How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It

by James Wesley, Rawles

  Once you’ve estimated where the studs are, drill some small exploratory holes in the drywall at a sharp angle. Probe inside each hole with a length of coat-hanger wire to confirm where the vertical studs are located and whether there are any horizontal two-by-four fire-stop blocks. Those are typically halfway up each wall. Then, with a power jigsaw or a Sawzall, cut a hole (or holes) to provide access to the wall-cache dead space. Leave at least two inches of drywall width around the hole, which will be covered by the mirror. Remove any insulation from the cache area, and vacuum out the drywall dust. Place your valuables in the cache. If there is substantial weight, do not rest it directly on top of any wiring at the bottom of the cache. You should first cut a support block out of two-by-fours and screw it in place with drywall screws. Then neatly mount the mirror over the hole, measuring carefully and/or using a level so that the mirror will be mounted straight.

  Accessing the cache will just take a few minutes to remove the mirror. If you need to access the cache frequently, you’ll find that if the screws are screwed only into drywall and not into studs behind, then the screw holes in the drywall will become enlarged and the screws will eventually loosen. If that happens, you can install anchor bolts behind most of the screws. This same technique can be used to create a similar—albeit more shallow—cache inside a hollow-core bedroom door. One neat trick with a door cache is to only remove the top mirror-mounting brackets when you access the cache. With those removed and the door slightly open you can simply slide the mirror up to reveal the cache opening.

  Alarm and Camera Systems

  No matter what sort of vault or hiding place you choose, you should supplement it with a home security system. Monitored alarm systems can be expensive—especially with monthly service contracts. But these days, webcams are dirt cheap. Buy several of them and mount them in locations where they are not likely to be spotted immediately, such as among the books on your bookshelves. Unless the motion-triggered images captured are immediately uploaded to a server that is off-site, it is essential that the computer that controls the cameras and the hard drive that stores the images be housed inside your gun vault or safe room. Otherwise the burglars will walk off with the evidence. Don’t forget that any disruption of phone service or grid power will nullify the protection of a monitored alarm. Anyone living off grid or anyone who foresees a period of extended blackouts should get a battery-powered self-contained camera system, such as those sold by Ready Made Resources. Photographic evidence is crucial for both tracking down perpetrators and substantiating insurance claims. Don’t skimp on this important piece of your preparedness.

  Insurance

  Another must is fire and theft insurance. Given enough time, determined burglars can penetrate even the most elaborate vault. Many homeowners-insurance policies have specific limits on firearms, often absurdly low dollar amounts, unless you get a separate rider to your policy at additional cost. If you aren’t sure about your coverage, pull out your policy and read through it thoroughly. The National Rifle Association offers a modest-dollar-value firearms-insurance policy that is free with NRA membership.

  I also recommend making a list of serial numbers and detailed descriptions of each gun, camera, and electronic gadget that you own. I have found that using three-by-five index cards is convenient for updates, since your inventory will change over time. Also take a few detailed photos of each item. Store the index cards and hard-copy pictures annotated with each item’s serial number in a vault belonging to a relative or a trusted friend, and offer to do likewise for him or her.

  Advice from an Expert: Firefighting Equipment for Rural Homes and Retreats

  Todd S. is a former volunteer firefighter who shared his expertise on home firefighting: “Due to response time(s), everyone who can afford it should have the following setup on the property to use during those fifteen to thirty minutes until emergency services arrive. It may take that long from your call to having equipment on the scene. The farther out you are, the longer it will be, and in the winter, you may be on your own due to road impassability.

  I sometimes suggest to clients that they purchase an old fire truck or water tender that is in decent shape, but only if they have the skills to service those types of units. Prices vary but most of the time you can get a nice working 1960s to 1970s vintage truck for five thousand to ten thousand dollars.

  Purchase a portable pump along with a portable bladder if you do not have a pond, swimming pool, or year-round stream within 100 to 150 feet of your retreat, then add some one-and-a-half-inch hose and a nozzle or two, and you’ll have a fairly economical safeguard against structure fire or a wild land fire on your property.”

