Leaving Suburbia, by M.J.W.

It all feels so strange – I live, eat, and breathe “prepping.”  Sometimes I look in the mirror and ask “who are you?!”  In trying to remember when the change in me began, it is traceable back to the financial collapse of 2008.  Even before then, I had become very concerned about privacy – or the lack thereof.  In my professional life, I am a security and privacy consultant, so I know a lot about how little security and privacy exists in our networked world.  I understand in minute detail how online access to the most sensitive and confidential information has led to record breaking hacking incidents and identity theft.  The massive amounts of information about each individual that has been compiled into databases by various entities are the target of extremely organized “information criminals” and readily available to the U.S. government.  Because of my job, I am often one of the first to hear about a serious hacking event and be a part of the incident response team that performs a root cause analysis – how “they” (the criminals) did it.  In most cases, there was nothing sophisticated about it – human error allowed the vulnerability, subsequently exploited by criminals.  I can be found shaking my head over and over about the stupidity of it all at any given moment during a work week.  What I know to be true, from real life experience and my professional career – there is truly no such thing as privacy and security in the online world.  As a career technologist, I see that technology has created more problems for us than good done for us – think: Tower of Babel.

The anxiety about the lack of privacy and security in the online world morphed into anxiety about what was happening in the physical world.  I watched with dismay as our retirement plans started to devalue at a frightening pace, along with the value of our property.  I became increasingly anxious about our ability to survive comfortably – in the manner to which we were accustomed.  As the economy stumbled into a numb, sickening, downward spiral and we watched most of our wealth seemingly disappear overnight, I turned with a genuine concern towards my husband who seemed to act as if nothing really was affecting him – not in the way it was affecting me.  I thought that maybe I was over reacting to the horror of what was unfolding.  Ah, but no, he was internalizing the stress – laughing outwardly.  The stroke that debilitated a large part of his brain and many physical capabilities told the true story.  I remember thinking, “game over man”.  We were more fortunate than many.  My friend’s husband also had a stroke a few months later, but he died instantly.  I’m not sure which is worse considering what is to come, but I am grateful that I still have my husband with me.  It was six months before he could shower himself by himself and remember to take his pills.  After 2 years of speech and communication therapy, a year of physical therapy, and continued home exercises, he is almost himself again.  He still cannot drive any unfamiliar route or for more than about 15 – 20 minutes at a time.  His memory is terrible, his speech slurred when tired, and he is slow in responding sometimes, can become confused, and he must rest more than the average person must.  I manage our lives with patience and am now the sole breadwinner – I am so thankful to God that I have the ability to earn a living.  I love this guy and I am grateful that God spared him – if just for my selfish reasons.  His laugh is back, his smile is huge, and he can make fun of himself and remains the great optimist. He is active in the volunteer community and he is truly an amazing person – a survivor.

There are many true tales such as ours.  That is not the point.  The point is, the tragedy of what has happened in America has affected us all and in unexpected ways.  There is not an untouched person among us.  I realized that I must prepare for what is coming, and I must do most of the preparations relying on my own strength.  I am cognizant of the fact that SCHHTF (could have hit the fan) while we were in the middle of the initial health crisis – we were graciously granted more time to prepare.  I am hoping, really, that my story will embolden and strengthen those among us who are feeling alone in preparations or who have large burdens to carry.  It can be done.  We cannot give up.  We must not curl up into a ball and become frozen with anxiety, stressed, heartbroken, and worried.  We must march on. 
Preparing to get out of Suburbia, and convincing your family that it is the right thing to do, while accommodating a disabled person, is challenging.  It has taken a good year or two of convincing our six grown children and their spouses that prepping is critical.  This past Christmas, they all received Go Bags replete with hand crank/solar NOAA weather radios, MREs, emergency water pouches, blankets, snacks, first aid kits, flashlights, candles, water proof matches, etc.  The light bulb came on for my husband as we packed our Go Bags from boxes of supplies.  Our grown children thought I was crazy and over-reacting to their dad’s stroke, but I have successfully convinced them that the issues in the world are much bigger than our personal struggles and we should figure out how, together, to survive the coming mayhem.  I would say that 90% of my family and extended family are on board now.  (Make a mental note:  it has taken 2-3 years to get them on board).  I have successfully convinced my elderly parents to stock up on food and water supplies, and keep the gas tank full.  So, everyone is emotionally onboard – what next?  Action.  Action.  Action.

The last six months I have devoted every spare moment to finding a piece of property to relocate to – one that would accommodate the 16 of us (including parents, children, spouses, grandchildren).  I have no need to include my siblings because they have prepped for their families independently with properties in Washington and Idaho.  Our home is in Nevada by virtue of necessity.  Now, imagine a lone woman – born and bred in Suburbia; trying by herself to find property with a well, septic, and water source; far enough out of town to be somewhat difficult to reach, but close enough to be near a  major medical facility; not in the “line of drift” from the “golden hordes” of California; not too difficult to access, but not easy either, and “handicap accessible”.  Doesn’t this sound so overwhelming?  It is.  I am not deterred and I found a spot that meets our requirements.  To some preppers, finding a spot 20-30 minutes outside of town is not good enough.  To some, cocooning in place is the only option.  For us, we found a compromise that will at least provide us with the opportunity to develop a sustainable lifestyle that is not dependent on the modern necessities (or should we say ‘niceties’).

In our case, I had to find a piece of property that was in fairly good condition because my husband is disabled and I work full time (from home).  I finally found a little piece of sustainability in a well-developed acre with a good sized home, fenced, with a deep and highly functioning well, solar panels for water heat, propane, and septic.  I realize this well maintained property will need more than me to manage it, but I’ve called in the troops (my family and friends) and with the aid of some hired help, I believe we can accomplish what we must.  My first concern was to get out of town.  My second concern was to provide for off the grid living if necessary (solar, generator, propane).  I have been stocking up on food and water for a year, and started a large garden inside our suburban home from heirloom seeds that are now soaking up the sun in portable containers in the backyard – just waiting to be transplanted into their new home.  The property has several out buildings, one of which will be converted to a chicken coop with very little effort, one will be used for tools, and the spare garage will house the generator and supplies.  Fortunately, our good friends own a tractor with all the attachments and live close by.  Moving near friends into a like-minded community was a major criterion for the mission.  The acre, already fenced with well laid out corrals and sections that will each have a specific purpose (pigs, goats, fruit trees, vegetable garden, chickens, and rabbits). 

Inside the home, which is a daylight basement home, the upper floor is the entrance floor and fully handicap accessible.  The downstairs or basement, is beautifully finished and could conceivably provide sleeping space for up to 8-10 people (the upstairs can provide sleeping space for up to 6 people).  The property boasts 3.5 baths – critical with potentially 16 people coming to visit.  From the upstairs kitchen and deck, we have a view of the entire valley that leads back into town – should trouble come our way we will see it coming.  However, our home is not visible from the lower roads, backs up to empty BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land (read – desert), and won’t stick out.  The valley has a large number of one and two acre properties consisting of fairly independent, tough minded, country folk.  Most properties have horses, chickens, cows, llamas, goats, etc.  I can bet a silver dollar, it is an armed community.  The county sheriff has chosen it for his own residence.

