Bison Prepper: July 2016

Friday, July 29, 2016

mechanical v manual

MECHANICAL V MANUAL

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note: he has a few loose connections, primarily in his belief we can vote our way to freedom, but when he is on fire he is darn good. Recommended reading:
http://johngaltfla.com/wordpress/2016/07/29/wikileaks-hillary-and-russia-revenge-is-a-dish-best-served-cold/
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As you all recall from the Great 2016 Chainsaw Debate, I am not one to entertain the notion of unneeded machinery for the sake of convenience. Certainly not after the Apocalypse. It is hard enough stockpiling items never to be seen again post-petroleum, such as smokeless powder arms and ammunition and rolls of thick plastic sheeting. And you want to stock power tools that require spares and consumables? It isn’t that it isn’t a good idea-I admit the allure of quick completion. It is that only in a Super Slow Collapse ( like the one we’ve been in for near fifty years ) do you have time to prep in such an extravagant and thorough manner. I don’t know how young you are, but to me the expectation of a leisure collapse has been the exception rather than the rule. Until 1991 we had to worry about superpower nuclear annihilation ( Russia and ourselves might be down to a relative handful of defensive nukes, the rest going from warhead to reactor fuel that gave all the idiots out there the confusing notion that nukes could power our civilization forever, but at one time there were enough to guarantee Nuclear Winter a few times over ) which could arrive at any time ( while in the service I remember thinking how screwed we were as there were only a few WWII era .45’s we used, rumors of a couple of M16’s locked away, and the food they had for the very small cafeteria. Who knows if we even had very much fuel for generators ).

Since 1997 we lived under the threat of imminent power failures in a few short years. Since 2005 Peak Oil was a sword hanging over us and since 2007 financial collapse was nigh. And you think that your budget, after buying an armory, an ammunition dump, a stockpile of food for years, alternate shelter and warm clothing and all the other basics to keep you alive and not much more, can also include Tim Taylor Power Tools? Mine certainly cannot. Manual tools are more of a necessity than a preference. Six whole years out of my 51 there hasn’t been a serious threat to my life from systematic collapse. And during that time, despite record affordable prep supplies, all my money went to the ex-wife ( I was generously allowed to keep $5k a year out of $25k ). I’ve rarely had the luxury of buying luxury or convenience.

And herein lies today’s tale. My second foray into power tools this century, and once again a concrete proof of how silly they are. The weather here, despite some years disruptions and diversions, is pretty repetitious. We get rain in the spring, not a cloud in the summer, clouds all winter and that season can last six months. Since I’ve lived here I have used a hand powered weeder ( you could call it a sickle, I suppose. The C shape with closed end, kind of “CI” setting on a handle ) every year after the spring rains feed the weeds in sage cleared spots. My first $18 tool lasted six years. It had already been getting dull but the wooden handle broke and finished it off. It would have lasted longer and I would have bothered sharpening it except when I clear the sage I leave a good six inches of exposed trunk ( I only cut at ground level when I cleared a path in for my trailer ). The head is always hitting the exposed nubs no matter how careful I am. I just have to accept it as a consumable item rather than a lifetime tool.

Well, this year I’m living in town and I can’t weed every evening and on the weekend mornings. I visited one weekend and the weeds were a one inch carpet. The next weekend I was down south visiting my dad. So two weeks of rains went by and upon returning the plants were, no exaggeration, a foot tall. I manually weeded as fast as I could but in the heat I could only do so much. The New Old Lady harped on me until I let her buy me a mechanical weed-wacker. She bought an electric unit, a 1,000 watt inverter and a few rolls of cutting cord, and I bought a new 12v battery ( those suckers went up almost 50% since my last one two and a half years ago ).

