Letter Re: Pepper Spray Trip Wire Alarms

Dear Jim:
Nothing beats living at your retreat, but there is one burglar repelling device that can actually stops a burglary in process (without an alarm or monitoring): Pepper Spray Alarms – either trip wired or set off by electronic sensor. These can fill a room with pepper spray in seconds. You can even get one that can fire up to four times in sequence!
I have used them (and tripped them accidentally). They really work – and it only takes about an hour of ventilation to get back in the room comfortably. As an added bonus you get to either increase your attentiveness, or increase your resistance to pepper spray every so often! 😉 I recommend them 100% for gun safes, safe rooms, access doors/hallways, occupied and unoccupied buildings. They that say it is dangerous to put them in a vehicle, but an RV trailer should work. A lot safer and ethical than the old shotgun booby trap. Regards, – OSOM



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"As long as law-abiding citizens assume no personal responsibility for combating crime, liberal and conservative programs will fail to contain it." – Jeffrey Snyder, A Nation of Cowards



Letter Re: Property Owning “Refugees” on Adjoining Property

Mr. Rawles,
Thank you for putting so much effort into your blog and your writings. I bought your novel “Patriots” a few years back, dog eared it, and passed it around. To my wife’s consternation (and my to the consternation of my brothers’ wives), you’ve started to make a difference in how we look at life. Your blog is a daily “must read.”
Since I live 200 miles from my brothers in Iowa (my most likely doubling-up partners) I have to consider a retreat farther north in Wisconsin. There are large tracts of federal, state, and county forest, plus the rivers up that way are spawning grounds for the salmon in the Great Lakes. One concern I have is that many of the hunting lots and vacation homes up that way are owned by Illinoisans (Ill and Annoyings) or from southeast Wisconsin (the Milwaukee area). When the balloon goes up, I would expect refugees with cars and trucks loaded to the gunwales, headed to their property to hunker down. It’s not a case of refugees wandering aimlessly; it’s people returning to their own property, however ill-prepared. (“Hurry up and pack…yes, dear, I know there’s no cable up there…At least we can shoot some deer and eat. Where’s my flashlight? Showers? I suppose that somebody will have a working well.”)
I guess my message to the community of “retreaters” is to make sure you know who owns that 40 up the road that was just sold “to the doctor from Illinois.” Use the county [Recorder’s Office] records to track down the owner and send a welcome note. It is better to understand his philosophy and belief system now, than when he shows up with a SUV load of kids, a big-screen television, and his wine collection. Godspeed, and Merry Christmas! – B.H.

JWR Replies: You are correct that most owners of vacation property have the idea kicking around in a dusty corner of their mind that they could use that property as a retreat in the event of an emergency. If we enter an era of deep drama, the legal status of “squatters” versus deeded landholders will be worlds apart: Squatters could and probably will be forced from public or private holdings by your local sheriff’s department or by the BLM or US Forest Service. But for those that occupy land that they legally own–regardless of how poorly provisioned they are–there would be no recourse for the sheriff’s deputies unless or until the newcomers actually started committing thefts or robberies. This is one of the reasons that I place strong emphasis on A.) Storing extra to dispense in charity, and B.) Getting to know all of your neighbors. The latter includes making the effort to introduce yourself to absentee owners that are only there seasonally. (Or, “deer seasonally”–as is the case of one of ours that that has an undeveloped parcel just three miles away. (That is considered practically “next door” by local standards. ) Please make it clear to those folks where you stand. Tell them forthrightly that it takes more than just venison to survive and mention there are just a few folks that are prepared to dispense charity. I suggest that you be intentionally vague about the depth of your own larder. You should strongly and in no uncertain terms encourage them to pre-position food, heating/cooking fuel, foul weather clothing, gardening tools, fencing materials, and so forth if they are considering “bugging out” to their seasonal cabin in the event of a disaster. Yes, I know that this won’t register with some dimwits, but at least you will have a clear conscience, knowing that you warned them. If they don’t have a clue about disaster preparedness, then at least warn them that side roads can become impassable with snow for “many weeks” in a hard winter and that long term power outages are not uncommon in the area. Don’t overlook telling them how many cords of firewood it takes to heat a home for a winter in the area, given your climate. Be sure to say: “Even if there is just the outside chance that you might have to come out here in an emergency, then you must be properly provisioned with an honest one year food and fuel supply.”

