Notes for Sunday – May 11, 2014:

Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

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 FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, 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,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. 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,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 52 ends on May 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.

Building Your Own No-FFL AR From An 80% Complete Receiver, by JAG

I read the “Building Your Own No-FFL AR From an 80% Complete Receiver” article by NOMAD several months ago and decided to try building my own AR-15. I have re-written his article to update it with my research and experiences.

Why build instead of buy complete:

  1. Save a little money. The AR-15 platform is an inexpensive weapon overall, and owning one is on-par with buying a much less versatile bolt-action rifle. So for a similar price you get additional versatility. Bolt action rifles are great for reaching out beyond 200 yards, but if the pack of wolves or wild dogs is closer, the bolt action will be a little slow. However, a new AR-15 can still be pricey. A Del-Ton Sport (http://www.del-ton.com/carbine_rifles_s/2.htm) will run you $707 in spring 2014, plus local fees, FFL fees, and shipping. My experience is that by building out an 80% lower receiver you save about $100– money you will want to spend on optics, slings, a case, and so forth. Of course, you would actually spend that money in addition to the cost of a rifle regardless.
  2. We live in very uncertain times. Learning about firearms is always a good idea. Modern firearms are tools. More knowledge equals better preparation, if things go sideways. Being able to do so while staying off some of the official lists is never a bad option. My experience was great for learning things about the AR-15 that I did not know before. (I would not have guessed that the rear retaining pin spring was held in place by the stock.) Should the time come that I need to maintain or repair an AR-15, I will be ahead of the game.

Cautions:

First, before you start on the path I am going to recommend, please check your state and local laws!. I cannot begin to stress just how important it is that you do so! It will be very difficult to protect your family if you are behind bars. Research and informed decisions will save you a potential felonious headache. So act accordingly and responsibly, then proceed at your own risk. Especially right now in New York and Connecticut, you are better off buying locally so you can comply with local laws. www.governor.ny.gov and The New American.

California even has a law where you need a fixed magazine, so check this (if you needed another reason to live ANYWHERE else): gunlaw.com

Though I will recommend companies and products by name and link, I do so not because I am trying to receive free stuff from them, but because I bought from them and the links were easy to create. Prices change over time, and the links may break. YMMV. These parts worked for me, and they will likely work for you, but I make no guarantees that this is the best or perfect parts combination. Particularly, realizing that Amazon Corporation has a HORRIBLE history and attitude about privacy, buying a bunch of parts related to an AR-15 is the same to most Gub’mint folks as putting up a neon sign saying “I’m a gun owner”. At the same time, I am an Amazon prime member, and free shipping is good. I figure I am already on their list for some of the stuff I did in the Army, so I went there, but my wife still complains about all the firearms stuff that shows up when she shops on Amazon.

Next, this will not help you if you use the firearm in the commission of a felony. The bullets that come out of a rifle barrel are grooved. Those grooves are specific to a manufacturer. Manufacturers are required to register their grooves with the FBI that maintains a database. Manufacturers are required to maintain records of rifle barrel sales that will trace back to you. So, even though there may not be a serial number on your rifle, the feds can find you through the rifle barrel manufacturer. Breaking the law is a bad idea, and “building” your own weapon will not help you.

Another option is if you know someone with a high end 3D printer. They could probably print the lower receiver for you, assuming you want to trust the ruggedness. I did not try this, but I did see an article on it. I am sure the gub’mint will be outlawing this as soon as they can figure out how, but for now there is no law so it is legal, not that that will help you. The 3D printing guys are gun shy, and the author of the article could not find anyone willing to print a lower receiver for pay.

Lastly, though the BATFE does not require a serial number on personally manufactured firearms, some police officers are ignorant to this fact. Should such an officer demand to inspect your rifle, you can avoid a whole heap of inconvenience and awkward questions with the simple expedient of adding a serial number. Then if anything happens requiring you prove ownership (like after a theft at your house), you know the serial number. Your best protection is “There is nothing to see here, just move along.”

During my time in the Army, we had a saying, “There is only one kind of special, and that is Special Olympics.” So, when dealing with range owners, police, fire departments, and so forth you want to look just like the guy next to you, who spent more money and knows less about his firearm.

Note:

The Gub’mint is trying to be politically correct and crack down on polymer 80% receivers. This debate, going on right now, could go either way. The Gub’mint says polymer lowers that are sold as 80% complete are actually more than 80% complete. They have raided both Ares and EP Armory. In the next year or two, the polymer lower receivers will be hard to obtain and could put you on the radar. Looking around, I was not able to find any polymer lower receivers that are showing in stock as of March 2014. The essence of the Gub’mint argument is that the different color plastic that is sold as part of the 80% lower makes it too easy to complete the lower. I disagree, but I am not the judge or on the Supreme Court, so no one is going to listen to me.

An additional argument the Gub’mint is using is that the polymer lowers have extrusion nubs at the point you might want to drill the pin and selector lever holes. I will admit this is easier and simpler than buying a jig and marking the hole location, but in terms of completing the lower, this is a minor point. All the work is involved in clearing out the firing chamber. It is easier to drill polymer than it is to drill aluminum, but that is like saying it is easier to fly a jet than a propeller airplane. The effort percentage remains the same; it’s just that the overall work drops. Then, again, I am not the decider.

In the meantime, you can buy an 80% aluminum lower for $90.00, as opposed to $50.00 for a polymer lower. With the aluminum lower I also recommend buying the sticker jig so you can mark where to clean out. So tack on another $10.

