Note from JWR:

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Letter Re: Source for Low Cost First Aid/Medical Supplies?

Sir:
I was wondering if you had any direction to a source for “bulk” medical supplies. Thinking about tape, gauze, non-stick pads, burn dressings, etc – all the items that if you are faced with “any” type of serious wound you will go thru in large quantities For example 4″x4″ gauze pads – buying those from your local pharmacy in the 10 to box quantities would bankrupt you – they are available in 100 count sleeves for almost the same cost as a single box of 10. Thanks – MSJ

JWR Replies: Wound dressing items that have essentially unlimited shelf life (such as gauze and splints) can and should be bought in bulk. If you can buy those from surplus outlets for “pennies on the dollar” then don’t hesitate to buy a lifetime supply. But keep in mind that items with adhesive (band-aids, bandage tape, butterfly closures, et cetera) have a limited shelf life, so don’t go hog wild buying those. Otherwise, some will surely go to waste. Some items can be found on eBay at reasonable prices. A few dealers that I can recommend are: JRH Enterprises, Ready Made Resources, Safe Solutions, Sportsman’s Guide, and Nitro-Pak. Other low cost U.S. military surplus sellers include Civil Defense Supplies and Spruce Mountain Surplus. (I haven’t done business with either of the latter, so I can’t vouch for them.) A vendor with a very wide selection of civilian wound dressings (albeit at slightly higher prices) is Quality Medical Supplies.

 

Letter Re: Long Slide Glocks, and Pistol Caliber Selection

Dear Jim:
I am thinking of getting two Glock 17Ls. One for me and one for the wife. I like my G19 but want the longer barrel. My gunsmith suggests a Springfield M1911 with a long barrel. I don’t mind paying more for it and like the idea of faster follow up shots. Your thoughts on reliability versus firing speed? – S.F. in Hawaii

JWR Replies: Since you already have training time and muscle memory invested in Glocks, you probably shouldn’t switch to 1911s now. (And this comes from a dyed-in-the-wool 1911 fan.) The 17L and the Glock 24 (the Glock long slide in .40 S&W) are essentially target pistols. For typical carry, you are probably better off with a standard length Glock 17 or Glock 22. As concealed carry guns, the longer barrel Model 17L and 24 tend to be pistols that get left at home, due to their bulk and weight. But they make fine as belt holster guns at a fixed site retreat.

IMHO, a more important consideration than the maker and model choice is caliber selection. I consider 9mm Parabellum to be at best a marginal stopper for two legged predators. Before you commit further to the 9mm logistics train by buying your #2 and #3 pistols in that caliber, you might consider trading in your Glock 19 (or setting it aside for barter/charity) and instead getting equivalents to what you had planned, but chambered in .40 S&W. (Namely, a Glock 23 and a couple of Glock 22s or perhaps Glock 24s.) And if you and your wife both have large hands, even better would be the more sure stopping .45 ACP (viz., a Glock Model 30 and a couple of Glock 21s.) Test shoot these models first to see if they are comfortable for you. (You might have to do some hunting on a Glock owners’ forum such as Glock Talk to find the owner of a Glock with a grip reduction on your island that you can borrow.)

Selecting a large caliber is a particularly crucial issue there in Hawaii, where you cannot legally possess pistol magazines over 10 round capacity. (A stupid law, but sadly it is unlikely to be repealed.) Since you are limited to 10 round magazines anywhere in the Islands, then you might as well have just 10 rounds of a more adequate stopper: Preferably .45 ACP, but .40 S&W will suffice if you have hands that are too small to comfortably grip the big .45 frame. If those models feel just a bit too big/fat, there is an neat option for you: Both Robar and Arizona Response Systems do very nice machined grip reductions on Glocks. In his excellent book Boston’s Gun Bible, our compadre and Glockophile extraordinaire Boston T. Party mentions that a large frame (G20/G21) Glock with a grip reduction feels a lot like holding a Browning Hi-Power. Boston highly recommends frame reductions. I have done business with both Robar and Arizona Response Systems for more than a decade. Both firms are very competent and reputable. But as I recall, Robar tends to have higher gunsmithing rates and a deeper backlog of orders. So you should probably go with T. Mark Graham at Arizona Response Systems. OBTW, if your budget allows it, have tritium sights installed at the same time as the grip reduction job. If nothing else, you will save money on ammo when shooting those pesky mongooses at night, once you have tritiums installed.

One other possible option for you is the slim-framed Glock 36, which is a compact .45 ACP model with a single column magazine. Unfortunately they are limited to 6 round magazines, which is a distinct disadvantage. Buying this model also loses the great advantage of magazine interchangeability between Glock 21s and Glock 30s. You can of course use a Glock 21 magazine in a Glock 30, but not vice versa. (Just buy Glock 21 magazines for nearly all of your spares.) Therefore, I would only consider the G36 model if you are A.) absolutely sold on the Glock design, and B.) you feel the need for the stopping power of .45 ACP, and C.) a Glock 21 or Glock 30 with a grip reduction job completed is still too big for your hands.

I’m not fond of the Glock 10mm models (Model 20 and 29) which have an uncomfortably loud muzzle blast.) Sourcing 10mm ammo is also a potential source of worry. (By comparison, 9mm, 40 S&W and .45ACP ammo is downright ubiquitous, but finding cartridges in less popular calibers like 10mm, .45 GAP, or .357 SIG anytime after TSHTF may be problematic.) For these reasons I don’t recommended Glock 10mm pistols at all.

I’m a big believer in getting plenty of spare magazines and spare parts. Used 10 round Glock magazines are often found for very reasonable prices (sometimes under $10 each) at Buddy Hinton’s Parts and Accessories Market Board. Since magazines are easily misplaced and are the most fragile part of a pistol, I recommend getting a dozen spare magazines per pistol. (You might not need that many in your lifetime, but your grandkids will thank you for looking ahead.) As previously mentioned here at SurvivalBlog, Glockmeister is a great place to purchase spare parts. Our friend and Glockophile Kitiara at the highly addictive Forever Vain Blog is quick to point out that Glock replacement parts are largely interchangeable and are currently quite inexpensive, so stock up,. She also mentions that with a copy of the PTOOMA Glock Armorer’s manual (printable from the CD-ROM) you can be your own armorer with minimal study.

As for holsters and magazine pouches, I like the kydex Blade-Tech brand. (The best buy is their belt/paddle Combo Pak special.) That is what we use here at the Rawles Ranch for nearly all of our autopistols. Since you are limited to 10 round magazines in Hawaii, you should also get a quad magazine pouch for each of your pistols. BTW, Kitiara–who knows far more than I ever will about Glocks–says that she prefers the Comp-Tac brand kydex holsters.

Lastly, I should remind you and all the other SurvivalBlog readers that no matter how nice a pistol you select, it is almost worthless without proper training. Investing in firearms training is better than investing in life insurance. Firearms training can literally save your life and the lives of your loved ones. (And winning a gunfight is much more satisfying than having your heirs collect on your life insurance policy.) I recommend that you take the Four Day Defensive Handgun course at Front Sight, or a comparable course at another qualified school (such as Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, or John Farnham’s school.) That will be money well spent!

Odds ‘n Sods:

Richard from KT Ordnance pointed us to this WorldNetDaily article: America’s Infrastructure Fire Sale.

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And reader Ben L. mentioned this one from CNN.com: Getting Real About Real Estate. All that I can say is “I told you so.”

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Frequent SurvivalBlog content contributor Jim K. told us about a belt drive bicycle motor that uses regular gas and gets 225 m.p.g “Not a bad idea for long bicycle commutes in a Peak Oil scenario.”

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"To ban guns because criminals use them is to tell the innocent and law-abiding that their rights and liberties depend not on their own conduct, but on the conduct of the guilty and the lawless, and that the law will permit them to have only such rights and liberties as the lawless will allow… For society does not control crime, ever, by forcing the law-abiding to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of criminals. Society controls crime by forcing the criminals to accommodate themselves to the expected behavior of the law-abiding." – Jeff Snyder

Letter Re: Do It Yourself Meat Preservation Methods

Jim:
For years, "Abigail" and I have been canning vegetables from the garden along with beef, fish, venison and bear. Friends or ours were wanting to learn how to can themselves. Last week Kathy and Jeff came over and we processed a bushel of Roma tomatoes into spaghetti sauce. The next evening we canned up the sauce. Since then Kathy on her own has canned up 10 lbs (dry weight) of navy beans and is getting ready to do some hamburger noodle soup. She told me that she had no idea how easy it is to use a pressure cooker to preserve food.
In my opinion this is the way to learn, find someone to show you how! Kathy and Jeff had many questions and we answered them through the course of the two evenings. Like handling a gun you have to respect your equipment when you are home canning. However with the proper instruction you can have a safe and enjoyable time as you are putting away stores for the future.
One last thing, look for canning jars at home auctions. You can reuse the jars indefinitely and can often time pick them up for dimes on the dollar at the sales. Stock up on lids too, if the fertilizer strikes the veneration system those lids will come in very handy indeed. They will also be a great barter item. – John & Abigail Adams

Letter Re: The Economic/Infrastructure Damage of Just One Nuke

Hi Jim,
I don’t know if you have seen this or not, but the Rand Corporation has done a study of a hypothetical nuclear attack on the port of Long Beach, California through which about 30% of US shipping passes. The report shows how devastating this would be to the US and the world economy with damage to the shipping infrastructure, refineries, insurance industry, etc. not to mention the human cost, of course.

The outcome of such an attack could very easily be a world wide depression as port activity would come to a halt to prevent any further such attacks and because many people would refuse to work – or even live – in the areas surrounding ports. It is very sobering especially when one considers that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium and the North Koreans are very possibly preparing to conduct a nuclear test. My first thought as I read it was “Suppose it wasn’t just Long Beach, but several ports around the US and/or the world at the same time?” You can download the entire study or just the summary. Either one is interesting reading. Regards, – Tim P.

Two Letters Re: The Coming Energy Crisis: Hubbert’s Peak Or Not–Be Prepared!

Dear Jim:
Let’s face it, most of our energy shortfalls are completely self-imposed. Gone are the days of the 1950s when generations looked to and planned for the future, built infrastructure and power plants for the grand cities that would one day be. Now we in the US haven’t built a new nuclear power plant since the Three Mile Island incident. We’ve turned against coal even though we have hundreds and hundreds of years worth of the stuff or more. Ted Kennedy won’t let windmills go up any more since they wouldn’t look nice to Ocean front property owners in Massachusetts. We can’t drill in many parts of the Gulf of Mexico because we don’t want to oil on Florida beaches. We can’t build a new pipeline in Alaska because we down in the Continental 48 [states] claim to care about the caribou, who all but a handful of us will ever even see. Perhaps we should ask the good folks who live in Alaska about that, but my guess is, to the environmentalists, they up there just don’t know what is good for them, so why give them the chance to make a decision for themselves.

Since I was in grade school in the 1970s, we always had just 25 years of oil left. I remember vividly I was taught the US would run out of oil and landfill space by the year 2000. I resent that part of my education, or should I say indoctrination. Most of it was wrong and politically motivated then, as it is now. We have a lot of oil in the World, problem is it gets tougher and more expensive to get to. The Middle East oil is cheap to get to – it costs just 29 cents a barrel in overhead costs, whereas in the North Sea, it’s more like $18 a barrel for the rig. The difference between those two numbers is pure profit to the Arab leaders, which is why they are so rich. The laws of economics still serve us, especially with such inelastic demand (as price goes up, supply doesn’t decrease very much). As the price goes up, more and more exploration and new oil will be found, for it is now profitable to do so. Old fields will be “reclaimed” as they squeeze out more. Also, over time, people adjust and find substitutes, and change the way they live, at least to some extent.

For survivalists, the most simple forms of energy are clearly solar and wind. You can get systems for a few thousand dollars which will give you bare bones service for a RV level of electronic existence. You learn in a hurry to cut the waste and get to minimum usage, which is good after all. If you can actually tap into a water source, there are some nice small hydroelectric systems. Here in Wisconsin, wood is of course the common choice for heating, and would power a steam driven generator. Steam is expensive, messy, noisy, smelly, and a pain to watch over IMHO. If you are going to do it, I would opt to have a large system that powered a group of homes. One person can run a big one as surely as a small one. Other sources to be aware of are methane based – some farms use manure to generate power. I would be wise to know where such installations are for later, and these are million dollar operations that are a couple megawatts. A sterling engine would nice, but they are too inefficient, and nobody seems to make a good one the right size. Otherwise, its diesel (with additive) and propane generators for more of us, I suspect, which are both good long term storage fuels.- Rourke

 

