What Did You Do To Prepare This Week?
Also did some initial testing of the Sawyer Water filter and I am pretty happy with it. Also I have been using my EDC Benchmade Griptillian, Ontario RAT 3 and Buck 119 Special to do all manner of household tasks. The Benchmade and RAT 3 have done great, proving they deserve their places.
The Buck 119 Special not quite so much. I kind of envisioned it’s role as a large food processing knife with a secondary role as a defensive knife. Kind of filling a traditional long hunter type large knife role if you will. The clip point is a bit too far off center for food processing at least to me. The ergonomics are great for cutting but what exactly I am not sure. As a largeish camp type knife I would prefer a Ka-Bar hands down.
I will relegate this knife to some sort of backup piece in a kit or alternate location. A replacement for it’s role is something I will look at down the road. Then again the whole thing might be pointless. I have done a lot of outdoors stuff carrying a medium (3.5-4.5 in) knife and a hatchet without finding reasonable tasks I couldn’t complete. I am not sure a larger knife is needed except maybe for a dedicated base camp type kit (which I am planning to put together). The Jeff White French Trade Knife reviewed by Alexander Wolfe looks kind of neat. Then again and I am not sure why I didn’t think of this before, one of the Cold Steel Longhunter knifes I picked up for a next to nothing might be the ticket. Also free/ already in inventory is a good solution as I am trying not to buy new stuff these days without a good reason.
Anyway that is what has been going on here. What have you done to prepare this week?
Personal Survival Kit
First I have to note that I blatantly stole this idea from John Mosby. Since this isn’t school there is no penalty for this. Anyway I wanted to give credit where it is due. I didn’t so much steal the general idea to have most of this stuff around as the idea of looking at it as a unique kit.
My personal survival kit consists of the following. A knife, in this case a Buck 110 though any good knife would be fine. A compass I had lying around, a couple lighters wrapped in ranger bands, water purification tablets, 550 cord and a small LED light. Also there is a flint and striker which I plan to replace with the much more compact Boy Scout model when I get around to ordering some stuff. I got the little pouch to put it all in. Figured either I could just slip the whole thing into my camelback or cargo pocket or take the stuff out and put it into various places. Either way it would stay in one place and be readily available. Probably not entirely necessary but it helped me put things together and worst case I can always use it for something else.
My kit varies a bit from the one JM described. Not shown is a handgun with a spare magazine because well I am in Germany right now. Also not shown are eye pro but I wear them in the woods. Also I added the small light because they are just really handy. Not pictured or mentioned is a water bottle/ camelback/ canteen. I thought about that for awhile. In the end I sort of consider it an implied item I would have anyway, sort of like how I didn’t mention footwear or pants.
This little kit lives in my car and goes with me when I am in the woods or whatever. It is pretty small and as such could be carried during any sort of tasks. Anyway if you do not have some sort of kit like this then it might be worth thinking about putting one together.
Wednesday Randomness
Check out this interesting infograph on Zombie proofing your home.
For no particular reason I want to talk about a couple of rules or guidelines.
The first is that in firearms there is an inverse relationship between reliability and accuracy. Obviously a gun that shoots minute of barn at 10 paces is not useful but a jamamatic that shoots 1/10th moa when it occasionally decides to function isn’t either. Personally for real world applications I am inclined to lean a bit toward reliability. Really you just need minute of man (or deer or elk or whatever) accuracy to get the job done and if a weapon is capable of that then the rest is on the shooter. Also most weapons will outshoot people anyway.
The second is that you typically get what you pay for. Expecting more than that out of a tool/ weapon is just not very realistic. Given comparable models/ styles a more expensive product is probably better. A $15 Wally world special is not going to perform like a Buck 110. Expecting a $550 “plinker” AR to perform like a rifle from Bushmaster, Smith and Wesson or Colt is not realistic. Some products do offer a lot of value and while they don’t break this rule they might just bend it a bit. Glock and XD pistols, Buck and Cold Steel knifes and REI brand camping gear come to mind.
Also I would like to let you know that LPC survival an authorized Berkey water filter dealer and long time advertiser are launching a completely redesigned website on the 21st. I got a chance to preview it and the new format is very nice. Much easier to use and a better shopping experience. You should definitely check it out.
Anyway that is about all that is floating around in my head today,
Later
Finally Friday and Knife Sharpening also 3,000th Post
Not too long ago I found myself in need of a knife sharpener. I had a couple of them but one got worn out and the other is probably in a box somewhere. In any case I wasn’t quite sure what to get but those diamond rod type ones seem to work pretty well. I rather arbitrarily put this one into my amazon wish list. Lansky seemed like a good name but there was no real thought behind it. Wifey was ordering some stuff and needed another thing to get the free shipping (far better to get $6 bucks of stuff you were going to get anyway then to pay it in shipping). It arrived the other day. My only tentative complaint is that it is pretty big. There is a lot of handle and it has this other sharpening thing on the back that adds like an inch and a quarter. I guess you are supposed to use it first then finish with the rod. To be honest I didn’t look that closely and thought it was the normal model but black. Maybe that will be convenient but I am not sure yet.
It might be a bit big to carry in my pocket but I am quite happy with this handy sharpener. In a couple minutes it tuned up an old Buck 110 nicely. In 5 minutes it got my EDC Buck 110 which had a couple minor imperfections in the blade all tuned up and ready to go. I haven’t had it long but am pretty impressed with it so far. This sharpener will definitely go in my ruck for long trips.
I hope you all have a good weekend,
Ryan
Edited to include: This is the blog’s 3,000th post. I had wanted it to be a lengthier post I am working on but finishing it today wasn’t in the cards. To be honest after a long day at work I forgot about the whole thing. Anyway it is a pretty cool milestone. This blog has suceeded beyond my wildest dreams and sometimes I am just amazed by the whole thing.
I am definitely not putting things into auto pilot. Slowly but surely we are still growing, one link, one more person following the blog and a new advertiser at a time things are continuing to get bigger and better. I have some things that I plan to do in the coming weeks and months that should be pretty cool for you guys and gals.
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You Might Be a Survivalist If?
You arranged the knifes in your chopping block by each ones effectiveness as a melee weapon.
The Buck 119 Special got the first position with an 8″ slicer following closely, rounded out by the cleaver with usefullness dropping rapidly from there.
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