BLUF:

Completing an 80% lower receiver is educational, and I recommend it. It will take you 4-6 hours to look at all the YouTube.com videos and complete the entire rifle. You need the following equipment:

Recommended:

Parts:

Background:

The Gun Control Act of 1968 classified the frame, receiver, or lower receiver of any gun– be it handgun, rifle, or shotgun– to be the actual “firearm”. It is that portion of any store-bought gun that requires a serial number for registration. One obscure way to comply with that law, and the BATFE (see question 4) offers clear language on their web site to prove my claim, has been to manufacture your own frames and lower receivers for personal use.

Traditionally, these lower receivers were 80% complete aluminum castings or forgings that required jigs, a milling machine, a drill press, sometimes a lathe, and perhaps anodizing or painting to complete. If you did not have the aforementioned equipment on hand already, the entire process would have you paying more for a finished entry-level rifle than you would otherwise pay by going through any FFL dealer. The only real benefits were the pride you took in seeing your own creation putting bullets on paper or into game animals, plus the anonymity that goes along with not having to register your manufactured firearm.

Lower Receiver Decision:

A traditional Aluminum 80% lower receiver still works. You will spend two hours drilling out, smoothing, and polishing the lower to complete it. You will need to go slow and use tape and jigs to make sure you get a usable lower receiver. Expect the aluminum to take an extra hour to work with and to bump the price by $50, between extra 80% lower cost and jigs. So you will save about $100, instead of $150.

These days, however, technology has given us the option to go with a jig-less design 80% lower receiver made of polymer over the traditional aluminum and a set of hand tools that, if you do not have them on hand already, will run you about $75 . Honestly speaking, I’m a skeptic by nature, so I have to admit that I balked at polymer lower receivers at first. With a new jig and an 80% aluminum lower averaging out to what I considered to be a very reasonable $117, why would I even consider switching from a time-tested method? What made my thoughts about them radically change was after watching a torture test video featuring a polymer lower receiver versus aluminum. I gotta tell you, I was impressed! Not only did the polymer variant match its aluminum counterpart in tensile strength and rugged durability, it actually outperformed it. Additionally, with the cost of that jig-less polymer lower being the $65 I just spoke of, out the door and delivered to your door, not to mention the light-weight design and extreme ease of the machining process, the decision was an easy one for me to make. All this brings us to the available options of jig-less polymer lower receivers– the one that I used– costing $50 before shipping. It was the EP80, available at EPArmory.com. I have personally completed the EPArmory design. The finish is excellent, and it functioned flawlessly. It is a superior option to any aluminum design AR receiver on the market. However, until the Gub’mint gets a clue, good luck on finding one.

One of the things to know about is that there are actually two weak spots in the AR-15 lower receiver that gunsmiths worry about. The first is the ring at the back where the stock screws in. It’s no surprise that if you are banging around the stock, the first place it will break is not the actual stock but the connection point between the stock and the rest of the weapon. The next place they worry about is the takedown pins. Apparently it is a weak point that gets repeatedly tweaked as you assemble/disassemble. See the Torture test link above.

Completion:

Completing one of these lower receivers is about two hours worth of work. If you get a polymer lower, it is easy, in about an hour, to drill out the softer, different colored plastic, smooth the ridges with the dremel to blend with the walls, drill a 5/32” hole for the trigger and hammer pins; and drill a 3/8” hole for the safety selector switch. Lastly, you widen the trigger slot by 1/4” toward the front and a 1/4” to the rear of the lower receiver to match the trigger base. That’s all that is needed to have a stripped lower receiver, ready for assembly. Use the actual trigger parts to make sure it all fits the way you like. This is tedious, slow work, but I was really proud once it was complete.

I went back to EP Armory and purchased an aluminum receiver just to see how hard it was to complete. It ended up costing $117 out the door. I also purchased the paper jig (I did not need the heavier duty jig for $75, one use was fine) for $10, and I paid $17 for shipping. The aluminum was harder to complete than the polymer but not by a lot. I ended up staying with the polymer just because I liked the fit and finish, but the aluminum drilled out easily, and with a permanent marker I easily put markings on the aluminum like the polymer. Finishing it required safety glasses, because of the little metal shards flying towards my eyes as I was looking down into the firing chamber. Still, it finished easily, and there really was little difference between the metal and the polymer in terms of work required. Now I have a spare receiver in case the polymer somehow breaks, and I have now assembled the trigger assembly three times.

Should you have questions or doubts, many YouTube videos are available that will give the layperson key visual completion instructions and tips to seeing the project successfully through. So, if you are inexperienced, watching a few of them will certainly help ensure that your finished lower looks professional and performs flawlessly. If you just remember to take your time, you will not only likely enjoy the project, you will also take pride in seeing its completion through to actual service.

I would be remiss if I failed to add that a drill press will aid in drilling the hammer, trigger, and safety selector holes straight, but by using an inexpensive level, which almost every hand drill of today already has embedded above the trigger grip, you save a couple of bucks. A hand drill will more than suffice if you are steady and patient. The dremel will greatly aid in widening the trigger slot little by little until the trigger fits just the way you like it.

(As a side note, I strongly recommend getting a set of number and letter stamps, which can also be purchased from Harbor Freight Tools for an additional $10, to stamp your own serial number on the completed lower.) Set them on a clothes iron until they are really hot then use tongs and a hammer. For those that like Jenny, my serial number will always be 8675301…

Now that you have completed the lower, the only thing left to do is to select a carbine or rifle kit. Palmetto State Armory (PSA), DPMS, CMMG, J&T Distributing, Del-Ton, and a whole host of other companies have good quality entry-level parts kits available. Naturally, some are more expensive and of marginally better design. I strongly recommend going with Del-Ton. I own Del-Tons, and not only would I stack them up against any rifle kit on the market, I would and have stacked them up against much more expensive rigs and handily outperformed a number of them. Since Del-Ton is one of the least expensive and best designed kits of the list of quality options, it is a no-brainer, as far as I am concerned.

