Notes from JWR:

Congrats to Mark L., the high bidder in the SurvivalBlog benefit auction that ended last night.

Today we begin a new SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction. This big auction is for any of you that are gun enthusiasts. It includes 17 items: A four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate, which was kindly donated by Naish Piazza of Front Sight (worth up to $2,000), a $200 gift certificate from Choate Machine and Tool Company (the makers of excellent fiberglass stocks, folding stocks, and shotgun magazine extensions), $450+ worth of full capacity magazines from my personal collection including five scarce original Ruger-made 20 round Mini-14 magazines, and an autographed copy of the book “Boston’s Gun Bible.” The total value of this 17 item auction lot is $2,700! Note: Because this auction includes full capacity magazines, no bids will be accepted from outside of the US or from a resident of any state with magazine restrictions. The opening bid is just $100. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments.

The following is another article for Round 16 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win two valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificates. (Worth up to $4,000!) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. Round 16 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entries. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.

How To Prepare for Radiation Emergencies, by KLK

Scenario 1
You are sitting at your retreat, enjoying the scenery, when you hear on the radio that there has just been a nuclear weapon that has detonated in a contiguous State . You decide to run into your shelter. After a few days in there, you start to wonder when it might be safe to come out. You also wonder if you would have been better off evacuating and getting as far away from the radiation source as possible.

A radiation disaster is a scenario for which we must be prepared. It may be from a radiological source, such as a nuclear reactor accident, or from nuclear devices, such as a nuclear weapon.
Much of what we know about radiation exposure comes from accidents such as Chernobyl [nuclear power plant disaster] and [the bombing of] Hiroshima [and Nagasaki]. With the nuclear reactor accident in Chernobyl (1986), 70% of the contamination fell on 26% of Belarus. 400,000 people were evacuated and 50,000 km squared was restricted and removed from use. The isotopes included Cs137, Cs134, Sr90, I131, and Pu239, with an estimated 114 Million Curies entering the environment. Untoward effects from this accident included 31 initial deaths, 300 injuries and hospitalizations, 150,000 abortions, $ 3 billion spent in emergency response, $500 million spent to compensate Italian farmers, 10,000 reindeer slaughtered, and an increase in cancer (mostly thyroid cancer, many years after the incident).

It is estimated that if a large US city (population 1 million) was hit by a 10-Kiloton (KT) nuclear device, that it would produce the following casualties:

>13,000 prompt fatalities
Approximately 114,000 expectant fatalities (>830 cSv)
Approximately 90,000 requiring ICU support (530-830 cSv)
Approximately 141,000 requiring either ICU or minimum care ward (300-530 cSv)
Approximately 150,000 requiring a minimum care ward (150-300 cSv)
Approximately 159,000 requiring outpatient therapy (70-150cSv)
Approximately 128,000 requiring health monitoring (25-70cSv)
Approximately 212,000 worried [but] well (<25 cSv)

The healthcare system is not ready or able to cope with this magnitude of casualties. That brings us to: What should you do?
The mechanism of injury from a nuclear device is 3 fold: blast, heat and radiation. Assuming a 10-KT burst, people within a 0.55 km radius of the explosion fall within a “blast injury circle” and have a high immediate fatality rate. People within a 0.9 km radius of the explosion fall within a “prompt radiation circle”, and people within a 2.1 km radius fall within the “thermal circle” and suffer 2nd degree burns. If you are outside of these 3 circles, you may suffer from radiation fallout. The amount of fallout you are exposed to is determined by 3 factors: length of time exposed, distance from the original explosion, and how much shielding there is between you and the radioactive source.

