Monthly Archives: August 2012

Craigslist find

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

As the saying goes, even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while. I made the mistake of spelunking through Craigslist last night and found this beauty:

It’s a Hardigg military case of some flavor. I can’t track down the exact model but it’s big. Like, really big.How big? Okay, here’s some numbers:

Which means the interior dimensions give me just a bit shy of 36x20x21. Let me put that into perspective by dropping a shotgun into this thing and seeing what kinda space it takes up.

Thats a full-stocked Mossberg 500 with an 18″ barrel and an OAL of 38″. Fit’s nicely, dontcha think?

Can’t find the exact model of this particular box (which, apparently, was made for some kinda electronics according to the ‘how to load’ label inside the lid) but whatever it is I’m sure it was at least $500-600 or so new. This one is in terrific condition with a few scuffs but otherwise fine. Gaskets are perfect and the latches, which are sometimes found damaged or rusted, are also in great shape. Truly, a good find. Purpose? Well, I can think of a half-dozen right off the bat. The most obvious would be a ‘grab-n-go’ box. This thing would fit a loaded backpack, change of clothes, boots, rifle, ammo, other gear, and the other sundry items you’d need for about a week of living off whatever you can carry. Essentially, I’m going to view it as a waterproof,airtight, impervious-to-everything footlocker.

Price? Well, not as cheap as i would have liked. I was hoping to knock the guy down to $100 from his asking price of $150, but once I saw the condition and size of this thing in person I realized that probably wasn’t going to happen. But, hey, Hardigg case!

Now I need to stay outta Craigslist for a little while and let my wallet heal.

News roundup

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Oh, let’s see whats floating around the interwebs today:

The Gold Standard Goes Mainstream

An under-reported development of this campaign season is the Republican Party’s decision this week to send Gov. Mitt Romney into the presidential race on a platform effectively calling for a new gold commission. The realization that America’s system of fiat money is part of its economic problem is moving from the fringes of political discussion to the center.

I freely admit that I really don’t know enough about economics to really see both sides of the argument as well as I should…BUT, I will say that given the choice between someone offering me $100 cash and $100 in gold, I’ll take the gold every time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Six arrested in two more Central City looting cases; police credit citizens’ vigilance

Six more people were arrested in separate looting cases Wednesday in Central City, and police credit the vigilance of neighborhood residents in helping officers stop the crimes while they were still in progress.

Vigilance is fine, but it’s also a toothless guard dog. Calling 911 is, of course, the proper response to seeing looters working your neighbors house or your buddy’s business. The second proper response, however, usually involves two hand with one holding the stock and the other working the action.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Perhaps the notion of arming the law-abiding to deter the law-breaking is going international:

Russia May Legalize Possession of Handguns

Federation Council Vice-Speaker Alexander Torshin intends to propose a bill that would allow Russians to possess handguns and use them for self-defense without fear of being exposed to criminal liability. Presumably, the bill will be proposed in the State Duma early next year.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The world gets more and more interesting every day……..which, of course, is why we prepare.

Storing water with gear

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

,Rawles had a link about caching and added a caveat that storing water amongst gear is to invite disaster if the water container leaks, since much gear is not greatly enhanced by being soaked. He urged that water be stored separately from such gear.

This is true, but sometimes you really don’t want to  increase the footprint of your storage any more than you have to, and adding separate containers for water might do just that.

When I leave packs laying around with water in them in environs where they might freeze, I always start off using bottled water. I’ve experimented a lot with plastic bottles of water and have found that they’ll handle freeze/thaw cycles with virtually no failures. (In fact, I’ve froze/thawed hundreds of bottles of water and have yet to have one fail because of the freeze/thaw cycle. The ones that did fail were because, while frozen, the bottle was dropped and that damaged the plastic. A drop that would damage a frozen bottle, however, will usually not damge a thawed bottle since the thawed bottle flexes with the impact.) I’m very comfortable with the survivability of regular plastic water bottles. However, I am also a suspenders and a belt kind of guy. If I have a pack stored somewhere, then it’s probably important that the gear in that pack be in great shape since that pack is sitting there for the day when theres an emergency and my safety and well-being depends on the gear inside it. Most folks would figure the answer is to put the bottle of water into some other container to act as a secondary container in case the first one fails. Makes sense. Many folks use something like a Ziploc bag…a mistake, in my opinion. Ziploc bags are great, and I use lots of them for other stuff, but they just are not really waterproof. If you dont believe me, put some frozen chicken in one, and sit it in the bottom of your fridge to thaw. Come back in about three days and see what mess is sitting under the bag.