It STILL took three weekend visits to get it all cut ( I used the lowest power cutter to conserve the needed watts ). Even with a good hat, already being hydrated and being in good shape, I can only do so much labor in the heat ( I’m acclimated to the cold. The summer, not the winter, is my suffering time ). Now, the inverter and battery are going to be an emergency back-up for the house here. The power goes out almost regularly. Their cost didn’t bother me. And the electric weed-eater was only $30. But cutting the half acre used $18 worth of string! Every year, a mechanical cutter costs the same as six years of a manual tool, and that is in consumables only! It was almost a requirement because of the fire danger, I’ll admit. This is the driest its been in about seven years. Not living there I almost have to do it this way ( almost-I could still work around it ). It is really easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need mechanical tools. I even did it as smart as possible, foregoing oil and gasoline, still able to use it as long as my battery lasts, but I’m not blind to the Six Times Cost.

I suppose one could improvise a more permanent string using a thin metal coat hanger ( and wrapping ones legs up to avoid cuts ), and I’m not blind to the calories saved by using solar rather than food as fuel, but it is NOT a long term solution! Like all power tools, you spend a lot more and you enter into a dangerous situation in record time where you lack the manual tools and the stamina to use them. Forgetting the cost of the cutter, just in the string/cord alone, you could buy a brand new manual cutter every year. I’ll still keep that tool, and keep using it but on a more limited basis, but only limiting myself to the manual use during another worse case scenario like foot high dry grass during fire season. Damn town living is already making me soft.

END

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Thursday, July 28, 2016

sheep dip

SHEEP DIP

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note: "Endless Enemies" arrived in the mail. Thanks!
note: I've got the blogs on sale in PDF. The first two years of this current blog:
click here Bison Prepper blog in PDF
and the complete James M Dakin Blog:
click here JMD blog in PDF
These are a lot nicer than the original blog book. You can click in the table of contents and go directly to the article. The original is just a mess of copy and paste one document with no order.
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Okay, sorry about the ten day detour re-writing the Frugal Survivalist. I know all of you are familiar with it. I just felt compelled to rush it out there and beg you to disseminate far and wide. Spread the message and hopefully to those that are not familiar with the concept. When you used to get half length articles I could write books in my spare time-now that you get the full length any book I want to write must appear on the blog as articles. Now we can get back to current events to give the above a short rest. The police shootings in Dallas and Shreveport and the Sheepdog concept ( as you can tell from this articles title, I call Bull Spit or Sheep Dip on it, a play on words which is my wont to engage in as I gaze in wonderment at my glorious coiffeur in the reflective surfaces and entertain myself ).

I’m not going to engage in racial excuses, or libertarian rhetoric or jingoistic bombast. The Blacks have been playing the “occupying force in the United Slave States” against the police since the ’60’s. There might have been a few redneck cracker cops in the Deep South way back when that gloried in suppressing the Negro, and there might have been plenty of White cops who was racist. And there still might be. But 99% of police are there to uphold law and order. Even if they know they are helping to suppress dissent for their federal overlords, the bulk of their mission is The Thin Blue Line. Twenty odd years ago when I was young and libertarian ( some never outgrow it, but there is usually a monetary incentive to stagnate intellectually ) I would have been mumbling about how the forces of evil and there henchmen were getting what they deserved. Now, I see the need to suppress a lot of folks natural desires for freedom ( you can maximize freedom according to certain social organizations, but you can’t do so as much as libertarians dream of. Coercion is necessary on some scale for humans to function in a group ). And I won’t jump on the flag waving and thank First Responders for their service and give the cops a free pass to screw with citizens to the extent they have been ( most of which isn’t even the rank and files fault, but the systems ).

You could write volumes on all of the above. But other than filling in for a slow Doomer News Day, I don’t see much point right now. To me, the take away from the shootings is that it really seems that Nobody Gives A Crap. We might as well replace our national mascot from the eagle to the honey badger. Now, you know me. I am a callous and heartless hump who cares little for others outside my immediate circle. I felt no sadness over the death of others, even policemen ( very little fraternal bond, there. I didn’t realize until later on that I had no aptitude for law enforcement, but prior to that I felt it was a contradiction to my philosophical outlook anyway. If I had stayed in for an early retirement I would have just been an amoral mercenary. I tend to judge other cops in that light. If they believed in freedom they would find another job, irregardless of the bulk of their duties being beneficial social order ).

