Pellet Guns

on November 9, 2012 at 3:07 am
Posted In: Prepping

Pellet Guns

Pellet Guns are something often overlooked by preppers as a useful tool. In the prepping world, there is no end to the discussions on which battle rifles, handguns, and shotguns are the best. Not only are they covered ad nauseum on prepper posts, but guns also have their own world apart from the prepper community. They have their own blogs and websites, TV shows and clubs. This is as it should be. They have been part of our countries heritage since before the first shot fired at Lexington and Concord. The second amendment is what was added to our Constitution not to defend our homes from burglars, but our country from tyrants.

An often overlooked addition to the battle rifle, shotgun and handgun is the lowly pellet gun. I don’t recommend it for your go to gun if the SHTF, but your tool box contains a variety of hammers, screw drivers and saws, and so should your gun cabinet. A pellet gun has a couple of nice advantages. The universal advantage is the price of ammo. Range fees and ammunition costs can be prohibitively expensive. If you have a pellet gun, you can take it out in the yard a couple times a week. Always be sure of what is beyond your target and treat your pellet gun just as you would any other weapon. This can keep your trigger finger in shape and keep you from getting rusty. This doesn’t replace range time, but it will help your performance when you finally get to the range.

Another great advantage for us city folk is the lack of noise. This will allow us to get a little target time in the backyard when we can’t get to the range. The quietness of a pellet gun would also be a great asset in a bug in situation in the city. Most of us have some types of squirrels or birds in the backyard that could serve as a supplemental source of protein in a teotwawki situation. If you are stuck in such a situation, you may not want to broadcast to the world that you are taking game. You may end up with some uninvited dinner guests.

The other great aspect of a pellet gun is for young preppers. It is a great tool to teach gun safety with. My first weapon was a Daisy BB gun when I was 8. My father taught me the basics of gun safety with that gun and it has been with me ever since.  A good pellet gun like the Gammo Hornet in the picture is available from Amazon on the right hand side bar for under $100. It fires regular or  PBA ammo and will easily take small game like birds and squirrels.

pellets    

Be safe and have fun. Here are some free printable targets.

Have a blessed day and happy prepping!

 

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John Williams Gives Dire Warning

on November 7, 2012 at 4:10 am
Posted In: Economy, Potential Threats

John Williams of Shaddowstats.com

We post a lot of economic information on Prepper Recon.com. If you have little interest in economics, please at least try to watch the videos as understanding these principles are just as important to your ability to plan for and survive the coming crisis as any other aspect of prepping.

John Williams delivers a dire warning in this short 15 minute video. He talks about the threats of a loss of confidence in the US dollar that will likely cause a run on the dollar. As people seek to get out of dollar denominated assets like paper currency and US treasuries, commodities like oil, metals and food will be  subject to a hyperinflationary run. John Williams recommends purchasing gold and silver prior to  the beginning of such an event to hedge yourself . He also recommends purchasing the goods that are going up in price, which you know you will consume. He points out that this is a much better return than US Treasuries that have a real negative yield after subtracting inflation.

John Williams is an economist and creator of Shaddowstats.com. Shaddowstats.com seeks to give accurate measurements on economic statistics that are manipulated by government agencies. For example, the unemployment rate that is reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the first Friday of each month has very little to do with the amount of people who are not working because they have no job. When people who have quit looking for work because they have given up, people who have found some way to qualify for disability and those who took early retirement because they couldn’t find jobs are added in, the real unemployment number is around 23%. The sugar coated number given by the BLS is 7.8%. Similar methods are used when the government reports inflation. Government inflation numbers use “hedonics” which allow them to adjust costs down by saying that you derive more enjoyment from a more expensive product. Let’s say you paid $500 for a computer 5 years ago and a similar model is now $800. Since it is faster, it is worth more, therefore, there is no inflation. They also use substitution. This concept says since steak went from $3 a pound, to $9 around, you will substitute hotdogs for steak, therefore there is no inflation. The government number is manipulated to 2% inflation while Shaddowstats.com reports the real number to be closer to 6%.

