Shadow and Stick Compass

Not my favorite video, but this is a concept everybody should familiar with. It is a very simple way to find an East/West line if you are lost and without a compass. Just be aware that the sun is in the North if you happen to be in the southern hemisphere, so any Aussies watching should reverse the last bit. The East/West line always remains the same.


                       

Mk1 UEV 490 off-road camper trailer, Conqueror Australia

P38 can opener

One of my daily carry essentials, the P38 can opener. Developed in WW2, it was the standard issue can opener used to open military rations. Used all the way up until the advent of MRE's (meals ready to eat) in the early 80's. It is a much smaller, and lighter alternative to a standard can opener. It's foldable and easily stores in a wallet or on a keychain. At a price point of under a dollar you can't beat it. Pick one up on Amazon or at any military surplus retailer.

Regularly inspect your ammunition

Firearm safety is of utmost importance to me. Properly maintained firearms and safe practices are the best way to avoid accidents. One thing that I used to give little thought to was my ammunition. I rarely purchase low quality ammo, and I don't reload my own. So what could go wrong with factory loaded ammunition? Lots apparently.

A few years back I got my full carry license, carried nearly every day since. My first choice for carry ammunition was Hornady TAP. Being that they are expensive, I rarely used them at the range. I ran a box through it with no issues, so I loaded them up and carried them in my gun for about a year. Then Hornady comes out with "TAP, Critical defense." So I picked up a couple boxes and brought them to the range to see how they would run. I decided to blow through the old carry stuff since I would be switching over anyway. To my dismay, my gun jammed up after every shot. So I load some target rounds, with no oiling or cleaning the gun runs fine, the ammo is the culprit. Upon closer inspection I notice that every round that had been in a magazine for over a year, was slightly egg shaped. The pressure from the magazine spring, pressing in one spot, for months and months, had deformed them all. So lesson learned, cycle through your ammo, unload and reload magazines regularly to prevent this. I haven't had this problem since.

Fast forward about two years, I have now purchased a Springfield 1911 in .45 caliber. My first choice again was Hornady TAP, Critical Defence in .45 +P. I had issues immediately, I was unable to unload the gun after a round was chambered. Very scary situation. Finally, I was able to force the slide backwards ejecting the round. So after some Googling, and some show and tell at the gun shop, we determined that Springfield handguns with "match" barrels don't have the headspace needed for these specific rounds. So back to regular old TAPs in this gun.

For those that don't know, 1911 is a big, heavy gun. The .45 is also a very powerful cartridge. This means that the recoil spring in the gun is comparably heavy, making the slide mechanism have quite a bit of oomph when loading the next round. Too bad that this can mean major damage to shells when they don't eject properly while unloading a live round. I have had a multitude of damaged bullets from this. The damages include bent cases, dented cases, and probably the scariest one, pressing the bullet further into the case. I have never seen anything like this before, but there it is. (pictured left) The reason this is so bad is because the bullet being pressed further into the case will increase the pressure when it is fired. This slightly shorter bullet could have resulted in a blown up gun. (worst case scenario) So when unloading a gun, point down and away from anything, eject the magazine and pull back firmly on the slide. The live round should eject normally, if it doesn't, lock the slide back and remove the jammed round.



My practice now is pretty simple to avoid these issues. I clean all my guns once a month, (a good practice to be in anyway) while doing so I empty all magazines and inspect every round. I lightly oil them as well with Rem oil from a spray can, I find this helps prevent corrosion and reduces jamming. In addition to that I inspect any live round that I eject when unloading my carry gun.

Surviving the next Sandy

For those who have experienced this first hand, this post is coming a bit too late. But if you have been reading you'll know that there are a few posts that apply to this disaster. I am very disheartened to see that no one takes their own survival seriously until the news and Facebook tells them to. Preparation is paramount living anywhere in the world. Now it seems that these types of extreme weather are happening more frequently, making long term preparation more necessary. You cannot wait until the day before the storm to stock up, and a run on the gas stations days after only causes panic and gas shortages. To tell everyone that they should get gas today because "all those assholes from Jersey are gonna buy up all our gas" is a self fulfilling prophecy. We did run out of gas here, for one day. Solely because everyone filled up at once. Why was every gas can in the state bought up? I have five or six gas cans. You would think that anyone with a car or a lawnmower would've picked one up before then.

You wanna know what my preparation for this was? I started the generator for a few minutes to make sure it was running ok and Jenna put all the lawn furniture in the shed. No hoarding gas, no running to Home Depot to fight over generators, no buying up a hundred C batteries. (By the way if you still have one of those giant Mag lights that even uses C batteries you are severely outdated in the lighting department) Granted, I am a crazy person, so I am very over prepared for something like this, but there is really no reason to not have five days worth of food in your house. In this post I am gonna lay out a really cheap survival kit, this combined with a five day food supply and you should be able to ride out about anything that might hit the Northeast.






I will touch on food only briefly, just think of three simple meals per day, per person. (Non-perishable of course) Might be a good idea to avoid foods that require cooking, think of soup, spam, stuff like that. Personally I like to stock up on rice and dried beans, the main reason is that they're cheap and last indefinitely if kept dry. These do require cooking but if you have a camp stove or a generator (or the simple ability to make fire) this isn't a problem. For simple indoor cooking I like Sterno, they work well and it's easy to cut up a soup can to make a little stove. Make sure to buy the name brand ones though, they are the only ones I've found that guarantee safe use indoors. I also have a butane stove from MSR that i really like. (purchased at Eastern Mountain Sports) If you can spare the cash commercially available emergency food is a good bet. Most of them are freeze dried and require boiling water. A really good option are military style MRE's. (Meals ready to eat) These can be opened up and eaten as is, or warmed up. Some even come with a heater that uses a chemical reaction to heat your food, it only requires a couple ounces of water to do so.



