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

I was strolling through one of the local gun shops yesterday and found the most overpriced AK I have ever seen. I thought $600 was an outrageous sum when we got our Arsenal AKs (although, in retrospect, it was worth it) but these guys feel the Polytech (Chinese) Legend National Match AK they have is worth north of $2500. What the hell, man? “National Match” AK? So that means it’ll do, what?, keep all your rounds in 6″ at 100 yards instead of 10″? Sure its a heavy barrel and a nice milled receiver but for that kinda money I could buy a NM M1A or a nice DSA FAL…or something accurate in a better caliber.

Scary thing is, with the way the gun market is at the moment, they’ll probably get that. Oh, and that $2600 doesnt include any mags.

=-=-=-=-=-=

I was talking to a customer yesterday who was telling me that he was dissatisfied at his job and was thinking of quitting. “What would you do?”, I asked. He said he didnt know. He just felt confident that he could get another job with no problem almost immediately. I told him that I cant imagine anyone would be thinking of voluntarily unemploying themselves right now. Theres no certainty that people who even want their jobs will have them in the next 12 months. Then again, maybe I was just projecting my own fears on this guy.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Gas prices continue to fall in my region with a gallon fo gas now hanging out at around $1.55. The lower gas prices makes traveling in the great state of Montana a little cheaper so I may attend some out-of-town gun shows over the next few months and see if I can find some bargains. I have a gun show this coming weekend and it’ll be the first gun show Ive been to since the elction…Im curious to see how the market for various guns and gun-related items goes.

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

The whole reason, for me, to plunk down $500 on a G3-to-.22 conversion kit was so that I could practice things like quickly getting a sight picture from a ‘ready slung’ position, practice shooting while walking, weak-hand shooting, etc. So today I headed out the the range with a brick o’ Federal and did exactly that. And it was great. Had a wonderful time. Most of the shooting was done at fifty yards since I figure thats probably pretty close to the distances that are present when one really does need to snap a rifle up for a hasty shot. Moving-n-shooting was challenging as was weak-hand stuff. The range has some empty oxygen cylinders hanging from a rack that are used as targets. Just about the right height and width of your average bad guy so they were an ideal target with audible feedback.

All in all, alot of fun. I shot about 200 rounds of ammo..put another way, I shot $0.50 of ammo and saved almost $100 of actual .308. (ALot of the surp .308 is clocking in at almost fiftycents per round these days.)

Now I just need to get the .22 conversion for the Glock so I can practice transition drills.

By the by, the previous couple of times I took this kit out I had a few jams and stoppages. This time everything ran like a Swiss watch. No malfs of any kind..slow fire, rapid fire, dump-the-mag-in-3-seconds fire, etc….not a prob. Same ammo as last time, so I dont know what was different but it was a real joy to shoot. Takes a little of the sting out of the cost of the kit.

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

Received one of…well, actually more than one…of these today. It comes with this filter which pretty much stops everything (”..Sarin, nerve gas, mustard gas, cyanogen, phosgene, radioactive dust, toxic particles, aerosols, tear gas, bacteria, viruses, anthrax, smallpox etc. — Also provides protection against industrial gases such as ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, acid gases, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and many more…”)

Price was right, quantity was right, and, well, why wouldn’t you if the price was right? Naturally the missus and I have the older M 17a1 series which I suppose is better than nothing but filters are rather dated, you cant change them without taking the mask off, etc, etc. So, when these newer masks were offered to me, I figured “Why not”?