This is seen as a necessary evil to the government as reporting the real numbers would likely trigger a panic. People would start hoarding food, buying gold and silver, planting gardens, stocking up on guns and ammo and everything else Prepper Recon recommends if they knew the truth. In this interview with USA Watchdog, John Williams says he expects the average person to start waking up to the real state of the economy despite the government’s best efforts to tell them everything is just rosy. He goes on to explain that the economy never really recovered. I know this is probably a shock to everyone reading who thought things had really gotten much better. As it turns out, the GDP as reported by the government is also manipulated. If you remove all of the stimulus from government borrowing and and Fed money printing AKA QE, GDP is much nearer to zero or a negative number than we have been led to believe.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Leave us some feedback and let us know what sources you use to find out the potential threats we are facing.

Have a blessed day and happy prepping!

 

 

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Hurricane Sandy Reveals Dependence of USA

on November 5, 2012 at 4:20 am
Posted In: Prepping

Hurricane Sandy Reveals Dependence of USA

sandy

This video from HLN on the aftermath of  Hurricane Sandy reveals the level of total dependence that has been fostered by our country. It is not fair to blame it on the government as we are the ones who have elected them. It is not something that has been forced upon us, but rather the path that has been chosen by the voting majority. How sad our forefathers would be to see such behavior. They fought and died to pass down independence to us. In our complacency, we have traded that independence for total dependance. We have thrown it out with yesterday’s trash, and with it went our true American spirit.

“When is the government coming?”

The patriots that fought and died to give us a limited government had looked to free us from such dependence. They prepared for inevitable hardships themselves. When burdens were too big for one person to handle, they came together as a community. The Church provided relief for those in need. They counseled the needy to determine who was truly incapable of taking care of themselves and who was just looking for a free lunch. Because of the lack of common sense and abundance of bureaucracy, the government is not able to discern between the destitute and the lazy. As such, we have created a welfare class that sees voting for the person who is offering the biggest hand out as their only job. They don’t look for another job, because that one pays very well.

The Hurricane Sandy victim in the video is the poster child of our dependence. Despite mandatory evacuation orders, she stayed. Despite several days of warnings prior to Hurricane Sandy making landfall, she did not provide for certain disaster by buying the necessary provisions recommended by the authorities. She ignored the very government whom she now expects to rain provisions upon her.

This is not the government’s job. We are primarily responsible for ourselves. When calamities come, it is up to the community to come together and lift each other up. When it is a major disaster like this one, relief agencies like Samaritan’s Purse are much more efficient than any government agency ever could be. Samaritan’s Purse had 3 relief teams on the road the morning after Hurricane Sandy struck. They came to our area after Hurricane Wilma. I volunteered with them for 2 weeks putting tarps on damaged roofs and clearing fallen trees. Because they rely on volunteer work, they are able to dedicate the majority of the donated funds to chainsaws, plywood and tarps. After a disaster, there are always a surplus of able bodied people who want to help. This is not possible with government. there is too much red tape. In fact, it was our city government that took 8 months to issue permits for our Church to begin demolition of the interior walls of buildings that had been destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Wilma’s problems were exacerbated by the government. They were the problem, not the solution.

If you would like to donate funds or volunteer with  Samaritan’s Purse, you can contact them at Samaritan’s Purse.org. They have been providing assistance to victims of Hurricane Sandy since the first day after the storm. They have been providing an example of the community relying on each other rather than the government for years.

Happy Prepping!

 

 

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Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Proverbs 22:7

on November 4, 2012 at 5:30 am
Posted In: Bible

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Proverbs 22:7

Bible

 

The Bible says in Proverbs 22:7 ” The borrower is slave to the lender.” It is a simple piece of wisdom, but it is so true. The first thing that comes to my mind from this Bible verse is the word “slave”. When I think of a slave, I think of someone who works hard for the gain of someone else. If a person is paying 18% on  their credit card, in a manor of speaking, they are working to enrich the lender. The second thing I think when I hear the word “slave” is a person who is not free. Any one who is bogged down by debt is not free to make financial decisions. They are forced to make payments on their debt and are not free to allocate that money to savings, down payment on a house,  furthering their education, or vacations. The antidote is as simple as living with in your means. This requires the discipline of having a budget. Some people think of a budget as being restrictive, but it actually will free you from debt and the higher cost of purchasing  because of interest. To learn more, read our post on Budgeting.

Getting on a budget may not be the most glamorous step in prepping, but it is the most essential step. With out a good budget, prepping can actually cause a personal crisis long before a global collapse ever occurs. Overspending on prepping and getting into credit card debt will do exactly what the Bible said. You will become a slave to the lender. The main idea in preparedness is being able to take care of yourself. If you create a financial catastrophe of your own, you will limit your ability to adapt to change.

