Category: Investing/Barter

Emergency Preparedness for the Frugal Beginner, by Paratrooper John

The incredibly large volume of information available regarding emergency preparedness and survival is both wonderful and terrible at the same time.  There’s enough information to keep an enthusiast occupied for years and enough information to keep beginners away for the rest of their lives. It can be a very daunting task for a new or inexperienced person to try and decide where and how to begin.  Should a beginner attend survival training, have a year’s supply of food, have their home hooked up with backup generators, move to the country, live off the grid and have stockpiles of firearms with …


Pat’s Product Review: U.S. Tactical Supply

For much of my adult life, I’ve lived in rural areas – and I prefer it that way. Even now, I live halfway between two small towns in Oregon, and I don’t especially enjoy going to town for much of anything. I prefer to do a lot of mail-order shopping for many things I need or want. Over the years, I’ve been disappointed in many mail-order companies, their products and their customer service. I’ve done a lot of mail-order shopping from one particular company for the past 15-years or so, and that company is CDNN Sports and they have excellent …


Letter Re: Survival Aspects of Cartridge Reloading

Jim: In a recent article, Jerry M. mentioned: “One more thing worth mentioning is the small rifle and small pistol primers are the same size cups, same as the large rifle and large pistol primers are the same size. The cups on the pistol primers are a little thinner than the rifle, for obvious reasons, most rifle firing pins hit a lot harder than pistols do. I have used rifle primers in pistol rounds, and they seem to work fine. You might run into problems on S&W revolvers, using rifle primers, if you have the spring tension screw backed off …


Survival Aspects of Cartridge Reloading, by Jerry M.

Having spent my teenage years in my dad’s commercial reloading shop, circa 1955 to1958, I learned quite a bit about reloading ammunition. Back then we loaded mostly .30-06, .30-30 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .300 Savage, 250 Savage and other old calibers that were excellent deer and elk rifles. Long before the magnum mania came about, these rifles were killing big game, and doing it quite well. Many today find this unbelievable, but back when the silver certificates were money, and fiat currency was only a dream of the globalist bankers, you could buy a pound of DuPont 4895, a box of 100- .30 caliber JSP bullets, and …


Pat’s Product Review: A Retraction on MGI Hydra Modular Rifles

In a previous review, posted in April, 2001, I had posted favorable comments on the MGI “Hydra” modular rifle system. I am withdrawing that positive review, and alerting SurvivalBlog readers to NOT purchase this product. While the sample I wrote up in SurvivalBlog worked flawlessly, I have recently been informed of some serious quality control problems with current-production Hydra rifles. Several SurvivalBlog readers that placed orders have received defective guns. One SurvivalBlog reader, after many months, finally did get a working Hydra. But another SurvivalBlog reader is still waiting. He returned his Hydra before he even took it out of …


Four Letters Re: Homemade Powder Solvent For Gun Cleaning

JWR: There is a great reference for barrel cleaning and break-in procedures that is available free on web, courtesy of Krieger–a well known barrel maker. It is a reference worth printing out. – J. McW. Jim, Just a quick note on the letter about home made gun solvent. He mentions that “All of these solvents comes in colored glass to keep out sunlight.” He goes on to mention hard liquor bottles as a possibility. My problem with them is their size. You can get the “pocket flask” but most often you see 750 ML and 1.5L bottles. Common old beer …


Letter Re: Homemade Powder Solvent For Gun Cleaning

Sir: I’m a benchrest shooter and gunsmith, and I use quite a bit of cleaning solvent. When I used to buy it, I would buy it by the pint bottles. While not terribly expensive, it was still a cost. I asked fellow shooters what they used and most did as I did, buy it. Then I asked a very successful shooter what he used and he said “my own brew”! Just what I wanted to hear. He was nice enough to share his brew mixture, and that is all I’ve used since. There are a couple main things you’re trying …


