Pellet Rifle Hunting, by D.M.

Due to financial circumstances I found myself living out of the back of my pick-up for several months on public lands in South West mostly BLM and NF mostly. Just before setting out I sold most of my belongings in a yard sale that netted me just over $800 dollars. This money would have to be rationed wisely over the summer, most went for fuel. Don’t think I did not look for work anywhere I could, what I found was it was depleting my resources with no results. I finally moved onto public lands with the idea of hunting, fishing and gold panning (which did payoff) until the economy started to make a come back.

On my first trip into Wal-Mart to get supplies, mostly rice, beans, tea, flour and so forth, I made my way into the sporting goods section. What I found shocked me, .22 ammo had almost doubled in price since the last time I purchased some, not to mention the shelf was almost empty, I ended up with 100 rounds of CCI Hollow Point. While walking around I came across the Pellet and BB gun supplies, since I had my Crossman 2100 Classic pump in the truck I decided to purchase some BBs for plinking around camp. 

My first couple of weeks was spent near a small spring (more like a seep) and I think it was the only water for miles. Every morning and evening it was frequented by all the game in the area, dove, quail, rabbits and so on. While plinking the the first evening with my Crossman 2100 a group of birds was making their way down to the water, I jumped up and slowly made my way to the water hole . Once there I got myself into position and awaited in ambush for their arrival.  They finally made their way into the open and I picked off two of them with only six pumps of power, it shoots a lot quieter that way. That night the feast was on, from that point on it was in my hands everywhere I went.

Over the entire summer it became the SOP to scout the area for small game while checking my various snares, dead falls and to my mining spot. That BB gun put at least 70% of the meat on the spit over my fire throughout the summer. The only time I considered my .22 was when the Javelins where in the area and or deer and yes a well placed shot will drop either one if one was in a survival situation. 

After returning from the field and taking up Tee Pee living now, I have given it a lot of thought after reading Rawles’s novel “Patriots” and what I have on hand. A Pellet gun as a true survival weapon and here are my conclusions. Living in the field for a while really proved out my gear, sadly and expensively most fell to the way side but the Crossman 2100 turned out to be an unlikely sleeper candidates for one my personal top 10 gear awards! Here is my rationale:
1. Reliability, it never failed me and I went through half of my 6,000 BBs in the container at an average of 6 pumps per shot = 18,000 pumps. I oiled the seal once a week. Before pursuing this adventure my guess would be my kids put 50,000 plus rounds through this gun and that would be a conservative estimate.
2. Accuracy, what I found out after about 500 or so shots was I was no longer consciously using the sights within 25 yards and that is where 90% of the critters were bagged.
3. Handling, this is an area it really shinned. Weighing only 5# loaded with a couple hundred BBs it was a joy to tote everywhere. Another plus is the Crossman 2100 Classic in configured to real gun dimensions and handles as such. Pumping becomes unnoticeable and more like a second nature type thing.
4. Critter “bagability”. Before reading on, please read your State’s game laws on hunting with a pellet gun. I believe we are all here for the same reason and that is to share ideas and experiences that will better our quality of life in a TEOTWAWKI situation. So with that said, birds @50 yards, rabbits cleanly @30 yards, turkey’s @25 yards with head shot and 10 pumps, raccoons and skunks @10 yards with 10 pumps and head shot, squirrels cleanly @25 yards with head shot. This one area a pump rifle really shines is 5 to 6 pumps on birds and 10 pumps on bigger stuff, having variable power is a nice plus. Speaking of variable power 3 and four pumps bagged numerous large lizards and monster grasshoppers for the spit also! Here I should also mention a BB does almost no damage to the meat at all no matter where it hits. 
5. Stealth, many times I hunted near primitive campground areas without raising an eyebrow and most often if you missed you get a second shot.
6. Tactical trainers. After returning from the field and switching back to my AR-15, M1A, and my [Ruger] 10/22 I noticed my shooting skills had become quite honed. Everything from muscle memory of bringing my weapons to shoulder, breathing and trigger control and an instinctive sight picture was ingrained. Even just overall handling and field manipulation was enhanced.
7. Which type of air rifle? 
In a survival situation I would not want a single stroke type rifle for several reasons: 
a. Excessive power and report
b. Excessive weight
c. Their limitation of shooting only pellets. (I mostly shot BBs. I used pellets only on bigger game.)
d. Not sure how one would service in the field

CO2-powered air rifles are also a “NO GO” just because of the need for CO2 cartridges! 

I think a good pump air rifle in the best option for practical long term survival in the field . I like the Crossman 2100 because it handles and looks like a real gun and later translates the muscle memory to my big guns! I have since replaced the seals only because I want it to keep on ticking and I also got an extra set and put them in the butt stock. It does have a couple of cons one being it is has a susceptibility to altitude, the higher up the more you have to pump. Next is the cold has a similar affect as altitude and vise versa they shot hotter in the heat. Take time to learn your guns quirks, mine took two extra pumps early in the morning in compared to the mid day heat.    

At the Fort, I get to sit out on my back porch and plink almost every evening and when I want to bag a squirrel or quail for dinner, I crack a window and shoot from a position back in a room for tactical practice. In the winter I practice a lot of different shooting positions in the house. Breathing and trigger control are the main focuses. Using the Crossman has worked out so well for training purposes, I have since purchased a Airsoft Model 1911A1 look alike pistol for indoor CQB practice.

Modifications I would recommend on a air rifle:
a. Take it apart and become familiar with all the parts and clean up all sharp edges in the process.
b. Use a pull thru type cable and use some Flitz to polish the barrel, this really enhanced the accuracy on mine. [JWR Adds: Beware of using abrasive bore cleaners. I recommend using mild bore cleaners and patches, and taking plenty of time, rather than trying to rush the job . Also, be very careful to carefully to keep the cleaning rod aligned, especially as the rod tip enters or leaves the muzzle. That last two inches of rifling is crucial to good accuracy.]
c. In the buttstock I store an extra set of seals, roll pins, rear sight elevation blade, and my cleaning kit with some Remington Gun Oil.
d. I painted mine with Coyote Brown Dura-Coat after coming back from the field.
e. If I were to put any kind of optic on it, I would choose a Bushnell Trophy TRS 25 Red Dot, they have a 3,000 hour battery life. Many times in the field I wished I had something for dusk type situations. 

