Hugh,
Here is some helpful information when dealing with the Garand rifle.
This video shows how to field strip the Garand rifle.
You may remove the operating rod without removing the gas chamber/front sight assembly.
Thank you, – V.S.
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The Great Middle Class Extinction: “95% of New Homes Built for Rich or Poor”. B.B.
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
McDonalds Global Sales Slide Continues…
Video: Greg Hunter interviews David Morgan-Market Crash in September 2015
Euro Area Central Bank Buying Crushes Yield Curves
Greece Got a ‘Deal’ in February, but Here’s Why Things Still Haven’t Calmed Down
Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness by John McPherson
LDS Preparedness Manual, edited by Christopher M. Parrett
Serenity (I also highly recommend the short-lived cable television series Firefly, from which this feature film spun off.)
Police lock up elderly in care crisis: Watchdog report reveals OAPs’ ordeal. – P.M.
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52 senators warn of sweeping ammo bans, say Second Amendment ‘at risk’. – H.L.
It appears that the ATF is backing down, at least temporarily from their position. The official response is that the omission of the “green tip” from the guide was an oversight and was completely unrelated to their move to ban the ammunition. Astute readers will recognize this excuse for what it is – the ATF got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Do not let your guard down, as this is not over yet. – HJL
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Crickets, locusts, flies — yum? The case for edible insects. – RBS
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As if the public school didn’t already struggle educating your kids, now the environmentalists are using the same tool the socialists have used for years: Enviros Use High Schoolers To Shame Republicans On Global Warming
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Mississippi: Proposed Law Would Let Police Enter Homes Without Warrants And Shoot Dogs. – K.D.
“Respect was one thing. Survival was another. It was important that I kept my priorities in the right order.” ? Tahir Shah, Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Today, we present another entry for Round 57 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $12,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 57 ends on March 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.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” – Sun Tzu
If I could take the liberty of adding a little to this famous piece of wisdom, I would say that we should also make every effort to know our friends and allies. Nowhere is knowing yourself and those around you more critical than in a survival situation. We often equate knowing ourselves and others to knowing what skill sets we possess– he’s handy with a rifle, she knows medicinal herbs, and I can repair small engines, and so on. If we stop there, though, I think we are missing something even more critical: knowing a person’s personality.
There are a variety of systems out there for personality assessment; C.F. posted a great article on the Myers-Briggs system here awhile back. However, the one I prefer uses four colors: Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow. I like the color-based system because it is a bit easier for me to remember and because using colors rightly implies that not everyone fits into a neat box. Every person can be a unique blend of these colors and personality traits, although most people have a natural bent toward one or two.
I’ll start off with a brief description of the four types and some thoughts on their strengths and weakness in a survival situation.
Blue people tend to be logical and rational. They deal in ideas and are great goal-setters.
Potential strengths: Calm under pressure. Able to make hard decisions. Good at planning ahead and thinking through potential scenarios. Impartial. A Blue might make a great tactical planner for your group.
Potential weaknesses: Ignoring the “human” factor in situations. Assuming other people also depend solely on logic. Poor interpersonal skills.
Green personalities are the detail people. They are very organized and methodical, but their “system” might look like chaos to an outsider. They are generally rule-followers and want to make sure everything is spelled out in black-and-white. They always want to be in control of their circumstances.
Potential strengths: Keeping things in order. Making sure everything is done right the first time. Dependable. Structured. A Green would often be a great person to have in charge of the supplies.
Potential weaknesses: Not dealing well with uncertainty. Always wanting more information before making a decision. Unwilling to take risks. Inflexible. Not willing to delegate tasks.
People with Red personalities tend to be emotional and enjoy talking and interacting with other people. They are fun-loving and generally understand other people well.
Potential strengths: Reading people. Keeping up morale. Negotiating and bringing people together. Smoothing out interpersonal conflict. A Red in your group might help keep your group functioning as a team and help diffuse stressful situations.
Potential weaknesses: Making emotional decisions. Not dealing well with extended periods of isolation. Failing to think long-term.
Yellow personalities are creative and visionary. They can see the bigger picture and are less concerned with details. They are imaginative and often think in terms of images.
Potential strengths: Improvising creative solutions to problems. Thinking for the long-term. Willing to take risks. Thinking outside the box. A Yellow would normally fit well in the role of strategic planner.
Potential weaknesses: Not following through on commitments. Ignoring or overlooking important details. Unwilling to follow rules.
