Introduction To Multi-Caliber Guns by J.S.

There have been dozens of articles on survival firearms on SurvivalBlog, and many of them focus on the “bare minimum” and/or doing the most with the fewest firearms.  None of us wants to fall into the trap of over-emphasizing firearms at the expense of food, water, arable land, and other supplies for balanced preparation.  We all know of “that guy” with 100 guns and a case of MREs who considers himself prepared for anything.  This is especially important when you’re looking to bug out WTSHTF; it’s very difficult to reconcile leaving firearms behind and, say, 50 long guns + 50 handguns + ammo & accessories can easily fill a truck all by themselves.

I wanted to focus on firearms that can either fire multiple calibers without modification or with fairly minor modification — no unscrewing of barrels with special spanner wrenches, etc.  There are two purposes behind multi-caliber guns (or MCGs) for the prepper:  to increase the flexibility of the firearm to use found or bartered ammo, and to increase the utility of the firearm (reduced recoil, hunting a larger variety of animals, etc).  The big reason behind most of these for the non-prepper is cost of shooting, which is related to the prepper concern of cost of stockpiling.

I am splitting MCGs into two categories, those that require no modification and those that do.  Some of these are basic knowledge to old hat gun nuts, but talk to any gun store employee and they will tell you there is no such thing as “common knowledge” when it comes to guns.

If I get anything wrong please let me know!  I’ve shot plenty of these but far from all, a lot of this is research.  If in doubt, read the manual that comes with the gun, manufacturers are getting quite savvy at covering their butts with warnings against cartridges that will chamber but aren’t meant for the gun.

MCGs not requiring modification:

Most MCGs that don’t require modification to shoot multiple calibers typically just fire cartridges of the same bore diameter but differing power.  Less powerful cartridges are often cheaper and put far less stress on the weapon (increased longevity).  I list the longest cartridge first.

.22 Long Rifle (LR) / .22 Long / .22 Short:  Nearly all revolvers and tube-fed, non semi-auto (bolt, level, pump) rifles that fire .22 Long Rifle will fire their older, weaker .22 Long and .22 Short cartridges just fine.  Semi autos designed for the .22 LR won’t cycle these weaker cartridges but can be used as a single shot.  The utility is questionable as .22 Long and .22 Short are much, much less common than .22 LR.  .22 Short is fine for pest control in built-up areas but in a true grid-down SHTF scenario I think subsonic .22 LR will be much, much more useful.  Also, the shorter cased .22 Long and .22 Short can build up lead in the chamber (making shooting .22 LR difficult until cleaned) and worse, with continued use can fire-cut the chamber directly in front of the case and ruin it for .22 LR shooting.

***I am not aware of a single firearm that can safely and accurately shoot .22 LR and .22 Magnum (also called .22 WMR) without modification due to the wider case of the .22 Magnum.  .22 Magnum won’t chamber in a .22 LR gun, and while .22 LR will slip just fine into a .22 Magnum chamber, it will cause split cases, jammed cylinders, and other problems.  There are a number of revolvers that can shoot both with a cylinder change that I’ll dig into later in the article.

.357 Magnum / .38 Special:  Probably the most common MCG combination.  Any .357 Magnum revolver and lever / pump action rifle will fire .38 Special.  Both are extremely common.  From a prepper standpoint, I believe one should always get a .357 Magnum versus a .38 Special gun, it’s going to be built much stronger, fires both rounds, and will be just a fraction heavier / larger.  Most .357 Magnum semi autos will not cycle with .38 Specials.  The newer Coonan Arms .357 Magnum pistols are built to use .38 Specials with a special weaker recoil spring.

The most unique variant of the .357 Magnum MCG is definitely the Phillips & Rodgers Model 47 Medusa revolver.  These were low-production in the late 1990s and are exceedingly hard to find and expensive when you do run across one.  They were designed to fire just about any non-bottlenecked pistol bullet (rimmed or not) in the .355-.357 bullet diameter range.  This is 25+ cartridges and includes the .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .380, 9x19mm, .38 Super, etc.  They are still in use by the Navy SEALs as they can be fired underwater.  I consider this the ultimate long-term SHTF centerfire handgun, although parts are hard to stock up and a single gun might run you $1500 or more.

.44 Magnum / .44 Special:  Pretty much the same dynamic as the .357 Magnum / .38 Special, although .44 Special isn’t very common and not a discount from “Wal-Mart” .44 Magnum for the shooter/stockpiler.  .44 Special is much more tolerable and easy to shoot than full-bore .44 Magnum loads if you’re considering how to arm your less gun-savvy or smaller-statured friends WTSHTF.  The only .44 Magnum semi-auto pistol I’m aware of, the Desert Eagle, won’t cycle .44 Special.

.327 Magnum / .32 H&R Magnum / .32 S&W Long revolvers:  The new .327 Magnum will fire all three while the .32 H&R Magnum can also fire the .32 S&W Long.  None are very common, the main selling point of the .327 Magnum is that the guns typically hold 6 cartridges versus a snub nose .38 Special or .357 Magnum that holds 5.  Not much SHTF utility here.

.410 bore / .454 Casull / .45 Colt:  There has been a recent crop of .45 Colt revolvers that can also fire .410 bore shotgun shells (Taurus / Rossi Judge series, S&W Governor, etc).  I’ve had the pleasure of shooting an early Judge and think it’s a great pest control gun but fail to see the utility in it WTSHTF.  Perhaps more useful are .454 Casull / .45 Colt revolvers as the .454 can be used on medium to large game along with predator protection while the .45 Colt is a better fit for self defense against two legged varmints.  If you’re convinced you need a shotgun revolver, get a S&W Governor as it will fire .45 ACP as well, kind of a poor man’s Medusa in .45.  The Taurus Raging Judge will fire .410, .454, and .45 Colt but is a big handgun and weighs more than 4 pounds, empty!

While any .454 Casull will fire .45 Colt, don’t try .454 Casull or .45 Colt in any .410 bore shotgun unless it explicitly calls for it.  A good rule is any smoothbore .410 shotgun is only designed for .410 shotgun shells; you’re not going to hit anything smaller than a bus with a .45 Colt out of a smoothbore, and a .454 Casull round just might blow your gun/face up. (It has five times the maximum pressure of a .410 shotgun shell).

MCGs requiring modification:

The sky is the limit with MCGs that require some modification to shoot additional calibers.  New cylinders, barrels, upper receivers, etc turn one firearm into two or more.

.22 Long Rifle conversion kits for semi-auto pistols and rifles:  This is such a great concept that nearly every popular centerfire pistol and rifle has a conversion kit.  Originally popular with military forces for cheap target practice, this has bled over into the civilian shooting community that likes cheap practice too.  For the prepper, this allows one to use one gun for defense / big game hunting and quickly convert to hunt small game.  Also, one can easily and inexpensively stockpile tens of thousands of .22 LR, in a long term SHTF scenario you can keep your guns running longer.  I’d sure rather have a Model 1911 in .22LR versus a butcher knife spear for example.  Below I have listed some common guns that have kits available.

