DEFENSE AND FOOD

I have been reading blogs with newbies on them talking about guns. I LOVE to talk about guns. I keep remembering that talk about how making yourself a lamb in the midst of wolves will get your ass eaten! Not my cup of tea, thank you. I always admired the speech in the movie Patton where the guy playing Patton said "You let that other sonovabitch die for HIS country!" I love logic and reason. They couldn't have gotten a better actor to play Patton than George C. Scott.

Guns are made to kill things. Pretty simple when you consider that for anything to live something must die. Whether it be a Bull Moose or a blade of grass, something dies so that something else might live. You go out and watch nature here in the country and you soon realize that critters are eating each other night and day. It's natural. It's the way things are set up.

Science says that we can't make it without protein. It says that protein is absolutely necessary for human survival. The most concentrated form of protein I know of is MEAT. And there are all kinds of critters out there for you to eat. And our particular legacy in life, the Bible, says that animals were cleared for human consumption by God clear back in the days of Noah. In the New Testament the availability of animals was increased by vision given to Peter. So we eat meat. And we will continue to eat meat for many millenium. That was given to us and we shall do it.

If peace comes to your land for an extended period of time, then you can raise animals for meat. Pretty handy to be able to just go to the butcher shop and get some meat for dinner. But in hard times you had better be able to hunt and kill your own. Stray cattle and hogs come to mind. If TEOTWAWKI comes there will be all kinds of critters out there roaming around. And hogs will be leading the pack. I read of a hog raiser who bred 5 continuous generations of hogs, inside a building, on a concrete floor. They were fed and watered and bore litters and did this for 5 generations. They never stepped out side the building. The 6th generation was let loose and it went into the woods and started to eat mast off the forest floor immediately. It took them no time at all to go completely wild again. It is in their makeup and they are an old source old protein. Eat hearty, or as the voice said to Peter, "Kill and eat."

A rifle is probably the most efficient method of killing game such as deer. Deer are browsers and move around. They are fast and if startled will vacate the area most hastily. A good Sniper, oops, I meant deer hunter, will lay low and wait until the deer come by and harvest his meat quickly and efficiently.

Most other game beside the big fast ones, are easy to harvest with a shotgun. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, ground hogs beaver, etc. all fall to the shotgun. ChinaMart sells #8 shot 12 gauge shells for $22 or $23 a box of 100. Not a bad price. Pick one up every month. It's a wise investment. And you know, when the woman is cooking a Dutch Oven of Beans and Corn or Rice on the coals of your cookfire, you can always throw a few Tweety Bird carcasses in with the Beans and up that protein content. You gut and skin the bird and throw it in there and Mother Nature will take care of the rest. And your wife and you and your children will have protein. Good tasting protein.

Ducks and Geese generally take a little heavier shot than what ol' Tweety Bird will fall for. If this kind of meat floats your boat and it's available then stock up on heavier shot. Simple enough. We don't want to complicate this thing. If you're going out for Tweety Bird then take Tweety Bird shot when you hunt.

A 12 guge shotgun will give you the most advantage of various sizes of ammo. Heavy animal then heavy shot. Light animal then light shot. You can observe what the game is like in your area. This will give you your leading for what kind of shot to buy.

Another weapon that is popular with survivalists is the 22 LR rifle. There are many to chose from. You can go from an Olympic target gun to a single shot Chipmonk for your kid, or for you. Most folks go for a semi-automatic like a Ruger 10-22. That is what I shoot and that is what I can talk about. The thing about the 22LR is the cost. The cheapest shotgun shells are 22 or 23 cents apiece and a 22LR is about 15% of that. Very easy on the budget. And it will kill out to about 100 years if you are good enough. I personally know a man who has killed deer with a 22 Short! I don't recommend that type of shot but if it is all you have then get to it. But the smaller critters will all fall to the 22 LR. The usual suspects: Squirrels, Rabbits, Birds of all kinds, Beaver, Groundhogs,and whatever else suits your fancy.

Then we get to the matter of self defense. The best advice I ever read was to use whatever you can use to good results. Remember, if you can hit with it you can defend yourself with it. Hitting your target makes a big difference in self defense.

For CQB or close quarters battle, I prefer a shotgun. Anything within 50 yards is susceptible to dying when confronted with the bad end of a shotgun. At least a 12 gauge shotgun. I will defend my home with a 12 gauge full of 00 Buck. And God help the poor dumb puke who comes to defeat it. I can do aimed fire and I can do suppresive fire. My neighbor in the building sleeps along side of Wingmaster just like I do. Times could get tough for anyone attacking us. I can walk a tube of 00 Buck down a road or a driveway and clear it in a matter of a couple seconds. If I have a partner in the drill I can guarantee that you will hear the footsteps of the survivors running into the distance. I will bring as many rounds as my battle jacket will hold, which is a substantial amount. I will not be kidding around. You come after me and mine and you will be facing death. And I will be trying to bring it to you quickly. The longer you live, as an attacker, the harder I will have to work. But I will do it.