You probably can already guess your own personality and the personality type of those closest to you, but how do we figure out someone’s personality when we don’t know them really well? I would never recommend a formal personality assessment as the best option. Besides the obvious effects of scaring people away and making them feel as though their privacy is being violated, I find the tests are fairly ineffective. When people think they are being evaluated, most have a natural desire to choose the “right” answers. In the case of a personality test, this can mean answering the questions to match their own perception of themselves (or that of other people) or it can mean trying to slant their answers toward what they believe to be the “best” personality.
Instead, it is more effective to talk with and observe the individuals in a variety of natural contexts. Ask a lot of “why?” questions. Be especially attuned to what makes a person really excited or really upset. If those things sound a little too general, here are some practical examples to get you thinking. I’ve given some responses typical of the different personality types, highlighting key phrases for which you want to be on the lookout.
Q: Hey, that’s a nice handgun you have there. How did you decide to buy a _______?
Q: You said you can’t stand your boss. What makes you dislike him so much?
Q: How did you first get interested in preparing?
As I’m sure you know, no single question or single situation can nail down someone’s personality. These are more like clues. If you pay attention to the people around you, which is situational awareness, you can begin putting the clues together to form a picture of each person’s personality. Then, that can give you and your survival group a critical edge.
Dear Survival Blog Editor,
I’ve enjoyed reading Survival Blog daily for over two years and thank everyone for their efforts to share information about surviving these interesting times. I was very happy to see the article “Survival: Are We Aware Enough?“, as I have been waiting to see if someone would write on this theme. Thank you, S.S., for bringing this topic into the open. I have been “prepping” for almost 25 years, and from the very beginning I realized that how I am inside my heart and head is the most important survival tool… ever. In answer to SS’s question: “when all semblance of modern society is gone, how will you react?”, my goal is to remain grounded, with an open, loving mind and heart, and able to respond in the moment to whatever is necessary no matter how messed up. – LM
Idaho Sheriff: The 2nd Amendment Is Your Concealed Carry Permit – JBG
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Property owner not pleased with Eagle’s plan to use eminent domain. – RBS
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Chastened by president’s profane email, Idaho business lobby now looks inward. – T.K.
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Oregon To Be First In Nation To Implement Per-Mile Road Tax Program. – RBS
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Oregon sheriff: Decision to shoot pet pony was a mistake . – RBS
Everyone Is Guessing When It Comes To Oil Prices
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7 Signs That A Stock Market Peak Is Happening Right Now
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Items from Mr. Econocobas:
ECB Starts Buying German, Italian Government Bonds Under QE Plan
American “Nightmare” Shocker: The Real US Homeownership Rate Has Never Been Lower
Nearly At ‘Full Employment’? 10 Reasons Why The Unemployment Numbers Are A Massive Lie
Venezuela to Install Finger Scanners in Supermarkets to Tackle Hoarding, Panic Buying Amid Shortages – Classic government solution to what is a government problem. The insanity never ends.
Vet Facing Life Sentence Found Not Guilty for Aiming Pistol at Cops Who Failed to Identify as Cops. – H.L.
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SurvivalBlog reader J.K. wrote in to tell us:
“For those needing the ultimate in protection for their BOV and have the funding, Brindlee Mountain has armored trucks for sale. None of them have seen combat and were used for securing nuclear facilities. Only four of the six are still available. They are built on a Ford 550 chassis and armored to withstand 308 rounds.
They are asking $80k.”
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FBI Director says ISIS in every state in the US – A.W.
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This is a dated example but one that is nonetheless well worth the six minutes required to watch it: Immigration, World Poverty and Gumballs. – M.B.
“While complying can be an effective strategy for physical survival, it’s a lousy one for personal fulfillment. Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but only the latter will get you through the night.” ? Daniel H. Pink
March 9th is the birthday of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin– the first man to ever travel in space. He was born in 1934 and died in the crash of a MiG-15-UTI fighter on March 27, 1968.
There is a common theme in most of the dystopian, post-apocolyptic, zombie, killer virus, alien invasion novels that goes unnoticed by many reviewers and readers alike. Perusal of the vast survivalist and prepper websites out there shows few articles or references made to this theme. Yet, it remains the most fundamental aspect of survival– self-awareness. I mean that no matter how many gadgets, survival kits, food kits, and weapons you have, if you are not mindful of how you will react to fear, sadness, loneliness, and loss, your survival is threatened.
