Category: Field Gear

The Well-Balanced Gun Collection

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A topic that comes up in more than half of my consulting calls, is firearms. Most survivalists gravitate toward guns for obvious reasons. If anything, SurvivalBlog could surely be labelled a “guns and groceries” oriented blog, and most of our readers are like-minded. We tend to have large gun collections. We aren’t entirely gun-centric, but our concept of preparedness includes owning guns and having full proficiency in their use. The greatest difficulty vis-a-vis guns for those in our community is not hand-wringing about whether or not we should own them. We’ll leave that pseudo-question up to the leftists. Rather, our …


Jeep Shovel, by Pat Cascio

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I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have some kind of compact shovel in my vehicles. Some are better than others. Today, we’re taking a close look at the “Jeep Shovel” from Major Surplus. It is quite the little tool. Haunting Army-Navy Surplus Stores When I Was a Kid I grew up haunting army-navy surplus stores back in Chicago, IL when I was a kid. I could, and I did, easily spend hours and hours in those stores. Two, in particular, were just a couple of blocks away from one another in downtown Chicago, so it was easy visiting …


Backup Power, A Review by KS

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Backup power for when the grid goes down or you have to bug out should be an important part of everyone’s prepping plan. For some, that power supply might be more important than others, especially those with medical conditions. Those might be people on dialysis, CPAP machines, or any other health-related electrical pieces of equipment. Then, there’s the obvious short-term food storage issue we think about relating to our refrigerators and freezers. Long-term uses might include recharging batteries, running Ham radio equipment, et cetera. Real Options For Backup Power For many years, the only real option for backup power was …


Concealing Handguns, by Pat Cascio

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Carrying concealed is no easy task, if don’t do it properly. We’re taking a close look at some clothing and accessories today that aids in concealing your handgun on a daily basis. Conceal With The Best, Not Necessarily Easiest I’ve always looked for the best, not necessarily easiest, method of carrying a handgun concealed, as most of the work I’ve done in law enforcement and in private security/private investigations have called for working in “soft clothes” rather than a uniform of any type. I’ve lost track of the number of times over the years I’ve spotted a “concealed” handgun on …


Smoke Grenades – Any Utility?, by T. in Virginia

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I’ve participated in a few discussions recently about the utility, if any, of smoke grenades and similar devices to an average person, or even a reasonably trained and equipped prepper, in a SHTF situation. There are certainly some valid points to both sides of the arguments. So, this short article is intended to share a few thoughts to help SurvivalBlog readers make up their own minds. Smoke grenade use generally falls into two areas— signaling or obscuration. Large scale smoke, such as from vehicle-mounted or stationary military-style generators, can also have other applications that are beyond the intended scope of …


Maxxeon Work Star Jr. and Cyclops Work Lights, by Pat Cascio

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If you have a need for some extra light when working on cars, firearms, or just about anything, we have tested two outstanding portable light sources– the Maxxeon Work Start Jr. and the Cyclops. We are covering both in this article. Portable Lights We have come a long, long, long way, when it comes to portable lights. It wasn’t all that long ago that we had a two cell, D battery, inexpensive, plastic flashlight. While these were barely okay when it came to lighting things up, they fell far short of what we have today in the way of portable …


Common Sense Preparation, by D.A.

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Over the years, I have become frustrated with my tribe’s lack of preparation progress. We need common sense preparation. After much reading on the subject, I realized there was no way our budget would support hard-core disaster prepping. This caused me to review our current state of readiness for the most likely threats we would face. The result of this review was that we were not making the best use of the resources we already had in place. In fact, until this review, we were unaware of resources already in place for which no money was spent to acquire. The …


The Family Stockpiles: Everything in Its Place and a Place for Everything

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I’ve been a prepper now for more than 40 years. The good news is that there hasn’t been a major nationwide crisis, and that means that I’ve only had to break out my gear for localized/minor emergencies and family crises. And the food that we’ve gardened and bought in bulk has meant that we’ve enjoyed substantially lower food costs. (Not to mention less processed food additives.) But the bad news is that I own a home that is now almost too well stocked. First, some background on our situation: The Rawles Ranch is comfortably remote. It is nearly a 20 …


A Portable Water Distiller- Part 2, by JMD

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Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a portable water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources. In this article, I outlined my objectives for a distiller and now am writing how I built one. So far, in part 1, I have provided a materials list and provided the first few steps, which included …


A Portable Water Distiller- Part 1, by JMD

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Water is arguably one of the, if not the, most critical element to survival. Recent history has shown us that clean water is almost always one of the first items to become unavailable after a disaster. A Water Distiller To Handle Salt Water As Well Fresh Water Since I live within a day’s walk of the Atlantic Ocean and occasionally camp near the shore, I wanted to make a water distiller that could handle salt water as well as some of the more contaminated fresh water sources. My requirements were: Portable It should be portable. So that means that it …


Getting Home Long Distance in the Event of An EMP/Solar Flare- Part 3, by B.M.

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A recent trip 900 miles from home got me to thinking about what I’d face if the EMP/Solar Flare hit while I was that far away. As a result, I began making plans and thinking through the details of getting back home when that far from home and alone. This is the final part of this article series. The Daily Grind Every activity throughout the day should be focused on securing food, water, and shelter. You are in hunter-gatherer mode, and you need to behave accordingly, if you are going to make it. Pay Attention To Your Feet Pay particular …


Getting Home Long Distance in the Event of An EMP/Solar Flare- Part 2, by B.M.

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A recent trip 900 miles from home got me to thinking about what I’d face if the EMP/Solar Flare hit while I was that far away. As a result, I began making plans and thinking through the details of getting back home when that far from home and alone. I’ve gone over the scenario and also how to travel without a vehicle, by bicycle or walking. Now, let’s get into some more details. Clothing What clothing is needed will be unique to your locale. In my case, I traveled in convertible cargo shorts/pants, Merrill hiking shoes, good sturdy socks, underwear …


Getting Home Long Distance in the Event of An EMP/Solar Flare- Part 1, by B.M.

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I recently had to travel approximately 900 miles by vehicle, due to a family emergency. I was gone for ten days. The drive was easy and uneventful. It covered hundreds of miles of open, rural terrain, but I also traveled through two massive urban metropolises’ and multiple intermediate sized cities. That trip got me to thinking about what I’d face if the EMP/Solar Flare hit while I was that far away from home. I spent the better part of 13 hours each way observing the terrain and thinking about what I would do if it happened. Where would I stay? …


Letter: Problem Running Multiple Generators

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HJL: I hope this finds you well. I had an interesting event last week. Some critter chewed through one of my home power leads. (We have underground cable.) This caused half the house to go dark. Mostly, the part that was out was the part that runs my refrigeration. I hooked up one Honda EU2000 to the transfer switch. Two refrigerators only drew 400 watts. Nothing thawed, which was very good news. The power company was out that evening with a temporary fix and had a new cable run by noon the next day. Easy. I also rolled my Whynter …


Getting Home In The Event Of An EMP- Part 2, by B.M.

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We are looking at what might be required if you are working in the city a great distance from your family’s home. My scenario is that I work 50 miles away, which would require a two day walk. I’ve already talked through the basics of day one, which is focusing on getting as far as possible while being the Gray Man. Now, let’s look at what might happen next. Overnight and Day Two So, you have had a fortunate day. You’ve covered 30 miles, but you are exhausted. You’ve eaten once; you are sweaty, tired, worried, and it is getting …