Friday, September 23, 2016

forever gun book 4


THE FOREVER GUN BOOK 4
*
note: Family Dollar, after the last reported dead battery fiasco, continues its fine tradition of racing to the bottom by discontinuing its affordable toilet paper.  Well, at least they are currently having a sale on summer footwear.  I got two sets of soccer sliders at half price.
*
BP & ARCHERY

Obviously, after a few seconds of thought, you’ll know it is impossible to ever be unarmed.  Prisoners can find the smallest bit of metal and turn it into a “shiv” ( a homemade knife for those who’ve never read a book or watched a movie, or fuzzy foreigners who have little to no idea what in the bloody hell us Yanks are yammering on about-and, yes, I forgive you for calling me a Yankee as you know not of what blasphemy you speak ).  Deposited naked in the wilderness, some of you might be able to knap a rock and create a spear.  In the ruins of our civilization you shall be able to find a twenty-five cents paring knife, remove the handle and make a much better spear.  Bows are merely a matter of finding the right wood and a LOT of practice, both to construct and utilize.  If you inhabit a desolate area, you could do a lot worse ( IF you have the aptitude and the fortitude ) than living a Stone Age existence.  Any better armed intruder won’t be able to match your woodcraft and you can ambush him easily.

*

For the rest of us civilized folk who enjoy the company of others, the other side of the coin of society is our fellow man acting badly.  You need to be well armed to dissuade anti-social behaviors.  In this case, what kind of weapon takes on significantly more importance.  You can’t arm yourself in too inferior a manner, even if tactics and terrain make a difference.   For instance, in a defensive position black powder firearms, utilized in bulk behind earthworks, are not as disadvantaged as when mobile-at least not if the enemy has smokeless arms.  In the eastern seaboard area, dense and lush growth in the mountains put invaders at a disadvantage and being armed with a flintlock, given your knowledge of the area and practice navigating it, doesn’t automatically work against you tactically. 

*

So, if your situation allows it, a black powder flintlock isn’t the worst choice for a Forever Gun.  It does have to be flintlock, because if you are buying percussion caps you might as well just stick with modern smokeless arms.  The cost of a small pistol primer and a charge of pistol powder is barely over the cost of a percussion cap.  Why handicap yourself if you don’t need to?  And to be clear, you will NOT be able to manufacture your own caps.  It is possible.  Anything is possible.  Hell, if we see an ELE ( extinction level event ), you might actually be one of the whole ten thousand humans globally to survive.  It certainly is as probable as you making modern arms components at a cottage industry level.  The real challenge with a flintlock is going to be keeping the moving parts from breaking, or replacing/repairing them, not making black powder.  And reproduction flintlocks are FAR from affordable.  Expect to spend closer to a grand than to a few hundred bucks. 

*

It is feasible to use a flintlock as a Forever Gun, but not recommended.  I’d advise using the same amount of money to buy reloading components for the rifle you already have.  Sometime in the future, flintlocks might be the weapons of the new superpowers ( being defined, of course, as much smaller than today since surplus energy is needed for transportation ), but for now they are very problematic compared to what you could be using or what your opponents will be using against you.  The original concept of the Forever Gun still stands.  All things being equal, it is far better tactically to employ even a smaller smokeless round against a bigger black powder one.  All other things being equal being the telling phrase here.

*

Archery is great for hunting, and I include crossbows here if you need to bypass the training issue, and have zero issues ( or near enough, in the case of the crossbows given their need for metal.  It should be some time before salvage gives out ) with the “forever” part.  Alas, they blow monkey chunks compared to firearms.  Before gunpowder, you had two basic types of weapons, far back into antiquity when metal was first used in arms.  You had missile weapons and you had shock weapons.  Missiles utilized distance but you usually, baring luck, needed multiple hits for a casualty ( or, much time for a bleed-out.  In organized combat, time was usually a factor ).  They had inferior stopping power, in other words.  Shock weapons incapacitated your enemy nearly instantaneously.  Nothing like a chopped off leg or a bashed in skull to stop the attack.  But you were TOO close and hence it was a very dangerous practice.