In some vacation/resort locales there are people that have nothing more than a RV hookup at their property and a “building site” that they never do anything with. For folks like those—with no on-site storage space–you might even offer to let them leave a 20-foot or 30-foot CONEX on your land for you to “keep an eye on” for them, if they give you their assurance that it will be well-stocked so that they won’t become a burden. Also, think in terms of standardizing logistics. (“Oh, by the way, we nearly all shoot .308 Winchester around here, so it would be in your best interest if you own a rifle in that caliber.”) Also, make provision to coordinate security with them. For example by purchasing a spare military surplus field telephones and a couple of “doughnuts” of WD-1 commo wire.) Don’t underestimate the impact of of “landed refugees.” The good news is that if they can afford to own a vacation cabin, then they can probably also afford to stock it properly. But the bad news is that if they don’t stock their cabins then they will become charity cases at best, or potentially even confrontational armed looters in a “worst case.”



Product Review – RAD-60 Personal Dosimeter from Finland

Mr. Rawles:
I recently purchased one of these units from Laurus Systems. Upon opening the package, imagine my pleasant surprise to find that this piece of electronic gear was made in Finland, not communist China! While a bit pricey at $375, it is definitely a piece of lab quality gear, but rugged enough for field use. Clean, compact, easy to read LED display. Pocket clip, audible alarm and powered by a standard AAA alkaline battery.
Specifications:
Radiation detected: Gamma and X-Ray
Measurement range: Dose: 1 uSv – 9.99 Sv or 0.1 mrem – 999 rem
Dose Rate: 5 uSv/h – 3 Sv/h or 0.5 mrem/h – 300 rem/h
Calibration: Better than + or – 5% (Cs-137, 662 keV at 2 mSv/h), Hp(10)
Dose rate linearity: Better than + or – 15% up to 3 Sv/h (300 rem/h)
Audible alarms: Seven separate alarms, sound level typically better than 85 dBA at 30 cm
* integrated dose
* dose rate
* dose overflow
* dose rate overflow at 3 Sv/h or 300 rem/h
* low battery 1 and 2
* defect
Alarm thresholds: Six preset values each for integrated dose and dose rate-push button selection
Power supply: One triple A alkaline cell, typical life is 1800 hours in background (dose mode)
Reader : Infrared communication via bottom of the dosimeter
Temperature range: -20 – + 50¬?C operational, humidity up to 90% RH, non-condensed -20 – + 70¬?C storing
Dimensions: 78 x 67 x 22 mm
Weight: 80 g –including battery

– Dutch in Wyoming



Letter Re: The “House Gun” Pump Action Riotgun

Dear Jim,
I’m leery of the “House Gun” that you linked to. First, the flared muzzle of a blunderbuss was for ease in loading, especially with improvised pellets. It had little effect on accuracy.
As to the barrel on the house gun, I first notice it is mounted so the cone points slightly upward. This means it blocks any sights and will shoot high. Given that most people tend to shoot higher than they should at close range anyway, that’s a pending problem. Attempting to sight over the barrel will mean shooting low.
I don’t believe the spread will be as great as they suggest. While the muzzle does look intimidating, its main effect will be to waste most muzzle velocity in a large flash. As they specify that it will reduce velocity to avoid penetrating walls, that seems to be confirmed. The penetration tests at www.theboxotruth.com and others, as well as police testimony, suggest that full power buckshot is necessary to stop attackers–not bird shot, and not reduced power loads.
Also, in event of a hostage, a shotgun at close range can still effectively be aimed at the perpetrator and miss the victim…not with that thing.
At best, it looks interesting and intimidating. At worst, I see no real advantage, several flaws, and it might not be taken seriously as it doesn’t look like a weapon so much as a fire extinguisher bell.
Looking at their other products, they seem to be going for gimmick factor rather than practicality.
Of course, I may be wrong, but I’d like to see a test fire before I buy. – Michael Z. Williamson





Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The right of a citizen to keep and bear arms has justly been considered the palladium of the liberties of the republic, since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers, and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." – Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Story, 1833



Note From JWR:

Today we present the first article eligible for judging in Round 8 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The writer of the best non-fiction article will win a valuable four day “gray” transferable Front Sight course certificate. (Worth up to $1,600.) Second prize is a copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, generously donated by Jake Stafford of Arbogast Publishing. If there are a lot of great entries this round of the contest, I will again be sending out a few complimentary copies of my novel “Patriots” as “honorable mention” awards. If you want a chance to win the contest, start writing and e-mail us your article. Round 8 will end on January 31st. Remember that the articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival will have an advantage in the judging.



Lasik Versus PRK Eye Surgery for Preparedness, by Simple Country Doctor

I’ve been reading through the survivalblog archives. I happened across a letter recommending Lasik for folks with significant refractive errors. I’m not an ophthalmologist, but I am a family and emergency medicine doctor, and I did a lot of research into refractive surgery before I had my significant nearsightedness corrected. I started out with [seeing only the] ‘big E’ [on the eye chart] (20/200) in one eye and [seeing] ‘white rectangle’ (worse than 20/200) in the other. I was always afraid I’d lose my glasses/contacts while out in the backwoods on one of my frequent solo adventures. I finally took the plunge six years ago. After careful consideration, I did not go with Lasik, but [instead] had photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) done. The main reason I chose PRK over the more popular Lasik procedure was fear of ‘losing the flap’ on a blow to the head during a martial arts class, or worse, an actual confrontation. There are advantages and disadvantages to both procedures. With Lasik, a thin ‘flap’ is cut almost completely free from the anterior cornea, and a laser is used to reshape the cornea underneath. The flap is then laid
back down and the cornea allowed to heal. With PRK, the laser is used to reshape the front surface of the cornea after removing the single layer of epithelium from the cornea (the place I went to also used a laser to remove the epithelium). The epithelium then grows back. Advantages to Lasik are several. The ‘wow!’ factor is significant; as soon as they lay the flap back down, your vision is significantly improved — usually pretty close to 20/20. Its a pretty accurate procedures, and final visual acuity of 20/20 or better is not unusual. Recovery time is brief and not uncomfortable. This is all because the epithelium (the ‘skin’ on the front of the cornea) is only minimally disturbed. The work is all done deep in the cornea where there is no sensation.
The problems that can come of Lasik come from the same characteristics. It is possible to ‘lose the flap’; have the corneal flap come off. Only about the outside one-third of the corneal flap ever heals, and there are stories of people losing the flap even a year out from surgery, due to fairly minor head or eye trauma. The only treatment possible at that point is a corneal transplant. Revisions are seldom necessary, but are technically difficult because you can’t re-cut the flap exactly the same a second time — usually another procedure like PRK is used if a revision is required. There are more immediate concerns with infection and other flap-related problems just out from surgery. After Lasik, your vision may change significantly with elevation/reduced air pressure (mainly a concern for mountaineers who go well over 14,000 feet). PRK’s advantages and disadvantages look like the opposite side of the Lasik coin. For technical reasons, some refractive errors that Lasik can’t correct can be handled with PRK. PRK is fairly accurate, but may not be as accurate as Lasik (numbers are hard to come by here; I went from 20/200 to 20/25 in one eye with PRK, still slightly nearsighted; the other went from 20/400+ to 20/35 — this was my dominant eye so I had it revised and now have 20/17 in that eye with a little farsightedness. Both eyes still have slight astigmatism, but less than prior to surgery.) It takes 24-to-72 hours for the epithelium to grow back on the front of your eye; this makes it feel like you have an eyeball full of gravel. Its pretty
uncomfortable, but bearable (for most people). You have decent vision after 3-7 days (I was able to drive in about three days), but it takes months for it to completely stabilize. It is possible to have problems like delayed healing of the epithelium, which is pretty uncomfortable. On the flip side, you will never lose the flap, because there isn’t one. If you have to have a revision, they can do the same procedure. There’s no shear face inside the cornea, so no variation in vision with elevation.
If you have dry eyes prior to surgery, they will be worse after Lasik because of disturbance of the tear layer. They may be completely unbearable after PRK, and while this effect may reduce with time it may never go away completely.
Another concern that some don’t stop to consider: your lenses harden with age, which reduces your ability to focus up close (if you have good
distance vision). If you are near sighted now and you get your vision corrected to perfect 20/20, you will most likely need reading glasses by the time you’re 50. Life is full of trade offs. Note that I now have slight far-sightedness in one eye (an annoyance that inhibits close-up focusing in that eye) and slight near-sightedness in the other (but I can focus pretty close with that eye. More idea would be perfect uncorrected vision in my dominant (shooting) eye and slight near sightedness in my non dominant (close) eye — monovision. Even when I lose my ability to accommodate (focus), I’ll be able to read without glasses with my ‘near’ eye and see to shoot with my ‘far’ eye. A lot of folks walk around with this and do quite well. I find it annoying, so I wear glasses to correct
this — but if I lose my glasses, I can still function quite well for both near and far vision, unlike the blind fool I would have been without lenses six years ago.
A slightly more obscure concern is aspherical errors; getting the cornea slightly out of round. I notice that, on a dark night, the dimmer stars appear slightly out-of-round or even double from my ‘far’ eye; this is not uncommon. The lens isn’t quite perfectly round after the surgery. This effect can be much greater, and is very hard to correct for with lenses or
surgery. An even more obscure problem is contrast discrimination; this is what allows you to distinguish a white rabbit on a background of white snow.
There is some evidence that loss of contrast discrimination is significant with Lasik, probably less so but still evident with PRK. Most people never notice it, because they don’t notice what they don’t notice. But if you’re ever in a position where you need to distinguish, say, Mossy Oak Breakup from the mossy oaks behind your house, it could be a factor in your continued presence in the world.
Obtain and understand as much information as possible before you let someone alter your anatomy, and understand that problems can and do occur, and it is usually impossible to tell ahead of time who is going to have problems with a particular procedure. Surgery always has risks (but so does being nearsighted in a world with no functioning opticians). – Simple Country Doctor



