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Monday November 17 2008

Letter Re: Seeking Advice on Rainwater Catchment and Filtration

Mr. Rawles:
When constructing a rain-catch such as this one, which the good folks at Lowe's [--a major hardware store chain in the US--] suggest for economically watering your garden, is there any instance where it would be okay to use this as a backup for drinking water?

Obviously, one would be foolish to drink directly from containers that are not food-grade or if the water has been sitting for too long a time. But, my question is does that change if you plan on running the water through a purifying process such as through a Berky or this economically priced alternative.

It looks like these filters might not last as long as the Berky filters, but are quite a bit cheaper and have a higher flow rate (this is what I was told - YMMV). A representative of the manufacturer claims to train the "second largest disaster relief organization in the world" who "use this filter exclusively" and that it is used by missionaries in 38 countries around the globe. I was also told that it was nominated for a World Health Humanitarian Award for 2008. Also, it supposedly outperformed the Berky in a trial run by Johns Hopkins University, but I have been unable to verify that claim. I can verify that Johns Hopkins University did give it a passing grade; as did the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) under Standards 42 and 53, AEL Laboratories, Analytical Food Laboratories, British 5750 Quality Standard, and England’s Water Research Council standard.

So, my two questions are:

1.) Is it safe to drink rainwater caught in a non food-grade vessel, provided you filter it through a sub-micron apparatus first?

2.) What are your thoughts on the aforementioned filter? Thanks, - J.S.C.

JWR Replies: In answer to your questions: Rainwater catchment for domestic water is very popular in Hawaii. There, most families do little more than use a sediment filter and bulk chlorination. You should of course never re-use something like a fuel tank or a toxic chemical tank for a water barrel. As I explained previously in SurvivalBlog, the issue with "non-food grade" HDPE plastic buckets and barrels is that some of them are manufactured using toxic injection molding release compounds. Whether or not a ceramic water filter would remove any such trace chemicals goes beyond my expertise. Perhaps a chemist or a water quality specialist amongst the SurvivalBlog readership could enlighten us.

We have a Big Berky here at the ranch, and love it. The two-bucket ceramic filter that you mentioned is remarkably similar to the improvised Berky clone that I detailed in a SurvivalBlog post back in May. Both their design and mine have similar cost, similar do-it-yourself labor requirements, and they will process a comparable volume of water. This isn't like comparing "apples to oranges". It is more like comparing Bartlett Pears to D'Anjou Pears.

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Saturday November 8 2008

Letter Re: A Suggested Checklist for Preparedness Newbies

Here's a beginner's list I made for my [elderly] father today:

Food
{Brown pearl] rice does not store well. Neither does cooking oil so that needs to be fresh. No, Crisco doesn't count.
Coconut oil would be your best bet.
Wheat berries - 400 pounds - bulk order at your local health food store
Beans - 400 pounds - bulk order at your local health food store
Mylar bags
Spices
Salt
Country Living grain mill
propane tanks, small stove and hoses to connect
freeze dried fruits, vegetables, eggs and meat if you can find them.
Water
500 gallons of water [storage capacity. Rainwater catchment is a common practice in Hawaii]
Water filter

Cooking
Cast Iron Cookware

Firearms
FN PS 90

10 PS 90 magazines

5.7 handgun

10 FN 5.7 handgun magazines

5.7 ammo

Training: Front Sight four day defensive handgun course. (Note: eBay sometimes has course certificates for $100!)

Body armor: Nick at BulletProofME.com

Medical
Personal medications
Augmentin antibiotic
Up to date dental work
Painkillers
Bandages
Iodine
Anti-fungal spray

Finances
$10,000 cash in small bills
100 one-ounce silver coins (GoldDealer.com or Tulving.com)

Transport
Gasoline in 5 gallon cans or better yet, this.
Gas stabilizer
Mountain bikes
Air pump

Miscellany
Flashlights
Rechargeable Batteries
Battery charger
Hand held walkie talkies
Topographical map of your area
Spare eyeglasses
Shortwave radio
Home generated power
12 volt battery system
Good backpack
Good knife
Good compass
Good shoes
Bar soap
Toothbrushes
Dental floss
Toilet paper
Fishing kit
Salt licks
Connibear traps


Regards, - SF in Hawaii

JWR Adds: The following is based on the assumption that SF's father also lives in Hawaii: Because of the 10 round magazine limit for handguns, I recommend that Hawaiians purchase only large bore handguns for self defense--such as .45 ACP. Both the Springfield Armory XD .45 Compact or the Glock Model 30 would both be good choices. The "high capacity" advantage of smaller caliber handguns is not available to civilians in Hawaii, so you might as well get a more potent man stopper, given the arbitrary 10 round limitation.

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Wednesday November 5 2008

Letter Re: Mexico as a Retreat Locale and Advice on Water Filters

Hello Folks,
I just completed going through a portion of the SurvivalBlog archives and look forward to exploring the site further. I especially liked the animation about Libertarian philosophy. Very well done with excellent points to consider.

I have recently returned to the US after having spent four years in a small village in Mexico outside of Guadalajara. I am an artist and teacher of art and semi-retied there after having had my medical insurance increased a number of times to the point of being ridiculous. I just got fed up and moved south. Two years earlier I had spent a year or so living on a boat in the Sea of Cortez and so had some language and culture skills.

I had one of the Berky models sent to Mexico and proceeded to use it as my primary source of drinking and cooking water. I also used the 24 oz. portable version when traveling. I used the system for four years and was so confident that I began distributing them to local orphanages through a local Rotary Club. I liked the idea of not being dependant on electricity or a plumbing hookup. I lived on a lake and on occasion would use lake water if the municipal system was not providing water, which was quite often or if the utilities would not provide electricity, which was quite often. Although the Black Berky filter is classified as a water purifier by the manufacturer, it does not remove viruses. I would add either iodine or chlorine to the water to kill viruses. The filter would then remove the iodine or chlorine from the water.

I read an article in your blog about adaptation as a primary means of coping with changing circumstance. Mexicans are extraordinarily adaptive. Living with a history of political and societal instability for generations and with strong roots in indigenous cultures, they are experts at finding ways at making one thing substitute for another. I remember one time coming back to San Diego by sea from the Sea of Cortez, I was running low on fuel and had to stop in Turtle Bay about half way up the west side of the Baja Peninsula. I didn't have enough cash and Turtle Bay was way way off the beaten path. I had to hitchhike 125 miles through the baja desert on a seldom used road to get to a bank to get the cash. One the way back I hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck traveling with an old semi carrying supplies. The semi got stuck in a place where the road turned into a salt flat and while stuck, one of the tires went flat. We discovered the only spare was also flat and un inflatable. If you've ever tried to re-inflate a semi truck tire you know that it is not easy without a means of keeping the tire against the rim. We had nothing with which to do that. Instead, the Mexican driver had his compadre get some gas while he got the tire off the truck, patched and ready. He had the compressor hooked up and running and had his partner sprinkle gas on the inside of the tire and throw in a match. The tire blew up with a whoosh, sealed the rubber against the rim and the inflation began. All we had to do then was get unstuck--which is another story.

My ancestors on my mothers side were Mennonites and I have spent some time on the colonies. Surviving since the 1500s in small groups throughout the world, they have devised a system of cooperation that leaves them able to adapt easily to the winds of change. I'm sure there is much that could be learned from them and look forward to spending more time on their farms. Last time I was there they were making home-made root beer that was like nothing I've ever tasted.

Well, anyway, congratulations on a great blog site and for all the valuable information. Best of everything to you both, - Daniel N.

JWR Replies: I highly recommend Big Berky water filter. They are just about idiot proof. However, as they come from the factory in gleaming stainless steel, they are fairly expensive. Especially for your circumstances, I recommend manufacturing your own to sell or to distribute for charitable purposes. I described how to do this in a SurvivalBlog post a few months ago.

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Sunday October 19 2008

Letter Re: 11th Hour Preparations: It is Not Too Late to Start

Jim:
It is not too late to prepare for the hard times that are coming. But time is short, so I am going to be brutally blunt. Prices are going up. If you don’t already expect double digit inflation, you haven’t been paying attention. If you are just realizing that you need to prepare for the future, forget buying barter goods. Forget precious metals to swap for what others may be willing to sell.

The idea of buying things so that you can swap them for other goods or services later is bad policy. That’s right. I’m advocating that you buy no precious metals and no barter goods. Instead- you need to prioritize purchases of things that you need right now. Sitting on a pile of sewing needles, can openers, or thousands of dollars of face value in gold or silver is not going to stop you from starving to death, freezing to death, or dying gasping in your own fluids.

This is not a slam on Mr. Rawles' excellent advice to invest in tangibles. It is not even a criticism of his recent post on barter items to acquire, or of his advice to invest in precious metals. JWR is a voice of reason in a world gone mad. This letter is a reminder that all those things are good advice only after you have squared away your personal needs. Only after you have duplicate sources of potable water, shelter, a substantial food supply, a deep medicine chest, and ample supplies of sturdy clothing and footwear should you invest in barter goods or precious metals.

