Advice For Survivalists About Selecting And Using Guns

Source: LewRockwell.com

Many survivalists realize the importance of firearms in their planning.  Unfortunately, many do not completely realize the role that the firearms should assume in prepping.  I would like to provide some advice based on my experience.  I have instructed thousands of students in the use of handguns, rifles, shotguns, and machine guns since 1986.  My experience with various types of firearms over the years includes owning everything from a silenced .22LR caliber handgun to a Browning .50 caliber belt-fed machine gun.

Many writers emphasize the role of a long gun in hunting to provide food during a survival scenario, with self-defense being a secondary consideration.  Let’s turn that concept around and discuss what I consider to be the primary importance of firearms; defending your family, group, property, and food.

If you cannot successfully protect what you have, then no amount of collecting food and other essentials for survival will matter if evil people should decide to take your possessions.  To successfully protect with your firearm, there are certain requirements that your firearm must fulfill.  Your choice in firearms should be based on every factor that will provide you with an edge over the armed bad guys.  Otherwise, you lower your abilities and assume more risk.  Based on decades of instructional and personal experience, I can provide some advice on what to own and what not to own, and why.  I am going to assume you are a novice with little or no training, and infrequent practice experience.

If you buy a handgun, don’t buy an extremely short barrel revolver, particularly the light weight models.  They kick like a mule for a novice, the trigger pulls are quite heavy, the sight radius is quite short, and the grips make control difficult.  All of this means a novice will not be as effective with such a revolver, as he or she would be with a revolver or a semi-automatic pistol with a longer barrel.  Despite what some may claim, it is not easier to operate a revolver, particularly reloading.  Under stress, it is difficult to open, load, and close the cylinder, due to loss of fine motor abilities.

Don’t buy a semi-automatic pistol with a very short barrel, meaning a barrel that is less than 4 inches.  The recoil springs are stronger and require more strength to operate the slide, the sight radius is short, and the grips make control difficult. The stronger recoil springs are more sensitive to malfunctioning due to light grip tension, which is also known as “limp-wristing”.  As with the snub-nosed revolvers, these shorty pistols are not a handgun for a novice.  Stick with a full size or mid-size semi-automatic.

Handgun caliber choice is not nearly as important as shot placement.  If you can’t hit the target while under the severe stress of a life-threatening encounter, it doesn’t matter what caliber you shoot.  Remember that nearly all handgun calibers are anemic and will not reliably stop an attacker with one or two shots.  And remember that the more powerful the caliber, the more rounds of practice ammo and more hours of practice it will take to reach the same level of competence as you would with a milder recoiling caliber.  Combine that fact with the knowledge that 9mm ammo is substantially cheaper than other handgun calibers, and my choice of caliber should make some sense to you.  I like 9×19 caliber (9mm auto) because I can buy more ammo for the same price, which means I can practice more for the same price, and 9mm quality hollow point ammunition has become increasingly more effective in the last two decades.

My handgun of choice is a Glock 19.  Why?  Because they work.  Like the Energizer Bunny, they keep on going – dirty, clean, with nearly all types and qualities of ammo.  The size is small enough to conceal, but large enough to control, and they hold 16 rounds.  There are other makes that are as reliable, so don’t flex.  My recommendation is not etched in stone.  The size of your hands plays an important part in choosing, so shoot a make of handgun before buying one, if possible.  Small hands limit your selection, because your trigger finger may not be able to reach the trigger while gripping the handgun effectively and consistently.  Make sure you can press the trigger back without moving the handgun side to side.

There is an old saying, “You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight”, and I would add to that saying, “You don’t bring a handgun to a rifle fight”.  For certain scenarios, a rifle is essential if you want to prevail.  Examples include living in a rural environment, and traveling in a SHTF environment.  Which rifle should you obtain?  There is a reason why our military no longer uses lever action or bolt action rifles.  That is because magazine-fed rifles are more effective.  If the Sin City gang shows up to rob and rape, you want to have more effective weapons than they do, if possible.  Higher rates of fire, more magazine capacity, and ease of control (in .223 caliber) are some of the reasons you should pick a magazine-fed rifle.

