Active New Top (30 days) Compact Card AR-15 Maintenance Schedules and Guidelines Thomas GomezStaff - November 3, 2020 An AR-15 rifle purchased from a reputable manufacturer is extremely reliable, though it does need periodic maintenance to function correctly. Basic maintenance schedules discussed below. Some key points about the AR-15 rifle. The AR-15 firearm was designed to shoot 1 round every 2 seconds (Sustained rate of fire). If you shoot faster than that, you will drastically heat the rifle, and reduce the barrel’s life. Consider the Ar-15 a mini precision rifle. Yes, it can shoot fast, but the weapon, with the right optics, is best used with deliberate, aimed fire. Magazines can be a source of malfunctions. If you have a bad magazine, throw it in the garbage or mark it for “training purposes only.” A 5.56/.223 mil-spec/military-grade rifle can run at least 15,000 rounds before the barrel needs to be replaced. Some higher-end barrels can go 20,000 rounds + before they need to be replaced. An indicator that the barrel is worn out is the rounds key-holeing (hitting the target sideways) or an extreme loss in accuracy at 100 yards. The bolt carrier group is one of the most critical components of the rifle. On a hobby rifle, shoot your gun until a lug cracks on the bolt, then replace the bolt. If your life depends on your rifle, replace the bolt carrier group every 10,000 rounds. If you can afford it, carry a spare bolt carrier group with you. If your rifle fails during training, there is a good chance it is a component in the bolt carrier group. Simply swapping the bolt carrier group can get you back in action. If you cannot afford a training rifle or another bolt carrier group, at a minimum, carry a spare bolt with you. Before you train, swap out your “SHTF” bolt with a training bolt. Every time you clean your bolt carrier group, check for cracks. Cracks form around the cam pin and the lugs on the bolt. If you are missing a lug on your bolt, it is time to replace the bolt. While checking the bolt carrier group, check your gas rings, extractor, and ejector. A great way to check gas rings is to extend the bolt, then stand the bolt carrier group upright with the weight balanced on the bolt. If the bolt carrier collapses on the bolt, replace the gas rings. This method only works on a “Mil-Spec” bolt carrier group. You can check your extractor by removing it from your bolt and looking at the lip that holds the bullet case. If there is still a lip and the metal is not worn down, it’s probably okay. Check the ejector by taking a shell casing, seat it in your bolt, and let it go. If the shell is flung 5 to 6 feet away, the ejector/ejector spring are probably okay. Firing pins last a long time, but it is not a bad idea to keep a spare. Modern, well maintained AR-15’s do not need as much cleaning as people think. Wiping down the bolt carrier group with a carbon remover like M Pro7 is more than adequate. You can also use a bore snake and clean the carbon out of your barrel. After you clean your chamber and bolt carrier group, make sure to lubricate your bolt carrier group. Don’t fret about copper in your barrel, only carbon. Carbon pits barrels. Once a year, or every 2,500 rounds, give your rifle a very detailed cleaning (carbon removal) and check all surfaces for cracks. On a training or hobby gun, you can keep track of firing schedules and diligently replace parts, or shoot the rifle until it stops working and then start replacing parts. If you carry a gun for a living, take firing schedules and parts replacement seriously. Basic Maintenance Schedule for a 5.56/.223 duty rifle with a 14.7 or 16 inch barrel/Carbine or Mid length gas system. Please note, this is preventative maintenance. AR-15’s have been documented to run for 10,000 rounds + with no maintenance, save for lubrication. If you want to swap parts every 5,000 rounds, you will probably be okay. At 2,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 5,000 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, ejector, ejector spring, and gas rings. Check every surface for cracks, especially the bolt lugs and the cam pin area. You will need the bolt ejector tool, hammer, and punch to swap out the ejector and ejector spring. At 7,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 10,000 rounds, replace the bolt carrier group, and buffer spring. Attach a precision rifle scope and shoot a few 3-round groups for accuracy. At 12,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 15,000 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, ejector, ejector spring, and gas rings and once again check accuracy. You will need the bolt ejector tool, hammer, and punch to swap out the ejector and ejector spring. At 17,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 20,000 rounds, replace the bolt carrier group, buffer spring, and barrel. Have a certified armorer check out the system as a whole. Read More 20 10 First gun for prepping in California BankruptSolvency - November 2, 2020 If you were to buy only a single gun for prepping in California (which has the strictest gun laws in the US [0]), what would it be? I’ve been researching what my first gun purchase should be, and it looks like the options at a high level are: A handgun A shotgun A featureless AR-15, meaning it lacks certain features like a pistol grip or vertical foregrip [1] A maglock AR-15, meaning the top and bottom halves of the rifle have to separate for reloading [2] A “traditional” rifle (for lack of a better term), meaning something that’s not an AR-15, like an M1A [3] I think the ideal would be to not have to choose, and instead have a rifle + a handgun. But that still leads to the question of which type of rifle to have. My primary worry is worsening civil unrest as the election approaches, but in keeping with the Sane Prepper Mantra [4], it would ideally be a generally useful firearm: home defense, self-defense while bugging out, even hunting. I plan to take multiple classes with whatever I end up getting. (And if you’re new to guns altogether like me, I highly recommend The Prepared’s guide for basic background knowledge: https://theprepared.com/self-defense/guides/beginners-guide-to-guns/) [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/CAguns/comments/h03tti/faq_of_california_gun_laws_last_updated_692020/ is a good overview [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CAguns/comments/9nibj7/here_are_my_california_adultlegos_for_featureless/ [2] https://www.80percentarms.com/blog/the-best-maglock-options-for-california/ [3] https://www.springfield-armory.com/m1a-series-rifles/ [4] https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/guides/sane-prepper-mantra-common-sense-rules/ Read More 19 12 AdviceGear Trapping Winston Smith - October 31, 2020 I didn’t see anything on trapping, but it’s smart to have some on hand in a SHTF situation. Trapping is a silent way to hunt and much easier than trying to find and shoot game. I have 5 small game traps and 5 fish traps. As a test, I put one out last week (I live in a small suburb in S.C.). Within a few days, I caught a possum, two squirrels, and a feral cat. Released them all, but I know it works. A few on my garage wall. Below is my next trap. A hog trap from Tractor Supply. I checked it out; it’s very well made. I hope to get one sometime in the near future. Read More 9 12 Skills Good Storage for Prepping with limited space CarefulClaude - October 28, 2020 I have a one bedroom ~600 sq ft apartment and my kitchen has limited space. I need some more storage space and was thinking good shelving unit – something like this or this . I was wondering what other folks had done and if they had any set ups they reccomended that were reliable, didn’t need to be pinned to the wall and not a pain to set up. Leaning strongly to get this, which is pricey but looks nicer than some of the others. Ideally 36 in or less in width as well if that as an option. Read More 9 2 Advice The beginnings of a food forest… Josh CentersContributor - October 28, 2020 I have a big empty hill behind my house. It’s too much of a pain to go up there every day, but I wanted to use the land for something. I decided to start starting a food forest. The concept is pretty simple: you plant food-bearing trees together to create a forest and then put low-maintenance crops in between them. So you might have a large nut tree surrounded by apple and pear trees, with strawberry plants in between them. (Amaranth would also be a good addition). It’s what Nassim Taleb would call an “anti-fragile” system. A traditional garden has to be cultivated, weeded, and watered regularly, but once a food