Sam Sisavath has written a wonderfully entertaining book on a version of the zombie apocalypse that carries throughout it one theme– “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.” I take from this not only to have the right tools for survival but to increase your self-awareness. Unfortunately, in the good ole’ USA, survival preparation has fallen victim to commercialism, and so we seek out the “stuff” to protect ourselves. However, no amount of weaponry or supplies will matter, should you be unprepared to evaluate situations, formulate a plan, and be aware of what may go wrong, and it doesn’t end there. One’s awareness has to focus internally, on what you will think and feel in times that are scary and threatening to you and your loved ones.
Awareness comes in many forms. Awareness of one’s surroundings, including physical, situational, and political, is perhaps what is taught most in many survivalist courses and books. These are critical to dealing with threats, both minor and major. What is often missed in teaching awareness is how we will emotionally react to these threats. We are so lucky in 2015 in the U.S. to have relatively significant means by which to live and prosper. Compared to most countries, our ability to eat, sleep, find resources, and thrive is very easy, even for people at lower income levels. So, I ask these questions to you: What part of your life will be most affected if the power grid fails? What will you miss most about your life should a nuclear accident occur? Is it the Internet? Is it your favorite burger? These are small questions, and they may not seem important relative to whether you have sufficient iodine tablets for water purification, but this leads me to the most important aspect of awareness– self-awareness.
Please forgive the remainder of this essay, as I will delve into more philosophy than tactics. However, I feel that this hits at the fundamental problem with a survivalist philosophy. Self-awareness is the most underestimated aspect of life. We live in a world where our motivations and desires derive from many different sources. This is based largely on how we were raised. Many of us turn to religion for answers regarding what we should seek from our lives and how we should judge our own and others’ actions. Some of us find those answers in different philosophical traditions. Some of us rely more on our own intuition. How ever we have formed our life philosophy and how we make decisions, both large and small, relies on that philosophy to carry us.
Remember, however, that our philosophy is based on the challenges we have encountered in our lives. So, if we were raised in a Christian ethic with few encounters with violence, illness, or struggle, our philosophy may be vastly different than that of the atheist who has dealt with violence on an almost daily basis. The choices we have made regarding career, family, money, housing, transportation, and more are all shaped by this life philosophy whether we admit it or not.
So what? What does this matter when the situation changes? Many survivalist writers and bloggers have stated plainly that the survival instinct trumps any life philosophy, because we will revert to more animalistic tendencies. Perhaps, but take a minute to think of your family. Many of us who appreciate the possible threats to our comfortable American life have spouses or family members who think we are “crazy” or “reactionary”. Where does this reaction come from? Likely it is from fear, fear of a world that is violent and unforgiving. Perhaps it is fear of discomfort without the luxuries of modern American life. I will argue that it comes from a lack of self-awareness. Let’s return to the question, what will I miss most in a world without power? For those who deny the survivalist philosophy, I argue that they cannot ask that question because they fear they will not be able to live in a such a world. In a world of discomfort and violence, the life philosophy you have created with those comforts will likely fall apart, and for many people that will challenge their very core beliefs.
So what really fuels our survival? Self-awareness will guide you through the most trying of times. I am not writing this from any religious or philosophical point of view, except to say that when all semblance of modern society is gone, how will you react? I don’t mean tactically; I mean how will you react to fear, to sadness, to isolation, to threats from people you trust, and to feelings of hopelessness. Because in modern society, where we can suppress our reactions to the most dire situations with a latte or a beer, we are often able to avoid challenging our most basic human emotions. We are different from animals, and it is our reason and intellect that is most at threat in a survival situation, even if we can physically survive on beef jerky and rainwater.
Our preparations are necessary. Learning tactics for finding food, surviving environmental and human threats, and rebuilding necessary infrastructure are vitally important. However, this preparation assumes that we are emotionally stable and motivated to do so. While survivalist courses and even many of our experiences in life have given us tastes of deprivation, both physical and emotional, many of us are lucky to return to the comfortable life. Have we all thought about the scenario where that comfortable life is gone? Where we can’t call our loved ones in another state to “check in”? Where our sons and daughters who are away at school are no longer in contact and we don’t know if they are alive or dead? No matter how big our bunker is, are we prepared emotionally for the loss of our family?
I don’t pretend to know the answer, but I think about this often. I love my family more than anything on this earth. If I were to be without them, could I survive? If my children were without me or their mother, could they survive? Would any of us be self-aware enough to understand our sadness or loss and to keep going despite little hope of a return to “normal society?” Do we intend to suppress our emotional response to survival situations, only to have that emotional response present itself at the wrong time? Faced with a true threat to our family or ourselves, will we be able to truly disregard our humanity and kill another person? These questions are central to survival, and our modern life has allowed us the luxury of avoiding them.
