Sadly, even in what should be a tightly knit community like ours, there are still divisions. There’s one side that thinks that there is nothing wrong with spending big bucks on purpose-built or purpose-designed items versus those who believe that the cheapest alternative is ‘just as good’ and the other side is a buncha ‘yuppie survivalists’. A good example would be water containers. One person will say that anyone who uses anything other than recycled 2-liter pop bottles is not a ‘working man’ and is a fool who is throwing their money away, whereas the the other side will say that anyone who compromises on quality/engineering in order to save a few bucks is cutting their own throat with false economies. Both sides can get pretty vocal and, honestly, both sides kind of annoy me. It’s like two people standing on the deck of the Titanic arguing about rearranging deck chairs while the ship lists.
There won’t be any award given out for people who made it through the apocalypse using the cheapest gear or spending the least resources. If you can afford an advantage, take it. If you can’t, do what you can.
Which brings us to todays soon-to-be-beaten-to-a-lingering-death topic……….
Two things I keep in my gear: writing paper and writing utensils. Why? Because when things go bad, either on a personal small-level SHTF moment or the big epic one, you’re going to need to make notes…of gate combinations, mile markers, GPS coordinates, radio freqs, coded notes for meetup points, phone numbers, addresses, rendezvous times, and a zillion other things that are too important to commit to your already overburdened memory.
My line of reasoning is that in a crisis, if something is worth writing down its worth staying legible and intact until it is no longer needed. Now, I could just grab a ninety-nine cent pocket notebook, a plastic bag, and a ballpoint pen, and throw them in my bag. Or, I could spend the money and buy the paper that lets you write on it even when wet, the pen that lets you write upside down and with ink that won’t smear, and package it all in a handy cordura case that holds the paper and writing instruments together until such time as they’re needed. When that dark and stormy night comes and you need to leave a note tacked to your door telling your separated loved ones where to find you, the last thing you want it for that note to have become a spongy, pulpy mess with unreadable, streaked, and smeared ink.
Look, you do you. But I don’t mind spending money on the purpose-built, purpose-designed materials (or materiels) that fit my needs. Which leads me to these:
What youre looking at is a bunch of ‘Rite In The Rain’ products. These are the guys who are most noted (get it?) for their paper that…well…lets you write in the rain. But paper is only half the equation, the other half is something that will let you write in those circumstances. Remember thos Fisher ‘Space Pens’? Really, all they are are pens that use a pressurized ink cartridge. The RITR guys sell those too. Since I’m a suspenders-and-a-belt kinda guy I include a pen, pencil, Sharpie, and maybe an extra pen or two. Here’s what I’ve found that works for me.
I use the 3×5 notepads. I find them to be the best combination of utility and compactness. Additionally, 3×5 seems to be the most common size for accessories like covers and cases for the pad. RITR sells them, sometimes as a package, but other companies make similar products. I like one-stop-shopping whenever possible, so I just get it all from RITR. I used the grid paper rather than the usual lined paper because…well..its seems more useful if I have to draw a map or other graphic representation of something.
For actual writing instruments, it’s pretty much a no-brainer – go with a pen (or two) that use a pressurized cartridge containing a good waterproof ink. Again, I just get the RITR ones but there are some ‘tactical pens’ out there that also used pressurized cartridges. Might wanna get a spare cartridge or two as well.
In my line of work, we use a lot of mechanical pencils and I’ve come to eschew regular yellow No.2 pencils for any serious use. You can go down a major rabbit hole when it comes to mechanical pencils, leads, etc. For instance, I prefer a .5 lead, and I have a lovely .2 Japanese-made model, but in a tough world I want something less delicate. RITR has a 1.3mm that is really nice. It gives a thick easy to read line with a lead that is thick enough to not break easily. And the pencils themselves are pretty slick too. For scrawling a note to leave on a windshield, on the side of a box of ammo, or on the doorjamb of a house..I really like these. (And the three-pack comes in Black, OD, and FDE…nice.)
An interesting take on the pressurized space pen are these little things from Pokka. Their claim to fame is that they are two-piece compact pocket pens. One half acts as a sheath for the other half, take it apart and click them together to get a full size writing instrument. Handy for keeping a pen in your pants pocket without stabbing yourself in the thigh or painting your clothes with ink. Drawback is that the ink cartridge is necessarily half the capacity. But when you want a compact package to save space but still need the performance, its a good compromise. Other drawback is that it appears they are disposable, without replacement cartridges available. Assess for your needs accordingly.
And, of course, a Sharpie is never a bad idea to keep on hand.
