Category: Field Gear

Average American Preparation Begins, by C.H.

I am writing this article to inform other average Americans of how I began prepping, in hopes that my suggestions will be helpful for those who are just beginning. I began prepping after watching numerous shows on the National Geographic channel in connection with current news channels. Recognizing that America is vulnerable in several aspects (i.e. our power grid, internal terrorists, and weather events), I began to visualize how unprepared my family and I were in the event of a national emergency. Now you may be saying to yourself “in the event of an emergency, our government will take care …


Letter Re: Rope Making

Hugh, The recent article on making rope by using plastic bags falls into the whole rope making category. A while back, when I still had animals, I made rope every day, a foot or two at a time, while feeding them their grain. I used the twine from the hay bales and made 8 or 10 strand flat braids. I regularly made 50 and 100 foot long ropes that I still use. They are as strong as a similar manila rope; I have pulled a car on the road with one. Learning how to braid flat braids is a skill …


Letter: Manning an LP/OP with Hearing Acuity

HJL, I made an interesting discovery. While I have good night vision for use in my LPOP, when I did a test run this weekend, I took my Howard Leight headphones with me to see how much “Audio Augmentation” would help in my ability to “hear before I see”. I was stunned! With the volume turned up, I am getting an easy 10 Db gain in audio sensitivity and this is as if someone turned on an audio floodlight. I could detect soft conversations 500′ away that were not detectable without the headphone. I heard many small animals that were …


How to Make a Rope Out of Plastic Bags, by Zac T.

Here’s a little about me. I am a graduate student striving towards my Master’s in Public Health, which means I spend most of my time studying infectious diseases, what food people need during emergencies, and how to fight bioterrorism. When I am not pondering these problems, I enjoy backpacking, lifting weights, and growing bell peppers. You wander from aisle to aisle, flashlight in hand, down what used to be your local tool supply store. When the first case showed up over the mountain about three months ago, most of the stores in town were looted pretty heavily. This place is …


Scot’s Product Review: Brass Stacker Products for the Mosin Nagant

I recently reviewed the Russian Mosin Nagant 91/30 bolt action rifle, and while I really like the old rifle, I did see some problems with using it in today’s world. Fortunately, there are so many of them out there these days that there is a market for improving them and some savvy folks stepping up to the chore. The thing I really hated was the safety, but I doubt if the Russian Army ever had the same concerns that we have today about negligent discharges. While the safety is effective, it is very difficult to apply and release. You have …


Taking Care of Your Feet When the SHTF, by J.C.

One January when I was a Boy Scout, my troop and I went camping in Missouri to participate in an event known as “Trappers’ Rendezvous,” an annual gathering of around 6,000 Boy Scouts to trade (almost) anything, from folding knives and rabbit pelts to books and video games. This was an experience I’m very grateful to have had, as I learned not only a lot about bartering (something every serious survivalist should learn) but also a lot about caring for my extremities in cold weather. The thing about Missouri in the winter is…it’s cold! Now that I live in Colorado, …


Slimming Down, by Dan from Alaska

No, this is not an article on weight loss, though it should be; I need to take off a bunch of pounds. It’s more about how I readjusted my lifestyle and budget after a loss of a paycheck. Both my wife and I have been working steadily since our teens, and I consider us to not be rich, per se, but in the comfortably middle class. We have been married for the past 10 years, and we both met each other at work. That is when I first heard the moniker, DINK– Dual Income No Kids. As I stated, we …


Survival To Go, by JMD – Part 2

In my checked bag, when flying, I put a small zippered case that contains: A Gerber Folding Sheath Knife, which is a good trade-off between size/weight and capability. I’ve found that most people (LEOs in particular) tend to be a lot less suspicious of folding knives than fixed-blade ones. A Boker Plus Credit Card Knife. I put this in my pocket if I’m going out for an evening and I can’t bring my EDC kit, because it’s completely unobtrusive in a front pocket. It’s not necessarily the most robust knife in the world, but it’s the same size as a …


