Doomsday Glocker, by G.B.A.

Contrary to the title of this article, I am not a hardcore Glock enthusiast, but I have carried them and used them extensively.  While you may not agree with my thoughts on the Glock, I provide them to you based upon my personal experience with the Glock.  I may be wrong, but I am sure of what I know.

So, you are prepping for a WTSHTF scenario and are contemplating what handgun to choose.  You’ve already settled on your rifle, but now you want something else.  You want something that can be: conveniently carried, is concealable, is of a respectable caliber, is reliable under harsh conditions, and requires very little maintenance to keep it running.

Your choices are limited to either a revolver or a autopistol.  Now, I started out shooting revolvers and have a fondness in my heart for them.  However, while a revolver fits the above criteria just fine, I would not consider anyone who chooses a revolver as being under armed. For me, I would lean towards the autopistol. Unless of course your main threat comes from a rather large and furry four legged animal, then I would lean towards favoring a large caliber revolver starting with the number 4.

My reasons for this choice are simple, thought out, and borne from experience.  Autopistols generally have a higher capacity than revolvers and can be reloaded rather rapidly with some practice.  Revolvers, for most of us, are slower to re-load and do not have the firepower of an autopistol.  A malfunction in a autopistol is relatively easy to clear and can be done quickly.  Although a malfunction in a revolver is rare, it does happen and may require tools to get it back into action.  Not a challenge one wants to take on in the middle of a self defense situation.  Keep in mind though, that there is a reason that virtually all police departments have made the switch from revolvers to autopistols.  While revolvers are extremely reliable, modern autopistols produced from major manufactures have also achieved enviable reliability.  Yes, I know that autopistols can be prone to a malfunction if you do not have a solid grip and “limp wrist”.  And for the novice shooter, revolvers are safer to use.  I’ve used autopistols that were so extremely reliable that the presentation of a malfunction left one in a state of almost utter disbelief.  Just remember, that the heart of a autopistol is the magazine.  Purchase only top quality spare magazines for your autopistol.  Don’t skimp on this.

Become well acquainted with your pistol and practice with it as often as possible.  Dry firing is a good and cheap way to practice.  Concentrate on the front sight and trigger press.  The trigger press is one of the hardest things to master on a autopistol, but absolutely essential to shooting a handgun well.  Remember however, that while dry firing is a good way to practice, you still need to hit the range and go live.  After all, you can’t learn to swim if you don’t go in the water.       

Caliber selection is always a topic of debate.  Some people are more comfortable with the ubiquitous 9mm round, while others lean towards the uniquely American .45 ACP.  You can’t argue with history, and personally I’m a .45 ACP fan.  Yes, I know that with modern hollow point ammunition the best 9mm round can be almost as effective as the best hollow point 45 ACP round.  However, if there is ever a WTSHTF scenario, ammunition may be difficult to come by and you may not be able to obtain hollow point ammunition, only the hardball ammunition.  So ask yourself, would you rather have a FMJ 9mm round or a FMJ .45 ACP round?  Bigger bullets equal bigger holes.  Yes, we can talk about shot placement, recoil and all that stuff, but there is a reason that the .45 ACP is preferred by some elite military and law enforcement units as their caliber of choice in a crisis situation.  Enough said on this topic.  This is a personal choice.  Just learn how to shoot correctly and to hit what you are shooting at!  9mm, 45 ACP, 40 S&W, 10mm, 357 Magnum, etc, will all get the job done if you do yours.  That brings us back to practice, practice, practice!   

As for me, I chose the Glock 23.  This is Glock’s compact size 40 caliber version.  My choices for choosing this caliber are personal, but thought out.  While the 40 caliber is a snappy round, it is controllable with the proper technique and can be shot rapidly and accurately.  It is a uniquely American round, and the best of the breed nips at the heels or equals that of the best 45 ACP bullet.  Moreover, it is the round that is carried by a large percentage of the law enforcement agencies in this country which may make the round more accessible in a WTSHTF scenario.  While it does not have the cross sectional density of the 45 ACP it is still much larger than the 9mm (.355) as opposed to .400 for the 40 caliber.

The Glock 23 has a 13 round capacity and will accept the magazine of its larger sibling, the Glock 22 with a 15 round magazine.  As an additional bonus, you can purchase a 9mm barrel for the Glock 23 along with some 9mm Glock magazines and you now have two calibers on one frame.  You can also purchase a 357 SIG barrel and have three calibers on one frame.  This gives the user versatility when the ammunition supply begins to dwindle.  There are also 22 caliber conversion kits that you can order to convert your Glock 23 into a 22 LR shooter.  So, with a little expense, you can have four calibers in one autopistol.

The Glock, right out of the box, comes with an extremely tough finish that resists rust like nobody’s business, and it requires very little lubrication or maintenance to keep it functioning.  Thus, one of the reasons it is favored by law enforcement.

Simplicity of use?  It’s a point and shoot gun.  While it does have three safeties (a trigger safety, firing pin safety and drop safety), there are no external safeties to click off.  Pull the trigger and it will go bang, just like a revolver.  It’s just that simple.  The trigger pull is the same for each round so there is no need to acclimate to two different trigger pulls as one would find with a traditional DA/SA autopistol.

While I would admit that the Glock is a very easy pistol to learn to shoot, it is not as easy to learn to shoot it well, as the trigger takes a bit of getting used to.  But with proper training and familiarization, you can shoot this pistol competently, quickly, and accurately under combat conditions.  Remember, the Glock was not developed as a target pistol but rather as a military autopistol for the Austrian army.

If you read the various published gun magazine articles and internet blogs, they claim that the reliability/durability of the Glock almost reaches legendary proportions.  However, my experience has been to the contrary.  It does go bang when you pull the trigger, but it can break.   Now, I primarily use the .40 caliber round which is a high pressure round.  Folks using the 9mm round may have a different take on the durability of the Glock.  From my personal experience, the Glock 23 will break on you with lots of use.  I have had a number of broken parts on a Glock 23.  All the breakages occurred somewhere within approximately 17,000 rounds down range.  The good news however, is that the Glock is a “plug and play” gun.  It does not require you to be an armorer (but I would advise that you invest in a complete Glock guide) to get the pistol back into action within minutes.  Just pop out the broken part and plug in the replacement part and you’re ready to go.  All you need is a pin punch tool, maybe a pair of needle nose pliers and small flathead screwdriver for all of your repair needs.  Remember, the Glock has a high level of parts interchangeability with other Glocks, so if you don’t have the spare part, there is a fair chance that you can cannibalize it from another Glock, even if it is not the same caliber or model as yours.  The Glock only has 34 parts.  That is fewer than any other autopistol that I know of.

The Glock 23 weighs only 21.16 ounces (unloaded) and has a height of 5 inches, so it is relatively easy to conceal and light enough to carry all day, but packs a wallop when you need it.  The pistol’s low bore axis makes recoil relatively easy to control despite its light weight.

The Glock does not require a break-in period.  It will come out shooting right from the box.  However, I would definitely change out those cheap plastic sights and replace them with night sights that have a cocking shelf to allow for one hand racking of the slide.  For me, I would also replace the factory slide stop lever with an extended one from Glock.  This type of lever just fits my style of shooting better. 

While the Glock is not my favorite autopistol it has a lot going for it in a Mad Max scenario or a Get Out of Dodge event.  It has a tough as nails finish, it is dependable under harsh environmental conditions, low maintenance, low weight, easy to shoot, easy to fix, and ubiquitous.  What more can you ask for in a WTSHTF autopistol?        

