A Practical, Full Spectrum Suburban Survival Plan, by JIR

Survival planning can be overwhelming and a lot of the advice you get is not practical or compatible with our lifestyles. A lot of us choose, or are forced to live in the crowded East Coast far too close to cities to survive TEOTWAWKI. I dare say, a lot of SurvivalBlog readers live in suburbs just outside medium to large population centers. Many of us have jobs that don’t migrate to small towns and would face a substantial loss of income if we moved away from our livelihoods. Some of us like our current lives and feel that hunkering down in a rural town is just too much like running away from life. Others (like myself) have family obligations that preclude relocating.

That can make surviving the “big one” difficult or even impossible. But, fortunately, the “big one” is much more unlikely than a lot of smaller regional disasters. You should be able to easily survive the small ones and with a little planning you may be able to increase your odds of surviving TEOTWAWKI astronomically. If you approach preparation logically, you should probably have a variety of plans in place to mitigate a whole range of possible disasters. While this suburban approach is not as safe as living in a back-woods retreat out west, it’s much less extreme and more palatable for suburbanites. If you can pull it off, living debt free and off the grid in your remote retreat is the safest option. If you can’t, don’t give up. Prepare for what you can and mitigate the rest. At least think it through and have a plan of action.

First, what are your real goals? Survival is simply keeping body and soul together and your body temperature at 98.6 degrees. That’s definitely not enough for most of us. We all want to survive in style, with as little discomfort as possible. There is a huge difference between living in a stadium with thousands of other refugees and living in your own home. Most of us want to be in a position to help others in a crisis, or at least exercise some level of control over our lives and maintain some dignity. But, don’t lose sight of the real objective. You want to keep breathing, even if you lose your home and your possessions. The scale and duration of a disaster determines the amount of preparation you must have, but in every case, living in style with dignity and comfort takes more preparation than simply living through it. If you are living in a high population area, you are accepting risk and betting that society will continue in some form. That’s okay as long as you realize that you are going to have to pay for that bet if the big balloon ever goes up.

Lets look at some disasters in ascending order of severity and see what you can do to live through them from your suburb home. I will share my own preparations under each heading, not because I am a super-survivor and ready for anything, but so you can see what I consider a practical level of effort (in my particular case). You can easily improve on my preparation level and should if you feel the need. I am 50 years old and basically a lazy guy with grown up kids. If I die from my own lack of preparation, I can accept that and I guarantee the world will go on without me. You have to choose your own pain level when it comes to survival planning.

1. Power outage (temporary, like would be caused by a severe winter storm). This is an easy disaster to survive. Basically everyone will survive it unless they are unfortunate enough to be on an operating table or something at the time. Surviving with style requires a generator or at least candles and maybe a camping stove. In very cold environments, you can be in danger without an alternate form of heating for at least one room. Setting up a dome tent inside your home and using good quality sleeping bags can allow you to survive sub-zero temperatures easily. Even a couple of candle lanterns can keep the inside of a small tent above freezing. Several LED lights will make your life much better and a good battery radio is a must. Rechargeable batteries are a good idea but only if you keep them charged. If you can’t make that much effort, take the lazy way out and keep a large supply of Duracell batteries on hand and rotate them yearly–problem solved. Keep in mind that elevators and subways become immobile metal boxes in a power outage.

My own preparations: I have a deep cycle battery backup to provide light and recharge AA batteries for a few days. My system is on a smart-charger to maintain the charge and I rotate one of my two big marine batteries every three years for a cost of about $90. This is much less trouble than maintaining a small generator, but probably a little more expensive in the long run. I also have a 12 watt (12 volt) solar panel to top off my battery bank and a 6 watt solar AA battery charger. If worst comes to worst, I can recharge my batteries from my truck alternator. Total system cost (with a 1,500 watt inverter, charger and a hand truck) was slightly more than a generator. I don’t use a freezer for food storage, so I don’t require much electricity. I have kerosene lanterns and both propane and wood cooking capability. I am prepared for much worse, so, of course I have lots of food, some water, a hand operated well, several good radios, camping gear and other stuff. So a power outage is not even very inconvenient. The only thing I really miss without grid power is air conditioning and television.

2. Regional disaster (Earthquake or Hurricane). Some disasters are too nasty to face. You will want to evacuate. This requires a vehicle with plenty of fuel, a wad of cash, and a well stocked bug-out bag for each member of the family. More importantly, it requires a plan. What will your bug-out route look like in a disaster? If you haven’t considered this, you probably should. Take a look at the congestion in every recent hurricane evacuation and plan accordingly. You need to know where you will go and plan your route. If you can own a well stocked retreat outside the disaster area and can get to it, you have it made. If not, make plans to stay with friends or family outside the disaster zone.

My own preparations: My area is sort of vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding, so I have a very extensive bug-out bag with basic camping stuff, two weeks of food and water, and a few basic weapons for the road. I have all my important documents in a waterproof/fireproof lock-box that I can grab and take with me. I keep my truck in good shape and consistently top off my fuel when it reaches 1/2 tank, but I only store seven gallons of gasoline (which I rotate every month or two). I also have cash on hand so I can pay for hotel rooms. I am 1/4 tank away from high ground, so I figure that’s good enough. Oh, and I also carry flood insurance.

3. General economic depression/recession/hyper-inflation etc. Once we start an economic slide, it can hit you in a lot of ways. Some of us have already been crushed by the current depression. Your pension may be lost. Prices will skyrocket, while your paycheck doesn’t. Losing your job or having drastically less money can be a soul-destroying disaster. There are several ways you can mitigate it if you start early enough. Debt is your biggest problem and threat. If you miss a few house payments, or car payments, the banks are not going to be forgiving. Credit card debt can crush you with interest and finance charges. Avoid them like the plague. While you still have a reliable income, you need to pay off debt, or at least build up a buffer of cash to allow you to make minimum payments while you look for a job. Many of us have fallen into the trap of having a huge 30 year mortgage and live in fine suburban houses. As the real estate market falls flat, you won’t be able to sell your home to get out of debt. Buying a smaller, less expensive place or renting can give you a measure of freedom if you can manage to get free from your current mortgage. If you have a mortgage payment, you are still a renter and subject to eviction. Even if you own your house outright, you really don’t. You probably still have to make a tax payment or you will be evicted.

Oddly enough, a food storage program can really help you make ends meet. The kinds of food we store tend to be not only shelf-stable, but cheap. If you start eating the same foods you store, like wheat, beans and rice for most of your meals, you can feed your family on pennies. These basic foods are actually tasty and nutritious once you get used to them. Work them into your diet gradually and you may find that you feel healthier and spend less on your grocery bills.

A small garden can cut your food costs and raise the quality of your diet at the same time. (You also get an opportunity to get a little exercise, something most of us need.) Fast food is not only unhealthy, it’s expensive. The same $20 you would spend to feed your family a meal of greasy burgers will stretch to five or more healthy meals if you cook it yourself. A good cookbook can be a wonderful investment if you use it.

Get rid of all your car payments. Driving an older car that you own outright can save you a ton of money. They are cheaper to insure too.

