consume mass quantities 1 of 2

CONSUME MASS QUANTITIES
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note: a bite of a hate-fest going on over the last few posts in the comment section.  I know it is hard when people act retarded, but look at it from their point of view.  They don't know any better.  Attack IDEAS, please don't attack the person behind them.  You may think it is stupid and say just that.  That is still perceived as an attack.  Isn't it better to say something more civil like "That is a very bad idea.  Here's why"?  I know we all slip.  I'm asking for a better effort, please.  We are all supposed to be above all that, but we are also human and pissing contests start easily.  This blog is about bettering ourselves.  Act accordingly.
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You lucky bastards, I haven’t covered logistics for some time ( even if energy decline overlaps that and it might have been mentioned in passing ), and thought it would be a nice change for you.  Specifically, planning on fighting from a nation state military logistics perspective, even though you are equipped-at best-as a nomadic villager.  When you are living amongst the trees you tend to forget it is part of a forest.  When you live your whole life amongst consumption and disposable goods, you tend to forget there is an infrastructure behind all of that.

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Most folks who should know better from a military perspective make the mistake of looking at logistics as a inventory, ordering and transportation issue.  “We’ll be fighting a six month war, we need to ammo dump X million rounds and air lift it to each battalion every X number of weeks”.  That is not logistics except in the fantasy world where nobody ever runs out of energy or ore or empire.  Logistics is having the supplies to get more supplies to protect the folks having and needing the supplies.  It starts at demographics, adds geography, sprinkles in centralized government with all its issues, looks at economics and then in the end can bean counters get the product to the front.

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Europe didn’t just “invent” gunpowder because they were smarter.  They couldn’t even make the guns using the powder until a centralized mining and manufacturing infrastructure  was in place already.  Then powder relied on a centralize bureaucracy and taxes and the ability to finance large navies that used powder to conquer tropical areas with deposits of nitrates.  Each one needing its own infrastructure built up over centuries and multiple wars. 

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Perhaps a better analogy would be earth orbit solar microwaved down to the planet.  Regardless of whether that would be a positive net energy device ( fracking oil and Canadian tar sands are pretty much a close to no positive net, as is ethanol, but are used as they are scraping the bottom of the barrel and regardless of cost in energy, the fertilizer and food must be shipped.  Just like Nazi Germany could care less about the EROI of liquefied coal when its national survival was at stake ), as much sense as it might make if you are incapable of launching enough material into orbit it simple doesn’t matter if it is a good idea or not.

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It didn’t matter how good of an idea it was for the AmerIndians or Zulu’s to make their own guns and powder, they didn’t have the infrastructure for it.  They didn’t have an agricultural empire colonizing other lands for ore and slaves and energy and nitrates.  They had no central bank or taxation or bureaucracies.  They didn’t have a surplus to employ tradesmen and craftsmen.  They had no real road system ( the Inca’s did, as well as the other aspects of centralization, but they didn’t have the means to colonize far enough, nor was their metal industry ever sufficient ).  In short, the military did not defeat the Americas.  The infrastructure of the home countries did.

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I won’t veer off on the biologic warfare advantage.  Without that nothing would have ever amounted to much, akin to America in Afghanistan.  But the lack of infrastructure in Africa was the same disadvantage and if anything the Africans used biologic warfare against the invaders ( primarily malaria, but the tsetse fly alone precluded ranching which makes colonizing large barren areas on the cheap possible ).  Infrastructure eventually allowed the European advantage there ( the infrastructure to colonize lead to the surplus allowing higher education and research leading to anti-malarial medications ).

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Survivalists assume a continuation of infrastructure.  I don’t know why.  It took us almost a thousand years to incrementally achieve an oil economy empire, one small advantage added to another ( something as simple as a better grazing animal in the old world, or a superior grain in wheat over corn, can, added to other small advantages over time, make a big difference cumulatively ).  For half of the age of that one off advantage magnitudes higher than all the others order of living, we have used up all the surplus energy taking the last of the diffuse ores never before available to lower energy source societies and using that all up into disposables ( the hubris and shortsightedness of the last century of businessmen and politicians will become the stuff of legends ).

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Everything you own, or most if you are older than dirt, is a product of petroleum.  Every single piece of machinery or social order you can ever witness is a product of petroleum.  If petroleum is in decline, and population increases, and the infrastructure that sustained American empire after the defeat in Vietnam and Afghanistan is failing, I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to conclude that Business As Usual is unsustainable.  Your entire existence will change and that includes more of anything being available to you.  This includes your job, the value of your money, the resupply of anything anywhere. 

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If you are NOT treating every round of ammunition as if it were itself Fort Knox ( to repeat a wonderful screed phrase by a commenting minion ), you aren’t understanding your lack of infrastructure.  You assume somehow you’ll never run out?  Even if you were supported by media whores and delusional readers desperate to continue worshipping Mammon and could afford to stock pallets of ammunition, blowing through that stash in pursuit of tactics dependent on continued infrastructure will soon enough see you without the means to continue that practice.  I know you still don’t get it ( “I’ll just stock deeper” ), so tomorrow we cover logistics and military strategy and tactics and how infrastructure determines them.

