Tag Archives: theory

Choosey? Uzi.

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,Rawles had an article on his website about the Uzi the other day. As you know, years ago I picked up an Uzi after carefully trying come up with a non-SBR solution to a rugged,proven, 9mm carbine that would take down into a package small enough to fit in your average ‘three day pack’. At the time, there were not a lot of choices…while there were guns on the market that fit most of the criteria, virtually all of them were new designs that did not have a proven and established track record in terms of performance and durability. When I lucked out and fell into an Uzi, it pretty much hit all the high points in terms of what I was looking for.

You have to keep in mind that, nowadays, a ‘wrist brace’ lets you create short-barrelled ‘not a carbine’ guns quite easily, but at the time I acquired the Uzi that was not an option. So, since we are in a new era of designs and rule-bender/beater gimmicks like the wrist brace, would I still go with the Uzi.

Honestly, probably not…for that purpose.

THe Uzi is a fine gun, no two ways about it. But like the M1 Garand, or the 1911, it was a fine gun for it’s time. And times change. The Uzi has a few things going against it as a semi-auto carbine…scant availability of accessories, not ambidextrous, very heavy, virtually no optics mounting options, etc, etc. Compare and contrast the Uzi against something more contemporary like, say, a CZ Evo or Sig MPX, and you can see that the design is pretty dated and doesn’t offer the features we’ve gotten used to in more recent designs.

What the Uzi does have, in spades, is a proven history. It’s been around long enough to have figured out what works and what doesnt work. Other guns like the MPX, Evo, etc, are too new to have decades of experience behind them.

The reason I wanted a takedown carbine was to have something compact enough to be extremely portable, but carry a goodly amount of firepower. If the world came crashing down and I had a need to have a high-capacity ‘long gun’, the Uzi would be the one tucked in the bag under my desk.

Nowadays though…I’d trade it out for the Ruger PC9 in an aftermarket sidefolding chasis, or a ‘wrist braced’ 9″ AR style gun. Why? It comes down to one big factor – logistics. A half dozen Glock magazines, 17- or 33-rd, can be interchanged between pistol and carbine, streamlining logistics considerably.

Some people will, of course, say that the issue of magazine interchangeability is overblown and that the tradeoff of stepping down to a pistol caliber, versus a rifle caliber, for the sake of magazine interchangeability is a bad tradeoff. Well, as it turns out, if I wrist braced a 9″ .223 AR pistol the reduction in ballistics performance drops me down to almost identical energy of a 9mm +p. In other words, the .223 out of a ‘wrist braced’ AR pistol fairly equals a 9mm out of a 16″ carbine. There’s more to it, of course… the .223, even at the lower velocity, will shoot flatter and probably penetrate a bit better but with the similar ballistics I’d rather have the option of not having to keep two different kinds of magazines in my bag and on my belt.

I’m not foolish enough to say that money isn’t a consideration when choosing gear that may someday be called upon to keep you hale and hearty, but it shouldn’t be an overriding consideration. AN original IMI Uzi, in semi-auto, is going to set you back somewhere in the $1200-2000 range depending on a few factors like caliber, condition, and accessories. For that money you could buy two or three CZ or Ruger guns, or one gun and a metric crapload of magazines and accessories. The acquisition of my Uzi was serendipitous so I got an exceptionally good deal on mine. Your mileage will vary.

Options? The CZ Evo is sweet and I do have one with a buncha mags. It does everything my Uzi does at half the weight and price. The Ruger, once I get it geared out, will probably cost as much as the Uzi but will have several features, described earlier, that the Uzi never had. Additionally, there are other guns out there these days that give you the traits and features I was looking but those are the two that immediately spring to mind.

The future of my Uzi? I’ll keep it, of course. It’s an excellent house gun, a good vehicle gun, and it has a certain visual impact that is pretty hard to get elsewhere. But I suspect I’ll be dumping some money into the Ruger PC9 to optimize it for my anticipated needs and purposes.

Article – What Not to Do in a Disaster

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Surprisingly, plenty of other people in deadly scenarios don’t act fast enough to save their own lives. From arguing over small change while a ship sinks into stormy water, to standing idly on the beach as a tsunami approaches, psychologists have known for years that people make self-destructive decisions under pressure. Though news reports tend to focus on miraculous survival, if people escape with their lives it’s often despite their actions – not because of them.

An article that says what we’ve known all along – normalcy bias and the ‘this can’t really be happening’ mindset will work against you in a crisis.

