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

Was straightening up the bunker the other day, which is always interesting.

Things that have been stored away for years get reviewed and in some cases replaced. Theres a lot of ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time’. Examples? Canteens. When I originally started stockpiling things I was using the USGI quart canteens. Decent products, relatively cheap, familiar, etc. As the years go by a few other canteens worked their way into the bin. As a result, I pulled out the bin marked ‘canteens’ and found no less than five different types. Not really a bad thing, but standardization would make things a lot simpler (and neater to store). Because I’ve been impressed with the quality and price, I’m phasing out the USGI ones and going with the Swedish surplus ones (with cup) that I got from SG (Sportsmans Guide). I won’t go on about them since that’s covered elsewhere. Suffice to say that for the price of 4 USGI canteens with covers I got two dozen of the Swede canteens with cups and I believe them to be a superior product.

Much like how old US military gear trickles down from the ‘regular’ army to the National Guard, the USGI canteens will get demoted to ‘secondary standard’ which is a fancy word for ‘extras that I wont be terribly concerned over losing or damaging’.

The advent of the CamelBack-type systems has made the canteen-on-your-belt system a bit ‘old school’ but there is still a place for it… although 99 out of 100 times I’ll have the canteen in my bag rather than on my belt. For on-the-go drinking I stuff a hydration system into my bag. Still, a rugged, puncture- and crush-proof water container that can be thrown around and battered with impunity will always be a necessary piece of gear.

=-=-=

Although the world today is a remarkably unsettled place (or perhaps its as unsettled as it has always been and its simply more noticed these days) I still believe that for the average person the coming crises will be financial, not [nuclear/biological/etc]. Certainly the possibility is there for a ‘dirty bomb’ or the like, but I think that the thing that’s going to put people staring hard into their pantries, cringing at the news and staying close to home will be economic.

Admittedly, I have only a basic grasp of economics and familiarity with the current economic policies in play. But I do read a bit and the various news outlets all predict gloom and doom of some fashion. The housing/real estate markets are predicted to collapse dragging the economy down with them, the Chinese threaten to use their stockpile of US debt to damage the US economy if things are not done their way, jobs move overseas to keep costs down, prices of food and fuel increase at alarming rates, etc, etc, etc. Not very reassuring stuff. I’m sure the more economically savvy would say that this isn’t anything to be concerned with and these sorts of things are always going on…but to a layman like myself its hard not to feel like wanting to fill the cabinets to the bursting point with food and cash.

I am utterly amazed when I read about ‘average families’ who have mortgages that they cant afford, $30,000 in credit card debts, and have two (or more) cars. How do these people sleep at night? I’d be unable to sleep for worrying about ‘what if I lose my job’, ‘what if Im hurt and cant work’, etc, etc.

I think that when you are involved in preparedness you wind up viewing money as a resource like ammo, fuel, bandages or food. As a result you tend to be more careful in how it is used, stored and preserved. I think it would be safe to say that the debt-ridden, debt-driven people mentioned in the previous paragraph probably are not Like Minded. Or if they are, they are recent converts.

If the economy does tank, or more likey go into some sort of long, drawn out slide these people are going to be the ones selling everything they own, trying to file bankruptcy, and clamor the loudest for .gov to ‘do something’. Needless to say, these people will likely not be ‘our kind of people’. We call ‘em sheeple these days but the annoying fact is that they compromise a rather large percentage of the population. Large enough that when their recklessness catches up with them its gonna drag a bunch of us into the swirling economic whirlpool as they get sucked under.

Was straightening up the bunker the other day, which is always interesting.

Things that have been stored away for years get reviewed and in some cases replaced. Theres a lot of ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time’. Examples? Canteens. When I originally started stockpiling things I was using the USGI quart canteens. Decent products, relatively cheap, familiar, etc. As the years go by a few other canteens worked their way into the bin. As a result, I pulled out the bin marked ‘canteens’ and found no less than five different types. Not really a bad thing, but standardization would make things a lot simpler (and neater to store). Because I’ve been impressed with the quality and price, I’m phasing out the USGI ones and going with the Swedish surplus ones (with cup) that I got from SG (Sportsmans Guide). I won’t go on about them since that’s covered elsewhere. Suffice to say that for the price of 4 USGI canteens with covers I got two dozen of the Swede canteens with cups and I believe them to be a superior product.