forest is established, it can be left to its own devices. The book Gaia’s Garden is a good reference for starting a food forest. Yesterday, I received the two one-year-old Dunstan Chestnut trees I ordered over the summer. The chestnut tree is a great resource of both wood and food and was once a key resource to Appalachia. Unfortunately, the American Chestnut was wiped out in the early 20th century by a fungal blight. If you try to plant one now, it’ll die from blight within a few years. However, a single blight-resistant American Chestnut was found and piece of it were grafted onto blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees, creating the Dunstan Chestnut tree. I already had my tools and other gear in my truck ready to go. I started by using my scythe to make a clearing in the tall grass and weeds and then used a string trimmer to eliminate as much grass as possible in a large circle. I then used my Root Slayer shovel to dig a hole for the tree. I love this shovel. The saw teeth on the sides make it easy to dig into the hard ground here. I really needed it yesterday, because some sort of tree has started to root in my field. I cut through the roots and ripped out all the tree roots I could find. I put the tree in the hole, covered it up, and then slid a tree tube over the top, which acts as a miniature greenhouse and protects the tree from deer. I fixed it in place by zip-tying it to a piece of bamboo. Finally, I watered the tree in with liquid compost, put some compost around the tree as mulch, and then dumped some saved kitchen scraps around the tree. They’ll also serve as mulch and will feed the tree as they break down over time. Next, I’m set to receive three mulberry trees. They’re cheap and should start producing berries within a year. I’m also going to put in some apple trees this fall. Hopefully, within a couple of years, I will have a steady supply of food that will require no work other than just walking up and taking it. Read More 15 17 Skills Thinking about school in the fall COVID_Actuary - October 27, 2020 Curious how everyone here is thinking about school/childcare in the fall. Have started to see what different districts are planning (mid-size Midwest city). The biggest district is doing a 2/3 day split, alternating which students get Wednesday each week. Two more districts have announced that their current plan is 100% in the classroom, though they have numerous contingencies around distance learning and the like, so that plan could certainly change. Obvious given forum rules I don’t want to make this a political discussion (though if you take politics out of it entirely I still find it a fascinating balance of tradeoffs…) – I’m more curious about how other preppers are thinking about handling schools if they reopen/childcare if they don’t/impact on their children. Our only child right now is not yet a toddler, so they are not personally impacted by schools, but my wife is a teacher, and thus obviously is. From everything I’ve seen on mortality the statistical risk to any of us given our age/health is roughly equivalent to that of driving 10,000 miles. The morbidity risk is still pretty unknown – as Mr. Stokes often brings up. From what I’ve seen my thoughts on that risk *to us* is trending in the optimistic direction -recent reports around T-Cell impact and potential cross-immunity from common cold strains (see: wife = teacher for analysis of past cold prevalence in our household) are driving much of that. However, obviously our risk of transmitting it to grandparents and others is high if we are in school/daycare situations, which makes decision making a bit trickier. I see several options (I work remotely, for context below.): Wife quits job, takes care of kid at home (best for exposure/safely seeing grandparents – bad for wife’s career) Wife works at school, but wears mask and hopes to not be overly exposed, in-home childcare for kiddo (made trickier due to wife’s potential exposure) Wife works at school, kiddo goes to daycare, avoid grandparents (outside of very socially distanced settings) until we get it and are over with it. That’s what our rough decision matrix seems to look like. Curious what those of you with school-aged kids and no teacher spouses are thinking. Read More 24 47 If you moved to the country, what do you wish you’d known first? Josh CentersContributor - October 25, 2020 Hi folks, I just published my guide on things to expect if you’re moving to the country from the city. If you’ve made the move, what do you wish you’d known first? https://theprepared.com/blog/pandemic-panic-and-moving-to-the-country/ Read More 12 8 Advice Prepping for disabled people DWT - October 25, 2020 Hello, I’ve been reading about bug out bags etc. etc. My situation is that I’m a power chair user so the option of walking whilst carrying a rucksack is just a happy memory. Living in the UK with the extremely restricted firearms laws means that having firearms for home defence is out of the question too. No before you say, “well you’re s**t out of luck”, I do have a plan. The plan is to stock up, stay put, keep in touch with neighbours & family then tough it out. This approach had worked thus far during this pandemic. Any suggestions for a disabled prepper would be gratefully received. I’m especially interested in options for home defence which do not include firearms. Thank you in advance. Dave Read More 18 16 Comms Recommendations for Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness? Runcible - October 25, 2020 I live in the East Bay area of CA. Several years ago I collected the names and contact information of about 60 individuals on my block for a city-sponsored community emergency response program I took part in. * Last week, workers hit an underground gas line on my block. Our family bugged out and I struggled to communicate with just a few other neighbors about the situation. * This week, a 3-alarm fire began in close proximity to a gas station a mile from home. I got the word out via text and email to all the contacts I had, but not as quickly as I’d have liked. * This weekend, we are expecting hot, dry winds: extreme fire danger. Do any of you have recommendations for decent (and free?) electronic communications systems or protocols that you’d implement in such circumstances? I want to protect my neighbors from having their contact information stolen or otherwise compromised, and I’d like to be able to share vital information quickly. Maybe you know how to set up a phone tree and would share that process with me. My partner has a license for Ham Radio comms, but I don’t. Further, I think that ham isn’t a viable option for most folks around here. While the power’s on, I feel like SMS/email/phone are the best options; I am open to–and grateful for–your opinions on the matter. Read More 6 1 Hardtack – The bread that lasts Forever Winston Smith - October 24, 2020 I didn’t see anything on hardtack [Flour + water + little salt]. Great way to store carbs for soups. Easy and cheap to make. I’ve started making it and storing in mylar bags (not sure if they’re needed). It’ll keep 100 years. Youtube hardtack. Thanks and great website. Read More 10 3 Submissions from The Firearm Blog’s “Build of the Week” contest using TP’s kit builder Tom RaderStaff - October 23, 2020 I used to work over at The Firearm Blog, which focuses on “firearms not politics.” They just relaunched a popular contest where people submit builds related to firearms using TP’s kit builder https://theprepared.com/kits/ There’s a submission published on a weekly basis (when there is a set of four queued up), and eventually those submissions will compete to crown an overall winner. I’ll share the submissions here in case anyone’s interested! Contest info if you want to enter: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/09/18/build-of-the-week/ Read More 15 4 Meta Prepping’s lessons for quarantine Interblog - October 23, 2020 Greetings. My scenario stands at the 3-way intersection of prepping, quarantine, and vanlife, and it’s not a hypothetical scenario so much as an actual procedure that we had to follow, and may need to follow again. This past summer, my husband and I drove our off-grid van almost 3,000 miles from our home in the U.S. to undeveloped land that I own in eastern Canada, observing the isolation rules along the way. Once we crossed the border into Canada, we had to drive 450 miles without entering any premises or contacting any person. And then we were legally required to remain on my property for two weeks, a property that contains no electrical, water, or sewer utilities – it’s just forested land with a small private