To minimize radiation exposure, you will want to reduce your time exposed, increase your distance from the source and have as much shielding as possible. This can lead to a dilemma if faced with this scenario: should you evacuate your retreat (increase your distance from the source), or should you stay and go into your shelter (increase your shielding)? The answer to this question will depend on whether or not you have a shelter, how far away from the initial source you are, the strength of the nuclear device, and the weather conditions. Even if you have a shelter, you may be forced to evacuate due to your proximity to the radiation source (Remember Chernobyl where 50,000 square kilometers were deemed unusable). It can take many months and sometimes years to clean up after a Radiation Event. Most people don’t have shelters that will sustain them for that long. Unfortunately, if faced with this scenario, you will have limited time to make your decision, for if you decide to evacuate you will want to do it immediately to reduce your exposure time, and before the roads get jammed with people. Thus, it would be useful to know a few basic equations to help you make your decision.

Radiation exposure follows the inverse square law- exposure reduction is proportional to the inverse square of the distance. Radiation is measured in Gray. If the source produces 10 Gy/hour at 1 meter, the exposure will be 2.5 Gy/hour at 2 meters (10 divided by 2 squared). The worst case scenario could produce up to 50-100 Gy/hour at the site of the explosion. With this information, you can calculate your exposure based on how far away you are from the radiation source. You must also keep in mind the weather conditions. If your calculation reveals a total body dose of <0.7 Gy, the radiation effect will be minimal, and you should be safe to stay at your retreat.

Scenario 2
You decided to stay at your retreat with some type of shelter, but after 12 hours a family member starts vomiting. Should you take them to the hospital which you know will be full of victims or should you stay isolated?
The key to treating radiation victims is knowing what dose of radiation they received. All medical decisions are based on the dose estimate.
There are many ways to determine dose of exposure, most of which require a hospital visit and laboratory tests. Without access to prompt healthcare, the easiest way to determine dose is to record the time from radiation exposure until the time the victim starts vomiting. Then use the information below to estimate the dose the victim received (measured in Gray):


Time To Onset of Vomiting Post Accident/Terrorist Act

Hours to Vomiting Estimated Dose (Gray)
20 0.1
7 0.5
5 1
2 5
1 10
0.8 20
0.5 50
0.3 100

 

Use that number for the following interventions:
If they received a dose of < 0.7 Gy, they will not be significantly affected by the radiation and they do not need to be hospitalized.

If they received a dose of 0.7-5 Gy, their lymphocytes (cells in the blood that fight infection) will dramatically decrease. This happens within the first 1-2 days and puts them at a very high risk of infection. Their hemoglobin and red blood cells will also decrease at 30 days after exposure and they will become very anemic. With good supportive care, the blood counts will recover by 60 days post exposure. Treatment includes IV fluids, antibiotics and colony stimulating factors. These are the people who benefit the most from being admitted to the hospital because they need the colony stimulating factors (which are not able to be stored at a retreat). My advice would be to take them into the hospital. If this is not feasible, they must be quarantined for at least 60 days. If they do not get an infection, there is a good chance they will live.

If they were exposed to a dose of 6-15 Gy, the predominant effect will be on their gastrointestinal system- this means profuse, bloody diarrhea and dehydration, starting at 5-7 days post exposure. It is also often associated with severe nausea/vomiting and fever. Treatment includes specific antibiotics, GI nutrition, IV fluids and early cytokine therapy for 5 or more weeks. These people will also benefit from hospitalization if feasible. Survival is possible, but unlikely.

If they were exposed to > 15 Gy, the effect will be on their cardiovascular system and central nervous system. This leads to brain swelling and death within 2-3 days. It is associated with a 100% mortality rate and the best care would be to provide them with pastoral care and to keep them comfortable. There is nothing medically that can be done to save their life.

Scenario 3
You decide to make a trip into town to pick up some supplies. It’s around 10 a.m. and you are walking down the street. All of a sudden you hear a loud explosion and see pieces of shrapnel flying. There are casualties all around you from the scrap metal. You are thankful that none of it hit you. Then you hear someone yell “It was a Dirty Bomb!” You think to yourself, “A Dirty Bomb! What should I do?”
A “Dirty Bomb” is a radiological dispersion device which combines a conventional explosive with a radioactive material. It is not a nuclear weapon, nor a weapon of mass destruction; however, it is a weapon of mass disruption. The impact depends on the type of explosive, amount and type of radioactive material and the weather conditions.