My own preparations: Not so good. I have a fairly safe job, but almost no savings and quite a lot of debt, mostly in the form of a large mortgage. If I lost my job, I would quickly lose my home if I couldn’t find another one quickly. I have a small military retirement pension, but we would have to make some drastic lifestyle changes to live on it. The thought that I could be homeless and broke within 5-6 months scares me, but there is no quick fix for debt.

As long as I have a job, I will at least have local transportation. I often ride to work or shopping on my mo-ped which gets 150 mpg. I can get around town pretty well with no other form of transportation. I store 7 gallons of gasoline and oil and have a complete set of spares. This would allow me to run my Moped for at least months, even if I were unable to get more. If gas gets much higher, I will probably park my old truck most of the time anyway. My little bike is home built from a kit. It has a 66cc engine I bought on Amazon and put together in a weekend. At first, this bike was just a toy, but I quickly saw the utility and bought a complete set of spares and bike parts to “systemize” it. It has proven reliable, economical and loads of fun. Coupled with a small cargo trailer, my bike can haul about 200 pounds of groceries at 25mph and has a range of over 75 miles without refueling the little 2.5 liter tank. Total cost counting the bike, engine kit, spares, fuel storage containers and tools was about $450. If you are interested in building one of these kits, I highly recommend a visit to MotorBicycling.com. With a little research, you can tell if you are skilled enough to build one and maintain it. This solution won’t work for everyone, but it works great for me. It’s a wonderful feeling of power to know I can repair anything that goes wrong with it.

4. Crime. The Marines have a saying I admire: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.” These are words to live by. Being robbed, raped or burglarized is a personal disaster, but violent crime can be the most horrible thing that ever happens to you. Anyone can be a target of violent crime, so never assume you are safe, even in your own home. Your physical security should be your first concern and always at the back of your mind. There is no time to think about it while it’s happening, so you will need to plan out your responses in advance. Do you have to go through life watching over your shoulder for danger? In short, yes. You do anyway. When you cross a busy street, you don’t just amble across without a glance. Why should you behave that way when it comes to thugs?

Do you have a weapon? If not, you really do need to get one ASAP and learn to use it. Do you rely on the police to protect you? If you do, you are betting your life against long odds. Historically, the police have a dismal record for protecting citizens. If you don’t believe me, ask a cop. Most of them will tell you that they can’t protect you from violent crime and will advise you to arm yourself. Firearms are by far the best weapons, but if you simply can’t own one (for whatever reason), have something and a plan to use it effectively. Even residents of New York City can own a ball bat, knife or tomahawk, so there is no excuse for being unarmed. Don’t bet your life on a Taser or pepper spray. Buy something lethal and learn to use it. Just your possession of a weapon, skills and a plan to use them will calm you and allow you to think more clearly.

Defending your home. If someone wants into a house, then they can get in. No physical barrier can stop a determined person. But, barriers like solid doors and locks can slow them down and force them to make noise. The only real deterrent that works is the threat of brute force (even if you rely on the police to provide it for you). Visible barriers can also deter criminals and make them go elsewhere. But what if they ring the doorbell in the middle of the day? Do you answer your door with a pistol in your hand? Maybe you should. Or at least, stuff a snub-nose revolver in your pocket on your way to the door. Home invasions often begin with a knock on the door and a friendly smile. You may not be able to stop the Manson gang with a pocket pistol, but then again, you might. Your chances are certainly better if you expect that friendly UPS guy holding a package to suddenly turn nasty and push past you into your house with his four buddies. Look at your situation right now. Are you more than five seconds away from a loaded weapon? If so, you are not as secure as you might be.

Defending against burglary while you are away is harder. Barriers like stout doors and window bars help. Living in a good neighborhood and knowing your neighbors helps. Having a monitored burglar alarm helps if you can afford it. A loud (unmonitored) burglar alarm will make the burglar jumpy and might scare him away. You should also make it hard on him. Don’t store your valuables in easy to find or easy to grab fashion. A heavy gun safe is a lot harder to carry off than loose valuables. If it’s bolted down, it’s even more difficult to steal. Scatter and hide your wealth and the burglar is likely to miss some of it. If the worst happens and your stuff is stolen, console yourself. It’s just stuff.

A dog can be a big deterrent and a wonderful warning system (and a peerless pal!). But never depend on a dog to fight for you. Dogs are too easy to beat. Dog owners tend to overestimate the combat effectiveness of their animals. The fact is, even a large dog is not hard to kill and all of them are downright stupid compared to a human adversary. Don’t count on your dog to defend your home. He will try valiantly and fail. Dogs are best used to warn you and give you time to prepare a defense. (By the way, domesticated dogs are the only canines that bark. There is some evidence that they were originally bred specifically as burglar alarms.)

If you bug out, then you should absolutely be armed. There are too many things that can go wrong on the road. You need weapons you can conceal or they may be confiscated at a check point, so I suggest a battle carbine with a folding stock. (The WASR 10 AKM, that comes with a TAPCO trigger job is a great choice). A good choice for concealed carry is a Ruger SP-101 in .357 Magnum. It’s utterly reliable, powerful and as accurate as you are. My G.O.O.D. preparations include a Mossberg riot shotgun to surrender to the cops and a few other items that are less noticeable. The Mossberg is an excellent weapon and cheap enough to not weep if you lose it.

My own preparations: Not great, but better than most. I have a battery powered burglar alarm inside the house to give me some warning and 3 battery powered wireless cameras for outdoor monitoring. We have three cell phones on two different networks, so we can call the police.

I have a modest, but adequate survival battery and a moderate amount of ammunition for each weapon. I answer the door with my hand on a .44 Magnum. I am rarely more than two seconds from a loaded firearm and carry a knife even in the shower. Does this make me a paranoid? Maybe, but I figure that just because you are not paranoid doesn’t mean everyone is is not out to get you. This level of readiness for sudden combat might prove too inconvenient for some people but doesn’t cramp my lifestyle at all. I have lived this way my whole adult life. I am not hurting anyone and I feel pretty safe. None of my neighbors know about any of my preparations or suspect that they are covered when they come knocking at my door. My home doesn’t look like a bunker and I never look like I am armed. My wife is a marginal but enthusiastic shot, and has a .45 Colt single action revolver within reach most of the time. (She has three of them and jokingly calls two of them her “speed loaders” [since Colt single action revolvers are notoriously slow to reload.] It might be a bad day for someone attempting a home invasion at my place. The bad guys will at least have to overcome an instant, determined defense. But even with all my “rational paranoia”, my house is far from secure. It can be burglarized easily or burned. It’s definitely not a fortress. If law and order completely breaks down, I recognize that I can’t possibly defend this house from a determined group. There is no shame in running away from extreme danger.