Decisiveness, preplanning, equanamity, and a dose of luck make the difference between being embraced and being embalmed. Interesting article and worth a read.

Silver

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Silver was down a bit the other day, and I had the treacherous combination of a few extra dollars in my pocket and a bit of impulse control issues. As a result, there’s another tube of silver dimes sitting in the safe.

Why? Well, thats an interesting question. Intellectually, I know that the odds of there being an event where greenbacks are worthless and we’re trading silver and gold like some sort of Roman market are pretty slim. And if the world collapses in on itself, its probably more likely that a box of .22 or a package of AA batts will get me more merchandise than silver or gold.

On the other hand…. we have plenty of episodes in the last 100 years where a national currency became worthless and people who had silver and gold were able to get the things they need.

Somewhere between “Current standard of living” and “Mad Max” is where the metals will be handy, in my opinion. Today, you can walk into a 7-11 and Apu might not take silver for a pack of Marlboros, and when the bombs fall and we’re all eating our children it is also likely that silver and gold won’t be very valued. But there’s that in-between….that point where the currency still has some worth but is rapidly becoming worthless, and there is the opportunity to purchase needed items. Thats the sweet spot, I think, for the use of metals.

There’s always the wag who thinks he’s being clever and original with some pithy line abou t how ‘if you can’t eat it it, shoot it, or live in it, it’s worthless’. And yet….he’s at the Kroger paying for his groceries with greenbacks that he can’t eat, shoot, or live in. Hmmm.

Now, I’m not saying that after the end of the world we’ll all be trading silver and gold for our transactions. I’m saying that its during the ride to the end of the world where the metals will have the most utility.

And…for some reason I cannot precisely express… I just feel better having some shiny metal on hand.  So…a little more silver in the safe.

 

Article – The grandmaster diet: How to lose weight while barely moving

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I am in no way a sports guy, so for me to link to an article from ESPN must be an indication that there is something interesting going o. And, indeed, there is…

At 5-foot-6, Caruana has a lean frame, his legs angular and toned. He also has a packed schedule for the day: a 5-mile run, an hour of tennis, half an hour of basketball and at least an hour of swimming.

As he’s jogging, it’s easy to mistake him for a soccer player. But he is not. This body he has put together is not an accident. Caruana is, in fact, an American grandmaster in chess, the No. 2 player in the world. His training partner, Chirila? A Romanian grandmaster. And they’re doing it all to prepare for the physical demands of … chess? Yes, chess.

The TL;DR version is this: even though chess is the least apparently physically taxing sport since competitive napping, the studies show that the stress, mental load, and related stresses cause your body to lose weight the same as if you were engaged in heavy sports.

What this means for survivalists is that the people who stress about long-term food being loaded with fat, salt, and calories that you don’t need when all you’re doing is sitting in a fallout shelter waiting for the rads to go down are missing a point. And in a crisis, the severe stress and mental taxation that you will be subject to will take a toll on yourbody even if you’re just sitting around a battery radio in the dark as the city crumbles around you.

Read the article and substitute ‘chess’ for ‘disasters’ and you’ll see how this affects you and I.

Grandmasterssurvivalists in competitiondisasters are subjected to a constant torrent of mental stress. That stress, in turn, causes their heart rates to increase, which, in turn, forces their bodies to produce more energy to, in turn, produce more oxygen. It is, according to Marcus Raichle, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis, and Philip Cryer, a metabolism expert at the school, a vicious, destructive cycle.

Meanwhile, playerssurvivalists also eat less during tournamentsdisasters , simply because they don’t have the time or the appetite. “The simple explanation is when they’re thinking about chess disasters, they’re not thinking about food,” says Ewan C. McNay, assistant professor of psychology in the behavioral neuroscience program at the University of Albany.

Stress also leads to altered — and disturbed — sleep patterns, which in turn cause more fatigue — and can lead to more weight loss. A brain operating on less sleep, even by just one hour, Kasimdzhanov notes, requires more energy to stay awake during the chess game. Some grandmasterssurvivalists report dreaming about chessdisasters, agonizing over what they could have done differently for hours in their sleep, and waking up exhausted.

Sound familiar?

Continue reading the article and read what these people do to maintain mental acuity under these conditions of heightened stress. Big exam coming up? Strategy session with your department chairs? Making long-range plans for your familys survival? You’ll need your brain in peak performance so you might want to read what these guys do to their diets, exercise patterns, the way they breathe, and even the way they sit in order to maximize brainpower for “the ultimate test of cerebral fitness.”

