Thoughts on ammo availability…….

I received the following note from frequent contributor D. -

Various calibers of ammunition are now starting to make an appearance on the marketplace. (Natchez Shooters Supply, Midway USA, etc)

Most are still selling for 3 to 4 times the pre-panic pricing.

Unless you would like to forever pay an extortionate price for ammo, I strongly suggest, WAITING!

If you can hold off on your purchases until prices fall to below $.50 a round (in 20 round quantities) you will send a message to the manufacturers and retailers that you will not abide by such pricing.(This is still pretty high, Tracer was selling at $.50 a round before the panic)

The longer that panic buying continues, the longer that prices will remain high and the higher the eventual price will settle to.

We made these people a lot of windfall money, let them show their thanks to us by reducing prices to the pre-panic pricing levels.

The fact that ammo is finally appearing demonstrates that they are catching up to demand. Let the warehouses fill up and prices will fall.

DONT BUY OVER PRICED AMMO!

Regards, D.

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I tend to agree with D. I wonder if we will ever see “normal” prices again – especially if companies start raking in the profits selling at an inflated price – and people buy. I am guilty for buying .223/5.56 and some .22LR at these inflated costs. I bought to replace rounds used during practice – but at prices well less than some of the ridiculous prices once asked.

I have no plans to “stock up” at current prices and agree that patience will pay off in the end.

- Rourke

BUGS AND OTHER LIFE FORMS

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What follows is an excerpt from “Sole Surviving Sons, a Marine Tanker in Vietnam“. The book is unpublished as of yet and is a Marine odyssey in Vietnam. Please comment if you would like to hear more…..

Additional excerpts…..

Although these short stories stand on their own, they suffer greatly from having the art and photos stripped out as well as being out of context. My book takes the form of months, not chapters and each month is prefaced by one letter that I sent home and paraphrasing of others….and then the real reality.

BUGS AND OTHER LIFE FORMS

by D.

Bugs, bugs, bugs. I think Vietnam held the patent on weird creatures big and

small. It had mosquitoes, leeches, flies, worms, beetles, spiders, centipedes, and assorted

critters no one had ever seen before. Not to mention the plants that glowed in the dark.

One of my earliest experiences was with a spider. I had only been in country for

about a month. I opened my eyes one morning, wondering why my vision was

obstructed. There were these dark lines, like the fingers of a black hand, running across

my field of vision. I unconsciously brushed my hand over my eyes, and knocked the

biggest spider I have ever seen from my face.

The furry bugger had decided to take a little nap on my face while I slept. He

must have been 9 or 10 inches across. The dark lines that I had been looking through

were his legs. Apparently, it was harmless, but it still managed to scare me shitless. I

was not accustomed to insects the size of dinner plates.

Later, while posted at ASP (Ammo Supply Point #1), I would run into one of his cousins. I was sitting on

watch with my left arm resting on the top of the sandbag wall of the bunker. It was hot,

as usual, and I had my sleeves rolled up. I suddenly felt something crawling along my

arm. I looked down to see what appeared to be an African Chief’s tiger tooth necklace.

You know, one tooth facing up, the other down. This necklace was walking across my

arm. Only for a moment. I jumped up, freaked out, and chambered a round in my M-14

as I shook this example of the stone age off of me. The noise woke Roberts as I was

starting to seriously consider shooting that monstrous bug. He sat up and looked at the

thing on the bunker floor and said it was a centipede. It was like no centipede I’d ever

seen before and I wanted nothing further to do with it. I kicked it out of the bunker while

Roberts laughed.

Our early patrols almost had us shooting up the landscaping. That is until we

grew used to the fact that this country had PLANTS that glowed in the dark, like a

luminous watch dial. You could walk down a trail and see these faint greenish glows up

ahead, off to the sides of the path. Until you saw patches of them a few times and felt

them to make sure they were real, it was spooky. You felt like you were walking the

moors, in some Hollywood movie, with the Wolf-man getting ready to howl not far off in

the distance.

