Urban Survival Skills Reader Disagrees with Survival - Collapse Book Choices

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following comments on the previous post concerning the two best Survival – Collapse Books to read,…..”Anonymous said,…..Shame on you for not including Lights Out. This is a exceptional story and taught me alot of survival in an upheaval. Good story to just read and enjoy also. One Second after was a sorry story and did not teach me anything.”

UrbanMan replies: Lights Out is an absolute must read. I just think it’s third in line and the other reader asked me to just recommend two.

In Lights Out, you would have to admit that things go pretty well for the main characters,…having a buddy who owns a gun store and MILVAN’s full of ammunition and guns a their house…..having grocery stores stay open well past when the EMP generated Nuclear attack occurs, and having a car parts store open long after the collapse as well.

Sorry you did not learn anything from One Second After. I guess I tend to learn from negative things as much or more than positive teaching. The things I learned from One Second After, albeit from what they didn’t do, are:

1. Be prepared from the get go. Food, Water, Survival gear, equipment and material.

2. Have more firearms (and ammunition) than just some black powder guns.

3. If you are not organized into a Survival Group before the collapse predicating event, then that becomes a priority to do. If you have to start small, then start small. Organized the neighbors on your left and right, then the street,….. then the people on adjacent streets. People are going to be looking for a leader. Be that leader to get them squared away with as minimal waste of time and resources as possible.

4. Have a plan for when the infrastructure collapse in regards to necessary prescriptions and medications, and how to store them.

Note: I know of a guy who is on dialysis. This particular type of dialysis can be done at home using bags hooked up to a body catheter. This is a nightly requirement,….he’ll die without it. Knowing that this gentleman has stocked six months of the bags he needs, plus he can go to a once every two days dialysis schedule in order to extend his dialysis capability.

If you are diabetic, what are you doing to do? The percentage of people that are diabetic is increasing every year. As you’ll remember one of the character’s in One Second After dies from lack of insulin. The sad fact about having adult on-set diabetes is that this is a highly reversible condition, if you have the gumption to stick to a diet of low glycemic foods and advanced doses of nutritionals.

What else I learned from One Second After:

5. Be prepared to address food supplies and rationing from the start. The characters in One Second After should have immediately started growing crops and building green houses.

6. Develop a communications and alert system with a plan on how to provide security and defend the community - which would be a logical extension from the group organizational priority.

This is my short list of what I learned. I hope it lets you reconsider the value of One Second After. The negative learning concept is something watching your buddy stick his hand down a hole and he gets his hand shredded by a sharp toothed badger. You see it and say to yourself “Heck,…I’m not going to stick my hand down there like he did!”…… so you learned from his bad example.

Urban Survival Firearms - Weapons Training Schools

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has received several private messages on facebook as well as e-mails regarding what we recommend in the line of firearms training centers or schools. If you are planing to survive a collapse and are going to depend upon yourself and your firearms for protection and security, then you owe it to yourself and those you want to protect to get professional training in the art and science of firearms.

I don't pretend to know all all the good shooting or weapons training schools that exist. However, after 33 years of carry a weapon, I either know the instructors, have been to the schools, have contracted them for unit training or have a close and respected friend who has.

Here are few schools that attendees won't be disappointed in. Worth of money not only for the training but to sit, learn and shoot in the company of dedicated professionals.

You don't want to wait until the SHTF then wish you invested the time and money. Anyway, I am not endorsing any particular school, again, just believe nobody would be disappointed with any of the below schools.

http://www.thunderranchinc.com/

Renowned firearms Clint Smith runs Thunder Ranch. The mission of Thunder Ranch, Inc., Oregon is to provide distinctive personalized tutelage for individuals and small groups of civilian, corporate, law enforcement or military clients in the acquisition of individual defensive firearms and tactical skills.

Clint Smith states that: "The goal is to have the client acquire a higher level of personal skills under the direct supervision. In this venue the effort is not about promoting an institution or a teacher, it is about you, the client...are you reaching a new level of skill? This experience, this training, this skill advancement is about you the client."

http://www.frontsight.com/

Ignatius Piazza onws and operates Front Sight Resort. He say's: "He created Front Sight with one goal in mind: To be the absolute best defensive training facility for personal safety. To offer gun training, martial arts, edged weapons, contact weapons, mental awareness, defensive driving, executive protection, celebrity training, corporate team building, children and youth safety courses that more than satisfy the expectations of every student, regardless of the student's prior experience. Take one course at Front Sight Resort, whether a firearms training course, or any of our other world-class training programs, and you too will understand why students travel from across the country and return again and again for more of the Front Sight Experience."

http://www.gunsite.com/main/

Gunsite is a firearms school that uses sevral instructors, permanent and adjunct. Gunsite states: "Here, we teach Marksmanship -- how to hit what you aim at. However, Gunsite goes beyond this simple discipline to include the principles of Gun-handling and Mind-set. This we call the Combat Triad. We offer multiple levels of instruction in handgun, in carbine, in shotgun, in bolt action rifle and precision rifle. Each discipline is informed by the Combat Triad. Each Instructor at Gunsite is someone who has served in Law Enforcement, the military or both. Each Instructor is fully imbued with the doctrine and tradition of our school."

http://www.csp-tactical.com/

Covenant Special Projects is ran by Tom Buchino, a retired Special Forces Sergeant Major. CSP operates to serve domestic and international clients with customized, quality risk mitigation solutions.
Tom Buchino says: "We provide quality human solutions for a range of customer challenges in a discrete manner. CSP has the resources, the international experience and most important, the networks to operate ethically, legally, skillfully and according to the emerging demands of our customers."