Just my opinion folks, nothing more, nothing less.

JWR Adds: I cringe whenever I see cannibalization mentioned vis-a-vis home gunsmithing . It takes just a few minutes of Internet research to determine which are the high breakage and high loss parts for any particular gun. By high loss, I mean small parts that are under spring tension such as various detents, extractors, and ejectors that tend to go flying across a room and getting lost in the Great Dacron Forest of deep pile carpeting, never to be seen again. Do the research, and stock up on the requisite spare parts. After all, a complete spare gun is a mighty expensive source of a few spare parts, and once you start cannibalizing, you of course lose the use of a functional weapon.

Economics and Investing:

R.C. sent this: Higher Rates End Obama’s Borrowing Cost Holiday.

Speaking of interest issues: Interest on Federal Debt Hit $104B in First Half of FY2012—Despite Low Interest Rates

Owe The IRS? Bill Would Suspend Passport Rights For Delinquent Taxpayers. (Thanks to F.G. for the link.)

The latest from Silver Shield: The Myth of Silver Confiscation

Items from The Economatrix:

Iran, Oil, Europe Pose Risk To Economy:  Geithner

Stanford’s Lazear:  US Suffering Worst Economic Recovery In History

Iran, Oil Prices, And Gambling With The World Economy

Gasoline Prices May be Getting Close to a Peak

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader B.B. sent this news from Canada: Gun owners alarmed by ammunition rule- Confusion over storage requirements. But meanwhile, some good news: Senate kills long-gun registry. (Thanks to N.L. for the latter link.)

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Our friend Commander Zero recently commented on: Gender issues in preparedness

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G.G. mentioned that Lisa Bedford (“Survival Mom”) was just interviewed by Lew Rockwell

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Mac Slavo of the SHTFPlan blog recently posted a link to this trucking industry warning from 2006: When Trucks Stop, America Stops

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An American Redoubt Job Opening: The ultimate high tech backcountry job? Radio Repeater Maintenance Support (Idaho & Wyoming)

How to Navigate by the Sun. (Thanks to F.G. for the link.)

Letter Re: Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment

Captain Rawles,
In addition to the points you made in reference to stealth and scarce ammunition supplies post collapse, in your commentary on the named article, I would make a second point:

While the squad level tactics described have proven to be rather effective for active duty military in offense;  the average Joe and his family unit will most likely not have those kinds of numbers.  The average familial size seems to be right around four, these days.  So unless one is lucky enough to have found/joined/founded a group for this purpose, when it gets to be Schumer time the average Joe will find themselves with a fire team at best, in most cases.  Do not mistake me, here, if you got a thirteen man squad, or more, great.  But most won’t, so other tactics are perhaps more appropriate.

I would frankly be more inclined, speaking as a veteran myself, to highly recommend the average family/small group employ an adaptation of ST:A (Scout Team: Advanced), fire team recon, or LRRP doctrines.  Which is to say concentrate on detection over engagement, stealth over owning ground, and strict employment of the sound/light/motion/trace “disciplines”.  For those who aren’t familiar, trace discipline can also be called trash discipline or “policing your line of advance”.  It simply means don’t leave any trace that you were there; burn, bury, or carry with you any trash or spent brass.  In short, get in-do your business-get out, preferably without having to engage, especially if the other side is physically entrenched.  If you must engage at assault ranges, then somebody goofed and goofed badly, in my experience. Of course, if one must engage, do so authoritatively, and with prejudice; in other words don’t just hit your target, drop them, so they don’t get back up. Then break off the engagement as quickly as is possible.  Obviously, further adaptation will be needed for such things as movement connected with resource gathering, and so forth.  Cutting firewood in quantity leaves a lot of trace and will have a huge sound signature, for example.

I would also very highly advise these small groups to train all their members as designated marksmen, on top of whatever other skills are possessed, in order to foster the habit of observation at distance.  This allows for long range engagement from behind cover, followed by a break contact movement while starting from that same cover. (Assuming there’s cover to be had.)   This is in keeping with what I’ve written previously concerning keeping a low profile.  Simply put, the average family unit will just not possess, most likely, the numerical assets to engage at squad level or higher, with much degree of success.  Huge families and so forth are more an exception these days than they were when I was a child.

When it comes to family, there’s no such animal as “acceptable losses.”

Just my two cents, here.  And Easter blessings to all. – J.H.

Notes from JWR:

I received an e-mail on Friday morning from Brian Camden of Hardened Structures, alerting me that an F-18 fighter jet had just crashed, quite near their headquarters, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Thankfully, no one was killed. Here is one minute of raw post facto video.

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Today we present two 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 $275 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.

How to Eat the Abundance Around You, by Linda Runyon

1

Long before the days of supermarkets and organized agriculture, people lived.  We are the evidence.  They lived in small groups and even alone as hunter gatherers.  And remember, this was in the days before language!  How did we do it?  Trial and error?  Instinct?  If so, the instinct has been lost, but with some simple rules, it may be regained.

The good news is we don’t have to watch Uncle Ogg keel over in agony after grazing on a patch of poison hemlock to know that it’s something to stay away from. Solutions to common problems such as what to eat from your immediate environment can now be had through books, pictures, video and the spoken word.

I am here to tell you that your body can be sustained for long periods of time by taking advantage of the wild edible food that grows from the ground everywhere.  I know because I did it, and I practiced what I preach exclusively for many years.

I lived in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York in a homesteading situation for many years without electricity and indoor plumbing and the modern conveniences that come with those things.  Town was miles away and visits to civilization were few.  The hardships were many, but so were the lessons learned.  By degrees, I came to know that abundance is given by design.  Believe it or not, we already live in the Garden of Eden, but being “civilized” keeps us from knowing it, and the high pitched whine of man-gone-crazy keeps us from knowing its peace and its gifts.

Some of these foods are known to us already, perhaps instinctively. What child hasn’t blown the little parachute seeds from a dandelion’s puff-ball while laying in the clover?  Girls pull the petals from a daisy saying “Loves me, loves me not…” and collect tiny bouquets of violets while boys brave sharp barbs to collect raspberries and blackberries.  The helicopters from Maple trees, the burrs from burdock, the fluff from a dried milkweed pod on the wind or the bark of the birch tree have all been child’s playthings at one time or another.  Perhaps these warm associations come from a lost knowledge that these are all sources of food?

The average lawn contains many, many food sources. I once published a book called The Lawn Food Cookbook, Groceries in the Backyard due to the sheer amount of material there.  This is without taking a walk around the block or going to local fields and waste areas.  Needless to say, if you’re trekking from hither to yon, you’ll be passing through many of nature’s supermarkets. Will you know how to use their assets?

All it takes to get started is the will to do so. Take a trip to the library or the Internet for tons of free information.  I have found, however, that while many resources are strong on the identification and uses, they can be short on practicalities such as harvesting tips, preparation and especially storage for the long winter months. I have sought out the methods of the early Native Americans to cope with many of these issues, and I’ve used them to great benefit.  While many of these foods freeze beautifully, I found that much can be done with drying foods and making flour from the dried material for a concentrated nutritional benefit.  This has immediate appeal to people who are on foot.

What if you could make yourself “starvation proof”?  What if you knew you could be dropped off anywhere, even on a desert, and not only survive but have all the nourishment a body could need?  Well, I’m here to tell you that not only is it possible, but it’s relatively easy for a person of average intelligence to attain.  It certainly might be hard on your system to begin to eat wild food after steady diet of sugar filled fast foods and processed grains, but those problems largely come from the sheer amount of nutrition you would be confronted with.

