Author: Guest Contributor

Our latest featured video is once again from Wranglerstar. In this video he reviews Joel Skousen’s book, Strategic Relocation – North American Guide to Safe Places. We also reviewed this book on the Prepper Journal in an older post if you want to check that out as well. Mr Skousen has created a guide for anyone looking to relocate anywhere in the US. For each state he gives thoroughly researched information on various factors so that you can make the right choice on where to move for your family. This book is geared to people who are seeking to live…

This article was originally published on My Family Survival Plan I was reading an article about the mega disaster in Japan in 2011 and how difficult it was for the victims to ask for medical help or get in touch with their families. And there was a certain paragraph that caught my attention: “Look, it’s impossible to prepare for anything of the scope and magnitude of the Japanese disaster,”said Jack Gold, an analyst at J.Gold Associates. “The Japanese disaster is so wide-reaching that [communication] infrastructure was affected, not just the individual cell towers. Despite what the U.S. carriers say, I…

From buying it to burning it, knowing a few things about firewood can greatly help the productivity of your wood stove or fireplace this winter. Here are tips culled from the nonprofit Wood Heat Organization to help you prepare by knowing what type of firewood is best. What makes for good firewood? When determining which types of firewood burn better, it’s important to remember some high school chemistry and the fact that all trees, no matter their species, are made of pretty much the same chemicals. What makes for good firewood, though, is density and moisture content. Woods that are…

This is a video from Dave Canterbury who started the Pathfinder School and was co-host of Dual Survival with Cody Ludin for two years before a controversy ended that stint. Regardless, Dave does have skills that a majority of preppers would like to have and we can still learn a lot from him. In this video Dave lays out what he calls his 10 piece emergency kit. This Emergency Kit is built off of Dave’s 10 C’s of Survivability. I’ll let him explain these for you in better detail,  but this kit he has assembled covers the basics of survival.…

This article originally appeared on the Canadian Preppers Network Saving money is most times easier than making it and I have found a way to save LOTS of money. In our home we seem to have mountains of laundry to be done but my honest first thought when I heard about making my own soap was – all I need is one-more-thing-to-do…was the extra work going to be worth it? I decided to give it a try for several reasons. The first was my ongoing struggle with allergies. I seem to be allergic to the strangest things and at times…

One of the most underused skills that so many of us who call ourselves Preppers or Survivalists miss out on is real life weapons training. I am not talking about going to the shooting range once every other month and shooting a box of 9MM at a zombie target. I am talking about real life training where you are outdoors and movement is involved, preferably with expert instruction. Sage Dynamics offers total-package training solutions for Citizens, Law Enforcement, Military and Private Security. One of their trainers, Aaron Cowan discusses the importance of moving during a live fire scenario. As he…

Article originally published at The Prepared Ninja October is here and that means a new fiscal year for the federal government. It also means that winter will be upon the vast majority of us sooner as opposed to later. With winter weather comes winter driving and with winter driving comes all the extra dangers that no one misses during the rest of the year. It made me think that it would be a good time to re-post the series that I did last year on winter driving that was inspired by a series of “errors in judgment” when it came…

This short video has some simple but effective survival life hacks that you can use if you find yourself in a situation where you need to find your direction or make do without power. The video is from Audible.com who also has lots of other great content. Check it out! Remember if you have videos that you think would be instructive or beneficial to our readers, please let me know. We may put them in our Featured Video page for the world to see!

This video is from those crazy Russians again who brought you the nearly famous “How to Open A Can Without A Can Opener”. In this video they demonstrate how to sharpen a knife on some not too obvious surfaces. Everyone who has a knife should have a good sharpening device to keep your blades in top shape, but if the grid goes down and you are forced to bug out you may have to try some less orthodox methods to keep your knives sharp. I use a couple of methods myself to keep my knives sharp. I have a Smith’s…

I came across this video from jiujitsu2000 on YouTube and he demonstrates how you can reload 12 gauge shotgun shells in a survival situation. Now, this video isn’t a complete MacGyver take on reloading. You won’t learn how to chop up pieces of coconut to make this work. His methods require some of the normal materials you would need to have on hand for regular reloading with the proper equipment, but he does give some alternatives to some of the regular pieces of equipment. If you happen to find yourself with some basic reloading supplies, this video might help you come…

