Letter Re: Military Surplus Gasoline Cans–Questions on Cleaning Procedures and Venting

Hi Jim.
I recently bought several used five gallon military gas cans over the Internet. Since they are used, they arrived with some remaining liquid residue in them. I don’t know what it is, other than it is not gasoline. Also, the lids are the kind that close down securely with a latch and don’t appear to be vented like the gas cans bought in a hardware store. I have several questions. (1) Do you have any suggestions for cleaning them out so that I can store gasoline in them? (2) What is the purpose of the cans being unvented? (3) What are the pros and cons of the cans being unvented? (4) Are there any dangers peculiar to unvented gas cans that I need to be aware of? Thanks for a great blog, I have been a regular reader from the beginning. – Joe.

JWR Replies: In answer to your questions:

1) Ironically, the best solvent for cleaning a used gasoline can is… gasoline. When cleaning a 4 or 5 gallon can, in a well-ventilated place, well away from any open flames and taking proper static electricity grounding precautions, simply put one quart of fresh gasoline (the octane number is unimportant) in the can, seal it, and then shake it vigorously for two minutes. Wait five minutes and then give it another two minute shake. Immediately pour out that gas and treat it as you would any other toxic waste. (Do NOT attempt to run it through any sort of engine. At this point it is only suitable for making napalm.) Then repeat the entire process, using another quart of fresh gasoline. Again, discard that gas. At this point the can should be clean enough to use for storing gas for use in engines.

2, 3, and 4) I’ve never heard of an unvented military gas can, but I don’t have much experience with some of the foreign military designs. U.S. mil-spec gas and diesel cans alway have vents. Look closely at the filler neck. It will probably have one or two small vent holes, possibly under the cap’s rubber seal. Unvented cans are a safety hazard in my estimation, because they would be at risk of leaking or rupture with changes in temperature or elevation.

Letter Re: Advice on Ammunition and Precious Metals for Barter?

Mr. R.:
Years back a good friend – a “tech incubator” and investment banker – asked me “What would make a good, easily portable medium of exchange ?” He was referencing some WTSHTF, post apocalyptic scenario. Good question. We thought about it and came up with answers, none of which were a pretty, malleable, ductile, shiny metal.
Same with diamonds. Pretty. How do they taste when brewed up in the coffee-pot ? … oh yeah, they don’t!
Wanna barter ? You’d better be bringing something to the table that has functional value. Food. Water. Shelter. Fire. Things that go bang. Things that when fed-in make those things go bang [i.e. magazines]. Medicine. Seed. Tools. Knowledge – the ultimate tool
I understand that we’re talking about a more rounded management and market-system where a universally-accepted medium of exchange would be operative, and that many here are interested in money and gold. But discussions of precious metals seem to be the economic analogue of the “Tommy Tactical” threads. The foundation of any pyramid that would support either an individual or some aggregate of individuals will have to focus on essentials. With apologies to Mr. Maslow, gold ain’t in that bottom layer, or any of the higher ones.
I’ve got a brick of .22 and you have a gold coin. If I have enough bricks, I’ll sell. If not, that one gold coin ain’t gonna be doing it. It’ll take two, maybe three. Your stock of gold just went down in valuation by 67%. And that would be on a good day, when the marketplace is beneficent, and there’s no gangs roaming the countryside, and you’re healthy and can walk, and your boots are in good shape, and so on. Ditto with a tin of butter, coil of rope, lighter, cold-weather parka
Actually envisioning the landscape and scenarios that’ll eventuate, should inform decisions we make. I’m hoping that I never need to use my resources in a world gone kaflooey, but since it might happen, I plan for that scenario. My stewardship of family wellness and preparedness entails investments and savings, and for us gold isn’t one, nor are gold stocks, gold funds, gold futures, gold coins, promises of gold or the lure of gold. Markets move up over time, and we’ll invest, just not in gold. Not till we’re squared away with our other funds, the kids and their UTMAs, our HSA, and other more tangible and productive ventures
Yes, I like the payoffs from expendable income, and the things that money can buy. But I’m skeptical that gold holdings will serve me in the world-we-hope-never-to-see. If the SHTF (Excuse me again, Mr. Farnham – when ) gold will be of little value, and I suspect that any surviving governmental apparatus will be rounding it up along with real assets. Flash yer gold and get what you want (or) loose it (or) get incarcerated …. hmmm ? Three outcomes, two bad … hmmm ? Woody Hayes is speaking to me from the grave. In the interim, I’ll be brewing real coffee, versus virtual coffee from my envisioned precious metal asset-base. – Monsieur Anon

Odds ‘n Sods:

North Korea defiant, amidst fears of second nuclear weapon test. In other headlines, North Korea say that the recent UN sanctions resolution is a “declaration of war.”