What I did feel, increasingly as the days passed, was a sense of dread that our society has reached this point of indifference. As heartily as the police pound themselves on the back for a job well done keeping order, by and large it takes a committed and cooperating citizenry for them to do that job. For almost every citizen to shrug in indifference when the police are gunned down says a lot about where we are in the collapse curve. Such as, are we applauding rebel forces? How close are we to joining the violent dissent if we can’t even pretend concern? I understand we are world record uneducated, but isn’t the knowledge we need to keep anarchy at bay somewhat primal and constant?

Is this really the end result of unintended consequences from Political Correctness ( if we are brainwashed into worshipping Blacks regardless of action, are we required to automatically assume police guilt as a class and applaud armed insurrection )? Or do we assume imminent collapse and see this as inevitable and hence have no surprise or fear over it? Were the shootings considered okay because they were Southern White cops ( the south as a colony demands unbridled hatred be directed at its occupants, as is appropriate from an invader towards the resisters )? One thing is crystal clear however, and that is you had better quickly rethink all the propaganda directed at you by the III%’ers and Militia Mopes about the noble occupation of being a Sheep Dog. If we are okay with sanctioning the deaths of the official Sheep Dogs, you as an armed and vigilant citizen version of the same will be quickly thrown under the bus.

You think you are a cop/soldier wanna-be going around armed and trained and ready to save innocent bystanders from marauding terrorists or other assorted Bad Guys? You are an idiot. To save yourself? Sure-that is common sense. Your family? If you have any self respect and/or testicles, of course. But strangers? You are going to chance going to jail, or almost as bad, getting grievously injured or killed, to save ingrate stupid humpers? Where is your head? Cops get killed, the attitude is “stupid white cracker deserved it”, and you want to put it all on the line to save them? They deserve to die. Not for being stupid. But for NOT being part of your tribe. Ten years ago, maybe a bit longer, I’d say an armed and vigilant citizen sheep dog was a good thing. Now, I’d say they are more likely to just be a martyr. You don’t need gratitude necessarily but you certainly don’t need to fight a system designed to sacrifice you when to try to do a good deed. The systematic collapse, and the systematic class/race/gender and generational warfare are against you. Don’t play into the hands of power run amok.

END

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

frugal survivalist digest 10 of 10

FRUGAL SURVIVALIST DIGEST VERSION 10

FINANCES

Who has extra money these days? Not many of us. I do, usually investing a fifth to a quarter of my take home pay in preps, and that is on an income of $10k a year ( my writing earnings go directly to reference books, and is not income per se ). But I also was such a sad and pathetic creature that Evil Extraordinaire Ex-Wife #2 ended up leaving me and even if I spent twenty years in financial servitude to her I still came out ahead of the game money wise ( even at half the take home, I budgeted it so much more intelligently I was able to better myself ) by NOT sharing in her idea of middle class living ( read: debt and always being broke half way to payday ). But you, you aren’t as good as I am and I’d wager your hair doesn’t look half as nice. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger.

How is it my fault you didn’t pull your head out of your butt in 2008? We were ALL lied to and we ALL started an adult life brainwashed by the system. Some of us were, not smarter, but better able to get an idea we were getting screwed after the fact. If you still believe that voting counts and your retirement will be there for you and that the USS Liberty wasn’t a sacrificial pawn and that a third skyscraper can pancake down without being hit by a jet and that fracking oil will give us at LEAST a century of energy independence and that little green men delivered the secret of room temperature fusion to Donald Trump, well, I guess I can’t convince you that continuing to spend and invest in an Oil Age is a bad idea. You won’t accept the necessarily of sacrificing and get out of debt and give up your car and downsize a career and etcetera. The only thing I can do is point out that prepping can be so cheap anyone can do it.

