Tracking Dogs- Part 2, by D.D.

Cross a River

I specifically brought this one up. They laughed at this as a common misconception. They will have maps, and if they think you ran in the direction of a river, there is probably someone working their way up already without a dog. They will just run a dog up and down both sides of the river until they regain the trail. If they are close on your trail, they will send runners up and down both sides to see where you exited by finding the water trail and will actually gain time on you. Moving through water on foot slows you down, as well. Not even a swamp was a serious hindrance to the dogs’ ability to track.

Tarzan (tree top to tree top)

This didn’t work, because even in the jungle it couldn’t be kept up for long. The dogs would come to the tree and stop. At that point the handlers would fan out and start over, as they did when the dog originally found the trail. There were few options on which tree to go to, so it was obvious where they’d take the dog to start first. Hiding in a tree didn’t work for this same reason.

Climb or Descend

This didn’t work because they would just go around and start looking for a trail once at the bottom. They would run the dog along both the top and the bottom of the cliff, until they regained the trail. Looking at a rock face will tell them a likely climbing route.

Shedding Clothes

Many are of the mind that if you drop clothes, the dog will “find” the target, as in training, and give up. The handler will immediately set the dog on the new trail or use a different dog.

In the case of a bite dog, most dogs are trained to grab meat not clothing. They are trained to bite firm, solid, and to reacquire if they don’t have a good bite. If you think you are going to drop a jacket or shoes and the dog is going to focus on that while you get away, you are probably wrong.

Covering the Scent

A dog’s nose is sensitive to the range of parts per million. They WILL smell you through anything, including large amounts of bleach or ammonia. If the fumes are too strong, the handlers will skirt the area and have the dog regain the trail. They will swing as wide as possible to relocate you. Even changing clothes completely doesn’t help.

Outrun the Dog

This isn’t going to happen. The dogs have four legs and conditioning. Their diet is specific, and they live for the purpose they were trained for and are eager to please. You will tire out long before a dog will, even in the heat of a jungle. If for some reason the dog goes down, they will replace it with another.

Doubling Back

The dog will just follow the double back and eventually find the trail again. Once again, the handlers will see this coming and fan out to find where you eventually broke off. They may use multiple dogs to follow multiple trails.

Bait the Dog (including poison)

Most dogs are trained not to take food from anyone other than a handler. Dogs are usually not rewarded with food. Working dogs get a minute or so to play with a favorite toy or ball, as a reward for doing so well. Tracking dogs are almost always on a leash and the handler is right there to prevent it from eating anything.

Dogs also shouldn’t be allowed to contaminate evidence, so they are trained not to touch things. In the case of bombs or drugs, you can see why they wouldn’t want the dogs to come in contact with what they have found, possibly causing an explosion or poisoning themselves. Therefore the dog, once it finds what it is looking for, will give a sign, usually sitting down. Most signs are not verbal (from the dog). This is especially the case with bomb dogs, or when they are sneaking up on someone. If the dog encounters something it will probably just sit down next to it until the handler gets there to reward the dog for doing a good job and then continue on.

The dog may stop at each item and await directions from the handler. It would take more items than you can reasonably carry to make a difference in slowing them down. Also, you would be leaving a serious trail to follow.

Kill The Dog

To get close enough to kill a dog, you are going to have to get close to the handler and anyone else with him (see Kill the Handler). This might buy you some time, but the only thing it is going to do is harden their will to find you. In many states attacking a police or military dog is considered the same as attacking an actual officer. Even if it isn’t, once you show your willingness to use lethal force you have probably guaranteed a much harder or lethal response if they do catch you. Now you have royally pissed off a handler, done thousands of dollars in damage to government equipment, and may have shown them you are armed and willing to kill.

After you have gone and done that, they will bring in another dog and the game will start over, except now the ending is much more grim.

Kill The Handler

I’ll let you guess the serious consequences of doing this. Attacking someone, regardless of whether you kill them, is going to get you a lethal response. If the dog is bite trained, it will defend the handler, especially if the handler gets a command off. It is to be noted that there will never be just one handler or a handler by himself with the dog. The handler works the dog and is usually followed by several armed people who will do the apprehending. These people are almost always in radio contact with many other people. If they get a call out, your location will be pinpointed. If you somehow eliminate everyone with a radio, the fact that a team is not reporting in will be an indicator, too. Now that you have ensured your capture, you have murder on your list of offenses, as well.