Here are your priorities:

You need breathable air to live. Most of us expect that to be available for free. Your next priority for sustaining life is shelter from extreme elements (your home and a way to heat it during winter), then potable water. Let me make this explicitly clear. Unless you have clean water to drink, you will die in a matter of days. It is not the government’s job to make sure that you stay alive. It is your responsibility to care for yourself and your dependants. You are responsible to ensure that you have access to clean drinking water or a method to filter, boil, or collect it. If you have no method to do so, go get one. At the very least, plan on a way to boil water over an outside fire.

After air, shelter, and water – you need food. Come what may, you and those who you love will need to eat. Buy food. The cheapest food that you can get will keep you alive, but my advice is to buy extra of what you already eat. Oatmeal, grits, rice, pasta and potatoes are all relatively affordable and life sustaining. Potatoes will store for months. The others will store for years if properly packaged. Yes these alone would make a very bland diet. Use them to stretch your regular grocery meals while the other supplies last.

What next? Get over-the-counter medicines. Diarrhea will kill you. The stomach flu will kill you. Pneumonia will kill you. Allergic reactions will kill you. There may not be any 911 to send help. There may not be an emergency room to flee to as a last resort. There may not be a pharmacy with inventory to sell at 3 a.m.. Buy vital medicines now. Look in your medicine cabinet. If you do not have the medicines to treat an allergic reaction, stomach flu, and a chest cold; go buy them today. $10 spent on medicine could save your child’s life. It won’t if you can’t give it to them. Go buy it before you go to sleep tonight.

If you can avoid getting sick that’s even better than treating illness. Hygiene is critical to health. Buy toilet paper and tissues. You will need them, why don’t you already have them?

You should have sturdy warm clothes and footwear for each member of your family.

And yes, you should also have a means of defense and forage. A simple shotgun and shells for it will let you defend your doorway and harvest birds and bunnies if need be. If you are contemplating buying your first firearm then I strongly recommend that you take an NRA-sponsored firearms safety course as soon as possible. Firearms are a vital tool, but whether you ever need to defend you home, you will need to drink, sleep in a dry place, eat, and stay healthy. God has given you the resources and wisdom to prepare, the rest is up to you. Now pray for wisdom and go take action. - Mr. Yankee.

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Thursday October 9 2008

Letter Re: Water Storage and Crash Course Advice

Jim,
First off let me say I continue to enjoy everything you post on SurvivalBlog. I believe that, given, recent events, my extended family is coming around and is wanting to finally start getting prepared (let us hope its not too late).

Second, in reference to the WaterBOB that someone cited recently: what preferred method of treatment do you recommend in storing the water in the mentioned device for long term?

Third, what 'crash course' advice can you offer for those who may be too little too late in getting prepared for WTSHTF? Or for those recently converted who want make it through the tough times ahead?

And lastly, I am sure myself and others will continue to look for your insight and input in the days ahead, as events unfold and the Schumer really does hit the fan.
Please expect a long and very overdue 10 Cent Challenge voluntary] soon. God Bless, - Zach

JWR Replies: The WaterBOB is not designed for long term use. But it is food grade, so if you find a used bathtub (perhaps through Craig's List) and can store it someplace dark (like in a basement), then a WaterBOB in a bathtub should work fine. About 2 teaspoons of plain (unscented) Clorox bleach would be about the right amount to add for that amount of water. Inspect it once every six months (visually, and a sniff test). The water should store for several years.

I may be biased, but I recommend that you get a copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course. Coincidentally, for the first time in nearly a year, it will be offered at 1/3rd off, starting on Monday. The course is centered around the concept of stocking up for a family, by making well-planned trips to a "Big Box" store.

« From FerFAL in Argentina: A US Crash that Will Parallel Argentina's? |Main| Notes from JWR: »

Wednesday October 1 2008

Letter Re: Some Practical Notes on Third World Living

Jim,
As this is not a competition entry, it has not been reviewed by an outside set of eyes yet, and I'm sure its kind of disorganized, but this is some info about third world life, as I can see it here, after things stabilize.

My wife is from Peru. She was born during the Peruvian hyperinflation and transition to its next fiat currency, the Nuevo Sol. (Yeah, we're young whippersnappers) She recently started to help out in getting ready. What helped her was comparing the current economic climate here to Peru. This allowed her to correlate things that occur in her former patria with our situation. She is a source of info on the Third world medium sized city way of life.

In Third world Peru, everyone cooks with propane camp stoves, with big seven gallon bottles. There is no space built for an American style range, even in nice houses. All water is boiled before ingestion, except [commercially] bottled water. Trucks come with semi-clean water and people line up to fill up their buckets for washing and drinking. (after boiling) Hopefully you have a big tank on your roof to gravity feed it through your pipes, as the power goes out regularly, and your personal well and pump wont work.

Everyone had bars on every window and door. Houses not made of cement block are broken into through the walls. They're also too cheap/poor to put enough steel in the buildings, so they fall down easily in earthquakes. Re-bar is [used] only in the corners. Nobody has an exposed to the street yard. A courtyard inside larger places is the norm, off street parking, if you can afford a vehicle, is a must, or you wont be parking anything soon. Inyokern told me this concept: When things go really sour, everyone steals everything so often that everyone ends up with the same trash that nobody wants to steal anymore. e.g. I have a nice bike, it gets stolen, I get a new bike but not as nice as the first, it gets stolen, I buy the worst looking bike I can find. It stays. This is very true. People with nice hats walk around with a hand on their head. Political corruption is the norm. Most any government official can be bought for a couple hundred nuevo sols. Farmers carry guns. People walk on your roof at night.

Just about everyone is self employed. Selling food in the streets, tricycle and moto-taxis, home based Liquor stores, etc. Often if you sell higher "dollar" stuff, your customers don't even come in your building, money and product are exchanged though the door bars. Keyed locks on both sides. There is no such thing as a big box store. Even disposable diapers are bought one at a time.
People wear sandals called yanki. These are said to be made out of used car tires, but most tires I know of are steel belted, and you can't cut that with a knife. My two pair are made from rubber mining belt I think, as the tread pattern is cut by hand. The poor wear them, and they supposedly last a loooooong time.

In Peru, the power goes out all the time. Candles are common. People don't stock up there, the stores I guess have sufficient on hand to handle the outages and subsequent candle runs. The stores here are obviously not prepared for that.

Traffic in her small town is nearly non existent, but traffic in Lima is suicidal. Regards, - Tantalum Tom

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From FerFAL in Argentina: A US Crash that Will Parallel Argentina's?

Hi James,

These are hard times, indeed.
The parallels between the days before our own economy [in Argentina] collapsed and what’s going on today in America today are very hard to ignore.
Our local television seems to be getting some kind of sick kick out of all this.
They showing the comparisons, even editing politicians and economists speeches showing how similar they were to the ones the American politicians and economists are using right now. In some cases, they even said the exact same line, the only difference being the language.
About the article “Letter Re: What Are the Economic Collapse Indicators to Watch For?” I’d like to make a few comments.
Some of the signs we could actually verify during our own 2001 crisis;
*Limits to withdraw amounts per day. This happened just one or two days before banks actually closed.
*Sudden inflation. A few weeks before, but careful, it only turned into hyper after banks closed.
*Rumors of default. Those had been going on for a while and that’s when we slowly started investing elsewhere and slowly moving the money out of the accounts.
*Limits to moving fund out of the country
*Limits to the transactions. At the end you could just withdraw like $250 per week, if you found an ATM with money. Otherwise you had to suffer the terrible lines at he bank.
It’s just impossible to know exactly when it will hit, when banks will say bye bye, but careful, timing is everything.
In my case, we had dropped by the French Bank and asked for $2,000 USD.
The employee talked to the manager and the manager came to us looking nervous and said they didn’t have that kind of money right now, to come back tomorrow.
“Wait a minute.. you’re telling me you don’t have 2,000 lousy dollars, in the entire bank?”
”No.”
That same day we went down town to other banks, closed the couple accounts left and one or two days later the crash hit and banks closed their doors.
Just a few days later, my wife’s father lost a 6 digit figure, their fallback life savings.
He was an elderly man, but the bank didn’t care at all of course. He died without seeing that money returned to him.
Do not expect any kind of mercy or sympathy from banks. You wont be getting any.
People needing medical treatment have died in this country before court orders came out demanding the bank to give the money to the person because of life or death situations.
Some people have died of heart attacks at the bank’s closed doors, hitting them with pans and fists.
Not trying to be dramatic here, but it did happen that way, and it’s important for people to understand how serious this is.
I know a run in the banks is something you’d like to avoid. But remember, that money is yours, and banks won't be giving it back to you if they close, you’ll loose a rather big percentage, and if the economy goes down, it will only be returned to you after months, even years.
Maybe it would be a good idea to take another look at the Wikipedia page that summarizes our 2001 economic crisis.

People should try to remain clam, but take the necessary precautions given the circumstances.
Take care James. God bless you and all the readers, grant them the peace of mind needed in these trying times. - FerFAL

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Tuesday September 30 2008

Letter Re: Recommendation for Water BOB Bathtub Water Storage Bladder

Dear Mr. Rawles,
All the stories recently about power failure and storing water in bathtubs have encouraged me to write to you about the WaterBOB. It's a heavy duty plastic bladder that you put in your bathtub and then fill with clean water from the tap. It comes with a siphon so that removing the water is easy. IMO, The greatest advantage of this product is that the water remains potable, even though a bathtub is generally not suitable for storing drinking water. The WaterBOB holds 100 gallons.