I’ve noticed that when I need stone-cold clear-headed maximum-brainpower I get best results if I exercise to get the blood flowing and don’t eat for several hours beforehand. The ability to think clearly and efficiently is probably the most useful talent for someone who plans on making their way through the crapstorm that life tends to hurl at us once in a while. Optimizing your body to allow you to ‘think better’ may be one of the better tricks you can have up your sleeve.

Link – Study Finds Rise In ‘Doomsday Prepping’ Due To Mainstream American ‘Culture Of Fear’

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CANTERBURY, England — “Doomsday prepping” or stockpiling food, medicine, weapons and other supplies in case of an apocalyptic scenario has long been considered peculiar behavior only exhibited by conspiracy theorists and other extremists in the United States. However, such prepping has actually been steadily on the rise in the U.S. over the past decade. So, what’s causing this surge in stockpiled rice packets and underground bunkers? One group of researchers say it is an ever growing sense of impending doom in American culture.

First of all, England is a nation of cucks who have gone from ruling an empire that was 1/4 of the planet to ruling an island the size of Michigan. Their opinions on anything ‘Murican really don’t matter. But….

I am flummoxed when some self-righteous moron, when told of someone stockpiling food or somesuch, loudly proclaims “I won’t live my life in fear!” Clearly, they don’t realize how stupid that sentence is. Let’s examine it:

  • They have homeowners insurance because they are scared of their house burning down
  • They have auto insurance because they are scared of being in an accident
  • They have health insurance because they are scared of getting sick
  • They have life insurance because they are scared of dying
  • They have retirement plans because they are scared of being old and poor
  • They have pepper spray on their keychain because they are scared of being mugged

So, really, they are already living a life of fear. However, if you point that out to them they will declare “That’s not living in fear! Thats taking reasonable precautions! Thats just commonsense!”

And they will never realize the irony of that statement.

So, you and I, in our food-laden, heavily-armed, well-fueled, economically-prepared homes are always going to be seen as the wierdos…right up until the quake happens, the riots start, the tornadoes hit, or the economy splatters…..then we’re going to be everyone’s brand-new best friend. (And, holy crap, are the unprepared in for a surprise when it turns out that the people they pointed at and made fun of turn out to not be terribly enthused about sharing their food and have the resources to make that “No” stick.)

Preparedness is not a uniquely American thing…to Europeans I’m sure it looks that way because preparedness is about the individual taking responsibility for themselves. And in pretty much every country that sort of individualistic character trait has been stamped out in favor of various forms of IngSoc-style thinking. But the desire to trake care of ones self and ones own is a rather universal trait, it’s just that we Americans aren’t terribly embarrassed about it and don’t really feel the need to apologize for it. At least, I don’t.

 

Commander Zero’s 4S Motivational Process

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Im taking a course about Management & Organization Behaviour. One of the assignments was about how to motivate employees. (My preferred method, “Do your work or go find a job elsewhere” is apparently not the best method.) There was some interesting stuff about when incentives work and when they don’t, that sort of thing. But then there was the question: “List five forces that have motivated you to attain goals (both simple and complex) in your life:”

This was interesting to think about because my motivational imperative has always been my own self-interest. After all, isn’t it reasonable to expect people to put their own self-interest at the top of the list? In fact, I would think that anyone who doesn’t operate out of a sense of self-interest is acting irrationally. Of course, then we have to figure out exactly what we mean by ‘self-interest’.

But the question asked for five forces. Self-interest is just one. So I gave it some thought and realized that as a survivalist, my actions and behaviours follow a pretty simple rubric. I’ll share it with you, not because I think you should adopt it or that its groundbreaking, but rather because perhaps you should think about the framework that you use for your motivations when it comes to preparedness.

Although the question asked for five, I could only come up with four. But, to me, and for me, these four give me a pretty good foundation for how to move forward:

  • Self interest – does this benefit me? Or does it at least not hurt me? Does this improve my situation?
  • Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in?
  •  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? Physically?
  •  Satisfaction – will I regret this? Does it please me to do this?

Example: I really want a Barret 82A1. And, technically, I can open a new browser window, visit my vendor (who has the things on sale right now, dang it), hit a few keys, and have one here Friday. Should I do it?