Never know when theres going to be some sort of chaos that makes breathing a tad difficult. And oxygen is alot like sex…you dont give too much thought to it until you arent getting any…then it becomes mighty important in a hurry. Am I expecting a little nuclear or biological ‘event’ in my neck of the woods? Nope. But you never know whats going to happen and its always nice to be prepared, no?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Put in another order with Stag Arms today. I asked the usual question of ‘how long?’ and was given a firm, no-nonsense reply of “twenty weeks”. Thats damn near April, folks. Over two months in the Carter II administration. Woe unto he that ain’t got his evil black rifle by then.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

By the by, got a few cases of Mountain House freeze-dried pork chops on the way. When they originally ran these things off for the military they canned ‘em up as whole pork chops. Sometimes things dont go as planned and the freeze-dried pork chop breaks in half. Well, the broken pork chops get set aside and canned all on their own. …. And find their way to a guy like me who doesnt care if a pork chop is in two pieces instead of one when it results in a huge savings in price. ‘Cause when the apocalypse comes I am not spending it as a freakin’ vegetarian. Sure, I could go out and knock down squirrels, cats, and birds for meat but if things are that desperate Im prolly gonna wanna stay indoors where its relatively safe. Open up a can of pork chops, instant potatoes, corn, some fruit for desert and wash it down with some instant iced tea or fruit drink. Sitting in the dark eating cold Spaghetti-O’s out of the can is not an option. If I gotta spend the day cleaning up the rubble of society, shooting looters, bandaging the injured and lugging fuel around the last thing I want is to be rewarded for it at the end of the day with a styrofoam Cup’o’Noodles and some sardines. Bleah.

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

Someone asked in comments if I had a list or other worksheet that they could use to start their own program of being prepared. Unfortunately, I never really kept any kind of list until many years later and even then it was mostly a list of things to pick up as time and money permitted.

My ‘method’, if you want to call it that, for deciding whats needed is to use my imagination and some fairly simple logic. I usually start off with “Its dark, Im cold, naked, unarmed, broke, slightly injured, hungry and thirsty” and then start extrapolating from there. Logic plays a big part. A chain of reasoning might go like this: We want to be able to eat so we need food. We have food, now we need a way to store it. We have stored food, now we need a way to cook it. We have a way to cook it, now we need fuel for that cookstove. We have cooked food from storage, we need something to eat off of. You get the idea. Following that sort of logic through several generations can fill up one side of a legal pad pretty quick.

Two books I’ve found on the subject (and I’ve read a lot of them, believe me) are:

Making The Best of Basics by Stevens

Crisis Preparedness Handbook by Spigarelli

Both books are good places to start, provide suggestions on what to stock and why, and give plenty of food for thought. No one resource is going to have a list of everything you’ll need…everyone’s needs, and everyone’s idea of what the enod of the world will look like, are different. What you might think is necessary may not be what someone else thinks is necessary.

I’m of the ‘economic disaster’ school of the apocalypse. Some folks feel strongly that the biggest threat will be a nuclear war. Some think that ‘Peak Oil’ will be the downfall of civilization. Whatever you think it is, think about how it would affect you and then do whatever you think is necessary to reduce or eliminate those risks.

I think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. I think unemployment will go up, banks will go down, people will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of actually having to worry about what their food costs, and some goods and services may become unavailable….thus, my preparations tend to be centered around those sorts of things.

No matter what youre preparing against, some things remain the same – you need shelter, food, water, heat, light, sanitation, protection and fuel. Get those avenues covered and youre pretty much good-to-go against 90% of anything that comes your way.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Speaking of the economy, I am at a loss to believe that theres anything the .gov is doing right now that makes sense. I readily admit that my grasp of economics and finance aren’t anything beyond ‘average’ but I cant see how the amount of money being thrown around at the moment can’t become something that’s going to haunt this country in a major way further down the road.

It looks like .gov is pulling out all the last gasp desperation tricks it can…the ‘extreme measures’. The consequences of using those tricks will be severe, but at least we’ll be around for the consequences. That’s the plan, anyway. What remains afterwards, though, will, I think, be a far different economic landscape than what we’ve grown used to in our lives.