Prices have increased substantially since I first bought mine a year or so ago, but if purchased in quantities of 20+, the price drops significantly and shipping is minimal. A group could order together, or someone might want extras for gifts.

I recently ordered a quantity shipment for family birthdays, Christmas gifts, some upcoming anniversaries, and wedding/housewarming gifts. It's a pretty sure thing that most folks don't already have one!

Thanks so much for all you do. And our prayers continue for your Memsahib's complete recovery. Sincerely, - SaddleTramp

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Saturday September 27 2008

Letter Re: Questions on Short Term Survival in and Urban Office Building

Dear Mr. Rawles,
First off, I just want to say that I really appreciate what you're doing with your blog site. I've learned so many useful things and feel that I am beginning to have a basic understanding of how to prepare for and live in and a survival situation.

Second, I'd like to give you a quick bit of background about myself so you can hopefully help me with my dilemma/question...

I am a young adult working on the 9th floor of a large building in Manhattan [on Long Island, New York City, New York]. I do not own a car and so I use public transportation, typically the subway. My apartment is about a 30 minute walk from work. In my apt I have started building up my survival gear, food, Bug Out Bag, etc...But I realize that I spend most of my days not in my apt but in my office, working. So I've decided to start planning my office survival gear because if Manhattan was ever attacked with some form of nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, and I'm still alive, I don't believe there would be time for me to get back to my apt before being affected (as subways, buses, and foot traffic will be clogged and slow). I figure my best bet for survival would be to hunker down for the first 48-to-72 hours in my building probably the library.

What are your thoughts/advice on staying in the building??
Also what kind of survival gear can I bring to work that would be discreet but really help me in my first 48 hours of survival?

This is what I have so far, which my employer has provided in a fanny pack for everyone:

[Mylar] bags of water. (We also have water coolers)
flashlight and batteries
goggles
emergency blanket
small first aid kit
mask
whistle

Any advice would be appreciated and thank you for your time. Regards, - Flora in New York City

 

JWR Replies: Hunkering down in an urban environment can be difficult. We've addressed that before in SurvivalBlog.

Your office or cubicle probably has a locking desk, file cabinet, and/or a credenza. Typically, with the high turn-over rate in most corporations, keys for furniture gets lost. Ask your facilities department to either re-key your locks, or have them cut new keys for them, based of their manufacturer's code numbers. (Typically stamped in small digits next to the lock key way.) With this semi-secure storage space available, there is no reason why you cannot gradually build up a substantial supply of food, and have a place store items such as a flashlight, sleeping bag, foam mattress pad, and so forth. Even the interior of modular cubicle walls have a remarkable amount of space for items up to two inches thick. (One advantage of being an over-worked technical writer for many years was that it gave me a lot of late night hours to explore such possibilities. You would not believe what I stored inside my cubicle walls!)

Keep in mind that in a blackout, your building will be quite cold, at least for half of each year So be sure to store an insulated pad, down jacket, a pile cap, and gloves in your office.

Buy a USGI protective mask (preferably an M40 or a recent USAF MCU series) and at least four spare filter canisters, from a reliable vendor such as JRH Enterprises. Since these only filter the available air, they are not nearly as capable as a compressed air system like firefighters typically use. The latter will operate even in oxygen-deprived environments, but a mask will at least increase your chance of getting out of a high-rise building alive, in the event of a fire. One trick, BTW, is attaching two filters simultaneously (on both sides of the mask), to increase the available air flow during heavy exertion.

Find out where any extra bottled water for your building is stored. There, or near there, is the logical place to find your "hunker down" room.

Scout out your building thoroughly. It might be worthwhile getting to know someone on your building Facilities Department staff. Buy him lunch, and have a chat. Find out where the roof accesses are, and if they are kept locked. See if there are any back rooms, machinery rooms, or passageways that are not well known. These rooms are often kept locked. One little-known method if gaining access to such spaces is to climb up through a suspended (or "drop") acoustic panel ceiling, go over a partition, and climb back down into the locked room. You might even keep a small folding ladder such as a QuikStep ladder handy for just this purpose. (Tres Batman.) For some ideas on discovering unused spaces in buildings, see the Web Urbanist site, and related "urban exploration" web sites and their forums. (Of course, all the usual legal disclaimers apply.)

Weapons that are legal to possess in New York City have been discussed previously in SurvivalBlog. If nothing else, you should keep a cane or stout full-size umbrella in your office at all times. BTW, it is also wise to carry either of these whenever you are on city sidewalks or on the subway. They will look quite innocuous, but with the right training will give you a great advantage in a brute force fighting situation. For training, start with the Gordon Oster DVD, and the book "Raising Cane" by Octavio Ramos. Then take a FMA cane fighting class. Those would all be money well spent!

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Friday September 26 2008

Letter Re: Advice for an Unprepared Greenhorn

Hello Mr. Rawles!
I love your blog, and visit at least weekly, more often daily.
The current economic situation is sickening. I mean, actually making my stomach hurt, as I am not prepared. I just recently was hit on the head with the motivation to get prepared. The only problem with that is that I don't even know where to start. Food? Weapons and Ammunition? Medical supplies? I am the patriarch of a family of 4. My wife and I, and our two children, both 10 and under. What I could use your advice on is just what I mentioned before, where does someone like me start. We have very little money, we live in the city, and we have no supplies except a Remington 870 Express [12 gauge shotgun] with a couple boxes of ammunition and food from the grocery store for a couple weeks and our camping supplies which amount to a couple days in the woods. I'm extremely worried that I simply won't be able to help my family survive the coming collapse. I want to be prepared, and I'm motivated.
Thank you for any time you could donate with your advice! - MWS

JWR Replies: Start out by getting a good quality water filter such as the Katadyn VARIO currently on sale at Ready Made Resources and stocking up on canned foods.
If you don't yet already have one, buy a spare riot "Police" length 20" barrel with rifle-type iron sights for your Model 870, with "IC" (improved cylinder) choke, or better yet the "Rem Choke" removable choke tubes. These barrels are available with a durable finish to match your "Express" variant.

Buy at least 200 rounds of #4 buckshot, 25 rounds (five boxes of 5) of rifled slugs, and when you can budget for it, a case of #6 birdshot shells for bird hunting and small game hunting

Since your resources are limited, your greatest opportunity to increase your chances of survival will be teaming up with like-minded folks in your area. For some suggestions, see my static page on Finding Like-Minded People in Your Area.

Be sure to take advantage of low cost training through the American Red Cross, the Appleseed Program, and the WRSA.

Pray hard, study hard, and train hard.

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Wednesday September 24 2008

Letter Re: My Hurricane Ike Experience

Dear Mr. Rawles,
First of all, my heart goes out to all those who truly suffered with loss of life or property as a result of Hurricane Ike. I only had the minor inconvenience of being without electricity in Houston for five days. (There are still over one million in Houston and the surrounding area without power.) So I had a taste of what it is like to be off-grid and learned a few things to share with your readers. It seems a lot of people here had generators which burn lots of precious gasoline. But after a few days the gasoline runs out. We toughed it out. I did have small camping-type battery powered fans and several flashlights but can't imagine what we'd do in a situation without power for the long term. You can have only so many batteries and then what? We had water drawn in bath tub to use for flushing toilet, as water plants use electricity to pump water. Also had many frozen plastic milk jugs in freezer and big igloo to keep some things cold for a couple of days. Ice was very hard to come by. Grocery stores were closed for a couple of days and there were lines just to get into the stores when they did open. They let in a few people at a time for crowd control. I was lucky to have my nonperishable food stockpile. Remember to have extras for relatives. Gas stations were slow to reopen and had hours to wait when they did open. (Many buying gas for their generators). We had full tanks in advance of the storm. One important item we used was the car charger for the cell phone. Be sure to have one that fits your current phone model. Also, many don't realize that cordless land line phones use electricity so you need to have a standard corded phone (which I had) if you want to even find out if your land-line works. To heat water for coffee we used sterno called Canned Heat and it worked very well. I know this is merely a temporary solution to heating. I told my husband recently that I wanted to buy a camp stove and now he may agree with me. And of course no television or computer which is really tough. I used my television band radio a lot to get information.

I am now more afraid than ever of what it is going to be like if the power goes off frequently or stays off in a worse-case scenario. Luckily I didn't see civil unrest, but what if power stayed off longer? If there was any way, I would move out of the city. Since I can't leave, I will continue to prepare the best I can. Please continue to remember the trapped-in-the-city dwellers when you post ideas for survival. I think we need the most help. Thanks for all you do, - Nancy B.

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Monday September 22 2008

Letter Re: An Expedient Toilet Flushing Method for Grid-Down Situations

Salutations,
[In a recent letter to SurvivalBlog,] Jeff in Ohio mentioned filling the toilet tank with water in order to flush it, however, this is not necessary. You can flush by pouring about a gallon directly into the bowl. (Don't dribble it in, but also don't get carried away and slosh it in at once . . . unless you really want to use more water to mop the floor.) I learned this from my military service in Okinawa in the late 70s where we had water rationing with running water only every other day. On water days we filled 55-gallon drums with water and then used one-gallon coffee cans to flush the rest of the time. (If you live in an area that tends to lose power, you do fill your bathtubs with water prior to storm onsets, right?)