road into it. DH and I had already spent several years engineering our van with a solar-lithium-inverter-alternator-generator combination that makes us power-unlimited in most contexts, but I had to step up my game to enhance the rest of our preps, because we had never before been cut off from normal consumer supplies such as groceries, hardware, pharma, etc. Some ideas I pull from the boating community, which is the other big group that is off-grid almost continually by definition, but increasingly I’m checking out the prepping community for ideas on strategies and gear. Every piece of equipment has to be completely thought out and tested, ever piece has to be reliable, and every contingency has to be accounted for. Plus, there are more comfortable and less comfortable ways of doing things, and I’d rather thrive than survive. We enjoyed our 2 weeks of “exile” (as my Canadian father called it) far more than we thought we would, to the point where I almost hope for the opportunity to do it again. When do any of us get 2 unbroken weeks where we are completely segregated from society and not compelled to be answerable to outside demands on our time, where we can just focus on being present and developing our skills? It hardly ever happens. We’re looking forward to more, and for that, I need more learnin’. 🙂 Read More 6 1 Scenarios Chucknuck – The ultimate char cloth? Jay ValenciaContributor - October 22, 2020 Was looking at reddit today and saw that someone made something called a chucknuck. I had never heard of it before, so the adventure began! But first, I want to explain what char cloth is. Char cloth has been one of the most effective ways to start a fire using flint and steel or a ferro rod. If you are unfamiliar with char cloth, you cut up an old 100% cotton t shirt and put those strips into an Altoids tin. Punch a small hole in the top of the Altoids tin and then throw the entire tin into a campfire. The heat from the fire will then convert the cotton shirt into char cloth through a process called pyrolysis. In layman’s terms it burns the shirt inside the tin, but not fully because it is slowly burned in an oxygen deprived environment. What remains looks exactly like your shirt pieces, except black. This char cloth is extremely fragile because it is just made up of carbon. The benefit of this new creation is that if a single spark of a flint and steel or ferro rod touches it, the char cloth will hold onto that spark and it will grow. You then transfer that piece of char cloth to a tinder bundle and is a fast and easy way to start a fire. The one downside of char cloth though is how brittle it is. Even today, I tried to pull out a piece of from my zip lock baggie of char cloth in my fire kit and I couldn’t pull out the whole piece, it always breaks into a smaller piece. If you do not store it well, when you go to use your char cloth it could just be powdered ashes because it got agitated too much in your pack. A chucknuck is supposed to be the more durable solution to a char cloth. Below is my experience making one today. I started off with an empty .223 and .308 win casing. Any rifle casing should work. I then made my first mistake and I cut through the extractor groove. I thought this would be a good place to put my saw blade and keep it from slipping all over as I started cutting. The issue is that it did cut off the rim, but I thought it would open me up into the inside of the casing. Instead I just opened up access to the primer well. Next time I will cut right above the extractor groove, and it should be alot less cutting and less steps. To fix my little mistake, I just drilled out the bottom of the casing. The finished product is a casing that has a large opening at the bottom. I then took a roll of cotton twine that I got from the dollar store and laid out multiple strips a bit longer than a foot long. I fed the twine through the casing. I wanted the end product to be a foot long so that extra length helped out when I tied off the end. WE ARE DONE! But what is it!? Well, you are supposed to burn/char the end of the rope sticking out of the tip of the casing. This creates a small piece of char cloth that you then can retract into the casing to protect it by pulling on the longer end of the rope. Whenever you need a piece of char cloth to catch a spark, you can push the rope back out through the tip of the casing and expose that area. Did it work? No, not for me. I think I have some cheap junk twine and should find a better quality cotton string. The tip wouldn’t accept a spark, and was even hard to light with a lighter. Char cloth won this round against my chucknuck. I do want to go out and buy some quality cotton rope though and give it another shot. I did a little research after my failure and found that this guy on YouTube was able to make a successful chucknuck. And I was right, he used some good looking rope, so I think it should work if I get some. What do you guys think? Are you going to give this a try? How do you like to start your fires? If you do make one, PLEASE share it here and show me up! I want to see a working model. UPDATE WITH WORKING MODEL BELOW! Read More 10 5 GearSkills Home heating sans electricity? matthew.Contributor - October 19, 2020 Hello, and thanks again to all the awesome people who make this website possible. It truly is a wonderful resource. I am researching various methods/options for heating my home in the case of an extended power outage. I have a traditional masonary fireplace that I never use because it’s so innefficient, but am considering a fireplace insert or other options. I’m curious if anyone has gone down this road and has words of wisdom to share. A fireplace insert would be nice, but they’re also spendy, and outside of an emergency and/or the occasional holiday-time fire, I would likely rarely use it, so I am also eager to find safe alternatives, if there are any. Read More 7 8 Scenarios Do You Know How a Home Well Works? – Might Save Your Life To Know. RedneckContributor - October 19, 2020 IMO, the following knowledge could be priceless for many preppers… even if you don’t have a well. Are you planning on bugging out into the country? Out there, most folks will have home wells. You might say, what good is that for me? Let me let you in on something. 99.9% of folks with home wells have no way of accessing their water when the power is out. Do you think maybe if you came with the tools & knowledge to access that water, that you might have made friends? Being friends with a landowner might be the difference between surviving… or not. Many, if not the vast majority of rural homes & farms get their water from a well, which is nothing more than a pvc pipe in the ground with a submersible pump sitting under the water and a pressure storage tank below the frost line. At my farm, my submersed pump is around 125′ down. This all works fine as long as you have electricity but what happens when there is none… and won’t be for weeks if ever? I live on a farmstead, with a well, & have plans to get to that water during such a crisis. Sure I have my personal water filtration devices but for me that is short term. You really want to live on hot, stinky, filtered pond water? Why use such when cool, pure water is so close by… if you know how & are prepared to get to it? So this submersible pump hangs in the well from the pitless adapter, which is a two part device (male & female). One part stays in the well casing & the other part is what the well drop pipe attaches to. This device is what keeps the water from freezing in the winter as it redirects the water 90 degrees, so that the water stays underground, below the frost line for the area. The top of the adapter has female threads, used to pull the pump & attached riser pipe out of the well. DIY folks, like me make a simple tool that allows you to attach to the pitless adapter & pull everything up. Mine is a T made from 3/4″ threaded metal pipe, which anyone can buy the sections in a hardware store. You simply need two short pieces for the handle, a threaded T & a longer piece of threaded pipe to reach the pitless adapter, which will be maybe 2-3′ down inside the well casing… deeper the further north you live. From what I understand, most pitless adapters accept 1″ NPT thread, so I have a series of adapters to go on the end of my 3/4″ pipe. I have 3/4″ – 1″, 1″ – 1 1/4″ and 1/1/4″ – 1 1/2″ just to be safe. All these piece screw together to make the T so obviously can be taken apart & not take up much space. I’ve never done this before but from what I understand a strong man can pull the pump by himself if it is not real deep, otherwise you will