Search Results for: shops

Making A Living As A Reseller- Part 2, by BIF

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…the item at for resale. (This results in a 400% or higher profit target.) This is true for the more “durable” goods, such as firearms, cameras, bicycles, tools, et cetera. I was at a pawn shop recently when they bought a like-new Remington 870 shotgun from someone who walked in the door. They gave him $45 for it. A few weeks later, it was in their case for $325. Since that was more than the cost of a new one at Walmart, it stayed in the case a long time. Incentive Not To Buy Stolen Merchandise Here’s a thought about pawn shops, for those of you who mainly know about them from what you see on TV. Pawn shops have a reputation for buying stolen goods. I’m not sure about the laws in the rest of the country, but here pawn shops are required to log in whatever they buy…


Bullet Casting: A (Relatively) Simple Introduction, by AVL

…the end product comes out with what most reloaders, would recognize as cast bullets. Casting Thermometer Most casting thermometers resemble those like you would use for determining if you have cooked that roast or turkey enough. Except they are capable of measuring the high temperatures of molten lead. Pure lead melts at about 650 degrees F. Whereas certain alloys have lower and higher melting points. The best casting is accomplished about 20-50 degrees over the melting point. Sources of Lead You can buy lead at a number of locations, plumbing shops, custom metal shops, gun shops, places that provide linotype for print shops (though not so often any more). The other option and how I typically obtain most of my lead is as scrap, as I am not particularly discerning when it comes to my bullet making. For the most part, I make adjustments to the mixture while it is…


How to Plan for Survival on a Small Budget, by N.G.

…the local pawn shops. They are also a good place to practice your haggling skills. Another good use of pawn shops is selling your unneeded and unwanted items from home. I have sold old videogame systems, DVD’s, televisions, and more to get rid of useless clutter and put extra cash in my pocket. On par with pawn shops, some specialty shops can be a doorway to extra cash. There’s a shop in my town that sells and buys used books and movies. I have sold many DVD’s and taken home hundreds of dollars from this one shop. Auctions are a personal favorite, due to the fact that everything must go. I have bought all kinds of good stuff for next to nothing, just because I was the only one who bid on it. My best example is from one auction, where I purchased an entire bundle of gardening tools including…


RedHead Ultimate Work Pants, by Tom Christianson

…into our search, I got a call from my wife. She indicated that she had found me a pair of work pants at one of our local thrift stores. The pants were in like new condition, and my wife paid a grand total of $4.99 plus tax for the garment. Description The pants had a “RedHead” tag in the back of the waistband. An Internet search revealed that the RedHead brand is owned by Bass Pro Shops of Springfield, Missouri. The date of manufacture was listed as June of 2019. A search of the style number listed on a tag sewn into the waistband brought me to the RedHead Ultimate Work Pants on the Bass Pro Shops website. The pants are 100% cotton. They are olive on the outside. The inside of the waistband is brown. Other colors available on the Bass Pro website are listed as “Bungee Cord”, “Vintage…


Dark Age 2.0: Melee Weapons – Part 3, by Dr. Joseph

…Sticks have been used in warfare, in the special form of clubs, such as by the ancient Germanic club wielders. [66] In general a disarmed people, such as the Irish, turned to sticks such as the shillelagh for self-protection. Shepherds in pre-modern times, as in Europe, defended their flocks of sheep with quarterstaffs [67] And today, there are flourishing self-defense schools teaching stick defense in the form of the cane and walking stick. [68] Thus, acquiring sticks, taken from hardwood trees, or simply from hardware shops, is an economical way of getting to first base in melee weapon prepping. I suggest getting a number of sticks; both walking stick length, and bo and jo staff length to use the Japanese terms; the bo staff being like the European quarterstaff of 6-9 feet in length, and the jo staff/stick, shorter, about 4-5 feet in length, both about one inch in diameter….


Planning Your Escape – Part 3, by JMD

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…your destination area with you so you can figure out possible alternatives in case your primary route is blocked. I usually buy one of the Streetwise laminated maps for my destination, but most hotels will happily provide you with a free tourist map at the front desk. If you couldn’t bring all of your required equipment or supplies with you, you should use your route familiarization explorations to locate local stores or facilities where you could obtain them in an emergency and plan options on how to get to each of them. I typically focus on camping/outdoor stores, bicycles shops and gun shops, since I can’t always travel fully stocked for a long return journey. You should also try to locate smaller local shops instead of big chain stores, since the smaller shops are a lot more likely to continue conducting business if the power and Internet are down. While…


Editors’ Prepping Progress

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…needed. Took advantage of near 60 degree weather to place some dirt around apple trees where water was starting to pool. Hung up a parts bin organizer in barn workshop. Started to put away supplies that were purchased last week. Added a few pages in my “Dad’s Book of Apocalyptic knowledge”. Picked up 4 additional head lamps (2 150-lumen and 2 200-lumen), an assortment of cotter pins and hitch pins, carriage bolts and a spare circuit tester. MARK ROSE Jim, Your age is showing! I can’t remember the last time I heard them refered to as “Head Shops” lol. Down in my part of Georgia, you see nothing but “Vaping” and “CBD” shops. I am forever referring to the latter as “Charlie Daniels Band” As for snow, we are more than happy to let you have some of this rain we are constantly receiving, for one day of Snow. Although,…


Silver Thoughts For The Beginner, by Jay in Missouri

One doesn’t have to look far in the news today to catch a conundrum in any article talking about precious metals. If you read the news shops you will have noticed articles crowing titles like “Silver and Gold Have Lost Their Shine!” and “The Precious Metals Market Tanks!”. The strange thing is if you are to walk into any coin or jewelry shop tomorrow and ask to buy a few coins, you will most likely be told the wait time is several weeks, and you’ll be paying prices above the current silver price. While the news outlets are singing the death knell of precious metals, truth is the demand for physical is higher than it has ever been, and is far outstripping the market prices. This happens when people remember their history lessons from school and determine to not get Weimared into trading a wheelbarrow of greenbacks for a sack of ‘taters….


Forges, Foundries, and Factories, by JIR

…be a long backward road for a long time until we can build and replace the capital we have now. We used to be a powerful industrial nation, but today, we are not. Most manufacturing capability in the USA has been “outsourced” to China. The metal fabrication shops in the USA evolved over time into larger and more sophisticated (and more efficient) factories and were eventually defeated in the global market by cheap labor overseas. Now, a generation later, we are running out of people who even know how to cast or shape metal. Even as late as 1960, mom and pop metal shops were fairly common in the USA. I remember back when I was a boy, my uncle needed a tractor part that was no longer produced. He simply went to the metal shop in town and handed them the broken part. They made him a new one…


Ten Letters Re: 3-in-1 Home Workshop Machines

…The ones you see for sale are a combination machine tool that combines a metal lathe, drill press and vertical milling machine. They are used a lot by hobbyists here, and I have heard that in Vietnam and similar locales, they are the #1 machine for small motorcycle rebuilding shops. I have been using a Smithy 1220 for about 5 years, and here are some observations: Most of these machines are built on a pretty heavy lathe bed that uses a small milling table as the platform for bolting the lathe tooling to. As a lathe, they are pretty stout. Most of them lack a back gear for slow turning operations (such as threading) and you’ll want to check on whether they have a split nut, power feeds and a thread dial. The basic 1220 I have does not have a thread dial or a slow speed, which basically means…


A Lament for California

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…was forced to queue up to register my bicycle, have a serialized City of Livermore bike license sticker applied, and its frame stamped with the city’s Atomic symbol. (With a fee for the privilege, of course.) Failure to do so would have been punishable with seizure of the bicycle and a hefty fine, before it could be returned to the owner. Even though I had never heard of even one of my classmates getting their bike stolen, this was promoted as a “crime-fighting” measure. But in retrospect, I can see that it was all about generating revenue and imposing control. Even in the 1970s and 1980s, the majority of Californians respected the right to keep and bear arms. Some of the best gunsmiths in the country had their shops in L.A. and San Francisco. For example, I had some trigger work done on my first M1911 by the great F….


Basic Cane Fighting Self-Defense, by Michael L.

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…grocery store will have inexpensive aluminum canes for sale. Last time I took a shopping trip with my wife I saw them at five stores, including a large gas station! These cheap models are actually a great option for self defense; just avoid the ones that fold up completely to store in purses and the ones with a four-pronged foot at the base. Select a straight-shafted cane with a single point of adjustment; it does not matter if it has a curved or straight handle. These canes are typically less than $20 new (and often closer to $10) but they are almost always available at thrift shops for a dollar or two. Even if you want to buy something a bit nicer, I suggest picking up one of the cheap canes as a practice piece and to help you determine the appropriate length of cane or walking stick for your…


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 4, by J.M.

…shows some examples of fictional grocery stores that I added near Lubbock, TX:     Other types of resources I map out are locally-owned bike shops, camping/outdoor stores, gun shops, hardware stores, country stores and thrift shops. While I try to pack as complete of a get home kit as possible to cover as many contingencies as I can, there may be gaps in the preps I bring that I can fill before starting my trip home, and knowing where I can buy or obtain those resources makes getting started a lot easier. One other nice feature of uMap is that you can save the markers you’ve added and when you come back to the web site later they’ll still be there. I have added and saved hundreds of markers for stores, nuclear reactors, chemical plants, foraging locations, prisons, etc., so now when I’m planning a route I can just…


Preparedness Planning: The Business Trip, By Mr. Zipph

…for a butter knife, but the edge wouldn’t be useful) and some bottled water I found very little at the conference other than a few things that vendors were giving out – water bottles, lanyards, flashlights, fabric grocery bags, granola bars and bottled juice. I gladly accepted those items. I also reconnoitered the shops in the airport when I arrived and found day packs, fleece jackets (in the summer), sunglasses, OTC medications and lots of snack food and beverages. Phase Four – Mental Dry Run – Various Get Home Scenarios: Scenario One – Riots: The city I was in had riots in 2020.In the event of riots during my stay, and given the fact that I was staying in the downtown area, my plan was to cut my trip short, pack my belongings, change my flight departure to a flight that left that same day and take a taxi or…


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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…observed and commented to my fellow employees who work in the Hunting department, when we open up on Wed/Thurs/Fri: “Hey, I think that guy owns a small gun shop here in town”, I was told by my fellow employee that a LOT of our early morning customers are in fact small vendors. The Large Ammunition companies have almost cut them out of the equation, because Large Outdoor retailers are capable of make massive purchases, which they are financially capable of doing, this guarantees that the big box stores are going to get their shipments, when available. Interestingly enough, I have been to the small shops here in my little stretch of heaven, ALL are marking up their costs by at least 100%. Which kind of drives many customers away from the small Mom and Pop shops, back in thru our doors, we have only marked up by about 40% on…