Category: Book, Movie, and Web Reviews

Pat’s Product Review: Ruger P95 9mm Pistol

I still recall when I saw the first Ruger P85, 9mm pistol. I was living in Colorado Springs, Colorado at the time. Only one gun shop in town had a P85 sample, and people were literally lining-up all week long to see this new pistol. There were several reasons for this, first of all, this was the first center fire semiauto handgun from Ruger. Secondly, the design of the P85 and appearance was rather radical at the time. And, I believe lastly, was the retail price of the P85 – which was $295.00 – well below what other similar 9mm …


Michael Z. Williamson’s Book Review: Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives

I was privileged to meet Hank several times, and participate in one of his lectures on knife fighting.  At the time, the man was 30 years my senior and I would not have wanted to rumble with him. His Book of Knives was written largely in the 1970s, compiled and published after his death, with assistance from his widow and friends.  It follows his Book of Swords. The first half, in Hank’s voice, is entertaining, anecdotal and informative.  It covers various lessons learned from fights he observed or was involved in, in some seedier areas of the country.  In very …


S.A.’s Book Review: Laura Ingalls, Revisited

Have you ever wondered how you will react if your children are starving and light-headed from malnutrition and you have no food left? Have you questioned your resilience to life’s opportunities if you are continually beat down by nature and circumstances? Want to know how to make a smokehouse out of a hollow tree? How to provide heat when there is no wood left to burn?  Crop failure?  Wild bees? When I was a child, Laura Ingalls Wilder had already published her saga which included practical homesteading information wrapped inside a series of books. Her books for children were the …


Pat’s Product Review: Just Water Brand Ceramic Drip Filter System

The past several months, I have been buried in products to test and evaluate for SurvivalBlog readers. While this is a good thing, it’s also a “bad” thing – some products take quite a bit of time to test. My time is limited each day, and I do my best to give all the products a fair and honest evaluation for SurvivalBlog readers. And what you read in my articles, are findings based on my testing and my final opinion of the products. No one pays me to feature their products in my SurvivalBlog articles. I know a lot of …


Michael Z. Williamson’s Product Review: Taurus Model 445 Ultralite Revolver

Amid the huge selection of autopistols these days, it’s nice to see there are still some basic, reliable revolvers for those who prefer them. The Taurus 445 is not a deep concealment gun, but is a good carry gun that fits easily in a pocket or hides well on a belt.  It’s light weight (at 22 ounces), has a 2″ barrel, and a 5-round cylinder.  It’s comfortable to handle in adult hands, and pleasant to shoot, recoil being heavy but well-dispersed and not sharp, despite the gun’s low weight.  It has Taurus’ proprietary “Ribber” grips that offer great purchase and …


Pat’s Product Review: Grip Pod and Light Rail

I’ll start this review by mentioning that I’ve never really cared for the vertical fore-grips on my ARs or AKs, and for good reason: Many of them are just plain junk! I’ve tried several fore-grips on rifles over the years, and they all had one thing in common – they would either break or get so loose that they were of no use to me. I had several of the fore-grips completely break off the rail on ARs over the years, and I attempted to repair them with epoxy, all to no avail. While I believe a fore-grip is a …


L.K.O.’s Product Review: PocketPanel 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger and Cinch Power CP505S Power Pack

In early January 2012, I began thoroughly testing the Pocket Panel: 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger and the Cinch Power: CP505S Power Pack (USB Battery). These two products team up to make a compact, lightweight, portable power solution for USB powered devices such as cell phones, GPSes, digital cameras, bluetooth headsets, games, PDAs, MP3/MP4 players or small LED lamps. After a review of the individual components, I’ll summarize some quick system tests. Pocket Panel: 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Phone Charger The PocketPanel photovoltaic solar charger is rated at 6 Watts and 1.2 Amps. Reviews on the company’s …


Pat’s Product Review: New Ammo Offerings From Buffalo Bore

For the past several months, Tim Sundles, who runs Buffalo Bore Ammunition has buried me in some of his newest ammunition offerings. Somehow, I think he doesn’t like me. He just keeps coming up with more and more new loads for hunters and for self-defense use, for me to test. Seriously, I don’t know of any ammunition company, that is as innovative as Buffalo Bore is. Some of the big name ammo companies might come up with a couple new loads each year – if that. Most are content to sit back on their past accomplishments – not Tim Sundles!   …


