Notes for Tuesday – November 22, 2016

Today is remembered as the birthday of the late Eugene M. Stoner (born 1922, died April 24, 1997). He was the designer of the AR-7, AR-10, AR-15, AR-180, the Stoner 63, and several other firearms. (The AR-10 was the basis of the AR-15, which in turn spawned the very widely used M16 and all of its variants including the M4 Carbine.) It has been estimated that as many as 3.7 million rifles from the AR-15 family are owned by civilians in the United States, and military production M16 variants well exceeds 8 million rifles.

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With Black Friday approaching, I thought this would be a good time to remind SurvivalBlog readers about our Amazon links. SurvivalBlog would not exist except for two sources of revenue: 1.) Banner advertising, and 2.) Amazon sales commissions. If you follow any Amazon link on SurvivalBlog and then place an order for ANY item, then we will earn a modest sales commission. So when you do any Amazon shopping this year, please START that shopping with a SurvivalBlog Amazon link. Many thanks for your support of the blog! – JWR

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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. An infrared sensor/imaging camouflage shelter from Snakebite Tactical in Eureka, Montana (A $350+ value),
  9. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  10. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A custom made Sage Grouse model utility/field knife from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Y-Shot Slingshot and a $125 Montie gear Gift certificate.,
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value), and
  9. Fifteen LifeStraws from SafeCastle (a $300 value).

Round 67 ends on November 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Thoughts On An Often Misunderstood Caliber, by R.R.

I want to share some information regarding an often misunderstood and maligned caliber, which I recently began learning more about after coming across information on the Fort Hood shooting while studying the ballistics of the shooting.

The FN 57X28mm

What is FN 5.7X28mm? This is a round specifically designed for a class of weapons called PDWs– personal defense weapons. It’s intended for supporting troops to replace their pistols with something half the size of an M16 but with enough capacity and punch to defeat a helmet or soft body armor, and it’s a significant step up from a pistol or even a submachine gun.

The P90 is the perfect example of the PDW concept. It is an ambidextrous bullpup, with a 50-round top loading magazine, minimal recoil, and the ability to spray bullets at an impressive 900 rounds per minute rate of fire (not to say it could fire that many). The standard length military version with a 10” barrel (considered an NFA weapon and a short-barreled rifle) comes in at a mere 20” in length. It’s very concealable under a coat or transportable in a “ready to go” mode in a small brief case or tool box.

A companion pistol, the Five-Seven, was also made, coming with standard 20-round magazines and easily expandable to 30 rounds. A fully loaded pistol weighs as much as an unloaded Glock 17 for comparison purposes, with less recoil and boat tailed .223 caliber bullets that tumble on impact instead of punching straight holes, like pistol bullets tend to do.

What’s interesting about this round? I think it’s obvious that this micro rifle round, which looks like a mini-5.56mm, is specialized and not intended to replace an actual fighting rifle. So in the Fort Hood shooting, Nadal Hasan– a radicalized Islamic Terrorist– wanted to kill lots of U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood. (I actually had family stationed there at the time and remember waiting anxiously until midnight until I heard they were safe.)

Hasan went to his local gun store and asked for the most high-tech handgun they had. In gun store terms, I am sure the clerk thought to himself, “It’s time to sell this soldier some expensive gimmicky gun” and so the clerk pulled out the Five-Seven and explained how it had low recoil and armor piercing ammo (any commercial ammo above 2000fps is likely armor piercing, including the standard commercial loads for the 5.7x28mm). Hasan said he would go home to do more research. As fate would have it, he bought the pistol, along with an expensive laser sight and plenty of ammunition to practice with on live human silhouette targets.

By the time his attack was over, Hasan had killed 13 people and wounded 32, but that does not tell us much information about how this round is effective or ineffective.

Consider a few things. If you are in a shoot out, you have a limited amount of time to deliver fire onto the enemy. During this time, the speed of your follow up shots, the accuracy of those shots, the time between reloads, and the effectiveness of each individual shot all come into play.

A good contrast would be this: Two people are in a shoot out at 25 yards. One has a single shot elephant gun. The other has a Five Seven pistol. I would much rather be shot with the pistol than the elephant gun; however, if the guy with the elephant gun missed, he would almost certainly be riddled with bullets by the time he even managed to get a second shot off due to the punishing recoil, muzzle climb, and time spent cycling the bolt.

So if you had to rate a weapon according to the criteria below, how would it score?

Time / Splits between shots in seconds?

Shot grouping while rapid firing at 10 yards (or any distance at which you expect to use it)?

How long can you fire before having to reload, in seconds?