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The U.S. is beefing up security on the Canadian border, deploying air assets–including drones.

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The U.S. Special Forces SCAR rifle acquisition program moves forward: The SCAR has unique specifications that allow the same receiver to be used for both .223 (“SCAR L”) and .308 (“SCAR H”) variants. Hmmm…The army finally gets back on track, nearly 50 years after the T44 versus T48 rifle trials, and acquires an FN-designed gas piston-operated 7.62mm NATO rifle with a pistol grip stock, charging handle on the left side, and a relatively straight line stock. (Sound familiar? Sounds like a FAL-inspired design to me.) My only question is: Will the .308 version of the SCAR use standard metric FAL magazines? I hope so.

Letter Re: Earthquake in Hawaii

Jim:
I woke up last Sunday to the sound of my house shaking. Yup, an earthquake and wow, a really big one. Calmly and firmly I ordered the kids out of the house and waited until the shaking stopped. When we went inside my 6 and 8 year olds had already gotten their little mini-survival packs out (emergency mylar bags, flints, tinder and Swiss army knives) and were working on getting their heavier survival backpacks out from the closet (food, clothes and sleeping bags) while I swept up the broken glass on the kitchen floor. They did me proud. No worries, they could put them away, I said. “What about if the volcano goes off?” one asked. “Okay, leave them out and put your shoes on.” I responded. I got out the short wave and some AA batteries and scanned to find an operating radio station running on a generator (Statewide power outage). When I found one, I got the location of the epicenter off the northwest coast of the Big Island, grabbed my topographic maps and saw that the tsunami (which never came) would be a non issue for my location. I was surprised by the lack of decent information on the radio. No one mentioned turning off gas lines to avoid explosions. All they said was stay off the roads and limit cell and land line phone usage. I got through to my wife on the other side of the island (working a crafts fair) and while rocks had tumbled from cliffs no one had been hurt. Dang, I thought. Is there any food in the car? How about water? Did she bring good walking shoes? Mental note, put all in the trunk How much gas was in the tank? I have a bad habit of letting the gas tank go to nearly empty before refilling. Okay, so from now on, gas fill ups at 1/2 a tank. 1/4 at worst.
Later in the day my neighbors came back from their survival trips into town. One said that 1000 generators had been sold in one day at the local Home Depot and he had bought one himself. [JWR Adds: I’m dubious about what your neighbor said. Is there a Home Depot store has that kind of deep inventory? Or were they mostly taking back orders?] I asked what kind of generator he got and he said gasoline. “How much gasoline do you have?” “Well, 5 gallons plus what’s in my [car’s] gas tank.” “I see, and with no power on the island, how will you get more gas from the gas station? The pumps won’t work.” I queried. “You’ve got a huge propane tank over there. Why not get a propane generator?” I left him scratching his head. Why not get food and water? If the quakes and or tsunami took out the docks, then we’d have no food on the island real fast. Well, at least he could watch his big screen TV for a few hours until his gas ran out. Several of my neighbors didn’t even have portable radios. – SF in Hawaii

Letter Re: Prospects for the UK after TEOTWAWKI

Sir:
On 10 Oct 06 you wrote: “Ironically, the risk of getting murdered here in the US is higher than it is there. But England clearly has higher rates for nearly all other crimes–both violent and non-violent”. In fact England has more murders than the US. It is all to do with how they work out the numbers. You would think to be classed as a murder someone would have to be murdered but it does not work this way.
In the US the way to class a death as murder is if the police case starts of as a murder case i.e. A body is found in the with blood on its head the first officer on the scene will report it as a homicide so it will be added to the U.S.A. murder rate list. If it is found that they had a heart attack and then hit there head on the floor its still adds to the murder rate.
So as you can see the US is a lot safer than they make out.
In the UK to make the list someone has to be found guilt of murder and then it is added to the murder rate of the year they are found guilty. So if a person kills 20 in 2006 and found guilty in 2010 all 20 are added to the murder rate for 2010.
Dr. H. Shipman killed himself in 2001 but in 2003 he was found to have killed 172 (it could had been as high as 300+ he was in jail for murder at the time) of his patient. So 172 deaths were added to the murder rate calculations for 2003. As you can see the worse job the Police [and courts] do, the better the UK looks for murder rate. – Simon in England