We spend a lot of time on Prepper Recon talking about saving, investing and prepping on a budget. The Bible encourages us to be good stewards of what GOD has blessed us with. You can be prepared with out going into debt. One of the best tools to prepping on a budget is couponing. Mrs Recon has put together some great tips and a very comprehensive set of links on our Coupon Corner. Couponing will also allow you to get some items absolutely free.

Freedom from debt allows us to be free to give and be charitable. When you are a month behind on credit card  bills, it is not very likely that you will have anything to share with those in need. James 1:27  tells us to look after those who can not take care of themselves. If we are buried in debt, we are not free to be obedient to that Bible verse.

The Bible encourages us to be responsible with our money. Getting on a budget will take some effort, but the rewards are worth it. You will be more free to live a self sufficient life and be in a better position to help others.

Have a blessed week and happy prepping!

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Resilience- Part 3- Resource Resilience

on November 2, 2012 at 2:38 am
Posted In: Gardening, Prepping

Resilience- Part 3- Resource Resilience

Resilience is an essential aspect of preparedness. In this series of posts, we are discussing three different layers of resilience. We have covered  personal resilience, which is your  mental and physical ability to cope with adverse circumstances. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, here is the link to Personal Resilience. There is also Financial Resilience, which we covered previously. Finally in this post, we are talking about basic resource resilience. This envelopes all of your basic resources such as food, shelter, and water.

The first priority is water. You can go several weeks with out food, but most people will only survive 3 days with out water, and they won’t be 3 very good days. you can store water, but it is heavy and takes up a lot of space. Think about alternative sources of water where you live that you could access  if your current water supply was interrupted due to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. One great way to capture water is to install a water catch. Here is a recent post on installing a water catch. We were able to make the one in the photo for less than $100. Any untreated water should be purified using something like a Katadyn water filter. The Katadyn Hiker Pro will filter 200 gallons and is available on the Amazon “I Recommend ” widget to the right. It  makes a great addition to your Bug Out Bag.Water can also be treated with household bleach. Use 8 drops per gallon or 16 drops per gallon if the water is cloudy. Boiling water will also kill any harmful bacteria.

Next is shelter. Most people have a place to live. The question is how resilient is it? If you are renting, how much of your income does rent consume? You can be more resilient by finding more modest rent when your current lease is up. If you were to lose your job and had to take one that paid less, you will recover faster if your rent is less. The same principle applies when purchasing a home. Try to keep the mortgage manageable and look for a neighborhood that is not ran by an association that tells you what types of trees and landscape you have to have. The further you are from a population center, the better off you will be in a social breakdown scenario. You may not be able to move to the country because of your line of employment at the present time, but perhaps you can think about saving for a bug out location. If this is not going to be feasible for a while, make your present shelter as resilient as possible.

There are some simple ways you can increase your resource resilience by building up stored food. To create a quick cheap store of long term food, you can fill a couple of 5 gallon buckets with dried beans and white rice. Beans are around $1 per pound and we can occasionally catch 20lb bags of white rice on sale for around $7.  We can fit 20lb of rice and 10lbs of dried beans in a 5 gallon bucket. This is not going to give you the variety of food you are used to but one bucket contains 40,000 calories. That is 2,000 calories a day for 2 people for 10 days. You can ensure maximum storage time and minimize pests by lining your bucket with a Mylar liner and adding an oxygen absorber, both are sold at the Amazon “I Recommend” widget at the right of this post. They are 10 of each for $26 and they ship free. You can seal the Mylar with a household iron. White rice can store up to 20 years and dried beans can store for 8 if kept  sealed in Mylar and stored in a cool area. So $7 for rice, $10 for beans and $2.60 for a liner and oxygen absorber totals to $19.60 if you can find a 5 gallon bucket laying around for free. 3 of those will cost less than $60 but will provide you with enough stored food to keep you going for 30 days.

Once you have 30 days of rice and beans, you can start buying a little extra each time you go to the grocery. Buy the thing you eat everyday. try to use coupons on “buy one get one ” sales to make the second item nearly free. You can do this with toilet paper, soap, and hygiene items as well as food. Check out our Coupon Corner that Mrs. Recon has put together. She works miracles with a very small weekly grocery budget by using coupons.