Comparing the 1911 to the Five Seven

Let’s compare the old tried and true 1911 in 45ACP to the Five Seven in 5.7mm. Your shot splits might come close, but I would bet my life that the shot grouping would be tighter on the hot .22 than the big push of the .45 The Five Seven can also fire three times for every one time the 1911 will fire. Furthermore, if you go to “brassfetcher ballistics” on youtube and compare the wound channels created by either of those rounds, the 5.7mm penetrates just as much and tumbles end over end, creating a wound channel just as effective at putting a lethal hole in something as the .45. This is not to mention that the tumbling effect has the added bonus of having the tendency to wind and snake through the target, increasing the possibility it might strike that vital organ or artery and cause a fatal wound. It also is very loud, and there is a psychological advantage to having your weapon sound like “KABOOOOM!” while their pistols sounding like “Bang”.

So sure, a hot .22 pistol doesn’t sound that impressive; however, considering the volume of accurate fire that will come out of it, the combination of those factors make it extremely formidable. If you have a standard pistol with say 15 rounds, you will run out of ammunition and be experiencing sheer terror as your opponent with the 5.7 is moving in on you firing away and still having 15 rounds to finish you off. The medical personnel at the Fort Hood shooting commented that the amount of bullet wounds in the people arriving at the hospital was staggering. It’s not often that one round will decisively put someone down for good but a stream of controlled fire putting multiple hits rapidly on target, thereby increasing the odds of inflicting a fatal wound, is quite deadly.

Also consider, if you have to face multiple attackers in rapid succession, you are at a hugely vulnerable state anytime you have to reload. Again, the 5.7 wins with capacity. You can engage and defeat, one, then two, then three, then who knows how many before even having to change one magazine out, and because the ammunition is so light, you can easily carry even more magazines than other standard handgun rounds.

On accuracy while rapid firing, in a shoot out at the most common distances, being able to shoot the X out of a target is irrelevant. Being able to dump rounds rapidly into center mass until the target stops moving is what’s important, and again this round allows you to do that and even do so one handed. Try rapid firing one handed with a .45 and seeing how accurate you are. Being shot in the arm happens all the time. How many people ask themselves, “How well could I handle this gun one handed while bleeding and outnumbered?”

Imagine being outnumbered three to one and you are wounded, and you’re just about to hit slide lock on that 10-round Wilson combat 45ACP magazine. You’re dead. But if you have a 5.7 with a 30-round magazine, your 30 shots of light recoiling high velocity ammo might be enough to save you, since you can control them while still firing rapidly and not have to worry about reloading until 30 rounds have been expended. That’s a lot of rounds to work with.

It is not all about the one perfect shot. Combat shooting at modern engagement distances is about delivering plenty of rounds on target, rapidly. It’s suppressing, flanking, and killing the enemy. The 5.7mm is pretty near perfect for this.

Next is the PS90. This PDW shares all the same benefits of its handgun counterpart. You can easily carry twice the ammo over 5.56mm, reload half as often, and maintain a suppressive volume of fire to either move in and finish them or retreat.

The Cons

You better be stocked up on ammo ahead of time. However, this can be done. It’s not too big of a con, in my opinion. If you survive through your 5000 rounds of 5.7mm and actually used all that ammo to take out a dozen bad guys or what not, you likely will have recovered their weapons and ammo as battle field pick ups.

Dealing with the lack of range and penetrating power, it’s the same problem as the 5.56mm when compared to 7.62mm but even worse. This is a micro 5.56mm essentially, so punching through a tree to hit a bad guy is not going to happen. You must be aware of your unique environmental considerations. There are places in the world where this cartridge would be a dismal failure, like a dense jungle, and where 30 caliber penetrating power is needed. But other places it may excel. Even so, with AP rounds that are restricted to LE/military, it is still impressive at close ranges.

If you’re in a team of people who are preppers, you might be the odd man out with your novel magazines, manual of arms, and ammunition. If everyone is running AR15s, maybe you should just run them as well, for easy logistics, for magazine sharing in a fire fight, and so everyone knows how to run any gun in the team.

As I said in the start, I see this as a specialized round with specialized weapons. It is up to you to figure out if it is right for you. Maybe there are people small in stature or strength who would be best served by using such a light weight, light recoiling weapon. Maybe you see a utility in having a concealable weapon with plenty of firepower. Maybe you could talk to your group about the use of the PS90 as an excellent suppression system. A few guys with PS90s and stacks of 50 round magazines nearby could lay down a blanket of accurate deadly fire out to a few hundred yards.

This is merely an article for your information. I know the people who read this blog are thoughtful and intelligent and will take what information they need and store away the rest.

Reference:

Take care.