Immediate deaths or serious injuries would likely result from the explosion itself. It is unlikely that the radioactive material would kill anyone. The radioactive material would be dispersed into the air and reduced to relatively low concentrations. Low level exposure to radioactive contamination could slightly increase your long term risk of cancer (mostly thyroid cancer). There would be significant impact by causing fear, panic and disruption. Clean up would be costly and could take many months.

Consider this example: In Goiania, Brazil, 1987, 1375 Ci of Cs-137 spread throughout a neighborhood. It was an accident (not a terrorist event), and yet it caused mass panic and fear. Ultimately, 112,000 people were screened, out of which 249 had detectable contamination. Four victims died within four weeks and 20 were hospitalized. Site remediation took months to complete (Oct 1987-March 1988). Can you imagine the impact if it had been a planned event?

Dirty bombs can expose one to radiation both externally and internally. Internal contamination can occur through inhalation (nose, mouth) or absorption (wound in the skin). The radiation is typically deposited in the thyroid, liver, lung and bone. It is not acutely life threatening.

When dealing with a victim of radiation contamination, act as if they were contaminated with raw sewage. Protect yourself with clothes, mask, and gloves and use standard medical emergency procedures (Airway/Breathing/Circulation). Decontaminate after the victim is stabilized. Removing their clothing and washing with soap and water is 95%+ effective at decontaminating. Treat with fluids, anti-emetics (anti-nausea), anti-diarrheals and pain medication.

There are also blocking and diluting agents, but these are isotope specific:
For Radioactive Iodine (I-131), use Potassium Iodide (KI) – must be given within 4 hours after the exposure, see the dosing chart below
For Strontium-85 and Strontium-90, use calcium, aluminum, barium
For Tritium, use ordinary water (force fluids for 3 days)
For the Transuramics (Plutonium, Americium, Curium, Californium), use DTPA 1 gram intravenously (must be given within 24 hours after the exposure)
For Cesium, use Prussian Blue 1 gram orally three times a day for three weeks

There are two problems with the blocking agents: First, you often don’t know what the isotope identity is until after it is too late to administer the blocking agent. There is no easy way to determine which isotopes were included in the bomb and you will need to rely on medical personnel to provide you with this information. Secondly, most of the blocking agents are not readily available. The only exception is KI, which is easily purchased through many of the SurvivalBlog advertisers. You are fortunate if you have DTPA or Prussian Blue stored away, but most people don’t.

In the absence of knowing what isotopes were in the dirty bomb, my advice would be to have as much fluid as possible (to dilute tritium). I would also take KI if you have some. If I-131 was in the bomb, the KI will protect your thyroid gland (and possible cancer later in life). It must be taken within 4 hours after the exposure. If I-131 was not in the explosive, the KI is safe with minimal side effects. If you decide to take some, use the following dosing chart:
Adults 18 and older: 130 mg of KI
Pregnant/Lactating females: 130 mg KI
Children age 3-18 years: 65 mg KI
1 month-3 years: 32 mg KI
Birth-1 month: 16 mg KI

In summary, the radiological/nuclear threat is real! Mass casualties in your area are possible, but radiation injury is treatable.

JWR Adds: Some readers might not be familiar with the term Gray–the standard unit of measurement for radiation exposure, that replaced REM (Roentgen Equivalent, Man), and RAD (Radiation Absorbed Dose). For us Bomb Shelter Era dinosaurs, conversion from Grays are as follows.