So which magazine-fed rifle should a novice own?  During the past decade, the reliability and effectiveness of M16/AR15 direct impingement gas system rifles has been increased substantially.  There are currently three different lengths of gas systems available; the original 20 inch barrel, the mid-length 16 inch barrel, and the carbine length 16 inch barrel.  (I’m ignoring the availability of shorter barreled rifles based on the carbine system because most novices will not want to jump through the hoops to obtain such firearms.  I am also ignoring the various gas piston designs because, in my opinion, the long term reliability of such systems is still being evaluated and determined.)  The development of a “mid-length” gas system has substantially improved the reliability of the carbine length rifles without adding any overall length.  An additional bonus of the mid-length design is that the recoil is softer than a carbine length gas system.  AR rifles are the most common magazine-fed rifles in our country.  Parts, accessories and upgrades are seemingly endless.  Our military uses them, so you have caliber, magazine, and parts commonality, an advantage that should not be ignored in a SHTF scenario.

My recommendation is to obtain a quality AR rifle from a company that utilizes all the tests that our military contracts require.  Bravo Company, Daniel Defense, and Colt are three of the companies that go the extra mile and check the barrels/bolt carrier groups with proof loads, magnetic particle inspect the barrels/bolt carrier groups, shot peen the bolt splines, chrome line the bolt carriers to mil-spec thicknesses/tolerances, and use the latest design extractor springs for reliability.  And there is something to be said for companies that hand assemble and test each barrel assembly.  I have owned Bravo Company and Daniel Defense rifles, and they are quite reliable.  I have seen many other makes of AR rifles come through my classes that are not reliable.  That is not a reflection on the design.  It is a reflection on the company that built the rifle.

Don’t obtain a rifle in larger calibers such as .308.  More recoil, more difficult to control, more expensive ammo, more ammo needed for more practice, heavier ammo; there are many reasons to avoid larger rifle calibers while a novice.  Master a girly caliber rifle before you move up to the big league rifles.

Another innovation of the last few decades is the adoption of electronic red dot sights on firearms.  Using a quality red dot sight, such as an Aimpoint, Eotech, or ACOG, provides you with an enormous advantage over using iron sights.  That means when Billy Biker decides to take your stash by force, and he is shooting at you with his iron sights on his rifle, you will be more likely to shoot him first.  That is assuming you know how to use your red dot sight.  My recommendation is to obtain a flat top picatinney rail or key mod rail AR rifle, mount quality folding backup iron sights, and mount a quality red dot on the top rail, forward of where you would normally mount a scope.  This allows use of the rifle with both eyes open, with a wide field of view.  Moving targets are much easier to engage with this setup.  Don’t buy cheap red dot sights.  You don’t want to trust your life to them.

Last but not least, get some quality training.  If I had a dollar for every student who told me some variant of, “I’ve been shooting all my life”, only to discover while instructing that the student’s competence was total crap, I would be a few thousand dollars richer than I am.  Let’s be clear about this.  You will not rise to the occasion, and become a lean, mean, fighting machine when the two way range shooting starts.  Your grand pappy’s instruction in the ole’ orchard is not good enough.  That one or two day concealed carry class you took is not good enough.  Going back to that lifetime membership school and taking basic level training over and over is not good enough.  The six weeks in basic training or the police academy that you completed 25 years ago is not good enough.  The Boy Scout training you completed 10 years ago is not good enough.

What is adequate and will prepare you for that SHTF environment is training that includes some type of force-on-force training and team tactics.  Force-on-force training forces you to become stressed while simulating an actual gun fight with other students.  I like to use gas-operated airsoft guns during the heat of the summer, when the velocity of the guns is so high that hits on students’ bodies leave blood blisters.  After feeling that pain, your stress level elevates considerably for any future training that day, unless you are seriously crazy and enjoy feeling wasp stings over and over.  The purpose of this training is to provide your brain with simulated, realistic practice in what to do and what not to do while engaged in a gun fight.  Learning how to move, how to adjust to being a klumzy klutz while under stress, how to focus your mind and compartmentalize the fear; these are the things you need to learn in order to protect what is yours in the coming times.