Naturally, this is all bigger than you and I. Theres nothing we can do to stop it, and certainly nothing we can do to undo it. All we can do is try to forsee the resultant effects and prepare ourselves accordingly.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I am having an annoying experience finding suitable five-gallon buckets lately. I’d decided it was time to stock up on more 5-gallon buckets for my various stored items. Trouble is, the buckets I normally picked up at the paint department at Lowe’s and Home Depot seem a little flimsy as of late. Turns out that theyre marked on the bottom as .060 mil thick. The ones I want are at least 075 mil thick but I cant find any plain white ones. I can find some 090 mil ones at the local beerbrewing place for an outrageous $15@. Home Depot’s buckets are .075mil and priced affordably but theyre the annoying Home Depot orange color. What I want is a simple, plain, white bucket that’s at least 075 mil and less than $10. Now, before you get your Google-fu on, yes I can order them online. Problem is once you do that your cost, with shipping, gets a bit prohibitive. So I need to travel around town a bit more and hit the paint stores and see what shakes loose.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sweet Link O’ The Day:

Ballistics By The Inch – Three guys, two chronographs and 7000 rounds of ammo

A fascinating experiment on barrel length and its effect on velocity. Succinctly, chrono ammo through a barrel, cut off 1″, repeat. Highly recommended.

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

I’ve a few cases of MH #10 cans leftover from a group purchase if anyone is interested. Only requirement is you have to buy in increments of 6 cans, but you can mix/match to your hearts content.  Shipping is actual UPS. Email me for a list. zero@commanderzero.com

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

Lon Horiuchi is:

• a) A respected law-enforcement tactical marksman
• b) An expert on rifles and rifle usage, whose opinion should be respected
• c) A guy who shot an unarmed woman while she was holding her baby and claimed he was ‘just following orders’

If you answered anything other than ‘C’ then youre probably working for the ad company that H-S Precision hired.

H-S Precision, whose stock I have on my lovely CZ550, is, apparently, using an endorsement from the Ruby Ridge mom-killer to pimp their guns. As best I can tell, Im not making this up. Before we tear them a new one we should make sure that this is a genuine event.

Linkage:

Call Me Ahab

The War On Guns

The ad copy in question

Next thing you know Charter Arms will hire David Berkowitz as a spokesman for the company.

If this is real then H-S Precision may single-handedly be responsible for stealing the award from Jim Zumbo for the ‘Bite the hand that feeds you’ championship title.

Hat tip to  Books, Bikes and Boomsticks

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

Made another trip to the Mormon cannery the other day. There were more people there  than at any point I recall in my brief time going there. However, despite the crowd and the apparent increased usage at the cannery, they were well stocked with the usual foods. I’m actually sitting pretty well on most of the types of foods they carry. It really has come to the point that one of the main reasons I go is to be around people who share a similar mindset as myself. They older gentleman running the place, for example, is great to talk to…he’s into amateur radio, takes preparedness very seriously, and will try to convince anyone he can that they need to stock up not only for themselves but to also encourage their neighbors to stock up because ‘really good people can do bad things when theyre desperate’. I agree with a good deal of that attitude except the ‘my brothers keeper’ part. Unprepared neighbors may be dangerous neighbors when theyre hungry, I agree. And I’ll mention once or twice “You know, you may wanna think about stockpiling some [food/fuel/water/etc]..ask me if you need help doing so.” And that’s about as far as my feelings of responsibility towards my fellow man go. If I tell you the train is coming and you continue to stand on the tracks…well, I warned you.

Are hungry neighbors dangerous neighbors? Of course they are. So I generally try to keep most of our preparedness stuff secret from pretty much everyone outside our immediate circle of friends. And, heaven forefend, the day comes when those hungry masses are hammering down the door clamoring for our food, our water, our medicines, our fuel….man, I hate to think what that would be like and I hate to think of the ugly, brutal choices that would have to be made. Another reason to have a “Plan B” place to go if things get that bad.

What about family and friends? Do we have a responsibility to them? Tough question. I don’t believe in forcing responsibilities on people. I think we’re only responsible to those people whom we have willingly, consciously, and actively agreed to accept responsibility for. That is to say, I agree to accept responsibility for helping out certain friends and family because I say “Yes, I will do this for you.” Anyone else is, generally, outta luck. In my case this isn’t a terribly big deal because 95% of my friends are also interested in preparedness. Odds are quite high they’ll be just fine. The rest of my family live a thousand or more miles away. Its seems unlikely they’ll make the journey to show up on my doorstep to say “You have to take care of me! Im your cousin!”.

When this subject comes up someone will invariably ask “What if a stranger with her starving children showed up on your doorstep and needed food or else her children would die?” Tough call. I like to think I would have enough to spare a small handout here and there but if theres the slightest chance that giving away our own supplies would put us in a more dangerous position, supplywise, then there’s no contest. We take care of ourselves and our interests before putting a strangers well-being ahead of our own. If you ‘give until it hurts’ then I think you’ve given too much.

This begets the next progression of thought – shouldn’t we stock extra food and materials for helping out the unprepared? To my way of thinking, there is no such thing as ‘extra’ to the point that you can give it away. Certainly I am not squandering what little financial resources I have for the purposes of giving it away to strangers…that’s the governments act, not mine. If I have enough money for 100# of rice I see it as 100# of rice for me and the missus, not as 75# of rice for us and 25# for the unprepared masses. A 25% ‘tax’ on what I buy and store is, again, the .gov’s answer to things…not mine. If we have 12 months of food and are trying to make it through a disaster of indefinite length what could possibly compel me to shorten our potential 12-month lifeline when , for all we know, the crisis may go 14-, 16- or 18-months? Imagine being on a plane that is spiraling to the ground…maybe the pilot will regain control before it crashes..maybe not. You have a parachute for every member of your family. Do you give away a couple of your kid’s parachutes to someone else and figure ‘well, maybe we won’t crash and we wont need them’? Of course not.

To expect a person, in a time of crisis, to act in a manner that is counter to their own survival seems pretty irrational. On the other hand, history and monuments testify to untold amounts of people who acted in a manner contrary to their own survival for the sake of others. We call these people ‘heroes’. It is worth noting, however, that all these people did their heroic acts of their own volition. They willingly accepted the responsibility to act, against their own interests and in the interest of another, and the consequences.

My long-winded and evasive point is that although the world is a better place for the actions of those who do feel they have a responsibility to others, I don’t share that responsibility and I don’t think theres anything wrong with that. Im sure somone will say “You’re a sociopath” but thats not really the case. Some might say that I’m being amoral (not immoral). Again, no. I simply think that asking me to cut my own throat to save a stranger isn’t terribly reasonable.

Some might say “What if it were you who needed help? Wouldn’t you want people to help you?”. Sure. But, first of all, the reason I go through the expense and effort of being prepared is so that Im not that person. Secondly, should something take place where Im in that position of vulnerability, while I would hope someone would be charitable I wouldnt expect (or demand) that someone put their own safety in jeopardy by giving me a handout….much akin to the same way Im not adverse to giving a handout if I can safely afford it.

I’m not against charity. I think the world is a better place for the charity of other people. I simply don’t feel that being so charitable to the point that you risk your own safety is a good idea. I don’t feel that I should have a responsibility forced on me by others. And, finally, I don’t think that not feeling a personal responsibility to feed every person who asks for it is wrong.  I’ll be charitable, sure..but when I want to, as much as I want to, to whomever I want. And I really think there’s nothing wrong with that.

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

Every so often I feel compelled to mention that, hey, Im not an expert. Im not an authority. Im not even an ‘informed source’. I’m just a guy who has an interest in preparedness, some space on the internet, and a desire to explore and discuss related topics. What works for me may not work for you…actually, it may not even be working for me. But, I’ll tell you about it and you can work it around in your own mind and maybe we’ll both be better for the experience.

For the last few weeks I’ve been re-reading “Alas Babylon”. By ‘re-read’ I mean that when I go to bed I’ll pick up the book, open it up to an arbitrary page, and start reading for a little while until I feel its time to doze. For some reason I never get tired of that book. Not sure why. I’ve read a lot of survivalist fiction…huge amounts… and some was better, many were just as good, and a large amount were worse. But I find “Alas Babylon” to be one of the best.

When I was a kid I devoured Ahern’s ‘Survivalist’ series. Talk about fiction…the ultimate ubermensch (a renaissance man in the Buckaroo Banzai style – CIA agent, medical doctor, survival expert, martial arts expert, etc, etc.) living in the ultimate survival bunker with the staunchly loyal sidekick and hopelessly infatuated exotic hottie love interest. Throw in some sci-fi (which they did later), lotsa meticulously detailed gunplay, tongue-in-cheek nods at social and political commentary and you have a recipe for formulaic pulp that established the benchmark for the genre. A friend of mine bought the entire series off eBay and I sometimes re-read them. I am amazed Ahern got as many years out of that series as he did. A sidenote is that his relentless worship of the Detonics pistol eventually culminated in him running the company in Victor Kiam fashion (“I liked it so much, I bought the company!”). Unfortunately even Ahern’s fervor and zeal didn’t save Detonics from becoming the Charter Arms of the 1911 world.

About the same time we had another end-of-the-world pulp series. “The Guardians” was a series about a small secret government military squad whose sole job was to piece together the missing government plan to rebuild the US after the nuclear war. Naturally the heroes each had distinctive traits and qualities, traveled randomly around the US in their pursuit and left trails of bodies wherever they went. The series eventually wound up being ghostwritten towards the end and it ended on a whimper.

Speaking of tremendous failures, when the mind-numbingly repetitive ‘Ashes’ series finally put out the last book it was probably the lamest, worst , most uninspired way to kill off a protagonist in the history of the genre. He simply…caught an alien space virus and died. Just. Like. That. Johnstone’s series was unique in the genre for actually having started a political/social movement. For a few years there were very vocal ‘Tri-States’ supporters on various forums. I personally found them comedic, although sincere in their desire for the political system espoused in the series.

Slightly less inspiring but equally formulaic was Axlers “Deathlands” series. The premise was interesting (secret .gov teleportation facilities left over after a nuclear holocaust allow those who know how to work the system to roam the wastes of the country seeking old stockpiles of arms and supplies) with the occasional lurid sex scene thrown in. Again, very formulaic but still entertaining. Less relation to ‘real life’ than any of the previously mentioned series.

For non-series books theres always Lucifers Hammer (comet scenario), Footfall (invasion from space scenario), Invasion (Chinese invade US scenario…I liked this one), Patriots (economic collapse/UN takeover scenario), The Postman (general collapse scenario..some odd messages in the book), Pulling Through (novel w/ nuclear war survival skills), Warday (aftermath of limited nuclear exchange) , Wolf & Iron (unspecified collapse, heavyhanded pro-wolf theme), and one of my recent favorites, Island in The Sea of Time (temporal displacement scenario).

Out of all these, I still like “Alas Babylon” most. Probably because the author’s goal was different than that of any of the other authors mentioned. His intent wasn’t to sell books, disparage gun control, warn of global conspiracies, or promote a self-developed political system. From what I’ve read of ‘Pat Frank’ (his real name escapes me at the moment) his goal was to show that nuclear war was not unsurvivable and that people should agitate for a strong civil defense program.

So, if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend picking up a copy. It is quite obviously dated with its ‘atomic war’ and ‘hydrogen bomb’ references as well as some racial stereotypes of the era, but still a very good read in my opinion. I was about to say that its ripe for being made into a movie but it occurs to me that the television series “Jericho” paralleled it quite a bit. In fact, I recall referring to ‘Jericho’ as ‘Alas Babylon: The Series’.

For sheer, unparalleled over-the-top fun reading I recommend Aherns ‘The Survivalist’ series. It has a cheesey 1980’s feel to it and it’s just out and out fun to read even though you’ll roll your eyes everytime the hero escapes overwhelming odds thanks to some deus ex machina or other contrivance. An excellent drinking game could be constructed from the series using terms like “Metalifed”, “twin Detonics” and “musette bag”.

Here’s a very incomplete list of survivalist fiction titles that I picked up off a board somewhere. I can’t vouch if any of them are any good, but theyre a good place to start:

Abbey, Edward – Black Sun

Ahern, Jerry & Sharon Ahern – The Freeman

Aikman, David – When the Almond Tree Blossoms

Anvil, Christopher – The Steel, The Mist, and the Blazing Sun

Barjavel, Rene – Ashes, Ashes

Baron, Robert – Storm Rider (series)

Bell, Art & Whitley Streiber – The Coming Global Superstorm

Benford, Gregory & Martin Greenberg – Nuclear War (short stories)

Berman, Mitch – Time Capsule

Block, Thomas H. – Airship Nine

Blumenfeld, Yorick – Jenny, My Diary

Bosse, Malcolm – Mister Touch

Brunner, John – The Day of the Star Cities

Brunner, John – The Sheep Look Up

Budrys, Algis – Some Will Not Die

Burton, Levar – Aftermath

Cameron, J.D. – Omega Sub (series)

Camus, Albert – The Plague

Christopher, John – The Long Winter

Christopher, John – No Blade of Grass

Cook, Robin – Outbreak

Coppel, Alfred – Dark December

Dale, Floyd R. – A Hunter’s Fire

Defoe, Daniel – Robinson Cruesoe

Dickson, Gordon R. – In Iron Years

Drake, David & Billie Sue Mosiman – Armageddon (short stories)

DuBois, Brendan – Resurrection day

Fleishman, Paul – Path of the Pale Horse

Gilbert, Elizabeth – The Last American Man

Gleason, Robert – Wrath of God

Graham, David – Down to a Sunless Sea

Graham, David – Survival Margin

Greenberg, Martin & Gregory Benford – Nuclear War (short stories)

Guha, Anton-Andreas – Ende

Hagberg, David – Heartland

Harry, Eric L. – Arc Light

Hegland, Jean – Into the Forest

Heine, William C. – Death Wind

Heinlein, Robert A. – Sixth Column

Herbert, James – Domain

Herbert, James – 48

Hernon, Peter – 8.4

Hill, Russell -Cold Creek Cash Store

Hodge, Brian – Dark Advent

Johnson, K.S. – The Omega Plan

Johnstone, William J. – Breakdown

Kornbluth, C.M. – Not This August

Kunetka, James & Whiley Streiber – Nature’s End

L’Amour, Louis – Last of the Breed

Lange, Oliver – Defiance (also published as Vandenberg)

Malcolm, Donald – The Iron Rain

Mann, Ed – First Angel

Masterson, Graham – Famine

McCammon, Robert R. – Swan Song

McPhee, James – Survival 2000 (series)

Merle, Robert – Maleveil

Miklowitz, Gloria D. – After the Bomb (series)

Mills, James – One Just Man

Morrow, James – This is the Way the World Ends

Mosiman, Sue Billie & David Drake – Armageddon (short stories)

Murphy, Pat – The City, Not Long After

Nahmlos, John – Survivors

O’brien, Robert C. – Z for Zachariah

Osier, John – Rankin: Enemy of the State

Palmer, David R. – Emergence

Phipson, Joan – When the City Stopped

Pouns, Brauna, E. – Amerika

Rand, Ayn – Atlas Shrugged

Randall, Marta – Those Who Favor Fire

Reisig, Michael – The New Madrid Run

Rhinehart, Luke – Long Voyage Back

Robinson, Kim Stanley – The Wild Shore

Roshwald, Mordecai – Level 7

Sheffield, Charles – Aftermath

Siegel, Barbara & Scott – Firebrats (series)

Simmons, Geoffrey – Pandemic

Stirling, S.M. Island in the Sea of Time

Streiber, Whitley & Art Bell – The Coming Global Superstorm

Streiber, Whitley & James Kunetka – Nature’s End

Sutton, Henry – Vector

Terman, Douglas – Free Flight

Tucker, Wilson – Long Loud Silence

Turtledove, Harry – American Empire

Warner, Douglas – Death on a Warm Wind

Wilhelm, Kate – Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang

Williams, Walter J. – The Rift

Winslow, Pauline Glen – I, Martha Adams

Wollheim, Donald A. The End of the World (short stories)

Wren, M.K. – A Gift Upon the Shore

Wylie, Philip – Tomorrow!

Wyndam, John – The Day of the Triffids

Wyndham, John – The Kraken Awakes

Most of these books can be found on eBay or possibly in your local used book store. Have fun.

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

Too much gun talk here lately. Sure its fun, sure its sexy, but theres so much more to life and being prepared than that…..

Winter approaches and things are starting to get chilly. Montana has four distinct seasons, but that distinction is, well, distinct. Summer doesn’t gradually become Fall, and Fall does not gently slide into Winter. Every three months or so, someone in Helena heads to the basement of the State Capital building, flips a switch, and temperatures across Montana change by 25 degrees. It happens that abruptly.

My particular region of Montana is called the Banana Belt because its actually very temperate in this area. When its -6 in Billings, 0 in Great Falls or -1 in Butte it’ll be a balmy +15 here. Snowfall is very mild. However, that’s no reason to be complacent about things.

In the event of power disruption we’ve got to have options for staying warm when it’s a howling 0 degrees outside. My first choice for localized heating is the trusty kerosene heater. The fuel is safe to store, readily available, and can be used in my lamps and stoves. Very handy. A few years ago I upgraded to a newer kerosene heater and relegated the second to backup usage or use as a loaner. Both heaters, by the way have spare wicks…a good thing to have. Additional gear includes a small siphon, fuel funnel, instruction manuals and most importantly a couple of quality fire extinguishers and a carbon monoxide detector. Carbon monoxide poisoning is nothing to take chances with.

I normally keep the thermostat pretty low in the winter since Im cheap and I operate best at cool temperatures. However I do understand that extreme cold and water pipes do not mix. The backup heater is an excellent way to keep a vulnerable basement above freezing. I’ve had pipes freeze in the past and although I was lucky enough to dodge any of them bursting, it was a near thing and I don’t recommend the experience.

Propane heaters are another option and since Im all about options I also have one of those small ‘buddy’ heaters that runs on 1# bottles of propane. Theyre good for heating a small room and they seem to work quite well. Some people prefer to store propane for the convenience and I do agree its a lot easier to handle than juggling a 5-gallon drum of kerosene and a funnel. Even with propane its still a must that precautions be taken – fire extinguishers and CO detectors for everyone.

For personal gear, I like down but it has a couple drawbacks. First is that it aint cheap. Second is that many of the garments are a bit delicate with thin nylon shells that will tear like tissue paper under any real stress. While it insulates quite nicely, it loses that value if it gets wet. I do love that it compacts easily for stuffing into a backpack and that it does a great job of keeping a person warm…but sometimes that’s not enough. Wool is great stuff and theres tons of cheap military surplus available in wool so that you could get some very nice gear for very little money. The surplus catalogs almost always have German, Swiss, Swedish and Austrian surplus clothing that is made of wool. It can be heavy, it can itch but it really is an excellent material for staying warm. I have a Filson vest that is great and I hope to someday get their impressive Double Mackinaw Cruiser coat. Big bucks, though…but it’ll last a lifetime. Some of the synthetics like polypro get a big thumbs up from me. A pair of polypro long underwear and a pair of wool pants over it will make you impervious to pretty much anything except Antarctic temperatures. Lately I’ve been playing with polarfleece-type jackets worn under a windproof outer layer. This seems to be an excellent compromise for warmth versus mobility and versatility.

For hands, I prefer mittens instead of gloves although many times I’ll wear both. The military system of a three-fingered wool mitten inside a heavy outer mitten shell works quite well and is very affordable. I have a pair of Outdoor Research mitten shells that are one of the best products Ive found. The overmitts are a waterproof nylon shell, with reinforced palms and other stress/work points, with long gauntlets, cinches to keep out snow, and loops for a keeper cord. They are my first choice for when Im out stomping around in the snow. They make almost any pair of mittens or gloves warmer and drier. An excellent product. Although they make you look like a five-year-old at recess, those absurd keeper cords are vital. If your tromping through the boonies and take off your gloves to fish a compass out of your bag, punch buttons on your GPS or anything else you really don’t want to either lose your gloves or have them drop to the ground and get filled with snow. Putting on gloves that have snow in them is a major drag. Use the dummy cords. And its not a bad idea to carry a spare pair of gloves.

Another product I can recommend with absolutely no reservation is the polypro neck gaiter sold by Brigade Quartermaster. I bought my first one over twenty years ago. Since then other companies have started making them but I find the original one from BQ to be the best. Its thick, long enough to have extra material for other uses, affordable, and available in the usual subdued colors. It can be worn as a neck warmer, hood, hat, mask, etc… I have such high regard for these that I keep several in storage and guard them jealously. You really should spend ten bucks and get one, I think you’ll be very glad you did.

For hats, I like the nylon ‘watchcap’ type of hat. A few years ago I was wandering through WalMart and found one that was about three times the thickness of the average military cap, came in subdued colors, was around $4 ea, and was, amazingly, made in America. I think I bought six of them. They’ve been excellent in their assigned role. If you don’t mind looking like Elmer Fudd those quaint wool/fleece caps with the goofy earflaps are actually pretty good too. If, like me, you just want to sometimes mess with peoples minds, theres always the thermally inefficient but aesthetically outrageous Jayne hat. Pretty cunning, dontcha think?

If you’re feet are dry and warm, the world seems a whole lot nicer. A terrific product is Goretex socks. Wear these over a pair of good wool socks and you could wear sneakers in a stream and still feel warm and dry. I usually go with a cotton sock, then a wool sock. If things are really ugly I’ll go with the cotton/wool/goretex layering but the boots have to be laced loosely for it to work. A good pair of high-quality insulated boots will easily cost a couple hundred bucks. Its worth it for the comfort and warmth/dryness. I used to wear Danner’s but now the majority of them are made overseas and the ones that are still made in the US aren’t the style I want.

Of course, all this is academic becuase we’re all gonna be living in the desert ’cause of global warming, y’know. Al Gore said so….

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

Well, I hadnt planned on spending money or adding to my stockpiles today but….

My local gun shop has an Uzi B model for sale. Way too much but I stopped by figuring Id ask if they’d move on it. Nope. Staying firm at the exorbitant price (it only comes with one magazine, fer crying out loud!). However, while I was there I noticed a stack of familiar shaped magazines in the display case.

Me: How much are the 40-rd AK mags?

Them: Hmm..Make you a deal if you take all of them?

Me: Oh geez..okay, let’s hear it.

Them: $100 for all ten.

Me: :::sighs in defeat::: Bag ‘em up.

Well, c’mon..for ten bucks a mag wouldnt you have cleaned ‘em out too???

Then it was an impromptu trip to the Mormon cannery. Exercised a modicum of self control and only came back with a dozen #10 cans of food product. Other people, however, showed no such restraint and several people left with a dozen cases of food..which naturally puts me into the “Hmmm…what do they know that I dont” mindset.

Then finally it was a call to Stag Arms to order an AR-15 for a customer. Fifteen to twenty weeks. Some of their wholesalers may get some sooner and I was told I may wanna order from them. One more note of interest with Stag – they no longer sell AR receivers with a letter saying the receiver was never used on a rifle and can therefore be built as a pistol. “Too much paperwork” I was told. Hmmmm.