Prepping

The title of this article sounds more like a scientific paper than a survival topic, and that is by design. I would prefer that the dufus brigade not read it. Canning food demands attention to detail, and though this method of canning is a fringe, do not try this at home kind of idea, it is still canning. You need to pay attention to the details. I would not suggest canning with just paraffin wax except in a genuine “use or or lose it” food survival situation, but it does work.

From the very start in this column I have been an advocate of “bug-in” as opposed to bug out. Stock up on flour, grains, rice, beans, and canned food, and figure out a means to cook them. In the past I have considered short term cooking solutions, like heater bags and alcohol stoves, and long term solutions, using wood and diesel fuel. This is the king of wood burning Rocket Stoves.

Some survival issues are really hard, and some are very easy. If you are on well water and you are worried that you will not be able to drink once the grids goes down for good, you are correct. But there is a good chance that an inexpensive “Pitcher Pump” will solve your problem.

“Sustenance in the absence of perishable foods” is perhaps the most concise definition of survival food I have found. I just got that from the Wikipedia page on Hardtack, which is a hard cracker made of flour, water and salt, known for its long term storage and sustainment properties.

I would never suggest anyone bring a sword to a gunfight, but I think that a good quality sword should have it’s place in your preparations for the breakdown of our civil world.

The most shameful way to make money is by taking advantage of someone who doesn’t know any better. In the prepper and survival world, that equals almost everyone in the market. Because no matter much you would normally research a purchase before making it, almost all of us rush out and buy “survival food” before just about anything else. I did that myself, and even sent some to friends and relatives. But after a little research, I figured out that survival food is a scam.

Since we haven’t devolved into Prepper theory for a while, I thought today would be a good day. As I write this, the markets have just closed Friday, after Great Britain voted to leave the European Union. You are probably reading this on Monday, after our weekly GunsAmerica Digest goes out. Probably the markets are crashing, but I’m not a prophet. Our so financial and monetary system is so strung out, who knows if the end of the giant game of musical chairs game is today. But more importantly, our question here is, if you haven’t done the work of preparing for the collapse, is it *today* too late?

There will never be anything cooler than building a real, working and safe-shooting firearm from scratch when it comes to DIY street cred.

I think there is a huge difference between long term “bug-in” survival preparations, and short term “bug-out” survival preparations. Depending on your situation, bug-out might be your only option. As I explained in my bugout pack article, most of what you carry should be food. And though cooking may seem like a luxury for a survival situation, you’ll find that most inexpensive and calorie dense foods need to be cooked. You don’t want to carry a lot of water, when you can pick up water and cook dry food on the road. That means you should also carry a stove, and that stove needs to be light, efficient with fuel, and it should be able to cook your food in a reasonable amount of time. In my travels for this column I have covered a number of great cooking options, but this week I’d like to share my newest discovery that all of those qualities considered, I think might be the best for urban bug-out.