The Cost! The Crossman 2100 Classic retails for $62.99 and can probably be purchased on the web for less. With the countless hours spent on mine I can’t think of a more fun or less expensive way to bag some critters and get weapons manipulation practice.

In my ammo tests, BBs were my preferred ammo due to cost and availability. With BBs I can shoot a 1″ group @25 yards, but that is with shooting on a daily basis. Pellets only give me more accuracy at longer ranges say @50 yards and have much better penetration which is required on bigger stuff. My preferred pellets are Beeman Crow Magnums, they hit really hard and I have bagged several Jackrabbits with 50 yard head shots.   

Did I mention the general public and LEOs pay almost no attention to an individual with a BB gun?

Earlier I wrote about cooking over a fire. After all the stories from people “living” out there on public lands, they said their number one problem was Rangers and LEOs and most of it stemmed from having a camp fire. Most of the west gets shut down in what they call the fire season with good reason. (Idiots who don’t know how to clear a fire ring and tend a campfire safely.) All of my fires were made in a Scout pit and extinguished immediately after use. I lived as if were behind enemy lines. Some would say it’s a SOP in a TEOTWAWKI situation, but I say it’s here already. What I mean is this country is not the way I knew it and one’s preps should be geared as such!

Letter From David in Israel Re: Solar Storms

James
There was a bit of excitement when we flew the Earth through this last coronal mass ejection (CME) it might be useful for people to understand how the 1859 event was set up to cause such a powerful hit as well as its effects on Earth.

The 1859 Carrington [CME] Event was a very rare perfect storm in space where sci-fi type examples are probably the best language to illustrate what happened.

The sun is a big bubbling liquid death star, it can spew and splash at times with great power. Since we orbit the sun and it has its own spin the plasma splashes will project outward from wherever the solar surface event occurred. Since there is aim involved the “death star” has to be pointed at us, otherwise it just makes an interesting event for solar observatories.

The second factor in a perfect storm is shielding, just like you imagine with the fictional starship USS Enterprise. The first shielding the Earth gets is the existing low speed solar wind. This slow moving plasma literally creates a traffic jam around the sun. A big CME can push this out of the way but it expends much of its energy to do this. The late August 1859 CME knocked the path clear of the low energy/speed solar plasma.

With the way swept cleared by the late August CMEs the early September events were able move at full speed against the earths magnetosphere, our secondary shields in only 18 hours moving at over half a million miles an hour!

Once the high energy plasma strike arrives and sweeps across the earths magnetic field it acts like a a magnet waved across a coil of wire in your third grade science class, electrical current is produced. Any antenna long enough to receive this quasi-DC wave this will resonantly couple and a current will be detectable on the antenna, just like when we receive radio signals, the longer the antenna the better the electrical capture.

To conclude with the abstract science there needs to be a line up of several events to get an 1859 type event affecting you.
1- Sun has to eject a CME directly into the path of the Earth
2- The pathway has to be cleared of low speed plasma, probably by an earlier CME
3- Your electronics must have connection to wiring, pipe, structural conductors, or antennas which will resonate on the longer frequencies a CME produces

The two biggest EMF concerns I read on SurvivalBlog are for automobile ignition and electrical systems and broadcast radio receivers although my greatest concern is for the power grid.

Since it is literally not directly our problem but that of the utility companies we do not much discuss the power grid preps which are now part of the engineering standard for grid power components like transformers. The phone system has been surprisingly well prepared since the 1960s. Gas and oil companies and utilities do a good job of grounding their pipelines. Many parts of the power grid will be disabled in an 1859 event but most components will likely not explode in an flaming explosion, and could be repaired once the manpower is available. I would expect social problems in some areas especially where people feel disenfranchised should the power go out so expect infringement on your civil rights.

Cars and trucks should fare reasonably well since their wire runs are protected by the metal body(exception is plastic and fiberglass body cars) and the runs to vital engine components are mostly less than a meter, a bit short to induce much voltage from EMP/CME versus the energy they must survive every day from startup voltage spikes and induced voltage from the ignition spark system. I question the wisdom of switching over to a points and condenser system for a survival vehicle. I owned many older vehicles in high school and college this may have been a GM problem but wetness in western Oregon off-=road driving always ended up damping out my distributor and required popping the cap and spraying down with WD-40 to displace the water and get running right. Once I installed an HEI (high voltage electronic ignition) system I never had to worry or adjust it beyond timing, my survival escape vehicle would have been at risk were the point dwell out of tune, wear out, or I were to cross water, not so with the replacement HEI system.

Many people speak of having only tube radios for survival should there be an EMP attack. Tubes are fragile and have a very high power demand, but they are very much fun for hobby purposes so I have some tube powered gear myself. If there were an EMP or CME event your tubes would almost surely survive as the inert gases inside the tubes would ionize becoming conductive and allow the high voltage to pass right through just like a neon bulb. A tube radio has other components which are sensitive to damage, I would suspect that some kinds of capacitors and diodes especially on old antique radios would blow in a very high electromagnetic field environment. It is worth noting that the solid state PRC-77 had a higher EMP rating than the similar vacuum tube-equipped PRC-25. There are things you can do with your home electronics like proper grounding, using high quality power line power protectors, using properly rated gas discharge dissipaters on all transmission and antenna lines, and of course disconnecting power, cable television, telephone, and antenna lines during any event. Metal pipes, pipelines, electrical fences, and other long conductors can be sneaky paths for unwanted induced electrical current to enter your home and equipment.