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flyed lice 2 of 2

FLYED LICE 2

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Rice and beans, the poor boys survival food.  A myth and/or practice that needs to go the way of men’s hair oil, top hats and corsets.  Don’t get me wrong.  Rice has a few tasty dishes.  Perhaps you put it in a stew or soup kind of thing.  Whatever.  Have some stored for more variety.  But rice every day, several times a day? ( and yes, I’m aware most Asian dishes use other varieties besides Long Grain, which might be tastier.  But remember, you develop food preferences in the womb.  Most of us are born either liking rice or something much better ).

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If you are pasty white like me, you probably like wheat as your grain of choice.  Because we grew up with wheat, it tastes good and there are a variety of dishes for it.  So, why not FLOUR and beans?  Why rice and beans?  Remember, both are white foods and white foods are just starch.  They don’t have nutrients as those were milled out.  You don’t even have a choice about rice.  You MUST mill the utter hull.  There is no other way to store it.  At least with flour you have the option of storing the whole grain, or storing the white flour ( don’t store whole wheat flour if possible-you will be eating rancid food.  By all means, try the whole flour from the store to introduce it to your diet, but don’t use on a regular basis or store it from your own milling.  Only store fresh flour a few days, preferably.  You can survive on  somewhat old whole wheat flour-I wouldn‘t try the same with old brown rice ).

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So, you ask yourself, self, what am I supposed to do with flour and beans?  Rice and beans are easy, I just boil both of them.  Have you ever heard of the chuck wagon on the cattle drive for old timey cowboys?  Beans and flour.  Not rice.  No, they probably didn’t have a whole lot of variety.  Biscuits and beans.  But they at least had the option of variety.  Flapjacks, bread, dough on a stick ( roasted over the coals ), tortillas.    Bread is a bit tough without an oven, but you can probably make a passable imitation with a cast iron Dutch Oven. 

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When you are looking at taste fatigue, at least get some kind of variety going with the same ingredients.  Now, I’m a bit leery of MOST claims of taste fatigue.  You don’t hear about too many folks refusing to eat food during the War Of Northern Aggression or the Great Depression.  I’ve talked to old fellows who weren’t in the Depression, but they were on poorer farms where there was extremely limited variety in store bought foods as they only ate what they grew and raised.  Varying the recipe of the same staple and spices pretty much eliminate the claimed taste fatigue.  Mostly, the scare comes from an affluent society that never really saw true hunger.

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Not saying you won’t have some mild symptoms.  If a child is already sick or has low body fat, it might be dangerous to allow them to skip enough meals until they get hungry enough to eat nasty slop.  The way to do that is to have storage food that can be prepared in a large variety of ways.  As in with flour, rather than rice.  You COULD always buy a Victoria grain mill and grind up the rice and use it as a flour.  It won’t taste as good as wheat, but at least you can make noodles and such out of it.  Otherwise, you risk flirting with taste fatigue to some degree, because JUST boiled rice is going to get extremely old very, very quickly.

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So, yes, taste fatigue is largely overblown as a concern.  Hunger makes the best sauce, as has been said.  However, you don’t go courting disaster, either.  And rice is a fifty car pile-up waiting to happen.  Rice, de-germinated corn meal ( NOT the whole grain Mesa tortilla flour ), even instant mash potatoes can be stored as a minor percentage of your storage food ( in this case, I’d include sugar as a spice rather than a starch or carb.  A flavoring with lots of calories, by the way ) to combat taste fatigue.

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Just keep in kind that taste fatigue while not totally untrue is also largely overblown as a concern.  You know how the shoe factory screws you?  They need to pay off those expensive machines.  The same with the car companies.  They screw you to pay off the factory quicker so that the CEO can have a second mansion in the Hampton’s ( along with extra hookers and blow ).  Well, guess what, the freeze dried food companies screw you too, and it isn’t just all that extra salt ( if you want extra salt in your storage food, just brine everything as a preservative-it is much cheaper ).  They need to pay off all that expensive equipment ( and get the CEO an extra wife-ha! ) and they are more than happy to perpetuate that food fatigue myth.  Hell, they might even believe it themselves.

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Going back to the Diet For A Small Planet food combining for protein, the recommend ratio of grain to bean is about 70%.  7/10^th grain and 3/10^th beans.  You might even be able to get away with 20% beans.  Which is good, as they are no longer very cheap, relatively speaking.  The cheapest, due to the oodles and gobs of Latinos, is pinto.  I would caution you that those are very difficult to grind in the mill.  Lentils are much easier.  You might have no choice in milling or not, as old beans can sometimes refuse to soften up with boiling.  You need to grind and then boil the bean flour to make your paste.  And make sure to boil long enough ( I would guess at least five minutes ), or you won’t process the bean long enough for the body to assimilate the nutrients.

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Lentils also taste much better when turning them into Bean Meat.  Try both lentil and pinto.  The cheaper price might not be worth the grinding difficulty, not even factoring in the taste difference.  With meat flavor, you can boil your bean paste, then spread on a sheet and allow to harden.  I like to dry mine after that, to get a texture closer to meat.  I was just using sugar and soy sauce to get a teriyaki jerky, but I’m sure beef and chicken bullion would get you in the ballpark also.  I never could get the hang of making wheat meat, but bean meat works great.  Boiled beans might be boring, but bean meat might be all the needed storage “meat” you need to vary up your menu even more.

