Urban Survival Firearms - M6 Scout Survival Rifle Modifications

I ran across this site and article on modifications to the M6 Scout Rifle. Of course, most Survivalists are aware of this little rifle which was designed as an aircrew survival rifle for downed military aviators and crew.

The M6 Scout features a folding stock which is easily detached via a quick-release pivot pin. An M6 breaks down in less than 5 seconds to a very compact overall length of 18", providing easy storage on a boat, small plane, tractor or recreational vehicle. A specially designed trigger guard allows conventional finger firing, or full hand firing while wearing mittens or heavy gloves.

Features:

Rifle Barrel:
Caliber: .22 Long Rifle or .22 Hornet
Twist: 1:15" RH (.22 Long Rifle); 1:13" RH (.22 Hornet)
Grooves: 6

Shotgun Barrel:
Caliber: .410 gauge / 2 1/2" or 3" shot shells or 3" slugs

Weight: 4 lbs. (approx.)
Overall Length: 32"
Barrel Length: 18 1/2"
Sight Radius: 16 1/8"

The Sword of Survival added piping to both sides of the twin barrel in order to make a tube magazine holding more .410 shotgun shells. I never thought of doing this and it seems like a good idea.

To read the entire article and an video on explaining the modification, go to
www.swordofsurvival.com

Urban Survival - 20 Signs That A Horrific Global Food Crisis Is Coming

Another respected source talking about a probable catalyst of collapse - a global food shortage. Snyder paints a bleak picture. A prudent thing to do is to add Zero Hedge to your list of sites you visit to gather information and update your analysis on possible collapse scenarios.

Article courtesy of Michael Snyder, Economic Collapse from Zero Hedge

In case you haven't noticed, the world is on the verge of a horrific global food crisis. At some point, this crisis will affect you and your family. It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it is going to happen. Crazy weather and horrifying natural disasters have played havoc with agricultural production in many areas of the globe over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the price of oil has begun to skyrocket.

The entire global economy is predicated on the ability to use massive amounts of inexpensive oil to cheaply produce food and other goods and transport them over vast distances. Without cheap oil the whole game changes. Topsoil is being depleted at a staggering rate and key aquifers all over the world are being drained at an alarming pace. Global food prices are already at an all-time high and they continue to move up aggressively. So what is going to happen to our world when hundreds of millions more people cannot afford to feed themselves?

Most Americans are so accustomed to supermarkets that are absolutely packed to the gills with massive amounts of really inexpensive food that they cannot even imagine that life could be any other way. Unfortunately, that era is ending.

There are all kinds of indications that we are now entering a time when there will not be nearly enough food for everyone in the world. As competition for food supplies increases, food prices are going to go up. In fact, at some point they are going to go way up.

Let's look at some of the key reasons why an increasing number of people believe that a massive food crisis is on the horizon.

The following are 20 signs that a horrific global food crisis is coming....

#1 According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices.

#2 The world is losing topsoil at an astounding rate. In fact, according to Lester Brown, "one third of the world's cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming through natural processes".

#3 Due to U.S. ethanol subsidies, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is now used for fuel. This is putting a lot of stress on the price of corn.

#4 Due to a lack of water, some countries in the Middle East find themselves forced to almost totally rely on other nations for basic food staples. For example, it is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012.

#5 Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to "overpumping". According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced. So what happens once all of that water is gone?

#6 In the United States, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn "America's Breadbasket" back into the "Dust Bowl".

#7 Diseases such as UG99 wheat rust are wiping out increasingly large segments of the world food supply.

#8 The tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan have rendered vast agricultural areas in that nation unusable. In fact, there are many that believe that eventually a significant portion of northern Japan will be considered to be uninhabitable. Not only that, many are now convinced that the Japanese economy, the third largest economy in the world, is likely to totally collapse as a result of all this.