So what to do about CME and EMP emergencies? Prioritize this emergency and the amount of money and work you budget for it against other events of varying likelihood. Earthquakes, economic upheaval, invasion, civil war, energy shortage, mismanagement and misallocation of resources, epidemic, neighbor has a homicidal intent, home burglary, or your driveway is covered in a mudslide and the power lines are knocked down. Some of these are more exciting in a Hollywood action movie way and thus more fun to prepare for, some preps make you more vulnerable to other emergencies. Use a systematic approach using researched and documented information and not just folk wisdom and hearsay for planning your preparations; don’t get caught up in emotions like unreasonable fear or fantasies of becoming the regional sheriff or strongman leader.
Shalom, – David in Israel

Odds ‘n Sods:

“Millerized” sent this: Russia to halt wheat export. And reader L.L. sent this: Why Russia’s Heatwave Means Higher U.S. Food Prices. I predict this will start a chain reaction, around the globe. Other nations are sure to follow suit with export restrictions, and futures prices will soar. We can expect food riots in the future. There is also some likely inflation in other grain prices, as cattle feed is shifted slightly, to compensate. Get your wheat orders in with a trustworthy vendor pronto, before the inevitable prices increases hit the retail level! Wheat prices could double again, before December.

Jim D. highlighted this astounding news story: U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers. Jim D’s comment: “We borrow money from the Chinese to train Sri Lankan citizens to take our jobs. We’re such idiots.

Charles Hugh Smith spells it out: Why Japan Is Doomed (and the U.S. and E.U., too): Demographics, Low Savings, Ballooning Debt. (A hat tip to David W. for the link.)

Speaking of Japan, reader L.L. forwarded this: Japan’s Cheap Debt Could Cost the World Dearly.

Keith O. suggested this article over at Total Investor: Rising pork bellies prices hit all-time high.

This comes as no surprise: City [of Chicago] bond rating downgraded. Thanks to our own G.G. for the link.

Odds ‘n Sods:

John H. mentioned an interactive election results map from 2008 that was designed to show political differences, but with its population density slider it also makes a great tool for visualizing potential retreat locales. You can zoom in on each state. It is fascinating to fiddle with this!

   o o o

RFJ sent this: Navy Flier Dieter Dengler’s Great Escape During The Vietnam War. OBTW, I highly recommend Dengler’s book Escape From Laos.

   o o o

Brute mentioned this Gizmodo article: Inside AT&T’s National Disaster Recovery Batcave: Who AT&T Calls When the Death Star Explodes

   o o o

A reader in Texas wrote to report that a pipeline broke in Weatherford Texas, leaving 28,000 people without water for a few days, with temperatures over 100 degrees outside.
General chaos ensued.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Nothing so cements and holds together all the parts of a society as faith or credit, which can never be kept up unless men are under some force or necessity of honestly paying what they owe to one another." – Cicero

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) 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 $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Facing Fears to G.O.O.D., by Prairie Chick

This article is my personal story of how some early childhood lessons helped me G.O.O.D. from Southern California in June of 1994.   I have added a few links using today’s technology, but advise you to plan on keeping things as low-tech as possible.   I traveled half way across the country in 1994.  I was a single woman with a ten year old child, no cell phone or gun.  W.T.S.H.T.F. you may not be able to get as far as we did as fast was we did, but by learning to face your fears, and being prepared, you will eventually get to where you need to be, even if it isn’t where you planned.

Growing up poor on the South Dakota prairie in the 1960s, I learned to survive with very little.  When my parents relocated to Orange County, California in 1972 it came in handy.  For the first time in my life, my parents had money.  Both my parents also worked for the first time and when I turned fifteen I began roaming the streets on my brand new 1977 Peugeot 103 moped.   I kept trying to find open sky and usually never stopped until I hit the beach.  There I learned from the Mexican fishermen and locals to forage for clams, fish off the pier, observe people and snorkel.  I put over 200,000 miles on that moped before it died three years later and I began practicing my mechanical skills on my 1966 Plymouth Belvedere with a slant six.  That car would never have had any issues with an EMP event.

A voracious reader with straight A grades, I was bored stiff, and soon after getting the moped I began ditching school.  When I turned sixteen I was finally able to get a job and with more spare change I began paying rent, and became really good friends with some of the panhandlers on the boardwalk.  They taught me who to watch out for, how to stay safe on the city streets and they watched my back because I watched theirs.  The streets in Southern California were much safer back in the seventies but very important lesson about fear, learned on the prairie kept me safer on the city streets than some of my peers. 

My father and grandfather taught me to hunt, fish, start and tend fires and to stay warm and dry even in a snow bank, by the time I was ten.   During summer stays at my grandparents’ house, chores and personal roaming taught me to recognize and avoid threatening situations and I soon learned who I could trust.  I was taught to walk like I had somewhere to go, but also to stay concealed when I had to.  I was also taught to not be afraid of people because they were different.  My grandfather had many Dakota friends who lived on the nearby reservation.  These experiences and learning not so show visible fear also helped convince others they could safely follow me into and out of trouble.  I had learned by example and experience to trust my gut, not to believe everything I was told or saw the first time and to ask myself how something worked the way it did.  That led to a great self-confidence, and even if I was afraid I would fail, I never allowed it to show. 

Learning at an early age the importance of never showing or allowing myself to be crippled by my fears, helped me gain respect.  I also know that it made me a much tougher prey.   Even in a small town I quickly learned that bullies control by fear and intimidation.  Several times I watched bullies back down when confronted by the perception that were not as are not as frightening to me as they thought they were.    That said, self defense classes also taught me how to fight dirty, move out of the way, or escape and hide if I had to. 

After I dropped out of high school, my filing, typing and bookkeeping skills and positive “I can do it or will figure it out” attitude got me a job as a receptionist.  Within two years I became the office manager of a union electrical contractor in a really bad part of town.   My boss, who was fourteen years old when the stock market crashed in 1929, began getting buckets of gold coins delivered to the office during the 1981 gold bull market. 

His explanation of how his personal wealth and ability to purchase physical gold, finally made it possible to manage his fear of another stock market crash, reinforced my grandfathers lessons and with the price of gold as high as it is today, I think about him often.  Like my grandfather, he was also never afraid to try something new and mastering that IBM 8080, the first ever PC, I talked him into purchasing gave me problem solving and employable skills I use today.  These lessons taught me that knowledge is my best tool over fear.  If I really know what is happening and why it is happening, it doesn’t seem like such an insurmountable task.

In 1983, to be as financially independent as possible, and wanting a bucket of gold of my own, I got my G.E.D.  With my boss’s blessing, I started my own bookkeeping business on the side and he helped me gain some clients.  I also talked to my grandfather about how he had earned extra cash to support his family.  He then told me the story of how he hunted skunks to earn a dollar a pelt to buy flour, clothes and other things they couldn’t grow or catch themselves.  

