What did you do today to prep?

[ma96782]

I'm watching "The Walking Dead". You know....to brush up on survival techniques.

Judging by how many seasons this has this been going on? Yeah....that's survival.

Aloha, Mark

 

[The Heretic]

I hate scotch broom with a passion. Cutting it stunts it but you need to pull it up and burn it. Once it seeds your looking at those coming back regularly. I do a walk around the yard every year to pull them up. Like I'm fighting a losing battle with the neighbors doing nothing to keep it under control. I have noticed it doesn't grow in dense forest areas, it needs sun.
Now I'm fighting dandelions. Couple thousand pulled and another 10k plus to get rid of. Fighting stuff naturally is tough.

Some of the neighbors don't do anything and have an open lot full of it. Some pull it up or use Crossbow.

I am not going to spray it anymore because that just leaves the dead plant behind for years, which prevents spread, but it is still a fire danger. It has a resin in it that makes it even more of a fire danger too.

So Thursday I got up on the roof and sprayed the moss. In a month or so I am going to take a stiff push broom up there and push a lot of it off then spray again. There are huge clumps of it in the valleys which can just be pushed off now. I let it go for years and now there is a lot of it.

I don't like being up there, for one thing I am afraid of heights even though it isn't very high, and another is that roofs on manufactured homes, even modern ones like mine, are not that durable - me being 275# doesn't do the roof any good. But it has to be done. Both for roof maintenance and fire danger. A lot of the moss grows on top of the conifer needles that collect on the roof in big clumps during the winters.

 

[Member 52301]

My husband sorted, cleaned, polished and did some brass preparation for several firearm calibers.

We worked in the garage and in the den/gun room.

I made a NEW spread sheet on what he is using the most down to what he is using the least when it comes to his GUN stuff.

The NEW spread sheet was interesting to both of us for 4 years in a row and showed a bit of factory CF ammunition on hand, reloading supplies for all CF firearms and RF (22lr) ammunition on hand. It showed what he was using up and did USE UP (Stored properly.) from his former shooting competition time too.

Cate

 

[Siglvr]

Dumped out the Faraday Cage. Unwrapped/re-wrapped anything I was unsure of. Marked items correctly and did a full inventory. There was a realization that if it is ever needed, I had not been preparing correctly. Major issues.

Fixed what I feel were my shortcomings and am feeling much more solid now.

 

[Siglvr]

Again filled up three 5 gal cans with gas and emptied those into the 55 gal drum. Probably going into town tomorrow to sell ammo so going to get more gas - that should fill it up, and then one more trip next week and I will have about 70 gallons stored in the shop JIC.

As I understand it, non-ethanol is good for 6 months, with some additives, perhaps a year. Is that your understanding as well? I have 2 locations and store 2 of the 5 gallon Jerry cans at both. Cans get tagged with the date. Rotating it sucks, but it's nice to have for peace of mind.

I noticed the large plastic ammo boxes of 50 and 30 cal size just don't seal worth a dam when you actually put ammo in them. Better than storing the ammo in a cardboard box, but not optimum. If you lift them up by the handle, then the lid comes away from the body of the box. MTM seems to be better than the Plano and worst are the boxes I got from Cabelas. I guess you get what you pay for - they would never last in combat. The mil-surp metal cans, even the cheap non-mil-spec ones, are a lot better in that regard - albeit twice as expensive (and more than twice as good).

My kid got me some cheap plastic ammo boxes from Harbor Freight when they went on sale. I was appreciative, but in a house fire, I figure the heavy ga steel Milsurp ammo cans are ready to deal with that and it's a feature I'll gladly pay for.

 

[The Heretic]

As I understand it, non-ethanol is good for 6 months, with some additives, perhaps a year. Is that your understanding as well? I have 2 locations and store 2 of the 5 gallon Jerry cans at both. Cans get tagged with the date. Rotating it sucks, but it's nice to have for peace of mind.

That is what a lot of people claim, but it has not been my experience.

In my experience I have not noticed a difference between fresh fuel and fuel stored for years.

I do put PRI-G and PRI-D in any fuel I intend to store for long periods. But before I bought a fuel drum and started using PRI-G, I just stored fuel in tanks of the vehicles, lawnmowers and in gas cans and I had no problems. My motorcycles would sit for a winter - as much as six months or sometimes more, and I would have no problems. Ditto with tractors and equipment.

I have encountered some equipment where the carbs have "gummed up". At the same time I have encountered carbs where the engine sat so that the fuel was gone and the gaskets dried out. Those have been engines that sat for years and years. I can't really say that was from the fuel.

My trucks do sit for months at a time as I rarely use them. I generally do not have problems with them that I attribute to fuel. Ditto with my chainsaw, lawnmower, 2 wheel tractor, weedeater, etc.

Disclaimer: I am going from my experience running stored gas in various machines, from cars to motorcycles to lawnmowers/etc. - a better test would be storing fuel for X amount of time, measuring its octane/cetane and then measuring the power output in a test ICE. Maybe someone has done this, I do not know.

I just go be seat of the pants performance.

My kid got me some cheap plastic ammo boxes from Harbor Freight when they went on sale. I was appreciative, but in a house fire, I figure the heavy ga steel Milsurp ammo cans are ready to deal with that and it's a feature I'll gladly pay for.

Of course metal cans would last some period longer in a fire, but are certainly not proof against fire - they are not made for that purpose. I was thinking more along the lines of durability. If I had to grab a "can" of ammo and move it somewhere, either because I am leaving my home, or because I am defending it, I have a lot more confidence in the metal cans than the plastic, but the metal cans are twice as expensive. For simple storage, the plastic will probably suffice, but there is a reason the military uses metal cans and not plastic.

 

[Angie]

Getting ready to renew my CCW later this month. I had no idea handgun ammo had become impossible to find! I have plenty, but I didn't want to break into my stash. Put some on backorder from Midway.

 

[The Heretic]

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Gathering and organize stuff. Cleaning.

Right now it is mags. Finding them (scattered around), cleaning the exterior (wiping off the dust, scrubbing off any rust, cleaning off any dirt, sticky stuff {some had tags on them}), spraying the metal ones with ballistol and then wiping them down. Putting them in a box somewhat organized. Once I get all of them together, I think I will spray them with ballistol again and then put them in a vacuum sealed bag organized by caliber and gun and mark the bag.

Found some bipods yesterday. Cleaned up a couple of them and mounted them on rifles. I much prefer the Versapod bipods - I got a spring loaded Firefield and pinched myself rather severely when it snapped closed - I do not like bipod with spring loaded legs and exposed springs.

 

[The Heretic]

I split and stacked more firewood until it got too warm.

I took some of the bamboo I cut down and used the poles to create target stands on my ad-hoc range.

 

[The Heretic]

Noticed I had some nicks in my CRKT Halfachance parang, so I dug out a sharpening stone and went to work on it. Got most of them removed and made the rest smaller.

While I was doing that I noticed the container for my stone had a ferro rod and steel in it. I've been playing around with some other ferro rods and noticed a few things:

1) The Cold Steel Survival Edge knife had a blade back that is somewhat rounded. Not sure why unless that is some kind manufacturing byproduct. The knife comes with its own ferro rod, but because the back of the blade is rounded, I either have to use the sharp side of the blade or find something else. The knife is a hollow plastic handle with a compass, ceramic sharpening rod, whistle, fishing line, lead weights, hooks, clothes pins, sewing thread and snare wire in the hollow handle. All that and there is still room in the handle, so I am going to put in a few matches too. The other ferro rods are too long to fit.

The blade itself is stainless and the knife looks very muck like a Morakniv (my bet is that it is made by Morakniv or is a close copy). While not a full tang knife, it can still take a beating - I can't find it now, but there was a video of guy who beat on it and bent it over in a vise, and it did not break.

I am going to have to file the back of the blade to make it work with the ferro rod. I am also going to find a piece of hacksaw blade to put in the hollow handle to serve as a better steel.

2) I ruined a Morakniv sheath by forcing a fero rod into it along with the knife.

3) The serrated edge of my Gerber folder is better than any other knife edge to make sparks with a ferro rod, but not as good as the steel that came with one of my rods.

 

[Member 52301]

My husband picked up a spare pocket holster and 2 soft case rifle bags.

He made the 'rounds' to a couple of stores which I may report on later on if my old hands hold up. LOL

We donated 2 Savage Rascal rifles with their books to our gun range on Wednesday.

We want Newbies, kids, teens, handicapped people and senior citizens to be able to LEARN how to shoot safely and LEARN more about firearms from other PRO RKBA people.

Cate

 

[MannyGlocks]

Angie,

Look at Sgammo for bulk ammo.

They'll probably have what you're looking for.

Reputable, good prices, well run outfit.

 

[The Heretic]

Got my pickup high centered on a log hidden in the tall grass. Can't get the big truck started (it needs new batteries) to pull it off the log. Maybe try to use a winch to pull it off. In short, today has been a Charlie Foxtrot day.

 

[MannyGlocks]

My HL Impact Sport electronic muffs have a 4 hour auto shutoff.

Though maybe they dropped that feature since I bought mine quite a few years ago?

 

[Member 52301]

I changed my primary SHTF rifle to my new CZ 457 Lux 22 wmr rifle.

CZ 457 Lux - CZ-USA

The 457 Lux has crisp iron sights and a European-patterned stock.

cz-usa.com

(My husband has a duplicate CZ 457 Lux 22 wmr rifle but he will use something else instead.)

I will be using the new CZ 457 Lux 22lr rifle too.

I gave my husband my CZ 455 Lux in 22lr.

Cate

 

[The Heretic]

Got my pickup high centered on a log hidden in the tall grass. Can't get the big truck started (it needs new batteries) to pull it off the log. Maybe try to use a winch to pull it off. In short, today has been a Charlie Foxtrot day.

Cut up the log with the chainsaw and that moved it enough that I could get off it. Still, got nothing done yesterday.

 

[MannyGlocks]

TH,

Gotta be flexible or frustration will eat you alive.

Easy for me to say...

We bought some spam in a dilettante's attempt at prepping. I can't believe it.

I remember eating this stuff as a poor kid, but even when desperately hungry I found it to be so fatty and very canned in flavor it was difficult to eat, even desperately hungry, but I've read here, if it's grilled it's palatable.

And will last in an unopened can for eons.

Perfect prepper canned goods.

 

[The Heretic]

There are other canned meats you can buy.

 

[MannyGlocks]

TH,

Of course, tuna runa, sardines, chicken, (gack, even nastiere than spam-a-bama) ham, could be ok...

Can you add to the list?

Ah, skip Vi-eena sausage, blech.

I wonder, if irradiated canned meat is available for a long lasting prepper protein?

 

[The Heretic]

Beef and chicken are available at Costco. I put the chicken in a crock pot and make stew from it. There is also canned bacon. Corned beef hash. Chili beef without beans.

Reminds me, I need to go thru my pantry and throw out some stuff.

Today I ordered some stuff from an army surplus website - some grit stones for sharpening things, a gravity feed adapter for my 55 gallon drum, and the things I was looking for; Drifire fire resistant t-shirts and long sleeved shirts. The last are hard to find surplus in new condition for a decent price, most places only sell them new for $50+, but this place had them surplus new for less than $10. If they are good I will order more, if not, then not much lost.