Letter Re: United States Economy and Status

HJL –

I have been a student of economics my entire life. From my early college education in the ’70s and ’80s to continued research for hobby, and for work I have tried to understand the micro and macro perspectives of the U.S. economy.

We are at a place in history that is without precedent. Never has a nation with the responsibility of the reserve currency of the world made such dangerous bets with its economy and currency.

The decisions of the Treasury and FED to head off an electronic bank run in 2008 prevented what would have been the most catastrophic and rapid financial collapse in history. They leveraged everything to right the ship, and it worked. The hope was that it might stimulate demand. Quite the opposite has occurred. We have trillions of dollars sitting on bank and corporate balance sheets, and the debt that should have been wiped out remains. It’s all dead money. The M1 money multiplier is at an all time low of 0.7– unheard of before 2008. It is a death sign. Likewise, M2 money velocity fares are no better at a modest 1.6 or so. The government conveniently stopped reporting M3, but others create this data privately. Labor force participation tells the true tale of woe, not unemployment. Asset appreciation is false because of the stimulus of trillions of dollars that may never end. Gold prices are manipulated and HFT is the norm. The real cost of living rises, while real standards of living fall.

While we might follow the path of Japan with a 20+ year stagnation, and that seems to be our course, history hates a vacuum; it hates stagnation even more. Something ultimately breaks the logjam– war, collapse, or disease. All break the paradigm of a failure to change in unexpected ways.

We should all expect great change while understanding the speed and timing are beyond our ability to accurately predict. It reminds me about the saying of going bankrupt. It starts slowly, then it goes really fast. I am amazed the dollar is still accepted in world trade, yet expect it to change in only days when it fails. This generation has no historic precedent to use as basis for prediction. Only by studying history can we possibly understand what lies ahead. The fourth turning must certainly be ours.

Regards. – S.L.

Hugh Replies: I agree with most of what you have said, but I’m not sure if the decisions made in 2008 actually worked or not. In my current thinking, I’m pretty sure they just kicked the can further down the road and ensured that when (not if) the adjustment happens, it will be far more catastrophic. As far as economics go, I’m not even sure history helps us at this point. Never before has every major economy been based upon fiat currencies and debt so high compared to GDP. I am certain it will self correct, but what form that takes is a mystery to me right now.

Odds ‘n Sods:

An interesting plant that may provide some useful resources for those inclined to Self Sufficency.

o o o

Raindrops and toilets can potentially power your home. – G.P.

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UAV Pilot Charged with Felony. The government’s double standard at work again. – T.Y.

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Oklahoma will charge homeowners who generate their own power Taxing off grid homes in OK. – G.P.

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Hide a secret room in plain sight. Secret bookcase door. – CDV

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“The ‘private sector’ of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and…the ‘public sector’ is, in fact, the coercive sector.” – Henry Hazlitt

Notes from HJL:

On this wonderful Resurrection Sunday, I was blessed by a letter sent in by SurvivalBlog reader A.W. I’d like to share it with you too:

Hi Hugh,

I discovered “How Can I Keep From Singing?” in Rawles’ novel Patriots and have been curious about its origin. His book says it’s a Shaker hymn and other sources claim it’s a Quaker hymn, so I was surprised to learn [by a determined google search] that it was actually written in the mid 1800s by Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister, who also wrote “Shall We Gather At The River” and three others that are in my Baptist Hymnal but not familiar to me.

Although I’ve listened to Enya’s version, I find the echo effect she uses to be way too fuzzy for the song. I have found an MP3 by a voice that fits the song and nestles just right in my soul.

James Loynes is a Welsh baritone who has a mellow voice and good diction and conveys a sincere feeling for the music and lyrics. This url has both sheet music versions and a vocal with quiet accompaniment

I am so happy to have found this that I felt urged to send you the info. – A.W.

Lyrics

My life flows on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentation
I hear the sweet, tho’ far-off hymn
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing
It finds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

What tho’ my joys and comfort die?
The Lord my Saviour liveth
What tho’ the darkness gather round?
Songs in the night He giveth
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that Refuge clinging
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

I lift mine eyes; the cloud grows thin
I see the blue above it
And day by day this pathway smoothes
Since first I learned to love it
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart
A fountain ever springing
All things are mine since I am His
How can I keep from singing?