The final insult that the bugs gave me was to turn me into a Gook. I woke up one

morning and while shaving, I noticed that my eyelids had puffed up and the folds in them

had disappeared. The swelling had also slanted my eyes. I finished shaving and went up

to see the Corpsman. When I showed him my eyes he said, “Yeah, there’s a lot of that

goin’ around.” I gave him a dirty look and said, “Very funny, but what the hell caused

it?” He told me that he was serious about there being a lot of it. He had been seeing a lot

of cases, probably caused by insect bites. He gave me some antibiotics and said that the

swelling would probably go away in a day or so. It did, but in the interim, I was the

Battalion’s resident Caucasian Gook.

Video of the Week:The Whole Bubble Economy Will Implode

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Water filtration……..

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I have been spending some time going through my preparedness supplies, evaluating strengths and weakness, and getting more organized. Throughout my time doing this I came to a conclusion – I really need to focus on essentials. Yeah, I know….a real miraculous discovery, heh?

As I prep for what would be considered a “long-term” crisis, basics such as water will be incredibly important. Although discussed often – how many of us can really say we can go without modern piped-in water for 3 months? How about 6 months? A year? 3 months worth of water for a family of four is a tremendous amount.

For my situation I am relying on filtration. I just do not have the space to store thousands of gallons nor the ability to dig a well. I have local sources of water nearby, which is beneficial.

As stated - filtration is my main avenue for providing water to my family during a shortage – however long it lasts. I have a Big Berkey from Directive21.com, as well as numerous other smaller filters. Besides the ensemble of smaller filters such as the LifeStraw and Aquamira Frontier, all my eggs are in one basket with the Berkey. Besides getting another Berkey – which I may do, I am also looking at building my on filter unit using a Doulton filter element. I need more redundancy.

“Water, water, everywhere….nor a drop to drink.”

I need to know that I will never say that to my family.

What kinds of water preps to you have?

Take care -

Rourke

Reminder: BestPreparednessDeals.com & BestTacticalDeals.com

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Just a reminder that BestPreparednessDeals.com and BestTacticalDeals.com are websites that are within the “Rourke” circle of sites.

BestPreparednessDeals.com showcases daily deals Monday through Friday (and an occasional Saturday or Sunday) of preparedness-related products such as freeze dried food, flashlights, knives, water filters, etc. Each product is researched to ensure that the best possible price is found - saving the most money.

BestTacticalDeals.com features “tactical” and firearm related products such as hearing protection, magazines, ammunition, stocks, optics, etc. Deals are typically run Monday through Friday.

Know of any good deals? Let me know……

Rourke

A few random thoughts…….

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A lot has been going on lately – both with myself and these pathetic efforts of our government to destroy our lives (we’ll talk about that another time).

Have had a lot of problems with this website lately. Everything should be good now but went through a period where access to the site had to be limited due to what appears to have been a series of hacking attacks. Extremely frustrating and wastes so much time. If you have any problems with the site – please let me know.

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Sporting Clay’s: Recently went to Rocky Creek Sporting Clay’s in Richburg, SC. Awesome time with members of the Church Men’s Group I am in. This is an activity I definitely want to do more often. I had the opportunity to shoot a semi-automatic shotgun – first time ever. I am now looking at picking one up.

Ammunition and defensive acquisitions: Ammunition is certainly getting easier to find. I have seen .22LR both in gun shops and Wally-World. Prices are inflated a bit but not too bad. Over the past month or so managed to get several hundred rounds of .223, along with some extra 9mm and .22LR. I picked up a Para 1911 Expert Model 45ACP. Been a while since I have shot a 1911 - looking forward to it.

Firearm Cleaning: I was contacted by American Gun Oil and they sent me some of their weapons grade gun oil. Will being trying it out and reporting back the results. Stuff is made right here in the USA and has an unlimited shelf life. Cool!!

EMP/Faraday Cage – Check out this link if interested in EMP preparedness: Faraday Cage Primer

Solar – I recently receive several small portable solar kits from EndlessSunSolar.com. I am currently conducting testing and will be publishing the results once complete. So far – pretty impressed. Check ‘em out. Great value.