5. Financial collapse: If there is a general collapse of the finance systems, expect banks to close immediately for the duration, or perhaps impose withdrawal limits on your accounts (check the fine print. They can do that.) If you have valuables stored in a strong box inside a bank, you may not be able to access them. ATM machines may quit working. Credit will dry up and your VISA card may not work. As hyperinflation takes hold, the price of goods will fluctuate wildly and vendors will start defensively pricing their goods. In most historic cases of hyperinflation, prices changed daily or even hourly. If all of this comes to pass, any wealth or entitlements you have denominated in dollars (like a retirement check, for instance) will quickly become waste paper. In this kind of environment, most people are going to we wary of doing business and shortages of fuel, food and other staples should be expected. Cash is king in a credit-less economy, but it’s also poisonous. It loses value quickly, so you will want to hold as much of your wealth as possible in tangible goods and dump cash quickly. In hyper inflating economies, people who get paid in dollars try to cash their checks and spend the money on payday. If this kind of emergency gets really bad or lasts very long, I believe it could easily slide into a total grid-down TEOTWAWKI collapse. Our only hope is that the same government who caused the crisis can somehow maintain order and halt the crash. I don’t have a clue how they will be able to do this and I suspect they don’t either. The point is, they will be on a time limit. At some point, people will start to riot, loot, and evacuate cities and the whole house of cards may fall.

The Ideal way to survive this kind of calamity is to already be living outside the money economy. If you don’t have any bills or expenses and are largely self sufficient, you can probably survive this without much change in lifestyle. Everyone else may be in trouble. In the event of a general finance meltdown, you really should consider executing your TEOTWAWKI plan, because things may get very ugly very quickly and you may not be far ahead of the Golden Horde. Widespread and simultaneous bank closures from financial instability is a very bad sign.

6. TEOTWAWKI plan. (Long term Grid-down emergency): This is the big one. It’s what this blog is all about, and the reason you should have moved out west to a quiet little town. If you can plan for this one, you will be ready for anything less catastrophic. I see a collapse happening in three broad phases: The struggle to save society, the big die-off, and the early struggle for recovery. Let me explain what I mean. Our modern world is very inter-dependent and a breakdown of any major system can cause the collapse of the others like a house of cards. The main ones that can’t stand much interruption are:

Food distribution
Fuel distribution
Finance systems (commerce)
Electrical Power Grid
Government law enforcement

Failure of any of these for an extended period could cause catastrophic failure of the other four systems. If people are starving, they will break laws to get food. If nobody can buy or sell, it can completely stop food and fuel distribution. Fuel distribution effects the power grid. Unless the Government quickly reacts to disruption of any of these main systems and props it up well enough, the others are sure to crash. There will be a period where the government (and most responsible citizens) attempt to prop up the system and put it back in order. Reporting for work even if you are afraid of violence and not being paid may be the only way the system can be repaired and the crash averted. If these efforts fail and one or more of the above support systems stay down long enough, all five of these systems will likely fail in rapid succession.

Failure of these will cause other second order failures in systems that, while critical, can stand some disruption without catastrophic results, such as food production, medical services, transportation and distribution of other goods, other government services, coal mining, Water and sewage and maintenance as well as many others. The net result of a general breakdown of services would be to shatter society beyond a return to normalcy.

Here is the problem you face: Almost everyone in western civilization is supported by this precarious web of services. Without them, these people cannot possibly maintain their current existence for more than a few days or weeks at the most. There is not enough food stored nearby where people live, also, these people don’t yet own it. (check around. Almost nobody stores a meaningful amount of food in the USA or Europe). Without the electrical grid, finance, law enforcement, transportation and security, everything comes to pieces and people will start to starve.

The population of the USA (and Europe) will be hungry and desperate within a very short time. How short? I really don’t have any empirical data on this. Regional disasters are not a good model for a general breakdown because there is always help available immediately from the outside, even if it’s nothing more than a stable finance system and the threat of eventual prosecution for looters. The one thing we can be sure of is that without modern systems, most people are going to die in a matter of months.

Lest you think this kind of catastrophe can’t happen, be warned: This massive population die-off is not without precedent. Throughout pre-history, there are repeated catastrophic die-offs where a population suddenly collapsed. The Mayans, Anasazi, Greenland Vikings, Easter Island, and several African empires probably experienced a very similar event. Each population (except Greenland) stabilized at a new, far lower, population level. But, each of these cases was the result of the collapse of societies much less complex and populous than our own, with fewer dependencies and much shorter production chains. In other words, their societies were much more robust and resilient than ours. Our collapse and die-off will be unprecedented only in scale and the speed of the crash.

Living near a population center makes surviving the die-off difficult or even impossible. People don’t just sit down and starve to death. They form groups and go out looking for provisions. Put yourself in their shoes and think it through and you will see that every house, every building they can reach will be systematically searched for food. Even remote retreats may not be safe from this. People tend to organize and come up with solutions, even to tough problems. [JWR Adds: And be forewarned that they tend to apply “situational ethics.”] Every city and every town will have provisioning teams out looking for supplies. Anyone who expects to stand on their rights and claim that they “own” their supplies is going to lose in the face of general starvation. Any provisions you have that can be found will be confiscated by somebody unless you can fight them off.

I would like to save you some planning time here and say that you can’t fight them off. They will use whatever force they require to kill you if you try. you will be facing a modern military force determined to take you down. You simply cannot win. Expect to be approached by a uniformed policeman (or citizens wearing armbands or whatever) armed with a writ or martial law decree allowing them to search your home and confiscate food and fuel. Unless you have hidden or evacuated your goods, you will lose them, one way or the other.

You will need to make some hard choices if you plan to survive a die-off and live near a population center! If you truly believe, as I do, that you can’t possibly bug out in place, you will either have to evacuate to a safer place, or hide. A long G.O.O.D. trip (IMHO) is likely to fail. There are just too many variables that are outside your control. You must have a clear route, good weather, working vehicle, provisions for the trip and ample fuel. You must also maintain security during the trip. It’s not just ambush or raiders you have to worry about. Any local sheriff, anywhere on your route can block a road and confiscate your vehicle, almost on a whim. Any number of problems can come up on the road.

My own preparations: Since I have chosen to accept risk and live in the East near a population center, I will have to take extreme measures to live through an extreme disaster. My preparations are fairly extensive, but not as expensive or time consuming as buying even a meager retreat home. As with all my other preparations, I set a goal for myself that minimizes my effort and expense and still gives me a good chance to survive.

First, I have no confidence that I could evacuate to a safe place or outrun the “Golden Horde“, so to live through a general population die-off, I will have to hide my family and all our provisions. This is not a fool-proof solution. It requires some preparation and it certainly isn’t easy to do, but I believe this is my only real chance of surviving the die-off long enough to help rebuild.

I have chosen a remote wooded area (Federally owned pine woods) near my home with lots of ground cover and almost no game or other resources. There is a tiny stream nearby, too small for fishing, but with a year-round supply of relatively clean fresh water. I have chosen a good place for a hide site (a camouflaged encampment with a sturdy fighting position) and cached quite a lot of provisions nearby including a big box of sandbags.

With these basics and my (truck load) BOB, I can set up a LRS style hide site. This is sort of an enhanced objective rally point (ORP) with much better security than my home. I feel that my family can be preserved there for about a year, even in the event of a massive society collapse and die-off.