Odds ‘n Sods:

From Asia Times Online: An interesting, albeit biased, three part analysis of the recent conflict in Israel, by Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry

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The U.S. Census Bureau’s population “POPclock” tops the 300,000,000 mark. That is interesting, but it doesn’t have a lot of immediate impact on my family. The nearest neighboring house is 1/2 mile away from the Rawles Ranch. The population density is still just three people per square mile in our county. This is typical for most of the rest of The Un-named Western State (TUWS). OBTW, our friend Fred the Valmet-meister mentioned that there are some interesting statistics on population density of the 50 states at the Wikipedia.

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Reader JH pointed us to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (Oct. 16, 2006). They carried an article on page A2 about the divergence between electrical demand and the capacity of the power grid. Some real FFTAGFFR!

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war." – Horace (65-8 BC) This quote inspired a modern corollary: "In plenty, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for hardship." – SurvivalBlog reader CW (2006 AD)

Note From JWR:

Today we welcome our newest advertiser, MURS Radio. They sell bargain-priced surplus VHF portable two-way radios that operate in the Multi Use Radio Service (MURS) allocated frequencies. These radios come complete and ready to use with antenna, battery, belt clip and drop-in charger for only $49 each. Yes, they have a few scratches and they’ll have a sticker that covers the original emergency service department engravings, but for just $49 for a 2 Watt transceiver, they are a great deal. MURS frequencies and do not require a license in the U.S. These are pre-programmed with five MURS frequencies and three U.S. weather band (“WX” receive only) frequencies. They can also be programmed to 2 Meter Band frequencies or other frequencies within their band capability, upon request. The model that they are presently selling is a Kenwood TK2100 VHF MURS portable. These 2 Watt radios can have much better range than most FRS radios which typically broadcast just 1/2 Watt. I recommend these 2 Watt MURS radios for retreat security communications. Get a pair of them (or several pair) while they’re still available at the $49 price.

Letter Re: TVP is a Poor Choice for Food Storage

Jim:
Many commercially packaged storage food “package deals” load up on Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) for protein. I would eat TVP if I had to, but if you are considering buying food for storage, stick to eggs and meat. TVP comes from soybeans, and soybeans are not a good human food. To explain:
Plants can be placed on a continuum from harmless fruits, vegetables and common grains, to poisonous plants like deathcap mushrooms. With the exception of fruits (seeds pass through our digestion and we ‘deposit’ them in remote locations thus propagating the plant species) , plants don’t want to be eaten. “Who cares what they want?” you say. “It’s not like they can get up and run away.” Exactly. Plants can’t move or bite so they defend themselves with chemicals and thorns. Some chemicals they use will kill us (the wrong mushroom), some will kill us but in small doses can be medicines (foxglove). Some aren’t strong enough to kill us but can make us sick, either acutely or chronically. Soybeans fall into this latter category.
Chemicals in soybeans cause thyroid disorders, blood clots, inhibit trypsin (one of our digestive enzymes), contain very high levels of phytates (mineral inhibitors) and contain high levels of estrogens. Have you noticed girls entering puberty earlier than in previous generations? Men given soy products can become feminized. Babies receiving soy infant formula as their sole source of food take the equivalent of 5 birth control pills a day in estrogens. These chemicals in soy are anti-nutrients. The Asians knew this which is why they only eat fermented soy like miso. Tofu is not fermented. The fermentation process inactivates many (but not all) of the anti-nutritive elements in soy. The only use for soy for humans IMHO is as Miso taken after radiation exposure. After the nuclear explosions in Japan, those who were fed miso survived better than those who were not. Miso will last a long time in a refrigerator and you should have some with your potassium iodate as part of your nuclear first aid kit. – SF in Hawaii

Two Letters Re: Ammunition Handloading Basics

James,
This is in reply to a couple of earlier letters, and I would like to point out some corrections.

