Pages

Showing posts with label TEOTWAWKI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TEOTWAWKI. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

CZ P10 C


This is the all new CZ P10 C, and from everything I have heard/read/watched about this gun is that it is an awesome gun and will be the next one I add to my stable. This is some information about the handgun from sources other than me, and where the information is not from me the link to the article is included to give credit to the source.

Guns America article source

We got a first hands-on look at the newest in an upcoming family of CZ pistols, the CZ P-10 C or Compact. The CZ P-10 C is a polymer-framed striker-fired mid-size service pistol that aims to outperform even the most competitive and featured next-generation poly pistols.

“It may have taken a while to come to market, but we feel the wait has been worth it,” said CZ in the official announcement. “With CZ reliability, engineered ergonomics and a bevy of features both familiar and new, the P-10 is the complete package.”

It’s true, the pistol looks like it’s a real problem-solver. The P-10 C built with concealed-carry, home defense, competition and duty in mind. The P-10 C sports fully-ambidextrous controls with magazine and slide release buttons on both sides. The slide and frame have a familiar profile and are compatible with “common” holsters. The magazines are similar, too. Standard magazines offer a 15+1-round capacity and extended magazines will provide 17+1.

According to CZ the striker-fired P-10 mag bodies are the same as the hammer-fired P-07 and P-09 design. They are backwards-compatible with the earlier P-series pistols. The main difference is a new cutout pattern for the new magazine catch on the P-10.

CZ has three models in the works to launch with, the standard P-10 C, the P-10 C Flat Dark Earth two-tone model and the P-10 C Suppressor-Ready model. The company expects to have .40 S&W variants in standard black and flat dark earth out in mid-2017. The .40-caliber models will have a standard capacity of 12+1. All steel surfaces have a black nitride finish.


Of course, the real difference between a leading service pistol and a commanding one isn’t going to be the feature set, it’s going to be the trigger. That’s where CZ expects to come out on top. The P-10 C trigger is short with a quick, positive reset and a 4-to-4.5 pound break. That’s on-par with custom carry aftermarket triggers and entry-level competition triggers.

Putting that in perspective, the bulk of today’s next-gen striker-fired service pistols have triggers that measure in the 5.5-7.5 pound range. A shorter, lighter trigger means more consistent accuracy and faster follow-up shots.

Testing in the real world will tell how well these promises hold up but this is CZ, one of the most trusted names in self-defense, competition and military firearms manufacturing. It would be surprising, to say the least, if CZ fell short.

The P-10 C’s other features are also very modern, including three interchangeable backstraps, front and rear slide serrations and 3-dot ledge-style night sights. These sights can be used as a hook for racking the slide one-handed. It has a squared trigger guard for shooting off barriers and a deeply undercut beavertail that stops at the rear of the slide.



Specifications

◾Caliber: 9mm Luger or .40 S&W
◾Capacity: 15+1 or 12+1
◾Weight: 26 ounces
◾Barrel length: 4.02 inches
◾Overall length 7.36 inches
◾Height: 5.2 inches
◾Width 1.25 inches
◾Finish: black nitride
◾Sights: three-dot steel
◾MSRP: $499 up to $541 depending on the model

Other familiar components include an industry-standard takedown method with a pull-down locking piece and a singular passive grip safety as the only external pistol safety. The frame is equipped with an accessory rail and it has more aggressive checkering on the front- and backstraps for comfy carry and good control in the hand at the same time.

The CZ P-10 is something of a spiritual successor to the P-07, CZ’s extremely popular polymer-framed hammer-fired pistol. It’s not the first polymer striker-fired pistol CZ’s ever made; back in the mid-’90s CZ introduced the 100-series, which never saw much success. Like the P-07 the P-10 is a capable and economical all-purpose pistol. With MSRPs starting at $499 real-world prices are likely to be extremely affordable.

If the P-10 series is half as good as the P-07 was when it first launched then the P-10 is guaranteed to be a solid and long-lived success for CZ with CZ shooters around the world. We’ll get a review to you as soon as possible — we’re just waiting on the pistol, due just around the corner.

According to CZ’s Zachary Hein the P-10’s availability is “imminent.” The .40 S&W models “Are expected mid-2017.”

Here are some videos on the CZ P10 C:





-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Monday, October 3, 2016

Mobs vs you in your vehicle

This topic is very timely seeing what has been happening lately many places in our nation. We need to be prepared to deal with this threat. I think the best way to get around this issue is to avoid the situations, and areas where things like this happen.

1) Avoidance is key. Many protests and riots are either predictable or planned in advance. Stay away from the riots if you want to avoid being victimized! When you see masses of people blocking the roadways, STOP. Don’t go any farther. Do whatever necessary to change directions and get out of the area. If you are alert, you should be able to see these masses of people far enough in advance that you can act before being surrounded. It goes without saying that if you are texting, talking on the phone, or watching a DVD while driving, you may not be paying enough attention to save yourself. Don’t get distracted by electronic devices when driving.

2) You can’t just run people over if they are in the road. The safest thing to do in a situation like this is to keep moving, bumping people out of the way with your car. Unfortunately, that isn’t legal. It’s considered vehicular assault. Even if people are illegally blocking the road, you will likely go to jail if you run them down absent a legitimate threat to your life. See why awareness is so important? Getting away from the kill zone both keeps you safe and out of jail.

3) The situation changes, however, once the rioters attack you or your vehicle. With your vehicle surrounded in a manner that you can’t escape and your attackers being trying to burn your car, flip it over, or drag you out, it is reasonable to assume that you will suffer serious injury or death. That’s when you can start striking people with your car. Don’t get out and shoot. You will quickly be overwhelmed and your gun will be taken from you. Instead, accelerate steadily and forcefully, driving away from the surrounding rioters. Steady movement is the key. Hitting folks too hard can disable your vehicle. As John suggests, use your vehicle to push people out of the way rather than striking them.

4) Doors locked and seat belt OFF. It should go without saying that your doors should be locked when driving. If your doors don’t automatically lock, get in the habit of locking them manually as soon as you get inside. You don’t want the crowd to be able to easily open your door and drag you out.
You may not have enough time to do it, but cracking your windows and turning off your ventilation system would also be a good idea when driving in areas where crowds may gather. Windows that are down approximately 1/2″ are actually harder to break than windows that are tightly closed. You want to turn off the ventilation system so you don’t get overcome by any smoke or tear gas that is in the air where you are driving.

Your seat belt should be off. Seat belts will reduce your ability to draw a firearm. They will also prohibit you from making a speedy escape should your vehicle be set on fire or overturned. In general, it’s safer to stay inside the car in a crowd. If Molotov cocktails hit your car, drive quickly away. The wind will likely extinguish the burning liquid before you are hurt. If the car is disabled, and under fire attack, get out. It’s best to take your chances on foot than be trapped inside and burned alive.

5) Tear gas grenades may or may not work. Many people have asked me about the utility of carrying a couple of pepper spray grenades in the car with you for the purpose of keeping large gangs away from your vehicle. I carry a couple in my car, but I would be hesitant to recommend the tactic. In order to deploy the grenades, you’ll have to get out of the car or lower the windows. Both of those actions dramatically increase your risk. The crowd may be wearing gas masks or the like as well. I think the grenades would work better if you were on foot than they would if you are attacked in a vehicle.

6) Carry your gun on your person, not in the car. Some folks like using holsters that mount under the dash or on the steering column for just this type of criminal act. I think it’s a bad idea. If you have to bail out of the car quickly, you may not have a chance to grab the gun. Do you want to abandon a firearm and leave it in the hands of the rioters? I would hope not. Carry your gun on your person. Don’t leave it in your console, glove compartment or special “counter carjacker” holster on the steering wheel.

7) Beware of other forms of roadblocks. The roadblocks designed to make you stop, may not take the form of people. The rioters will steal cars and then purposely abandon them in the middle of roadways. It causes you to stop and also prevents police/fire vehicles from getting to the scene. It’s a common occurrence around the world. Even more notorious are homemade caltrops. A bunch of those strewn across the roadway would cause all kinds of havoc.

Take a look at the tactics used by rioters and protesters around the world. Commit to avoiding areas where such protests are occurring. If you do get caught up in the mob violence, consider some of the tips above to make it out safely.

Original article

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Feed your family for a year

Even though this post is not tactical in nature, we all have to eat, and without food we cannot fight. I think this is a great way to get your basic food down for a 5-6 month time frame. I know it is not gourmet, but it will keep you alive. It is a great place to start, this is not the end of course, but this is what I would call bare bones minimum.


Feed a family of 4 for 1 year, for less than $300

By MsKYprepper, Editor-At-Large

You are out of excuses!

This plan is THE fastest, cheapest and easiest way to start a food storage program. You are done in a weekend. AND there are no hassles with rotating. Pack it and forget. It’s space efficient – everything is consolidated into a few 5-gallon buckets. You’ll sleep content in knowing that you have a one-year food supply on hand for your family should you ever need.

With the exception of dairy and Vitamin B12, this bean soup recipe will fulfill all your basic nutritional needs. It won’t fill all of your wants, but using this as your starting point, you can add the stuff that you want.

All of the food and storing supplies listed below plus 2 55-gallon recycled barrels to be used for rain catchment cost me $296, including taxes. I purchased rice, bouillon and salt from SAM’s Club. You can buy small bags of barley at the grocery, but if you don’t mind waiting a few days, special ordering a bulk bag from Whole Foods was cheaper. All of the beans I purchased from Kroger’s in 1-lb bags. Buckets, lids, Mylar bags and rain barrels were from the Lexington Container Company. Their prices are so good, with such a great selection that it’s worth a drive even if you are not in the local area. I went on a second-Saturday of the month because that’s when they host free food storage courses taught by Suzanne, an energetic, delight of prepping wisdom.

http://www.lexingtoncontainercompany.com/

What you need:

8 5-gallon buckets

8 large Mylar bags

8 2,000 cc oxygen absorbers

8 gamma lids

A handful of bay leaves

90 lbs. of white rice

22 lbs. of kidney beans

22 lbs. of barley

22 lbs. of yellow lentils

5.5 lbs. of split green peas

5.5 lbs. of garbanzo beans

1 lb. of salt

A big box of beef and chicken bouillon.

A measuring cup

What you’ll do

Install the gamma lids on the bucket and insert Mylar bags. Place 2 or 3 bay leaves in the bottom and fill the buckets, adding more bay leaves after each 1/3 to full. Place an oxygen absorber in the top. Label buckets with the contents and date.

Fill

•3 buckets with rice (shake it down good. Get it all in there!)
•1 bucket each of kidney beans, barley, and yellow lentils
•In 1 bucket store the split green peas, garbanzo beans, salt, measuring cup and bouillon. (I removed the bouillon from the box and vacuum sealed it as bouillon contains a small amount of oil.)
•Yep, that’s a total of 7 buckets, so far.

I place a broom handle across the bucket and wrap the ends of the Mylar bag over the broom handle to give me some support. Then slowly and smoothly run a hot iron over the Mylar bag to seal all except the last 2 inches. Then I press out as much air as possible before sealing the remaining 2 inches. Make sure your Mylar is completely sealed from end to end. Now, stuff the bag into the bucket and rotate the gamma lid into place. This will protect your food for about 25 years. You’ll have excess Mylar bag at the top. Don’t cut it off, that way if you have to cut it open to get into it, you have enough bag remaining to reseal.

Where you’ll put it

It’s pretty easy to find a place for 7 to 8 5-gallon buckets even in the smallest of apartments. Discard the box springs and lay the kid’s mattress on top of the buckets, line the back of a large closet with the buckets. I made a couch-table by stacking buckets two high between the couch and the wall. The buckets are about 6” taller than the back of the couch. Add a shelf and drape and it looks fine; a convenient place for a lamp and books. Get creative.

Making your bean soup

Measure out

· 8 oz of rice

· 2 oz of red kidney beans

· 2 oz of pearl barley

· 2 oz of lintels

· 1 oz of split green peas

· 1 oz of chick peas/garbanzo’s

Add 6-7 quarts of water. Add bouillon or salt to taste. Then add any other meats, vegetables, potatoes or seasonings you have on hand. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for two hours. You should have enough to feed 4 people for two days. This is thick and hearty. You will be warm on the inside and full with one large bowl. Kids usually eat half a bowl.

When the emergency is over

This system allows you to open the Mylar bags, retrieve as much of the ingredients as is needed and then reseal everything after the emergency has passed. Just be sure to replace the ingredients used so that you always have a one-year supply.

The 8th bucket – other stuff I would want

This list isn’t included in the $300. This falls into the “what I want” category. As money and resources became available, I’d just go crazy adding all of my indulgences, starting with coffee! You can add what you want, but I’d fill it with:

•Dry onion. Let’s face it, what’s bean soup without onion! Sprinkle on the onions just before serving.
•“Just add water” cornbread mix packets. I just can’t eat bean soup without cornbread.
•Beef jerky and Vienna sausages. Add protein and zest to the bean soup
•Instant oatmeal. Do you really want bean soup for breakfast? Freeze the oatmeal for 3 days before packing to kill any bugs.
•10 lbs of jellybeans. Now, don’t laugh – it’s a bean. Jellybeans don’t melt like chocolate might. The high sugar content is quick energy, and a morale booster – with just enough of a high to help you over the really bad days. Easter is about here – stock up!

Before you fill the 8th bucket

Buy small bags of the ingredients and fix a big pot of bean soup for dinner. Eat the leftovers the second night, and 3rd night, until it’s all gone. Find out now – rather than later – what your family might like to add to it. Anything tastes great the first meal, but quickly becomes boring after the 3rd or 4th repeat. Don’t wait until the emergency happens to discover what you SHOULD have stored in your 8th bucket. … Maybe some Beano!

Original Article

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Sig MCX

I am not into proprietary weapon systems, I like sticking to the good old proven platforms that have a large following in this country such as the AR-15 and AK-47. I choose these weapon systems due to the availability of magazines, ammo, and parts. I feel like these systems are the best option for us as patriots for the coming troubled times, but with that said I really like the SIG MCX. I know it is not that readily available, and I am not recommending it for you guys as your primary, or secondary long arm, but what I am saying is if you are already squared away in those areas that you might want to look into this gun.

There have been a lot of others that have come along, but they have all had their own issues. From what I have seen this (Sig MCX) is a very viable option for an accurate, reliable and tough weapon system. So check it out if you want to, I do not thing that you will be sorry, who knows it may become your favorite system.

I have put a link to "Nutnfancy's" video on YouTube here. I would have embedded it, but that feature is disabled. Check out the video, it is pretty well done, and will answer your questions about this fairly new system.

Sig MCX

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 30, 2016

How Much Ammo?

This information is from Max Velocity's site. I thought it is good information for you guys to read, and to think about when you are deciding how much ammunition you will need.

Some questions answered: Ammo & Rates of Fire

Question via email:

You have written that a fighter can often expect to go through 4 AR magazines in a Break Contact drill (or the real thing) – correct me if my number of mags is incorrect. I am reading guys who carry 6-12 rifle mags on their gear loads – chest rigs, belts, etc. (I suspect they carry more in their rucks?).

From a simple logistical perspective, for a guy like me who has never been .mil, what is the play when a patrol gets caught by OpFor at the far-reaches of a patrol route, breaks contact and burns through ½ or more of the ammo they are carrying on their bodies? They could easily run dry of ammo very quickly if OpFor pursues with any intensity. For the CUTT with little or no support, that could get ugly.

To which I responded:

True.

You may expend that much breaking contact, and on follow ups by the enemy you may expend more, such as putting in a hasty ambush. You have what you carry unless you have means of resupply or QRF. You should have extra in your patrol pack. If you truly cannot break contact, then you are in trouble.

The flip side is this: you may well expend a lot of ammo breaking contact, because you need to put the fire down, even if it is cover shooting. It is not, however a mag dump Beirut unload! After that, if you utilize fire discipline, you can make your shots count more. One round into a pursuing enemy scout/ tracker will slow down the pursuit. Fire discipline is often sadly lacking!

For example sake, if you plan on 4 mags breaking contact (ballpark, it will be what it will be), and you are carrying 8 or 9 ready mags on your gear, then another 4 mags in your patrol pack replenishes that back to full load. Add a couple more, up to maybe 6, and you are good to go.

The above is of course a generalization but I hope I make the point?

A comment on the ‘Citizen Unconventional Tactical Team (CUTT): Order of Battle‘ Post:

My comment is about the info you post regarding ammo consumption during training vs. real combat. Although I can’t argue on it’s credibility (I’m pretty sure you are correct) my understanding is that this has very much to do with the dominance of support/heavy weapons during actual combat.

What I mean is, maybe the rifleman has less opportunities to fire in actual combat because of the fact that his own heavy weapons are doing most of the job anyway or the enemy’s heavy weapons are not letting him a chance to fire (he has to keep cover).

You argue on the less ammo carried by 7,62 riflemen with the fact that this doesn’t really matter because, unlike in training, they’ll not have to shoot so much in combat. But you whole article is based on the fact that they’ll not have support/heavy weapons at hand.

Please, can you explain this part more thoroughly?