Booby Traps

This has the same effect as attacking the dog or handler. You have to have the materials, knowledge, and time to set things like this up. Once a tracking team encounters something like this, it will slow them down as they anticipate more of the same. Even if your trap doesn’t kill or injure someone, you will suffer the same effects as if you had actually used lethal force on an officer.

Factors That May Help You

I’ve listed some things that really don’t help your situation. Here are some that may:

  • Time- This is by far the biggest concern of the handlers I spoke with. The older the trail, the harder it is to follow. A day makes a big difference. A week makes it all but impossible. The fresher the trail, the easier it is to follow.
  • Heavy Rain- This destroys scent trails. It’s not fool proof, but it is a big inhibitor. It spreads things out, and if you have heavy cover (like a forest or jungle), it will mix things up and bring other things down.
  • Heavy Wind- This can disperse scent or give the dog trouble holding the trail.
  • Open Areas- You might not think so, but this kind of terrain can be helpful. There just isn’t as much to rub up against or “hold” the scent. Rain and wind have a greater effect in this terrain. The down side to these areas is that you can be spotted easier.

Factors That May Hinder You

There are some factors that make things worse, and these include:

  • Not having a place to go- Hauling butt into the deep woods at high speed for days is going to get you what? Yes, they didn’t catch you, but you got yourself killed from exposure.
  • Heavy/unique scent- The stronger the odor of whatever you have, the more of a trail you’ll lay down and the harder it is for time or mother nature to get rid of it.
  • Regularly Traveled Trails- Not only are these visible to the eye, they are often scented by you multiple times.
  • Lack of Physical Fitness- If you aren’t up for a run, then you aren’t up for a chase.
  • Carrying Weight- The more you carry, the more you’re going to have to rest and the slower you’re going to be. If you are shedding things, like water bottles, food wrappers, et cetera, it will only aid in finding you.
  • Lack of Supplies- Two days without water, especially if you are on the run, and you’re done. They will be looking for you for more than two days. They will stake out the places you can get something to eat or drink.

Understanding the Chase

What most people think of, when considering being tracked by dogs, is a hillbilly in overalls leading a pack of baying blood hounds. The runner is fearfully trying to catch a few minutes of rest while listening to the dogs get closer and closer. That’s not going to happen.

First of all, all the tracking dogs I worked with never made a sound. The closer the team thinks they are getting, the less sounds they’ll try to make, unless they are trying to flush you. The exception is when tracking dogs are let off the leash, which can bay and howl in pursuit.

Most chases are not long drawn out affairs. It takes a day or two. What will happen is that someone will have decided a man-hunt is called for. A command post will be established. They will seal down a large area and start patrolling roads, streets, and intersections. They will look at maps and decide where to focus their searches. They will understand how fast a person on foot moves. They will start flushing out hiding spots. Imagine a commander looking down at a map. He knows about what time you started running. He’ll pinpoint the starting position and then, calculating how fast he figures you can run in that amount of time, he’ll draw a circle on the map and inform everyone of the main search area. Other assets from helicopters to neighboring state law enforcement will be close in on that area. When (and if) they decide to use dogs, it will be to initially get a bearing and direction. The dog will locate the trail, and this will cut down the search area significantly. The dog team will then proceed to track, while all of those other assets close in on you from above and other directions. Depending on the terrain and direction, they may sprint forward and start hitting those hiding spots and choke points. Sending people forward can sometimes mess up a scent trail, but they’ll know this and avoid the most likely routes. Everyone will be in contact with each other via radio. That previously mentioned map will get updated constantly. Searchers will be rotated in and out to keep them fresh, though you get no such break. As time wears on, they know you will have to eat and drink. You may just give up. Eventually they’ll catch you crossing a road, river, lake, or hiding in an abandoned house, cave, bush, et cetera. If it is actually the tracking team that has cornered you or caught up enough to identify you, the escorts accompanying them will move in. This will be handled much like the chases you see on TV. The officers will call it in and everyone will converge while they run you down or hold you in position until you’re surrounded. Maybe a bite dog will be sent in to pin you. The rest is history.