Letter Re: Buying Krugerrands

Hugh,

With regard to purchasing Krugerrands as opposed to American Gold Eagle (AGE) coins or Canadian Maple Leaf (CML) coins results in some states such as mine (in the American Redoubt, thank God) not charging sales tax on collector coins, but they do on bullion. Since Krugerrands do not bear a (symbolic) monetary denomination (like AGEs and CMLs do), and only have a gold weight and fineness, they are taxed as bullion, which usually drives their cost above the others when tax is taken into account. – KW

News From The American Redoubt:

I noticed that Montana Rarities (in Missoula, Montana) has continued to expand their inventory. They offer very competitive pricing, flat rate shipping, and even monthly purchase plans for those who recognize the wisdom of Dollar Cost Averaging in their precious metals buying. – JWR

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Power restored to thousands in Nampa, Caldwell. You never know when. It’s winter; are you ready?

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Grizzly bear mauls, seriously injures Montana elk hunter

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Cheyenne spruce trees falling victim to ips beetle

Economics and Investing:

Michael Snyder: We Are Being Set Up For Higher Interest Rates, A Major Recession And A Giant Stock Market Crash

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Gold Price Forecast: Nasty Naughty November Gold Price Trend

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Dallas, Texas, Stares Down a Texas-Size Threat of Bankruptcy – P.S.

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National Taxpayer Advocate: The IRS Is Out Of Touch With The People It Serves – PLC

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Some sage advice from Commander Zero: The Deep Sleepers.

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File under “useful to know” – 6 Military Video Games Used to Train Troops on the Battlefield – DMS

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This could be very useful long term: THE L.E.A.F. , WOOD GASIFIER – P.D.

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Britain Passes the Snooper Charter Ending ALL Privacy

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SurvivalBlog reader J.N. sent in these links showing how to use the standard Combloc AK cleaning kit – a rather remarkably clever piece of design:

A site with pictures and text showing the main functions of the kit.

A Russian video with no narration (just music). The video covers somewhat more ground than above site does.

Notes for Monday – November 21, 2016

On November 21, 1916, Britannic, the sister ship to the Titanic, sinks in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people. In the wake of the Titanic disaster, the White Star line had made significant modifications to the design of the ship, but on its way to pick up wounded soldiers near the Gulf of Athens, it was rocked by an explosion causing even more damage than that which had sunk the Titanic. Many of the dead were from some of the crew who attempted to launch life boats while the Captain tried to run the ship aground. The life boats were sucked up into the propellers, killing all of those on board. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but many suspect it hit a mine.

Ruger’s American Pistol, 9mm Compact, by Pat Cascio

The very first Ruger firearm I ever owned was a rifle in .300 Winchester Magnum. It was in November or December of 1979. My wife and I were working for the Salvation Army back then in The Dalles, Oregon. I was the youth pastor, and my newly pregnant wife was the church secretary. Both jobs were temporary; however we were promised they would be full-time after Christmas. Alas, it didn’t work out that way, and we moved back to our cold, lonely apartment in Portland, Oregon on Christmas Eve with an artificial one-foot tall Christmas tree that we bought at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. Needless to say, it was a tough Christmas for us and our very first, too. Still, I managed to hang on to that Ruger .300 Win Mag rifle for a long, long time, before being forced to sell it to help make ends meet.

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Since 1979, I’ve been a huge fan of Ruger firearms, all of them. I’ve probably owned just about every make and model they’ve offered over the past 37 years, too. My beautiful wife gifted me with a Ruger Security Six stainless steel 4” Bbl .357 Mag revolver in 1983 for my birthday, and I carried it quite often in my position as Investigations Manager of a huge detective agency with branches all over the U.S. I don’t recall what happened to that Security Six, other than I know I probably sold or traded it. To this day, my wife reminds me that it was a gift and not to be sold or traded away. I regret it. In December 2015, Ruger introduced their American Pistol in 9mm. It is a full-sized duty handgun that holds 17 rounds of the hottest 9mm you care to run through it. It’s one tough gun, very tough. And, it was designed to meet the U.S. military specifications for a new handgun. However, Ruger wisely, in my opinion, opted to not enter this fantastic pistol in the trial, where millions of dollars are spent competing. Of course, this meant more Ruger American pistols available for the rest of us. I wrote an article on the Ruger American Pistol in 9mm too, an outstanding gun. Other than that, it is a big full-sized service handgun meant for carry on a duty belt. Yes, it can be concealed but not easily. You have to have the right clothing and holster to really conceal it. I told my contact at Ruger, back in December 2015, that I knew they would come out with a compact version and to add my name to the list when they became available.