SPENDING LESS

You don’t need a thousand dollars to prep. You could do it on half of that, starting with a cheap shotgun and minimal ammo and just a year of wheat. The one thousand dollar figure is for all the frills and bells and whistles of the Frugal Survivalist plan. And you can spend a HECK of a lot more. Which is fine. Most of us do. But you secure the bare minimum FIRST. That way you don’t panic and do something stupid when some major event transpires. When the stock market took a big squishy in the late 80’s I quickly ordered a mail order year of wheat in buckets. It wasn’t cheap, and I lost it after I rejoined the service and there was nobody at the old address to pay the shipping due. If I had been half as smart then as I am now I would have bought the wheat locally and stored it myself ( and, needless to say, I wouldn’t have gone back in the military ). But I panicked and I wasn’t prepped. A bare bones $500 prepping stockpile prevents panic.

Once you have the basics you can do such things as buy a pistol or more rifle ammo or scopes or more wheat or better food stores or whatever. Whenever I hawk the frugal prepper plan, I inevitably get something like “my life is worth more, so I’m going to spend more to protect myself” or “in a collapse, he who spends less does not win”. Which of course misses the point that since you cannot time the collapse you have to assume it happens tomorrow so you need to prep yesterday. And with the multitude of issues our entire globe faces, I can’t believe you would play the odds on a slow collapse. I know most of you are poor, but I also know most of you have cell phones and other pricey luxuries. Anyone should be able to scare up $500.

GETTING EXTRA

Most prepping advice goes something like, “cancel the cable. In a year you have $600”. “Stop drinking coffee out, and in a year you have an extra $500”. Dude! I see you listening but you are NOT hearing what I am saying. You CANNOT time the collapse. Just because the odds are it won’t suddenly collapse does not mean spit. Not when your life is on the line. Good Gravy, I want to smack the glittery unicorn fart optimism off of people. Stay paranoid and stay alive. You need cash, and quicker than a year. Find a gun store that does layaway to get a gun quick. Then crash course cutting money. It is just for a month or three. Figure out what you can do without for a short time. Postpone some bills if possible. Skip a grocery trip if needed ( regular everyday eating food is much more expensive and a small cut there will buy a lot of storage food ). Can you safely skip one months car payment? Don’t eat out at all for that period. Etcetera.

Sell some of your crap. Once the economy falls off a cliff, it won’t be worth anything. If you sell twenty cents on the dollar now, that is better than one cent on the dollar once everyone else is unemployed and also desperate to sell their crap. Now is the perfect time to sell a semi-auto carbine. That should cover the whole cost of prepping. You can still defend yourself with less gun.

TOTAL COST

$500 PLAN

$200 shotgun and

$50 ammo ( birdshot is a quarter a round and BTN )

$50 wheat grinder and

$100 in wheat kernels from the feed store with free bottles

$20 water filter

$15 knife

$5 knife sharpener

$25 vitamins-a years supply of C and multivitamin

$10 LED lights-garden type

$25 used wool clothing from thrift store

FULL BUDGET $1K PLAN

$350 war surplus rifle with

$50 bayonet (s)

$250 ammo-usually about 350 rounds new 30 cal.

$200 wheat kernels ( 800 pounds )

$50 wheat grinder

$20 water filter

$15 knife

$5 knife sharpener

$25 vitamins-a years supply of C and multivitamin

$10 LED lights-garden type

$25 used wool clothing from thrift store

( the above are suggestions and approximations )

It looks a bit lonely and sad and forlorn, but come collapse time it will be a life saver. Good luck!