The earliest photograph I have of my father is of his parents and four siblings in front of a one-room tarpaper shack on a South Dakota slough in 1943.  This picture made such an impression on me when I first found it, after a trip back to visit my grandfather in 1989; I hung it on my office wall.  With a hammer, a saw, a few dollars, and supplies, my grandfather and his brothers and their skills built a one-room house.  That my grandparents and four children survived two South Dakota winters with no running water or electricity in that shack continues to amaze and inspire me to not be afraid of surviving wherever I find myself. 

After grandpa’s death in the winter of 1996, I asked my father if he remembered more about the skunk story.  My dad told me that at the age of six, he was the one who had to crawl inside of the culvert pipe to lay the traps.  Before and after school, in all kinds of weather, he would also have to pull the stake chain and traps out when they caught one.  According to my father, road culverts are prime trapping territory and the more he did it the less afraid he got.  My grandfather, his uncles and brothers, would get together and fry up the skunks and collect the rendered skunk oil.  They in turn would get another $1 for each gallon sold to the perfume makers as “civet cat” musk oil.   It is also very good to add to varnish for treating and preserving wood.

Practice was not the only reason he was not afraid to do this.  From the time he was able to walk, he was following his father around, watching, trying and learning how to do different things in all kinds of weather.  He was not sheltered and protected from everything by technology or his parents.  I have not needed to trap anything since I moved back, but I have a greased foothold trap in a cloth bag, in my T.E.O.T.W.A.W.K.I. storage closet and know how to use it, just in case. 

In 1986 I toyed with the idea of leaving Southern California but was afraid to think I couldn’t cut it in the big city.  I was afraid of what my peers and grandpa would think.  When I found a dog-eared copy of Calvin Rutstrum’s instruction book, The Wilderness Cabin at a yard sale, the summer before, seeds planted in from childhood stories began to sprout.

On the isolated South Dakota prairies, there aren’t very many trees and you have to learn about the weather and how to see bad storms coming.  If you are prepared, like my parents and grandparents and most rural South Dakotans are, you plant large trees to protect yourself from the north wind and your house has a storm/root cellar or basement to hang out in when things get dangerous.   In Southern California we didn’t have to worry about tornados but had an earthquake barrel with three days worth of supplies and knew how to duck, cover and shut off the gas lines. 

I began planning in earnest in 1992.   The spring morning I woke up to news that Los Angeles was on fire, I realized earthquakes were the least of my worries as a parent.  I watched the violence for six days before authorities got things under control.  I realized that the only way to protect myself and my daughter from man made storms like the Rodney King Riots was to G.O.O.D. and my fear of being thought a failure by my peers was not as important as survival. 

Most of my friends and relatives thought I was nuts.  One client, when he found out what I was doing, asked me if I was running away from the IRS.   A client who had turned me onto Atlas Shrugged the fall before the riots got it.  My grandfather and father understood, but not too many other people did.  Knowing it had to be done and showing no fear, I laid off the housekeeper.  Over the next two years I cut my expenses as far as I could, sold my business, house, furniture, business suits and other excess accoutrements of big city life. 

I put all my favorite books, heirlooms and what I thought I had to keep, in storage to be shipped the month after we arrived at my grandfather’s house.  He had died the winter before and I was planning on buying his house from the estate, when we got there.   We rented a bedroom from a lady for a couple of months before we packed our car and left for the prairies of South Dakota.  Two weeks before we were going to leave, I called the city office to get the water turned on and found out that one of my father’s brothers, unbeknownst to the executors of the estate had sold the house to pay off a business debt of his. Note to self:  Never give an open-dated, general power of attorney to someone you think can be trusted.   

Because I had a plan, and several backup plans, I wasn’t afraid.  We had money, we had time and knew I could get myself out of most situations I found myself in.  With six highway maps, campground information and several alternate routes planned and provided by the AAA Automobile Club, and double checked by me, we packed our car and left the day after my daughter finished 3rd grade. 

Even before I found SurvivalBlog and learned about B.O.B.s I had been taught to be sure I had all we needed to survive and to always have several contingency plans.  We had a tent, pillows, quilts, canned and dried food for a month, ten gallons of water, hermetically sealed milk, juice boxes, clothes, cooking utensils, rain gear, some small hand and car tools, Goldie the goldfish, fish flakes, traveler’s checks and cash.   The two gold coins I had first purchased back in 1982 from my boss, were in my blue jeans pocket and knew I had more stored away.  I left the fears I had about my daughter’s safety behind me and the family feud in the hands of my father and infuriated aunt. 

The trip was over 1,900 miles, and as my father had done it before, I knew it could be driven in less than 40 hours if need be.  I had done it in three days once when I drove back by myself.  We didn’t need to drive straight through and we stayed away from people as much as we could.  Taking it slow enabled me to begin my daughter’s survival lessons and to figure out how to deal with the housing situation.    We dealt with a deep shin cut at the Grand Canyon, foraged wood, tinder, and some wild strawberries in Utah, started fires and cooked in downpours, and 40 mph winds.  After talking with my great-uncle, one of my grandfather’s friends and the local mayor, I knew we would have a place to live before the snow flew.  The small community welcomed us home and even though we later relocated, we still keep in touch. 

My fondest memory of the experience happened the day after we arrived.  My daughter and I had walked the few blocks uptown from the city park where we had camped to get our forwarded mail.    When we got back I realized we had forgotten to get milk.  I handed my daughter a five and told her to go get a gallon of milk and a treat for herself at the store next to the post office while I cooked her lunch.  Never having been allowed to walk anywhere alone in ten years, with wide eyes she asked me, “By myself?”  She eventually learned many of the lessons my grandfather taught me and is now teaching my grandchildren to face and conquer their fears.   

Letter Re: Lessons About Survival From Fiction

Hello,
I’ve been reading and enjoying SurvivalBlog for about one month now. First of all, thank you for the time and effort you put into this great resource!
I enjoy reading fiction and especially science-fiction, so a few of the references listed there were familiar. Many aren’t and have no chance of being available at the local library, here in France. However, most of those I did recognise were about dramatic SHTF scenarios, while you and many others have emphasised the likeliness of a “Slow Decline” situation.

