TOOLS OF THE DEVIL 2
You need tools. If you pick correctly what tools you need
your job of surviving the apocalypse gets a lot easier ( well, okay, the
probability of surviving becomes more favorable ) and if you pick incorrectly
you are closer to being screwed. I have
railed for years, nay decades, against the trash preps of the Yuppie Scum-the
concrete bunkers atop the mountain and the MRE’s and AR-15’s and on and on
until I throw up in my mouth a little every time another idiot parrot screeches
the same advice of spending a quarter million bucks on preparedness.
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It never really seems to
occur to these people ( whose job it is as a salesman to obscure and confuse
and pander to your baser instincts ) that we have been in an economic collapse
for some time and most folks who are their target audience are getting poorer
rather than richer. And while there is
nothing wrong with buying the best to have a better tool, most of their advice
is so loose and free with your wallet that even the crappiest quality of what
they recommend is outside your budget ( the $1500 a year freeze dried food with
zero meat and a mere 1400 calories a day of mostly White Foods comes to mind
).
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And hence I’ve been
fighting this spread of the asswhore pirate brigade, trying to insert a bit of
common sense into the debate and I always focus on frugal. Even today almost thirteen years of inflation
after I wrote my flagship Frugal Survivalist book, you can still buy a years
worth of preps for under $500 ( albeit with a cheaper firearm. What used to be Mausers, Enfields or Sweet
Baby Jesus help us all and deliver us from evil, the Mosin-Nagant, is now sadly
just a choice of questionable quality Wal-Mart single shots ). But luckily almost all of us can do BETTER
than the bare bones frugal budget. The
$500 is spent to acquire an emergency tool stash, today, now, because you can’t
time the collapse ( talking to you, “guru’s” who somehow think Peal Oil is in
2050 rather than the proven 2005 ).
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But when it is time to
spend more, because hey, Why Not?, do Yuppie Scum Prep items have a place in
your retreat? Most of my readers would
reply, why yes of course you silly little troglodyte, and it is called ‘Murica’s
Best Poodle Shooter. I’ll never win that
battle, and I mostly don’t try anymore, but that is less exhaustion and more a
reflection on how inexpensive they have become ( and how expensive the war surplus
bolt battle rifles have gotten ). I
wouldn’t recommend the carbine unless you “bolt action” it by plugging the gas
tube, but it is a far more viable choice than it used to be.
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If you can find an AR for
$450, and a Lee-Enfield is $600, hell, I would go with the AR myself ( and you
know how gay I am over the SMLE ). Since
I only need a few twenty round mags and would use it as a mid range sniper, I
don’t incur the cost of accessories nor have to deal with the weapons primary
weak spot, the gas feed system ( I know most of you swear by the gun but I had
nothing but issues with it in the military and refuse to find it a suitable
semi-auto ). Nor are spare parts a
problem.
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So right there is an
example of high tech being cheaper and easier to find than older tech. Another would be the chainsaw. A Better Than Nothing chainsaw is cheaper
than the quality crosscut saw. Most of
you swear by the chainsaw. Here is my
recommendation. Have the saw, perhaps
one replacement chain and enough gas, and depend on it NOT for fuel gathering
but for your initial roof beam, underground log walls, defensive fortification
and the like. Use it as a one time tool
until it breaks. Don’t try to keep it
alive year after year. Build to reduce
your need for wood.
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Then you’ll need to rely
probably on an axe if you are poor. If
you can’t afford a quality crosscut, AND all the doo-dads one needs for
sharpening, and there are tools besides just the file, you’ll need to go way
old tech. But, you say, the saw uses far
less calories to use and is stealthier ( assuming that the chainsaw itself was
so stealthy, right? ) than an ax. To
which I reply, axes are much simpler to make and maintain and fix. Sometimes you need to go idiot-proof as a
preventive measure. Sometimes extra
calories are needed as extra manufacturing becomes untenable. And you can bet anything up from a blacksmith
will become untenable, what with the collapse of transportation and trade.
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Another problematic old
tech choice is a black powder flintlock ( an inline primer BP rifle is still
stupid cheap ). Flintlock because it is
a Forever Gun, with all its faults and limitations. For the average price you could buy two or
three AR’s. You could buy a quality
rimfire and fifteen thousand rounds ( a better choice for a Forever Gun ). You can’t keep modern powder guns running
after the apocalypse, but if you are going to go with black powder, it is far
better to use improvised and salvaged material rather than buy a factory made
replica.
