Category: Contest

Boers, Beans, Bullets, and Bear Soup – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) A Rifle for the Recoil Sensitive Around here, .30-06 is more common than .308 Win.  The second most popular in my neighborhood is 6.5 Creedmoor (6.5CM), then 6.5×55, and lastly a wildcat for the AR platform, the 6.5 Timberwolf. Ideally, we would be best off to standardized on .308 Winchester. Yet .30-06 is still king in these woods. It is time tested and found to be the best all around cartridge CONUS, good for mouse to moose, and the occasional Griz, because it can shoot the heaviest .308 caliber bullets with a …


Boers, Beans, Bullets, and Bear Soup – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

This morning, as per usual, I am having more black beans and black bear soup for breakfast on a cold mountain in Montana, waiting for all h*ll to break loose. I prefer beef, but presently bear meat is all that I have. The first few months of a collaspe may be the worst as the desperate and raiding gangs will be active. And then comes several years of famine.  And the rest of the Four Horsemen. Today, I must decide on whether to get a range finder, or a box of 1,000 match-grade bullets for the old war horse: a …


Blacksmithing Basics: Working From Next to Nothing, by Richard P.

Iron work is a foundational skill, literally shaping the bones of civilizations for well over a millennium today. As such, the earliest practitioners started out with nothing but ingenuity and raw natural materials. It is possible to do the same in a survival context, but the amount of labor necessary to smelt one’s own wrought iron from ore is prohibitive unless one has no other choice. Much more reasonable in a survival setting would be the repurposing of available metals. In history, this was extremely common. Viking societies would burn longships and sift the ashes to recover nails. We can …


Writing Contest Prize Winners Announced — Round 102

We’ve completed the judging for Round 102 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prize winners are: First Prize: First prize is awarded to Always Learning, for Fire Preparedness and Firefighting – Part 1 and Part 2, which was posted on August 5-6, 2022. They will receive the following prizes: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 value), …


One Man’s View of Geopolitics, by Francis The Semi-Prepper

I have a somewhat different view of the war between Ukraine and Russia. This starts off with some rambling so just relax. I’ll get to the point. I refer to myself as a semi-prepper sine we live in a nice suburb about 24 miles (~17 miles as the crow flies) from where our daughter and family live in a major southern city (they are about 2.9 miles from the city center). This is not the ideal location as far as I’m concerned but our grandchildren are that important to us, we are not moving even though I feel something will …


Ways to Combat News-Overload Induced Worry, by Elli O.

During these times of instability and unc+ertainty both in our country and throughout the world, it is easy to become concerned about our future. In fact, if you are a Pollyanna who is not concerned about the future, then your head is probably in the sand dunes of Egypt and you are not being realistic in your thinking. But these are unstable times. There is constantly a threat to our way of life and the peace to which we have become accustomed. Whether it be man-made or by nature, ranging from the international conflicts (pick any two countries- Russia and …


Locksmithing for TEOTWAWKI, by R.M.G.

Let’s take a moment to think about all the things/issues a locksmith might help us with today, that we might be able to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. We have keys and locks that secure our house, our vehicles, the storage shed/workshop out back, our place of business, our guns, our money/important papers/silver/gold. The list goes on and on, and most of it is stuff we take for granted. Many of us have no idea that there are things that we can do to better secure all or most of the things listed above and most people don’t know that there …


Front Yard Pharmacy: Your Herb Garden, by B.W.

Introductory Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. Use medicinal herbs under direction from your own doctor and with your own discretion. Always do your research before taking any medication, herbal or otherwise. Does the world as it sits right now have you feeling overwhelmed and more than a little nervous about the future? Maybe you’re prepping like crazy, putting back food and water. Maybe you’re rearranging your investments and starting some of the projects you’ve been wanting to do for years. In all of your preparation, have you made considerations for what you will do if modern medicine takes a …


To Sleep, Perchance to Dream – Part 3, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 2.  This concludes the article) Cold Weather Considerations Colder weather introduces its own unique problems to mobile sleep planning. Besides being really uncomfortable and preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep, it’s possible to get hypothermia in wet or windy conditions in temperatures as high as 60°F, which can result in death. The most obvious solution is to start a fire to keep you warm, but you’ll want to make sure you structure the fire to burn as long as possible so you can get a good night’s sleep. Some options for long-burning fires are: A …


To Sleep, Perchance to Dream – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.) Another platform option to consider are hammocks – I’m not talking about those huge macrame things people have in their backyards, but real camping hammocks from companies like Eagles Nest Outfitters, Hummingbird, Lawson, Dutchware and Warbonnet Outdoors. I may be a bit biased since I transitioned from a ground-dweller to hammocks for backpacking a few years ago, but they can be incredibly comfortable and easy to set up and take down. Depending on how your room is configured you may be able to attach some heavy-duty screw eyes to wall studs and hang multiple hammocks up …


To Sleep, Perchance to Dream – Part 1, by J.M.

Ahh, waking up fresh and well-rested in the morning to the soft musical chime of your alarm clock, with the beautiful rays of morning sunshine nudging you to start your day after a restful night’s sleep. Okay, so I may be leaning a bit into the fantasy world, but the reality is that sleeping (and waking up, hopefully) are things that everyone reading this has in common. The other thing that pretty much everyone shares is that we all have problems sleeping occasionally – tossing and turning, getting up at oh-dark-thirty and feeling like we’re walking around in a coma …


A Vehicle to Help Adjust Your Thinking, by R.V.

We bought a travel trailer. Our first trip took us from Georgia to North Dakota and back. The unit is built to handle changing sources of energy and limited sources of energy. It is designed to leave no trace other than tire prints. My primary motivation was to be able to join our family together on outings and make camping easier on my wife. I encourage camping and hiking. God will find you and/or you will find God in the wilderness. Our trailer was built by Grand Design. It is a 30-foot model, without slide-out extensions. (I am disclosing the …


Can the USS America Be Rescued or Will She Founder?, by St. Funogas

Today, in the September 7th in the Snippets column, many of the topics in some of my recent “do-not-publish” essays were covered so I thought I’d share some opinions. I agree with most of the comments and links in today’s Snippets column, as I generally do, but a few I disagree with I hope are worthy of mention, mostly on saving the country from the tyranny which is barreling down on us and becoming obvious even to the oblivious. In V for Vendetta, I love the Guy Fawkes moment at the end, when everything representative of the ruling tyrannical government …


What’s in the Rest of My Bags and Why – Part 2, by D.D. in Arizona

This is the conclusion of a two-part article. Part 1 was posted on August 30th. Main Compartment The part number of my bugout bag — a Direct Action Messenger Bag — is BG-MSGM-CD5. I like the new approach of these bags to line the inside with the loop part of Velcro® and then just stick everything inside at whatever angle and arrangement you prefer. I used three different methods to attach the gear: Vertx makes a thing named the MAK Band – very helpful for the pepper sprays and holding Glock magazines. Self-adhesive strips of hook material on the lighter …


Using Grid-Tied PV Panels as a Starter System – Part 1, by St. Funogas

I enjoyed JWR’s recent article titled A Retreat Locale Selection Criteria Update. The updated information for 2022 is especially relevant. Who could have guessed we’d be at the point we’ve arrived at so quickly in the past two and a half years? The covid scamdemic and the blowback from the Russian sanctions alone are enough to make anyone realize we’re rapidly approaching Niagara Falls in our little inflatable kayak. Hopefully, the article will inspire some of the fence sitters to hop over to the get-out-of-Dodge side and make their wish come true instead of holding on so dearly to the …