We are packing now and will move in a few weeks to our new little spot.  Trust me, I realize what cleaning out a chicken coop looks like.  I will liken it to all those diapers I changed and washed when my kids were little.  I’ve already arranged to trade eggs from my coop for horse manure (for the garden) with some friends.  [Reader Doug F. added this comment, via e-mail: "Absolutely do not use horse manure in your garden unless you want a garden full of weeds. Use only well-composted cow or sheep manure."]
 
I’ve studied, researched, prepared, asked for help, and now its implementation time.  There are enough people out of work here in one of the highest unemployment states in the country, that finding help is not going to be the problem.  To me, this is like a highly complex Information Technology implementation.  You do your homework, you create the plan, you implement, with checkpoints along the way, using an iterative quality assurance cycle.  I have a sense of exhilaration, but understand the reality in front of me – this is not going to be easy. 
Lessons learned:

  1.  The realtor – I can’t tell you how many times I had to repeat the criteria for the property we sought – an acre +, a well, septic, propane, 20-30 minutes out of town, well maintained, minimum of 1800 sq. ft., no HOA, handicap accessible, primarily paved road access, fairly flat land (we have enough snow during the winter to make a dirt, windy, hilly road unnavigable.  Getting the realtor on board was tough.  I did most of the research myself using Zillow, an MLS search, search of county property tax records for additional details, called the local well driller to get specifics on certain properties, etc.
  2. Prioritize the “List of Lists” (totally overwhelming at first glance, but was able to understand the scope of types of things that would be needed in the major categories – prioritized and am working through the list).
  3. Research – propane suppliers, propane rent vs. own, propane vs. oil heating, pellet stoves vs. fireplaces, well depth, water quality, water filtering systems, laws governing wells, zoning laws, growing vegetables and other plants in a high desert climate, generator types, solar power, battery capacity, site stick built homes vs. manufactured or modular homes, how to raise chickens for eggs and meat, firearms and ammunitions, ham radio operator license, herbal remedies and natural medicines, etc.
  4. Get Educated – books I read (fiction and non-fiction):
    1. Trump University Asset Protection 101 – learned to restructure business for asset protection.
    2. How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life – learned how to protect assets by titling them in an LLC, how to live under the radar and keep a lower profile.
    3. How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times;
    4. SurvivalBlog.com complete Archive CD-ROM
    5. Mini Farming;
    6. The TEOTWAWKI Tuxedo: Formal Survival Attire;
    7. Holding Your Ground: Preparing for Defense if it all Falls Apart;
    8. Without Rule of Law: Advanced Skills to Help You Survive;
    9. Atlas Shrugged
    10. The Encyclopedia of Country Living
    11. Read a variety of books concerning:
      1. the economy and America’s imminent demise from a political and financial perspective;
      2. privacy from the perspective of a citizen and from the perspective of law enforcement – the hunted and the hunter perspectives;
      3. online businesses;
      4. financial investing (gold, silver, etc.);
      5. Christian prophecy concerning the end times (The Bible and other books);
      6. disaster recovery and preparedness;
      7. survival;
  5. The right job – It took me a year to find the right job utilizing my skills in a “work from home” situation with infrequent travel.  That was a very rough year as I turned down job after job opportunity situated in the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., etc. 
  6. Training – I knew nothing about guns and ammunition.  I took the first step and got in person, personal training, own one gun, and have a limited supply of ammunition.  I was afraid of the guns but I made the first step.  I plan to expand this skill this year.
  7. Budgeting – if you don’t have the budget for a large purchase of freeze dried or dehydrated food storage, double your grocery budget and buy 2 of everything every time you go to the store focusing on the essential foods.  I cut other things out of the budget to enable this strategy.  Future purchases include things like a generator, not a big screen television.
  8. Learn now, practice now – don’t wait for the perfect opportunity.  I learned to make a variety of cleaning supplies from Ivory soap and white vinegar, learned how to make my own laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hand soap from Ivory soap bars.  I started the heirloom seed garden on the kitchen counter.  I regularly fill and use 15-20 gallon containers of filtered water – to practice the inconvenient art of water storage.  I bought essential oils and learned about their medicinal qualities, and created various lotions and salves.  Garden, can, bake from scratch, hand wash and hang dry… reject convenience and select inconvenience now.  It will help in adjusting to life without later.
  9. Reaching others – the hardest part of this journey so far has been convincing my family that Christians are not showing a lack of faith by preparing for disaster.  I likened it to many Biblical stories where the industrious are honored. 
  10. Pray – last on the list does not mean least.  The God of the Universe knows all, sees all, and has a plan.  The purpose of my preparation efforts are to protect and care for my family and friends in order to minimize suffering and to share what the Lord has in store for us.

Next Steps:  Take Action
There is no convenient way to utterly change your lifestyle from beginning to end.  It has taken me close to three years (setbacks notwithstanding) to get to the point where I understand what all has to be done and am actually doing it.  There are many, like me, who read SurvivalBlog religiously but who do nothing.  I made a commitment to myself that before the elections in the fall of 2012, I would be settled in a new environment with the potential for a sustainable lifestyle.  I may be wrong that the elections will be a tipping point in these United States, but I want to be prepared.

Getting The Lead Out, by Charles J.






In my previous SurvivalBlog article, Melting Lead for the Meltdown, I gave a basic explanation of molding bullets. In particular, I described the molding of 200 grain lead semi wad cutters and the 185 grain SWC.   In addition, it was pointed out to stock these up for use as barter if there is a social/economic/political meltdown.  If you cast your own bullets or are thinking about reloading your own ammo, I would urge you to jump in.  It is enjoyable, therapeutic, and practical in the times we live.  Additionally, it is also economical.   I just checked at Wal-Mart for their prices for .45 ACP ammo and the least expensive I saw was $19.95 for a box of 50.  Reloading your own ammo will pay for itself in the long run because a reloader can beat that price quite easily.  If you pay .05 per bullet, .03 per primer (recently paid 28.50 for a 1,000 Remington primers on sale), and .02 per powder charge, you have a bullet for .10 per round or $5.00 per box less your time involved.  Even if your bullets cost .10  a piece, you’re still looking at $7.50 for a box of 50.  You would also include the cost of your brass, however, as I’m a ‘range scavenger’ and retrieve my brass after a stage in competition, I left that out.  But, the time spent reloading is “fun time.”  It’s time spent on a hobby not work time.   And, if you compete you know you’ve saved hundreds if not thousands by reloading your own ammo.  I try to break down the reloading process so that I’m not depriving my family of time by spending massive amounts of time away from them (i.e. one evening tumble and polish the brass, another evening deprime/ resize 300 pieces, another night for an hour neck expansion/powder charge and bullet seating).

Now, for someone just kicking around the idea of reloading, I want to talk about “getting the lead out.”   That is, you want to get some ammo loaded up and use that lead or pick some up online before component prices jump.   Depending upon what style learner you are, a brief overview that I will provide may be sufficient for you to start.  I started literally the most primitive way with the use of a Lee handloader.  Your rubber mallet,  hand dies, and a powder dipper was how I started…yikes…There was no YouTube, CDs, or instructional tapes in 1975.  I did have a Lyman reloading manual that provided my initial instruction as well as my oldest brother who had also started reloading.   Money was tight for me so I started with a single stage press from Lyman.  You can start here and progress to the Hornady or Dillon progressive reloading press which will turn out from 350-400 rounds per hour. 