1911s
ARs chambered for 5.56x45mm / .223
Mini-14s chambered for 5.56x45mm / .223
AKs chambered for 7.62x39mm
FAL and clones
G3/HK91 and clones
HK93/33 and clones
UZI
Glocks
Beretta/Taurus 92-style pistols
Browning Hi-Power
SIG-Sauer P series
CZ-75 series

.22 Long Rifle / .22 Magnum switch-cylinder revolvers:  These are revolvers that will shoot both calibers with a simple spare cylinder.  The most common is the well-made Ruger Single Six Convertible.  Harrington & Richardson makes a cheaper knockoff that lacks the transfer bar safety and polish of the Ruger.  Great utility to use two very common cartridges.

.357 Magnum or .38 Special / 9x19mm switch-cylinder revolvers:  Perhaps less well known are the switch cylinder .357 Magnums to fire 9x19mm (although more common in Europe).  Ruger makes a convertible Blackhawk single action.

.45 Colt / .45 ACP switch-cylinder revolvers:  Ruger also makes a Blackhawk convertible for these two calibers.

Rossi Wizard Series:  A couple of years ago Rossi came out with a line of single shot long guns that, with a barrel change, could convert to a large selection of rimfire, centerfire, muzzleloader, and shotgun cartridges.  Now one rifle could be an inexpensive .22 LR, a deer-slaying .30-06, a muzzleloader for that hunting season, and a 12g shotgun for birds — or anything in between.  Of course, the drawback is it’s a single shot, but the utility is hard to ignore, especially the youth models.  Find out what the most popular calibers are in your area and get a Wizard with those barrels just in case.

7.62x25mm Tokarev / 9x19mm switch-barrel conversions:  Although they can be tough to find, most pistols in 7.62x25mm like the CZ-52 and Tokarev clones have had 9x19mm barrels made for them.  Great way to make these handguns more useful in a SHTF scenario as 7.62x25mm isn’t all that common.

.40 S&W / .357 SIG switch-barrel conversions:  Most popular pistols in either caliber have a barrel available for the other.  If you have one, get the barrel for the other caliber.

I am aware of switch barrels to convert Glocks and SIGs in .40 S&W or .357 SIG to 9x19mm, not sure if there is another pistol this conversion is available for.

10mm / 9x25mm Dillon switch-barrel conversions:  There are 9x25mmD barrels available for 1911s and Glock 20 pistols (perhaps others but I’m not aware of them).  9x25mmD was designed for competition shooting and produces enormous flash and noise.  It does not have much SHTF utility, in my view.

In addition to 9x25mm Dillon, there are switch barrels for the 10mm Glock 20 for .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and even special order .38 Super (these are NOT the same as the stock Glock barrels for their respective models but are special fit for the Glock 20).  The Glock 20 is a pretty amazing gun that can fire 5 calibers with a barrel change and has a .22 LR conversion kit too.  And, since it shares the same frame as the .45 ACP Glock 21, you could get a complete .45 ACP slide & barrel for your Glock 20 to make it a Glock 21 (and then, naturally, get a .400 Cor-Bon barrel for it, see below).  Or go the other way and start with a Glock 21 and get all the Glock 20 stuff.  Great pistols, not a huge surprise they are so popular.  Apologize if anyone went cross-eyed trying to follow this explanation!

.45 ACP / .400 Cor-Bon switch-barrel conversions:  Many pistols chambered for .45 ACP have .400 Cor-Bon barrels available.  Most of the time these don’t require a new recoil spring.  The .400 Cor-Bon is a poor man’s 10mm and is simply a .45 ACP necked down to a .400/10mm bullet.  .400 Cor-Bon never gained much popularity, but there are some that convert their .45 ACP to a 6” barrel .400 Cor-Bon for hunting and predator defense.  For preppers, not sure it’s truly worth the money unless you want one handgun for human and predator defense.

SIG P250 Pistols:  The P250 is a pistol from SIG that can change calibers (.22 LR, 9x19mm, .357 SIG, .40 S&W, .45 ACP) by changing the slide and barrel assembly (and magazines) much like an AR upper.  More expensive than, say, a Glock 22 with a .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and 9×19 barrels but throw in the .45 ACP which a .40 S&W Glock can’t do.  With all of the kits you have a handgun that covers almost every common pistol caliber.  I’d still rather have a Glock 20/21 will all the accessories as described above.

The less common EAA Witness full sized pistols can switch between .22 LR, 9x19mm, .38 Super, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, 10mm, and .45 ACP by changing the slide assembly and magazine.  Each kit is about $200.

AR Upper Receivers:  I saved the best for last, this is where most of the MCG action has been in the last 10+ years.  An entire new family of cartridges has been created around the constraint of the AR-15 magazine well width and AR-10 cartridges like the .243 Winchester have gained popularity as well.  Buying an upper is almost always going to be less expensive than a complete rifle, and if you put a lot of money into a lower with an aftermarket trigger, high-end stock, and grip why not stretch that out to several platforms?  Of course, the big drawback is one lower, one shooter — bad if you need to defend your retreat and none of your buddies bring a rifle.  Some may come to the conclusion that 2-3 complete ARs are better than one lower and 5 uppers.  If you’re going to make the leap, I am of the opinion that a 5.56x45mm base rifle + pistol caliber matching your sidearm + 6.5 Grendel long barrel with scope + .22 LR conversion kit would be the most effective and efficient setup.  Note that, even pinching pennies with lower end upper assemblies, this will be almost $3,000 before optics.  For $2,500 you could buy a basic AR, an inexpensive pistol carbine like a Hi-Point or Kel-Tec SUB2000, a budget long range .308 bolt action rifle, and a .22 LR kit for your AR (or basic Ruger 10/22 rifle) and have 3-4 complete guns.  It’s not for everyone and your mileage may vary.  I honestly don’t see much utility in multiple uppers for AR-10s as, beyond .308 and .243, the cartridges are just not all that common. 

Now, the newly announced Colt CM-901, with its lower receiver that can adapt to both AR-15 and AR-10 size uppers, will be a great SHTF platform if it works as advertised.  You could have a CQB 5.56mm carbine and a long range .308 in one platform.

Upper calibers for AR-15 type guns (available non-custom):
5.56x45mm / .223 (of course)
.22 Long Rifle (although the conversion kits are going to be cheaper by a long shot)
5.45x39mm (super cheap surplus ammo but filthy and often corrosively primed!)
7.62x39mm
6.5 Grendel (great long range cartridge)
6.8x43mm SPC
.300 AAC Blackout (great for suppressed rifles)
9x19mm (also great for suppressed rifles)
.45 ACP
.40 S&W
10mm
.50 Beowulf
.450 Bushmaster
.458 SOCOM
.30 Remington AR
.243 WSSM (Olympic Arms)
.25 WSSM (Olympic Arms)
.300 OSSM (Olympic Arms)
.204 Ruger
5.7x28mm
.50 BMG single shot (not sure how great these are, but they’re available)
And more…

Upper calibers for AR-10 type guns (not all are current production):
7.62x51mm / .308 Winchester (of course)
.243 Winchester
.260 Remington
7mm-08
6.5 Creedmoor
.338 Federal
.284 Winchester
.450 Marlin
.358 Winchester
.257 Roberts
Entire WSM family
Entire SAUM family

I hope this detailed look into multi-caliber guns gives good food for thought, especially if you’re looking to build a small battery of flexible SHTF firearms that’s highly portable versus a huge, difficult to move stockpile at your permanent live-in retreat.

Letter Re: Bivy Bags at C.T.D.