Letter Re: What We are Up Against

Greetings:

You may be aware of my concerns over the potential for local infiltration of Islamists and what will no doubt ensure thereafter. As bad as some criminals are, most don’t gun-down 100 young adults in a club! And shockingly, far too many Americans fail to understand that horrific tragedy was considered desirable and “compassionate” by an Imam preaching in the local Orlando Mosque… Here is the video from their local TV station:

Look at the battle that Mayor Van Dyne in Irving Texas has been fighting… and how she was ambushed by her own city council members when it came to the vote (5 to 4) to protect their city against Sharia Law being effected in Irving Texas… We should do that now (resolution establishing than Sharia law is prohibited in our county).

Please read this:

Mayor stops Sharia Court – Muslims Angry (The Political Insider)

Muslims Demand Mayor Resign (USA Politics Today)

Did you know that London (UK) now has a Muslim mayor? And that mayor is guided and directs his authority based upon Sharia Law? Did you know we have many Muslim judges and other Muslim politicians in America already?

There is substantial factual background from members of our own intelligence community that tells us we cannot depend upon accurate or timely briefings from any Federal agency… in fact, quite the opposite, they are concealing need to know intel from first responders and law enforcement officials.

I strongly urge you to review these articles:

DHS ordered person to scrub records (The Hill)

San Bernadino: Feds Shut Down Terror Investigation (Daily Caller)

Government Cut Funding to Investigation (Fox News)

We are betrayed and misinformed by the very government (Obama, et al) we are expected to trust for our very protection, which makes the jobs of our law enforcement and county supervisors even more important than many may realize. Our own BOS should be taking steps now to ensure we have a solid anti-Sharia footing in place before the problem is endemic, as was the case with illegal pot growers… it just crept-in… and now it’s a huge all-consuming issue.

Did you know that ISIS (Islamists) have a “kill list”, which includes the names and addresses of 1,445 Californians. This leads any logical person the next question– how many of the people are in your county? Maybe someone you know is on the list?

If there are any residents of Siskiyou County on the list, the very least that can be done is to timely inform them of that fact and take measures to provide and afford them the ability to protect themselves effectively.

Did you know that the first accredited Islamic College recently came into existence right here in Northern California in Berkeley? And guess what their only offered degree is? “B.A. in Islamic Law and Theology“…

Did you know that Islamists are now influencing the actions of the administrators of our public schools? And student assignments?

Muslims are Islamists, plain and simple, and there is a percentage of them who are the source of the problem, while the balance of them just go along for the ride (majority of immigrant Muslims believe Sharia law should be the law of “our” land).

People who have disavowed Islam, the Quran, and Sharia law are no longer Muslim. For instance, Muslims from Iran who have converted to Christianity call themselves “Persians”. Political correctness has created a massive problem and is the newest divisive tool that Obama has brought to bear against true Americans.

For all intents and purposes, it seems that we are for the first time at war with ISIS and other Muslims on our home soil… that in spite of what Barack Hussein Obama said in his damage control speech. More and more, attacks on Americans by Muslims, on American soil are becoming the norm.

Muslims who come into our country (and our county) who do not want to be assimilated pose a fundamental threat to the American Constitutional way of life and, as we see, our very safety. Their beliefs are the antitheses of American beliefs. Will we wait until one of our own (locally) is laying in a pool of blood before we take measures in proportion to the developing threat?

It’s a fact that the vast majority of Muslims believe in Sharia Law, even after they have immigrated into a new county:

Are we all so engulfed and distracted by the local issues we are missing what is now certainly descending upon us?

More facts about Islam can be found at this article. – S.B.

Economics and Investing:

A Palace For Fannie (Mae) – Why The Imperial City Must Be Sacked

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Chart of the Day – $GOLD vs. Brexit – “I see traders everywhere worrying about how the Brexit vote will effect gold. Folks, forget about the Brexit. By this time next week the Brexit will already be fading into memory and the market will go back to doing what it was doing before the vote”.

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Anxiety Builds As Money Managers Near Record Long Gold Position

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What to Watch for in Janet Yellen’s Congressional Testimony

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Notes for Tuesday – June 21, 2016

June 21st is the birthday of Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998), author of Kill or Be Killed. He was the friend and mentor of SurvivalBlog’s Senior Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

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The recent frantic increase in gun sales in the United States is well justified. People are understandably concerned that their window of opportunity to buy battle rifles and magazines for their families may be closing–especially if Hitlery Clinton is elected. I’m presently in the process of consolidating my own collection to create better standardization. As part of that, I decided to auction one of my Saiga-12 shotguns, two Rhodesian FN/FALs builds, a Savage Model 110 .308, a PTR-91-GI, and a two M4s ARs. These are being sold by a friend of mine who has an FFL. He is also selling several unusual guns of his own, including a very scarce rotary magazine Johnson Model 1941 .30-06. You can see those auctions at his seller page at GunBroker.com. – JWR

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Many SurvivalBlog readers have never clicked through the Writing Contest prize links before and are really unaware of the tremendous prizes that have been made available by the sponsors. We thought we would profile one prize each Tuesday and Thursday just to tease you with these fantastic prizes.

AE-1

Today’s profile is the Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This solar generator has been developed in-house (not a Chinese import) and maintains a class-leading performance in solar generators. The SG2A is a durable, expandable, EMP shielded and reliable generator. It comes with 3 solar panels and a 1000 W inverter. Since it’s expandable, you can add to it at a later date should you choose to do so.

AE-2

It is ruggedized and fully self-contained. When you buy it, it comes fully charged and ready to work. All you have to do is open the case up, place the panels in the sun, and snap them into the provided connectors. Turn the inverter on, and viola! you have household power!

Some of the specifications:

  • 60 Watts of solar panel (three 20W panels)

    • AE-3

  • 120VAC Power output at 1000 Watts (2000 W surge)
  • 50 AH battery capacity
  • AGM sealed batter (maintenance free, doesn’t care how it’s positioned)
  • 30A charge controller
  • 3.5A automatic wall charger if you need to charge from regular household power.
  • 250A ANL fuse for inverter protection.
  • Weighs 90 lbs.

The system can be expanded with there SG1SB boost kits and there are many more features. Check it out at Always Empowered and get to writing that contest entry!

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Today, we present another entry for Round 65 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 65 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Tracking Dogs- Part 1, by D.D.

1

I had read an article some time ago about tracking dogs, and I didn’t get to respond to it then. However, here is my experience. It’s not the dog you are trying to beat; it is the handler.

I have a lot of experience with tracking dogs. I used to guard the copper pipeline in Indonesia. The copper mine (also containing some gold) was on top of a mountain. Once the material was taken from the ground, it was mixed into a slurry and pumped miles through the jungle to the port. This pipeline was under constant attack. People would cut into the pipe, fill some buckets, and run off into the jungle. We would have to track them with dogs, in the hopes of arresting them. Usually it was the military or police doing the cutting, so there was plenty of incentive to get away.

I spoke to most of the dog handlers about how to get away if a person were being tracked. They were adamant that there was very little a person could do to cover their tracks or fool the dogs. We had people climbing trees and jumping from tree to tree in order to break the trail. Some would run through rivers, ponds, and swamps or even climb and descend cliff faces.

You also have to understand that when the authorities decide to put on a manhunt, you are not coming up against just dogs and handlers; you are coming up against entire departments. They won’t send a couple of guys and a dog into the woods after you. They will set up a command post that sends and receives constants updates, as professionals coordinate the search for you. They can put up helicopters with heat cameras. They will drive along roads or get ahead of you and/or send other teams from another direction. They can seal off huge areas and blanket it with searchers or just wait you out. Even if you could take off at high speed into an endless woods, you would eventually run out of supplies.

Many times when someone is on the run, they don’t even use dogs to find them. Almost all of them are caught and caught quickly. The dog tracking team is gravy. If they see that you have only one way to go or few options, they’ll just high-tail to those spots and send fast chase teams after you without a dog.

