Category: Hunting

Letter Re: Purchasing an Antique Firearms Battery

Jim: Just in case laws change, and I must bury my collection of [modern] guns [to avoid registration or confiscation], then what do you recommend me buying for an “above ground collection” of 1898 and earlier guns? I’m assuming that they’ll still be unregulated [in the United States]. That is a great exception in the law, I think! My thanks to you in advance, sir. – G.K.B. JWR Replies: These are my recommendations for the most practical and affordable Pre-1899 guns, at the present time: Finnish Model 1939 Mosin-Nagant rifles built on hexagonal Pre-1899-dated actions. (They re dated on the …


Letter Re: The Limited Practicality of Primitive Weapons

Dear James: I was interested to read the comments on atlatls in yesterday’s post “Getting Prepared: From the Homestead to Living Off the Land”. By way of background, I’ve been interested in atlatls since an anthropology course in junior college, and a couple of months ago bought an atlatl from Bob Berg at Thunderbird Atlatls. All the points mentioned on atlatls by the writer are true; they are simple to make (my 11-year-old nephew made his own out of scrap lumber in about twenty minutes after seeing mine), and making darts is merely an exercise in scaling arrows up, although …


Getting Prepared: From the Homestead to Living Off the Land

Introduction I currently do not fall in the category of the less than 1% of the population that can afford the real possibility of a “retreat” on 40+ acres, based on a Rawlesian criteria. However, I do have a solid brick house on 1.5 acres in a rural area on the southern plains. For the immediate future this will have to serve as my permanent abode. I have always had an interest in outdoor survival skills, and have lived, vacationed, and worked for extended periods of time in isolated outdoor camps while working “in the bush” with limited modern comforts. These …


Letter Re: Miniature Survival Kits Inside Gun Stocks

Hello James, I’ve read your blog daily for several months now, and although I haven’t seen it mentioned, I’m sure this topic has been covered somewhere before. If not, then I hope what I discovered this week could be of use to some of your readers. I recently acquired a large lot of old shotguns and rifles, stored for many years, which needed a full breakdown and rigorous cleaning. When I removed the buttplates of these firearms, I noticed that almost all of them had a 5/8″ to 3/4″ hole running from the middle of the stock toward the receiver, …


Letter Re: Combination Guns for Hunting

James Wesley: In response to the letter asking about combination guns, I do recommend having one. I have a Savage 24C .22 LR / 20 Gauge that I take hunting more than any other gun I have. Where I live in North Carolina, I can and have taken any game that is in my area. From deer using OO buck or slugs, birds, rabbits, or any small game using birdshot or the .22 rimfire barrel. I would not be afraid of using the 20 gauge barrel on black bear either, if I had too in an emergency. When hunting, I …


Letter Re: Combination Guns for Hunting?

Jim, In reading your article on choosing survival guns I noticed that you have a Savage Model 24F listed. Do you have any experience or opinions on the Valmet 412 ST, with barrels for 12 gauge and .30-06? I want to buy one but did not know if it would be a good choice for putting on the list for survival guns. Thank you ,- John JWR Replies: Combination guns are quite useful for areas where you have the opportunity to do both big game and bird hunting on the same hunt. There is many a time that I’ve been …


Product Review: The Quest for a Truly Practical Rifle Sling, by CT in Texas

Over the last four years I’ve bought at least eight rifle slings. From the over the shoulder slings (which do not keep the weapon anywhere near ready) to complicated tactical slings. A year or two ago I ordered the “end all be all” of Tactical slings at the recommendation of a sales associate, then got it home and have had a hard time working that thing. It was complicated and I could not get it to work as described. Frankly, in a SHTF situation, I probably would have hog-tied myself with it, leaving myself bound, gagged and defenseless in the …


