Forum: Survival/Preparedness

Did a little experiment tonight. 5 little tea light candles in my small tabletop charcoal grill. Took 2 hours, but boiled 4 cups of water. I imagine better technique could boil it faster. Perfect for covert boiling though -- no smoke, no chopping wood, no smell. You can get 100 - 125 of them for $10.

I can go online and find gun reviews but I don't know those people posting them. To be honest I don't really know most of the people in here. But I might trust you a little more. Let me start out with hand guns. IMO the closest you can get to 100% reliable is a revolver. Enough said. I'm right and you know it. Semiautomatic . I can only comment on what I have / had. You have to find the ammo your semi auto likes. The first shot will almost always work. It's the second shot that counts when looking for reliability. Some ammo will not complete a cycle. A stove pipe or failure to load the second round. Not a good thing to have happen if you really need a second shot. Now my review from what I own in semi auto. Hand guns. Smith & Wesson M&P 40cal. 10 rounds. It works. Kind of a mid size gun. A little on the heavy side for a pocket carry. I've put about 200 round through it using different ammo and no problems. Easy to take apart and clean and put back together. It is not a target pistol. But good...

This is a followup thread for the one deleted in the server move. I have been building up my supplies for several years and can honestly say that I am still a bit from the finish line. I have been able to get the essentials down, but feel that while I could survive for an indefinite period after a total collapse, my family would not. This has been a driving factor in my continued pursuit of more gear and essentials. I will give a generalized rundown of some of my items all should have, the ones I have added for my family, and the ones I still need to acquire. All households should have the basics. I will list them for people, and feel free to add to this, since I will probably leave something out. Flashlights (C or D Cell and AA or AAA Cell) - having at least a crappy one in all sizes is good for a TEOTWAWKI situations, but get a few in the same battery size for consistancy. Magnesium fire starter Waterproof matches Pocket Knife

I recently sent the correspondence below to the owner of website with daily updated content such as current event news stories of the disasters and surviving the disasters. In other words, not unlike the Armageddononline home page. I believe that websites with a large following can do quite a bit more to control the conversation in the public forum, so to speak, in regard to disaster preparedness. They and we can also potentially save some lives in the future. Feel free to comment. I will be probably contacting some other site owners in the future and additional information / perspectives are welcome. Here it is: Hello _______________, I have been thinking lately about the issue of 2012. The great Mayan non-event. History rhymes with itself. This reminds me of Y2K all over again but at least Y2K was a real problem. The great thing about Y2K was that we won. Nothing bad happened. I worked at a company that manufactured robotic equipment for the semiconductor industry. There were about 50 of...

When I looked into this, I encountered this site. Perhaps some of the people in here have a use for it?

Given everything in the U.S. / World of late, I am thinking it's time to gear preparation more for a severe economic collapse. I.e., while I'll have a bug-out bag for a nuclear attack still handy, it's probably time to focus more on the most likely scenario. That said, what do you all think the best preparation is for a severe economic collapse? I don't think worrying about hordes of cannibals will be the key here! I think: -> Bugging in is favored over bugging out -> Defense weapons should be geared toward fighting robbers as opposed to gangs of looters -> Food preps are super essential, not because stores everywhere will be closed, but because prices will be ridiculously high. -> Stocking up water is a good idea, but I don't think you'll have to watch your back for gangs of thugs while you hit the river to resupply.

SHTF scenario and you have all the stuff you need but you have 24 hours warning so you have a chance to lets say requisition some extra stuff while most people are desperately trying to get food/water ect remember you dont have to pay for it because there is only 24 hours left and after that money will be meaningless so think big what are you going to requisition?

Do you carry ? I use to a long time ago. I based it on where I had to drive at the time. Plus back then there were different rules on how you could transport a gun in a car. With the permit I didn't have to worry about different rules. I'm no longer driving for a living. I renewed my long ago expired carry permit. Of all things to carry I went with a GET OFF OF ME gun. A true pocket gun. The North American 22 long rifle revolver. I can see some of you laughing now. Currently it works for the job I have. No John Wayne here. At five feet, no need to aim. Point and shoot. All five rounds will hit a phone book. The phone book did not survive. My 40 cal M&P ? Much better but also kind of heavy. My 357 ? Not a chance. Way to damn big.