Understanding Dogs

These dogs are multi-thousand dollar pieces of equipment. All professionally-trained dogs are certified regularly on their ability to do what they are trained to do. All handlers are certified and trained on not only their ability to handle a dog but to handle specific dogs. Both the dog and the handler have training requirements, records, and certifications. Any department worth mentioning is going to have a well-maintained team. Just like any other equipment, these dogs will be regularly evaluated for serviceability.

Some are good at some things, and some are good at others. For instance, drug dogs range widely on their ability to find certain drugs. Some will be good at finding cocaine, while others excel at finding marijuana. If the authorities know what they are looking for or suspect something specific, they will pull out their heavy hitter for that specific thing. If a dog fails, they will use another.

Finding you is a game to the dog. They work for rewards, and that reward is usually a few minutes with a favorite toy. Just like any other trick, the dog is taught and rewarded for doing well. The dog is eager to please and is fairly simple minded in its pursuit of you.

It is not a relentless machine hunting you down. Think of a dog that enjoys playing fetch rather than the “Terminator”.

There are generally four kinds of law enforcement dogs: Attack (Bite), Drug, Bomb, and Tracking. Of course, there are many more specialties, such as agricultural, cadaver, money, et cetera. All of these dogs specialize in finding something.

Most dogs are single purpose, but you will occasionally find one that is cross trained. When dogs are cross trained, they are usually primarily trained in one of the nose-oriented jobs and then taught to be a bite dog. Cross-training is more likely to happen in departments with smaller budgets or K9 facilities.

Tracking dogs are very similar. Some dogs excel at finding people under different conditions. Some do better at finding people in the forest or jungle. Some are used to locating a scent, and others follow it. Some are slower and more reliable, while others are runners and will bolt in the direction of the scent trail and then reacquire it. You may come up against more than one kind of dog. For instance, they may use their sure-fire slow and steady dogs to negotiate difficult terrain or an area they think a runner is using counter-measures. They then may switch to fast dogs over terrain where there is limited choice of direction or to finally run someone down when they see him. You may get tracked by a tracking dog, and then upon seeing you they may release the bite dogs.

Tracking dogs can be of any breed. I’ve seen mixed-breed mutts taken from shelters and trained to sniff out one thing or another.

Bite Dogs

These are the dogs you will most likely encounter at the end of the chase. They are the ones most likely not to be on a leash when you do. They can be used to flush you out of a bush, attic, or any other hiding place. If the tracking dogs come to a stop and are going nuts barking at a bush, cave, et cetera, it’s the bite dog coming in after you. A bite dog is normally released when a target is in site and distinguishable to the dog by the handler.

Almost always the dog will latch onto you and hold you until the handler arrives. Bite dogs are trained to grab you in a specific way, usually by an arm or a leg. I saw one dog that was trained to grab a person by the ankle and rotate in circles until the handler got there. This caused the victim to fall down and be spun around. This is so that the victim cannot kick at the dog.

If available, or if they think there will be trouble, or if a dog is having a hard time, or you are attacking the dog, they will release another one or just shoot you (with a bullet or taser). No matter what you do, once a dog has been told to stop you, you are going to be seriously hindered as far as escaping any further. The handler and the rest of the team will be right on top of you, either way.

Bite Dog Training

There are several things that make up a good bite dog.

  1. Its ability to bite you, when commanded to do so, and where/how trained to do so.
  2. Its ability to firmly hold that bite as long as necessary.
  3. Its ability to reacquire a bite, if it loses it.
  4. Its ability to let go and back off when commanded to do so.

The following problems may occur:

Problems with #1– The dog bites without command. It may bite other officers, or the handler, or you. It may bite you in an “unauthorized” place, such as the crotch or throat.

Problems with #2– The dog bites but does not grip. This may cause the dog to repeatedly bite you over and over again, causing injury.

Problems with #3– Sometimes once a dog loses the bite, it will not bite again, which is bad for the officers.

Problems with #4– The biggest and most common failure (in my experience) is #4. With an aggressive breed and after a chase, the dog just will not let go. The handler constantly yells commands at the dog, and the dog doesn’t listen. This causes a rush of officers on the victim to pin him while the handler physically removes the dog from the person, sometimes injuring him at the same time. I’ve seen dogs bite officers at this point or rush back and bite the victim once he’s in handcuffs.

