Are You Ready, Mentally?

Last time I talked about physical readiness, this time I would like to talk about mental readiness. I have talked about it before, "survival is a state of mind". I have talked about the people that were put in a survival situation with everything one would need to survive and died. I have also talked about the people that were thrown into a situation where there seems no way that they could have survived. Some of these people make it and people are awe struck. What is the difference between the two types of people? Mental attitude! It is very simple that if you have the will to survive you have a much better chance.

What is the right state of mind? It is the state of mind that says that no matter what happens there is a way out. It is a never say die attitude. It is knowing that you can and will go on no matter what. I have written before about people that tell me they would not want to live after a major disaster such as a nuclear strike. They would prefer to die in the strike than to live and see what is going to come out the other side. To me this is pure foolishness. 

Everyone is a survivalist, it is just a matter of how much of a survivalist you are. There are very few people that would just step out onto a busy street and cross it without looking both ways for cars. There are very few people that would continually run through stop signs or red lights, even if the police did not catch them. People wear seat belts and take life preservers or jackets in a boat. There are people who would not think of riding a bicycle without a helmet that tell me they are not survivalists. While some of the things we do such as the seat belts or the stop signs are law, most people would do them anyway. That is the survival instinct in all of us. Personally, I am a very poor swimmer, so it would be foolishness for me to be out in a lake a half mile from shore without a life jacket on. Most people that say that they are not survivalists do not realize all of the things that they do every day to survive. People who do not practice good safety are said to have a death wish. Is is not a death wish to hope that you would not make it through a nuclear attack?

There are things that separate us, the die-hard survivalists from the rest of the world. All that it is is the fact that we carry the survival mode a little farther than other people. We want to be the ones that are left alive when everything goes down. I have never heard anyone who survived a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, flood or other natural disaster wish that they would have died in the disaster. Yet, what is the difference between one of those disasters and a man made disaster?

If a war ever comes to America (and it probably will in time) would all of these so-called non-survivalists just walk out and step in front of a bullet or an enemy tank? I do not believe so. 

Now that we know that there would be many people that would all of a sudden become, maybe not survivalists, but people that wanted to continue to live. These people would not be survivalists, they could be a drag on other survivalists. This begs the question: "Do you have the mental capacity to be a true survivalist? 

Here are some of the things I think need to be done to mentally be ready for a survival situation. First, you have to think about scenarios in which you could be thrown into a survival situation and what you would do about it. You have to be ready to cope with the problem you see as the most likely to take place. For instance, if you live in Florida or one of the east coast states, you would get ready to survive after a hurricane. You know it is invertible that there will sooner or later be a hurricane and you would make ready for it. I do not understand people that live where they have hurricanes virtually every year and yet these people are not ready for them. When the hurricane hits, they want the government (you and me the taxpayers) to take care of them. I live in the north central U.S. so there are things I am prepared for. We have ice storms so I have a generator in case the electricity goes out. I also am prepared for the occasional tornado that comes through this area. I am prepared for the major snow storm and I burn wood a supplemental heat. The wood heat would keep me going through a long electric outage. I have battery operated radio, battery light, kerosene lights, both radio and flashlights that need neither batteries nor electricity. I have the ability to cook (two camp stoves one LP and one white gas). some people (non-survivalists) might call all of my preparations paranoid. I call them smart. I hope I never need to test my ability to survive, but know that if I must I can. 

I will talk a little more about this next time. Until then SURVIVE!!!

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Are You Ready Physically?

Check out your readiness. Are you ready and if you believe you are, what are you ready for? We all need to check our readiness occasionally. It can be so easy to get a little bit lazy and start forgetting some things. One of the things that we get a little lazy about is our physical readiness. Face it, it takes a healthy person to be able to take to the woods if necessary. I am not saying that we should be Marine Corps ready, but we should be in good enough shape to deep going day to day under some not so good conditions. This is another reason that I am so high on the value of storing the correct type of food for survival. The kind of food you have to survive on will determine how we feel and how much energy we have. 

First, let us take a look at exercise. As I stated, this is not the Marine Corps so we will not have to do calisthenics. That is unless you want to. There is nothing wrong with calisthenics, it is just that they take up time and may not always be necessary. One of the things that you should try to do is to walk, jog or run at least one half hour each day. Pick the one that serves you best and stick with it. I personally am a walker. At my age my knees will not stand the pounding and besides, doctors tell me that walking is better in many ways than running or jogging. Now, if you are a jogger or a runner, I would not suggest you quit, it is just that for those who are doing none of it now, walking is probably the best.  You also need some type of exercise program that will keep you physically fit. This does not necessarily have to be set exercises, it can be different types of work. For instance, I like to split firewood by hand. We burn wood all winter and I split all of it by hand. There are always a few that I cannot split and those I just set aside. When I get enough of these, I go and rent a log splitter and do them. 

Now that spring is here I will be starting to garden. This is also an excellent exercise. The wife and I have a fairly large garden and do much of the work by hand. This kills two birds with one stone, first you get the exercise and second you get a good supply of food. Another thing I do at this time of the year is begin to ride my bicycle. This is another excellent form of exercise that is not hard on the knees. From April to about October I alternate every other day: one day I bike and the next day I walk. I spend a half hour on each thing and it works out very well. One thing I do is to take Sunday off. That is I take it off as an exercise. Many nice Sundays my wife and I go to the National Wildlife Refuge or a State Park and ride. This is a much more leisurely ride than my exercise. However, it does improve overall health.

