Category: Investing/Barter

Letter Re: Trading Post or General Store

Jim: While keeping your profile low at the beginning of TEOTWAWKI makes perfect sense during the time period if and when the bandits and masses are looting. Once the dust settles, and the survivors begin to recreate a semblance of civilization, then the trading post, and it’s natural evolution, the general store will come into being. 1.) If you are in a remote location, you may not be well-suited to running such an enterprise, but if location permits then consider the benefits of providing this service. Consider also that as a SurvivalBlog reader, you already likely have a base of …


Letter Re: Purchasing Modern Firearms Without a Paper Trail

My Rawles, I am recently new to your SurvivalBlog web site. I have thoroughly enjoyed trying to catch up and read the thousands of posts. While I have always felt the need to be prepared for any eventuality, I have recently began more intensive preparations up on food, ammo, water and learning every thing (like making soap) that I can. I have grown up around guns and hunting my entire life. Of the four guns that I have, 12 gauge, 16 gauge, .22 [rimfire] rifle and 9 mm pistol, I have only purchased one myself: the 9mm pistol. The other …


Letter Re: Advice on Construction a Hiding Place for Precious Metals in a Home

Jim, After being scared Schumerless by the potential US economy meltdown and reading various related posts on SurvivalBlog, I finally took the plunge and purchased some junk silver coins. Since I plan to store these at home rather than a bank safe deposit box (because of potential accessibility problems), would you please recommend a strategy for storage. I’m assuming a small, somewhat hidden, safe bolted to the floor/wall would be reasonable. Any recommendations? Thanks, – Russ S. JWR Replies: Unless you already own a large home vault–such as a gun vault–I recommend that you construct one or more secret caches …


Letter Re: Advice on .308 Enfields Versus AKs for Barter/Charity

Mr. Rawles: I am writing concerning the letter in which the gentlemen suggested using Enfield 2A Ishapores for Barter/Charity. In my opinion, you would be better off buying an SKS than an Enfield 2A Carbine. The SKS is cheaper at $179.95 (at AIM Surplus) compared to the Enfield at $229.95, and it comes with a bayonet. The SKS can be easily modified to accept 30rd magazines which are easily available, whereas the Enfield is limited to 10 rounds and the magazines are hard to come by. I have not been impressed with the ProMag Enfield 2A magazines. None of the …


Letter Re: Ammunition Prices in the Future?

Dear Mr. Rawles, When it comes to ordering ammo, I have had excellent experiences with the folks at Century [International] Arms. While their selection has narrowed down a little lately, Century has one feature that few can match: a $7.50 flat shipping fee for ammo and guns. I have literally ordered 200 pounds of ammo from them and the shipping was only $7.50. Since ammo is essentially lead (one of the heaviest things going) shipping has always been a big issue. That $25 can of ammo from a dealer in Arizona isn’t such a great deal when it costs $30 …


A Full Scale U.S. Dollar Panic Before November?

The news wires were abuzz last week about the global credit squeeze. Bankers are unwilling to make loans when they can’t calculate risk. What risk? Here is a big one: Many of their clients have derivatives exposure, which means that lenders can no longer calculate their credit worthiness. In the banking world, the standard “safe” answer to any loan question in the absence of data is almost universally no. I surmise that if this situation gets any worse, governments may step in and make loan guarantees. (Meaning that the taxpayers would shoulder the risk instead of the bankers.) That may …


Letter Re: Ammunition Prices in the Future?

Sir: I have pondered your recent posts about stocking up on ammo. I’ve decided to spend $6,000–the same that I spent last year on storage food, a wheat grinder, and heirloom gardening seeds–to buy some ammunition to squirrel away. That will pretty well tap out all of my available cash. I’ll mainly be buying mil surplus rifle ammo (.223, 7.62×39 and .308) plus some civilian pistol ammo–mostly .45 auto, for my two Glock 21s and my Glock 30. But I’m also taking your advice from a post earlier this year and buying 300 rounds of .40 S&W, even though I …


Letter Re: Ammunition Prices in the Future?

