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

You guys remember Sarah Connor Jr.? The mom with the scattergun who made a home intruder into a six-column-inch article in most major media outlets? Well, apparently she’s received a bit of an upgrade. (Only really good linkage I found was on Facebook)

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

An ‘all you can eat’-type of place down the street from me has shuttered up and is selling off their fixtures and supplies. Why, oh why, does this happen when I have no money? What do they have that I want? Well, there’s actually a good bit of stuff in there that lends itself to the preparedness lifestyle.

First and foremost, there are shelves to accommodate #10 cans…the kind of shelves where the cans roll to the front so you use up oldest stock first. That could be handy. More handy, there are bunches of #10 cans of foods that I actually use.

One thing they have that I really have a desire for are cafeteria trays. Yeah, cafeteria trays. Not the compartmented ones, just the normal flat ones with a raised lip at the edges. Why do I need them? These things are perfect for cleaning handguns. Everything is in one place, parts cant roll away and any solvent issues stay on the tray. Definitely gonna get some of those.

Then theres a few sundry items….cheap bowls and plates, gallon jugs of sals, hotsauce, etc….I’m sure that if I wanted I could buy a lifetime supply of paper napkins but those arent as useful to me as other items.

I was hoping for some steel wire shelving but that was one of the first things to go, unfortunately. The larger fixtures, like the ginormous Hobart mixers, ovens, etc, are way too big for me to get any use out of them. Some of the utensils might come in handy though.

It’s a sad thing when a business goes under. It’s the death of someones dreams and hopes. But, the business circle of life goes on and scavengers like me come in and pick the carcass. Opportunity is sometimes pretty tacky in how it presents itself, but present itself it does………
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Honest to Crom snow day today. Probably about five inches of the stuff so far. I’m tempted to put on the winter whites, the bunny boots, and take the bioweapon out for a romp in the snowy hills. He loves him some snow. This weather is also a reminder that I need to go through my bag and make sure I have the proper cold weather gear in it, just in case. As you may recall, I wound up with an embarrassment of riches in terms of gloves/mittens so a few of those will get packed with the usual gear as ‘extras’.
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Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Nice article with a happy ending. Two things jump out at me here….

First, this guy kept his head together. It sounds like he didn’t panic and, most importantly, he didn’t give up. He simply accepted the situation and figured he was just going to wind up being really late. Attitude, as we all know, makes a huge difference. None of his comments in the article sound the least bit defeatist…this is a guy with the classic ‘positive mental outlook’ and he made it just fine.

Secondly, important pieces of gear need to be secured. He lost his radio in a subsequent fall. I don;t want to Monday morning quarterback but a critical piece of gear like that, especially once he realized he was lost, should have been secured with a lanyard or in some sort of pouch that would have kept him from losing it.

I’m betting next time he does this sort of thing he’ll carry some different gear, maybe something with more emphasis on fire/fuel, but this could have been a lot worse and it sounds like he did pretty well for himself.

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

The lovely lass at The Trooper’s Gal pointed this deal out. It’s the Hardigg Medical Chest with drawers. I got one of these last year without the drawers and it’s a nice piece of gear. With the drawers? Ten shades of awesome.

Sportsman’s Guide apparently has some. Price? $199.99…about a twelfth of the new price, if SG’s listing is to be believed. SH408 is a code for free shipping, but you’ll still be on the hook for the ‘heavy item’ fee.

Overkill? Probably. Pretty much any waterproof large container would work for this sort of thing but these cases are purpose-built for keeping your emergency medical supplies safe, dry and clean. Like a lot of really cool military surplus stuff, I expect that these will be ‘out of stock’ shortly.

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

A couple folks commented about my last few posts on the price of silver, and infrequently I get a couple emails asking about it. I’m not going into the ‘why’ part about it, that’s between me and my lizard brain…but I’ll share with you the ‘how’ part.

I get my silver from this guy. Being an ‘irregular income’ kind of guy, I don’t take advantage of his his ’subscription’ plan…but if I did have a regular income, and I wanted to start stocking the stuff away, that’s the way I’d do it. No muss, no fuss, no watching the markets everyday trying to time it like a shuttle launch. Just pick a day of the month, an amount, and every month you get $x worth of gold or silver. I’d explain the dollar-cost-averaging part, but I’ll let him do it:

You select the amount you want to spend on silver each month ($100 minimum). You choose the product you wish to purchase- Generic Rounds, Branded Rounds (Sunshine, A-Mark or Pan American), Branded 5 oz bars (currently we have Pan American) and Branded 10oz bars (either Sunshine or A-Mark). You could also choose 90% Silver US Currency. Products shipped will depend on availability.

On the same date each month (based on your start date) your bank account, credit card or Paypal account will be billed for the amount you choose, your silver will be purchased at the current price and mailed to you by the following day. Partial ounces will be carried over to the next month. If you decide to cancel your subscription eligible remaining fractions will be repurchased by Montana Rarities.

So if you’re overseas in Afghanistan, on the road driving truck, or just darn too busy to keep track of markets and whatnot but want to start squirreling the stuff away, this is an excellent ‘fire-n-forget’ way of doing things. Set it up, pick a day, pick a metal, pick an amount of money to spend every month and you’re done.

Personally, as I said, I have an irregular income so when I’m flush, I buy, when I’m not, I don’t…so I just buy every so often when I see him. But for the guy who wants to start building up a stash without a lot of dicking around, this is a good way to go.

