Weapons and Tools

Random Thoughts and Concerns about The End of The World as We Know It
Part 7

The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Guns
Guns, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

Lieutenant Colonel John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was a United Stats Marine, and is known as the father of the "modern technique" of handgun shooting. Most firearm professionals consider him to be one of the 20th Century's leading experts on the use and history of small arms.

One of his notable quotes is, "If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore, what he must be taught is to fear his victim".

There is a wide range of opinions regarding personal possession of firearms. My opinion is that my guns are tools. Keeping these tools is a right guaranteed by my forefathers and kept intact by all those who have fought for my freedom. These tools allow me to protect myself and those I love from any who seek to do us harm. If necessary, I am prepared to risk my life and use my tools to resist tyranny and fight oppression. My guns are just tools ... I am the weapon.

Regardless of your opinion, if individuals are intent upon doing you harm and the police are unable to help you, your chances of survival will improve if you are armed. Are you willing to risk the welfare of your family to the whims of a marauding gang, or will you take steps to protect the ones you love?

If you are not an experienced gun owner, you should not purchase a firearm unless you also take a firearms or hunter's safety class. Everyone in your family who is old enough to hunt or use a firearm should also take the class. After that, take your firearms to a practice range and become proficient with their use.

Until things go bad, keep your guns and ammunition locked up and out of the reach of children. Your survival supplies should include plenty of ammunition as well. During a prolonged emergency, ammunition might also serve as a useful item for barter, so stock up. If you choose to rely on a firearm, remember to include cleaning equipment and lubricant.

The type of firearm you select should match the terrain you will be operating in and the strategy you would like to adopt. If you plan on an avoidance strategy, in which hunting will play a major role, you should probably have a scoped rifle. If you plan on an evacuation strategy, it would be best to have something concealable that packs a punch like a mid to large caliber pistol.

As with all things survival oriented, the adage that “two is one and one is none” applies to weapons also. This presents the problem of caliber choice and how to carry enough ammunition for two or more guns. One option is to choose guns that share ammunition.

There’s a lot to be said about the versatility of a pistol-caliber carbine. A heavy .357 Magnum load can be used for hunting or defending against predators. As a self-defense caliber, the .357 Magnum round still generally reigns as king of one-shot stops, but it should be considered a short-range weapon. There are more powerful and bigger handgun cartridges, but you must balance those characteristics against shoot-ability for the average person, and the ability to quickly fire accurate follow-up shots.

Pistol-caliber ammunition is generally cheaper than rifle rounds, and there’s a lot that can be accomplished with a pistol-caliber rifle before having to step up the power level. This may be especially useful with younger members of the group. Being able to fire the same cartridge from a pistol and a rifle streamlines the type of ammunition that must be carried. It’s also more efficient for reloading.

A firearm is a tool like any other, you must pick the right tool for the job; and like any other tool, its usefulness is determined by how well you can employ it.

Selecting Firearms
Top 5 Popular Types of Guns Not Suitable For SHTF, By Nicholas, modernsurvivalonline.com

Selecting firearms is one of the most important things you can do prior to any situation, because these are the guns that you will rely on. Your chances of survival and your ability to keep yourself, your family, and your property, safe in the event of a disaster go up if you choose wisely.

Five specific types of popular guns commonly cited as being good choices for a survival situation, are actually poor choices for your survival armory. That’s not to say that these gun types are bad by any means, they just aren’t the best options to have with you in a self-defensive or survival situation.

Imagine that the power grid has collapsed and will stay down for a very long time. You’ve wisely stocked up on enough food and water to last you a year, but word has gotten out and now you have a group of five to ten armed (and probably desperate) marauders descending on your location.

Single Shot Shotguns and Rifles: Proponents argue that because they are so simple they will never fail. There are so few moving parts in a single-shot shotgun, in comparison to modern shotguns and rifles, that you can count on them to function flawlessly a hundred years down the road. They also tend to be cheap and readily available.

The problem is, in a SHTF situation this is not the weapon you want for self-protection because many of your opponents will be armed with more advanced weapons, including semi-automatics. This should end the discussion right there.

Pistol Caliber Carbines: Proponents argue that you only need to stock up on one kind of ammunition, because your pistol and carbine will both fire it. Packing common ammunition is easier, and when your carbine and pistol accept the same magazines it’s even better.

The problem is, pistol ammunition is significantly underpowered in comparison to rifle rounds, which is a liability in a defensive situation. Another reason is that a pistol round is not a suitable choice for big game hunting, such as deer or elk, either. If you’re an adult and you have a shoulder fired weapon, it should fire rifle ammunition.

Pocket Pistols: Proponents argue that the option to place a gun in a pocket makes it an appealing choice for an SHTF sidearm. Having a gun that is easy to hide on your person, when you absolutely don’t want anybody to know that you have a gun, may prove to be an advantage.

The problem is, they are extremely close-range weapons, due to their small size and caliber. Most pocket pistols are chambered for rounds which experts do not consider effective for self-defense.

Their overall small size of a pocket pistol means that you can’t get a full firing grip on the weapon, and the short barrels translate to a very low projectile velocity. They also tend to have high recoil for their caliber, because of their light weight, which doesn’t permit fast follow up shots against multiple opponents.

Single Action Revolvers: Proponents argue that single action revolvers are incredibly beautiful, they are also a blast to shoot, they point naturally, and the accuracy is superb.

The problem is, they tend to lack the strength and durability of double action revolvers or semi-automatic pistols. Spare parts for these guns are not cheap and will likely be very hard to find.

Reloading times on a single action revolver are slow, which is detrimental in a self-defense situation, and having to manually cock the hammer each time you pull the trigger puts you at a disadvantage that could prove fatal.