Absolutes and how long is a piece of string? It is true that in combat you can fire an extremely high amount of rounds. If you learn your tactics from tacticool YouTube videos, or helmet cam of troops hosing down a hillside in Afghanistan, then you will do that. If you have easy resupply, vehicles, or you just don’t want to hand back in any live rounds at the end of your range day due to quartermaster accounting madness, then that is fine. Or you are Navy SEAL doing a demonstration break contact video for YouTube…..

What is missing are basic rifleman skills, professionalism, and fire discipline. If you want to hose down the hillside while you wait for the aircraft to arrive to fulfill your call for fire, then fine. If your fire is not accurate it will not be effective. If it is not striking at, or close to, an enemy fighter, it will not suppress him. You need to locate the enemy (hardest part) and apply accurate disciplined fire to positively identified enemy/enemy positions. If you do that, you are firing less than if you are firing at static targets on the range. Making accurate shots at a ducking and diving enemy.

Tie that in with the top part, and you have the reality of how much ammunition you are carrying. Ammunition = time when in enemy contact, to allow you to fire and maneuver. So you need to make it count. There are times when ammunition expenditure will be higher, such as in the initial stages of a break contact drill, and at times when you cannot actually see the enemy – but you still need to put fire down in order to move. You may be cover shooting. You may be using rapid fire to initially win the firefight before maneuvering on the enemy. But once the enemy is suppressed, fire control and discipline will reduce the amount of ammunition, striking accurately into the cover, that will keep the enemy suppressed.

You need team leaders to control fire. And team members who will listen. It’s about professionalism.

That is why I tell you that you will fire less in combat than you may on the range. Unless you decide not to, and blow through all your ammunition to little effect.

If you look at the live fire scenario in the video below that I made yesterday, I could easily have lit up the woods with some pew-pew. But I didn’t. It was a mixture of reflexive fire as a reaction to contact, and accurate follow up shots, not to mention follow ups to ensure the enemy was dead. Don’t pass over live enemy.

Regarding the heavy support weapons part, or the lack of, my point is to train rifleman in basic rifle discipline so that their fire is accurate, perhaps supplemented by a mobility support group (MSG)/support gunner, as described in the CUTT article. The idea is to use accurate fire as a replacement for volume of fire by automatic support weapons. In fact, much fire by automatic weapons is ineffective due to accuracy issues. Support weapons are best fired in short disciplined bursts, unless using them for area suppression in a defensive role. A properly outfitted support gunner with a semi-automatic .308 rifle can chew up an enemy position in the same way a 240 gunner firing 7.62 in short bursts can. They both have to be accurate, or it is wasted noise.

If you hear accounts of ‘going cyclic’, however high speed the unit is, then you know they lost discipline. Much of that cyclic fire would have been wasted, and simply expended ammunition.

Although to paraphrase Rommel: ‘There is no substitute for simply plastering the enemy with fire!’ So long as it is accurate! If it is over the top of the enemy, or on the next hillside, then so what?

You can be as tacticool pew-pew as you want, but a disciplined rifleman will take cover, locate the enemy, and put a round or two into him. Job done.

Shoot to kill.

Max

Original Post


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Dogs and Tracking Part 3

Part three of the series. I hope you are getting something out of this, it is just good information to know.

As you can see, the dogs are the least of your worries. They are just one of the tools that are used to accomplish the overall goal of catching you. They are used for direction and tracking, and they supply information to the other searchers. A K9 may also be used to grab you, just as they would anywhere else they are used.

Even if you could somehow trick or neutralize the dog, you are still going to have to deal with quite a bit of other things. To get into range of doing harm to the dog or handler is to get very close to the people who are trying to find you, and help is only a radio call away. You will never encounter just the handler and the dog by themselves. The handler is armed, and behind them is a few more people who are armed and focused on support.

They don’t have to run you down. They just have to follow until someone else corners you or you give up. They will be constantly resupplied with water and rotated out for rest. They know your chances of that are slim. Many give a good long chase only to walk out and give up, because they are dying of thirst.

Understanding The Handlers

These guys are usually professionals. They have schools, certifications, experience, and decades of methods behind the art and science of using dogs. They will have learned from people who spent their lives doing this very thing. Many are dedicated to the cause and are driven to succeed for one reason or another. To them, the dog is a tool. The handler learns to read the dog like an instrument. He knows a great many things by observation, such as how hard the dog pulls and how eager he is. He can watch the dog lift its nose at a tree or lean in a direction. He can read confusion or if the dog is unsure. When he does read these things, he knows how to bring the dog back to a point it was sure or canvass another area. They can hold position and let the escorts fan out. Handlers will read maps and approach trails from angles they think will give them the best track. They will report a wealth of information to the other chasers. If they don’t catch you themselves, there is a good chance they had something to do with it.

Some departments don’t have their own tracking teams. They may have K9 units that consist of bomb or drug dogs but no actual trackers. A department like this will usually call on another department or hire a third-party civilian dog company. These civilian companies are usually made up of former military or police K9 handlers. They, in my experience, are more knowledgeable. They are the ones who chose to pursue a career in K9 services after leaving the military or police force. Their K9 companies do not deal with anything other than dogs. The don’t have to take classes on domestic violence or writing tickets, for example. The handlers are also people, which is to be kept in mind when trying to avoid being tracked.

How To “Win”

It is not the dog you have to beat; it is the handler. What you want is a morale win. You want the handler to give up. As I said before, the handler is a person. He or she has bad days and good days. They may have been called in off vacation or a day off to work on finding you. They get tired or are out of shape. They may be sick or have just been passed up for promotion. These things are not something you’ll likely be able control, but keep them in mind if you’re attempting a morale win. Every little bit counts.

Remember previously my notes on attacking the handler or the dog. Doing either of these things can harden the will of those looking for you. They will push through a lot more discomfort, if they have some payback in mind. They may let the bite dog chew on you for a little while longer before calling it off.

I have seen a handler show up at the start of a track wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He got out of his van took about 30 seconds to look an area over and then declare the dog couldn’t find anything. The dog never got out of the van. He didn’t feel like working that day. He didn’t feel like slogging through a wet jungle. This worked because he was the professional making the call on the dog’s ability. It also worked because tracking dogs were only one small part of a search.

Tracking dogs are usually on a leash. Sometimes, depending on the area, those leashes are thirty feet long. The dog tracks ahead, and the handler follows. I’ve seen more than one handler give up and declare a lost trail after they spent an hour unwrapping the dog from being twisted around tree after tree. It was almost as if the runner was doing it on purpose. Doing something like this takes a lot of time and will seriously hamper your forward progress.

Anywhere you go the tracker has to go and he has to take the dog with him. More often than not, the dog is leading him and may get into a situation or area that will take the handler more time to negotiate. A four of five foot climb or drop will cause them to lower or lift the dog up, or go around. The handler might have to crawl through very thick saw grass or briars. This can get annoying when it happens over and over again.

Some handlers don’t want to get wet. They will call a lost trail to avoid doing so. The handler on the government dime is getting paid whether they find you or not. That handler may be wearing body armor and/or weapons. This can add significantly to his ability and will to keep chasing you. They get hot and tired, as well.

Terrain dangerous enough to cause the handler concern is another deterrent. He’s got a dog pulling on a leash and walking close to perilous cliffs can cause him to back off. He may be afraid of heights or drowning. Knowledge that you’ve booby trapped the area can cause them to give up (the tracking portion).

Additional Notes

Some of the most successful people that avoided our teams, causing us to give up, were the ones that picked an easy and fast route and headed away in pretty much a straight line. They didn’t make any attempts to fool us and didn’t even try to cover their tracks. Speed and distance were their only concern. As we slowly followed them in full armor at the pace the dogs set, they kept increasing their distance. No one wanted to sleep in the jungle at night. By the end of the second day, they were far enough forward that the trail was getting weaker. Rain on the second day was almost a guarantee that the handlers would call it off. The further we had to go in, the further our resupply lines were stretched. We also knew that walking for days forward meant walking for days back. It just wasn’t worth it for what we were chasing them for. Even when the handlers wanted to go forward, the escort teams in full armor were getting tired and suggesting that he “got away”. If the person we were pursuing made it to any kind of civilization (even a small village), the tracking portion was over as far as dogs were concerned.

Remember what they are chasing you for. If there is a full-blown state-wide man-hunt in progress, you’ve probably done something (or they think you have) that is going to keep them looking for you for a long, long time. If they’ve decided to chase you for some lesser reason, you may be able to avoid capture by making it not worth the trouble, expense, or time it would take to catch you. Just stay away or ahead of them long enough and they’ll give up.

Helicopters can cost thousands of dollars an hour to keep in the air. If the searchers have this asset available, it will have specific areas to search and most likely be on stand-by to be called in when they need an overhead look at an area. Overtime, funds for third-party contractors, supplies, gas, et cetera are factors. Someone is keeping track of how much all of this is going to cost.

Get to an area with a lot of people, such as a city. This won’t stop the search and will bring its own problems, but it will pretty much stop the dogs from tracking you in the classic sense.

You can make things worse by trying. If for instance you stole a car, got involved in a high-speed chase, and then ran into the woods, they might look for you for hours before giving up. They got the car back. The rest is standard police work. Set up a booby trap that kills an officer and you’ll have major media reporting it and several departments and counties in on the search. They will NEVER EVER give up on you.

Dogs can be commanded to bark in attempt to flush you. Many people, upon hearing the dog is closer, make a panicked run for it. I’ve seen handlers, when they think they are close, yell something like “We see you! Come out with your hands up”. This actually works. A few people have come out and done just that.

Tracking Dogs Part 3

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Mutual Assistance Groups

Here is a good video I found about this vital thing we all need to be a part of. The whole idea of Mutual Assistance Group should be very appealing to you, since there is no way any of us will be able to make it on our own. We have to band together to help each other out. None of us can stand watch over our families, or our selves by ourselves, we cannot stay awake 24 hours a day. We need to form groups to train with, prepare with, and then to band together with when it is needed. Watch and enjoy.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

One way the second Civil War could start


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Seeds for our future

I know this is a tactical oriented blog, but I just had to put in a plug for seeds. One of the best ways to control a population is through food, or the controlling of who has it, or who gets it. With that said, the whole GMO thing and the "Terminator Gene" that will not allow seeds to reproduce in consecutive years. In that case you would have to go to someone who would sell you seeds for your next year, or the not sell them to you and force you to buy food in a store controlled by someone that is not on your side.

I HIGHLY suggest that everyone buys/collects/gathers, or hordes seeds! Get the Non-GMO, Organic, Heirloom seeds so they will reproduce true every year and provide you with a source of food for years. Even if this Terminator Gene gets to your crops, if you have enough stored to replant every year from your stores, you will be okay. So with that said, having at least several years worth of seeds to grow food for your family, group, or whatever would be a great idea!

We have to be prepared and able to fight the good fight, if we do not have access to food, then we cannot fight, we will be controlled like the rest of the population that is not preparing. We do not want to be sheeple people! We need to be strong, and well equipped to take care of ourselves, our families, our group, our church family, or any others we can help out.

Do your research on seeds and where and how to get them, but Amazon is one of the best places to get them as far as I have found. That is where I get all my seeds.

If you would like to see my favorite seeds and what I order, then go HERE.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Reality of Combat

This is a good article I found over at the "SHTF School" blog, and wanted to share it with you guys. It is relevant, and has good information from someone who has lived through much of what we will have to soon enough.

The reality of combat March 26, 2013

SHTF School


When SHTF nobody told me how hard is gonna be and what things I will have to do to survive, there was no training or simulations, through most of the stuff I was going for the first time in my life, and I was hoping it is only temporary situation, it is not going to last for whole year. Few events opened my eyes, and somehow make me survivor right at the beginning, and I can say I have luck to understand in very early stage how hard it is, and what it takes. During one of the first bigger events of killing in the streets, I was out together with my friend who also was medical professional. Fire from machine guns was on people who were standing in front of the main city bread factory, and people started to scream and run over each other.

My first impulse was to run to nearest cover but my friend got down to help some lady, so I stayed one meter next to him. I was confused about my decision and not sure to stay with him or run. Bullets from machine gun hit him over his legs, and I saw how his knee cap exploded, it looked like some bad movie special effect. He just looked at his legs, then at me, in silence. Even that was just seconds moments like this feel very long. I took him by the hands and drag him some 20 or 30 meters to safety.

Only there I saw that he was missing his leg under the knee. It stayed with dead lady on the street. And only then he started to scream. I used belt to stop bleeding, ambulance still worked in that period. He went to hospital and then evacuated from the city. He survived but never came back. Lessons learned? In moments of chaos always listen to your instincts and do not hesitate. Especially if you are involved in situation when someone is shooting at you with high caliber machine gun. Just accept that people will die, and you have to survive.

To help others is great thing, to survive is even better, also I realized that human being is so fragile and easy to destroy. Later I learned some things about weapons and how to use them, so I realize that more firepower does not necessary mean more dangerous and better chance to kill. Owning a weapon is just absolutely necessary in preparing for a survival scenario, even more in urban survival. You just need to go and get as close as you can to the real stuff while you are doing the preparing and training for the SHTF, so it makes sense to go out and check your preps, to check your gear and yourself. For example pair of boots that you bought and store for bad days will not be used for walking only, it will be use for running, squatting, jumping, in mud, junk, blood, guts maybe or just running trough a shallow river.

Everything that you have prepared and stored for SHTF will be pushed to the limits. One thing is to go out into woods nearby and do recording of your weapon testing on some beer bottles with your friends, and after that concluding that particular gun or rifle is best for SHTF, and that you are dangerous dude because your accuracy rules. Some people gonna put that clip on you tube and go home convinced that they are ready and prepared.

In reality you do not know if you are prepared. A lot of survival stores that sell things sell idea of buy this and you are safe. No you are not. Also you learn more about real urban survival scenario in my survival course and this helps you to mentally be better prepared but real deal when SHTF always comes as surprise. When time comes again it gonna hit everyone like a hammer. Good news is that when you know you will get hit like that you can recover fast and use your skills, knowledge and preps to make best out of situation.

Using weapon in real life, in real survival situation is something absolutely different from shooting bear bottles, and if you could do some real training that is realistic that would be maybe going to camping with trash bag as a tent, being on camping for 10 days with 10 small cans of food, and 10 liters of water, walking every day for 10 km. And then on 11th day run few kilometers and then shoot and see how accurate you are when your body is wasting away. And still the most important thing is missing. While you are shooting at the beer bottles they do not shoot back at you in order to kill you. During some of the first battles in city I was moving trough the building behind a guy, we both had rifles. He was sweeping the rooms and shooting, it was the closest urban combat as it can be. In the moment when he run out of ammo he used his rifle as something between spear and bat.

Now someone could say why he did not just switch to pistol? He did not have one, also he did not have time to look for ammo. But there I learned how it is useful to have folded stock of rifle when shooting and moving in very confined spaces. Also I learned that rifle with pretty sharp parts at the barrel can be very handy. He stabbed guy to the cheek, ripping his face down and finishing him on ground. One of the biggest misconception at the people who do not have fighting experience is what they need to practice. It is all about pressure.

You need to learn:

1. What your weapon can take In terms of kicking, throwing, how often and when will it malfunction, and what the most common malfunctions are, and how to fix it, of course how to fix it in middle of fight. If you find yourself in the middle of fighting, and your weapon „jams“ do not be as we called “zblesavljen” or in English is probably looking like idiot. I have seen that: guy is shooting and in the middle of fighting his weapon jammed, and he surprisingly look at the weapon in a „what the heck?“ state. And of course in two seconds he ends up dead. You absolutely need to know how to manage small weapon jams without looking at the weapon, you need to look at the target while you are „repairing“ weapon (clearing the bullet, switching to other magazine etc.) Other option would be to MOVE immediately when your weapon jams, move to cover in same second, or to dropping it on ground, or on your back, and switching to your other weapon. But you need to learn to do all of above without thinking. You need to train that this becomes automatic. Small things like how quickly you can put your rifle on your back and a switch to pistol can be difference between life and death, if you somehow „trip“ yourself while you are trying to put rifle on your back in order to take pistol you can end up dead.

2. What you can take Remember this: while you are shooting at the bad guys, those bad guys will be SHOOTING AT YOU TOO. So shooting at the beer bottles in the woods with your buddies will not really do all the training you need. I am doing it often, but it just not covering everything. Fighting and surviving combat means constant moving and outsmarting the guys on the other side, you gonna need to run, squat, throw yourself in the ditch, lay down in all kinds of crap and shoot at the same time, and probably fix your rifle from jams, or switch to another weapon. Do some basic weapon training and learn about line of sight and how to get out off it. Very great percentage of shooting is done without aiming, just spraying bullets. It makes sense to do some airsoft or paintball in the woods to check how constant moving change whole game, and what kind of moving makes sense in order to survive gunfight. For example how often you shoot from your weapon with both hands, dominant and not dominant? In urban fighting you will need switch weapon around very often (moving through the apartments, rooms, around the corners etc.). When you are shooting behind corner, and you are having rifle in your right hand and corner is on your left side it make sense to transfer weapon to left hand. otherwise it is dangerous to stick your left part of body out in order to shoot form right hand. For all you who have some military experience this all is basic stuff, but I have seen many guys who were killed in stupid ways. Real gunfight is dynamic thing. Adrenaline is weird thing too, so people can do tremendous things while adrenaline is pumping, but also with lack of training and common sense guy can do tremendously stupid things. I have seen man who was pointing to something and he stood up from the cover, and got shot.

3. How to train yourself Training is the key. You can not do anything else today except to train very hard. You can not experience real stuff today of course, but you can take it as close to real stuff as you can. Go out with your friends and think about all possible scenarios. But think about worst case scenarios. SHTF is not gonna wait for nice and sunny weather, you gonna be maybe hungry, dirty. Maybe have to give up your shelter and food storage on second day of SHTF. Or you gonna be forced to use other weapon that you are not used to. Maybe you gonna be forced to hide for hours hidden under a pile of rubble and then you are gonna be forced to jump out and „kill“ ten beer bottles. Sounds like fun? This is why resilience and mental strength is so important. Maybe you are gonna be cold and thirsty and in the middle of the battle. One thing is sure – very rarely it goes the way that you planned. So just be ready for many options and do not panic when things go other way. Want to get some funny sounding advice? Get good at suffering while still being able to work towards a goal.

4. What weapon, caliber, stopping power etc? It is very hard question (that I get asked a lot). But think about fact that everything today is about mainstream and commercial. And somehow it is more about what other people say is good and not necessarily about what you need and what is good for YOU. You and your hand kill, weapon is only tool. I have seen fight when man with knife is killing the guy with rifle. He had mastered fighting with knife and had will to kill. Other guy had a rifle only, and he ends up dead. I also seen more than once people shot with rifle bullets still fighting, running for good amount of time. Some of them were not even aware that they are wounded before someone else pointed that out to them. What I am trying to say, do not expect miracles if you own weapon that is at the moment most popular, having great stopping power, cool reviews. It is about practicing , weapon mastering and correct bullets placement. I said bullets for a reason, I have seen many things, but I did not see someone survive multiple shots in correct place at the body. Have weapon that is best for your case, and achieve perfection in using it. Do not expect that people will fly back if you shoot them with one bullet from some widely popular weapon and caliber (not talking about shotguns).

So I am not gonna tell you what is the best weapon because what works for me maybe does not work for you or others. Having a weapon that is too rare, too good or too bad does not make too much sense for me. Do not find yourself in situation when you lose your weapon and pick someone else and then find out that you do not have clue about it, because your weapon was special and rare. Just have what everyone else around you has, because of gun parts, ammo and you look like everyone else. Your weapon is only tool to survive, be ready to lose it if you need to lose it, and pick some other from ground in the middle of fight. I knew a guy who did some scary stuff with rusty shortened M48. He was old and poor looking dude, he played that part good, until he would take out this old gun from under his coat and rob and kill people. Simple strategy but it worked for him. So look around and think what works for you.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gear for the American Patriot: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Counter Insurgency Operations

Counter Insurgency Operations are what "they" will be using against us during the "Restoration". We need to be aware of them, and use what we can against our enemies, train ourselves to be strong and prepared for what is coming. The more we know, and the better trained we are, the more effective we will be.

COIN: Seven Lines of Effort for Prepper Security

One threat that many preppers are likely to face post-SHTF is that of the criminal insurgent, or groups of criminals, gangs, mobs, and looters. This criminal threat will manifest for a few reasons; namely out of the criminal’s need to survive, the availability of unprepared, soft targets, and the community’s inability to enforce laws in a Without Rule of Law scenario.

Learn all you can about your Ashraf and Bedu. Get to know their families, clans and tribes, friends and enemies, wells, hills and roads. – T. E. Lawrence

One question that ought to be answered is, “How long after SHTF, and under what conditions, will the criminal threat become active in my area?” That’s a question best answered by the intelligence element. This article assumes that many communities will eventually encounter the conditions that support a criminal insurgent threat, and that the best way to fight against the criminal insurgent threat is through Counterinsurgency (COIN). The criminal insurgent defined is the individual, or group of individuals, who are not only actively engaging in common criminality, but also actively working against the re-establishment of the rule of law. In other words, it’s in the criminal insurgent’s best interest to work against any system that attempts to bring security back to the area.

COIN is and has always been, even before being named Counterinsurgency, about the people. There are wars that involve tanks and planes fighting for domination, and then there are wars of the people. In COIN, the populace is the center of attention; every plan is viewed through the lens of the populace, and every action is put through the paces of the populace. In short, as the populace goes, so goes the war.

The worst case scenario is that the criminal insurgent receives support from any segment of the populace. Let’s look at Ferguson, Missouri briefly. Are there members of that community who don’t support the rioters? Yes. But are there members of that community who like the police and perceived injustice less? Are there members of that community who believe, as much as they may be against it, that violent protests are the only way to effect change? Yes, there are, which is why those rioters are finding cover from the protestors and the community. If there wasn’t a significant part of the population who supported violent protests, then there would be very little violence and it wouldn’t last very long. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, as the saying goes; and in this case, there is some level of support for the activities that go on there.

When considering a COIN plan for your community, first ask yourself, “What does this community want? What will this community want in a post-SHTF scenario?” To be honest, you may have a segment of the population who will tolerate criminality as long as it benefits them. As long as they benefit, they will tolerate it, and you may even find that they begin actively supporting that criminality if it helps them achieve their goals, i.e., survival.

To start COIN planning, we need to look at the seven lines of effort (slightly modified from its traditional form in FM 3-24.2 Tactics in COIN):

1. Establish Local Security – What will your community want? They’ll want what nearly all humans want: to be secure without the threat of violence against them and their family. If the criminal insurgent gives that to the populace, then the populace will find a very good reason to support the criminal insurgent. It’s therefore incumbent on you to be prepared before the SHTF and be ready to step in to provide this fundamental service to your community. If you can bring and/or maintain security without losing the trust of the people, then you will be successful. Lose the trust of the people, though, by having your volunteers loot, rape, or plunder, and the populace may seek, or form, a viable alternative.

2. Establish Local ‘Control’ – By control, I mean positive control of the situation. Bringing security must be the first step, but security is not governance. And I’m not talking about taxes or legislation, here. Establishing local control means establishing legitimacy by forming a judicial system, enforcing Constitutional laws, and generally protecting the citizenry against internal and external threats — the very basic tenets of limited government. Ask yourself, To whom will this community lend their support, and why? Answer that question, and you’ll be well on your way to establishing local control. Your community may support warlordism or the law of the jungle. I’m sorry if that’s the case, but it’s probably time to move if you find yourself in that situation. For all others, you can prevent warlordism and ‘might makes right’ by making these plans beforehand.

3. Support for Local Security – Once you’ve provided security for the community, are enforcing laws, and generally keeping the peace, then you’ll need to continue to keep the support for your efforts. That means doing everything above board and allowing the populace to have some skin in the game. It also means training up at least a semi-professional security staff who are effective at solving problems the least intrusively (to the populace) as possible and who make good decisions.

4. Support for Governance – How will you build support for local governance? If things get bad enough, building support for governance is going to be a huge problem for a lot of people. How do you get the average citizen to “buy-in” to your plan? Starting at the community-level, you could simply form an agreement that all disputes will be taken up by a third party, like a judicial system. However you decide to solve problems, disputes could arise that may negatively impact your legitimacy in the eyes of the populace. Maintain that support by being fair.

5. Restore Essential Services – Creature comforts come down to water and electricity. Both of these may be disrupted; in fact, it’s probably in the criminal insurgent’s best interest to keep essential services out of commission. So once essential services are restored, how are you going to protect and maintain them?

6. Support Economic/Infrastructure Development – Three words: Intelligence Preparation of the Community. How can you create meaningful work as soon as possible? What are the demands in your area? What goods and services can your area supply to others? Other things to consider are transportation and telecommunications. Being able to communicate easily, i.e., the restoration of phone lines, for instance, will make commerce much easier. Safe roads capable of supporting commerce is another piece of this puzzle.

7. Conduct Information Engagement – Simultaneously, we need a way to ‘exploit’ all the positive contributions we’re making in the community. How are we going to get out this information to the public? How are we going to shame criminals and continue to turn the public’s opinion against these criminal insurgents? How are we going to publicize attacks against the community and frame them in a way so that the populace will continue to turn against these threats? On the flip side, we need to keep our ears to the ground and learn how the populace feels and what they think. If they think we’re doing a good job, then they’ll continue their support. If they think we’re doing poorly, then they may find a good reason to support someone else.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equip yourself for when you are called upon to be there for your nation:
The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

The future?