need help and/or some lifting device such as a block & tackle. Once the pump & pipe is out of the way, you now have access to the water & just need rope & a device to get the water out. You can make your own or purchase something commercially. I use the Well Waterboy bucket. I’m sure anyone could rig up some container to get to the water, just might take some engineering to figure it out. There is a great discussion here on building your own. Read More 10 3 Advice PrimeDay prepping deals matthew.Contributor - October 18, 2020 Hello all, I’m hesitant to start this thread because I’m not particularily a big fan of Amazon or consumerism in general, but there are some good deals on prepping gear associated with Prime Day. One that caught my eye was the highly rated BigBlue 28W Solar Charger on sale at at 25% discount: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EXWCPLC/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AwEAAAAAAAAAAXxZ If anyone bumps into any other great deals please share! Read More 7 6 Are you doing something extra to prepare for this winter, because of Covid or else? Carlotta SusannaStaff - October 15, 2020 There’s a good chance that this winter we’ll go into a second lockdown because of Covid (paired with flu). So I am taking extra steps now in preparation for this winter, something that in normal circumstances I would have not felt the urgent need to do right now. This is what I’m doing before the winter: Changing my car’s tires. They’re not awful right now but they’re getting to the point that they need to be replaced. In normal circumstances I would have waited until next spring/summer, but in the event that something actually happens to them while we’re into a second lockdown and shops are closed I am doing that now. Winters are also snowy and icy in here so I don’t want to take any chances. Bloodwork. I have avoided doing tests (routine or otherwise) or go to the dentist throughout the summer, but I am taking advantage of this window where infections are lower to keep on top of my health. My GP herself suggested I’d wait on all of the other stuff, but she’s of the opinion that I could at least do some quick bloodwork now. It should be quick, in and out. Let’s call it a calculated risk. CCW permit. Ok, the reason why I feel compelled to that that now rather than later, is more political than infection-related. Although this is not the place to open that can of worms, I always hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Yup, I’m taking my CCW permit in case shtf in Nov. Are you doing something extra now to prepare for this winter? Read More 22 22 Scenarios Guide to buying an AR-15? Hardened - October 14, 2020 After reading Armed Neighborhood Groups Form In The Absence Of Police Protection (https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/868464167/armed-neighborhood-groups-form-in-the-absence-of-police-protection), I find myself highly motivated to buy an AR-15. Ideally I would read a non-yet-extant article on the The Prepared with background information, reviews, and recommendations. In absence of this can anyone point me to the next best thing? Read More 23 69 AdviceGear Basic Medical Guide Kempy - October 13, 2020 Does anyone have a “step by step” or “how to” guide regarding the most common injuries we should expect in a bug out scenario? Obviously I know how to treat a cut or small burn, but I’d love a guide in my pack that would walk me through some of the most common injuries and procedures up to or including gunshot wounds, heavy burns, breaks/sprains, etc. I know it won’t be an exact guide but I’d like to at least have something to go by if someone ingests something toxic, gets shot, breaks a bone, etc rather than me being left to myself trying to fumbile through these scenarios in the wild. What do y’all have?! Read More 15 12 Advice Weird pandemic coping mechanisms? Jon StokesStaff - October 12, 2020 I have this new thing I do when I get nervous about the future and start to stress out about the pandemic: I buy boardgames. This is totally random and irrational. I’ve only played like four of the new games I’ve bought in the past two months, but I have this thing where I’m like: “Crap, if it gets real bad I may not be able to buy this game I’ve been eyeing…. I should just pull the trigger now.” I guess there are worse coping mechanisms I can think of, so even though it can get a little expensive it’s mostly harmless. Plus, boardgames don’t really get obsolete and can be enjoyed for decades, and they don’t require power or other critical infrastructure, so they’re sort of prepper-friendly. A lot of my friends have gotten into bread baking. I have a yeast allergy, so that’s not an option for me. Anyone else have any weird pandemic coping things they’ve picked up? As in, something that’s kind of quirky and doesn’t exactly make a ton of sense, but it’s just how you deal? Read More 26 66 An example of why ham radio is important Josh CentersContributor - October 12, 2020 In wildfire-stricken areas, the fires are taking down cell towers and sometimes even Internet access, and people in those areas struggle to find out when they need to evacuate. There was a particularly heartbreaking story out of Oregon where a couple was very badly burned and their child died because they were entirely off-grid and had no other means of getting information from the outside world. Sadly, that entire situation could have been prevented if they had the skills and equipment to stay in touch off-grid, even a simple shortwave receiver. Get your comms up! Read More 7 2 Advice Forum discount code for our new video course on blade/knife sharpening John AdamaStaff - October 12, 2020 To say thanks for being in the forum, use code FORUM33 before October 16th 2020 to get 33% off the first video course: https://theprepared.com/courses That’s only $10 for 5 hours of content, lifetime access, and free course upgrades. The course is equivalent to what you’d get at an in-person weekend course, but specifically geared towards modern preppers. Trailer, lesson plan, and instructor info on the course details page: https://theprepared.com/courses/knife-sharpening-maintenance/ Read More 12 1 Meta Still confused after reading the 2019 air gun review bobcov - October 11, 2020 What is the best choice for best chance of killing or incapacitating an intruder with an air gun? I figure it needs to be able to fire multiple rounds and those rounds should deliver as much energy as possible through a combination of weight or velocity in a weapon small enough to manuever in a small space like a bedroom. I saw something called Drozd Blackbird. With that high rate of fire, would those pellets do anything? Read More 4 13 Have the wildfires made you rethink your plans? matthew.Contributor - October 10, 2020 Hello everyone, long time reader, first time poster. Let me start by thanking everyone responsible for this invaluable resource. I, like so many other preppers, have long imagined, and have been actively working towards, a dream of moving out to the forest to create secluded and sustainable compound. It’s the ultimate prepper dream, one that many have already realized. But the wild fires of the past few years really have me rethinking this strategedy. There is no doubt that these fires have been a total SHTF event for many people, and there is a cruel irony imaging it happening to those who moved to remote regions to avoid catastrophy – only to realize they inadvertantly placed themselves right in catastrophy’s way. I’m curious if people are re-thinking this long held prepper blueprint. It’s not like these fires are going to stop if there is some larger societal breakdown, in fact without active fire-fightening agencies the fires will only be worse and more severe. I’m also curious to hear from those of you who are currently living in remote locations and wondering if wildfire response has become part of your preperations. I look forward to hearing your thoughts! Read More 11 5 < Prev 1 2 3 … 53 54 55 … 57 58 59 Next > Recently Active Has anybody blood tested the Oroweat keto tortillas? - 3 days agoNews for the Week 2024-04-22 - 3 days agoNews for the Week 2024-04-15 - 4 days agoWhat is the best camp stove for an emergency power outage or camping? - 6 days agoChickens for preppers: Important considerations - 7 days ago RULES This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics: 1. Be nice to each other. 2. Stay focused on prepping. 3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments. 4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc. 5. Debate ideas, not people. FILTER Show all Advice Gear Meta News Scenarios Skills