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Already have way to much rice?  Get a grinder.  Add rice flour to other grain recipes and you’ll go through it quick enough.  I think that should just about do it.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page ( or from www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
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guest article post 2 of 2 today

Article title : Rifle feud, the Henrys vs the Ars
As it is detailed below, we can have two different platforms to arm our family members with, for 450 dollars each, including the ammuntion. What standard will be superior in this context ?
The argument is academic, because A.you all have your rifles already B. You have a variety of that serve different functions, covering more situations, just like an infantry squad. Typically you will have at least a .22LR rifle and a shotgun, and probably an accurate long-range rifle as well.
That said, a standard weapon platform has its merits in terms of unified training (and as we will see, tactics), procurement cost and logistics.
Part one : price equivalence
I have 1800 dollars and there are four people in my household. Should we be armed with Henry single-shot rifles or AR15s ?
As we've seen previously, 1732 dollars buys me four Henry single-shots in .44 Magnum, 200 reloaded cartridges for each, and on top I have my reloading equipment for them. With the 68 dollars left I 'll purchase another 100 Magtech FMJ cartridges because I can't find FMJ bullets to reload with (?), leaving me with 225 cartridges per rifle.
The Bear Creek Arsenal AR-15 Rifle is the cheapest I could find online, at 400 dollars per unit, and one magazine only per unit : http://www.gunwarrior.com/2286/ar-15-400/
The problem is, it lacks a back sight. The cheapest I found costs 12.97 USD
https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/trinity-force-ar15-match-grade-detachable-rear-sight-fs66-856444005671.do
So 413 x 4 = 1652 USD, leaving me with 148 USD for ammunition.
A box of 20 rounds of Tulammo costs 4.38 dollars, I can thus buy 33 boxes, or 660 rounds. I will optimistically consider that five rounds per rifle are necessary to zero it, while the Henry rifles are already zeroed (and typically nobody touches those hunting sights anyway). So I have 640 rounds left, or 160 per rifle.
I would like to point out that the single-shots have 40% more cartridges than the ARs, although they will consume much less.
Part two : the controls
When you hand out your AR rifles, this is what your average family member sees :
https://i0.wp.com/mobilessooq.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/the-wandering-minstrel-ar-15-rifle-features-and-controls.jpg
Now just memorize every part and its function, see how much time it takes you. Welcome to his mind.
(Probability is high that this training session takes place just after some traumatizingly bad event on the news or a prolonged blackout or something, so part of his brain is furiously processing some other information right now)
One of the reason the AK is so popular in shitty countries with no education (I should be writing presidential tweets) is that its controls are easier to grasp than the AR's.
Your aunt now has to be armed and is actually pretty serious about it.
But what she sees are SEVEN buttons or parts that can move (apart from the magazine and other stuff) :
1. The trigger (it's the only one she knows, from TV, it's the “work” button, to her it's the on/off function)
2 and 3. The charging handle, which even has another latch inside of it (fractal design). The handle moves but you can't see what it does (Oh my gosh something moved inside the gun. Was it supposed to ? Have I broken something ?)
4. The bolt catch/release button, which is suspiciously close to the
5. Magazine catch, that gets activated by the magazine release button from the other side of the thing.
6. There's also the Forward Assist Knob, which is the Bullshit Button.
Question : What is this ?
Answer A : don't touch it (but what if I do ?)
Answer B : it helps you pushing the cartridge forward in case it doesn't feed well (okay so I'm going to do that every time now. But wait, did he just say the cartridges don't feed well ? What is this piece of crap ? Other guns on TV always work, why doesn't mine ?)
Answer C : it doesn't do anything (Who designed this shitty rifle ? Steve Jobs ? And why couldn't my nephew buy something better?)
7. The safety selector level, which will prevent you from firing just because.
Not only there are seven (thankfully, binary) controls but they have to be activated in the proper sequence, which is not intuitive at all. There is also other stuff (telestock latch, ejection port cover) and screws (especially in the line of sight, with the back sights) the function of which is not explained. Your people will tinker with everything because that's what everybody does when they don't understand how something mechanical works.
This is what the complete procedure looks like, explained in three and a half minutes by a very calm guy : AR15 Load and Unload  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYlpueCvxA
For an untrained person this is a Monthy Python sketch. But even if you do train them, it will cost everybody an inordinate amount of time and patience.
Compare this to a break-open single-shot rifle : it's an expresso machine.
1. This opens the rifle (expresso machine). You insert the cartridge (coffe capsule) there. Then you close the rifle.
(Note : the Henry single-shot has in-built safety features that prevents accidental firing, there is no manual safety. It makes it even easier to use, especially under stress.)
2. This is the hammer. It will make the cartridge go bang. Feel its power when you cock it back.
3. This is the trigger. It will release the hammer. Now dry-fire.There.
4. Now you will learn to decock. (External hammers are wonderfully intuitive controls)
Now you will have time to explain the safety rules, and the very basic combat use you can have with it (mostly how to aim, and anticipating a target in movement). Which is already a lot for your aunt, actually the maximum she can afford in an evening (especially under dire circumstances).
Bonus : If your aunt is in complete darkness she will not know how to operate the AR, but she will be much more successful with the break-open rifle.
Your aunt is the weak spot in your defenses. The weak spot is where your demise will start.
While you are asleep( let's say, between 6 AM and 12 AM) she will be on guard duty. If she has to fire at intruders but can't because her weapon is impossible to use, things will go bad from that moment on.
It is my belief that in the first days bad people will not engage armed families but will select defenseless people instead. I also doubt that street gangs will make banzai charges against a place that has four rifles trained at them.

