101 uses: Paracord 550

Samwise Gamgee ,from “The Lord of the Rings” said “No rope! And only last night you said to yourself: “Sam, what about a bit of rope? You'll want it, if you haven't got it: Well, I'll want it. I can't get it now.” Rope was a gift for him from the elves later on. Tom Hanks said “We need more rope!” to Wilson in Cast Away”. Connor, the Irish avenger in “The Boondock Saints” (excellent movie by the way) told his brother Murphy “You know what we need? Some rope.”
Even 5000 year old Otzi the Iceman had a stone knife, bow, quiver and some arrows, a very cool looking axe… and a 20-feet coil of rope.
Rope is just a practical thing to have during emergencies and outdoor activities, and it hardly gets more polyvalent than mil spec 550 Paracord, the one with the 7 strands in the core. These can be removed easily from the inside when you need thinner string.

Rothco 550Type III Paracord

Warning: 550 Paracord is rated to break at 550 pounds, that’s it breaking point not its practical use weight. This isn’t even close to climbing rope which has at least 10 times the resistance of Paracord. While it may hold your weight, as soon as you start moving the tension increases significantly and it will probably break. Other than a certain death, don’t try using these to climb down from any height.
Having said that, the uses for Paracord are countless:

Building shelters or rafts

Bow string, bolas and other primitive weapons

Shredding the fibers with a knife, it can be used as tinder

Fire bow drill string

Improvised gun sling or pants belt

Shoelaces

Lanyard

Nice improvised knife handle

Tourniquet

The inner strand can be used as a fishing line

You can build a fishing net or bird net for traps with enough patience

Some people make baskets and other containers with it


While the OD green and black colors are nice, Orange Paracord makes for more visible lanyards in case your tools fall in high grass. Its more visible to anyone trying to rescue you so that’s the color I’d go for emergency kits. Better yet, get some of each color. It’s cheap enough an terrific stuff. Remember to burn the tips when you cut it so it doesn't come appart.
Final tip. Get the good stuff made in USA, dont try to save 70 cents and end up with poor quality cord that willlet you down when you need it the most.

FerFAL

The Gray man concept

The Grey man concept is quite simple: Even though survival minded and probably well trained when compared to the average person, carrying some gear which will likely include a handgun, the modern survivalist will not look like a freak of nature, like some sort of paramilitary lunatic or commando wannabe, but will instead get lost in the crowd because there’s nothing peculiar in the way he dresses or behaves. This is something that at first glance shouldn’t be hard to understand, but as always, when it comes to matters of balance between extremes, it can be tricky and what is reasonable for some may not be for others.

What you DON’T want to do is:
You don’t want to attract attention towards yourself, wearing bright color clothes or in a fashion that isn’t in tune to your cultural surroundings. This requires objective observation of the current reality you live in. Example; Wearing a typical gaucho poncho, even though its traditional local clothing, its not something people wear these days around towns and cities. You might as well drop by the 7.11 dressed in your cowboy action shooting costume and expect no one to notice you. Yet an arab head garment like a shemag has becomed pretty common among young adults given the leftists times we live in and the piece being worn commonly by young people and roadblockers, occaisoanlly to cover their faces. So as in many other countries it is now considered fashionable and no one will look at you twice because you have one around your neck. Che Guevara t-shirts are unfortunately very common among the brain washed high school and college aged people, but it is a well remembered icon and people will notice it. It is better to avoid entirely symbols and shapes that the brain remembers better, that goes for everything from peace symbols to religious or political images. Logos in general should be avoided. Lets not even go into shirts with gun brand logos or in your face statements like “I don’t start problems, I finish them” usually going along with gun images. You might as well wear a sign around your neck that says “I have a gun”.

5.11 pants, combat desert tan boots, riggers belt, along with vests full of pockets aren’t kidding anyone. Anyone with half a brain will understand that the vest is being worn to conceal a gun, and that the vest itself is probably full of expensive gadgets. Most important, you will be noticed and remembered by the people around you.

You dot want to lie to yourself either. Letting yourself go and turning into a fat slob, never training a day in your life, never carrying a gun because its uncomfortable , (or any other gear for that matter), wearing sweat pants and some greasy old tshirt, that’s not being gray man, that’s actually BEING like the sheep you’re trying to hide among. Gray man is being capable yet managing to go unnoticed.

 Yes... take away the AR and mag pouches, the guy still looks like Blackwater.

