Category: Body Armor

Letter Re: The Lowly, Forgotten Knee Pad

Hello Mr. Rawles, After perusing the contents listed in survival kits, Bug Out Bags (BOB), and Get Out Of Dodge bags (GOOD), it seems to me that they all have one common glaring omission. That omission is knee pads. It occurred to me recently while fixing a roadside flat that so many survival/TEOTWAWKI tasks require one to get “down and dirty”, i. e., working on one’s knees. Knee pads can remove a lot of the “pain and suffering” from tasks such as firestarting, fence building/mending, emergency roadside vehicle repair, chainsaw sharpening, and a whole host of other tasks. Not to …


Letter Re: Canada’s Upcoming Body Armor Bans

Dear James: The body armor ban in Alberta, Canada comes into effect June 15th, 2012.    To summarize, unless you are using Body Armor in your exempted profession, e.g., police, security, etc., etc., you have to get approval to buy, or own Body Armor.  FAQs see:  Body Armour Control Fortunately, there is an exemption for “an individual who has been issued a valid licence under the Firearms Act (Canada)”, and – contrary to the FAQ page above – my reading of the actual law indicates that this exemption for Firearms License holders is not restricted to the scope of your profession.   …


Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment, by Gunfighter

The time may come when all order and civility have broken down into chaos and unrestrained evil. You were a wise prepper and worked through your list of lists, acquiring all of the necessary knowledge and tools for survival. All of your bases are covered. Your survival retreat is intact and manned by your entire survival group. Each individual is most likely capable of firing a weapon and you probably have a survival retreat defense plan in the event a band of raiders, or some other group of people who wish you harm, decides they want to take what isn’t …


Letter Re: Surviving The Cold

Dear Mr. Rawles: n reference to the recent SurvivalBlog article “Surviving The Cold”, by The Other D.B.: It is never repeated enough: wet cold kills.   The advice to test your rain gear with a garden hose is priceless. A piece of kit that I have found invaluable exercising or working in the cold is the Neck Warmer / Head Wrap. This is a simple tube of stretch polypropylene or polyester fleece or wool.  Critical to better protect the vascular area where you lose the most heat–our head and neck. You can see some examples at these three vendor sites: SpecOps …


Letter Re: A Combat Gear Primer

Mr. Rawles, This a reply to the reply to “A Combat Gear Primer” by WildcatActual.  While it is true that a direct hit from a high-powered rifle such as a Russian Dragunov firing a 7.62x54R will not/should not penetrate military grade body armor I would like to add to the comment of “These are but two examples of the fallacy that blunt force trauma from a bullet hit will incapacitate an individual wearing body armor”: I have a personal experience in this.  I was in Mosul, Iraq in 2006.  Our unit was tasked to clear and old cement factory in the city.  This cement factory …


Letter Re: A Combat Gear Primer

Greetings Mr Rawles, “G.I. Jim” recently opined in follow-up to “A Combat Gear Primer” that while effective in stopping bullets, modern body armor will not protect you from blunt force. While true in a general sense, Jim’s comment that blunt force will incapacitate someone is simply untrue. The documented history is clear on this but two individuals immediately come to mind: 1.) Richard Davis, the founder of Second Chance Body Armor, who routinely had himself shot with a .44 Magnum at contact distance to prove the value of his product. He was never incapacitated in any way. 2.) Fast forward …


Letter Re: Body Armor Bans in Australia and Canada

Dear James: There is a nasty trend to require a government permit to possess body armor.  This is very disturbing because the right to protect yourself is the most basic of human rights – the right to life.  It is  a slap in the face to deny law-abiding people protection that is [in itself] purely passive and harmless. Australia has “led the way” in telling citizens that they need state  permission to protect themselves – armor is illegal to import without permission, and illegal to own “without authorization” in several Australian states. Now this evil idea has caught on with …