Part three : forcing more realistic tactics
Let us imagine for a moment that every member in your family now knows how to operate an AR-15. Will they make every bullet count ? Of course they won't. Why should they ? The enemy is right there, and the situation is the most stressful they ever experienced in a lifetime. Jim has gone over this numerous times, so I won't insist on fire discipline, but you know that these 160 rounds are not going to last long.
My point is a different one, it revolves around the limitations of the single-shot rifle : you can only shoot one bullet at a time. Which is exactly what your family members should be doing.
The AR-15 has been designed for modern infantry tactics in which covering fire is a central element. It takes a lot of time to train for this, with young men in their prime and screened for their sportive nature (infantry combat is a very specialized thing). Your whole family will not fight like that. (Hey maybe it will (*cough cough bullshit cough cough*), but then it will be the exception and not the rule).
Of course the AR-15 can be used for the same defensive role as the single-shot rifle. The perceived blessing that it can do that and also much more is actually a curse : it will be used for more, every time.
Here is the rub : tactics are a very difficult thing to master, and this is when standards have a simplifying effect.
If you have to devise tactics with your current arsenal it is not going anywhere : Gary has the pump shotgun, Little Jimmy the single-shot .22LR rifle, Amanda her concealed carry 9mm pistol, Grandpa his scoped .270 hunting rifle and you have your AR-15 (with the red dot !).
(Say what you will but there's nobody out there who is going to mess with that bunch anyhow)
When everybody has the same weapon, tactics get simpler, and training is unified. It's the same weapon, with the same limitations. The single-shot limitation removes the rate of fire & refill aspects (now try to enforce that with ARs). Also note that a rifle is already a versatile weapon in itself because it can reach out, to 200 yards if need be.
Of course in this context repeaters like lever actions or bolt-action rifles would be more efficient than single-shots (and then only with intermediate or pistol cartridges), but they cost twice as much, so you can have only have half the number. (Note : several bolt-action in .243 are available at about the same price as the Henry single-shot rifle, but they typically lack iron sights. It would be interesting to know how much it would cost to have some installed).
In conclusion for 450 dollars per family member you are better served with a single-shot rifle than an AR because it's much easier to use and forces you to more realistic tactics.

flyed lice 1 of 2, post 1 of 2 today

FLYED LICE

post 1 of 2 today

I can’t fathom that it would be a secret to any of you that I hold the beliefs and practices of 99% of preppers and survivalists in very low regard.  I don’t know if I’d go as far as to label them the Idiot Brigade, rather more likely the Very Ill Educated.  The baseline in learning the “craft”-for lack of a better term-seems to be set at near forth grade level.  As soon as it was perceived that money could be made off of the Soviet threat of nuclear destruction, more than likely the same folks that sold used cars to Blacks from the ghetto started hawking fallout shelters.

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And it just went downhill from there.  Remember all those “fallout shelter foibles” from printed fiction and shows such as Twilight Zone ( why is it that some of the very best writers such as Serling and Rand were smoking chimney’s?  Does nicotine stimulate creativity that much?  I’ve been a very light smoker, so I couldn’t tell you )?  Even the original survivalist strategies were suspect.  Some of the first “experts” were probably just copying from old civil defense booklets ( “duck and cover!” ), and every hatched poor idea was copied after that and made worse in attempts as justifying the “expert” label. 

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Not all ideas were poor, of course.  Some folks were actually quite original and logical.  Unfortunately it seems that few champion the older good ideas ( Kurt Saxon, Passport To Survival ) and instead parrot the old bad ideas that are like cockroaches, impervious to destruction ( semi-automatics, freeze dried foods, bug-outs ).  One idea that I have no idea where it originated was the Rice And Beans frugal food stockpile.  I’ve heard almost everyone recommend that combination, and I’ve also heard a good majority of them make comments such as “no one wants to live off them, but it is better than starving”.

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Of course nobody wants to live off rice and beans after the apocalypse.  That crap is NASTY.  I’m talking “two weeks between showers prisoner ass right after he was pleasured the night before” nasty.  To recommend that anyone eat that slop is criminal.  Yet, everyone seems to think this should be the Go-To stockpile of poor folks, or even the filler needed to bulk up the insanely expensive freeze dried entrees.  Since they can’t afford anything else as they paid $15 a pound for hamburger.  Why?  If I had some idea as to the origins of this idea I might understand.  But I don’t.  This is a mystery wrapped in a riddle surrounded by dumbassness. 

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Now, we all understand the “grain and bean” requirement.  If you cannot afford dried milk to compliment whole wheat, you add a legume to your diet as the grain and bean each have separate parts of a complete protein.  It substitutes for lack of meat in your diet.  In theory, rice and beans do this.  I say “in theory”  because I don’t recall the conversation differentiating between whole grains and milled grains.  When you remove the hull, does that remove the amino acids?  I know the protein content is reduced to a mere 15% once the bran and germ is removed.  But as far as the amino acids I’m clueless.  Does nutrient-less starch from the kernel still contain those acids?