Military Surplus Rifles: Proponents argue that surplus rifles are excellent SHTF rifles due to their durable build quality, cheap price, and generally affordable ammunition.

The problem is, these rifles were built for another time and are outdated by today’s standards.  Not only are most of these bolt-action rifles, they also have very long barrels that can make them difficult to maneuver in home defense or close quarters situations. Ammunition for them may be cheap now, but will unlikely last long in the event of an ammunition shortage or disaster situation.

Knives
Knives, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

The saying, “Two is one and one in none” applies to knives too, but don’t get caught up in all the hype when choosing a good knife for your pack. If it’s too large you’ve added useless weight, and if it’s too small it can’t do the job. Think this one through carefully and get the best one for the job.

For survival, your knife should be able to chop, cut and split wood, and serve as a means of self-defense. This is usually best accomplished by carrying a two-knife combo, since a couple of quality knives can go a long way toward dealing with whatever you encounter on the trail.

The trick is to pair two knives together that hopefully complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses. A short fixed-blade knife is good for cutting cord, slicing food, cleaning game, and doing woodwork. A long fixed-blade chopper is good for cutting saplings, processing firewood, and cutting down small trees.

The fixed-blade knife I carry in my vehicle is a black KaBar with a partial serrated edge. It’s not intended for every day carry but is at my side for emergencies. The knife is carried securely in a door mounted sheath to protect the edge.

Although not as robust as most fixed-blade knives, folding knives have a unique characteristic all their own: They are portable. The nature of folding knives makes them relatively compact tools that are easily carried and stowed just about any place you want. While in the field it’s always a good idea to carry a folder as a backup to a fixed-blade knife. While in the office, it’s still easy to keep a substantial folder secreted in a pocket.

Alternatives
Alternatives, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

Whether you carry lethal or non-lethal weapons, you should be comfortable and proficient with their use. Be sure to check your local laws and ordinances, as some of these alternatives may not be legal in your area.

Whether that’s simply practicing how to activate it in the dark over and over, or buying two pepper blasters to learn their limitations, or taking a serious self-defense class with a baton. Be proficient with the weapon and learn to use it.

Depending on circumstances, your first line of defense should probably be pepper spray or mace, or perhaps a Taser or stun gun. Everyone in your family should at least carry pepper spray during dangerous times. They should also practice using it.

Pepper spray alone may be sufficient to drive off a lone individual who is not too intent upon having your possessions. Opportunists usually reason that there will be an easier target down the street, and he will probably be right.

 A pepper blaster should be a standard self-defense staple for women. Chose a model that is not one of the “keychain” varieties, as it is easier to deploy in an emergency situation. A Taser or stun gun will be an even better deterrent.

A 500-lumen tactical flashlight is a great alternative to carrying a weapon, particularly if you are planning to be out and about after dark, or in a dark, indoor setting.  The 500 lumens are enough to temporarily blind an assailant, providing you a few precious second to escape.

A personal alarm can emit roughly 130dB of sound, which will draw a lot of attention to you in an emergency situation.  The real beauty of these things is that they can only be silenced by returning the pin to the alarm unit, not by pushing the “dummy” button on top.  So even if someone manages to snatch it out of your hand, they can’t silence it without having both the pin and the alarm unit.

A tactical pen is part writing utensil, part glass-breaking device, part self-defense tool. Enough said.

An expandable baton can be slipped into a purse, or carried on your belt relatively easily.  A flick of the wrist and the short baton extends to a longer cold hard stick, great for encouraging bad guys to keep their distance.

Other alternatives to consider: Bow and arrows, swords and knives, air guns, hatchets, stun guns, sling shots, or a homemade blow gun.

Blow Guns
Can Blowguns Work for Survival Situations? By Michael Janich, https://offgridweb.com

A blow gun is about as simple as it gets. In its basic form, it consists of a rigid tube with a smooth bore typically between 3/8 and 5/8 in diameter and typically between 2 feet to more than 10 feet long. It’s equipped with a mouthpiece at the breech end to allow a better air seal and more effectively focus the shooter’s breath into the tube.

Modern blowguns are generally made of seamless aluminum tubing with injection-molded plastic mouthpieces and quivers for carrying darts. Because they’re virtually silent and low powered, blowguns can be used to hunt in environments where firearms would be too dangerous or attract unwanted attention.

Because of their simplicity, blowguns are very easy to make from readily available materials. All you need is a length of rigid tubing 4 – 6 feet long with a smooth interior and a suitable bore diameter. Aluminum tubing, plastic, PVC, and copper plumbing pipe work well if you deburr or chamfer both ends of the tube, so your darts will fly true.

A simple mouthpiece can be crafted from the neck of a 2-liter soda bottle and a few wraps of duct tape, but rubber crutch tips and pill bottles also work great. Darts are also quick and easy to make. For the shaft material, you can use bamboo BBQ skewers, bicycle spokes, nails, wire clothes hangers, straightened paper clips, and of course spring steel wire from a hobby shop.

The easiest way to make an air seal is to notch the rear end of the dart or coat it with a drop of super glue and then wind a cotton ball around it. Pull the cotton ball apart a bit and spin the dart in your fingers so the cotton wraps around the shaft. Keep going until you achieve the appropriate diameter for a good air seal in your gun’s bore.

If you’re not a DIY type, the internet is full of sources for commercial blowguns, dart kits, impact projectiles, gun-mounted quivers, and lots of other stuff.

