SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on leather craftsman Norm Schertenlieb.

 

Idaho

First, over at Redoubt News: No Thanks, Senator Risch

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Big beards!  The 50 year-old rock band ZZ Top will be performing at The Festival at Sandpoint, on August 4th.

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Northwest of Boise: Mesa Fire grows overnight to nearly 15,000 acres. Here is a quote: New mandatory evacuations have been issued for the Cottonwood area and voluntary evacuations have been issued for the South Exeter area of Adams County due to the Mesa Fire, which is burning just off Highway 95 about four miles south of Council.

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Mass stabbing suspect summoned Boise police to jail before his attorneys intervened

 

Montana

Young Grizzly Bear Moved to Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem to Help Boost Population

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News from Glacier Park International Airport: Busy Skies, Full Seats

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I recently met a quite skilled leather craftsman who lives in Great Falls, Montana. His name is Norm Schertenlieb. He makes some great leather holsters. His specialty is a quasi-shoulder holster that is also belt supported. It is an ideal design for comfortable field carry (but not concealed carry) of heavy frame big bore pistols and revolvers, such as .454 Casulls, various .45/.410 revolvers, and the monstrous .500 S&W X-frame wheelguns. He also makes holsters for a wide variety of smaller pistols and revolvers.

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. I’m finally understanding why our young people are so enthralled by socialism today.

Socialism

If you’re wondering why socialism seems to be OK with the new generation, it’s because of articles like this one. Remember, these are generally people who have never experienced the horrors of socialism and places like Venezuela and Argentina are far away. They’ve never seen people starving in mass and they have a view that even in poverty you can have a 100 inch flat screen TV and two cars. According to the article you can relax, the money won’t run out and the health care will remain the best in the world. Socialism is the new buzzword that conservatives use to scare you away from the Democratic party. Thanks to R.E. for the link.

Stand Your Ground

Reader T.P. sent in this article that shows how CNN is mangling the so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws yet again. While CNN claims that “Stand Your Ground” cases of self-defense are more complicated, they miss the boat completely. Actually self-defense cases are much simpler to evaluate. In a normal cases, you have to be evaluated on five criteria: innocence, imminence, proportionality, reasonableness, and avoidance. SYG laws simply remove the last criteria of “avoidance” making the evaluation easier for all involved. They also don’t seem to know that while SYG laws are only in 26 states, all states have some form of self-defense laws in place. Furthermore, they link SYG laws with racism. Once again CNN shows why all reasonable people don’t watch their news.

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Preparedness Notes for Monday – July 30, 2018

Today we remember the birthday of author Reginald Bretnor. He was born Alfred Reginald Kahn on July 30, 1911, in Vladivostok. He died on July 22, 1992 in Medford, Oregon. In addition to penning many witty science fiction novels and short stories in his characteristic style, he also wrote nonfiction articles for Mel Tappan’s P.S. Letter

Ruger/Black Hills Ammunition, Mark IV 22/45 Lite Edition, by Pat Cascio

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If you don’t have a .22 LR firearm in your survival battery, you should! We look today at an extremely limited, rare edition, of the Ruger Mark IV 22/45 pistol.

Survival Firearm

For more than 40 years now, folks have been asking me what type or kind of firearm should they purchase first for survival. Others ask if they only have funds to purchase one firearm, period, what would it be. My answer has changed, with knowledge, and I’m sure a lot of folks will disagree with me. For the longest time now, I’ve been recommending that folks purchase a good .22 LR rifle or handgun, if that’s all you have the funds for. Now, when we talk about “survival” it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people.

If you are a bush pilot in Alaska, you will surely want something in a larger caliber if your plane goes down in bear infested areas. If you’re out walking a wilderness trail on a Sunday afternoon with only a fanny pack, you might think a .22 LR handgun is a good choice for fending for yourself if you get lost. Look, before all the hate mail comments start pouring in, there is no right or wrong answer here. This is just my take on it.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on off-road pickups and SUVs. (See the Tangibles Investing Section.)

 

Precious Metals:

Horwitz: Gold’s Groundhog Day

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The Road To War: Buying Fear – Gold

 

Commodities and Currencies:

Commodities Recap For The Week Of June 29, 2018

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Weekly Report Week 30 – Gold, Copper, CRB, Oil, Euro, Dollar

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Gunsmith Training: Unboxing and Familiarization, by R2

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I started with AGI’s Professional Gunsmith Course – Level 1. This base course is listed at $4,997, but I have seen it with significant discounts on sale. I’m currently looking at a catalog that has pretty much everything in their inventory at a 30% off price. However, this catalog and its prices has already expired.