It’s no secret that modern agriculture techniques have depleted nutrients from the soil when they’ve been grown in the same place for a long time ago, but this is not true for wild food and the places where it grows.  The very weeds that are giving Big Agriculture problems by becoming resistant to the herbicides that are used to “cultivate” today’s GMO crops tend to be the very same foods that we could utterly live on for centuries to come.  Ironic, isn’t it?  The “troublesome” amaranth, horseweed, waterhemp and lambsquarters all have edible uses.  It’s almost as if Mother Nature is trying to tell us something!

While I am not a “prepper”, I have found over the years that these folks are my best audience.  The similarities between my chosen situation in the Adirondacks and the scenario where there is some sort of disaster disrupting the food supply as we know it are too striking to dismiss.  The intent might be different, but the techniques remain the same.  The truly prudent know that this knowledge is not won overnight.  Foraging is a skill that needs to be learned and practiced in one’s everyday life before one could depend on it in an emergency.  If you feel that disaster is imminent, my advice to you is “start now.”  There is a learning curve, but that curve could begin in troubled times if it had to, assuming you had the information in hand.  You could be up to speed in time to stretch your food supplies and be expert by the time they run out.

One note here– if you have a family during troubling times, foraging together has the excellent benefit of reducing fear.  As you learn and look around and see that a high percentage of the vegetation around you is edible, you will find that this automatically lessens the worry you may be experiencing while ensuring your family’s survival.

To start with wild food, concentrate on finding one plant that grows in your area.  The one’s I teach grow almost everywhere.  Identify it and test it using the rules of foraging to be sure that it will not produce a reaction for you or anyone that will be eating it.  This means that they, too, should learn and apply the rules of foraging, as stated below.  This is important, especially if you are reaching outside the bounds of the plants that are known to you.

Then, having passed the tests, harvest some, process it and try some.

To recap, select one plant and bring it from the field to the kitchen.  Learn that one thoroughly.  Work it into your menu, but take a gradient approach to learning and using wild food.  You would first use a pinch to bolster the nutrition of a stew, for instance.  What you’ll be doing is adapting your body to the pure nutrition that is wild food.  Realize that it’s 5-7 times the nutrition of any vegetable we have, so going too fast could have a strong effect, such as the runs.

First a few pinches mixed in, later, perhaps, a whole meal of nothing but wild food.

As you forage around, you’ll become aware of other plants that you can work into your diet in a similar fashion.  You’ll will become adept and marvel at the ease of harvesting large amounts quickly, taking it and drying it for storage and future use.  Remember not to pick an area clean of something, because you could wipe it out for the next time.  Leaving some will actually give the plant a chance to resurge and grow like a weed — which of course, they are.

Go slow and have fun while you learn the skill that kept all of humanity alive in the eons before recorded history.

The Rules of Foraging

These rules are for your own protection when investigating plants that are new to you. If followed closely, they will protect you in the field.

1. DO NOT collect plants closer than 200 feet from a car path or contaminated area.
2. NEVER collect from areas sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals.
3. DO NOT collect plants with RED STEMS, or red striations or stripes.
4. ALWAYS BE FAMILIAR with all dangerous plants in YOUR area of collection.
5. POSITIVELY IDENTIFY all plants you intend to use for food.
6. Take a piece off the plant and roll between your fingers.  SNIFF CAREFULLY.  Does it smell like something you would eat?  If it doesn’t, DISCARD IMMEDIATELY.  If it does, go to rule 7.
7. Take another piece off the plant and roll until juicy.  RUB the tiny piece on your gum above your teeth.
8. WAIT 20 minutes.
9. DOES YOUR GUM ITCH, BURN, TINGLE, SWELL OR STING?  If no reaction occurs, go on to rule 10.
10. Take another piece of the plant and put in a teacup.  Add boiling water and steep for 5 minutes.  SIP SLOWLY for 20 more minutes.  WATCH FOR NAUSEA, BURNING, DISCOMFORT.  If no reaction occurs, you may ingest a small amount.
11. WAIT ANOTHER 20 MINUTES and watch for any reaction.
12. Keep all samples AWAY from children or pets.
13. Store all seeds and bulbs AWAY from children and pets.
14. Teach children to keep all plants AWAY from their mouths and DO NOT ALLOW children chew or suck nectar from any unknown plants.
15. AVOID smoke from burning plants. Smoke may irritate the eyes or cause allergic reactions QUICKLY.
16. BE AWARE of your neighbor’s habits with chemicals, pesticides and herbicides.
17. BEWARE: heating or boiling doesn’t always destroy toxicity.

 

After emerging from the woods, I dedicated myself to teaching the lessons that I had learned.  In the early 1980s I set up a wild food walk, sort of a museum of plants so people could learn them without having to seek them out first.  My first Xeroxed flyer for the walk was eventually to become my first book, A Survival Acre.  My materials have evolved over the years to what you can see on my webs ite, OfTheField.com.  Nothing makes me madder than hearing about people starving to death when they’re sitting in Nature’s Supermarket!  People are always blown away with the knowledge and awareness that comes from discovering the abundance right under their feet.  It is my sincerest hope that you will learn these skills.

DISCLAIMER:
This is information about wild food.  The editors of SurvivalBlog nor the author make no claims as to the correctness, safety or usability of the data.

The information contained herein is intended to be an educational tool for gathering and cooking wild plants.  The information presented is for use as a supplement to a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle.  The nutritional requirements of individuals may vary greatly, therefore the author and publisher take no responsibility for an individual using and ingesting wild plants.

All data is to be used at your own risk.  Using the Rules of Foraging, above, greatly helps to reduce that risk, but they are not fool-proof.

JWR Adds: SurvivalBlog readers will likely recognize the author’s name. She is the author of the excellent Linda Runyon’s Master Class On Wild Food Survival.Her books, DVDs, and flash cards all have a well-deserved positive reputation.

The Evolution of Radio Technology, Part 1, by Roger R.

Many preppers and other radio communications enthusiasts want to be well equipped for receiving and transmitting under adverse conditions, but most modern hams, shortwave listeners (SWLs), preppers and observers are not familiar with the evolution of receiver and transmitter designs and how that progression can give us a useful advantage in gearing up for different scenarios. Old tech is, after all, appropriate tech when the going gets rough-the rougher, the older in many instances.

I want to start with receivers because a transmitter without a receiver is useful only for broadcasting, and in our endeavors broadcasting is generally our last goal. One concept I want to make clear is that in the design of radio communications technology, ‘Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’. The most simple and easiest to implement systems are usually those that in fact evolved early on, and they are often the most resistant to failure. But they also tend to have limitations which were why they were superseded: however, in extreme circumstances knowing how to implement them and having a few key items on hand could mean the difference between success and failure.

The primary steps or changes in the design of radio receiver construction are, the “crystal set” or Passive Tuned-Radio-Frequency (TRF) receiver, the Active TRF, or ‘straight’, receiver, the Regenerative (‘regen’ or ‘howler’)  receiver and the superheterodyne (superhet, or mixing) receiver.  There are other designs such as the ‘superregenerative’, ‘direct conversion’, and ‘homodyne’, but they are not significant for our purposes and are used today, if at all, for specific niche purposes.  The four main categories each may have a use but only one, the last, will generally prove practical for a modern, all purpose radio and constitutes 99% of all commercially manufactured sets. All are worth knowing about and may have some specific application depending on the resources you have and what you are trying to accomplish.