AR-15 Maintenance Schedules and Guidelines

Thomas GomezStaff - November 3, 2020

An AR-15 rifle purchased from a reputable manufacturer is extremely reliable, though it does need periodic maintenance to function correctly. Basic maintenance schedules discussed below.

Some key points about the AR-15 rifle.

The AR-15 firearm was designed to shoot 1 round every 2 seconds (Sustained rate of fire). If you shoot faster than that, you will drastically heat the rifle, and reduce the barrel’s life. Consider the Ar-15 a mini precision rifle. Yes, it can shoot fast, but the weapon, with the right optics, is best used with deliberate, aimed fire. Magazines can be a source of malfunctions. If you have a bad magazine, throw it in the garbage or mark it for “training purposes only.” A 5.56/.223 mil-spec/military-grade rifle can run at least 15,000 rounds before the barrel needs to be replaced. Some higher-end barrels can go 20,000 rounds + before they need to be replaced. An indicator that the barrel is worn out is the rounds key-holeing (hitting the target sideways) or an extreme loss in accuracy at 100 yards. The bolt carrier group is one of the most critical components of the rifle. On a hobby rifle, shoot your gun until a lug cracks on the bolt, then replace the bolt. If your life depends on your rifle, replace the bolt carrier group every 10,000 rounds. If you can afford it, carry a spare bolt carrier group with you. If your rifle fails during training, there is a good chance it is a component in the bolt carrier group. Simply swapping the bolt carrier group can get you back in action. If you cannot afford a training rifle or another bolt carrier group, at a minimum, carry a spare bolt with you. Before you train, swap out your “SHTF” bolt with a training bolt. Every time you clean your bolt carrier group, check for cracks. Cracks form around the cam pin and the lugs on the bolt. If you are missing a lug on your bolt, it is time to replace the bolt. While checking the bolt carrier group, check your gas rings, extractor, and ejector. A great way to check gas rings is to extend the bolt, then stand the bolt carrier group upright with the weight balanced on the bolt. If the bolt carrier collapses on the bolt, replace the gas rings. This method only works on a “Mil-Spec” bolt carrier group. You can check your extractor by removing it from your bolt and looking at the lip that holds the bullet case. If there is still a lip and the metal is not worn down, it’s probably okay. Check the ejector by taking a shell casing, seat it in your bolt, and let it go. If the shell is flung 5 to 6 feet away, the ejector/ejector spring are probably okay. Firing pins last a long time, but it is not a bad idea to keep a spare. Modern, well maintained AR-15’s do not need as much cleaning as people think. Wiping down the bolt carrier group with a carbon remover like M Pro7 is more than adequate. You can also use a bore snake and clean the carbon out of your barrel. After you clean your chamber and bolt carrier group, make sure to lubricate your bolt carrier group. Don’t fret about copper in your barrel, only carbon. Carbon pits barrels. Once a year, or every 2,500 rounds, give your rifle a very detailed cleaning (carbon removal) and check all surfaces for cracks.

On a training or hobby gun, you can keep track of firing schedules and diligently replace parts, or shoot the rifle until it stops working and then start replacing parts. If you carry a gun for a living, take firing schedules and parts replacement seriously.

Basic Maintenance Schedule for a 5.56/.223 duty rifle with a 14.7 or 16 inch barrel/Carbine or Mid length gas system. 

Please note, this is preventative maintenance. AR-15’s have been documented to run for 10,000 rounds + with no maintenance, save for lubrication. If you want to swap parts every 5,000 rounds, you will probably be okay.

At 2,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 5,000 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, ejector, ejector spring, and gas rings. Check every surface for cracks, especially the bolt lugs and the cam pin area. You will need the bolt ejector tool, hammer, and punch to swap out the ejector and ejector spring. At 7,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 10,000 rounds, replace the bolt carrier group, and buffer spring. Attach a precision rifle scope and shoot a few 3-round groups for accuracy. At 12,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 15,000 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, ejector, ejector spring, and gas rings and once again check accuracy. You will need the bolt ejector tool, hammer, and punch to swap out the ejector and ejector spring. At 17,500 rounds, replace the extractor, extractor spring, and gas rings. At 20,000 rounds, replace the bolt carrier group, buffer spring, and barrel. Have a certified armorer check out the system as a whole. Read More

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First gun for prepping in California

BankruptSolvency - November 2, 2020

If you were to buy only a single gun for prepping in California (which has the strictest gun laws in the US [0]), what would it be? I’ve been researching what my first gun purchase should be, and it looks like the options at a high level are:

A handgun A shotgun A featureless AR-15, meaning it lacks certain features like a pistol grip or vertical foregrip [1] A maglock AR-15, meaning the top and bottom halves of the rifle have to separate for reloading [2] A “traditional” rifle (for lack of a better term), meaning something that’s not an AR-15, like an M1A [3]

I think the ideal would be to not have to choose, and instead have a rifle + a handgun. But that still leads to the question of which type of rifle to have.

My primary worry is worsening civil unrest as the election approaches, but in keeping with the Sane Prepper Mantra [4], it would ideally be a generally useful firearm: home defense, self-defense while bugging out, even hunting. I plan to take multiple classes with whatever I end up getting.

(And if you’re new to guns altogether like me, I highly recommend The Prepared’s guide for basic background knowledge: https://theprepared.com/self-defense/guides/beginners-guide-to-guns/)

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/CAguns/comments/h03tti/faq_of_california_gun_laws_last_updated_692020/ is a good overview

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/CAguns/comments/9nibj7/here_are_my_california_adultlegos_for_featureless/

[2] https://www.80percentarms.com/blog/the-best-maglock-options-for-california/

[3] https://www.springfield-armory.com/m1a-series-rifles/

[4] https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/guides/sane-prepper-mantra-common-sense-rules/

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AdviceGear

Trapping

Winston Smith - October 31, 2020

I didn’t see anything on trapping, but it’s smart to have some on hand in a SHTF situation.  Trapping is a silent way to hunt and much easier than trying to find and shoot game.  I have 5 small game traps and 5 fish traps.  As a test, I put one out last week (I live in a small suburb in S.C.).  Within a few days, I caught a possum, two squirrels, and a feral cat.  Released them all, but I know it works.  

A few on my garage wall.

Below is my next trap. A hog trap from Tractor Supply.  I checked it out; it’s very well made.  I hope to get one sometime in the near future.  

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Skills

Good Storage for Prepping with limited space

CarefulClaude - October 28, 2020

I have a one bedroom ~600 sq ft apartment and my kitchen has limited space. I need some more storage space and was thinking good shelving unit – something like this or this . I was wondering what other folks had done and if they had any set ups they reccomended that were reliable, didn’t need to be pinned to the wall and not a pain to set up. 

Leaning strongly to get this, which is pricey but looks nicer than some of the others.