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Regardless, you cannot store whole grain rice as it quickly becomes unhealthily rancid from the hull oils.  You can only store white rice.  Which is just the starch.  Which is why vegetables figure predominantly in Asian cuisine.  They replace the vitamins and minerals that the rice hull had.  The white rich starch is just empty calories.  Not that there is anything wrong with empty calories, as long as you have something else to provide the nutrients it lacks.  So, even if you rely primarily on rice for your survival food, you still need to store some whole wheat berries ( kernels ) so as to sprout them for the vitamins and enzymes.

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Don’t underestimate those enzymes.  Fresh foods are not only critical for nutrition, you will crave them very shortly after beginning to eat your shelf stable foods.  If that sucker ain’t rotting, there are no enzymes.  You can even make a weak beer out of wheat sprouts, so there is that if nothing else.  It is perfectly fine to eat white rice.  Just have those sprouts.  Everyone focuses on spices and flavorings for their rice, but don’t forget the fresh sprouts ( they might not provide a huge amount of vitamins.  You might need to supplement with vitamin pills.  But they sure are needed as a fresh food ).

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But again, WHY?  Why do you believe it necessary to store beans and rice?  If you enjoy the taste of rice, that is all fine and dandy.  But, do you?  Or are you like me and would rather have little or nothing to do with rice?  I think it tastes like crap. Your mileage may vary.  But, are you storing rice because that is what everyone else was telling you was necessary for a storage food program?  If so, and if you don’t really care for the taste of rice, why aren’t you storing white flour instead?

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I understand a lot of folks don’t care to mill wheat berries to make their own whole wheat flour.  They don’t like the taste of whole wheat bread, they aren’t used to it and they have no desire to grind their own flour.  Okay, no big deal, just use the whole kernels for sprouts.  Store white flour.  It is no different than white rice.  They are both empty calories.  Flour is cheaper than rice.  Sometimes half the price, or pretty close.  And, kind of important here, you can make so much more with flour than you can with rice. 

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Flour is like Forrest Gumps recipes for shrimp.  Shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, baked shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp Creole, shrimp cabob, Pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, etc.  You can make an insane number of dishes with flour.  What can you do with rice? Boil that lump of crap.  That is about it.  Continued tomorrow.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page ( or from www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). ***You can make donations or book purchases through PayPal ( www.paypal.me/jimd303 )

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods or buy a book. If you don't do Kindle, send me the money and I'll e-mail it to you in a PDF file.  If you donated, you may request books no charge.   My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com  My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184

*** Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

 