  OPSEC: Keeping Your Preparations Low Profile

  Of all of the aspects of preparing for a crisis, perhaps the most overlooked in survivalist literature are privacy and operational security (OPSEC). Your preparations must be kept secret from all but your most trusted friends. All of your expensive logistics could disappear in a few hours soon after TEOTWAWKI. Your hidey-hole could be stripped clean by looters or overzealous government agents wielding “emergency powers.” You must resist the urge to mention your preparations to anyone who does not have a need to know about them. I am not suggesting that you lie to anyone, but be discreet and learn how to redirect conversations. Doing so is simply prudent.

  What is legal today may be deemed illegal tomorrow under martial law or at the whim of some bureaucrat who is handed emergency powers. Witness the mass confiscations of privately owned firearms following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. With the help of the media the concepts of saving and storing may be demonized and redefined as “hoarding” immediately after disaster strikes.

  If you have been saving during times of plenty you are not a hoarder. A hoarder is someone who removes a disproportionately large chunk of logistics after shortages have occurred. By saving and storing now, well in advance of a crisis, you represent one fewer person who will rush to the grocery store after disaster strikes. You won’t be part of the problem. You’ll be part of the solution, especially if you dispense your excess supplies as charity.

  If you have reason to believe that your anonymity has already been compromised, then consider that:

  1. You can’t get anonymity back unless you change your name and completely drop out of sight (impractical for most).

  2. You will have to take some countermeasures.

  Perhaps the best countermeasure is to make a fresh start the next time that you move (ideally to your retreat location). Do not send forwarding cards for any magazine subscriptions. Consider buying your next home in someone else’s name, perhaps a sister or an aunt or uncle with a different surname and a low profile. Another option is establishing a land trust and having the trust make the purchase. Your attorney could be the trustee of a trust that owns the land. Yet another option is to set up a Nevada or Delaware corporation and have the corporation make the land purchase. See Boston T. Party ’s book Bulletproof Privacy (javelinpress.com) for further details on making a clean break.

  Make all cash (no paper trail) acquisitions of guns, bulk ammo, and bulk logistics. Never use a credit card for such purposes. Unless you already have a very high profile, resist the urge to buy your ammo, reference books, and assorted gear via mail order. The only exception would be if you used an assumed name and a drop box.

  It is essential to impress upon your family the importance of keeping quiet about your preparations. Maintaining a low profile involves common sense and knowing when to keep your mouth shut—and it just might prevent your safety being compromised.

  The Neighborhood Watch on Steroids

  If times truly get bad the crime rate will undoubtedly skyrocket. You need to be able to provide for your family’s security. Since you can’t stand guard 24/7, this may necessitate teaming up with your neighbors to form what I only half-jokingly dubbed a Neighborhood Watch on Steroids.

  11

  FIREARMS FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND SELF-DEFENSE

 
In order to be fully self-sufficient, you will need to kill wild game and livestock. This chapter will walk you through the best guns for every situation, including the undesirable scenario in which, as a last resort, you may need to rely upon firearms to defend your home. Having the right guns and ammunition is an important part of any preparedness plan.

  Selecting Your Survival Gun Battery

  There are several requirements that must be considered when selecting guns for use on a farm, ranch, or survival retreat. First and foremost, they must be versatile. A single gun might be pressed into service for shooting crows or starlings at ten yards, rabbits or coyotes at one hundred yards, or rattlesnakes at five feet. While there is no single gun that can handle any task, it is important to select firearms with at least some degree of versatility. It is not realistic to believe that you can get by with just one gun, or even just one rifle, one pistol, and one shotgun. Like the tools in a carpenter’s box, each type of gun has its special place and purpose.

  The second major consideration for survival guns is that they be robust and reliable enough to put up with constant carry and regular use. When the nearest gunsmith is a two-hour drive away, you have to depend on your own resources. Since they are carried quite frequently and in all sorts of weather, farm/ranch/ survival guns need to have durable finishes. Stainless steel is by far the best choice for most situations. Unfortunately, however, not all guns are available in stainless steel. For guns that are made only with a blued finish, there are several finishes available. My personal favorite of the exotic coatings is called META-COL (metal color), which is offered in a wide variety of finishes by Arizona Response Systems (snipurl.com/ht0fs). Exotic material finishes are quite durable and offer rust protection that is exceeded only by stainless steel.

