Wednesday, April 27, 2016

WNTBTTA 8


WHAT NOT TO BRING TO THE APOCALYPSE 8

10) I constantly make fun of FLIR scopes.  You know the ones I’m talking about, your Super James Bond stud-muffin-ness can now peek through walls and read the thermal signatures of your nemesis in his secret Villain Lair.  I don’t know how well they work, how fragile they are, what counter-measures have been developed, or any other details.  I do know they cost $3k.  How much ammo and/or wheat could you buy for $3k?  Could you purchase a used travel trailer AND a piece of junk land for less than that?  I know I could ( not at my current location, but somewhere else, without much difficulty-say, east Texas ).  So, my choice is, oh, I don’t know.  Financial independence, being able to tell the banks to piss up a rope, or having a cool tactical toy.  Oh, the humanity, I can’t make up my mind!  Do we even want someone in the gene pool who would buy one of these things?  Burn the bitches out, or sniper their ass when they come out.  Don’t see where they are so you can attack them inside.  Really?  Do I have to do ALL the thinking around here?  Who wants that, right?

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I hate night vision devices, but with no where near the purple passion.  Since you can get a rich kids version for $100 to $150, while not cheap they are not ruinous either.  If you simply MUST have one, it won’t break the bank or take away from more important tools or supplies.  I strongly urge you to consider the Old School method of night fighting, by training for it rather than waiting for the high tech tool to cheat at it.  Google the pre-WWII Japanese military manual on night fighting.  The great thing about training over tools is that it doesn’t break, more than one person can use it at a time, and you can pass it down to the next generation indefinitely.

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11) you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I was going to include semi-autos on this list.  Please do NOT panic.  I’ll keep it short and sweet since I know you have all been bored to tears by this before.  If you are on a budget, avoid semi-autos.  Period.  If you have the bucks, sure, you have a tiered arsenal with semi’s for the heavy fighting during the die-off ( which hopefully you can avoid, but if not… ) when you need firepower, then bolts or singles to preserve the second half of your ammo stockpile, and last rimfire for a “forever gun”.  But only if you have the cash and other preps, debt free and living frugal with stockpiles.  If you are poor, you must arm poor.  Being poor, you can’t stock much ammo.  So you go defensive rather than offensive and put more effort into hiding than fighting.  Ammo is key, not guns, and you must conserve.  The Dark Ages ahead do NOT include any higher tech industry.  Or mid grade tech.  Only if you are lucky will you see low tech.  It isn’t about knowledge but about resource availability.  Semi’s waste ammo.  Only a few percentage of you can overcome brain chemistry to control firing in combat.  Let your gun conserve the ammo for you.

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12) last up, before we begin the second part of this series, is electric sites for your guns.  Not only are these expensive and irreplaceable ( I’m not versed in the area of their fragility, but I’d assume Murphy’s Law there if I were you ), but they encourage wasting ammo.  They are spray and pray sites.  They are used for quick target acquisition.  They are for closer range.  They are semi-auto sites.  Getting old, your eyesite is not kind to marksmanship.  And most of us are getting old, the young’uns crotch whipped with new wives and still paying for a worthless college degree and usually not having the wisdom to listen to those with experience.  Sometimes iron sites, while superior for ruggedness, just won’t cut it.  So you compromise with scopes.  And they can be bought in bulk at $20 each in some cases.  Not the best quality, but you are going to be breaking and replacing them regularly.  So cheap is the best way to go.  How many much more expensive electric sites can you afford as back-ups?  More tactical toys.  Avoid them.  Tomorrow we start on the second part of the series, things to avoid due to widespread availability.

END

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28 comments:

  1. Sir Lord BaltimoreApril 27, 2016 at 7:36 AM

    Lord Bison,

    As an addendum to your recommendation on the Japanese Night Fighting text....your readers should check this out these articles by Matt Bracken and Bill Buppert.

    https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/bracken-night-fighting-101/

    These two articles are quite good and thankfully free of the reliance on high tech BS so prevalent these days.

    Enjoy,

    Sir Lord Baltimore

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the link. I like Bracken, who seems to be one of the few military experienced High Speed warrior dudes who can still relate to the humble civilian survivalist.

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    2. Sir Lord BaltimoreApril 27, 2016 at 1:54 PM

      James,

      Crap forgot the Buppert link. Duh?!!!?!
      http://zerogov.com/?p=4254

      Sorry check this one out too.

      Sir Lord Baltimore

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  2. "Only a few percentage of you can overcome brain chemistry to control firing in combat. Let your gun conserve the ammo for you."
    ==============

    Good point, worth pondering. However, I'm reminded of the saying, "Better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not having it."

    Same with semi's. Imagine being overrun, and not being able to deliver adequate firepower to save yourself because all you have is the bolt. What a shitty feeling, laying there with a bayonet through your head and a half cocked bolt in your hands.

    My wife gave me an inexpensive set of Night Googles a few years ago for christmas, real neat. I quickly found that it's the IR part that is lacking, but you can find <$20 IR flashlights (AA batteries)out there that can extend the range. The stock version can see out there about 50-75 feet, with the flashlight about 100-150'. I'd rather have it than not. But ammo above all else for sure.