Another example of being too far gone! We need to get ready NOW people, if you are not ready, then do it NOW! Time is short, and there is a lot to do. We need to do what we can to ensure that our way of life is not gone forever!

Even though I made a brief post about Justice Scalia's death last night I am going to expand on it some more today.

I don't know anything about the circumstances of his death and at this point I am not going to comment about the many questions that are being brought up across the blogs and news sites. As many of my long term readers may remember I have long held that the Conservative members of the Supreme Court were the most important Men in the world right now for us and Scalia was at the top of that list. At one point I placed Roberts almost as high until he showed that he could be manipulated.

Also it has been my philosophy since about 2008 that there is little to nothing we can do as responsible Americans to stop the financial train wreck that is coming which includes mass immigration in it as well. There is simply no stopping what the Feminist/Progressive/Multi-Culters have set in motion because too many people now rely on the government cheese plain and simple. Even a large portion of us who do not receive a government check each month still rely on that spending to come down the pipe for our own from private companies or the spending it brings from government employees. There is simply no getting away from it for I estimate 90% of the population at least. However it's more than obvious it is unsustainable so what must end will end.

This is where the Supreme court came in. We cannot set things right, we cannot begin getting the population to become more self sufficient. The ONLY thing we can do is prepare ourselves and defend every inch of political ground we can to stop or slow the advance of Liberal/Feminist ideology and keep them from taking even more of our rights away. The best hope we had was that the economic/financial collapse would happen sooner rather than later and we would still have our 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc and property rights intact when this all goes down.

Now our ability to stall, defend and make em pay for every inch of ground that remains is severely and sorely compromised. Even if (And it's a big if) the Senate managed to delay the vote on whatever lowlife Liberal Feminist Obummer sees fit to appoint to the office until the next President takes over we still have 10 months of being one man short and further hampered by the fact that Scalia was the best legal champion we had. There are in fact several cases coming up before their usual break that Scalia was weighed into heavily and with him gone we will more than likely begin loosing ground almost immediately.

This changes things. It changes them drastically and puts all of us on blogs and forums like this one in a new danger. If the next blow we suffer is a Presidential win by Hillary or Sanders well I don't even want to think about it.

At the very least firearms and ammo have now jumped even higher on the must have list than they were. Site and Life security and anonymity for your web presence is once again looking to be very important. Official government Censorship and repercussions for opinions and ideology are once again looking likely as well. Challenges to government over reach and restrictive laws now could very well be rubber stamped through and the debt clock will begin twirling even faster while the hand of the government will grasp tighter.

Most importantly the hope that this thing comes apart sooner rather than later now rises to a new height. We are vulnerable and hang on the roll of the dice. If the Senate caves and/or a Femocrat wins the next Presidency it's all over but the police state knocking on our doors. I have long hoped the collapse would come before the need for us patriots to stand up and fight our own government and it looked like grid-lock was going to insure that.

I am not so sure anymore.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!

Posted by PioneerPreppy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Making a Habit of Survival Part 2

Part 2 of this topic, which is a good one to think about, and to take on board.

Survival Habits- Part 2, by Northwoods Prepper

As habits develop, processes become routine. For example, I have a process for stacking wood. There are several different ways, but I found the one I like best for my wood storage area, taking into consideration access to our house, snow drifts, and levelness of the ground. I have had cords fall over, which is not only a time loss but dangerous as well. In my area of the world, I like to set old pallets down to keep the cordwood off of the ground; otherwise, the bottom row freezes into place and is available only after a thaw or some work with a sledge hammer.

While some of these habits you can learn from a book or YouTube videos, some of them just need to be experienced. Educational materials can get you close, but they will not get you a bullseye, and this has to be clearly understood. That does not mean educational material has no value, as it is key when trying to establish new habits to ensure you do not create a bad precedent, but in combination with experience it becomes much more so. Let’s go back to the commute example we used earlier. If you are looking at a map, it can provide very clear directions. If I need to plot my way to work, the map will give me the right directions, but there is no guarantee it will give me the best directions. Even mapping programs and applications will almost always give you the most direct route. It is after the experiences that I better understand the map; instead of reading of an intersection of “Wall” and “Stowe”, I can visualize that corner and have a rough understanding of the traffic pattern there, if used regularly. It is the knowledge of the road where it moves quickly or slow.

It applies to every habit that you create for yourself. It is human nature to look for shortcuts or the easier way. If I am at somebody’s house and they have split wood or used a different log splitter or chainsaw, I’m asking them about how it works. Sometimes it’s a cursory discussion, but other times it can be educational. Looking at how others do things and their success or failure is the basic principle of education. But these events are more worthwhile when your knowledge base is stronger. It is even better when you have routine and habit to build upon, because during the discussion you can visualize the event you are discussing, which should make it more applicable to you and, if it is routine, it is more likely that you will remember the conversation when performing the routine, allowing an opening for experiment or change.

Now there are more than several books on good habits, breaking habits, et cetera. Many of these are for the business world or to lose weight or have specific objectives. Some will be applicable or at least have some positive impact. We all have what works for us, and you will have to customize what works for you, but I will share how I look at it.
1.Understand your end goal.
If you do not know why you are doing something, it makes it more difficult to do it well. Back to firewood, having the realization that this is being cut for firewood allows me to cut it to the right length from the beginning and save time. However, I also do not have to be overly neat as, again, it is firewood, so the primary concern is fitting into my stove to burn.

2.Know the process chain.
Knowing all the steps helps as well. While my goal is to ultimately cut the wood to fit into the stove, having the knowledge that I will split the wood allows me to not worry about girth when cutting for stove size (although I still have to know how much I can lift onto the splitter or will have to do by hand). When cutting and splitting, having knowledge about how you will stack your wood saves time later.

3.Understand the dangers.
Developing successful habits can also involve processes that are dangerous. While cutting firewood sounds fairly innocuous, it is fraught with peril. Here are some of the dangers with firewood that you should be aware of: tree toppling the wrong way or not as expected, chainsaw blade getting wedged, cords falling over, critters setting up home inside your woodpile, tripping over cut wood, splitting axe deflected, chimney fires, et cetera. This doesn’t mention muscle soreness from over exertion or blisters, splinters, bruises, and aches. Knowing the dangers helps minimize the risk, and there are many stories of those who have lost equipment, body parts, or worse while cutting firewood, so take any dangers seriously.

4.Get going!

This is probably the most important point. Getting started is often the hardest, but once you get going the rest starts falling into place. Revel in the fact that you have taken that first step.

5.Start with an open mind.

Regardless of what endeavor we are initiating, we have some preconceived idea of what comes next. Getting started is important. Realize you are going to make mistakes and probably make many changes. Be open to suggestions from yourself and others. Experiment when you can afford to in order to learn. For example, I have tried stacking wood in different ways and still do. I know what works, but I’ll try different things occasionally to see if it saves time or dries the wood better or is more secure. There will come a point where I’m satisfied with my process, but I still try other things occasionally to see if there is room for improvement.

6.Set short goals.

Don’t try to do everything at once. For example, our process started with installing the wood burner and making sure it was safe and usable. The next goal was getting wood. The first couple of seasons, we purchased as much if not more that we cut ourselves. The following season was establishing a pattern of cutting and splitting our own wood and setting it to age properly. Now we are still evaluating proper tools and what we need to improve our process as well as building a small outbuilding for better protection of the wood.

7.Evaluate regularly.

Take time to step back from the process and assess. What should I have done differently, and what can I change now to make it better and more efficient? While you may not be able to correct all your mistakes, it is still worthwhile to reflect upon them for future opportunities.

8.Use all available resources.

When starting something new, use all your resources, from owner’s manual to Internet. Talk to experts and friends (realizing the differences), and look at how to apply them. The ones that you find the most insightful, save and reuse after three or six months. It will have a very different meaning once you have some basic experiences.

9.Have the right tools.

Having the right tools is key to any job. Understanding the need in the right circumstances is also valuable. With cutting my own firewood, I’ve invested into a very nice Stihl saw (Farm Boss). In addition, I have a couple of axes and wedges (bought or given as gifts) and hand saws. I’ve had other chainsaws that are good for some work but cannot always handle everything. At this time, I am still evaluating log splitters and borrow my neighbors’ or split by hand. I am longing for a good quality log splitter.

10.Think of alternatives methods to achieve your goal.

So after we have committed to a wood burning stove, invested in tools and equipment, have three years of firewood to go, I ask you to look at alternatives. Of course, my goal is heat and keeping warm, not the simple joy of having a fire. So alternatives could be as simple as additional insulation. The value of improving the weather stripping of windows not only becomes an energy saving project but a true trade off in labor of moving firewood. If I can reduce the heat leakage in my house by x%, that is x% less wood that I need to move over the years. Perhaps I am close to a place where I can access corn cobs inexpensively and use that as fuel for my furnace instead of wood? Both electric and therma-electric fans to move the heat may be valuable to increase the warmth of the house. Solar could be considered as an additional heat source as well. The point of this step is to realize that there are multiple ways to increase efficiency, and some of it may be in finding ways to minimize use.

However, alternatives could mean finding a whole new way to heat your home. You may realize, unfortunately, that there is not enough lumber in your area to practically heat a home. There may be a more cost effective and less labor intensive process. This is why the majority of homes are heated with natural gas. It works great and is easy. While hopefully you fully vetted your options before you started, sometimes life just is unfortunate and you realize your mistake too late.


While I thoroughly enjoy the tangible knowledge of gear and gadgets or the basic how-to articles I find on SurvivalBlog, it is my belief that the mindset of individuals will be the key to getting through any grid down scenario. Book knowledge is good, but it is no substitute for real world experience. Real world experience is gained by “doing” regularly (not practice, not studying, not watching others) and routinely and having the various issues arise that you must overcome, i.e. instilling good habits. It prevents similar issues from reoccurring and increases your mental toolkit to handle the next issue. It also allows you to work on autopilot so your mind can figure out other issues while still keeping busy and handling tasks at hand. In a grid down situation, fear of the unknown may be paralyzing, but if you know instinctively through habit that now is the time to get the wood, feed the chickens, or weed the garden, it will give you a significant edge over those who are figuring these things out for the first time. In addition, habit is developed by experience over a period of time. Having a habit means you will also have a better understanding of the outcome, therefore relieving some insecurity for a very uncertain future. Good luck and start your path to good habits today.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, February 8, 2016

Making a Habit of Survival

Here are some great points to ponder about survival, and how to make it a habit, or a part of your normal life.

Survival Habits- Part 1, by Northwoods Prepper

The majority of the people in our country and the world are urban dwellers. Even those living in the country, let alone in the smaller cities and towns, do not embrace a truly self-sustainable lifestyle. The ease and low cost of getting a gallon of milk at the store versus the time and space required to raise a milk cow or two, let alone keeping them healthy and productive and then finding a way to store the milk, is almost prohibitive. This is due to the economic principal of “division of labor”, where the specialist with hundreds if not thousands of heads of cattle can produce milk inexpensively and fairly reliably. However, it is also a habit and a way of life, and if you have always raised your own cows then the idea of buying milk from someone else’s cow let alone a factory-produced, plastic constrained, highly pasteurized and manipulated milk is a totally foreign concept. This article is directed toward those in the city, although anyone can gain insight.

All of us have bad and good habits and know the difficultly in changing them. Exercising regularly, giving up certain things (whether sweets; caffeinated, carbonated, or alcoholic beverages; tobacco; et cetera), addictions to television or social media, or even reading your bible on a daily basis can often be a challenge and one that is difficult during the best of times (which is what we are living in now) with every opportunity and resource for us to change them. Some habits are forced upon (the majority of) us, such as getting up and going to school or work every day or paying taxes. It is a way of life. Good habits tend to be more effort now and beneficial in the long run, while bad habits have the opposite impact.

As a SurvivalBlog reader, you have the same grid down concerns that I do. In the most extreme situations we will all have to radically alter our way of living. My family has moved from the suburbs of Chicago to a remote farm. This move, with full access to modern conveniences, has not been easy, but it is even harder to change our habits. From my perspective, there are two major types of preppers. There are those who are preparing for the instability of world change with a complete grid down golden horde scenario that will be utterly devastating, i.e. get through the hard hump and hopeful that things will return to normalcy at some point. The others are full lifestyle changes based on the belief that the current situation (growth, resource use, population density, et cetera) are all untenable and will force a long-term change on the human race, whether we have a massive convulsion or not. We are a bit of both and wanted to share so you understand our perspective. Still, coming from a traditional suburban lifestyle, it is hard to give up watching television or playing a video game in the evening after a long day at work. It is hard to spend time and money setting up a garden that, if lucky, we may break even in cost instead of buying the food outright. Yes, we fully understand the intangibles (organic, environmentally friendly, control of our food source, et cetera), but making this change is hard.

Habits are important as they allow you to operate without critical thought. Consider this for a moment and your average commute to work. After a while of working at any job, you know the traffic situation, how long it takes for you to waken, get ready, grab lunch, and drive to work. If you forgot gas or lunch, you know the time it takes to figure it in, and it barely impacts your day. If you sleep in, you know how much faster you need to shower and dress. These actions are all built on knowledge and habit. The time you save not having to plan a route with gas refilling stations and food options is huge, especially when it is extrapolated over a period of time. Obstacles become minor issues that allow your day to be uneventful. Some argue this is knowledge, not habit. Take the same situation above and a friend or spouse needs to drop something off at your place of employment. Can you remember all the street names or are you guiding them by landmarks and vague recollections? Some of us will know the details, but most of us “just know the way” and end up giving the friend the address of the place with faith in GPS or telling them to turn left at “First Bank” and right after the “Green Gas Station”.

Habits also make us more efficient. In the same scenario above, if you work long enough at the same place you will find the most cost effective and/or convenient places to stop for gas or groceries. If your commute is long enough, you will have your primary route, which will be the least amount of miles or time (whichever you value greater) but will also have one or two key alternatives, should there be a car accident or construction work. Instinctively, you know if there are traffic problems and whether you need to call your boss based on the anticipated time delay. You know if it snows that you need to be up an extra half hour early and the weeks around holidays you can leave ten minutes later. Again, these are habits developed over time and experience without a significant amount of thought or study.

Establishing a self-sustainable lifestyle requires hundreds of habits. Depending upon your choices, there are thousands of differing subjects that each need their own routines, especially those surrounding plants and animals. We can go through pages and books on habits and different routines. However, as an example, I am going to pick one subject that is common to all: heat. Even in the southern states, winter nights get cold, and where I live– north of Chicago– it is cold from November through March. I also like using firewood as an example because it requires a regular process of feeding wood to a furnace, which has a similar rhythm to having animals or managing a garden and is very simple concept to understand and most of us have the basic concept of firewood down well. It is not that great of a mystery.

At this time, we still utilize natural gas, so we are not solely dependent upon wood for heat. In addition, we have electricity, and on the very cold days we use supplemental electrical heat or bake in our electric oven. To say we are self-sufficient is a far cry, but we have built better habits.

We have instilled a habit of keeping the wood burner running all winter long, night and day. What have we learned from this habit? We’ve earned how to maximize the heat the wood burner can produce. Instinctively I can damper the air when the fire is hot and open the airflow when starting or wanting more heat. It is a rare day and more of a fond distant memory that I smoke out the house when starting a fire. We have learned how often to remove ash and clean the fireplace and how to utilize warm daylight hours to retrieve wood. It has become a regular system and a good daily habit.

The seasonal habits are also starting to form well, such as taking time to chop, split, and stack wood. Aged wood burns hotter, and while it requires more preparation in the front end it saves time when you want good hot fires. Moving and stacking wood is a constant process. If it sits and ages too long, it has the potential to rot or become infested. You want to set up a series of piles for burning by age so the oldest goes first. This is a seasonal habit that does not occur on your first year or second year. Sometimes it takes a cold winter where your wood supply gets really slim or even disappears before you learn the hard lesson. We are still figuring out exactly how much wood we need to burn each winter. After several years we know what we need to ensure we have a constant supply, but I have not developed the instinct or habit for the consumed amount. Part of that is due to the kind of wood that is readily on hand. We have a good idea of the wood that we have easily available for us to chop and use without concern of running low. We have not determined which wood burns best at what age. That comes from experience, and you can read for hours on wood burning, but like so many things it depends on specific circumstances: your type of stove, age, type of wood, et cetera. There are good combinations and poor combinations.

Another habit that I’m developing is learning to be available when wood is free (aside from labor). After storms or if somebody is clearing an area, a polite visit to the land owner can often provide access to trees, and there is usually somebody on Craigslist willing to give away a tree if you can cut it down. If already cut, this can be a huge time saver if the wood is right for you. But even if there is nothing quite as aggravating as turning a tree into firewood (cutting, splitting, storing, and stacking) and finding it does not burn well, it is also a learning experience. Maybe that wood can be utilized for outdoor campfires or landscaping projects. The more wood I can access off my property allows for greater resources on my property when needed, since trees take time to replace. While this may sound a bit selfish, I am offering fair trade in the current market and more often helping people get rid of unwanted waste.

https://survivalblog.com/survival-habits-part-1-by-northwoods-prepper/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equip yourself for the troubled times ahead: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Formation and Organization of Resistance Movements, Part Two

Here is the second part in the two part series by John Mosby, like I said at the beginning of part one, this is vital information that we need to start performing now. We need to be organized and ready to go before it is too late. We need to be part of the solution, not the problem. If we as patriots do not perform the necessary actions needed to be ready to perform our part this nation will cease to exist as a Constitutional Republic (which it really does not resemble any more).