A 22 LR rifle will defend you and will probably hold a boatload of ammo, which is a nice thing if you are under attack. It doesn't speak with authority but it will sing a song of death if it gets where it needs to be. The thing about the 22 LR is that it will produce casualties. And wounded guys are a testimony to others who might wish to end your life on this tortured planet. Seeing your Freebooter buddy bleeding will take the wind out of your sails. And that is what a 22 is good for...making people bleed. And that is what you want to do. Make 'em pay big time for messing with you. Win an engagement and the word can go out that you don't want to go fooling with those survivalists. And that is what we want. We want to be left alone to provide for our families and worship God and take care of our own business. You know, all those things no one does anymore!

There are those who espouse Battle Rifles and I am for them 100%. I especially like Jim Dakin and his rants about the .303 British rifle. I would hate to run up on him when he was fielding that gun. There ain't no doubt in my mind that he could make things very unprofitable for a Freebooter. He says it is the fastest cycling bolt action around and I believe him. As long as he can keep ammo he will be a force to be reckoned with.

The FAL is a semi-automatic .308 Battle Gun that is popular with many, including Jim Rawles. I just don't want to buy all those magazines! The M1A1, the civilian model of the Army M-14, is a big favorite, if you can afford it. I shoot a .308 bolt gun but I have my druthers. But I have it around if it's necessary. I have a Ruger Mini-Ranch on 7.62 by 39, along with an SKS. Ain't got much ammo but I could fight a skirmish or two pretty easy. My .308 bolt gun can drop deer at good distance pretty easy. That is the big advantage of bigger caliber guns. They will kill at a greater distance with good power.

I will catch lots of hell if I don't say anything about the M-15 and it's military variants. I've owned one and they shoot so sweetly it's remarkable. But I don't want one anymore. I want my 12 gauge and my 22 LR rifle and my .308 bolt gun. Call it personal preference. Call it crazy. Call it anything you wish but I can use all of those weaapons with fair accuracy. And that means I can bring someone down and take them out of the fight. If I just wound them I'll get Vlad to hit them with a hammer. That will finish the job!
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LETTER FROM A READER

Michael,

I thought it might be time for an update.

I moved back to the family farm during the last week of February. One draw back about coming back home was the fact that the years I spent in the city allowed a lot of things to get “deferred” on the farm. Junk trees grew up and choked out good trees. Fruit trees didn’t get the care they needed to keep producing. The garden area got mowed over and returned to lawn. What didn’t get changed with time seemed to get ravaged by building the new house. While it is “home”, there is a lot to do now to make it better.

As I wrote a while back I have been cutting out the junk trees and opening up the view from the house and giving us “fields of fire” as it were. I cleaned up the berry bushes so they can grow well and look forward to the first few handfuls this spring.

I built some raised beds for growing some stuff outside the new garden area. One bed will be another attempt at Three Sister’s due to the encouragement from Dragon to try again. The wife wants tomatoes and I think I will try some potatoes. I plan to grow a lot of stuff that will work well in soups and stews. You would not believe the game we see here weekly. Deer, coyote, turkey, pheasants, raccoon, rabbits, squirrels, hawks and a Bald Eagle have all been spotted here in the last two weeks. A few well placed traps and diligent hunting season and meat for the stew pot should be covered.

I hated to have to go buy a load of top soil, but it had to be done. I am in for a supper break but will be finishing up unloading the soil into the beds and garden area right after dinner. They are calling for rain tomorrow so I want to make sure that the dirt is down and a few seeds in tonight yet.

My youngest son came home from college this week and brought with him a pick-up load of food. He grabbed all the unused items that the others were tossing, made one last purchase on his food card, and scored some MRE meals packs from the ROTC. You might imagine I welcomed home my son and his hoard of food with open arms. He leaves in a few weeks for a couple of Army posts for summer training. He continues to build his survival skills constantly.

One big down side of this last month has been the gas situation. Not only have the prices sky rocketed, but I had to start re-cycling out my older gas. I have some cans I stored away at $2.07 a gallon. They are untreated and need to be rotated. I hate to burn up the cheap stuff and refill at $2 a gallon more, but them is the breaks.

I still have a few holes in my pantry to try and fill. I work on that all the time and with luck the gaps will be few and small by the time I need to live out of the pantry.

Just wanted to update you and let you know that we too are working to Stay Alive.

Wolverine
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This is all about staying alive. Any way you can.

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net