Question: is where I am in Illinois (37-40 miles away from 1 Nuke Plant, 45 miles away from another Nuke Plant) "safe" ? I'm talking given an EMP-power-outage-backup-power-to-Nuke-Reactor-outage situation, how much danger am I in? I realize I'm not in an ideal spot. But is it doable?

I found this article about using a container of vegetable shortening as a long run time candle. I did not think too much of it at first because I like LEDS for lighting and propane for cooking. I had already figured out that you can cut way down on your propane use by preheating your food with a single candle flame and then finishing it off with propane (I can cut back by about 40 percent). Then I got to thinking that this could be a good way to get rid of fats that are no longer fit for human consumption like rancid oils. Here is the link to my version of this. http://www.instructables.com/id/Cooking-With-FatAs-A-Fuel/?ALLSTEPS I was able to boil water. And since I figured out what I could do better I was going to try again but it was after midnight last night when I finished the above post. I did verify that rancid corn oil is a fine fuel. I will be trying other fats in the future including the oil that tuna is packed in.

I just wanted to share this link with you... Maybe you have the necessary wherewithal. :wink: http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/22/real_estate/doomsday_bunkers/index.htm?hpt=C2

We're all survivalists here. We have supplies waiting to be used when SHTF, or any disaster scenario in general. Well, I just found out that bottled water, whether glass or plastic, is BAD. This runs afoul with my plan to store water for survival. Here's some research I've compiled: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-379624/The-poison-lurking-plastic-water-bottle.html Concludes that although both glass and plastic (PET) are subject to chemical leaching, plastic tends to release more antimony (Sb) into water than glass does.

A friend of mine (from one of my jobs) and I have discussed disaster preparedness several times over the last few years. A few weeks ago He asked me to put my version of the basics in writing. I decided to make my response something other than a long list of things to go out and buy. It is kind of toned down in comparison to a lot of the posts on this board and a lot was left out What I wanted to do is cover the most important things but also to place the responsibility for his survival and that of his family on him. If the worst happens, he will be very much alone. So without a lot of introduction here it is: "The following is in regard to the last time we talked about disaster preparedness. I do not consider myself any sort of an expert. I do not think there are very many people who really are. I think most people who are “prepared” have opinions which for the most part are valid and useful, so this is the short version of mine. I am convinced from what I have read and experienced that most...

I saw this video on another site and thought it would be hard to make a simpler system. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOl4vwhwkW8&feature=player_embedded#

I am in the process of building a solar powered shed, and wanted to know if anyone else has ever messed with solar panels. I have decided to go with 40 Watt panels, as they are less expensive than the bigger ones, yet not much more than the 15 watt panels usually found on sale locally. So far I have the one 40 watt panel, a 75amp 12v battery, and a small inverter that is around 150 watts. The inverter will be upgraded when I have more panels, and I plan on getting another 3 of the 40 watt panels in the next month or so. I plan on using this to power 2 floodlights in my backyard, charge my cordless power tools, and perhaps run a water pump in the future. Any suggestions would be appreciated. So far, the battery has cost $110, the 40 Watt panel was $113 shipped, and the inverter was already owned to power a playstation 2 for the kids for road trips. To get a real inverter, I am guessing I will need to crank out another $100. I think I will be able to get another 3 panels for around $300 shipped, and...

I've asked similar questions before but was thinking today about legal ramifications for things. So, if there's a riot that is literally outside your house / apartment / condo. Let's be nice and say it's only 20-30-40 people outside. Legally, can you at this point grab a rifle or shotgun, visibly work its action (though not point it at them, just point it in the air) and tell the mob that they best move along? Would this be considered brandishing? Could you get in legal trouble?