Author: Wild Bill

The Polls have closed! The results have been tabulated and no Russian interference has been charged! The five (5) articles in contention for the three (3) prizes of Amazon gift cards were (in no particular order): Build Your Own Firearm – (Part 6 – Assembling and Testing the AR-15) Practical Prepping The Truth About Bartering – Part 1 Superfoods in Seven (7) Days Lessons Learned: When “Prepping” Shows Up on Your Doorstep Congratulations (in order) to: John D. Ra Denney R. D. Watson The Results: [poll_results id=”11″]

Editors Note: This is an article originally “published” by Jeffery Tucker of Liberty.me in 2012. The Prepper Journal is republishing it with some additional materials (and some pictures for flow and effect.)  I have sought the authors permission but have had no response to any inquiries. It stands on its own merit, even thought it was posted in 2012. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award, as well as being entered into the Prepper Writing Contest AND have a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the…

Editors Note:  If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly receive a $25 cash award, as well as being entered into the Prepper Writing Contest AND have a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards  with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies, then enter today! Since the birthday-fairy snubbed me and I didn’t get a new Galaxy Note 8 I am making an impassioned, though somewhat, maybe, early plea for what every prepper needs to find in their stocking! I, probably like many of you, have heard…

Subject: Hurricane Florence Message Body: Living in NC, I wanted to share some observations about Hurricane Florence. At first it looked like the hurricane would come ashore strong and head either to Fayetteville or Raleigh. Then, the forecasts had the hurricane turning southwest after landfall. I observed people panicking in grocery stores. They seemed unable to decide what to buy. However, they did grab bread and water, clearing off the shelves. I observed similar behavior at a large, hardware store. Batteries went fast, as expected.  One of my neighbors witnessed fights at a gas station. This was needless panic, that…

On yet another anniversary of 911, the 16th, the images from that day are still haunting and still heart breaking.      Those lost, lives forever changed, bravery on a scale that can’t be measured…    and yet uplifting as well….          Civil servants, airline employees, “average” citizens if there is such a thing, the people you pass everyday without giving a second thought stepped up. We saw then what we saw in Texas a couple of weeks ago, what we are seeing now throughout the northern Caribbean, and the Florida Peninsula.    People doing their jobs, people surviving, people reaching…

This subject of hurricane preparedness is a recurring thread of The Prepper Journal and here are three good articles articles on it from our archives: Crisis at Work: Hurricane and Emergency Preparedness for Small Businesses Hurricane Survival Guide Life After a Disaster: Lessons From a Hurricane and A Tornado Weather prediction remains one of the most challenging of sciences. While one can drone on ad nauseam about things from the “European Model” vs the “American Model”, to spatial scales, Chaos theory and the atmospheric sciences of meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry, events in the Eastern Caribbean have already eclipsed…

The Polls have closed! No hanging chads, no voter fraud detected. The five (5) articles in contention for the three (3) prizes of Amazon gift cards were (in no particular order): Trail Foods From History – Food Preservation Ideas Weather: The Natural Disaster Maker The Tactics of a Gunfight After SHTF Survival Fishing with Just a Hook, Line and Sinker 5 Skills and 5 Tools for Every Prepper Congrats (in order) to: R. Ann Parris Capt. Dennis Kirk Reynolds The results: [poll_results id=”10″]

Editors Note: The good and the bad in real time. “My faith in humanity restored”…”THIS is how Americans really treat each other”….”We see heroes and victims, we don’t see colors”….the images are undeniable, they are both heart-breaking and faith-restoring.      This is the America we know, these are our neighbors and friends and our family members stepping up. This is happening in Texas. As someone who has been to 49 of our 50 states I know this would also happen in Alaska and Florida and Maine and California and all the places in between, and yes, even Hawaii. Stories of…