Much like how old US military gear trickles down from the ‘regular’ army to the National Guard, the USGI canteens will get demoted to ‘secondary standard’ which is a fancy word for ‘extras that I wont be terribly concerned over losing or damaging’.

The advent of the CamelBack-type systems has made the canteen-on-your-belt system a bit ‘old school’ but there is still a place for it… although 99 out of 100 times I’ll have the canteen in my bag rather than on my belt. For on-the-go drinking I stuff a hydration system into my bag. Still, a rugged, puncture- and crush-proof water container that can be thrown around and battered with impunity will always be a necessary piece of gear.

=-=-=

Although the world today is a remarkably unsettled place (or perhaps its as unsettled as it has always been and its simply more noticed these days) I still believe that for the average person the coming crises will be financial, not [nuclear/biological/etc]. Certainly the possibility is there for a ‘dirty bomb’ or the like, but I think that the thing that’s going to put people staring hard into their pantries, cringing at the news and staying close to home will be economic.

Admittedly, I have only a basic grasp of economics and familiarity with the current economic policies in play. But I do read a bit and the various news outlets all predict gloom and doom of some fashion. The housing/real estate markets are predicted to collapse dragging the economy down with them, the Chinese threaten to use their stockpile of US debt to damage the US economy if things are not done their way, jobs move overseas to keep costs down, prices of food and fuel increase at alarming rates, etc, etc, etc. Not very reassuring stuff. I’m sure the more economically savvy would say that this isn’t anything to be concerned with and these sorts of things are always going on…but to a layman like myself its hard not to feel like wanting to fill the cabinetsto the bursting point with food and cash.

I am utterly amazed when I read about ‘average families’ who have mortgages that they cant afford, $30,000 in credit card debts, and have two (or more) cars. How do these people sleep at night? I’d be unable to sleep for worrying about ‘what if I lose my job’, ‘what if Im hurt and cant work’, etc, etc.

I think that when you are involved in preparedness you wind up viewing money as a resource like ammo, fuel, bandages or food. As a result you tend to be more careful in how it is used, stored and preserved. I think it would be safe to say that the debt-ridden, debt-driven people mentioned in the previous paragraph probably are not Like Minded. Or if they are, they are recent converts.

If the economy does tank, or more likey go into some sort of long, drawn out slide these people are going to be the ones selling everything they own, trying to file bankruptcy, and clamor the loudest for .gov to ‘do something’. Needless to say, these people will likely not be ‘our kind of people’. We call ‘em sheeple these days but the annoying fact is that they compromise a rather large percentage of the population. Large enough that when their recklessness catches up with them its gonna drag a bunch of us into the swirling economic whirlpool as they get sucked under.

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

Hey, remember this post about the surplus German ponchoes?

Well, i ordered four of them and received them today. I sent back three. And Im a very laidback guy who rarely sends anything back. Problem? Well, read the ad copy: Used in very good shape.

Now to me, used in ‘very good shape’ does not mean that great swatches of olive green duct tape were applied in various spots to ‘repair’ tears and holes. And I dont mean someone took a piece of duct tape, cut out a 1″ circle of the stuff and applied it. This is someone pulling a few inches off the roll, tearing it off with their teeth and slapping it on in best redneck fashion. To me, that aint ‘used very good’. Thats ‘used with some repairs’.

So, my first disappointment with a surplus order from Sportsmans Guide. Satisfaction guaranteed, they say so im gonna find out. Im sending ‘em back he three bad ones. The one I am keeping was like new, so thats cool.

I understand its military surplus. Its gonna smell musty (love that smell), its gonna be probably dirty, and it may be stained. Fine. I understand that. But, dammit, used very good does not mean used, patched with duct tape.

Obviously, I’ll take a refund but what I really want are three more ponchoes in good condition.