This plan seems extreme, (it is), but weigh it against the alternatives. The advantages of a wilderness hide-site retreat (for me, anyway) are compelling. My site is very close to my current home, so I don’t have to worry about keeping a lot of fuel on hand or facing a long, dangerous G.O.O.D. evacuation. It is highly unlikely to be found by looters, hunters, loggers, or anyone else and isn’t on somebody’s private land…in fact, I don’t hold a deed to it, so it can’t even be traced to me and located by city hall records. It’s much safer and more defensible than my home and can be evacuated with little loss of provisions since the bulk of them are hidden at some distance from the site. My pre-positioned provisions are carefully waterproofed and don’t require much maintenance. (I spot check some of my caches yearly, but none of them have ever required any attention). Any retreat with buildings is much harder to hide or maintain and obviously costs much more.

Building a permanent cache is an art form, so if you choose to use this tactic, think it out and research it before you do it. A good technique is to bury a large galvanized steel culvert and seal the space inside with welded (or even bolted) steel doors or bolted panels to keep out rodents. Cover the ground a few feet around with heavy (6 mil or better) plastic sheet and cover the whole thing with a foot of soil and sod or leaf litter. In a few weeks, it will be undetectable without a metal detector. An 8 foot section of 3 foot culvert provides over 40 cubic feet of usable secure storage space and can be man-handled into place by two strong men using only a pickup truck and hand tools. You still have to waterproof every container inside the culvert, but they are surprisingly dry and temperature stable inside as long as you are well above the water table. I recommend you provide some redundancy. Hide several of these and store more food than you think you will need, in case one or more of them are found and looted somehow. This requires a lot of heavy digging unless you can rent some machinery without attracting attention. But, even if you have to do it with a shovel, it might be worth it someday. And once you have your culverts in place, you can relax and go fishing. You don’t have to worry about provisioning too much since the bulk of yours will be safe.

Living in suburbia in the Eastern US, you are constantly living in the shadow of a major population center, or several. This can be good and bad. Your chances of making it through most disasters are actually better than if you were living in the remote boonies since you will enjoy the benefits of the money economy, easy to find jobs and a nearby police force. Just be aware that if the worst happens, you will need some pretty extreme plans to maximize your odds of living through it.

Five Letters Re: Choosing the Appropriate Handgun for You and Yours

Mr. Rawles,

I have a few counterpoints to Officer Tackleberry’s article touting the 9mm and especially the Glock 9mm family of pistols. My daily concealed carry pistol is a Kel-Tec PF9 9mm, so I don’t have any objections to 9mm as a caliber. But I also have a SIG P220 in .45 ACP, and favor it over any high-capacity 9mm full-size pistol. While the author’s anecdotal evidence shows any pistol can be lethal, a .45 ACP, with the right ammunition, is going to be more effective than a 9mm. With an 8 round magazine and one in the chamber, that’s three attackers whom I can give a double tap to the torso and one to the head. Yes, a Springfield XD would give me 20 rounds — but would those less-capable 9mm rounds do the job?

On another note, my wife prefers a steel-framed 1911 over any polymer-framed 9mm — the difference is weight, especially near the muzzle. The 1911 in .45 ACP is much more pleasant to shoot than a Glock 9mm, especially with +P ammo. The platform is just as important as the caliber in determining recoil / shootability. I understand the design features of the Glock make them easy to use — no argument there. – Jeremiah S.

 

JWR:
In his excellent article, Officer Tackleberry has outlined his case for the 9mm cartridge and the Glock pistol. I found in the article, however, only a comparison between 9mm hollow point ammo and .45 ball ammo. This might be a comparison of apples to oranges, so to speak, for if one compares hollow point ammo in both cartridges, then the comparison lies heavily in favor of the .45, which can expand to well over an inch in its hollow-point configuration, dwarfing the 9mm characteristics.

As to magazine capacity, the storied history of the 1911 with its seven (now eight) round magazine shows that the .45, even in ball form, performs magnificently in comparison to the 9mm. See reports from our troops in the “Sand Box.” I wonder why our special operations forces demand .45 pistols?

It is most definitely true that training with any handgun is the key to success. However, with the same training, a pistolero with a .45 will likely never need fifteen rounds to stop a gremlin.

The Glock has been so popular with law enforcement agencies, the story goes, because of its low cost and because even an idiot, by all reports, can shoot one. Nuff said.

So it appears to me that Officer Tackleberry offers a somewhat lopsided report – “Two Dogs” Lt.Col. USMCR (ret)

Sir:
A very interesting article with some good points and some fallacies. I note that ‘Officer Tackleberry’ likes to compare 9mm HP to the .45 NATO Ball ammo. Not exactly apples to apples. On any given shot, into any give area, the .45 hollow point (HP) will produce a more devastating wound that the 9mm, be it HP or Ball. It is a distraction to not admit that up front and let it go. It is not relevant to the good officer’s thesis.

The choice of the Glock is very personal. Personally, I don’t like the weapon. A Springfield Armory M1911 chambered in .45 ACP (shooting NATO Ball) is the reason I’m around to be writing this so I’ve seen no reason to reduce the impact of my rounds. Nothing against the Glocks – I think it becomes a “boxers or briefs” kind of argument – and I always encourage new shooters to try both and see what they like. I know several Glock shooters who have used heat shrink tubing to defeat the trigger safety of the Glock because it irritates their trigger finger after much shooting. I definitely recommend against this modification, but there it is. Shooting is very individualistic and these good folks were told the Glock is the only way to go so they won’t even try another platform although they aren’t happy with their choice.

As to the number of rounds, at under 10 feet distance (where the vast majority of shootings take place) if I need more than three rounds I’m dead anyway and reloading is not the issue. A ranking officer died in Iraq when he entered a room with four terrorists in it. He got off 7 shots of 9 mm from his 15 rd magazine, hit them all, but three of the terrorist were still alive when his men entered the room. Of course he was using ball ammo but the one shot stop is still a myth in most cases, even with hollow point ammo. It’s not something I want to play “you bet your life” on. My Colt Officer’s model [.45 ACP] is loaded with Hydra-Shoks. I have one in the tube and seven in the magazine and a spare magazine on the concealment holster. I can reload successfully if you are more than 10 to 15 feet away and if you are not, I shouldn’t need to reload. I practice a lot, as we all should, and I reload my practice ammo. I have a Kel-Tec P11 that I carry as a pocket pistol during the summer and as a backup when I can carry my Colt.

My preferred defense side arm is a revolver (in .45) but that is a little harder to conceal so is usually only for open carry or home defense. My family ranges in size from my 6 ft 2 in frame to my 4-ft 11-in wife. Our guns run from a .32 S&W long to a .380 Kel-Tec to my revolvers to the 9mm and Colt. Each member practices often with their gun of choice and reliably hits what the are aiming at. We all shoot the 9 mm for familiarity and proficiency even though I’m the only one who carries one full time. It is a backup for all of us.

A .32 with hollow points is not my weapon of choice, but it is what my wife will be fire in practice where a 9mm wouldn’t be. I have 12, 20, and .410 gauge shotguns because the 12 is too much for the ladies in the house. As I age, I’m beginning to think the 12 may be more than I want to shoot routinely as well. We may move to 20 gauge for comfort and that will help the ammo storage. I don’t reload shotgun rounds although I know some who do.