END
Here is the link for the complete book:
The Frugal Survivalist Digest Version in PDF

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

frugal survivalist digest 9 of 10

FRUGAL SURVIVALIST DIGEST VERSION 9

LIGHTING

Way back in the day when Tappan gave advice live ( as opposed to from the grave ) and the Evil Empire was thought to be ready to Push The Button at any time, off grid illumination blew rabid monkey balls. You had a couple of choices, neither good. You could stockpile fifty gallon metal drums of kerosene, mantels and lanterns, producing heat in the summer and carbon monoxide all the time. Or you could jerry rig a Rube Goldburg windmill to charge a few batteries to run a 12v auto bulb for an anemic pathetic source of illumination for a short period of time. And of course you remember those next to worthless flashlights of yesteryear that got minutes rather than hours of light, when the bulbs weren’t breaking. Well, we never got flying cars or dinner in a pill, and certainly not the Magic Of The Atom For Un-metered Power, we at least got great off grid lighting and better battery powered everything.

I have clear memories of life before popularly disseminated computers and I think I much prefer Then, which would be wonderful if for no other reason than Bill Gates could kiss my ass. But I would miss LED’s. They are wonderful sources of illumination, using almost no electricity and costly less every year even as they increase in power ( Moore’s Law seems to still be alive and well in computers but much more noticeable in LED lights ). Pre-Y2k I could only find them in bicycle lamps, they cost $35 and they used up a set of batteries in around ten hours or so ( if memory serves me, which it might not ). It was still cheaper than a $1 flashlight using a regular bulb which I zip-tied to my bike to avoid the Florida constables harassing me. Now, LED’s are everywhere, even replacing street lights. They are offering LED tubes to replace fluorescents! Obviously I haven’t lost my enthusing for them over twenty years.

If you are really poor, buy the $1 garden lights. You know the ones, you stick the stake in the ground and the thing charges all day and gives off some light at night. You put enough of them out and you can see burglars in your yard. They are, however, usually an anemic 1 lumen. Better than nothing. Charge all day and bring in at night and you put them around so you can at least not trip over crap. I find they last around two or three years-not too shabby. Just buy spares. If you ramp up in power you’ll need to buy a solar battery charger. The small book size one costs around $25 and a bunch of rechargeable AA’s and AAA’s ( standardize to those two sizes. Others are too expensive ) about the same. Now you can buy more powerful flashlights and lanterns. If you want the power but not the expense, Wal-Mart has brand name garden lights in a four pack, and they get 7 lumens. $20 for the set.

Another option is the Tooblite. Those are the rechargeable green sticks. They last, literally, forever. They are NOT illumination but rather light markers. But you can read by one when fully charged. Leaving in the sun and then using after doesn’t work except the first five minutes, so you need to recharge its light artificially. I have some 600 lumen LED flashlights and if you hold them next to the Tube for ten seconds it is fully charged. Just build a box to hold both so as not to ruin your night vision. Now place the Tube under the line of text you are reading. They aren’t necessary, having limited utility, but a nice additional toy.

BUGGING OUT OR STAYING PUT

Bugging out is stupid, but so is staying in place in a large population center. I would strongly advise you downsizing where you live, regardless. Less people means safety ( relatively speaking of course. A Podunk town of 100 is just as dangerous if they turn on you ). If you have to bug out you are doing something wrong, IF there are safer places you already should be. Bugging out itself is fine, going from a small city or large town and arriving at your bug out location less than a day later. Living in a smaller place NOW, is far better than living in the big city. I don’t care who you are or how much money you have, big city living is bad.

I’ve been in your shoes-staying out of loyalty for family. But notice how it is all on their terms? They expect giving from you. Would they consider leaving to still be close to you? Of course not, that is why they are staying in the big city and are guilting you to stay also. They dismiss your fears as groundless. Since they don’t agree with your worries, by definition they can’t be legitimate. Sound familiar? As far as you are concerned, they are placing your life in danger with their expectations. What happened to letting the hatchlings leave the nest? I know there are other legitimate reasons. In this economy, forget finding another job. Right? Have you noticed the economy getting better? Not me-I’ve only noticed it devolving less quick, and now picking up the pace. It will only be a matter of time before that job of yours is toast. With an employer, again, the loyalty is all one way. From you to them. They will pink slip your ass in a heartbeat. Move while you have the resources to do so, and take any job once there.

