Para Ordnance Elite Pro 1911, by Pat Cascio

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This week we are reviewing the Para Ordnance Elite Pro 1911.

1911 is the Best

Yeah, I’m prejudiced and freely admit it. When it comes to the finest combat handgun ever designed, I always fall back to the grand 1911 in some shape or form. I don’t think there is another handgun that is more famous than the 1911. It doesn’t matter which of its many guises or from any number of quality makers. John Browning knew what he was doing when he came up with the fighting pistol. There’s not a doubt in my mind. I know, I know. Send the arrows my way. But I’m entitled to my humble opinion on some things. Without a doubt, there are many more modern handguns out there. Many are manufactured out of polymer, and I own more than my share of them. I won’t argue that many of these newer handguns can get the job done when the chips are down.

The 1911 came out obviously in 1911. So, it’s been around more than a hundred years. And it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. More and more makers are producing the 1911. They’re making 1911s ranging from budget priced mil-spec samples to custom made numbers costing many thousands of dollars. Then, there’s everything in between. Also, we have the full-sized Government Model with the 5-inch barrel down to sub-compact models with a 3-inch barrel. Once again, there is everything in between and beyond. The different calibers offer another variation. The gun started out as a .45 ACP. But these days, it can be had in a number of different calibers.Continue reading“Para Ordnance Elite Pro 1911, by Pat Cascio”

The Editors’ Preps for the Week of May 15th, 2017

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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 will share their planned prep activities for the coming week, ranging from healthcare and purchases to property improvements and food storage. We also welcome you to share your planned activities for increasing personal preparedness in the coming week in the comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR:

This week, Lord willing, we’re continuing with cutting down trees for next winter’s firewood and will be burning yet more slash.

The Rawles Ranch is located in the northern half of the American Redoubt. Here, the snow melted from our ranch only a month ago. Since then, the weather has continued to be very cloudy, rainy, and cold. The high mountains surrounding our valley are still receiving occasional snowfalls, and they may even get some more snow this coming week. Our nighttime temperatures at the ranch this coming week will be flirting with temperatures near freezing. Therefore, we’ve been delayed in putting in our garden this year.Continue reading“The Editors’ Preps for the Week of May 15th, 2017”

Economics & Investing for Preppers

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 quirky “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor):

Precious Metals:

First, a bit of satire from Gary Christenson: 17 Reasons To Avoid Gold

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Arizona Legislature Ends Income Taxation On Gold And Silver

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H. Moolman in South Africa: Gold Price Forecast: Gold’s Big Move.  (JWR’s Comment:  Although I’m not a believer in “chartism”, I can safely say that stocks are presently over-bought and gold is over-sold.)Continue reading“Economics & Investing for Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Notes for Sunday – May 14, 2017

On May 14th, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel, reestablishing the Jewish state after 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel,” prompting applause and tears from the crowd gathered at the museum. Ben-Gurion became Israel’s first premier.

The British Army had withdrawn the day earlier and fighting broke out almost immediately. Egypt launched an air assault later in the evening. Despite a blackout in Tel Aviv and the expected Arab invasion, Jews joyously celebrated the birth of their new nation, especially after word was received that the United States had recognized the Jewish state. At midnight, the State of Israel officially came into being upon termination of the British mandate in Palestine.

Lessons From the First TEOTWAWKI- Part 4, by Sarah Latimer

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Order and Unity

In TEOTWAWKI, we will need all the order and unity we can muster. Why not work to build that unity and cohesion now? Why not try to build a peaceful, loving home now, while learning skills and developing respect for one another as man and woman? Find out who you are as a woman and ask the LORD to help you find contentment in who you are, where you live, your circumstances, et cetera. You can work to improve upon these, but contentment is beautiful!

Women are nurturers and certainly can be fighters, too. It’s just fine when someone is seriously threatening harm to you or your child to take action to defend yourself. But hostility, whether physical or verbal, is not usually the appropriate response, especially when there is merely a conflict of ideas. Feminism has emboldened women to become the spokespersons for their families on all matters, speaking their minds passionately. It’s not how order and unity are formed, and it isn’t good for government either.

Women At the Poll

It was once believed that women’s suffrage would end all wars. It’s ironic that all of the major world wars have been fought with the women leading in the number of votes cast.Continue reading“Lessons From the First TEOTWAWKI- Part 4, by Sarah Latimer”

Letter Re: Wandering Roofing Nails

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Dear Hugh,

Glad to see the roofers are done. The problem with those nasty critters–those old galvanized roofing nails popping up like mushrooms on the ground–is easily solved. If your surrounding land is fairly flat, try this: 30 In. Magnetic Sweeper with Wheels. If the land around your home is rough-n-tumble (like mine) just get one of these on the end of a rope and drag it over, under, and around the home. I like this one, since it does “double duty” in my pond as well: 250 lb. Pull Retrieving Magnet. (Note: prices seem to change rapidly for these items on Amazon. Check before buying.)

Those old and usually rusty/corroded roofing nails are prime suspects for foot puncture wounds as well as wounds to our trusty K-9’s feet. (Don’t ask me how I found out about foot wounds; well, it was a 90-minute trip to the nearest ER for a tetanus shot.) Flats to the pickup and farm tractor tires just result in the dear spouse’s blistered ears. YMMV– try other sources, Amazon, Northern Tool, flea markets, et cetera. All the best! – K.W.