What you WANT to do is:
While the image you want to project is the one that the average person will forget the second he takes his eyes off of you, you also want to project one that the wolves DO notice and know you are not to be messed with. Do you achieve that with a 45 ACP printed in your shirt and “I don’t dial 911”? No. Listen, its easy to get the entire gray man thing wrong when you don’t have an actual need for it, when your environment isn’t demanding it and putting it to test. I’ve read so many wrong notions about this subject, that’s why I writing this article. A couple days ago for example, I was talking with my shooting instructor, even though he’s a cop that trains the local police, he dresses in civilian clothing as soon as he can. Why? Because cops have guns, and in the crazy times we live in they are actually being targeted because of their weapons. This clearly proves in actual real world experience that you DON’T WANT TO BE IDENTIFIED AS THE GUY WITH A GUN. They’ll kill you to get it, or if a maniac wants to shoot up the place he knows exactly who to shoot first.

So while you don’t what to scream out to the world that you are armed, you want to be acknowledged as someone that is aware, alert, and is not a soft target. You do this by training and actually being capable of putting up a fight, by looking alive when you have to, yet not look like a human scanner when the situation doesn’t require it. That will bring unwanted attention to yourself. Don’t stand in the door way (tactically speaking, it’s a bad place to stand in anyway) and scan the place completely with your eyes from left to right, giving the stare of death to anyone that looks at you. You can just as well walk in as you keep chatting with your buddy or wife and grin ask you make a quick mental not of the people inside, standing to the side to keep the door open for your friend to come in and at the same time use that as an excuse to look around without dragging extra attention.

You want to carry what you believe needs to be carried but in a way it doesn’t scream “tactical” even if it actually is by definition. Jeans do ok, you can even get by with the 5.11 pants as long as you don’t look like the guy on the Blackwater website and you combine with other comfortable yet “normal” looking clothes.
The dull colors are important but if you dress all tan with a tight polo shirt you’ll look like a contractor, if you dress all black you’ll look like a Goth weirdo that may want to shoot the place up. Try combining colors so that you look normal, and again, leave the Glock polo shirt and the Suarez international patch in your Maxpedition Jumbo pack for the range. Yes, we ALL know your Maxpedition Versipack probably has 5000 bucks worth of stuff. As nice as they are, as much as I’d like to carry one around, Maxpedition bags just scream gun and tactical gear, not to mention that they look expensive and if I carried one of those around here all those little pockets would be a God’s send for ever pick-pocketer in Buenos Aires. Maybe the least tactical wise thing about the Maxped bags, is that in a high crime area you want to avoid all those pockets and zippers, better to have one big flap covering everything. They look good, I like them and I’m sure they are very practical but those two issues make it a no-no, at least for high crime areas.
Carry what tools and gear you need but don’t make it obvious you’re doing so, a day pack or messenger bag works, ordinary looking ones are better and surplus satchels don’t drag much attention, they don’t look expensive.

The rigger belt is nice. I get it that since you use a belt anyway, why not use one that is sturdy for gun carrying and can be also used for emergency rappelling or simply extract you from a wreck, but it also screams gun, so cover that buckle, don’t tuck your clothes in when wearing one out in the world. Same goes for folding knife clips. By now everyone knows what they are. Cover them or if you can’t, put it completely inside the pocket, specially when you visit places where it may be a problem to carry a knife. An untucked t shirt that isn’t to tight will hide what needs to be out of sight.

Vests in particular, cameraman vests, whatever it is you want to call them, there’s nothing gray about them. I get the idea of carrying stuff, but man, that’s why bags where made in the first place, and whatever needs to be readily accessible can just as well go in a concealed holster or your pockets. If you need seven AK47 mags readily available maybe you should go for a load bearing vest and seriously consider moving somewhere safer.

When it comes to clothing, a tailor is your friend. I have a brown leather jacket that looks good but had very poor fabric lining inside. Ten dollars worth of synthetic gabardine and 50 bucks worth of tailor later I had the same neat looking jacket but with a greenish gray tough fabric on the inside as well as two extra large reinforced pockets for whatever needs to be carried in there.

Tan combat boots are pretty hard to disguise, they  pretty much look like what they are. Some go along well with jeans but others are pretty obvious. Leather steel toe (or polymer)work shoes are just as tough and then some, and if you buy the high end work boots you get some excellent quality for a decent price, both comfort and protection. They also look more like hiking boots, in spite of being rated for various levels of security, against impact, slipping, electric discharge, etc. 

One last word regarding minimum weaponry: Some Special forces Army SEAL ninja masters will say that, while you need twenty mags as a bare minimum for combat, you’re overkilling if you carry more than one or two extra mags as a civilian. God forbid a backup gun! Then again you ask someone that’s been into a handful of gunfights as a civilian and he’ll usually have a spare service size gun as his backup and not less than 5 extra 15+1 capacity mags. 

FerFAL

Water Filters

Hi Ferfal,

Thanks for the information that you provide in your blog. You have many good suggestions for disaster preparedness. I especially appreciate your suggestions regarding items such as knives, water, flashlights and other items. Having water, shelter and small tools is absolutely necessary when disasters such as a tornado, hurricane, flood, etc occur.