JWR Adds: It is noteworthy that Enya omitted the name of Christ in her version, perhaps in an attempt to make the hymn more palatable to a wide audience. She should have displayed more backbone!

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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.

An Eye for Eyes, by B.A.

Dear Reader,

As a person who has been blessed with not needing reading glasses, I am usually happy to read lists on prepping that tell the readers to make sure that they have extra prescription glasses in case they break their everyday glasses and cannot get new ones due to unforeseen circumstances. It’s one more place I can save a few dollars. That’s great, but is it really that simple? Many times I have glossed this fact in my mind. I wear sunglasses everyday. They are cheap and available everywhere, which is a good thing because I am a little rough on them. Between the odd time when I sit on them or toss them onto a parts-strewn surface and scratch the daylights out of them, mine have a relatively short lifespan. I used to hang them on my head. Unfortunately, the cover crop is thinning out too much and cannot hold them there any longer. After the second smashed pair that fell off backwards, I start hanging them on my shirt. Now most of my t-shirts have a slight ‘V’ in the collar that my wife hates. If I do not hang them, they get forgotten and, therefore, bent, broken, or lost. As a professional driver they are an important part of my everyday carry. Of course I never thought of it as such. You do not want to drive far without a pair when driving into the sunrise or sunset or when facing a horrible glare off equally horrible city buildings, traffic, or in the winter on the Prairies when everything is white for miles. I drove a week once with a plastic Snoopy pair because I needed them and could only find one set in my size at a gift shop. Beggars cannot be choosers, and I was begging. The last thing I grab when I leave the house is a pair. I also snatch a pair when going to the garden or to work on equipment. I like the slight amber lens because while driving it helps me to notice animals. These same glasses help with the green brown contrast and go straight from my work truck to my hunting truck. The UV protection and anti-glare contrast are very helpful. Coming from a hunter, it may sound strange, but I would rather see and slow down for an animal than hit it. I do not feel that unnecessary death is something that I can live with as a cost of doing business. Additionally, these plastic trucks seem to disintegrate on impact with June bugs. As much as I use my sunglasses I had never before thought, “What if this was the last pair that I could ever buy? Have I even considered how I can protect my eyes from everyday things that happen? If the SHTF, how many things am I going to be doing that can be less than healthy for my eyes? Do I have extra sunglasses for when the lenses become crazed with scratches or milky? What about when they fall apart?”