The fit and finish of Del-Ton’s kits are outstanding, and the form and function is no-nonsense and flawless. The upper receivers are already fully assembled and head-spaced. The lower parts kits include quality components. The butt stock and buffer tube are mil-spec and snug-fitting. The only warning I have is that the Del-Ton uppers are test fired and shipped filthy. Expect to spend an hour or so cleaning it before you use it. (Another side note: Del-Ton currently has a 4-6 week lead time on their rifle and carbine kits, with some of them being currently out of stock, but trust me when I say that their price and quality are definitely worth the wait. Mine shipped two weeks into the six week wait.)

(Note: If you are unsure about assembling your rifle, YouTube is again your friend, with a countless array of instructional and how-to videos. It really is a very straightforward process, and valuable knowledge can be gained by watching them if you lack AR-15 experience. I watched several of them, and it made the process very straight forward.) If you can have an extra set of hands, it is a good idea as the springs can get flighty. I chased one spring under the table twice. Still, a couple of hours later you will know a lot more about the AR-15.)

Additional Items:

Some things do not come with the completion kits. The most obvious are a case, a sling, and sights.

  • As far as the rear sight goes, E-Bay and Amazon have many flip-up and carry handle options for under $20 every day of the week. Just be warned that some of the rear sight solutions on eBay are very cheap, flimsy, and will not take a whole lot of abuse. If you want to buy new, check out Brownells and look at optics/scopes/rifles OR Amazon From $12-$600
  • I purchased the UTG Red dot sight, which was only $50, and I like a red dot.
  • An AR-15 trigger/magazine lock is worth thinking about. Without going into the pro and cons:
  • Lastly, a case is never bad.
    • Amazon $14-$100
    • The case locks also made my wife happy.

Summary:

At the end of the day I spent about $770. Ammo is additional. I know that almost $770 is a heck of a stretch for folks struggling to just put food on the table in these uncertain economic times. Believe me, I do know, but if you value your lives and the way you and your family live, it is something that everyone should try to fit into their survival budget. You have to ask yourself not if you can afford to take the plunge, but whether or not you can really afford not to.

Now, I am going to see about painting the rifle to look innocuous. There’s nothing wrong with making it look as common and normal as possible. That may be a separate article. Good luck and keep your powder dry. – JAG

Two Letters Re: A Response to Ideas Concerning a Post-Collapse World

Hugh,

J.L.’s article was a little light on the math. I would assume (assumption #1) that the “Christian Era” referred to in “A Response to Ideas Concerning a Post-Collapse World” started with the birth of Jesus (hence the “A.D.” in our dating system). Given that as the starting point, 5 pennies (were they modern-day pennies, assumption #2) invested at 5% annually for roughly 2,000 years would now be worth $214,703,801,016,035,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, according to my Excel spreadsheet calculations.

Converting that dollar amount to gold (a more compact measure of value than copper coin) at $1308 (5/6/14 at 2 PM, Kitco, assumption #3) per (troy) ounce, and figuring for conversion to standard ounces then pounds then tons, yields 4,675,583,266,749,050,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons of gold. Considering that the earth weighs (according to Cool Cosmos ) an estimated 6,585,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons (metric, but who’s counting?) that comes out to something like 700 billion spheres of gold each weighing as much as the earth (but a lot smaller than the earth because gold is so dense). I’m either too tired or too lazy to calculate how many 8,000-mile-diameter spheres of gold that would be.

I think you get the idea…

Even if there’s a calculation error here and there, I’d say that the original article’s calculation is close enough to make the point that compound interest is a bad thing for borrowers and a great thing for banks. I don’t want to pile on bankers, but the system is broken and a LOT more complicated than most persons realize.

Trust God. Be Prepared. It’s time to do both. – P.H.

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Hugh:

Just to add my 2 cents to the usury comments by J.L., interest rates are a fact of life, as “interest” reflects the amount of money that is discounted for the future. For example, if someone offers me $100 today or $100 next month, I’ll take the $100 today, no question. But if someone offered me $100 today or $150 next month, I might consider waiting. The calculation that goes on in my head whether to take the money now or in the future is the effective “interest rate”. It’s one of those facts of economics that is not changed by legislation, as much as people might like to change it.

Gary North has written exhaustively on the topic of interest in the New Testament. Regards – R.K.

Hugh Replies: While I agree with Gary North in that all interest was banned for your fellow brother, I do not agree with his premise in that the interest was tied to the Jubilee (50th year) as this practice was never implemented in the nation of Israel. They were supposed to, but they didn’t, which is one of the reasons the Kingdom of Judah was sentenced to 70 years in captivity– for the 70 sabbatical years of the land that were missed in 490 years. Also, Christ did not annul any law from the Old Testament anywhere. In fact, He states the opposite position in Matthew 5:17-19 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” The last I looked, the earth was still here. In other words, none of the law from the Old Testament have been done away with.

It’s really not hard to understand why that prohibition is in place. When you loan something to someone, that person is beholden to you. In the case of money, it is very transient in nature. When you loan money to a friend, there is pressure on that friendship, and every time the two of you get together to fellowship, that pressure is there. You think about what he owes you; they think about how hard it is to repay. The addition of interest into the equation amplifies that pressure. Many friendships have ended over the guilt of the inability to repay or the anger of being taken advantage of. Sometimes, the friendship is just damaged; sometimes the friendship is destroyed. In all cases, it takes a concerted effort from both parties of the loan to reconcile. How much better to follow the commands given, and when asked by a brother for a loan, if you can afford it, give it freely to him without the expectation of interest or repayment. Consider it a gift. If they repay it, so be it. If they don’t, it is no loss to you, and you have had the blessing of giving and helping.