Of course you don’t want to hear that-I imagine you thought for a mere grand your life would be middle class luxurious after the apocalypse? Survivalism used to be serious business when nuclear holocausts were imminent. Then it kind of lost its way, playing at Militia Porn, worried our power would go out, bleating painfully if any deprivations were in store for us. Time to get serious again. Time to Cowboy Up, yo! Grow a pair and embrace The Suck, learning how to do without the Girly Man soft life. John Wayne should be turning in his radioactive grave ( it is thought his cancer was from filming at location down wind from a test site ) right about now.

END

Monday, July 25, 2016

frugal survivalist digest version 8 of 10

FRUGAL SURVIVALIST DIGEST VERSION 8

SHELTER

Shelter is really the least of your worries prepping. Food is first because while you can improvise defense ( by, say, for instance, not being around other people at the very least ) you need calories every day. You might last a month before all your extra fat is gone and you start cannibalizing yourself, but long before then the lack of calories will be having negative effects which will impact your survival. Any survival plan relying mostly on trapping, hunting and edible foraging is not a very good plan at all ( all of the above are a supplement to stored calories, not a replacement ). And while you can improvise defense you can’t always count on that being successful, so arming yourself is not the worst idea around. Food first, then arming yourself ( no, Tactical Tommy, you don’t need semi-auto weapons. They are not the magical talisman you believe ). Water doesn’t need all that much in the way of preparation ( something I wish I knew prior to spending $200 on a brand name camping filter pre-Y2K ) and all the other crap like fancy camping gear and down sleeping bags and gold and silver are just expensive consumer items you can do without. They don’t relate to survival as much as they do to status symbols.

And don’t get me started with the thirty year mortgage suburban home with a bug-out vehicle in the driveway with a plan to flee to a concrete bunker atop a mountain out in the boonies. I’m certainly no fan of town or city bugging-in, but neither am I one of unaffordable country retreats ( I advocate a small city near junk land-near as in a days walk optimally ). Shelter is way overdone in most folks minds. Why, you would think that without banks and a grid, our forefathers lived in mud huts and were covered in lice. You can live in a shelter that cost one months rent, on a piece of land that cost only several months wages, if you would embrace a meager amount of roughing it. And prepping shelter is even easier. Then, you just build with the residue of our failing civilization, akin to the survivors of Rome using paving stones for foundations. Only this time you’ll have far more refuse to use. Retreaters THINK they are escaping the cities populations but their weak spot is their unnatural lust for automobiles which require roads which are a pretty good map for barbarian hordes to follow.

And they spend $150k for that? Shelter should cost you nothing, given scavenging, or at most $100 for a mattock pick, a shovel, a saw and a roll of thick plastic. You don’t need an expensive retreat when you can walk off the road a small ways ( near water, of course, although not too close ) and build your dug-out shelter where you desire ( yes, it is a bit more complicated than that, given the need to escape and hide during about a month for the die-off, but only in detail ). For those old and weak survivalists who are going to die soon anyway, here are some ideas for ready made shelter so as not to break out in a sweat.

VEHICLE

Cars and trucks and delivery vehicles will be all over the place. They are a bit difficult to hide other than if you plan on mostly burying one as a form of dug-out, but they are better than nothing. And the end shelter for most poor misguided souls who bug out because they will never get to their destination due to TSA goons, gridlock, no transportation of gasoline and other factors.

