Monday, May 28, 2012

BUG OUT BAG CONTENTS

FOR KAMEN


Belt rig.  Contents below

Fairly self explanatory

Shovel, bayonet, KaBar knife.  Bayonet replaced by Ka-Bar Becker BK2

the backpack

Gun cleaning supplies and earplugs

Toothbrushes, slingshot, fishing equipment, firemaking supplies, first aid, water filtration, etc

Food.  And apparently socks for some reason.

Clothing

CAR BUG OUT BAG.  Extra equipment that's not "mission critical" such as extra food, clothing, and heavy 'luxury' items.

Monday, May 14, 2012

7.62x54R Dummy Rounds Review


I love my Russian Mosin-Nagant 91/30 more than I could possibly say.  As my first rifle, and the rifle with the most character I've ever seen, I've become emotionally attached to it.  I love holding, cleaning, and practicing with my rifle while at home, but given the essential lack of a safety mechanism on the rifle, I always feel uncomfortable loading live rounds into it, even though I practice proper muzzle and trigger discipline.

One night while browsing Amazon I decided it was time to be able to practice with my 91/30 properly.  I purchased 5 dummy rounds of 7.62x54R for training uses.  Here are my thoughts on them.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Posts in Progress



Hey guys, currently working on a couple of posts in tandem.  Will be releasing them over the next week or so as I finish them.


  • Upcoming review on the Ka-Bar Becker BK-2 Companion Survival Knife.
  • Upcoming review on 7.62x54R Dummy Rounds.
  • Upcoming introduction to survivalism.  Will be a gateway post, opening up others.

These are all posts that are in progress at the moment.  The other topics listed in previous post are still on the chop block, but aside from the BK-2 knife, are not currently being written.

I am also getting some equipment together to let me start using an actual camera rather than phone camera.  Picture quality will increase dramatically.

Ka-Bar Becker BK-2 Companion

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Cold Steel "Special Forces Shovel" Review

Cold Steel "Special Forces Shovel"

Cold Steel is one of those brands that if you like them, you're probably not very proud to admit it.  With their advertising campaigns of "The warrior lifestyle" they capitalize on teenagers' desire to be a soldier without joining the military.  A lot of their products are absurdly gimmicky and they're fairly difficult to respect, even though some of their knives are of exceptional quality.

Well, this thing is one of those gimmicks, but I have to admit that I love it.  The shovel is inspired by the Russian Army's shovel issued to troops that became famous in the West in the last few years due to tv shows showing Russian special forces utilizing it as a weapon.  Well, let's clear some things up now, the original Russian shovel was not a weapon at heart.  No, it was just a shovel.  A really difficult to use shovel that didn't offer much leverage, in fact.  However, once you sharpen the steel of it, some Russian Special Forces claimed to have utilized it as a weapon.

Romanian AK-47 Bayonet vs East German AK-47 Bayonet



The AK-47 bayonet can be commonly bought for under $20 from various sources.  The knife is famous for being likely the strongest knife ever made that is still practical.  The blade is thick as all hell and never rusts.  Brought down from greatness by its own strong blade being difficult to bring to an edge, this knife is still very popular in the USA for its absurdly cheap price and astounding reliability.

The two most common variants of this blade are the Romanian production model and the East Germany model.  While functionally the same, the two are starkly different in materials used, their sheaths and other minor details.  I have purchased one of each, the East German bayonet from JGsales in 2010, and the Romanian bayonet from Amazon in 2012.  I will outline my experiences with both and their differences.

Upcoming Reviews and Posts

The first reviews, in no particular order, will be for bladed survival tools:

-Cold Steel "Special Forces Shovel"
Click here for review!


-Ka-Bar Becker BK2 "Companion" Survival Knife


-Cold Steel "Heavy Machete"


-Victorinox "Tinker"


-East German AK-47 Bayonet vs. Romanian AK-47 Bayonet
Click here for comparison!



I hope to have these reviews done soon.  Please stay tuned.


Welcome to the Survival Blog!



Hello, ladies and gentlemen.  On this blog I'll be posting reviews on various survival-based tools, equipment, clothing, guides, books, DVDs and other related materials.

These reviews will vary from survival knives, to backpacks, to comparisons of different brands and models of equipment, all the way to firearms and their advantages and disadvantages.  The information will try to be as unbiased as possible, and I'll strive to keep biased opinions to a minimum, so the blog feels good for everyone.

Of course there will be times when my own opinions show through, and I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to help that.  This blog will be a learning experience just as much for myself as for anyone else reading, so please excuse how my ideas and preferences might slowly change over time as my thought experiments and experiences grow and the comments and points of my readers hit home.

My posts will not have any political charge unless there's something going through congress that directly effects my ability to continue the blog, or infringes the rights to own and use the equipment herein.  This means I can be expected to make posts about bills that would restrict internet privacy, or right to bear arms.  I am adamant, however, in not making posts involving Republicans vs Democrats, or Liberal vs Conservative.  You guys can read about that elsewhere.  I just want to talk about survival with everyone and get some good brand names and models out there for my fellow survivalists.