Along with force-on-force, learn team tactics so you can communicate with others and work together to defeat adversaries.  Take a class that teaches you hand signals and how to support each other during a gun fight.  This training is remarkable for how much it will increase your confidence as a team, whether that is a husband and wife pair or an extended family.  Learn how to maneuver, how to cover each other, and how to get out of ambushes.  Learn why you are toast (literally and figuratively) if you think you can stay in your residence and slug it out with the bad boys outside.

There is much more to owning and using firearms for self-defense, but I’m not writing a book.  What I have written here is based on what I have learned in 28 years of instructing, over 40 years of training, and over 40 years of owning every type of modern firearm that you could imagine.  You don’t need to re-invent the wheel to know what should be next for your plans to own and use firearms.  Use this advice and get serious about your firearm skills, because I guarantee that the need for those skills will be serious in the not too distant future.

Prepping for Civil Unrest and Martial Law

LewRockwell.com
anti-state * anti-war * pro-market

By: Daisy Luther of The Organic Prepper
Date: 20 August 2014

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Lessons from Ferguson: Prepping for Civil Unrest and Martial Law

Any prepared and informed person knows that the threat isn’t always the event itself, which could be anything from a natural disaster to a rioting spree after a sporting event to an economic collapse. It’s the chaos during the aftermath of the event.

If you ever had any doubts about that statement, you need look no further than Ferguson, Missouri.

Today, Governor Jay Nixon called in the National Guard.
Martial law has officially arrived in Ferguson.

Of course, this only makes it official. The past week has shown a militarized police force driving around in tanks, wearing body armor, and brutally responding to citizens. Martial law was already there and the Constitution was already suspended.  Nixon just made it official.

This is just the icing on the chaos cupcake, however. It all started a week ago when a police officer shot a black suspect.  Suddenly, amidst  cries of “racism”  an absolute breakdown of society occurred within 24 hours of the shooting.  People no longer governed themselves according to laws and morals.  Store owners were forced to arm themselves to protect their businesses from a mob that looted with all of the joyful abandon of a lottery winner on a shopping spree.  Cops responded, but were vastly outnumbered. Whether these officers were originally vicious individuals or whether fear of the mob mentality made them brutal, their responses were harsh and ruthless.

This article isn’t a debate on right vs. wrong. It isn’t about whether Michael Brown deserved to be shot or whether he was an innocent victim. It isn’t about the race of the looters, the cops, or the residents of Ferguson. It isn’t even about the Constitutional rights that are being ground under the heels of boots. I’m not getting into any of that.

It’s about watching and learning from the events in Ferguson, because this type of chaos could be coming to a city near you. When society breaks down, it nearly always follows a distinct path.  The main variable is how quickly the situation devolves.

The violence began around 8 p.m. and largely dissipated within a couple hours, though the police presence in the St. Louis suburb remained at war-like levels into the wee hours of the morning.
Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of protesters roamed West Florissant Avenue.

Looters prowled several blocks of the main thoroughfare, damaging businesses and shattering glass in the few storefronts that had yet remained intact.

The list of businesses on West Florissant that were looted on Sunday night included a Domino’s Pizza, a Papa John’s Pizza, an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and a Public Storage facility.

Just west, on Chambers Road, a large group of looters trashed a small store called Dellwood Market. The store ended up on fire, according to a Facebook page called Ferguson Scanner Updates.

“I know that people are upset, but is this the justice for Mike Brown?” the distraught owner asked, according to local CBS affiliate KMOV.
A handful of protesters suffered gunshot wounds and the crowds prevented an ambulance from arriving on the scene.