How You Find Deals

So how do you find out about these deals? Well, you have to get on their mailing list, for starters. Fair warning though, AGI is excellent at marketing, and they very seldom let a sales lead slip through the cracks. I know this annoys many people, but as a self-employed person I really respect the marketing effort. If you’re on the list, you will receive a ton of promotional material, both through the mail and email.

You don’t really have to worry about them going out of business, because they aggressively recruit. You need to sign up for their informational kit, placing yourself on their list in order to catch the sales. Otherwise, you will be paying full price.

Having just had a child that went through the college selection process not too long ago, I will say that AGI’s marketing is no different that most brick and mortar colleges. I don’t let it get under my skin..

They send new product announcements and also coupons, enabling you to purchase at a discount. Not too long ago, they retired a number of videos and you are able to pick those up at a deal as well.

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. The TSA is at it again, this time tracking domestic travel of U.S. citizens.

Farmlands Documentary

The official documentary that Lauren Southern has been working on has been released. Farmlands (2018) documents the plight of South African white farmers as they receive pressure from both the government and the black population. The documentary covers the false promises of equality and the corruption and lies of the government as well as the actions of local communities. The documentary is a little over an hour long and is well worth watching. Despite being held up by the left as a paragon of justice, the South African movement is a debacle on the order of Zimbabwe. Thanks to D.B. for the link.

The Cost of Illegals

Reader H.L. sent in this article that details the financial burden of illegal immigration on United States taxpayers. Of particular interest is the data that shows that when you include both the federal and the state costs, you end up with a total cost of almost $135 billion to service an estimated 12.5 million illegal aliens. But those same immigrants, if they all paid taxes, would only bring in around $19 billion in combined taxes. That leaves a shortfall of $116 billion that you, the American taxpayer has to pick up. The article breaks the tax expenditures down so it’s easy to see where the money goes.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” – Mark 12:28-30 (KJV)

A Weapons Systems Approach to Firearms and Training

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Being well-armed and trained is a cornerstone of preparedness.

I’m writing this to reiterate and expand on a subject that I’ve briefly mentioned several times in the more than 12 years that SurvivalBlog has been published. This is the concept of a taking a Systems Approach to firearms and firearms training.  By this, I mean changing your entire mindset about simply “buying a gun.”  You are not just buying a gun. Rather, you are acquiring a weapons system, including logistics and training.

Here is a thumbnail list to consider:

  • The Firearm Itself
  • Ammunition. (At least 1,000 rounds for each primary rifle or pistol.)
  • Magazines (At least six per handgun and 10 per rifle.)
  • Spare Parts
  • Reference Manuals
  • Modifications and Upgrades
  • Bipods
  • Registered Suppressors
  • Optics (and spare batteries for them, if needed)
  • For Precision Rifles: Rangefinder and Kestrel (and spare batteries for them)
  • Targets for Zeroing and Training
  • Ear Muffs (preferably electronic)
  • Magazine Pouches
  • Dump Pouch
  • Web Gear Harnesses or Plate Carriers
  • Holsters or Scabbards
  • Slings
  • Transit/Air Travel Cases
  • Cleaning Equipment
  • Home Vaults and/or Rural Caches

As I’ve written many times, training is crucial. Owning a gun doesn’t make you a competent shooter any more than owning a surfboard makes you a surfer.

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Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers:

This week we had some guests visiting at the Rawles Ranch, so we didn’t get too much prepping work done. That is one of the perils of living in a scenic part of the American Redoubt: Receiving a lot of house guests every summer!  But we do love entertaining guests and blessing them.

Avalanche Lily Reports:
This week, in addition to hosting our guests, (we took them canoeing on the river that flows through the Rawles Ranch, and hiking), I spent a lot of time pulling and weed whacking weeds in the Annex garden and in the orchard. I also harvested from our garden and froze: black raspberries, some red raspberries, brocolli, and the first of our zucchini squash from our main garden.  The fall bed in the greenhouse has germinated many of its seeds that I planted a week and a half ago.  It is looking very good.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been giving too many details on are gardening, lately.  We’ve just been very busy enjoying the summer and working on projects and hosting friends.  I’ve received a few personal e-mails that I intend to answer very soon, concerning gardening.  Maybe I’ll even write an article concerning those questions.

Many Blessings to All, – Jim Rawles and Avalanche Lily, Rawles

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