#9 The price of oil may be the biggest factor on this list. The way that we produce our food is very heavily dependent on oil. The way that we transport our food is very heavily dependent on oil. When you have skyrocketing oil prices, our entire food production system becomes much more expensive. If the price of oil continues to stay high, we are going to see much higher food prices and some forms of food production will no longer make economic sense at all.

#10 At some point the world could experience a very serious fertilizer shortage. According to scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, the world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years.

#11 Food inflation is already devastating many economies around the globe. For example, India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent.

#12 According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February.

#13 According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.

#14 The commodity price of wheat has approximately doubled since last summer.

#15 The commodity price of corn has also about doubled since last summer.

#16 The commodity price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.

#17 The commodity price of orange juice has doubled since 2009.

#18 There are about 3 billion people around the globe that live on the equivalent of 2 dollars a day or less and the world was already on the verge of economic disaster before this year even began.

#19 2011 has already been one of the craziest years since World War II. Revolutions have swept across the Middle East, the United States has gotten involved in the civil war in Libya, Europe is on the verge of a financial meltdown and the U.S. dollar is dying. None of this is good news for global food production.

#20 There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States. Emergency food suppliers simply cannot get the raw food products fast enough to keep up with overwhelming demand. We do not want to be alarmists, but if you have any plan to purchase an emergency WISE FOOD, FOOD BARS, HONEYVILLE GRAIN, cases of MRE's or anything else, do it now! Do not wait. It may take a few weeks or a month of two to get any of these products, but when -- not if -- the next emergency strikes, people will be hoarding food and water, and most are packing weapons now (guns and ammo) to protect what they have. These people understand (so do terrorists) that the United States is only ONE EVENT AWAY FROM CHAOS.

Urban Survival - Reader Question on Survival Community Organizing

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received this comment. Anonymous said....." Hey this is a great website. I like all the articles and absence of nothing but gun crap on the other sites. You wrote about people could be in a neighborhood crime watch group and have an team already made before a calamity. What are some ideas on organizing?"

UrbanMan replies: I think you probably meant,..."you like the multiple topics and lack of nothing but gun articles",....even then guns and related survival firearms articles and information are necessary as firearms are the primary and last ditch method to fulfill the protection area of the survival mainstays of food, water, shelter and protection. I am trying to bring a planning approach to survival as well.

You can be the most well prepared survivalist,...stocking years worth of food; being adequately armed and trained to use firearms; etc., but survival is a team sport and it will take a group larger than just a few people to not just survive but have any quality of life.

If you haven't already, then read Lights Out. It used to be a internet only pdf book but is now available at book stores. Although many un-realistic things in this story line,..e.g..having your boss give you a briefcase full of silver as a collapse initiation gift and having a buddy who owns a gun store who also just happens to keep tons of guns and ammunition in MILVANS at his house,......and things like that, I think the value in this book is that it sets a scenario where a community bands together to survive. Anyway, it is well worth whatever price being asked for it.

If you live in a urban or suburban area, you live close to your neighbors. What befalls them probably threatens you as well. The advantage of some sort of community group, like a neighborhood watch or a home owners association (HOA) is that it sets a pre-established organization from which to modify to meet the threat. Probably the first order of business would be to establish the concept that things may not get better quickly so the community needs to band together to leverage everyone's abilities to meet the threats. These threats are not limited to mobs or criminal gangs, food, medical aid and such.

I plan on asking my HOA to call a meeting and speak on what I see as the threats. A major threat to everyone's survival would be the lack of the community to work together. I would push to establish a council to rapidly develop some recommendations on security, communications, governance of the community, food procurement and medical assistance.

I would suggest establishing some planning cells around these base functions. Realizing that due to my forward leaning survival preparation, background and training that I may be seen as a threat to some people,......maybe people who are unaccepting of the situation or people who fear a single controlling entity. I think my role is to stay out of positions of authority, like on a council which I would push for the community to elect for governance, and provide my insight and recommendations on priority tasks and how to accomplish them. This council could suggest some base community rules and procedures.