As you think about it, there’s probably a couple additional things to keep handy in that same vein. The one that springs to mind first, for me, is a big chunk of sidewalk chalk and an equally as big crayon. I haven’t seen anything a crayon won’t write on.
Tucked away into a cordura pouch to keep everything collected and protected, it takes up about as much space as a cellphone. Nine times out of ten, I just use them for taking notes at gun shows. However, I also use this stuff for leaving notes on my truck when I go hunting in case something goes wrong, jotting down GPS coords in the field, and that sort of thing.
Can you achieve the same results with a ziploc baggie, a dollar notepad, and a cheap Bic? Yeah, probably. But I could also probably get the same results in New Orleans after Katrina using a Mosin Nagant and a HiPoint…but I’d probably rather have every advantage, real or imagined, on my side that is afforded by the stuff mentioned here.
As I said, it’s a subjective thing…what we determine is or is not worth dropping our hard-earned coin on. For me, since I don’t drink, smoke, or have expensive non-survivalist-related hobbies, I can spend a little money on stuff that someone else might think is an extravagant or unnecessary purchase. To each their own.
Mosin Nagant. $78 each, bought three; one for each of us. And cans of ammo with Cyrillic writing on them. Cleaned off the grease, cleaned them again and lubed them. Replaced the 70 year-old floppy triggers with slightly tighter remakes. Fired them out in the boonies. What a muzzle blast! Love the feel of them. If you ran out of ammo you could always club someone to death with it.
Once things weren’t so tight we all got ARs. But though those Russian senior citizens may be safe queens, they’re still loved. And we’ve still got can openers stashed…
Totally agree with the need to write. How many movie plots depended on a communication that failed due to soggy paper, or a mis-remembered address? When the S truly HTF you aren’t going to be able to – or even want to – use your cell phone as your memory.
There’s an idea – something like an old ‘solar calculator’ that also accepts text. No connectivity! Bet someone makes one…
Maybe add a couple of the big pushpins.
I think cellphones will have tremendous usage. Even without connectivity, it still does math, takes videos, takes pictures, can be used for comms on local networks, holds scores of useful .pdf files, hosts all sorts of useful standalone programs, etc, etc.
Wholeheartedly agree as to their utility. At the same time I would hesitate to carry a tracking device with me. Even if stored within a Faraday cage at some point you have to take it out to use it and then you’re trackable. I would be surprised at finding myself more…paranoid?…than you.
I think all modern cell phones have GPS and comms that can be remotely activated at any time, as well as by local scheduling. Meaning that even in a Faraday cage and ‘off’ it can record, and transmit same when out of the cage. Seriously, if you worked for govt and had power retention as your highest calling, wouldn’t you do anything you could to keep tabs on the opposition? Huawei, Nokia, Samsung, Apple, etc., they all do it, and it’s built into the chipsets.
Everything is tracked and recorded all the time. Everything. You can work around it if you have but at a significant loss in capability. Hence…another reason for paper.
Thank God for “Oft evil will shall evil mar”. Sometimes it’s our only secular hope.
Fani Willis – our govt in action.
I spent a lot of time in the Army doing land navigation stuff: walking it, teaching it, driving trucks full of munitions to random patches of boondock. And doing it after being awake and worn-out and stressed for multiple days. The sort of bone-tired and loopy that makes “2+2=?” a challenging computation.
A cheap durable solar-powered calculator — the sort that big box stores blow-out for $1 during the Back-To-School sales in August — makes it a lot more difficult to screw up a grid-to-magnetic azimuth (or vice versa) conversion at 0330 in the rain.
A basic mechanical pencil and pad of paper to “show the math” is also a very good idea. Just be sure to destroy your “show the math” sheets as you go — just as you do not put marks on your map.
Rite in the Rain has a pretty interesting website. https://www.riteintherain.com/
You wouldn’t think pens, pencils and notepads would be interesting but, they are. RITR also does the breakdown pen, sold in 2-packs. Sharpies and gel ink pens do not do well on RITR paper.
Funny thing about Space pens. After discovering ink doesn’t flow well in zero G, the pressurized ink cartridge was born. American engineering prowess leading the way!
The Soviets used pencils.
The whole Soviet pencil thing is myth, as I read it. The reason: using a pencil releases graphite dust and powder in the writing process. This is something you definitely dont want floating around in a highly electrical environment.
Once the Soviets realized dust and powder would be an issue, they went to pens. This was explained to me by a NASA engineer I met a long time ago. This was as low-tech as the conversation got. Every other topic quickly went over my head.
In fact when asked about this even at the height of the cold war they said they had sent someone from the DC Embassy to the shop and got a bow of Fisher Space Pens as why not? I’m not sure if the person who said it was around after that.
Not one cent of public money was ever spent on coming up with them.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen/
It looks like they must have liked them as they then ordered from the company.
Commander Zero have you given thought about keeping track of days?
As a gardener and smallholder my calendar is one of my most important tools. I note when I took the buck to my does, allowed my Ram to meet up with His Girls and thus know about when I expect signs of pregnancy and estimated delivery times.
Today I have the computer, Walmart calendars and such. After things get sporty??
After all the Aztec Priesthood made a living knowing the calendar and telling their farmers when to plant.
Ideas welcome as this year for example is a Leap Year and so reusing a calendar year after year (aside from wear and tear) will get more inaccurate for planting dates, last expected local frosts and such.
If you can find it HarborFreight sold a small black book of engineering,data etc. In the back was a perpetual calender specifically for this
Thank you, VT, at least I was able to Google about it.
No Harbor Freights nearby, pity.
You’re referring to Glover’s Pocket Ref? Amazon carries it as well, for about $12. Currently it’s on its 4th edition.
There’s also a larger version, the Desk Ref, that isn’t constrained to a size that can be physically fit into a shirt pocket. It’s on my shopping list currently so I can’t state for a fact that it contains more info than the pocket Ref or is just physically larger (1280 pages versus the 864 of the Pocket Ref) but even if its the exact same text I like the idea of having a portable copy and a library copy.
If you can afford it, have at it. But I live by this: don’t make perfect the enemy of “good enough”. I have a friend who always bought the best, expensive gear—“this is the parka they used on our base in Antartica. . . these are the boots SEALS wore in Afghanistan”. . . etc, ad nauseum. . . That’s great, but you know what? We live in deepest, darkest suburbia where NOBODY is trekking farther than a few hundred yards from your home to your car, to an office, to a restaurant,, etc. . . I use $15 rubber boots I got at Wal-mart when I shovel the snow from my driveway. I don’t need $200 boots to do that. I believe the term is “gear queer”. . . Now for guns and such, ok, yeah, I’m not going to have an inventory of Jennings pistols. . . but my Gen2 Glocks seem to be working fine.
“The perfect is the enemy of good enough” but $15 Walmart boots are still garbage, not “good enough” by any reasonable standard.
There are things that one can skimp on: toilet paper, canned beans, economy seats versus first class… And there are things where skimping isn’t rational: footgear being a prime example. Cold weather gear, body armor, optics, etc — if it’s crap and fails what will be the result to YOU, the user? Frozen feet with blackened toes falling off, death by hypothermia, a bullet through your torso versus a bruise, an unusable fogged-up scope versus a clear view of the shady sorts advancing on your site in the rain or snow?
These divisions you mention apply to every choice we make in life. Whether it’s store brand Vs name brand, or DEI medical grad Vs a Doc with merit, skills and experience. Life is about making choices and most folks make poor ones.
Liberty = choice. Even stupid choices (as others may see it)
Liberty = free market
One of the great things about Commander Zero is that he (usually) explains his ‘why’ which in turn often generates a discussion and sometimes disagreement. There are many different ways to get from Denver to Dallas and we all don’t have to go the same way at the same time.
(Russian voice) “What a country!”
One of the “learning moment” things I used to pull on rookies when I was doing staff training in the prisons was the pen question…
Who has a pen? Most would then produce one (there were always a couple of fools who didn’t have even one). I’d then say, You just lost it and need to write something down – now what?? Maybe one or two out of a hundred had a second pen. Just to be a smart jerk my partner and I would then produce three pens and a sharpie.
Years later I would run across a CO I had in class and they would smile and show me three pens and a sharpie.
I hate to be “that guy” but . . .
A 2 liter bottle of coke is about $2.68. 2 liters is about half a gallon. To store 5 gallons of water would require about 10 2 liter bottles which would costs $26.80. You can buy a 6 gallon water container at wallly world for $16.88. I enjoy an ice cold coke now and then but I find drinking coke, which is loaded in high fructose corn syrup, is not a healthy habit, which then brings added costs to dental bills and possible medical bills for diabetes and or obesity. Sooooo, buying a “fancy” water container is cheaper in the long run.
A few weeks ago a surplus house had gently used Spectre jugs for $40@,if you’re storing water that is the way to go, incredibly tough and clean out well,no noticeable plastic taste.
Off topic but do your tapco mags stick in your mini 14? Mine I physically have to use two hands to do a mag change.
Nope. Was just shooting them today, in fact. Theyre the Gen2 Intrafuse mags.
Sometimes it’s quantity over quality. Bulk boxes of ziplocs from Costco and boxes of #2 pencils from Amazon. Throw in reams of scrap paper discarded for various reasons, usually one side is good, and I’m set. I usually carry a folded-up piece in my shirt pocket and a pencil or pen with me at all times.