Hi Jim,
I noticed that at Cheaper Than Dirt that they have back in stock a GI Gore-Tex bivy sack that is worth much more than the $40 price, especially to wet-climate Pacific Northwest dwellers. (These have a forest pattern camouflage top cover). This is real USGI surplus, made in USA. They are almost-comparable at the 3-letter co-op is well over $200.

I’ve ordered four of these bivy bags, and all were in new or like-new condition. At my slightly chubby 214 pounds and 5′-10″, there is plenty of room. I’d say that anyone under 6′-0″ and 210 pounds should fit inside with a 4 pound sleeping bag just fine. The shell covers bag and head completely adds almost a whole season to the temp range of the sleeping bag you are using, protects you and your bag from the wet, even sleeping directly on wet ground or vegetation. – Karl in Portland

Economics and Investing:

More Quantitative Easing monetization, in England: BoE Injects $79.3 Billion More to Support Recovery

Yes, debasement is coming for nickels: U.S. Mint exploring alternative metal options. Stockpile some nickels at face value now, before the composition change! (If you wait, then you will have to laboriously sort coins.)

An eye-opening YouTube video on the housing crash: Folsom California On The Brink

Jim Rickards: “Chaos” To Dollar Endgame “Most Likely”

Items from The Economatrix:

Greek Talks Falter / Sprott Offering Memorandum / Jobs Report Analysis

Bernanke:  Job Market Remains Weak Despite Gains

Consumer Borrowing Rose $19.3 Billion in December

Dow Approaches 13,000, and Maybe a Record to Come

Odds ‘n Sods:

Definitely worth reading: Truth, Lies and Afghanistan. (Thanks to Pierre M. for the link.)

   o o o

Dimitri sent this example of horribly biased reporting from NBC by anti-gunner Jeff Rossen (who was featured in Michael Moore’s propaganda film, Bowling For Columbine): Rossen Reports: Anyone can buy guns, no questions asked. The article is replete with hyperbole and even a laughable reference to buying “..a 50-caliber weapon so powerful it could take down a helicopter.” If Rossen truly wants to protect helicopters from being downed, then he should campaign against aboveground power lines and telephone lines. (Since wire strikes kill several helicopter pilots each year, but there hasn’t ever been a single recorded instance of a helicopter shot down with a .50 BMG rifle in the United States.) Rossen needs to learn that technical feasibility does not equate with volition. My SUV is so powerful that it could go 90 miles per hour and mow down hundreds of school children in a March Of Dimes parade. But will I ever use it to do so? The same gasoline that I use to fuel my SUV could be used to make Molotov cocktails so powerful that they could be used to immolate dozens of caged kittens or fur seals with a single throw. But will I ever use it to do so? No. Get a life, Mr. Rossen.

   o o o

C.D.V. suggested an article on an alternative “tepee” method for stacking firewood piles.

   o o o

Tom from Camping Survival wrote to mention that they’ve re-stocked with Yoder’s canned cooked bacon. Their price is competitive and their shipping rates are often below cost.  The price is going up starting with their next shipment. You can use coupon code “survivalblog” for a 5% discount:Here is a link to a video that shows how the cooked bacon is packed in cans.

   o o o

How National Geographic misrepresented the foxhole atheist ‘Doomsday Prepper’, Megan Hurwitt. Here is a quote: “And something that Nat Geo didn’t mention? The producer offered me $1,000 to shoot my cat on camera.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“We may be hunted like animals, but we will not become animals. We have all chosen this – to live free, like human beings, for as long as we can. Every day of freedom is an act of faith; and if we die trying to live then at least we will die like human beings.”  – Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski in the movie Defiance. (Screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Edward Zwick.) The movie was based on the book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, by Nechama Tec

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 39 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 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) 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 F-50 hand well pump (a $349 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.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 39 ends on March 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.

A Hiccup in the Matrix, by R.W.S.

Southern California, September 8, 2011, 3:45 p.m.: Crud, my computer just shut down. It had been an uneventful day at the ranch studio to this point. I was finishing the day’s work on a project and looking forward to riding my horse before it got dark; now my computer flat-lines. Great…, what next?

Hit the television power switch on the remote, nothing… Power light on the plotter is off too, Huh? Went to the main breaker to see if the circuit to the studio had tripped. Nope, the wheel-of-debt inside the meter was not turning so the solution was not going to be “just the flip of a breaker away”. The problem just ratcheted up a notch.
Called San Diego Gas and Electric (SDGE) but could not get through, circuits were overloaded. Living in a rural area it is not unusual for the power to go out from time to time and take it in stride. We also have those raging Santa Ana wildfires  every year, but a quick scan of eastern mountains showed no hint of smoke and living near the airport where the tankers stage, I didn’t hear or see any tanker or helicopter activity.

Walked out to my truck and turned on the radio but no information about any power outage. Strange, must be a local power outage, or maybe just the transformer to my place.
Using my iPhone, I called a couple of neighbors. One not home, the other had no power either. The ratchet turns another notch.

Ok, so this is starting to look a little more serious than a tripped breaker.
Called my wife, who works in a corporate office downtown, and their power is out too. With no backup power, everyone was told to go home. A few minutes later, she calls back to say the security gates to the underground parking garage have no backup power so all the cars are trapped inside with no way out. Great…this situation is escalating from mere inconvenience to a “what next” event.

Cell phone rings, wife says a few of her co-workers with cars trapped in the garage had decided to stay in the building (being a biotech company they have good security), overnight if necessary, until someone could get the security gates open to the underground garage (or I come to pick her up). I reminded her that she had her Get Home Bag (GHB), just in case. Whenever we travel beyond our rural community each vehicle has a pack loaded with gear so we can hike back home (dreaded EMP event) and hers was in her truck. That meant she had MREs, water, first aid, hiking boots, sleeping bag, change of clothes, etc.

Now I am hearing sirens in town (a mile away). Even though I do not let my diesel tank get below the half way mark, I thought I would run into town to see what was going on and top off my tank anyway. What a shocker when I got to Main Street, to see the stoplights not working and lines already spilling out of the service stations into the street. There are only six stoplights in town and with none of them working the main street (small town and we really do have a Main Street) was a complete parking lot with stopped cars.

The parking lots for the two grocery stores in town were filling up too. I later heard that transactions could only be made in cash as the computers were out and they only had battery back-up lights. My ‘alert flag’ colors are starting to change.

Having been through the wildfire drill quite a few times, but well along in the Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids (BBB) departments I was comfortable as I drove back to my ranch watching others scramble to get in line at the few gas stations and two markets. The gas station lines were particularly futile since the pumps had no power anyway. Waiting in line was for the desperate people that were so low on fuel they had no choice but to park and wait.

Wife calls before I get back to the ranch to say someone managed to get the security gates open but now she is stuck in the gridlock of everyone trying to get home and every single stop light was out. What normally is a 40-minute commute turned into over a four-hour stop and go nightmare.
I now hear on my truck radio that the power outage extends beyond my small town and into other areas of San Diego, as well as east and north of the downtown area. However, no news on where or how it started the extent of coverage or estimate of when it will be back on. Fog-of-war starts to set in.

The radio newscaster talks in general terms about the power outage, but again no specific or useful information, just as it always is during the wildfires. During those, I did not evacuate and stayed to protect my property (yes, we did have looters). During those fires, one of the most frustrating things was the useless news coverage. Then, while watching the television news coverage (when the television had power), the smoke outside was sometimes so thick I could not see ten feet let alone down to my horse corals. I needed specific information (street names would have been nice) on where the fire was in real time to make go-no go decisions. Instead, the news broadcasters spoke of the fire only in general terms. Kind of like tornado news coverage on Fox News about a tornado in Oklahoma. Nice to know about as you casually watch television, however, a bit lacking if you are living the event and need information to make critical decisions, fast. Local news needs to do a better job at this.

