Letter Re: Legality of Converting Replica Blackpowder Revolvers to Fire Cartridges?

Jim, I recently watched the 1985 movie ‘Pale Rider‘ with Clint Eastwood and noticed in the movie that he used what appeared to be a 1858 Remington pistol, I didn’t notice if it was a cap and ball or if it was converted to use conventional ammo. Where can you get those cylinders you mentioned? Seems like a very cool pistol advertised at Cabela’s. But wouldn’t BATFE be all over a loophole that allows a non-FFL firearm to be converted? Just curious..- Jason North Idaho JWR Replies: Here in the U.S., if it is the end user/owner (a non-FFL holder) …


Two Letters Re: Chevron’s Deep Oil Strike in the Gulf of Mexico

Mr. Rawles I read your blog often, thanks for the entertaining and informative site. I would like to comment on David from Israel’s post regarding Chevron’s oil strike in the gulf. I work for a very large E & P company and have many years experience in drilling and production. There is nothing holding back the exploitation of this field except time to build the facilities and and acquiring the drill ships (cost $500,000+ per day for the ship) to punch the holes. We routinely produce gas and oil from 24,000′; the depth of the water does not really matter …


Odds ‘n Sods:

Mountain Brook Foods of Tracy, California has announced a special one month sale just for SurvivalBlog readers. From now until the end of October, the following discounts will be available for in-stock items only: 20% off Orders of $100 to $249 30% off Orders of $250 to $499.99 40% off Orders over $500, not to exceed $2,500. To place your order go to www.mountainbrookfoods.com. There you will see there full line of storage foods and books. Note, however, that their web site lists only their standard pricing. To get the SurvivalBlog October special pricing, enter “SurvivalBlog” as the coupon discount …



Note From JWR:

Round 6 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest ends today! 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 you want a chance to win Round 6, e-mail us your article, ASAP. Round 6 will end on September 30th. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging. The following article is the final …


Stockpile Fire Safety Considerations, by AVL

Hazardous materials storage laws can affect your intended stockpile. The survival mantra is “Be Prepared!” to this end; it is often necessary to have stockpiles of materiel that may come in handy in case of an emergency. Most conversations about such stockpiles talk about food, water, clothing, and of course gasoline, ammunition, gunpowder, primers etc. While there are currently no limits as to what quantity of food, water, and shelter you can store, gasoline, ammunition and firearms are another story entirely. What is considered hazardous material? A hazardous material is anything that may adversely affect your safety or the safety …


Letter Re: 12VDC LED Christmas Lights for Emergency Lighting

Jim: On a lark, I order two strings of these 12 VDC LED sort-of Christmas lights. I ordered one string of blue for the porch (really easy on Night Adapted Eyes and one string of white. Wow! Really neat. Low current (i.e.: extremely low power consumption) and just plain handy. I’m just guessing but I figure two strings would run for 6 weeks on a fully charged car battery. Nice for those “loss of electricity days/nights” and a lot cheaper than the camping/emergency lighting systems. I think it is a reasonable purchase.Best Regards, – The Army Aviator


Odds ‘n Sods:

Cathy Buckle’s latest “African Tears” letter from Zimbabwe is a compelling read. (The letter dated Saturday 23rd September 2006). I am surprised that the the economy in Zimbabwe has not fallen into total collapse. For now, it is somehow managing to stagger along on inertia. Please pray for a change of government there.    o o o SurvivalBlog reader”Felix” mentioned this story: The Italian parliament has passed legislation allowing people to shoot robbers in self-defense.    o o o Reader S.H. mentioned another cool project at the MAKEzine blog: Geiger Counter Modification (a V-700 upgraded with digital readouts, etc.)



Three Letters Re: Questions on the Pickup Truck as a Multi-Purpose Retreat Vehicle

Dear Jim and Survival Blog: I’m sure the question of the best truck for a survival retreat will generate a large response. By trade, I am an engineer; however, I currently am working as a maintenance person for a large camping facility in upstate New York. In my experience with equipment and vehicles, I would have to say anything with a Cummins 6B or 4B diesel power plant will earn the owners respect for the amount of work it will do and the long life you can expect from the unit. I live next to a medium size farm operation …


Odds ‘n Sods:

From Lew Rockwell’s site: Why Bush Will Nuke Iran, by Paul Craig Roberts    o o o Reader C.M. sent a link to a news story about a power failure in Bangladesh. C.M.’s comment: “Less than two days without electricity and a mob has formed to burn institutions. Fascinating how quickly it can all come apart.”    o o o As I predicted, silver and gold are starting to recover from their dips earlier in the month. Buy on the dips!



The Real Estate Bubble Bust — Where and When is the Bottom?

Here is your daily dose of Doom und Gloom (DUG)TM: I was recently asked by a consulting client where and when the U.S. real estate market will likely bottom. Clearly, the market has until recently been frothy, with all the signs of a speculative bubble. Lots of people that had no business doing so bought “spec” houses. Many of these buyers were under-qualified, often stretching the truth on their mortgage applications when they described their assets and incomes. Many houses were bought with interest only loans. They purchased second, third, or even fourth homes with the goal of flipping them …


Letter Re: Deciphering MRE Date Codes

My thanks to R.E.M. for his hard-earned experience on rotating food stocks. Perhaps I can ease his frustration a bit about not reading the packing date of USGI MREs – there is indeed a numbered code packing date on every MRE case, the outside of the newer USGI MRE retort packages and best of all, every individual item in each MRE package. You can go to the www.mreinfo.com web site for the whole story, but to condense the code for you, say you have a four-digit or longer number on the outside of the package – take the first number …


Letter Re: Rethinking Global Oil Reserves

Michael Z. Williamson is correct that folk don’t think about all the uses of oil in the products we buy. The sustainability of our growing population is dependent upon massive amounts of oil used in pesticides and fertilizers in order to obtain spectacularly large crop yields per acre, not to mention the harvesting, transportation, and transportation of food. Shortages of oil could have a severe impact on food production, and last year even the “moderately high” price of fuel caused a few farmers to not be able to harvest their crops. One problem with the oil picture is that not …