Here is another video from Wranglerstar in which he shares his recommendations for several tools that you my find yourself dependent upon if we have to survive Economic collapse. Most of this video is from the perspective of tools for cutting or managing firewood. If we do have a collapse, one of the first things you won’t have or most likely be able to afford is oil or gas to heat your home. In addition to heating, firewood will be necessary for cooking. If you have no tools to cut wood then this video can help you with some suggestions…

Article by Chris Ray and appeared originally on his site Prepared Christian Fire safety is something I think everyone should be practicing now when times are normal and you’re not in a survival situation, so that you can prevent or minimize the danger of a fire. In a survival situation, the danger of a fire starting and the damage it can cause are magnified. The reason for this is that people who do not normally use candles, their fireplace or other alternate heat sources, use a skill set they have minimal experience with. Depending on the situation you may or…

Today’s featured video is from TheHossUSMC and he is discussing long term food storage. In this case specifically, hard red winter wheat storage and grinders for making flour from those little wheat berries. For those of you out there who haven’t yet taken your food storage preps to the next level, I would recommend storing Hard Red Winter Wheat in sealed Mylar bags. There is a lot of additional information and other posts in our Food Storage category. TheHoss has his own YouTube channel with lots of other great videos on firearms and open carry. Enjoy!

Article originally published at Readynutrition.com If any of you have purchased antibiotics for your long-term medical supplies, you know that these are considered prepper gold. Having this medicine on hand in extended emergencies can help prevent infections or even save a life. It must be said that not all antibiotics are created equal. Understanding this can help you find the right antibiotics that will work best for the specific medical conditions you are trying to target. Because there are such a wide range of antibiotics, before you buy them do some research on your own or talk with a medical professional to see which antibiotics would…

In this weeks featured video, Cody Lundin demonstrates how to catch and eat a rat with a dead fall trap near his home in the desert. Cody is the founder, director, and lead instructor of the Aboriginal Living Skills School, LLC in Prescott, Arizona; an adjunct instructor in outdoor survival, primitive living, and urban preparedness at Yavapai College; an adjunct faculty member at the Ecosa Institute; and co-host of the television series Dual Survival. I also have Cody’s book When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes and I highly recommend it if you are…

This is a really interesting video from YouTuber Wranglerstar. If you are looking for a great axe for chopping down trees and splitting wood, this video showcases axes from three manufacturers and gives his opinion based upon real tests of the best axe. I have an axe, but this hasn’t really seen the type of use you would expect an axe to see if you had to use this tool for warmth and shelter. Like everything else, you get what you pay for and if you are expecting an axe to last a long time and make your life easier,…

When I was 4 or 5 years old my dad gave me a plastic bow and arrow set. It was one of those cheap, $5 toy bows with the plastic arrows and suction cup tips. From the moment I let one of those toy arrows fly I was hooked. From then on archery was a permanent part of my life. Today we’re going to tackle some of the commonly held misconceptions about archery and its use in disaster scenarios and several of the debates going around in the preparedness community about archery and its effectiveness as a disaster skill. …

Winter is tough on your house. The temperature swings from below freezing to above freezing put great stress on all the elements of your house – both exterior and interior. And if the power ever goes out – and you don’t have a backup heat source – a cold winter day can quickly freeze and burst your water pipes, causing great damage once they thaw out. But with a few simple precautionary steps, this tragedy can be avoided. Tasks to do before a cold spell arrives Since you never know if you might lose power during the next cold snap…

Editors Note: Oddly enough this topic about would you eat dog came up in my own family as we were enjoying our Thanksgiving holiday. No, we had a delicious Turkey, but thanks for asking… It is a subject that can polarize people pretty quickly as we found out ourselves. What would you do if you were starving? Could you eat the family pet? When our girls were very young, and before we had any animals, I made a house rule to cut short a request for a cat: “We can have any animal we want, as long as we realize…

Live poultry often are carriers of Salmonella – a germ that can be harmful to humans. But how big is the risk? In chickens, Salmonella is a naturally occurring germ that lives in the intestines. It is not a cause of the food that they eat or how they are raised. Even organically raised chickens can have Salmonella in their gut. It usually doesn’t make the birds sick. But it can cause serious illness when it is passed to humans. The risk of actually catching Salmonella from chickens is very small if you follow some simple sanitary steps. Let’s take a…