Economics and Investing:

Saxobank Warns China Is Exporting Deflation (And It’s Not Going To Stop Anytime Soon) – H.L.

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The Shocking Increase Of College Tuition By State – B.R.

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Items from The Economatrix:

Banks Close in Donetsk – A Lesson For The Rest Of Us

U.S. April Budget Surplus $114 Billion: CBO

Consumer Credit Accelerates In March

Yellen Stays Upbeat But Is Watching Housing

Yellen: Geopolitics, U.S. Housing Could Slow Recovery

Odds ‘n Sods:

Russian Military Recruitment Video Embraces Dark Side | Video | TheBlaze.com – G.P.

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Arizona court overturns ruling on bus-stop gun ads.

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Uncomfortable with surveillance cameras? “Identity replacement tech” in the form of the Personal Surveillance Identity Prosthetic gives you a whole new face. Anti-surveillance mask lets you pass as someone else. – RBS

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This is a nice brief video with text of a shooter busting aerial clay birds with an Ultimak forward mounted Aimpoint optic on an AK.

I can personally vouch for this very set up on the AK, using an EOTec 500 series.

Be advised, the gas tube mount is metal and will transfer heat to your flush fitting optic during sustained rapid fire.

The tactical speed advantage of a 1x forward mount red dot optic – video / text – T.P.

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There’s a reason the Detroit woman’s siblings now call the grandmother of four “Rambo,” and you don’t want to question the validity of the moniker. Granny ‘Rambo’ Fires When Ready. And, Boy, Was She Ready. – H.L.

Notes for Saturday – May 10, 2014:

May 10th is the birthday of the late Col. Jeff Cooper, who was born 1920 and died September 25, 2006.

May 10th is also the birthday of the late Janis Pinups, who was born 1925 and died June 15, 2007. He was one of the last of the Forest Brothers anti-communist resistance fighters. He came out of hiding after five decades to obtain a Latvian passport in 1994, after the collapse of eastern European communism. (He was never issued any communist government identity papers and by necessity lived as a nonexistent ghost during the entire Soviet occupation of Latvia.)

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Infidel Body Armor (a SurvivalBlog Advertiser) is currently having a 10% off sale through the end of the month. This is the deepest discount they offer, and it only happens a few times a year. These are the plates that comply with MIL-46100 Rev E for class 1 armor! Use coupon code 1776 at the checkout.

Guest Article: Tornado Survival Tips, by Matthew Stein, P.E.

Darden describes a family of five who lived on a farm outside of Higdon, Ala., a small community in the northern part of the state. They had no storm shelter, but they did live in a home that he says was well built.

On Saturday, Darden and a partner visited the family. “The mother and three daughters were there at the time,” he recalls. Looking at the wall-free ground floor—all that remained of the home—”I introduced myself and said: Thank God y’all were not home. “Her response? “Oh, we were here.” With no storm shelter and nothing but a slab foundation left, “I really thought she was joking,” he continues. “I asked: Where were you at?”

She led the two men to a spot on the storm-swept slab, where nothing but a small patch of hardwood flooring and a scrap of carpeting remained—parts of each pulled up by the tornado. The rest of the flooring vanished into the vortex and hasn’t been found. The patch is all that was left of the interior hallway in which the family huddled. “They were not touched,” he says, in a voice tinged with amazement. “They were not sucked up. They didn’t have a scratch on them.”

—Pete Spotts, “Lessons From the Wreckage: How Alabama Could Help Tornado Preparedness,” Christian Science Monitor, May 4, 2011

With thousands of flattened homes and numerous devastated communities in the aftermath of this week’s widespread tornadoes, and roughly 1/3 of the population of the United States under a tornado watch today as storms continue across the Midwestern and Southern states, it is worth revisiting my article on tornado safety and survival tips. Though nothing can guarantee absolute safety in the path of a tornado, outside of a shelter with reinforced concrete and steel walls, understanding something about the nature of tornadoes, safety tips for surviving a tornado strike, and which common folklore is to be trusted or ignored, will improve your chances for making the right decision if that day should come when you are confronted by an approaching tornado.

Tornado Facts and Myths

  • It is commonly believed that tornadoes happen mostly in the spring, but the peak of tornado season varies with location, and tornadoes can occur any month of the year. For example, the peak of tornado season in the northern plains and upper Midwest is June or July, but it is from May to early June in the southern plains and even earlier in the spring for the Gulf Coast.
  • There is a myth that tornadoes can only spawn and strike in relatively flat areas, but they have actually occurred in high areas of the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, and Appalachian Mountains. Though more frequent in the flatter areas of the plains states and the southeast, tornadoes have been spotted in such varied locations as Vermont, upstate New York, Nevada, and one hiker spotted and photographed a tornado at 12,000 feet in the Sequoia National Park of California.
  • A common myth is that trailer parks attract tornadoes. They certainly do not attract tornadoes, but due to their light weight and lack of heavy-duty anchoring to strong structural foundations, trailers are extremely vulnerable to damage from tornadoes.
  • Another common myth is that you should open your windows to allow the pressure to equalize should a tornado strike your home. Do not waste your time opening windows. If a tornado strikes, it will blow out the windows, and the last place you should be is near a window, where there is the greatest danger from flying debris and glass.
  • There is a common myth that owing to the direction of rotation of tornadoes in the Northern Hemisphere the southwest corner of a building is the safest place to be. This myth is totally false. Corners are areas of buildings that are most prone to damage. The safest areas are in the center of the building in a windowless room or closet, and on the lowest level (in the basement if there is one).
  • There is a common myth that highway overpasses provide protection from tornadoes. In fact, the underside of a highway overpass often acts as a wind tunnel, channeling high winds and debris, and there are a number of reported deaths of people who parked under an overpass while seeking shelter from approaching tornadoes.