1 Gy equals 100 rad
1 mGy equals 100 mrad
1 Sv equals 100 rem
1 mSv equals 100 mrem

Stocking up on KI tablets is inexpensive, so every family should keep a supply on hand. In 1985, I was stationed in West Germany and was briefly down-wind of Chernobyl. At the time I wished that I had some KI available! Anyone that lives in an urban area should have a Nuk-Alert “key fob” radiation detector. That way you won’t have to wait for word from someone else to determine whether or not a nearby bomb explosion was a dirty bomb. Nuk-Alerts are available from several SurvivalBlog advertisers.

Gun Buy-Up Programs as a Method for Firearms Battery Upgrades

Hi Jim:
Just wanted to let you know that my teen-age sons are reading “Patriots”, (the latest edition). I appreciate that your book is one that a father can allow his children to read, because it isn’t filled with sex scenes. While I’m sure my sons are not ignorant about such things, there is no reason to shove their faces in it constantly.

The real reason for this e-mail is to give you and the readers another idea for raising funds for purchases, and best of all, you get the funds from liberals!
Several months ago, we had a “gun buy back” in the two neighboring cities where I live. I had been waiting for just this type of event, because I had eleven junk guns to turn in. I only turned in ten, because the lady in line in front of me traded me a 4″ S&W K-22, target “combat masterpiece” for an old, bolt action 20 gauge.

Before the readers start burning me in effigy, let me note that the shotgun was the best of the guns to be turned in. The rest were junk that had been given to me by friends who know that I am “into” tinkering with broken firearms. The H&R .22 revolver that I had fixed would not group into the side of a barn from the inside, an old Remington .22 rifle with scope grooves hand ground with a side grinder (no kidding) did not function reliably, the other guns were the same level of worth. I could not morally sell or even give someone a firearm that I knew to be extremely unreliable, so this was my chance to get something for guns that were one step from being boat anchor material.

Now the best part is, if the gun was deemed to be “functional” the owner was given $75, “non functional” guns were worth $50 this was in the form of gift cards to a major “big-box” store that sells almost everything, including fuel and ammo. The store gift cards were a parts of the cards donated, others were from grocery stores and restaurants. I ended up with over $600, and a decent K-22.

Almost every gun nut that I know has a few guns that are absolute junk and probably unsafe to fire. If it is a quality made gun that has just seen too many hard times, first check with someone knowledgeable about collector guns. If it truly is “junk” then save what parts might be salvageable, (sights, magazines, springs, pins, etc.) and put them in an envelope with the make, model, and caliber of gun they were from. Some people have guns that were in a house fire and were badly damaged. This is a chance to salvage some value for them.

By the way, a friend of mine was watching the whole event, and he told me that out of approximately 150 guns turned in, perhaps four were of decent quality. It seems that gun owners were using the opportunity to get cash (or near cash) for junk. The big giveaway was when they asked for the gun cases back. All the best, – Raggedyman

JWR Replies: Thanks for that tip. OBTW, I refuse to use the term gun “Buy Back”, since it is Orwellian Newspeak. How can these liberal love fests be a “Buy Backs‘ if the government (or other sponsor of these idiotic programs) never owned the guns in the first place? So properly, they should be called Buy-Ups.

Odds ‘n Sods:

More Gloom und Doom from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: The global slump of 2008-09 has begun as poison spreads. It sounds like he’s been reading SurvivalBlog. Don’t listen to the Wall Street pundits at CNBC who assure us that there will be a jolly “soft landing,”

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Thanks to Chester for sending this: US foreclosure filings surge 65 percent in April. As I’ve mentioned before in SurvivalBlog: Anyone that does not yet own a rural retreat should watch the foreclosure listings carefully. There may some tremendous bargains in the next few years that are right in your “ideal” retreat locale region. Two foreclosure monitoring services that I recommend are RealtyTrac.com and Foreclosures.com.

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From Reader Tim P.: Zimbabwe Introduces a Z$500 Million Note.