I had a pair of sunglasses once that I left in the car in winter. When I hopped in and put them on, my body heat caused the lens to crack in half. You do not go very long without finding yourself with a new pair. Right now I have the option of buying new tools (safety glasses are tools) to use. What about down the road when they start breaking or wearing out? I know that my safety glasses have saved my sight while using the grinder. I have thrown out many a pair that had too many burns in the line of sight. Also, while using old wire wheels, I have picked lots of loose wires out of my clothes. One time I thought I was stung on my face but really had one lonely wire sticking straight out of my upper lip. Sure you say, that is a power tool, and after the SHTF we will be using hand tools. Well, then, I suppose you have never broken a drill bit. Even hand tension can send pieces of high carbon steel flying like it was shot from a slingshot. Additionally, since most people will be doing things that they have never done before, I am certain that there will be quite a few improperly used hand drills, not to mention that casehardened mild steel punch and chisel set that can be bought cheaply from an import tool store. They may be a cheap way to fill your Armageddon survival fantasy toolbox, but the first time your strike sparks, you will realize that those little pieces flying around you are dangerous. For the more adventurous prepper you may get into torches and welding. Cheap safety glasses will save you the first time you are soldering a pipe and manage to leave a couple drops of water in the line. Believe me, molten lead can sputter. (This also applies when casting bullets.) I have several shirts that are only used now for plumbing, because of the lead melted into them. The little mixed gas brazing tanks can be bought cheap and used when there is no power. Their goggles are handy, and you can pop out the dark lens and just go with the clear ones as an expedient dust goggle. If you plan on welding, well, you have more money than me. If the power stays on, my wife has the best auto darkening helmet I could find. It is good for stick welding, mig/tig, torch, and if you leave it off you have a great grinding shield. Yes, she is the welder in my family. It is simple common sense. She is great at it and wants to weld. Stick your pride on the shelf in the shed, and let those who can do. In many of those weird movies that have post-apocalyptic themes, the people many years into the future are wearing some kind of welding goggles. Why? They are industrial use. Fairly cheap safety glasses and replacement lenses are available now. You should buy some. For the cost of the one pair of ultra cool Oakley’s, you can have dozens of clear, smoked, amber, or mirror safety glasses and replacement lenses. Buy some for the whole family. Ever since I first saw that ad that everyone has seen with the sunglasses that have stopped a bullet, I have thought about what it would be like to have that kind of protection. Of course, if everyone who was nasty enough to shoot at you would be kind enough to only use .22 short at the range of 50 feet or more, that would be great. Realistically, just like the military, I have come to the conclusion that the simplest form of danger to your eyes is the best one to protect for. I am talking about dust, wind, little bits of stuff blasted into your face, and of course simple bad luck. Think bad luck is not important? How about the last time you walked into a tree branch that was perfectly level with your head and scratched up your face? What about those psychotic little flies whose only purpose in life is to commit suicide by dive bombing your exposed eyeball, while you are busy doing something outside? Think that cannot happen at an inopportune moment? In the SHTF time, you will be outdoors alot more often than you are used to– possibly up to 24 hours per day. When I first thought of this, I went down to the local Salvation Army store and found three pairs of skiing goggles. I paid $3 for two pair and $3 for the third pair. This beat the pants off the surplus ones for $20. Considering that I plan to use sunglasses most of the time, it was still nice to find a cheap backup. I also use them when shooting. Sure I learned without them, but the little things have taught me better. I first started when I learned black powder. The guy who showed me, (yes, I had an enthusiast teacher) said that you never know 100% of the time what is going to happen. Sure, things are very well made, but a firearm is a controlled explosion. He put a cap on an empty chamber and fired it. That thing was mangled. He said that he had never been hit in the face with a fragment of brass, but he was never going to take the chance. I took that lesson to heart. Now, all shooting is done with glasses. I stopped shooting one brand that was made by a drunken gintaster in an un-named factory, because I noticed too many flattened primers and too many burnt casings, suggesting breach blowby potential. If that had happened, it may not destroy the firearm, but it can send oil droplets and dust (even rust flakes or carbon cakes, for those who do not clean their weapon properly), at high velocity into your face. This can seriously affect your health and well-being if that second shot is a must. As well, when reloading ALL steps can be dangerous. I have a quarter inch scar on my left index finger from trying to catch a dropped shotgun hull before it hit the ground. The primer burst with my hand beside it. Sometimes it is best to step back and let things fall. Things happen. Yes, I was wearing safety glasses. The reloading manuals all say that you should wear them at any time you handle propellants and primers. Left to my own devices, I did not know any form of commonsense as a child. I had many days without eyebrows. Looking back I am absolutely amazed that I did not take an eye out. I did have instruction about this though. My grandfather (may God rest his soul) was blinded in one eye during WW2. He would never even allow me to use a lawn mower without first putting on safety glasses or, at the very least, sun glasses. If you refused, you could not work at his farm. Grandfather had a tough life finding work, as a man with no depth perception. He always had a job, but he also had lost several in his life because the company would not allow a one-eyed man to work machinery. He used a glass eye, but eventually he was found out. It is not the same now, but back then that was life. I understand now why he was so upset when us, grandchildren, took unnecessary risks. He was trying to protect us from his life. He taught me to use my first gas power tools. When I got old enough to finally use a chainsaw, I automatically put on the glasses. I do not use just glasses anymore, because as anyone who has used a chainsaw knows pieces of wood fly everywhere. I worked in forestry for a while, and it was required that we use full face shields whenever we started up our saws. I found that the wire mesh one worked best, because in the summer it allowed a breeze to cool your face and did not fog with your sweat or breath. If you are buying your saw, go to a proper dealer. They will have these great helmets that have the shield and ear muff attachments. I may not work with a saw professionally, but I still keep this stuff for when I cut firewood. Now, even when fully blind one can be a productive member of society, and these changes are good. Making full use of people, instead of giving them pity or ignoring them, gives them good value and self determination. Discrimination is wrong, but what about after SHTF? If you loose an eye, are you going to be able to bag the wild game that your family needs to eat? If it is your shooting eye,can you protect yourself properly with one-half of your vision being a blind spot? What if you lose both eyes from some accident and suddenly have no way to properly support yourself or your family? Blindness will most likely be a death sentence for those after a SHTF situation. Those born that way will at least have the advantage of always being that way. You w ill have a learning curve that most likely will be insurmountable, unless you already have a large community or family that will be willing to take care of you and yours while you adjust. If your community has certain standards, they may only assist in a finite number of charity cases. Also, the government could use your situation as negative, in regards to who is useful versus who is not. I am sure that there are charts and triage requirements that say a one-eyed person has less value. It would be a shame to have to be separated from loved ones because they meet a certain criteria and you no longer do. Going back to eighteenth century medicine is not going to be easy. When you are on your own and cannot get a doctor to check out your pinkeye that you got because something got in there and infected it, you may loose your sight. Right now you buy your milk at the market. If the time comes that you must get it yourself, you will find very quickly that cows love to wrap their tails around your head while milking. Those tails, covered in dust and sometimes excrement, can put foreign matter into your eyes. This can very quickly turns out bad. Flushing them with warm milk does sometimes help clear up that infection, ironically. Several years ago my wife got metal splinters in her eye while at work. She was driven to the emergency room and got fixed up proper. It was an accident. This same accident, in a SHTF world, would have left me trying to use her eyebrow tweasers, while she screamed and flinched at every move I made. When you have no way to fix the problem, the best thing to do is try to prevent it the best way that you can before it can become a problem. Having some safety glasses or even sun glasses around, plus extras, can keep you in the habit of using them too. Just because it is a pain to go get them or that you lost them are no excuse, when it comes to protecting your eyes. I had an uncle who also lost an eye, but it was because he was too impatient to walk across his shop and get a pair of safety glasses.