“Getting the lead out” and getting it loaded into your brass is the subject of this entry.   The main functional areas that will be addressed are: 1) equipment needs, 2) brass preparation, 3) the components for your ammo (i.e. powder, primer, projectiles), and 4) the process or steps of reloading.
  
Basic equipment that will get you started in basic reloading are the following (I was fortunate to find much of my equipment gently used at Biff’s Gun Room & Knob Creek Gun Range in Shepherdsville, Kentucky):              

  • Tumbler for cleaning your brass, media, and polishing agent (check Midway, Natchez, Brownells etc)
  • Carbide dies (RCBS, Lyman, Lee etc), shell holder, single stage press (various manufacturers)
  • Scale to weigh powder charge
  • Powder measure
  • Caliper to check your measurements
  • Loading block to hold your brass casings
  • Headspace/bullet gauge                 
  • Bench to mount your press on
  • Priming unit (RCBS hand primer)
      

Now with your equipment lined up and ready, you need your .45 brass prepped for reloading.  If you’re using ‘once fired’ brass from the range you need to fire up your tumbler.  Put your media (corncob or walnut) into the tumbler, start it up, and then put in the amount of polishing agent specified on your unit.  Let it run a couple minutes to get the polish worked in and then add your brass. I like Flitz as a cleaning and polishing agent.  Does a great job and takes less time.  Check your brass after tumbling 20-30 minutes and if sufficiently cleaned and polished, separate the brass from the media.  The brass is ready for your next step.
  
Let’s talk components before we get to the actual process of reloading.  I have used many different powders (231, WST, Clays, Unique, Bullseye, 4756, VV 320, Titegroup, Autocomp etc).  You will discover there are many pet loads and you will find there are varying opinions on the ‘best’ powder to use.  Experiment and make your choice.  Many stay with the tried and true Winchester 231.  I have had my best groups with Vhita Vhouri 320 and Titegroup.  VV320 is more expensive and can generally be found at larger gun shows.   Titegroup should be available at most gun shops, gun ranges, and can be also found at gun shows.    I am a life member at Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky and have tried to keep Kenny Sumner in business over the years.  My pet load for 200 grain lead SWC (semi-wadcutter) is 4.6 grains of Titegroup.   The next component is the choice of primers.  Again, there are a number of brands such as Winchester, Remington, Federal, and CCI and so on.  For your .45 you need “large pistol” primers.   Next we come to the choice of projectiles.  I’ve used just about everything.  For competition you definitely want a bullet that leaves big holes on paper so you can tell where you’re hitting.  Since I decided to cast my own bullets I primarily use the 200 grain lead SWC.  Feel free to experiment with 185 Hornady SWC copper jacketed, 230 grain FMJ(full metal jacket), Remington Golden Sabers, 230 Lead Round Nose, 225 grain Lead Truncated Cone and so on.  I’ve had splendid groups using VV 320 with jacketed bullets with groups less than one inch (pretty much hole in hole) at 45 feet with a free standing stance.
   So now you have everything ready to go.  Your brass is cleaned and polished, your components are assembled, your equipment is set up and ready to crank it!  And, remember, no smoking while you’re reloading!!!  I am assuming you have followed your instructions and mounted your press and adjusted your dies.  You have your loading blocks (50 rounds per block) ready with your brass.  The process of reloading will entail the following steps:
                  1. Depriming and resizing
                  2. Priming
                  3. Neck expansion and powder charge
                  4. Bullet seating and taper crimp

In the depriming and resizing stage, you will be using a carbide tip resizing/depriming die.  Follow the directions in your die kit regarding the installment of the die.  Then you will take each .45 casing and place it in the shell holder on your press and run the ram up.  The brass is fed into the resizing die/deprimer and backed down out of the die.  You have just resized the brass to the appropriate dimensions so that it will now chamber in your .45 and knocked out the expended primer.  Do this with whatever number of pieces brass you want to reload.  I do one hundred per session so that I’m not letting the reloading consume too much of my time from other important things like my wife.  Once you have resized your brass, use your calipers to measure the length of each piece and inspect each piece.  You must maintain the right measurement with your brass to avoid excessive pressures that could be detrimental to your firearm and health.   Anything with cracks you pitch or put aside for recycling.  The shortest or minimum case length I’ve seen in any manual is .888 thousandths of an inch.  Anything shorter and you can put that in your recycling pile as well.  Maximum case length is .898.  You will likely never have to worry about trimming any of your pistol brass because that normally doesn’t lengthen like rifle brass when fired.  Also, I don’t worry about the primer pocket or primer hole.  This isn’t critical in pistol bullets like it is in competitive rifle cartridges.  All pieces of brass are now resized, deprimed, inspected, and checked for proper length.

The next stage is priming.  You have your large pistol primers (you won’t need ‘large pistol magnum’ primers) and have loaded them into your hand priming tool.  I have an RCBS hand priming tool.  Place each piece of brass in the tool and squeeze the handle.  This presses the primer into the primer pocket of the brass.  Place primed pieces back onto the loading block until all pieces are primed.  This step with 100 rounds will take about 10-15 minutes.  Again, follow the instructions given in your hand priming tool guide. 

In the neck expanding stage you will be removing the resizing die from the press and placing the neck expanding die in the press.  My neck expanding die will also hold my Lyman powder measure so that while the brass is in the expanding die, I can cycle the powder measure and charge the cartridge with powder.  What I have done prior to this in preparation is adjusted the powder measure and weighed the powder charge in the scale to ensure it is dropping the 4.6 grains of Titegroup.  So, with your brass in the neck expanding die, operate the powder measure and drop the powder charge into the brass and remove the brass by running the ram back down.  Pull your charged brass from the shell holder and place in an empty loading block.  Do this with each piece of brass and visually inspect each cartridge to ensure you have a powder charge.  Also check to ensure that you did not inadvertently drop a double charge.  If you have any question about something that doesn’t look right just take the brass and empty the powder back into the powder measure and drop a new charge.  Again, this stage with 100 pieces of brass will take some 10-15 minutes with a single stage press.  Okay, we’re having fun and things are coming together nicely.

We have now come to the bullet seating stage.  Change out the neck expanding die with the bullet seating die and follow the instructions in your manual.  Take a charged cartridge and put it into the press.  Follow this by placing your bullet into the case mouth.  Run the press up and back down.  Check it out!!! You just completed loading that first bullet.  But, before you jump for joy, get your calipers out and check the overall case length of the bullet.  I seat my 200 grain SWCs for 1.235 overall case length.  You will need to check your overall case length and be sure you follow the specs in you loading manual.  In addition, your pistol may be picky and you may have to find thru experimentation the best OAL (overall length) for your pistol.  I have a Para Ordinance P-14 .45 which is equipped with a feed ramp.  I get flawless feeding of my loads at this case length.  With your bullet seating die set to the adjusted correct length, run each charged cartridge up with bullet placed in the case mouth and seat the bullets.  Don’t they look lovely!  Now, last but not least, put a light taper crimp on your bullets.   Replace the bullet seating die with the taper crimp die.  I set my taper crimp die so that it will give me a round that measures .469 thousandths where the bullet goes into the brass.  Run this thru your headspace gauge.  Your completed round should drop into the gauge with no problem and drop back out.  You can also pull your barrel from your .45 and drop the bullet into the barrel chamber and check the fit.  Lyman recommends keeping simple records for your loads. I think that is a good idea and I record the bullet size/weight/type, powder type and powder charge, overall case length, and results of the fired bullets (i.e. feeding issues, accuracy, smoke, kick, and velocity if a chronograph is used[for power factor requirements for competition]).

