Category: Review

Whenever I teach a firearms class, I require my students to bring three things. One is a baseball cap to prevent hot brass from falling on their face, while the other two things are hearing protection and some type of eye protection. These last two things require no explanation, right? Wrong! Most students show-up for a training session with no eye protection, for some reason. I simply don’t understand this at all. Nevertheless, it happens, so I keep extra pairs of eye protection in my shooting box along with extra ear plugs for those who don’t think their hearing is …

One of the most basic needs for all living creatures is the ability to defend themselves. When there are bad times and problems in our society, it is essential to own and be able to use weapons for self-defense. The situation could be a regional disaster, like Hurricane Katrina, or it could be the worst of times, such as a Carrington or EMP event. In either case, there are wicked people who will take advantage of those who are weak. Even if you can avoid evil people, there are predators to be dispatched and game to be gathered for the …

Seeing in the dark is huge. Danger comes in the darkness, while darkness can also provide cover to move effectively and to counter attack. The military calls night vision a force multiplier, and the ability of American troops to see in the dark with night vision technology has provided us with a dramatic edge in conflicts since WW II. As preppers, night vision could be invaluable. Controlling predators that could take out our livestock or damage our crops is one critical use, while defending our homes is another obvious one. The first night vision gear was German and based on …

Disclaimer: I make no pretense that I’m an expert in electronics, batteries, or devices that use batteries in them. However, as I’ve stated numerous times in my SurvivalBlog articles, I’m a serious student, and I’m always increasing my learning curve on many subjects. I have many devices that use all battery sizes, with AA and AAA batteries being the most commonly used batteries. We were always buying batteries and would rotate through them, all to no avail! Before we could rotate through our battery supply, some of the Alkaline batteries would already be dead or leaking. That’s not a good …

This review is a bit overdue. Burris Optics was kind enough to let me borrow their Burris Handgun Scope 2x20mm to try on several projects, but somehow I kept writing about the projects and never got around to saying much about the scope. The short and sweet rating is I liked it well enough to buy it, but I should tell you more. The first thing I like about the scope is the Burris Forever Warranty, which covers everything other than loss, theft, or deliberate damage. In other words, if I don’t smack it with a hammer after missing a …

My wife, bless her heart, is always making fun of me about all the flashlights I have all over the house, as well as in vehicles, and even on my person. Right now, there are three flashlights sitting on my two-drawer filing cabinet, next to my computer desk. On the end table, on my end of the sofa, sit three more flashlights, and there are three more on my nightstand. There’s always one in my jacket pocket, too, and let’s not forget the one or two on the kitchen table and some emergency battery-operated lanterns in the living room, and …

We have had a number of requests to review ways to make electricity without the need for the grid, particularly for things like cellphones and tablet computers. I’ve been looking into options, and they usually boil down to solar, though I hope to get some products that use other strategies. There is a huge range of solar solutions out there, from systems that can power a whole house to something that can keep a small battery charged. The whole house solutions can easily hit $40,000 or more when you include the battery backups, while the least expensive small ones can …