Most bite dogs are larger, aggressive breeds that have the body weight to seriously challenge a full-grown man. Once it has you by a leg or an arm, you are not lifting 150+ lbs and dragging it around, especially when it doesn’t want you to and is actively fighting you. Even if you could do this, you’re not going to be able to move fast enough to avoid the tracking team.

The Bloodhound

This dog is better at smelling things out, because of the shape of its head, ears, and posture. The of the way the dog is built, it has its head low to the ground and level. Its ears are out and actually catch and keep the scent in its face, keeping a kind of pocket around the face and nose of the dog. On top of this, it has a very powerful nose. In my experience an actual bloodhound is rare. They excel at smelling things, and any department that put money into a bloodhound will always train it to locate something. I’ve never seen a bite trained or cross trained blood hound.

Letter Re: Sanitation Issues

Dear Hugh

Some years ago I severely injured my back and could not access the bathroom, which was on another floor.

I took one of those lightweight home hospital potties, put a plastic bag into the bucket part, and put a bag of loose pine sawdust kitty litter next to it.

You use the bucket, sprinkle a cup of loose pine litter over it, no smell, no problem. And I do mean no smell. I had to sit right next to it for weeks.

Do not use standard clay kitty litter, which is made of bentonite clay. Yes, it will work, though not as well with the odor.

The problem is that bentonite clay is very durable. While it absorbs pee well, it does not want to dissolve, it wants to clump up and stay that way. This is fine in a litter box but not when you want to biodegrade the mess in a hole in the ground. The clay will not mingle with the dirt. It will encapsulate the pee and the poo.

The loose pine type of litter absorbs moisture very well, and biodegrades easily. It is also acidic. I don’t know what that does to the bacteria in feces, but bacteria generally don’t like acidic environments.

If you run out of pine litter, you can use sawdust. Do not get the pelleted pine litter, it will not work. It will stick on the poo like sprinkles on a cupcake.

On a separate note, you may want to keep the pee and poo separate, with a potty for each, and some water in the pee pot. The pee is not only fairly harmless, but if mixed with ten parts water to one part pee, it is a good source of nitrogen for your garden, and will not burn the plants. Doing this also greatly reduces the total bulk of what you need to dispose of.

I have a question: Has anyone tried taking the poo and simply tossing it into a hot outdoor fire? I presume it would be a bit smoky, being damp, but it seems like burning the poo would totally get rid of the disease risk, contamination, and disposal problem, leaving only sterile ashes which could also be spread on the garden.

I did look this up in the past, but could only find references to it being done along with a lot of other types of garbage, which caused chemical pollution problems. This would not happen if it is burned by itself.

Best wishes JW from NY

News From The American Redoubt:

‘Deeply troubling’ Senators say mineral withdrawal would protect local economy – RBS

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Eastern Washington: State reports a new wolf pack, located near Sherman Pass

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Actor Shia LaBeouf hitchhikes through Wyoming and Montana

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Video: At a conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in 2015, Pastor Chuck Baldwin describes the significance of The American Redoubt. (Scroll forward to the 12-minute mark for his comments about the folly of modern American corporate churches, and to the 43-minute mark for his comments on the American Redoubt and God’s sovereign will. The Q&A portion–mainly on the Second Amendment and Romans Chapter 13–begins at 57:50.)

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Muslim Migrants Sexually Assault 5-Year Old In Idaho – RBS

Economics and Investing:

Silver Price Forecast: The Alignment Of The Dow, Interest Rates, Debt and Silver Cycles Will Deliver A Fatal Blow

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Americans Are Now The Top Silver Investors In The World

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What Brexit Could Mean For Your Money And Your Business

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Video: Beyond the Turmoil, Central Bankers Dread Brexit’s Shadow

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Court lets stand law banning some semi-automatic assault weapons. This is not good news folks. This is what we can expect when they pass a national “assault weapons” ban, and hi-cap mag ban; the Supreme Court will let it stand if challenged! – Pat Cascio

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Because “You never know.”

