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Guns, Preppers and Survivalists – Is an Arsenal Necessary When TSHTF?

From SHTF blog

Early post!  I’m putting this up Sunday evening for those of you who like to check in early.

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Today’s post is playing off Ranger Man’s Changing State of the Gun Industry and Gun Buyers article from a couple of days ago.  One aspect of the post that caught my attention is that gun owners are going out and buying more guns, which got me wondering how many of these people are Preppers or Survivalists vs regular old gun owners afraid of new regulations that might limit firearms and ammo somewhere down the road?

Now, if you’re a gun owner who owns guns because you enjoy shooting that’s one thing; however, if you’re a prepper stocking up for the zombie hordes it’s another.

Allow me to play Devil’s Advocate here for a moment.  I’m not going to discuss government regulations, but rather the actual need to own an arsenal for if/when the TS hits TF.

Common wisdom on most of the blogs is that you’ll need an arsenal when TSHTF, but is it really necessary to own a whole pile of guns and ammo if things go south?

Zombie insurance

“Hey Jarhead – have you lost your freakin’ mind??”

Let’s lay a few cards on the table right now.  First of…

Pat’s Product Review: Train Safe Barrel Block

From SurvivalBlog.com

I’ve been a firearms instructor for a lot of years. I attended the US Army Marksmanship Unit, Rifle Instructor and Coaches Clinic way back in 1970, and I’ve been an NRA Certified Rifle, Handgun and Person Protection In The Home, instructor for about 20 years now. It’s safe to say, I’ve trained numerous people over the years in firearm use and safety.
 
More than anything, before I’m done with one of my firearms students, they have to demonstrate firearms safety to me – marksmanship skills are secondary in my class. However, everyone walks away from my class being a better shot than when they started. No, I’m not some magical instructor or anything like that. I just present sound instruction in the safe and effective use of firearms to my students – tried and proven methods.
 
We do a lot of gun handling in my classes, as well as plenty of lecturing. One thing I’m always short on are, dummy guns for students to handle. Yeah, I have a few of those "blue guns" that are made out of rubber, but I never have enough to go around during a class. And, firearms safety is my number one priority – a person must prove to me that they can safely handle a firearm. I’m happy to report, that in all the years I’ve been instructing folks in firearms use and safety, we’ve never had an negligent discharge (ND) or any…

Uzi mag pouches

From Notes from the bunker…

I  bought some magazine pouches from Maxpedition for my HK mags and although they are listed as ‘double’ magazine pouches you can really only fit one HK mag in there. Trying to stack two in a pouch just ain’t gonna happen. Not really Max’s fault, HK mags are just damn bulky. Their double MP5 pouches, though, do indeed take two Uzi mags per pouch. I’ll wind up picking up another of the Maxpedition Active Shooter Bags and festoon it with a few of these pouches. Normally, I’m a fan of overkill but according to my math, the bag will accommodate three double-2mag pouches, and two single-2mag pouches for a total of 16 32-round mags or…wait for it….512 rounds of ammo. And that’s not even including the spare ammo and gear that gets carried in the bag itself. For the first time in my life, after reviewing the bag and ammo pouches, I said out loud to myself “Ok, that might be a bit much.” But, dammit, when you gotta run out the door with just whatever you can carry it’s hard to not want every stick of ammo you can grab….at least, until you have to carry it any significant distance.

When I put a similar bag together for the PTR, that was easier because each pouch only held one mag instead of two. As a result, the bag only has five mags on the exterior. A lighter package, overall. It…

Letter Re: Experience with a PTR91 (HK91 Clone)

From SurvivalBlog.com

JWR,
More than a year ago,
I bought a PTR91 MSG clone of the HK91 for my primary SHTF rifle. I thought I’d pass on some information collected after about 3,000 rounds down range. 

Note that I have no economic or personal ties to PTR Inc.

PTR as a company was responsive when asking questions about what mil-spec parts could be replaced and what could not.  You’ll have to email them about your specific rifle though.