I guess my point is that, although I understand the advantages of a common round for the family or group, you should get firearms and stock ammo that the members will use. Get your long guns sized for the shooter (petite requires a “youth” stock length – put the butt plate in the bend of the elbow barrel pointing up; bend the forearm up alongside the stock, if the trigger finger is not at the trigger the stock is not the correct size) and then practice. A verity of ammo also allows for barter if needed but I think that if you try to force a caliber on a shooter that they are not comfortable with, they won’t practice and will fear to use the gun defeating the purpose of having it. I know it would be more efficient to stock nothing but 9 mm or .45 ACP but then I’d be the only armed member of my family. Now when we are out together at a restaurant we are a “mobile, gun rich environment” (quote thanks to John Connor of Guns magazine). For rifles we run from .22s to pistol cartridges to .30-30 to bigger. I prefer the lever guns for reliability, large magazine, and ease of use. They are faster for me than a bolt and more reliable than anything other than a single shot. I’ve never had a lever gun jam or miss feed. I can’t say that about bolts and semi-auto actions.

I get concerned when I read about the “everything in common” approaches. You need guns in your battery that will be used first and foremost. You also need guns that will get the job done. If you live in large bear county, a 9mm might scare off the bear or it might just annoy him. A .223 would not be my first choice if I was face to face with a large bear. On the other hand, a .50 BMG is too much gun for an urban dweller. You don’t want to punch a hole through your target and the next nine houses on the block. Each of us need to look at our situations realistically, minus our egos (mine is probably the biggest around), and decide what we must have, what we should have and what we’d like to have. The “must have” is a firearm that you will shoot and will have with you when you needed it. Everything else is a waste of time and money. If you can’t get to it when you need it, you do not have it! Just my not so humble opinion. – Captain Bart, USA Ret.

 

Jim:
To counter the “anti” mail that I’m sure you’ll receive about “Tackleberry’s” article, I’d like to say I think the guy is spot on. I love the Model 1911 and the .45 caliber, but, I think a Glock in 9mm makes much more sense for the majority of us in a survival situation. The lack of external safeties, the additional ammo capacity, and the better controllability of the 9mm make it a better choice for the vast majority of us.

Let’s face it, very few of us get out and train at least once a week with a handgun, more like once a month if we’re lucky. I think we can all agree that handgun shooting is a perishable skill. If you are not shooting a large caliber handgun, with external safeties, and doing the magazine changes (and malfunction) drills on a very regular basis, then I think you are probably not prepared to use it in any violent confrontation.

The reason I traded in the 1911 for a 9mm Glock was so I would have no external safeties to manipulate, have better controllability of my shots, and increased ammo capacity. So even if I don’t get as much training in as I want, I can still be combat effective. More so than with a 1911 in .45 caliber. That’s the bottom line here.

Not to open another can of worms, but I think this also relates to rifle caliber choice as well. A lot of folks insist on the 7.62mm for a rifle, for a lot of the same reasons you hear for .45 caliber for a handgun. I prefer the 5.56mm for my rifle because I can control it better, meaning more accurate shots, and carry more ammo to the gunfight. And I can also get by with less training, although rifle skills aren’t quite as perishable as pistol. (BTW, I am not advocating less training, I am just saying this is the reality of most of our situations.)

As an added bonus, my wife can also shoot a 9mm pistol, and 5.56mm rifle. So I always have a built-in back-up partner which doubles my combat effectiveness. – Diz

 

Jim:
I can’t agree about using trick ammunition to make up for bullet size. We are comparing apples and oranges here. The 9mm premium hollow point compares favorably with the .45ACP FMJ rounds, but it costs a lot more. Those big, cheap, FMJ practice rounds are the same ones I prefer for combat. A 9mm is a perfectly adequate weapon using premium ammo, but does it operate flawlessly? If you train with one load and stockpile another, you really don’t know for sure, do you? In my humble opinion, if you have chosen a premium or non-standard ammunition for combat use, that the only thing you should shoot for training. Otherwise, it’s little better than dry-fire practice. I don’t like surprises and would hate to find out too late that that those beefed up +P premium bullets jam more often, or crack my pistol frame.

I don’t want to argue about stopping power of relative cartridges. Both the 9mm and .45 have a lot of fans and I am not that uncomfortable with either of them. Compared to a rifle, all pistol rounds tend to look alike. Shot placement is definitely the most important factor. But in combat, you really have to have confidence in your weapon and for me the 9mm, with it’s lower recoil and smaller diameter, does not inspire confidence. I want my pistol to kick up a fuss and make some racket. If I could be sure of meticulously clean weapons, I would probably still choose the heavier bullet for reliability of function. If I might have to fight with a sandy or muddy weapon, there is no choice. I have seen too many nines stop shooting unexpectedly when they get dirty.

Military operators like the .45, not just because we are limited to FMJ rounds, but because they always behave well. I believe that momentum carries and transfers energy more reliably than velocity. There is a lot to be said for the simplicity of a large, jacketed chunk of lead sailing along just shy of the speed of sound. No tricks, no gimmicks, just lots of lead, already expanded to .45 caliber. Close combat is quick and you may only get one shot. I would rather than one shot weigh 230 grains rather than half of that. – JIR

Economics and Investing:

By way of the Appenzell Daily Bell: Germans Desperate Over EU, Greece

Rogers: Goldman May Fuel 20 Percent Market Tumble. (Out thanks to Brett G. for the link.)

GG suggested this Forbes opinion piece: Will Japan Default?

The Fox forwarded this: Greek Bailout Is a High-Wire Act. They are starting to use the “D” word. (Default.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Could Germany Quit Euro Over Greek Crisis?

Rivals May Not be Smiling at Goldman Sach’s Predicament Long

Bank of Ireland Forced to Sell Off Assets

FEMA Faces Own Fiscal Emergency

Unemployment Rises in 24 States

Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS sent this from China Daily: Shelters part of long-term civil defense plan

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Rick pointed me to HomeFirefightingSystems.com, in Pollock Pines, California. They sell pumps, foam, gel, tanks and equipment that would be appropriate for retreats.

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Josh flagged this bit of Hoplophobic Political Correctness stupidity: Student suspended after finger gun incident.

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I found this linked at the Drudge Report: Mission Impossible: Escape from Europe. (Read between the lines, vis-a-vis Getting Out of Dodge, in other crises.) Meanwhile, we also read: Get ready for decades of Icelandic fireworks, and More from Eyjafjallajokull (a fascinating photo essay), and Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke.

Notes from JWR:

I just heard from my editor at the Plume Division of Penguin Books that Editorial Paidotribo has purchased the rights to produce a Spanish language edition of my non-fiction book “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 28 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 HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

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 28 ends on May 31st, 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.

Choosing the Appropriate Handgun for You and Yours, by Officer Tackleberry

There are many areas of debate, speculation, opinion and urban legends when it comes to anything involving guns and/or self-defense, with handguns probably being at the top of this list.  I will share my experience, training and research to try to help with this debate.

The first thing to consider is what caliber is right for you and your family.  When it comes to establishing a caliber for your family’s security, there seems to be a belief that the .45 is the only way to go, especially in the semi-auto platform.  I couldn’t disagree more with the reasoning for this thought process and I am about to ruffle more than few feathers by making a case for the 9mm to be your ammo and platform of choice.

