New American Truth

If you go onto any gun oriented, law enforcement oriented, concealed carry or other similar website you stand a good chance of finding articles about “every day carry” or EDC.  Essentially the discussion revolves around the guns and other items that people carry each day for self-defense or, for off-duty law enforcement officers, emergency enforcement actions.  What I’d like to talk about are the items you might deem necessary to carry every day but from a survival perspective. Read the full story

Editor’s Note: Republished on request after interaction re: smaller “survival” knives during SHOT Show this year.

From the team of RAT Cutlery and DPx Gear comes the H.E.S.T. knife. HEST is the acronym for “Hostile Environment Survival Tool”. RAT stands for “Randall’s Adventure & Training”. DPx alludes to the knife serving best in the world’s most “Dangerous Places.” I’m not quite sure why the X was added, but I THINK it means “extreme.” All that laid out, I was slightly surprised to get such a small knife designed as a survival tool. Of course, I had to test it, learn about it and so on. What I’ve learned is interesting and I’ll share it with you. Read the full story

If you watch enough military movies, particularly if they revolve around special forces and/or explosives handlers, you’ll eventually hear the phrase, “Two is one; one is none.”  With people who deal in such risky work where the success of a mission can make or break a war, nothing can be left to chance.  They can’t count on ONE detonator; they use TWO.  A General may not be able to count on a single A-Team to get the mission accomplished so he sends TWO.  Two is one; one is none.  When we talk about survival preparation and equipment, where living or dying can hinge on what we do or don’t have, can we afford to take a less cautious approach?  I think not. Read the full story

Editor’s Note: Republished by request.

As fall will soon be arriving in the Mid-Atlantic area, and since I’ve got a weekend camping trip planned, it seemed the ideal time to go through my equipment to assess what was serviceable and what needed to be replaced. As I dug into my camping gear I realized that there is much I have some folks may not have or know about, and other stuff that all you readers might have or know about that I’ve never heard of. So, as I type today’s review, discussing how to go about inventorying and checking your camping gear, I invite you readers to send me feedback to tell me what I’ve missed, forgotten, unnecessarily included, etc. Read the full story

It seems like every time we experience another natural disaster some people have already forgotten the lessons we learned from the last one.  It’s all the more exasperating when you realize how simple some of these basic preparedness “lessons” are.  Let’s review a few of these lessons and contemplate (perhaps) a few new ones. Read the full story

Republished by request due to Hurricane Sandy.

For many years now I have preached about the need to build Bug out bags, Go Bags or – as I’ve now learned to call them – Get Out Of Dodge Bags (GOOD Bags). This week though, I am writing a review of a pre-packaged bag designed to provide a basic support system for two adults for two days (48 hours). Note that I said basic support system. The Sentinel Pack from ASAP Survival Gear contains a good foundational set of gear – and room to add your particular odds and ends to meet / answer your individual needs. By itself though – as a stand alone survival pack – it’s an exceptional kit for rural officers and wilderness rescue workers. Read the full story

By Kevin Miller

*Editor’s Note: Given how many millions of people are having to “bug out” of the east coast, we’re reposting this for info.

A few years ago our illustrious editor was asked to write a three-part series of articles about what he considered to be the various levels of bags necessary for separate emergency situations. The first was his “Immediate Response” bag which was to be grabbed and used for when you hear something go bump in the night, or when your neighbor needed emergency assistance with that violent ex-boyfriend. Whatever the circumstances, that first level was simple. (we’ll review contents a little further down) His second level was the Bug Out Bag. In it was what you’d need to grab and go if your residence was going to be uninhabitable for several days. He described a content list that would last three days in less than comfortable conditions. His final level was the Battle Bag. It was what he would grab to survive that several days in an environment that might require fighting for survival. Read the full story

A couple weeks ago I did a review of general surplus military equipment that was still very usable for camping and other recreational outdoor activities. That article spawned a conversation about knives and how old they had to be before you replaced them. I didn’t realize that AGE determined service life (I guess it does in we humans). So, I set about finding an old beat up surplus knife or bayonet that I could salvage for current use. My son showed up at home with an ugly worn and abused M3 Trench Knife. It was the perfect piece to work with. You should see it now.

Before I tear into it I wanted to look at some various surplus knives I’ve found available through different searches and opportunities. All of them are still quite serviceable even though they may not be the prettiest things out there. With a little bit of work they can be cleaned up and serve well – and you can get them for bargain prices!

Goverment Issue (GI) Stainless Steel Folder

The Government Issue Stainless Steel utility knife, shown to the right here, is an almost ideal pocket knife for camping and weekend hiking trips. It has a blade that is easy to maintain (as far as sharpening) and provides several other tools we find essential:

• A bottle opener (can you say cold beer around a campfire?)
• A can opener (gotta open those cans of baked beans)
• A screwdriver
• An awl

Add to those utility items the fact that it has an integrated hanging hook, which makes it REAL easy to hang on a down-sized D-ring if you want to carry it that way, and the stainless steel handles. This is a very basic but handy utilitarian knife design. They can be had fairly inexpensively and are something you can usually find at gun shows.