1) Lee powder dippers are safe to use as directed. If you actually read the directions and especially the discussion about the dippers in the Lee Modern Reloading Manual you will see that Lee specifies only dippers that cannot go over the maximum weight charge if used with appropriate powders. The dipper provided with a set of dies will only be appropriate with certain powders, and those will always be a little or a lot under the max charge weight, even if the weight to volume ratio varies from that given by Lee. He builds in a margin of error to ensure you can;t go over the max amount unless you really try, or really don’t read instructions, in which case you have no business reloading ammunition.

2) There is more tribal rumor about Glock Kabooms and unsupported chambers than there is fact floating around the Internet. First, Glocks are not the only pistol with partially unsupported chambers. The Model 1911 traditionally is only partially supported. Some SIGs are as well. In fact, there are probably fewer models with fully supported chambers than there are partially. So, unsupported chambers by themselves do not cause Kabooms, otherwise most pistols would be blowing up. I suspect a good number of kabooms are from reloaders that would rather try to blame Glock than their own attempt to go over the maximum load, or their own inattentiveness. Several Kabooms I have read about turn out to be done by shooting a squib load and getting a bullet stuck in the barrel and then shooting another bullet right behind that. That is very likely to bulge or burst the barrel but has nothing to do with the chamber. Many other kabooms are reported with conjecture about the cause but no supporting evidence. I challenge any Glock Kaboom expert to provide first person evidence not hearsay from Internet forums.

There are many of us that reload the .40 S&W in our Glocks without a problem for years upon years. It is like any other cartridge in that you must check the condition of your brass upon each reload and look for signs of case head separation. Most of us that reload the .40 for the Glock find that the case necks crack (as all cartridges will eventually) long before the head separates from the case. Of course if you are always loading your ammo to the maximum loadings or beyond then you should not expect very many reloads per case before they start to fail. Common sense should tell us that if you want your cases to last longer, and you want to reduce the chance of catastrophic failure, then don’t load to the maximum or beyond. And check your cases before and after each reload session. Throw out any that are looking suspicious.

If you are really concerned about this then you can buy an aftermarket barrel for any of the Glocks with cut or button rifling and more fully supported chambers. And every reloader should read at least two reloading manuals before starting to reload. I would recommend The Lee Modern Reloading 2nd Edition, one of the Lyman manuals, or Speer #13 as good beginning manuals. Nosler is not a very good intro, especially for handguns, but is excellent for advanced rifle reloading. I have heard the Hornady and Sierra manuals are also good starters. I would actually recommend acquiring at least three manuals: one by the equipment manufacturer (Lee, Speer/RCBS, Hornady) and/or The ABCs of Reloading; a second from the powder manufacturer of your choice (Hodgdon, VV, Winchester, Alliant, Accurate) and a third from the bullet maker of your choice (Oregon Trail Laser-Cast, Lyman for cast bullets, Speer, Sierra, Hornady).

Reloading is serious business and requires much reading and paying attention to detail. But let’s not scare ourselves with rumors and hearsay.
Thanks for a fantastic blog site! – JB, Oregon

 

Mr. Rawles:
LK from West Virginia obviously doesn’t have much experience putting reloads through Glocks, and is relying on Internet hearsay. A quick perusing of such forums as Brian Enos’ and Glocktalk will shed light on the myth and render it what it is, completely untrue. USPSA and IDPA competitors feed their guns a steady stream of reloads, and many of those guys are shooting Glocks in various forms, including the dreaded “.40 caliber kaboom monster!” I have two Glocks that have yet to see a single round of factory ammo, and one of them has eaten over 30,000 reloads without a glitch. The standard caveats apply when it comes to reloading, in that you must be cautious and follow all guidelines, but if your loads are within listed tolerances from a reputable reloading manual, you should have absolutely no problems. Additionally Glock states that you should not use cast lead bullets, and only use jacketed rounds. I abide by that guideline, but others have ignored it. Your mileage may vary, of course, but nobody should fear quality reloads shot through a Glock. Respectfully, – JCL