The Preparedness Review: Recently read through the Spring 2013 edition of The Preparedness Review. This is a free pdf document filled with articles written within the preparedness genre. Many of the authors are well known bloggers. Pretty cool stuff. You can check it out HERE.

Wants vs. Needs Firearms and Gear: Short but to the point article on prioritizing defensive equipment purchases. Go read it. Thanks Ronnie for making me aware of it.

After-TSHTF Clothing: Me? Jeans, Wrangler cargo-pants, t-shirts, sweatshirts in fall/winter, hiking shoes. No special tacti-cool pants and such. How about you?

Something Funny for You…..

Building a standard 6′ x 3′ raised bed

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From Rourke: The following article was published over at Town-Farming.com. It can be seen n its original form HERE. Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to the other site. To return to ModernSurvivalOnline – just click the back button.

Building a standard 6′ x 3′ raised bed

Standard raised bed blueprint I am going to show you how to build my standard 6′ x 3′ raised beds. I chose my beds to be 3′ wide because I positioned them against my white fence. I felt that 4′ was too far to reach over to maintain and harvest the raised bed. I chose to build my beds 6′ long because, well 6′ boards were all we could fit in our vehicle! There was completely no other reason! I would have preferred them to be 8′ but, oh well. These beds are also 12″ deep.

I used cedar wood for all my beds. Cedar is naturally resistant to rotting but much more expensive. I would not use any treated lumber as it used to be manufactured with poisonous chemicals such as arsenic. Over the last few years, the manufacturing process has changed but still I would stay away. Here is a materials list:

(6) 6′ x 6″ x 1″ cedar boards
(1) 4′ x 4″ x 4″ cedar post
box of triple coated deck screws ( use coated screws to prevent rust)

Here is what the standard bed looks like all finished:

Instructions:

Cut 2 of the 6′ x 6″ x 1″ boards in half. These will be the sides of your bed.
Cut the 4′ x 4″ x 4″ post into (4) 16″ long pieces. 4″ of each these posts will be in the ground for added strength.
It helps to have building clamps but start to piece the front and back 6′ long sections to the 16″ long 4″ x 4″ posts with the coated deck screws. Always drill a pilot hole into cedar first. Never just screw the screw into cedar or else it will crack the wood.
Now fasten the side pieces to the front and back assembly with more screws.

Here is my blueprint for this style of raised bed that probably makes more sense:

After the raised bed is built, dig the 4 holes for your posts in the ground. This will give the bed more support. I also till up the ground before I set the raised bed into the ground.

BONUS TIP:

After the raised bed is built, Use 1′ long, 1″ diameter PVC pipes to add “future expansion”. With these PVC anchors mounted to your raised bed, you will be able to add things like PVC greenhouse hoops or watering systems. I used a galvanized 1″ clamp to mount the 1″ PVC pipes to each of the 4 corners of the raised bed.

There you have it, one raised bed. My total cost was $60-$75 per raised bed. You could save some money by using a different type of wood. This cost also does not include the soil.

Amazon.com Widgets

SPECIAL EDITION: Web News from Suni

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*****Note from Rourke: The following article was published earlier this week at SeasonedCitizenPrepper.com. It is important information for all of us to take notice. It can be seen in its original form HERE.

All Around the Web News

By: Editor at Large Suni

SeasonedCitizenPrepper.com

Novel Coronavirus H7N9

Tuesday when I reported the news I put this at the bottom of the news page from the CDC. After further information has come out I wanted to do an oped on what we can do to prepare ourselves and our family’s to keep us safe, or at the very least to make us all aware of the current situation.

Many of us tend to think of the flu as something we only get in the winter months. When we are indoors more and don’t open our doors and windows as much, well nothing could be further from the truth. This virus is deadly with a kill rate of up to 50%.We need to get prepared to take care of ourselves and our family’s NOW before the panic starts and their will be shortages of supplies like the ones I am going to suggest. Will this prevent this H7N9? No, sadly it wont but it may help us to prevent it from spending if we do come in contact with someone who has it.