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RBS found this one from The Washington Post: Growing Deficits Threaten Pensions–Accounting Tactics Conceal a Crisis For Public Workers

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“To be thrown upon one’s own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.” Benjamin Franklin

Note from JWR:

The SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction ends tonight (May 15th) at midnight eastern time. The high bid is now at $350. This auction is for four items: A FoodSaver GameSaver Turbo Plus heavy duty food vacuum packaging system (a retail value of $297) kindly donated by Ready Made Resources an autographed copy of : “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation”, an autographed copy of “SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog”, and a copy of “The Encyclopedia of Country Living”, by the late Carla Emery. The four items have a combined retail value of around $395. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments before midnight eastern time.

Letter Re: Household Food Costs Escalating in England

Jim,
It is not just USA that may is seeing food and fuel prices increase, here on the other side of the pond in the UK we are see the same.
Problem here is that out government are trying to persuade us that inflation is low. Due to keep moving the goal posts and accounting methods.
There is now a worldwide crisis over supplies of key crops such as corn, wheat and rice that has triggered food riots in some countries. In the UK it has brought the biggest rises in bills in a generation.

A family which spent £100 a week on food last year now has to find another £19.10 for the same products, equivalent to £993 a year. Once “must-pay” bills for petrol, mortgages, power and council tax are added, the extra cost is more like £2,200.

Yet the official inflation rate is just 2.6 percent. Experts say a worldwide drive to produce biofuels – made from corn, wheat and soya as an alternative to oil – is a major factor.
Many farmers have switched from food production to biofuel crops. The effect of biofuels on food prices has been dramatic. A litre of corn oil has more than doubled in a year, to £1.38, in one of the big supermarkets. Fusilli pasta, made from wheat, is up 81 per cent, a baguette by 41 per cent and Weetabix cereal 21 per cent.

Farmers are also facing huge increases in feed bills, leading to dearer meat and dairy products. Milk is up 16.6 percent, English butter by 62 percent and mild cheddar by 25.6 percent.
Basmati rice is up more than 60 per cent in 12 months and Britain’s biggest supplier, Tilda, has warned of a further rise of around 30 per cent in the coming year.
The soaring price of oil is the second major factor battering consumers. Figures from the AA show the cost of diesel has risen by a quarter in the past year, while unleaded petrol is up 15.4 percent.
The higher price of oil is dragging up the cost of both gas and electricity. How much longer can this go on?

There are more details in this Daily Mail news article. Regards, – Norman in England

Two Letters Re: Triage in Emergency Mass Critical Care (EMCC) Events

Jim:
Two minor notes:regarding the letter from DS in Wisconsin:
Pulse Oximeters are cheaper now than ever. Some drug companies give them away as promo’s. You can find them online starting well under $100, some nearer to $50. These are battery operated self-contained finger clamp units, but I’ve seen nurses at more than one hospital using them to take vitals.

Secondly, while it is possible to ventilate a patient by hand for long term, it is not very practical. You’d need a staff of dedicated people that are willing to perform a laborious and painful task for hours on end, rest a bit, and then go in for another shift, and to keep this up for days or longer. If you don’t think it is painful, then practice by squeezing one of your dog’s larger squeaky toys non-stop for, say, 3 hours. Do it in one place, without moving the toy, and while you are standing up. Don’t stop for more than 30 seconds or your squeaky toy will die. You will need to keep this up for the entire duration that the patient needs ventilation, or the patient will expire. While you might be able to pull this off for one family member during a crisis, to plan on using this method for treating mass casualties in an outbreak is more than a little bit optimistic.- Patrick M.

Jim,
In response to the e-mail from DS in Wisconsin: There’s no way anyone can BVM (bag-valve-mask) aka ventilate a patient over an extended period of time, it’s strictly for transporting patients (usually under half an hour). There are several “disaster” ventilators available that rely on purely mechanical ventilation and will function over a longer period of time (think bird flu). Do a web search on “surevent” for an example. Individual pricing for these “disaster” vents is usually under $100. For patients who can breath on their own, do a web search on “bubble CPAP”, a device that can be manufactured at home. In all cases you will need a source of air and/or oxygen that has absolutely no oil residue (remember how a diesel engine works?)—use commercial medical grade compressed gases/compressors only.