A large group of people had overrun a McDonald’s on the street. Employees of the McDonald’s were forced to lock themselves in a storage room until police arrived. (source)

Here’s a synopsis of the threats during such an event and what you can do to prepare for them.

Looting
In this case, there’s nothing like a good sports analogy. “The best defense is a good offense.”

When the looting began in Ferguson, nearly every store in town was ransacked. Two of them, however were not: St. Louis Ink Tattoo Studio and County Guns.
Mac Slavo of SHTFplan wrote:

It turns out that when violent looters come face to face with people prepared to kill to defend their property, the looters tend to choose a ‘safer’ target.

The take-home lesson here is this: If the situation has broken down to the point that looters are running around carrying TVs down the street, you’d better make it very clear that you are NOT a victim and that you WILL fight back.  There are plenty of people who have been brainwashed by the media to believe that guns are bad who will be far easier pickings for those who want to steal.  Looters will select the easiest targets – not those who are clearly determined to fight back.

The best way to win a fight is to avoid getting into that fight in the first place. Secure your home and lay low, but be prepared if trouble comes to visit.

Here are some tips to make your home less of a target:

Keep all the doors and windows locked.  Secure sliding doors with a metal bar.  Consider installing decorative grid-work over a door with a large window so that it becomes difficult for someone to smash the glass and reach in to unlock the door.

Keep the curtains closed. There’s no need for people walking past to be able to see what you have or to do reconnaissance on how many people are present.

Don’t answer the door.  Many home invasions start with an innocent-seeming knock at the door to gain access to your house.

Keep pets indoors. Sometimes criminals use an animal in distress to get a homeowner to open the door for them. Sometimes people are just mean and hurt animals for “fun”.  Either way, it’s safer for your furry friends to be inside with you.

If, despite your best efforts, your property draws the attention of people with ill intent, you must be ready to defend your family and your home

Don’t rely on 911. If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself.  First responders may be tied up, and in some cases, the cops are not always your friends.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some officers joined in the crime sprees, and others stomped all over the 2nd Amendment and confiscated people’s legal firearms at a time when they needed them the most.

Be armed and know how to use your weapon of choice.  When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation over a nice cup of tea.  Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force. Whatever your choice of weapon, practice, practice, practice. A weapon you don’t know how to use is more dangerous than having no weapon at all. Here’s some advice from someone who knows a lot more about weapons than I do.

Have a safe room established for children or other vulnerable family members. If the worst happens and your home is breached, you need to have a room into which family members can escape.  This room needs to have a heavy exterior door instead of a regular hollow core interior door. There should be communications devices in the room so that the person can call for help, as well as a reliable weapon to be used in the event that the safe room is breached. The family members should be instructed not to come out of that room FOR ANY REASON until you give them the all clear or help has arrived.

Plan an escape route.  If the odds are against you, devise a way to get your family to safety.  Your property is not worth your life.

It’s very important to make a defense plan well before you need one.

Violence for the sake of violence
Not every criminal frolicking through a WROL zone is there to steal. Some people want to hurt people just for the rush of power it gives them.

There is no pacifist answer to an encounter like this. If someone wants to do harm because they find it enjoyable, or because they are swept up in a mob mentality, you have to meet force with greater force.

In these situations, firearms are the great equalizer.

I can’t repeat this enough: you must practice. Frequently. If you don’t know how to use a firearm, you shouldn’t have it.  When you handle your weapon awkwardly, it’s very obvious to a person who is trying to intimidate you. Likewise, if you are so comfortable with your weapon that it looks like a natural extension of your arm, that is also very clear. It sends a message that you mean business and that you know what you’re doing. No one wants to get shot. Most thugs will search for an easier target.

Of course, it’s better still to avoid these encounters.  When your city is under siege, it’s far safer to stay home.  Don’t go to work or send the kids to school. Wait until normalcy returns to go about your business.  It isn’t worth risking your life.

Destruction of property
Of enormous concern in these situations is the destruction of property.

For some, vandalizing and destroying property is the order of the day.  Often, times of civil unrest give people of a certain mentality the excuse they need to seek vengeance against those who have “more” than they do.  Tensions erupt between the “haves” and the “have-nots”.  When this occurs, often destruction of property is the way these people choose to show their “power”.

While this starts out as purely a property crime, the situation can quickly turn violent. If someone is outside bashing the headlights of your vehicle, it isn’t a far stretch to think that they’ll bash on you if you confront them.

How to respond to this is a very individual decision, and depends to a great extent on your personal skill levels and confidence.

If you are a person who is unaccustomed to physical confrontations, you may be better off staying inside and calling your insurance company after the fact. No possession is worth your life or the lives of your family.

Alternatively, in some situations, it won’t stop with the destruction of your property. You may have to defend your home. Fire is of enormous concern in these types of scenarios.  Fire is a cowardly attack that doesn’t require any interaction on the part of the arsonist. It flushes out the family inside, leaving you vulnerable to physical assaults.

Be ready for the potential of fire.

Have fire extinguishers mounted throughout your home. You can buy them in 6 packs from Amazon

Be sure to test them frequently and maintain them properly. (Allstate has a page about fire extinguisher maintenance.)

Have fire escape ladders that can be attached to a windowsill in all upper story rooms.  Drill with them so that your kids know how to use them if necessary.

Have bug-out bags prepared that contain all of your important documents in them in case you have to grab and go.

Running out of supplies
The most preventable issue in the event of civil unrest is running out of supplies.

If you have to “run out to the store” that makes it far more likely that you will become the victim of a crime. The best advice I can give in all of this is to STAY HOME.  But if you have no food and water, it’s difficult to do so.

Many residents of Ferguson are facing exactly this problem. They are “stuck” at home and have run out of groceries.

Keith Griffin II, publisher of DELUX Magazine, set up a table near gas pump 6 at the QuikTrip on West Florissant Avenue, where he is distributing free pizza, chips, fresh fruit and bottled water to protesters and area residents.

Griffin, 37, said he grew up in the area and he’s concerned about the welfare of local residents.

He’s also putting together care packages to people who are stuck because of the protests and curfew, he said. (source: St. Louis Times)

So, after only ONE WEEK, people are running out of food or discovering there is a necessity that they don’t have on hand.

ONE WEEK.

I can’t imagine not having enough supplies to withstand a siege of only a week.  The way this is snowballing, the situation could easily last for a lot longer than just a week.  Even if you think prepping is silly and paranoid, how could anyone watching this unfold not feel as though they need to be stocked up for at least a month?  Ferguson is not a bad neighborhood in New York City. It’s a little suburb of just over 20,000 people. If this can happen in Ferguson, Missouri, it can happen where you are, and it can happen without any warning at all.

Here is a general list of supplies to have on hand. Remember that sometimes power supplies are lost during situations like this. Occasionally officials do this to gain more control over the populace and sometimes it happens as a side-effect of the wholesale destruction by the rioters. Keep the potential for a down-grid situation in mind when preparing.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Necessary prescription medications
• A well stocked pantry - you need at least a one-month supply of food for the entire family, including pets
• An off grid cooking method (We have a Char-Broil Offset Smoker American Gourmet Grill, an outdoor burner, and a woodstove inside)
• Or food that requires no cooking
• A tactical quality first aid kit
• Lighting in the event of a power outage
• Sanitation supplies (in the event that the municipal water system is unusable, this would include cleaning supplies and toilet supplies)
• A way to stay warm in harsh winter weather
• Over-the-counter medications and/or herbal remedies to treat illnesses at home
• A diverse survival guide and first aid manual (hard copies in case the internet and power grid are down)
• Alternative communications devices (such as a hand-crank radio) so that you can get updates about the outside world
• Off-grid entertainment:  arts and craft supplies, puzzles, games, books, crossword or word search puzzles, needlework, journals

Martial law
It seems that right now in Ferguson, the US Constitution has been suspended. The National Guard has been called in to help police restore order. Like I said above, this is not an article about the constitutionality (or lack thereof) of what is going on down there, nor is it about police brutality or racial tensions. This article focuses on surviving the situation should such an event occur in your town.