All of us have dealt with loss in one form or another in our lives, so I don’t mean to imply that we are incapable of dealing with it, but we have done so in a comfortable society and environment without imminent threat. In a world where those comforts are gone, will we still have the fortitude to manage our emotions and maintain a level head? Unfortunately, many of the situations I describe above we will not ever face in today’s modern society, and so if we don’t ask these difficult questions we may never be prepared.
I don’t have the answers for these questions, but in our worst case scenarios we will inevitably face them. Perhaps answers exist in religious doctrines. Perhaps philosophical tenets will provide guidance. Above all, preparation for a chaotic and violent world requires emotional preparation, if not only for you then for your family. If you have not thought about this, please do, because your survival depends on it.
You probably won’t find the new fixed blade Buck Model 245 MWG on the Buck® Knives Official Website list of their Hunting and Tactical Knives just yet, because it is so new; I received one of the first samples. Sure, a month or two ago, many websites released a press release– the same I received– on the Model 245 MWG Buck knife, but these sites do an injustice to the product and the reader, if you ask me, by simply posting a press release without actually testing the product.
Everyone is probably familiar with the most famous Buck folding knife on the market– their Model 110. I know a lot of folks in the knife industry, and I’m told that a very good knife design has a life of about three years. That means the buying public typically stops buying that knife design for whatever reason within that timeframe. The Model 110 started out in 1963. Yes, you read that right. It was in 1963, and this folding knife is still going strong. To be sure, the Model 110 is the most copied lock-back folding knife in the world, bar none! Many uninformed folks, who see any type of large, lock-back folding knife, will refer to it as “a Buck”. As many folks claim that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if that’s true, then Buck Knives has been flattered for more than 50 years on the Model 110 alone. I won’t even go into some of Buck’s fixed blade hunting knives, which also have been copied by many companies.
There is some conjecture as to when “Buck Knives” actually started. I’ve gone ’round and ’round with one magazine editor about this. (I won’t mention his name, though.) Buck Knives claims they started in 1902, when Hoytt Buck made his first knife. Some claim Buck Knives didn’t start until WWII, when the call went out for folders and fixed blade knives for our troops. Some say Buck Knives started after WWI, and some say it didn’t really start until the 1960s. Look, if I started making knives 20 years ago and just today started calling myself “Cascio Custom Knives”, I would claim that even though I didn’t actually call myself a “company” I was still making knives 20 years ago. So, if Buck Knives says they started in 1902, that’s fine with me. Take the argument up with Buck and not with me. In the end, does it really matter when Buck Knives got their start?
I’m sure that many SurvivalBlog readers are big fans of the original “Red Dawn” movie, where a group of teens fight in WWIII as guerrillas, but did you really catch that when the group was evacuating the town and stopped at the gas station/general store before heading to the mountains some of them grabbed some Buck Knives? “Jed” is seen carrying a folding knife on his belt in most of the movie, and I’m guessing it was a Buck Knives Model 110.
We all remember the various “Rambo” movies; in each one, “John Rambo” is seen carrying various types of large knives. In the first several movies, he carries different hollow handle survival knives. Well, Buck Knives jumped on that bandwagon with their over version that they called the “Buckmaster”. To be sure, it was probably one of the heaviest and stoutest hollow handle survival knives on the market. It wasn’t some cheap, plastic, hollow handle, piece of junk from China.
Many folks don’t know that the M9 Bayonet was marketed by Buck Knives, and it’s very popular with our men and women in uniform. Buck sold more than 300,000 of these stout bayonets, too. Now, they are copied by many companies, though most are pure junk!
In 2005 Buck Knives moved from San Diego, CA to Post Falls, Idaho, and I did a feature story on the move and the new company for Knives Illustrated magazine. Buck lost some employees in the move, and that is understandable, as it’s hard to uproot a family and make that kind of a move.
One thing you will notice about Buck Knives is that they don’t release a lot of new knife designs each year, like many other knife companies do. It’s for good reason; they have some rock-solid designs that keep selling year-after-year. You don’t “fix” what’s not broken, and that brings us to the Buck Model 245 MWG fixed blade knife.
The Buck Model 245 MWG is being produced by Buck Knives in honor of Special Warfare Operator, First Class, SEAL Matthew J. Leathers, who was a highly decorated combat veteran, including the Bronze Star. Leathers was lost at sea in an open water ocean training exercise.