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    1. The only problem with the "better to have it than need it" philosophy is it sucks you into the Yuppie Scum Survivalist universe you cannot escape from. My advice isn't close to perfect-but it is close to universally achievable.

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  3. Totally onboard with sights that require battery power to work. Came across a pretty cool low light sight that does not draw any power. See All Sight mounts on any Weaver / Picatanny rail that fits on top of your rifle. Rifle - shotgun - handgun usable, good to about 100 yards according to manufacturer.

    https://seeallopensight.com/

    Very bright in sun and in low light, bright enough to work. If you can see your target, you can see the sight - good enough for me. About $100 or thereabouts at ebay, probably less at Amazon.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. $95 at Amazon, buy through my ads so I get the commission, you bastards!

      Delete
  4. As usual, The Bison Prepper is correct, given the list of interlocking assumptions. But, once a person has prepared to be poor, he can add to that is case of improved business or a windfall.

    Why a person needs rudimentary NV: to defend against the huge advantage that IR lasers and cheap NV (the kind that needs illuminators) gives to attackers in the dark. "Cheap" being Taliban-affordable cell-phone cameras, Night-Shot video cameras, static-placed IR cameras, as well as 1960's anti-intrusion tech (acoustic/seismic) to supplement pebbles-in-cans/trip-flares and 1940's Imperial Japan training.

    I EXPECT to encounter IR-emitting paintball-grade NV in the hands of hungry psychopathic monkeys who have had success at wiping out urban families in cold-powerless buildings for cans of beans and a turn at the girl. It worked a few times, so they make a career out of repeating until something changes.

    FLIR NV is AWESOME (as long as the batteries hold out), but is among the last stuff you buy, even if the plan is to be a high-tech post-apocalypse death-dealing ninja warlord.

    Would it be better to fund a lunar colony?

    If I had everything in quantity, secured in the remote bunker, lived near the bunker, and had pallets of FRN's stolen from Saddam Hussein, and could no longer buy PM's, then....oh, FRN's are now kindling. Where's my spare hand wheat grinder? Scrabble? Strict box rules, silver dime per delta point. Loser grinds grain and fetches water tomorrow.

    pdxr13

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    1. I guess those Interlocking Assumptions can really screw you up :)

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    2. Don't forget that good binoculars can gather enough light at night to be the functional equivalent of a Gen 1 night scope, and they can (of course) do double duty during daylight hours.

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    3. I knew scopes help you see in fading light, I didn't realize binocs were that good at night.

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    4. The bino's that make a difference at night have large exit pupils, meaning large objective lens and not much magnification, like 7x50 or 5x35. The high magnification models with small objective lens (10x28) need at least overcast daylight to be useful.

      Bino's and spotting 'scopes are always on my estate sale shopping lists. Looking to pay 10% of retail-new for good-used, and frequently pay less. Not-waterproof is okay if priced low. Got ziplock bags for all fragile tech?

      If you have Jr. Woodchucks or other young/no-firearms people with time on their hands, get 'em trained as observers with optics/watches and sketchbooks. No cheating with cellphone cameras, although these are fun until they don't work.

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    5. Hmmm. I wonder how long you could go with a solar panel salvaging cell phones just for the camera feature.

      Delete
    6. James M DakinApril 28, 2016 at 1:56 PM
      Hmmm. I wonder how long you could go with a solar panel salvaging cell phones just for the camera feature.

      With a new battery, about 500 cycles. That could be several years, with a few still booting up and operating for 30 minutes (plenty of time to take pictures) at 7+ years. Don't know about storage life of shelf-stored li-Ion batteries, that are not charged regularly, but these are available for ~$5 for 3 year old phone models. I just got a Samsung "slider" style non-touchscreen phone with 2MP camera for $16 from Amazon to be minimally-communicating on pre-paid. It has removable uSD card for many-many images and voice recordings without network functional, and easy recovery from wet/smashed phone.

      Most cell phones are not waterproof or dustproof. Unless you are using them exclusively in a clean office, they don't last. Bicycling is hard on phones, with salty-moisture and dirt blasting through, and crashing. There are expensive phones built like Panasonic ToughBook, or multiples of a non-touchscreen model in a freezer-grade ziplock bag may be good enough. Same with Baofeng $35 HF radios.
      If you have a "base camp" with solar panel/big-battery/laptop, you can examine the images to compile some information, especially images taken from the same vantage over time.
      -pdxr13

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  5. I'm not positive about this James, but I do believe that there are scope rings that allow for you to aim between/under the scope rings, so that you can still use the iron sights if you need to? It would be a good idea to have these so that if you damage your scope (which I would think would be quite easy to do) you can at least still sight the gun.

