Guest Article: Considerations for Night Operations- Part 4, by Max Alexander

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Yesterday, I talked about the technology behind night vision and combined thermal/IR devices as well as what should and should not be mounted on your rifle. I also wrote about when to use head mounted night vision. Now, let’s continue a little further with the idea of head mounted night vision and use of night vision in conflicts as we conclude this article series.

How To Mount Night Vision Monocular To Head

The question often comes up of how to mount your night vision monocular to your head. The provided “skull crusher” is not popular. The most effective way to mount this device is on a helmet. But no one wants to wear or carry a helmet. There are a couple of options. You can wear a “bump style” ProTech or airsoft knockoff tactical helmet, which will comfortably mount the night vision equipment while being lightweight. If you want ballistic protection, you can buy a MICH or ACH helmet off the Internet. You can also purchase lighter ballistic helmets, such as the ops-core FAST helmet.

Only you can decide what you’re prepared to wear. Yes, I know that a ballistic helmet does not stop direct strike from high velocity rounds. But depending on the situation, if you’re going to carry a helmet for your night vision equipment, it may be worth carrying one that is also ballistic protected. You never know what it may stop. If you are doing covert stuff, then carry a Crye Nightcap. Each to his own.

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Freeze Dried Friday:

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!

Practice What You Preach

It’s that time of year again. The freeze driers have been eerily silent and lonely this week. The Latimer household is on vacation. Of course, we are not just relaxing and enjoying ourselves, though that is a big part of vacation. We are testing all those yummy foods we put up over the last year. We will let you know exactly what worked and what didn’t work very well from our freeze dried stocks as we go along. In the mean time, we’d love to hear what you are putting up or testing this week. Leave us a comment and include a picture or two if you’d like.

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If you would like to include pictures of your freeze dried products in your comments, just send them to us via email along with the name you posted the comment under and I’ll place the pictures for you. Alternatively, you can host them on your own server and use the html <img> tag to include them.

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 the re-emergence of synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) derivatives. (See the Troubling Trends section.)

Precious Metals

Marc Faber: Dollar is oversold, US stocks are overvalued. Sam Zell: Retail is a “falling knife”. Keith Neumeyer: Here’s what will send gold and silver higher.

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Gold Breaks $1286 as Yellen Words Beat NK Missiles

Commodities:

Oil prices waver as crude supplies fall, but gasoline stockpiles rise for first time in four weeks

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The Oil Ghost Towns of Texas

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Guest Article: Considerations for Night Operations- Part 3, by Max Alexander

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Yesterday, I shared about the use of illumination flares and what to do when caught in one as well as began discussing the use of night vision in a patrol situation.

Night Vision Technology

Now, let’s talk a little bit about the night vision technology. Your standard night vision devices, such as the PVS-14, are image intensifiers. This means that they amplify ambient light to produce the familiar green image. (Now, you can get white image versions.) On a lighter night they work better, on a darker night not so good. This is because they magnify the available light. These are passive devices, in that they do not generate anything that can be picked up by an observer. They are equipped with an IR flashlight, which can be used to covertly illuminate a small area.

However, use of the IR flashlight device is an active measure that will be seen by anybody else using night vision equipment (just like an IR flashlight mounted on your rifle). Importantly, a night vision binocular or monocular is not a magical device. If you could hide from an observer with the naked eye, you can hide from an observer wearing a PVS-14. It is more a case that an observer with a PVS-14 has an advantage over one without. Yet both see worse than they would during the day, it is simply a matter of degree. Also, it is important to note that if you use an old-school binocular night vision goggle you will lose depth perception. This is why the monocular, such as the PVS-14, is preferable over the PVS-7. It allows you to retain night vision in the unused eye, and allows you depth perception.

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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”. Venezuela is back in the news again. Now that the hurricanes have taken a break from their destruction, man-made disasters are being paid attention too.