Remember, this is just one load for the .45.  There are many pet loads that reloaders have.  Go online and check everything out that you can and enjoy your reloading.  It feels good when you look down and see that by following the steps, you turned out a good accurate load.   Like Hannibal Smith used to say on the “A-Team”, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  

This leads me to a spiritual parallel in reloading.  A reloaded cartridge comes from very specific measurements, intelligence, and design.  If you were wandering out in some field somewhere and came across a .45 cartridge you would have to think that it didn’t get there on its own nor was it assembled at random.  Someone was in that field and someone put that bullet together.  So to, we have bodies, a world, and universe that to me indicates “Someone” was in the universe and “Someone” assembled all that we see.  “The heavens declare the glory of God.” I encourage you to seek that Someone and look to Him to assemble your life and trust Him to guide your steps. 

Now go “get the lead out”.

  

Letter Re: Home Invasion Defensive Planning

James:
About a year ago I remember reading a personal account in SurvivalBlog about a home invasion/robbery in Florida that went terribly wrong. I remember thinking it was almost surreal in the way it unfolded and thought things like that only happened in third world countries. It was an eye opening experience and something that made me rethink the way I handled myself in a place I considered to be secure by default. A few months ago my eyes were opened again when someone in one of my coworker’s neighborhood went through a similar experience. I am not trying to kid myself into believing I live in some illusion of safety. I live within 60 miles of the Texas/Mexico boarder. And because of this, home invasions have become highly sophisticated in my area. Gangs, for lack of a better word, who were loosely affiliated with cartels would use home invasions as a tool to hijack drug shipments from rivals at safe-houses and as a profitable way to kidnap “undocumented migrant workers” (illegal aliens) from smugglers. The thought was that most of these occurrences were contained to people who were doing something illegal and that civilians were immune. Most of these people would never go to the police because they themselves were breaking the law. In recent months this has changed. Apparently, with the war on drugs in Mexico reaching new levels of violence and the upcoming summer elections, these enterprising individuals have decided to expand their range of victims.

One afternoon, in a quiet neighborhood in Brownsville, Texas, four armed men pulled up to a house while most people were at work. The put on ski masks and rang the doorbell making sure to obstruct the security eyepiece enough to obfuscate their intent. A maid opened the door and the four men burst into the house. They quickly took control over the situation by restraining her and searching the house. After searching the house and collecting any valuables, (including a handgun in the nightstand) the offenders waited for the homeowner to return home. At some point, homeowner called the house to tell the maid that he would be arriving soon with groceries. The maid, while being held at gunpoint, was forced to make the homeowner feel like nothing was wrong. Once the homeowner arrived with his wife and child, they were immediately overpowered and captured upon entering the house. The offenders forced the man at gunpoint to go from room to room opening two floor safes and one gun safe while they plundered jewelry, cash and firearms. After they had gathered all the valuables, the offenders determined that they wanted more. So, at this point, three of the men held the homeowner’s family hostage while one of the men drove the homeowner to three different banks where he made large cash withdraws. The homeowner was constantly reminded that if he tried to alert a teller or signal for help that the men at the house would murder his family. They returned home with the money, tied the family to furniture in the living room, and left with the warning that if they called the law enforcement they would be back. They had explained that they had the house and the family under surveillance for weeks leading up to this event. An entire week went by before the family alerted law enforcement out of fear for their lives and now the story is slowly being made public knowledge as police search for tips and clues into the crime.

Nothing is going to fix what happened, but you can draw some lessons from it.

Lesson 1. Availability of Information

There are several things that I would like to discuss and address as possible lessons that can be taken away from this entire experience. In my occupation, I have to address many different aspects in the implantation of social engineering as a tool to both bypass and overcome security measures. The most valuable single resource that anyone has is information. What strikes me as very alarming is the amount of information that was available to the offenders in this case. They knew when to strike. They knew that there would be a valuable payload inside of the house. They knew what banks he had accounts at, when he got home, what routes he drove and how many people were in the house. They knew the names of his wife and children. They knew when the maid was going to be the only person in the house. They knew the location of the alarm pad. They even knew where the security camera DVR was located so they could collect it when they were done (we will discuss this later). The first lesson should be protecting as much of this information as possible. The amount of resources available to any member of society at their open personal disposal is just frightening. Without knowing anything about you, I could pull your property tax information from the county tax office based on your address and work backwards through a web site like Spokeo or Maltego to determine how much you make, how many people reside in your house, where you work and what you drive. Most of this can be determined just by grabbing the mail out of your mailbox one afternoon before you are even home from work.

What’s the point of this? Don’t make it easy for them. Use opt-out services to protect personal information. Buy a security-mailbox. Better yet: get a P.O. Box! Don’t disclose all your personal information on a raffle entry that Dr. Pepper and Coca Cola emailed you last week for a chance to win a free jet ski! Information security is something that takes very little effort but can make a huge difference. I am not a counter-terrorism or counter-surveillance export, but I point out a few things that make a huge difference in those who would intend to do harm to you past protecting your credit. James Wesley Rawles is always warning about OPSEC but just because you don’t disclose your phone number to the girl at the local Pizza Hut doesn’t mean that you aren’t doing 10 times as much damage by filling out a registration form online with your biographical information.

GPS scrubbing your pictures is another thing that is rarely mentioned. Many people post pictures directly to the internet (example Facebook) from their smartphones without first converting the image or at least running it through a program to remove tagged information. One of the most common law enforcement forensic practices is to lift GPS location data from pictures to give information on suspects. Criminals aren’t stupid. They are doing the same thing. While you think it might be fun to take a picture of your fully loaded gun safe and upload it to your favorite apocalyptic survival blog, please understand that there is personal information encoded in that picture from your smart phone. Might be something you might want to address.