Stay tuned.

Hey, remember this post about the surplus German ponchoes?

Well, i ordered four of them and received them today. I sent back three. And Im a very laidback guy who rarely sends anything back. Problem? Well, read the ad copy: Used in very good shape.

Now to me, used in ‘very good shape’ does not mean that great swatches of olive green duct tape were applied in various spots to ‘repair’ tears and holes. And I dont mean someone took a piece of duct tape, cut out a 1″ circle of the stuff and applied it. This is someone pulling a few inches off the roll, tearing it off with their teeth and slapping it on in best redneck fashion. To me, that aint ‘used very good’. Thats ‘used with some repairs’.

So, my first disappointment with a surplus order from Sportsmans Guide. Satisfaction guaranteed, they say so im gonna find out. Im sending ’em back he three bad ones. The one I am keeping was like new, so thats cool.

I understand its military surplus. Its gonna smell musty (love that smell), its gonna be probably dirty, and it may be stained. Fine. I understand that. But, dammit, used very good does not mean used, patched with duct tape.

Obviously, I’ll take a refund but what I really want are three more ponchoes in good condition.

Stay tuned.

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

Did I mention I still have about 25 mags left?

Linky

Did I mention I still have about 25 mags left?
Cut for mag pictures

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

Theres all sorts of ‘barometers’ people use to guage or predict situations/events. For example, the price of gold is sometimes thought of as a barometer in regards to the general feeling the public has about the economy.

Today: the gun show barometer.

Out of an 800 table gunshow:
7.62×39, .223 or .308 by the case? None. Loose boxes, sure…but actual cases? No.
AR mags? Almost none.
AR’s? Some bit not nearly as many as normally seen.
Oddly, I saw more HK91’s on different tables at this show than at any other ($2700-3600). Oh..and one G3 full auto.
Very little surplus/survival gear. Plenty of people talking about ’stocking up’ and how ‘after the election [insert bad thing here].
So theres a genearl mood of impending doom…

I bought myself a barrel for my Thompson Contender (14″ .223) and a Glock sight adjustment tool. Nothing else really jumped out at me.

Theres all sorts of ‘barometers’ people use to guage or predict situations/events. For example, the price of gold is sometimes thought of as a barometer in regards to the general feeling the public has about the economy.

Today: the gun show barometer.

Out of an 800 table gunshow:
7.62×39, .223 or .308 by the case? None. Loose boxes, sure…but actual cases? No.
AR mags? Almost none.
AR’s? Some bit not nearly as many as normally seen.
Oddly, I saw more HK91’s on different tables at this show than at any other ($2700-3600). Oh..and one G3 full auto.
Very little surplus/survival gear. Plenty of people talking about ‘stocking up’ and how ‘after the election [insert bad thing here].
So theres a genearl mood of impending doom…

I bought myself a barrel for my Thompson Contender (14″ .223) and a Glock sight adjustment tool. Nothing else really jumped out at me.

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

Lemme get the commercial stuff out of the way and then we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled post….

Okay, more AR mags on the way. My vendor will be out of them at current pricing within the next two weeks so once theyre gone, theyre gone…at a reasonable price. After hat we get into unreasonable pricing. These are very nice magazines and I am certain that around this time next year you’ll be very happy you bought them. I’ve restored the ordering page so its about as easy to get these things as I can make it. Im sure everyone who has received their magazines from this last batch are pleased….right? Right?

Still have some #10 cans of Mountain House, as well as plenty of the vacuum-packed pouches on hand. Email for list.

[/commercial]
=+=+=+=

Bridge collapse in Minnesota brings up the old bugaboo about having multiple routes of travel in case something just like this happens. Despite my disdain for many of Ragnar Bensens books, one thing I did take away from them was his ‘Survivalists Rule of Three’ which basically said that anything worth doing is worth doing with a secondary and tertiary alternative. That is to say three different ways of heating your house, three different routes of escape, three different means of emergency lighting, three alternative safe locations, etc, etc. I’m paranoid so I go for four levels…the Primary, Auxillary, Contingency, Extra (PACE) plan. In some things (canteens, for example) its not a financial burden, on others (guns, radios, for example) it can add up. However, the levels of redundancy are kinda comforting. Plus, when it comes to preparedness, ‘too much’ is always preferable to ‘not enough’.