As a clinical engineer, I often wonder where people get their ideas. Pulse oximetry (SpO2) is not a reliable indicator of oxygen perfusion, although from an equipment standpoint, it is the cheapest indicator. If you have critical needs, or money to burn, end tidal CO2 (etCO2) is the way to go.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Thanks to Yishai for sending us this interesting article link: Five Modern Secret Room Dreams (and Nightmares): From Creative Hideouts to Dreadful Spaces

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Samuel K. flagged this: Are Backyard Ethanol Brewers an Answer to High-Priced Gas? In the context of Schumeresque days, such systems would only make sense in a place like Hawaii, where it could expected that grid power might be available, and cane sugar is readily available. Used in CONUS, I predict that grid power or transport disruptions would quickly transform these systems into just quaint ornaments. And of course these systems make E100 (pure ethanol) . This is great for Brazil, where there are lots of E100-compatible cars and trucks on the road, but at least for now this is essentially worthless in the US, where there are virtually no E100 cars and trucks available.

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Tom from CampingSurvival.com demonstrates how to use a magnesium fire starter. OBTW, a pill bottle stuffed tightly full of cotton balls should be stowed with your magnesium fire starter at all times, since you never know when you might have to start a fire in wet weather and/or with limited natural tinder available. I have pill bottle full of cotton balls attached to my Blast Match, at all times.

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Lawrence T. suggested an interesting albeit lengthy blog article that discusses the combined impact of fuel costs and JIT inventory systems: J.I.I.T.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“You can call a survivalist irrational.
You can call a survivalist reactionary.
You can even call a survivalist stupid.
But there’s one thing you can’t call a survivalist: unprepared.” – Thomas Greene

Note from JWR:

The SurvivalBlog Benefit Auction ends tomorrow night at midnight, eastern time. The high bid is now at $350. This auction is for four items: A FoodSaver GameSaver Turbo Plus heavy duty food vacuum packaging system (a retail value of $297) kindly donated by Ready Made Resources an autographed copy of : “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation”, an autographed copy of “SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog”, and a copy of “The Encyclopedia of Country Living”, by the late Carla Emery. The four items have a combined retail value of around $395. Please e-mail us your bids, in $10 increments.

Range Test and Product Review: Rock River Arms LAR-8 .308 Mid-Length A4 Carbine, by Michael Z. Williamson

After many delays for many reasons, I finally have my hands on a LAR-8, which is Rock River Arms’ entry into the AR-10 clone market. This model is the LAR-8 16″ carbine, flattop, MSRP $1,100.

The rifle arrived in a sturdy bright blue case, compartmented to fit a disassembled rifle of each length, with one magazine, manual, everything wrapped in plastic. This is a heavy rifle compared to an AR15, at 8.1 lbs (for a carbine, remember), but is quite reasonable for a .308.

From the rear: The buttstock is a standard 6 position, and aftermarket stocks will fit, likewise for the Hogue grip. The internals are proprietary, but it appears that standard AR fire control parts will fit. The trigger felt really odd, almost hair trigger, until we weighed it right about 6 pounds. It is just exceptionally crisp with a very sweet let-off. The fire control switch is right-handed only, which is a little odd, since the magazine release is ambidextrous (button on each side), and the bottom-mounted bolt release is, also. It appears that standard handguards will fit, too.
The controls are easy to reach. I do like the bolt release. Insert a magazine, brush downward with thumb, and it clacks into battery. Operation was flawless for the full day. This is on the rifle as delivered, with no oil, teardown, anything. It chambered and fired every time, and there were no hitches.

Here’s one of the prime selling points: The rifle is advertised to, and does, accept metric and inch FAL magazines. I had a little more trouble with inch mags, but I suspect they were older. I bought ten at a gun show for $50. That’s enough magazines for 210 rounds of ammunition (nine 20 round, one 30 round). That’s about the price for just one of the competitor’s magazine. Feed and function was fine with both, assuming the magazine was good. At that price, though, one can buy a case and keep the tight ones for spare parts.

The weapon is tight, well-made, with excellent fit and finish. It is well-balanced and comfortable. It felt very robust and durable, though as a loaner, I didn’t do an all-out abuse test. If you are familiar with the AR-15, the only relevant differences for handling are the weight and the location of the bolt release, which is lower than one is trained for, but easily managed. Since most of us slap the paddle as the hand goes down anyway, there’s no problem adapting to carrying the motion to the base of the magazine well. Other minor differences are the much heavier recoil spring, and the previously-mentioned excellent if unusual trigger.

The rifle came without iron sights on this model (other models have M16A2 style sights). This was a minor problem. I have excellent scopes, but no riser to bring them high enough above the receiver, and no mountable front sight. I managed by attaching one of my EoTechs. The EoTech is a combat sight, not intended for long range precision, but seemed to work well enough. I was within 8″ of center with the first shot (before zeroing). That’s good enough for combat shooting at 100 yards.

Weather: 64° F, 62% relative humidity, Barometric pressure 29.87 and falling, elevation 630 ft above sea level.
Using South African surplus R1M1, 204W, Lot A11/80, I was able to keep 4″ groups of 20 rounds. This is 4 MOA, with 30 year old ammo, a short barrel, a combat sight with a red dot shooting at a red target. I find this acceptable.

With US [military] surplus Lot 1-80, three shot groups ranged from 2.125″ to 2.375″, very consistently.

Using US military match grade XM118 LR PD (2002, Lake City), our groups ranged from 1.125″ to 1.6″, median 1.375″. This is well within the 1.5 MOA accuracy promised, using an inadequate sight. I am impressed and satisfied. A good handloader could probably break 1 MOA, and this is with the 16″ carbine, not the 26″ heavy barreled “varmint” rifle.

I would suggest Rock River make the fire selector switch ambidextrous, since all other controls are. That’s the only improvement I can think of.

It cleaned easily, with a little more room to get inside than an AR-15. The bolt cam pin appears to go in sideways compared to an AR-15 (rotated 90 degrees). The firing pin is longer. Everything fit well, had a good metal surface and a very dark parkerized finish.

For those of you wanting .308 power and range with the AR’s handling, welcome home. For those wanting a reasonably priced precision rifle for target shooting, hunting, or SHTF, you’ll be hard-pressed to do better than a Rock River LAR-8. The availability of AR-platform accessories and mods are significant points in favor of both, as are the dirt-cheap military surplus FAL magazines. One can buy the rifle and included case, customize stocks, grips, handguards and mechanicals, load 200 and more rounds in magazines, and still be money ahead of a competing AR-10 clone. Add in the exceptional accuracy and strength, and it tops my list.- Michael Z. Williamson

Two Letters Re: Triage in Emergency Mass Critical Care (EMCC) Events

Dear Jim,
This letter is in response to NC Bluedog’s very informative article that appeared today. Here in rural Wisconsin, we have the same problems as he noted–shortage of high-technology life-saving devices. This is due to the overall situation that our medical care industry is dollar-driven. He have a small hospital, and two more within a 15 minute dash via ambulance. Each hospital has at least a four-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with a ventilator per bed, and at least two extra ventilators that can be used outside of their ICUs. Beyond that, there are none available. Extra units would have to be imported from major hospitals within the state. To get these units would take time, along with the funding to lease them–providing the disaster is confined to my area. The hospitals in my area are not sufficiently wealthy to do this in a mass emergency event.

