Author: Pat Henry

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this article on the Prepper Journal back on January 28, 2013. There is always a very healthy dialog on all sides of any issue when it comes to Survival or the Preparedness movement. From Bug Out Bags to firearm recommendations and caliber pros/cons. What an individual should be Prepping for, or more precisely how they should start prepping themselves is no different. Within our community there are such a myriad of opinions and advise on any topic. The Prepper Journal should be a forum for discussions and I want to kick it off right here by tackling How to start Prepping.…

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this article on the Prepper Journal back on January 25, 2013 but I thought it brought up some concepts that are still relevant today. Additionally, I have some business trips planned so I wanted to bring back some of our first articles for those of you who might not have had a chance to read them or to frame the subject of prepping in a different way for new readers. I hope you enjoy. What are you afraid of? These are the words that I hear often from friends, strangers and the media. What was…

Bug Out Bags come with their own set of problems just as complex in some cases as the myriad of reasons why you could be forced to rely on a Bug Out Bag in the first place. There is the type of bag to purchase, the specific gear to load in there, and a million voices telling you what is best and what isn’t needed. Not to be left out of the discussion, the Prepper Journal has had its fair share of comments about the subject both from the perspective of how much weight to pack in your bug out…

The role of law enforcement used to be pretty clearly understood from the perspective of the public they were entrusted to protect, the criminals who tried to hide from them and the public servants themselves. Growing up, police officers were admired and respected and could more or less be counted on in times of danger. It was common advice given out to children not too long ago if they were lost to “find a police officer”. The understanding was that a police officer would know what to do and take care of you or the situation in some way appropriate…

The world of Survival and Prepping Bloggers is pretty diverse. There are those who will say that they are only talking intelligently about preparing and stocking up without any of the fear as if fear somehow makes prepping less relevant. There are those who are on the opposite of the spectrum and almost daily warn of impending doom around every corner. In our broad sphere of influence, you have Preppers, Survivalists, Homesteaders, Back to the Land types, current and ex-military, Off-Grid, Anti-government, Sustainable living, farmers, militia, and all other points in between. The largest majority in my experience are just…

You can’t eat gold. I have heard that phrase so many times in the past whenever the subject of prepping turned to an economic collapse and the importance of buying precious metals was proposed as a solution. There are several facets to the debate around the usefulness or necessity of having gold and silver on hand but I wanted to take a couple of swings tonight and see what everyone else thought. You do seem to see people who swear by precious metals and they are admonishing everyone to go out and buy as much silver as possible. There are…

I have been meaning to write this review for weeks after the good people Powerful Products sent me this really nice Goal Zero Bolt Solar flashlight but one thing or another keeps getting in the way. Now, with our contest to win one of these excellent flashlights approaching an end, I wanted to show you a little more about this great device.  The Goal Zero Bolt is a great addition to your family’s emergency preps because it is both practical (who doesn’t need a flashlight) and needs only the sun to run for hours. You never need to worry about…

We all have witnessed the militarization of our local police forces over the years and most of you have probably felt a growing sense of doom. What used to be a man in a uniform you could depend on to at least care and try to “protect and to serve”, has turned into a quasi military goon who shoots first and then asks questions. This trend stinks and you have to add this on top of the giant steaming pile that already lingered from countless other movements the government has made in the face of the American people. There have…

A Bug Out Bag is something that most of us are familiar with even if most of us do not have one loaded by the door or in the trunk of our car, ready to go at all times, but do you know how to pack a bug out bag? For the uninitiated, the Bug Out Bag’s purpose is to give you everything you should need to live for 72 hours if you are forced to evacuate your location suddenly. A bug out bag should be pre-packed with all of your supplies so that you can grab it, throw it…

I was prompted to write those words after a couple of things happened. First, I watched the season finale of The Walking Dead. I won’t give away anything more than that right now to you people who are still feverishly playing catch-up on Netflix. The second thing was a few books I have either read or am in the process of reading which deal with the subject of a TEOTWAWKI type of event which leads some people to cannibalism. It struck me as odd at how little we seem to discuss this subject when it comes to prepping and SHTF…