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Everybody simply loves all
to pieces their night vision scopes. I
hate them. “Owning The Night” and “Force
Multipliers” and usually little more than self inflicted propaganda selling
ourselves on the wonders of high tech, which leads to such idiocy as relying on
vulnerable satellites for communications or imported computer chips. High tech was a military choice as the only
alternative to our inability to power a Industrial Age military. It wasn’t the smarter way, it was the cheaper
way resource wise as our industrial plant was abandoned or shipped overseas or
simply ran out of inputs.
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That said, night vision
has become cheap enough to become middle class children’s toys. So there is certainly nothing wrong with
Going Cheap and having a simplistic unit.
Don’t rely on them, don’t expect them to last long, but enjoy their use
while you can. They certainly can help (
I just maintain that properly trained troops don’t need them. Get a paper copy of the WWII Japanese
training manual. And dogs. Dogs are much better than night vision for
defense ).
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We’ll finish up tomorrow.
END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2BnEFeV )
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Speaking of night vision, my wife gave me a set of NV goggles for christmas about 8 years ago and they are pretty cool but are limited. They cost about $100 and the limit is the amount of light they display. See, NV sends out a light that the human/animal eye cannot see, and also has recptors that can see the reflected light. So the NV goggles are limited by way of the amount of light it sends out. Mine sends out to about 150ft and then it quickly drops off. What you see in the lenses is a black and white version of what's out there, and if the subject is aiming a standard light source at you it will completely overload what you see to a large glare. I have not yet experimented with colored lights so I don't know what they look like in the NV lenses.
ReplyDeleteSo for about $30 I bought a powerful flashlight that uses the 3.7 volt AA batteries that broadcasts the NV light much further, about out to 300 ft. Now my goggles are much more effective.
You cannot use NV in close proximity to other objects in front of you like, say trees in the forest because the back scatter will cause overwhelming glare. So you have to stand away from trees and rocks and such and not have any directly in front of you for at least 20 feet or so.
I used a Starlight scope on a Remington 700 a couple times in the army and was not impressed. It "magnifies" the light from the moon and stars and therefore is limited by clouds or trees, and costs boocoo bux and was big and heavy. But NV like what I have is completely doable and frankly, kinda neat...all for about $130 or so.
I am in the process of installing a powerful (800 lumens) UV HD camera on the front of my garage that faces to the end of the driveway that will be connected via WIFI to a dedicated notebook computer with an external 2TB hard drive that loops on 1080p every 1.5TB or about every 10 hours under compression. Other than the computer and hard drive the setup costs about $80.
Frugal high tech is a possibility in all things if you are willing to spend the time in research up front.
Damn, good supplemental info. Thank you.
Delete.. . and dogs. Ho boy, you got that right. My beagle mix is great security. She's big enough not to be a rat, but small enough to be easy to feed. She'll chase bears out of the garden. Most importantly, she hears and sees things I don't. When she goes nuts at night I grab a hand held spotlight and a gun. Sometimes it's minor, but once it was a bear trying to break into my basement.
ReplyDeleteNo one sneaks up on the house, day or night. Hard to beat that kind of security. Also, she'll keep my feet warm.
The NOL's dog is a fat little humper, eats more meat than I do ( the pug sad face defeats me in the battle over eating the dry dog food ). And she is kind of worthless. Yet, a sentry and no dog compared to both is no contest.
DeleteI really like dogs for defense, whoever I have never trained one to NOT bark. Maybe after the first round of barking I can keep them quiet. I'll probally have dogs if I'm still around after the SHTF but its like cooking meat over fire. A tell tale sign that someboby at this house has SOMETHING that the somebody might want.
ReplyDeleteGranted, but the other side of the coin is an intruder might give up before he invades given he knows there is an alert. If you are in a position cooking or noise gives you away, most likely you are letting people get too close. I know it can't always be helped, but the successful long term survivors keep others away. Stealth is a component, but as a island in a sea of trouble, I think most often that can't work.
DeleteI think that the only chainsaws that are worth even bothering with anymore are the Husqvarna, Stihl, or McCullough (Not sure if the latter even makes them anymore?). Even then, my experience with these machines is with the older models, so always read the reviews. I’m with you on the ax being the best forever chopping tool, and try and get a synthetic or steel handle, and also a few different styles of ax heads. Obviously, if you need to make fine cuts, or need to process large trees, then you will need a saw. But in the latter scenario, post collapse, you probably didn’t plan well if this is the case.
ReplyDeleteJust my $.02, but keeping the curs post collapse, would be more of disadvantage, than an asset. Everyone for miles around will know right where to find you, unless of course you’ve hired Cesar Millan as your dog wrangler (Though I hear tell that Trump deported him :D ). Plus you have to feed that dog, when you might find it difficult to feed yourself.