After the last two Santa Ana fire experiences, I realized that Beans, Bullets, and Band-Aids did not address what I consider another critical category- Communications (comms). Consequently, I went down the ham radio road to fix that deficiency. I have my General license, which gives me access to High Frequency (HF) bands not available to a Technician license, a two band handheld radio, plus a HF mobile rig that will really reach out and touch somebody on HF bands. My son has the exact same license and gear and we routinely communicate with our dipole antennas (aimed at each other) from southern California to where he lives north of Los Angeles, without the use of repeaters, or computers. This met our comms goal of not having to rely on anyone to “help” us with our comms. All we need is our gear and a 12 volt DC battery.

Now it is getting closer to sunset. Check on horses to be sure they have water and feed. Filled extra water barrels for horses since during the last big Santa Ana fire the local water department generators stopped working. Set out flashlights throughout the house and studio. Also, set out candles and several kerosene lanterns just in case.
It is a warm evening so decided to set up comm center outside on the deck where I had a view of the surrounding area. Lit the kerosene lantern. Grabbed my handheld ham radio, car top magnetic antenna and a cookie bake sheet. The magnetic antenna centered on the bake sheet acts like the roof of the vehicle, which provides much better reception than the standard rubber-duck antenna. This way I can set up my UHF/VHF station remote from my vehicle. Added a writing tablet and pens, several flashlights, snacks, comfortable director’s chair and switched on the radio to see what was really going on.

As it gets darker, the reality of the situation starts to set in. Being a rural area, when it gets dark, it is not like being in the city, it is a lot darker. We also have dark-sky restrictions for outdoor lighting because of our proximity to the Mount Palomar Observatory, and with the power out everywhere, tonight, dark has become pitch black; the occasional vehicle on the road is the only light I see. I hear a few generators running and now see a few dim lights in the distance.
Scanning my programmed repeater frequencies, I find that someone has set up an unofficial network (“Net”) where, finally, some useful information is being provided. I quickly learn that the power outage extends beyond the San Diego area, into Mexico, east to Arizona, and up to the southern part of Los Angeles. The cause is still under investigation. Time to get the grid back up, unknown. Not good. Wife is still in traffic so using the “Find My iPhone” app, I monitor her progress in real time on the map display of my iPhone.

Listening to my handheld, I check FaceBook on my iPhone and see many postings about the outage, mostly questions and speculative assumptions being posted compared to the verified info I hear on my FT-60 radio.

The fellow acting as Net Control is doing a good job of fielding questions and passing information. Requests are coming in for ham operators to help out at a hospital; someone needs a prescription delivered to their house; is the local CVS pharmacy still open for prescriptions, can anyone stop by such and such an address to check on an elderly couple; water is needed for the volunteers directing traffic at the stop light locations.

A local emergency assistance group (ham operators) break out their generators and lights and set them up at the stop light intersections so those directing traffic are more visible.

The Net traffic is increasing and one of the owners of the repeater keys up her mike to say she is monitoring this frequency and eventually steps in as the Net control to give the first fellow a well-deserved break. A question is asked about the backup generator for the repeater and she tells everyone that it would run for at least a week with no problem. Later, things ratchet up another notch as she is replaced by a fellow who takes over as Net control and announces that this frequency will be restricted to essential communications only. At this point, we are very close to the repeater being commandeered for official emergency communications only.

As new information is transmitted, there was the recurring questions of “where did you hear this?” What is your source? Can you confirm, etc. Because it is the nature of ham radio operators to be precise in relaying accurate communications the information being passed was specific and useful, not at all like the local news. So having been monitoring Face Book while listening to the ham, I started posting information I thought useful to Face Book. Before I know it, I have quite a few Facebook friends posting that I am their source for useful and reliable information.

My wife finally drives up and describes the traffic nightmare she just went through. She sits and listens to the ham radio traffic for a short while then goes to bed. It has been a long commute home for her.

I stayed up monitoring the radio until after midnight. By then the radio traffic had slowed and there was still no information on the cause of the outage or when the grid would be back up. Nothing left to do but get some rest and see what a new day brings.
As we all know the power started being restored in the early morning and everything pretty much returned to normal by the end of the next day.

After Action notes for this short-term event:

  • Keep the fuel in your vehicle over half full at all times. Spare fuel cans are a plus.
  • Work on your BBB supplies. You can never have enough.
  • Have a Get Home Bag (GHB) in your vehicle. You never know when you will need it to get home. My wife is the only person at her workplace that had all the gear she needed to either stay at the workplace or make the trek home if it came to that.
  • Get a ham license, some basic gear and familiarize yourself with how this valuable asset works.

While this did not turn into a BBB event, having those preps adequately covered made this much less stressful.
I later heard that the grocery stores sold out of water and ice faster than anything else did but other shelves were starting to look bare as the night wore on.
On another note, a friend of a friend who owns a precision gun store in another city (AR and high-end sniper rifles) had to call the police because of attempted break-in attempts during this grid down episode. Were just these opportunistic thieves or more desperate types looking longer-term at the situation and opportunity?

This event was just a hiccup. It lasted less than 12 hours. It took everyone completely by surprise and happened as people were getting off work. Those that were prepared were able to focus on important tasks, those that were not prepared stood in line. Having BBB is fine. Having comms provided invaluable real time information about the situation.
There are three stages humans go through to make decisions in stressful situations: Denial, Deliberation, and Decision (DDD). How long a person lingers in the (Denial) “this can’t be happening to me” stages depends on many factors. Spending too much time in this stage can lead to bad consequences. Once they realize it is really happening to them, people will naturally Deliberate on how serious, long term, threatening their situation is. Timely and accurate information is critical at this stage. Do not let the ‘Paralysis of Analysis’ tendency creep in at this point. Get reliable information since it is important to get to stage three quick. Like stage one, Denial, the faster you get though the Deliberation stage, the faster you get to the most important stage. Now it is time to make a Decision. Good or bad, this is where the rubber meets the road; go-no go, bug-in, bug-out. Not having real time, accurate information can lead to wasting too much time going through the first two of the DDD stages or worse yet, not making any, or making the wrong Decision based on completely inaccurate, or out of date, information.

If you are reading this, someone thinks you have some interest and understanding of the need to be prepared. Regardless of where you are in your journey, have your basic BBBs covered. Consider though, how important it is to also have comms so you go through the DDD process faster, and make the correct Decision in phase 3. We all know knowledge is power. Good comms could be that knowledge that saves you or your loved ones life. Just ask any leadership military person about command and control.
Consider budgeting some time and money and get your ham license and some gear. I see more and more articles appearing in the blogs about ham radio. There are good reasons for this. I have never regretted going down that road and having the fourth leg of my prepping table supported by good comms. A four-legged table is a lot sturdier to stand on than a three-legged stool (Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, + comms). Hope for the best, but plan for the worst!

The Role of Physical Exercise and the Consequences of Addiction in a Disaster, by C.A.I.