Lesson 2. Availability of Access

I believe Mr. Rawles and others have discussed fortifying your house with large planters, thorny bushes and even cleverly concealed cement embankments. My question is why not take this one step further when it comes to your main point of entry? I am not suggesting driving 4 foot railroad ties into your front yard hidden under lawn gnomes like tank traps, but why not install a front door entry gate? A front entry gate is probably the single best investment you can make from the perspective of additional space from contact. This will give you an extra degree of separation from any random person who rings your doorbell from a trick-or-treater to a guy looking to hit you in the head with a pipe and score your wallet. You can buy one at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s and they cost less to install than a security camera system of connected intercom. This is probably one of the most important home improvements you can consider making if your Homeowners Association allows it. (Yes Mr. Rawles, I can hear you screaming “move!” as I type this)

What I also want to mention here, and I believe has been mentioned before on this site, is being aware of who you let into your house. Over the recent years, I have become increasingly suspicious of the contractors that have come into my house to do repair and construction work. While various web sites exist to do background checks on reputable companies, nothing can give a window into human intent for the individual employee. How do I know the electrician’s apprentice who comes into my house to fix a bad breaker box isn’t looking at my house as his friend’s next possible target. It still boggles me that the robbers in my example knew exactly where the security camera DVR was without searching for it. Be cautious about the individuals you allow access to your house and definitely try to conceal valuables. There is no point your wife’s jewelry collection should be left out on the dresser while the plumber is walking by to get to the master bathroom. At least restrict unsupervised access to areas of your house where a worker should not have access to. I believe this is one of the common “casing” tactics used by the operation in Florida that netted over 12 million dollars in stolen merchandise. Try to at least prevent the common mistakes and make it hard for them to do surveillance work. It might even eliminate you as a target.

Lesson 3. Predictability and Foresight

I believe I have to pay some credence to Kenneth Royce (aka. Boston T. Party) in this respect. I try not to take the same route home from work every day if possible. I try not to set myself up in a situation where I can be easily predicted, stalked, cornered, ambushed and abducted. I was in Mexico City some years back for an extended period of time and this has become standard operating procedure. I could write a whole post about the things you learn in a foreign country, but I am sure others could do it better. I am not overly paranoid and actually try to live my life fairly laid back. Kidnappings and Ransom became a way of life in Mexico. I hate to reference Hollywood, but see the movie Man on Fire and multiply it times 10. Criminal gangs do not go for the high value hard targets with ninja style SWAT team assaults. They are much happier putting in as little work as possible to grab the low hanging fruit. They are more than happy to go after middle managers and engineers (and their families) than they would be to go after plant managers and CEOs. Middle class individuals with a medium net income lack the tools and resources to protect themselves as well as a higher income individual with more to protect. Criminals do not mind, they will not starve. So for 1/10th of the risk, they will just hit 4 middle class families to reap just as much reward. Please do not think you are immune.

Have the foresight to see problems before they occur. The late Colonel Jeff Cooper always talked about levels of alertness — in a Color Code. This is not about being relaxed or being on edge, its about being conscious of your surroundings. The best advice that he gave was to know what something feels out of place and react to it. – Matt in Texas

Economics and Investing:

Commentary from Anthony Wile, Editor of The Daily Bell: If the Euro Ends, So Will the World as We Know It?

G.G. flagged this: The Number of Those Working Past 65 is at a Record High

John Williams: The Recovery is an Illusion

18 Signs That The Banking Crisis In Europe Has Just Gone From Bad To Worse

How big will JPMorgan’s losses be?

Reader S.S. in Mississippi pointed me to Wikipedia’s page on Sovereign Debt. The comparison’s of the debt levels of various nations are instructive, especially when seen as a percentage of GDP.

By Abandoning the Gold Standard We Accepted Central Planning and Chaos

Kevin S. suggested this great piece that describes hyperinflation: What Is Money ? Part I

Odds ‘n Sods:

Mike A. suggested this very interesting piece: Planning traffic routing in no-notice disasters. The article begins: “Spontaneous evacuations of New York City and Washington, D.C. following the 9/11 terrorist attacks demonstrated that U.S. cities are not prepared to manage the sudden influx of traffic into roads and highways following a no-notice disaster.”

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Mike T. sent this: Zithromax (azithromycin): FDA Statement on risk of cardiovascular death

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News headline: San Francisco to rename street after Pelosi. JWR’s Comments: Go ahead and call me “stodgy”, but I think they’d be safer waiting until she expires–or at least until after she leaves public office–to go naming streets or battleships in her honor. After all, you never know when a sitting senator or congresscritter might come down with a bad case of Tom DeLay-John Ensign-David Vitter-Gary Condit-Duke Cunningham-John Edwards-Chris Dodd-Eric Massa-Fred Richmond-Gary Hart-Charlie Rangel-Albert Bustamante-Mark Foley-William J. Jefferson-Dan Rostenkowski-Wayne Hays-Gerry Studds-Mario Biaggi-James Traficant-Buz Lukens-David Wu-Mark Souder-Anthony Weiner Syndrome and hence be forced to resign in disgrace. So this could be a bad idea, and difficult to reverse. (Just ask the folks in Milltown, New Jersey, that still drive down Pétain Street, or anyone who lives on Ernst Thälmann Strasse in Dresden.) Oh well, at least the San Francisco pinko politicos don’t plan to re-name the entire city Pelosigrad. (At least not yet.) By the way, I still haven’t forgiven them for renaming Army Street after a far-left labor leader.

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With absolutely no relevance to preparedness whatsoever, I offer this incredibly cool musical video link: House of The Rising Sun – Musical Tesla Coils

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“According to the Constitution, the Legislature does not have the right to judge the guilt or innocence of a person, be they a citizen or not. According to the Constitution, the Executive [branch] does not have the right to judge the guilt or innocence of a person, be they a citizen or not. According to the Constitution’s separation of powers, only the Judiciary has the right to determine guilt or innocence. Thus, ultimately, only the Judiciary has the right to revoke or deny a citizen’s ability to travel—and only for serious crimes.” – Gonzalo Lira in his April, 2012 essay: You Are Free To Travel—If The IRS Lets You

Pat’s Product Review: Stove Tec Rocket Stoves From US Tactical Supply

Some months ago, I alerted Survival Blog readers to a small company, in my neck of the woods, called US Tactical Supply that has customer service second to none, as well as having top-notch products, most made in the good ol’ USA. As I stated before, if you are looking for cheap knock-off merchandise, or just “cheap” anything – then don’t do business with US Tactical Supply – they don’t carry junk – simple as that. However, if you are looking for the best-of-the-best in high-quality products, with friendly folks, who are sincerely happy to help you, and appreciate your business, then US Tactical Supply is the place to go.
 
Anyone who is familiar with doing business with the Department of Defense knows that, you have to carry merchandise that meets or exceeds DOD specifications. US Tactical Supply is a DOD supplier – enough said, eh? Military and law enforcement personnel strive for the best products they can get – they can’t afford to have their gear fail them, when they need it the most. So, a lot of the customers who deal with US Tactical Supply are military and law enforcement. As well as savvy survival-minded folks, too.
 
Kevin Swanson, the President of US Tactical contacted me, and wanted my honest test and evaluation on a new product they are now carrying called the “Stove Tec” – it’s a “rocket stove.” You can get the skinny on the Stove Tec at their web site as well as being able to watch a short video describing how the Stove Tec works. Now, anyone familiar with survival gear, will readily recognize the Stove Tec emergency stove as a “rocket stove” – there are various makes and models on the rocket stove on the market, as well as detailed videos out there, on how to make a rocket stove yourself. However, all rocket stoves are NOT the same!
 
The Stove Tec rocket stove is probably the best-made of the bunch if you ask me. Stove Tec (located in Oregon) manufactures several different versions of this little emergency stove, and Kevin Swanson sent me the top-of-the-line model for test and evaluation. And, I’m here to tell you, this baby should last you many, many years of hard use. This is “the” emergency stove you want when the power goes out, trust me!
 