The rightfully famous “Ka-Bar” can also be had from surplus supplies in copious quantities. Usually to be had with the original leather sheath stamped either for the United States Marine Corps (USMC) or the United States Army (US Army), the knives hold up better than the sheaths do if they’ve been cared for at all. Like the sheaths, the most susceptible part of the knife to damage and deterioration is the leather. Many “combat” knives were made with leather washers stacked on the tang to serve as the handle and then held in place by a butt cap. With exposure to water, oil, other chemicals, cold, heat, etc those leather washers could rot, shrink or become brittle and crack off. One of the biggest challenges with a surplus blade may well be repairing or creating a new handle around the tang. That brings me to the M3 Trench Knife my son brought home with him.

An original M3 w/ scabbard.

Pictured to the right here is an original M3 Trench Knife with its scabbard. That nicely shaped handle is comprised of stacked leather grommets / washers. Although I don’t have a photo of it in the original condition my son’s knife was in, let me describe it for you: there was light surface rust on all visible metal surfaces. The handle was a crinkly messed up mixture of dried masking tape and crispy electric tape. Both layers of tape had been around the handle for a long time and not in controlled environments. When I asked I found out that my son received this knife from a mechanic during a short visit he enjoyed in Oklahoma. His car had broken down and during the conversation with the mechanic/tow truck driver knives came up. The guy had this knife under his truck seat forever (or so he made it sound). He offered it to my son with the comment that it needed “serious fixin’ up”. He was right.

The first thing we did was strip all the tape off the handle. Under it about half of the leather washers remained. They were so rotted and worn that they broke off in my hand under very little pressure. Our next step was to clean the steel. The surface rust came off under a steel wire brush with no issues. We debated duracoating the steel after that but my son decided he wanted to keep his investment in it minimal. I had a can of high-heat flat black BBQ paint in the shed and that’s what he sprayed it with. A good idea? Well, it drys pretty hard and provides a clean looking finish. It may not be the most durable, but he’s happy with it and will care for the blade properly so it will suffice. Before spraying it we taped the bayonet locking lugs so that the paint wouldn’t seize them up. Surprisingly they were still functional… and still are.

After removing rust and spraying with high-heat paint, the handle was wrapped first with tan paracord and then braided over with OD green paracord.

Our challenge then was to fill the tang in a fashion that would make it comfortable and look half decent. I had previously used string to wrap a handle on my younger son’s walking stick and I figured we could do the same thing using paracord (550 cord) on my other son’s knife. We had two colors of paracord on hand: Desert Tan and OD Green. Which underneath? Which on top? The knife hadn’t been handed to him with any sheath or scabbard so we knew we’d have to get a sheath for it. The choice was a Deluxe Airborne Sheath from BLACKHAWK!. My son chose the OD Green one so we decided to put the OD Green paracord as the outside wrap of the handle. You can see the progression of the wrap in the accompanying photo. First we wrapped a double layer of the Desert Tan paracord with no braid or turns. It was a simple wrap that ended in a single knot to which we applied low heat. The paracord material melts wonderfully and bonds with itself under light pressure. Starting at the butt end we wrapped down to the hilt and then back to the butt cap. Under the paracord wrap, on either side of the tang, is a single length of paracord that added just a bit of fullness to either side of the tang flat. That made our end result more rounded than squarish. (Like these technical terms?)

After we had secured the Desert Tan under wrap, we braided on the OD Green paracord. Starting at the hilt and with the center of our length of paracord, we wrapped around the handle, turned the cord 180 degrees around itself and then pulled it back around. On each side we turned the paracord 180 degrees on itself and we did our best to keep the turns in the center of the handle flat. You can see from the accompanying photo that the end result was a decent enough looking handle that will provide a fairly secure grip. We wrapped from the hilt to the butt cap and then, rather than tying a single knot we ran a double loop single knot and pulled it TIGHT. Again, low heat was applied to just barely melt the paracord and light pressure was applied to get it to bond with itself. Once it had cooled off we tested it by pulling on the ends but they were secure.

Using a jump-rated sheath from BLACKHAWK! we "finished" the knife project to my son's satisfaction.

My son is delighted with the “new” appearance of this surplus blade. Once he had dressed the edge the smile on his face just wouldn’t go away. For the cost of a sheath and some paracord – neither of which is overly expensive – he’s got a very serviceable field knife. Additionally, he has a personal interest and connection with this knife. It’s one he’ll show off to his friends and say, “Isn’t this a cool looking handle?” From there I’m sure the story will continue about how it was done… and more “hobby” skills will get shared. So don’t discount those surplus knives when you’re looking for your next camp or field knife. Many of them are still great blades, but – just like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree – they need a little love and care.

Happy trails!

Depending on your background, whether or not you spent time in the military, what type of family you were raised in, etc you may or may not have received any training in the basic necessities of survival. It’s okay if you haven’t received any training because there are only about a gazillion survival kits available for sale through a boatload of catalogue and online companies. But which one do you need? This isn’t a review of which ones are best, but instead a look at what items such a “kit” should contain. Then you can select which one suits your purposes and/or build one of your own. Read the full story

Reviewed by Ralph Mroz

5.11 has been making some off-body concealed carry bags the last couple years that meet my definition of “beyond discreet”; that is, they contain no MOLLE, do not look tactical, and are available in non-tactical colors.  In other words, they look completely innocent, blend in to any environment, and do not draw any attention to themselves.  These are the kind of invisible or “gray” packs that you want to carry your weapons and gear in if you have to carry off-body while off-duty or undercover, or even in many plain-clothes assignments (such as narcotics work). Read the full story