One of the things brought up is “knock down power” and this is one of those urban legends that needs addressed first.  Yes, a .45 has a greater weight and therefore more impact inertia/potential if it hits something solid, like bone.  So, if my only choice was .45 ball or some other caliber ball, like the 9mm, then I would consider the .45. 

But, if one takes the time to study the plethora of data available, you will see that most of the time people are not instantly incapacitated after being shot with a pistol, no matter what the caliber is.  There is an old saying that some of you may have already heard…What does a person do after being shot with a pistol? The same thing he was doing before he was shot with a pistol!  This may sound foolish but that is the reality of pistol caliber ammo.  This is also why many police agencies and military units have started phasing out or limiting the use of pistol caliber long gun platforms, such as the MP5, in favor of the more compact rifle caliber platforms.

I believe that the type of pistol ammo is more important than what the actual caliber is.  Winchester, Hornady and Speer are just three of the quality manufacturers out there that make awesome hollow-point, self-defense ammo for 9mm that have significant ballistic capabilities that exceed that of .45 ball.  The hollow-point bullets flare out when they meet resistance, sometimes to more than twice original size.  This causes significant wound channels, thus incapacitating the attacker.  This is why law enforcement carries hollow-point ammo and it’s extremely foolish that we don’t allow military to do so.

So, with the quality ammo options available today, why pigeon-hole yourself with a caliber that’s so big that it severely limits the amount of ammo that you can carry at one time?  In all semi-auto pistol platforms, the .45 caliber pistol holds a significantly smaller number of cartridges than most 9mm pistols.

We need to remember why we carry pistols and what their true purpose is.  The true purpose of the pistol is to provide a concealable, compact firearms platform that we can use to defend ourselves at close quarters, to fight our way to cover, to escape and/or get to a long-gun platform.  I recently read what was supposed to be a story about a sheriff in Texas.  Whether or not the story is true, I do believe that it reflects the mindset we all should have when it comes to the use of firearms for self-defense.  The story states that the sheriff was attending some sort of social function when a woman approached him and asked him if he was “expecting trouble” since he was wearing his pistol.  The sheriff told her no, that if he was really expecting trouble, then he would have brought his rifle. 

It’s not my intention to state that pistol calibers are totally ineffective and/or should be ignored.  I believe that it is more of a perspective and awareness issue.  Since I know why I carry a pistol and what it’s intended purpose is (close quarters self-defense, fight our way to cover/long-gun platform, or escape as mentioned earlier), I would prefer the 17 rounds of quality 9mm ammo available in my Glock 17 over the 12 rounds or less available in most 45 semi-autos.  Even my sub-compact Glock 26 affords me 10 rounds per magazine in an easily concealable format.

One distinct advantage of the high-capacity of most 9mm platforms available over the .45s is that you have to perform fewer magazine changes.  Magazine changes, especially under stress, are something we all need to practice on a regular basis.  With that being said, someone with what is arguably the most popular .45 platform, the 1911, must perform two magazine changes before they meet/exceed the amount of ammo that I have in my Glock 17 before I am required to make a single magazine change.  You must keep in mind that every time you make a magazine change, you are temporarily out of the fight.  Also, how many of you carry one extra magazine when you conceal-carry your handgun, let alone two?

Now, before all of the hate mail comes in claiming that I am “disrespecting” the 1911, I want to clarify something.  I am a fan of the 1911 and its quality design, regardless of the manufacturer.  It’s one of the most pleasurable handguns I have ever shot, bar none.  But, in my humble opinion, why carry a gun that only gives 7 or 8 rounds per magazine when I carry one that is similar in size but has 15 rounds, like the Glock 19? 

We broached the area of “knock down power” power earlier in this discussion and now I want to delve into it a little deeper.  Based on my research and training, I believe the standard we need to evaluating is not the size and weight of a bullet (which are the biggest arguments in favor of the .45s) but the ability of the bullet, and most of all the shooter, to incapacitate an attacker.

What I mean by the ability of the bullet has already been mentioned previously in regards to hollow-point ammo.  But, the ability of the shooter is directly tied to shot placement, especially under stress.  Can you repeatedly hit different vital areas, such as the head, with your current handgun?  Can you do so while moving forward, backward and/or sideways? Can you do so one handed, especially with your “off-hand”?
Now, take you out of this equation and insert your family members.  Can your spouse and/or children, especially teenagers, adequately perform the above listed tasks with the handguns that you have selected for the family self-defense arsenal?  Can the smaller stature members of your family or preparedness group handle training with .45 or even a .40 caliber handgun?

We need to keep in mind a key factor we know about individual performance during the stress of a combat situation.  This “factor” that I am speaking of is that a person drops to about 50% of their ability under the stress of combat.  Since this is the case, we know that we all must have quality training and practice on a regular basis.  How much practice/training is a person going to be willing to put in with a hand gun that beats them up?

When I was in the police academy, I saw two videos that really opened my eyes in regards to shot placement.  The first video was from the cruiser of a state trooper who was in a fight with a man who ended up shooting the trooper with a .22 caliber pistol.  The .22 caliber bullet went through the trooper’s side and pierced his aorta.  I watched this large, muscular trooper who was a former professional football player bleed out internally and die.  Lucky shot? Yes.  But, the small caliber bullet still killed him.

The second video I watched involved a domestic violence incident in which a female was shot point blank in the forehead with a .357 revolver.  When the police and EMTs arrived, she was still conscious and sitting on the couch.  The bullet had glanced off the skull plate of her forehead and traveled under the skin of her scalp all the way to the back of her head before becoming lodged in the muscle of her neck. 
Now, prior to viewing these two videos, I was of the opinion that being shot with a .357 revolver meant certain death.  But, not only did the female in video #2 survive, so did the man who shot the trooper in video #1.  You see, the trooper in video #1 had shot his attacker five times center mass with his issued .357 handgun.  Yet, his attacker still shot him and still alive to this day (R.I.P. Trooper Coates).  I guess the old adage of “I’d rather have a hit with a .22 than a miss with a 5” artillery shell” still applies.

Another factor that must be considered by most, if not all us, is the cost associated with achieving and maintaining confidence and proficiency with your chosen firearm’s platforms, especially hand guns.  To maintain necessary proficiency, we must live-fire practice and train with the chosen hand gun on regular basis.  As of right now, 9mm ball practice ammo sells for about $165 per 600 round case while .45 ball practice ammo sells for about $290 per 600 round case.  Quality Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point 9mm self-defense ammo sells for about $23 per 20 round box, while the .45 sells for about $28 per 20 round box.  As you can see, it is much more cost effective to train with and properly equip the 9mm platform as opposed to the. 45.  Then you can use the money saved to obtain other necessary preparedness items.
As you can tell, I am a fan of the Glock family of pistols.  But, I want to clarify the fact that I favor the 9mm family only, which includes the Models 17, 19 and 26.  There are several reasons as to why and I will try to name a few of them in short order.