Give it a try today, for the sake of familiarity. There's nothing like indoor plumbing, until you lose it. - Home's Cool Mom

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Saturday September 20 2008

Three Letters Re: Tropical Storm Ike's Devastation Works its Way North to Ohio

Hello Jim,
This note is in reference to the letter from Melanie and Rick in Columbus about the woman who never thought of using the grill to cook. I had a similar experience with my mother-in-law. While we had power and water, she had lost hers. I offered to bring buckets of water to her house so she could manually refill the toilet tank to flush with(she has septic).
Not only did she not think of that, she couldn't understand the concept. She ended up going to a hotel for a couple of days. People like this will not last long in a prolonged crisis. Just goes to show the most critical piece of gear is your brain and knowledge. Take care, - Jeff in Ohio

Hi Jim,
I just finished reading Melanie and Rick's letter and what they faced during their 'hurricane' event in Columbus. The conditions they experienced sound very similar to what I related to you was occurring in Cincinnati a few days ago. I just wanted to make a few comments regarding the need for self-defense and owning a gun to do so. Rick was concerned about someone who was driving by coming back to 'liberate' his generator. That would concern me too, so here are a couple of my thoughts on the situation. First, it is a good idea to conceal the fact that you have power when the rest of your neighbors don't and it's pretty obvious at night. So close the blinds, black out the windows and do what you can to conceal the fact that you have power. Second, do what you can to muffle the sound of your generator with sound baffles or a soundproof enclosure. Third, "nail it down" and secure it as Rick did with chains and locks.

Now to the more important issue, protecting the generator using deadly force. A couple of years ago when concealed carry was first permitted in Ohio, I completed the required course to get my permit. While not a lawyer, I do remember the most important lesson taught regarding the law in Ohio is this; you can use a firearm to protect human life, but you may not use a firearm to protect private property. So to Rick's point, if he did have a gun and used it to protect his generator from a would be thief and actually injured or killed them during the event, he could be prosecuted should he cause injury or death to the intruder. It does go without saying however, if Rick was threatened and feared for his life or the life of someone in his family while and intruder was trying to steal the generator, he could defend his or their life with deadly force. Personally, I always feel my life is in immediate danger anytime someone invades my home, regardless of their intentions, but simply threatening someone with bodily harm using a firearm is also currently illegal and depending upon the circumstances and the court and lawyers involved, one could potentially face some time in state provided accommodations. There have been a few cases reported where people defended their property by shooting a fleeing intruder in the back while trying to escape and were found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. For someone to be attacking you they must be facing you. However, one could certainly detain the intruder for the police if the police could be successfully contacted (communications/availability might be an issue) and would actually show up to make an arrest.

With this said, I believe everyone should own and trained to safely use a firearm(s). When the defecation impacts the rotating oscillator the laws may not change, but the circumstances will definitely change for the worst...so when you have only seconds to make that life-or-death decision you will be more likely to successfully do so while waiting for the cops are just minutes, hours or even days away!

It is essential to be prepared for the worst, but hope - and more importantly, pray for the best. - Larry in Cincinnati

 

Sir:
I am an ex-cop, who served in St. Tammany Parish, just above New Orleans. (On the other side of Lake Pontchartrain). I was there during [Hurricane] Katrina. Believe me when I say I have many stories to tell, and I am sure I will, eventually.

However, I have been lurking on your web site for a while, and I had to comment in a recent post.
The people in Ohio who almost had their generator stolen made me remember a looter we had in Post-Katrina St. Tammany Parish. He would bring a lawn mower in the middle of the night, turned on and throttled down, to your house. He would put it near the generator, and over the course of 10 or so minutes, throttle it up. Then he would simply turn off the generator and trundle away with it, leaving a similar noise behind. The cold air from air conditioning would last long enough for his get-away. If I remember correctly, he stole about 36 generators before being caught.
We even had a gennie stolen from the Sheriff's LEC (Law Enforcement Complex), three nights after Katrina. And one of the jail's large generators was given to the hospital when theirs died. Essentially, hide them, do not use them at night if you can avoid it, and think about putting a muffler on it to hide the sound. And buy a gun.
Any questions? Thanks, - Joshua

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Friday September 19 2008

Letter Re: Some Thoughts on Practical Preparedness -- Things That Work

Jim:
To follow-up on the last two e-mails that you posted from me, here are some random thoughts that I'd like to share on preparedness for when the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF):

Use an eyeglasses "leash" (lanyard) to prevent the loss of glasses and reduce the risk of damage.

Buy janitorial-size rolls os toilet paper, without perforations. Each roll is 1,000 feet long, and a box of 12 rolls measures about two feet square. These take up just a fraction of the room required to store the same length of toilet paper in standard household rolls.

Use a kiddie-type pool to collect water from rainwater downspouts. The pools with hard-plastic sides and vinyl bottoms are fairly durable. A six foot diameter pool that is 15 inches deep holds 211 gallons of water.

Light-emitting diode (LED) lights are superior to traditional [filament] bulb designs. They last much longer and are much more resistant to impact. When used LEDs, batteries last much longer. LED headlights are close to ideal for doing chores, since they keep your hands free. Tactical use requires a hand-held or weapon-mounted light [with an intermittent switch.]

Krazy Glue [cyanoacrylate adhesive] is great for closing small cuts [after they have been properly cleaned.] Steri-strips are the next step up in holding ability.

Water Filters - Culligan's new EZ-change Level 4 [under-sink] filter [cartridge] is rated to treat 500 gallons. That is five time the volume of most compact backpacking filters. With a self-contained design, it would be easy to attach a pump. The are available for $38 through Amazon.com. Most [other] under-sink filters could be used the same way, but the Culligan design is preferable because it is fairly compact.

For "ready made" backpacking filters, I prefer the First Need brand filters. These are rated to remove viruses and radioisotopes.

Ball-shaped pin on magnetic compasses are compact, but they are more fragile that the type designed to clip on to a watch band, such as the Brunton and Suunto brand compasses.

Dental health is very important for long-term survival. Wal-Mart now sells a dental kit including a mirror with scaling tool and pick, from Dentek. They also sell Temparin temporary filling repair kits. These come in three-application containers. Temparin is far superior to the old standby of packing a lost filling void with zinc oxide.

A big part of survival is preventing injury. In a post collapse word, an injury will reduce available manpower, and something that would be considered just relatively minor in the present day could prove fatal. Proper safety equipment and training in the safe use of hand tools is crucial. Gloves, eye protection, preventing falls, fire safety, and so forth should be stressed. Hygiene and proper sanitation are equally important.

I believe that a good foundation for long-term family preparedness is learning the basics of wilderness survival. Having a solid understanding of the first four critical basics--water, food heat and shelter--helps set priorities in developing a larger plan for long-term preparation. It is also the final "fall back" position [in the event that you are forced to abandon your retreat or in case you never make it there]. These basics are also foundational in making important decisions.

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Wednesday September 17 2008

Letter Re: Some Thoughts on Fuel Conservation WTSHTF

Jim:
To follow-up on my last e-mail, here are some random thoughts that I'd like to share on fuel conservation, for when the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF):

Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs) - Often used in the Third World to save fuel and time when treating drinking water. Water that is heated to 149 degrees for a short time is free from living microbes. Water does not have to be boiled for 10 minutes. A WAPI is a simple, small and low cost tube with a special soy wax that can show that water has reached a safe Pasteurization temperature. These are available from SolarCooking.org. (By the way, they also several nice solar oven designs.)

Solar ovens and Solar Showers - For cooking, water Pasteurization, and hot water for hygiene needs. There is also a "solar puddle" design available on the Internet for large scale water Pasteurization.

Oven and Meat Thermometers - Prevents waste of fuel [and nutritive value] by cooking foods to higher temperatures than necessary.

Pot Cozys - These are insulated wraps for cooking pots. You heat the pot and contents to a desired temperature and then set the pot off to the side, wrapped in a pot cozy. Thus insulated, the food continues to cook until done. [JWR Adds: For more on this topic, see KBF's article in SurvivalBlog on Thermos cooking.]

Reflective Wind Shields - When used for cooking on a stove indoors or outdoors, these will shorten the time [and hence reduce fuel use] required to reach the desired temperature. - Doc Anonymous

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Letter Re: Tropical Storm Ike's Devastation Works its Way North to Ohio

Good Morning, Jim,
And yes it is a good morning at that. I'm here in the suburbs of Ohio between Dayton and Cincinnati. Our power has returned. I read Larry in Cincinnati's post this morning, and I know his thoughts and feelings all too well. Like him, we had the preparedness mind set already in place, and fared a bit better than some of our neighbors. I only caught the tail end of your interview on AM 700 WLW in Cincinnati in my truck as I was heading to work ( the company I work for is on a different power grid and was up and running) Monday, and I could not help but think of some of the posts since I have been coming to SurvivalBlog, and some of the things that you have discussed on the site.

Like Larry, I hope this will be a wake up call to folks, but sadly, I know that only a small portion of them will get it. One of the things that I found to be spot on, was the part about the things that were stripped from the shelves of the few stores that were open. I did not see them first hand, but a few of my neighbors had gone to them, and they were an exact carbon copy of the list. One even told of folks heading to the toy department, to snap up all the Hannah Montana kids' flashlights. Yep, batteries, camping stoves, lanterns, canned goods, candles, etc; Like I said, the list was so dead on it gave me a shiver. As I stated earlier, we were a bit better prepared, so we had no need of anything to get us through this minor inconvenience left over by the storm.