Tornado Prediction and Warnings

A tornado watch is issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) when they have determined that local conditions are ripe for generating tornadoes. Once a tornado watch has been issued, it is advisable to stay tuned to your local radio and television stations for further updates. If you live in tornado country, the use of a NOAA weather radio is highly recommended, especially those models that have a battery backup and can emit an audible warning whenever a severe weather alert is issued. This is the time to turn on the audible alarm switch on your NOAA radio to alert you if the watch is upgraded to a warning. Once a tornado watch has been issued, stay alert using your eyes, ears, and other senses to watch for signs of an approaching tornado, and make sure you have access to a safe shelter. Watch for unusual behavior on the part of pets and animals that might be an indication of an approaching tornado.

Once a tornado has been spotted visually, or on weather radar, a tornado warning is issued. Once a warning has been issued, you should take immediate precautions and seek shelter. If you live in a mobile home or other poorly protected building, you should seek shelter elsewhere, if possible. Bring your radio with you to listen for status updates and an “all-clear” signal when the warning is over.

Note: Sirens and severe weather alerts may provide advance tornado warnings, but tornadoes can occur in any season and without warning!

Tornado Survival Tips and Strategies

  • If you are at home, seek shelter in the bottommost floor, and innermost area, such as an inner hallway, bathroom, or closet. Stay away from windows, outer walls, and building corners. Do not waste time opening windows.
  • If you have a “safe room” (a specially constructed room protected by reinforced concrete and/or steel), a basement, root cellar, or storm cellar, those are the safest places to be. In the basement, the safest place is under a sturdy table or mattress, and in a position that is not directly below heavy items on the floor above, such as a refrigerator or piano.
  • Protect yourself as best as possible. Wear a bicycle or hockey helmet, if you have one. Crouching in a bathtub or shower stall can provide improved protection, as can lying under a sturdy table or overturned couch.
  • If you are in a car, do not try to outrun a tornado as it can travel at speeds in excess of 70 mph. However, it is worth taking a moment to watch the tornado closely, comparing its motion to a fixed object on the ground, so as to gauge its direction of travel. If you see it moving to one side or the other, and can travel in the opposite direction, then do so. If it does not appear to move to the left or right, it is headed straight for you. In that case, you must make a decision. If you have the option of traveling to the right or left, then do so, but if you are stuck in traffic, or the tornado is very close, you must abandon your vehicle and seek shelter, since tornadoes can easily pick up cars and even tractor trailers, sometimes throwing them hundreds of yards. If possible, pull your car to the side of the road and do not park in lanes of traffic, since with the heavy rains that often accompany tornadoes, a driver traveling at high speeds might not see your car parked in the middle of the road.
  • If you are stuck in your car with an impending tornado strike, crouch down as low as you can, with your seatbelt buckled, staying away from the windows, and shielding your head with your arms and hands.
  • If you are in the open, perhaps having abandoned your car, seek shelter in a building or culvert, or lie down flat in a ditch or depression and cover your head with your hands. It’s not a pleasant thought, but people have survived tornadoes by doing this! Stay away from cars and trees, since they will become heavy flying objects with the power to kill and maim.
  • Do not park under an overpass, since these tend to act as wind tunnels funneling debris and magnifying winds.
  • Avoid shopping malls, theatres, gymnasiums, and other buildings with large open interior spaces where the roof might easily collapse. If inside of such a building, with no time to seek shelter elsewhere, seek shelter under a doorjamb or next to an interior wall that may provide some structural support and protection in the event of a building collapse.

Note: This article is adapted from Mat Stein’s book When Disaster Strikes (Chelsea Green) and is reprinted here with permission of the publisher. For more information, visit www.chelseagreen.com

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About the author: Matthew Stein is a design engineer, green builder, and author of two bestselling books: When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival (Chelsea Green 2011), and When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency (Chelsea Green 2008). Stein is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he majored in Mechanical Engineering.

Two Letters Re: Tornado Survival and Recovery

Jim,

I have a comment to add to the Tornado Survival and Recovery article by J.M. The information was great, but one vital item was not mentioned as part of J.M.’s tornado kit. That item would be a sturdy pair of boots. A good pair of boots is important to have when you emerge from your area of safety and have to walk through debris (nails, glass, splintered wood, metal). – R.

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Hugh,

I can make a quick suggestion for those who have to drive after a tornado or hurricane. When roofs get ripped off of buildings, the roofing nails litter the roads. Their wide, flat heads or the fact they are still stuck in shingles makes them likely to stand up and get into tires. They cause a lot of flats.

There are a number of products that can be sprayed into the tire through the valve stem. They can get you going in a jam. They usually only partially inflate the tire though, which can be hazardous and shorten the life of the tire. A little compressor that runs off the car battery can completely fill it. When I was doing my tour of hurricanes, we issued these to everyone we sent in, and they were well worth it.

The one caveat is that when you get the tired fixed for real afterwards, you have to tell the repairman about using the spray. It should be cleaned out of the tire. The current products are not supposed to be flammable which was an issue years ago. There are conflicting reports that it may damage the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) sensors in the valve stem. A tire patch kit could also come in handy. If the spray in stuff won’t work (and sometimes it doesn’t), there are kits that allow you to remove the nail and then glue in a patch. – Scot Frank Eire SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor.

Odds ‘n Sods:

America: The Food Stamp Nation. – P.M.

There are a number of financial graphics worth looking at on this site after you have viewed this one.

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Police Shooting Frenzy Raises Concerns

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The Marxist media strikes again: HGTV’s Benham brothers: ‘If our faith costs us a television show then so be it’ – M.B.

