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

A little product release announcement from the guys at Stag Arms landed in my mailbox today. They are pimping the “2012 Executive Survival Kit”. Now, I’ve always thought that a big Pelican/Hardigg case full of essentials would be handy but Im not sure I’d stock it the same way these guys have.

STAG ARMS and LAN World, Inc. have designed the executive survivor’s kit (ESK) for the discerning customer that demands the highest quality equipment. Using only the finest products the 2012 ESK is truly the survivor’s kit of choice for any type of disaster preparedness and personal security. The ESK can be purchased ($2012) online or over the phone where a customer service agent will find your closest dealer and assist in the transfer to you. The ESK with its military grade case is perfect for long term storage or can easily travel with you.
The 2012 Executive Survivor’s Kit includes the following and is competitively priced at $2,012 (over $2500 value!):
*Stag Arms Model 2 AR-15 rifle
*Diamondhead Versa-Rail handguard

*EoTech 517 Holographic Red Dot Optic
*Stag Arms Field Repair Kit, OTIS AR-15 Cleaning Kit, & Silent Sling
*Two 30 Round Magazines (10 rounds for restricted states)
*Gerber MP 600 Multi-Pliers
*Gerber Omnivore LED Flashlight
*Dual Purpose Human/Pet First Aid Kit
*MRE Field Ration Meal
*Pelican 1700 Long Case
*60 Rounds of Quality Ammunition

In fact, I figured that a kit like that for me would be a Pelican case big enough to hold the usual BOB-sized pack and a broken down rifle.

Depending on what flavor of apocalypse youre expecting, I think you’d be far better prepared with your own kit rather than so e pre-bought package…and this applies to pretty much everything – ‘years supply’ of food packages, wilderness survival kits, first aid kits, etc, etc.

Still, it’s kind of interesting to see something like this. Obviously gun manufacturers know that theres folks like us out there who buy their products, it’s just fairly rare that they pander to us so blatantly. (And I’m looking at you Z-Max ammo makers!)

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

In email today, I got a forwarded:forwarded:forwarded (you know the kind) email with a picture of a blown up Smith 629 and the story that the guy behind the trigger had this hand grenade go off becuase of “Chinese made ammo”.

Now, last I checked, unless you’ve got some old Norinco from the 90’s, there is no Chinese ammo in the US. Even if there were grey-market Chinese ammo it would mostly be in the military calibers, not .44 Magnum. And even when the Chinese were bringing im ammo I never saw any in .44….

I suppose it’s possible the email meant Korean ammo, from PMC which, I suppose, the less observant might confuse with PRC. Unfortunately, without a headstamp or more information, it’s tough to tell.

Anyway, if you get this email, take it with a grain of salt…I’m pretty sure theres no Chinese .44 ammo in the US, although if I’m wrong please send me a link about it.

Here’s a cut/paste of the text, I’m not gonna bother with the photo:

Bet this scared the shit out of the guy.

.44 Magnum accident

First it was baby formula, then pet food, but now you should watch out when buying anything from China , including bright, shiny ammunition.

A guy came into the police department the other day to ask a favor. He had a S&W 629 (.44 Mag) that he wanted to dispose of after a mishap at the range.

He said there was a loud bang when he tested his new ammo (Chinese made), and the gun smacked him in the forehead, leaving a nice gash when the tweety birds cleared from around his head, the pictures show what he saw.

Bet he never uses Chinese made ammo again!

Looks like when the round in the chamber went off, it also set off at least two other rounds in adjacent cylinders.

I would have hated to been the one that pulled the trigger on that one!

A really good reason for not buying cheap Chinese ammunition!

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

I’ve always thought that the most unproductive time of year is the week between Christmas and New Years. Most folks are still in the holiday mode from Christmas and getting further into it in anticipation of New Years, lots of folks just take the whole week off, and expecting to make major sales or deals during that week is just not gonna happen. So, to me, this is a ‘lost week’. Nonetheless, I’m at the shop doing what needs doing because even if I expect things to be painstakingly slow this week, that means that I can get much done undisturbed.
=-=-=-=-=-=
Nuke, by the way, made out just fine with a load of dog toys for Festivus. At heart, he’s an animal that loves the snow but so far we haven’t had very much. When we finally do get a foot or two of the stuff I plan on taking him out for a day in it since it tires him out quite nicely.
=-=-=-=-=-=
I don’t expect 2012 to be any better than the last several years. It’ll be more interesting, for certain, but not much better. Since it’s an election year I expect there to be ’sudden’ and ‘unexpected’ shifts in policy to try and curry favor with the voting population. I suppose you could say that 2012 will have to be better since, by virtue of it being an election year, there’s a chance to get rid of the current administration. Well, yes, there’s the chance to send them packing….but will it make a difference? I don’t think so; not in the short term…perhaps in the long (way long) term it’ll make a difference. I’m not sure there’s anything that either party is willing to do that will change the rather tragic course we seem to be set on.