In return for all the good information you have given, I would like to share with you. We recently purchased a Big Berkey water filter system for our family to use at home and it is working out quite well. The system itself is rather expensive ($250.00). However, it does not require any electrical power and the filters it uses have a shelf life of 50 years. The water filter system was originally designed for the Queen of England so that polluted water from the Thames River in London could be filtered for drinking water. The water filters are impregnated with silver and will remove bacteria that causes disease. Of course this is not for carrying with you. However, as you say - often it is best to stay in your home. With this system you can take polluted water and use this system to provide clean drinking water for a family.

Thanks and best regards,

Douglas
Fort Worth, Texas

Thanks Douglas, I enjoy trying out gear. Its fun and you learn along the way.
That's pretty interesiing story . I knew Berkey water filters where good, that's why we're proud to have Directive21, an authorized Berkey dealer, as a sponsor, but I didn't know the story about Doulton, the commercial British Berkefeld name and the Brit royalty.
Here's a link where the story is explianed in more detail, the Queens demand for a filter to purify the dirty London water, pretty interesting.
http://www.jmccanneyscience.com/DoultonWaterFilterInformationSub-Page.HTM

FerFAL

Urbal Survival Question: Police Corruption‏

FerFAL,

    You have mentioned numerous times that people in the United



    States are  lucky because our police are not as corrupt as



    Argentina/elsewhere.  

    The question that I have is whether the police in Argentina were 

    affected by widespread corruption before the economic collapse.  

    One of my fears is that USA police will become much more corrupt 
    
    and  resemble the police in other nations where police corruption is

    a fact  of life.

    How does one take corrupt police into survival planning?  Or does

    one just have to hope that such corruption doesn't touch one's life in a 

    significant way?

    

    Thank you for taking the time to read my questions,

    

    Nolan

It’s a delicate issue. First of all, I want to make this abundantly clear before the trashing of US police officers begins in the comment section: I will reject any comment that ever so slightly suggests that the majority of American police officers are corrupt. There’s corruption everywhere but painting with such a broad brush is an insult to the fine men Americans are lucky to have in uniform. I’ve seen the cops looting in NO clips, the gun confiscations, and yes they are all serious issues we should all be aware of. But in spite of all that it’s a WORLD of a difference compared to police in some third world countries where corruption is indeed deeply rooted and even socially accepted. Every single time a cop stopped me here I had to give him some money, the one I tried not to I got into trouble with. Hardly a week goes by without cops getting caught robbing at gunpoint, killing , raping or torturing someone. Last week a police captain in La Plata was caught after he robbed a bakery store using his issued firearm.  I know police corruption in USA isn’t even close to these levels. 

That being said, your concern is a legitimate one, and as the recession continues there’s a chance of corruption rising on all sectors, including police. This is yet another aspect that you wont find much info on. When people like Peter Shiff (his video can be seen in a post made a couple days ago) talk about recession and poverty, this is what comes along in the package. People like him have an idea of what’s coming, they understand it from a theory and logical point but you have to live it to experience the million of little things it ends up changing regarding the way you’ll be living from now on, and what may end up happening with police is one of them.

If you ever have to deal with the type of police we have here Argentina (expect for a handful of honorable exceptions) keep these things in mind.

1)       A uniform no longer means good guy. The problem used to be bad guys disguising as police officers, now the problem is actual police officers committing all sorts of crime as mentioned above. A couple weeks  ago we saw a couple of correctional police officers (with their wives!) rob a minimart and it was all caught on the security camera. After acting like normal clients filling their carts one pulls a gun and keeps the people at gun point, then he brings a sound suppressor(silencer) from his front pocket and quickly screws it onto the barrel.  Total impunity. 

2)       Avoid encounters with the police as much as possible. As always just avoiding potential problems is always best. I’ve stopped and turned around to avoid checkpoints before, will do so again. It may be nothing, it may be bad guys, even if they are real cops, at least around here, it means at the very least that you’ll leave with a little less money. Sometimes when I can’t avoid them, what I usually do is get real close to the car in front of me, even slow down if I don’t have one close, until one gets in front of me. That way as we pass the checkpoint I’m “hiding” behind the first car. Even if one gets stopped, its more likely to be my “shield” and I can simply pretend to look the other way as I get by. Even if the cop signals me to stop it would be understandable that I didn’t see him because of the car in front blocking my vision. Sounds messy but after a while you get good at doing these things and avoiding stops and check points.

3)       Briberies are an unfortunate reality in some third world countries. Other than that don’t try to get rid of a ticket that way since it’s a serious offense in more serious countries. Keep in mid that in some 3^rd world nations the choice is either getting into trouble or bribing, so its more of a formalized robbery than a bribe.