Is he the cheapest guy around? Well, he’s the cheapest I’ve seen here in town, and he seems to fare pretty well against many places that don’t demand you buy 50 ounces at a time. Maybe you can find a better deal elsewhere, maybe not…I’m just telling you who I use. I will say, though, that for customer service he’ll bend over backwards (or maybe forwards, depending on if you buy enough) to make sure everyone is happy with the deal. I’m not kidding, I’ve seen him make a deal to buy coins from folks, agree on a price, get the coin, and then send more money than he agreed to because the coin was nicer than he was expecting and he wanted to be fair. That’s the kinda vendor you wanna do business with…a guy who looks out for the customer’s interests as well as his own.

He’s a very honest and fair guy to do business with and, very importantly, he’s on the same page as many of us in regard to why we buy precious metals. So…he won’t think it’s weird or alarming if, like me, you’re buying because you’re worried about the end of the world and the upcoming global economic collapse. Yeah, he’s a like-minded individual.

If you wind up doing any business with him, and, really, you should, please mention that it was your buddy Zero who sent you….he’ll know who that is and maybe he’ll thank me with a couple silver halves or something.

Anyway, for those of you who asked, that’s where I get my silver from.

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

Hmmm…we’ll see how long this lasts. This was a good opportunity to buy and I took advantage of it as best I could. (Too much so, if you believe the complaining of my dealer who feels I’ve robbed him and keep him in penury.)

I’m not 100% that it won’t dip back below $30, but I’m holding off on any more purchases for a week or so to see where it goes.

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

This part is especially interesting:

The reasons for the shortages are complex. One major cause is the Greek government, which sets prices for medicines. As part of an effort to cut its own costs, Greece has mandated lower drug prices in the past year. That has fed a secondary market, drug manufacturers contend, as wholesalers sell their shipments outside the country at higher prices than they can get within Greece.

Government control of pricing is leading to products being sold elsewhere where better profits can be realized. I am shocked! Shocked, I say, to find there is capitalism going on here!

This sort of thing is to be expected any time .gov throws price controls on anything. Scarcity is usually the result as artificially low prices encourage waste. Don’t think so? If gas was $1.00 a gallon right now would you drive more or less than you do now?

Anyway, the lesson here is twofold: 1) .gov control of medicine pricing is a bad idea and 2) it’s entirely possible that what’s in your medicine cabinet now can wind up being all you have.

I’m reminded of the old saying: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the government.

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

These little babies arrived today from a slightly curious FedEx guy. (That is to say , the FedEx guy himself wasn’t curious, but rather he was curious about the odd packages. Anyway…)

You may remember the Transporter Test Articles sonobuoy tubes from an earlier post. As you can see, they have arrived. Condition is ‘Used, Filthy’ but pretty is as pretty does. They are in good shape, structural integrity intact, and just need to be wiped (or hosed) down.

Possible uses? A bunch. The most obvious is to tuck a longarm, some ammo, and a few essentials in there and tuck it away some where. (A Mosin Nagant M44 and a pile of ammo would fit great in there.) Not sure my particular flavor of apocalypse will be that dramatic…and even if it were, I’d probably use one of my Pelican cases. These would make a good container for keeping emergency winter gear in the bed of the truck…fold up a blanket or two, roll ‘em up lengthwise, slide ‘em in there along with some gloves, hat, candles, matches, etc, etc. Really, the only limit here is imagination and physical dimensions.

I hope at least some of you managed to score a couple before CTD sold out. Stuff like this doesn’t usually hit just one vendor…check some of the other surplus guys and they might have some as well.

I’ll probably keep three of these and send the other two off to some LMI.

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

My favorite thing to store firearms in is the Pelican/Hardigg gun cases. You’re familiar with them, I’m sure. They’re waterproof, airtight, reasonably crushproof and uber-professional looking pieces of gear. They are, however, pretty damn spendy. But…what’s it worth to you to have your firearms and accessories be in pristine condition when you pull the case out of the flooded rubble of what used to be your home?

For absolute end-of-the-world durability to protect a gun, I have yet to meet anything that beats the storage tube for the 120mm M865. Those babies are my first choice. They are pretty much indestructable, have points to run a length of chain for security, watertight, and the lid even has a hasp for a padlock. Perfect Problem is, they’re rather heavy and they are difficult to find regularly.

So somewhere between the $200 Pelican case and the $35-50 (plus shipping) M865 tube and its scarcity, there must be a compromise…right?

Indeed! If you’re a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation you probably recognize these ‘Transporter test articles’. These are sonobuoy tubes. They’re made out of plastic similar to a Pelican case, one-piece with a screw-on top, and an excellent compromise between the two previously mentioned containers. Best of all, it appears CTD has ‘em for ten bucks at the moment.

When I used to ship long guns across country these were an ideal container. You take your rifle, roll it up in a blanket, fold the ends over the muzzle and butt to give extra padding, slide it into the tube, screw the cap on, roll some duct tape around the juncture of cap-to-tube, and you were all set. A durable gun case that was light enough to be shipped back empty for re-use.

Are these waterproof? They are in the sense that there are no joints, valves, openings or other points for atmospheric integrity to be lost. However, I suppose that if you don’t screw the lid on tightly enough you may have water migrate up the threads. I can’t recall if there’s an o-ring in there, I’ll have to check. However, if youre doing the long-term storage thing just run a bead of silicone sealant in the threads, tighten it down, and that should do it.

Go to the CTD page and you can read the dimensions. Guns with pistol grips wont fit without having the pistol grip removed but things like SKS, 10/22, shotguns, etc, will fit just fine. At the price CTD is listing I don’t expect them to last long so you may want to grab a few while you can. Even with shipping factored in they still came out to $15 each to my locationm which was still quite reasonable for what they are.