If you own your home, you can build resilience by gardening. While you may never be able to produce 100% of your own food on a small lot, growing a few fresh vegetables will greatly add tot the variety of foods that will be available to you in a long term emergency situation. Grow what you can in the space you have. Salads, greens, peppers, green beans, tomatoes, and herbs grow well in my area. We also replant the tops of our pineapples. They will produce a new pineapple each year.

     resilience     pepper     basil    

As we mentioned in “Personal Resilience”, gardening will increase your resilience in all three areas as you will get a little exercise while doing it, you will have fresh vegetables with out adding tot the grocery bill, and you will be able to produce your own food in a collapse scenario. You can build your own garden beds and produce your own compost by building a compost bin with reclaimed wood that can be found in bulk trash.

What else can you produce on your small plot of land? What fruit or nut trees grow well in your area? Two years ago, a co-worker gave me a great avocado. I planted the pit and now have a great little tree growing. It will be a few years before we get an avocado, but the process is started. As it was a local avocado, I don’t have to worry about genetic modifications as I would have had it came from the store.

avocado

Last year, my next door neighbor gave us a mango sapling from his tree. It is doing well also. If you have empty space, why not grow something that will provide food instead of just suck up water and fertilizer. This brings up another aspect of resiliency. Having good relationships with your neighbors is a plus. In good times and bad, it is good to have and to be a good neighbor.  Our neighbors are great, we watch out for one another property and always say “hi” to one another. In this age of social media and business, normal neighborly conversations are scarce. You may have to be the one to initiate a conversation. Christmas is a great time to bake a few extra cookies and introduce yourself to your neighbors if you have never done so. This is a small investment that will pay great dividends.

tree

Most of the things that we have mentioned will cost you very little to implement. Resilience is a way of life. It is not something you do once and forget about. You can take steps toward building a resilient lifestyle each day. In doing so, you will insure a better future regardless of what tomorrow may bring. To borrow a phrase from Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast: “you will have a better life if times get tough or even if they don’t”.

Happy Prepping!

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Hurricane Sandy

on October 31, 2012 at 4:13 am
Posted In: Prepping

Hurricane Sandy

First, let’s remember to pray for those who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.If you have the means to help, Samaritans Purse has been involved in disaster relief for several years and maintains one of the lowest percentages of overhead costs of any relief organization. Samaritan’s Purse is led by Franklin Graham, the son of the great evangelist, Billy Graham. They were here in South Florida shortly after Hurricane Wilma passed through a few years ago. They were also one of the first relief agencies to provide help in Joplin, Missouri after the tornadoes and in  New Orleans after Katrina. They have already mobilized three relief units that left North Carolina on Tuesday . To donate, volunteer, or read more you can go to their website at Samaritan’s Purse.org.

Fires destroyed 80 homes in NY.

Unless you have been under a rock, you have seen the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. At the time of this writing, the death toll was 55 lives lost. Hurricane Sandy brought massive property damage from flooding, high winds and more than 80 homes were lost from fires started by downed power lines. 8 million people or 2.5% of the population of America are without power.

NYC is dark without electricity.

Here are a few lessons we can take away even at the early stages of the aftermath. We are seeing first responders that are having to risk there lives to rescue people who did not evacuate when they were told. If you are told to evacuate and you chose not to, you are putting your own life at risk as well as the lives of those who have to attempt a rescue. It is selfish and irresponsible. Many people claim to not have the funds to evacuate. That is why Prepper Recon.com recommends having $1,ooo emergency fund as your first step in prepping. That is enough to get a ticket out of town and a cheap motel and meals for a few days.

The last minute is the worst time to become a prepper.

Most people didn’t even have the minimum 3 days of food and water recommended by FEMA. 3 days is far too little. 1 month of food and water is a good starting point. As millions of people tried to prepare for Hurricane Sandy, we got a chance to see how “Just In Time” inventory systems fail at periods of abnormal demand. In many areas, it will be more than a week before shelves are restocked. I hope we don’t see the types of chaos that we saw post Katrina. It is too early to tell.

Hurricane Sandy

Shelves were stripped the day before Hurricane Sandy.

Perhaps Hurricane Sandy will wake up more people to be better prepared in the future. If you have decided to get more serious about prepping  and would like to know how to get started, read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan. It will help you to build a foundation in readiness.

