Letter Re: Sport Shooting for Preppers

As C.K.’s article points out almost all of the publications that cover prepping acknowledge the need for self-defense, but very little ink gets spent on developing or maintaining real proficiency.  His suggestion that readers consider either practical shooting (USPSA) or defensive pistol shooting (IDPA) really hits the target.  The follow-up letter by Sean from COS advocating hunting as another way to develop and maintain skills also hit the mark. Many articles and even most of the survival fiction stories provide descriptions and explanations for the “right” guns to buy.  “Survival Gun Selection” on the left side of survivalblog.com is an excellent overview of the equipment and rationale, but even this article avoids two other gun issues that are critical, especially for those of us with a wife who carefully monitors our combined survival investing. Those two issues are: 1.) How many rounds should be put aside for each type of…




Pat’s Product Review: Century Arms R1A1 (Inch Pattern FAL Clone)

…piston and forearm are all US made, in order to meet the stupid FedGov regulations pertaining to the number of foreign made parts, versus US made parts in these types of firearms. The bolt and bolt carrier in the upper receiver are inch pattern – you can interchange inch and metric bolts and bolt carriers. The lower fire-control group is a mixed bag of original Australian, British and US made parts.(The latter are for Section 922(r) compliance. The left-side mounted charging handle is the folding type – inch pattern – which I prefer. The sights are inch pattern as well.   Now, one would be led to believe, that such a mixed bag of original military inch versus original military metric versus US-made commercial parts simply wouldn’t work properly. Well, the folks at Century Arms did an outstanding job on this particular sample, and I well-pleased for the most part….




The Basic Family Vehicle G.O.O.D. Kit, by Kirk S.

…in my pack.  I also keep a small box of commercial wax fire starters for tinder.  All of these are stored in a plastic Ziploc.  This helps organize my pack and also provides another level of protection from water. After you’ve secured your shelter, the next most important thing is to acquire water.  It’s important to know where and how you can acquire water if away from your home and also how to purify it.  However, depending on your situation (having to move away from a threat, injured in a vehicle accident, etc), you may not have the time or ability to acquire water.  Water should always be included in your pack.  I use the Coast Guard approved emergency water packets that come in the 4 ounce size.  I use these for several reasons: 1) they have a 5 year shelf life; 2) they are pre-packaged in 4 ounce sizes…




The SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

…Montana is providing a $250 gift certificate. The certificate can be used for any of their products. Second Prize: A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679 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). A Laptop EMP Shield and a Smartphone Faraday Bag (a combined value of $200), courtesy of MobileSecSolutions.com. Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC. A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!…




Letter Re: Bernanke’s Absurd Quantitative Easing Jobs Claims

JWR,   You can’t make this stuff up.  Seriously.  Ben Bernanke claims that the $600 billion QE2 will create 700,000 jobs.  Even if he’s right, that’s $857,142.86 per job created.  Even if you believe the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS, more appropriately called the “BBS”) thei figure of 14.8 million currently unemployed Americans, that means that the U.S. would need to have just over 20 more infusions of $600 billion to employ all of our unemployed.  20 x $600,000,000,000… (drumroll, please)… $12 Trillion!   I think that it’s doable.  Let’s get QE3-to-QE22 underway.  Maybe SurvivalBlog readers could start a grassroots movement to get this thing rolling…   Somewhere, a very fat lady is singing.  – N.I.M. …




SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

…you answer the question in an audit: “Mr. H, why did you withdraw $400 on June 27 last year? August 12?” I mean, I know how I might answer, but cannot imagine anything good coming from such a conversation. One further point if I may. For the time being, I am still on a major social media platform, limiting myself mostly to pictures of bbq. I do observe a great deal. There appears to be a great deal of outrage from people who claim to be (I don’t really know) conservatives and libertarians over leftist proposals in DC. How many of them on social media, how many SurvivalBlog readers wrote to their US Senators to express their opinion on these proposals? I did. Not just for this, but for all those ridiculous gun control bills. Outrage without action is useless.” o o o An anonymous reader spotted this: Internet funding…




Off-Grid PV Power for an O2 Concentrator or CPAP, by Tunnel Rabbit

…well pump 6 gauge wiring to contain the cost of a 800-watt system. The good Lord provided 4,500 feet of used copper cable at no charge, and exactly when I needed it! Truly amazing. I would also use the most reliable and lowest cost battery type that are flooded lead-acid deep cycle batteries. These are also the lowest cost battery type. However, there may still be a shortage of these batteries on the market. Marine batteries are not deep cycle batteries if their rating is expressed in CCA (Cold Cranking Amps). Marine batteries are actually a hybrid or a compromise and some are better than others. I would use them only as a last resort. My rough estimate for the components of this DYI system might be $5,000 for a 1,600 watt system, and around $1,500 for a 500 watt system. An inverter is not included in this rough cost…




Letter Re: Gun Show Report–A Window of Opportunity?