When it comes to ink, I’m kind of partial to the Pilot G2 gel pens but that’s just me. Funny, I was just remembering my mother went to school before ballpoints and had ink wells on her school desk!
Growing up in NYC public schools, we still had the desks with the iron frames and cutouts for inkwells.
and don’t forget a bag of relatively ‘free’ binder/paper clips and rubber bands. The heavy-duty blue ones found on batches of produce are the best, so I do splurge on those.
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-asparagus-Produce-Rubber-Bands
Mafioso money clips.
pencils and pens are good. paper can be found almost anywhere in modern society in abundance.
I always practice thinking outside of the box, its a good mental exercise and will help to keep your mind sharp. i do it to help clear my mind of some of the stupid BS lies that i see on the news everyday. like maybe using some old paint and a stick to write with, i see many old pieces of lumber and cardboard everyday just laying around town or buildings in the country. half burned sticks or charcoal and a wall would work in a pinch. they didn’t have Walmart’s or Dollar stores 200 yrs ago. think about it.
like i said, its a fun mental exercise for me to look for alternatives to everything.
Following. The commander is on a correct path regarding an upgraded level of purchasing for such a high importance item. Data recording and dissemination of info in field or austere conditions is a necessary function in spicy times and a leadership asset. As Mongo articulated, being able to go full analog, and function off grid with >zero< tech will be a survival trait. All tech, (repeating again for back of the class know it alls), "ALL TECH", and as many other innocuous electrical powered devices are, or should be suspected of, being corrupted for enemy uses. Cyberdyne Systems is fully embedded, a new sealed in box tech has a backdoor pre installed, or is stealthily loaded piggybacked with that app you just couldn't live without, downloaded for free! So, don't turn on that little radio you happened to find in spicy wastelands which still happened to have good batteries in it, to find music for your Wolverines chums to enjoy while holed up somewhere. Don't carry a so called old or inactive phone just because it had photos of girls and memes on it and can continue to take and store photos, how neat! The thermal/ night vision scopes has wi fi and an app for my cool shooting vidyas to be sent to the internet. jesus weeps. Bad opsec earns kinetic whacks to the brain, don't be that guy. Long diatribe post, but necessary to stay alive, and stay frosty. Go analog, or just stay home, really.
Outstanding!
https://tacticalnotebookcovers.com/collections/small-covers-3×5-4×6/products/tactical-3×5-notepad-cover-system
I use these. I did the ziplock bag, pen and notepad thing in the Marines; it worked but there are better ways. This is one.
As you said, there is no reward for surviving the Apocalypse while having spent the least coin.
I’ve had my notebook cover for 15 years and it takes abuse like a trailer park housewife. Also has a clear pocket inside to hold a couple bucks, ID/Debit card, map scale coord card, etc.
They have a variety of stuff and their green book covers are recommended!
I use their commanders notebook for work and it’s ideal.
https://tacticalnotebookcovers.com/collections/medium-covers/products/tam-field-book-cover
The main book I use for my patient notes and the quick accessible front notebook has my emergency medications list, emergency transport protocols, phone numbers, radio freqs and codes.
Is it money? Yup. Can it be done cheaper? Probably. The question I ask is “Will this item let me do my job better and in a way that other products can’t?” If yes, buy.
A historical anecdote to your graph paper; 53 years ago in “Nam I was an “intelligence collector”. All the VC and NVA documents my group captured had been written on 5×7 graph paper and did include drawings of things and places –ours!
My elementary school desks in WI were the same as yours in NY. GF
As an addition, I suggest that a preparedness-minded person have at least a couple of reams of copy paper on hand for sporty times. Given how compact a ream of copy paper is, storage is easy. For around $6.00, the uses are almost limitless, and having it on hand sure beats writing on the back of scrap paper for the more mundane uses.
@CZ, look up “lumber crayon”… I’ve got orange and white in my truck, and in my bags. I originally got them after doing the CERT search and rescue training to write the big X on doors of buildings. They write on just about everything and are cheap. Sturdy too.
My ‘everyday’ survival altoids tin has a folded up sheet of paper and a pencil. Sometimes it’s a golf pencil, sometimes I shorten a regular pencil, depends on what I have lying around. I wrap a threaded needle around the pencil too, for storage.