  • Self interest – does this benefit me? (Yes, it gives me massive firepower) Or does it at least not hurt me? (Uhm..that might hurt my wallet) Does this improve my situation? (Yes. It gives me a lovely antimateriel/vehicle/Bigfoot capacity)
  • Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in? (It provides an additional level of protection from ranged threats or lightly amored ones, thereby making my environment safer)
  •  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? (Absolutely. There are a dozen better things to do with eight grand right now) Physically?
  •  Satisfaction – will I regret this? (Probably.) Does it please me to do this? (yes)

There are too many answers there that should not be there. So, no, at this moment getting the 82A1 is a bad idea, according to the forces that motivate me. Let’s try a positive:

Should I switch my car insurance:

  • Self interest – does this benefit me? (Yes. Saves me money.) Or does it at least not hurt me? (Yes, does not hurt me) Does this improve my situation? (Yes. I keep coverage and have more money)
  • Security – does this keep me from needing the help of others? (Yes, it transfers risk to someone else) Does this provide a stable platform or environment for me to operate in? (Yes, I can operate my vehicle without constraint)
  •  Safety – will this hurt me emotionally? Financially? (No, it benefits me, actually) Physically?
  •  Satisfaction – will I regret this? (No, I’ll be gad I did it when I shave a couple hundred bucks a year off my bill) Does it please me to do this? (It pleases me to get the same coverage for less)

So, in this case, my little Magic 8 Ball of motivators says “Yes, do it”. Note that this is a decision-making framework as well as a motivational one. In other words, I use this to help me make a choice (Do I or don’t I), but also to make me do something.

All the answers don’t have to be in agreement. Should I take a crappy job after ten months of unemployment? The satisfaction answer would be ‘no’… I would not be pleased. BUT, all the other answers suggest its a good idea. So you don’t have to be ‘in agreement’ on everything, you just need to be aware of the different factors. And you may weigh some more than others. I weigh being pleased far below being safe financially. YMMV.

None of this is groundbreaking self-awareness. In fact, this is basically just ‘sleeping on it’ when it comes to making an important decision. But by having some guidelines to work against you can compare apples-to-apples when it comes to weighing whether a course of action is better/worse than another. And when it comes to preparedness, there’s a lot of decisions to be made.

Again, Im not saying you should copy my list or anything. I’m just suggesting that you think about what it is that makes you do the things that you do…what are the factors that you take into account when deciding whether or not to drop $1500 on an optic, or talk to a coworker about preparedness, or pack it up and move to the hills.

As I said, my own self-interest is the main thing for me, and when expanded it includes those other three S’s – Safety, Security, Satisfaction. Heck, let’s just call it Commander Zero’s 4S Motivational Process. But thats pretty much it….my motivational imperatives.

 

 

Coarse and fine tuning

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You ever look at a high-end ham radio or similar product and they have a ‘tuning’ control and then a ‘fine tuning’ control? The notion being that you make coarse adjustments until youre ‘close’ and then you use the fine-tuning control to really dial it in.

Thats how preparedness seems to go. You do the coarse adjustments (basic supply of food) and then you do the fine tuning (specific food items or quantities).

It seems I’ve pretty much covered the main items and now its time to just fine tune them a bit. An example would be, say, your basic first aid kit. You bought some ready-made kit, tossed it in the cabinet, and crossed it off your list. Now you fine tune it…you replace certain components with better ones, or more of them. You add things that weren’t included. You store it in a better, more protective container. That sort of thing.

I suppose it is basically just upgrading or updating everything I already have to reflect new technologies, new threats, or new attitudes on what constitutes ‘being prepared for XXXXX”. For example, if your preps were predicated on a crippling power outage and you lived in Alaska and since then you’ve moved to Florida…well, you might want to update a few things.

A six-month supply of (very) basic foodstuffs from the local LDS cannery is the coarse adjustment, supplementing it with the Mountain House or long-term canned food is the fine tuning. Three months of living expenses tucked away is the coarse adjustment, gradually bumping it up to six months (or more) is the fine tuning. Getting an EU2000 is the coarse adjustment, getting the tri-fuel conversion and a 500 gallon propane tank is the fine tuning.

Covering your bases with the basic is the coarse, upgrading it and tweaking it out at a later time is the fine tuning.

Of course, some people just skip the ‘close enough’ and jump straight to ‘perfect’. Usually the limiting factor on that is money. But, if you’ve got it, why wouldn’t you just jump straight to ‘exactly what I need’ rather than ‘this will do for now until I can improve it later’.