Anyway, the moral of the bridge collapse episode is that you need to have, beforehand, alternate routing information available. Yes, there really is a ‘Plan B’.

Of course, a bridge doesn’t have to collapse to render a route unpassable. Roadblocks (official and unofficial), flooding, construction, accidents, etc. can all cause your primary route to be unavailable. This was shown on September 11 when NYC closed its tunnels and left the bridges open to only foot traffic. Additionally, weather conditions routinely close many roads in this country. Heck, right now there are probably some roads closed not far from here due to forest fires.

So, summing it all up: have a Plan B (and more) in case your first avenue of travel becomes unavailable.

=-=-=-

Everyone following the exploits of Zimbabwe’s economic self-destruction? Hyperinflation with a few twists. The most jaw-dropping amazingly insane edict to be issued by the government there has been price caps on the sale of consumer goods. In short, it may cost you 10x to buy the product but you cant sell it for more than x. The result? Predictably people went to stores that were having these price controls enforced, emptied the shelves, and probably resold a lot of the goodies for ‘real prices’. Let me put it into context. Right now gas is about $3.00 a gallon, right? Imagine .gov saying that no gas can be sold for more than fifty cents a gallon. Never mind that its costing the gas station two bucks and change per gallon just to get the stuff. So what happens? Everyone runs down to the Exxon and tanks up at fifty cents, the gas station is out of gas and the owner refuse to restock (since he’ll lose his shirt), and the people who bought all the gas turn around and sell it on the black market for $3 a gallon…because, surprise, all the gas stations are out of gas.

There are various blogs out there following this misadventure and I recommend reading them. Not necessarily for the example of how incredible ignorance can bring a country to ruin, but rather for the real-world lesson of what happens to infrastructure and personal wealth in a prolonged economic disaster. The folks who can produce their own food, produce their own electricity, have a hard currency, or can otherwise fend for themselves will make it through…the rest? Well, someone’s gotta make up those lines that stretch around the block.

This is why Im always left at a loss when people say that having gold or silver is a waste because ‘you cant eat it or shoot it’. This is true but only if TEOTWAWKI is a near-instantaneous overnight disaster. But many disasters are slow, creeping things…there’ll be a time in Zimbabwe where money will be useless because there’ll be no products to buy but until that time comes there’ll be months (maybe years) where having a globally recognized form of currency (such as gold or even, in this case, foreign currency) will be just as useful, if not moreso, than a pantry full of freeze drieds.

Societies and civilizations very rarely become Mad Max city-states overnight. Theres usually years of descent into that level of anarchy. When you hit the bottom of that slide, sure, its gonna be bullets and beef jerky as the national currency but that’s a long slide to the bottom and during that slide is when alternatives to the rapidly devaluing regional currency have

=-=-=-

Anniversary of nuking Japan is nigh. When someone tells you that nuclear war is unsurvivable and the living will envy the dead keep in mind that some survivors of Hiroshima were evacuated…to Nagaskai..and nuked again. So there are not only survivors of the atomic bomb, there are survivors of the atomic bombs. Survivors of the atomic bombings, by the way, are called hibakusha and they apparently are discriminated against in that noble, civilized and elegant Japanese culture.

First hand accounts by survivors can be found here. Interesting reading.

Lemme get the commercial stuff out of the way and then we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled post….

Okay, more AR mags on the way. My vendor will be out of them at current pricing within the next two weeks so once theyre gone, theyre gone…at a reasonable price. After hat we get into unreasonable pricing. These are very nice magazines and I am certain that around this time next year you’ll be very happy you bought them. I’ve restored the ordering page so its about as easy to get these things as I can make it. Im sure everyone who has received their magazines from this last batch are pleased….right? Right?

Still have some #10 cans of Mountain House, as well as plenty of the vacuum-packed pouches on hand. Email for list.