But, being a sort of optimistic survivalist, I’m hoping that something will happen that will make things better. What that is, I have no idea. Maybe a collapse of the Euro will send nations flocking to the US dollar and create a huge market for US debt while simultaneously strengthening the dollar.

Regardless, 2012 promises to be more of the same – reduce debt, think long term, avoid liabilities, reduce vulnerabilities, plan and prepare for contingencies and somewhere in the midst of all that try to live a somewhat normal life. (Although, for me, my normal operating condition is ‘cautious with an eye towards potential problems’)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Buddy of mine is buying a generator today. I’m happy for him (I’m always happy when my friends do things that I think are good for them) and a bit jealous (bad, I know). On the bright side, I’ll learn the ins and outs of the Honda EU2000 without actually having to buy one.

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

The LMI always come up with the coolest gifts.

This is the preferred chow for my .308 boltgun. You don’t find Lapua brass in every gun shop, but, oh my, it is so worth the hunt to find it.

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

Almost as much as the gifts themselves, I love reading about what other folks got as gifts for the holidays. Now that Chrismahanakwanzakah is pretty much done, I like to see the how the loot rolls went. Some greys, some greens, some epics……

Thus far:
A heavy duty shackle, a thoughtful gift from a reader
Spare parts kit for the Hi-Lift jack, also a gift from a reader
A 12-pack of SureFire batteries
A Swiss Tech key, which is a nice way of having a small knife and screwdriver always at the ready
Pocket sized UTM grid overlay
A book on food storage cooking (“It’s in the bag“)
A pair of Carhart jeans and a camouflage shirt

So, all in all, awesomely cool prep gifts. High speed, low fail gifts. I love Festivus!

But, as much as it’s fun to brag on what I got, I wanna hear what sorta cool gear other people got for the holiday. So list out the cool prep-related stuff you got for Ramadan, Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzah, and Flying Spaghetti Monster day and let’s share.

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

Ah, the Festivus season is here. A joyful time, what with the Airing Of The Grievances, Feats of Strength, and, of course, the traditional aluminum pole.

Festivus: For The Rest Of Us.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I’ve been fairly slack lately in getting anything done regarding general preparedness. I have quite a few things that I want to do but I get easily distracted and, quite honestly, money is always tight around this time of year. I think what I need to do is set everything that needs to be done down on spreadsheet and start prioritizing the items. Something in a numerical order of priority that can be jiggered around as needs change. There’s definitely some low-priority things I’ve been meaning to do for the last couple of years that I have been just dragging my feet on and, honestly, it isnt going to get any cheaper to do them if I continue to put them off.

2012 will be an interesting year. As a presidential election year I expect the usual run-up of availability issues and pricing on various items as the election approaches. Doesn’t matter who the favorite candidate it, every presidential election sees a surge in people buying things ‘just in case’ the election doesn’t go the way they want. I’d like to say that I have everything I want, but theres always room for a few more Glocks, a few more ARs, and a bunch more magazines.

It isnt just me, all the evidence points to the natives being restless. The abundance of preparedness-oriented products hitting the market these days, as well as the mainstreaming of the notion of preparedness, indicates that there is indeed a ‘groundswell’ or ‘movement’ or ‘trend’ towards being prepared and being less disdainful of those who do.

2012 is also supposed to be the year that, according to an extinct civilization, the world is supposed to end because….thats when their calendar stops? Hey, I’ve got a Dillon girlie calendar on my wall that only goes up to December 31st…so by that logic, January 1st is the end of the world. Unless the person telling you when the world is going to end actually has their hands on the button, no one knows when. Oh, you can predict that it’ll happen, you might even narrow it down to a specific range of years, but a specific date? A time? Nope. Unless youre the guy making it happen, no one knows…no holy text, prophet, or self-proclaimed expert can say with certainty when. It’s like Powerball…you know that one of those numbers is gonna come up, you just cant foretell which one.