We live in an obese society driven by processed fast food and have drinking liters of soda a day and barely any water if at all. I have seen hundreds of people “preparing” for some sort of catastrophic event that can barely walk and some cannot even see the bottom of their shoes they are so obese. I am not trying to be harsh because I am by no means perfect I am just trying to point out something I see wrong with the prepping community today. We also rely on certain stimulants to get us through the day whether it is coffee, soda or any other form of caffeine. If something bad is to happen that would drive us from our normal lifestyle we need to not be so reliant on those things to get us through the day.

Those preparing for a disaster whether it is man-made or a natural disaster should find time somewhere in their schedule to exercise at least thirty minutes a day. As a prepper I find myself thinking when I look at my Get out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) bag wondering how far I could really get with it if there was an EMP or some other disaster that left me and my loved ones walking. It weighs around thirty pounds and I am in decent shape (trying to get in better) but, I honestly do not know how far I could get with it. That is why the group of people I am preparing with we have started exercising with are bags on anytime we can. Granted it would come off a little strange being at the gym with an ALICE pack on however, everyone should practice it once in a while to get a feel for it and know what they would be carrying. Below I will lest the exercises that everyone in my group has to be able to maintain and we practice once a month to be sure we are still in shape and we can keep each other in check. (Keep in mind this without gear.)

  • Dynamic warm ups and stretching
  • A mile jog in under nine minutes (I know this is not fast but not everyone in our group is young we just want everyone to be in decent cardiovascular shape.)
  • Fireman carry’s with a partner
  • Pushups: 50
  • Sit ups: 50
  • Finally squats with a partner

This is just a basic workout to make sure everyone in the group is doing their part and we can work as a team. Everyone in the group is required to stay physically fit because it is not fair for some people to be busting their tails to stay in decent shape then have one out of shape person slowing the team down and possibly putting them in danger. Do not misunderstand me we are a team and we will always work to encourage each other when we are working out and strive to better ourselves. Every person in preparation community needs to take every measure to be in great (not good) physical shape in case there is ever a SHTF situation. If there is such a disaster there will not be a doctor or anyone to help you with your heart problems or give you the blood pressure medicine you need. Some people astound me because they are willing to put away thousands of dollars in supplies but, they are not willing to take the time to secure their lively hood and chance of survival by staying in shape. Another way to prepare physical for this type of situation is to do they type of labor you see yourself doing in whatever scenario you foresee. Gardening, working on your house or various chores could also provide the muscle memory your body may need.

I am not an expert in kinesiology or exercise and no one in my group is and we do not claim to have the perfect workout routine but we are at least trying to hold each other accountable in the actions we take. Since we only meet once a month to exercise we make sure at our preparedness meetings that the other members are preparing in all areas, especially fitness. If you are out of shape and cannot do everything on my list try and do some research on what you can do there are hundreds of routines on the internet and even more for beginners.  No one can be able to do all these things in a day but everyone preparing for a disaster should consider staying healthy another step on the road to preparedness.

The word addiction in the title of this article pertains to many things. I will do my best to cover everything that encompasses the word “addiction” in the second part of this article. Our world is driven by convenience we want things and we want it as fast it will come no matter how horrible it could possibly be for us. I can remember always waking up to the smell of coffee at my parents’ house and I wonder how people would deal with not having their comfort food or drink in a survival situation.  The society we live in has people addicted to things all around us cigarettes, caffeine, video games, candy, fast food, and the list goes on and on. We prepare food, water, shelter but how do we prepare for our lives to be stripped of the things we have become so accustomed to having handed to us.

I am writing this article to encourage people to make a change to their lives and that will help the keep their cool in a SHTF scenario. I have recently given up soda because I know that it may someday no longer be available to me. If that day comes I do not want my caffeine withdraws to affect my judgment or those around me. I know that caffeine is an endergonic aid and can help some focus however it is a stimulant. I have also tried to stop eating out except for on weekends and have stopped eating fast food completely. We live in a fast paced world but I encourage others to really take a step back and look at your diet and how it will affect you if someday there are no doctors to help you.

Cigarettes and alcohol addiction are the scariest addiction to me when thinking of a survival scenario. There are many adults who have beer with their dinner. There is nothing wrong with that and it by no means is wrong but how will that affect them if they cannot have a beer every night if there is an economic collapse? Many people have seen the way addicts act and what they are willing to do to get what they are after no matter what it is or who it effects. When my Aunt quit smoking it changed her personality for a while, she seemed like a completely different person. The thing that bothers me the most is she wanted to quit so how would it affect someone who didn’t?
If we really want to prepare ourselves for a disaster we need to start cutting the things out of our lives that we know would affect us the most in the heat of the moment. I hope that every prepper would do their best to start cutting out certain things out of their life. Whether it is unhealthy eating choices or smoking we need to make a healthy life choice. If we really want to prepare we need to do ourselves a favor and start dealing with things that could cause us problems in the long run. As an individual you know what you need to change and if you need help doing it I recommend finding a group within your community or even someone in your preparedness community.
In my short time of preparation I have come across many different types of people. We should all strive to make better life choices and cut out things in are life that will drag us down. As a person you can only do so much to prepare for a disaster mentally but if we all do ourselves the favor of shedding a little baggage and changing our lifestyles we would be that much more prepared for something to happen. I suggest that everyone give something up and do it step by step possibly wean yourself off of whatever you think you are “addicted” to or could not live without in a collapse of society.

Conclusion:
We live our lives day by day in hopes that nothing bad ever happens to us yet we prepare for it. We put away food, water, ammo, and supplies keeping our fingers crossed that nothing ever happens but, if something did in the future and we made lifestyle changes now it would better prepare us for anything. Instead of drinking coffee in the morning I now try and exercise and it has completely had the same effect as coffee for me. I feel alive and ready to go in the morning and I would suggest it to anyone that feels tired in the morning. All I hope for with this article is that anyone who is preparing makes a lifestyle change, whether it be to exercise or give something up I know that it would benefit you and your family in the future. Also freeing yourself from the financial burden of an addiction could be very beneficial and aid you in preparing.

Authors Note: About me, I am a college student in his senior year engaged to a beautiful woman who “preps” with me and is the one who encourage me to do this. I go to school full time and work full time. I hope everyone enjoys this paper as I have enjoyed many written by JWR and other amazing people on SurvivalBlog.com.

Letter Re: Barter, Post-TEOTWAWKI: The Micro Store

JWR: 
I read your blog daily.  Thank you for all the great info.  After reading the article on a little store for bartering I wanted to add some items for consideration.  Flip style lighters (Zippo style) are excellent items.  I have recently bought four at thrift stores and flea markets.  I bought the smaller size and full sized lighters.  I stocked up on lighter fluid.  The cheapest fluid I found was at Wal-Mart and I bought lots of flints too. At Wal-Mart the flints were 40 cents for five.  At a local flea market I found flints at 20 cents for nine.  I bought all of them.  While searching on the Amazon web site for pistol holsters/protectors I came across Zippo lighters that ranged from $8 to $45.  Quite pricey.  The lighters I bought at the flea markets were all less than $3.  But, I read that if you have old Zippo brand lighters (just Zippos) that you can send them to the Zippo factory and they will refurbish the lighters to “new” condition for free.  They will not refurbish the outside, or case, just the innards.  That works for me as I don’t really care what the lighter looks like as long as it performs. Extra wicks for your lighters should be a great barter item also.  As for the fluid, I have Ronson and Zippo fluid. 