Ideally 36 in or less in width as well if that as an option. 

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Advice

The beginnings of a food forest…

Josh CentersContributor - October 28, 2020

I have a big empty hill behind my house. It’s too much of a pain to go up there every day, but I wanted to use the land for something.  I decided to start starting a food forest.

The concept is pretty simple: you plant food-bearing trees together to create a forest and then put low-maintenance crops in between them. So you might have a large nut tree surrounded by apple and pear trees, with strawberry plants in between them. (Amaranth would also be a good addition).

It’s what Nassim Taleb would call an “anti-fragile” system. A traditional garden has to be cultivated, weeded, and watered regularly, but once a food forest is established, it can be left to its own devices. The book Gaia’s Garden is a good reference for starting a food forest.

Yesterday, I received the two one-year-old Dunstan Chestnut trees I ordered over the summer. The chestnut tree is a great resource of both wood and food and was once a key resource to Appalachia. Unfortunately, the American Chestnut was wiped out in the early 20th century by a fungal blight. If you try to plant one now, it’ll die from blight within a few years. However, a single blight-resistant American Chestnut was found and piece of it were grafted onto blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees, creating the Dunstan Chestnut tree.

I already had my tools and other gear in my truck ready to go. I started by using my scythe to make a clearing in the tall grass and weeds and then used a string trimmer to eliminate as much grass as possible in a large circle.

I then used my Root Slayer shovel to dig a hole for the tree. I love this shovel. The saw teeth on the sides make it easy to dig into the hard ground here. I really needed it yesterday, because some sort of tree has started to root in my field. I cut through the roots and ripped out all the tree roots I could find.

I put the tree in the hole, covered it up, and then slid a tree tube over the top, which acts as a miniature greenhouse and protects the tree from deer. I fixed it in place by zip-tying it to a piece of bamboo.

Finally, I watered the tree in with liquid compost, put some compost around the tree as mulch, and then dumped some saved kitchen scraps around the tree. They’ll also serve as mulch and will feed the tree as they break down over time.

Next, I’m set to receive three mulberry trees. They’re cheap and should start producing berries within a year. I’m also going to put in some apple trees this fall.

Hopefully, within a couple of years, I will have a steady supply of food that will require no work other than just walking up and taking it.

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Skills

Thinking about school in the fall

COVID_Actuary - October 27, 2020

Curious how everyone here is thinking about school/childcare in the fall. Have started to see what different districts are planning (mid-size Midwest city).

The biggest district is doing a 2/3 day split, alternating which students get Wednesday each week.
Two more districts have announced that their current plan is 100% in the classroom, though they have numerous contingencies around distance learning and the like, so that plan could certainly change.

Obvious given forum rules I don’t want to make this a political discussion (though if you take politics out of it entirely I still find it a fascinating balance of tradeoffs…) – I’m more curious about how other preppers are thinking about handling schools if they reopen/childcare if they don’t/impact on their children.

Our only child right now is not yet a toddler, so they are not personally impacted by schools, but my wife is a teacher, and thus obviously is. From everything I’ve seen on mortality the statistical risk to any of us given our age/health is roughly equivalent to that of driving 10,000 miles. The morbidity risk is still pretty unknown – as Mr. Stokes often brings up. From what I’ve seen my thoughts on that risk *to us* is trending in the optimistic direction -recent reports around T-Cell impact and potential cross-immunity from common cold strains (see: wife = teacher for analysis of past cold prevalence in our household) are driving much of that.

However, obviously our risk of transmitting it to grandparents and others is high if we are in school/daycare situations, which makes decision making a bit trickier.

I see several options (I work remotely, for context below.):
Wife quits job, takes care of kid at home (best for exposure/safely seeing grandparents – bad for wife’s career)
Wife works at school, but wears mask and hopes to not be overly exposed, in-home childcare for kiddo (made trickier due to wife’s potential exposure)
Wife works at school, kiddo goes to daycare, avoid grandparents (outside of very socially distanced settings) until we get it and are over with it.

That’s what our rough decision matrix seems to look like. Curious what those of you with school-aged kids and no teacher spouses are thinking.

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If you moved to the country, what do you wish you’d known first?

Josh CentersContributor - October 25, 2020

Hi folks, I just published my guide on things to expect if you’re moving to the country from the city. If you’ve made the move, what do you wish you’d known first?

https://theprepared.com/blog/pandemic-panic-and-moving-to-the-country/

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Advice

Prepping for disabled people

DWT - October 25, 2020

Hello,

I’ve been reading about bug out bags etc. etc. 

My situation is that I’m a power chair user so the option of walking whilst carrying a rucksack is just a happy memory.

Living in the UK with the extremely restricted firearms laws means that having firearms for home defence is out of the question too.

No before you say, “well you’re s**t out of luck”, I do have a plan.

The plan is to stock up, stay put, keep in touch with neighbours & family then tough it out.

This approach had worked thus far during this pandemic.

Any suggestions for a disabled prepper would be gratefully received. I’m especially interested in options for home defence which do not include firearms.

Thank you in advance.

Dave

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Comms Recommendations for Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness?

Runcible - October 25, 2020

I live in the East Bay area of CA. Several years ago I collected the names and contact information of about 60 individuals on my block for a city-sponsored community emergency response program I took part in.

* Last week, workers hit an underground gas line on my block. Our family bugged out and I struggled to communicate with just a few other neighbors about the situation.

* This week, a 3-alarm fire began in close proximity to a gas station a mile from home. I got the word out via text and email to all the contacts I had, but not as quickly as I’d have liked.

* This weekend, we are expecting hot, dry winds: extreme fire danger.

Do any of you have recommendations for decent (and free?) electronic communications systems or protocols that you’d implement in such circumstances? I want to protect my neighbors from having their contact information stolen or otherwise compromised, and I’d like to be able to share vital information quickly.

Maybe you know how to set up a phone tree and would share that process with me. 

My partner has a license for Ham Radio comms, but I don’t. Further, I think that ham isn’t a viable option for most folks around here. While the power’s on, I feel like SMS/email/phone are the best options; I am open to–and grateful for–your opinions on the matter.

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Hardtack – The bread that lasts Forever

Winston Smith - October 24, 2020

I didn’t see anything on hardtack [Flour + water + little salt].  Great way to store carbs for soups. Easy and cheap to make.  I’ve started making it and storing in mylar bags (not sure if they’re needed).  It’ll keep 100 years.  Youtube hardtack.  Thanks and great website.

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Submissions from The Firearm Blog’s “Build of the Week” contest using TP’s kit builder

Tom RaderStaff - October 23, 2020

I used to work over at The Firearm Blog, which focuses on “firearms not politics.” They just relaunched a popular contest where people submit builds related to firearms using TP’s kit builder https://theprepared.com/kits/

There’s a submission published on a weekly basis (when there is a set of four queued up), and eventually those submissions will compete to crown an overall winner.  I’ll share the submissions here in case anyone’s interested!