I received the two-door Stove Tec model, which is the deluxe model. This baby has a metal-lined ceramic door that burns any available wood or flammable biomass material. The combustion chamber isn’t just lined with “fire brick” like other rocket stoves – nope, this baby is also metal lined, to help retain the heat for a good long time, as well as to protect the fire brick (ceramic). The deluxe two-door model is the one you want to purchase – the main upper door allows you to feed your fuel into the fire chamber, and the smaller, lower door, allows you to adjust the heat – neat idea, when you want a hotter or cooler fire for cooking, and it allows you to cook longer, too.
 
The stove top surface – it’s double thick cast iron, with six pot supports – you’re not gonna have to worry about this part of the stove failing you. You can either place a frying pan or pot right on top the cast iron stove top, or use the include galvanized steel pot skirt to keep your pan or pot slightly above the stove top surface. I found that I liked just cooking on the stove top surface – as did my wife.
 
The body of the Stove Tec is painted green, and is sheet metal – but there’s no need to worry about the sheet metal “melting” on you or a hot fire burning through it – the double layered kiln-fired combustion chamber protects the outside sheet metal. There is always plenty of small tree branches and twigs around our homestead, so finding fuel for the Stove Tec rocket stove was an easy chore, to be sure. We also found that, we could use wadded-up paper to start and burn a pretty hot fire, too. There are heat resistant plastic and steel carry handles on the Stove Tec.
 
There’s a nice metal support that you place in front of the upper door on the Stove Tec, for feeding your small pieces of wood into the fire chamber, so you don’t have to sit there and hold the wood – you simply slide it into the fire chamber as it burns, to keep the fire going. It honestly doesn’t take much wood at all, to get a super-hot fire going to cook a meal. We have enough wood on our small homestead to last through a lifetime of use cooking on the Stove Tec – honestly!
 
If you are serious about long-term survival, under harsh conditions, then you need to take a serious look at the Stove Tec rocket stove from US Tactical Supply. When your propane tanks run dry, and you can’t get ’em refilled, you’ll sure be glad you have the Stove Tec standing by. And, if you’re out camping or hunting, you don’t need to have a huge cooking fire – that wastes a lot of wood – in order to cook a meal. A mere handful of wood will provide more than enough fuel for cooking a meal, or to fire-up the stove to warm yourself. I don’t care if you live in the big city or out in the boonies like I do, you will find the Stove Tec rocket stove to be a blessing when the power goes off, and you need to cook a hot meal. As I stated, it takes very little wood or other material (even charcoal can be used) to get a good, hot fire going in this rocket stove.
 
Sure, you can find rocket stoves all over the place, but trust me, I’ve seen a lot of ’em, and they don’t even come close to the Stove Tec in quality and features. The Stove Tec sells for $124.95 at US Tactical Supply, and they do have a less expensive model. However, I’d spend a few bucks more and get the deluxe version – you’ll appreciate it more.
 
Whenever I shop around for any survival gear or supplies, I not only look at the best prices I can get, I also look at the quality of the products I’m thinking about purchasing. Cheap is never good! Another thing I look at is the company I’m going to do business with. I can tell you horror stories about some big name companies, that simply have some of the worse customer service you can imagine – even some of the big-name gun companies have customer service that sucks! If you want to do business with a small company, that really cares about customer service, and carries mostly US-made products, then take a look at US Tactical Supply – they are growing, and deserve your business. Don’t always think you are getting something cheaper some place else – don’t shop around on “price” only – take a look at the company. I enjoy doing business with the little guy, especially when they carry so many US-made products….that’s why you’ll hardly ever find me in the big box stores – I don’t like contributing to the economy in China. I’d rather shop the small, independent stores, that want my business, and are there to stand behind the products they sell. Ever try returning something to one of the big box stores? Yes, it’s a pain-in-the-rear at times – an you sure get the impression that they are doing you a favor by allowing you to shop their stores – when it should be the other way around.
 
In all honesty, I don’t know why I hadn’t laid claim to a rocket stove before now. Yes, I have a propane cook stove that I use several times per year when the power goes out. But I can’t possibly stock enough propane tanks or bottles to last me many years. With the Stove Tec rocket stove, having enough fuel isn’t a problem – especially when it burns all manner of fuel. You see, sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks…and I learned just how much I’m gonna need the Stove Tec rocket stove when the power goes out. I’ve got mine, now you need to contact US Tactical Supply and get one of your own. You’re gonna wonder how you got along without it. And, you’ll be surprised at the friendly, helpful folks that answer the phone, too. – Pat Cascio (SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor)

Letter Re: A Non-Warrior Surviving Traumatic Times

Hi,
Thank you for sharing all of your info, but I have to be honest, I am so overwhelmed with it all that if or when this happens I would rather be dead.  Who would want to live like  this and what would be the reason to live?  I wouldn’t have the heart to shoot someone  to protect my food and I am a sharpshooter. I just wanted your opinion.
 
Best Regards, – Deborah C.

JWR Replies: The underlying theme to my writings is to be part of an integrated team.  That team might be just a few families living on a cul-de-sac, or it might be a small town. By being competent and confident with firearms, your group will avoid confrontations.  Very few bad guys will mess with someone with a capability to immediately drop them at up to 400 yards.  And if you don’t have the willingness to do so yourself, then team up with someone that does.  You can provide other forms of useful and valued support to a group or small community effort. (Agriculture, advanced first aid, mechanics, et cetera.)  Not everyone has to be a warrior.

Three Letter Re: Cartridge Reloading Dollars and Cents

James,
Having just read the letters regarding reloading economics, I noticed the following caveats and had two important points about them:
 
1.  “do not shoot lead bullets in a Glock” because of the polygonal rifling.  Polygonal rifling essentially creates rifling engagement angles that are less than 90 degrees, therefore whatever bullet material you use seals the bore better (because it’s easier to deform lead/copper into a rifling groove that has a more obtuse (open) angle) than a sharp 90 degree angle.    A standard cartridge fired out of a conventionally rifled barrel will travel faster out of a polygonal rifled barrel because of the superior seal that the polygonal rifling creates and that is why Glock uses those kinds of barrels, bullets perform better out of their barrels. Better seal = higher pressures,  higher pressures = higher velocities.   It needs to be noted that the HK USP series of pistols also has polygonal rifling as well as the Baby Eagle line and problem some others that I haven’t listed here.  Lead is perfectly safe to shoot out of Glocks or HKs, as long as you decrease your powder charge.  Polygonally rifled barrels do lead up any more readily than conventionally rifled barrels, in fact, because polygonal rifling seals the bore better the number one cause of leading  is reduced, “gas cutting” the increased pressure does not melt lead bases to any appreciable extent – gas cutting does.  This was all figured out decades ago by better men than me, like Elmer Keith.  Since higher pressures also yield higher temperatures (simple physics) even a conventionally rifled barrel can build up lead quickly if you use hot loads, or try to reproduce +p type ratings using lead or copper plated bullets.  It isn’t lead build up that leads to a “kaboom”, it’s nearly always a compressed load which is far more dangerous in any barrel.  Gas checks (copper jackets that go on the bottom of a lead bullet) are effective not because the leading lip of the gas check hits the rifling and splits to seal the angle of the rifling in addition to shielding the base of the lead bullet.  Don’t believe me?  Check the effective velocities of a gas checked bullet, it’s higher than just lead – less pressure leakage.
 