Keeping yourself with vision (not visually impaired) in the future could require nothing more than simply spending a few dollars on a few items now that most of us never think about until it’s time that we need them.

Letter Re: Reloading Ammo

Hugh:

I was a little surprised at your comment “It is tough to reload cheaper than bulk ammo for pistol though” in your reply to CR’s letter. As an example, I reload .45ACP under 15 cents a round using 200 grain lead bullets from Missouri Bullet Company. The bullets are under 10 cents each, add a primer for 3 cents and 2 cents of powder, and there you are. I crank these out at 300-400 per hour on my progressive, at a leisurely pace.

I checked on ammo prices at the local farm store this afternoon and .45ACP is running 50 cents a round. Perhaps some can find it cheaper in bulk, but my prices for reloading are well under anything I’ve seen for .45ACP in bulk or otherwise.

I get a kick out of others watching me shoot my XD’s at the range, peeling off 10 rounds at a crack; they clearly think I’m independently wealthy to be able to shoot that much .45, but I always end up telling them how I can afford it– I reload.

To get the price down you have to buy in bulk– no 100-bullet orders, no 1-pound powder orders, no buying primers 100 at a time. I buy bullets in the thousands, powder by the 8# keg, and primers 5000 at a time. But Hugh, if you do it right, you can save a lot of money reloading or, as I do, shoot more than I otherwise could.

Of course, your mileage will vary; if you have Glocks with octagonal rifling, lead bullets aren’t advisable, and thus you may, if you like Glock, be forced to reload more expensive plated or FMJ bullets. But if you can reload lead, and use quality lubed bullets, you can save a ton, or shoot more.

Love the blog. Keep it up. – M.D.

HJL Replies: For your practice and fun ammo, you can reload on the cheap. However, the actual questions was about prepping ammo, which I understood to be ammo used primarily for the possible protection of your preps. For that ammo, you cannot run the brass into failure, nor can you spend time during the firefight collecting your brass so you can reload for the next assault. In those cases, your reloading costs are significantly higher because you generally need to use jacketed bullets, and you must have brass for every round you count. When reloading once-fired or new brass, your cost per round will only be slightly lower than domestically produced bulk ammo and may be higher than many imported ammo (in the standard 9mm or 45acp offerings). With other cartridges, YMMV. Handloaded rifle ammo is almost always less expensive, even when buying virgin brass.