The Crystal Set 

The first radio receiver to be available in any quantity, and the first radio construction project for three generations of schoolboys and hobbyists, was the “crystal radio”. It had no vacuum tubes or other active devices, and consisted of an antenna, an earth ground, a tuned circuit to select a particular ‘wavelength’ or frequency to pick up, a ‘crystal’ detector to turn the modulated signal into an audio voltage, and some type of transducer to enable the listener to hear that small voltage.  There were no batteries or any power source, other than that provided by the signal itself. There were no active devices to power either. The ‘crystal’ was not, as in modern electronics of all types, a small piece of resonant cut quartz used to provide a frequency reference but rather a semiconductor junction made up of a chunk of certain kinds of rock or mineral and a small needle or ‘whisker’ of dissimilar metal. Galena was the preferred detector, usually mounted in a holder with a convenient gizmo to make putting the whisker on a certain part of the little rock where it would work best, but many materials would work and a rusty razor blade and a stick pin or wire often saw service as well. Modern crystal radio builders usually just use a regular diode, preferably salvaged from a junk television, computer or what have you: Most any diode or transistor will work but germanium or Schottky diodes are preferred for best sensitivity.

Almost any old boy’s electrical or science book will have diagrams of crystal radios and some instructions on building various types. There are many different circuits but the keys are always the same: a good antenna, a good ground, a sensitive transducer, and patience.

The transducer, or speaker, bears some comment. A modern loudspeaker will not reproduce anything, usually, with a crystal set. Even modern headphones are useless. The little crystal ear-bud they used to include with the old transistor radios will provide some results, but best is the old, high impedance, “watch case” headphones. They are very sensitive and have many uses for electronic servicing and antique radio use besides crystal sets. They were made up until the 1960s or early 1970s for the military, and can be found at hamfests or online. I have found that piano and organ stores often have a set or two lying around because for some peculiar reason Wurlitzer used them, with a matching transformer, with their home organs, most of which have little value today and will be parted out by organ servicemen.

The upside of the crystal set is that it is eminently suited to do-it-yourself construction, needs no batteries, and will enable users to hear local AM stations during the day and a number of clear channel stations at night. In rural areas, with enough antenna and a really good ground, many AM broadcast band stations and, with the right tuning coils, even an occasional shortwave broadcast station can be heard at night.

There was a good reason it fell into disuse except as a novelty or boys’ project after the mid-1920s: it couldn’t be used to listen to CW (Morse code) or SSB signals, it only got strong stations in the day (and when it did, often more than one at the same time), and you had to listen carefully with headphones. In other words, poor sensitivity, poor selectivity, and low audio output. Also, it was infeasible to build a crystal set useful above roughly 40 meters, unless you were monitoring the transmitter next door.

Under ideal conditions, though, it could provide superb fidelity and that’s why crystal sets were manufactured commercially again in the 1950s, as a tuner for high fidelity buffs who wanted good AM reception. When FM became popular, this ended. Another later use for crystal sets was on ships as an emergency receiver, if for some reason all else failed. Since they were light, small, inexpensive and consumed no power, they were usually built into the ship’s radio equipment.

 My recommendation for more information on crystal sets is to obtain, if possible, the first three volumes of Alfred P. Morgan’s Boys Books of Radio and Electronics. These are somewhat scarce, in contrast to his “The Boy Electrician” whose early editions are now public domain and therefore reprinted widely. Modern publications include those sold by Lindsay Publications, such as “The Impoverished Radio Experimenter” and the books put out by The Xtal Set Society . Ed Romney’s ‘How To Fix Up Nice Old Radios’ has useful material on these and later sets as well.

The TRF Receiver

People wanted better selectivity and sensitivity and above all they wanted to be able to listen to the radio at a normal volume, without headphones. Amplifying the signal, tuning it carefully, and feeding it to a loudspeaker solved those problems and an invention called by the British a “Thermionic Valve” made that possible. We on this side of the Atlantic know it more commonly as a vacuum tube.

 The valve, or tube, started out as a light bulb that had been fitted with a metal plate across from the filament. If the light bulb was running and a second voltage was applied from the filament, which became a cathode, the plate became an anode and current would flow in one direction but not the other. Thus it could rectify alternating current and act as a detector for modulation put on a transmitted carrier. It could not amplify a weak signal, though, until it was found that if a “fence” or grid was put between the filament and plate, a third voltage would in effect open or close the gate and cause current to flow, or not to flow. Moreover, it could make the current flow a lot or a little, like the throttle on an engine’s carburetor. (Remember those?) A small change in voltage could cause a large change in current, so in effect it could amplify weak signals. And it could do it at DC or as high as many megacycles, meaning it could amplify both audio and radio signals.

There you have the TRF receiver. It consisted of one or more stages of radio frequency amplifiers, each with a tube, and with separate tuned circuits in between so the desired radio frequency would be received at the exclusion of others: then, a detector that just as with the crystal set changed the modulated RF signal into an audio signal: and then one or more untuned audio amplifier stages that made the signal, louder than before but still no match for a loudspeaker’s needs, big enough to drive a speaker that everyone in a room could hear. Of course you could still use a headset, but only hams and “night hawks” or “DXers” did that. The TRF set meant that radio was now a family affair, and Dad tuned the set so everyone could listen. The TRF set was expensive and delicate enough that in most families, the kids (and even Mom) were not allowed to fool with it. Radio had changed a lot.

Although most houses had electricity, except on farms, most TRF radios ran on batteries, because no simple and cheap method existed to turn AC into smooth and quiet enough DC to run a radio set. Two, and sometimes three different kinds of batteries were needed: a low voltage high current supply, usually 6 volts for the filaments (called the A battery) and a high voltage low current supply made up of a lot of small dry cells in most cases. The A battery was usually borrowed from the family car if they had one. (More did than not, except in New York.) The B battery was bought new and discarded and this made for a considerable expense. So did the tubes, which at first only lasted a few dozen hours if that.

The TRF became obsolete within a few years, around the same time AC powered tubes and usable capacitors made batteries obsolete and tubes began to last longer and cost less. A few were built later on, again occasionally for “hi-fi nuts”, and in Britain especially, they were used for surveillance by MI5 and MI6 and so forth because they had no local oscillator to give their presence and location away. Spies, real or imagined, would listen to what were then “regular” radios and the counterintelligence service would monitor their local oscillator emissions to catch them. American military and intelligence services had a different solution, which didn’t occur to the Brits. Then again, they put the plumbing on the outside of the building so they can get to it easier when it freezes up.

I can’t think of any circumstance where you’d want one today, but the TRF does exist and did work.

The Regenerative Receiver

The regenerative receiver, often called a ‘regen’ or a ‘howler’, is based on another property of the vacuum tube, and amplifiers generally. If you feed some of the output of an amplifier back into the input, in phase, it will start swinging back and forth electrically, or “oscillating”. A radio transmitter, in its most basic form, is an oscillator. Its frequency is controlled by a tuned circuit or by some other kind of filter.

If you set up a vacuum tube as an oscillator, and fed in a radio frequency signal, and adjusted it so it was just barely ready to oscillate, it would make a really sensitive detector. The regen was cheap to build, it had a single tuned circuit, and it was sensitive and it became a really popular homebrew project. Never popular as a broadcast receiver, the regen made listening to short waves possible for anyone who could scrape up a tube, a headset, and enough wire to wind a coil or two plus some batteries. Since there was a Depression on, and since people were (even so) throwing out stuff with wire and tubes you could salvage, building a regen was the stuff of schoolboys and impecunious hobbyists.

