Category: Target Shooting & Marksmanship

Letter Re: Airsoft for Survival Training Adventure

Jim, You nailed it with your caveat to the guest article “Airsoft for Survival Training Adventure”. I work at a military college with ROTC cadets, and unfortunately have to spend a lot of time “unteaching” the deadly habits they developed with paintball and Airsoft. I’ve seen the same in the military, especially when conducting urban training- people grossly under-estimate the penetrating power of modern small arms. Examples are soldiers attempting to engage a tiny exposed portion of a target, when the rest of the enemy soldier was concealed behind an interior house wall, or a storage shed, or a similar …


Airsoft for Survival Training Adventure, by John Durfee

You see the open field coming up, and the only way to access the bridge to cross the river is to also traverse the field. You’ve been following them for several miles now and certainly don’t to reveal your position. You’ve trained extensively for this, and you decide to cross using the stalking crawl also known as the Sniper crawl. If you don’, then you’ll surely lose all the ground you have gained on them. You successfully make it to the other side, and much to your delight, they are resting on a fallen tree on the other side. You …


Effective Partner and Small Team Tactics, by Officer Tackleberry

Please consider the following scenarios: You are sitting at a table in a local restaurant with your family, significant other, and/or friend when a person enters the business and starts shooting. You are shopping with your family at Christmas time and several subjects enter the mall and start shooting. The “Crunch” has happened and it’s now full-blown TEOTWAWKI.   Looters are present and have forced their way into one of the buildings on your homestead.  The 911 system doesn’t work and the area police force is non-existent.   It’s up to you and one other person from your homestead to find the …


Two Letters Re: Pellet Rifle Hunting

Two Letters Re: Pellet Rifle Hunting Mr. Rawles, I wanted to add the following comments to D.M.’s post about argues. I completely agree with the findings D.M. had on air-gunning. I am a big fan of air-gunning and Crossman rifles are on my short list of quality, easy to use guns that won’t cost an arm and a leg. May I recommend a few more airguns worth considering. My personal favorites are the Chinese made QB-57, and the Crossman 1377C. The QB57 is a bull-pup side lever springer with a break down design available as a .177 or .22. The …


Pellet Rifle Hunting, by D.M.

Due to financial circumstances I found myself living out of the back of my pick-up for several months on public lands in South West mostly BLM and NF mostly. Just before setting out I sold most of my belongings in a yard sale that netted me just over $800 dollars. This money would have to be rationed wisely over the summer, most went for fuel. Don’t think I did not look for work anywhere I could, what I found was it was depleting my resources with no results. I finally moved onto public lands with the idea of hunting, fishing and gold panning (which …


Letter Re: Situational Awareness, Instincts and “Wargaming”

Hello, James That was an excellent article by H.H. (Situational Awareness, Instincts and “Wargaming”.) I would like to add to his points one additional. Many people who carry for protection don’t get taught one of the golden rules of self defense tactics. That golden rule is this: Picture yourself having squared off with a would be assailant. You get to the point of having pulled your firearm out and aligned in the threat’s direction. If the would-be assailant moves, you move. He takes 4 steps to your right, you take some steps in the opposite direction. By moving if he …


Letter Re: A Police Officer’s Comments on High Stress Reactions

Dear Mr. Rawles, I have enjoyed your books and SurvivalBlog for several years now. They have helped me prepare myself and my family for dark times we hope are not coming but look more and more certain each day. I wanted to attempt to share some of my knowledge with this community in hopes it can help prepare others. After 9-11 I made a career change and became a police officer in Northern California. I have been blessed to receive a lot of specialized training since become an officer. Some of this training has included: firearms instructor, defensive tactics instructor, …