So, in a TEOTWAWKI situation, what can you or I do? There is a solution. Each EMT and Paramedic have in their Rescue bags, a set of airways and a bag-valve mask. Some even have a device called a “Pulse Oximeter.” This unit measures the amount of oxygen in the blood. When an airway, bag mask, and Pulse Oximeter are used in conjunction with each other, you have a primitive ventilator. There are more devices that are available to the EMT/Paramedic, but all require more advanced training in their use. I won’t go that way here. However, to use these devices requires training, and I suggest that you enroll in the proper program to use them correctly. The only down-side to ventilating a patient in this manner is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. If you must do this for any length of time, I suggest you have several individuals willing to take over and give the proper ventilations to the patient. This method is used in our hospitals as a back-up should there be a ventilator failure.

How much does this cost? The basic set of six airways will run approximately less than $5, and bag-valve-mask starts at approximately $10 and goes up, and the killer is the Pulse Oximeter. I’ve seen them advertised starting at $300 and continue on up through the roof. If you are a family, and have the need for such a unit, (an asthmatic child, etc.) talk to your insurance company and see what can be done. If you are a member of a group, talk it over and have each member donate toward the cost. Then get proper training. These units together are not hard to use or understand. Think about this when you have your next group meeting. All of these devices can be purchased Over The Counter (OTC) from the better Medical/EMT supply companies.

I hope this small solution will answer a lingering question that any of you have concerning the availability of ventilators in an emergency. Start thinking about, and plan for, the addition of airway management tools to your medical preps. Doing so now will give you an edge up when the day comes. – DS in Wisconsin

Jim:
The other dirty secret that isn’t described is that at some point, you will run into staffing issues. I’m an Intensive Care nurse at a big teaching hospital, and I find the challenge of a complex patient: managing ventilators and “dancing on the vasopressors” is second nature and even quite fun.
NC Bluedog makes a good point that the hospitals are chronically short of staff an money, but let’s play with the idea further. We’ll grant that we’ve been able to find intrepid and dutiful nurses and physicians who will work for free and will work more than a hundred hours a week. And the Ventilator Fairy drops all of the vents (and warmers, IV pumps, heart monitors, Swan-Ganz monitors, etc, etc, etc…) that we need. Even with the Hollywood Scenario, at some point there will not be staff. Certainly in an outbreak, but I wonder about it often during especially bad flu and pneumonia seasons. There will be no staff because they’re all out sick themselves (the stress and long hours having weakened their immune system in the face of super bugs, or just the “run-of-the-mill the native drug-resistant ones we have in the hospitals now), or because they’ve got a sick family member to care for. Or they have their own kids to look after- recall earlier this year when Singapore (or was it Hong Kong?) closed the schools for two weeks to prevent the spread of an especially bad infection. Someone’s going to have to stay home with all those quarantined kids. I can’t put them in day care while I head to the hospital after all.
And at some point the devotion to duty will start to fail. Even with the threat of lost licenses (State Boards of Nursing frown on folks who walk away from their patients or who don’t show up when needed), folks will feel the need to be home with their kith and kin.
And that’s when we reach Kunstler’s “World Made by Hand” – Regards, Michael G.

Odds ‘n Sods:

R.E. found a link to this map of the population density of the US, Mexico, and Canada. Do you see why I prefer the Western US for retreats? Too bad that Canada has a frigid climate (inland) and such draconian gun laws. Otherwise, much of western Canada would be ideal. See my free Recommended Retreat Areas web page for more detail on my recommendations, and my nonfiction book “Rawles on Retreats and Relocation” for even greater detail, with some very useful accompanying maps.)

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Eric sent us this: Hard-hit consumers turn to Amish–People save by buying ‘scratch and dent’ and reclaimed grocery items

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Brent mentioned this article about Australian farmers sowing a record-breaking number of hectares in wheat: Sowing, Not Sewing. And speaking of wheat, Bob G. sent us this alarming article:
UN alert: One-fourth of world’s wheat at risk from new fungus

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Kevin suggested this piece from Slate: Gauging the risk of an inadvertent nuclear war.