Crossbows
Crossbow Buyers Guide, By Cabela's Staff, www.cabelas.com

It is safe bet that the crossbow has advanced more in the last 20 years than in the past 2000. New limb materials, strings, sights, arrows and stock designs have made modern crossbows easier to use, more accurate and increasingly effective on game. Nonetheless, the crossbow remains a short-range hunting tool with a maximum range of 40 yards for deer-size game.

What the modern crossbow does for the hunter is to allow one extremely precise shot to be delivered at close range. Hunters using compound bows can get off a faster second shot than a crossbowman, and experienced bow users will consistently bag more game. Crossbows are also noisier to shoot, more cumbersome to carry and will usually outweigh a bow. With these disadvantages, why consider a crossbow?

They are historic hunting tools, and have taken all the world’s game, including the African species.

The crossbow’s high precision appeals to those who like to leave nothing to chance. Bench rest rifle shooters often fall in love with the crossbow’s ability to put shot after shot in nearly the same hole at 40 yards. (When targeting crossbows shoot only one arrow at the time to keep from ruining your shafts and points.)

Those who, through age, injury or lack of arm strength, cannot draw a regular bow can still experience the thrill of archery hunting by using a crossbow. The combination of optical sights and the fact that the user does not have to strain to draw a bow enables many archers to extend their deer hunting by 10 or even 20 years by using a crossbow.

Types of Crossbows: Just as there are recurve and compound bows, there are recurve and compound crossbows. The recurve is simpler because it lacks the complicated stringing required for the round-wheel or asymmetric-wheel compound crossbows. The compound crossbows generally have shorter limbs, making them somewhat easier than recurves to handle in tight places. Some compound crossbows will shoot the same weight arrows faster than some recurves, although a compound crossbow holds the present speed record among production bows.

A few decades back almost all crossbows had steel limbs. Now almost all bows have fiberglass or composite limbs with designs ranging from one long-thin bow to thick barrel-stave shapes. To lesson weight and equalize stress, several makers are now offering crossbow limbs with split-limb composite constructions. Stocks are now available in laminated wood and composite plastic materials reinforced with metallic elements, which is the more common design.

These molded stocks allow a great range in designs and may incorporate string or wind-up cockers in their stocks. The stock not only supports the firing elements, arrow rail and bow, but is also the crossbow’s most weighty component. Some crossbows have skeletal stocks to reduce weight. Generally, the heavier the crossbow, the easier it is to shoot accurately as weight adds stability during the microseconds that the arrow remains in the crossbow’s guide rail.

Power Requirements: Crossbows are generally ranked by pull weights, which may range from 80 to 200 pounds. This much stress on the string can propel arrows up to 340 fps. For deer-size game a pull weight of 150 pounds is recommended. Bows of this weight will shoot an arrow completely through a deer with a broadside shot. In addition, most reasonably robust shooters can hand-cock a 150-lb. crossbow using the foot stirrup. Rope cocking aids, available from most makers, reduce the pull weight by 50%. Crank cocking aids (although slower and cumbersome to use) require only 10-15 pounds of pressure to cock a heavy-pull-weight crossbow.

Arrows and Points: Selecting properly splined arrows of the correct length combined with an effective game-killing point is as important with a crossbow as with a bow. The manufacturer will always list a series of recommended arrows and point weights. Aluminum, carbon and composite arrows are now available with a variety of fixed and mechanical points. As a rule, faster arrows shoot better with mechanical broadheads compared to fixed blade broadheads. Aluminum arrows will often perform well with 125-grain fixed points while carbon shafts prefer 100 grain or lighter points.

Always target your bow with your hunting arrows and points. Field points and broadheads often have very different flight characteristics, even if both have the same weight. Use a small rubber gasket to line up the blades of mechanical points with the fletching for best results.

Sights: Crossbows are commonly sold with iron, optical or red-dot sights. Optical sights would appear unnecessary for a 40-yard hunting tool, but are very useful for precisely compensating for the rapid drop of the crossbow arrow between 20 and 40 yards. Knowing the exact range to the target is extremely important, and a laser rangefinder is often a vital element in making a clean kill with a crossbow.

When purchasing any crossbow, it is wise to buy needed accessories at the same time as accessories purchased five years from now may not fit this year’s crossbows.

Stashing Weapons
Hiding a gun, The rules of three, By Claire Wolfe, www.backwoodshome.com 

They’re still at it everywhere; federal and state politicians and their media mouthpieces are in full cry, threatening more restrictions on the right to own guns. In response, Americans are rushing to buy firearms, particularly those that might be targets of the next ban.

Without a doubt, many guns are going underground or into other hiding places. When Draconian restrictions take effect, millions more firearms will get tucked into walls, haylofts, hollow trees, and waterproof containers buried in the woods.

There are people who say, “When it’s time to bury the guns, it’s actually time to dig them up and use them.” They have a point, but in fact, there are plenty of good reasons to hide guns, now or at any other time.

We’re not talking about simply concealing a gun to have it handy in home, office, or hotel room. We’re talking about hardcore, long-term hiding; stashing of guns against some urgent future need.

Three reasons to hide a gun: You might want to hide a firearm just to have a spare if your others get stolen or damaged in a disaster.

You might want to hide a firearm if you are a peaceable person who is nevertheless forbidden to own a gun because of some misdeed in your past or some arbitrary state law.

You might want to hide a firearm if you fear nationwide bans and confiscations but realize that you can’t stand alone against the gun banners.

Three types of guns you might want to hide: You might want to hide a spare carry pistol away from your home in case your everyday carry gun is stolen or damaged.

You might want to hide any firearm that’s being banned.

You might want to stash any cheap, but reliable semi-automatic rifle in a common caliber.