4)       When talking with the police, be polite, be formal but don’t give up information about yourself. Don’t mention guns, money, family or the type of job you do. As mentioned before, a uniform is no guarantee.

5)       Someone please show me the contract you signed where it says life is supposed to be fair… . If someday the laws are changed, you’ll be glad to have as little paper trail as possible, specially when it comes to firearms. Make sure you have a few that where bought in face to face personal transactions. You may be able to keep those hidden somewhere if another gun confiscation occurs like the one after Katrina. The lists may be used not only by the government, but also cops or other agents gone bad looking for a juicy target to hit.

6)        Its is better if you have a cop friend, preferably high ranking one that may speak in your favor if needed. Just having a name may spare you a lot of grief.

FerFAL

Storage Space

Hi FerFAL,
Thank you so much for your great blog and book. I finished your book about 2 weeks ago and have been reading your blog too. I have a question about storage. I currently live in a condo, but I want to stock food and water supplies. I can only store so much in my place because there is not a lot of room. Are there storage lockers in Argentina that people used before the collapse. I’m interested in renting out a storage locker to store food and water in, but I’m worried that once the collapse happens, the storage facilities would be the first thing that gets looted. What happened with these places in Argentina.
Thanks,
Rick

Hi, thanks for your email, glad oyu liked it.
Yes, I’d be very cautious about storage units. Not only do they cost money, they also can be broken into and it also means that your supplies aren’t directly under your control and that makes all the difference in the world at the time when: a) you want to bug in and cant afford to risk going outside or b) you want to leave your location as fast as possible because some event is forcing you to do so and you cant afford to waste a second. Because of this, I wouldn’t want to go that route.

No, in Argentina we don’t have storage units like the ones you guys have. Ours are mostly located near docks and storage space for furniture and such isn’t at all common. People here don’t trust that kind of setup.
I’ve lived in condos before and space is an issue. Having said that, more often than not there’s still lots of space. Try emptying your closet of all the clothes you don’t need, check every storage space you have for stuff that you simply don’t need. You can donate the extra stuff or sell it to finance more preps. I usually give adult clothes to people on the street, I take baby and children clothes as well as toys to an orphan home near by. Just like survival mindset, charity also begins today, unlike some people that boast of how charitable they will be once the refugees show up at their door. Its most convenient the chances of that occurring for real are almost non-existent.

A small note about charity since I brought it up. Don’t ever give food or anything else away from your home, go to the places where its needed and deliver it yourself. Believe me, I’ve learned it the hard way. Not only are you doing it in a way in which its divided among those that need it the most, but you also avoid painting a bullseye on yourself as the guy that has stuff to spare. The word alone getting out that you are charitable will mean people knocking on your door on daily basis and having people asking for food, sometimes more than you can spare. Its sad when this happens, specially when it comes to children. Avoid those situations by not doing charity from your front door.Due to the recession, this is something coming to your average American town, sooner rather than later. Remember it.

As I was saying before I drifted, sell the stuff you don’t need, throw the trash. Haven’t used something in the last 12 months? Chances are that you don’t need it, so sell it. Even the average clean looking house that isn’t over stuffed with stuff easily has 500 or 1000 bucks worth of unnecessary items.
I remember one time, I bought a fine home alarm system by selling a used xbox videogame console. Think about that next time I mention an alarm, a safe, or burglar proof security door. Most likely you have stuff you could easily sell on ebay or just the nearest pawn shop and finance something much more important for your security, without spending a single dollar or even having some cash to spare.
Under the bed is also a good place to store food and water. Use 2 liter soda bottles, these can be had for almost nothing and you can store water there for years as long as its in room temp conditions and away from sunlight.

Take a good look at your closet, chances are that you could store several months worth of food just by adding a few shelves to take advantage of the space better. I’ve stored food in mine for many years, using supermarket food stored in cardboard boxes and rotating it. Check it often if bugs are a problem in your location.

If you’re really space challenged, you can look into your furniture. The mattress sitting on a ammo case springbox is a bit extreme but I know one guy that actually did it. You could easily build or buy a bed that is a bit higher than average and that leaves you lots of cubic feet underneath for storage.
I have a trunk that at some time was decoration, other times it was used as a table and there’s lots of space inside for storage.

If all that fails, instead of using a storage unit, I’d rather store it at my parents house or some other family member or friend whom you trust enough. Buried catches sometimes work, but make sure you can get to them when needed, that they are stored properly (buckets with good lids).
Having said all this, take advantage of every cubic feet you have. During an emergency or SHTF event, the key will be having your supplies at hand under your direct control.

FerFAL