Folks down in Texas are going to be without power, water, food, and other needed supplies in some areas for many weeks to come, so our prayers go out to them more than the folks down the block who lost a small bit of food in their refrigerator because the power has been off for a little less than 48 hours. There was some talk of the possibility that it could have been out for a whole week, and this would have been a pretty bad thing for sure, but the thing that I voiced the most concern to my neighbors about, and the one that none of them had thought of was, that if it did take that long, there was a good possibility that the water tower that sits on the hill above our house would run dry, and without power to run the pumps to refill the tank. But, we were okay here, because we had filled half of our five gallon water cooler jugs a few days before this happened, and I had gone to the grocery on Friday, and had bought a case of 20 oz. bottles for my son to take in his school lunches. Cooking was not a problem, we have a charcoal grill,and I have a Coleman white gas fuel stove and a good supply of fuel for emergencies such as this. Plenty of flashlights, a battery powered lantern, spare batteries, oil lamps and oil, and candles with good sturdy candle holders for light, and a couple very good multi-band radios, and plenty of batteries for them as well.

I hope that others here in our tri-state area that were affected by this will see the need to prepare for things like this. I know that a few of my neighbors will be a bit better prepared for things by talking to me, and seeing how we were set up at my house for this. Now this is not to say that I was totally prepared. I saw a few "flaws in the slaw ", but preparing for these types of things is a constant and on-going process, and we do the best we can with the hand we have been dealt. The rest, we can adapt if we put our minds to the problems and keep a cool head. - Dim Tim

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Monday September 15 2008

Letter Re: Some Thoughts on Water Conservation WTSHTF

Jim:
Here are some random thoughts that I'd like to share on water conservation, for when the Schumer Hits the Fan (WTSHTF):

Latex or nitrile gloves - Minimizes the use of water for cleaning up after a dirty chore. The nitrile gloves sold by Costco seem to be the strongest and do not oxidize like latex. [JWR Adds: The cost of nitrile gloves bought in bulk is so low, that they are well worth using. They are particularly important to use when handling dyes, paint, strong acids (such as during battery maintenance), strong bases (such as when making soap or when putting lime in an outhouse pit or a carcass pit), pesticides, herbicides, fuel (filling kerosene lamps or transferring gas to or from cans), or motor oil. (Used crank case oil is of particular concern, since it has been identified as a carcinogen.)

Reynold's Oven Bags - Use inside a cooking pot to minimize clean-up. They can also be used outside a solar cooking to to retain moisture and heat. These shorten the cooking time for both solar and conventional ovens. hey are strong and thin. They can also serve as an impromptu canteen. (Put a couple of them in each outdoor survival kit.)

A small rubber primer bulb for out bard motors - Use as a foot pump for tubing from a water source to a water basin.This provides controlled"one person" water delivery. I use vinyl tubing connected to piece of 1/4" diameter copper tubing that was bent nearly 90 degrees for the "faucet." This uses just a small fraction of the water that is normally expended with a traditionally-plumbed sink.

Funnels. - Buy several of these of various shapes and sizes, to reduce spills.

Garden pressure sprayer - Buy a new, clean one (not contaminated with chemicals) to rinse kitchenware. BTW, we found that they had too fine a spray for use as a bathing shower.

Clothes wringer - Efficiently wrings gray water out for wet clothes. This water can be re-used for toilet flushing.

Basins - Use plastic basins to wash and rinse dishes or to hand-wash small batches of laundry .This again saves gray water for re-use.

Whitewater Rafting Dry Bags - Can be used to prevent items from getting wet, or can be used as a "clothes washer." Add hot water and powdered laundry detergent and agitate.
- Doc Anonymous

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Letter Re: Recommended Preparedness Focus for a Dentist in Kansas?

Dear Sir,
It was James Howard Kunstler who alerted me to the problems that has caught so many other people unawares in early 2002. Alas, although we're light years ahead of our fellow citizens in terms of preparedness, we're many parsecs behind the majority of your readers! We do have about six months of food on hand (which keeps growing each day), plus containers for water storage and filters for water purification. We have some basic medical supplies. Our "battery" has been augmented including the storage of several hundreds (although not thousands yet) of rounds of ammunition. Soon, I'll have a basic reloading set up. I've been buying whatever high-quality tools I can find, whether it's a 1930s #8 Stanley plane or a King of Spades shovel. Our organic garden is growing each year. We're not squeamish so we'll probably be gray-watering and humanuring as soon as it is feasible. My wife is a green thumb and is becoming an expert on foraging: she knows every edible plant/mushroom in Kansas!

So all hope isn't lost but there is so much to be done. Which brings me to my point: thanks ever so much for this incredible resource!
But I have one question: knowing the little that you do about us (family of four, in rural Kansas, slightly-prepared but not much) what would you recommend as being our first priority? What products/skills should I spend the next year focusing upon? Thanks again, - SF, DDS, in Kansas

JWR Replies: My recommendation, particularly for anyone living in the Plains States and most of the western US is that water should be your top priority, including roof downspout rain barrel conversions, and locating any nearby creeks or reservoirs where you can collect water, and the means to transport and treat it, even if you are ling "Grid Down" and don't have gasoline available to operate motor vehicles for hauling water..

In the next year, take advantage of as much free and low cost training as your schedule permits. (Red Cross, WRSA, et cetera.) Next, move on to more sophisticated training, as your budget permits. (Medical Corps, Front Sight, OnPoint Tactical, et cetera.)

Since you are a dentist, you might think in terms of operating a minimalist general dentistry and dental surgery practice without grid power. Stock up on expendable supplies. Search for old-fashioned/alternative equipment. Buy a full-up photovoltaic power system if you can afford it. You might even be able to find a foot-powered dental drill. These are now considered museum pieces, except in the Third World, where they are still in limited use.

As I've previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, I have some very strong reservations about the humanure approach. To be done safely, it takes very close temperature monitoring, and that might prove difficult in a grid-down post-collapse environment. I also consider it unfeasible for handing waste at a remote retreat that is only occupied for part of each year. (Ideally, it would best done at a rural farm or ranch that has at least five residents that are living there year-round.) In my opinion the risks far outweigh the rewards for most of us.

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Wednesday September 10 2008

Letter Re: Should I Get a Bigger Property and a Bigger Mortgage?

JWR,
I currently live in a crowded subdivision in a moderately nice house that is worth $240,000. We owe approximately $120,000 on it, and have $120,000 in equity. Based on much of what I read here, we were looking for a house with some land, and recently found one for $370,000 (it's only 2.5 acres, but that's much more than we have now). If we buy it we will owe $370,000 -120,000 = $250,000). I currently make around $120,000 per year, in a job in the medical field that should not be too hard hit by financial crises.

So what do I do? Buy the country house and assume a larger mortgage (but have some space, and a water well, plenty of room for a garden, and less crowding)? Or do I forego that plan and just stay where I am, even though it's crowded, because it's cheaper, and I can get it paid off in 2-to-4 years?

The economy has me worried, so this decision has been a difficult one for me. Your site and its links makes a lot of sense to me, but when I read other things online (i.e. the main headlines) it all seems to say that "Everything will be okay, just give it time, you're in good hands..." When can we expect the major crisis/crises to hit?
Praying for your wife, thanks for all you do, - Perplexed in the Midwest

JWR Replies: If your job is truly stable, then it might be safe making that move. Just by itself, having well water is a huge plus. (I've described numerous hand pump and solar well pump alternatives in the blog.) But with the economy presently looking the way it is, having that level of debt should be reason to give you pause.

One alternative to consider is instead of the "halfway measure" of moving to a house on a bigger lot--but still in a relatively high density area--is the concept of buying a dedicated retreat with a house on much more acreage (10+ acres) that is way out in the country, preferably in one of my recommended retreat regions. You could simply tell your family and friends that it is a "vacation cabin."

My general advice to my consulting clients is to buy their retreat properties with cash, and leave their primary residences mortgaged. That way, if the economy totally tanks and you lose your job you can move to your retreat and essentially abandon your house to the bankers. (The phenomenon they now call "jingle mail".) At your retreat you will then only have to worry about paying your property taxes.

In answer to your other question: I don't give "timing" predictions. All that I can say with certainty is the the current economic instability is the worst that I've see in my lifetime. So just be ready.

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Thursday July 24 2008

Letter Re: UV Light for Sterilizing Water

In my reading about water purification one of the things that I read about was ultraviolet (UV) light purification. I discarded it because I live at a fairly high northern latitude (lower intensity light) and it is fairly cold here most of the year. I just noticed something though. Sitting next to me I have a "halogen gooseneck desk lamp" with a 20 Watt halogen JCD bulb in it. While looking at the glass piece that sits between the light and outside world I noticed that it says "UV Filter 001". This got me to wondering how much UV light this bulb is throwing off, and if it could be used for water purification (assuming power is present and water is down or contaminated). I wasn't able to find much info on UV output of halogen bulbs, other then G.E. claims that their bulbs put out very low amounts of UV.