Odds And Ends That You Won’t Want To Be Without, by Sonny Jim

I believe in having all the “big” things, to prepare for the possible breakdown of civil society.   I have a large home outside of a small mid-west town, and expect 12 people to arrive to hunker down, if things do fall apart.  I need to be able to feed and supply of them, perhaps for years. So I have 1,200 gallons of Kerosene.  This is intended for heating the home for 3 winters, and I have 3 Kerosene heaters to do the job.  The Kerosene is stored in in 3 large 330 gallon plastic totes, half buried in my back …


Jim’s Product Review: Bed Bunker Gun Vaults

One of my consulting clients recently bought several Bed Bunker gun vaults and I had the chance to examine them. This product is an unusual horizontal home gun vault design that replaces your bed’s box springs. These vaults have two major advantages: 1.) They don’t take up any more floor space than your current furniture, and 2.) They will probably be overlooked by most burglars that are in a hurry. (And statistics show that most burglars are in a hurry. Typically, they are in a house for less than five minutes. The bad guys can’t attack a safe if they …


Letter Re: Lead: The Other Precious Metal

Dear Sir, First, before I get started, my thanks to you for this blog and your books. I’ve invested in metals: Gold, silver, check; “Real” copper pennies, nickels, check; Lead…what? lead? Yes, lead. To me, as a reloader and bullet caster for more than four decades cheap lead in the form of Linotype and wheel weights was taken for granted. But now, with the new regulatory push from the EPA, lead will soon no longer be used as the balance weights on our wheels. This will dry up the last major source of inexpensive used lead [that is in chunks …


Letter Re: AR-7 Type .22 LR Survival Rifles

The debate on firearms manufacturers and caliber are endless, so each person must in the final assessment decide what works for them and theirs, having over 50 years of shooting, gunsmithing experience, and having taught firearms safety, I would like to offer a insight on a wonderful .22 rimfire rifle that is available from Henry Arms Company.  It is called the U.S. Survival Rifle .22. (A very appropriate name, for current conditions in this world).   I first owned a variant of this little rifle back in the 1980s when it was called the AR-7 and enjoyed the unique shooting and storage …


Buying Registered Sound Suppressors in the U.S., by R.B.

This article is an after action report (AAR) of sorts on my experiences with buying registered NFA items with a $200 transfer tax, and to piggyback on the few entries in SurvivalBlog dealing with suppressors.  There are a few reasons to not buy a silencer.  Mainly that you lose a bit of your privacy by giving info to the ATF, but you do that whenever you fill out a Form 4473.  After much internal debate, I decided to go off of the deep end after reading an article here on Survivalblog.com.  It dealt with problems in Argentina when the SHTF …


Letter Re: The Versatile Closet Door Shoe Rack

Jim: I just wanted to drop an alternate product use suggestion. In my gun closet I have a mesh over-the-door shoe organizer that mount to the doors by hooks. When I swing the door open to get to the gun safe I have loaded magazines in easy to grab and recognizable rows in the shoe holder. I also keep other small parts like extra scopes, bipods, and other detachable items in the compartments.  It is four pockets across and six down, for 24 total pockets. Each pocket will easily hold two loaded AK magazines or three AR magazines.  This gives …


Pat’s Product Review: Century Golani 5.56mm Rifle

I have a good friend, Gene Sockut, who lives in Israel. Gene was the chief firearms instructor for the Israeli army for something like 26 years, so when he speaks about firearms, I listen. Gene is also the author of several books and videos on close combat with firearms, as well as being a much sought after speaker on self-defense. He is also a sniper instructor for the Israel Border Patrol – Gene knows about guns and gunfighting, so I respect his thoughts on firearms. Sockut thinks very highly of the Galil. The Israeli Galil rifle was used for several years …


Pat’s Product Review: Springfield Armory M1A

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I hear from quite a few SurvivalBlog readers about my articles. Most of you are pretty knowledgeable, polite and have questions. There’s a few SurvivalBlog readers who are rude, it’s okay, we’re all entitled to our opinions. When you’re reading a review of any product, be it a gun, knife, camping gear, or whatever, you must remember, you are reading the opinion of the writer. Although I’ve been writing about firearms and knives for almost 20-years now, and I’ve been a shooter for more than 40 years, I don’t consider myself an “expert” of any sort. Instead, I call myself …