    I see your point on the night vision. But at the same time it sure would be advantageous to have it. Of course it's the last thing that you would want to be buying until after all the other essential preps were in place. Even better would be a night vision rifle scope if it were in the budget at the end. To be honest, I wouldn't spend the money, but that's probably only because like most of your followers, I'm a follower because I'm poor. As it turns out, I do own a pair of Russian night vision goggles that I purchased many years ago when I was still gainfully employed. They're not all that great.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I believe you are right on the elevated rings. I can't use them as the mount on the #4 Enfield replaces the rear site. And, I've only heard bad things myself on the Russian low generation scopes. At the time, they were BTN. Now, you can buy the low end almost-toy crap made in China. I'm sure they are also not great, but BTN.

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    2. Over at a used gun store the other day the owner was opening a transfer package from an online auction and it held a Husqvarna bolt action in .308 that had an odd scope configuration. The mounts split in half and the scope swung over to the left side and snapped in place, allowing the hard sights to be used. I didn't ask what brand the scope mounts were. (dumb ass)

      Yeah, Husqvarna, Strange, no? All this time I thought they just made pretty good chainsaws.

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    3. I think I saw an ad for them in one of the Yuppie Scum Gun Buyers Fag Mag ( the ones putting Yuppie Scum Survivalist Sites to shame with the amount of hideously expensive crap they "recommend" or would fold for lack of revenue from advertisers ). Then promptly forgot about. I'd trust that brand name.

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    4. I recall also that as a kid that Husqvarna made a pretty mean motorcycle (off road). I believe that they're actually still made in Sweden? Good quality stuff from everything that I've ever heard about it, so the reputation speaks for itself. I was thinking about getting a weedeater a few years back, and after seeing what always became of the one's that my mother had purchased (Not cheap one's either) I wasn't going to settle for less than a Husqvarna.

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    5. It is so easy to get user feedback about anything ( easier than the Consumer Digest era ) that it amazes me the short term thinking these crap product companies employ ( it is the only thing they "employ", 'cause it sure ain't Americans ).

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  6. (Google the pre-WWII Japanese military manual on night fighting.)

    You do know they LOST WWII don't you?

    As far as powered optical sites I agree they probably are not the best for long-term SHTF use.

    I have a Weaver Quick-Point red dot site from about 1970. It projects a red dot when you look down the barrel with both eyes open. And it uses gathered light, no batteries. I have 2 of them (had them for 20+ years) and like them. The one drawback is the red dot is 4-inches at 100-yards. But being realistic no one is going to shoot farther then that in a SHTF or even a hunting situation.

    Weaver Quick-Points are hard to find on the used market and don't last long before they are sold.


    Chuck Findlay

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  7. I found a kids toy night vision at The Good Will Store for .75-cents. It's called I-Clops, it looks like the thing Luke Skywalker used in the first Star Wars movie to look for R-2. It has a CCD camera in it and infer-red LED's in it. Works for about 40-feet or so.

    It is a toy so you can't expect great things from it. But you can see at night with it. It's tactical problem is it's an active device being it has LED lights on it that other devices could easily see.

    If one wanted to light up their outside area you could install infer red LED's, turn them on and look through this device and see fairly well. But again others will also see if you did this.

    I don't see it as all that useful, but then it was only .75-cents...


    Chuck Findlay

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    1. Seems kind of silly if you HADN'T bought it. You can always think of something to do with it.

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    2. Can always dismount or add a switch to the IR LED's. And get other IR LED's, battery operated of course, to illuminate places remotely. Add in a couple of IR flares to blind assailants with their own IR/nightvision gear and you have the makings of a huge defensive advantage.

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    3. I had one I found at a garage sale for $1.00 a few years ago. I sell things at hamfest (amateur radio flea markets) and made a sign that said night vision and put a $25.00 price on it. The thing sold fast, one of the first things to go. Probably going to do the same thing with this one as I don't really see myself needing a night vision device that much.


      Chuck Findlay

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    4. How else can you be High Speed? Rethink it!

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    5. Rebellious/hungry poor people without some kind of external support can only afford to be Insurgents, saboteurs or Freedom Fighters. Weak actors need to exploit laziness and thoughtlessness in the Invader/Occupier, then disappear. Find the BTU depots. Find the network hubs. Find the arteries. He who has the power to destroy a thing, controls that thing (Dune, Frank Herbert). North Americans don't have 2500 years of Pashtun/Afghan cultural knowledge (patience/deception), but we are rich in war-tech training and spin-off materials (trash) from the Empire. We aren't good at being uncomfortable or "deprived" of convenience/luxury, so the OpFor will offer these things to potential informants/traitors, not so different from character behavior in The Matrix.
      Light infantry needs support- or soon exterminated by the BigArmy as a pest. Heavy infantry works with massive inputs of fuel/ammo/hardware/men, and stops almost immediately without inputs. Poor nations trying to get free don't get Infantry until later, or never, like the Irish, but they have time if they have multi-generational determination.

      Even if you are not willing to spend on expensive-tech at the current price, you MUST understand what it can and can't do, and how to use it if captured. How would a Pashtun warlord use a state-of-the art thermal camera? Probably not mount on an Enfield for one mission ever, but maybe to look at troops/refugees/pow's for fever?
      -pdxr13

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    6. The Enfields are now just issued to Wanna-be Whiteboys willing to fight for the cause. Warlords get the juicy AK's.

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