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Organizing preparedness plans
Your SHTF survival plans can be organized in a couple of ways. The plans can be written down on pieces of paper, tossed into a hat and drawn at random. The plans could be ideas jotted down in a notebook or a blog. Or the plans could be well organized. Once the plans are organized, then what? Do you just look over the plans and say “yep, that looks good to me”? Personally, I do not think that is good enough.
Lets take stockpiling ammunition for SHTF for example. I do not think its enough to buy ammunition at random. You buy a box here, buy a box there, after awhile you know you have ammo, but how much “exactly” do you have? The same thing can be said about soap, soap dispensers, first aid supplies, spare blankets,,,, and so on.
When you are looking at your food shelves, and the racks are in plain view, it should be easy to tell what can goods you are short on and which ones you need to buy. When I look at my shelving units, I can tell right off the bat when a can of ravioli has been taken, or when my wife and I need to buy some more beans or corn.
The problem lies in things that are rarely seen, such as ammo kept in an ammo cans – out of sight, out of mind.
For the stuff that stays out of sight, its important to pull the stuff out and take a look every once in awhile. A couple of months ago I pulled out my ammo cans and took inventory:
223, check
7.62×39, check
30-30, check
308, check
#4 shot 12 gauge for small game, well I needed some more of it so I picked up a couple of boxes a few days later.
22 long rifle, well crap, why do I have so little 22 long rifle?
For non-survivalist, having a couple of boxes of 22 long rifle might be ok. But for people that are planning for a long term SHTF survival situation, the more the merrier.
The coming civil unrest
For those of you that have not been paying attention and voting for the same two parties over and over, I blame you for what you are about to read. The two party system will be the downfall of the US, and I directly blame the voters. My personal opinion, its just a matter of…
Rifle calibers for survivalist
When talking to survivalist, they seem to be divided into two groups – people that do, and people that talk.
Recently I asked the people on the SurvivalistBoards facebook page what rifle calibers they hunt with. I made sure to specify what calibers they currently own and use, and not what calibers they plan on buying.
For my area, its the 30-30, 308 and 280. Available game are hogs and whitetail deer. Longest shot is going to be around 125 yards. If you are on a pipeline or highline, shots might get out to the 200 yard mark. The rolling hills and thick timber stop the shots from being too long.
Some of the answers I received:
Camping trip load out
To get ready for an upcoming camping trip I decided to do a load out list. List like this help you see what your pack contains, and hopefully spot missing items in the list.
For those of you looking at this list and wondering how I am going to pack off of this gear, the easy answer is “I am not going to pack it”. The camping trip is going to be on the banks of the Angelina River. This means the boat is going to be carrying the gear for me; all I have to do is load the boat up and go.
Pack – Large MOLLE pack with internal sleep system, 2 sustainment pouches on the MOLLE pack. I was going to take my large ALICE pack, but my sleeping bag, food, fleece liner and poncho liner filled up the pack. This means I am having to store a lot of my gear in the sustainment pouches on the MOLLE.
Tent – Wenzel Lone Tree Hiker Tent, this item is hit and miss and might be difficult to find
Tarp – 6×8 foot for tent ground cloth
Sleeping bag – Coleman Exponent Tasman X 32-Degree Hybrid Sleeping Bag
Sleeping bag liner – GI poncho liner and fleece sleeping bag
Sleeping pad – Coleman Max
How to make noodles to catch catfish
In this article we are going to be looking at making noodles to catch catfish. This type of rig may not be legal in all areas, so check the local laws before you do anything.
Buy some noodles from the local china-mart. The noodles might be seasonal, and should be found in the swimming pool supplies. So far I have only found the noodles in 2 colors – blue and pink.
Cut noodle into 8 inch lengths
Get some 3/4 inch PVC pipe, caps and some PVC glue
Cut PCV pipe into 9 1/2 – 9 3/4 inch long sections. 9 3/4 seems to work better then 9 1/2.
Glue cap on 1 end of pipe
Insert PVC pipe into noodle until cap comes into contact with noodle
Drill a 1/4 – 5/16 inch hole in the end of the pipe sticking out past the end of the PVC pipe
Doom and gloom in the survival community
Why are so many people in the survivalist community obsessed with doom and gloom?
Awhile back I posted a question to the SurvivalistBoards facebook page about the occupy wall street movement, some of the first replies were about violence.
The question was not about survivalist having to use any kind of lethal force to defend their families and homes. All that was asked was if people were ready for some kind of civil unrest. From there the topic instantly turned to violence.
I have never understood “why” a lot of people in the survivalist community dwell on lethal force and the use of violence? Maybe they think life is like an action movie, and they are missing out on their starring roll. Maybe they want to be some kind of hero?
Life during a disaster is nothing like what you see in the movies. From my experience, the good comes out in the majority of the people. There are those that will try to steal and take advantage of others, but its not like what happens in the movies.
When Hurricane Ike was passing through, I filmed footage with a couple of cameras. The footage was later combined into a video.
The power of words
One of my favorite examples of someone standing up to the machine is when Jim Morrison and the Doors sang on the ed sullivan show. Jim Morrison was asked to not say “higher” when singing “Light my fire” on the ed sullivan show. Its amazing how people get so offended by a “word”. But then…
What happened to the PC gaming industry
I dont know what it is, but over the past 4 or 5 years, I have not been impressed with the PC games coming out, and to be honest I am getting a little bored. During the mid-week madness and weekend sales I have been buying games at discounted prices. Over the past year I…
Deer season daypack load out
Deer season is here, instead of grabbing a pack, throwing some random gear in and heading out to the woods, lets take a look at some items that should be considered. The way I look at it, your pack needs to contain everything you need to track a wounded deer, find your way back back to the truck after dark or spend an unexpected night in the woods.
A basic pack – This could be anything from a school book bag, to a good quality pack like a Maxpedition Sitka or Maxpedition Noatak. You need something that is not going to tear apart when your tracking a deer as the last bit of the sunlight fades away. For my current load out I am using the Maxpedition Noatak.
GPS & Compass – When you get off the trail back to the truck, you might need something to help find your way. Or worse yet, if you and your buddies have to track a deer through a thicket in pitch black dark.
Mark the truck before you head out and set the GPS to go back to the truck before you head out. This will tell you how far off the way point is.
Get familiar with your GPS and compass “before” you have to use it. Make sure you understand the difference between heading and bearing, and which one you need to set your compass to.
Learn how to set and read a compass.
If the GPS says you need a bearing of 130 degrees, would you know how to set the compass to 130 degrees in order to find your way to where you want to go?
Is the SKS still a viable survival rifle
With SKS prices creeping close to the $300 price range, why are they considered a viable option for survivalist,,, or even anyone else? Back in the 1990s when you could pick up an SKS for less then $100, yea, I could see buying one then. But over the past 2 decades prices have steadily gone up, I think to the point where they are not worth the price.
Lets take the Remington model 770 – synthetic stock, factory scope, popular calibers that are more effective on deer sized game then the 7.62X39,,,, and the 770 cost right at the $300 price range.
Last year my nephew used his Remington 770 to take a doe during youth weekend. At around 50 – 75 yards, the 150 grain Remington core-lokt was devastating to the whitetail. The blood trail looked like someone turned on a waterhose.
I can see buying an SKS for its novelty, and for its history, but not for its price. The SKS is not going to be a target rifle like a modern bolt action rifle and the 7.62×39 is not as effective on deer sized game as lets say a 270 or 308.
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