Letter Re: Resources on the SurplusRifle.com CD-ROMs

Jim:
It’s not often I recommend a web site, but this web site will disappear soon and your readers will want to check this out: SurplusRifle.com
Jamie Mangrum has cancer and is shutting down the web site in three months. I bought the 2 CD set called “The BIG CD-ROM” 1 & 2. I think that the content is excellent. The web site includes instructions on how to disassemble and re-assemble many types of military surplus rifles and handguns. In addition, it also included videos on how to blue firearms and cast bullets. Anyone who does maintenance on their firearms should have a set of these CDs. Regards, – Fred the Valmet-meister



Odds ‘n Sods:

I noticed that after a fairly quiet week of trading last week, the US Dollar is back to making some big “mood swings” versus the Euro, with moves of up to 140 points in as little as a few hours. That kind of volatility indicates that the US Dollar market has not found a clear direction. The dollar could still rally, but then again, it could “tank.” The Chartist Gnome tells me that if the Euro holds consistently above $1.332 for four days, then that will signal a renewed wave of bear market dollar dumping–possibly “the big one”: a major collapse of the dollar to the point where it will take $2 USD or even more to buy one Euro. It is noteworthy that in recent weeks the dollar has even been losing ground against some Third World currencies. SurvivalBlog reader B.H. notes: “See this chart. About halfway down is a link to this chart. Support for the dollar at about 80 goes back 15 years. If that fails, well, ‘Look out below!’ I suspect it will hold as support [at this level] again.” All that I can say is that I’m glad that I bought all my crucial British and European goodies like a Big Berky water filter, Valmet magazines, Steiner optics, Henckels knives, and Brenneke rifled shotgun slugs long ago, when the dollar was strong. Those sorts of items will be painfully unaffordable, come next year! Consider yourself warned. A Big Berky will probably retail for around $375 next year. Buy before the anticipated price increases.