I use both in my fluid style hand warmers.  They seem to warm up better than the charcoal style hand warmers and don’t have such a strong odor. I believe Paper book matches and any size of wooden stick matches will be great barter items.  I have Thousands of each.  I have a good number of glass containers with calcium hypochlorite in each that will disinfect 1,000 gallons of water each.  You must know how to use this disinfectant and how to safely store it. 

I do not smoke or consume alcohol but I will have tobacco and alcohol for barter and medicinal purposes.  I already have the little 1oz. and 2 oz. containers to divvy up the alcohol out of large containers.  Buying the little individual serving bottles of alcohol is cost prohibitive for me.  Finally, I have bulk purchased feminine napkins and disposable latex gloves.   All styles, All sizes, All brands.  The napkins are also great for 1st aid use as they are super absorbent.  I keep them in all my first aid and doctoring kits.  That’s enough for now.  Thank you and keep filling us up with info.  Peace, – Shadowfaxhound

Economics and Investing:

For the “I Told You So” file: Romanian government collapses amid public outrage over austerity. (Thanks to B.B. for the link.)

California, New York might sign on to MERS settlement

Dawn S. suggested a piece with a fascinating animated stock volatility chart over at Zero Hedge: Presenting The “Rise Of The HFT Machine” – Visual Confirmation How SkyNet Broke The Stock Market On US Downgrade Day

Pennies: Where are they all going? (A hat tip to Diana S. for the link.)

G.G. suggested this National Review article on commercial real estate: Armageddon at the Strip Mall

Items from The Economatrix:

Illusion Of Recovery — Feelings vs. Facts

Buying Gold In Uncertain Times

Decline Of US Economy Is The Logical Outcome Of Keynesian Economics

Odds ‘n Sods:

What if the lights go out? (Thanks to Ian R. for the link.)

   o o o

On a recent trip to the Big City, I was pleasantly surprised to see copies of my nonfiction book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It” for sale at a Costco membership “Big Box” store priced at just $9.98. The best news is that there were just a few books remaining in the stack! (Costco tends to stack their books deeply.) A month ago, Sam’s Club stores also started stocking it, selling it for $10.98. (Meanwhile, Amazon.com charges $11.67, plus postage.)

It gratifying to see the book selling so well, as this is indicative that people are waking up about family preparedness. The book is still ranked in Amazon’s Top 200 overall, and in their Top 20 in the Education and Reference Books category. My editor at Penguin Books mentioned that Sam’s Club just ordered another 6,000 copies of the book because it has been selling around 700 copies per week.

   o o o

Some preppers obviously have no concerns about OPSEC: National Geographic’s Doomsday Preppers attract attention from the British press: At home with the US families terrified of the end of the world, living in a converted bunker, with 15 years’ worth of food… and a son trained to use an AK-47. (Thanks to F.G., who was the first of several readers to send this.)

   o o o

911 is a Joke: Detroit citizens no longer rely on police as self-defense killings skyrocket. Note the advent of armed response private security guards, to fill the void left by thinly-staffed police departments and their lengthy response times. (Thanks to Michael A. for the link.)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 39 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 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), and E.) 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 F-50 hand well pump (a $349 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.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 39 ends on March 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.

Picking The Perfect Hidden Retreat Location, by L.M.

Everyone knows the perfect location for family survival is the number one issue in being prepped.   How do I pick the perfect location should be the number one question in a prepper’s mind.  Many different survival instructors and writers have different ideas on locations and some even have scoring formulas to give your chance of survival.  I have a combined prospective on picking the perfect location from my military training and my working in the Third World as a trainer and combatant.  Let’s look at how I picked my location and facilities.  

First, one has to be aware of the most basic rule, which is [for a worst case societal collapse], “If my enemy can see me, hear me, or smell me, he will kill me.”.   That rule means the perfect location has to be well hidden and my facilities have to be exceptional in design.

The area you are going to call your world to watch and protect has to be large enough to produce your food.  That means, it has to have a garden area, livestock area and a human living area.  I chose an area large enough for seven families to work together as a group or unit.  To keep all the dwellings hidden and still grow in a secluded way, I picked 100 acres.  In picking this acreage, I looked at nine basic things to consider.
 
1.        Distance from a main road.  When things get bad and people begin to evacuate the cities and larger towns of over 30,000 people, they will travel on routes that they know.  Most people in the US know the interstate highway system.  They will use this system to move from the populated areas.  As they travel out, they will leave the interstate system on smaller arterial roads.  Leaving those smaller arterial roads, they will then travel down the narrow paved two lane country roads. Then they will travel onto gravel and dirt roads which is a last resort for city dwellers.  As they go, most will try to secure resources, at any visible house or building, as they move.  After a few months of travel, they should be getting to the back country if they survive.  Those that survive will be a cut above the rest and most likely someone to deal with.

For that reason, a 15 mile radius from any main interstate or arterial road is a minimum factor in location.  The shorter the distance from the interstate the quicker you will have to deal with a group of these people.  Remember these people have honed themselves into a fighting unit on other people as they have moved down the road system.
 
2.       Elevation of land.  Flat is not good.  You need to look for a place with hills and valleys.  The higher the high point on the property the better.  The best location is where you control the high ground. In Vietnam, our firebases were on hill tops.  Very few of our sites had higher ground than us.  Where there was higher ground, we were required to set up a LP, listening or looking post, to secure our lower base.  In picking your location, you will need to do the same thing.  If you have the high ground, look for a high point with a few trees on top.  Once there you can put up a large tripod deer stand with swivel seat for your lookout.   A 24 hour a day lookout with binoculars needs to be able to see for at least two miles in all directions.  This will give you ample time to prepare a welcoming committee.
 
3.       Lack of line of sight from nearby elevated observation points. These are elevated points that are within binocular viewing distance.  When you have a possible location look at all the points of higher elevation where someone can sit and look through binoculars.  In choosing our location, I found a grain silo, town water tower, and a rural water tower just outside a two mile radius.   I went up each one and looked through my binoculars into our valley to see if any of our buildings could be seen.  The answer was no visibility into the valley.  Our front farm field and our surrounding trees could be seen but not our towers or buildings.  We do have one hill that is exactly 1,312 yards from our lookout tower with an elevation that is 15 feet higher than us.  The hill is bare with no trees for cover and from our tower we can see two miles out on the other side of that hill.  You cannot spare any expense or time in making sure you have the minimum overhang on your location.  If you have more than two overhangs, find another spot unless your group is large enough to man a lookout on each overhang 24 hours a day.
 
4.       Directions buildings can be seen from.  Besides the elevated observation points, a location needs to be invisible from the ground in all directions.  Your outer fields or border fields can be seen but your main area of operation needs to be invisible to anyone looking from flat ground.  If anything can be seen from the ground it needs to be camouflaged to the point of being invisible.  Our location has only one spot where anything can be seen from the flat ground.   From one direction on our ground, 1,500 yards out, you can just barely make out the leading edge of the barn roof, in a 15 foot wide sweep on the ground, in the winter only.  To prepare for that, we painted the barn to match the trees in winter that stand before it.  It now looks like more trees and it is thus invisible, even with binoculars.
 
5.       Distance from population centers.  The greater the distance you are from any population the better.  A good rule of thumb is no town of 1,500 within 15 miles, no town of 10,000 within 30 miles, and no town or city with a population greater than 10,000 within 75 miles at the least.
 