*

Firearms changed that equation, which was the only reason they were revolutionary ( otherwise, they just would have been another missile weapon that needed less training and hence allowed the peasantry to be drafted into a more effective force ).  A bullet at powder induced velocity acts as a shock weapon.  With the distance of a missile weapon.  You combine both advantages into one weapon, AND you need far less training for your troops.  And shoulder arms are relatively lower tech.  And relatively affordable.  Needing ten thousands of them, that was another matter that forced governments to grow to evolve with the finances needed, but you couldn’t NOT build a gunpowder army if you wanted to survive.  And archery weapons were pretty close to zero competition.  If you like military history, check out “The Imjin War”.  The military contrast between the two was briefly covered.  Just note that the Russian Empire finally overcame the nomadic horsemen archers only after arming with firearms.

*

Archery has a place, but not on the near future battlefield.  It is a Forever Weapon, but not a Forever Gun.  It wouldn’t hurt to know how to make bows and arrows, but hope that you can always have a real gun, even black powder, instead.

The price is the best-basically free, but the price tactically is unacceptable.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

27 comments:

  1. Good article James. I do think that a group of people living in a densely wooded area armed with only archery equipment and using gorilla tactics, could actually fare pretty well up against armed adversaries. The bows will get you the gun, just like the liberator pistol in WW2 got you the military rifle. Of course I'm not advocating this as a primary strategy, and of course you should also have smokeless forever guns/reloading supplies, but it could be a potential fall back plan.

    Flintlock reproduction guns, even the little single shot pistols, will make one cringe and fall over backwards in their chair upon viewing their prices. But since the low pressure black powder propellant lends itself well to a metallurgy of lower content, this allows for the affordable option of homebuilt. Also, there is the even lower tech matchlock rifle with a lock mechanism that would be even easier to produce at home. It can be an improvisation and even simpler than the one in the video if need be. Below is a matchlock rifle in action. Only 2:19 long. Pretty neat!

    How to fire a Matchlock musket - English Heritage Event

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KTS8PQ06Qo

    By the way, The Sportsman's guide has a sale on blackpowder guns right now, if anyone is interested. You are correct in your comment James about the percussion caps being an issue of less practicality when compared to modern guns, but you also do away with all reloading equipment, and the need for brass. A cap and ball revolver is actually a more effective weapon than many realise.

    Coupon Code SH1229

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed Archery vs Firearm makes no tactical sense in mass combat, while hunting, sniping or against others equipped with archery style weapons, and a few other rare occasions (i.e. ballisticly firing a grenade into fortifications) archery may have its place.
    Also Smokeless powder with primer cartridge vs. black powder of any sort is also a hands down tactical superiority for the smokeless powder weapons in mass combat. But the same could be said about auto, and semi auto vs lever and bolt actions vs single shot weapons.
    It all boils down to the available supply infrastructure.
    In our lifetimes it should be possible to have supplies enough for the smokeless powder bolt or lever action firearm to be used for defense of self and homestead. For semi- (and if you can afford the license full-)auto weapons you will probably run out of ammo unless you are very well prepared or have very few instances of needing to act as a defender (and if you think you will be an aggressor, you will likely run out even sooner if you survive).
    I see no reason in my area to have anything other than a semi or clip fed fast bolt/lever action for defense, and archery equipment for hunting/sniping. There is no reason to have the intermediate stages of firearms as either the infrastructure for the best possible firearms will be there or it wont. If it isn't, then I have archery supplies and intro level training.
    And as final backup I have sabers, axes, etc. and intro level training.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim here is a you tube of a 303 cartridge factory.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXNXUpOozDg

    The weapon's of war is always the first industry to be restored in every past apocalypse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sure all those wonderful machines are now melted down and turned into $10 Wal-Mart shovels. Swords into rusted junk.