Letter: A Few Comments

Hello Hugh, I just wanted to pass on that the article you posted on Monday, the 27th, ER Doctor: What Scares Me Even More Than Ebola, made the rounds amongst the nurses, doctors, and some of the EMTs in the mid-sized hospital emergency room where I work, and every single person that read it was in total agreement that it was the most sound and well thought-out plan for dealing with wide spread pandemic infectious disease, whether Ebola or what ever the next wave might be. I have my doubts about it being taken to heart and applied nationally, but …


Survival To Go, by JMD – Part 1

Many of us have invested in learning the skills, stockpiling the tools and supplies, and hiding the caches necessary to survive in the event of a major disaster that impacts our local area, but the reality is that these types of events happen around the world on a daily basis. While skills are useful anywhere and anytime, the best stores and caches are useless if you’re hundreds or even thousands of miles away when a disaster strikes in your current location! While developing my survival strategy, I realized that I had a major gap– I travel a lot on business, …


Ebola Unafraid: A Preliminary Ebola Treatment Protocol, by ShepherdFarmerGeek – Part 1

In a few days my former-Navy-nurse daughter will fly out to help stand up a brand new 100-bed treatment facility for the International Rescue Committee in Liberia. Ebola is not a theoretical threat anymore. Now it’s personal. My daughter has always loved being in the thick of things and has been fascinated with Ebola since childhood. Now, in just a matter of days, she will walk into a room filled with sick and dying Ebola patients, and all her training, grit, and compassion will be tested. She will eventually come home on a rotation and be under medical isolation here, …


Scot’s Product Review: Hatsan Model 125 Sniper Vortex Air Rifle

For the prepper, air rifles offer quiet shooting that can be done for hunting, pest control, or practice. Quiet is always good. While these guns do make noise, it is a lot less than virtually all non-suppressed firearms. The sound signature is different as well; they sound more like an air nailer or stapler than a gun. They also can cost less to shoot, since you are just buying pellets and not a cartridge case, primer, and powder. There is even a chap in England selling kits to make your own pellets http://airgunpelletmaker.weebly.com/ , if you want more independence. When …


Meat Prices Soar While Deer Populations Explode, by KAW

This headline could sum up a multitude of news reports over the last few years. Droughts and severe winters have left the United States beef herd size at a 63-year low. In response, beef prices have increased steadily with hamburger topping $4 a pound this year. Pork prices have jumped due to porcine epidemic diarrhea that has killed millions of baby pigs. Inflation, a growing human population, and a higher demand for meat in emerging economies also contribute to ever-increasing meat prices. Ironically, America’s deer herd has exploded in the last 30 years. The deer population in North America when the Europeans …


Identifying and Protecting Yourself and Your Family Against Hazardous Chemical Materials Incidents, by a Marine in Missouri – Part 2

There are many different levels of protection out there. Military gear is specifically designed for CWAs. There are three general levels of protective equipment– level A, level B, and level C. Military gear is somewhere in between level B and C because it is designed for specific chemicals. Level A gear is fully encapsulated, typically a chemical-resistant plastic suit with a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) or provided air through a pressurized air system and a hose. This provides both splash and total vapor protection. However, the downfalls to this nearly complete protection are: It is cumbersome to wear, Depending …


Identifying and Protecting Yourself and Your Family Against Hazardous Chemical Material Incidents, by a Marine in Missouri – Part 1

We live in a society that depends on hazardous materials to create the technological wonders and comforts we expect for everyday life. Whether you take your kids to a swimming pool or drink any sort of city water, you knowingly or unknowingly depend on large amounts of chlorine to ensure the water is safe. Anywhere there is a mechanic shop there are chemicals required to lubricate, clean, and repair materials; some of those chemicals are potentially dangerous or deadly. As you drive down the highway you see thousands of semi-trucks carting loads of materials that could be more deadly than …