Another immediate task would be the organization of "committees",.....such as food procurement to develop a plan to feed those who are unprepared and how to procure more food. Planting crops would be a major priority even in the winter time.

Other committee's could/should be organized for communications, both for the inner community and with the outside world for news and connectivity.

Security in the form of early warning systems, lookouts/observers, gates or checkpoints, inner community patrols (like community policing) then soon reconnaissance patrols perhaps outside the immediate community should be considered, planned and implemented.

Depending upon the severity of the collapse, eventually the community functions like a commune. Everyone contributes, everyone shares and mutual support in all areas. A challenge would be what to do with or how to handle people who do not contribute or break pre-existing laws or established survival community rules.

I am sure I am much more prepared than anyone in my local community. I have a group of suitable prepared people who plan on rallying at my location. In no way am I endorsing some sort of take over or coercion, but my group would command some attention and maybe even some respect so I hope to utilize that to guide the community to good decisions and ultimately, the preparedness to face the threats.

I hope I'm close to answering the question you are asking. And forgive me for saying this: "Where the hell is Barack Obama when you need a community to be organized"

Urban Survival - Collapse Indicators Late April 2011

I am getting a lot of readers e-mailing me about an imminent collapse. Maybe some of these that were the same people who called for an imminent collapse a dozen times or more in the last 10 years. I do know that most of us cannot keep at a peak preparedness 24/7. Obligations and just plain life get in the way. I think keeping on top looking for and analyzing the indicators of a SHTF scenario, or at least the scenarios that we can see coming is about the only thing we can do, besides trying to get better preparation wise each and every day.

As far as economic collapse indicators, I am trying to keep on top of the ones I am aware of,.....not just the financial factors, but make no mistake about it,...the financial factors ARE dire. Here are just some recent events and indicators:

University of Texas Investment Management Co. converting Gold shares into physical Gold on taking delivery of 6,643 gold bars, worth $991.7 million yesterday, that are stored in a bank warehouse in New York. Why would U or Texas do this when just the storage fee is around $900K a year?

Open interest in gold futures and options traded on the Comex (paper shares of Gold) typically exceeds supplies held in its warehouses. If the holders of just 5 percent of those contracts opted to take delivery of the metal, there wouldn’t be enough to cover the demand. Imagine if many people or companies held their base capital or even just their reserves in Gold then found out they could not re-deem it, nor sell it because there was nothing of value? Paper Gold and Silver shares are just like fiat currency!

Rep. Ron Paul’s warning that “Holding your money in dollars when the Fed can double and triple the supply rather quickly and quietly, is a losing proposition”. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, advocates a return to a currency backed by precious metals.

West Coast advisor's report more and more of their investors converting their portfolio into physical Gold. The highest percentage of those who take possession of Gold shares in physical gold are millionaires.

The FED has printed more money than they ever have, so the value of the dollar has declined while the prices of goods and services have skyrocketed.

More people, including Congressman Paul, are warning of a probably Government attempt to curtail private entities and people holding gold,……remember U.S. ownership restrictions in the 1930s?

Speaking of Gold,…..and Silver. Prices were: Gold up $3.10 to $1,506.50 and Silver up $.54 to $46.60 and by the time I upload this article, the prices will be higher.

Concerns over Sovereign-debt (at an all time high) driving Standard & Poor’s to revise its U.S. credit outlook to negative. It the U.S> defaults on their debt or the U.S. dollar ceases the be the World’s reserve currency, then fuel prices will free fall upward.

Speaking of fuel,……it is averaging around $4 a gallon, with some locations charging $5 per gallon. Some analysts are predicting fuel to hit $7 a gallon by the fall – this is without the collapse of the dollar, however I suspect the dollar will collapse long before it. Fuel prices have tremendous repercussions as many electrical plants are ran by fossil fuels. Can you imagine everyone’s electric bill doubling? How about routine rolling blackouts? Can you imagine tens of thousands of people, who depend upon fuel oil to heat their homes, not being able to afford the necessity of heat during the winter in some of the coldest environs in the U.S. ?