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From a SurvivalBlog Reader:

  1. We are told to not judge all Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge all gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.
  2. We constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. Why do we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money?
  3. We are cutting benefits to veterans, giving no pay raises in the military, and reducing the armed forces to a level lower than before WWII. Why are we not stopping payments or benefits to illegal aliens?

-P.S.

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Texas town shaken by officer shooting 93-year-old

Notes for Friday – May 09, 2014

Don’t forget the Mountain House sale going on at Ready Made Resources right now. You get 25-60% off of the price and katadyn water filters are on sale as well.

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Today we present another entry for Round 52 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

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 FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. Acorn Supplies is donating a Deluxe Food Storage Survival Kit with a retail value of $350,
  4. The Ark Instituteis donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package–enough for two families of four, 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,
  5. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P),
  6. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  7. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepper is providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. 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,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.
  8. SurvivalBased.com is donating a $500 gift certificate to their store.

Round 52 ends on May 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.

The Case for Single Action Revolvers, by M.B.

The purpose of this article is not to make the case for the single action (“cowboy”) revolver as the ultimate survival handgun. Nor do I suggest that the prepper select one as a defensive handgun for long-term survival. Realistically, a Glock or other modern semi-auto handgun is a better defensive tool for the vast majority of people.

Instead, I am arguing that the single action revolver not be disregarded by someone who already owns one, is new to prepping, and is probably on a budget. Huge numbers of single action revolvers are out there– many of them in the hands of people who enjoy Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS) as a sport. Hunters have also been big purchasers of single actions, mostly in practical hunting calibers such as .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, and .357 Magnum. In fact, if an outdoor enthusiast owns just one handgun, there’s a good chance it’s a Ruger Blackhawk in .357 or .44 Magnum.

Let’s look at how a single action revolver can be used effectively for defense, until a better defensive arm can be purchased, and how it can continue to be a useful part of a prepper’s battery. The single action can still be a fairly efficient handgun, in the right hands. The overall design is obsolescent, but the single action should not be dismissed out of hand.

Models

If you find yourself in possession of a single action revolver, it’s good to know a little bit about it. The original Colt Single Action Army (SAA) dates back to 1873. From the start, the SAA was a big step forward, combining good handling qualities with an effective caliber (.45 Colt) and using centerfire ammunition and a sturdy, simple design. It was more reliable than the cap-and-ball revolvers that had preceded it, but more important was that it could be reloaded much more quickly. Over the years, it has been offered in a wide variety of calibers and variations. In spite of two production halts during its history, the Colt survives and is still being made, although replicas of Colt single actions are more affordable than current Colt production. Replica Colts, along with replicas of Remingtons, Smith & Wessons, and other frontier era single actions are popular with reenactors, cowboy action shooters, and those who enjoy the look and feel of the originals. The quality varies, but many of them are at least as well-made as the 19th century designs they resemble.

The first big improvements to the Colt single action came in 1955, in the form of the Ruger Blackhawk. Like the Colt, the Ruger has seen a host of calibers and variants. The current New Model Blackhawk is somewhat larger than the original Single Action Army and much stronger. It is used as a hunting revolver by many, and it has allowed the .45 Colt to reach its full potential in powerful, heavy bullet handloads that would destroy any SAA or similar revolver.

The current production Blackhawk features first-rate metallurgy, coil springs, and a transfer bar system that allows it to be carried safely fully loaded with six rounds. Note that early Blackhawks, like the original Colt single actions, could only be safely loaded with five cartridges. The grip frame is also larger than the original SAA and is favored by many with large hands. Overall, the Blackhawk is a big, strong, powerful revolver that has become the standard handgun for many who venture into bear country, although the debate on the “ideal” bear defense handgun rages constantly and will likely never be resolved. In my part of the country, the dangerous animals one is more likely to encounter are feral hogs, and the “perfect” handgun for defense against hogs is also a subject of intense debate.

Two very popular variants of the Blackhawk are the Ruger Vaquero (“Cowboy” in Spanish) and the New Vaquero. The former was the Blackhawk redesigned for a “cowboy” look, with a front sight that looks like that of the Colt SAA, along with the traditional fixed rear sight that is cut into the top strap of the frame. The Vaquero was the same size as the Blackhawk, and it was popular with cowboy action shooters, as well as outdoor people who wanted a strong, simple, powerful revolver. Now replaced by the New Vaquero, the original Vaquero is still available on the used market.

The Ruger New Vaquero is intended for the cowboy action market. It is essentially a fully modern single action that is sized almost exactly like the original Single Action Army, complete with a grip frame that feels just like a 19th-century Colt, yet its transfer bar system makes it safe to carry fully-loaded with six rounds. In addition to its appeal to cowboy action shooters, it has found favor with many of us with small- or medium-sized hands. The New Vaquero is a revolver of modest size, combining excellent handling qualities with high reliability and is my personal pick for a single action revolver.

Calibers

Caliber-wise, single actions have been offered in a staggering array of calibers– from 19th century cartridges like the .32-20, .38-40, .44-40, and the .45 Colt to more recent additions like the .454 Casull. Most outdoors people, however, will probably be best served by one of the three most popular calibers– either the .357 Magnum, the .44 Magnum, or the .45 Colt. With proper ammo choice, any of the three are up to the task of dealing with most dangerous game and are more than suitable for the hunting of deer and similar-sized animals. Any of the three could also be pressed into self-defense in time of need.

For the person who doesn’t reload, the .357 Magnum is the best choice, as it can also take .38 Special. It is also the most cost-effective caliber, whether the owner reloads or not. All in all, it’s a superb caliber choice for a single action revolver, and it may well be the most popular caliber for outdoors people who carry an SA revolver. For defense, the .38+P hollowpoint loads are very easy to control. I favor the .38+P lead semi-wadcutter hollow point (LSWCHP), which is commonly referred to as the “FBI Load.”