  Because trips to town to procure ammunition might be infrequent (or impossible in a severe survival scenario), and reloading will likely be the norm for those seeking self-sufficiency, you’ll want to limit the number of different cartridges that you stock. Having ten different guns chambered in ten different cartridges will complicate logistics. Further, it is best to select only guns chambered for commonly available cartridges. Small country stores stock ammo like .22 long rifle, .308 Winchester, .30- 06, and 12-gauge, but probably not .264 Winchester Magnum, .300 Weatherby, or 28-gauge.

  Small Game

  There are several categories of firearms that belong in the gun racks of nearly every farm or ranch. The first and most frequently used variety are small-game/pest-shooting guns. These guns are used to hunt small game for the pot (squirrels, rabbits, etc.), to shoot garden pests (crows, starlings, gophers, etc.), and for shooting to deter marauding predators (coyotes, foxes, weasels, ferrets, etc.). They also end up being the guns most frequently used to slaughter livestock.

  Good cartridges for small game/pest shooting include .22 long rifle (.22 LR) and .223 Remington. The most common shot shells for this use are .410, 20-gauge, and 12-gauge. The .22 LR will suffice for everything up to the size of a rabbit at conservative distances. It is inexpensive to shoot and quiet, and has hardly any felt recoil. The .223 Remington is a good cartridge for shooting perched birds that would be out of range for a .22 rimfire, or for shooting feral dogs, feral cats, or coyotes.

  Both handguns and long guns are needed for small-game/ pest shooting. A long gun would of course be the ideal choice in most circumstances, due to its inherently higher velocity and longer sighting radius (and hence greater accuracy). There are times, however, when it is not practical to carry a long gun. When mending fences, feeding livestock, hauling wood, riding a tractor, or doing most gardening work, it is usually not practical to carry a long gun. On farms and ranches, long guns tend to be left behind inside buildings or in vehicle gun racks. They are only rarely carried when doing chores or just walking down to the mailbox at the county road. This is where handguns come in.

  Rimfire Handguns

  A good-quality .22 rimfire pistol may be one of the most useful handguns in your battery. These guns are used for dispatching those “uncatchable” chickens for the stewpot, for shooting small game/pests, and for inexpensively maintaining marksmanship skills for those more powerful (and more expensive to shoot) handguns. My wife and I use a stainless steel Ruger Mark II with a 5½-inch bull barrel and Pachmayr grips. The Ruger is also offered in 6 ⅞-inch and 10⅞-inch -inch barrel lengths. But we find that the 5½-inch barrel is a handy length for holster carry. Another well-made stainless steel .22 autopistol is the Smith and Weson Model 622. It is available with a 4½-inch or 6-inch barrel. If you prefer a revolver, the stainless steel Smith and Wesson Model 617 is a good option. It is available in a 4-inch, 6-inch, or 8⅜ inch barrel length.

  Regardless of which brand of .22 rifle you buy, you should consider mounting it with a telescopic sight. Because of its low energy, proper placement of a .22 rimfire bullet can mean the difference between crippling and cleanly killing small game. Mounting a scope will in most instances give you the ability not just to hit an animal’s center of mass, but rather to hit a precise aiming point, such as its head or neck. If you do decide to mount a scope, use a full-size (one-inch-diameter) scope rather than one of the inexpensive three-quarter-inch-diameter scopes made specifically for air rifles and .22s.

  Centerfire Handguns

  If you are seeking a particularly versatile handgun, you might consider the Thompson/Center G2 Contender or the earlier T/C Contender. These single-shot pistols use readily changeable barrels in a wide range of chamberings. Some of the most useful of the more than twenty chamberings are .22 LR, .223 Remington, and the .45 Colt/.410 shotgun barrel.

  At the Rawles Ranch, we now carry Colt stainless steel Gold Cup (Model 1911 pattern) .45 ACPs with Pachmayr grips, extended slide releases, and Trijicon tritium-lit sights. When we moved to bear country, we sold off the Smith and Wesson 686es and standardized with the .45 automatics. We wanted to be able to put a lot of rounds into a bear in a hurry, and .45 autos are far faster to reload than revolvers—at least under stress, in our experience. Granted, the chances of surviving a bear attack are slim, but we feel that we have a better chance with the Gold Cups. At least when they find all the ejected brass around our mangled corpses, they can say that we put up a good fight.

  Speaking of bears, for homesteaders living in brown-bear or grizzly-bear country, a more powerful handgun than even the .45 ACP is often recommended. A stainless steel Smith and Wesson Model 629 (6-inch) .44 Magnum, or Ruger Redhawk (5½-inch) .44 Magnum, or perhaps the Colt Anaconda (6-inch) .44 Magnum would be good choices.