I first reviewed Richard Duarte’s book Surviving Doomsday – A Guide for Surviving an Urban Disaster back in May of 2013. If you are interested in my thoughts around the book, you can read the full review here. In the time since that post (where has a year gone?) Richard and I have stayed in contact. He is frequently seen around the web if you follow the preparedness circles and his book is one of those that is timeless really. Not to give Richard too much credit, but books like Surviving Doomsday, the common aspects of what we call “Prepping”…

I own several firearms of varying shapes, sizes and each are designed for specific purposes. I am not a collector but like to classify my ownership and interest in having firearms as a hobby. It just so happens that one of the benefits of this hobby is that I am able to hunt. I am also able to defend and protect my family if need be. As with almost any other hobby I can think of out there, you can’t just buy the item that is the main focus of your hobby and be done with it. If you golf,…

This featured video is from Grant Thompson – “The King of Random”. There are a lot of articles, videos, tips and even special chemicals designed to enable the average Prepper to be able to light a fire in all manner of weather. Most of this I think is a little too thought out and complicated but knowing how to start a fire is definitely vital. Having a fire enables you to cook, boil water and provide light and safety. In my bug out bag I always have a couple of Bic lighters. These are generally the easiest and cheapest means…

Every parent wants the best for our children but even if your kids don’t have a career as a high paid athlete, find fortune running the next tech firm that makes billions of dollars or invents the cure for cancer, we do all want them to be safe. Safe is a funny word and it can be viewed in lots of ways. I wrote a post about how we need to let our children get hurt some time back on the Prepper Journal. By hurt I meant normal childhood injuries that come with exploring and learning your boundaries. In that…

A must have for any prepper or survivalist is a dependable source of light. The great thing about this flashlight from Goal Zero is that it is rechargeable, so no need (at least for this one) to store batteries by the thousands. We have been fortunate enough to partner with Powerful Products to bring you the latest giveaway on the Prepper Journal for this Bolt Rechargeable Flashlight! Power outages happen all the time and even if the power is working and everything is hunky dory, a dependable flashlight is simply one of those items that everyone should have. Here is…

Earthquakes happen virtually anywhere and the recent news of the 8.2 magnitude quake in Chile reminds us that this natural disaster is a fact of life we could reasonably expect to see at some point in our lives. There are over 15,000 earthquakes on average each year worldwide. Granted, most of these earthquakes are on the smaller side rating under a 4.0 but nevertheless, there seems to be no place that is completely safe from the potential of an earthquake happening. In the US alone deaths from earthquakes seem to be relatively low, but it is the aftermath that you…

I have said before that I really like survival fiction; dystopic visions of some future calamity and how the people in those situations survive whatever crisis they are faced with and how their lives look in this new reality they are suddenly thrust into. In almost every case, once the major disaster is over, people learn first that living without life’s conveniences is hard work and that the lessons of our forefathers are lost or rusty at best. The next lesson is usually that in survival situations, the worst element in society has the opportunity to rise up completely unfettered…

Water is obviously a critical supply you need to have in order to live. Water more than food is required if you are going to survive and we talk a lot on survival blogs like the Prepper Journal about how to handle the water once you get it. If your water isn’t clean, we discuss how to use a survival water filter or treat the water to make it drinkable. We have talked about transporting water to your location or carrying water in something like your Bug Out Bag. We have additionally talked about filtering water that you collect in…

Are you confident that you are all set and that your SHTF plan is bulletproof? Do you have an awesome bug out vehicle already sitting in the garage of your remote bunker somewhere miles away from the nearest highway? Do you have a fully stocked Bug Out Bag crammed under your desk at work with all the supplies you need including 200 feet of rope to shimmy down the windows of your 8th floor office? Do you have an entire craftsman tool cabinet full of medical supplies loaded up and ready to roll into action? If your AR-15’s are all…

We all get discouraged from time to time especially when events or results we expect are right around the corner, do not happen. This makes perfect sense with a diet when for example you reach a plateau and all the rice cakes and sacrificing desserts in the world won’t take off a single additional ounce. Another example could be a skill we try to master like golf. Sometimes, no matter how much effort we put into practicing, money we blow on the latest hi tech clubs, how much sweat blood and cursing we expend on that stupid ball, nothing seems…