6.       Population per square mile.  The smaller the population per square mile the better.  You can Google any county in America and get the population density per square mile.  In our case, I did on web search on the county we are located in and all surrounding counties.  The lower the population the better.  Our county, as well as the surrounding counties, have a population in the single digits per square mile.  Go for the smaller population number.
 
7.       Water availability.  This is critical for survival.  No one and no animal can survive without ample water.  Water can be obtained from many sources.  Those sources are water wells, ponds, underground streams, above ground streams and rivers.   When things fall apart, there will be no city water or rural water running in the pipes.   Water wells are the first choice but always check out the other sources so there is at least one back up.  In a draught, large parts of the country suffer, and at that time all water sources get scarce or mighty thin.  In our location, we drilled for water and found none, due to the water table shrinkage from the drought.  Our area is in a third year of drought and many of the other farms in the area are having water well problems to the point of using other sources.  We do have a spring fed pond that is seven feet low from its normal height, but is still ten feet deep after two years of extreme heat and no rain.  This is our primary source with a pond pump system.  From there we have a water camel with pump.   There are several larger ponds in unoccupied lands around us and a major river one and a half miles away to draw water from.  To leave the woods and go to the river is a very last resort, because anytime you leave your area you run into the danger of someone seeing you and following you back to your area.
 
 
8.       Wildlife, timber, growing season, and weather.  
 
In our area, we have ample wildlife.  The deer, turkey, wild pig, raccoon, skunk, possum, water fowl, rabbit, and squirrel are uncountable.   In the first look, it seems like paradise.   But you have to look at how history has treated wildlife in the area you are looking.   The old timers, who are now gone, used to talk about the great hunting in our area before the Great Depression.  Then they would say “Never believe what you see.  It will be gone in no time.”  During the Great Depression, every animal was gone within six months of the start.   That means no free meat.   If you do have free meat you need to have a way to get it without firing a gun.  Sound in an otherwise quiet area travels for miles.  That means someone hears your shot and is looking for you.

Timber for wood for your stove is a must.  You look for firewood outside of the timber to hide your location.  You also are looking for timber that can be brought in to your area to split for fire wood.  Chainsaws are really loud and can be heard for miles in a quiet world.  Remember someone will hear you.  An axe strike can be heard but in a shorter distance.  Use your timing to get lots of cutting done in rain storms.  Rain and thunder cover a lot of sound.

The growing season where you pick your location will be real important.   Even though you have food put back for a year, you have to grow next year’s food to put back.  In the north, the seasons are short, which means less time to grow a second crop if the first one fails.  You need to know your growing season real well and how to farm in that season.  The longer the season the less experience you can have in farming.  Green houses can correct a lot of mistakes in farming by allowing you to extend your season.  However, in the real cold areas, heat may be required and that means more fire wood to cut and store, to supply a group their needed food.

Weather is important.  Too hot, too cold, too dry, too much snow and too wet all work against you.  Wind, sun, tornadoes and hurricanes also work against you.  The location needs to be in an area that you are well equipped to handle, and as a fallback you need to get knowledgeable on historical primal survival techniques in that weather.  The milder the weather in its normal seasonal pattern the easier survival is going to be for you.
 
9.       Neighbors.  If only there was a place with no neighbors.  With the population in this country today everyone has neighbors.  They may be a mile away or even farther away but they are still neighbors.  So when you are looking at a location, you need to look at the people who will be your neighbors.  You need to look at their ability to live today with what they have, look at their resources on the ground.   Visit and get to know them.  You need to know if they are military veterans, drunks, dopers, hard workers, lazy folks, able to live in a Third World conditions, thieves, whores, whoremongers, pedophiles, religious, non-religious, old, young, sick, healthy, gun freaks, hunters, or lawmen.  Every detail you know about them is one more tool in your bag to survive and secure your location.  Tell very little and listen a lot, but get to know them.  Your life and your family’s lives will depend on it.
 
Our location may not be the best in the world, but over the last few years we have worked every day to improve it.  We have 100 acres with a high hill above all other hills but one.  No one can see us.  Within the 100 acres we chose 40 acres in a valley between our hills to make our home and our farm.  There are no roads leading to our 40 acres and it is damn near impossible to find.

Our cabin moves the smoke to the ground with the proper chimney cover.  It then has to wonder through the trees and becomes invisible and you cannot smell it off the property.  Our 40 acre parcel has a pond in the middle with a creek on the edge.   We hunt with no guns.  Our only noise is the sheep who refuse to be quiet and a few roosters for our 100 hens.  When the time comes, we will eat the noise makers first.
 
So if you come looking for us, you will not see us, smell us, or hear us, but we will see you coming for miles.  For my family’s sake, I hope I have chosen well.  For your families’ sake, I hope you have chosen well or can find a place while there is still time to make the move.

JWR Adds: While finding commanding high ground and a concealed location might seem to be mutually exclusives goals, this is not always true. With some diligent searching, you can find a property with a hilltop homesite that is surrounded by hilly timberlands in several directions. Hence, you can get both high ground and protection from distant line of sight. Typically, meeting these goals necessitates buying a parcel that is at least 40 acres, and often much more.

A Financial Advisor Becomes a Prepper Convert, by Kent Mathis

Allow me to take a moment to introduce myself (at least the self that existed prior to November 2010, when I started becoming a “prepper”). 

I am a successful financial planner, married to a CEO of a mid-size manufacturing company.  We love our dogs, give to charity, and believe in God and Country…in other words, I am just like your friends who can not understand why on earth you spend so much time and effort preparing for TEOTWAWKI or SHTF events. 

I had a kind of naïve, blind faith that all Republicans were Good and most Democrats were Stupid.  I had zero room for “conspiracy theories” in my mental picture of the world.  My moral center led me to believe that most people were good and wanted the best for everyone else.  (Oops!)

But then, November 8, 2010  I was doing some research for investments for my clients and read a report from the National Inflation Association dated November 5, 2010 titled NIA Projects Future U.S.Food Price Increases. It scared me to my core. 

I told my assistant that I did not want to have any client contact that was not an emergency until I finished some research, and brought my business to a halt for over two months while attempting to get a handle on the real financial situation in our country. 

At the end of that research, I was a convert to the “Prepping Lifestyle”, but I then had a real problem that I hope this writing may be able to help others with…I had to be able to communicate the facts (that I now feel are true and vital to a safe and secure future) to my friends, family, and clients in such a way that they would see the importance of what I was saying without them dismissing me as a nut job!  (Okay, I might be a nut job, but I do not want anyone else to think so.)

I understand that that is a long introduction but what follows is the Rational Argument for The Need for Prepping as I have given it to over 100 households that rely on me for their financial advice as well as my friends and family.

Before we can even begin to talk rationally about the financial situation in the U.S. right now, we have to understand exactly what a Trillion Dollars is. 

The largest domination of U.S. Currency currently in print is a $100 bill.  That bill measures 6.14 Inches long x 2.61 inches wide x 0.0043 inches thick.  So, let’s start with the smallest measurement, thickness, and see want a Trillion Dollars looks like.  

It takes 10,000 $100 bills to equal one Million Dollars.  That is a stack 43 inches or 3 ½ feet, tall.  So, a stack of $100 bills that is worth one Billion Dollars would be slightly over 3,583 feet tall.  That is a stack of $100 bills 2 ½ time the height of the 1,443 foot tall Empire State Building!  A stack of $100 bill that equals one Trillion Dollars 678.66 MILES tall!  That is correct, MILES!