Of course, once you have the investment in the reloading hardware, it’s difficult to let it sit idle when you need rounds, no matter what the cost.

Economics and Investing:

How many Americans live paycheck to paycheck? A nation living precariously close to the financial edge.

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Gold Doomed or Resting? Gold vs. Major Currencies; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Reiterate Sell Signal

Gold Doomed or Resting? Seldom is sentiment so bad for something that still appears to be a long-term bull market.

When in doubt, it pays to take the opposite side of what Goldman Sachs publicly says. Goldman has a history of not only being wrong but betting against its own recommendations. – P.S.

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Items from The Economatrix:

It’s Time To Ditch The Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Q1 Earnings Season Summary: More Than Half Have Missed Revenues

Keynesianism: The Road To Hell?

Initial Jobless Claims Beat; Continuing Claims At Lowest Since Dec 2007

Odds ‘n Sods:

New York gun owners shrug off tough new rules: What happens now?. – G.G.

The more people who standup to the tyranny, the more others will join them.

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First Connecticut Arrest for Unregistered Assault Rifle? – I expected that there would be an arrest at some point, which might trigger a valid challenge to the law in a court system, but illegally shooting squirrels in front of two police officers and then admitting to owning banned weapons wasn’t what I expected.

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IRS Among Agencies Using License Plate-Tracking Vendor . – PLC

As we expected to find, it isn’t just the LA police that consider ALL cars to be under investigation at all times.

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Western lawmakers gather in Utah to talk federal land takeover – P.M.

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The United States of SWAT?. – B.B.

With the militarization of every federal agency and every police force, we are seeing a rising number of situations where the agency is attempting to enforce things they have no right or real training to enforce. It seems eerily similar to the infamous “brown shirts”.

Notes from HJL:

April 19th marks the multiple anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”. This first battle, leading to our nation’s independence, was the then-dictator’s (United Kingdom King George III’s) FAILED attempt at “gun control”– an act being carried out in too many parts of our USA RIGHT NOW. This first gun control of the colonies was a failure, because of the will and determination of a small part of the population (about 3% actually fought for our Independence actively with many others supporting) to stand up to an oppressive controlling government (England). Without the sacrifice by those few Patriots, we could very well still be “British subjects” rather than independent citizens.

It also marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis in 1943, the BATF’s costly raid on the Branch Davidian Church in Waco (20 years ago, today), the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa in 1989, the capture of the Boston Marathon bomber in 2013, and very sadly also the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

April 19th is also the birthday of novelist Ralph Peters. Coincidentally, Ralph and JWR both have the same literary agent, Robert Gottlieb.

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Don’t forget about the non-fiction writing contest. There are over $11,000 in prizes awarded every two months! If you have been thinking about writing an article, don’t put it off.

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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.

A Different Look At The Tactical Flashlight, by D. Hacker

There are many aspects of survival and many different scenarios you may need to survive. It does little good having three years of food saved up, if you don’t survive a gun battle during the first week of TEOTWAWKI. With this article, I hope to give you an additional skill you may use to help you survive one type of survival situation. This is a situation where you have to use a handgun to defend yourself in a no light or low light environment.

Before we get too involved here, let’s review the four important firearm safety rules:

  1. All guns are always loaded. (Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.)
  2. Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that “this” particular gun is unloaded, see Rule #1.)
  3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target (…and you are ready to shoot! This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.)
  4. Identify your target and what is behind it. (Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.)

With those in mind, think of which rules could easily be violated when using a flashlight (or by not using a flashlight) with your handgun.

It is important to become proficient using a flashlight with your handgun. Target identification is one of the most important aspects of self-defense with a firearm. You don’t want to accidentally shoot your own child, thinking that it was a burglar. (Yes, it has happened.)

Also, you don’t want to point your firearm at anything you are not willing to shoot, such as your child. This is a great reason to have a flashlight that is NOT mounted on your handgun.

For at least 15 years, I’ve been using and teaching an unusual technique for using a flashlight with a handgun. It’s different from any I’ve been taught, and I’ve never seen it taught by anyone else. I thought it was about time I write an article about this method, so that those who choose to can put this technique in their tactical toolbox.