US Army Technical Manual 31-210 Improvised Munitions Handbook – dated 1969. There are lots of “Poor Man’s James Bond” and “Anarchist’s Cookbook” type reads around. But this one differs significantly in that the US Army evaluated and tested the items in this manual and considered them feasible, effective, and reliable enough for publication.

Versions may be had in plain text, Kindle, and EPUB formats and are free to download. I suggest keeping a backup copy in plain text. Because again, “You never know!”

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From the religion of pieces– Muslims Behead Four Year Old Girl – Force Her Mother To Soak Her Hands In Her Daughter’s Blood – While the story has not been confirmed, it matches other reports where IS has mistreated, tortured, and killed young children. – Sent in by M.R.

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A bill to melt 100,000 1911 45s has passed the senate. Call your representative to get this stopped in the House. The pertinent verbiage is at section 331. – T.H.

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Venezuela is now so bad that the main stream media is finally picking up the story: Venezuelans Ransack Stores as Hunger Stalks Crumbling Nation – MtH

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“If you are in a church where the pastor refuses to teach the truth and take a stand, why do you stay there?” – Pastor Chuck Baldwin on churches having the answer to our current moral decline.

Notes for Monday – June 20, 2016

June 20th is the birthday of Audie L. Murphy, born in 1925. (He died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971.) This is also the anniversary of the death of novelist Vince Flynn (born April 6, 1966, died June 19, 2013). His death at age 47 was a loss to the literary world.

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Reader D.S.V. sent this: Gun Shop Sells 30,000 AR-15s in Week Following Orlando Attack. And, BTW, SurvivalBlog advertiser GunMagWarehouse.com (a much smaller company) tells us that they shipped about the same number of magazines in the same week.

Be sure to stock up before the Democratic National Convention in July, folks. That is when the real buying rush will begin, and supplies of most black rifles and nearly all types of full capacity magazines will be depleted!

Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Leatherman Skeletool RX

I’m not exactly sure where the dividing line is between some disorders, like genius, driven mad, sheer genius, tortured mind, losing your mind, and other similar diagnoses. There are creative minds, like that of the novelist Stephen King, and I’m not sure if he has creative genius or a very tortured mind, after watching many of the movies that Hollywood created from his novels. I tend to think that, perhaps, just perhaps, he has a tortured mind. In any event, I’m sure I’ve lost my mind many years ago; just ask my own family! LOL

Now, I’m not saying that any of the terms I listed are necessarily something bad; it’s just that many of us think differently about some things and can put this to good use in life. So, I’m not at all sure about the creative minds who work at Leatherman Tool who come up with the different variety of muli-tools and knives. Are they working on the premise of tortured minds or sheer creative genius? I don’t really know, but I do know that we all benefit from what comes from their minds. No one is making more different types of multi-tools that Leatherman. They are the originator of multi-tools, and in my humble opinion they still produce the best products along these lines.

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I’ve carried a Leatherman “Blast” multi-tool since they first came out, and I was saddened to learn that this particular multi-tool has been discontinued. I’ve found it to be the perfect compromise between the size and the various tools it has. Still, to each his own, and I’m always open to test something new and different from the good folks at Leatherman. With this goal in mind, I requested the Leatherman Skeletool RX to test for our readers, and to be sure, we have some of the most intelligent readers out there, who want to know about the newest, coolest, and best tools available for survival purposes. Keep in mind that survival covers a lot of different definitions, from surviving on the mean streets of a big city, to wilderness survival, to just making an attempt to get through your daily grind.

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The Skeletool RX isn’t the smallest multi-tool that Leatherman produces, and it isn’t one of the largest; Goldilocks might say it is “just right” for many needs. A quick look at what various tools the RX has is in order. We have needlenose pliers, regular pliers, hard wire cutter pliers, and wire cutters, plus a serrated knife blade made out of 154 CM (which is some great knife blade material), a carabiner/bottle opener, and a large bit driver with an added bit with different sizes on it for various screws. The RX handle material is stainless steel and Cerakote coated in blaze orange, so it’s not easy to lose sight of if you lay it down. To be sure, I’m guilty of this– using a knife or other tool on my small homestead and then laying it down in the grass and not being able to find it until I mow the lawn with the riding mower. Yikes!

