Last episode we met Bob.
Bob is an “Inch-man”. He has been carefully selecting his prepper inventory for some time. He has his Get Home Bag, his bug-Out Bag, and both of those are just part of his I’m Not Coming Home (INCH) kit. Today the worm has finally turned, and Bob is getting the “F” out of Dodge, so he carefully loads his trusty Subaru with his treasures, and sets off.
Along with everybody else who also decided “Today is THE DAY”.
Pretty soon, Bob gets to the Interstate, and the kind Masters of the Universe has generously reversed the traffic flow, so both sides of the super slab are open and traffic is flowing along with everyone evacuating vigorously until some jerk cuts of some bastard causing an otherwise uninvolved Winnebago full of people to swerve abruptly and flip on its side blocking three lanes of traffic. Bob sees the whole thing go down ahead of him, and as he coasts to a stop, he’s trapped. Traffic far lane and shoulder are still moving, but Bob needs to cross two lanes of bumper to bumper to get there. The embankment on Bob’s right is too steep to chance and there’s a waterway at the bottom, so he sites and fumes and all the time his fuel supply is burning off as he waits for his Good Samaritan to let him into the lane to his left.
Finally! Back on the road thanks to the kindness of strangers, Bob is heading for his…Uh, wait a minute. Where is he going? Preps cost money, and Bob was buying what he could over time, but a cabin in the woods was still way off in the dim future when THE DAY came.
Relatives? All sitting back in Dodge watching the looters raiding the local big box on TV. They never listened to his ‘paranoia”, and none of them owned any property outside the city anyway.
National Park? Maybe. Probably not long term, but a place to stop while he sorts out his next move. Definitely better than a Rest Area along the Interstate. Ok, grab the map.
Fast forward, and Bob has found a quiet place. He had to abandon the car when I ran out of gas. The gas stations he had passed were sold out, or had no electricity to run the pumps. When he tried to approach a farm to buy gas, someone took a shot at him. Not to be stopped, Bob unpacked the SUV on the side of a dirt road, and sorted his treasures. After loading the must-haves onto his game cart, he headed off down the road on foot leaving most of his bulky gear behind.
The camp Bob set up is not luxurious, but he has shelter, a stream nearby for water, and no signs of neighbors…
Now our hero finds himself in the same situation as presented in the History Channel series “Alone” . Bob can live in about the same level of comfort as your typical urban homeless person, but he is also just one sprained ankle, errant spark, flood, rainstorm, wild animal, or sneaky human from finding himself “Naked and Afraid” () with no option to “tap out” and go home.
A person living outdoors alone is at risk of a host of things that can make the chances of continued survival questionable. The most difficult to prepare for is other humans. Part 1 mentioned various weapons under the topic of procuring food. No discussion of weapons for defense was made because the standard People’s Sporting Rifle (PSR) seems to be the first thing anyone thinks of when the topic of “survival” is mentioned. Oddly enough, this is a philosophical matter. To paraphrase Bill Bagwell The long hunters and mountain men that explored the western United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries did not “survive” in the wilderness. They lived there. They were in that environment by choice, and it changes the way a person thinks about their situation.
A survivor is holding on until rescue takes them back to hot showers, over-fresh pizza, and booze. A person (We’ll use the Old West term “Nester” ), who makes the choice to live in the wilderness has a different mindset. That Nester mindset is reflected in the gear they choose to pack along, and this includes weapons for hunting and defense. The “and” is used because the item must serve both roles. The PSR can be used for hunting, but its intended role is defense. The ammunition is hard to replace under austere conditions due to the operating mechanism of the rifle itself. A single-shot or lever-action rifle chambered in a heavy handgun cartridge like .357 Magnum, 44 Magnum, or .45 Colt can reach out 100-125 yards with enough energy remaining in the bullet to harvest game humanely. It works equally well for defense against animal attack.
Why is this important?
Handguns can be found chambered in each of these cartridges. Beyond that is the option to use other cartridges in the same gun. The .357 Magnum guns can chamber and fire 38 Special ammunition. The 44 Magnum can use 44 Specials. A handgun is the weapon a person is most likely to have available in a self-defense situation. It is hard to gather firewood, or perform a hundred other chores a Nester faces every day, while carrying a long gun even one equipped with a sling. Can it be done, sure, but humans are lazy, and a handgun is less likely to be left in camp because “nothing is gonna happen today”.
The “new” semi-automatic pistol caliber carbine (PCC) chambered in 9mm might seem a likely candidate for a Nester, but even out of the PCC, the 9x19mm full metal jacket ball ammunition is not suited to hunting due to its sharp nose profile that allows the bullet to slip through the target with minimal tissue disruption. Hollow point ammunition disrupts tissue, but it may not penetrate adequately to reach the vitals of a larger animal. On top of poor performance in the hunting arena, the ability to obtain more ammunition puts limits on the utility of this weapon system for a Nester. The PCC needs to stay in the city where they can shine in Roof-top Korean scenarios.
Manually operated firearms like single-shot rifles, lever action rifles, and revolvers can use cast lead bullets with wide semi-wadcutter configurations what give good performance on game, and if necessary, they can be loaded with traditional black powder without giving up much in terminal performance. Straight walled cartridges normally associated with revolvers were designed for black powder. Modern propellants do not require nearly as much space as the old powder, so the cartridge can be physically smaller. Compare a 45 ACP (designed for smokeless powder) to a 45 Colt (designed for black powder) to see the difference. The smaller cases can be loaded with black powder, but these cases cannot physically contain enough of the old propellant to give useful performance except at extremely close range. Black powder burns at a lower pressure than smokeless, and it is extremely dirty.
The operating system of the PSR will not tolerate the low pressure, or the soot build up. Many semi-automatic handguns are intolerant of cast lead bullets. Once again, ammo resupply limits the appeal of the Apaco-porn industry faves.
Shotguns are also a popular prepper option. Shotguns are great a close range against dangerous animals (including people), and they are effective when hunting small game. Shotshells can be reloaded with smokeless or black powder making them good Nester options too. The trouble is, shotgun ammo is bulky, and unlike cast bullets, lead shot suitable for birds and small game are hard to manufacture over a campfire.
Austere Cartridge Reloading:
Bullet Casting for Apartment Dwellers
Knowledgeable readers will notice the lack of reference to the 22 Long Rifle (22lr) and 22 Magnum (22WMR). Long guns and handguns are commonly available in both chamberings. Ruger makes a fantastic single-action revolver called the “Single-Six” that comes with a separate cylinder for each chambering. (Note: Even though both fire .22 caliber projectiles, the diameter of the cartridge body is not the same, and the rounds cannot be fired interchangeably like the 38 Special/357 Magnum and 44 Special/44 Magnum cartridges can.) The 22WMR is more expensive than the 22lr, and it provides a longer effective range. The firearms and ammunition are very light when compared to centerfire weapons making them easy to transport. These rounds offer a fairly limited effective range. 22lr is reliable on small game to 50 yards. 22WMR is good to 100-125 yards. The tiny projectile fired by both cartridges offers poor performance on game animals larger than bobcat, and it has a poor reputation as a defensive round against human aggression.
Think about your Get Home, Bug-Out, INCH bag, and other preps carefully. It is easy to get bogged down in the sheer volume of options, and just plan “stuff” someone tells you is a MUST for your kit.
Where are you going to go?
How are you going to get there?
How are you going to live if you make it that far?
Now that Survivor you got you there, and you are magically transformed into a Nester, what gear do you actually need to LIVE in your new home?
Watch yer topknot
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