Two novels that I have read describe precisely this kind of lifestyle: they are “Parable of the Sower ” from Octavia E. Butler, and to a lesser extend its sequel, “Parable of the Talents.” The first one focuses on many interesting themes such as: Neighbourhood small walled communities, unexpected food-gathering sources from local resources, getting friends to maintain a BOB, OPSEC while a refugee, high-priced utility services, corruption and ineffectiveness of public services, and so on. The second one could be a fine example of religious persecution (no matter what the religion in question is, even if the protagonists here have their own beliefs!), importance of keeping “useless” legal records, slow economy recovery, remote location farming, OPSEC and selling on local markets, etc.

A few examples come to mind:
– The community where the main character grew up attracts burglary after one of the neighbours decides to sell some of his rabbit meat outside the community.
– A large chain of high-priced stores sells everything you may need, literally beans, bullets, and Band-Aids, in facilities with stringent security measures in and around. Anyone who can lay out the cash can access, shop, and retreat in a large radius in peace.
– The farm has “reinforced natural fences” with many thorny bushes and extensive razor wire, but these are easily overcome once a well-armed and decided group takes over with fire and trucks. (A reader recently send an entry recommending bushes as a security measure, it obviously wouldn’t stand up to determined assailants. Fuel for trucks might not be available, but the Romans invented the Turtle formation thousands of years ago, and medieval castles were taken over with little more technology.)
– Acorn bread is a staple in the community, yet if it hadn’t been for one smart character with a book about local plants eaten by the natives, the oak trees would have been cut for wood and gardening.
– The protagonists try to get used and dirty items for BOB and travel bags, even using a pillowcase, to avoid attracting attention from on-road looters.
– despite the dire situation compared to ours, people don’t see and refuse to think about SHTF. They grow resentful about the person trying to get them prepared, and she can only try to get them to thing about “earthquake preparation kits.”

I was expecting this to be a small note, but it nearly turned into its own novel. – Frenchy

JWR Replies: Thanks for your comments. Your English is excellent. There can indeed be some useful information woven into fiction. It is noteworthy that there are a lot of people who refuse to read nonfiction survival manuals, but who eagerly read fiction, or that will at least watch a movie on DVD. That is one of the reasons why I wrote my novel “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse”. I recommend that you look for an original French edition of the novel Malevil, by Robert Merle. Malevil is a post-nuke science fiction novel that sold well in both French and English editions. OBTW, in addition to the book and movie recommendations at The SurvivalBlog Bookshelf page, please refer to this blog post from October, 2009: Poll Results: SurvivalBlog Reader’s Favorite Survivalist Fiction.

Two Letters Re: Solar Storms

Dear Jim,
Regarding the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) that occurred this week that everyone is concerned about. I advise some caution in over-reacting to these types of events. While the CME itself was of a very high magnitude and is spectacular in images, it was never anticipated that it would cause us any problems. Predictions for auroral activity were only in the high latitudes, and auroral activity is a dead-giveaway as to how strong the impact on the ground will be.

The spectacular images we have all seen over the last week immediately told me we had nothing to be concerned about. The CME was silhouetted against dark space; meaning the majority of the CME was pointed away from earth out into space. It’s the less spectacular images we should be concerned about, when the CME occurs directly facing the earth with only the sun’s surface in the background.

The fact that we are still climbing out of solar minimum also saved us. 1. The normal background solar wind was low to begin with. 2. Flares around minimum occur at high latitudes on the sun, meaning there is a much greater change the bulk of the CME will miss us. As solar maximum increases sunspots and CMEs begin to concentrate around the sun’s equator, giving them a much high chance of being directed towards us.

If this particular CME had been pointing towards us we would have been in big trouble, there’s no doubt about that. But there has certainly been a big beat-up by the media over this event which has scared a lot of people. As we all know, you can’t rely on the media for accurate scientific or emergency information, and in this case they were mostly concerned about how good this event looked in print.

The next time there is a large CME most people are going to be saying “look at the last one, it was a flop”, however each event needs to be judged according to the facts. While it looked pretty, this was just a space storm in a teacup.

I advise anyone concerned about these issues to register for Space Weather Alerts with spaceweather.com. You can even have the alerts sent to your mobile, although there is usually a few day’s warning until the CME reaches Earth (could help if you are camping or overseas at the time). At the very least it will give you a heads-up when to watch for aurora. Where I come from (near Sydney, Australia) aurora are an extremely rare treat that you will only see if you have advanced warning and the CME was large enough and pointed directly at us. It’s those “low latitude” aurora events we need to be concerned about.

This event should be used as a warning to the unprepared. Space happens, do get ready for it. Regards, David R.

 

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your note on solar storms on Tuesday. I definitely did an “oh shibitsk” and instead of spending the next 2 hours reading the Internet like I always do I stopped and jumped into action. I immediately took the opportunity to run a “what if” scenario in my head and realized I was no longer where I had been in my prepping. I spent the rest of the day running around town and getting my “stuff” back to where it should be.

In the last couple of months as I’ve read your blog I’ve taken notes of various people writing in with a story regarding running disaster scenarios or being put in brief situations where all of the sudden they are in a mini TEOTWAWKI. The writers would note that part of their discovery was that various elements in their GOOD bag or BOB bag were no longer there because they had dipped into them for whatever reason and found themselves having to run around and look for the item. This is exactly what happened to me yesterday, just in a larger scale than I had realized. It was a little alarming and drove home the need to get more serious with my discipline about my prep work and not dip into stuff. I had managed to unprep my prepping.

Although in my head it is a little understandable how I had gotten into this situation but it was still so not OK. I don’t know how many time yesterday I muttered at myself dumb dumb, stupid. If I had to go with where I was at yesterday morning I would have been in some serious trouble. The stupid part was that I had been in a good place with all the prep work but because I had become lax in my discipline I had wound up putting myself in danger. Fortunately your “heads up” yesterday woke me up and spurred me into action and I had the time to rectify the situation.