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.

Electronic Security

An “accidental hero” noticed that the ransomware hack on Friday was making DNS calls to a nonsensical domain. When he registered the domain name, suddenly the ransomware was stopped cold in its tracks. Apparently, the author of the hack had a built in kill-switch, which checked for the existence of that domain. The researcher has stated that the original author is still unknown, and it would be trivial to rewrite the code to start up again. The current hack may be over, but the battle is still on. It should also be noted that this only stopped the spread of the code. If you’ve already been hacked, it’s too late for you.

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Reader D.B. also pointed out that The Threat Journal is also stating that over 100 nations have been impacted by the Ransomware Attack and that the code is easily changed to keep the attack valid. Microsoft has released a patch for the affected software, so make sure you have your computer updated.Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

Editors’ Quote of the Day:

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 1 Peter 2:1-10 (KJV)

Notes for Saturday – May 13, 2017

May 13th is the birthday of firearms engineer Theodor Koch (born 1905, died 1976). Koch, along with Edmund Heckler and Alex Seidel, salvaged tooling from the bombed-out Mauser factory at Oberndorf, and with it founded Heckler und Koch.

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Ready Made Resources is offering a Baofeng BF-F8HP tri-power ham radio at no extra charge with the purchase of any PVS-14 3rd Gen+ autogated night vision. View animals at night, Search and rescue at night, Hike at night, allowing you to bug out or head home at night. Night vision makes the difference between living and dying. You can clearly see out 100’s of yards.

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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As preppers work to make progress to achieve prepping goals, we took some actions this week too. The SurvivalBlog editors made some plans earlier in the week and now reflect upon these. Below, the editors share what we each accomplished. Please write to us in the comments and tell us what you did this week to get your preps in place and to be ready.

JWR:

Here in the American Redoubt, trees grow literally like weeds and if you don’t stay on top of it, you soon have a fire hazard. The chainsaw was wielded effectively, and we continue to put up firewood for the Rawles Ranch. The limbs and underbrush that was pushed into slash piles burned as well, and we are well on our way to keeping a fire-safe ranch and a supply of winter heat.

Sadly, we also had a set of eggs in the incubator and made the determination that none of them were viable, so out they went. We will try again soon though.Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

Journey To Self Prepping, The Long Hard Way, by B.H.

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Our journey towards prepping began approximately five years ago when my husband handed me a book called Patriots. Needless to say, he had been collecting all kinds of of things prior to my reading the book.

Husband a Firearms Instructor, Competitive Shooter, and Woodworker

My husband participated in many shooting competitions over the years and was a primary firearms instructor while in the military. He developed his skills and won many competitions. Then, he began reloading even to the point of making his own lead bullets from old wheel weights. He also had a full woodworking shop in our basement.

It seems “Enough!”

was the primary income provider and at times was not pleased with some of his purchases, as they seemed excessive. This did cause problems, because I began to complain, saying “Enough!”.Continue reading“Journey To Self Prepping, The Long Hard Way, by B.H.”

The First World War: A Turning Point in Global History

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100th Anniversary

2017 marks the 100th anniversary of when the United States became directly involved in the First World War. The Great War. By then the war had already been raging for three years. (The events leading up to the outbreak of war are fascinating. For further reading I suggest historian Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August.) By 1917 the Western Front of the conflict had stalled into protracted trench warfare–war at its most gruesome.

This war consisted of massed artillery, machineguns, elaborate trenches, gas attacks, massive barbed wire entanglements, sapping, flamethrowers, and primitive tanks. This war was a veritable meat grinder that consumed an entire generation of European men. 11 million soldiers and sailors lost their lives to combat and disease by war’s end.. And, unlike the European wars of the 18th and 19th centuries where civilians had largely been spectators, WWI also took the lives of nearly 7 million noncombatants.

In retrospect, WWI was a major pivot point in human history. If it were not for the chaos caused by WWI, there probably would not have been a successful Russian Revolution, at least not in that decade. And if it were not for the punishing war reparations on Germany dictated by the pre-written Versailles Peace Treaty, there probably would not have been mass currency inflation in Germany, no rise of the National Socialists (Nazis), no World War II, no Holocaust, no division of Europe, and no Cold War. In many ways, we are still feeling the after effects of The Great War.Continue reading“The First World War: A Turning Point in Global History”

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.

Venezuela Crisis

Baby deaths soar in Venezuela crisis – This is what always happens when Socialism rules a nation! It may take longer or shorter, but HISTORY tells the truth! America is becoming a socialist nation, though still a very wealthy one. It will just take longer unless we change course, which to MY mind does NOT appear to be happening. This is primarily because Americans are no longer educated in the proper function of government. We do not know what our Founding Fathers knew, so if one wants to really know and understand economics and a free government one needs to be self taught. The books are out there! A good start is the reading of the novels of Ayn Rand and the works of Hayek and Von Mises (among others) to understand capitalism and economics. You’ll learn how money works! To understand the “other side”, Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”, which is ruling the Democratic Party and many in the Republican Party. Hillary Clinton did her college thesis on this book! – H.L.

EMP

Alen Nitzberg interviewed Dr Peter Pry (Executive Director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security) on his show and discussed the background and current dangers of an EMP on our infrastructure. If you’re struggling to get a handle on this subject, this is a good interview to listen to. It is about one hour long. Thanks to B.B. for the link.Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”