Near the bottom of this page I did find a nice set of tables talking about how much UV is needed to kill various micro-organisms. - Ben

JWR Replies: To sterilize water, it is best to use a light bulb that is optimized for transmitting the UV portion of the light spectrum. As koi fish fanciers discovered a decade ago, UV light does a great job of sterilizing water.It actually does not kill all the bacteria, but it renders them harmless by making them incapable of reproduction. (Typically, folks with koi ponds use a water pump to circulate water in conjunction with a UV light that shines on a clear plexiglas section of water pipe, gradually treating all of the water in the pond.

On a smaller scale, the same technology is used with the SteriPen device made for backpackers. (SteriPens are available from SafeCastle, Ready Made Resources, and many other Internet vendors.)

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Saturday July 5 2008

Checking Your Preparedness with the PACE System, by Wolverine

I had been using the PACE system for years, I just didn’t know that is what it was called, or that it even had a formal name. I first read about the PACE acronym over on the Viking Preparedness site, in a post by Joe. Growing up we joked that the system was called one’s good, two’s better, and three is about right. It is the same spirit of "two is one and one is none" that the PACE system stresses.

PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency.
It is a good solid way to break down your preps to make sure that your survivability is high. It doesn’t have to be a long hard plan, it can be very simple. Ask yourself the question for each major category of survival.

Water
What is your primary source of drinking water? If you are like most of us you turn on the faucet. Okay, your primary source is covered. Most likely all of us have the primary items covered by our “normal” living. You throw a light switch for lights, turn up the furnace for heat, and open the fridge for food. We live with our primary supply system.
The first level of survivability is at the Alternate level. When the power goes out-what next? For some it is 12 volt back up, others light candles, and still others fire up the Coleman lanterns. The totally unprepared sit in the dark and grumble. So what do you do when the power goes out and you can’t draw water from the system?
I can tell you my plan. I had to use it about a year ago when I still lived in town and the city put a No Drinking of Water notice on our block. I got the sealed water cooler bottles I had stored and opened one of them for drinking and cooking. The bottles cost under $4 each and hold 5 gallons of pure drinking water. There is no chemicals added and they store well. I checked with the dealer and found out that if I buy the natural water, same price, it will store well over five years as long as it is kept in a cool and dark place. They said it might store forever but they couldn’t tell me that. I keep four of them stored as my Alternate plan for water as well as several camping jugs, one gallon jugs and a couple cases of bottled water.

If we go into a long term situation and I run out of my stored water I have to fall back to my Contingency plan. I have a filter system that will allow me to make lots of drinking water before I have to change the filter. Either rain water or water from a point well can be cleaned and ready as needed. Another layer of my contingency plan is water tabs to us as well.

My emergency water will come from the stream a quarter mile to the west of my farm. I have a Katadyn filter to use to clear it and make it drinkable. We can also boil water to clean it. I can draw the water from my hot water tank if needed. We also have bleach. Our water back ups are more than just [three] PACE levels because water is so important. Besides, it is not that hard to develop a few good purification methods for water.

Heat
Without power we lose the furnace and our heat. We heat with propane so I can drop into the Alternate plan easily and turn on the fire place and the stove to heat our “cocoon” room. If needed, we can live in our kitchen/living room for days on end. While not really part of our PACE plan, it is good to know that we can heat a smaller area and stay comfortable during cold weather. Our contingency plan is to bring in the kerosene heater out of the barn and use it to heat the cocoon room. If we are in a long term grid down situation I can pull the fireplace insert and convert it to a wood burning fireplace in a matter of minutes. We consider that our emergency plan.

Food
I will not speak much about food because if you have read any of the survival blogs you know that you need to store food, canned and packaged, grow a garden, store grains, harvest wild edibles, and plan on hunting and trapping.

Shelter
I am very fortunate to live at my retreat. I moved back to the family farm less than a year ago. My wife and I had already stored a large amount of our preps in the barn and had planned to bug out to here even if the house was not completed. Our plan was to make as much of the house livable as possible if TSHTF. If that was not possible for us than we would build living quarters in the barn. Unable to do that we would put up a tent and camp out. Now that the house is complete and we are living in it we have revamped out plans to stay in the house and moved the living in the barn to our emergency plan.

Life in General
The PACE system is easy to understand and follow, and gets easier as you do more of it. Pick any aspect of survival you want and work out a PACE plan. Say you want to have weapons in your plan. Okay, primary will be your MBR. Your alternate might be your shotgun or bow and arrow. Contingency, sling shot. Emergency, Atlatl and spear.

Back ups to the back ups are a necessary part of life. You already use them and probably never thought about them as an emergency plan. If your car dies what do you do, call a friend for a ride, take the bus or ride a bike? More than likely you are already PACE-ing yourself. Keep that mindset toward the forefront of your thoughts and your prepping should get easier and deeper. - Wolverine

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Thursday June 19 2008

Packing The Vehicle G.O.O.D. Bag, by Ryan S.

This is a brief outline for preparing a vehicle-borne Get Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.). bag or Bug Out Bag (B.O.B.). We are all hopefully suitably prepared at our homes or retreats, but what if you find yourself away from your retreat WTSHTF? Recent events and some blog readers have mentioned the importance of having a G.O.O.D. bag in your vehicle. The floods in the midwest as well as the wildland fires in my neck of the woods, speak to this necessity. what ever the situation you are facing you should be able to get back home or at least remove yourself from immediate danger should vehicle travel for whatever reason become impossible.

The basic idea for a G.O.O.D. or B.O.B. is to be self sufficient without outside support for 72 hours (three days). Your individual bag must have everything you need within immediate grasp. If you have to look around for a missing piece of kit it could mean the difference between getting away from danger and being stuck in a worse situation.
The first item to consider is the pack itself. Invest the money in high quality gear. Your bag must be large enough to carry all of your equipment, but not ungainly. Especially if you are not used to carrying a load on your back over distance. I am a fan of Maxpedition brand packs. I use a Condor II pack regularly for all types of activities. (The Condor II is probably too small for use as a G.O.O.D. bag.) The MOLLE straps on the outside of many kinds of tactical type packs are great for securing additional gear or clothes. Packs with internal drinking water bladders are also good to look for.


Ultimately you will have to experiment with different types of packs to see what is most effective for you. You may also consider getting a more generic looking pack to avoid unwanted scrutiny that a distinctly military looking pack may draw.

You might want to supplement your pack with a vest along the lines of a photographers, safari or fishing type. Vests are great for storing small items you will need frequently or quickly. Things like a compass, small snack foods, pistol magazines, or things it would be impractical to store in your pack. It would not be good to stop and take your pack off every time you want a snack or need to take a compass reading. Digging in your pack for a pistol magazine when you really need it could be disastrous.

Water is the most important consideration. You will suffer some without food for three days but going without water for three days will probably kill you.

During high heat physical exertion your body may require a gallon of water a day. Its not practical to carry three days worth of water. Water is heavy! Weighing 8.2 lbs a gallon, most people cannot carry 32.5 lbs of water along with their other equipment. Keep extra water in your vehicle to hydrate yourself with before you abandon your vehicle if time and circumstance allow. Look for small air force flask type canteens to stuff into pockets as well as a CamelBak-type water bladder or a pack that has an internal hydration bladder. Ever bit of water you can carry is important!

Depending on where you live you may not have to rely as heavily on water you carry. Keep in mind depending on the situation presented you may not be able to stop and purify or boil water. It is still a good idea to carry as much water as you can.

Because water is heavy and keeping in mind "The Rule of Threes", you need to carry some sort of method of making water you encounter suitable to drink. Water Purification tablets are small and light weight but don't do anything to remove the big chucks or discoloration. You can use a bandanna or a T-shirt to improvise a filter that will get some of the stuff, but obviously won't remove everything. A better method would be to use the bandanna or T-shirt then use some sort of compact hiker type mechanical water filter. The best you might encounter would be to use tablets as well as a mechanical filter.

If you find yourself having to abandon your vehicle, grab your G.O.O.D. bag and set off overland your already in a pretty tight spot. You don't want to make your situation worse by risking an intestinal bug, which in this case could be life threatening. Basically its like this:
The best water you have is what's already with you.
The next best water is treated then filtered. Or boiled for at least 10 minutes.
The next best is water that has been filtered or treated.
Untreated or unfiltered water is very hazardous. Even the most pristine looking mountain stream has all kinds of potentially bad parasites in it. We all know what bears do in the woods, and they do it in streams too!

If your situation gets bad enough you may have to do what you have to do, just keep in mind the possible repercussions.
The next thing to consider is food. There are a lot of options for this consideration. Everything from Meals, Ready-to-Eat (MREs) to freeze dried foods. For my own G.O.O.D. bag I have a mixture of MREs and Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDRs) I break them down and keep only the items I know I like, as well as to save space. Keep in mind that high heat drastically reduces shelf life of MREs and HDRs. Your going to be keeping this pack in your trunk or truck in the summer sun. Rotate your items out at the very most every six months.

Freeze dried foods such as Alpine Aire or Mountain House are another option. They are much lighter than MREs or HDRs but require water--usually near boiling hot water-- to prepare. I prefer MREs because you can eat them cold or use the the chemical heater with military MREs. Making a fire or using a stove could compromise your OPSEC. You can eat an MRE and keep moving.