I got lax in my discipline because my life took a major turn in May. I was laid off from work after 12 years with the company (I got replaced by a $3 million computer system). Although I received almost a year’s worth of severance and pay outs and had savings to keep me “good” for almost 2 years it changed my daily routine and spending habits. This change then resulted in me dipping into my prep “stuff” and not keeping it as organized as it had been. I will take ya through my day yesterday so hopefully others can realize how easy it is to unprep yourself and how incredibly important it is to maintain our disciplines.

My first stop was the gas station. I had less than 1/4 tank in my truck and had been dipping into my stored gas for the last three months for various yard chores and projects. I had three more new gas cans still sitting empty since I had purchased them. I had shuffled them around for months always noting I need to fill them up but just hadn’t gotten around to it. Dumb! If this had been the real thing I would have been in a bad way. A lot of good it does to have a generator but no gas.

Next stop was the bank. I had less than a thousand dollars on hand. For months instead of going and getting more cash from the bank I just kept dipping into my “prep cash” until it had dwindled down to a lower level than I would have been comfortable with. Of note; the bank seemed “fussy” about withdrawing more than a thousand bucks. I wound up having to go inside instead of just going to the drive through. Seemed to take a while. Fortunately, since I am into Numismatics I have a lot of pre-1964 silver coins around the house.

Next was the hardware store. Again I had become really lax in my disciplines. My propane tanks were dangerously low because I just kept using them without getting them refilled in a timely manner. I had kept telling myself I would deal with it tomorrow. My white gas situation was the same. I picked up the lumber, wire and other tools I had been meaning to do for months.

Then I headed to Costco. This was one of my biggest dumb dumb of all. I had gotten into the bad habit of just “borrowing” a couple of the stored can goods and supplies with the intention that I would replace them “tomorrow”. Because I no longer had an income coming in and needed to change my spending habits I had made a point to stay away from the stores and get used to getting by on a lot less. Only partially successful, I got used to spending less but got dumb with the “borrowing” from my stores. Over three months I found I had “borrowed” myself almost to the state of being unprepped. This also helped me realize the items I had not stored enough of because if I had borrowed my way through them in 3 months where would I be at if TEOTWAWKI lasted for 6-12 months. I have a lot of freeze dried and MREs I had not touched and assumed with these I was in good shape. I reevaluated. Many carts and dollars latter I filled the back of my truck and headed to the next stop.

The sporting goods store. Although I had spent the summer off doing more training at the gun range and getting comfortable with my firearms I had not replaced the spent ammo. This wound up taking quite a few trips to various stores because its not like you can just walk in and buy the kind and quantities you want. Low inventories or no inventory of certain calibers. I had acquired my stores over a period of time and had not really taken note of the available inventory. I picked up mantles, fishing bait and more line, little propane bottles, and various other odds and ends I had used up.

Yesterday wound up being an expensive day but I was not done yet. When I got back to the house I continued running the “what if” scenario and found that I would not be ready to go if I need to. Too many things had gotten out of their original place. The GOOD bag was on the floor of the spare bed room with the items scattered here and there from the last time I dug into it to “borrow” whatever. Same with the medical kit. My truck was no longer packed and ready to go as it had been. As I wandered around the house and out buildings I found the same to be true in too many cases. I spent the rest of the day and am still repacking, inventorying, and resetting all my previous prep work, as well as, finishing doing all the little things I had meant to do but never quite got around to.

It was and is an awesome valuable lesson. Thanks for the heads up! On a good note…I have not spent the summer just sitting around using up stuff but have taken the opportunity to expand other forms of prepping. I finally had the time to explore and practice basic skills that some would take for granted but that I was lacking in. I’ve also spent the time simplifying my life and getting back to the “old ways” of doing things. It also gave me the time to spend in the garden and expand my self-reliance. I also spent the time exploring the area I live in on foot to take note of available resources such as all the wild plants that could be used for food or medicinal purposes. I live by a river and there is an abundance of naturally growing vegetation and I have been devouring books on identification and practical uses.

One of the areas I realized I had taken for granted was water. I have lived by a river for 22 years and have a well with the ground water just being 12 ft. down. I had in my previous prep work stored water for drinking because I’ve spent a lot of time in the back country and filtering pints of water day after day is not that fun. One of serious dumb dumb I discovered yesterday was that I had used a lot of my stored distilled drinking water for the aquarium because it was easier than having to deal with all the chemicals and expensive test strips needed to make tap water safe for aquarium fish. I’ll actually be semi-glad when the fish finally die on their own and I can shut down the aquariums. So, although I did spend the last 3 months seriously advancing some parts of my preparations I got a little too lax in other areas. It is so easy to just borrow or dip into, just this once, into our stores of goods while telling ourselves I’ll replace it tomorrow or the next time I go to town. I chose to take your “heads up” as a “what if” it were now–right this second. It seriously opened my eyes.

Thanks & Take care, – Skylar

Odds ‘n Sods:

Tamara at the View From The Porch blog had a link to a good article about low-light marksmanship training: A Shot in the Dark.

   o o o

“Robo” sent us a piece that illustrates how our privacy is shrinking: Hacker tries to read a radio identification tag from 29 floors up. Meanwhile, we read: The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets. (Thanks to AmEx, for the latter link.)

   o o o

Trent H. flagged this article in The Boston Globe: Popularity of farming soars in Massachusetts.

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E.M.B.sent us the link to this terrorism map. It certainly illustrates the wisdom of locating in lightly-populated rural areas.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” – Robert Woodruff (President Ronald Wilson Reagan had this quote posted on his desk at the White House)

Economics and Investing:

Chris G. mentioned: ACTA: The War on Progress, Freedom, and Human Civilization

An interesting piece over at The Daily Bell: Why Bankers Didn’t See Collapse.

Frequent contributor K.A.F. says: “States are taking on more debt. Here’s your state’s burden per capita“. JWR Adds: What I found amazing is Massachusetts. How can they tax their citizens so much, yet still end up short of funds?

Lee C. recommended a 25 minute long BBC Radio Interview on the Credit Crisis and the Risk of Another Crash.