You probably don’t want to tuck away your best battle rifle or your most beautiful, precise, scoped bolt action hunting gun (or, as politicians will eventually call it, your “sniper rifle”). But that’s up to what you can afford to sequester and what you want to have at hand if the you-know-what ever hits the rotary airfoil. Because, make no mistake, a buried battle gun is a SHTF tool.

And of course, in all cases, you also need to secure ammunition for that gun and any tools you might need to make your well-hidden firearm work for you.

Whatever type of gun you choose, one of the most important steps is to prepare it well for long-term storage. You need to ensure that the firearm you eventually retrieve will be ready to use, and not a rusted hulk.

Three ways to prep your gun for hiding: The very simplest method of preparing a firearm for hiding is to leave the gun fully assembled, wrap it in vapor-phase inhibitor paper (also known as volatile corrosion inhibitor or VCI paper), add desiccants to keep down humidity, then place the gun and ammo into a tightly-sealed container. A gun can spend 10 years underground in this condition and be perfectly fine, and ready to shoot, once it is unearthed. This simple method lacks fail safes.

A better method is to disassemble the firearm, coat every bit with a film of high quality gun oil like Break-Free, wrap each part separately, and then seal everything in a waterproof container with desiccants. Some people I’ve known take the extra step of pulling oxygen out of the container using a vacuum or piece of dry ice. You can also get VCI corrosion-resistant gun bags (including more expensive VCI vacuum bags) from places like MidwayUSA.com or Brownells.

A better method is to disassemble the firearm, but instead of coating parts with Break-Free, use Cosmoline. Cosmoline is the now nearly-generic term for a brown, gooey, Vaseline-like preservative that’s been used for decades to rustproof firearms.

You may have encountered it if you ever bought a surplus military rifle. Commonly, such rifles have been literally dipped in a vat of Cosmoline at some point and will have the goop in every cranny even after being superficially cleaned. You might want to go the Cosmoline route if you expect your firearm to be hidden for a very long time.

If you go that way, whoever resurrects the gun will need to have mineral spirits, a soaking tub, and brushes on hand.

Any time you store a gun disassembled, you need to store the tools required to clean and reassemble it. Maybe instructions, too.

Three types of storage containers: An appropriate storage container depends on your climate and where you plan to hide your gun.

One of the most popular and secure methods of gun hiding is burying. And the most popular container for burying a gun is ordinary Schedule-40 PVC pipe from any hardware store or plumbing supply store. You’ll need a piece of pipe with sufficient diameter and length to hold your firearm, ammunition, and tools (unless you plan to store the ammo and tools separately).

You’ll also need end caps and sealant. Preferably you’ll buy all this where you’re not known, and you’ll use cash, not a check or credit card. One of the caps should be permanently sealed on.

The second cap may be a threaded one with a rubber gasket; only if you are very sure of an excellent seal. Alternately, cement both ends and bury a hacksaw nearby, wrapped in VCI paper, to open the storage tube.

A tightly sealed PVC tube can also be submerged in murky water or in a slurry. Painted with appropriate camouflage, it can be hoisted into a tree or into the rafters of a barn or otherwise used to hide its contents in plain sight.

If you’re lucky enough to find one at a gun show or surplus store, guns and other objects can also be hidden in old plastic mortar cases, which already have threaded lids with very tight rubber-gasket seals.

A pistol can be hidden in a tightly sealed metal ammo box, again, well-oiled and wrapped in corrosion-proofing paper, with desiccants added. If it is going into damp ground, place the ammo can inside a larger plastic ammo can and add desiccants to that box as well. Both ammo cans should have their lids sealed with caulk, both should be wrapped in a plastic bag, and you should duct-tape the heck out of both.

Bonus: If your climate is very, very dry and you’re stashing a gun above ground in a spot you’re certain will never get wet, you may not need any container at all. Just place your well-oiled, VCI-wrapped firearm “naked” in its hiding place (e.g. inside a wall, under floorboards, inside an old engine block). Always include desiccants. Even in dry climates, hidey-holes can still get humid.

Weapon Caching
Hiding a gun, The rules of three, By Claire Wolfe, www.backwoodshome.com

We’re talking about the gun or guns that you’ll go to when the other guns are gone or when government agents are on a confiscation campaign. So, unless you have extensive, difficult-to-search property, or some insanely clever and difficult hiding method, it’s best to hide firearms away from home.

The first thing to know is where not to hide a gun. Do not hide it in or around your home unless you’ve figured out a way to make it undetectable; not only to opportunistic burglars, but also to metal detectors, ground-penetrating radar, and even gun-sniffing dogs.

Three common places are; underground, above eye level, or right in plain sight, but so disguised nobody sees what you’ve hidden.

Underground: This is one of the most popular, durable, and most secure methods. You’ve prepared your firearm using one of the three methods above. You’ve sealed it inside a PVC pipe, complete with desiccants, ammo, and tools. Now what?

Find a spot where you can be unobserved. A spot where you can be confident everything is likely to stay undisturbed for years. A spot where nobody but you is ever likely to spend time. A spot with landmarks you can recognize, now and 10 years from now. A spot with lots of old metal objects strewn about is a plus.

So is a spot where the soil has already been disturbed; which makes digging easier and could help foil ground-penetrating radar if anyone became serious enough about gun confiscation to try to use that against you. But disturbed ground is optional and may not be ideal for other reasons.

You can’t have everything, so make your own best choices: Your chosen caching location might be in the woods, or an old, disused junkyard: The grounds of an abandoned factory: A high sandy ledge in a desert canyon: Or property belonging to a law-abiding relative (less likely to come under scrutiny than you and your own property).