The one tube regen wasn’t a great radio. It would pick up a lot of stations, often more than one at once. The sound quality was poor, because the detector distorted. The antenna was part of the tuned circuit so any wind or movement near it made the frequency wander. And since it was still an oscillator, it would transmit as easily as it received, causing interference and neighborhood fights. (Today it still might, and with guns rather than fists in a real disaster.) And, it would sometimes oscillate at audio frequencies as well as radio ones, causing the listener to be blasted with a sine wave so loud he’d rip the headset off and throw it.That’s why they were called howlers.

Later regens, commercial or homebrew, improved somewhat on these problems. An RF amplifier and tuned stage, as on the TRF set, was added, both for more sensitivity and to keep the regenerative detector’s RF inside the set where they belonged. A stage of audio amplification was also added after the detector, to reduce the load on it, help stop howling, and give more volume. And the set was shielded and a precise tuning and regeneration controls added. Probably the best regen ever built was the National SW-3, which would still be a nice thing to have today, even with its limitations, for a serious prepper. But compared to a modern superhet communications receiver, it has poor selectivity, poor audio quality and good sensitivity only up to about 10 megacycles. (They call them megaHertz, MHz, now.)

But building a regen is good experience and could be a lifesaver in a situation where no other radio is around. You can use transistors instead of tubes, as well, should you have any that still work. (And if you correctly stash away a few dollars’ worth of them at surplus prices now you will have hundreds of them that work). They quit building regens commercially just as soon as the superhet became understood and the patents didn’t stop them, except for hobbyists and a few kits in the late 1950s for kids. The exception: Marine suppliers made and sold regens as late as the 1960s for 500 kHz marine service on ships. Even though the Germans sank ships with them by listening for their characteristic emissions, homing in on them and torpedoing them in WWII.

The Superheterodyne

Major Edwin H. Armstrong invented a new kind of receiver and patented it  in 1918. (He had also invented the regenerative and the superregenerative receiver and would go on to invent frequency modulation later. ) It solved the problems of making a good radio that could be tuned to different frequencies by having a variable local oscillator-in other words, a small generator or transmitter built into the radio itself-that could be tuned easily and that would convert the received signal into a second, intermediate frequency, that could be filtered, amplified and detected.  This meant that with a single knob, a mass produced, inexpensive set could be as sensitive and selective as the most complicated and fussy precision TRF set, and it could detect the signal cleanly, with great fidelity.

Superhet receivers became utterly dominant by 1930 and still are. They could be built with as few as two or as many as 40+ tubes and when transistors came out they could be built cheaper with those. Modern superhet receivers may consist of just one integrated circuit or ‘chip’ with a few, tiny, inexpensive capacitors and coils around them.

One of the most popular early types of superhet radio you should be aware of is the famous “All American 5”. It can run on AC or DC, has no power transformer, and was called that (it’s sometimes referred to as an AA5 in print) because it had five tubes, in a particular layout.  There was a converter tube that acted as an RF amplifier and a local oscillator in one, an IF amplifier, a detector and first audio amplifier tube, a power output tube and a rectifier tube. They were often offered as a kit for hobbyists or for training in vo-tech schools from about 1940 to as late as 1975 or even 1980. (Yes, tubes were obsolete, but government funds weren’t.) They were also sold by the tens-maybe hundreds- of millions in every country with 100-130 volt power.  Most of them were just for the AM broadcast band, and they gave good local station performance, but a few AM and shortwave versions and even a few VHF aeronautical band versions exist.  These radios have one dangerous characteristic: One side of the chassis is hooked to the AC power line, and if it’s the hot side the radio will work just fine, but if you come in contact with any metal parts connected to the chassis you will get a severe shock. The radio must be repaired or junked if the case or knobs break or the chassis is exposed. If it is a metal case radio then it should only be used with an isolation transformer no matter its condition.

All of the communications receivers and transceivers you will use are superhets and with that exception, most have a power transformer and are isolated from the AC line, or in the case of solid state radios they may run from 12 volt DC. Building superhet radios from scratch requires intermediate frequency transformers and other specialized parts, as well as test equipment to align them, and will not be something you’ll do on a field expedient basis. Even experienced hams quit building their own superhets because they could buy them commercially made cheaper than the parts cost and because most were too cheap to buy good test equipment: by 1960, kids had other interests and ham radio was mostly middle aged guys whose ham shacks were a diversion from nagging XYLs and an excuse to buy expensive stuff to impress their ham friends, just as it is now.

What you will want to do is to buy the good radios now while you can, learn to use and maintain them, and to be able to select the good ones from the not so good. You will definitely want to buy some tools and test equipment while they are cheap now, because few want them. You will want to stash away those parts you can get cheaply, and acquire at least the skills to know what you don’t know and where to go to change that. (More to follow in Part 2.)

Two Letters Re: Military Surplus G.O.O.D. Vehicles

James:
I just read the SurvivalBlog post “Letter Re: Military Surplus G.O.O.D. Vehicles.”

Here’s a web site for any of your readers in or near West Virginia looking for a Humvee, Deuce and a half or 5 ton trucks: Clark Trucks.

With My Regards, – Aaron K.

 

Sir,
Reference military surplus vehicles, I would like to recommend that for those seriously interested in something other than a “deuce” that there are several places here in the US where former Swiss or Austrian “Pinzguaers” are available.  These are very versatile, high ground clearance, 4×4 or 6×6 trucks.  They have 4-cylinder, air cooled, carbureted, 89 hp, motors and will travel almost anywhere.  Maintenance is easy and common items such as 24 volt light bulbs, spark plugs, and oil filters are readily available at most auto parts stores.
 
Now, the bad news, there are only a handful of sources in the US for major parts and some of them are fairly expensive.  They are also fairly distinctive and draw quite a bit of attention for a truck that is only slightly larger than a Chevrolet Astro van.  Their range is only about 200 to 250 miles on a 20 gallon fill up, so jerry cans would be in order for a long bug out trip.
 
The 4×4, 710M model, will carry a full ton, or is capable of moving 10 persons and gear at speeds up to about 60 mph on paved roads.  The 6×6, 712M, will carry 14 persons and gear or a full ton and a half of cargo.  Both styles have 45 degree approach and departure angles and are rated for a 45 degree side slope.  I will take their word for that simply because I run out of nerve at about 10 to 15 degrees of side slope.
 
Finding a Steyr, Daimler, Puch (the consortium that designed and built these trucks) Pinzgauer is fairly easy by just searching with the term “Pinzgauer.”  There are a few diesel powered Pinzgauers finding their way into the country.  Caution would be advised on these as registration of them for use on streets and highways could be tricky due to EPA regulations.  The truck, in most cases, has to be 30 years old to meet the standards.  In my case the two I have beat the daylights out of the Polaris Ranger as a utility vehicle.  They were both cheaper than the new Ranger models and can be titled, license, insured and driven on the highways, whereas a UTV in most cases has to be trailered.
 
Another potential source for former military vehicles, mostly of American manufacturer, is Idaho Motor Pool.  I know nothing about them other than their internet reputation is pretty good.
 
I love SurvivalBlog and I am very grateful for your books and the information you provide.
 