guest article, 2 of 2 articles today

Article title : test case for the frugal survivalist rifle
Since I made a list of priorities for a frugal survival rifle, I shall now present a test case. I have searched several sites but for simplification most rifles and prices come from www.cabelas.com. Some prices have been rounded up because I did this research some time ago and didn't bother to hunt down the missing cents...) (I know, not frugal)
Option 0 : The BTN rifle is obviously the 99 dollar .22LR single-shot rifle at Wal-Mart with three boxes of cartridges for 7.80 dollars.       Total : 106.80 USD
Option 1 :  CVA Hunter Compact Single Shot Centerfire
Now if I want to go beyond rimless, the next platforms are single-shot break-open rifles or bolt-action rifles.
I consider the break-open platform to be an excellent choice for the untrained, since it is so evident to use. It also has a massive advantage above the bolt-action, and that it is naturally ambidextrous. Right-side bolt-actions are not easy to use at all for lefties.
Even though, we know since 9/11 that repeaters are superior to single-shots (it was September, 11 of 1877, at the Siege of Plevna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Plevna ). But that's for trained soliders. Your family and in-laws are just going to burn through the integral magazine of a bolt-action and will be left unable to reload it quickly, especially without stripper clips.
There is a reason why the English insisted on having magazine cut-offs on their Enfields. They had to acknowledge what we French knew for centuries, namely that the English army is full of in-laws.
So single-shot break-open rifles are good for your group, and for your logistics. Remember that you only have 100 shots per rifle (at first).
The first possibility is the “CVA Hunter Compact Single Shot Centerfire” rifle for 229.99 USD chambered for .243. It lacks a sight and so I'll have to purchase a scope. It has 1 inch rings, so the first compatible scope is the “BSA .22 Special Riflescope” priced at 32.99 USD. The cheapest non-rimfire scope is the “Herter's 1" Riflescope” priced at 49.99 USD.
Here I'll assume that the buyer will take no chances and select a “proper” scope, but there shouldn't be any issues with rimfire scopes. Price of the weapon would be 279.98 USD
The ammunition would be the PRVI Partizan 100gr. SP cartridges costing 15.99 USD per 20, so 120 cartridges would cost 95.94 USD
Total for this solution : 375.92 USD
Option 2 : added features - Henry Single-Shot Centerfire Rifle
The previous option has all you need to arm your group. Still, being a nitpick, I want to change two things : the aiming and the caliber.
First, I have seen too much scopes giving up on their users at the range, wandering reticle and all. Besides be sure the young and the in-laws will fondle with the turrets and the clicks. So I looked for the next possible option with fixed sights.
It is the “Henry Single-Shot Centerfire Rifle” priced at 369.99 USD when chambered for the .44 Magnum cartridge (more on that below). The rifle alone costs about the same than the entire package of the previous option. Such is the price to pay for having some peace of mind just on this aiming issue. We are now leaving “frugal” territory and entering a territory yet to be named, when options are not frugal but are more rugged or durable.
The second consideration was to see if another cartridge than the .243 would be more economical to stockpile. Energy-wise the difference is not that great : the .243 has a muzzle energy of 1945 ft-lbs (2637 Joules) and the .44 Magnum in a 20” barrel has a muzzle energy of 1870 ft-lbs (2535 Joules) (approximate values I found on the web, for a 225 gr bullet...)
The cheapest option was Magtech, with both FMJ RN and SJSP cartridges priced at 34.99 USD for 50 rounds. This gives us 150 cartridges for 140.97 USD and a package total of 474.96 USD, 26% more expensive than the previous package (price difference 99.04 USD )
The question is : are those 99 dollars worth it to you or not ?
(The price of ammunition can be significantly lower if you reload, see below)
Option 4 : long-term
I will factor in the cost of reloading 1000 cartridges with stockpiled components. We will consider that brass is free (which is easier to do with .44 Magnum), that you'll have to purchase the equipment and that a friend made you a powder scoop with the correct volume, out of a sent cartridge case of some sort.
Components for the .44 Magnum :
500 shots worth of Winchester 296 powder (=one pound) : 27 USD
1000x Remington primers large-pistol : 32 USD
1000x Rainier electroplated bullets HP 240gr. : 70 USD
Total for 1000 rounds = 2x27+32+70 = 156 USD
.44 Magnum reloading equipment :
Lee Hand Press Kit (with Ram Prime included) : 59.99 USD
Lee Carbide Pistol Three-Die Set : 35.99 USD
Total for reloading equipment : 95.98 USD
.44 Magnum total (components + equipment) : 252 USD
Components for the .243
250 shots worth of IMR 4064 powder (=one pound) : 30 USD
1000x Remington primers large rifle : 32 USD
1000x Speer bullets SPBT 100gr. (from cheaperthandirt) : 164 USD
Total for 1000 rounds = 4x30+32+164 = 316 USD
.243 reloading equipment
Lee Precision Reloader Press  : 42.99 USD
Lee Ram Prime (on Amazon.com) : 11.69 USD
Lee case trimmer set for .243 : 6.99 USD
Lee Cutter and Lock Stud : 6.99 USD
Lee Chamfer tool : 4.99 USD
Lee Pacesetter Rifle Die Set (incl. Shell holder) : 33.99 USD
Hornady® Unique Case Lube : 4.99 USD
Total for reloading equipment : 112.63 USD
.243 total (components + equipment): 428.63 USD
(for information : Lee Conical BP Revolver Bullet Mold : 23 USD
I won't consider a bullet mold for .243 due to the high velocity)
So if we factor in the long term,
Option 1 costs 375.92 + 428.63 = 804.55 USD
Option 2 costs 474.96 + 252 = 726.96 USD
Without buying any manufactured ammunition at all (and considering free once-fired .243 brass magically appears, just like .44 Magnum cases can be found for free at shooting ranges)
Option 1 is 279.98 + 428.63 = 708.61 USD
Option 2 is 369.99 + 252 = 621.99 USD
Here we can see that, under certain circumstances, the choice of a more economical cartridge can offset a much higher price for the rifle.

(Addendum : the cheapest bolt-action with installed iron sights is Mossberg® MVP Patrol Tactical Bolt-Action and costs 600 USD, the cheapest bolt-action with picatinny bases (for possible add-on open sights) is the Remington® Model 783 priced 340 USD, also comes with a scope)

***
When you have purchased the reloading gear, cost for subsequent purchases are :

Option 1 : 280 + 316 = 596 USD

Option 2 : 370 + 156 = 526 USD

That's for rifle and 1000 cartridges !

If you want 4 rifles and 200 shots per rifle, it will cost you :

Option 1 : 280*4 +429 = 1549 USD, an unit price of 387.25 USD

Option 2 : 370*4 + 252 = 1732 USD, an unit price of 433 USD

Conclusion : how else can you equip four people with a potent rifle and 200 cartridges for about 400 dollars each ?

tribe gore 2 of 2, one of two articles today

TRIBE GORE 2

First of two articles today.

Okay, we all know the embarrassment of Gore Warming advocates.  Number one, your hero is a Green Lizard Alien Overlord that claims to have invented the Internet.  How do I know he is an alien?  Remember how English was a second language for Obammy?  Right, I’m NOT from Kenya yet I have no idea the difference between a dead body and a military unit ( corpse/corps ).  Only someone not of our planet could have believed that nobody had a clue about the foundation and construction of the Internet.  Plus, who else but Venusians would have such a boner for a greenhouse planet?  But I digress.

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Number two, even if you ignore Al’s cosmic origins ( should it be ALF Gore? ), you have to admit that the whole Heating campaign was retarded.  When he started, we were doing fine economically and weren’t about to stop burning oil, and then after that burning oil was saving us from worse economic collapse.  No one was ever interested in discontinuing burning oil.  As evidenced by the 99% of Gore Warming shrills refusing to stop driving everywhere.  And who ever calls out Gore for taking the Warming gig as a payoff for throwing the election so someone more credible could occupy the middle east?  Nobody.