Pat’s Product Review: M&M M10-762 Rifle

I’m a big fan of AK-47 style rifles. But I must mention that all the AK-47 style rifles presently sold in the US, are not genuine AK-47 assault rifles. Rather, they are semiautomatic versions of the famed Russian AK-47. Properly, an AK-47 is a select-fire (full auto) battle weapon. Still, no matter how I try to educate people on this, even gun shop owners, they still continue to call semi-auto versions an “AK-47.” So, to concede to the new terminology norm, we’ll just call these rifles AK-47s.   I still remember the first semi-auto AK-47that I I purchased, it was …


Letter Re: Recommendation for the Movie “For Greater Glory”

Dear Friends, My wife and I attended the opening-day showing of the new movie For Greater Glory, about the Cristiada Rebellion at a theater in Spokane last night. It is the amazing and stirring story of the 1920s Mexican civil war fomented by a revolutionary government against Catholic churches, leaders, and worshipers. The attendance was what you would expect with this movie competing against several summer blockbusters. The movie’s production values are not as high as the tens-of-millions-of-dollars CGI extravaganzas, but still an A-quality production. The actors are convincing, the movie engrossing, no slow or boring parts, and it tells …


Founders Sample Chapter — In The Footsteps of Josephus

Author’s Notes: Founders is scheduled to be released in September, 2012. Please wait until the release date (“Book Bomb Day”) to order your copy. That same day, there will be simultaneous releases of the e-book and audio book editions. The cover art was created by Tony Mauro, Jr., who also created the cover for “Survivors.” The Founders cover depicts Ken and Terry Layton on their cross-country journey. Spoiler Alert: This chapter includes passages of the novel that you may not want to know about before reading the book from beginning to end. So skip reading this sample chapter if you …


Pat’s Product Review: Benchmade Adamas Folder

I still remember the very first Benchmade Knives folding knife I ever owned. I don’t remember which model it was, but I still remember at how “shocked” I was at the super high-quality of the knife. Without a doubt, it was every bit as well-made, if not, better made than custom folding knives I had seen. It continues to this day, Benchmade Knives are of the highest quality you’ll find. This comes as no accident, as I’ve toured the Benchmade factory a couple times, and I’ve seen what is involved in making their knives. To be sure, Benchmade even has …


Pat’s Product Review: Stove Tec Rocket Stoves From US Tactical Supply

Some months ago, I alerted Survival Blog readers to a small company, in my neck of the woods, called US Tactical Supply that has customer service second to none, as well as having top-notch products, most made in the good ol’ USA. As I stated before, if you are looking for cheap knock-off merchandise, or just “cheap” anything – then don’t do business with US Tactical Supply – they don’t carry junk – simple as that. However, if you are looking for the best-of-the-best in high-quality products, with friendly folks, who are sincerely happy to help you, and appreciate your …


NBC’s Upcoming “Revolution” Television Series

Several readers have written me to mention the trailer for the upcoming NBC (US television network) post grid-collapse TEOTWAWKI series: Revolution. (“After 15 years of darkness, an unlikely group sets out to save the world.”) The four-minute trailer was interesting. Watching it felt like a count the memes and homages contest. Predictably, “militias” are made out to be the bad guys. There are far too many reminders of both S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire sci-fi novel series and the movie The Postman in the trailer for me to think that NBC’s screen writers hadn’t been influenced by them. The editors …


Pat’s Product Review: Deep Concealed Carry Holster

Back in the day, when I lived in Chicago, I worked as a Private Investigator for a lot of years. I usually carried either my S&W Model 686 4″ barrel revolver, or my Ruger Security Six 4″ barrel revolver – both .357 Magnum guns, plus a couple spare speed loaders. I found that I could more easily conceal those big revolvers in shoulder holsters instead of belt holsters under my suit jacket. I also packed some kind of .38 Special snubby revolver in an ankle holster as a back-up. Unlike the police, I couldn’t call for back-up if something went …