Regards, – Signcutter

Letter Re: Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment

Hi Jim, 
I agree 100% with your addenda to Gunfighter’s article, Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment. As a consultant myself, I have had to stress (particularly to the younger crowd of OIF and OEF veterans) that Survivalists have to operate differently than Soldiers, due to the military’s reliance on body armor, advanced medical resources, et cetera.

If anything, I seek out Vietnam Vets as consulting associates, for their experience in individual techniques (usually all from the prone position), from the pre-Kevlar, pre-IBA, pre-MOLLE days. I met many of them when I attended Jungle Warfare school back in 1983.
 
Also, I’ve discovered that in the Pacific Northwest, the older USGI woodland pattern poncho makes a great second to a ghillie suit, particularly in a populated suburban area, where it may not draw as much attention, when emerging from the woods. Cheers, – SGT Snuffy

Economics and Investing:

C.D.V. highlighted this piece by Richard Lehmann, over at Forbes: Ben Bernanke’s Secret Inflation Plan

Destruction of Spain’s Economy Duplicates Greece

Ron in Florida mentioned this at Zero Hedge: The Second Foreclosure Tsunami Is Coming, And Is About To Kill Any Hopes Of A “Housing Bottom”

James K. sent this: Production of presidential dollars reduced

G.G. flagegd this nes item: Government records 40th straight deficit month in March

Items from The Economatrix:

Crude Ends Higher Pre-Holiday, Posts Weekly Gain

S&P Posts Worst Week an 2012 as Bulls Waver

March Sales Brighten Retailers’ Profit Prospects

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“If you are using the generator for ‘convenience’ then a failure is only an inconvenience. But if using a generator for ’emergency use’, then a failure is an emergency.” – Clare Snyder

Notes from JWR:

Our SurvivalRealty.com spin-off site now has more than 90 listings. In fact, there have been a lot of new listings added in just the past three weeks that are captivating and unique retreat properties. Please take the time to check them out. Also note that my #1 Son has created an advertising sidebar, with 200 pixel width ads. This quite inexpensive ad space is available immediately. (Meanwhile, the advertising space waiting list at our main SurvivalBlog page is now stretching out well beyond two years.)

—

Today we present two 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 $275 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 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.) 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.

Small Unit Tactics in a Post Collapse Environment, by Gunfighter

The time may come when all order and civility have broken down into chaos and unrestrained evil. You were a wise prepper and worked through your list of lists, acquiring all of the necessary knowledge and tools for survival. All of your bases are covered. Your survival retreat is intact and manned by your entire survival group. Each individual is most likely capable of firing a weapon and you probably have a survival retreat defense plan in the event a band of raiders, or some other group of people who wish you harm, decides they want to take what isn’t theirs. One skill may have been overlooked however… What is your plan, if a group of individuals must leave the defensive perimeter of your survival retreat? How do they mitigate risk before departing? How do they act and move? How do they posture themselves for a high rate survivability? What actions do they take in the event of being engaged in a firefight? These are all valid and relevant questions that need solutions in a post collapse environment. Tactical movement skills necessary when moving off of a retreat, on foot and overland, include: bounding, bounding over watch, movement to contact and react to contact. These terms may be foreign but I assure you, you will feel more confident and better equipped with some small unit tactics knowledge after reading this article.

The small unit tactics that I will discuss here in this article can be tailored to any situation or terrain. These tactics are meant to be used within a loose system or framework. It does not have to be “By the book.” There is plenty of room to adjust the tactics to fit the situation. The number of personnel can vary and does not need to be fixed. The best way to master these tactics is to train to the point where you are comfortable adjusting them to fit the need. Everything I discuss here in this article can be found in multiple military manuals (I will reference as I go) all of which are available to the public. Nothing I discuss will be sensitive or secret in nature. These are simply some small unit tactics that have been used for a long time.

First I will discuss the administrative organization of the group of people leaving the immediate area of your survival retreat. For the sake of continuity when I am referencing this group of people, their number will be nine, and they will be called a squad. This squad of nine personnel will want to posture themselves in such a way that improves all of their chances of coming back to the retreat alive. It is also important the squad be broken down into two smaller elements with element leaders and a leader over the entire squad. The smaller element leaders will now be referred to as team leaders. The overall leader of the squad will be referred to as the squad leader. The two teams within the squad are Alpha and Bravo teams. In this article each team will consist of one team leader and three additional riflemen. The squad leader manages the team leaders and the team leaders manage their individual teams. So in review; there is a squad of 9 personnel, that is broken down into two teams, Alpha and Bravo teams, each team consists of four personnel, one team leader who manages three additional rifleman, the squad is managed overall by the squad leader. It is imperative that survival retreat members elect tactically competent people as leaders for extra-retreat excursions before actually going on, what I will now reference as a patrol.

After SHTF “Old World” leaders may not have what it takes. The positions or offices that once protected individuals as leaders, though they were not capable or proficient as leaders, will no longer exist. The law of the jungle will now be in effect. Those individuals who are capable and competent will be easily recognizable, and out of necessity placed into positions of leadership. I realize that is a lot of information so if you need to, go back and read from the top of this section.

Now that the administrative portion is out of the way we can discuss the tactical organization of the teams and squad. Each team, as we discussed before, will be comprised of four personnel. In this article, during movement, each team will be in its own wedge formation with the team leader in front of his team. I would like you to visualize four personnel in an echelon or inverted V formation with the team leader at the front of the direction of movement. One rifleman will be off to one side and staggered behind the team leader with the other two riflemen off to the other side staggered off of one another.  I made a simple illustration below:

                 ^    TL                                                       TL= Team Leader

   ^    RFLM            ^      RFLM                                RFLM= Rifleman

                                           ^     RFLM                       ^ = Person

There is a visual in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 under Formations. I highly recommend using a search engine to find images of a fire team wedge before continuing on. Now that the team formation is solidified in your mind, think of Alpha team in a wedge formation followed behind by Bravo team also in a wedge formation. Both fire teams are moving together in the same direction of travel. In between the two teams is where the squad leader is positioned during patrol. This position gives him moderate to high control over the squad. The two fire team wedges combined together with the squad leader is called a squad column fire team wedge. I made a simple illustration below to demonstrate a Squad Column Fire Team Wedge.
             

 

                   ^    ATL                                                     ATL= Alpha Team Lea

    ^    RFLM              ^      RFLM                              BTL= Bravo Team Leader

                                             ^     RFLM                      SL= Squad Leader

                    ^    SL                                                       RFLM =Rifleman
                

 

                       ^   BTL

            ^   RFLM            ^   RFLM

^   RFLM                            
                            
Once again use a search engine to look at a picture of a squad column fire team wedge before continuing on (supplement rifleman in the grenadier and squad automatic weapon positions, unless your squad is fortunate enough to be equipped with such weapon systems). The distance between each man and each team can vary terrain dependent and movement technique desired. For example on open ground with few obstructions you can space out 35 or even 50 meters between personnel and the same distance between teams. The opposite terrain would be woods or a forest where visibility is restricted, and distances between personnel and teams can be as close as 10 to 15 meters. The distance and staggering of the personnel in the squad column fire team wedge is meant to increase survivability so a single burst of fire cannot take out more than one individual. As I explained before, the concepts of these tactics are loose and can be adjusted as necessary. Now that the squad column concept is understood we have the basis for the rest of the article. From now on when I say squad, refer to the squad column fire team wedge visual. Remember you can always go back and review the previous concepts before continuing on.