Situational Awareness, Instincts and “Wargaming”, by H. Hunter

The recent SurvivalBlog article on a home invasion robbery reminded me of a situation I experienced a couple of months back. I attribute my successful evasion of a possibly harmful or even deadly situation to my preparations, long before the fact. Part of my work involves the inspection of in-service bridges to ensure they are structurally sound. This is by far the most dangerous work that I do because many of these bridges are in bad neighborhoods and I am sometimes by myself. I have been in dangerous neighborhoods before and observed literal word of mouth travel up the block …


Letter Re: Low Cost Firearms Training

I am a new prepper.  Luckily I live on a five-acre piece of land on the outskirts of a small town.  I have an irrigation well, and have been looking at deep well hand pumps as a way to get water under TEOTWAWKI.  Any advice that someone could give me on that would be much appreciated.  At approximately $1,500, the hand pump would be a major purchase. I have been using the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, the free LDS Preparedness Manual, and SurvivalBlog as my main guides so far.  As I read SurvivalBlog, I wonder what I could …


Two Letters Re: The Essential Gun for Survival

Jim, I absolutely concur with Cory M.’s article extolling the benefits of the .22 RF cartridge. If you are limited in the number of firearms you can own or can afford to own, there are two options using the .22 of which everyone should be aware. A multi-barrel long gun (sometimes called a drilling) was one of my first firearms. The Savage .22 RF in combination with a .410 shotgun (aka 22/410 over under), makes a great hunting firearm, and when using a rifled slug in the .410 shotgun, a pretty effective defensive tool. The other is the ubiquitous Black …


How to Get Your Spouse to Become Preparedness Minded, by Keith I.

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The most difficult situation to encounter when preparing for survival is getting your spouse on board with you. By using some of my techniques hopefully you will get your spouse to understand that you are truly in touch with reality. Until your spouse is 100% percent committed to survival you will always feel an anchor weighing you down psychologically and financially. The psychological toll is simple- Every time you do something out of the norm, that spouse will sometimes question your sanity and if you are not a psychologically stable person, you may begin to question your own sanity. The …


Letter Re: Thoughts on Practical Self-Sufficiency

Hello Jim: For supper tonight we are having a meal made with ingredients that I gathered from our place, with the exception of the meat which was purchased. I put a smoked ham hock in the crock pot over night. I also soaked some leather breeches (dried green beans) and some horticultural beans over night. These were added to the crock pot this morning along with a couple of hands full of ramps that I had dug yesterday and a couple of hands full of dandelion greens that Abigail had picked last week. Lastly some red potatoes from our garden …


Optics — Seeing Is Believing, by Littlebird

When you think of all of the needed equipment during or after an emergency, I am willing to bet that optical devices aren’t at the top of the list.  We will think about and plan for just about everything except seeing what is around us.  While pondering things to prepare for, I had the thought: What would be some items that would take some doings to replace?  While it is highly doubted that FEMA would come to your rescue I am almost certain that they will not arrive carrying the items that I’ll point out. Glasses If you wear glasses …


Letter Re: The Broke Survivalist — A Learning Experience

James: Vaerity mentioned, in her valuable post, that she would like to pursue some rifle training. I’ve got one word for her: Appleseed! Ladies shoot free, and she already possesses the preferred “Liberty Training Rifle” – the Ruger 10/.22. She will experience two full days of high quality rifle marksmanship instruction, for the cost of a bargain box of .22 LR ammunition. The bulk-packed ammo is still under $20 per box [of 550 cartridges.]. You just can’t find a bigger bang for the buck!! Check out teh Appleseed web site for scheduled events in North Carolina. Best Wishes, – S.H. …


Letter Re: An Urban Girly Girl Becomes a Country Girl Wannabe

Dear James, I couldn’t help but resist to write to you as a younger generation female. I am a 28 year girly girl and currently live in Los Angeles, California. My idea of roughing it is staying at the holiday inn. My dad gave me your novel “Patriots” about six months ago and asked me to read it. It sat around collecting dusk, used as a door stop and spider killer for the same amount of time. One day my parents gave me a large Pelican container with many survival items. (the Pelican headquarters is just two blocks away from …