Jim, I followed the link today about ammo production declines. Do you have any idea how this may effect pricing to the public? I hear from some folks that they expect ammo prices to drop as more of the stockpile hits the market after the (hopeful) end of hostilities in Iraq, et cetera. I wondered if you had an opinion of how things may evolve. Thanks, – Jason in Idaho JWR Replies: I expect ammo prices to remain high, and in fact continue to climb as long as global commodities prices–especially copper and lead–remain high. The world’s credit markets are …


Letter Re: Computers – A Cache of Spare Parts For Your Guns

Greetings, As the British would say, it was one of those rare moments of ‘serendipity,’ but I was watching “The Postman” the other night on cable [television], and decided to field strip and clean a couple of rifles while doing so. As I was reassembling my CAR-15 in particular, I told my wife, as I charged the bolt – and felt everything moving as it should in a rightly reassembled firearm – that, “guns are a lot like computers these days – either you put them (back) together the right way, or they simply won’t work at all.” The very …


Ethical Preparedness for WTSHTF, by SF in Hawaii

What (if anything) are you willing to kill for post-SHTF? To consider this question, first let’s start with a quote on justifiable homicide from Wikipedia: Under early Athenian law, it was considered justifiable homicide to kill an adulterer caught in the act or a burglar caught in the act at night… in eighteenth century English law , it was considered a justifiable homicide if a husband killed a man “ravishing” or raping his wife (Blackstone, Wm. at p. 391), but modern law treats this as only a circumstance that will mitigate murder to a conviction for manslaughter . In other …


Cutlery Considerations for TEOTWAWKI, by Gage

In a post-TEOTWAWKI environment many of the services we take for granted now will be nonexistent. We will be growing or own produce, butchering our own livestock, cooking our own food, performing our own minor surgeries and protecting or own lives. We will have to rely on our own skills, knowledge and equipment. Of all the tools available to humans none has more importance than a wide selection of cutlery. History has revealed to us six simple machines that revolutionized the world: the wheel, the lever, the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, and the wedge. As you may have …


Letter Re: Why Gold and Silver Investing? Will They Have Utility for Barter?

Hello Rawles Family, First off let me say thanks for all the work y’all have put into sharing the knowledge you have. It has opened many eyes and caused may to be saved in the event something really does happen, I’m sure. I have recently started preparing for several types of emergencies and one of them is the collapse of the American dollar. I have seen several times that you suggest pre-1965 [silver] coins, and gold coins. They are a good item to have in this situations but I continually find myself asking “Why?”. My position on this is, people …


Letter Re: Greenspan, Gold, and the Safe Store of Value

Dear Mr. Rawles, Regarding the use of gold as a store of value, it’s important to realize that gold often functions as a fiat currency. It does have intrinsic value for jewelry, electronics, rust-proofing, and some chemistry applications but the vast majority of its value comes from the shared expectation that people will accept it as being valuable in the future. The only difference from fiat dollars is that it’s harder – but not impossible – to increase or decrease the gold monetary supply, and that supply isn’t controlled by any government. In a disaster situation things get even worse, …


Letter Re: Hand Tools–Their Importance, and Sources

Mr. Rawles: In yesterday’s blog, you mentioned that bolt cutters are important to have available. This reminds me of something that my father always taught me: There is no such thing as “wasting” money on tools. With maybe a few exceptions, you can never have too many [tools], because you can use the extra ones as barterables or to pass on to your kids. A lot of things can be improvised, but proper tools can’t [be improvised]. As a prepper, I have a big assortment of tools, mostly hand type. I do have some power [tools], but I consider those …


Letter Re: Confusion About Ban Markings on Rifle Magazines

Mr. Rawles: I was at a gun show last weekend, stocking up on ammo and magazines. A dealer had some original [Ruger] Mini-14 magazines (made at the factory, in white boxes) that were marked “restricted for law enforcement use..” or somesuch, stamped right into the body of the magazine. I also saw some Beretta M92 magazines with a whole bunch of the same kind of “thou shalt not…” small print. I thought that the [Federal] magazine ban had expired. I’m confused here. Could I get in trouble with my local police if I buy magazines with these marks? Thanks, – …