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The Skeletool RX does not come with a carrying pouch or sheath. Instead, it can be clipped to the inside of your pants pocket with the attached pocket/clothing clip, or you can use the carabiner to attach it to a keyring you might have hanging on your pants belt, so it is readily accessible. The knife blade can be accessed and opened without opening the folded multi-tool. I like this feature a lot. You don’t have to go to all the effort to actually unfold the multi-tool in order to quickly, one-handed open the knife blade, and it does lock open, too, with a liner-type lock. Nice!

The various pliers on the main portion of the tool has all the pliers combined into one, including the needlenose, regular, hard wire cutter, and wire cutter. Just move the plier portion up or down on the material you wish to grip or cut, until you find the one you need to use, easy as pie. The bit driver has a bit locked in place, not magnetically; you need to push on a release to remove that bit and exchange it for the other bit, which is stored in one of the handles of the Skeletool RX. This is my only minor complaint. The extra bit is a little bit difficult to access, but it is very secure and won’t fall out of the handle.

Quite often I can be caught carrying two folding knives in my front cargo pants pockets. One knife will most likely be my favorite EDC folder, and a second folder, on that I’m testing and carrying for an article, will be in my left front cargo pants pocket. At times, I leave my favorite EDC folder at home, when I have several new knives I’m testing and carrying. It’s not overkill but just the way I operate, when carrying new products.

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I found the Skeletool RX easy to pack, clipped in my left front pocket. The only problem I had was accessing my house and car keys when carrying it in my left front pocket. It’s not a gigantic problem, just a little bitty one. With several vehicles in our family and a couple houses and other things that are locked, I have two keyrings in my left front pocket, so there is always something there.

Almost daily, FedEx, UPS, or the USPS bring me packages that must be opened. Some are cardboard boxes and others are large envelopes that need cutting into, and to be sure I’m one of these people who is always finding a loose screw. I just can’t let it be, so I pull out my Leatherman Blast and tighten it. This is a real “problem” for me, at the gun shop I haunt three or four days per week. It is also a pawn shop, and I’m always finding a loose screw and can’t let it be, especially when I run across a loose grip screw on a handgun or on the stock of a long gun. I gotta pull out the Leatherman and tighten it. So, I found a lot of uses for the Skeletool RX to practice on, mostly tightening loose screws.

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Now, the Skeletool RX isn’t a super-heavy duty multi-tool, but it was designed for many of the everyday tasks you might run into. I noted one comment on the Leatherman website with a user complaining that it didn’t have a tool for opening an O2 bottle. In another life, I worked on an ambulance and for the life of me I never had to look for the tool to open an O2 bottle; it was always attached to the bottle, period!

Now, you can find Chinese-made multi-tools all over the Internet for a couple bucks, and when you look at the pics of ‘em they do “look” nice. However, most are pure junk and not worth the shipping to get ‘em, let alone use them. Leatherman is the originator and still the best makers of multi-tools, and they are made in my adopted home state of Oregon, right outside of Portland, OR. I’ve been invited up to Leatherman for a hands-on personal tour numerous times, but I just have a hard time trying to find the time to make the drive up to that part of the state. Oregon is also home to many knife companies. Ditto for them, who are always asking me to come up for a tour of the new plants and/or offices. Sooner or later, I get up that way. I’ve never toured the Leatherman operation, but I will, one of these days. I live a very rural lifestyle and honestly hate going to any big or bigger cities, even though I was born and raised in Chicago, IL. I’ve learned to love rural life and small town life.

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The Leatherman Skeletool RX doesn’t come cheap. It retails for $102, and they do produce similar but different models that you might want to check out before laying down your hard-earned cash. Every Leatherman product comes with a 25-year limited warranty, too, which is something to keep in mind as well as the Made In The USA, which counts a lot in my book, too. So, check out the Skeletool RX. It might be exactly what you are looking for, in a light-weight everyday multi-use tool, for most of your daily needs. The sheer genius minds who design the multi-tools at Leatherman are to be congratulated for all their efforts, giving us so many different multi-tools to choose from!

– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio