A “Must Read” Article From France On Iran

The Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique Europe 2020, LEAP/E2020, just posted a “must read” article. The article begins: “The Laboratoire européen d’Anticipation Politique Europe 2020 now estimates to over 80% the probability that the week of March 20-26, 2006 will be the beginning of the most significant political crisis the world has known since the Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, together with an economic and financial crisis of a scope comparable with that of 1929…” See: http://www.europe2020.org/en/section_global/150206.htm

Letter Re: Rifle Recommendations for Canada

Jim:
Regarding [military surplus] Ishapore SMLE .308 bolt acton rifles, I bought a few of these a while back on a “buy ten for” deal. A buddy and I both sprung for five of them to get 10 of these and we paid a ridiculously low price… something like $69 each plus shipping and tax.
 
Anyway, I gave one to my dad and my uncle and kept the best of the lot for myself.
 
These are some of the finest bolt action rifles we have ever used. They all had decent two stage triggers. Each came with a 10 round box mag, and I ordered a few extras. (The extra magazines were $35 each!)
 
This is a very accurate rifle, though a little heavy as it came out of the box.
 
My dad took all the wood coverings off the barrel, the bayonet lug and front sight off and it lightened the rifle by about 3 pounds.
 
We had a heckuva time getting a scope mount to work and ended up milling our on as the ones we bought would not hold sight after about 10 shots.
 
The “redneck engineered” version we made is dog ugly, but you could drive a truck over it and it would not come off.
 
This his and my uncles favorite truck and hunting gun now, as they don’t mind beating it up, but know it will still shoot every time.
 
I have shot mine at the range and consistently shot 1-inch groups at 100 yards with open sights.
 
Even my Sako M995 Kevlar wiz bang super accurate .300 Win Mag doesn’t shoot much better.
 
Most of the “goodness” is in the trigger. It really does have an excellent trigger.
 
If folks get one of the yellow sheet wholesale gun mags like Shotgun News, they will find lots of dealers selling Ishapore .308s cheap… maybe not as cheap as the ones I bought, as they had just come out and folks hadn’t yet realized that they were diamonds in the rough. – Mel

The Self-Suffcient Retreat, and “Working the Kinks Out”

I’m often asked about the ideal location for a retreat. Every locale has its pros and cons. But in general any area that is well removed from major population centers and that has fertile soil, a long growing season, and plentiful water should give you far better chances of pulling through that the average urbanite or suburbanite. A more overriding concern is what you do with your retreat, and how soon you get it truly “squared away.” Having one or two years of food storage is commendable, but in the event of a full scale TEOTWAWKI, what will you do once you’ve consumed your larder? Similarly, merely owning survival gear and knowing how to use it are two different things. (This encapsulates my oft-quoted “Gadgets Versus Skills” argument.)

You’ve heard me preach on the importance of pre-positioning the vast majority of your logistics and living at your retreat full time. The latter is crucial not just for security of your stored logistics, but also so that you can make your retreat truly self-suffcient. By being there year-round, you will have the opportunity to plant perennial crops (such as berry bushes), to tend fruit and nut trees, to learn the habits of the local wild game, and to build up your flocks of small livestock. Building your practical skills inventory is just as important–if not more important–than building your larder. You can only do that if you are there to do it. If circumstances dictate that you can’t live at your retreat year-round, then hopefully there is some other member of your retreat group that can–perhaps someone that is retired or self-employed. There is also nothing quite like living at a retreat year round to insure that you “work the kinks out” of everything from your water system and wood stove to your photovoltaic power system. Any such difficulties would be mere inconveniences if encountered today, but could be positively tragic if you wait and discover them after TSHTF, when luxuries like “mail order” and “the hardware store” are just memories. You will only know for certain if you live the life.

Letter Re: Priority of Training?

Mr. Rawles:
After reading your novel [Patriots], I realize that I’ve lot to learn to get truly prepared. I’m especially worried about the Asian [Avian] flu. If a human-compatible form of it hits nationwide, I think that things are gonna come positively unglued in the big cities. (Just like the picture of the collapsing infrastructure that you painted in your novel.) We are living in a house of cards. The interdependencies are so far-reaching that they make the prospect of a collapse frightening. I’m getting my “beans bullets and band aids” lined up quickly, but what about training? What’s the most important class/course to take first? How about old timey farming knowledge? Thank you, H.L. in Knoxville

JWR Replies: I recommend that you take advantage of free local classes first. Take the American Red Cross First Aid and CPR classes. Don’t overlook free classes offered by your local ham radio club. The wealth of experience offered by those “Elmers” is phenomenal. Seek out other elders in your community for “old timey” skills like do-it-yourself canning. If you want to learn how to live through a depression or a banking panic, there is nothing quite like learning from someone that has already lived through one. Sadly, there are a lot of old folks that have been “warehoused” in retirement homes that would be happy to share what they know.

If you are worried about societal unrest and looting, then it essential to get top rate firearms training from a shooting school like Gunsite, Front Sight, or Thunder Ranch. (Even if you are prior military service, you’ll learn more in just a few days there than you learned from years of military service.)

Once you have acquired proficiency at your tactical skills, seek out some advanced medical training. If possible, make plans to attend one of the specialized Tactical Lifesaver Courses. The next will be held on April 15-16, 2006, in Douglas, Georgia. A Iraq war vet Physician’s Assistant (PA) will teach you a lot of skills that the American Red Cross doesn’t. (Such as: how to prep an intravenous infusion, how to insert and orthopharyngeal airway, wound debridement, suturing, how to treat a sucking chest wound, and much more.)  Don’t neglect taking this course. See: http://www.survivalreportblog.com/Tactical_Lifesaver_Course.html

Letter Re: Recommendations for Night Vision Goggles?

Mr. Rawles,
I wanted to say I enjoy your blog very much and look forward to it everyday. I am happy to contribute to your 10 Cent Challenge. Regarding your 20 February post on NVGs, I’ve looked at a few web sites just to see what is available. I have never actually put one of these models on so I may be out to lunch but it seems that most of the NVGs are built to cover your whole eye, allowing no peripheral vision, amplified or otherwise. I am currently an F-16 pilot in the Air Force and we fly quite a bit with NVGs. Our NVGs do not cover the entire eye and are more like a set of binoculars (without the amplification) positioned in front of the eyes. This is gives us the ability to glance down into the cockpit (a must in order to kill and not be killed) and have peripheral vision (though it is not amplified by NVGs of course). 40 degrees of NVG vision is not a lot and is akin to looking through a toilet paper tube. Having the ability to glance down at your weapon or detect movement out of the corner of your eye (movement, even at night, is best seen with your peripheral) is priceless. Once again, maybe I am wrong about the way they sit on your eyes but it not, then it is definitely something to think about. I would rather have 40 degrees of night vision and and still able to look down and have peripheral vision versus 40 degrees of night vision and nothing else. Once again thanks for putting such a great blog together. – Sterno

JWR Replies: Many thanks for your input. In my experience, the requirements for NVGs in ground combat are much different than for use in a cockpit. The biggest tradeoff is peripheral vision versus the risk of “raccoon eyes.” Let me explain: If you have the goggles set forward on a typical helmet mount to allow peripheral vision then they cast a bright glow on your face. This glow can be seen by someone in front of you for well in excess of 50 feet without NVGs, and for hundreds of yards with NVGs. That is one of the reasons that I prefer either NV weapons sights or NV monoculars with rubber eye cups (with the folding flap that opens only after your have pressed it to your face. To a bad guy in the distance, using any sort NV device without an eyecup looks like like you are shining a flashlight in your face.

Jim’s Quote of the Day

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." – Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp

Letter Re: All-Wire Rabbit Hutches

Mr. and Mrs. Rawles,
I’m immensely enjoying your Blog. Thank you for the time and effort you place into your blog. I was reading into the archives trying to catch up and in the August 8th replies you had a reference to the wooden cages. One way that will help mitigate the problem of chewing and weakening of the wooden structure of the cages. You can use metal corner bead over the edges of the exposed wood inside the cage. It would be better as you stated to use all wire cages, they are by far the best. But the truth is that some people will use wood because they can’t afford wire, they have the wood already or because it how their father and his father did. Just a thought. All the best, – C.K.

The Memsahib Replies: When we first got rabbits, we got a bunch of free wooden hutches. We planned to upgrade to wire cages as money allowed. We up graded a lot sooner than planned because we discovered porcupines in Idaho have a special fondness for wood legs on hutches because of the minerals that soak into the wood from the rabbit urine. Of course upgrading isn’t always possible. Thanks for the good suggestions.

Letter Re: Advantages and Disadvantages of New Zealand

Hi James,
I would like to clarify a few things that J.G. from Auckland stated. Magazine capacity is limited for those with “A” category licensing only. Those with “E:” category license can have center fire or rim fire magazines for the “E” category weapons (military style semi automatic) that are unlimited in capacity. Pistol ownership merely requires that you join a pistol club, install an adequate safe in your home for pistol storage, obtain a “B” category license and attend 12 club shoots per year which is not much if you intend to shoot competently. 

Our country has troops currently in Afghanistan and in the past sent combat engineers to Iraq.

J.G. correctly points out that we in New Zealand are uniquely blessed with a land that has more food units than people and is still largely agrarian. – B.W.  from the Bay of Plenty.

JWR Replies: Things are quite a bit different here in the U.S. Of course the State laws vary widely. We don’t have a unified “Country Code” like the Commonwealth countries. Outwardly, out patchwork of laws looks a bit chaotic, but it has its advantages.  One of the most notable of these is that if a state gets too intrusive we can “vote with our feet” and just move to a different state. (Witness the current out-migration of conservatives from California to States like Idaho, Montana, and Nevada.)

Re:  “Pistol ownership merely requires that you …”   Your description seems like a lot of “flame filled hoops” to me. In many states (such as the aforementioned Idaho, Montana, and Nevada), if an adult wants to buy a pistol from another citizen that lives in the same state, he just opens his wallet and buys it, with no government intervention whatsoever.(No registration, no competency tests, no licensing, no storage requirements. Nothing!)  Needless to say, gun shows here are a lot of fun!  Our newspaper classified ads have lots of private party gun ads.

There are far more paperwork requirements when one buys guns across state lines, or any transaction involving a Federally licensed dealer.  But thankfully, private party gun sales are the last bastion of privacy here in the States. We like it that way.

Letter From Mr. Bravo Re: Money Belts, Large Bills, and Gold for the Grid-Up Bugout Bag

Jim,
I don’t know how recognized a Euro note would be in a U.S. crisis, especially the premium of the dollar. (“Funny money” may even be assumed to be devalued, as if Canadian.)

The real concern about large Euro notes is that of presumed counterfeiting. A British friend recently told me that 500 Euro notes are essentially not legal tender for most commercial transactions, due to widespread counterfeiting suspicions. You can take them to a bank, but that is about it.

Unless you need to carry substantial wealth that will be put in an operating bank at your destination, I’d stick to dollars or precious metals. FYI: US currency weighs about one gram per bill. Which means that a stack of $20 bills is presently nearly “worth its weight in gold!” That means that gold over about $3000/ounce would be more portable (and far more compact) than our largest [piece of] currency. I prefer the more romantic notion of a vest with gold pieces sewn in. A man could wear a vest with nearly 400 one ounce gold coins sewn in (single layer) that would weigh nearly 30 pounds, and be worth about $250,000 at current prices. Now that is “bug-out wealth”! – Mr. Bravo

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog reader “Rourke” mentioned a great alert site in Hungary that was recently mentioned on the Aussie Survival discussion board: http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert.php?lang=eng

  o o o

SurvivalBlog reader H.P.F. recommends three interesting sites: 
1.) http://www.netcastdaily.com/fsnewshour.htm  (listen to “Hour Two”),
2.) http://www.finance.messages.yahoo.co…mid=648143 NEWS BRIEF: “Americas Foes Circle Wagons”, by Claude Salhani, UPI International Editor, reprinted in Raiders News Updates, February 16, 2006 and,
3.) http://www.countercurrents.org/p…180206.htm  — a piece titled Peak Oil – The Great Tsunami, by Michael Payne

  o o o

I might have mentioned this one before… A handy tool for calculating the effects of monetary inflation (in the U.S.): http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