For whoever said paper is almost always available, yeah, not so much sometimes. I was in a rental beach house, wanted to make a campfire on the beach and couldn’t find anything that would burn in the house, my wife’s truck, or the surrounding area. Trash cans were locked in garages. Glossy paper doesn’t burn, and neither does paper towel (very well.) I ended up going old school with dried tinder from christmas trees I found in the dunes. Don’t cheap out on lighters either, get the bics. I bought a brick of cheap copies, and most have broken while the bic in my ‘man purse’ just keeps working.
nick
(I had firestarter in my GHB, but didn’t want to use it if I could avoid it, just to avoid replacing it. I was pretty surprised that I couldn’t find any burnable paper.)
No one mentioned the importance of four reams of paper and two 64 color boxes of crayons. Rather listen to giggling and laughing than a bunch of kids crying. Don’t forget the roll of butcher paper and a box of the fat crayons for the dumb ass brother-in-law
Those notebooks are standard in the Corps until you make NCO then you’re given green bound books to make all your important scribles in. Then you had to bring up crayons and make me hungry. Instead of crayons that are just tasty I found a grease pencil that worked the same and didn’t melt in a glove box in the summer
I recall very similar in the Army.
This convo always gets me. I guess I’m a bit of a tweener. I began this process as a ‘p for plenty’ philosophy. Get started by going cheap quickly. Then over time, my philosophy switched to ‘p for precision’. I slowly started upgrading ‘my’ items to what I actually wanted. The original cheaper stuff went to back-up.
Bottom line, those $1 notebooks from dollar store are fine, especially for backups. Buy something you like writing in/on. Waterproof the cover you put on it.
Current: some cover I purchased at the Army base that fits a 4×8 Moleskin soft cover notebook. Backup: reams of notebook paper from when the kids school supplies list exceeded their note taking volume. Excess 3-ring binders remain to eventually be used for SOPs and such.
On another note, how many of you have a semi-current battle board that shows home base and the topo around it? Fields of fire, templated fighting positions, friendly, neutral, and unfriendly neighbors identified? Water sources documented? There is a lot of infantry officer training stuff that could be value added in a ‘situation’.
There’s always going to be divisions in whatever field you’re in. However some of the worst ones are within the gun/preparedness community because people just suck and some just want others to be as miserable as they have made themselves. And because of it, they will never be on the same page – always fighting against each other.
I had found these note pads at Lowes a few years ago and picked up a bunch when the RITR pads were non-existent for some reason. I’ve grown to like them a little bit more and slightly less expensive. Sure they don’t come in cool tactical colors, but oh well, don’t care. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-6-in-x-3-in-Notepad/3743981
Now here I thought I was the only person to throw a notebook and pencils in the bugout bag…I just went with a $5 sketchbook from the crafts store and a bundle of #2 wooden pencils, on the theory that I would naturally have a knife to sharpen them with when they get dull or break. I forget why I thought that would be better than a couple of mechanical pencils, though, especially since I use mechanical pencils day to day life, even for drawing (I can’t stand pens…)
There’s a time and a place for almost everything, CZ. I have a Rite In The Rain kit in my go bag, but there’s plenty of space for the cheap stuff when it comes to jotting things down. I keep those cheap notepads in the glove boxes of my vehicles. I can’t count the number of times I’ve pulled one of those out to jot something down, or to leave a note on someone’s mailbox or door. I also can’t count the number of times I pulled the notepad’s associated pen out to use it, only to find it had been baked dry.
I live in the desert. A pen won’t last a MONTH in the heat of a glove box in a car parked in the desert. Mechanical pencils will warp and be rendered inop as well. What I CAN count on to write is a cheap-ass #2 pencil! It will ALWAYS work. If the point breaks, which it usually won’t, it can be sharpened to a new point with a knife, or by rubbing it on a stone or cement.
I can’t remember the last time I paid retail for notepads or writing instruments, other than the RITR stuff. Notebooks, notepads, pens, pencils, and a myriad of other office supplies are common yard sale fodder. You can pick up what you’d pay $10.00 for at a “dollar store” for a buck or two at a yard sale!
Preppers come from all walks of life, and many of those walks aren’t very lucrative. Having SOMETHING is better than having NOTHING. I’m a ham operator. I appreciate and NEED the quality of a Yaesu or Kenwood handheld, but I PAY for and CAN AFFORD that quality, usually $150.00 and up. There are those out there who own $30.00 Baofeng HT’s because it’s all they can afford. Like I said, SOMETHING is better than NOTHING.
I actually read in a few places that the Russian pencil thing was true, and that they only realized later on that graphite was friable, and would float around in the capsule. They then went to pens. …I actually HAVE one of those Fisher Space Pens! I’m talking one of the OLD ones that were sold when the US had just gone to the moon. It has a miniature of the Apollo command module on the pocket clip. It still has the original box! I think I paid a buck for it at a yard sale…