2.  Copper plated bullets should be treated as if they were lead when calculating your powder charge.  Because the plating is not a “jacket” but a very very thin microscopic coating of copper the hardness of the bullet is still essentially whatever the hardness of the lead that was used in casting it before plating.  The plating process does not harden the lead bullet, it seals the bore better than a copper jacketed bullet – and should be loaded accordingly otherwise you can create higher pressures and you may damage your pistol or yourself.  Always load copper plated bullets as if you were loading lead.  You get less lead fouling with copper plated bullets, but I’ve pulled lead deposits out of a pistol bore that was only shooting copper plated bullets, although it had a couple thousand rounds through it prior to the cleaning.
 
3.  Remember that the higher pressure rounds will have more problems with overpressure than low pressure rounds, typically autopistols shoot 9mm, .45 ACP, .40 S&W – I’ll ignore the other more uncommon rounds, so look them them if you’re going to reload for them., as an example only (look up your specific combination of powder, bullet, primer and casing) the following number can give you an idea of the pressures involved:
 
9mm Luger (9×19) is around 34,000 psi
45acp (45 auto) is around 20,000
40sw (40 short and wimpy) is around 32,000 psi
 
ammo manufactures spend a seriously paranoid amount of time calculating not only pressure, but the pressure curve (burn characteristics inside barrel) and they minutely examine the components after firing before determining a load is safe, they do this for each and every “lot” of ammunition they produce, if they change one component then there is a different “lot number” assigned to it and the workup is repeated for it.  Since their powders and components are custom blended and manufactured, they tend to repeat this process a lot.  A typical handloader will not have access to the testing equipment that a manufacturer has and has to be at least as meticulous.  Pressure is king and over-pressure will injure you and destroy your weapon.  In a grid-down survival situation the nominal savings that reloading will yield are offset by the very serious chance a non-expert reloader will inadvertently take.  If and when THSTF I do not plan on shooting any reloaded ammunition out of my autopistols or autoloading rifles.
 
As a side note, a few more thoughts on reloading practices:
 
The typical reloader who uses “junk brass” that is harvested from a shooting range is taking some serious chances.  Without realizing it, a handloader can work up a load that is perfectly safe in a Lake City 5.56 case, and start producing with a large range of brass cases from various manufacturers – without realizing that the internal dimensions of each manufacturers casing are different, in fact the typical Lake City nato 5.56 casing has a thicker web and thicker walls than a commercial Winchester .223 Remington case – so a perfectly safe load in a different case will yield MUCH different results and since we’re worried about pressure (as we should be) we inadvertently are producing loaded cartridges that are quite different while believing we are making a consistent product because we’re using only one type of bullet/powder/primer.  Whenever possible, use ONE head stamp AND be sure they’re of the same year of manufacture.
 
I have reloaded now for 20 years, from .50 BMG to .380 and the one thing I keep as my watch-word is that I’m loading for target ammo only and I am not trying to reproduce factory maximum pressures.  I’ve had to toss out a serious amount of ammo from time to time because I wasn’t as careful as I should have been, and in case you’re wondering – no I never considered breaking apart the casings to reclaim components – why?  Because it’s just not worth the time and potential hazards to re-use bullets that have already been crimped, and powder that may be contaminated by whatever was in the case when I reloaded it or handled it during disassembly.  Sure a lot of old codgers will say that you can avoid problems, but I have a healthy enough paranoia to toss a couple of bucks in the trash (actually I take them to a public range to put in their “red bucket”  I’ve see these same guys pull ammo out of a red range bucket – such disregard for Murphy will surely clean the shallow end of the gene pool at some point
 
It comes down to pressure and amassing as much possible knowledge about interior ballistics as is humanly possible.   Most of the “kaboom” problems that Glocks and other autopistols have had occur when a reloader tries to reproduce a hot cartridge – or as the old competitors used to call it “make major” because before a typical competition each competitors load would be chronographed to insure they weren’t using a “wimpy” load to reduce recoil and thus increase accuracy.
 
I’ve had two kabooms, both were from compressed loads in reloaded ammo (one mine and one a factory reload) I’ve met other people that have had compressed loads from factory ammo, which is a major cause of “kaboom” in police departments across the country as they use duty ammo on a rotational basis during qualifications (use up the duty ammo to issue fresh duty ammo).   I’ve shot a lot of lead out of Glocks, never had a problem – the one I reload for most often is my Glock 20 and 29 – the ultra-hot 10mm.  And in case you’re wondering, reloading for revolvers has a slightly different set of problems that can be just as dangerous as those faced by autopistol reloaders.
 
Remember that no firearms manufacturer will warranty your firearm if you shoot reloads of any kind avoiding lead in Glocks while shooting jacketed reloads is just as much a warrantee problem as the other.    Seek knowledge and understanding, understand why polygonal rifling creates higher pressures and you can anticipate and compensate for it, understand why shorter barrels are less efficient at launching light and fast loads, and a host of other knowledge that is useful.
 
For me the greatest value that I get from reloading is that I’m much better educated than a typical shooter about the products I shoot and it’s a relaxing hobby that helps keep my mind sharp.  When I first started reloading I did save a significant amount of money on ammo, but component prices have skyrocketed since then and the savings are now pretty much non-existent. – Jim H. in Colorado

 

Dear Mr. Rawles,
This was an excellent article. I have a few comments for consideration. There are several aftermarket barrels available for Glocks to allow shooting lead bullets. Search for “Glock replacement barrels”.  Many of the competition shooters I know use them quite successfully.

Reloading ammo or buying factory ammo are definitely not mutually exclusive activities. I do both. My goal it to increase opportunities to keep shooting. Where I seem to save the most is in reloading my own match ammo. Not only do I save money but my groups are significantly tighter with my reloads. The downside I see with reloading is for those of us who can be distracted into endless pursuit of the “perfect” load.

For folks who have a short memory, reloading is a good thing when ammo is either not available or is so expensive it is unaffordable.

Get out and vote. – Jim Z.

JWR,
Just a few observations about R.S.O.’s article.

I had a few issues with R.S.O.’s article on reloading and wanted to share them.

First, if you order powder or primers by mail, there will be a $25 hazardous materials fee for each package (not item, but boxes in which they’re shipped) you receive. Also, I have yet to find a business which mixes primers and powder in the same package. If you’re going to mail order either, get some friends who also reload to place orders for their needs to defray the costs (Besides, if you don’t already reload, you’re going to want some help with set up and some instruction, right?).

If you use range brass (and there’s nothing wrong with that), beware that some (mainly polymer) pistols, like the Glock, generally have issues with bulged brass at the base. Over time, this brass will not feed reliably. There are a number of methods to deal with this, like roll-sizers ($$$$$) or some specialty dies. Proceed at your peril. You can generally feel this bulge, and many dies do not size the base low enough to completely get rid of the bulge.