Robustness

• Almost day one, I chipped the barrel paint taking off the hand guard – be careful, slide the handguard forward at an angle, after removing the attachment screw.
• S/F indicators on the safety side paint started to fade out after about 1 year. Indents for the S and F are still there and fine.  Probably my chemicals for cleaning stripped off the paint. No impact with using the safety.
• If you live in a humid environment keep an eye on the flash suppressor and the trunnion pin.  Easy to rust. I clean after every use, apply lots of BreakFree CLP, use dehumidifiers and still I got spot rust there.
• Speaking of flash suppressor, mine came loose after the first week – had to Locktite it. There was no flash suppressor pin like on the original HK91/G3 rifles.
• Other than those cosmetic issues, the rifle has been very…

Health and preparedness……..

From ModernSurvivalOnline.com

Over the past few months I have been taking health and exercise much more seriously.  Sylvester Stallone wrote a fitness book several years ago and in it he made a statement – Once you hit age 40 it is decision time. After age 40 things can go downhill pretty fast.

I am 42.

In a survival situation good overall health could provide the edge needed. Many armchair preppers out there stock up on some extra food, have the shotgun in the closet, and have a backpack in the trunk and feel they are ready. Try putting that backpack on and carrying that shotgun and some ammo a few miles walking AND running.

It’s not easy.

For the past few decades I have participated in several martial arts and weightlifting on and off. I always figured I was in decent shape and if needed I could walk/run and do what was needed. I was wrong. Several months ago I decided at the age of 42 to take my health more serious and signed up to do Crossfit.

push ups…..lots of push ups

Crossfit is likely unlike anything you have ever done unless you actually have done it. It is sorta like P90X if you are familiar with it. Basically Crossfit is a strength and conditioning program which combines weightlifting, cardio, and gymnastics(exercises like push ups, sit ups, dips).

Crossfit is very intense and requires enormous effort. I quickly found out in my…

Three Letters Re: A Second Look at the Mosin-Nagant Rifle

From SurvivalBlog.com

Mr. Rawles,
I am writing in reference to Frog’s post about the Mosin-Nagant rifle. I have owned several Mosin-Nagant rifles myself. They were designed to kill enemies of the Soviet Union. They were not designed to necessarily be the safest rifle around. If you’re not very careful while using a Mosin-Nagant rifle, it can blow up and injure you. I learned that lesson the hard way in 1998. I also learned about the importance of eye and ear protection while shooting as well. No one should ever fire a Mosin (or any firearm) without eye and ear protection. When my Mosin blew up, I suffered severe burns and shrapnel penetrations of my face. Fortunately, a skilled eye surgeon was able to remove the larger pieces from my eye (there were over 200 pieces in all) and my sight was undamaged. I had an eye hemorrhage and a partially detached retina. I lost 25% of the hearing in my left ear and have lived with tinnitus since. I would only recommend this rifle to someone who had no other options. – Joseph E.

James,
Regarding the article A Second Look at the Mosin-Nagant Rifle, a few months ago we put the Mosin-Nagant Low Profile Side Combo rail for $ 39.97 on a 91/30. This was an earlier model of the mount currently for sale, and although they said a straight bolt would still work, that would probably only be with a skinny military scope.…

Letter Re: Sport Shooting for Preppers

From SurvivalBlog.com

As C.K.’s article points out almost all of the publications that cover prepping acknowledge the need for self-defense, but very little ink gets spent on developing or maintaining real proficiency.  His suggestion that readers consider either practical shooting (USPSA) or defensive pistol shooting (IDPA) really hits the target.  The follow-up letter by Sean from COS advocating hunting as another way to develop and maintain skills also hit the mark.

Many articles and even most of the survival fiction stories provide descriptions and explanations for the “right” guns to buy.  “Survival Gun Selection” on the left side of survivalblog.com is an excellent overview of the equipment and rationale, but even this article avoids two other gun issues that are critical, especially for those of us with a wife who carefully monitors our combined survival investing.