      Delete
  4. Check out this fine flint pistol James. Impractical (at least until the conventional ammo runs out) and simply a want, but thought that I'd post it for the coolness factor alone. This is an all steel (No wood) Murdock Scottish Highlanders Pistol. $395, and ironically, as well as it's made, one of the cheaper pistols. .52 cal smoothbore, so it shoots a big round ball, as well as being a shot pistol. Me likey, but too pricey!

    http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_92_187_188&products_id=943

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More proof of the Industrial Age breaking down. Or is it our currency?

      Delete
    2. I tend to think that it's more our currency James. I posted previously about how in the 80's, I thought nothing of paying $35 to $40 for a fine wool shirt, in which the reaction from most would be “well, that was a lot of money in the 80's”. But it really wasn't. Or at least it didn't seem like a hardship to me at the time. However, when look at that same shirt today for over $100, I have to think hard on if it's really worth it at that price. So something gives, and I tend to think that it's the value of our dollar. Certain items have seemed to remain immune from inflation, but generally speaking, not the one's that I'm purchasing.

      Delete
    3. Right. Other than computers, everything is three times as expensive as the '80's, yet our income stays as the same. As most jobs are now part time, you aren't making $8 an hour but just $4 or $5 ( as far as gross income at the end of the month ). THEN, add in the cost of everything. We shouldn't be surprised we can't afford anything. Even "the shirt on your back". On top of that, I still think there is, to a much smaller degree, a failure in the Industrial Age economics. Both energy and material failures, not to mention infrastructure ( to include political and culture ) failures.

      Delete
    4. Quite true James, particularly the breakdown of culture and politics.

      Lately I've taken to reading historic texts written by some of the early explorers. One thing that has stood out to me is that despite the fact that the overall percentage of the population at that time may have been lacking in education, those that had even a modicum of education were head and shoulders above even your typical university graduate of today. The command of language and knowledge of their surroundings was quite impressive. I was actually unaware up until more recently of the claim that roughly 50% of the today's population is below average I.Q. This leaves me with even less faith than I already had heading into the future...

      Delete
    5. I didn't know that about the half population under average IQ. How the hell do you breed such a massive amount of dumbasses so quickly? ( and even if "The Bell Curve" is correct, that can't account for such a large percentage )?

      Delete
    6. Ok hate to be the wet blanket but "AVERAGE" always means 50% are higher and 50% is lower regardless of the subject.

      Delete
    7. To be honest James, I never even tried to verify the claim, because immediately upon learning of it, I never doubted it for a second. I think the problem is that when you breed a generation of coddled politically correct pussies that are offended by half the words in the English language, that all critical thought and debate is stifled (even if it's a fact, it can't be if it's not PC) so the ability to grow intellectually suffers, and therefore creativity and technology along with it.

      You can literally condition modern youth to believe anything given enough time, including all the popular agendas of the day, but not limited to the forfeiture of one's liberties. When I was young, even the liberals were not adverse to poking a little fun at what would later become another one of their “scared cows”, the gays. If you said something about two dudes getting married, a liberal would have looked at you cross sighted and laughed you out of the room. Now practically everyone accepts it as normal, and if you don't, you're the one with the problem, or “phobia” as the case may be. Western civilisation is finished, there's no doubt about that. And nothing short of a die off can possibly reset it and cure what ails it today, unfortunately for those of us in the here and present.

      Delete
    8. Gary-was I thinking of "median"? Or not thinking at all?
      806-well, it isn't like western civilization didn't take a big squishy a few times before. Clean out the gene pool.

      Delete
    9. gary et alia,
      i shall explain.
      the bell curve was reset by calling the 90th percentile the 100th percentile, thus all test subjects once at the 90th percentile are now at the 100th percentile.
      thusly, all students, on average, are above average.
      it is a lie.
      a man found this because, contemplating a move, he received literature about the states which interested him.
      every state declared that their schools were good because the median for their students was 110th percentile.
      he thought that to be impossible, as it is--thus spake the bell curve.
      that is when he found the numbers had been cooked.
      end of story.

      Delete
  5. Mean, Median, Mode: all "average", so pick the one that makes your narrative look best. "How To Lie with Statistics" D. Huff, with many great illustrations!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew I should have read that book when I had it. Damn Jobs and Bitches-take away too much reading time.