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But the worst embarrassment is, in my view, this retarded notion of cooperation.  If we ALL stop polluting.  If we ALL install mercury laced poor quality CFL’s.  If we ALL demand of our politicians to embrace the goodness of Gore Warming, we can stop it in its tracks.  And hey, even if we are screwed and already past the tripping point we should all join hands and demand a stop of Gore Warming from our benevolent Great Leaders just because cooperating will make us feel good.  WTF???  You want to feel good?  Isn’t that what faggots say?

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Literally.  Butt piracy feels soooo good and we all need love.  Yeh, keep that crap in the closet, dude.  You wear out the other guys elasticity and then drop him for a younger model.  That isn’t love, that’s your perverted sex drive.  The courts say I can’t leave my wife because she won’t put out, I guess if you want equality, and if you want us to believe your propaganda,  you can stay with Sloppy Sam.  But you won’t, will you?  You want to molest farm animals and feel your feminine side, then you want a big daddy government to regulate what we eat and buy ( much more than they already do ), force us into a vegan diet, just because it feels good.

*

The planet is already humped, and you have to admit that because you cannot admit scare tactics since Earth Day One are bull ( when was Earth Day?  1975 or something like that? ).  But you still want forced compliance just because it will make us feel better about ourselves.  But really, it is about controlling us.  Which, is kinda NOT like cooperating.  To not save Earth but to enjoy the ride to oblivion instead, we are urged to cooperate in stopping Gore Warming, and to do that we just agree it is okay for more government to force us into cooperation. 

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We just coordinate agreeing to cooperate using coercion.  What could go wrong with that?  Hey, it’s for the children, man!  Gore Warming can’t be stopped, we admit, but let’s try anyway.  Hey, Gore Warming will force us into a Diet For A Smaller Planet, anyway.  Might as well get used to the men in black taking animal flesh away from you.  And that coercion thing proving cooperation isn’t even possible?  Don’t dwell on that part.  It’s kind of like communism, that Gore Warming.  We must legislate against human nature until utopia arrives.  We still buy into all that crap?

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Gore Warmers insist cooperation is possible, then abolish it so that what we were cooperating for can come to fruition.  How can you still believe in the goodness of human nature?  What a sheltered pampered pretty pony princess you are.  Wishful thinking makes things come true, a civilian duplication of the Dale Carnegie delusion for corporate pukes.  Bah!  Again, something we covered not too long ago.  Man is like any other animal and breeds to surplus.  Surplus ends, die-off.  Cooperation is NOT how the species survives that event.  Most must die so the few healthier, stronger, better breeding, smarter ones can live and make the species even stronger.  Who in their right minds think two starving men can agree to split a loaf of bread that is only big enough for one?

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The survivor of a bottleneck event is not the one who agrees that Can’t We All Just Get Along, he is the one that hit the other one with a rock and sucked the marrow out of his bones.  Come famine and starvation, after MRE’s comes long pork.  You are not going to share your last freeze dried rectum with a guy who will help you plant a garden.  You are going to kill him and fertilize that garden with his digested remains.  Or, if you planned ahead and have the resources, you’ll have a herd of pigs eating the casualties and you eat much safer bacon for the apocalypse ( just feed the spine and brains to the dogs, just to make sure disease isn’t passed along-in theory ).

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Gore Warmers are going to be your primary food after the apocalypse.  They will try to cooperate, as is their religious belief system.  And since none of them gave up their cars, they will be soft and easy to run to ground.  The number one rule to survive the zombie apocalypse isn’t “cardio”.  It is “last one in the stewpot wins”.  You may not want to believe it ( “my god has instructed me to save all the women and children.”  Fine.  Now, how are you going to feed them? ).  All your public servant trained instructors would have you believe cooperation is intuitive and just.  They also wanted you to Remember The Maine, that Iraq had Weapons Of Mass Destruction and that only ISIS conducts weddings.

END ( today's related link https://amzn.to/2IlDXik )

 

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guest article, article 2 of 2 today