Having found the ideal spot, you dig. There are two schools of thought on this, particularly when burying a rifle: vertical and horizontal.

Inserting that precious PVC tube into the ground vertically gives your gun a much smaller, and much less gun-like, signature to metal detectors. That’s good, but unfortunately, it’s also much harder to dig a deep enough hole. Superman with a manual post-hole digger could do it, but you may need a mechanical auger.

To further compound the problem, your container should go entirely below the local frost line. In the Pacific Northwest, the ground doesn’t freeze more than a few inches down, but in places like Wisconsin it can freeze as deep as four feet. If it’s buried to shallow frost heave can crack your container or eventually thrust it to the surface.

Unburying a vertically buried container can also be a problem. Even after you’ve uncovered the first foot or so of the tube, the ground is going to cling hard. You might need a winch, a hand-cranked come-along, a rope, or at least a lot of muscle to haul your stash out of the ground.

If you decide to bury it horizontally, it’s best to have a lot of metal debris in the vicinity to hide the telltale signature of a long, narrow object like a rifle.

After burying, be sure to cover the spot with the native topsoil, leaves, needles, bark, or metal garbage to disguise it.

Above eye level: For some reason, people rarely look up, so you can hide something in a tree or in rafters. You can hide something in the clerestory of an old factory or warehouse. Or in the trim at the top of a building. Or even in a false gutter on a house. Unless they’re determinedly searching for it, people simply won’t see it because they don’t look up. Of course, it’s still best to use camouflage techniques when hiding firearms in such places.

When it comes to trees or old buildings, you should consider these only as temporary hiding places, because buildings get demolished and trees are logged or fall over in storms. When you hide in such places, you need to go back frequently to check on your stash; and that itself can compromise security.

In plain sight: Plain sight doesn’t necessarily mean your firearm is “right out there” either. It can mean misdirection. For instance, you could stash a firearm far back on a deep shelf behind rusty old tools. Or in an ancient, obviously broken refrigerator. Or under a rusted truck. Gun parts could lie undetected for years at the bottoms of toolboxes or in junk drawers.

Always remembering moisture-proof containers, vapor-phase inhibitors, desiccants, and plenty of gun oil.

Take advantage of local features, too. For instance, if you live in an area that has stone walls, you may find that some of these have loose gravel centers: Perfect places to stash a gun. Lonely ponds and hollow stumps can be fine hiding places if your container is 100% waterproof. Use your imagination and your local geography.

There are thousands of possible places and ways to hide guns. The real problem isn’t hiding a gun, it’s finding it again.

Example: An isolated, metal-strewn patch of woods is an ideal location for burying a gun. The rubble can help hide the signature of a buried firearm from a metal detector. In this case, the nature of the rubble is the ruins of a horse-drawn wagon and a Prohibition-era moonshiner’s still. It also indicates that the spot has been undisturbed for a long time.

Three ways to note the location of your stash: If you have chosen a really secure hiding place, even you may have trouble finding it again years later. Don’t rely on Landmarks: Trees fall or get cut down. Old cars get hauled away. Old houses and sheds collapse or get salvaged. Logging roads get re-cut, blocked off, or overgrown. Flash floods wash away even big boulders.

Today, of course, there are super-easy, high-tech ways to mark hiding spots. I can already hear younger readers saying, “Hey, I’ll just mark the spot with the GPS in my smartphone.” Easy peasy … and foolish. Your cellphone is a tracking device and smartphones are the worst of all.

Police are increasingly able to scoop up that data without warrants or other formalities. In fact, there’s even a growing network of “locator towers”: Essentially fake cellphone towers owned and operated by law enforcement whose only purpose is to spy continuously on all of us.

If you value your stash and your freedom, don’t even bring your cellphone to your hiding spot. If you do bring it, have it turned off and preferably remove its battery. Certainly, do not use it to mark a location you want kept secret.

You could mark the spot with a standalone GPS unit which is not known to be owned by you and which itself is kept in a secure location. But even this is a flawed method if used by itself, since GPS units can get lost, stolen, broken, or simply wiped of data. A standalone GPS unit should be just one part of your site-marking strategy.

When it comes to identifying the location of your cache and being able to find it again, one method alone is not enough. You should mark the location of your cache site in three different ways. You should have a compass or a GPS unit (or both) and know how to use them.

First, identify the location visually, preferably using distant and/or virtually immovable features of the landscape. Mountain peaks, waterfalls, house-sized boulders, freeway interchanges, ancient monuments, etc. Then you can take note of nearby trees, rocks, and other objects as a backup. It’s probably more useful to make note of the terrain than features on the terrain. Note whether the ground rises or falls around your stash, or how many paces the stash is from a nearby hillock.

Second, take compass headings to your cache location from at least three different recognizable objects. Again, you should choose objects that aren’t likely to move. If you take a heading from a power pole, a tree, and a boulder, and 10 years later the tree has fallen you still have other things to guide you.

In using a compass, you must know the declination in your area; that is, how much magnetic north varies from true north. Later, when you’re ready to go back to find your hidden tools, you should check the declination again (NOAA has a website for this). Magnetic north drifts from year to year.

You should realize how much the drift could impact caching. Turns out, over 10 or 15 years, the change in declination in a given area could easily be enough to put you many feet away from your hidden stuff if you don’t adjust for it.

Finally, you should mark the location with your standalone GPS unit (and remember, never, ever with a cellphone). Then, when you get home, transfer those coordinates to a piece of paper or an encrypted computer file (along with your compass headings), and erase them from the GPS unit.

If you write the coordinates down, disguise them in some way. Make them look like a phone number and putting them in your address book. It goes without saying that you should hide or disguise your record of the coordinates very well, but not so well that you can’t find it years later.