Dear Jim:
It appears we are running out of oil, but how much of a crisis this will be can be debated endlessly. No one can predict the bounds of human ingenuity and future technological advances in power generation. The market’s adaptation to oil scarcity will mean higher oil prices, and a huge incentive to conserve and get creative with alternatives. The “Limits to Growth” crowd cried wolf once before in the 1970s, and still has egg on their face.
So, if I had to guess I would bet that the market would handle the transition to nuclear power, shale oil, solar, wind power etc., etc. with possibly some belt tightening, but no catastrophic disruption. Unfortunately we don’t have a free market in general, and especially not in building nuclear plants. The government’s regulatory delays to go nuclear, or implement other alternatives, may easily put us in a severe crisis. Count on the government to make it worse, as seen in the recent discussion of ethanol – squandering scarce resources on a net energy loser.
One thing I am pretty sure of is that the secondary or ripple effects of a perceived energy crisis will probably be more damaging than the crisis itself. Case in point, the U.S. military is in Iraq and Afghanistan at least partially because of the government’s perception of a looming energy crisis. Ripple effect – the hemorrhaging of our finances in the Mideast tarpit will make the economic and financial crisis we have coming even worse. The chewing up of our military equipment in the desert sand, will change the global balance of power with unpredictable effects.
If they subsidize gas prices the free market will not give the right signals to conserve and find alternatives. If they slap price controls on energy, as in the 1970s, then we will really see shortages and disruption. Longer term and more ominous, the conflict between governments to control scarce oil could easily start World War III.
Bottom line, we probably have a crisis in the works. Could the free market handle it, if left alone? Most likely. Will the government turn it into a real crisis? Definitely.
Regards, – OSOM “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Seeing our hit map each month is gratifying. The SurvivalBlog readership keeps on growing, globally. What I want to know is, who are all these readers that I see scattered across Asia? I had no idea… I get a few e-mails from soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and South Korea. But who are all the others? Mystifying.

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13 Plague Cases Reported in U.S. As long as there are rodents with fleas, the plague will be lurking in the background.

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Reader Joe in Florida mentioned that: www.alarmclocksonline.com has a fine selection of wind-up movement alarm clocks, both new, unissued old stock, and restored, older units. They also have brand new US made units as well. Joe says: “Everyone needs a few wind-up clocks. This site has quite a selection.”

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Vic Rantala at Safecastle has put together another Mountain House freeze dried foods special group buy for SurvivalBlog and FALFiles readers! These are packed in #10 cans for maximum storage life. There are three group buy options: 3 cases, 8 cases, and 25 cases. With the big 25 case deal, Vic is offering free shipping! The last time that he did a group buy, it was a huge success, with a huge volume of orders placed. No wonder, because Vic’s special prices are phenomenal! Don’t miss out on this deal. The Mountain House special ends on September 13th.

Note from JWR:

After years of frustration with the anti-gun PayPal online payment service, we have set up an account with an alternative service, AlertPay. We can now accept AlertPay payments for 10 Cent Challenge subscription donations, advertising fees, consulting fees, and for sales of books and other merchandise. If you are also fed up with PayPal, then I highly recommend that you get an AlertPay account Setting up an account is quick and easy, and their fees are low. .Our AlertPay address is: rawles@usa.net

Letter Re: Questions on Faraday Cages and Radiological Survey Meter EMP Resistance

Hello Jim –
Fantastic Blog – I am a little late to the party and just discovered SurvivalBlog last week working some survival related searches on Google. I read your novel [“Patriots”] too, years ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

My questions: I have searched around and can not find much practical information on Faraday Cages, especially directions for constructing them at home. What design is effective? What is not? Should they be grounded? etc. I know this information is out there, and I’ll bet that more than one reader of the Blog can help – and I’ll also bet that the topic will interest most readers. Also, there seems to be a renewed interest in radiology survey equipment in general – check out eBay for the recent flurry of activity of sellers with the old 1960s Civil Defense survey meters, dosimeters, and dosimeter chargers…thank you Iran and North Korea! I know that some older transistor-based radios are thought to be very resistant to EMP, I was wondering how these vintage instruments would hold up. Thank you. – Rowland

JWR Replies: I’m not an RF engineer, so don’t take the following as gospel, but I did do some research on EMP, as background for a series of EMP hardening and test articles that I wrote for Defense Electronics magazine back in the late 1980s. For that series, I took a trip to Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico where I interviewed a half dozen EMP specialist engineers and toured the U.S. Air Force TRESTLE facility.

My general advice for those that suggest making their entire house into a Faraday cage: Don’t. It will probably be wasted effort. The biggest problem is that any external linear metallic structure such as a radio or television antenna, a phone line, or a power line that enters the house will act as an EMP conductor and make the cage useless. Second, unless you are quite meticulous about making the cage a completely integral shell without any gaps, then it will allow the passage of the pulse. (I can’t imagine the complexity of building an entirely off-grid house with no outside communication, no external antennas, and all power generation done inside of the Faraday cage!) Second, every window screen must be grounded to the rest of the house “cage” and every door must have interlocking “teeth” around its perimeter. Even the floors must include a mesh. Lastly, the often cited but fallacious “one inch mesh chicken wire” approach is insufficient, since EMP waveforms are very broadband, and include some very short wavelengths. Unless the mesh apertures are smaller than the shortest wavelength of a pulse, then the mesh will leak. IMHO, you are much better off storing spare disconnected radios, computers, and automobile electronic ignition components wrapped in aluminum foil and/or stored in steel ammo cans. This approach is essentially foolproof, and less expensive in the long run. A side benefit is that it will also provide spare/redundant electronics for other non-EMP disaster situations.