Leathers designed a small fixed blade knife that he made by hand from coil springs from beat up Hummers, and he found a way to temper the steel blades using an old mailbox. His small fixed blade knife was always in demand from other SEALs, too. Needless to say, it was no small task producing the knives, by hand, one at a time, but Leathers did his best to meet demand. Buck Knives entered into an agreement with Tim Leathers, Matt’s father, to produce the Model 245 MWG, and Buck is more than honored to offer this knife to the public. Also, a portion of the sale of each knife goes to the Navy SEAL Foundation.
So, a little more history on the Buck Model 245 MWG is in order. The Model number comes from Matt’s SEAL Team BUDs class he graduated from– Class 245. (This is always a great way to catch phonies who claim they were Navy SEALs: Ask them what SEAL class they graduated from. Most will tell you they were with SEAL Team 6, which is one of the best known. So, that will readily tell you that they aren’t the real deal. They have no idea what you asked them, when asked what “class” number they were in.)
The “MWG” in the model of the knife refers to “Matt Would Go”. That comes from Matt’s courage and devotion to duty. When the chips were down, the team knew they could always count on Leather, because no matter the job “Matt Would Go.” The term was coined by the leadership of the SEAL Delivery Team One Delivery Vehicle in recognition of Matt’s courage.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the history of Buck Knives, and I touched on how the Model 245 MWG model came about. I believe this is important, and I’ll do some more in-depth research and testing on products in the future for SurvivalBlog. I believe many readers want to know the “skinny” on some products, the company, and the folks who developed certain products.
A close look at the Buck Model 245 MWG is certainly in order. In 1993, Buck Knives started using 420HC steel for their blades, and they also changed the grind on their knives, so they were easier to re-sharpen. If it’s one thing they were known for, it was super-sharp knives that held an edge forever, or so it seemed, but the knife blades were very hard to re-sharpen by many consumers. So, Buck left 425M stainless steel and went to 420HC with the new grind. Well, the 245 MWG is made out of 5160 steel and has a black powder coating on the blade to resist rust. The blade is clip point, and the handle material is made out of multi-colored Micarta, which is some tough stuff, to be sure. The blade is right at 4″ long, and it was sharp. While sitting on my desk, I happened to bump the pinky finger on my left hand against the blade, thinking nothing of it, until a minute later when my wife asked why my hand was all bloody. I didn’t realize I was cut, because the blade was so sharp. A hazard of testing knives is sometimes getting cut. It’s been more than a dozen years since I last cut myself testing a knife; that time resulting in a visit to the ER.
We have a lanyard hole on the butt of the 245 MWG but no lanyard. I hope Buck sees the error of their ways and includes a lanyard in the future. If not, it’s no big deal to attach some 550 para cord for your own lanyard. The butt is also somewhat pointed, to be used as a striking weapon; it makes someone stop and think if you happen to hit them along a nerve and paralyze an arm or hand. We also have a very nice Kydex sheath, molded expertly to the 245 MWG. It’s the best molding I’ve seen on any knife with a Kydex sheath, and it has a Tec-Lok that can be attached several different ways for vertical or horizontal carry on the belt or a tactical MOLLE vest.
I used the Model 245 MWG all around my homestead for a week, including in the kitchen and opening UPS/FedEx packages. I stabbed it into stacked cardboard, up to the handle; I had no problem. I chopped some dormant blackberry vines, and it make quick work of them. The handle design is expertly designed with finger grooves placed just where your fingers fall on the handle as you grasp it. Needless to say, I never once had to stop and re-sharpen the knife, and I put it to work… a lot! We also have some “friction” grooves strategically placed on the blade and the handle, too. There isn’t a single thing I would change on the 245 MWG; it’s “that” good!
Buck Knives doesn’t have this knife on their website just yet, but here is a link to the knife with a picture of it…
Quality NEVER comes cheap, and you only have to buy quality once. The 245 MWG retails for $245.00, and I’m predicting it will be a very hot seller for Buck Knives. It is a real tribute to a fallen SEAL hero, and don’t forget, a portion of the proceeds go to a good cause. So, if you’re in the market for a totally outstanding fixed blade knife for survival, camp chores, everyday chores, or to add to your collection, take a close look at the new Buck Knives Model 245 MWG!
Remember, you read about it first on SurvivalBlog!
Pat Cascio, SurvivalBlog Product Review Editor Emeritus