I have a Russian night vision device. I bought it many years ago in the 90’s. It is a light amplifier (as most of them are) that uses starlight or other natural light, but it also has an infrared illuminator should you find yourself in an absence of light situation (Inside of an unlit room for example).
The other style of night vision is based on Thermal imaging. Some of these devices are able to see through clouds or fog, and are probably more useful to night driving or pilots. But they’re also quite expensive. (Note: I’m not suggesting that anyone should buy these, this is only for educational purposes. Though if you were going to, something tells me that Jim would appreciate it if you bought through his links :D ).
https://www.amazon.com/Command-2-16x50-Thermal-Imaging-Bi-Ocular/dp/B01AY7A6BQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1513390137&sr=8-3&keywords=thermal+imaging+goggles
$10,795.00 & FREE Shipping
24/7 Operation in presence of environmental obscurants (smoke, dust, haze, fog).
Dogs are just like any other livestock. They are damn expensive to get through the die-off, but once there are invaluable. Think of the extra manpower you need on watch, compared to a mix of dogs and men. The dogs pay for themselves using less calories, to a certain degree. If you need four men compared to one dog and two men, for example. And they can eat the scrap meat ( although, yes, you can use that in sausage or whatever. It isn't a straight calorie comparison anyway, as their effectiveness is exponential. You can always eat the ones that don't perform :) And, since the shipping is free, why, that FLIR scope sure sounds like a bargain! But, think of the dog food you could buy for a fraction of that.
DeleteAnother possibility. The lowly Guinea Fowl. Yes, they’re dumber than Lou Ferrigno (Family Guy reference) but they make great sentinels, and will shriek incessantly at anything that does not fit in the barnyard. The best part about them is that since they are an African chicken, they’re quite edible, and they can free range, so they’re cheap to keep. Now they do roost in the evenings, so sentinel duties might suffer at night (I actually don’t know the answer to this, but it’s probably worth researching). You used to be able to get a 100 chicks from Strombergs pretty cheap; say around a buck a chick. You will lose a few to hawks and coyotes each year, but get 100 every year until you have an established colony. The one’s that survive are the smartest of the lot, and raise smarter offspring. The one’s that we had were better than any dog that we had. They will literally look up in the sky, spot a hawk, and start shrieking to warn their comrades. Definitely worthy of consideration.
DeleteThere were some flock owners here in NV that used llama's instead of dogs to watch the sheep. They had many advantages. As to the fowl, why not both them and the dog? I know, free range vs. calories humans could use.
DeleteI read that some Americans used Geese to guard their bases. Geese are territorial noisy buggers
DeleteSo, they ate the dogs and kept the geese? :)
Delete10:41 here. In addition to the guinea fowl, we also had geese. Yes, they can actually be rather aggressive and territorial as well. But the Guinea’s were pretty darn vocal about anything that came into the yard that didn’t belong, and they’re loud about it as well! We were told before we got them that they made “good watchdogs” but I didn’t believe it. Turns out it’s true. Regardless of whether you get dogs or not, I’d still recommend Guinea Fowl. The eggs are a little smaller than a chicken’s, but they’re still big enough eat. We didn’t eat our Guinea’s, but as I said previously, it’s an African chicken.
DeleteSounds like loud squawking eggs layers are better than hairy loud meat eaters. But isn't there the climate issue? birds for fair weather, dogs for cold?
Delete“But isn't there the climate issue? birds for fair weather, dogs for cold?”
DeleteNot sure about that Jim, as we live in CA, and here we just buy them at the local feed store, but it shouldn’t be any different than having chickens in cold weather. Guinea Fowl are close enough to chickens, species wise, that they are sometimes interbreed with chickens. Just provide them with a hen house type structure in colder climates and they should be fine. The one place that sells them, Strombergs, is in the midwest (link below) so they must be able to tolerate cold. You have to buy them in season (spring) as they’re unavailable right now, something to keep in mind.
Additional details from the site: “Guinea like to dine on insects, rodents, snakes & ticks.”
https://www.strombergschickens.com/category/Guineafowl-For-Sale/a
"Strombergs, is in the midwest (link below) so they must be able to tolerate cold."
DeleteI'd take that with a grain of salt. Cows are lot raised in the Midwest too, but indoors. When the ranchers here tried outdoor winter raising a bad storm culls most of the herd. In many climates you need carbon inputs or specialized structures ( hay filled barn, STILL with supplement heat ) for livestock. Not saying a solar coop wouldn't work, but you would need a LOT of supplemental feed to get them through the cold if you didn't have on grid heat. So, even if they survived the EROI might be too low.
I don’t have a good answer, but since people kept chickens in cold weather states, even in the old days before petroleum inputs, there must be some feasibility in doing so. An earth sheltered coop that’s mostly above ground, with dirt piled over the sides and top?