Those two issues are:

1.) How many rounds should be put aside for each type of weapon for self-defense or hunting assuming TSHTF and ammo is no longer readily available?

2.) On some kind of rolling forecast, how many rounds should be budgeted for maintaining proficiency for each year between now and when TSHTF?

My wife knows that I would rather buy an extra 500 rounds of 40 S&W than another two cases of Mountain House Chicken a la King.  But seriously, how would you make the argument for the number of rounds to keep on hand?

For example, we have four hunting rifles in .223, .243, 7mm-08, and .308…

The Changing State of the Gun Industry and Gun Buyers

From SHTF blog

Has anyone read this month’s The Economist, you know, that wick’d smaht magazine for wick’d smaht people? This issue:

I like this magazine, but what I want to call your attention to is this particular article in this month’s issue:

“Arms and the man” – read it by clicking on the link. The article speaks about the NRA being under political pressure despite a seemingly string of political victories. I’d recommend reading the article if you’re interested in the NRA piece (and it is interesting), because I’m not going to rehash the article here, I’m going to build off it, particularly this quote:

Americans like firearms. According to a report from the Congressional Research Service there were 294m guns in the country in 2007, up from 192m in 1994. More guns might be expected to mean more influence for the NRA, except that the number of households with guns has actually declined fairly consistently since 1973. The people who buy guns, it seems, are usually those who already own them.

I read articles all the time about gun sales going up and always thought that a healthy percentage of those sales were to people new to firearms, but after reading the above, I started thinking about the gun buyers I know. They all already own guns, and they buy more. Military-style firearms are particularly sought after, which begs the question – are today’s gun buyers just existing…

A Second Look at the Mosin-Nagant Rifle, by Frog

From SurvivalBlog.com

I got myself into prepping and survivalism after the turn of the century, so my main resource was the Internet. That in and of itself was a whole learning process, as well — but the scope of this article will focus on what appeared to be an amazing find in that great, infinite Google. $ 80 for an accurate, reliable, rugged bolt-action repeater that was on-par with a .30-06, ballistically… and had dirt-cheap ammo, to boot? There had to be a catch, and oh, how the forum-goers toting $ 5,000 AR setups assured me (and plenty of people in similar metaphorical boats) that it couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn (from the inside), it blew up, all the bolts stuck, the triggers were horrible and couldn’t be fixed, and the corrosive ammo wasn’t worth the trouble.

Boy, how I learned how wrong they were. Though I’ve had a fascination with the rifles for quite some time, I ended up acquiring other weapons first, as fate would have it. However, I’ve since gotten my own example, and no longer have to bother friends or roommates to get a chance to toy around with one (although an acquaintance at gunsmithing school had a beautiful 91/30 he’d refinished the wood on, himself).

My rifle is a round receiver Tula, 91/30. I was lucky enough to get one with an excellent bore, bolt, and all the accessories (oiler, tools in cloth wrap, sling, bayonet…

Abridged: The First Amendment Is Now a Felonious Criminal Act *Video*

From SHTF Plan – When It Hits The Fan, Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment I
Bill of Rights
United States Constitution
Adopted August 21, 1789 

As Congressional representatives overwhelming approved the  Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act in February of this year, few Americans were paying attention. When President Obama signed the Act into law, he did so in secret, without any of the fanfare that came with his signing of universal health care two years prior – and for good reason. This is one of those laws the government doesn’t want you to know exists until it’s too late to do anything about it.

For many, awareness of the existence of the new law will only become apparent when they are arrested and charged under new Federal trespassing guidelines as they attempt to protest, display signs or disrupt any person or event of national significance. An event of national significance is any activity where Secret Service agents are responsible for security. With several thousand agents in the field at any given time, events involving the President, Congressional members, staff or individuals running for Federal office are all fair game.

Simply standing with a bullhorn, holding up…