You should have a warm and fuzzy at this point in regard to the squad column fire team wedge. It is important for each member of the squad to know and understand the 5 Principles of Patrolling before heading out from your retreat. The 5 principles can be found in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 Chapter 5 Patrols. Even though no one in your survival group may have military experience, these principles still apply and are relevant to any group of people moving through a possibly hostile area after a total collapse scenario. The 5 principles as they appear in the Ranger Handbook are:

  • Planning. Quickly make a simple plan and effectively communicate it to the lowest level. A great plan that takes forever to complete and is poorly disseminated isn’t a great plan. Plan and prepare to a realistic standard and rehearse everything.
  • Reconnaissance. Your responsibility as a Ranger Leader is to confirm what you think you know, and to learn that which you do not already know.
  • Security. Preserve your force as a whole. Every Ranger and every rifle counts; anyone could be the difference between victory and defeat.
  • Control. Clear understanding of the concept of the operation and commander’s intent, coupled with disciplined communications, to bring every man and weapon available to overwhelm the enemy at the decisive point.
  • Common Sense. Use all available information and good judgment to make sound timely decisions.

Your squad is assembled and spaced out, ready to initiate movement into whatever area that you intend to go outside of your survival retreat.  You begin movement at “Patrol speed.” Essentially it can be as slow or as fast as you want, situation dependent and movement technique desired. You want to move at a speed that is conducive for each individual to scan with their eyes the area the squad is moving into, as well scanning the flanks and rear. You also have to decide the current threat level to your squad and how likely it is there are people who wish you harm where you are going.  I will skip the Traveling technique because contact with potentially hostile groups must always be assumed in a post collapse scenario but please research this technique on your own if you wish. The squad leader should direct the squad to assume Traveling Overwatch, in which contact with hostiles is likely. In this movement technique, terrain dependent, there are 20 meters of dispersion between personnel and 50 meters of dispersion between fire teams. The lead team should be far enough in front of the trail team to detect and engage any threat to the squad, as to allow for the trail team to not become decisively engaged with an enemy. This allows the trail team to be in reserve and maneuvered by the squad leader to support the team in contact and destroy the hostile force. \

The second movement technique that I will discuss is Bounding Overwatch. This movement technique is used when contact with hostiles is imminent. The distances between personnel and teams remains the same as Traveling Overwatch, but as always can be adjusted situation dependent. During Bounding Overwatch, the forward team will occupy an overwatch position while the trail team bounds to a position alongside or forward of the overwatch team. The overwatch team is static and occupies any cover (object or position that can stop bullets) and or concealment (object or position that hides personnel) it can find, to cover the bounding team’s route, with fire if necessary. The bounds can be successive (the bounding team moves up alongside or online with the overwatch team) or alternating (the bounding team moves up and passes the overwatch team). Once the bounding team completes it’s bound and sets in, it then becomes the overwatch team and the previous overwatch team becomes the bounding team and initiates its bound. These movement techniques can be found in the Ranger Handbook SH-21-76 in Chapter 4 Movement. Search Traveling Overwatch and Bounding Overwatch on an internet search engine to find more information of these movement techniques.

So far, no offensive tactical operations have been discussed. A tactical operation called Movement to Contact is used as an offensive operation to gain or regain contact with an enemy unit. This would be used in the event that you have a general idea where hostiles may be. I do not advise the use of this tactical offensive operation using an element as small as a squad, especially in a post collapse scenario when you have no reserve force. In fact, Movement to Contact is reserved for a platoon size element in support of a larger force. With that disclaimer aside Movement to Contact if modified, can be an effective tool for your squad in a post collapse scenario, if the right conditions are met. An example of the circumstance when I would use Movement to Contact would be; if it became apparent that a small number of hostile individuals were in vicinity of my survival retreat and could be approaching. To avoid a firefight at the survival retreat and mitigate the risk of other survival retreat members becoming casualties I would muster the squad and conduct a movement to contact in the direction of the last know location of the hostile individuals. This is still not a perfect solution. Other considerations must be taken into account such as leaving a defendable position and who will remain behind for retreat security. It is just an example of when this offensive operation could be used.

Now let’s look at how to conduct Movement to Contact with your squad. There are two types of Movement to Contact: Search and Attack and Approach March.  Search and Attack is used on an enemy that is most likely dispersed and is not expecting attack or is expected to withdraw. The overall intent is to deny the enemy movement by saturating the area with platoon, squad, and team sized elements that find, fix, and destroy the enemy. This could prove difficult for a squad to do but against a small number of hostile individuals it is possible. The second type of Movement to Contact is the Approach March. The concept for this technique is to make contact with the enemy using the smallest possible friendly element. Once contact is made using the smallest element and the enemy has committed to the fight, all of the remaining friendly units maneuver on the enemy and overwhelm him. Once again this technique is intended for multiple platoons, squads, and fire teams in support of a larger force. This offensive tactical operation can be altered for use by one squad, given the right conditions.

For a the practical application of Movement to Contact for use by one squad it will be necessary to combine the two techniques, as you will recall are Search and Attack and Approach March.  It will take some creative thinking to maneuver a squad in order to saturate an area, make contact with only a fire team, and finally maneuvering the remaining team to crush the hostiles. The best solution would be to give clear and concise guidance to your team leaders to get both teams online, Alpha on the left and Bravo on the right. The teams should be in a shallow wedge. The distance between personnel and teams will need to be exaggerated, covering a larger area than normal. This is so that if one team makes contact with the hostiles, the other team will not be decisively engaged. This tactic may entice the hostiles to fully commit before they are aware of the other team. Once the hostiles are committed in a firefight with the first team the remaining team can move into position to bring the full force of the squad’s firepower on and overwhelm the hostiles. Remember that nothing is ever certain and this plan is not fool proof. There are many other ways to address the issue of possible attackers moving in on your survival retreat, Movement to Contact is just one tool in your bag. Consider your options, and then act. For more information on Movement to Contact reference FM 3-90 Tactics, Chapter 4 Movement to Contact or SH 21-76 Ranger Handbook Chapter 5 Patrols. You can also do a search of Movement to Contact in an Internet search engine.

Up until now we have discussed how to assemble your squad, move your squad, and find the enemy. Finally we come to how to destroy any would be attackers. The scenario is you’re squad has left the survival retreat, as it has before. Every member has their head on a swivel looking for signs of danger, rifles at the ready. You’re not looking for a fight, but are ready if one comes your way. You’re focused on the task at hand, whether it is gathering supplies or going to a town meeting your squad is ready to do what it needs to.  Multiple individuals a few hundred feet in the direction your squad is traveling expose themselves from behind cover and begin to fire their weapons at your squad. You’re squad’s training kicks in, you begin React to Contact.

React to Contact is a battle drill. A battle drill is defined as an action rapidly executed without applying a deliberate decision making process. Basically it means it is an instinctual reaction that has been engrained into your mind and body. You know what you need to do and you act immediately. Like the scenario I described above, your squad, specifically Alpha team, has been engaged by several hostile individuals to your front or 12 O’clock position. Multiple things occur all in the same instant, upon receiving hostile fire. They are: return fire, seek cover (preferably in the prone) and alert the rest of the squad to the hostile’s location by use of the 3 D’s (shout out: clock direction, distance, and description of the hostiles. This sounds like: “Twelve O’clock, 100 meters, 3 enemies behind a berm). Since Alpha team is in front of Bravo team and the hostiles are to the 12 O’clock position, only Alpha team returns fire. Bravo team will hold their fire so they do not shoot their fellow squad members in the back. Bravo team’s job is to seek cover, echo the 3 D’s, pull security to the flanks and rear, then await further instructions. Alpha team upon contact, will rapidly fire at known, likely, and suspected locations of hostiles simultaneously seeking cover and giving up the 3 D’s. When Alpha team is behind cover, generally online with one another, and engaging hostile targets, the squad leader will move up to their position. The squad leader will get eyes on the hostiles and receive a report from the Alpha team leader.  At this time Alpha team will be attempting to gain fire superiority over the hostiles.