The reality is this:

While many of the officers involved most likely just want to resolve the situation and go home to their families, the methods being used are not methods most of us wish to encounter.

In a highly charged situation like this, police and military are trained to use the most efficient methods to speedily shut down a conflict. These methods can include tear gas, sound cannons, and outright physical assaults on citizens. It’s important to note that fear can be a powerful motivator when deciding how much force is appropriate when addressing a threat. Cops are just as subject to fear as the rest of us. 20 cops with shields and batons would be quite reasonable to fear an angry mob of hundreds of shouting people.

Your safety when interacting with officials during a martial law situation does not rely on the intentions of police officers and military. It really doesn’t matter if they are trying to crush your rights under a jack-booted heel, or whether they are trying to benevolently keep people safe and re-establish peace and harmony.

Here are some suggestions to help keep you safe when dealing with cops and soldiers.

Avoid crowds. If you are in the midst of a crowd, you’ll be considered part of the crowd and treated exactly like everyone else in that group. If they get tear-gassed, so will you. It’s guilt by association. If the crowd is violent, and you are part of the crowd, you will also be considered violent, and you’ll be dealt with accordingly. Legally, you are actually guilty if you are part of a group that is violent. GO HOME.

Be polite. If you have to interact with officers, be courteous. You won’t restore the Constitution by arguing with them or threatening them. It’s fine to assert your rights – you don’t have to allow them to search your house without cause, for example, but do so civilly. Belligerence will get you nothing but a beat-down.

You don’t get to explain. In a highly charged situation, the cops probably aren’t going to listen to you when you try to explain that you’re just taking that baseball bat in your hand over to your nephew’s house so he can hit some balls in the backyard. No matter how innocent your intentions are, if you’re walking like a duck, you’re going to be treated like a duck. Training will kick in, and perceived threats will be immediately neutralized by whatever means the cops find necessary.

Stay home. It really isn’t worth risking your physical safety to go see what’s going on.

Underneath the uniform, cops are human.  I’m not justifying the brutality, the methods they’re using, or the assaults on journalists. Cops are just as likely to be swept up in a herd mentality as thugs are during a high stress situation. By understanding this, you can be better prepared.

Just stay home.
I really can’t repeat that often enough. It’s the number one way to keep yourself safer from every single threat mentioned in this article. If you find yourself in an area under siege, the odds will be further on your side for every interaction in which you avoid taking part.

Every single time you leave the house, you increase your chances of an unpleasant encounter.  Nothing will be accomplished by going out during a chaotic situation.

And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t go to a protest and take your children, even if it’s supposed to be peaceful.

Residents, many with children in tow, had turned out for what began as a peaceful protest Sunday evening seeking justice for Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was shot six times by a police officer who allegedly stopped Brown for blocking a residential street.

The protesters marched toward a police command center set up in a shopping mall parking lot when heavily armed law enforcement fired on the crowd using tear gas and rubber bullets. An MSNBC reporter witnessed children suffering the effects of the gas, including two young African-American girls – one dressed in a pink tank top coughing as she struggled to push the shirt up over her mouth and nose while a woman rushed her from the scene. (source)

I can’t even wrap my brain around thinking THAT was a good idea.
Stay.

Home.

Resources:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster
The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months
The Anatomy of a Breakdown
Wise Company Emergency Food Supply 1 Month
Bayou Classic SP10 High-Pressure Outdoor Gas Cooker, Propane
Total Breakdown In Less Than 24 Hours: Images and Videos of Missouri Riots and Looting
Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary
Elite Large Fully Stocked GI Issue Medic First Aid Kit Bag
Kidde FA110 Multi Purpose Fire Extinguisher 1A10BC

The Best of Daisy Luther

I’m Learning How To Go Low-Tech

LewRockwell.com
anti-state * anti-war * pro-market

By: Daisy Luther
Date:

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I’m Learning How To Go Low-Tech

This might be stating the obvious, but in the event of an EMP, things will not be the same, no matter how great your generator is.

Aaron Dykes of Truthstream Media wrote an excellent article about the extreme likelihood of a catastrophic event that could take out our power grid:

Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer is warning investors – and more broadly, lawmakers and leaders – about the potential destructive power of an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, which could be triggered by solar events or artificially, via blasts in the atmosphere.

According to Singer, research shows that no other incident, including a nuclear bomb, has the potential for such wide-scale devastation, coupled with the relative likelihood of occurring. While a nuke would primarily impact on the location of a such (such a city), an EMP could occur globally or across large-scale regions, wreaking havoc on the entire electric grid and devices.

Government agencies, such as NASA and Homeland Security, have taken some preliminary steps towards preparing for an EMP attack – regardless of the potential for natural of man made causes – but the public at large remains cripplingly unaware of the dangers present to modern life, and its reliance on all things electronic, digital and, thus, transient. (Check out the rest of this MUST-READ article HERE)

We’ve all read many articles about the likelihood of grid failure. We’ve been warned again and again that it isn’t a matter of if, but when, it happens.

Because of this, a lot of people are preparing for a very different future.  Folks are getting ready for the Big Blackout.  The thing is, I am not sure everyone is thinking this through.  Many people are spending buckets of money on preparations to try to keep their lives as similar as possible to how they are today. They’re investing in diesel generators and Faraday cages to protect their electronics. They are buying propane-fueled appliances.  They’re stashing away fuel to run these gadgets.

Generators are not a practical investment for EMP preparation.

The problem with that method of preparation is, the fuel-generated lifestyle will only last for as long as you have…well…fuel.

Very few of us have enough storage space or the proper facilities to store 5 years’ worth of fuel.  If the power grid goes down in a catastrophic way, it’s going to take at least 5 years to get things up and running again, and that’s assuming things ever get up and running again in the way they are now.

That means that people are spending thousands of dollars investing in items that will only sustain their lifestyles for a brief period of time.  Generators are not a long term solution unless you have renewable power. (More on that later). While a generator would be a blessing in a short-term emergency (think a week-long power outage due to a storm), for a permanent way of life they are completely impractical.

Furthermore, in the event of an EMP strike, if your generator is not protected, it may not work no matter how much fuel you have stored.

Maybe the fact that I’m not rolling in money is the reason I feel this way. Maybe people with lots of money to spare have ideas about how to keep their generators running forever. But for my personal situation, this is a preparation strategy that is completely impractical.

A low-tech lifestyle is the best way to prep for grid-down survival.

If money is an object in your preparedness endeavours, (and let’s face it, money is an object for most of us these days), then focus your dollars on preps that are sustainable without electrical power.  Instead of trying to live the exact same life you are living right now, only fuelled by an individual generator, look for low-tech solutions instead.  This reminds me of people who stop eating gluten but still want to eat exactly like they have been eating their entire lives, only now with expensive gluten-free baked goods that cost 4 times the price of their wheat-filled counterparts.  When things change dramatically, accept the change and adapt to it, instead of trying to maintain the illusion that everything is the same.

Whether you can get power from an outlet in the wall or not, the necessities of day-to-day life will remain the same:

• Water
• Shelter and Warmth
• Food
• Sanitation and Hygiene
• Light

The ultimate preparedness goal should be to provide those necessities without any help from the power grid, generators, or fossil fuel. (LEARN MORE about planning for a long-term disaster)

When my youngest daughter and I lived in the North Woods of Canada, we lost power frequently throughout the year. Lots of folks in the area had generators that they would fire up when the power went out, and that was a viable solution, since gas stations were available and fuel was pretty much unlimited as long as you could afford to go get it.  We were on a tight budget, however, and we adapted our situation to live without power during those outages.  After the first couple of outages, we had worked out most of the bugs and we even began to look forward to our time without power – it was like a little vacation from the regular workday.  As plugged in as our society is, power is not actually a necessity – it’s a luxury, and we can live without it as long as we are adaptable, creative, willing, and prepared.