DeleteThe cold weather feed issue that you raise would be true with any animals, but less so with the fowl. Any of the larger livestock are going to be particularly challenging to keep in a post collapse scenario, unless of course you live in a more tropical region, which would come with an entirely different set of problems all together.
I think the difference between Then/Future and Now is that the farm doesn't raise the grain/feed now so it is a negative return. Once you get the animals paying for themselves fertilizing the pastures which set aside winter feed, it will be a positive return on energy.
DeleteKeep in mind that each guinea/chicken comes complete with its own “down jacket,” so they have that going for them.
DeleteAlso, don’t forget about that high nitrogen/nitrate poop for gunpowder, that these birds provide.
I think between rabbits (fur coats and gloves, eat scraps as with the birds, and burrow in temperature extremes) and chicken/guinea’s, a fellow could do much worse. If I planned on having animals that’s the way I’d go. But I don’t plan on having any animals, not even a dog. That probably sounds crazy to many here, but having grown up in a Dr Doolittle kind of environment (mom was an insane animal nut) I have come to the conclusion that animals are nothing but trouble, and are not worth it to me. Yes, I get that this also means I probably won’t live long into the collapse, but I never really thought otherwise, so no disappointments there.
Living long past the collapse isn't all that and a bag of chips, I'm sure. And I can certainly see childhood issues coloring your whole life. As long as you're not disappointed, why sweat it, right?
DeleteI believe I have located the perfect reticle for your "end of the world" rifle scope. I do not have one of these, but if you watch the youtube videos explaining the reticle design, you may agree that it's the best.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.primaryarms.com/MCategories+ACSS-Optics
Peace out
Actually, compared to a lot of other "regular" scopes, the price doesn't seem excessive. I tried watching the vid below but I haven't had my coffee yet and his ambling relaxed fireside chat style grated on my nerves something fierce so I bailed. It would be too much scope for my guns, that's for sure.
DeleteI guess I should have given the youtube link explaining it...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwdlz5lUXtY
Peace out
My mutt Shannon is now a 3.5 year old Border Collie-Brittany Spaniel mix, about 45 lbs, and is an absolute sensory monster. Her hearing is scary, and I've learned to respect it. She's here with me in my office and anywhere else I go all the time and if she starts to growl I get up and look out the windows. With constant vigilance I've managed to control her barking urges but for some reason the UPS truck really grinds her gears. When that guy shows up she turns into the incredible hulk and I have to put her in her room. Once a couple years ago the Jehova Witnesses (JW) showed up on a Sat morning and they had the nerve to try to enter the gate to the deck that surrounds our house. My office door is about 20' from that gate and Shannon went insane and was lunging at the door, snarling and barking. The JW's looked at the door (I could see them out the side window) and saw it shuddering under Shannon's assault and turned in their tracks and laid rubber to their vehicle. And they haven't been back. LOL
ReplyDeleteNot only are Shannon's ear's superlative but her eyesight is far better than mine. She quickly see's deers that I have to stand there for a moment and stare before I can see them. I believe she will be an asset when the time comes. Wish I had another just like her but in another color scheme so I could tell them apart instantly.
Little tidbit from one of the "British Farm" episodes.
The 2 female oxen that they used for plowing and such were unable to know what human words mean but they can tell the length of words. So they named them 2 similar names but one was short and one was long. When the driver said the short name the oxen knew the one on the left should start turning to the left and when the driver said the long name the one on the right should start turning right. Shannon knows a little more than that. She has 4 dog toys, wishy, red kong, black kong, and blue toy, and when I tell her to go get say, wishy, she'll go grab wishy and bring it to me. FWIW, Shannon is a rapacious chewer and the only chew toy that she has not decimated instantly is the wishy (Wishbone shaped) though she has went through 3 of them since I got her 3 years ago. Her current wishy was purchased on amazon about a month ago and it's the large one, about $18., and it keeps her occupied so much that I have to trick her to get it away from her. I don't want her gums to start to bleed.
The NOL's dog knows she needs to go into the other room to scoot her ass across the rug ( too fat to lean around to lick ). As far as I can tell this is her primary talent. :)
DeleteYes Jim, DOGS!!! 24/7 and will deliver for their pack. Even us poor folks they tolerate cause we can't hear or see in the dark. Between them and trip wire alarms our dark hours are covered, hopefully to get us on to the next stage of society. Keep up the (IMHO) good work.
ReplyDeleteNice hair TOO :)
There is no "IMHO" about my work. It simply just is just Fabulooous! Okay, I'm partially kidding. Always room for improvement. Thanks. :)
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