Article title : Priorities in choosing a frugal survivalist rifle.
So a few articles ago I made a list of characteristics for a frugal survivalist rifle (see below) and of course in these lists there is always the question of priority : which item is the most important ?
Here I will try to answer that question. But first, the list :
Procurement :
1- low firearm acquisition cost
2- low ammunition acquisition cost
3- low legal difficulty to acquire
Function :
4- effectiveness against non-military enemies below 200 yards with use of light cover (US house walls, cars)
5- useable (shooting, basic maintenance) by untrained people
6- useable (shooting, transporting) by people of feeble constitution
Logistics
7- ruggedness or easily replaceable parts
Bonus : 8- forgiveness about expediently reloaded ammunition (only relevant for the post-collapse environment, but it's something you have to bear in mind if you're going to have only one type of weapon)
Of course the question of what is important is connected to the larger question of what your plan actually is : how much money do you have, how much time etc. This list can be an inspiration for any other piece of equipment in your setup.
I. Most important : procurement
Out of any context, the obvious more important issue is existence. If you have a weapon, you are much better off than if you had none. Even if it has issues with any other aspect of the list, it is there.
So the most important set of characteristics is related to procurement (points 1,2 and 3). Of all three aspects the legal difficulty to aquire is the most important. You need your firearm relatively fast and without too much issues like waiting for a green light from the authorities. It there is some kind of restriction linked with it, it might very well end up confiscated in the future, although that is not the problem right now.
About the price aspect, of course it's high on the list since it's a “frugal” rifle, and frugal is a polite term for “little money”. All sorts of combinations are possible but I would say that the cost should combine the price of the rifle, the price of 120 rounds for it, and of course shipping costs etc.
Why 120 rounds ? First because you'll need to shoot 20 rounds with it to get accustomed to it and notice any issues, flaws etc. so in effect you'll still have 100 rounds when the collapse (point of impossibility of further acquisition) has started.
If you stop at the procurement stage then you'll choose a BTN (“Better Than Nothing”) rifle, well described by Jim several times here, most likely a benjamin gun (http://bisonprepper.blogspot.fr/2017/10/benjamin-gun.html ), a 100 dollar shotgun or .22LR rifle, all single-shot.
II. Function
To me the worst gun that passes the first test (it exists) is a Remington rifle with an X-Mark Pro trigger (your weapon may fire unexpectedly) with a stout, uncommon cartridge (like the .270 WSM for instance) and a well-worn barrel. The reason why you still have it is that it has next to no resale value. It stout recoil will no sit well with your 12 year old child, the ammo is expensive and difficult to find. Even if an experienced shooter uses it, the lack of accuracy makes it near useless. But it is there.
If you have the possibility to afford better fuction, it means you are better off than the guys with that rifle, but it also means you are going to spend more than for a BTN firearm.
The question to ask here is : how much are you willing to pay for each added function ? It depends heavily on your preferences, on the cultural images that are present in your head, and your experience. Let's use the list to explore the functions (not in the list's order, though).
 IIA : The most important aspect is aspect 5 (useability by untrained people). In fact we can consider that if a person doesn't specifically train to fight with a rifle he's untrained. I have seen countless horrors in basic handling and shooting in my 13 years at my local gun range. So I consider that everybody is untrained.
Break-open weapons are the most easy to understand, followed by revolvers and bolt-actions, in that order. To the neophyte, lLever actions are not really that intuitive.
Semi-auto weapons are very complicated for the untrained, and magazines add to the confusion.
Of course, the high consumption of ammunition that go with semi-automatic fire and magazines are not frugal at all.
 IIB : aspect 6 (useable by feeble people). If you are going to have a standard in your weaponry, then it will have to suit the weakest member of your group. This means that you have to choose a handgun round or an intermediate round, for several reasons : the recoil is lighter, but that light recoil also lessens the fear of pulling the trigger, flinching or firing with eyes closed etc. Also, such calibers are more economical to buy or to reload, sometimes significantly (especially cast bullets on revolver rounds)
 IIC : it may seem strange that the primary function of a firearm, its terminal effectiveness, appears so late in this list. My point is that if the people can't get the thing working in the first place and even if they do they close their eyes or flinch when shooting then the bullet won't be fired, or won't hit where it should.
Of course, accuracy is a nice thing to have, but it costs extra. All weapons are reasonably accurate. Extra accuracy comes at a high cost that is not justifiable for amateur shooters.  Maybe you, the reader, will have some proficiency in shooting that justifies a better rifle (a .30 caliber hunting rifle), and then you will have specialized weapons in your group, but this is already above frugal. (I do believe it is very important, but it is not frugal).
The cartridge is where you'll have to make a personal choice. This question alone deserves a separate article, and most articles in the shooter/prepper world revolves around this. But notice how it comes almost last in the list of priorities here.

III. The last aspect : long-term
You can go with shoddy weapons, but if you want your weapons to last, it involves also a higher cost (although very expensive weapons can also be shoody, either by design or by the materials involved).
I covered the “frugal” aspect here but not the “survivalist” aspect yet. If you guys survive the collapse then you find yourself in a world where industry doesn't exist anymore and maybe you can find an amateur craftsmen somewhere. You will probably have to do the repairs yourself.
Two schools exist here, for firearms or any other mechanical object : either the thing is rugged and doesn't break, or it follows a standard and you'll use replacement parts (they may even be a guy who will manufacture those parts, or if not, hey it's a business opportunity !)
I wrote that existence is the most important, it is then logical that absence of repair is the most important aspect here. If the thing is rugged then first your people won't break it by using it (it emphasizes the need for a simple weapon) and then it will stand the test of time (corrosion, freezing, ultraviolet light etc.)
Some parts are meant to absorb damage, like stocks. Stocks can be made at home with a lot of time, whereas plastic parts cannot. You might think that after the collapse there will plenty of AR parts around, but that is simply a gamble you're making. If you already have a weapon which can be fitted with wooden stocks then you don't take any chances.
The very last aspect on the list is the reloadability of the cartridge, and the forgiveness of the firearm to handle it. Reloading is a separate skillset. I know I could afford the ammunition (most importance aspect, see above) buy reloading spent brass, so it definitely comes into the equation, but in a long-term perspective. The bright side here is the ability to reuse cartridge cases and spent bullets (which you cast back to useable shape), the shadow side is the need for specialty items such as primers and powder. Both may still be manufactured post-collapse, or not (if the specialized knowledge has disappeared), either way you're better off stockpiling these ahead of the collapse. Again, it all depends on your assumptions.
As in everything with survivalism, at one given time the last can has been opened, being a can of spam or a can of powder.