Three bonus suggestions: Desiccants are essential to the safe, long-term storage of firearms. They are small objects designed to prevent humidity build-up inside sealed containers.

You’re undoubtedly familiar with one type of desiccant, the little packets of silica gel crystals that come with everything from electronics to dehydrated foods. You can save those and use them when you need a dry, sealed environment.

You can also get silica gel crystals and make your own desiccant packs. The crystals are sold at craft stores for drying flowers. Certain types of cat litter, such as those identified as “crystal litter”, are made of silica gel. Just put the crystals inside a porous container and you’re ready to go. A nylon stocking will do, and so will a vitamin bottle with a coffee filter replacing its lid.

Heat them up a little to dry out the crystals before re-using them. A general rule is to lay the desiccant packets on a wire rack, heat them to 220 degrees in an oven for 24 hours, then store them in an airtight container. A lot depends on how big the desiccant packets are, what kind of desiccant they contain, and the material the packets themselves are made from. Plastic packets, for instance, might melt. Large packets might not get dry enough in that time. There are several online guides that consider the various factors.

In Britain, where they’ve lost most of their gun rights, rural folks long ago became experienced at keeping their firearms hidden using a roll of heavy-gauge underground cable. Dig a trench between a house and barn or house and workshop. Lay the firearm, in its waterproof PVC pipe, at the bottom of the trench, then partially backfill. Now run the cable in the trench between the two buildings about two feet above the firearm.

Gun grabbers who detect metal may dig down, find the cable, and believe there’s nothing else there. In the Pacific Northwest, loggers often leave behind enormously thick steel cable that’s used to “yard” trees. It’s common to stumble upon great lengths of it on old logging sites. A snaky coil of that would look natural and disguise the signature of metal underneath.

Hide a gun that not only uses common ammunition but uses common ammunition of a caliber that any potential enemy might use. In a pinch, you may need to do some “borrowing.”

Finally, keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell people that you’ve hidden a gun, let alone where you’ve hidden it. Keep the entire act of caching on a strict need-to-know basis.

Training
Training, By Neale Wade, https://confessionsofaliberalgunowner.blogspot.com

Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.” My Mom and Dad told me that if I wanted to be good at something I would have to practice. Coaches are famous for yelling, "You must practice, practice, practice if you want to be good at _________” (fill in the blank).

There is even a principle referred to as the 10,000 Hour Rule. This principle holds that after 10,000 hours of practice you can become world-class in any field. As it turns out, it isn’t quite that simple: There is more to mastering a skill than repetitive practice.

When psychologists talk about practice, they mean practicing in a way that pushes your skill set as much as possible. Specifically, they are referring to two types of practice; deliberate practice and directed practice.

What shooters have known all along, and what current scientific research is catching up to, is that the quality of your practice is just as important as the quantity. More interestingly, these scientists also believe that expert-level performance is primarily the result of expert-level practice; it is NOT the result of innate talent.

Deliberate practice is a structured session of training, with the specific goal of improving performance, while under your own supervision. Your practice activity must be: intentional, aimed at improving a particular function, designed for your current skill level, combined with immediate feedback, and repetitious. Shooters often use deliberate practice to focus on positive or negative behaviors they wish to emphasize or eliminate, while practicing to improve their shooting skills.

Directed practice is a structured session of training, also with the specific goal of improving performance, while under an instructor’s supervision. Your practice activity is monitored by a coach who directly supervises your performance, providing instruction and critique of a particular function. Shooters often use directed practice to learn new techniques, such as motion and cover, while practicing to improve their shooting skills.

I extend this idea of practice to include everything I do. The notification on my cell phone for incoming text messages is the sound of gun shots. My family understands, and yes, I get some disgusted looks from strangers. I imagine the sounds to be coming from somewhere else. Before I reach for my phone I place the imaginary shooter into the context of my physical environment. I scan for where the shots might be coming from and where the shooter might be located. I re-check my previously considered exists, re-establish my cover options, and re-evaluate the people around me.

No matter what I do, I do it with the intent of doing it better than the last time, and I do it with the intent of learning something new. I’m not limiting myself to manly arts like shooting, driving, or carpentry skills either. Loading or unloading the dishwasher reinforces organizational skills; an evening at a Wine and Cheese fundraiser reinforces social skills; and hunting for treasure in an antique store reinforces observational skills. Bonus: You’ll make your spouse happy too.

No matter what it is, do it well, and you will learn something that will benefit your survival.

Thought Interrupter
Getting the Upper Hand, By Matthew Schafer, schaferselfdefense.blogspot.com

It is true that sometimes violent situations start with an attack and catch you off guard, but usually, if you pay attention you will see the build up to the event. When victims of violence are interviewed later, they usually say that something didn’t feel right. They saw something that they thought wasn’t quite right or something that made them uneasy. The problem is they decided to ignore it because they didn’t want to seem paranoid or socially inappropriate.

When it comes to fighting or violent assaults, the number one cause of death is blunt force trauma to the head, which is normally caused by someone falling and hitting their head on the ground. There have been people that have gone to jail for manslaughter because they got into a heated argument and shoved the other person, who lost their balance, struck their head, and died.

Normally, prior to a violent altercation there will be a period of buildup, and if you can see it and recognize it for what it is you can take the upper hand. You might notice someone watching you or following you, or someone in a place where they don’t need to be, or someone who is drunk or angry in your vicinity. If you can’t avoid or steer clear, but instead find yourself confronted by someone, and you think violence is imminent it is important to make the first move.