I’m sure there’ll be localized apocalypses in 2012….earthquakes, hurricanes, wars, famines, etc,…but some far-reaching, global event that undoes a couple thousand years of civilization. Not a chance.

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

A twofer….

Something seems fishy in this story, but I’ll go ahead and link it anyway:

And a shorter episode….

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

A buddy of mine sent me an awesome gift that arrived yesterday. He’d pointed this vendor out to me a couple months ago and I remember saying that if he wanted to get me something for Festivus he could get me this. Sure enough, that’s what arrived in the mail yesterday. How does this thing differ from, say, the Gerber Strike Force or the Swedish Firesteel? Glad you asked, because since I have both of those products I’ll be doing a simple comparison of them later.

Then, today, as I’m minding my own business at the shop listening to Adam Sandler’s ‘Hanukah Song’ on YouTube (William Shatner? Really?), the FedEx truck shows up with box from Amazon. What could it be, I wonder. Why, it’s a spare parts kit for the Hi-Lift jack. That’s two goodies for that wonderful piece of gear that have shown up this week. I’m a big fan of having spare parts for equipment and this little packet o’ parts will fit perfectly into the recovery kit that I’m putting together. The very thoughtful sentiment sent with it said, among other things, “…I hope you never need this, but now you have it if needed.” Wow, isn’t that pretty much the sentiment behind everything we do in the name of being prepared? Hope we don’t need it, but if we do………… So, thank you, sir. I appreciate the gift and I really appreciate the sentiment. Merry Christmas to you as well.

Man, what a rabbit hole I got dropped into. Ever do one of those things where you look up one item on the internet and it leads to information about a related item and then to another and before long your ten degrees of separation from your original topic? Yeah. That happened to me.

How have I never hear of Multi-Purpose Food? This is the sort of thing that, I would think, would be common history among people who are interested in the history of preparedness.

I’ll give you some links in a moment, but let me tell you how I found this stuff. In a quest for some other info, I came across someone’s blog where they posted about a bomb shelter in their grandparents backyard that they finally got access to. Essentially a time capsule from the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, there were pictures of the things that were found. (Post 1 and post 2 about the bomb shelter) One of the things that fascinated me was the pre-packaged kit of survival food and canned water. See, back then, much like today, enterprising folks set up businesses to cater to the sudden demand for suitable provisions to carry you through the nuclear holocaust that seemed imminent. What was in the kit? Well, in the one that was shown there were 14 cans of water and a can of “Multi-Purpose Food”.

What is MPF? Apparently, one 2-ounce serving met 1/3 of your daily protein and nutritional requirements. So, three 2-oz. servings per day would, in theory, keep you from starving to death.

MPF was the brainchild of Clifford Clinton, a guy who saw starvation up close and decided to do something about it. His restaurant in California would give free meals to those who couldn’t pay. But Clifton wanted to help a much larger population. To do that, he needed the right food. He contacted a biochemist with his parameters:

“This is what I want. This is what I must have – a product that will provide one-third of a day’s full nutrition in each two ounces. It must not offend any religious dietary law and must make no significant drain on supplies of accustomed food. Production costs should make it available to people having little or no income (under 5 cents a meal). It must have a long shelf life, require no refrigeration and be palatable whether served hot or cold”

And…it worked. Tons of this stuff was made up and shipped to the post-war world to relieve famines and hunger. As the ’60s rolled around, General Mills started making this stuff up for use in provisioning bomb shelters. And thats where I found information on it.

Nowdays we have freeze dried, vacuum sealed, foods that last pretty much as long as the container holding them will last. Content-wise, I’m sure that there are similar MPF-type food products out there…lifeboat rations spring to mind. But anyway, it’s an interesting little bit of history that segues nicely into our interest in preparedness.

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

Coolness! FedEx just dropped of an unexpected package. Someone (haven’t figured out who..there was no notation on the packing slip) sent me a little something off my Amazon wish list. A Christmas present, I’m sure. What was it, you ask? A nice heavy-duty 3/4″ shackle (or clevis, I suppose) that will come in quite handy when used with my Hi-Lift jack….which is exactly why I added it to my wish list.

I’m sure that whoever (or is it ‘whomever’?) sent it will either out themselves in email to me or in the comments so I can thank them appropriately but in case theyre the shy kind and are going to just lurk, well, then I take this moment to say ‘thank you very much’. This will go in the little kit that I’m putting together to go with the jack so that when the need arises little ol’ me will have the resources to move far more weight and mass than I could without them. Mucho thanks!