TENT

A tent isn’t very good protection against wildlife, but at least it gets you off the roads and beaten path. In my opinion they are good for getting away from insects and not much else ( and not for very long as they are poorly made ). But with a wool sweater and cap, a $20 wool blanket ( buy them at Sportsman’s Guide online-make sure they weigh a minimum of three pounds or they are near worthless ) and if really cold a $40 ( at Amazon ) synthetic down comforter, they are probably the go-to option for most poor folks. Just make sure you can transition over to a local materials shelter before the tent becomes worthless from use. Yes, you’ll probably have to pre-cache food to make this viable. Just don’t pre-manufacture any shelter. I’ve heard of asswhore volunteers for the park service and other Federale agencies confiscating and wreaking any supplies they find. Bury well.

LOCAL MATERIALS ( not for the old and weak )

Research whatever shelter your local decimated Native American tribe used for shelter, and duplicate that. That roll of plastic might really make a difference in performance as well as other old timey manufactured materials such as lime. Stucco walls and floors eliminate infestations more unfinished materials allow. And a word on that old favorite hippie shelter, yurts and tepees. They were for nomads following the meat herds. They aren’t necessarily the best for a sedentary camp. Usually the best shelters outside swamps are earth sheltered, in part or in whole. Study the Indigs-you don’t need reinforced concrete.

Having lived way too many winters in the high mountain desert in an RV, I’ve lost most of my previous enthusiasm for recreational vehicle living. They are a great turn key solution if you add an enclosed porch at the entrance, so as to heat with solar and heat/cook with wood. But unless you got a good deal financially and have a good place to go with it ( just prior to being a bug-out, if you know you can time it correctly ), I’d instead recommend building a shack yourself on your own land ( junk land, the cheap stuff on E-Bay or through county tax sales-stuff nobody else wants-but that is part of your larger financial collapse preps rather than the focus of this book which is bare bones prep supplies ).

END

Saturday, July 23, 2016

frugal survivalist digest 7 of 10

THE FRUGAL SURVIVALIST DIGEST 7

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note: to the magnificent minion who gifted me the books ( FDR/Biology ), they arrived yesterday. Many thanks!
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PROTECTION

FIREARMS

NEW

There are three choices in new, non-war surplus firearms if that is the way you so choose ( I’m all for war guns, but I’m pretty gay for bayonets-covered below ). The categories in the original book were Rimfire, Shotgun and SKS. Two of those are no longer valid. SKS’s used to be affordable but the only thing you can find in that category ( defined as half the price as an AK-47 ) are a few junked Chinese versions. As the Chinese SKS’s were complete crap even new ( soft wood, soft metal ), $350 for a used one is insane. And while the same jerk-offs keep parroting the same old forty year line about how wonderful rimfires are, that was still the case ten years ago but no longer. We’ll need to revise that. Even the Shotgun category is different. You used to be able to buy a single shot 12 gauge for $100. Now they are so much more, while pumped versions keep being reduced in price, you might as well forego the single shot now.

Rimfires used to shoot an inexpensive round. Ten years ago I bought a cheap Wally rifle and ten thousand rounds of ammo for about $300. Now it costs about $1300. You are much better off using a 9mm carbine. It is cheaper to reload them, even factoring in paying more for the firearm and getting some magazines. I don’t like semi-auto, but the 9mm uses a thicker case than the .38 ( with its lever action ) so they last much longer reloading. Both rimfires and pistil rounds have serious range and wounding limitations, but if you are in an area of dense woods or similar, and don’t like a shotgun, and believe a no recoil gun is right for you, do NOT go with the rimfire but the 9 or 38. Nobody listened to me for the last ten years as I preached Peak Oil, and even fewer listen when I explain Peak Silver/Gold ( ah, DUH! We are running out, get them while the getting is good if you must-but beware reports of very widespread Chinese fake coins. If you already own some, don’t cash it in. The price will skyrocket as the Dollar declines ). Even less than that want to believe in Peak Copper. Globally, copper is past peak in production and will both decline even more with silver mining AND with the increased price of petroleum. Copper equals brass and in rimfire you throw away a product that is increasing drastically in value. Give up on the things.