Venezuela

Venezuela continues it’s slide into oblivion and now it is becoming apparent that the country is becoming cut-off from the rest of the world. Nearly every major air carrier has discontinued service to the country due to security concerns. Now foreign governments are putting barriers in place to keep Venezuelans out. Even if you are able to obtain a visa to exit the county, flight costs are prohibitively expensive. Thanks to S.B. for the link.

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Venezuela’s annual inflation rate just dropped — to 2,276%. it is so bad that the average Venezuelan has lost at least 20 pounds since this started. Dieting may be a fad in America where the majority of the population is obese or borderline obese, but there it is about survival.

Puerto Rico

Wondering why experts almost always recommend that you keep three months worth of cash on hand? Puerto Rico was devastated by multiple hurricanes and most of the infrastructure on the island was destroyed or severely impaired. Now there are reports of armed gangs roving the streets posing as police. Cash is king as no one wants to (or can) take credit cards or extend credit to individuals. The ATMs are running out of cash and the basics are tough to get.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.” – Slim Pickens as Major T. J. “King” Kong in Dr. Strangelove.

Guest Article: Considerations for Night Operations- Part 2, by Max Alexander

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Yesterday, we began looking at how to see and move at night with low tech- or no tech equipment. I shared about the importance of developing and protecting natural night vision and ways to more safely patrol at night. You cannot assume that darkness masks your movement, but you can adjust. Let’s continue with this in mind.

Adjusting To Challenges of Moving At Night

So there are challenges of moving at night when working low-tech. But it’s actually something that you can get used to after a little bit of practice. You can get very comfortable at it. You need to just take account of the difficulties the darkness presents, with the lower visibility. Compensate your patrol conduct as required. Your pace will be slower, in order to avoid excessive noise by blundering around in the trees. You will need to close up a little to take account of the reduced visibility. You’ll need to make extra efforts to ensure the patrol does not become split or separated. You will need to close up at halts in order to pass any hand signals, whispered messages, and to ensure accountability.

What Happens When It Gets Hot and Lights Flash

What happens if you get into contact and it goes hot? If it’s dark and you walk into a contact, then perform your contact drill as rehearsed. Fire at the enemy’s muzzle flashes. Remember that if tracer is involved, either by the enemy or by yourself, then it lights up at 100 meters from the muzzle (if the NATO standard type). So it does not truly point both ways. If the contact is taking place at ranges greater than 100 meters, then you can also use tracer as a means of target indication. Tracer looks like blobs of light flying through the green night sky when viewed through night vision.

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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 rimfire ammunition. (See the Commodities section.)

Precious Metals

 

The surprising rationale behind a million-dollar bet on silver

Stocks:

CNBC: Are the homebuilders showing cracks? (Auto-start video.)

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Next, at Seeking Alpha: The S&P 500 Goes Flat In Week 3 Of September 2017

 

Commodities  (Rimfire Ammunition):

After three+ years of chronic shortages, I see that the price of .22 LR rimfire ammo is finally normalizing. For example, mail order giant Midway presently has Remington 22 LR 36-grain Golden Bullet buckets of 1,400 on sale for under $85. But back during The Great .22 Crisis just a single brick of 500 was selling for around $80. Buy low and sell high, folks!

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I spotted this linked at Zero Hedge: In World’s Hottest Oil Patch, Jitters Mount That a Bust Is Near

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JWR’s Recommendations of the Week

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on headlamps. (See the Gear section.)

Books:

After a 25 year hiatus, master spy storyteller John LeCarré has finally released another George Smiley novel: A Legacy of Spies.

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The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline

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Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World’s Most Amazing Places

 

Movies and Television:

HJL mentioned that he liked this BBC television series: The Doctor Blake Mysteries.

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The Ghost Army.  A recent PBS documentary on large-scale deception used by the U.S. Army in  World War II.  Available on DVD, or for free download for Amazon Prime members.

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A reader recommended this on YouTube: Swedish Documentary On Failed Immigration

 

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