It’s been a bit of a process but we’ve finally made up our minds on what to do about the wood stove – cook stove dilemma we’ve (I’ve) been struggling with. I have written before about my absolute love of all things old and beautiful but I would NOT want an old stove because burn technology and heat shields have come a long way in the past 25 years and I am concerned about safety above all. Our search had several criteria. It had to look good. It needed to be efficient. I would like to cook on it. The…

The sh*# has hit the fan and the power is out. Despite all warnings, you didn’t stock up on matches, lighters, or a flint. It’s getting cold outside, and you could really use a warm meal. What now? There are many ways to build a fire without matches or lighters, but in my opinion, the best way is to make a fire plough. While it does take some stamina, it is very effective. One of my favorite survival movies is Cast Away in which Tom Hanks plays an everyday guy named Chuck Noland. In a very powerful scene, Chuck struggles…

There is a great fallacy in some circles that the lone wolf is the person who will have the greatest chance of survival if things ever go downhill. Being prepared for any level of disaster or emergency is definitely something that should be a family, group or team effort. One way to look at this is to equate the survival of a group versus individual survival as a baseball game in which one team is complete and the other team has a pitcher that has to cover the outfield, too. This is not only impractical but would completely exhaust the…

Since the episode last night of Doomsday Preppers had a guy modifying an old school bus to be his battle wagon after the destruction caused by of an F5 tornado, I thought I would share this article showing other options you might consider. While I will admit, part of me wants to build my own gassifier engine and go to town on an old bus with a cutting torch, these options below come with considerably less work, risk of fire and could run much better than that old yellow tank. If nothing else, you won’t need to make your own…

For most Whitetail deer hunters the term Farming for Wildlife probably isn’t a new term.  Whitetail hunters have been farming for wildlife on a grand scale for the past ten years or more.  In the hunting world this means planting large food plots, putting out automatic feeders, clearing paths in transition areas and allowing thick brushy undergrowth to grow for good bedding areas.  All of this is done in an effort to make wild game feel as comfortable as possible on the landowners property.  That way when hunting season comes around, they will hopefully still be in the habit of hanging…

This is the first post in a new series I want to bring to The Prepper Journal audience of Featured Videos. There are tons of awesome videos from Preppers all over the world, from all walks of life, backgrounds and perspectives. I will be highlighting them here on the Prepper Journal and hope they provide you will a lot of informative content. If you have ideas for videos you would like to see displayed on the Prepper Journal, just drop me a line and we’ll see if we can’t get this up there for you. The first video is from…

By Bob Robb Crossbows are amazing tools you can use for hunting game, but they need to be used properly so that you hit what you are shooting at and don’t injure yourself. Today we discuss crossbow dos and don’ts. When I first started shooting modern crossbows several years ago, I had no idea what to expect. Like many who had never played with them, these tools confused me. I had seen them on TV, but without ever handling one, I wasn’t sure about a lot of things. How do you load one? How do you pull the string back?…

This article was contributed by David Nash of Shepherd School I talk a lot about lethal force, and one concept comes up almost universally. I call this idea the leg shot syndrome. The leg shot syndrome is expressed by the statement “I wouldn’t aim to kill; I would shoot the robber in the leg”. I believe I know where this thought comes from. It comes from the fact that everyone I give firearms classes to comprise the “good guys”. Good guys don’t go around killing, robbing, and raping people. They believe that everyone has redeeming qualities. Good guys don’t want…

This article contributed by the Great Northern Prepper Emergency Childbirth Preparedness As preppers we gather materials and learn skills to help us and those around us deal with emergency situations.  Whether it’s a SHTF scenario or life as usual and whether you are one of the expectant parents or merely a bystander, emergency childbirth is a situation that you could find yourself in.  This document is meant to serve as a basic overview of the normal birth process and the steps you should take to assist in the delivery and care of a newborn.  In no way should this be…

Don’t kill, spray, tear up, or destroy the weeds in your garden, yard, and fence rows. Many of them are actually highly-regarded, widely-used, and extremely-valuable medicinal herbs! What could be easier than growing an herbal medicine garden with no effort? Of course, you’ll have to harvest your edible weeds, but you would do that anyhow: it’s called weeding. Spring is an especially fertile time for harvesting your edible weeds – roots and all – and turning them into medicines. Here then are some tips on how to find, harvest, prepare, and use a baker’s dozen (13) of common edible weeds…