Editor’s Note: Hoping you are yours are safe, the storm now fades but the aftermath lingers and lingers and will last for years. The many pictures of neighbors helping neighbors trumps the media’s assault on America and Americans.      Following the storm from the safety of my high & dry home a thousand miles away my daughter and her husband live in the Ponderosa Forest area of Houston, west of George Bush International Airport and just south of the very affluent Woodlands area. The area has older (1980’s) large (her’s is 3,200 sq ft.) two-story homes on large lots,…

Portable Energy Storage Systems  We recently wrote of batteries for electric devices, the value of rechargeable, assuming a reliable power source, as well as home generators, something to the benefit of every survival enthusiast. Along those lines why not consider portable energy storage systems as a part of your prepper planning? Useful for a bug-out scenario or in a hunker down situation, the sizes and versatility of the systems out there offer some reasonable options for the short-term, and they can readily support some longer-term situations, should you find yourself and yours in one.      Here in the USA, being…

Editors Note: We will be “updating” The Prepper Journal with some new features and a “new look”. We have already received positive feedback on the “upgrading” of the ads associated with the site and now it is time to step up the presentation a bit to include some cosmetic changes and some additional function that you have requested. These will be placed on the solid foundation The Prepper Journal has been built upon and will continue to support. Let us know what you think!

Editors Note: I am sharing this, with minimal poetic license, a single edit for flow. It is something that was shared with me by one of our contributors who would like to be identified as Sunlit Dusk in this post.  In exchanging emails on possible future posts she shared this and I think it is an excellent lesson for us all, so I asked for and received permission, honoring her rules. “He was stung by a wasp. He knew anaphylaxis was heading his way like a crazed fizzy bath bomb of internally-produced mustard gas – asphyxiation precipitated by his own immune system. Eight…

I climb upon my “soap box” and scream “ENOUGH!” We don’t see enough, but can we have “enough?” What we do not see in Range Bags: tools, the right tools for the weapons and mechanical items contained therein (site adjustment tool, break-down kits, D.O.P.E Cards – Not that kind of Dope, Data On Personal Equipment cards!). All these tools and a cleaning kit . Planning on what people are going to the range for other than pushing rounds down range (which is fine if that is all they are planning). I see people trying to sight in weapons with…

UGH! – but wait, these are good elections (now there is a statement I NEVER thought I would make!) This is the “atonement” for not running a “Vote for Your Favorite” article in the Prepper Writing Contest on time. Looks like we are actually two in arrears! “Round Nine” was delayed as a result of the changes on the site and should have been run around May 15th of this year, and “Round Ten” is due NOW! Our bad, we apologize, we see this flaw in our planning and we will correct it like all preppers do. A review of…

Editor’s Note: As you know we are always looking for new ideas, new innovations and being better prepared for what Mother Nature or our fellow planet inhabitants may throw our way. We’d like to hear about and share things that work, and we especially would like to hear about things that did not work.  So from today forward we are going to sweeten the pot a bit. If we post your article you will receive a $25 PayPal payment. Yes, this is addition to being entered in our Preppers Journal Writing Contest for the chance to win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase…

Editor’s Note: We are looking for new and varied entries for the Prepper Writing Contest. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today. As you know guest Contributors have added significant value to the site and to our followers. Like Rick, more of you have a following than you know and our readers are anxious to hear more, hear of new things and of old things that have proven themselves over time and practice. We would like to suggest articles on long-term food storage…

Earthquake, Southern California, sitting in my kitchen at 5:25 am I felt the roll, heard the house creak and crack and through my dining room window saw the transformer a few blocks away blow. Spectacular. It was over quickly, family was fine, the house had no damage on a first look, and no electricity, or natural gas as I had a seismic shut off valve on the gas line. This wasn’t my first rodeo. “Coffee!” I needed coffee so I went to the garage, got my portable camping stove, part of my survival gear, heated some water on it on…

With the furthest you can get from a paved road in the lower 48 states being 22 miles, (Northeastern Wyoming) getting “off the grid” is a lot harder for most of us than we think. Have you ever really been “off the grid?” What most would describe as “We are really going to spend a Friday night doing this?” to “the vacation from hell” to “Seriously Dad!?!?” is actually some of the best training a prepper can do. I walked the John Muir Trail one July, from the top of Mt. Whitney to Tuolumne Meadows, 210 miles, and never went…