…at my normal dealer. They had a big sign that said “No Primers.” I found another dealer and bought two pounds. The price was reasonable. He had only magnum pistol primers in stock. He told me the price as $48 per thousand, but he expected it to settle back down in three months. I did not see any other primers in the entire show. Several folks were selling bags of 100 pieces of brass, but no one was selling 1,000 piece bags of it or other large lots, and prices were up. So brass and primers remain in short supply. Possibly it is all going to commercial ammunition production. I was surprised to see that there were lots of new black rifles available — more than I had expected. There were plenty of AR-15s well as AR uppers and lowers. Despite wider availability, prices remain high. The cheapest plain vanilla…




Using Pop Culture to Teach Survival and Civics, by M.J.

…left, 600 million dead, no resistance.” 600 million dead is twelve times the butcher’s bill from the Second World War. Set aside the alien invasion storyline. Here are some questions for your children: How bad would a war have to be to kill 600 million? Such a war would likely involve the use of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. How would you protect yourself? Might living in rural areas help? And what would afterwards? How sure could we be that the United States would survive with Constitutional government intact, when the Constitution is already under constant attack by the Left? What could the United States government be doing better to ensure that such a war does not happen? Lastly, might the Borg portrayed in this movie and in many Star Trek episodes be a possible outcome of the neural implants and artificial intelligence being developed now? Who would like to…




Actionable Information on COVID 19 – Part 2, by J.B.H.

…study so interesting to me from the Oxford Academic Open Forum for Infectious Diseases. This was a study of the “crud” in Army Boot Camp at Fort Benning Georgia in 2017. Here is what they had to say. “The most frequently detected pathogens in the 10 symptomatic cases were coronavirus (5, 50%), rhinovirus (4, 40%), other enterovirus (3, 30%), and influenza A (2, 20%). Pathogen co-detections were common, 8 out 10 cases were associated with 2 pathogens, representing 7 unique combinations. While rhinovirus and coronavirus were most common among asymptomatic trainees, 10% had detectable influenza A. Detection of multiple pathogens was common in the first two weeks of training (50% among those who had viral detection). The study is still in progress.” It would appear that “the flu” is often not really influenza. In 50% of these cases it involved coronavirus and often other viruses. In the big scheme of…




Preparedness Notes for Thursday — January 27, 2022

…Civil Defense Manual, (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson. Second Prize: A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589, 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). A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy! Third Prize: Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth…




Some Basic Preparedness Information – Part 1, by C.I.

…a 5-gallon bucket. You can also use small dry ice chunks. Place a walnut-size chunk of dry ice on a paper towel, let it “melt” over an open bucket of grain or legumes. The CO2 goes to the bottom of a five-gallon bucket and pushes out the oxygen. Put the lid on quickly just after the chunk has melted, and seal. You will need 11 hand warmers for a 55-gallon drum, I find that hand warmers are easier to use and find and more convenient than dry ice. Over time you will have to renew the hand warmers in plastic buckets, as oxygen will gradually seep into plastic barrels. There are also commercially-made oxygen absorbers that you can buy. Steel drums are not permeable to oxygen, but plastic barrels are. So, food-grade plastic buckets or barrels are better with zip-lock mylar bag liners for long-term storage. Those liners are airtight…




SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

…all regards, including communications is key. With in-depth planning, we would then be in the best positions to adapt to anything that might come our way. Yet we must come together as a community. The willingness and ability to help each other can make bring us together in a mutual defense of our family and friends. We are planning to help and support the small mountain community. Those who lack water to irrigate a large garden will be supplied with water with portable solar-powered water pumps, and be provided garden seed if needed. Surface water is everywhere out here. And we would till their land with one of several tractors to get them started. I am also setting up the community with two repeaters, one a low power cross band repeater on directional antennas, and the other, the Argent Data System, ADS-1 simplex repeater for use with the most common…