"We provide high-end security services such as executive protection & special projects and security related assessments for corporate clients and high-net worth individuals as well as tactical skills instruction, at your location or at our facility the CSP - Tactical Ranch where we have ranges, classroom and field training sites."

"CSP provides governments, businesses and private clients with culturally aware, best practice, solutions in the full spectrum of security, training, assessment and risk reduction services."

"Lately, CSP-Tactical has been conducting firearms and defensive training for private clients with work or required travel in Mexico, due to the out of control violence and lack of security infrastructure there."

http://www.weaponstraining.com/

Competitive shooter John Shaw runs Mid-South. John Shaw says: "At Mid-South, we shoot pistol and carbine during our weeklong classes. Where else can you get all the training you need in a convenient weekly format? You can expect to shoot 2,500 rounds of pistol and 2,000 rounds of rifle. That's a lot of quality, disciplined trigger time, all in one week!"

http://www.practicalshootingacademy.com/

Ron Avery runs Practical Shooting Academy. He says: "Our research shows that much of the training experienced by the average law enforcement officer, CCW gun carrier and firearms owner does little to prepare them for success when it counts. The training standards, precision, speed, mental and physical conditioning and tactical skills often don’t yield the results needed to survive the speed, surprise and violent action of the gunfight."

"Since 1989 we’ve provided firearms and tactical training to thousands of real world operators in law enforcement, military and government agency staff as well as civilians. Many have had to defend themselves in lethal force situations – sometimes against overwhelming odds. They’ve succeeded…and so can you!"

Urban/Wilderness Survival - Dogs as a Survival Aid

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a new comment on the "Wilderness Survival Task List" article,....Anonymous said,....."In my opinion I feel a dog is great for hunting, self defense, friendship, and tracking."

UrbanMan replies: Absolutely. I have several dogs,..mutts and mixes,..and their value begins with their companionship and loyalty. Humans are not meant to be alone and isolation can be largely mitigated with a dog. Cats just don't do it,...except for eating.

It doesn't take much for a dog to realize, learn then help you hunt rabbits. Having a dog helps when you hunt rabbits with rocks, since when you stun a rabbit with a rock, the dog can get to him quicker than you can.

Going to sleep in bear or mountain lion country is much easier knowing your dog is laying in camp with you to alert you and most likely take the first brunt of any attack.

They can serve as perimeter security and early warning, inside or outside a house and not just during a collapse but prior to that and as a counter measure against burglars and thieves. Many criminals do not grow up around dogs and are scared of them....even the small ones. So even if they just bark, they can be an great security asset.

Dogs can be taught how to track. This is not a "born with" skill for most dogs..
.....sure they have some genetic skills and a keen sense of smell,..but they must be trained. They can be trained to track on scent or sign. In fact the American Kennel Club (AKC) has some sort of tracking dog class and has periodic practices, probably at a location near you if you are interested in finding out more about training a dog to track outside of Federal Law Enforcement or the military working dogs.

I'm kinda partial to the working breeds: German Shepards, Retrievers, Australian Shepards, Blue Heelers, Kelties,.....but most of my dogs now are mixes and mutts, like I said. Several of them just showed up around the house and ending up staying. They stay pretty loyal if you just feed and water them, and pet them from time to time. Good, fairly low cost Survival Asset.

Plan for their survival food as well as your own. I buy several large, 50 lb bags of dog food and rotate them to ensure I have alot of hand, at least six months worth, for if/when the collapse hits.

Urban Survival Skills - Firearms Proficiency

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a question from a reader asking about "what level of training and what of skills I would recommend in order to make someone proficient in a given rifle and therefore be a contributing member of a Survival Group."

Timely enough, I received an article, by Jeffrey Wall, Staff Sergeant, California Army National Guard, that was published in Small Wars Journal, that related to the current state of training and proficiency in the U.S. Army on small arms, including rifles, carbines, pistols and machineguns, but really focused on the primary weapon which is the M-4 rifle, or carbine if you want to get technical.

I would advise all to go to Small Wars Journal and read the entire article, very interesting with the historical connections. In fact, you may decide to get a subscription. I am posting some of Wall's article as it is pertinent to the question I received about what level of training does one have to have to be proficient in a firearm. My comments in the article are in Italics.

Afghanistan has become a rifleman’s war.

Because we are fighting a counterinsurgency campaign against a tribal warrior society we have and increasingly continued to limit the use of supporting arms (machineguns, indirect fire such as mortars and artillery, and Close Air Support).