-First thing in your kit should be flashlights. Buy good ones! Cheapo flashlights are not bright, unreliable and they chew through batteries. Mini Mag Light LED is a cheap, reliable option. They will run about four hours on one set of batteries. Swap new batteries into the kit every two years.

-Next have a mylar survival blanket for each person in the house, you can get them in the camping section at any store that has a camping section. You never know how long the power will be out, or how cold it will be while it is.

-A good first aid kit is important to have in the house any way, build one or buy one.

-A bunch of guns. Not for everyone, I know, just saying is all.

-At least two road flares, important for signaling for help.

-A crank or battery powered radio.

-Two lighters and matches. The best kind to get would be the strike anywhere waterproof ones. (camping section)

-At least six 9 hour emergency candles (camping section as well)

-A solid muti-tool is a must, if you don't know your knives you can't go wrong with a Gerber, they sell them at Dick's. I prefer Columbia river, they sell them at Eastern Mountain sports or on Amazon.

-Some kind of water container is possibly the most important, at least five gallons worth per person. With flooding comes sewage and seawater, possibly contaminating the drinking water supply. Fill your containers before the storm and if there is flooding, do not trust the tap water until it is deemed safe. If you don't have a container, fill the bathtub.

When you get the news that a storm is coming, go through and check the kit, test batteries and check your water supply. You should also pack a bag for each person in the event of an evacuation. I also cannot stress enough how important cash is. If phone lines are down and power is out, you cannot use your debit card or withdraw money at the atm. If you are evacuated a couple hundred bucks will be a good thing to have with you. And yes, you should have a full tank of gas. A good rule of thumb is to always keep a half tank in your vehicle, true for hurricanes and the zombie apocalypse.

Having now covered the basic survival end of things I want to talk about one of the simpler things. As we have seen, people in the city were desperate to simply charge their phone. It may sound stupid, but a charged phone could be a lifesaver. Not just from boredom, but in the event of a medical emergency, or to simply let a loved one know that you're ok. If you have a smartphone, and no way to charge it, turn the damn thing off. Change your outgoing message to reflect that, and turn it on a few times a day to check it. If you have a car, make sure to have a car charger, worst case you can charge it out there. If you don't have a car you're gonna have to plan ahead. One of my many contingencies is a solar backup battery, I did a post on it a few months back. (Solar Battery Backup) This thing is pretty cool, and it can give you about a charge and a half before it dies. As long as its sunny you can top it off all day and charge at night.

For a longer term solution, I have a D/C system set up in my closet, using two car batteries and a solar panel. I did a quick video on it awhile back. (Be inventive) This is a bit ambitious for most. The simple way to make one of these small systems is an automotive jump box and a 12 volt solar panel. These can be picked up at place like Autozone or Advance auto parts for under 150 dollars. Most of these jump packs have a 12v power outlet you can plug a car charger into. So just keeping it plugged into the wall until the power goes out will probably give you enough to charge your phone for a week.

When riding the train

Many of us spend a good part of the day traveling via public transportation. I'm not a commuter myself but I am currently riding the train on my way to Grand Central. Travel by train is incredibly safe, much more so than by car. Same goes for buses and airplanes. This being said, when things goes awry on these types of transport, it can be disastrous. So heres few tips for traveling via train. These are easily applied to bus and air travel as well.

First things first, choose your seat. (Whenever possible) I prefer to choose the seats at the ends of the train when the train is a bit empty. Gives me four seats to spread out a bit, and usually a power outlet. Another big advantage to these seats is also the close proximity to the doors and your choice on direction to face. Being near the door is a no brainer, but the direction you're facing in the event of a crash can minimize injury. Facing backwards limits the likelihood of being thrown from your seat. Admittedly it would be of little help in a derailment, but I feel it can't hurt. 

Next know your exits. Make sure you have two exits in mind at all times. Count the number of seats to each, so you can reach them in the dark. (You should have flashlight on you, I carry a penlight in my pocket at all times) If you aren't seated by the doors I recommend sitting in an emergency exit row. Even when seated in this row, be sure to memorize the route to the nearest exit on the opposite side of the train. If the train becomes derailed it is very likely that your car will be on its side when it comes to a stop. Read the directions on how to operate the emergency exit a couple times so you don't have to do so under duress. Take note of where emergency tools are located as well. On my train there's an emergency pry bar above the exit closest to me and the emergency door controls are to my left.

The more likely emergency that you will encounter would be something like a fire. This is unlikely to be a real emergency as the car you're on catching fire is near impossible. A diesel locomotive can catch fire, but there are many redundancies to keep that fire from spreading to the passenger cars. In this scenario, passengers panicking is probably the bigger danger. All you can do is pay attention and keep calm. I also like to keep all my stuff together in my bag so I'm not scrambling if they evacuate the train. 

These scenarios are highly unlikely, but don't be complacent! Being aware of your surroundings becomes second nature very quickly, and takes no time at all. Those few moments of looking around while choosing your seat could save your life.

-Update, 5/18

Thankfully no one was killed, but yesterday at 6:10 pm there was a derailment on a Metro North train in Connecticut. About 60 people were injured, 5 critically, when a New Haven-bound commuter train derailed and struck a Manhattan bound train on the track beside it. It is unclear as of yet what caused the derailment.

Read more at NY Daily News

Photo courtesy of NY Daily News.

Living Outside, with Cody Lundin