In the martial arts there are mixed messages about making the first move. In his book, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, Gichin Funakoshi famously wrote, “The second rule of Karate is, there is no first strike in Karate.” This is why most Karate Kata begins with a block or other defensive movement.

However, back when it was just plain old Karate, and back when it was taught as a matter of life or death, making the first move was taught to be essential. Waiting for a person to throw the first blow, hoping to counter it and then counter attack is very risky and should never be done if your life is on the line.

Thankfully there is a little trick you can use to get the upper hand and create an opportunity for you to either attack first or get out of there. This works if you are confronted by one person or multiple people, and if they are unarmed or if they have a gun in your face.

We all know people who seem unpredictable. They may be fine when drunk and a bully when sober, or the exact opposite. For whatever reason, they confront you and want to talk about politics, or how they don’t support our military, or what’s wrong with America. They will probably get in your way and try to stop you from leaving until you’ve listened to their rant. Try listening for 30 seconds and then say, “that’s great”, and immediately walk around them and go on your way.

Sometimes, that doesn’t work. They may be in an especially bad mood and angry at everything or everyone, sarcastically proclaiming, “Oh look…my favorite person! How can my day get any better?” When you try to walk past them, they block your path and get in your face, poking you in the chest and saying very disrespectful things.

When their face is becoming red, their voice was steadily getting louder, and they’re spitting as they talk, there is no doubt that the person is building up to something violent. When the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you feel unsafe, try to back up and de-escalate the situation. If that causes them to approach you while making a fist, you must stop the situation in its tracks, and take the upper hand by moving first. Look right back at the person, put a confused look on your face, and say, “You did WHAT to your cat?”

As soon as they open their mouth to say something, make your move. For instance, if it’s a guy swing a bag upwards into his groin. As soon as he drops to his knees walk past him and move to a safe place. With luck this will be last time he confronts you.

You can call this technique the “Thought Interrupter”, but psychology probably has a different name for it. If someone is following a certain train of thought and suddenly they hear a statement or a question that is out of place, it will interrupt that thought pattern for a moment, often leading to a short-lived state of confusion. It works even better when you stick to asking questions that are as bizarre as possible.

In short, you want to ask a question that makes no sense in the given context, or better yet … no sense in any context!

When someone is focused on you and confronting you, their intent may be to do you harm. Suddenly asking them a bizarre out of the place question will interrupt their thought pattern and give you a few precious seconds to move first while they are caught off guard. You move them from a mental state of thinking about hurting you to not thinking about hurting you. This creates a short window of opportunity where you can act while their brain is focused on the absurdity of the question, rather than on hurting you.

The more random, bizarre, and out of place the question is the better. If someone has a gun to your head and you suddenly ask them if they like fall or winter better, it will be enough to break their thought pattern. Even better, ask if they like lizards or snow better, or ask who they think is the better starship Captain Kirk or Forest Gump? The odder you make the question the better it works.

The trick is to capitalize on it the second they scrunch up their face or open their mouth to say, “What the hell are you talking about?” As soon as the “W” in “What…” comes out of their lips you want to be moving. If you’re confronted by a group of people you will want to move yourself to the outside of the group as soon as possible. Slowly move towards the guy furthest to the left or right and say something like, “Did you know Barack Obama was on Bay Watch?”.

As soon as you see confusion set in you know you’ve switched their train of thought from hurting you, to “What the hell? No, he wasn’t”. That’s when you want to move! Before they can finish the sentence, you should be in motion.

This technique has been proven to be very successful. It has been used during hostage situations, police, military, and intelligence personnel use it to disarm bad guys, and psychologists use it help people stop destructive behaviors; like smoking. Whenever their patient feels like smoking, drinking, over eating, etc. they’ll have them count all the people they know or imagine something absurd; like a parasailing pink elephant with a mermaid’s tail.

Mass Shooting Events

Some lessons from the Las Vegas attack, By Grant Cunningham, www.grantcunningham.com

Mass shooting events are leading to the public and authorities to contemplate the forfeiture of our Second Amendment rights. It should be obvious to the most casual observer that taking guns away from law abiding citizens will not end gun violence. Guns are just tools.

In November 2017, a man opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and wounding over 500. While information is still being processed by law enforcement, enough information has come out about the circumstances of the incident that we can identify definite lessons on how you might respond to this kind of event.

What happened: The attacker, a 64-year-old man who frequented the casinos in Las Vegas, took a corner suite on the 32nd floor of the north tower at Mandalay Bay resort. The room overlooked a concert venue northeast of the resort, diagonally across the intersection of Mandalay Bay Road and Las Vegas Boulevard (aka “The Strip”). The venue was an open-air site with a stage at the south end. Directly east of the venue, across Giles Street, lies Las Vegas McCarran Airport.

Approximately 22,000 people were packed into the venue, which is about the size of a small city block. There were, as near as can be determined, three entrances/exits on the west side of the venue (on The Strip) and two exits (not entrances) onto Giles Street.

The distance from the attacker’s room to the stage is just over 1,000 feet, or about 350 yards. The distance to the back of the crowd was a touch under 500 yards, and to the entrances just under 300 yards.

The shooting started at approximately 10:05pm and lasted about ten minutes. Naturally there was mass confusion as the attendees scrambled for cover where there was little to be had. Many tried to flee, but with so many people in such a small space movement was restricted. Along with the injuries from gunfire, many were trampled by the panicking crowd. Injured people ran from the scene, some of them several blocks, leading to speculation that there were multiple attackers in several venues.

The victim’s options were limited because of the nature of both the attack and the environment, but that doesn’t mean they were completely helpless. There are many lessons to be learned.