I take each bottle of water and vacuum seal it in a bag. The vacuum seal bags are quite waterproof, and they let me know at a glance if there’s any failure in bag integrity. (Since even a pinhole will cause the vacuum to fail.) If you really, really wanna go nuts you can vacuum seal it twice. I usually just take one 20 oz. bottle of water, vacuum seal it, and move onto the next. One bottle per bag. As long as the sealed bottle of water is kept protected from sharp objects and such, it lasts forever. (The bottled water in my pack is in its own zippered compartments…so there’s nothing to puncture or abrade anything.)

Don’t have a vacuum sealer? Get one.They are easily one of the best gadgets any survivalist could own. Even for non-preparedness uses, they’re awesome. Yeah, it’s a bit of money upfront but we save tons more money by being able to buy in bulk. (Case in point, the $1.50/# ground beef in the freezer that was bought a year or so ago and is now saving me from having to buy $2.99/# ground beef.)

Contraversely, (yes, I’m making my own words) if all the other gear is waterproofed then it doesn’t matter if the water container leaks. So , if you vacuum sealed all your other stuff and didnt add an extra layer of protection to the water bottles, you’d probably be okay there as well. Of course, the best way to do it would be to do both: waterproof the gear and isolate the water bottles.

If your situation can reasonably accommodate storing water separate from gear, then by all means do just that. But, in those circumstances where the water bottles have to be mixed in with the gear for space/pack constraints, this method has worked great for me so far.

 

 

 

Link – Ga. murder case uncovers terror plot

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Really? Overthrow the .gov? Couldn’t they at least wait until after November to see how it shook out?

LUDOWICI, Ga. (AP) — Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.

Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group composed of active duty and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components and was serious enough to kill two people — former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York — by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.

Well, they turned out to be more serious than 99% of the self-appointed ‘militia’s out there…they actually killed someone.

You know, I live in the heart of ‘anti-government extremist’ country. I’ve met the guys at the Militia Of Montana, I’ve met Randy Weaver, and I’ve met a lot of people who have the most fascinating basements and garages you will ever see, and I’ve read the literature, seen the movies and heard the speeches. My conclusion? These guys were not going to achieve their goals with $87,000 worth of ‘assault rifles’ and training camp. They would have had a better chance, several orders of magnitude better, if they had taken that $87k and bought themselves an election. Pick a personable, likeable, photogenic, squeaky clean guy who is on the same wavelength as they are and run him for political office. Then, once he’s in, work on getting him higher and higher up the food chain. It’s low risk, high reward.

Now I’m not saying you can’t change the direction of a national government through attrition…most countries in Africa hold their elections to the sound of gunfire and screaming…but when you get into First World countries the whole ‘we are here to liberate this country in the name of the people…’ nonsense just won’t fly. It’s hard finding a hundred guys who believe in something so strongly that they’ll give up everything they’ve built, including their lives, to storm the halls of power at gunpoint. But you can easily find a hundred thousand people who will fork over ten bucks to achieve a similar end result (the end result being change of government). Even way back during the American Revolution, if you look closely, you’ll see that money was a big, big part of making it a success.

I think you’re far more likely to achieve your political aims through greenbacks rather than black rifles, but thats’s just me. Sure, maybe someday it’ll come to that…but I doubt it very highly.

And, as the saying goes, ‘three can keep a secret if two of them is dead’. Forming your own super-secret armed ‘committe of freedom’ is just not going to work in an age when no one can keep their mouth shut. Oh, you may think to yourself “Ha, you’re wrong! Me and my cadre have been active for several years and we’ve never had a problem!” Fair enough. But when you and your buddies move on to actually, you know, doing stuff and one of you gets caught…well, I’m pretty sure group cohesiveness will plummet as everyone scrambles to be the first to take the deal the .gov will be offering to the first one to turn on his ‘comrades’.

Link – GOP set to OK most pro-gun platform ever

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

TAMPA, Fla. – Delegates to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday will approve the most pro-gun platform ever, staking out support for national concealed carry reciprocity and opposing domestic restrictions on ammunition and United Nations interference in gun sales.

“It’s probably the most supportive and detailed on Second Amendment issues ever,” said a gun-rights advocate who attended the GOP platform committee meetings last week.

 

If only, if only……..Talk is cheap, man.

Link – Desperate Drivers Pay The Price

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Desperate Drivers Pay The Price At NMB Gas Station

MIAMI (CBS4) — Some South Florida drivers double checked their gas bills as they pulled away from the pumps ahead of Tropical Storm Isaac and wondered why it cost so much to fill up.

It’s no surprise now to learn the State of Florida could be very busy with alleged price-gouging cases around South Florida.

Some people, it seems, never learn. If you live an area that is prone to evacuations, wouldnt it make sense to stash enough gasoline on hand to get outta town without having to stop for fuel? Heck, you could even stage fuel at points along your proposed evacuation routes. But, some folks don’t ever seem to learn.