Any corrections, differing opinions, or suggestions on large scale Faraday cage construction, folks? (I appreciate your counsel. 12,000 heads are better than one!)

As for Civil Defense rate/survey meters: Any meters from the early 1960s (which is when most of them were made) will have have discrete transistor technology that should be immune to all but the most intense and localized EMP. (Read: If they were affected, then you’d be inside the blast radius and would probably killed instantly.) It is only later microcircuit (“chip”) technology that is vulnerable to EMP. In general, the smaller the gate size, the more vulnerable a microcircuit is to EMP. (Hence, the latest chips with sub-micron dimension gates are quite vulnerable.) In the event of EMP, you can kiss your Pentium chip PC goodbye.

Three Letters Re: The Ethanol Debate

James,
Great site. Keep up the great work. Here are two interesting links about the market dominance of ethanol in Brazil: CBS News and Washington Post.
Brazil plans to be energy independent by next year, based on conversion of sugar cane to ethanol.
In comparison, the ethanol extracted from corn yields only about 15 to 25 percent more fuel than the fossil fuels that were used to produce it. In Brazil, according to industry studies, the sugar-based ethanol yields about 830 percent more. Sugar cane may not the answer here in the US, but it does show what can happen when an entire country focuses on becoming energy dependent. Cheers, – Rookie in VA

 

Mr. Rawles
I come from ethanol country. There has not been an increase in corn planting to provide fuel for the ethanol plants that are springing up nearby. The broken farm subsidy system that in years past has had field corn rotting on the ground is also funding the ethanol process. These studies that show the amount of energy used to produce ethanol are not pointing out that we are not using new production corn to produce ethanol. The production energy(most of it anyway) will already be used up as farmers in this country continue to over-produce feed corn. Corn that has been used to produce ethanol can also be used for feed. Assuming Washington is not interested in fixing the subsidy system shouldn’t we be doing our best to get the most out of our money? By producing ethanol we are getting more usage out of each bushel of corn.

 

Hello again,
As I was reading Jim’s letter regarding alternative fuels I noticed him discussing biodiesel and its inadequacy for large scale usage. I believe he is mistaken. And Tim P’s letter is incorrect in that biodiesel currently sells for about the same price as regular diesel. And, at least for now, you get a tax break for using it.

My father is the Director of Maintenance at a Transit Authority in the Midwestern United States. With the rise in fuel costs, he has done a good deal of research into the matter. During the summer months, every bus they have on the streets runs on 100% biodiesel. During spring and fall they go to 70% and then down to 20-30% during winter because it does tend to cloud up. That’s 327 buses and 12,956,000 or so street miles every year. 3,000,000 or so miles on 100 % Biodiesel. Almost 13 million on some sort of mixture. At the very least that could prolong things for a while. That is in no way a little utilization.

As far as biodiesel’s petroleum use/output ratio, I don’t know for sure. It is worth considering that Proctor and Gamble produces soy biodiesel as a BYPRODUCT of making soap, cosmetics, etc. They use it to produce Olestra (the fat replacement oil for cooking chips etc.) They refine/distil soy to get glycerin for soap (P&G makes a little soap) and other goods and soy biodiesel is left over.

Could we then use biodiesel to distil more soy to get more soap/ biodiesel at an efficient rate? I don’t know, but I would think it merits consideration. – DD

Odds ‘n Sods:

Randy in Utah mentioned to me that Dan’s Ammo currently has a great deal on brand new, unissued Hensoldt Z24 scopes with STANAG claw mounts, in the original military carry cases. These are $375 each, postage paid. Once this batch of Z24 scopes at Dan’s is gone, I’m fairly certain that they will jump back up to the normal market price of around $600 each.

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Cliff C. alerted us to this article: IBM and Tekvet team to remotely track and monitor the health of millions of cattle. One would hope that this doesn’t get integrated with the NAIS program or applied to more nefarious purposes…

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Reader “Alfie Omega” reminded us that there are a lot of great articles on photovoltaics, wind power and micro-hydro, all available for free download at the Home Power magazine web site. They also have useful Glossary, and their Renewable Energy Resources Directory is a great way to find alternate energy system supplier that is local to your area. Needless to say, I also recommend subscribing to Home Power magazine.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity and hardihood – the things that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.- Theodore Roosevelt