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The wait was worth it. I received the new Ruger American Pistol in 9mm, which is the Compact model. I’ll tell you what; this is, hands down, my new favorite Ruger handgun, bar none! The sample I received is the “Professional” model, with no manual safety, but you can order one with a safety and get one ambidextrous, too. We have a smaller version of the full-sized gun, in that the barrel is reduced to only 3.55 inches in length, and the grip that holds 17 rounds in the full-sized version now holds 12 rounds in the Compact version, and the height of the gun is 4.48 inches. The overall length is 6.65 inches, and the gun weighs in at 28.7 oz. It’s not as light-weight as some other similar sized compact 9mm handguns. However, you have to remember that this is a Ruger and you can shoot all the +P ammo you want through it without worry that the gun will shoot loose.

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The slide is actually stainless steel; however, it has a black Nitride coating for that subdued tactical look and another measure to help prevent the elements from taking a foot hold. Even stainless steel can rust; with this coating, it just stains less. The frame is manufactured out of one piece– high performance glass filled nylon, which is extremely tough and not flexible like some other polymer frames are. Another nice feature is the genuine Novak sights, on the front and rear. These are not clones or rip-offs of the Wayne Novak sights but the real deal, and the front sight has a white dot while the rear sight has two white dots. It’s very fast to pick up when shooting rapidly. I still think that the Novak combat sights are some of the very best in the world. The American Compact comes with three interchangeable back straps. It comes with the medium-sized one already installed and has a smaller and a larger one. I experimented with the different back straps, which are simple to swap out, and I found the medium-sized one fit my hand nicely. My wife preferred the smaller back strap, since her hand is smaller than mine. She is already hinting that she wants one of these guns herself.

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The trigger has the now popular “safety” lever in the center of it. If you don’t press in on the trigger with your trigger finger and depress the little lever, the gun won’t fire. There are also several passive internal safeties as well as the manual safety to be had on the other model, if you desire a manual safety. There isn’t a lot of take-up when pressing the trigger before the gun fires, which is nice. The trigger reset is very short and positive, too. That’s another nice feature, because some polymer framed handguns don’t have a very positive reset when you release the trigger a little bit for another shot.

Ruger claims there is a recoil-reducing barrel cam, with a low mass slide for a lower center of gravity. This causes less felt recoil. Personally, I couldn’t feel the difference myself. I’ve never found the 9mm to be punishing in the recoil department to start with in most guns. Still, one of my shooters helping with testing the American Pistol thought the recoil was less than his carry 9mm pistol.

One really nice thing about this handgun is that you do not have to pull the trigger to disassemble the gun; you lock the slide open after you have removed the magazine. You can’t use the take-down lever until the magazine has been removed. Once the slide is locked open, you simply rotate the take-down lever downward and you can remove the slide from the frame and then the recoil spring and barrel. It’s really fast and simple. We also have am ambidextrous slide release/stop as well as an ambidextrous magazine release.

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When a round is chambered, the striker is pre-tensioned, and it has a very stout spring. There are no worries about the striker not hitting any ammo hard enough to set the round off. Some striker-fired pistols have problems with this, especially when using foreign made ammo with hard primers. The trigger pull on my sample was very crisp and the let-off was right at 5.5 lbs, and it wasn’t spongy like the trigger on a GLOCK.

The gun comes with two magazines– one is the flush fitting 12-rd mag that also has a pinky catcher floor plate you can install that I prefer so my pinky finger isn’t dangling under the magazine. The other mag is a full-sized version from the full-sized American Pistol. This mag holds 17 rds and has a sleeve over it, so when inserted into the Compact version it takes up the slack and fits very nicely in the gun. I immediately ordered two more of the 12-rd mags.

There is a Picatinny rail on the dust cover of the frame, for those who want to mount lights and/or lasers, and there are three positions on the rail for different sizes of lasers and lights. There is also a non-slip surface on the grip frame, for a sure hold on the gun under any weather conditions. Ruger designers went above and beyond on this aspect of the gun. There are diamond-like grasping grooves on the rear of the slide, too, but these are only on the rear; the full-sized gun has them on the front (sides) of the gun as well. I guess this is for those who do a press-check to see if a gun is loaded or not. Ruger has a groove milled into the rear of the barrel, and you can look, if the light is right, to see if there is a round in the chamber. The trigger guard is also round and not squared; that was so popular for many years. Last, we have a massive extractor, and this baby will pull out the toughest round or empty brass. There are no worries about it ever breaking, but then again it is a Ruger.

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The Ruger American Compact fits my hand perfectly, like a perfect pair of gloves. I don’t know many guns that felt so good in my shooting hand. The gun was made for my hand. The wife loved the way it felt in her hand, too, with the small backstrap installed. The gal at the gun shop, where I have my gun samples sent to, commented on how good the gun felt in her hand, too. This is a major thing. If a gun doesn’t feel right in your shooting hand, you aren’t going to shoot it as well.

Of course, no matter how nice a handgun looks or feels in the hand, the proof is in shooting, right? I only had a limited amount of 9mm on hand, as much of it was expended in another 9mm handgun test, and I didn’t have time to get more ammo from Black Hills and Buffalo Bore. Still, I had a fair selection of various types of 9mm for my shooting. From Black Hills Ammunition, I had their 115-gr JHP +P, 124-gr JHP +P, 115-gr FMJ, and their 115-gr Barnes TAC XP, all copper hollow point, which is +P rated. From Buffalo Bore, I had their 147-gr Hard Cast Outdoorsman load that is +P rated and their 124-gr FMJ FN Penetrator round – +P+ rated.dscf0686

Most of my shooting was done with the 12-rd magazine. The gun just feels better and balances better with the shorter magazine installed. In all, I still managed to fire slightly more than 500 rds during my testing over two shooting sessions, and I had a helper too. I never lack having help if I ask for it, and the ammo is free. There were zero malfunctions of any kind, and the empty brass was tossed into a nice little circle to my right and behind me. All shooting was done at 25 yards and even beyond; targets of opportunity were found further downrange, including big rocks and tree branches. For my accuracy testing, I rested the gun over the rear of my pickup and used a rolled-up sleeping bag for a rest. Most groups were right around three inches, which is outstanding accuracy from a compact handgun. There was one clear winner, and that was the Black Hills 115-gr FMJ round. It gave me groups slightly more than 2¼ inches, so long as I held up my end of the shooting sessions.

There’s nothing to complain about in the accuracy department. Many full-sized handguns do shoot this well. I think at times, the shorter barrels are a bit more stiff and give better accuracy. I have seen this happen many times over the years. The new Ruger American Compact fits perfectly in the Blackhawk Products leather hip holster that is designed for a S&W M&P, and I let the folks at Blackhawk know this. I’m talking it is a perfect fit.

Full retail on the American Compact is $579, and you can shop around and find them for less. I’m looking forward to the American Compact in .45ACP, and I hope it comes out in the next few months. I’m guessing it will be an 8-shot version. I’m getting my name on the waiting list already.

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Recipe of the Week: Barbecued Beef & Beans, by C.F.

Ingredients:

  • 2 to 2½ lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 cup smoke-flavored barbecue sauce
  • 1 cup beef bouillon
  • 2 (1-lb) cans dry lima beans, drained

Directions:

  1. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper.
  2. Place in a slow cooking pot with barbecue sauce and bouillon.
  3. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.
  4. Add drained beans and cook on high 15 to 20 minutes.

Makes 6 servings

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Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Letter Re: Buying Krugerrands

Hi,

I know you don’t give out investment advice, but I started buying gold and silver bullion ever since I read the first Patriots book.

What’s your personal opinion of the 1-oz krugerrand? Right now at mintproducts.com there is a special price. It’s going for less than the price of the 1-oz gold eagle. – F.R.

JWR’s Comment: Krugerrands are fine, and they usually do sell for less than comparable weight American Eagles. But make sure that you have plenty of small barter silver on hand, before you branch out into gold.

Economics and Investing:

Grey Champion Assumes Command (Part Two) – An interesting look at the current economic struggle and the expected outcome.

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They’re Growing Older. Their Mortgage Debt Is Growing Deeper. – G.G.

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James Rickards: End Game for the Global Economy

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Housing in a time of rising mortgage rates: A big jump in mortgage rates is here to stay for these reasons.

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Don’t forge a poker until you See This First. Note that he is using a Whitlox wood-fired forge (often mentioned in SurvivalBlog).

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Video: How to make your own silica desiccant packs. JWR Adds: Fresh Step Crystals (unscented) is a comparable brand. And I was able to find #4 coffee filters available in bulk through Amazon.com for just $15.57 for a 800 pieces (with free shipping for Amazon Prime members)!

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Grey Champion Assumes Command (Part Two) – An interesting look at the current economic struggle and the expected outcome.

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If we can’t disarm the bad guys…Arm the Innocent – D.S.

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Beyond Left and Right

Notes for Sunday – November 20, 2016

On November 20th, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials began, placing 24 high-ranking Nazis on trial for atrocities committed during World War II. The trials lasted 10 months and 12 were condemned to death with one committing suicide in prison. The trials of lesser war criminals continued in the 1950s and resulted in the conviction of 5,025 other defendants and 806 executions.