First, Glock’s have no external safeties or de-cock levers and their safety features are internal.  There are some that would try to argue that this makes the Glock an unsafe platform.  If that was the case, then thousands of police officers wouldn’t be carrying them because their respective departments wouldn’t want the liability.  The primary safety on all firearms has always been, and always will be, keeping the trigger area free of obstructions, especially your finger!  I have also read of several instances where officer’s have forgotten to reset their de-cock lever or to take their gun off of safe and thus the gun didn’t fire when they deployed it in self-defense.  Several of these officers were shot and unfortunately some were killed.  Is it a training issue? Yes.  But it has happened more that what most people think and it has happened to me while training with a Smith and Wesson 4506.

Secondly, the 9mm Glock family has many interchangeable parts, including magazines.  The full-size magazine for the model 17 will work in the both the 19 and the 26 and the 19’s magazine will fit in the 26.

Next, most full sized .45 caliber models are physically way too big for smaller-statured people and both the .40 and .45 caliber platforms have way too much bark/recoil for many people. 

I think a serious consideration needs to be the availability of ammo and spare parts in a TEOTWAWKI environment.  Since 9mm is common the world over, I believe ammo will be available to at least barter for, which also means it’s probably a good item to barter with.  Also, since Glocks are very common in the U.S. and worldwide, then I believe spare parts will be somewhat easier to come by.

Lastly, the 9mm Glock family has repeatability of use no matter what the size.  In a self-defense situation, my wife, who is not very familiar with a multitude of handguns, can pick up any of my Glocks and know exactly how it functions.  To me and my way of thinking, this is a huge home security bonus.

I challenge you to take the time to seriously research the 9mm ammo and platforms available with an open mind.  I did and I am happy with the results of my research.  I also stake my life my life on the results every day. I believe you will see that there are simple, effective and cost-efficient options out there, with Glocks being at the top of that list.

Letter Re: JWR’s List of Lists in an Excel Spreadsheet

Sir,
I would like to thank you for your excellent site. I have been steadily working my way through your archives for the past several months now. I have been a prepper for quite a while thanks to my upbringing. However, for me it is more of a serious hobby than anything else. Being in the military and changing duty stations fairly rapidly is not conducive to long term prepping, as has been mentioned before on your site. That does not mean that I cannot plan however. I have attached a “List of Lists” in MS-Excel spreadsheet format. The initial worksheet is a link page with each of the lists labeled. You should be able to click on the list you want and it will take you to it, if not then use the worksheet tabs at the bottom of the page.

I have included in these lists all the recommended material from the newbies page of your site with the exception of videos. I have also included material from your archives that I felt pertinent (and that I have covered so far), as well as some of my own wants. This list is not complete to say the least, but I would be comfortable calling it list “1.0”. There is still a lot of work to be done on it but I will be on my way to Afghanistan soon and it will be unlikely I will have Internet or computer access for some time. Therefore I am sending it to you for you to do with as you will. Maybe some other individual can profit from the work I have completed thusfar, or perhaps there is a way to make it a community project that others can add to with their recommendations. Allowing anyone to pick and choose what works for them (It is modular!)

My basic format to date has been three simple columns: Item, Remarks about the item, and Web links associated with that item.

God Bless, – ZZP from Texas

JWR Replies: Thanks for your efforts! I’ve just added the spreadsheet to the blog site, where it will be permanently linked. (It is now linked in the left-hand menu.)

Letter Re: U.S. Bank Failures Accelerate in Pace and Increase in Size

James Wesley:

On Friday, eight more banks were closed according to this article.

I did a little research and found out that so far this year, 50 banks with total assets of approximately $30.4 Billion (you have to add the numbers up in the total assets column) have failed according to this site.

By this date last year (April 17, 2009) 25 banks with $12.5 Billion in assets had failed according to the companion site. How’s that “hope and change” working for you? This could be a record year if the pace keeps up. – S.M.

Economics and Investing:

Economics and Investing:

Yishai recommended this article: Released to Near Silence, the U.S. Treasury 2009 Financial Report Shows Dire Course

Sue C. suggested an essay by Herb Mayer: An Economics Lecture No Student Will Ever Hear

Items from The Economatrix:

10 US Cities in Economic Freefall

Exxon’s Income Tax: $0

John Paulson: The Man Who Made Billions Betting on the US Housing Crash

Goldman Sach’s Client-First Pledge Exposed as Lie

Black Gold, Yellow Gold (The Mogambo Guru)

Odds ‘n Sods:

Hunter in Alaska spotted this blog article: The Whiskey Standard (by way of Instapundit).

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Our thanks to R.B.S. for sending this: Copper thieves dismantle office building’s roof.

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Crime Prediction Software is Here and It’s a Very Bad Idea. (Thanks to F.G. for the link.)

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Ferd liked this Lifehacker article: Make a Waterproof Fire Starter Out of Dryer Lint (and Some Other Trash)

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Brian B. sent this: Rallies supporting the United States’ 2nd Amendment were held across the country Monday

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Somewhere ahead I expect to see a worldwide panic-scramble for gold as it dawns on the world population that they have been hoodwinked by the central banks’ creation of so-called paper wealth. No central bank has ever produced a single element of true, sustainable wealth. In their heart of hearts, men know this. Which is why, in experiment after experiment with fiat money, gold has always turned out to be the last man standing.” – Richard Russell

Note from JWR:

Notes from JWR:

I’m scheduled to be interviewed by libertarian survivalist Reginald Kaigler on The DEMCAD Show (a Freedomizer Radio podcast), this evening (Monday) from 6-to-7 p.m. Eastern Time.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 28 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 HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

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 28 ends on May 31st, 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.

Plentiful Water, Right at Your Feet, by Matt H. in Washington State

I want to bring up a topic that should be critical to those trying to prepare. I am one of the folks that wants to survive in place in a suburban environment. The serious weak link in any survival program is that of water. We have all read the endless articles about finding and preparing potable (drinkable) water. The endless stories of filtering, boiling, bleach-treating. I believe one area has been overlooked. Proviso: The following is presented for educational purposes only, and should only be considered in life and death situations!

Can I tell you all a little about my background? I was one of the many starving college kids in the 1970s while trying to make my way through college to earn a degree in engineering I took many jobs. One of the jobs I took was that of a “Street flushers helper”. What a street flusher does is go out in the small hours of the morning and flush the streets in a large truck filled with water. The irony of all this is that it was in Seattle, where we normally get 40 inches of rainfall a year. I know, I know it sounds crazy but they were willing to pay for it and I needed the money. So where does a street flusher get all that water? That’s where the story gets interesting.

The lowly hydrant, you know those red, white and yellow things you can’t park in front of. They are everywhere and no one gives a thought about them. If you are a street flusher they were very dear indeed. I had my favorites, because it was part of my job to keep the truck full of water. I always wanted to find the high flowing hydrants. That’s when I was taught the laws of gravity for the very first time. We had a hydrant that we used over and over again because it was the lowest hydrant on the system. And boy did it put out water, I could fill a 1,500 gallon water truck in just under 12 minutes. We had at least 115 Pounds per Square Inch (PSI). On those very cold nights you want to be out of the truck just as short as time as possible.

