Author: Richard Bryant

Editor’s Note: This article was generously donated by frequent contributor, Rich Bryant. Rich discusses security topics that could need to be employed by preppers in a TEOTWAWKI scenario if controlling access to your location is warranted for security and safety in a world where the traditional authorities are no longer able. This article compliments our series on Thinking of your neighborhood from a tactical perspective and offers plenty of common sense tips for establishing roadblocks should they become necessary in your neighborhood or retreat location. You can also read other articles from Rich on the Prepper Journal. Introduction If you…

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Many preppers have formed a mental picture of the ideal bug out destination being a cabin located in some remote wilderness, well away from any population center. Others imagine an underground bunker where a mutual assistance group (“MAG”) can hunker down and ride things out for as long as is necessary. While these images have their appeal, they also present serious challenges of their own. In the process of authoring “When There is No FEMA” I had the opportunity to give quite a bit of consideration to the ideal bug out destination, and one question persistently nagged at me -…

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Because the topic has been discussed extensively, I had sworn off writing about investing in precious metals as part of a preparedness strategy.  However, everything I see on the subject seems so flawed and misleading that I simply cannot resist the impulse to share some alternate (or perhaps less-biased) views on the subject. It seems that everyone who is advocating metal investments starts their sales pitch with the claim that the investor should buy metals to protect the value of their assets from a dramatic decline in the value of the dollar (aka ‘inflation’).  Eventually however, those same advocates close…

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Introduction DISCLAIMER: This article is intended to provide basic information regarding defensive tactics to preppers who are new to the subject. Those with a military background or other advanced knowledge in tactical maneuvers are referred to more advanced treatments of the subject, such as the excellent book ‘Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse’ by Max Velocity. The tactics discussed here are purely from the perspective of group and community defense, and are limited to tactics that would apply to active-defense situations. Tactics are defined as “the art of disposing armed forces in order of battle and of organizing operations,…

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If I had to name only one quality that separates the advanced prepper/survivalist from the pack it would be the presence of a solid disaster plan. When I refer to “planning”, I don’t mean having a plan “in mind”, and I don’t mean having a file on a computer somewhere – I’m referring to a physical document that has been printed and distributed to all relevant locations and individuals.   Human memory is far too fallible and too specific to a single individual, to serve as the storage medium for a serious disaster plan; and of course computers are relatively fragile…

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Several years ago, before I became involved in prepping, I stayed buried up to my neck in work. I basically worked and slept, and I had maybe two reasonably close friends (both of whom were essentially co-workers). On the rare occasions that we did get together outside work all we discussed was … work. As my job was largely a desk job I got very little exercise, and over several years I became significantly overweight. All that started to change in the latter part of 1997 – the day that “Joe the Plumber” met candidate Obama during the presidential campaign.…

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The various types of emergency foods that are available, coupled with the commercial hype surrounding them, can understandably lead the prepper to make less than optimal decisions with regard to the types and amounts of emergency foods to acquire. In this article I will briefly recap the most common types of emergency food and describe how each would fit in to a practical survival strategy. The common types of emergency food stores include: Canned Foods – Canned foods consist of fruits, vegetables and meats that have been prepared for long-term storage in jars and cans. Canned foods can be prepared…

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