Lesson One: Get away if you can. Sometimes the best thing to do in an active attack is to immediately get away from the scene, if you can do so both quickly and safely. But how do you know what direction is “safe”?

Many of the victims reported they had trouble discerning where the gunshots were coming from. This shouldn’t be surprising, although it seems to be so even to some avid shooters. Unless you’ve been on the down-range end of a rifle bullet, it’s surprisingly hard to tell. This is because, for a rifle shot at long distance, you’ll actually hear two distinctly different sounds!

First, you’ll hear a very sharp sound, a ‘crack’ for lack of a better word, which is the supersonic shock wave of the bullet itself as it passes you. Just a fraction of a second later you’ll hear a lower-pitched sound, possibly of lower volume. This second sound is the actual muzzle blast of the gun as it finally catches up to you.

The crack of the bullet seems like it comes from all around you, because in a sense it does. You only hear the sound as the pressure wave passes over you, and when it does you’re in the middle of it. Because of its pitch, duration, and location, it will echo from any hard surface making it impossible to localize.

The muzzle report, on the other hand, is somewhat easier to track; it comes from a specific direction, which may be discernible. You must listen for it, though, and ignore the sound of the bullet’s shock wave. If you’ve ever been in the unfortunate position of being downrange from a shooter, you’ll admit it’s emotionally difficult to do.

In a city like Las Vegas, everything echoes, including the muzzle report. Between all of the hard surfaces and the supersonic shock waves, it’s no wonder people couldn’t figure out where the shots were coming from. In such a case determining the safest direction to go may be difficult at best. This is where your pre-planning comes in.

It’s reported that the concert-goers came in through the western entrances on Las Vegas Blvd. People remember where they come in to a building or space, and tend to head out the same direction. In this case heading for the exits, which were also the entrances, actually brought the escaping victims into the attacker’s fire. (Remember: the entrances were closer to the shooter.)

Escape is only a valid survival strategy if you can do so safely; running into the attacker’s bullets increases your risk. What many didn’t realize is that there were exits on the east side of the arena, which were a somewhat safer option. Not many people took advantage of them. You can’t take advantage of something unless you know it exists before you need it.

When you enter any space, indoors or outdoors, take a few seconds to familiarize yourself with the exits. In a restaurant, for instance, it’s almost always a good bet that there’s an exit through the kitchen. In a mall or other retail space, there’s usually an exit through the “employees only” area. In many buildings you’ll find dedicated fire exits. Take some time to check the map kiosk, glance at the program you’ve been handed, read the placard on the wall, or simply look around. If you’re looking at a diagram or map, take a few extra seconds to orient yourself in space; memorize the landmarks that will help you find the exits more easily when everyone is confused.

Lesson Two: Moving in a crowd. Knowing where the exits is one thing, but getting to them may be another. In this case there were 22,000 people crammed into a space that measured about 500 by 600 feet, and when the shooting started they moved toward the exits they remembered. As we’ve learned that wasn’t the ideal direction. A crowd in panic will usually take you with them, or trample you in the process. Sometimes both happens.

The best thing you can do is move to the edge of the crowd as quickly as you can, because once on the fringes it’s much easier to run counter to the mob’s direction. It’s tough to do this against the traffic flow; it’s much easier to cut across traffic when you’re moving with it. The key, then, is to go with the flow enough to keep from being run over while simultaneously moving toward the edge closest to your objective. Once at the edge you can more easily pick your desired direction of travel and move relatively rapidly.

Lesson Three: Taking cover. If you can’t escape quickly and safely, seeking shelter somewhere where the attacker (or his bullets) can’t reach you is the best course of action. In an open-air venue like this there is precious little cover available, but that isn’t the same as “none”.

When the attack happens isn’t the time to be looking for safe shelter. In a crowd you can’t really see much, and if you’re short you may not be able to see anything. Again, the time to pick your cover is when you enter and have time to scout the surroundings. Where can you shelter? What area is safe from gunfire? Where could you barricade yourself to keep an attacker from reaching you? In an open-air venue like the one in Las Vegas, getting in early and having a short walk around would not only show you alternative exits, but also important areas where you can take cover or barricade yourself if need be.

Take particular note of areas labeled “employees only”, “authorized personnel”, or other restricted status. When you need a safe place, those signs are to be ignored! Under a stage, for instance, may be a very safe place to be, but only if you ignore the signs which proclaim only staff is allowed.

Lesson Four: Saving lives. One of the things which came through loud and clear in this incident was the value of immediate trauma care. There were many lives saved because of the fast response of people in the crowd, many of whom risked their lives to treat victims while still under fire. The only thing that went wrong was a shortage of critical supplies, made worse by the understandable delay of EMS response to the scene.

There were a few people in the crowd who were carrying tourniquets, but with over 500 victims the few tourniquets available (including those in the first aid tent) got used up very quickly. On Greg Ellifritz’s blog, he notes that radio traffic from the first aid tent indicated they were making improvised tourniquets from blankets to stop massive hemorrhaging, but were running out of blankets!

I strongly urge you to carry a trauma kit (tourniquet, hemostatic gauze, and a pressure bandage) wherever you go! In this case, had even 10% of the crowd been carrying a trauma kit there would have been more than enough material available to treat multiple wounds on all of the victims.

Respect for the victims: Do not construe any of the foregoing as being critical of the people who were victims of this attack. We shouldn’t criticize or second-guess them, but we can use their experience as a learning opportunity for those of us who might one day find ourselves in similar dire circumstances.

Many people did heroic things to help save their fellow concert-goers, including exposing themselves to greater danger by running into the gunfire. We should applaud all of them at the same time that we mourn the casualties. May we respectfully learn from their experience.