickup waiting for rescue. He’d been missing since November. …


Two Letters Re: Implications of Directly Confronting Criminals

James This is a comment about the remarks that Dutch from Wyoming made about the man who moved from Colorado due to gangs. What did Dutch want the guy from Colorado to do? Start exterminating them? We all fantasize about doing away with the bad guys, but how do you do it and still stay out of jail or get the lethal injection? I retired from law enforcement from California and moved to Montana for some of the same reasons the man from Colorado did. I arrested hundreds, maybe thousands (never kept count) of gang members during my career. An …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Odds ‘n Sods: Joe from Tennessee mentioned this scary piece: Imminent US Dollar Collapse? Meanwhile we read, Oil Producers Shun the US Dollar. Gee, this starting to sound a lot like the opening chapter of my novel “Patriots.” If this does occur, the full implications of a dollar collapse will be far-reaching. Be prepared!    o o o Hawaiian K sent this: U.S. Criminal Probe Rattles $2 Trillion Municipal Bond Market. That is all we need–a municipal bond collapse, right at the same time as a dollar collapse. Do foreign investors need any more inducement to get out of the …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

King of Swamp Castle [gesturing toward the window]: One day, lad, all this will be yours. Prince Herbert: Wot? The curtains? King of Swamp Castle: No, not the curtains, lad! All that you can see stretched out over the valleys and the hills! That’ll be your kingdom, lad. When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a …


Note from The Memsahib:

I got a great view of a bull moose on Saturday. It crossed the highway about 300 yards ahead of our Explorer and was still near the road standing under some cedars when I got near. Since there was no one in either direction on the lightly-traveled highway, I was able to actually stop and watch the bull for several minutes. Visiting moose–especially bulls–are not an everyday occurrence here at the Rawles Ranch, so seeing one is always a thrill for us.


Two Letters Re: Opinion on The Retreat Potential of New Hampshire?

Hi, Jim: I appreciated your comments regarding New Hampshire as a potential retreat site in today’s SurvivalBlog item. While I live in Idaho and am mostly pleased with the state, I did have occasion to visit Vermont six months ago. I was highly impressed with several gun stores I visited, and from information I learned from the stores’ staff members. In actuality, I was very surprised that their gun laws were less restrictive than Idaho’s. Thanks for the blog and your writings. Cheers! – TLP JWR Replies: The gun laws in Vermont are indeed favorable (most notably the legality of …