Note From JWR:

I would appreciate your help spreading the word about SurvivalBlog. Doing so is in your best interest. Why? Because each neighbor that you convince to prepare will be one less person that you’ll find begging on your doorstep, come TEOTWAWKI+1.

Rifle Recommendations for Canada

I’m often asked by SurvivalBlog readers in Canada which rifles I recommend. Sadly, the C.96 semi-auto rifle/magazine ban in Canada didn’t leave Canadians with a lot of options. Since there may be more bans in the future, I’d recommend something in the Lee-Enfield bolt action family. There are so many of those rifles in circulation in commonwealth countries that they will probably be exempted from any bans on rifles with detachable magazines.  (Notably, SMLE 10  round magazines were *specifically exempted* in the Canadian C.96 “any rifle magazine over 5 round capacity” ban.)   Yes, I know what you are thinking… Just give the politicians time, they’ll get around to banning anything that will even accept a detachable magazine. In fact, they won’t quit until the have you down to archery equipment… We have the same problem here in the U.S. The only difference is that the politicians aren’t in as much of a hurry.

Depending on your ammo sources, I’d recommend either a SMLE .303 or  perhaps an Ishapore IA1 .308. (Assuming that their magazines are exempt under the Canadian 5+ round magazine law, too.)  Make sure to get a half dozen spare magazines to allow sustained fire.

If you are an optimist, you might buy a U.S. M1 Garand semi-auto rifle. Because of their 8 round expendable en bloc clip, there was a special grandfather clause included in the law. That makes it the highest capacity centerfire rifle that is legal in Canada.  (Aside for law enforcement officers and a few rifle team members, that can possess rifles such as M1As and L1A1s, and high capacity magazines.) Being a pessimist, I predict that the M1 Garand will eventually be banned in Canada, as well.

Letter Re: Recommendations on Body Armor?

James:
I’m a newbie at preparedness. I have some nitro-packed storage food and I’m working on buying a few guns and getting training.  I think I’ll start with a course at Front Sight. But for immediate needs, I’m about ready to buy some body armor for “just in case.”  Are the mil surplus flak vests that I see advertised for +/-$80 a good deal? – T.Y.

JWR Replies: I highly recommend the training at Front Sight it is top notch! About body armor; first things first: Forget about the older-vintage military surplus “flak” vests” that you saw advertised. These are primarily designed to stop shrapnel, but not bullets. Most of the pre-1985 military issue vests would barely rate Class IIA.(Which is lower than Class II, if you aren’t  familiar with the rating system–that numbering system confuses a lot of folks.) I do not recommend them. About their only advantage is that some have a collar, which provides better neck protection than typical law enforcement (concealment) vests. IMHO, you are better off buying a law enforcement trade-in vest, Class II or higher. (Which would be: Class II, Class IIIA, or Class III.) Used Class II vests start at around $200.

My personal approach: For myself, I bought a pair of slightly used Class II vests, with one of them slightly larger than the other, plus a trauma plate. This cost less than buying a new Class III vest, and they are more versatile than a single heavy-weight vest.  I can wear either of  them alone for concealment, or I can wear *both* plus the trauma plate in between when the Schumer really hits the fan. This will provide better than Class II protection.

BTW, the Memsahib has a Class IIIA vest, contoured for ladies. It also was a trade-in vest, which she got for a bargain price at a gun show.

Two body armor dealers that I recommend are: Y2K Body Armor (which is operated by T. Allen Hoover) and BulletProofME.com Body Armor.  Of the two, Terry Hoover seems to have the best prices. He specializes in vests that come from police academy wash-outs.  These are “low hours” vests that are in great shape and very reasonably priced.