Let’s look at some specific examples of low-tech ways to take care of our necessities.  These ideas are just food for thought, based on my own preparedness plan – they may not be the solutions that will work best for you, but the goal here is to brainstorm your own situation and figure out how to live your life low-tech if the need occurs.

Off-grid Water

If you haven’t located water sources near your home,  it’s time to break out the topographical maps of your area and find them!  A low-tech water plan might include some or all of the following:

• A manual pump for your well
• Buckets and wheelbarrows for hauling water from a nearby source
• Rain barrels for water harvesting (THIS is an inexpensive option with mixed reviews)
• A gravity-fed water filtration system (we have THIS ONE)
• A water dispenser for convenient access to filtered water (Be sure to get one with the bottle on top so that it can be operated without electricity, and not one that uses an electric pump to pull the water up from the bottom)
• Storage units for water such as cisterns or tanks
• Portable water filter bottles for safe water when you are away from home (we have THIS ONE)

Off-grid Shelter and Warmth

Homes these days aren’t built to function without a connection to the power grid.  If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in an older home that was designed for off-grid living, look at some ways to take your home back a century or so. A secondary heating system is vital in most climates.

• An antique oil heater can use lots of different oils and requires little effort for installation (THIS SITE is loaded with information about Perfection oil heaters)
• Have a woodstove installed
• Clean your chimney and get your fireplace working
• Set up an outdoor fireplace with large rocks to bring inside for radiant heat (this won’t get you super warm but it’s better than nothing)
• Have a good supply of blankets, warm clothes, and cold-rated sleeping bags
• Learn techniques to stay warm with less heat

Off-grid Food

Not only do you need access to food, but you also need a way to cook it and a way to keep your refrigerated and frozen items from spoiling.

• Grow a garden and save your seeds
• Have a greenhouse or extend your growing season with cold frames and hoop houses
• Have a well-stocked pantry
• Have supplies for off-grid canning (Jars, lids, outdoor burner) - and learn how to can without a kitchen
• Learn ways to get by without refrigeration
• Outdoor cooking methods – THIS STOVE can be used with 3 different types of fuel
• If you’re anything like me, have a French Press for off-grid coffee!
• Make a solar cooker – learn how HERE

Off-grid Sanitation and Hygiene

How will you keep clean and deal with human waste in the event of a long-term emergency?

• If you are on a septic system, store water for flushing and have a collection system to save your used water in the future
• If you are not on a septic system, devise a plan and get supplies for an outhouse or cathole
• Learn how to do your laundry off-grid (I use a janitor’s bucket LIKE THIS for wringing out clothes – get the best quality you can afford – the cheap plastic ones will break when you use them for laundry)
• Learn how to make your own cleaning products

Off-grid Lighting

The world is a scary place when it’s dark, and most of us have forgotten how dark TRUE dark really is, due to light pollution and the proximity of neighbors. Here are some lighting solutions for an off grid world:

• Solar garden lights – store them outside to be charged during the day and bring them in and put them in vases where they’re needed at night
• Oil lamps – you can recycle used cooking oil or use rendered fat to power these – they give a brighter light and can be used for reading and close-work (Learn more HERE)
• Candles – stock them and learn to make them
• Solar powered flashlights

Renewable power is practical power.

One exception to my no-generators rule is renewable power. If you can afford a solar set up for your home, then very little would change about your day-to-day life, aside from you being one of the few people with power.  You don’t have to go totally solar to have power for a few important items.  Assuming you have electronics in working order, they can be powered with solar, wind, or water.

Most of us can’t afford an entire set up but these are some options to consider:

• Build a DIY portable solar recharging station – learn how to make it HERE
• Solar-powered systems for specific items – learn more HERE
• Use wind power – learn more HERE
• Use water power – learn more HERE

The Organic Prepper.