I’m sure there are many who will wonder why change at all. After all, most of the older techniques have been around for a long time, and many have been used with successful outcomes in actual firefights. My answer is, “Don’t change if you don’t want to.”

While pursuing to be a better fighter, man has constantly strived to develop skills that increase his chances of winning. Most hand-to-hand street fighting used to consist of just boxing techniques. Now, kicking and grappling are also commonplace. Handgun combatants of old would use a one-handed, shoot-from-the-hip style, where nowadays most use a two-handed Weaver or Isosceles stance. New techniques are evaluated by individuals. They adopt them, or they continue using another technique of their choice. Some techniques just work better for some people and/or situations.

I started using my flashlight technique because it filled a need. To me, all the other techniques seemed to have some problems, problems that seemed greater than those created with my technique. (After all, there are good and bad points to almost all techniques.) I will compare my technique to others and let you decide.

We all know about firearm mounted flashlights– light that is actually attached to the firearm. Most of us know about the FBI flashlight technique– the flashlight hand is extended high and out to the side. Some people know about the Neck Index technique– the flashlight is held along the jaw-line. Of course, there are also several variations of techniques where the flashlight is held near the grip of the pistol, such as the Rogers, Ayoob, Harries, and Chapman techniques.

The first problem I have with most flashlight techniques is that the flashlights don’t properly light up the sights of a pistol. The one that comes closest to properly lighting the sights is the FBI technique. In ALL of the others, the flashlight is held below your eye-level, and therefore the light is BELOW the sights. The FBI technique does light up the sights, but the light comes from an oblique angle, putting slightly odd lighting and shadows on your sights. Depending on the distance of your target and how far out you’re holding the flashlight, your rear sight may not even be lit up.

With all the techniques where your flashlight and pistol hand are touching, you don’t properly light your sights and, you run the very high risk of violating firearms safety rule #2– Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. This is also true when the flashlight is mounted to the pistol and is clearly not the best flashlight position for safety or accuracy.

Another issue is using a flashlight technique while utilizing cover. We all know that we should use cover when possible. When using a flashlight with cover, you run the risk of somewhat blinding yourself by the reflection of your light against your cover, having your target in a shadow or placing yourself farther outside of cover than you normally would. This is, of course, dependant on which flashlight technique you chose, which side of cover you are on, and how close you are to that cover in your particular scenario.

With my technique, the shooter holds the flashlight directly on top of their head, effectively turning the flashlight into a hand-held headlamp. Yep, it does look goofy, but by doing this, the sights will always be properly lit up. Also, when using this technique, the lighting appears more natural. We are accustomed to light coming from above– the sun and room lights, so the shadows created with this technique will be more natural looking. The problems with shadows or reflections from your cover are minimized. The other advantage is that you can easily have the flashlight in position and on target while keeping the pistol in a SUL or Low-Ready position. This can prevent you from violating safety rule #2, and yet it’s still easy to quickly get your handgun up and on target using a one handed grip. The sights will be properly lit, automatically, while the flashlight is already aligned toward the threat. Plus, if you are up on target and you suddenly decide to go to a muzzle depressed position, you can do so easily without moving the aim of the flashlight. Thinking about and manipulating the flashlight is minimized, while speed, accuracy, and safety are increased.

By keeping your flashlight hand on the top of your head, you have no chance that the muzzle of the handgun will accidentally aim at your flashlight hand. People momentarily pointing their handgun at their hand, which is holding the flashlight, is something I often see students do with other flashlight techniques.

Some question whether having your flashlight in line with your body will attract bullets there. This may be true, and in that case the only technique that may help prevent that is the FBI technique. However, it is also true that many shots, especially those by untrained criminals, miss their mark. It may be that the safest place to be is right in line with your light. It’s often just a matter of luck where the bad guys bullets end up. When you have to send rounds toward a deadly threat, you want to add as much skill as you can to your own luck.

It is generally a good habit to hold your handgun with two hands when firing it, but when you’ve got a flashlight in one hand it’s a different story. With the vast majority of flashlight techniques, what’s really taking place is that you’re holding a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other, and your two hands are just touching. The handgun is really being held with only one hand. The benefit of having two hands “near” the grip of the handgun is not nearly as great as having two hands “around” the grip of the handgun.

