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

Unfortunately, I discovered $25 too late that Sportsmans Guide had this on sale cheaper than the place I had orignally sourced it from. Que sera sera. What is it? Military medical chest. Well, heres the description for it from Hardigg/Pelican. Used but in great shape which is probably why it was about $500 cheaper than a new one.

Purpose? Well, it’s one of the few pieces of military kit that is actually going to be used for what it was intended for – I have a buncha first aid gear in storage needs to be in a man-portable, watertight, airtight, easily movable container. This baby has handles on all four sides and has wheels so you can roll it along like a piece of luggage. Exactly what I wanted. Could I have done it cheaper? I suppose. These containers appear to be the modern replacement for the older metal medical chests, so Im not sure how much longer the older ones will continue to be avaialble. I suppose I could have just found an older case and done this cheaper but I like the Pelican/Hardigg style cases and have much more faith in their seals and structural/atmospheric integrity than some metal case thats been knocking around since the first Gulf War.

Is it overkill to pack such materials in this thing? Probably. But you never know whats going to happen. The circumstances under which I’d need to crack open these supplies would be pretty dire, and dire situations usually happen in wet, dusty, dirty, stormy, filthy environs. It’s nice to know that when the rain is pouring down, theres slush in the back of the truck, and the forecast is for a fast twenty mile ride on a muddy bumpy road to safety I can throw this thing in the bed of the truck, tie it down, and not have to worry about the contents being safe.

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

I usually don’t warn people about links that contain ‘adult language’ because if you break out in a sweat everytime someone uses a four-letter word you’re probably not going to manage the end of the world very well when things are going to be even more disturbing. In fact, the superstitious hypocrites over at Frugal Squirrels are famous for scrapping links people post if someone at the linked website uses ‘bad language’. However, since some of you may be at work, I warn you that theres ‘adult language’ (whatever the frak that means). Anyway, submitted for your amusement:

It appears that more and more people, from all sorts of backgrounds and groups, are starting to feel the disillusionment. It’s starting to look like the one thing Obama may have unified the country on is their disdain for his ineptitude. Nice job!

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

Theyre forecasting a hot one this weekend. Theyre probably right this time. However, I can think of no occupation where you can be wrong so consistently and still keep your job except for being a weatherman here in Montana. Or an Obama economic advisor.

Its gonna be a scorcher, so I plan to hop on my mountain bike, pedal my butt out along the trails, find myself a shady spot, wade up to my nads in the river and go drown worms for a few hours. Here’s a pic from last time.

Calorically, fishing is a great way to starve to death. It is, however, also a great way to spend an afternoon outside.
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Speaking of pleasant, I checked the PO box and found a birthday card in there from one of the viewing audience. Much thanks!

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

I was chatting with someone the other day and they were talking about all the game meat they were planning on putting in the freezer this year. I asked them if the had a vacuum sealer yet and they replied that they did not. Folks, if there is one single item I have purchased in the name of preparedness that has been the most brilliant and pays-for-itself purchase it is the vacuum sealer.

Im sure the Matt Foley survivalists would dismiss them as yuppie toys and proclaim that they can achieve similar or better results with a ziploc baggie and a straw. Not a chance. Spend the $200 and get yourself a quality (which usually means the Tilia Foodsaver brand) unit and a few rolls of bag material. It is the best investment in preparedness you can make. I’m not going to go on any further about it, do a search in the previous posts here and you can find all the details you want about the various uses and cost savings that can be achieved.
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Speaking of gear, I have a new Hi-Lift jack on the way. But, what I did not know is that the guys at Hi-Lift are making a special ‘rescue tool’ model with some nice features. Costs over twice as much as the regular jack but it does some mighty cool stuff. Really, though, if you look closely, the thing that makes the difference isnt the jack itself but rather the base/stand that it is equipped with. Nevertheless, the video showing its use is pretty impressive. What I find quite interesting it the ability to be used by attaching the base to chains or straps rather than being forced to have the stand resting on a flat surface. Definitely one of those tools that you’d never need to use very often but when you do…. Of course, when it isnt lifting concrete slabs off of people Im sure it can be used for the more mundane things you’d use your jack for.
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According to this website, if buy bipods for your rifles or MRE’s at a military surplus store and demand ‘privacy’ youre the kind of guy the FBI says fits the description of a potential terrorist. Really, if you think about it, every single human being on the planet is a potential terrorist. I know several businesses that are very big on customer privacy…they sell metals, long-term food,etc, etc….in fact, the customer who doesn’t care about their privacy is the suspicious one. The genius at the FBI that came up with those guidelines should be sent off to the Aleutian field office to count seals or something.

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

So this showed up in email:

Hello,
I’m currently casting for a pilot television show about preppers/survivalists. I think you may be a great resource for finding well prepared people, who would be open to appearing on camera. I’m wondering if you would be willing to post this info on your blog or website, or just pass this info along to anyone you think would be interested.

The gist:
It’s a 30 minute show, and we will feature two stories. We are mostly interested in seeing what the person has prepared or prepped, and right now we’re specifically looking for someone with a stocked bunker or extensive prep. The idea is to meet the person and see what they’ve prepared, then bring in a survivalist expert to evaluate how long you could actually live for if a catastrophe were to happen.

The purpose of the show is not to exploit beliefs, we actually want to cast people who the viewers will be able to relate to. We also want to feature someone who has prepped extensively, either in the home, or in a bunker. We really want something visually stunning.

This has been extremely hard to cast because of the secretive nature of the people who are preparing–which is completely understandable. I am contacting you because I think it’s important to get the word out about survivalists/preppers–that they aren’t all crazy people, that most of them are smart, well-informed people who we could take a lesson from. And I am hoping you will be able to pass this info along if you know someone who may be interested in participating.

We can provide full anonymity, and compensation is $1000 for the person who is chosen.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for your time!

Michelle Reindal | producer | screaming flea productions | mreindal@sfpseattle.com

I get a couple of these a year, it seems. Who really signs up for this? People who never saw that episode of The Twilight Zone? But there’ll be someone out there who just feels the need to show off. Always is.

Dude, first rule of Bunker Club is …..you dont show it off to a television audience!

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

See, I’m never clear on this….the rioting thats going on in London..is that rioting in Britain, rioting in England, rioting in the UK or all of the above?

Regardless, it’s nice to know that when you feel like looting department stores, burning businesses and generally checking out of civilized society you can do so with relative impunity because the cops arent armed and the business owners won’t brandish a shotgun if you cross them.

In this country, rioting and looting is usually the exact circumstance for which short barreled shotguns were added to our gun safes. Its grisly, but true…mob violence tapers down considerably when you start shooting into the mob.

Remember the first rule of preparedness? When disaster strikes, don’t be there. I live in a small enough town that the largest possible riot that could be mustered would still be outmanned by gun toting guys like myself. (What if it’s guys like myself who are rioting? Guys like me don’t riot. Indiscriminate destruction of innocent third-party’’s property is NOT my forte.)

These riots will be spun as the result of ‘austerity measures’ and cuts in social welfare systems. To me, when you have to pay someone or else they burn your downtown that is called ‘extortion’. No mistake, the economy is tough everywhere…and its probably going to hurt everyone, poor and not poor. But I think what were seeing in London is going to be seen around the world, to varying degrees, and may even wind up happening in some of our larger cities. If you live in those areas you may want to start making plans for what to do when that happens.

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

I like ’survivalist fiction’. Usually, it has an agenda (superstitious/religious, political, environmental, etc) but if you can get past that there are some entertaining reads out there. Recommended reading lists turn up from time to time. Here’s one I came across today. I’ve read many of the books on there already, but found some I hadnt heard of. I’ll bump a copy into my iPhone and take it with me to the used bookstore at some point.

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

Happy birthday to…..me.

BBQ at a b uddy’s place this evening. Ice cream cake. Ribs. And, amongst other things, a lovely 60″ Hi-Lift jack.

So far, so good.

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

Well, I’ve done about all the damage I can do at the gun show. Did a little wheeling and dealing with Johnny Trochmann. Wound up with a backpack full of the Israeli combat dressings in three different sizes. What were some of the interesting things at the show?

Well, I saw my very first Kel-Tec RFB in the wild. Also one of the somewhat rare Sabre Defense Steyr AUG carbines. Saw a few used complete uppers that I thought about picking up to finish off the bucket of lowers I have. Other than that, not much else jumped out at me. All things considered I was a pretty good boy and spent very little. Well, except for the 1911, but I’ve got a buyer lined up for that and I’ll make enough off of it to cover the stuff I did pick up at the show.

Very little ammo at this show, although AR’s, AKs and magazines were well represented. Saw no FALs, which was a bit unusual.

So, that was the biggest show in Montana (and the oldest…56 years theyve been doing that one) and now i can look forward to the smaller shows that will be coming up through the fall and winter. All in all, I had a pretty good time and I’m very pleased I didnt see anything i wanted bad enough to compel me to do something stupid.

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

I tried to go the gun show and not buy anything. I tried. I really did.

But, as I was walking down the aisle with a buddy I just casually glanced at the various guns we passed until I saw something that made me stop in my tracks.

Colt Series 70 1911 .45 ACP. Price? Well, low enough that red flags and alarm bells started going off in my head. Something has gotta be wrong with this gun for that price. Turns out the guy was selling it for a friend, whom he called over. The friend explained he had swung a deal, the Cot was part of the deal, and it was supposed to be marked up 20% more than it was…his buddy, supposedly, goofed the pricing. No problem, I said, I don’t want to see you get hurt. If you don’t want to sell it for the rpice marked on it, thats perfectly cool with me. (Secretly, I wanted a reason to NOT buy this thing…for the price there had to be something wrong. Something!) He said, no, if you want it at that price we can do that.

Ugh.

So, out came the cash and the Colt Series 70 1911 with no paperwork went into my bag. And we immediately went to the range to make sure I hadnt just bought a very expensive cigarette lighter or hand grenade. The 185 gr. wadcutters gave a few hiccups in feeding (usually do in a gun that hasn’t been worked over for them), but the 230 gr. truncated cones fed fine. Gun shot where pointed, nothing flew off, and I had all my fingers when we were done. I might have gotten an actual good deal. Gun has four glaring deviations from factory: aftermarket extended slide release, aftermarket extended mag release, aftermarket grips, barrel bushing has been replaced with a fingered ‘Commander style’ bushing. Other than that, it all seems original. Condition? Pretty good. Big drawback? I’m not a 1911 fanboy. However, I could easily(!!) trade this thing for a NIB G17 if I wanted to.

Man, I was trying NOT to spend money today…………

ETA: Serial range puts it around 1983 making it the last of the Series 70 guns.
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Next up was UPS dropping off a box that I was told had a birthday gift in it for me. I got the package and darned if it doesnt look like the kind of box a short rifle would come in. Open the outerbox and theres a sleek, black cardboard box with the Stag Arms logo and name on it. And the heft seems about right for an M4-type carbine. I’m thinking “Wow, did I really just get an M4 for my birthday?”

No, I did not.

What I got was one of these, which had the proper length and distribution of weight to make that Stag Arms box seem like it contained the real thing. I’m not disappointed, though. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while to keep in the truck with my emergency gear just in case something ugly happens that requires the prompt destruction or disassembly of something. There was also a copy of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ on DVD in the box as well. Some folks just can’t do something nice and leave it at that……….