   o o o

Paje sent this link: Rangers lead the way! Uncle Sugar taught them how to use the tools. Too bad that some of them never learned to be well-behaved. The war crimes charges are an interesting but not particularly credible twist.

   o o o

Reader AK in Panama recommended this article from the Strategy Page that might have some practical application in retreat defense: Kinder and Gentler Vehicle Barriers.



Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." – Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173



Note From JWR:

Wow! I just noticed that we’ve logged more than 875,000 unique visits! Thanks for making SurvivalBlog such a huge success. It is gratifying seeing the readership continue to grow. I hope that you find what your read here is useful. (Or as my old buddy “Jeff Trasel” says “practical and tactical, high speed, and low drag.”) If you concur, I hope that you will go ahead and get a 10 Cent Challenge subscription. These subscriptions are entirely voluntary, and gratefully accepted.



Letter Re: The James Kim Exposure Death Tragedy: Lessons to Be Learned

Sir:
I live in Curry County [Oregon], and on occasion travel the road over the mountains to Galice. I think that the primary lesson to learn from his tragedy is that you have to know where you are. The SOP for being lost in the woods is to “hug a tree” and wait for rescue. That doesn’t always work around here, and Mr. Kim wasn’t necessarily wrong in trying to walk out for help. Several years ago, in March, a guy was found on that same road, frozen, sitting in his pickup waiting for rescue. He’d been missing since November. Another common piece of advice for people stuck in the woods is to travel downhill, find water, and follow it downstream. That doesn’t work here either. You will end up cold, wet, and trapped at the bottom of a cliff. Around here you have to go uphill until you find a logging spur or an old log deck [also called a log landing or log yard] and then build a big fire. Actually, if Mr. Kim had just stayed on the road, he could have walked to either Galice or Agness in one hard day. You have to know where you are, and adapt accordingly. – R.M.



Two Letters Re: Implications of Directly Confronting Criminals

James
This is a comment about the remarks that Dutch from Wyoming made about the man who moved from Colorado due to gangs. What did Dutch want the guy from Colorado to do? Start exterminating them? We all fantasize about doing away with the bad guys, but how do you do it and still stay out of jail or get the lethal injection? I retired from law enforcement from California and moved to Montana for some of the same reasons the man from Colorado did. I arrested hundreds, maybe thousands (never kept count) of gang members during my career. An army of lawyers put most them back on the street. Many of those lawyers were/are paid with our tax dollars (Public defenders.) I’ve also been in shootouts with gang members, including during the 1992 riots. I was sued for those shootings and the city had to pay a lot of money (tax payer money) to gang member families. Remember, the gangs shot at us, we return fire, we win the gun fight, but loose in civil court. Some of my colleagues, went to federal jail for fighting the good fight against gang members. The department abandoned them on the battlefield, and the Feds put them in jail for civil rights violations. I read and see the news everyday where officers are fighting gang members, and God help them if a “use of force” is video taped at the time of the arrest. Even supposedly conservative Fox News doesn’t get it. As soon as they see an arrest where the officers are using force, their comments are usually biased and negative against the officer(s). So, what do we do? Shoot, Shovel and Shut up? We are not there yet, but perhaps the day that that happens is not too far off. Or maybe [as Shakespeare suggested] “The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”. – John in Montana

Sir:
Most people who read his [Dutch from Wyoming’s] comments in your blog would be happy to make their stand in their current place of residence. It is not the bad guys we fear, rather the sheeple and law enforcement who punish individuals for the crime of self defense. – D.A.