Ok, let’s go the other way.  If you laid $100 bills end-to-end, one Million Dollars would stretch 5,116.67 feet. (Remember, 5,280 feet is one mile) An end-to-end line of $100 bills worth one Trillion Dollars would be 969,065 mile long! That is almost 39 times around the 24,901 mile circumference of the Earth!

One Trillion Dollars in $100 bills would weigh 22,026,431 pounds that is over 11,000 tons!  It would take a fleet of 275 fully loaded tractor trailers to carry that much cash to the bank. Now you can visualize one trillion dollars!

Here are the facts as they were late 2010 and early 2011 as I was doing this research: 

In the two years prior the Government had spent:
QE1 (Bush & Obama)                                              $1.7 Trillion Dollars
QE2            (Obama)                                             $1.5 Trillion Dollars
Health Care Reform (Obama)                               $0.94 Trillion Dollars
Total (that we are aware of)                               $4.14 Trillion Dollars

That is a stack of $100 bills over 2,800 MILES tall, weighing over 45,593 TONS which would require the IRS to purchase 1,139 tractor trailer trucks in order to collect it in taxes from YOU!

By the way, that data is over a year old now.  Since then we have done the Banking and Regulatory Reform Act, The Student Loan Program, and various other Government programs which bring the amount spent by the Government in the past 3-½ years to over 6 Trillion Dollars!

This administration is seriously considering a QE3 of between 1 and 2 Trillion additional Dollars as I am writing this and within days, the Fed is going to do it’s own program to “help out homeowners who are seriously underwater on their mortgages” which  is expected to be another Trillion Dollars.

My question is, when and how do we stop this?  At this point I am praying that no one tells the politicians that there is a real number called a “Quadrillion”, ’cause I am sure this bunch would try to spend one of those just to be able to say they did!

So once I saw the real size of the problem facing our Country today, I kind of freaked out and started trying to find out how to protect both my family and the families of my clients.  To do that I had to look at other countries in other times in history that looked like our Country does today.  I went all the way back to the Roman Empire and found the 26 times in history that Nations, States, or Empires have taken the exact same steps that we have to get where we are so that I could find out what happens next. 

First, let us take a look at those steps:

Step one: A removal of or massive confusion about man’s relationship to God
Every time a nation starts down the path that we find ourselves on, it begins years in advance with the removal of the importance of God.  The Romans worshiped many gods. The citizens of the Weimar Republic changed their views on God three decades prior to their demise.   When Man begins to think that Government is the answer to all the problems he faces, he lessens the impact that God is allowed to make in the leadership of his affairs.

Step two: Massive corruption of the political class
From Caesar to Hitler to current times, every leader who built his empire by allowing or even encouraging corruption within his administration has failed. 

Step three: The people being ruled over have to be bought off by Government Largess
Eventually, those being ruled over get tired of the corruption and the rulers begin to buy their complacency by offering “social programs”. 

Step four: The people being ruled over have to be distracted to keep them from revolt
Social Programs only do so much, so the rulers distract or entertain the masses by allowing violence and moral depravity to become more readily available.  In addition you often see the drug and alcohol use tolerated or even encouraged by Governments in the final stages of this step.  Think Roman orgies and the Opium dens in Asia

Step five: when the distracted begin to pay attention again…find them an enemy to blame for the mess
This is a big one.  For some reason, when the population finally begins to understand the mess that they are in, they NEVER look at the politician or ruler and say, “You did this, you are fired!”  Nope, most people look at the same ruling class they have had the entire time and say, “What happened?” and “Who is to blame?”  So the Romans blamed the Christians, many leaders (not just Hitler) lay the fault at the feet of “the Jew”.  This is the only way that an entire population of regular people allows real atrocities. 

Step six: TEOTWAWKI or at a minimum SHTF!
In all 26 cases that I researched, this has ended poorly! 

Now let’s take a rational look at the Untied States today. 

Step One:
The war on God has been going strong for almost five decades now.  Slowly we have removed God from our schools, from our courts, from almost all public view.  The ACLU have made it their mission to remove God, the cross, prayer, and most anything else worthwhile from public view and we, the ruled over, have quietly shaken our heads and allowed them to win small victories. 

Step Two:
Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, all the Kennedy Clan, Harry Reid, the Clintons, yes, even the Bush’s come to mind.  Really have you ever seen a group of politicians who care less about what the American People want than this current group?  Health Care, more than 70% of the populace of the country said “NO!!” yet it passed in just a few days with massive payoffs to insure votes against the will of the people.  They look at the camera and no longer even try to twist the truth, they just flat out lie and we allow it.

Step Three:
The reason these corrupt criminals keep getting elected is that 45% of the people pay ZERO TAXES yet, over 40% of U.S. households Get some form of Government Assistance!  Do you really think this is not vote buying in it most evil form? Not to mention Free cell phones, SSI, SSDI, WIC, Housing, etc.

Step Four:
Distractions are now everywhere.  Porn on the Internet, MMA on regular television, legalized medical marijuana, free needles for dug addicts, free condoms in school, abortion on demand for teens.  Really it is hard to stay focused on the problems with these diversions! 

Step Five:
Welcome Tea Party Patriots!  Finally the population has started to wake up.  Then we are conveniently given an enemy…Welcome Occupy Wall Street Movement. “Let’s all hate the RICH 1%.”

Step Six:
TEOTWAWKI or at least SHTF has to be coming. 

26 out of 26 times, step one has been followed by step two, two by three, four comes next, followed by five which ends in STEP SIX every time.  Maybe this time will be different? Do you really think so?  I am not convinced.

Add to that train of thinking the fact that Muslim Extremists are back in a big way, (study the Ottoman Empire) The Chinese and the Russians are watching for our demise, and our current leadership think that if you talk nice then those three groups will want to be our friends.  REALLY?  I am not convinced.

So that was my beginning argument for starting the “Prepper Lifestyle” until my wife asked me a very good question.  She said “But what if you are wrong?  What if we start all this prepping stuff or worse, what if you tell your clients to take these same steps and you were wrong?”  I had to think about that, and here is my answer to her, to my clients and friends, and to you to share with your friends;

If I am wrong about the political situation (I do not think I am, but if) then let’s take a real look at what you have done to your family by “Prepping”. 

You have food stored up against unforeseen needs.  You have a water supply in case of emergency.  You have all your documents in order.  Your family has an escape plan and a defense plan against home invasion, fire, or other home emergency.  You have learned some skills like basic medical care, basic construction, and basic self defense.  You have some silver and/or gold, which can be a good investment.  You are well prepared to help others in a time of a natural disaster like a tornado, earthquake or the like.  So all in all, you are in better shape being prepared and not needing it, than you would be needing to be prepared and not having done it.   On the risk/ reward scale, you come up better doing this than not. 

And that my friend is a Rational Look at an Irrational topic.

About The Author: Kent Mathis is a financial planner in Memphis, Tennessee

JWR Adds: In this article, the author references a piece published by the National Inflation Association (NIA) It is worth noting that economist Peter Schiff has warned that the NIA uses otherwise quite good and factual videos as a mechanism to lure investors into a “pump and dump” penny stock schemes. The NIA’s videos have some great factual information, but Schiff has warned people to beware of the NIA’s ulterior motives.