So how do you get access to all that water at the hydrant? Remember folks we are talking about grid down and people are suffering from dehydration and you need water now. Well, that’s where the hydrant wrench comes in. Please don’t confuse this with a pipe wrench a plumber would use. The nuts on a hydrant are Pentagon shape so you need a special wrench. If you use a pipe wrench you will permanently mar the nuts and I want to strongly discourage that. This is a special wrench that you can buy online, they are not cheap. A new wrench would run you about $50. I bought mine through eBay many years ago for 24 dollars. I prefer the stout two piece wrench I do recommend the heavier wrenches, the lowest hydrant on your system may not have been opened in years. The cheap heads can break and need to be replaced. I also recommend getting a [wrench handle extension] “cheater” pipe. We used a six-foot piece of one inch galvanized pipe we called “The Staff”. Any hydrant will yield with a long enough lever arm. This is specially important for the female preppers (The longer the lever arm the less physical strength needed). If the cost of the wrench seems a bit steep remember the cost of all that bottled water stashed in your garage.

When I would go out and crack open the hydrant at o-dark-thirty in the morning, I would appreciate having a stout hydrant wrench in my hands. Between rust and way too many coats of paint some hydrants will still refuse to yield. One trick I would do would try to close the nut slightly tighter to try and break the rust free. If any hydrant gave us too much grief we would notify the water purveyor that they had a problem hydrant.

You could be a real lifesaver with this resource. Remember Charlton Heston playing Moses in a Cecil B DeMille movie, where he struck the rock with his staff and out poured the water? Well, with your wrench and your staff you too could save hundreds of lives if you pre-locate the lowest hydrant on your system. This could bring a whole new meaning to finding your favorite watering hole.

Grid up or grid down water will always seek the lowest point in the system. If you’re local water tower is empty so what? There are still millions of gallons of fresh water in the system. All you need to know is how to find it. Here is a bonus that most folks forget: Most meters do not have a backflow valve (A one way check valve). So as long as some one in any house or apartment leaves a tap open that water loses its vacuum and returns to the main line and the lowest hydrant on the system. In undulating country side there will be pockets of trapped water everywhere. So you live in a dead flat area? Well, the water is still there–all you have to do is go and get it. Most hydrants are held down with 8 to 12 3/4 quarter inch diameter bolts. Some are meant to break away in case of a crash but most are not. It will take some work and you will be breaching a closed system, so you had better not do this on a whim. Remember folks: do this in life and death situations only! It would subsequently take a chlorine shock to restore the integrity of the line. [And of course ithe hydrant would have to be re-assembled for the system to ever be capable of being used in its normally intended manner.]

So just how much water are we talking about? Well if we do some rough math together you can find millions of gallons of unused water. If you’re concerned about stealing the water please make a five dollar donation now to your water supplier, that would allow you to take 1,000 gallons of fresh water with a clear conscience. Most water lines are 8 to 12 inches in diameter. An 8 inch line holds about 2 gallons per lineal foot. A 12 inch line holds 6 gallons per lineal foot. So if each hydrant is a 1,000 feet apart plus you have all the secondary lines flowing back into the main line you have thousands of gallons of fresh water ready for harvesting.
Back to the math, if you have a water tower 100 feet in the air the head pressure will give you 44 PSI at ground level. Do you need 44 PSI to wet your whistle? No, you need 3 PSI like you get from a drinking fountain. So you need about 18 feet of head pressure on the line. Hence the search for the lowest hydrant on the system. And yes I did account for the water line being below the frost line at 4 feet and the outlet being 2 feet off the ground. This means water in the system will flow even in sub freezing Conditions.

I used to love the hydrants in industrial areas. These hummers were on 12 to 18 inch lines, talk about volume. If you live in an industrial area you are in luck. First who in their right mind would seek out water in an industrial park? Second the volumes are there. One word of hydrant caution if the hydrant is purple or the piping or the meter is purple that is industrial water and can never be used for human consumption. Sometimes the hydrant would have a sign on it “non potable water“. Steer clear of all things purple. Another source is some old buildings had water towers on the roof. These towers were used to flood the stand pipes and sprinklers in case of fire. This could be a valuable resource.

The hydrant itself is just a large cast iron spigot with its frost free valve below the frost line. The older ones did not have the enamel coating on the inside so your first drink will be a bit rusty tasting. Worried about Fido and his aim? First Fido aims for the base of the hydrant not the top. Second if your concerned about it spray the hydrant down with a 5% bleach solution before you start. I dare say that hydrant being out in the direct sun is far cleaner than the company water cooler.

So you don’t have a 1,500 gallon water truck to locate and transport the water back to your location? I can think of some ways on harvesting the water. I used a four mile radius on Google Earth around my house. Once I found my location I asked for a terrain map. Just 2,000 feet south of me is a low spot in the terrain. After a short walk I found that there was a hydrant there. This is certainly not the lowest on the system but it is close by. I do know that the hydrant will still have water long after all the neighboring houses have gone dry. When that hydrant goes dry I will have to increase my search radius to another lower hydrant. So you found your low hydrant and you have hydrant wrench. Remember you only need the cheater pipe on very stubborn rusty hydrants. To capture the water I would bring two 5-gallon food grade buckets. You might be able to stash these buckets in a near by location. I would fill one bucket at a time by drizzling water in than I would transfer the water into 10 one gallon milk jugs. I plan on riding my bicycle down to the hydrant then walking it back by wiring the 70 pounds of water to its frame. Is it the most safe and efficient means of transporting water? Probably not but this will work for me.

In closing 5,000 people die each day because of water-related illnesses. I watched thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims walk right past hydrants in their search for water. While many in desperation will drink from the city duck pond, all the while millions of gallons of fresh water will go unharvested right beneath their feet. You and your family should never be the one straining muck through your teeth hoping the diarrhea that follows won’t kill you. There must be a small group of leaders that will show the people the way. I hope and pray that you will be one of them. Again, the preceding is for life and death situations only!

Letter Re: An Earthquake Wakeup Call in Australia

Greetings!
I’m a SurvivalBlog addict who lives in the coastal suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, and last night at roughly 11:25 p.m. my shower was interrupted by an earthquake!

It wasn’t strong enough to move furniture. In fact, as earthquakes go it was pretty weak (later revealed as a 3.8), but since we’re near the coast I wasn’t taking any chances, and neither was my wife!

Seconds after it was stopped I was drying off and we were both getting dressed. We locked the doors, shut the windows, grabbed our phones and our boy, put the dogs in the car and headed to higher ground.

All in all I estimate it took us less than three minutes to hit the road!

We were woefully under-prepared in terms of tangibles. We topped the car off with fuel at high ground (a lookout point) and bought water and food. We also took a bunch of money out of our accounts.

Local talk back radio was the only immediate source of information but it gave us a very good idea of how strong and far reaching the quake was. We camped out on a high spot overlooking the city. I’m not sure if my placement was wise, but I intend to find out for future reference.

After it became clear through local reporting that the
quake epicenter was not out out at sea we waited for an hour and headed home.

The highlight for me was finding out that my wife was every bit as pro-active as I was!

The worrying factor was the number of people that hung around on their front lawns like garden gnomes on valium, even after the Boxing Day tsunamis!

It seems most of us have short memories…

Thanks as always for this brilliant operation you run here. Without it I would probably have been another one of those garden gnomes, and though it would have been fine this time, perhaps next time it won’t. Kindest regards, – Bodes