Although, come to think of it, I think ‘perfect’ is alwys going to be just an unobtainable goal…like the speed of light. You can get 99.9999999% of the way there but you’ll never get to 100%. But, I’ll take 99% over the 0% that most of the sheep out there are sitting at.

 

Keeping things in perspective

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It’s difficult to not repeat yourself when you’ve been blogging on a fairly narrow topic for over fifteen years. But, I have to remember that not everyone has been here since Day One. Thus, something I may have said ten years ago might seem like a new idea to someone who has only been following along for two years.

Case in point: I’m sure the longtime readers recall me saying, on more than one occasion, that I believe one of the signs you’ve matured as a survivalist is when you start getting as enthused, and spend as much money and effort, on food storage as you did on guns.

Guns are, after all, the sexy part of survivalism. They are also, probably, the least used prep that any of us have. We’ll wind up using a good chunk of stored fuel, medical gear, food, batteries, and toilet paper before we even make a dent in the M855 sitting in the barn. But..when someone gets ‘into’ preparedness the guns are usually the first thing they get worked up and excited by.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. But go ask a cop which one he uses more..his gun or his pen. If there’s anyone who went through Hurricane Katrina and used more than 20 rounds on shooting at people, I’d be surprised.But, we tend to focus on the gun stuff because its fun.

When someone tells me that they’re interested in ‘being prepared’ or ‘having some things just in case’, almost always the first thing I bring up is food. Sometimes money, but more often than not its food. Then fuel. Communications. Consumables. And eventually we get around to the gun stuff.

Is this to say the gun stuff isn’t important? No, of course not…when you’ve taken the time and expense to lay away thousands of dollars worth of supplies that may literally be all that is standing between you and a very unpleasant future it is natural that other people are going to want those supplies. And, sometimes, their level of insistence cannot be dissuaded by anything less than a pistol or rifle. But look at all the disasters and emergencies you’ve had in your life thus far…I’d bet that the overwhelming majority were ones that were remedied with greenbacks rather than green tip. Unemployment, transmission failures, broken water heaters, medical emergencies, etc, etc… all things that, broadly, were remedied with things other than a case of Wolf.

I mention this because I think its worth repeating… the big End Of The World will happen sooner or later, but not before a boatload of smaller, personal End Of The World happens to you. Put away the AR’s and Glocks, but expect to use all the other preps, esp. money, long before the AR’s and Glocks become needed.

 

Garbage

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Something that I thought I’d mention in case anyone ever has the same situation….

So, a few posts back, you saw that I picked up a new Ruger rifle, yes? Big rifle comes with a big box. With big lettering that says “RUGER” running across it. Now, I am not one of those guys that saves the boxes that guns come in with the idea that twenty years from now I will have saved the box, it will be in immaculate condition, and it’ll add 20% to the resale of the gun. Why? Because when you get into as many guns as I have, if I saved all the boxes I would literally need a shipping container to store them all. Plus, Im not much for reselling a gun once I take it into my collection.

So..what to do with thebox. Well, it sure as heck isn’t going out in the alleyway to await the garbage collection. Why? Because doing so announces to the world that there’s a guy in that house right there who has a nice shiny new expensive rifle. Who wants that kinda info sitting out there for the homeless dumpster diving wretches to discover? Next thing I know some tweaker is staking out my house waiting for me to leave on a shopping trip or something so he can kick in the door and hope to snatch whatever rifle that cardboard box housed.

So. No. The box goes elsewhere. Where? Well, logically you might just kick the can down the road and leave it in your neighbors garbage a block away. Two problems with that – first, it just transfers the same risk to my neighbors which isn’t really a nice thing to do even though they are complete strangers to me, andsecondly putting your garbage in someone elses garbage collection is a pretty sleazy thing to do, as well as being a theft-of-services kinda thing.

So..where does it go? Easy…just about any gun store will either take the box for themselves for use in shipping, or if you ask nice they’ll let you toss it in their dumpster once you explain why you don’t want it at your own garbage collection point.

Paranoid? No, I don’t think so. I do the same for any high-end item…computer, television, etc. Why let the dumpster divers know that there’s cool goodies at this address just waiting for them?

Alternatively, I could chop up the box into small pieces and mix it in with my usual garbage but thats too much like work. The point here, though, is that this is just another angle of PerSec that might not seem obvious to most people. but..there it is.