Two Letters Re: The Ishapore 2A1: A Budget Battle Rifle

James, The Ishapore Enfield in .308 is still being built today in India. It is common to see local police carry them (rather than a pistol) as they also use them for crowd control (butt stroke). I picked up three of these rifles many years ago when they were first being imported into the US and they are my standard truck gun these days. While I have several M14 variants and a whole host of AR variants, the $89 I paid for each of these rifles makes them cheap enough that if I lose one (if my truck gets broken …


The Ishapore 2A1: A Budget Battle Rifle, by JIR

1

For budget preppers, I think the Enfield bolt action rifle is an excellent choice for a main battle rifle. Most of them are British weapons chambered for .303, which is an obsolete caliber. I don’t recommend a .303 weapon, but it would be perfectly adequate if you could get ammunition. A better choice is the Ishapore 2A1 rifle. It’s a redesigned Lee Enfield SMLE Mk III (one of the best rifles ever issued to an army) but chambered for 7.62×51 (7.62 NATO) and has a 10 or 12 round magazine. (The later production 2A1s have a 12 round magazine. Mine …


Normal Disasters, by Blane

I live in the suburbs of our nation’s capitol and of course I want to keep myself and family safe, so I have taken steps to mitigate and eliminate the dangers of my area. My challenge for a while was getting my new bride on-board with my preparations. She thought my supplies, guns and gear were “weird” and she chalked it up to my military experience and largely ignored it. If anyone else has a similar problem getting buy-in on prepping from their partners they may find this useful, it sure works better than arguing. As Mr. Miyagi said in …


A Preparedness Plan for a Single Woman With Children

I’ve been reading SurvivalBlog for almost a year.  I am thankful for the advice that I receive each day.  I have had a “be prepared” attitude for about 30 years, although the past two years have thrown several speed bumps and roadblocks my way.  Two years ago my son and his family were in a life threatening accident.  I spent almost every penny I had saved toward retirement to help my daughter-in-law recover.  This year I fought for and won custody of three of my grandchildren from my daughter.  So now, instead of planning for TEOTWAWKI for just myself, a …


Letter Re: The Bosnian Experience, Part 2

Sir: The next thing that I would like to cover is mode of transportation. When the society collapses more likely you will have to leave your home. Having a 4×4 vehicle that is equipped with everything that you need to survive would be everyone’s choice for travel but that sometimes might not be possible. In the broken society there is no law. Everyone and everybody is a target. Traveling in the vehicle on the road or off the road is extremely risky. First, vehicles make noise and everyone can hear you. Second, vehicles are big and they can be seen. …


Letter Re: The Bosnian Experience

Mr. Rawles, I want to thank you for having this site and presenting people with opportunity two obtain useful information that could save their lives one day. I have been dedicated reader of your blogs for some time and now think that is my time to contribute some information instead of just reading it. I have survived through collapse of former Yugoslavia and the years of war that followed after. I will try to cover as much of different topics that pertain to every day survival. No matter on how much the person is prepared, it might not be enough. …


Letter Re: Why I Began to Prepare

James Wesley, In September 2008 a chain of events began which got me thinking about food storage and survival. Living in a small bedroom community to a moderately large city we’ve always had food, water and electricity, except for an occasional day or so when we have a storm. However things changed when Hurricane Ike rolled through the Ohio Valley (along the Ohio river). We had power outages and destruction city-wide of the magnitude of what you would normally see from a tornado that hits part of the town. But in this case a city of 1.5 million was without …


Two Letters Re: How to Capitalize on Urine, Car Batteries, Wood Ashes, Bones and Bird Schumer

Jim: Car batteries are designed for one thing and one thing only – delivering a bunch of power for a very short period of time. Said time is measured in seconds, not minutes, hours, or days. I have been living “Off the Grid” for fifteen years, and can assure your readers that vehicle batteries can only handle 3-5 complete discharges before they are useless, i.e., after but a few discharges they cannot be recharged and expected to hold said charge. Ergo, they are the wrong choice for any task where discharge exceeds the constant charging input into the battery. They …