Mosin Nagant or Ar-15 for SHTF rifle?

If your asking yourself this question consider a different type of firearm, the shotgun. Stay tuned and I'll tell you why. If you don't have time to watch, I know I tend to be long winded even after cutting this down, I'll highlight the key points. Moderate amounts of training make the AR or shotgun far more effective than similar amounts of training with a Mosin in most situations. There a plenty of tactical classes around the country that specifically focus on the use of a shotgun or AR-15 platform for self defense not so with the Mosin. (I hope to take a carbine class when I have the $$).  The shotgun can be used to hunt large and small game depending on the size of shot used or commonly for deer a slug can be used, Both the Mosin and AR-15 fail in the small game category. So if you don't want to spend the cash on a modern battle rifle for prepping purposes wait and get a shotgun


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Top 10 things you DO NOT need for a SHTF/WROL

Canister Stoves and their deficits for long term prepping.

Howdy everyone,
  So In some comments I have made and perhaps even in one of my video I have mentioned canister stoves as a possibility to for the bug out bag. They are light weight and easy to use, their major downsides are that they take very specific fuel that comes in disposable canisters. their use is solely based on how many canisters you have or can find. This is totally acceptable for a bug out bag as I believe a bug out bag should be to get from one known location to another and not as some sort of bag that will let you survive in the woods indefinitely (no bag can do that the only thing that can do that is you, and I don't recommend it in SHTF).
Last night I came across a down side to the canister stove, mine in particular is the Snow Peak gigapower, that makes it unacceptable for a bug out bag. I have had my gigapower stove for almost 9 years so I know its old, however in those 9 years I've probably only used it for a total of 2 or 3 months worth of cooking, I generally use my whisper light international, fire, or the stove provided by the company I was working for. I have not used my stove for about 1 year and the last time I used it it was working fine. I was going to do a quick video on making charcloth as I need to make a bit more and was planning on using my snowpeak snow as I did not have time to build a proper fire. Anyways the snowpeak stoves fuel jet somehow has become clogged. I looked at the users manual to see how to fix this and they recommend bringing it back to the distributor, and I intend on doing just that, next chance I get I'm bringing it back to REI.  Obviously this brings up some concerns as something to put in a bug out bag. The stove could probably still boil water but would  take at least 4 times longer due to the lower flame from the clogged jet. So basically if you throw this in you bug out bag and don't use it, it is totally possible it could somehow become clogged and function less efficiently. I'm not sure how mine got clogged but it did and that means it can happen.
     The whisper light international has a self cleaning jet with a pin in it that cleans when it is shaken. Also the jet and pin can easily be removed if additional cleaning is needed. The whisper light definitely burns dirtier off white gas than the Snowpeak canister stove does and requires more cleaning. however when the Snowpeak does finally need cleaning it is no easy task. I began trying to figure out had to take it apart and clean it and then decided I'd bring it back so as not to void the warranty. That the snow peak would be very hard to clean in the field as opposed to the whisper light international which I have fully dissembled and reassembled including the fuel line in the field. While the whisper light is a bit heavier in the long term its design makes it more worthwhile. I also picked up some spare whisper light parts that on of the companies I worked for was getting rid of when they changed to a different model. There is no such thing as spare parts for the Snowpeak as far as I know.

so If I cannot get my stove replaced at REI for free I'm not gonna bother as I believe the whisper light to be far superior.

When to bug out

In the previous post I described why a lot of bug out plans are poor decision. The key factor in this being that no matter what level skills level you have you cannot tell the future, thus even if you can sustain yourself indefinitely with the wilderness as it is now there is no telling what the condition will be like post SHTF. I believe too many people plan on making a go of it in the woods which will turn the wilderness into a war zone. So when should you bug out? Its probably a good idea if you live in a city but you need to have a plan. If you plan on bugging out you need to have a bug out location. Now unless your building a bunker with 10inch thick steel doors with a complex locking system, chances are someone will be in your bug out location by the time you get there. So if buying remote land and building a bunker is in your prepping budget? Find a close friend or family member that you TRUST with your life and that of your loved ones, literally, that lives in a remote location. Balancing trust, remoteness of location and travel time from your residence. Try to get them into prepping, if they think your crazy try someone else. Convince them that you will be stronger a as a team if SHTF and begin your prepping at their residence. you can stock pile goods, firearms etc. help build a sustainable agriculture system, etc. You may need to foot some of the bill on their prepping but in the end it will be cheaper and more reliable than leaving your bug out location unattended. Remember to make sure they are well trained in defending their home because until you get there they'll be defending your supplies as well.

Post #1 why using survival skills in a SHTF is stupid.

I have just started a youtube channel about similar subject matter and am creating this blog to discuss the same subject I've been thinking about. you can check out my channel here https://www.youtube.com/user/rocksthetrail So who am I and what made me come to the conclusion that planning on using survival skills in a SHTF situation is stupid? I have been practicing wilderness survival and primitive living skills for 16 years. I began as a child learning at a primitive living skills summer camp I went on to work as a counselor there teaching wilderness survival and primitive living skills. I went on to work as a wilderness field instructor for a wilderness therapy program that focused on primitive living skills and self sufficiency both for practical applications and as a mind set. I made it to being a master wilderness field instructor, the highest level of instructors. I have spent a total of 4 years or around 1,460 nights sleeping in the woods. While I never worked for BOSS or Tom Brown school I believe my experience has given me a solid base to understand wilderness survival skills. I am confident in my ability to survive with nothing more than some decent clothes on my back, a knife and a metal water bottle. I stopped working as a field instructor last April and am currently working as a mental health professional. I am engaged to be married this summer and plan on starting a family in the near future. As such the option to bug out and live in the woods is no longer an option. As I have begun my journey to being prepared some I have done some rethinking of my previous plan for a SHTF situation and seen that it was based more on my ego and attempts to derive identity from my wilderness survival skills rather than logical or practical. Often when my students asked me what I would do in a SHTF situation I would reply with something involving bugging out to a wilderness location, living off the land setting up traps for the "zombies" or other intruders and limiting myself to a .22 rifle for hunting and protection. This was based more in fantasy than reality. While I am confident that if I needed to right now I could go out into the woods with minimal supplies and survive for an indefinite period. However survive is the key word here, I would be in a constant state of survival. looking for food, building a camp etc. would consume all of my time. The more supplies I would bring out with me the easier go at it i'd have. I've carried a 90 pound bag over glaciers in Patagonia, it sucks, and that's pretty much my limit. my car can hold even more and my house even more than that. even If I were to build on awesome camp where I was relatively comfortable there is no way it would be a defensible as my home with equal amounts of time and effort put into security and hey I can start working on home security now, I don't have to weight for SHTF to go off into the woods and starting building something from tree branches and cordage. point #1 even if you have the skills to survive in the wilderness most of you time initial time is going to be spent on thing that can easily be stored in a house. Ok so lets imagine SHTF, how many people have similar ideas that I did? A lot and the wilderness survival industry tends to perpetuate these ideas. lets take a quick look at Tom Brown, I loved his books when I was getting into wilderness survival, however sometimes he writes things like we found a nice spot to spend the night, in two hours we had debris huts constructed, built a bowdrill from scratch and were about to roast the two rabbits our dead fall traps had caught (not an actual quote but he states similar things a lot in his books). I thought wow if I really learn these skills I'll be able to do that. WRONG. I don't care who you are or how fast you are with you skills in summer the fastest I have ever made a debris hut is around 5 hours, I can construct a bow drill set and get a fire going normally in 1-2 hours if the woods relatively dry otherwise, sure I've busted a coal in 8 seconds but that was with a set that I spent way longer than 2 hours constructing. As far as traps go to catch 2 rabbits, especially using natural bait your probably going to need well over 100 traps. Just setting these up is going to take you at least 2 hours and that is if you have the traps already made and can find a good location, lots of signs of small game, find a good sized rock and get your trap up all in just a little over 1 minute. So Tom Brown has magic survival skills that gives newer survivalist an unrealistic picture of what it means to survive. In my experience most simulated survival situation involve a good amount of being hungry and cold. Now who knows what the wilderness is gonna be like post event, lots of refugee and not too much food. Even if you can survive in the woods now does not mean you will be able to post event. we just don't know whats going to happen and how the country will respond. more to come later