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 30 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A 500 round case of Fiocchi 9mm Parabellum (Luger ) with 124gr. Hornady XTP/HP projectiles, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo (a $249 value), and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) 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 $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 30 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Home Sweet Home on the Range–Bedroll Basics, by D.K.

When assembling your post-apocalyptic, biker zombie, total collapse of civilization kit (or just getting started in camping) one item you should consider as part of your kit is a classic bedroll.

History
A classic bedroll, not the stuff of Hollywood or television, but the kit of real working men is both comfortable and multipurpose.  They are not lightweight, small, or easy to backpack.

Please allow me to share the road I took to get to my current bedroll.  I will try to describe the attributes of a good bedroll, suggest the minimum bits for a good durable bedroll, and provide some links to historical information on military use of bedrolls.  Finally, there will be some links to sources of commercial bedrolls in case you wish to buy rather than roll your own.

I got my first bedroll when I started with the Scouts – the Troop I joined was led by combat Vets from both WWII and the Korea conflict – it really was a para-military uniformed youth training organization with a focus on ‘real’ military skills – just as Lt. Gen Robert Baden-Powell had first envisioned in 1907.  That early experience and training from these Vets has stayed with me.

Anyway, the bedroll was an old tarp, as an adult I now see it likely started life as a WWII or Korean vintage Jeep trailer cover.  This cover held a pair of Army-issue wool blankets – all given to me to ‘get started’.  The system worked to keep me warm at night, if not all too comfortable.

I used this setup until I started in serious backpacking.  Short of funds, I upgraded to a new system using a surplus Case, Water-repellent, for Bag, Sleeping and a home made wool blanket liner.  The liner was made out of the blankets on hand.  Mom (gotta love ’em) helped me to cut and sew them into a modified mummy style reaching to my armpits.  The blanket leftovers were made into a kind of cape.  I re-waterproofed the poplin case by soaking it in raw linseed oil.  It took the poplin fabric a while to dry completely in the AZ sun/heat, but when completely dry, was proven to be a waterproof and windproof cover.

When I landed a job as a staff member at the local Scout mountain camp, I purchased a ‘real’ (commercial) sleeping bag.  By the end of the summer, the bag was completely shot – sleeping every night in the bag for just under 90 days destroyed it – lesson learned.  I also had to carry a ground cover and tent when away from the main camp.  Later, I worked for a Geoexploration company while in college.  This job meant sleeping in the field for 4 or 5 days a week – with very limited space in the truck to carry personal gear.

That bedroll was made from my recycled Scout tarp, a pair of new surplus wool blankets and three commercial furniture pads obtained used from the local rental outfit.  When warm, the pads were a comfy mattress, when cold, they helped the wool to keep me toasty.  A second tarp was used in very rainy weather as a wedge tent to keep the water out of our faces.

In the military I used the issue bags, but I had my wife make another semi-mummy liner from a surplus wool blanket – on the really cold nights it made a difference.  I spent one of the most miserable Fall nights in my life sleeping in Death Valley using a pair of issue poncho liners and a poncho.  I think my wool ‘liner’ would have made a big difference, but the wool liner was left at home to save weight.  Never again.  I also added a shelter half to provide shade/wind protection in my ‘go kit’.

This brings me to describing the attributes of a good bedroll:

First, the bedroll must be durable – as in brick outhouse durable.  This means it must stand up to nightly use for weeks on end.  It must suffer and survive abuse like rocky ground, rubbing against other kit, heat, drenching rain, (well below) freezing cold and dirt.  It must be able to survive a soaking and be usable within a short period of time. 

Second, your bedroll should be a stand-alone item for use.  Your bedroll should not require an additional ground cloth or tent to be used.  As I mentioned earlier, a second tarp is nice, but should not be required.  If a second tarp is used, it may be lightweight as it will likely receive little abuse from day to day s use.

Third, the bedroll must be comfortable!  If you are forced from your home/primary shelter, you will spend up to 1/3 of your life in this bedroll.  That means you must be able to adjust to extremes in temperatures, ground conditions, humidity and rain.  After busting hump for 12 hours, a bad night’s sleep can make a tough job into one that is unbearable. 
Your bedroll should be easy to enter and exit – especially for that late night nature call or zombie attack.  The size you ultimately choose will depend on your style of sleeping.  I can no longer stand the confines of a mummy style system for long periods, for example, so mine is large and roomy.

Fourth, the bedroll must be easy to maintain.  Cleaning and maintenance of the bedroll components must be done without commercial washer/dryers or sewing machines – if you cannot take care of your bedroll in the field, you face some very bad nights indeed.

The bedroll should have room for some of your kit (small tool/sewing kit, extra socks, a clothing change and perhaps a hygiene kit) without compromising the waterproof nature of the bedroll.  At the very least you should certainly keep a set of loosely fitting polypro long johns, a poly baklava and a set of heavy (wool, of course) socks to sleep in during colder weather.  A pocket for a pillow is a nice touch.

The bedroll will not fit a stuff sack, so you must be able to roll it in such a manner as to allow the cover to keep rain, mud, dust and bugs out of the bedding.  That also means good solid roll straps, at least three, that are large enough to hold the roll and stay put.  You should consider a couple of additional straps to provide a means to attach the bedroll to your transportation – from a truck or a donkey to a hand cart.

The basics parts of a bedroll – you can add as you learn.
A sturdy bedroll is made of:
A cover or shell that is both waterproof and brick-outhouse durable.  This is the make or break item on a bedroll.
Bedding, warm, durable and with the ability to accommodate changing weather.  I have some pretty strong ideas of what works and that will be shared a bit later.
An insulator or mattress – both for comfort and to reduce loss of body heat into the ground.  A means to hold this mattress is a real plus.
A storage system to accommodate those few additional sleep related items you do not want in your ruck or haversack.
Straps to hold the bedroll, well, rolled.

Lets see how these mandates have worked out in the current edition of my latest bedroll.

Cover:
Made of Number 1 canvas duck, it was cut, washed in very hot water to shrink the weave and reduce shrinkage while in use.  Beginning with a large piece of canvas to reduce the number of seams, the material was cut into 3 pieces.  Using a local tent maker, the cover had webbing (tape) sown into the 1.5 inch edge seams, double stitched with heavy, waxed, UV stable thread.  An additional roll of thread was purchased for any future repairs that might be needed.  Sown with industrial machines, each corner was bar stitched and industrial brass grommets were placed across the ‘top’ and down the ‘open’ side to almost waist level.  All seams were sealed to stop water infiltration.