I’m not sure how I feel about price gouging. I’m against .gov telling anyone what price they can or cannot sell a product at. If .gov could jump on a station owner for raising prices on the argument that the public has no choice about the purchasing, then couldn’t ‘gov also force the station owner to keep the station open if he decided to just close shop entirely for the emergency?

This sort of thing is why we keep stored (and stabilized) fuel on hand. To my way of thinking, MPG x gallons stored / 2 = effective range. So, if we have 60 gallons on hand, and the truck gets 15 mpg, thats 900 miles, right? Wrong. I figure a 50% penalty ‘just in case’ for things like detours, backtracking, stop-n-go, idling in traffic, etc, etc. So, to my way of thinking, that’s really a 450-mile range.

Truly, I am amazed that people who would live in a region where an evacuation due to hurricane is likely would not have supplies and fuel in place for this sort of thing.

Link – Rural property with underground lake

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

A year-round 58-degree temperature would be a nice way to beat that Tennessee heat. I’m sure some sort of heat exchange system could be built to regulate the temperature of a house built nearby. But, man, think of the awesome fish farming opportunity…several acres of what is essentially an indoor lake. Obviously a man-made cave…but still….

This is an unbelievable tract. I have never listed a tract this neat with so many possibilities. It has a large creek on the front of the property that runs year round. Just past the creek there is a huge lake that runs almost the length of the property. It is beautiful and great for Bass and Catfish. Next to that, there is a very small pond that has tons of Tadpoles that turn into big frogs, but the neatest thing about this property is the CAVE. It is HUGE.

When you step out of your car ,at the road ,on a 95 degree day, you can feel the 58 degree air hit you. As you walk into the front hole the ceiling is about 25 to 35 feet high(as it is throughout the whole cave) and goes back to the back ,I’m told, an 1/8th of a mile. It has some land inside the cave but is mostly a indoor Lake. It goes from 30 feet deep in some places to up to 2 feet. I have ridden in a canoe back to the back and it is pitch black. I am guessing that there is 5 acres underground in this cave. At this time there are Bass and Bluegill in the Cave, but I have ordered 500 Rainbow Trout.

Can you imagine the revenue brought in by making this a pay lake. The temperature is the same ,YEAR-ROUND, no matter what it is doing outside ,it is a constant 58-60 degrees. What about renting boats and fishing. Renting out to Cub scouts ,church and school events. The possibilities of making money are endless. You could camp inside the cave during a Rainstorm, blistering heat, or even a Tornado and not be affected. I have seen no bats, the cave is very clean and the water is crystal clear other than right in the front where the sun shines in and makes some algae. Don’t miss out on this tract.

 

Why economic issues translate into personal safety ones

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Fella comes to the door yesterday, clipboard in hand, to take a survey for a political candidate. Among the questions was “What is the most important issue to you this election?” and he rattled off things like the economy, debt, jobs, immigration, etc, etc.

Among that list was jobs, federal spending, the deficit and the economy. To me, they all pretty much roll together into one big category of “the economy”.

I was talking to the wife later about the questions and she asked me why I said the economy. To me, that encompassed the most amount of things that directly and indirectly affected our lives. Bad economy? Higher prices. Bad economy? Higher unemployment. Bad economy? Business failures. Bad economy? Higher taxes.  Bad economy? More desperate people.

Once in a while, I get asked why I would prepare with fuel, food, ammo and that sort of thing against what I forsee as an economic disaster. After all, if it’s an economic disaster then all you need to guard against it is an economic defense…such as a big ol’ box of cash and gold, right?

Nope. Here’s todays example..a fella laid off from his job comes back with a gun and shoots former coworkers. And although the story is still very fresh, and the details will probably change, what remains true is that in a bad economy more people are getting laid off, putting them under more stress as they try to keep their homes and their families together and some of those folks are just gonna snap under that stress and take some folks with them. And that doesn’t even include the folks who don’t snap but simply start knocking over 7-11′s, daylight burglaries and doing stickups at ATM’s to keep their houses they couldn’t afford.

So, indirectly, thats how a bad economy affects your safety. It creates a larger group of desperate and unstable people who at some point are just going to go off the rails and commit acts of violence. And this is why in a bad economy it isn’t far-fetched to believe that your preparations and plans against that bad economy should take into account some serious personal safety plans…like things that have triggers and magazines.

Silver > $30

Posted on by

Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Well, that was fun while it lasted.

I can’t tell the future but, hey, it’s an election year with a lot at stake. Might be some folks are stocking up against the possibility of continued economic fail.

Of course, it could also drop back below $30 as people see ‘$30′ as their ‘sell trigger’ and unload a buncha the stuff. Who knows?

In the meantime: