Marauders

I was flipping through the channels tonight and saw that NatGeo's show Doomsday Preppers was on. I went ahead and clicked the remote and got a revelation and a  surprise. Tonight's Prepper Idiot was a man and his friends who are not really preppers but call themselves marauders. Tyler and his friends stated that in the event of a calamity they intend to raid actual preppers. This guy is a total asshat. He carries about 150 extra pounds of blubber and about 25 pounds of shit in head. Here's an idea, since he announced his intention to raid preppers in his area, why don't the preppers in his AO make a punitive strike and punish those that have every intention of stealing from them and committing violence upon them. I have said it before, you have to be a little off to put your preps and plans on TV. This just proves my point. This guy fabbed up some home made body armor out of bath tile, fiberglass matte, duct tape, roofing tar and some scrap metal. Claiming it would protect him from rifle fire. He then proceeded to test it by being shot with a 12 gauge that was obviously firing a light load of something as there was very little impact to him after being shot from a distance of about 3 feet. At that range the shot would still be in the cup and he would have been struck with, oh say, an ounce and a quarter of lead traveling at a decent velocity. Let's see him try that test with a .308 at 50 yards or even a hundred. Hmm, how about it tough guy?

Missouri Preparedness Expo

I found a link to this over at Survival Blog yesterday. I thought I was pretty well covered about things like this but one escaped my radar. And to make it even better it's THIS WEEKEND in Springfield Missouri. I'm hoping to make to make it on Sunday. Any Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas Bloggers going to be there? Give me a holler and maybe we can meet up. I know it's short notice but that's the way I found it. There will be a whole host of guest speakers and vendors there. The propriator of SurvivalBlog will be teleconferencing the Expo. World renowned Dr. Joel Wallach will be there as well as many survival/firearms/second ammendments speakers in attendence. Sounds like my kinda fun.

Re-Review of Doomsday Prepper

In the first episode of Doomsday Preppers, one of the preppers spotlighted was a young woman I referred to as Family 3. Over at James Rawles place I found a link to an interview with her regarding the filming of her segment. Just as all of figured NatGeo is trying to make preppers look like fools. So if you watch any more of these shows bear in mind that most TV networks are anti-freedom, anti-gun, anti-prepper, anti-survivalist. As a matter of fact they hate almost everything we hold dear to our lives.

Doomsday Prepper Review

Last night NatGeo aired a new series called "Doomsday Preppers". I wanted to see if it was going to be lame or helpful so I watched and took notes. I do this review knowing full well that my preps are not where I want them to be and my physical condition will not allow a lot of walking or hand to hand fighting. I don't find fault to poke my finger, I find fault to help others improve their lot in the prepper scene.

Episode One

Family 1

This 2 person family lives in some stacked up converted shipping containers. More power to 'em. Great idea. Problem is they bullet proof tested this shelter with .22 long rifle rounds as that is the most common cartridge. Uhh, what about all those guns that shoot 5.56 and 7.62 rounds? They do have a lot of food stored away. In an uninsulated, unconditioned container. I have been in those containers in the summer. They are extremely HOT. Which is not good for food storage. Conversely they are very COLD in the winter which will lead to frozen food and broken jars. They are prepping for a polar shift. If this leads to an earthquake all his food will fall off the shelf and the containers will break. If all their food is ruined, I saw no means of gardening or other food production. Finally, they are the only two living there. They made mo mention of plans for others to live with them in a TEOTWAWKI situation. So they have to provide for all safety and security as well as tend to their property. Not good.

Family 2

Chris Nyerges

This guy has been around the survival scene for years. He used to write articles for the old printed "American Survival Guide" magazine. He portrayed a single person living off the land in the Hollywood area. Finding and eating various plants and herbs he found on stroll along a river, he showed that a person could live well of the land. Come on Chris, how long is all that going to last when the population of the LA region is trying to feed their selves and kill you for what you have? He unloaded his survival pack and showed the contents. Most of the bag space was taken up with knives. Really, he had 12-15 knives in that little pack. I prefer to think he was practising good OPSEC and just showed that even in an urban area you could find something to eat and not showing this was how he intended to survive.

Family 3

Single Woman

She likes to party. She wants to survive in her disaster world caused by a global oil crisis. As millions of people do, she lives in an apartment. She, and I say she because no significant other is ever shown even though she uses the plural "we" often. She has enough food and such to live in her apartment for a couple of weeks. She had seed packs but no plan or experience in planting or growing. Then she will hit the road on foot for the nicer environment of MEXICO! She has it all planned out, when she runs out of food in her pack she states that she plans to whore herself out to survive. Great plan. Live a life of degradation, disease and violence and call it surviving. She claims to exercise 4 hours a day 6 days a week but she is not toned and is rather uncoordinated. Everyone I can think of that gets that much exercise is very fit and coordinated. She does have some firearms and does get training in their use. She is also taking hand to hand combat instruction. Congratulations on that. She runs and hikes through night time Houston with a full pack in short shorts and an abbreviated exercise top. Hand gun hidden deeply in the pack. She did show that she has a knife available to her. But can she use it? Is she willing get face to face with someone and use a knife on them? The after show interview with her revealed that she has cancelled her Mexico plan and has enlisted in the military.

Show notes
I noticed that the .22 rimfires, the centerfire rifles and handguns and the shotguns all sounded the same. Canned sound I guess.

Episode 2 notes tomorrow. n

Broadcasting Your Preps or How to Blow Your OPSEC

Have you seen the Nation Geographic Channel show called "Doomsday Preppers"? I caught an episode today. Let me start by saying everyone has their own idea of preparedness. OK? So, this show profiled 3 different preppers. All of them started out on the prepper road pretty much the same way. What I saw, what I see, what I read about event X got me (them) started. Whether event X is a solar ejection, a "nukular" crisis, a financial collapse or a 2012 end of the world situation they all let that thought drive their determined logistical acquisition of food, supplies, meds, arms, techniques and tactics. The only one I had a real problem with is the 2 family group in South Carolina. First off the one non land owner family says if it gets too bad to stay where they are they plan to retreat to the farm of their landowner buddy. 20 minutes away. Once they are ensconced in the safety of the remote farm 20 minutes away, the two families intend to hold on to their 50+ acre farm/retreat with 4 adults and about 4 kids under the age of 16 or so. A couple of the kids are under 12 I would guess. The owner has the ability to plant fields in crops and has cattle and chickens for the protein factor. If things get real bad they intend to cut their protected acreage to 5 acres, using small perimeter trip wire alarms that emit a local buzzing sound that could barely be heard on the TV. They have 1 or two LP/OP (listening post/observation posts). So with 4 adults and 2 teenage kids they are going to plant and harvest crops, preserve foods, tend to and butcher livestock, provide security for the retreat and man up to two LP/OP's 24 hours a day with this small group. ??? The "expert panel" recommended that they get more families to join them. The group poo pooed this idea. They have a tractor to farm with but no mention was made of stored fuel. Now maybe this was OPSEC "that's a military term" but I doubt it. I really believe a well set up retreat group or single family would poo poo the idea of broadcasting their names, general locations and level of preparations. Now that's real OPSEC.