Another thing that I do is go to the Gym once a week. Fifteen minutes of weights, fifteen minutes of treadmill, stationary bike, etc. and then to the pool for a fifteen minute swim. Going more often would be better, but my schedule prevents much more than that. 

You need to look at your weight and your diet. With the obesity problem in America, there are many people who are overweight. As a survivalist, you owe it to yourself to be at your bet weight or at least close. I could stand to lose ten pounds to be at my absolute best for my age and my height. However, I do not consider that to be too bad. You need to eat a healthy diet if you are to be a good survivalist. That proper diet will keep you going in a survival situation. Having a craving for burgers, chips, fries, soda and other things will not let you have a comfortable survival when all of these things are unavailable. so now is the time to get your eating habits in order. 

That is basically all there is to it. Get plenty of exercise, build both you muscles and your stamina and eat sensibly and you will soon feel better about facing a survival situation. Actually, there are many more things you could do on your way to a healthier you, but this will get you started and you can decide how far you want to go. 

Until Next Time SURVIVE!!!

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Ammo Supply

I do not thing that any two survivalists agree on the amount or type of ammo that should be kept on hand. I have my own ideas and when I tell other survivalists, I usually get told that it is way too much or not nearly enough. That will give you an idea of the different thinking on the subject of ammo. The guidelines that I am going to lay out here are what I consider an all around average. Each person can adjust to what I say according to how much shooting they do, both in practice and in hunting. The figures I work with give ammunition a five year shelf life. I realize that some ammo will last much longer as I have used ammo that was ten and even twenty years old. However, that being said, five years is probably optimal for all ammo. Using the five years figure and the amount of practice that I do and that I recommend, I work out the numbers. So, let us look at some figures and see what you think.

Let us look at the shotgun first. For this I recommend 2,100 rounds. This may sound like a lot, but it really is not. I have gone waterfowl hunting and gone through two boxes in a day, that is fifty rounds. I have also thrown clay targets with my grandsons and gone through five or six boxes in a day, that is 150 rounds. Also, you need to split these rounds up by different types and here is how I would do it. First I would get 1,200 rounds of bird shot, 2s, 4s, 6s and 7 1/2s. I would add 400 rounds of 00 and 000 buckshot. Now add 500 rifled slugs and you have your shotgun shells in order.

Now for the center fire rifle I recommend 2,000 rounds. This is to be your main defense gun and also your hunting rifle. However, I see the shotgun more as a hunting weapon than the center fire rifle. I would probably split the center fire ammo into two different bullet weights. For instance using a 30-06, I would opt for 125 grain and 180 grain bullets. the 125 would be for defense and the 180 for hunting. If you do not intend on doing much hunting with your defense rifle (as I do not) one bullet weight is all you need. Never have more than two bullet weights as remembering point of impact of several bullet weights is rather difficult. 

Next we will move on to your handgun. Here I drop down to 1,500 rounds. Here there are so many handguns, both wheelguns and autos that it is hard to say what type of ammo to have as far as bullet weights and whether you want jacketed or hollow point, etc. For instance, if you are a wheelgun fan and have a .357 you may want some jacketed hollow points and some solid lead. You would also do well to have some .38 special ammo on hand for some of your practice. For a .357 you could also add some bird shot and multi-ball loads, but these should be in addition to your 1500 rounds.

When we come to the .22 rimfire it is the hardest one to advise for. If you are like me, the .22 will be the most used weapon in your weapon battery. If you have both a rifle and a handgun you will be using up a lot of ammo if you practice regularly. I do not think that any less than 3,000 rounds should be kept and I might go as high as 5,000 rounds. There are a couple of reasons for the large amount. First, they are the least expensive for practice. Second, in a survival situation they can be used for barter to those dummies that do not have enough. Third, the .22 makes a fair hunting round. And finally fourth, in a pinch, they can be used as a defense round. I would split the ammo this way, two-thirds solid point and the other one-third hollow point all in the long rifle configuration. Make sure you check out the trajectory of both the hollow and solid point as they are different. 

By now you may be wondering where the heck am I going to store all of this ammo. I store mine in surplus ammo boxes. I prefer the .50 caliber boxes as they hold a fair amount of ammo and are still not too heavy. If you are going to bury your ammo for safe keeping I would still suggest these boxes, but I would suggest that you take the ammo out of the original boxes and vacuum seal it in good vacuum bags with a label inside of the bag giving the specs and the date it was purchased. Now if the seal on the lid is tight, they are as good as any storage unit you can find. There are many other ways, that is just one that I prefer. If you are not going to bury any of 

your ammo, leave it in the original boxes with the date on it or vacuum seal them the same as if you were going to bury them. Rotate your stock by practicing with the oldest ammo first and adding as much as you shoot up in practice. 

There you have my plan for ammo. You do not need to purchase it all at once, but get started and keep adding until you get to the ideal. See you next time and in the meantime SURVIVE!!!

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