The distances I expect to engage in a gunfight in the dark are less than the distances I would in daylight. At those reduced distances, I expect to be able to hit my target while holding the pistol with just one hand, especially if I can obtain a proper sight picture. Also, as you know, having a good sight picture is even more important the farther your target is from you.

So give it a try, but don’t cheat yourself. Test it in worst case conditions. Make sure it’s really dark. Do it at night, outside, where the only light available is the flashlight you’re holding. Doing it on an indoor range, where light reflects off the walls, is cheating yourself. Shooting the same time as other shooters, whose lights can aid you, is also cheating yourself. Try several methods and test the amount of time to get shots off and how accurate those shots are.

It is also important to do “dry fire” practice with the flashlight too. Try all the techniques, including this one, to see how they work as you are searching through your dark house or property. See how the technique works as you slowly look around the cover you are using. Have someone act as a “bad guy” (or a “good guy” being mistaken for a bad guy), so they can give you feedback from the other view. Be super safe! Use a plastic training pistol or a water pistol to do this practice.

You may decide that this technique is the best for you, or you may like one of the older techniques. Either way, make sure you practice with your handgun in low or no light situations.

Be safe.

Letter Re: Ammo Storage and Reloading

Gentlemen;

I have a question about storage of reloading supplies in relationship to total ammo storage. On page 236 of “How to Survive The End of World As We Know It”, JWR recommends certain inventories for each weapon category. He goes on in the next paragraph that three times those level makes some folks more comfortable. In trying to reach those levels, do you gents recommend a ratio of ready ammo to an amount of reloading supplies to achieve the three times amount? Given the current ammo shortages and the expense associated and the fact that reloading supplies are still pretty available (costs are going up, but at least you can still get the items), I am thinking that this is a way to achieve the total desired.

Thanks for your comments – C.R.

HJL Replies: The absolute best way for bulk ammo is in a ready-to-format. However, I have been reloading for nearly 40 years and have found that I can produce ammo tailored to my specific firearms (for accuracy and reliability) and have fewer problems overall. I use Dillon progressive reloaders and have a system in place that keeps the error rate extremely low. I also have an inspection process that culls any defective ammo. For me, it is winter work (when I can’t get to the garden). You should purchase in bulk from a variety of suppliers and make sure that you either have assembled or can assemble the amount of ammo that you consider necessary. The only real difference from normal reloading is that you end up inventorying more brass than you would if you were just reloading to save money. You can reuse brass, but you should keep the lots separate. I recommend that you have the assembled ammo for SHTF use and then you have the everyday practice ammo. You also have what I term “carry ammo”– ammo that has been assembled from no more than once-fired brass (or new brass) and is intended for your daily carry. By buying bulk, you should be able to save a considerable amount on factory rifle ammo. It is tough to reload cheaper than bulk ammo for pistol though. If you are doing it right, you should have a higher confidence level in your own loads than the bulk. Also, if you are looking at long term storage of the ammo or need some weather protection, you really need to seal the bullet in the seating process and the primer.

One word of caution on storage of bulk components: Storage of bulk ammo is relatively safe. Storage of bulk powder poses some problems.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Ready Made Resources has a Gas pistonupgrade for your AR-15. Switching to a gas piston operating system from a direct gas impingement one leads to a cleaner and cooler operating rifle. This should lead to fewer malfunctions and considerably more time between cleanings. The OPS-416 kit is a true drop-in gas piston conversion, installing easily in a few minutes with a minimum of tools or technical expertise.

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Krayton Kerns , DVM on “Environmentalism as our national religion”.

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A SurvivalBlog reader reports that he has received a recall notice from Remington for his Model 700 regarding the X-Mark Pro trigger system. If you have a Model 700 or Model 7 manufactured between May 1, 2006 and April 9, 2014, you may want to look into that.

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What happens when ammo burns? – Mike Williams, SurvivalBlog Editor At Large.

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Many SurvivalBlog readers sent this in: Interactive map shows the staggering 47 PERCENT of the country that is currently uninhabited. Note that many of the areas in the southwestern U.S. is not just unhabited but pretty close to uninhabitable. Commercial buildings are also listed as unoccupied because no one actually lives there according to the census data.