Most of us have lived through the “Dark Days” – The Great Ammo Shortage of ’08 – ’13. Dark days, indeed. If you were like me, your days alternated between agonizing mental arithmetic and staking out the ammo counter at the local Walmart from across the aisle in the automotive section, waiting for the next shipment to arrive. Cabala’s used to advertise that ammo deliveries would make it to the display floor just before opening on Thursdays, there was always a line waiting for the opening Thursdays. Many days I found myself wanting to train, wishing I had paid more…

What is a flashlight? It is a storage container for dead batteries as are all other battery-operated devices. We all know this, after all who hasn’t gone to “the dark side” when chasing down that one 9-v that has failed in a smoke detector in the middle of the night? The question we want to answer here is are rechargeable batteries a better option? In our opinion they are the only option. NiMH (nickel Metal Hydride) batteries can be recharged upwards of 500-1000 times (http://batterysavers.com/rechargeable-battery-life-questions-and-answers/). This, of course, assumes a “source” of power to recharge them – a vehicle battery,…

NEVER! If there is one “miracle” survival product it is paracord. It can handle so many jobs, it can be packed efficiently, it can be used, reused, re-purposed, reconfigured, and depended upon in almost any situation, it is the friend-zone of materials – always there, always ready, expects (and gets) nothing in return. No matter how many ways one lists to use paracord they will be as far short of all its uses as a politician is of getting something, anything done. If you see a bug-out bag without paracord in it walk away, disown or unfriend the bags owner,…

The importance of an on-going, always under review survival plan, can’t be over-stressed. Every plan needs constant, consistent and through review. While plans may change at a moment’s notice, some things, the things we can control, we should strive to control. Medical supplies expire. Any good medical kit, IFAK (Individual first-aid kit) or MFAK (Multiple-injury first-aid kit) will have a variety of components with expiration dates that always vary across the kit. So, you must check each component and make a schedule to be followed to keep the kit ready. This is relatively easy as not only are all the…

A google of “how to start a fire with sticks” produced 26,800,000 results a few days ago. Don’t know that I believe the stats, 26,800,001 might have convinced me, but I do believe if you are at the point of rubbing two sticks together to start a fire in 2017 you are not very high on the food chain. In fact, I would suggest this activity is better suited as an alternative to when you can’t find a sitter so you can go to the gym as opposed to a position to put yourself in when the lack of heat…

Why leave a perfectly good home, one with an emergency generator, water, and food stored, ammo, hidden gun safes, and an understanding of all the points of approach and egress? What could drive you from such a place, other than a Preschool opening next door? A walk-through of my home with the goal of answering the above questions, was scary, period. Under the premise that my home was “intact” after a natural disaster, or not at ground zero when the SHTF, how does it really stack up for the short-term as a place to hunker down? The “NOT GOOD” list:…

Heat, a rather mundane topic. If you are cold, add heat, if you are hot, offload heat (adding cold can get complicated, bear with me. Our bodies are fragile, at all ages, when it comes to temperature. A few too many degrees up and heat exhaustion can cause death, a few too many down, hypothermia can produce the same result. Hypothermia can occur when your core temperature drops below 95 degrees, just 3.6 degrees from “normal” – yikes, my cocktail loses that many degrees in the short walk from my back door to the pool. Yikes! Fever, the same in…

Everyone visualizes their “end of the world” scenario. For some it is the Wi-Fi being down for more than an hour, for others it is more serious, the stuff of biblical writings, history, stories, legends, and movies ad nauseam, the article title here is from an ancient sci-fi movie. So, what is your move in this situation: Rule of law is gone, you are hunkered down somewhere, with family and friends. Your turn to scout and during your patrol you are overtaken by several seriously armed and hungry men who want to take your stuff, shoot you and move on.…