Category: Field Gear

“So Tell Me Again…”- Part 2, by M.P.

After a year-and-a-half using the mason jars and oxygen absorbers I did another test. In every category it was like I had dehydrated yesterday. The food had good flavor, nice texture, and little to no recognizable difference between fresh, so the system was clearly working. Take-away #4. Another valuable lesson was in the rehydrating process. I found that none of the typical recommendations of two, three, or four hours soaking was sufficient to bring vegetables back up to full hydration. Twelve to twenty–four hours gave an almost undetectable difference to their original state. Broccoli oddly enough took the longest, coming …


Letter Re: Wounding Patterns

Aloha HJL, I have a response to the post from 30 July 2016 regarding the wounding patterns of civilian public mass shooting (CPMS) events versus military wounding patterns. ShepherdFarmerGeek sent this in, and it is fantastic to review anything regarding survivability in the coming times. I agree with the last line: “Time to reevaluate the preps and training.” That should be a daily occurrence for every one of us! But, I respectfully disagree with the view that “…we may be training and prepping wrong…”. I read the article and was somewhat surprised by the data revealed; though I think 12 …


Letter: Charity and Red Dot Sights

Dear Editor, We had a line of storms blow through with extraordinarily strong winds, blowing trees down over multiple counties. We were blessed to have family, friends, and a church member help clean up the limbs and fallen tree on the family place. When lunch time came, I had to run to the store and get some food to feed everybody. This gave me a great idea: Along with the food you put back, include a portion for one or two meals for around ten people, so that you can feed whoever comes to help out. A spaghetti dinner for …


Letter Re: Wifi At a Discrete Distance

It’s better to find an adapter with antenna port. This is a high-powered single-band adapter or a dual band (I’d recommend the 5Ghz band if possible, but it is still a bit rare) with RP-SMA connection. Then add a good antenna; the omni is probably equal to the Yagi. If there isn’t interference and is dual band but this Yagi will pull in from a longer distance. If you can get two and get a connector, you can put it “in the middle” like in a tree and point one at the source and one where you are using it, …


Letter Re: Wounding Patterns

My disagreement with this report is more on the reasons behind rather than the method of the training. I believe in self care first, then buddy aid, then medics (EMTs), and then the hospitals. Prepping needs to hit all of these levels in regards to supplies and training. If the conclusion of the report is that tourniquets are not useful in an active shooter situation, then I think civilian medical training might have lost the reason the military emphasizes the tourniquet in its training. This report states the current medical training emphasis on hemorrhage control for civilians is over-rated in …


Letter Re: Sodium Hypochlorite Liquid

Dear Hugh, I recently came across some Sodium Hypochlorite liquid at the big orange box store. It is 10% solution for swimming pools. It is packaged in one gallon plastic containers with two bottles to the box. The regular price was eight or ten dollars but they had it on clearance for $1.83. I have seen people talk about using this stuff in powder form for purifying water and I’m wondering if the liquid will work the same or if it is too hazardous and troublesome to store and maintain. It says 13oz per 10,000 gallons of water will give …


Two Letters Re: Review of the Sawyer Filter

HJL, I have seen these filters sold with different components, bells, and whistles and have bought three different types. One package features components that allow you to gravity feed the water from a plastic food grade bucket through the filter and into a storage container. I have this set up ready to go now, if and when it is needed. The narrative on the packaging suggests that if this filter is used on an overseas mission trip it could be left behind for use by the native people. That’s a nice humanitarian touch. There was no mention that these filters …


Lessons From the Oklahoma Ice Storm of 2006, by Dr. Prepper

What I have found most useful from many useful articles on SurvivalBlog are the ones that honestly deal with personal experiences of stressful events, for example, those who have gone through hurricanes, floods, other natural storms, or man-made events. While it is useful from a planning perspective to speculate how things might be in an event that changes the world for us, there is nothing like learning from other’s experiences and what they thought went well and not so well. My family and I discovered first hand the value of preparation as well as the cost of the lack of …


Mesh Networks, Digital Radio, EMP, and Metal Buildings, Oh My!, by R.V.

We are working on a grass roots Internet style network at my radio club. As I am a very curious fellow, I am currently reading Wireless Networking in the Developing World, which is a free ebook. This book, of which I am 1/3 of the way through reading, seems to exercise every possibility in connecting these wireless routers. The pros and cons of various management strategies and switching tactics are exhaustively discussed. Sources and software are named, making it a great reference. What got me started is the Ham Radio version of this, which is described online, which is a …


Letter Re: Reloading

Hugh, I have been a hand loader for 30 years. The test load technique described by S.B. was shown to me by a retired gentleman that long ago. Like S.B., I had a rifle that would not accurately shoot factory ammo. Using hand loaded ammo that was tuned to that rifle, it delivered groups just over 1 inch at 100 yards. I’ve used hundreds of these loads over time. When I pull the trigger I expect that round to go off as planned. I expect the bullet to land very near where the crosshairs were when the gun went off. …


Escape from New York- Part 2, by Ragnar

Evaluation In the after action review, I realized there were a lot of things I learned and will do differently in the future: The small almost empty bug out bag approach worked great, but there were a few items I had room for that would have been game changers in the event something happened. In the event I have to survive with just the bag and its contents, I have since added a few items. The first thing I added was a small water filter (like a Sawyer mini). Water is key, and this was a big thing to have …


Letter Re: Monitor Your Preps!

HJL, When it came time for the 6 month change-out of my emergency water, what a surprise to find how light the jugs felt! Both of my Reliance Products Desert Patrol 6 Gallon Traditional Jeep Style Rigid Water Containers had sprung leaks. Slow leaks, so I didn’t notice in my dry cool basement, but both were half empty. Okay, out they go! Then checking my Reliance Products Aqua-Tainer 7 Gallon Rigid Water Containers, one of them was light too, having sprung a leak some time in the not-too-distant past. One had a leak near the top from having the other …


Reloading Ammunition For WTSHF- Part 2, by S.B.

Having removed the spent primer, you now need to insert a new one. There are specialty tools available for this, as well as attachments to do this on your press. How your particular setup will work depends entirely on what equipment you buy, but all methods insert a new primer into the primer pocket in the base of the brass case. Exactly which primer you need depends on your cases. For example, some 45 ACP cases use small pistol primers, and some use large pistol primers. Your specific round formula ca be found in your reloading manual (e.g. standard or …



Reloading Ammunition For WTSHF- Part 1, by S.B.

First off, let me say that I am very grateful to have SurvivalBlog. Over the years, I have learned so much from the accumulated wisdom of the writers and the administrators. I felt that it was time to give back to this community, so I decided to share what I have learned over many years of reloading my own ammunition for rifle and pistol, while being conscious of both budget and space/OPSEC concerns. Please believe that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars or have a 1000-square-foot shop dedicated to reloading in order to produce your own high-quality reloads …