The result is that we must rely more and more on our riflemen to engage and defeat the enemy. We know that 52% of the fights in Afghanistan begin at 500 meters and go out from there. The problem is that we don’t teach soldiers to engage with their rifles at those ranges any more. The Army gave up teaching marksmanship as a primary Soldier skill in 1958.

Vietnam tended to reinforce the misconception of rifle marksmanship being of secondary importance as much of the fighting there was at close range – either because of the thick vegetation and/or because the enemy grabbed us by the belt buckle and engaged at such close ranges that we could not bring our supporting arms to bear.

In either case, near or far, we now must rely on our riflemen to do the work. The trouble is they are not trained for it.

Army standards are to – ideally - train a rifleman going to war with 58 rounds of ammunition – 18 to zero and 40 to qualify on the “Pop up Target Range”.....again, that's 58 rounds.

What is not trained when Soldiers are sent to war after having fired only 58 rounds? Long range marksmanship, range estimation, the effects of wind and gravity on trajectory, short range marksmanship, gun handling skills such as rapid magazine changes and enough practice to cement these skills. ( I would include malfunction clearing, transitioning from rifle to handgun, and shooting from disadvantaged positions are necessary skills as well)

So we are sending Americans off to war with minimal rifle marksmanship training to engage an enemy on his turf with inadequate skills. Consider that the pop up target qualification course is all fired with a battle sight zero out to 300 meters. No training in reading the wind is given, no formulistic method is taught for wind estimation or how to calculate a wind adjustment even though the rifle itself has a half a minute of angle windage adjustment capability. Worse still is that many Soldiers don’t even attempt to shoot the 300 meter targets preferring to save those rounds to ensure a hit on the closer range targets. They have no idea what adjustments need to go on their rear sights to engage at 400, 500 or 600 meters. What we have then are soldiers whose effective engagement range capability is 200 to 225 meters.

Presumably you see the problem - the disconnect if you will - between the reality of the war in which we are engaged and our training regimen.

The author goes on to explain the Squad Designated Marksman (SDM) concept where every infantry squad has a better trained and equipped soldier capable of engaging targets with precision at longer ranges. The SDM necessarily has an optic equipped rifle. Furthermore he makes the case of spending the money for the necessary ammunition for training, and in his view, 3,000 rounds to train all Soldiers to engage targets, proficiently, from 0 to 500 yards.

The author breaks down the ammunition expended at each range: 1200 rounds - 0 to 100 yards (the author says... "this is the range zone where the pucker factor is greatest; where the shooting skills must be instinctive, i.e. based on“muscle memory”);

1500 rounds to shoot known distance range to 600 yards and an unknown distance range to at least 700 yards; and, 300 rounds - 100 to 300 yards [this is really the easy distance, little gun handling under pressure is required and little adjustment for wind and gravity are needed.

Training/shooting at night, on moving targets (day and night) and using artificial illumination tools such as white light flashlights and/or IR scopes and IR non-visible lasers must be included. At least a rudimentary knowledge of reading winds and applying corrections should be considered.

The Survival Group should consider having at least some of their people equipped with a magnified scope, not only to scope for effectively at longer ranges, but to use the magnified scope as an observation tool.

As far as specifically answering my reader's question, which is a very good question, I prefer not to talk about amounts of ammunition needed to achieve a certain skill level,...it may take hundreds of rounds for someone and tens of thousands of rounds for some else. Resources, which mean time and money, will always restrict training. A smart trainer will find ways to mitigate these restrictions.

Anyone relying on a rifle to protect himself/herself and others should be able to accomplish the following tasks:

Disassemble, clean and re-assemble the rifle; load and fire the rifle applying the seven fundamentals of shooting (stance or position, grip, sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, breathing and follow through);

Be able to zero the rifle at 25 yards placing three rounds at the point of aim in about a dime sized group;

Shoot accurately,..I think a fair measure of accuracy for a novice shooter would being able to shoot and hit a 8 x 11 inch target up to 200 yards using iron sights with a rifle; as the shooter starts drilling center mass of his target, start doing it faster. As the shooter starts shooting inaccurately, then slow down. Speed is built through a constant repetition of this cycle.

Note: I say a 8x11 target, since a piece of typing paper is 8.5 inches by 11 inches and this replicates the vital chest area of a human. Therefore, you always have access to low cost targets. Then your standard is keeping your shots on this paper at all distances.

The shooter should be able to reload the firearm (magazine exchange, aka tactical re-load, and emergency re-load, aka from a empty weapon)...in order words, reload and get back into the fight.

Correct stoppages and malfunctions and get back into the fight. Training using blank rounds or empty cases in a magazine will force a shooter to confront and remedy stoppages.

This above skill sets are pretty minimal and do not include applied tactics such as shooting utilizing cover and shooting from degraded positions. Not do they consider the high stress environment the Survival shooter will be in. Some physical stress can be replicated and incorporated with exercise such as running, pushups and other physically demanding exercise before and during firearms training. You can incorporate "dry fire" training as well to help build muscle memory and confidence in your fellow Survival Group members. If you consider the environment you live in and will be surviving in, and consider the possible threats you will face, then apply that to realistic training, I think you'll be successful. Hope I answered your question well enough.