The .44 Magnum offers excellent power, but it’s only available in larger-framed revolvers like the Ruger Blackhawk. By using reduced .44 Magnum loads or by shooting .44 Special ammunition, recoil and muzzle blast can be reduced, while maintaining more than enough power for most tasks. The great disadvantage of the .44 Magnum is expensive factory ammo. This has helped its popularity with handloaders.

The .45 Colt provides good power at fairly low pressures and with modest recoil. The drawback is that it’s even more of a handloader’s cartridge than the .44 Magnum. Ammo for the .45 Colt is expensive and generally limited to three types– (1) very light “cowboy” loads, (2) loads for .410/.45 “shotgun” pistols, and (3) jacketed hollow-point self-defense cartridges. The cowboy loads are too mild for general usefulness, and .410/.45 shot cartridges are of dubious value beyond very short range. The JHP self-defense loads are more useful but may not be a great choice for hunting. Unfortunately, the .45 Colt JHP loads can be hard to find on store shelves.

Fortunately, the .45 Colt is very easy to handload, with a vast array of load data and components available. Simply find data for a 250- or 255-grain semi-wadcutter lead bullet at around 850-900 fps with pressures within SAAMI specs for the .45 Colt, and you have a load that can be used for a variety of game and can be fired from any .45 Colt revolver in good condition. Recoil should not be a problem in a single action revolver, and it isn’t difficult to lay aside a goodly number of carefully-crafted handloads for hunting or varmint elimination.

Shooting the Single Action

Almost everything in the movies about using a single action revolver is wrong. “Fanning”– the practice of holding the trigger back and repeatedly slapping the hammer with the non-gun hand– will quickly batter a revolver’s internal parts to the point of uselessness. Whether done by Clint Eastwood in “A Fistful of Dollars,” or by Mark Wahlberg in “2 Guns,” it is a way of missing your target and ruining a firearm. A single action can be fired quickly and with accuracy, but a better technique is needed.

I have seen and tried three ways of gripping a single action. The first is to simply grip it with the gun hand as high as possible on the grip. The middle finger may be pressed against the back of the trigger guard. A firm grasp keeps the gun from rolling too far back in recoil. In the second method, the shooter’s little finger is curled or hooked under the butt of the revolver. This keeps the gun from rolling back and seems to work well for shooters with large hands. The third method involves pressing the thumb of the gun hand against the rear of the recoil shield, next to the hammer. This is another way of controlling the movement of the revolver in recoil. I caution you to try this third method with light loads at first. I find it painful with anything stronger than cowboy loads. The second method puts my hand too far down on the grip to reach the hammer, so I use the first method.

A single action is best fired with two hands– the strong hand grips the gun and works the trigger, while the weak hand cocks the hammer for each shot. This method is surprisingly fast and accurate with practice. Some shooters use the weak hand as both a support hand and for cocking the hammer, while others use the weak hand in a light, “floating” grip which does little to support the gun and mainly just cocks the hammer.

One-handed shooting is slower than two-handed but can still be faster than one might expect. Beginners sometimes roll the gun back in their hands and hook the thumb joint over the hammer to cock the revolver, but this requires the shooter to re-acquire a shooting grip before firing. Speed and accuracy will both suffer. I use the last part of my gun hand thumb to reach up and cock the hammer, allowing me to maintain a shooting grip while cocking. I try to pull the hammer back, rather than rocking the gun forward. As the hammer comes all the way back and locks in place, my thumb “slips” off it to the side and drops down to form the complete shooting grip before firing.

The trigger on many single actions is rather good, which contributes to practical accuracy with them. The hammer is heavy and travels in a large arc (adding to lock time, at least in theory). A good grip and follow-through after squeezing the trigger help in accurate shooting with a single action revolver (and with any handgun).

Single action sights are often good, as well. The Ruger Blackhawk has crisp, fully-adjustable sights. Many single actions have the old style, with the rounded blade front sight and the grooved top strap for a rear sight. In spite of its primitive appearance, the traditional sights can still be used to good effect, especially on blued guns. A polished stainless revolver with old-style sights is the most difficult to shoot accurately, as the front blade is very hard to see clearly in bright sunlight. A simple fix is to make a small hole near the bottom of a paper bag. Insert the revolver and poke the front sight up through the hole. Use some masking tape to seal the hole around the base of the sight blade. Use some more tape to close the open end of the bag. Give the front blade two LIGHT coats of flat black spray paint. This paint can be easily touched up, and it can be safely removed, if desired, with gentle use of a Chore Boy copper scrub pad.

There are a number of YouTube videos that show how to shoot a single action revolver. Some of the best are by World Champion Cowboy Action Shooter Jim Finch, a.k.a. “Long Hunter.” He emphasizes efficiency in “running” the various cowboy guns. He provides a lot of useful hints and tips, which should be a big help to beginning shooters. Even though he’s shooting light loads, it’s still amazing to see how fast he can shoot a cowboy revolver. Many of his techniques can be applied to shooting with full-power loads.

Loading and Reloading the Single Action

As traditional single actions are not safe when fully loaded with a round under the hammer, many experienced shooters have taken to loading five rounds in all single actions, leaving an empty chamber under the hammer. To do this, the procedure is:

  1. Load one round
  2. Skip one chamber, leaving it empty
  3. Load four rounds
  4. For Modern Rugers only, continue rotating until the next chamber lines up with the barrel, then close loading gate. For Colt-type revolvers, fully cock and gently lower the hammer on the empty chamber.
  5. Practice this procedure with fired (empty) brass until you’re sure that you are lowering the hammer over an empty chamber. Although this method is not necessary with modern arms with transfer bars that prevent firing if the hammer is struck, it is a good safety practice, especially if you own one or more traditional single actions.