[/commercial]
=+=+=+=

Bridge collapse in Minnesota brings up the old bugaboo about having multiple routes of travel in case something just like this happens. Despite my disdain for many of Ragnar Bensens books, one thing I did take away from them was his ‘Survivalists Rule of Three’ which basically said that anything worth doing is worth doing with a secondary and tertiary alternative. That is to say three different ways of heating your house, three different routes of escape, three different means of emergency lighting, three alternative safe locations, etc, etc. I’m paranoid so I go for four levels…the Primary, Auxillary, Contingency, Extra (PACE) plan. In some things (canteens, for example) its not a financial burden, on others (guns, radios, for example) it can add up. However, the levels of redundancy are kinda comforting. Plus, when it comes to preparedness, ‘too much’ is always preferable to ‘not enough’.

Anyway, the moral of the bridge collapse episode is that you need to have, beforehand, alternate routing information available. Yes, there really is a ‘Plan B’.

Of course, a bridge doesn’t have to collapse to render a route unpassable. Roadblocks (official and unofficial), flooding, construction, accidents, etc. can all cause your primary route to be unavailable. This was shown on September 11 when NYC closed its tunnels and left the bridges open to only foot traffic. Additionally, weather conditions routinely close many roads in this country. Heck, right now there are probably some roads closed not far from here due to forest fires.

So, summing it all up: have a Plan B (and more) in case your first avenue of travel becomes unavailable.

=-=-=-

Everyone following the exploits of Zimbabwe’s economic self-destruction? Hyperinflation with a few twists. The most jaw-dropping amazingly insane edict to be issued by the government there has been price caps on the sale of consumer goods. In short, it may cost you 10x to buy the product but you cant sell it for more than x. The result? Predictably people went to stores that were having these price controls enforced, emptied the shelves, and probably resold a lot of the goodies for ‘real prices’. Let me put it into context. Right now gas is about $3.00 a gallon, right? Imagine .gov saying that no gas can be sold for more than fifty cents a gallon. Never mind that its costing the gas station two bucks and change per gallon just to get the stuff. So what happens? Everyone runs down to the Exxon and tanks up at fifty cents, the gas station is out of gas and the owner refuse to restock (since he’ll lose his shirt), and the people who bought all the gas turn around and sell it on the black market for $3 a gallon…because, surprise, all the gas stations are out of gas.

There are various blogs out there following this misadventure and I recommend reading them. Not necessarily for the example of how incredible ignorance can bring a country to ruin, but rather for the real-world lesson of what happens to infrastructure and personal wealth in a prolonged economic disaster. The folks who can produce their own food, produce their own electricity, have a hard currency, or can otherwise fend for themselves will make it through…the rest? Well, someone’s gotta make up those lines that stretch around the block.

This is why Im always left at a loss when people say that having gold or silver is a waste because ‘you cant eat it or shoot it’. This is true but only if TEOTWAWKI is a near-instantaneous overnight disaster. But many disasters are slow, creeping things…there’ll be a time in Zimbabwe where money will be useless because there’ll be no products to buy but until that time comes there’ll be months (maybe years) where having a globally recognized form of currency (such as gold or even, in this case, foreign currency) will be just as useful, if not moreso, than a pantry full of freeze drieds.

Societies and civilizations very rarely become Mad Max city-states overnight. Theres usually years of descent into that level of anarchy. When you hit the bottom of that slide, sure, its gonna be bullets and beef jerky as the national currency but that’s a long slide to the bottom and during that slide is when alternatives to the rapidly devaluing regional currency have

=-=-=-

Anniversary of nuking Japan is nigh. When someone tells you that nuclear war is unsurvivable and the living will envy the dead keep in mind that some survivors of Hiroshima were evacuated…to Nagaskai..and nuked again. So there are not only survivors of the atomic bomb, there are survivors of the atomic bombs. Survivors of the atomic bombings, by the way, are called hibakusha and they apparently are discriminated against in that noble, civilized and elegant Japanese culture.

First hand accounts by survivors can be found here. Interesting reading.