At the top, an additional piece, just under 4 feet in length, slightly more than the width of the ‘bag’ was attached at the time that seam was taped and edged.  The third piece was sewn to this flap to make a pocket prior to attachment to the cover.  This pocket has a slot (that may be laced shut) to allow access.  The entire piece of fabric was waterproofed.  This hood can serve as a mini-tent in bad weather.

A quick note here – how you waterproof the cover fabric matters.  Check the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for any waterproofing material used.  Some ‘classic’ methods may carry a health risk – for example, commercial “boiled linseed oil” may contain drying agents that pose a health hazard.  All linseed oil is both flammable and material may heat and burn spontaneously if not dried completely.  Commercial waterproofing products may not be compatible with your cover material.  Read the label completely – ask questions is you are not sure.  Always check the MSDS.

The actual size of your bedroll cover will be determined by how you sleep and the type of bedding / mattress chosen for your system.

Bedding:
If you have not figured it by now, I am quite partial to wool blankets as bedding. On the plus side – Wool is durable!  In researching the web for some additional data for this piece, I found several WWI Army Quartermaster Corps issue blankets for sale – and some still used by re-enactors.  Wool is naturally fire resistant; wool will offer insulation even when damp.  Wool can absorb almost 20% of its weight in water before reaching total saturation– that is defined as the point at which absorbed water begins leaking back out of the fabric – in other words, onto your skin. 

On the minus side, wool is a natural product that loses some strength or can break down when overheated – hot water is okay, steam is not – so drying via a campfire is best done carefully.  Wet wool also loses some strength – so, again, dry it carefully.  Dry wool can become quite brittle – usually not a problem when used as bedding – just use care in storage to avoid too dry of conditions.  Insects are also a consideration in storage.

I found that our local Army-Navy surplus store had some of the “Italian military” surplus blankets recently seen in various on-line outlets.  Reasonably priced, they weight over 5 pounds each, a good sign of quality in a woven wool blanket.  Initially compressed from long storage and reeking of insect repellant, after several washings they are now fit for duty.  Three of these blankets and a wool liner from a national outdoor supplier and we have almost all that is needed for a comfy set of bedding.  The liner, of Merino wool, allows me to keep the other blankets clean should I have to hit the rack while dirty.  There are liners made of linen, polypro, and fleece that will likely work as well – I just happen to like wool.

The mattress
Right now I am back to an interlaced pair of furniture pads, as I have used before.  This is a stopgap measure while looking for a suitable covered closed cell foam pad.  Several commercial products are offered by different outfitters, some with a cover for the pad to resist moisture accumulation.  My concerns lie with both the durability of any of these products as well as the finished width – all I have seen offered are relatively narrow – about 25 inches or so.  The Pacific Outdoor Equipment Mega Mat looks – at 32 x 78 inches – like it might be a good pick, I am trying to find a local source for some hands-on time – at $150 or so, not an instant choice.

Wrapping it all up
Keeping things tidy are a set of straps I talked the parachute shop into sewing up for me some years back.  Made from salvaged C-60 cargo parachute harnesses they are stout, to say the least.  Any surplus store should have these kind of heavy duty strap sets – ensure you have the buckles that match the webbing.  Too large and the strap will slip, too small and you cannot lace the webbing through the buckle.  If you can find some Capewell release type buckles, you will be pretty close to bombproof strap sets.  At least one pair of large/long straps will allow you to secure your bedroll to transport.  My bedroll rides in the truck or on my home-made cargo cart.

How well does this work?
Well for me, just fine.  I just finished a week-long gig at a remote camp here in Alaska and slept both cozy and warm, despite the cold and rainy nights.  In this case, I did nave an unheated shelter – open to the wind – but was as toasty as can be.  Getting out of bed in the morning was a bit of a challenge though.

Will this setup work in the dead of an Alaska winter?  To be honest, I hope to never find out, but it goes in the rig when traveling out of town in case an avalanche or bad accident closes the road.

If you plan on only ‘truck camping’ you may wish to consider a reproduction M-1935 Bedroll with blankets – designed for use with an issue cot, these are well thought out military ‘system’ and should provide good service for temperate climates.  Any good tent maker should be able to fabricate one from canvas goods on hand.  The so-called Auzzie swag bags are another possibility to consider.

Random thoughts:
A maintenance kit should have a sewing awl, thread, good size chunk of beeswax in a tin and a half a toothbrush to apply the wax.  A few large needles, heavy thread and a small set of scissors will help keep your blankets or clothing in good repair.  Learn to use a ‘blanket stitch” or “lock stitch”
A good way to keep the loose stuff in your bedroll less loosely is to cut up an old set of BDU or ACU pants.  Cut the leg just below the cargo pocket and sew the cut end shut.  Use this as stuff sack for socks, drawers, etc – using the drawstrings to close the sack.  This sack will allow you to roll loose items with fewer lumps.
A pair or two of very heavy wool socks will keep your toes warm, and may be used to fashion a neck or ear warmer and in a pinch,,or as as hand warmers/mittens.

 

Want to buy and not build? Try some of these links to see they have what you are looking for:

Letter Re: Archiving Downloaded Instructional Videos

Jim,

With all of the talk about the so-called Internet Kill Switch, and more and more people referencing online instructional videos, it might be time for people to start downloading these videos to their local computers. An easy way to do this is with the Firefox Fast Video Download plug-in. While watching an unlicensed video on YouTube and other sites, select the Tools menu, Fast video download, and then select the video you want to save. The videos may have the name of the video or a generic name like youtube_video. The extension may be .flv or .mp4, or there may be one or more of each. Select the format that you want (I personally prefer .mp4) and save the file, renaming it if you need to. To playback either of the files I recommend the VLC Media Player, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The combination of the Fast Video Download plug-in and the VLC Media Player give you a free way to build up that survival video library and use it without an Internet connection, anywhere. – LVZ in Ohio