What you need to Know Via CDC web site

It was revealed late this week by researchers at the University of Hong Kong that the H7N9 bird flu virus which has infected 131 people (and killed 36) can be transmitted not only by close contact but by airborne exposure.

Their study, published this week in the journal Science, indicates ferrets were passing the virus cage to cage. Additionally, inoculated ferrets were infected before the appearance of most clinical symptoms, demonstrating there may be more cases than have been detected or reported. Additionally, tests were conducted using pigs, a major host of influenza viruses. These tests also definitively showed that they could also get infected with H7N9, leading to the belief that H7N9 may combine with pig viruses to generate new variants. A particularly important, though unreported aspect of the entire H7N9 topic is that severe cases are reported to be hemmoraghic. What this means is that those infected could experience, among a myriad of other symptoms, excessive internal bleeding, liver or kidney failure similar to dengue, tick-borne encephalitis and Ebola.

Readers are reminded that while reported infection numbers are still relatively low, H7N9 clearly has world health authorities seriously spooked. So much so, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC this week published a 1 BILLION dollar cost plus Federal Solicitation for the purposes of emergency experimentation with H7N9 Flu vaccines and emergency experimental antiviral treatments.

The Solicitation specifically references “preparation for a possible large scale national H7N9 influenza vaccination program.”

Further still, the CDC is considering using the two oil-in-water emulsion adjuvants in its stockpile with an H7N9 vaccine in order to increase effectiveness. Of particular note here is that the CDC has never before allowed the use of adjuvants in either the seasonal or pandemic influenza vaccines as their use has been tied to onset of Narcolepsy, as was the case with their H1N1 vaccine.

And something you can be assured of is that if a nationwide H7N9 vaccination program is implemented, this will no doubt be made mandatory for school-aged children given the close proximity of students in a school setting.

1. Medical Grade Skin Cleaner – In theory flu viruses can be transmitted 3 ways: Air, body fluids and direct contact. One of the best things we can do is to wash our hands and often. One thing that hospitals use is Chlorhexidine Gluconate, or HIBICLENS (brand name) This is used as a surgical scrub, health care personnel also use it for hand cleaning and a per-operative skin prep as well as a skin wound cleaner. The cleaner bonds to the skin to help create a persistent antimicrobial effect. It can be purchased from Amazon at the following link or you may can find it other places. This is where I found it.

Hibiclens Liquid http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=Hibiclens%20liquid&linkCode=ur2&rh=n%3A3760901%2Ck%3AHibiclens%20liquid&tag=worlcomprepbl-20

2. N95 Surgical/Filtration Mask – This will be useful for reducing person to person infection. The mask are currently inexpensive and readily available. N95 Mask http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=N95&linkCode=ur2&tag=worlcomprepbl-20

3. Disposable Scrubs -

http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=disposable%20srubs&linkCode=ur2&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adisposable%20srubs&tag=worlcomprepbl-20&url=search-alias%3Daps

4. Disposable Shoes –

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CDG7EI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000CDG7EI&linkCode=as2&tag=worlcomprepbl-20

5. Disposable Caps-

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CDG7EI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000CDG7EI&linkCode=as2&tag=worlcomprepbl-20

The last three (3) items I would encourage you to get in addition to the first two (2) just in case you are the one having to care for the sick individual. A trash can with lid and trash bags to be placed just outside the quarantine room will also be helpful in containing the contaminated items. This way you will be able to remove the disposable items place them in the trash and cover. Next go to lavatory and wash your hands using Hibiclens Liquid with warm water. A good rule of thumb is to sing the alphabet twice all the way through. This will ensure you are washing you hands long enough. You may also want to have disposable utensils, plates and cups. It is important that you keep contact with all items limited to the sick room. The less you have to be around this flu the better it will be for all. Use brown bottle Lysol or Lysol concentrate on ever washable surface in your home. What you can not wash – use Lysol Spray. The CDC is preparing for a full blown pandemic. Don’t take chances.

IMPORTANT from CDC http://www.flu.gov/about_the_flu/h7n9/index.html# Flu.gov

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/health/france-coronavirus-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 CNN NEWS