      Delete
  6. What's interesting about The Bell Curve" is not that some people are smarter than others but that civilizations and peoples rise and fall on the number of very-freaking-smart people who make up new things, and the "manager class" of smarter-than average functionaries/merchants who market the ideas to the middle and slightly below (regular folks). We rise and fall based on the kind of stuff: metallurgy/chemistry/electricity/biology make everyone rich, financialization makes a few people (first generation money) a million times wealthier than a normal person and concentrates power into a very-few multi-generational trillionaire clans.

    People tend to have intelligence similar to their parents and close relatives. Commonly, a little above or a little below. Too smart or slow and the individual might not get to (or want to) breed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess you would have to be a little selfish and slightly stupid to bring children into this world. Of course, most of us must be the above so as to populate. Mere breeders.

      Delete
  7. If/when we get our taxes back I plan to get a .22LR, .22 Mag and black powder cap reloader kits and enough primer chemicals to last the rest of my life....

    We are looking at heading to the great northwoods to get away from people... While I have at least a thousand rounds of .22mag and at least 20k of .22LR.. my plan is to only keep around a hundred rounds in use... use and reload, while keeping the bulk of the factory ammo for longer term use.

    Since my tax refund is quite large due to EIC it also covers my survival experimental budget. This year I want to get a pair of cordless electric chainsaws and see how they do. Supposedly they have enough juice to cut 150 - 4x4s per battery. I also want to try a corded electric chainsaw running off of a battery.

    A properly built cabin with lots of insulation and a large solar heater is the plan at the moment. With an earth bag / pit cabin shelter for inclement weather (or WW3) whichever comes first. It all depends on the terrain and what materials and finances I have available when we head up. IF I left right now... it would be 5 acres and tents. Doable, but far from ideal. It would mean abandoning much of my library. My 12,000 volume library needs more space than that. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd stick around to take care of my library also.

      Delete
    2. I was friends with Kurt Saxon when I was 16 up until the time he had the stroke and went to the assisted living home. He taught me the value of knowledge

      Delete
    3. He was old as dirt. I hope he had a good life as he left a great legacy for those paying attention.

      Delete
    4. From the way that you were talking, I had thought that he had passed away? But I looked him up, and didn't see anything to verify this? Kurt Saxon is one of the few people out there that you wish (Or at least I do) would live forever. Once such a soul is gone, along with it goes a giant mental library.

      He was also (as I'm sure he was to many others, such as yourself James) my first introduction to the world of survivalism, by my purchase of “The Poor Man's James Bond” Vol 1, through the wonderful Loompanics catalog back in the 1980's. Remember kids that there was no internet as we know it today. Or at least it was very limited, and for the few that were willing to pay a lot for an early PC, so good books to read were all that you had to occupy your spare time.

      “Disneyland For Dummies”. Remember that quote from Saxon, as his description for the modern masses.

      Delete
    5. Talking as if he had passed away. Well, for me, it is because he died as an author a good twenty years ago or there abouts.

      Delete
  8. I talked with Kurt about a month before his stroke... He was planning to do 26 more Survivor volumes of 26 total. I had even lined up a printer that would do small batches at a decent price so he could print 200 copies each of ten books instead of 2000 copies of one book. His assistant took over and stopped answering phone calls and let the website lapse. Someone else took it over...

    I was 14 when I got a copy of SWAT Magazine and saw his ad for the 4 Poor Man James BOnd books. Took me three months of farm work for my cheap dad to save up for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We must have been about the same age when we both bought that first book-I only got PMJB #1. I can't remember a price, but I did a LOT of chores on ten acres boarding horses to get my allowance.

      Delete
    2. The coolest thing about ordering directly from Atlan Formularies was Kurt answering the phone and taking the order in person. I called him about the Survivors 1 to 4.... got a price and told him I would send the money. Talked for an hour and half. I sent the money cash since I didn't have a checking account. Called him a week later to make sure he got it. He told me he got the money fine, and then lectured me about sending cash through the mail. Good times.

      Delete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED