Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Ah, it is good to be back in Great Northwest. Empty freeways, guns everywhere, no sales tax and damn near zero crime. (Not to be confused with Zero crime, which is when I do something wrong.)

My trip to Philadelphia did impress upon me one thing….theres a tool that is sorely lacking from my plans and if you live in an urban center I highly recommend it:Wonder Bar …. 'cause sure as god made little green hand grenades, youre gonna need to jimmy a door or two. Of course your average 30″ wrecking bar (”crowbar”) would work even better but its nowhere near as portable.
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Feels good to no longer be more than arms reach away from impressive firepower. We of the preparedness bent get tagged as camo-wearing gun nuts alot but sometimes the simple truth is that you need overwhelming firepower if youre going to be happy and safe. Although my hosts in Phildaelphia very kindly offered me the use of the G17 I didnt feel comfortable with that….and it was also the first time Id been in a household that did not have more than one gun for every person in it. Still, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king and in the  land of the gunless the Ruger 10/22 owner is king. Point: any gun is better than no gun.
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Still playing around with the Mountain House info packet. The freeze-drieds are nice for convenience and long-term storage (as well as portability), but they are only a small part of the plan. In additon to the FD stuff, we've got hundreds of MRE's. barrels of rice and wheat, a very lovely supply of canned goods, and then theres the stuff thats in the regular kitchen cabinets. All told, I'd say its at least several months worth…or, it was until the girlfriend moved in…that pretty much cut everythingi n half (well, really closer to 2/3 since she's small and doesnt eat much.) So, I do need to upgrade and add to the food lockers.I've been finding some good stuff lately in the supermarkets…stuff thats packaged well, has long shelf life and isnt too bad. The Idahoan potatoes spring to mind…also some of the Uncle Bens flavored rice dishes as well. And, although I wasnt that thrilled with it, the vaccuum sealed ground beef still needs to be experimented with more. (I am not going through the apocalypse as a vegetarian.)
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Took the .308 out for a spin yesterday. There will be a post on that later and will, in fact, be a topic under 'memories' dedicated to my experiences with it. In short, I loaded up some ammo and shot four-shot groups. Seemed like everything was within an inch and then *whammo* a flyer. Then again, some groups strung horizontally but I suspect thats because i radically shifted my shooting position for that string. Anyway, Im not as pleased with the .308 CZ as Id like to be..I dont believe the problem is the gun, I know its me and probably also I need to spend alot of time at the loading bench. Sure wouldnt mind getting that IOR scope while Im at it too.