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

‘Tis my birthday August 7th. I use my birthday and Christmas to get gear that I would otherwise not quite be willing to spend my own money on.

Case in point, my brass tumbler died a couple weeks ago. My dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I thought about it and sent him a link to this monstrosity. I am now happily tumbling 9mm brass, 2000 at a time. Sweet!

The missus is out of town for a week but a box has shown up here from the gang at Kifaru. I like to think its this little jewel. Kinda makes your eyes bug out when you look at the price tag, doesn’t it? This is why I reserve stuff like this for birthdays and Christmas.

I’d been wanting one of these for a year or so. I normally carry one of those little foil space blankets when I go hunting but have you ever actually draped one of those things over yourself in the cold? Theyre better than nothing, I suppose, but not by much. Now, the obvious thing to do with them would be to use them in conjunction with a lightweight sleeping bag or blanket to enhance heat retention. Trouble is, when I go hunting I really dont want to be hauling around a lot of weight. This thing compresses to about the size of a canteen and promises far better insulative ability than a mylar space blanket. In fact, if I wind up accompanying the missus on one of these ultralight backpacking endeavors I may wind up seeing if its a good substitute for a bulkier and heavier sleeping bag. (As a side note, Kifaru has some interesting looking compression sacks and Im going to have to pick up a couple to try out.)
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Man, what it is with the post-apocalyptic genre? Seems like the apocalypse is suddenly becoming trendy. We have yet another entertainment offering coming out – The Book Of Eli . Looking at the trailer, I can see some John Woo/Wachowski influence going on there. I’ll go see it…Im stupid that way, you put a movie in the period after a global apocalypse and I’ll be right there in line to see it. What I’d like to see, if theyre going to keep cranking out these end-of-the-world dramas, is one based on something a bit more realistic like a global economic meltdown…so far we’ve had comet strikes, zombie plagues, nuclear wars, weather changes, alien invasion, killer trees, etc, etc. Lets get something a little closer to home, shall we?
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Man, I’m really starting to get complacent. I need to do a massive WallyWorld/CostCo trip and restock some of the common usage items around here (AA batts, toilet paper, paper towels, soap, various foodstuffs, etc, etc.) I have to keep reminding myself that while things locally may not look outrageously bad, the bigger picture is much less forgiving and I need to stay aware of that. Fall and winter will be here soon and I need to get the hunting gear lined up, get the kerosene heaters set up, etc, etc. When the wheels fly off of western civilization, saying “but I was gonna get around to doing that next week!” ain’t gonna save your bacon.

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

Article on the Free State Project

I’ve had dealings with these FSP people before….other than the drug stuff, I get along pretty well with most of their platform.

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

If I had a million dollars it would be almost a certainty that I’d be sitting in my comfortable, but tasteful, heavily fortified home on a piece of land big enough that I can be left alone and not have to deal with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, just because I want nothing to do with the rest of the world doesnt mean the rest of the world doesnt want something to do with me.

It isn’t really explicitly spelled out anywhere in the Constitution (although maybe you can read it into the Fourth Amendment) but I like to think that somewhere theres a right to be left the heck alone. Whether its the .gov, islamofascists, christofascists, lefties, greenies, telemarketers, or people selling magazine subscriptions door to door…I like to think theres a point at which all of them will just leave me alone if I leave them alone.

Sadly, it looks like that aint gonna happen. The .gov wants to destroy my healthcare, the islamofascists wanna destroy my .gov (which means they may not be all bad, in some ways), the christofascists wanna tell me who I can sleep with, and the telemarketers are rapidly becoming higher and higher on my list of ‘people first up against the wall when the revolution gets here’.

I do believe the heat is making me grumpy.
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Summer continues here western Montana. It’s blisteringly hot during the day but my tomatoes and pepper plants dont seem to mind too terribly. My basil is going like gangbusters and I need to thin it down a bit and make some pesto. I wish I had planted more pepper plants this year but for some reason I always seem to just never get as committed to gardening as I should. Its a shame, too, because I have a yard that is almost perfect for it. Still, I should get enough peppers and tomatoes to make a few decent meals and perhaps have enough left over for a little canning.
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The missus is doing a short overnighter up at Glacier this weekend. I need to dig a stove out of the bunker for her to take. I’m going to give her the Svea 123. It isnt the lightest stove out there but, by Crom, its utterly reliable and pretty darn simple to use. Although I have several multi-fuel stoves, I rather like the pre-WWI technology of the Svea. It has exactly one moving part – the on/off valve. Can’t get too much more simple than that. naturally, we keep several gallons of Colman fuel on hand for use in lanterns and stoves, but I rather prefer the ‘multi fuel’ stoves that can use Coleman fuel or regular gasoline. The Primus Omnifuel that I have will run on pretty much any liquid that will burn and also run on cannisters as well. But, its a bit more complicated and I dont want to overwhelm the girl. Still, for something to throw in the hunting bag for those ‘just in case’ situations that Svea 123 is pretty nice.

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

Yet another zombie/plauge apocalyptic film in what seems to be a steady stream of them these days.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_vantage/carriers/

Off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything in ‘modern’ times that racked up a body count like that. Even the Spanish Flu didnt kill so many people as to turn cities into ghost towns. On the other hand, the Black Death, from what I read, did a heck of a job of opening up apartment vacancies.

Still, I’m easily amused and fascinated so I’ll wind up going to see this.

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

Food is pretty easily divvied up into several categories: short life, mid life, long life. At least, that’s how I see it. Short life is the stuff you normally buy at the grocery store..a box of cake mix, a box of crackers, a bag of potato chips, etc….basically non-canned stuff that on its own will last less than a year. Mid life stuff are things like jars and cans of food…canned vegetables, jars of sauces, etc….stuff that will last a year but not forever. (Although canned foods that are stored properly can last for amazing amounts of time they aren’t immortal…anything more than three years is a bad idea in my opinion. (Yes, your Aunt Ida has been eating from a case of canned peaches she bought in 1993 but I’d rather not rely on that kind of luck.) Long life food is stuff that will last almost indefinitely like bulk grain, rice, freezedrieds, etc, etc.

Obviously, for day to day living, most of the stuff we consume is short- and mid-life food. (In addition to things Im discounting like fresh vegetables and meat).

So we have racks of steel shelving in a cool, dry location for storing our mid-life foods. These are the foods that we use often and therefore probably want to have in quantity. What sort of foods? Glad you asked. A quick glance at the inventory spreadsheet shows canned broth, canned soup, canned tomatoes, canned corn, jars of spaghetti sauce, canned pears, canned peaches, and several other varieties of canned vegetables and fruits. Personally, I go heavy on the canned broth and canned tomatoes because both of those allow me a huge amount of room to get creative with my other ingredients. For example, canned broth is used to cook stored rice, add some canned chiles, canned tomatoes, dried onion and garlic, various spices and you’ve got a very good Spanish rice. Add in some diced chicken or beef (from pouches, can or freeze dried) and you’ve got a big meal that’s not boring and easy to make. Or the canned tomatoes can be used for making spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, or a host of other red sauces. So, for me, a couple cases of them is not too much…especially since I go through them fairly regularly.

The canned broth, by the way, is just as versatile. For a fast, cheap, filling, large meal I can mix equal parts rice and orzo, cook in oil or butter until  browned slightly, add broth to simmer until cooked. Throw in some herbs and you’ve got a Rice-a-Roni style dish that is dirt cheap and, if you throw in some meat, is a meal by itself. And it has a shelf life of years in its basic form. (substitute broken angel hair pasta for the orzo if you want something a little more similar to R-a-R.)

Canned goods around here get rotated every few months. What usually happens is Im in the kitchen cooking and I’ll realize Im out of tomatoes (or chiles or corn or whatever) so I’ll pull a half dozen cans out of storage, move them to the kitchen, and make a note to pick up more for the stuff in storage. This way we truly do wind up ‘eating what we store’. When we purchase cans, although all are coded by the manufacturer with dates, I just take a marker and put the month/year of purchase on the lid of the can to keep things easy.

As you can see, Im kind of a fan of canned goods. They’re bulky and not terribly conducive towards transport but that’s okay. We have other food for portability purposes. The canned (and to a lesser degree, jarred) stuff has tremendous appeal to me for its durability and longevity. However, nothing is perfect. Sometimes you can come across a can that’s bulging or otherwise had its integrity compromised. I’ve never come across one but it can and does happen. You very much want to get rid of it. Burying it or dumping it out somewhere is almost universally a bad idea since, as I read it, toxins get into the groundwater or somesuch. I would imagine that a roaring fire would take care of the tainted contents rather handily. These sorts of compromised containers seem to turn up more in home canned goods than commercial canned goods but the lesson is the same – if a gun is bulging, oozing, or just otherwise doesn’t seem perfect don’t use it. Although you might save a buck or two, buying a dented can in the grocery store is just plain stupid. Don’t do it.

I usually buy canned goods by the case. I wait until my local Albertsons has a sale or I head up to Costco or Wally World. Some folks worry that buying food (or anything, for that matter) in a bulk quantity like that will some how set off alarms and tip people off that you’re a paranoid survivalist. Not a problem…anyone says anything you say that since it was on sale you figured you’d pick up a case or three and drop them off at the local food bank.

Speaking of cans, its pretty obvious youre going to need a can opener. As any cook or food prep person will tell you, one of the dirtiest things in a kitchen is a can opener. Take a really good look at the cutting edges of one sometime, see the gunk and metal shavings that accumulate, and you’ll never want to use one again. I use one of those rotary-cutter style can openers that removes the lid with no sharp edges. These things are the shizznits. The cans then have no sharp edges so you can use them for whatever purpose you want and the lids can be firmly pushed back on to the can if you want to stick the half-full can in the fridge for a few days. More importantly, these can openers are much more sanitary than the other styles. Of course, you can still open a can with your P38 ‘John Wayne’ or even with a knife (a tedious process, I promise you) but for cooking around the bunker, the rotary-cut style can opener is the way to go. And do I really need to remind you that one is none and you should have several of these things?

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

I can’t see how this ‘health care reform’ that the Obama administration is trying to push through can possibly do anything except make things worse. I’m relatively healthy and when I need a doctor its usually for something rather acute like stitches, and even then I can usually just pay that out of pocket…but I foresee an overtaxed medical infrastructure and new levels of beauracracy. If getting into an emergency room, or making an appointment with a doctor, is difficult now I cant imagine what it’ll be like when 300 million people suddenly can all ‘afford’ to go for medical treatment. I just can’t see how this is going to work.

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Someone pointed out the Discovery television show “Colony“.  Broadly, its a cross of “Survivor” and “Jericho”. I don’t have much hope for it. My exact reply was “They could do this show alot cheaper by just wiring a beat up hotel in Somalia with webcams, dumping the ‘contestants’ in there and then writing “rich unarmed Americans are here!” on the side of the building in six foot letters. That’d be some ‘reality’ tv right there.” As if trying to stay above water in the New America isn’t enough of a challenge. You want reality tv as it relates to survival? Get a couple with two kids and a mortgage, make mom a ’stay at home’ mom, give dad a pickup truck he can barely afford, put them in a house that eats 50% of the take home pay with every mortgage payment, and then have dad get downsized. Thats survival. And reality. And every day I am grateful beyond words that that isn’t us.

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As time goes by and I read the news every day I am more and more convinced that yesterday will be looked back upon as ‘the good old days’ and every day is going to be incrementally more insecure and unique than the previous one. I am, however, determined not to have it impact us as bad as it is going to affect the poor bastards out there who live their lives thinking ‘I dont want to think about bad things happening’. Because, as we know, if you dont think about bad things they wont happen..right? Right? There’s no way we can stop this train wreck before it happens, all we can do is be prepared for it and thats pretty much what we’re doing. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Believe it or not, my lovely wife has never been on an overnight camping trip. She’s decided that since we live in Montana we should take advantage of Montana’s incredible outdoor recreational opportunities. She’s developed an interest in ultralight backpacking which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. She picked up this ultralight tent and took it with and wound up using it for the first time in a hellacious thunderstorm. It weathered tings quite well, kept her dry and didn’t turn into a tattered pile of rags despite the intense winds. How intense was it? Very intense. But she was glad it happened because it gave her confidence in her gear and herself.

I’ll probably go with her next time and then we’ll see if thats a good thing or a bad thing. But, really, if youre going to live in Montana it would be kinda foolish not to take advantage of things.

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

Unless something that isnt supposed to blows up, any day at the range is a good one.

A while back I picked up an IOR M2 scope with the MP9 reticle. I’d b en wanting a magnifying optic for the AR platform and I’ve been pleased with my IOR 10×56 on my .308 and when I found this M2 (calibrated for 62 gr.) for sale used in a pawn shop I couldnt resist.

It takes a little getting used to in the sighting in process. Zeroing the turrets is a novel experience but once you do it, it makes perfect sense. I had a cheapo set of rings laying around so I used them , but I’ll probably get some ARMS rings here when I have the money for it. Once zeroed I shot some very nice 1″ groups at 100 yards with it. Keep in mind this is out of a standard flattop AR..hideous military trigger, barrel is not freefloated, etc. I dialed the BDC to ‘3′ and headed over to the 300 yard range to spank the metal plates and did quite well.

TPIWP, so:

Shooting prone, using my Tactical Tailor bag as a rest…pretty much the way Id shoot out in the field.

Why the optic? Well, I figure the iron sights are just fine for close range, fast shooting but I wanted something with a bit more precision for longer range shooting. I like the notion of being able to hit small objects at relatively long (and safe) distances with fair predictability. Im not always going to feel like dragging the .308 boltgun around but it would be nice to be able to sling the AR and know that I can hit pretty much anything out to 400 yards or so.

Anyway, the IOR optic seems to be what i expected and, thus far, I recommend it.

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

I usually dont post this sorta ting but once in a while Dilbert hits a home run, even for us non-cubicle dwellers:

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

Ah…again ’tis Independence Day here in the US. The holiday gets more and more ironic as time and government marches on. While Independence Day is indeed a worthy holiday, I place more value on Patriots Day (April 19). Why? Because without the April 19th events there never would have been an Independence Day.

However, I celebrate both and I celebrate them in the most appropriate fashion: thoughtful reflection while taking the guns to the range and practicing my shooting.

If you cannot get to the range today, I at least urge you to read some history on the Revolutionary War and some of its principal participants. Read the Declaration of Independence. Read the Constitution. Read Common Sense. Do all that and then try not to blow a gasket when you realize that current government would appall the folks that started this country.

Meanwhile, if you need me, I’ll be at the range sharing some gunfire with history.

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

North Koreans are playing cat-n-mouse with the US navy in regards to a ship suspected of carrying illegal weapons, hamthrax is spreading throughout the US, the economy is still ailing, oil is up, the Middle East is doing its usual superb job of self-management and the public’s attention is focussed on the death of a pedophile musician who hasn’t even been musically relevant in, what, ten or fifteen years? Every one of those people that you see standing by some curbside candlelit vigil, teary eyed and hysteric, are people who have no ability to discern what is or is not important right now.

The economy is in rough shape, people are losing jobs, and some idiot somewhere thinks this is a good time to take a couple days off from work to drive to California to leave a teddy bear and a homemade card at the gates of Neverland? Very badly ordered priorities. Right now is the time when you give 110% at your job so that when the axe falls it falls on someone else, you save as much as you can, stockpile as much as you can, and make moves to limit your risk and exposure in these uncertain times.
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I’m usually resistant to new technological devices. Often I’ll say something like “But this one I have now has worked fine and done everything Ive wanted for years! Why would I want to upgrade to this new one?” As Scotty said in the Star Trek movie “The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to plug it up”…or something similar. So, I was a bit reluctant to make the move to the Blackberry. I had a regular cellphone that functioned fine and took plenty of abuse…why would I need this touch-screen gizmo that would probably break at a harsh word?

Now, I am reluctant to upgrade to new technology but Im not an idiot…if theres an advantage to be gained, I’ll make the switch. That’s why I moved from 1911’s to Glocks. The Blackberry has a number of uses that Im finding fit in very well with my preparedness lifestyle.

Let me start off by saying that if the cell phone infrastructure goes down then obviously this thing is useless. Im aware of that. But my older, less techy cellphone would be equally useless. Most of the advantages the Blackberry offer are advantages that are most practical during pre-SHTF times anyway.

Lists – The Blackberry has a crippled version of Excel spreadsheets on it. I can download all my spreadsheets onto the Blackberry so I can have current up-to-date lists of food, ammo, gear, etc. on hand. How is this useful? If I walk into my local Albertsons and they have canned pears or canning jars or toilet paper on sale at big discounts, I can consult the Blackberry and find out just how much I have on hand at that moment. Thus I don’t spend money on stuff it turns out I already have or I can take advantage of a sale when I find that my supply at home is running low.

Camera – I use this almost exclusively for taking photos of the sides of product boxes to capture the specs of a product. For instance, I was up at CostCo and they had a solar panel package on sale. I took a photo of the side of the box and that saved me from having to stand there and write down all the details about the product. No muss, no fuss. Its also useful for things like gun shows where I can take a picture of a gun, send the image home and say “Want me to get this?”

Internet – This is useful on so many levels. First off, I have all the major news outlets bookmarked so if things suddenly get weird I can get the latest news as quickly as possible…and as we all know, forewarned is forearmed. Its also very handy for quickly researching a product in the store…just head to the website of the product manufacturer and get necessary info. I also use it to get up-to-date prices on metals and stocks. Oh, and its handy for porn while traveling.

File storage – the Blackberry also doubles as a USB drive. I use it to shuttle music and files between home and work. In fact, I type up most of these entries at work and then shuttle them home on the Blackberry. I also keep useful files on the Blackberry, such as a scanned image of the FFL that we use for gun purchases. That way I can go into a gun store somewhere and if I see a gun we want I can email a copy of the FFL to the store right there. (And, yes, emailed and faxed FFLs are valid these days as long as the recipient verifies its validity against ATFE’s website database.)

Applications – I haven’t explored all the various applications out there for the Blackberry yet. I very much want some ballistic and mil-dot applications as well as some cryptography applications. Need to hunt those down…Im sure someone somewhere has them.

GPS and maps – The Blackberry lets me and the missus keep track of each other if we enable privileges on our respective Blackberries. I can pull up a Google map and there’ll be a little dot at her last known location. Can be very handy in a crisis. Of course, anything that lets you track someone can also be used to track you…and Im painfully aware of that.

Is the Blackberry a critical piece of gear? Absolutely not. Is it useful? Very much. Is it worth the money? Well…that depends. I think its about $60 a month for the service but it very much has a great utility to me. It may not be as useful to you, but I find it extremely handy. For me the ability to streamline my shopping experiences by having up-to-date lists, do math calculations and check product info at manufacturers websites is very, very attractive…it makes me a very informed consumer and that saves me money in the long run. (For example, I can be at Barnes and Noble and see if the book in their discount bin is cheaper at Amazon…or if the batteries at Best Buy can be had cheaper at CostCo..) I suppose the class-warfare nobly-poor types will call it a ‘yuppie survivalist toy’ and snicker mightily…whatever, man. If I find something that makes me more efficient, and I can afford it, why wouldn’t I take advantage of that?

Me being me, I have some rubber armour that encases the Blackberry to provide a little protection but I find the best thing for it is the belt holster made by Maxpedition (product #0109) … it features a belt clip, MOLLE back, retention strap, and is available in OD. Does a decent job of protecting my Blackberry Storm, too.