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

Went down to the Deer Lodge gun show. It was held in the ancient prison there….25' high sandstone walls, lotsa poured concrete, very bunkerish. Picked up a pair of German surplus military ponchos. I like these better than the US ones for a couple reasons. First, the material is a bit heavy-dutier thatn the lightweight nylon stuff on the US model. Yes, it translates into more weight to carry but I think its an acceptable tradeoff for actually staying dry when you use it as a groundsheet or overhead cover. The snaps that run along the ledges are such that both sides ('heads' and 'tails') can be mated to each other so you can come up with some interesting fabrications using multiple ponchos.Another very German touch is that there is a snap in the middle of the poncho that the top of the hood fastens to. This means that when you have the ponch set up as an overhead cover the headhole is closed up and the hood isnt flapping around. … clever. Anyway, they were $13 each and very worth it in my opinion. They'll roll up into a roll the size of a 2-cell D flashlight so the space they take up wont be too bad. A good purchase. Without exhausting the list, in addition to keeping you out of the rain, they can also be used to create sleeping bag bivvy sacks, improvised stretchers, ford rivers by wrapping your pack in one, groundsheet on damp ground, etc, etc, etc. A very versatile piece of gear.
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Great news on the Preventing Starvation (And Bowel Activity) front. My contact in the WY NG is going to be coming up for a visit and wants to know if Im still willing to trade for late-production cases of MRE's. Hell yes! 12 meals in an impervious cardboard box that I can throw in the back of a truck and vamoose? Sign me up!
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Local gunpimp has some new .223. Polymer case stuff. Picked up a case of 500 rounds and was taken with how light the ammo was. I absolutely do not trust it to work flawlessly but its fairly cheap ($75 retail/500) so I might use it for practice or something while saving the SS109 for that rainy decade.
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Still havent gotten around to making that Mountain House order yet. Need a time when Ive got a hundred bucks that isnt doing anything…and that aint very often.