The Formation and Organization of Resistance Movements, Part Two

John Mosby

This is part two of a two-part series.

There are three necessary components to a successful insurgency. The subversive underground is always present and is the first component of the resistance to form and begin active operations. The strategic goals of the resistance movement will determine the level of development for all three components:

The subversive underground
The support auxiliary
The paramilitary guerrilla force

The subversive underground.

The subversive underground is a cellular organization within the resistance movement that has the ability to conduct operations in areas that are practicably inaccessible to the paramilitary guerrilla force, such as populated areas that are under tight control of the regime’s security forces. The underground maintains the ability to operate in these denied areas because it operates clandestinely, returning to innocuous “day jobs” when not performing missions.

Typical tasks for the subversive underground include, but may not be limited to:

-Gathering intelligence and the development of intelligence networks.

-The development and operation of subversive “pirate” broadcast systems that control the dissemination of propaganda through radio, newspaper and leaflet distribution, and/or internet communications and web page development.

-The fabrication of special materials, such as false identification, weapons, and munitions.

-Black market networks and safe houses for transport of personnel and logistics.

-Sabotage by individuals and/or small units in urban centers.

-Operation of clandestine medical facilities to treat injured/wounded resistance personnel.

Members of the underground are normally active, productive members of their community, and their ability to function as part of the resistance is a product of their daily life and/or position within the community. They operate by maintaining a strict compartmentalization and delegating most risk to their auxiliary workers. The functions of the subversive underground are what allow the resistance to have a noticeable effect within urban or built-up areas.

The underground operational cell should typically be comprised of a leader and a few cell members who operate directly as a unit to conduct direct-action missions for the underground. The intelligence cell is different in that the cell leader should seldom, if ever, be in direct contact with the subordinate members of his cell, and the members of the cell are rarely in contact with one another. All communications of the intelligence cell would typically be conducted through dead-drop and other covert/clandestine methods of tradecraft.

It is imperative for the potential future guerrilla fighter to understand that, until he sees and recognizes these actions being undertaken by unknown parties, there is little point to “going to guns.” Doing so will only accelerate the actions of the regime to hunt down such “extremist” outlaws. Since the security forces will not be forced to deal with hunting down members of the subversive underground at the same time, there will be little to prevent them from focusing extensive assets to hunting down the “bandits hiding out in the woods.” If you have friends, whom you trust enough to discuss these matters and potential future issues with, who are not outspoken and openly critical of the current demise, educate them on the need for future subversives. They need to remain quiet and simply prepare for the day they need to wire a couple cans of ether to some douchebag’s engine manifold…(I’ve actually never tried it, but I’m pretty well convinced that it would be an extremely effective anti-vehicle/anti-personnel device to be utilized by a mechanic who happens to secretly support the resistance. If anyone has a junk vehicle that will still run, they should try it and let me know how it works out…Don’t run out and try it on a local police cruiser, please. I am not saying do it now. I’m saying consider such possible weapons in case they are needed in the future.

The auxiliary.

This term refers to members of the population who provide very limited clandestine support to the subversive underground and/or the paramilitary guerrilla force. Very seldom will they be “active” members of the movement and, as such, offer little intelligence value to the regime if compromised. Functions of the auxiliary may take the form of logistics, labor, or intelligence collection. Auxiliary members may not know any more than how to perform their specific function or service that supports the network. They may not even realize they are actively supporting the resistance. They should certainly never be asked to perform a job by a valuable member of the subversive underground cadre, face-to-face. Even in the modern environment of credit card payments and billing services, there are ways to accomplish such chores remotely. Until they are trusted, they do not learn the names or identities of the resistance.

In many ways however, the auxiliary personnel are at the greatest risk of compromise (thus the importance of their not offering intelligence value to the regime if compromised). Typical functions of the auxiliary include:

-Logistics procurement (either through stealing from a workplace, or purchasing on the black market, or open market, if it can be done without compromising their security or that of the movement.)

-Logistics distribution (transporting goods and dropping them in pre-determined cache locations for later pick-up by resistance forces.)

-Labor for special material fabrication (in some instances, the fabrication will be conducted in assembly-line fashion, to preclude any one group of auxiliaries from recognizing what they are manufacturing).

-Security and early warning for underground facilities and guerrilla bases (obviously, this is a task that must be reserved for well-trusted and very secure members of the auxiliary…cooks in regime mess halls/dining facilities who may overhear conversations regarding upcoming operations, mechanics who notice an increase in the request for pre-mission checks on vehicles, etc…)

-Intelligence collection (intentional or otherwise)

-Recruitment (obviously, in this case, the auxiliary member knows his part, but can still be compartmentalized to reduce risk to the actual underground or guerrilla force).

-Communications networks staff such as couriers and/or messengers.

-Propaganda distribution.

-Safe house management.

-Logistics and personnel transport (if functioning as part of the black market, the auxiliary member may never realize he is actively supporting the resistance).

The paramilitary guerrilla force.

The paramilitary guerrilla force is the overt military arm of the resistance. As individuals who actively engage the conventional military in combat operations, guerrillas have traditionally held a significant disadvantage in terms of training, equipment, and firepower (it should be noted that, in the event of an U.S. resistance movement, these would not necessarily be the case. That’s the purpose, after all, of this blog). For all their disadvantages, however, the guerrilla force has one distinct advantage that can offset any unfavorable balance – the initiative. In any operational planning, the guerrilla leader must strive to maintain and exploit this advantage.

The guerrilla element only attacks when it can develop and maintain a relative, if temporary, state of superiority of force. The element avoids any sort of decisive engagement, thus denying the conventional force military of the regime the opportunity to recover, regain their superiority, and use it against the guerrilla force (the application of conventional small-unit tactics, such as raids and ambushes, in an unconventional manner, such as an IED/EFP-initiated ambush, followed by selective targeting of personnel, then an exfiltration, or a rapid, snatch-and-grab raid to kidnap a key enemy leader, are the definition of guerrilla warfare tactics). The guerrilla element is only capable of generating this type of tactical success in areas where they possess a significant familiarity with the terrain and a connection to the local civilian population that allows them to harness clandestine support for security and intelligence-gathering purposes. Don’t ever allow yourself or your unit to suffer the terminal disease of testosterone poisoning and think you’re going to survive, let alone win, a toe-to-toe slugfest with a conventional force rifle platoon. You might have better riflemen, and even bigger numbers, but they have indirect-fire support, close air support, and a faster Quick Reaction Force (QRF) to call on for reinforcements.

Depending on the degree of control over the local area, a guerrilla force element may range in size from fire-team size all the way up to a brigade-level force. In the initial stages of a resistance, the guerrilla force, regardless of size, will generally be limited to stand-off attacks that we typically think of as “guerrilla warfare.” This may include the aforementioned raids and ambushes, albeit on a slightly larger scale. As the guerrilla force grows, however, so should its ability to engage the regime’s conventional military forces on a larger scale, allowing some degree of parity with the enemy. In these cases, formerly isolated bands of guerrillas may be able to connect and coalesce, forming liberated territory that allows for the development of a larger, more conventional military force to face the regime’s conventional force.

It is critical to delineate the difference between a true resistance guerrilla fighter, and other small-unit, irregular force operatives that may appear similar but in fact, are drastically different, such as militias (although the local militia may operate as a part of the guerrilla force in liberated territories), mercenaries, and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs. The militia’s only intent should be to provide security for the local community and its residents. Mercenaries and criminal/narco-terrorist gangs will seldom hold themselves to any sort of moral construct similar to that of the resistance-force guerrilla. It is critical for the guerrilla force insurgent to recognize that only uniformed personnel of the enemy regime are legitimate targets for the guerrilla force. Key political personnel, civilian population sympathizers and informants, etc, must be dealt with solely by the subversive underground. This is critical to the PSYOP campaign for the resistance, since conduct of assassinations/kidnappings, etc., by the underground can be plausibly blamed on the regime’s security apparatus if it is not conducted by organized paramilitary forces of the guerrilla.

Nous Defion,
John Mosby
Somewhere in the mountains

John Mosby is a former Army Ranger and Green Beret, and the author of the Mountain Guerrilla blog.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here for all your prepping/tactical needs: The Tactical Patriot Store

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------