I hold the revolver in my left hand and feed in the cartridges with my right. My left thumb rotates the cylinder. The revolver is pointing nearly straight down, so gravity helps the rounds to drop in.

Some practitioners operate the ejector with their weak-hand index finger while rotating the cylinder with the thumb, thus freeing the strong hand to load the fresh rounds. Typically, they eject an empty and load a round before moving to the next chamber. This allows them to do the 19th century version of the “tactical” reload– reloading a partially empty gun. It also means that there is ammo in the gun as soon as possible, in case there is not enough time to fully load the revolver.

My hands are not big enough to work the ejector with the left hand, so to reload I angle the muzzle upward and keep it pointing downrange. I open the loading gate (freeing the cylinder in a Ruger) and rotate the cylinder slightly to line up the first fired cylinder with the loading gate. I operate the ejector with the right hand, then rotate the revolver to a muzzle-down position to load that chamber. I then repeat the process until all fired chambers are loaded.

One trick used by some people who carry .45 ACP single action revolvers is to carry one or more 1911 magazines for reloads. The magazine is easier to handle than individual rounds. They thumb rounds from the magazine into the cylinder. I do this with my index finger around the front of the the mag, just below the rounds coming out of it. The back of my finger presses against the revolver, preventing the magazine from scratching the finish. Loading from a magazine takes practice, but it’s less prone to fumbling.

Self-Defense?

Can a cowboy revolver be used for self-defense? Yes, but there are better choices. I would much rather have a modern 9mm, such as a Glock, SIG, Springfield, Smith & Wesson, or Ruger, if I had to defend myself. The semi-auto is easier to shoot quickly and accurately, has greater capacity, and is much faster to reload. Some people will tell you that most gunfights only require a few shots. That may be true, but many violent crimes involve more than one attacker. I had a Taurus Model 85CH– a 5-shot, snub-nosed .38 Special revolver– when at least three people tried an invasion of our home several years ago. As I waited in the dark and listened to the assault on my front door, I wondered if I would be able to stop them all. The steel door outlasted their attempts to kick it in, thank God. So, I never found out.

That said, the single action revolver, if chambered for an effective caliber, would not be the worst choice. You definitely could defend yourself with one, but a situation could arise, such as a home invasion with multiple assailants, that would be better handled with a different firearm. Regardless of what you have, though, you should do your best to acquire the skills to use it efficiently and effectively.

Three Letters Re: Ideas Concerning A Post-Collapse World

Hello HJL,

I would like to add my two cents to this discussion. The picture of collapsing society is complex and in some cases is a combination of worst case scenarios in a short period of time. The idea of united survivalists, as a base for a new American nation emerging from the ashes, is attractive, but it might not be the case if nuclear contamination on worldwide scale (nuclear war), nuclear winter (due to eruption of super volcanoes or nuclear war), airborn mutation of viruses like MERS, Ebola, or others coincide with the economic SHTF on a global scale. The estimation that 10% from these seven billion people on Earth will survive is a bit overestimated. In order to sustain a nation, you need a total fertility rate (TFR) more than 1.35, and the most desirable is 2.1, plus you need an even bigger rate in order to grow. The unknown factors that will worsen the recovery could be too many in order to see fast recovery within a generation or two. I would like to stress that if the survival rate on global scale is 1-2 % and if the survivals are spread over a vast geographical area, these survivalists of the X-factored Armagedon (economy collapse, global war, pandemia, bee hives extinction, asteroid impact, solar EMP, or some combination of these events) might never end up united or growing in numbers, especially if the environmental factors hinder the birthrate growth. The notion of an external enemy, like foreign troops to step on U.S. territory, is a bit too optimistic in this scenario because the rest of the world nations will be too overwhelmed with cascading disasters in order to assume the role of foreign enemy to invade the U.S. after the collapse. If any foreign nations survive, or the remnants of these nations survive, they will have far more serious problems than invading North America. In general, I would consider less than a 1% survival rate for the world population and less than 0.5% total fertility rate for generations until the environmental factors improve. My opinion is that all these cascading events will make the idea of the emergence of a new social system on a global or continental scale unreasonable, at least for centuries. Best regards, – L.I.

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HJL,

Very interesting response. Perhaps your readers would like to read the Hologram of Liberty by Kenneth Royce, (aka Boston T. Party). It’s a most enlightening book about the flaws in our Constitution that I have ever read. I highly recommend it. Sincerely, – H.L.

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Dear Sir:

I’m sorry, but I respectfully disagree with the author’s contention that a “United States“ will eventually reform. Here in Crook County in the People’s Republic of Illinois, that’s just not going to happen. The reason is simple. There is a large portion of people who are dependent on the government for their survival, and when the U.S. collapses, they will be the first to go. After this, the remaining “preppers” will be intent on creating their self-sufficient communities in order to survive. These communities, just like most preppers, want to go it alone. Why? Because deep down they never want themselves or their progeny to have to support someone else who just does not want to work. The treaty thing might work, but another USA? Never! Once bit, twice shy. Respectfully – An organic gardener

Hugh Replies: It may not be what you think. Many patriots and preppers have begun to withdraw from the system as they recognize that it is close to being broken beyond repair (many believe it has already reached that point). When the time comes to rebuild, they will be there for that rebuilding process. In a way, you can think of it as a political election. Eventually, you reach the point where you refuse to vote for the “lesser of two evils” when two miserable candidates have been placed before you (i.e. Obama vs. Romney). Every election, the support parties call my house and I tell them the same thing. “I don’t care how miserable the other party is. If you can’t run an ethical campaign with a candidate that has high moral standards, I cannot support you.”