Observing three hostiles the Alpha team leader informs the squad leader he can’t take them without Bravo team. The squad leader acknowledges and instructs the Alpha team leader to continue to suppress the enemy. The squad leader will also tell the Alpha team leader where he intends to maneuver Bravo team.  This scenario, in a moderately wooded area, has three hostile individuals about one hundred meters to the 12 O’clock position. They are lying prone and firing from behind a low berm, obscured by brush. To the squads left flank the woods become less dense and the ground slopes downward. To the squad’s right flank the ground slopes slightly upward with several large rock formations on the high ground. The squad leader likes the high ground and the possibility of using the rock formations as cover so he will be flanking to the right with Bravo team. The squad leader moves back to the rear where Bravo team is pulling security and informs them of his plan (the elapsed time from contact to now should be very short, approximately 30-40 seconds. The longer Alpha team spends slugging it out with the hostiles, the higher chances of a friendly casualty and more ammunition being expended than necessary). Bravo team gets up and follows the squad leader. He rapidly retrogrades with Bravo team back the way they came, preferably out of sight of the hostiles but remaining within hearing distance. Once he believes he has gone far enough he and Bravo team move up to the high ground far enough to turn back toward the contact and moves above the rock formations perpendicular to the hostile’s position. Alpha and Bravo teams will essentially be forming an L shape and be able to overwhelm the hostiles with fire from two directions. I have included a simple illustration for an example:

                                                                              <

                                                                   <       
                    
Hostiles                  # # #               <             Bravo Team

                                                               <

                                                                    <

Alpha Team   ^        ^        ^        ^

Once Bravo team is online perpendicular to the hostiles and are not compromised, they will begin to creep forward undetected to the last covered and concealed position in between them and the hostiles. In this case it will be the rock formations. Under the guidance of the squad leader Bravo team will open fire on the hostiles with a rapid rate of fire. After a few good seconds of a hammering the enemy position, Bravo team with begin bounding to the hostile’s fighting position. Bounding with a total of 5 personnel will consist of individual bounds. One at a time, while the other team members cover their movement with fire, each individual will bound up to the next cover. They will each stay in an imaginary “Lane” as to not stray into other team members’ covering fire. Each bound should be 3-5 seconds.  At the end of each bound the individual drops down into the prone behind cover then begins to fire on the hostiles while covering the next individual’s bound. This should be done very rapidly in succession and in specific order. Back at Alpha teams position the Alpha team leader will be watching for a shift fire signal from the squad leader who is bounding with Bravo team. The shift fire signal is a predetermined audio and or visual signal given by the bounding team, to the support by fire element, to shift their fires away from the advancing team. So in this case Bravo team is bounding from right to left as seen by Alpha team, Alpha team will be shifting their fires to the left approximately 15 degrees ( 30 degrees if using a belt fed weapon on bipod) in front of Bravo teams advance, but continue to fire. The Alpha team leader has complete control over his element and can shift the team’s fire on his own if he feels Bravo team is at 15 degrees and no shift fire signal has been given.

Once Bravo team has one bound remaining before assaulting through the objective, the squad leader will give the lift fire signal.  Alpha team will pour on an increased amount of fire onto the hostile’s position for a battlefield handover to Bravo team. After a few seconds of cyclic rate of fire Alpha team will stop firing completely. Bravo team will pick up their rate of fire once Alpha team has lifted fire in order to compensate for the reduced volume of fire on the hostile’s position. Bravo team will make the last bound and then collectively get up approximately 35 meters before the hostiles and assault through the objective. Remaining generally online and staying in their individual lanes, Bravo team will quickly move through the hostiles fighting position shooting any armed individuals and clearing any rifles that are found. Once Bravo team has cleared through and has taken up defensive positions 35 meters past the hostile’s fighting position, Alpha team will also pick up and assault through the hostiles fight position. They too will take up defensive positions.

At that point, while maintaining security, execute a 100% check on men, weapons and equipment. This is to ensure everyone, their weapons, and gears are accounted for. Any friendly or hostile casualties can be treated at this time. It would be best to check the bodies for identification to use in notifying any local authorities that may still exist. React to Contact seems difficult and confusing but when actually put to practice it is rather simple. This is only one way it can be done and there are many alterations that can be made. Once the concept is concrete in your mind you can take that base of knowledge and adjust this battle drill to fit the situation. More information can be found in FM 7-8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad Chapter 4 Battle Drills and in the SH-21-76 the Ranger Handbook Chapter 6 Battle Drills.

In no way is this article comprehensive or exhaustive on small unit tactics. This barely scratches the surface on the specific tactics I described alone. This article was meant for individuals who may not have considered these things as an important subcategory of their overall survival education. Like I have said several times in my article there are many ways to do the same thing when it comes to small unit tactics. If you master the basics you know all there is to know. In reality there are no advanced small unit tactics. The idea again, is to master the basics so you can operate within a framework of knowledge and modify these tactics to suit your needs and the situation. I urge you to take this seriously because there will be no cavalry that swoops in and saves you at the last second. There will be no “That was a close one!” Either they will die, or you will. It will come down to who is better trained. Survival is most likely when risk is mitigated to the highest degree. I say most likely because it is impossible to avoid risk entirely. Risk mitigation in order to survive can come in many forms. Preparing for all possible situations or difficulties that may arise is the preferred method for survival. I say all of this to emphasize that all facets of preparation are necessary in the full spectrum of survival. Learning to fight as a unit is just one more skilled needed for TEOTWAWKI.

JWR Adds: Learning military tactics could indeed prove crucial, depending on the severity of WTSHTF. However, keep in mind that standard military doctrine is far more aggressive and risky than would be appropriate for most foreseeable situations faced by survivalists. Keep in mind that military tactics are geared toward offensively, boldly, and rapidly taking and then holding ground, while at the same time incurring “acceptable losses.” It also assumes that advanced medical care is available rapidly via helicopter Medevac. Modern military organizations also have the advantage of helmets and Interceptor Body Armor (IBA) being available for every soldier. Your mileage may vary substantially. (As a survivalist, your tactical concerns will more likely be primarily defensive, less hurried, and with a premium placed on minimizing casualties.)

Also, keep in mind that unless you are sitting on a stockpile of a lifetime supply of ammunition, then the typical military “suppressive fire” doctrine will probably be either out of the question, or curtailed substantially.

I recommend modifying military tactics to suit your particular circumstances. Typically, this would mean operating with less speed, greater stealth, and an emphasis on camouflage. Also, depending on circumstances, it would also mean conservation of precious ammunition and pyrotechnics.

Under current U.S. Army doctrine, there is just one Squad Designated Marksman (SDM) per squad. But for TEOTWAWKI, I would advocate having as many as three per squad, especially in open terrain. That will increase your standoff distance and hence minimize friendly casualties. I would also recommend having every member of your patrol wear full ghillie suits in all but the hottest weather.

The bottom line: When you are out patrolling with members of your own family, then the concept of “acceptable losses” takes on a whole new meaning.