Is there ever a time when it is ok to steal? Maybe you say, “we aren’t stealing we are scavenging” and that is perfectly fine. Under the right circumstances and in the right situation I may agree with you. So today I wanted to discuss looting vs scavenging and how the two are related and how in a survival situation you could go about scavenging for items that could save your life. Have you ever stolen anything? Chances are that many of us have at least one time in our lives. This could range from the completely innocent act of…

Improvised weapons have a very important place in history and as we see today, our current world has not overlooked this concept. When you have no weapons, no armored vehicles, no tanks you can still fight. Take away a rifle and you can still smash someone’s head in with a pipe. Take away a pipe and you can kill someone with a stone. The recent events in Ukraine were surprising on one level and some of the uprisings have even been forgotten I think with the even more recent news of the Russian’s annexing Crimea. One of the more interesting…

If you are new to Prepping, then you have come to the right place. The Prepper Journal was created specifically to help as many people as possible learn how to get started in prepping. Whether you are looking for the supplies you need to make it through a short-term emergency or to the opposite end of the spectrum which is becoming completely self-reliant; we have the information on the Prepper Journal that will arm you with the tips and ideas you need to start down the path to becoming a prepper. What is a prepper? It depends on who you…

You are not Rambo. You are not a Navy Seal and you are most certainly not in the Russian Special Forces. Most of you have never even been in the military, seen combat or even fired a shot in anger. You have no idea of the kind of hell that a total grid-down, societal collapse type of world will be like, but you don’t care – you are hoping for it hurry up and get here anyway. For you the closest you have been to combat is Call of Duty, the closest you have been to real action is shooting…

Spring is in the air, but not here quite yet as evidenced by warm days followed by snow and high winds the next. You can hear the frustration with the weather almost everywhere you go and phrases like “if you don’t like the weather, just wait” are thrown around as much as possible. I think we usually have periods at the change of any season just like this where you are teased with a glimpse of the new season’s weather. A taste of what is to come, but you are not really out of the current season (winter) at all.…

Yes, I am going there. One of the most hotly debated questions in prepper/survival/firearm enthusiast circles is around the best survival rifle. For all intents and purposes, there are only two in competition in the US and those are the AK-47 and the AR-15. I will add that there are variants of both and I am lumping all of those into these two categories. This question of what is the best survival rifle is one that I asked myself when I was considering my first rifle purchase so I wanted to take some time on the Prepper Journal blog today to…

As adults, we are expected by society to be mature enough to take care of a few basic but important things; namely ourselves and anyone we have responsibility for. Responsibility is a word that I use frequently on the Prepper Journal blog to describe my sense of duty to others. I feel a sense of duty to take care of and love my wife, children and family. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t something I look at as a chore that I begrudgingly do, but I look at this responsibility as a higher valued aspect of my job as a…

Planning for power outages is one of the most common things you can do in the realm of prepping. To that end we talk about storing fuel, purchasing generators or inverters for back-up power or installing solar panels to augment your electric grid-tied system. These are the problems of anyone in the West normally who has reliable access to power. There is a whole other world out there where the reliability of constant power is spotty. In some remote locations, it is non-existent. You don’t have to get your passport stamped to imagine life without power though. Winter storms, hurricanes,…

Everyone has a dad. Yours may no longer be with us here on Earth, or you may have never met them before. Your Dad may be someone you see daily, or miss dearly, or hope to never see again. Regardless of your relationship or history with your Dad, whether you have fond memories of this person or not, you have a man who was partly responsible for creating your life. Being a Dad doesn’t require a license and you don’t have to pass a test. There are few qualifications unfortunately to be a Dad and there is no instruction manual…

Even though the news was slow to reach the surface on the details surrounding the attack of a central California electrical substation, by now most of you have heard the news. For those who haven’t, an unknown number of people, armed with rifles only, attacked and disabled Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf transmission substation back on April 16, 2013. Firing around 100 shots, the attackers knocked out 17 transformers forcing officials to reroute power to avert a blackout. It took them 27 days to repair the damage. We may never know who was responsible for this event and this article…