Have a blessed day and happy prepping!

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Jim Rogers Sounds Alarm On US Treasuries

on October 29, 2012 at 3:21 am
Posted In: Economy

Jim Rogers Sounds Alarm On US Treasuries

jim rogers

In this interview with Capitol Account, Jim Rogers sounds the alarm on US Treasuries. Jim rogers points out that the US is the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world. Jim Rogers has been a very successful investor by spotting market trends. He has recommended purchasing hard assets and particularly farmland and timberland for the past several months.

At Prepper Recon, we agree with Jim Rogers and also believe that US Treasuries are in a bubble due to their real negative yield. The nominal yield on 30 year Treasuries are around 3% at the time of writing and the interest rate is closer to 6% after we strip away all of the government manipulation and stimulus money according to Shadowstats.com. That leaves the real yield of a 30 year Treasury at -2.5%. The bond market will not put up with this for long. They have been willing to accept the negative real yield because the dollar has had such an outstanding reputation of being a safe haven asset, but those days are drawing to a close. Once the confidence in the dollar cracks, the bond bubble will deflate rapidly. Those who are positioned to take advantage of this event will profit greatly. There are several inverse Treasury ETFs that can allow an investor to take advantage of the popping of the treasury bubble. Before deciding to use any investment vehicles, I recommend reading up on how they work as it is beyond the scope of this article. TYNS is a non-leveraged inverse or short ETF of 7 to 10 yr US Treasuries. TYBS is a non-leveraged inverse or short ETF of 20- 30 yr Treasuries. They are  designed to gain value at the same rate Treasuries of the same maturity lose value. 3x leveraged short ETFs include TYO for 7 to 10 yr and TMV for 20 to 30 yr Treasuries. They are  designed to gain value at 3 times the rate Treasuries of the same maturity lose value. Of course the opposite is also true. They can also lose value at 3 times the rate that Treasuries gain value. Investing is inherently risky by nature. Leveraged funds are even more risky. Be sure you understand them before investing.

As a disclaimer, I am not a financial adviser although I do hold a degree in Accounting and am currently studying for a degree in Finance. We do not hold any of the ETFs mentioned but do plan to purchase them once we see the bond market begin to show signs of popping. That could be next week, next year or ten years from now. I have been amazed at the willingness of the bond market to continue to accept negative yields from a borrower like the US who could never possibly repay all of her debt. While I do not recommend investment vehicles because every investor’s circumstance is different, I will let you know when we begin to step into the short Treasury funds that I mentioned.

Happy Prepping!

 

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Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Real Refuge

on October 28, 2012 at 3:46 am
Posted In: Bible

Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Real Refuge

refuge

Psalms 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

Like many preppers, we are saving money for a bug out location. We see our society moving further and further away from God. As it does so, it becomes more corrupt and more evil. Our cities are  becoming less able to cope with the increase in crime and violence. I pray often for God to guide my decisions and to open the right doors at the right time. Besides prayer, I look for guidance from him through the Bible. There are several scriptures that I believe confirm that we are in for a difficult future in America. The most obvious is Deuteronomy 28. Take time to read it this week. I will be posting a study on it in the near future.

I think God’s word urges us to be prudent and to provide for the safety and security of our families. This is the reason I think it is prudent to save up for a retreat.  At the same time, I know the Bible tells us we can trust God to provide for our safety. It is impossible for us to live lives that are completely free of any threat. We will never be able to prep to the point of immunity to all disasters. That is why we do our best and trust God for the rest.  Psalms 91 says “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”’ God is the ultimate refuge that is always there for us.

Some preppers find themselves getting anxious about the future. The Bible gives them the remedy for that anxiety in Psalms 91. Verse 1 predicates peace with the requirement of dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. Those who have the peace to rest in the shadow of the Almighty, are dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. One definition of “dwell” is to live as a resident, the other definition is to fasten one’s attention. If you are constantly dwelling on the problems that may come in the future, you may find you don’t have much peace. Dedicating some part of each day to dwell on the Bible will give you enormous peace. I start every morning with a chapter or two of the Bible and usually listen to pastor Chuck Smith as I am falling asleep at night. Pastor Chuck’s teachings of the entire Bible are available to download free in mp3 format at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa’s  website, The Word For Today.com

Have a blessed day, thanks for reading and happy prepping!

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