Letter Re: Securing Windows With Plywood The Fast And Easy Way

Dear Jim: To follow up on the recent letters, we supply roughly half inch thick ballistic steel to stop .30-06 AP threats. (NIJ  Level IV ). The tradeoff is that you are looking at roughly double the weight — 20 lbs. per square foot.  So for the hypothetical 36″ by 36″ piece it adds up to roughly 180 lbs.  Ceramic tile can provide AP or Level IV protection at less than half that weight – but much more expensive. Your point about spall is well taken. I would worry most about the bullet splatter or ricochet from a round plastering …


Letter Re: Dressing for Self Defense

Mr Rawles, I found A.Y.’s suggestions to be very astute and workable, and wish to add a few of my own. Underclothes: fencers over the years have pressed the bounds of stab- and slash-proof clothing. There are a number of SPECTRA fencing undershirts, that are of the same quality, if not better, as LEO anti-knife gloves. They also have the added bonus of being made with the express purpose of being stab proof. That said, still hurts like the dickens when one really gets gut stabbed. Having worn one in 90 degree sun, I can attest that not only are …


Letter Re: Carrying Body Armor When Traveling

Dear Jim: I was in Cairo with my wife and two kids six weeks ago at the tail end of a 13 country 3 month trip. I was traveling with some custom bulletproof vests for all of us (thanks to Nick at bulletproofme.com). They were inserted in our backpacks and no one was the wiser at airport security. In Cairo, I had no sense whatsoever that it was a powder-keg, ready to explode. My wife laughed at the extra weight I hauled around with us. Now seeing on television the places where we walked looking like a war zone, she’s …


In Defense of the Fortress Mentality–and Architecture

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I recently got an irate letter from an outspoken Peak Oil commentator who often stresses “community agriculture” and “sustainable development.” He castigated me for “advocating a fortress mentality…” and “encouraging gun-buying…” I think that he meant those as insults, but I took them as compliments. I am indeed an advocate of the fortress mentality, and fortress architecture. The two go hand-in-hand. As I pointed out in my book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”, modern American architecture with flimsy doors and large expanses of windows is just a 70 year aberration from a global …


Two Letters Re: Force Multipliers for Retreat Groups

Dear Jim: Regarding force multipliers, you touch on early warning with SIGINT, HUMINT and night vision, but I would argue that more immediate early warning through intrusion detection or perimeter security should be stressed as well: If you are not aware of the bad guys approach, then all your other defensive measures are for naught.  Even just having a minute to muster a defense, instead of 10 seconds, could make all the difference.  Imagine an early warning on the approach of intruders at O-dark-thirty, with your entire team wide awake and suited up in defensive positions, vs. waking up to …


Letter Re: Prepping and Pregnancy

Good Morning Mr. Rawles, Last year my former boss–with whom we used to have a Bible study–and who is a former Marine, called me up on a Saturday morning, and inquired about a firearm that I would recommend for a semiautomatic sidearm that he and his wife would be able and to shoot comfortably. Without knowing much about what he had in mind, I told him about the top companies, and that a 9mm would be sufficient for his wife, as long as they used +P or +P+ defensive hollow-points with a heavy bullet weight, and if even this was …


Suburban Survival, by The Suburban 10

I am a public school teacher with five kids and one income. There is little in the way of extra cash to protect the family, but I will do my best to prepare for TEOTWAWKI. If you want to plan well; plan as if it was a lesson plan and you are going to teach it to a class. My class is my family the the goal being not to get anyone panicked (Refer to # 9 below). Having a receptive audience is difficult, because of what I deem…complacent comforts. These are built into the core and routine of our …


Letter Re: Kevlar Helmets and Head Protection

Most folks focus on vests first when it comes to ballistic protection, but the head should not be neglected. Obviously your brain is one of your most important organs, one of the most sensitive to blunt trauma – and the body part most likely to be exposed when you are behind cover! A helmet is not a “discreet” piece of gear, and not appropriate for everyday use, but helmets are much-needed ballistic protection in a bad to worst-case situation, e.g., a homeowner in a Hurricane Katrina type situation, or a patrol officer rolling up on a potential shooting. In that …