  Rifles

  A lightweight rifle chambered in .223 Remington is particularly useful for shooting both perched birds and predators. Remington, Ruger, and Sako all make good-quality .223 bolt-actions. Selecting one is largely a matter of personal preference. We use our .223s on coyotes, which currently abound in great numbers in the western United States, and are a constant source of trouble in our area. They have a penchant for devouring ducks, chickens, pet cats, and newborn lambs. We use three different guns on the uncommon occasions when we have a chance to snipe at coyotes. These guns include a Remington Model Seven bolt-action chambered in .223 Remington, a Colt CAR-15 M4gery, and a scoped L1A1 semiauto chambered in .308 Winchester (virtually identical to and in most cases interchangeable with the 7.62mm NATO cartridge used by the military). A .308 bolt-action is used when we spot a coyote beyond three hundred yards. With the Remington Model Seven available, the CAR-15 is largely superfluous. But we like its easy handling, and the fact that we can get off a quick second shot when shooting at running rabbits or coyotes.

  Combination Guns

  The next category of guns is combination or “garden” guns. These range from expensive imported rifle/shotguns to inexpensive combination guns made domestically. The European three-barrel combination guns or “dreilings” (often anglicized to “drillings”) can easily cost two thousand dollars or more. Guns typical of this breed are the Colt Sauer drillings, Krieghoff drillings, and the Valme
t over/unders. They typically feature a high-power rifle barrel mounted beneath side-by-side 12-gauge shotgun barrels. Domestically produced two-barrel combination guns, while not as aesthetically pleasing, cost far less than European drillings. These guns offer the ability to fire either a single shotgun shell or a rifle cartridge, with the flick of a switch. They are by far the best gun to have at hand when out doing garden work. They give you the versatility to eliminate a pesky gopher or marauding birds, whether they are perching or in flight. One of the best of the inexpensive combination guns now on the market is the Savage Model 24F with a Rynite fiberglass stock. In the past, Savage Model 24-series guns were made in a wide range of chamberings, such as .22 LR over .410, .22 LR over 20-gauge, .22 Magnum over .410-gauge, and .357 Magnum over 20-gauge. All of these now-discontinued guns featured wooden stocks. They can often be found used at gun shows or in gun shops at modest prices. Due to their versatility, they are well worth looking for. Because most of the Savage 24-series guns come with a blued finish, it is recommended that they be upgraded with a more durable finish such as Teflon or Parkerizing.

  Long-Range Rifles

  Big-game-hunting/countersniping rifles are the next group of guns to be considered. The selection of a big-game rifle depends on the variety of game to be hunted. In the lower forty-eight states, a bolt-action rifle chambered in .308 Winchester or .30- 06 will normally handle most big game. Regional differences will determine exactly what you need. No matter which chambering you select, it is important that you buy a well-made rifle with a robust action. Remington, Ruger, and Winchester, among others, make guns with these qualities. After you buy the rifle itself, you will probably want to have a more durable finish applied to its metal surfaces. You might also want to mount a telescopic sight if you will be hunting in open country. If you’ll be hunting in brushy or densely wooded terrain, you could find that a scope is more of a hindrance than a help. Scopes are more prone to failure than any other part of a rifle, so it is wise to select a rifle with good-quality iron sights, whether or not you intend to mount a scope. If and when a scope should fail, you will have the recourse of removing the scope and reverting to iron sights. The need for a cartridge more powerful than .30-06 is normally a consideration only in Alaska or parts of Canada, where moose and grizzly bear are found. Several powerful cartridges are currently popular. These include the .35 Whelen, the .338 Winchester, and the .375 H&H Magnum. For our type of big-game hunting (normally deer, but nothing bigger than elk), my wife and I selected a pair of Winchester Model 70s. Because either rifle might also be used tactically, we had their muzzles threaded for flash hiders (half-inch by 28 TPI-thread—the same as that used on the M16) by Holland Shooters Supply, of Oregon, and had Holland slim-line muzzle brakes installed (hollandguns.com). We decided to get the muzzle brakes because they don’t draw as much attention as a flash hider. However, if we get into some deep drama, we can quickly switch to flash hiders.