You should supplement whatever food you decide to use with small prepackaged snack foods. Journeys overland expend huge amounts of caloric energy requiring constant replenishment. Additionally circumstances may dictate that you might not be able to stop and prepare a meal and having readily available snack food will help keep you going until you can stop. Try to avoid foods that are high in sodium. You will have to drink more water.

The next thing to consider will be shelter. Your shelter will depend on the weather. Try to keep weight to a minimum. You will be mobile. You may not have time to make a very substantial shelter. Keep it basic. Just something to keep the rain off while you sleep. You must take into account the type of environment you will likely face. Keep in mind where you are, where you are going and what's in between. You should consider the season as well. You probably won't need as much during the summer months. It makes sense doing a seasonal rotation of your kit to fit the current season. Doing a seasonal rotation allows you to inspect your entire outfit and ensure everything is in good working order.

I feel it is important to keep fitting seasonal clothing with your bag in your vehicle as well as some good boots. You must be able to move comfortably over distance and you might not be dressed appropriately for you current situation. Make sure your boots are well "broken in".

Depending on your environment and or skill level you may be able to improvise shelter from what's around you. You can include a couple of contractor grade garbage bags to improvise shelter or shade. You could also use clear plastic construction sheeting but this won't be effective for shade. I prefer a small tarp. I use a brown colored one as opposed to the typical blue. Brown blends into the landscape better.

Mylar space blankets are very thin and probably won't hold up well when utilized as shelter. You should include one or two to use as intended and could probably be used as a back up in a pinch. Be sure to include some packable rain gear in a neutral color or at least an emergency poncho. A better choice would be both.

The next thing to consider is navigation. The idea of vehicle G.O.O.D. or B.O.B. is to allow you to get from point A to Point B with body and spirit intact. If you don't know how to read maps, learn. I feel the best maps are USGS topographical maps but is impractical to carry a large number of these maps. You should have some road maps in your bag. I carry a regional map (e.g. Western U.S.) a state map (e.g. Oregon) and a compact national atlas. If you have room put in adjoining state maps. If you are planning a road trip put in those states as well. The situation you are in may require you to completely avoid roads but you can use them as a reference point.

Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are very nice to have but require batteries and can be affected by environmental conditions (e.g. canyons, overhead cover) GPS can fail. Do not rely entirely on your GPS. Get a compass, and learn how to use it. If you have a compass get another one for a spare.

We all know the shortest point between two points is a straight line, but this might not be the best one. Determine the navigational hazards between you and your destination. Remember choke points, mountain passes, bridges and depending on circumstance cities and towns. Try to learn the areas you travel frequently. That will help you a great deal. Learn terrain features the routes you travel frequently to help determine direction and distance. Forget about using moss and other axioms to determine direction. They are not reliable.

The next item is fire. Fire could have been included with shelter but I felt it important to mention individually. You should include three separate means of making fire. Whether you use a butane lighter, matches and a fire tool. Use what works for you.

Fire is an important survival tool. It provides heat, can be used for cooking and provides a means for making water suitable to drink. Learn how to make fire in adverse conditions and practice it. Actual skill is better than gadgets. You should also include a metal cup suitable for cooking or boiling water.

Remember your OPSEC. If you are trying not to be noticed, then lighting a fire is not the way to do it. You will have to figure out an alternative or take the risk if your situation requires it.

A small stove could be a viable alternative to lighting a fire. Keep weight and fuel in consideration. I have included a small Esbit stove in my pack. They are very small and can carry some fuel inside the folded arms.

There are also some other miscellaneous items you should include in your pack. These are usually along the lines of tools. A good quality multi-tool such as a Gerber or Leatherman is a good idea. A small folding shovel might be good for making your fire less obvious as well as doubling as a hatchet with the edge sharpened. Toilet paper is a must. Handling the call of nature with leaves is not fun.

A good quality compact first aid kit is absolutely required. Any medications you must take have to be included. Over the counter pain relievers and medications for common ailments should be included as well. A good idea I saw somewhere was a small plastic tackle or crafts box to contain your medications with the lid labeled to keep it all organized.

Be sure to include a couple of small flashlights, and extra batteries. I also have included a couple of small LED key chain lights. They have a surprisingly bright light for the the size.

Make sure to include a couple of knives. I have a surplus Mora sheath knife in my pack as well as a folding pocket knife.

Some people may want to include a firearm of some sort. This is a question that can be a little sensitive and is full of personal opinion and legal questions. I personally have included a firearm. For me its not a question because I am legally permitted to carry a firearm concealed. You will have to examine your personal situation and decide to act as you see fit.

In conclusion I hope I have given you a good base to start from. A large part of having a well prepared G.O.O.D. pack is trial and error. Remember to practice beforehand. The middle of a crisis is not a good time to apply a new skill set. Remember to keep it simple. You can't carry everything you will need to meet every set of circumstances but you can use what you have and improvise. Hopefully you won't find yourself in a situation where you will have to abandon your vehicle, but maybe with a well-designed G.O.O.D. bag, you can make the best of it.

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Tuesday June 17 2008

After 10 Years--Some Observations and Lessons Learned by a Y2K-Era Prepper

It was June, 1998. Y2K was a salient topic of conversation. It got my attention. When the electricity went off and there would be no water to drink, and no fuel to move food to the JIT grocery stores, I could see things getting very ugly. I had been willing to fight for this nation as a member of the US Army. Now it was time to fight for my household. I bought a Springfield Armory M1A. I bought a safe to store it in. I bought another M1A (for the spousal unit of course!) I bought ammo. Lots of it. I bought gear. I bought food. I became awakened to the idea of being self-reliant.
That was 10 years ago. Y2K didn’t cause a global melt down. (Although I have a friend in the service that sat in a command bunker holding his breath at Y2K – the government didn’t know what was going to occur.) I have not had to live through or endure Hurricane Katrina. No participation in the 9/11 attacks. In fact, I can’t claim a campaign ribbon for any disasters. Am I upset or sorry that I have changed my life to follow a path of self-reliance? Most definitely, absolutely not!

Let me share with you the good and the bad of what I have done in the last ten years. So often, people new to self-reliance are like ants at the foot of a mountain staring up with their head touching their back wondering how in the world they will ever be able to replace modern society and be able to take care of themselves WTSHTF. Well, truth be told, you can’t do it overnight unless you’re Warren Buffet. I am walking, talking living proof, however, that you can make significant progress. Let me show you!

In order to show you that you do indeed have cause for hope, let me share a few of my screw-ups. How about the initial purchases I made while in a state of “marked concern” when I became “self aware” with regard to self – reliance. The money I invested in self-reliance was my spousal unit’s “down payment on a house”. Do you think this view of “my nest” versus “the world may end” led to some intense “discussions”? You bet your last dog flea it did. For much of the intervening 10 years I have been the one prepping while my wife harbored a severe grudge against the entire topic because I spent our money for the house down payment on crazy self-reliance materials. A grade of “F” to me for consensus building. She is just beginning to come around in the last two years. Poster child example of a bucket of wet sand. (If two guys fight, they belt each other like two crazed wolverines. Eventually they realize they were stupid for fighting, shake hands, forgive and are back to being friends. Kinda like a cow urinating on a big flat rock – big splash and splatters, but it dries up pretty quickly. Get in an argument with a gal and it is like pouring water into a bucket of sand – the surface may dry after a bit, but it stays wet down in that bucket for a long time.)

I very religiously squirreled away Gillette Atra razors because that is what I used each day. The handle that you click onto the blade cartridge gave up the ghost after many years of faithful service. The stores don’t sell them anymore! Now I have three dozen packs of five cartridges with no way to use them to shave! Fortunately, I did find a second/spare handle in my stores and will be able to use them up. Did I re-learn some valuable lessons? You bet!

Two is one, and one is none.
You need to see what you have (inventories!)
Store what you Eat/use – I did great on the cartridges, but forgot spare handles!

In the run-up to Y2K I bought a dozen 6 volt golf cart batteries to be able to set-up some kind of power system in the house. Great intent. No photovoltaic panels No wiring until last year. They have been “stored” sitting on pallets in a friends storage building for 9 years because I have not been able to get to the replacement power system yet. I could have used that money for a higher priority item.
The spousal unit and I built our home last year. We did many things very right. Some learning experiences occurred, however. Maybe chief amongst them is my underestimation of the massiveness of the size of this endeavor! I joke with friends about not being free from the To Do list to be able to get into trouble for at least five years! Fix the septic pond berms. Sort out the “scrap” lumber. Put a deck on the back of the house so the [building] code Nazis will give us the permanent occupancy permit. Fix the leaking pressure tank in the basement. Fix the DR mower. Mow. Clear 30 trees dropped to get the septic pond clearance (not done with that one yet). Cut and split and stack firewood. The list goes on. Don’t get me wrong – I would not trade my homestead back for city living for anything. Was I able to foresee the "second & third order effects” of the change to a country homestead? Nope. Not even having read Backwoods Home magazine for 8 years. Thank God I listened to my in-laws and did not try to finish the upstairs interior construction while living downstairs!

Prior to Y2K I tried very hard to create a group. It failed in many ways. Had Y2K caused the feared problems, we would have been road kill. Okay, we would have been the third or fourth critter on the highway run over by life, but we were nowhere near ready to deal with WTSHTF/TEOTWAWKI. The Yuppie Queen and her husband went right back to spoiling their princess/daughter, buying Jaguars, clothes, and hair implants. You know - living the typical American city life. The other couple moved out onto 20 acres in a very rural county and raise goats and chickens. I am on 20+ acres and moving in a self-reliant direction. Two out of three ain’t bad!

I endured the gauntlet of multiple careers trying to find a fit for who I am. Thankfully, my spousal unit was trained well by her farmer parents. We never carried any debt other than the mortgage. One thing we did do smart was under-buy on our home with a condo (sixplex) in town. No car payments. No credit card payments. We kept 3-6 months of expenses in savings. One business venture was as a franchisee for Idiotstate. Massive mistake. Four years with no income for me and a net loss of $60,000 overall. What preps could you get done with an extra $60,000? I am certainly not happy I put one in the “L” column. I am not proud of failing. I am proud of jumping into the fight and giving it my 110%. As they used to tell me in the military, “What an opportunity for character building!” Learning lesson for me was that I should never have stopped Soldiering. I simply have green blood. I have returned to the Army by working as a tactical/leadership contractor at a nearby Fort and getting reappointed into the National Guard. Will a deployment take me away from directly protecting The Lovely Spousal Unit (TLSU)? Yes. Does staying employed doing what God designed me to do mean we’ll have a steady income? Likely. Does a pension check from age 65 on make us better able to care for ourselves? You betcha. The world may not disintegrate in 30 days. It may actually remain fairly normal. One has to prepare for that contingency as well.

By now you have to be thinking “What a knothead! This guy couldn’t find his fourth point of contact if you put one hand on a cheek!” Well, not so fast there Skippy! I have a thing or two that should go in the “W” column. I should give you a massive dose of hope! Let me describe to you in a quick overview where I have come to in my 10 year quest to become more self-reliant. First, about our home…

Home
Your home is your castle, right? Well mine actually kinda is. It sets on a chunk of land that is 20+ acres. The terrain is rolling and 95% wooded. It butts up against a cemetery to the north, a 900+ acre conservation area to the south, a river to the west, and a section line to the east. The home is an Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) structure. The walls are 1” of concrete fake rock veneer, 2.5” of foam, 8” of reinforced concrete, 2.5” of foam, 5/8” of sheetrock. It is “round”, being made up of 12 wall sections each 8 feet in width. Two stories with a basement. About 1,800 square feet of living space. (2,700 with the basement, however, that area is not finished yet.) Geothermal heating/cooling and a soapstone wood stove. Metal roof. No carpeting – oak floors and tile. The wellhead is inside the home so I don’t have to worry about winter breakdowns or freeze-ups, nor losing access WTSHTF. We are running at top speed towards the 20% equity checkpoint in order to get rid of the bankster-invented Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) extortion racket. (We have a credit rating of 804, so the “risk” the bank incurs by carrying our note is a freaking joke!). It suits our lifestyle very, very well. Our intent was to have a very low maintenance home. Having lived here one year in two more weeks, it looks like we have a very big check mark in the “W” column. More details on the design/floor plan in a future article!

Weapons & Training
We have an M1A set-up for combat, and one set up for long-range precision work. The Glock 21 [.45 ACP] is the base pistol for the household, with one for each of us and a G30 [compact Glock .45 ACP] as back-up. The Lovely Spousal Unit (TLSU) doesn’t carry a rifle or carbine, just the pistol. (More on that later.) Training for both of us includes Defensive Handgun 1 and Team Tactics with Clint and Heidi Smith at Thunder Ranch. I have also had General Purpose, Urban, and Precision Rifle with Clint. I completed a special symposium at Gunsite (pistol, rifle, shotgun, carbine). I am an NRA Certified pistol, rifle, and home defense instructor. I have several other weapon platforms as a “Dan Fong” kind of guy. The two rifles with accoutrements, and the four pistols with same were certainly not cheap. Nor was the training. I do, however, know how to properly employ them now.

Food & Supplies

The spousal unit & I could stretch the on-hand food to cover two years. Canned freeze dried is 45% of it, bulk buckets is 45%, and “normal use” food is the last 10%. We have built a rolling rack set of shelves for the 3rd part to ease rotation of the canned goods with each grocery store trip. No, I haven’t found the secret spy decoder ring sequence on how to rotate the bulk and freeze-dried stuff with our normal, both of us work, lifestyle. The sticking point for this area I see is that WTSHTF, Mom & Dad in-law, Sister-in-law, Brother-in-law with wife and two princesses (one with hubby), and my Mom & her husband will show up on our doorstep. That makes for an even dozen mouths to fee

Security
Now for a bit more detail. First topic up, IAW my military training, is Security. The base of everything here is God. I have chosen to bend my knee to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I can amass all the weapons, ammo, food and “stuff” you can imagine, but He is the one ultimately in charge. I am charged to be a prudent steward of His possessions - my family, property, vehicles, food, weapons, ammo, etc.. I am definitely striving to be the ant storing things for the winter. If you ain’t right in this area, it will really matter in eternity.

Part of your security is weapons. There are sheeple, wolves, and sheepdogs. I am definitely in the 3rd category. In today’s world your “teeth” are your firearms. I plan from a Boston T. Party paradigm of having a battle rifle. Hence, the M1A. Were I starting over today, I would likely go with a FAL, but now "I will dance with the one that brung me". Or maybe just accept the brilliance of the M1 Garand at $620 delivered to your doorstep from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). I do have two of these. Hard to argue with .30-06 ball. I renovate Mausers as my hobby and so have a .35 WAI scout rifle. A second one in the more common 7.62x51 chambering is in work now. I laos have a Mossberg 835 [riotgun], two Ruger 10/22s (one blued, one stainless), Ruger MKII stainless .22 LR pistol, S&W 625 pistol in .45 ACP/.45 Auto Rim, a few Enfields, and a couple of Mosin-Nagants round out the field.

Let me detail for you the path to get to the Glocks. I think it may save you some of your money. I received a Colt Gold Cup [M1911] .45 ACP pistol from my Dad as a graduation gift from the Hudson Home For Boys [aka USMA West Point]. Great intent. A weapon as a gift – how can you ever be wrong in doing this?! However, a terrible choice as a combat weapon. The Gold Cup is a target pistol. Tight tolerances. Feeds only hardball, and that can be tenuous proposition. I carried it on the East-West German border leading patrols. The rear sight broke twice. The front sight shot off once and tore off twice. It was a jammomatic. I hated it. Sold it to a guy that wanted to target shoot.

Took that money and bought a stainless Ruger P90DC. Sack of hammers tough. always goes bang when you pull the trigger. Inexpensive as far as handguns go. After some marked de-horning, you could even make it run in a fight without shredding you at the same time. One marked problem. Two [different weight] trigger pulls [for first round double action versus subsequent round single action.]. This started to teach me to throw the muzzle down as I pulled the trigger in double action. This nasty habit caused a problem when you were firing the 2nd through X rounds, as now it operates as a single action. TLSU had a heck of a time with it at Thunder Ranch. Clint loaned her his G21. No more trigger problems.

Still bowing at the altar of the 1911, I bought a Kimber Compact to carry instead of the Ruger. (I still have the Ruger – it is still “the gun that my Dad gave me” and no one buys the P90 used for anywhere near it’s initial cost, so I can’t sell it without taking a significant bath on it.) The Kimber was going well. Then I got a little too aggressive at slamming magazines home in the shortened grip and jammed it. Then the recoil rod unscrewed itself during an IPSC run and seized the gun while messing up the trigger. Off to Kimber. Free warranty work and 48 hours without my self-defense pistol. Now I have no confidence in the pistol. I Loc-Tite’d the recoil rod and staked it so it wouldn’t come undone again. Then I sold it.

Glocks cost roughly one-half of what a Kimber does. Crummy factory sights, but all my pistols wear tritium anyway. No ambidextrous safety required. My short fingers are mated to big palms, so I can handle the grip. TLSU has been trained on the Glock Model 21 (G21). It ain’t an issue of psychological derangement like many guys get about their 1911/Glock/H&K/Springfield, but it is a comfortable and working relationship between Glock & I. I have a G21 and a G30 for both of us. They always go bang accurately and they have never rusted. I am not pleased with Gaston [Glock]’s refusal to take responsibility for any mistakes they make in manufacturing. No problems with the G21 however. A pistol is what you use to fight your way back to your rifle, which you shouldn’t have laid down in the first place.
M1As hit my safe because it is what I knew from the service. They also fire a full power cartridge, 7.62x51. It makes cover into concealment. I don’t have the other 10 guys in an infantry squad fighting with me so I can maneuver under their covering fire. I have to hit the bad guy with a powerful blow once and move on to the next wolf/bad guy. Mouse guns firing rabbit rounds don’t scratch that itch for me. To each his own. My two are old enough to have USGI parts and good quality control. Here are the mods I made to my “combat” M1A. Maybe they will help you:

Krylon paint job to disrupt the "big black stick" look
M60 [padded] sling
Front sight filed down so that zero is achieved with the rear sight bottomed out
Handguard ventilated
National Match trigger group, barrel, and sights (came as a “Loaded” package from Springfield)
Rear aperture drilled out to make it a ghost ring
Skate board tape on slick metal butt plate
For the “Surgical” M1A (it shoots1/2 minute when I do my part):
National Match loaded package
Trigger assembly additionally tuned at factory
Unitized gas system
Factory bedded
Stainless barrel
S