Category: Weapons

Letter: Ammunition Versus Silver for Barter

Dear Editors, So here is my ten cents worth… I believe in buying silver bullion now, but dumping it when spot silver hits $30, $40, or $50 per ounce. If you are buying now, then a $20 per ounce (or more) gain per ounce is far better than most any other investments. In fact, I would be happy to sell my bullion at $3 below spot, when silver is $40 an ounce! Remember, if things get really bad, you can’t eat gold or silver. In my estimation U.S. pre-1965 silver coinage is apropos for what I would call the intermediate …


Know Your Limits, by Molon Labe

In these times, there are many activities that we must train to be able to do, many skills we must know, and many tasks we are forced to accomplish to sustain our lives and those who we care about. In the days ahead, there will be even greater and more difficult things that we will have to do should a collapse or failure of civility occur to any degree in our area. Many things that are abhorrent to us may become required in order to righteously protect what is ours. Taking lives in the defense of our lives, our property, …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Benchmade Steep

I think I’ve been getting knife samples from Benchmade for articles about 23 years now, and I’ve toured their factory several times, though I haven’t been up there for a while. So, I’m over due for a visit to see how much they have expanded since my last visit. Les d’Asis, the owner at Benchmade, always seems to find the time to sit down and visit with me, and it has never, ever been a visit that was cut short. Les is “good people”; with no dress shirt and tie, and I’ve mentioned this before about him, he’s a real …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Gerber Prodigy Tanto Knife

For a lot of years, Gerber knives was a major player in the cutlery field. However, some years back, they fell out of favor with a lot of consumers, and their line-up of knives really shrank quite a bit. Honestly, it’s been at least 15 years or longer since Gerber sent me any knives for articles. I don’t know if it was a change of shifts or powers-that-be, but they stopped sending me knives to write about. That’s okay; there are more than enough knife companies that do send me samples for testing and articles. One of the best fixed …


Letter Re: Constitutional Carry

Hugh, I’d like to make a comment regarding “Constitutional Carry” laws that are in the works around the country. We had one here in Maine pass last year. Ours has conditions mandating the disclosure of carrying should you encounter a police officer. The premise of creating a state law (with conditions, infringements, etc) in order to enforce a Constitutional law is unconstitutional. This is usurping the Constitution at the state level. Even worse, the “Constitutional Carry” law is just another typical state law that can be repealed by any future legislature. I would encourage anyone in any state that is …


Letter Re: Constitutional Carry

Hugh, I noted the entry in SurvivalBlog.com today about Idaho seeking passage of a “Constitutional Carry” bill. Here in West Virginia, with great grassroots mail, email, and phone support, as well as attendance at the capitol in Charleston, a similar bill passed last year in both the House and Senate, only to be vetoed by the governor in the final week of the legislative session, leaving “no time” to override the veto. This year the measure got an earlier start, and hopefully we will get it passed and manage to override the promised veto in time for the end of …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Update on .300 Whisper Ammo, by Pat Cascio

I did two articles on Ruger firearms. One was on their Mini-14 in .300 Blackout, and the other was on the new Ruger SR-556 Take Down rifle that comes in .223/5/56. In the latter, you can swap out the barrel and convert it to fire .300 Blackout/.300 Whisper ammo, which is a neat idea. I didn’t shoot any heavy, sub-sonic .300 Whisper ammo that Black Hills Ammunition produces, because this ammo is meant for use in guns with a suppressor on them. This isn’t the first time that Jeff Hoffman, at Black Hills Ammunition, asked me to do some testing …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Springfield Armory EMP 4

When the first Springfield Armory EMP series of shrunk down 1911s came out, I took a wait and see attitude before requesting a sample for an article on SurvivalBlog.com. I was really impressed with that little gun. It was darn near the perfect packin’ pistol, as my long-time friend and fellow gun writer, John Taffin, has been searching for all his life. The little EMP sample I had was in .40 S&W, and it was a very snappy pistol in the recoil department, very snappy! There wasn’t much I didn’t like about it. Last December, my super-secret contact at Springfield …


Letter Re: Bug Out Boats

Hugh I have spent many hours thinking about using a vessel as a bugout vehicle and the many pros and cons involved, and it’s a topic I constantly revisit in my mind. What type of boat to use? What kind of weapons and armor? How to provide provisioning and storage? Where to bug out to? I just generally run different scenarios through my head, and there are way too many to address without being long-winded, so I’ll just share some of my background and try to give some opinions and thoughts. I’ve spent my entire life on the water and …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: ARMSCOR/Rock Island Armory 10mm

There was a lot of ink back in the late 1980s, when the 10mm round became readily available to the public. Colt was the first mainline gun maker to come out with a somewhat affordable 1911 Government-style handgun in 10mm. It was called the Delta Elite. I jumped on getting one, and loved the gun. However, there were only limited types of 10mm ammo available at the time; one was the 200-gr FMJ round, and one was a 155-gr Silvertip round from Winchester. Still, I was extremely impressed with the 10mm. The power level was close to the .41 Magnum …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Zero Tolerance 0900 Folder

Anyone who has followed my knife articles for the past 23+ years will know that I’m just not a big fan of little folding knives. However, sometimes smaller is better for certain applications. Under other conditions, bigger knives are called for. I remember when I was 11 or 12 years old the local hardware store in my neighborhood had a shipment of pocket knives coming in. To be sure, back in those days, almost every kid carried some kind of pocket knife. Sadly, that’s not true today. If caught with a knife in school, it’s a one year suspension in …


My Truck Gun and How I Chose It, by M.M.

I don’t care how many times you get into a discussion about guns, there are at least as many points of view as there are people talking. Exponential growth in opinions happens when you talk about ammo, especially calibers. Yet, for all the vast sea of opinions, there are good ideas and empirically verifiable facts that can help us narrow down our list to which firearms we ultimately go with. For this article, I will share with you my primary criteria and then go through my thinking process for how I landed on the truck gun of my choice. Your …


Making A Conceal Carry Vest, by C.E.

Surviving is really a willingness to accept the challenge of a life-threatening change that is forced on you. A world that requires a grandmother to conceal carry has been one of my biggest challenges. Can I keep a firearm close at hand for self defense, be legal, be safe around my grandchildren, and still be comfortable? I rarely wear any clothing that will handle a holster. I like the belly band system but find they don’t always work with dresses, and at the end of the day they can be rough on the skin. A conceal carry purse seems too …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Ruger’s New American Pro 9mm

I’ve been a huge fan of Ruger firearms since 1979, when I bought my first Ruger centerfire rifle in .300 Winchester Mag. Everyone anticipated the first cernterfire semiauto pistol from Ruger in 1985, when it was first announced. Alas, there were problems, and the Ruger P85 didn’t actually come out until 1987. I lived in Colorado Springs, CO at the time and operated a small gun business with a friend out of his gas station as well as gun shows, but we couldn’t get our hands on a P85. One gun shop in the entire city had received one sample, …


Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Ruger SR-556 Takedown

I’m a fan of the AR-15 type of rifles. I always have been. So, when some gun makers started coming out with AR-15s that had a gas piston, instead of the direct gas impingement system, I tested several of them. I think we could have a debate all week long as to the merits of the gas piston system versus the direct gas impingement system and we couldn’t change one another’s minds. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the direct gas impingement system, other than your AR really gets dirty, in short order. Yes, I’m aware there were problems with …