If you decide to buy brass (and there’s nothing wrong with that), you can lower the cost of purchase by reusing that brass. So, while $.18/round is somewhat expensive for brass, you’ll reuse most of it multiple times, spreading out the cost. If you want another way to get bulk brass, just buy loaded ammo, run it thru your favorite unloader (mine’s a M1911), keep track of the brass you shoot and pick it up after you’re done. Lots of people like once-fired brass better than pristine. (Note–If you shoot bolt-action rifles, you’ll get better results from fire-formed brass than from pristine or fully-sized brass. Use a neck sizer only after you fire form your brass, and it’ll be custom to your rifle’s chamber.)

Your mileage may vary here, but I’ve had no issues shooting unjacketed lead (moly coated and uncoated) thru my Glock. Granted, I’m more diligent about cleaning the barrel when I shoot lead thru my Glock (which isn’t often, I’m not a Glock fan), but have had no ill effects. If you want, Lone Wolf Distributors makes a great aftermarket barrel, and one of the marketing points for it is you can use unjacketed lead in it. The biggest issue with Glock is the fact that shooting reloaded ammo (yours or anyone else’s) voids your warranty, tread at your peril.

I recommend specifically against buying any Lee Precision progressive press, which is unfortunate, because most of their other equipment is outstanding an affordable. The reason I recommend against their progressives is the large number of important parts made of plastic–especially the primer feed system. I owned a Lee Loadmaster for several years, and spent a lot of money on spare parts to replace broken ones.

The Dillon 550B is NOT a true progressive press, as it requires a manual index of the shell plate. True progressive presses index the shell plate by using the lever–every time you pull the lever, the ram goes up and down, does all the operations, and the shell plate rotates. The 550B requires you to turn the shell plate by hand after each stroke.

R.S.O.’s point about buying dies made by he same manufacturer as the press is a good one, but not entirely accurate. Almost all dies are threaded the same, so they’re theoretically interchangeable. However, the depth of the place where you screw them into the press can vary. If your die bodies are too short, they won’t adjust or work properly. I currently use Lee dies on an RCBS single stage press with no issues. Lee dies have the advantage of coming with a shell holder, no other die sets do (at least as far as I can tell).

I wholeheartedly agree with R.S.O.’s point on the manuals. If you use a recipe someone else gives you, you’re risking losing vital body parts. Don’t be that guy/gal.

R.S.O.’s point about Boxer and Berdan priming is a good one, but many foreign manufacturers of handgun ammo use Berdan primers. Look into the case, and if you see two small holes instead of one relatively large one, it’s not reloadable.

When cleaning your brass, a tumbler is not strictly necessary, it’s just the most efficient and easiest method. You can clean brass with water and let it dry. When you go thru the sorting operation, make sure you check the cases for dings, dents, Berdan priming, and cracks. Dings and dents may not be a problem, discard Berdan and cracked cases. Also discard any steel and aluminum cases, as they’re generally poor candidates for reloading.

R.S.O. is mostly correct that you don’t need to lubricate most handgun brass if you use carbide dies. However, having reloaded a bunch of .500 S&W Magnum, I recommend lubing long cases, even if you’re using carbide dies–I snapped a Lee Loader trying to resize .500 brass without lube. Additionally, most bottleneck cartridges (like many popular rifle calibers) require some lube to make the operation effective, even when you use carbide dies. I can’t say this is strictly true for calibers like .400 Corbon or .357 SIG, but I refuse to own pistols chambered for these cartridges–they are answers to unasked questions, and if you’re going to go to the bother of chambering a pistol to mostly .40 S&W or .45 ACP, why not just go with the straight wall version and use heavier bullets?

R.S.O. omitted a step–you have to prime the cases. Make sure you use the appropriate primers. One thing to note, some popular calibers (like .45 ACP) have manufacturers who have switched from large to small primers, so pay attention–especially if you’re using range brass. It is generally not smart to interchange rifle primers for pistol primers–there’s a reason why they make primers specifically for rifles and pistols. Also, be aware that using a magnum primer in a non-magnum cartridge will give you inconsistent velocity.

Three additional sources for reloading supplies:
www.midwayusa.com (based in Columbia, Missouri)
www.brownells.com (based in Montezuma, Iowa; they recently acquired Sinclair International)
www.grafs.com (based in Mexico, Missouri)

Recipe of the Week:

Martha in Indiana’s Whole Wheat Bread
 
3 cups warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey
Dissolve the honey and yeast in the water in a large crockery bowl.
Pray for 5 minutes while the yeast “activates”, becoming foamy.
Stir in 3 c. W.W. Flour, stir for 5 minutes to develop gluten.
Add 1/3 c. Honey, 4 teaspoons salt, 1/2 c. Applesauce and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add flour (6-7 cups) till a stiff dough is formed.
Turn out on floured board and knead until elastic and smooth.  A good test to see if it is kneaded enough is to pick up the dough and then drop it, it shouldn’t stick to your hand.
 
Place dough in a greased crockery bowl and place in a slightly warmed oven into which you have put a pan/bowl of warm water.  Dough rises much better in a warm (not hot!), moist, environment. Let rise for 40 minutes or till it doubles in volume.
 
Punch down and divide/shape into 4 loaves.  Place in pans and let rise for 40 – 60 minutes in a warm/moist oven.  Remove from oven and preheat to 350 degrees, bake for 40 minutes or until it sounds “hollow” when loaf is thumped.  After turning out to cool, I baste the tops of the loaves with butter.
 

Chef’s Notes:

I’ve used this simple recipe for whole wheat bread for almost 30 years.  It always turns out well. I have ground my own flour using hard red winter wheat and used it in the recipe as well as store bought whole wheat flour, both work equally well.

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

OldTimeRecipes.us

Fajita.biz

Do you have a favorite recipe that you have tested extensively? Then please e-mail it to us for posting. Thanks!

Economics and Investing:

Ruh Roh: Europe’s Invisible Bank Run Accelerates. (Thanks to B.B. for the link.)

J.D.D. sent this: Nightmare foretold if Greece heads for euro exit

The lingering legacy of the shadow inventory – homeownership rate will bottom in 2014. Goldman Sachs predicts homeownership bottom.

AmEx (American Expat) spotted this: Gold & Silver Decline: George Soros Nearly Quadrupled Gold Stake in Q1

James K. sent this: Economist Nouriel Roubini predicts trouble ahead for economy

Mr. Singh sent this link: John Embry interviewed by James Turk again (on the 18th May 2012) Embry notes: “If you are negative on gold, then you must be positive on currency.” (He can’t see that such a position makes sense.)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Kevin S. suggested this piece : Be Resilient, Part I: How to Measure Resilience

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Steve H. sent this: New FBI Surveillance Backdoors? Six Key Points

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North Korea ‘executes three people found guilty of cannibalism’. One man… “reportedly resorted to cannibalism after supplies to the city dwindled in the wake of the government’s disastrous efforts to reform the currency triggered rampant inflation and worsened already critical food shortages.”

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Ol’ Remus of The Woodpile Report recommended this piece: How Government Wrecked the Gas Can

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Finding a pre-1899 gun among junk

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If you are unwilling to defend your right to your own lives, then you are merely like mice trying to argue with owls. You think their ways are wrong. They think you are dinner.”  – Terry Goodkind in “Naked Empire“

Note From JWR:

Today we present three more entries for Round 40 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) 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, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), and F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) 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, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 40 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.