I don’t much care for shotguns. They are affordable and the ammo is cheap ( although not as long lasting I would imagine ) but I can’t hit spit with the things and that is pretty embarrassing no matter who you are. I think I need regular rifle sites on them-not that it matters too much. I’d rather spend an extra fifty percent on a surplus rifle. Yet, if you live in the appropriate environment for short range shooting and like them, right now is a great time to buy one ( note: I write this July 2016 and make no guesses how the election will effect prices or supply ) as they are barely above $200. I couldn’t find a friggin single shot rimfire rifle under $175 ( okay, granted, it had a scope. Big whoop ). No, I did NOT go to Wal-Mart. I hate supporting them but more importantly EVERYTHING they sell, even brand name, has quality issues. Trust them with a firearm? Hell no. Bad enough I have to beware which firearm company will screw me.

Since the SKS is beyond our budget now, you’ll have to settle for a bolt action hunting rifle or, my preference, a single shot break open rifle ( it sips ammo rather than guzzles, is light weight and has far less to break if it becomes a multi-generational post-apocalypse gun. Plus, is $50-$100 cheaper than a bolt action. For the price of one AR-15 you could buy three of these-one in 223, one in 308 and one in 7.62x39 and have very nice options in ammo discount purchasing AND salvaging ). This option is for those in more open terrain ( even if my location is desert, off the valley floor is all rolling hills and 300 yards is all you really need to worry about ). While still staying in budget. The less gun you buy the more ammo you can afford.

BAYONETS

I love me a nice bayonet. If I don’t die right away during the die-off I plan on using them quite a bit. They save ammo ( why finish off a wounded man with an irreplaceable round? Why put down a prisoner riot with the same? Use your imagination ). If you are REALLY poor, and I would imagine most of us are else why read this, it can replace a pistol as a back-up weapon ( no, nobody WANTS to be attacked by a dog pack armed only with a bolt action and a bayonet. Your dreams, wishes, desires and wants, AND about $2 gets you a Starbucks regular coffee. We are friggin poor here, sorry that chaps your ass. Get used to compromises ). Clinton, that vicious nasty whore, made it a lot harder to get a rifle with a bayonet, but the war surplus rifles supply them as standard equipment.

KNIVES

Going into the apocalypse with just a knife has got to suck the biggest rabid mule member of all time. The only thing it beats is NOT being armed. I’d make a spear from one so at least I had a real weapon. But knives are great for many things. Back-up weapons, better than nothing for being armed at all times in gun unfriendly areas, in times of gun control because nobody can stop even novices from manufacturing them ( think of prison shivs ), an indispensable tool for many tasks. Beware Chinese knives. They are both using terrible quality metal AND putting poor angles on the edge ( a good quality edge means you can sharpen with a $5 carbide V sharpener. A poor one means you need a $25 Lansky sharpener with a $17 add on diamond attachment ). I prefer the $15 Swedish Mora knives ( using carbon steel, NOT stainless steel. Stainless is bad enough, although good enough for frugal, but those Commie Bastards are using VERY poor stainless steel so you get a combo of “won’t easily take an edge” AND “still rusts” ). If I can, I like the Indian Kukri’s even better. Now, THAT is a knife. And carbon steel. And big ass and menacing. They run about $25.

NON-FIREARMS

Besides a knife or spear, what are you to do if guns are prohibited all around you? Besides moving, which might not be an option. Most advise archery. Anyone can make bows or arrows and you have a rapid fire weapon. But they take skill. Much more than a firearm. Therefore, I’d only advise a crossbow. They take slightly more manufacturing infrastructure to assemble, so they aren’t Stone Age primitive like a bow, but they are much easier to use for the novice. But they are ONLY defensive ( like from firing from a fort ) or for ambushed because of the long reloading times. Keep those limitations in mind.

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