Contest info if you want to enter: https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2020/09/18/build-of-the-week/

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Meta

Prepping’s lessons for quarantine

Interblog - October 23, 2020

Greetings.  My scenario stands at the 3-way intersection of prepping, quarantine, and vanlife, and it’s not a hypothetical scenario so much as an actual procedure that we had to follow, and may need to follow again.  

 This past summer, my husband and I drove our off-grid van almost 3,000 miles from our home in the U.S. to undeveloped land that I own in eastern Canada, observing the isolation rules along the way.  Once we crossed the border into Canada, we had to drive 450 miles without entering any premises or contacting any person.  And then we were legally required to remain on my property for two weeks, a property that contains no electrical, water, or sewer utilities – it’s just forested land with a small private road into it.  

 DH and I had already spent several years engineering our van with a solar-lithium-inverter-alternator-generator combination that makes us power-unlimited in most contexts, but I had to step up my game to enhance the rest of our preps, because we had never before been cut off from normal consumer supplies such as groceries, hardware, pharma, etc.  Some ideas I pull from the boating community, which is the other big group that is off-grid almost continually by definition, but increasingly I’m checking out the prepping community for ideas on strategies and gear.  Every piece of equipment has to be completely thought out and tested, ever piece has to be reliable, and every contingency has to be accounted for.  Plus, there are more comfortable and less comfortable ways of doing things, and I’d rather thrive than survive.

 We enjoyed our 2 weeks of “exile” (as my Canadian father called it) far more than we thought we would, to the point where I almost hope for the opportunity to do it again.  When do any of us get 2 unbroken weeks where we are completely segregated from society and not compelled to be answerable to outside demands on our time, where we can just focus on being present and developing our skills?  It hardly ever happens.  We’re looking forward to more, and for that, I need more learnin’. 

🙂

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Scenarios

Chucknuck – The ultimate char cloth?

Jay ValenciaContributor - October 22, 2020

Was looking at reddit today and saw that someone made something called a chucknuck. I had never heard of it before, so the adventure began! But first, I want to explain what char cloth is. 

Char cloth has been one of the most effective ways to start a fire using flint and steel or a ferro rod. If you are unfamiliar with char cloth, you cut up an old 100% cotton t shirt and put those strips into an Altoids tin. Punch a small hole in the top of the Altoids tin and then throw the entire tin into a campfire. The heat from the fire will then convert the cotton shirt into char cloth through a process called pyrolysis. In layman’s terms it burns the shirt inside the tin, but not fully because it is slowly burned in an oxygen deprived environment. What remains looks exactly like your shirt pieces, except black. This char cloth is extremely fragile because it is just made up of carbon. The benefit of this new creation is that if a single spark of a flint and steel or ferro rod touches it, the char cloth will hold onto that spark and it will grow. You then transfer that piece of char cloth to a tinder bundle and is a fast and easy way to start a fire.

The one downside of char cloth though is how brittle it is. Even today, I tried to pull out a piece of from my zip lock baggie of char cloth in my fire kit and I couldn’t pull out the whole piece, it always breaks into a smaller piece. If you do not store it well, when you go to use your char cloth it could just be powdered ashes because it got agitated too much in your pack.

A chucknuck is supposed to be the more durable solution to a char cloth. Below is my experience making one today.

I started off with an empty .223 and .308 win casing. Any rifle casing should work. 

I then made my first mistake and I cut through the extractor groove. I thought this would be a good place to put my saw blade and keep it from slipping all over as I started cutting.

The issue is that it did cut off the rim, but I thought it would open me up into the inside of the casing. Instead I just opened up access to the primer well. Next time I will cut right above the extractor groove, and it should be alot less cutting and less steps.

To fix my little mistake, I just drilled out the bottom of the casing. 

The finished product is a casing that has a large opening at the bottom.

I then took a roll of cotton twine that I got from the dollar store and laid out multiple strips a bit longer than a foot long. I fed the twine through the casing.

I wanted the end product to be a foot long so that extra length helped out when I tied off the end.

WE ARE DONE! But what is it!?

Well, you are supposed to burn/char the end of the rope sticking out of the tip of the casing. This creates a small piece of char cloth that you then can retract into the casing to protect it by pulling on the longer end of the rope. Whenever you need a piece of char cloth to catch a spark, you can push the rope back out through the tip of the casing and expose that area.

Did it work? No, not for me. I think I have some cheap junk twine and should find a better quality cotton string. The tip wouldn’t accept a spark, and was even hard to light with a lighter. Char cloth won this round against my chucknuck. I do want to go out and buy some quality cotton rope though and give it another shot. 

I did a little research after my failure and found that this guy on YouTube was able to make a successful chucknuck. And I was right, he used some good looking rope, so I think it should work if I get some. 

What do you guys think? Are you going to give this a try? How do you like to start your fires? If you do make one, PLEASE share it here and show me up! I want to see a working model.

UPDATE WITH WORKING MODEL BELOW!

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GearSkills

Home heating sans electricity?

matthew.Contributor - October 19, 2020

Hello, and thanks again to all the awesome people who make this website possible.  It truly is a wonderful resource.

I am researching various methods/options for heating my home in the case of an extended power outage.  I have a traditional masonary fireplace that I never use because it’s so innefficient, but am considering a fireplace insert or other options.  I’m curious if anyone has gone down this road and has words of wisdom to share.

A fireplace insert would be nice, but they’re also spendy, and outside of an emergency and/or the occasional holiday-time fire, I would likely rarely use it, so I am also eager to find safe alternatives, if there are any.  

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Scenarios

Do You Know How a Home Well Works? – Might Save Your Life To Know.

RedneckContributor - October 19, 2020

IMO, the following knowledge could be priceless for many preppers… even if you don’t have a well.  Are you planning on bugging out into the country?  Out there, most folks will have home wells.  You might say, what good is that for me?  Let me let you in on something.  99.9% of folks with home wells have no way of accessing their water when the power is out.  Do you think maybe if you came with the tools & knowledge to access that water, that you might have made friends?  Being friends with a landowner might be the difference between surviving… or not.

Many, if not the vast majority of rural homes & farms get their water from a well, which is nothing more than a pvc pipe in the ground with a submersible pump sitting under the water and a pressure storage tank below the frost line.  At my farm, my submersed pump is around 125′ down.  This all works fine as long as you have electricity but what happens when there is none… and won’t be for weeks if ever? I live on a farmstead, with a well, & have plans to get to that water during such a crisis. Sure I have my personal water filtration devices but for me that is short term. You really want to live on hot, stinky, filtered pond water?  Why use such when cool, pure water is so close by… if you know how & are prepared to get to it?

So this submersible pump hangs in the well from the pitless adapter, which is a two part device (male & female). One part stays in the well casing & the other part is what the well drop pipe attaches to. This device is what keeps the water from freezing in the winter as it redirects the water 90 degrees, so that the water stays underground, below the frost line for the area.

The top of the adapter has female threads, used to pull the pump & attached riser pipe out of the well. DIY folks, like me make a simple tool that allows you to attach to the pitless adapter & pull everything up. Mine is a T made from 3/4″ threaded metal pipe, which anyone can buy the sections in a hardware store. You simply need two short pieces for the handle, a threaded T & a longer piece of threaded pipe to reach the pitless adapter, which will be maybe 2-3′ down inside the well casing… deeper the further north you live. From what I understand, most pitless adapters accept 1″ NPT thread, so I have a series of adapters to go on the end of my 3/4″ pipe. I have 3/4″ – 1″, 1″ – 1 1/4″ and 1/1/4″ – 1 1/2″ just to be safe. All these piece screw together to make the T so obviously can be taken apart & not take up much space.

I’ve never done this before but from what I understand a strong man can pull the pump by himself if it is not real deep, otherwise you will need help and/or some lifting device such as a block & tackle. Once the pump & pipe is out of the way, you now have access to the water & just need rope & a device to get the water out. You can make your own or purchase something commercially. I use the Well Waterboy bucket. I’m sure anyone could rig up some container to get to the water, just might take some engineering to figure it out.  There is a great discussion here on building your own.

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Advice

PrimeDay prepping deals

matthew.Contributor - October 18, 2020

Hello all, I’m hesitant to start this thread because I’m not particularily a big fan of Amazon or consumerism in general, but there are some good deals on prepping gear associated with Prime Day.  One that caught my eye was the highly rated BigBlue 28W Solar Charger on sale at at 25% discount: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EXWCPLC/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=AwEAAAAAAAAAAXxZ

If anyone bumps into any other great deals please share!

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Are you doing something extra to prepare for this winter, because of Covid or else?

Carlotta SusannaStaff - October 15, 2020

There’s a good chance that this winter we’ll go into a second lockdown because of Covid (paired with flu). So I am taking extra steps now in preparation for this winter, something that in normal circumstances I would have not felt the urgent need to do right now. 

This is what I’m doing before the winter:

Changing my car’s tires. They’re not awful right now but they’re getting to the point that they need to be replaced. In normal circumstances I would have waited until next spring/summer, but in the event that something actually happens to them while we’re into a second lockdown and shops are closed I am doing that now. Winters are also snowy and icy in here so I don’t want to take any chances. Bloodwork. I have avoided doing tests (routine  or otherwise) or go to the dentist throughout the summer, but I am taking advantage of this window where infections are lower to keep on top of my health. My GP herself suggested I’d wait on all of the other stuff, but she’s of the opinion that I could at least do some quick bloodwork now. It should be quick, in and out. Let’s call it a calculated risk.  CCW permit. Ok, the reason why I feel compelled to that that now rather than later, is more political than infection-related. Although this is not the place to open that can of worms, I always hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Yup, I’m taking my CCW permit in case shtf in Nov.

Are you doing something extra now to prepare for this winter?

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Scenarios

Guide to buying an AR-15?

Hardened - October 14, 2020

After reading Armed Neighborhood Groups Form In The Absence Of Police Protection (https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/868464167/armed-neighborhood-groups-form-in-the-absence-of-police-protection), I find myself highly motivated to buy an AR-15.

Ideally I would read a non-yet-extant article on the The Prepared with background information, reviews, and recommendations.  In absence of this can anyone point me to the next best thing?

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AdviceGear

Basic Medical Guide

Kempy - October 13, 2020

Does anyone have a “step by step” or “how to” guide regarding the most common injuries we should expect in a bug out scenario? Obviously I know how to treat a cut or small burn, but I’d love a guide in my pack that would walk me through some of the most common injuries and procedures up to or including gunshot wounds, heavy burns, breaks/sprains, etc. I know it won’t be an exact guide but I’d like to at least have something to go by if someone ingests something toxic, gets shot, breaks a bone, etc rather than me being left to myself trying to fumbile through these scenarios in the wild. What do y’all have?!

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Advice

Weird pandemic coping mechanisms?

Jon StokesStaff - October 12, 2020

I have this new thing I do when I get nervous about the future and start to stress out about the pandemic: I buy boardgames.

This is totally random and irrational. I’ve only played like four of the new games I’ve bought in the past two months, but I have this thing where I’m like: “Crap, if it gets real bad I may not be able to buy this game I’ve been eyeing…. I should just pull the trigger now.”

I guess there are worse coping mechanisms I can think of, so even though it can get a little expensive it’s mostly harmless. Plus, boardgames don’t really get obsolete and can be enjoyed for decades, and they don’t require power or other critical infrastructure, so they’re sort of prepper-friendly.

A lot of my friends have gotten into bread baking. I have a yeast allergy, so that’s not an option for me.

Anyone else have any weird pandemic coping things they’ve picked up? As in, something that’s kind of quirky and doesn’t exactly make a ton of sense, but it’s just how you deal?

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An example of why ham radio is important

Josh CentersContributor - October 12, 2020

In wildfire-stricken areas, the fires are taking down cell towers and sometimes even Internet access, and people in those areas struggle to find out when they need to evacuate. There was a particularly heartbreaking story out of Oregon where a couple was very badly burned and their child died because they were entirely off-grid and had no other means of getting information from the outside world.

Sadly, that entire situation could have been prevented if they had the skills and equipment to stay in touch off-grid, even a simple shortwave receiver. Get your comms up!

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Advice

Forum discount code for our new video course on blade/knife sharpening

John AdamaStaff - October 12, 2020

To say thanks for being in the forum, use code FORUM33 before October 16th 2020 to get 33% off the first video course: https://theprepared.com/courses

That’s only $10 for 5 hours of content, lifetime access, and free course upgrades. The course is equivalent to what you’d get at an in-person weekend course, but specifically geared towards modern preppers. 

Trailer, lesson plan, and instructor info on the course details page: https://theprepared.com/courses/knife-sharpening-maintenance/

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Meta

Still confused after reading the 2019 air gun review

bobcov - October 11, 2020

What is the best choice for best chance of killing or incapacitating an intruder with an air gun? I figure it needs to be able to fire multiple rounds and those rounds should deliver as much energy as possible through a combination of weight or velocity in a weapon small enough to manuever in a small space like a bedroom. I saw something called Drozd Blackbird.  With that high rate of fire, would those pellets do anything?

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Have the wildfires made you rethink your plans?

matthew.Contributor - October 10, 2020

Hello everyone, long time reader, first time poster.  Let me start by thanking everyone responsible for this invaluable resource.

I, like so many other preppers, have long imagined, and have been actively working towards, a dream of moving out to the forest to create secluded and sustainable compound.  It’s the ultimate prepper dream, one that many have already realized.  But the wild fires of the past few years really have me rethinking this strategedy.  There is no doubt that these fires have been a total SHTF event for many people, and there is a cruel irony imaging it happening to those who moved to remote regions to avoid catastrophy – only to realize they inadvertantly placed themselves right in catastrophy’s way.

I’m curious if people are re-thinking this long held prepper blueprint. It’s not like these fires are going to stop if there is some larger societal breakdown, in fact without active fire-fightening agencies the fires will only be worse and more severe.  I’m also curious to hear from those of you who are currently living in remote locations and wondering if wildfire response has become part of your preperations. 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

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