Category Archives: Survival Gear

Condor Bush Cutlass: Inexpensive Alternative to Cold Steel?

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Condor is known to make inexpensive yet serviceable blades for a variety of purposes. For the life of me I can’t really think of a use for a cutlass beside hewing limbs and plundering the high seas but this guy on Sword Forum international documented a field trial where he cleared brush with ease and style.

YouTube viking SkallagrimNilsson posted a video demonstrating the cutting power of the piece. There’s a part in the middle where he uses a couple of other blades but stick with it, he goes back to the Cutlass and in an impressive feat for a blade that retails for $60 he slices into a wood table without damaging the blade.

Impressive. If you need a cutlass but don’t have a couple of hundred to spend this seems like a great alternative to the more expensive and now hard to find Cold Steel 1917 Cutlass.

I found one on Amazon for $45, which since you’ll want to beat around the woods with it. I guess if you live in an area where firearms are restricted (or you’re restricted from having a firearm) a “machete” that handles like a saber may seem like a good idea, though you’ll need to find a way to train with it to use it effectively. I also know many of my readers are eccentric enough to prefer swords and bows and the like to firearms – it’s your life live it how you want.

Sans access to a “Western Martial Arts” school I’d recommend reading, and re-reading, Alfred Hutton’s Cold Steel: The Art of Fencing with the Sabre then watching the Cold Steel Cutlass/Saber DVD which will at least give you a grounding in using these sorts of blades in combat.

But if you were really going to rely on a blade for combat, why not save up and get the best money can buy? Still this is a good buy.

Mechanical Fishing Reel

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This short video shows a guy using the Yo-Yo Fishing Reel which is a static fish trapping device that I assume is illegal in many areas. In an emergency running a trap line with these is more efficient than simply picking up rod and reel, and they require less work than casting a net.

I have a dozen myself and they’re available on Amazon. But like anything else don’t be overconfident in the equipment. As a kid I fished a lot and catching enough fish to feed a family is impossible for most people – after a disaster or in an emergency it is best used to supplement other food sources.

Anyway this is a nice intro to how the reels work, despite the iffy sound quality.

Rossi Ranch Hand Now Available

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Want!

The Firearm Blog is reporting that the Rossi Ranch Hand is now available.  The mare’s leg style lever action pistol has already been much maligned by armchair gun fighters and mall ninjas who claim that anything that isn’t a Glock is a useless hunk of junk, but a ATF approved short barreled rifle is a handy woodsrunnung gun for we who like to travel light.

Now the Ranch Hand has avoided running afoul of the ATF’s arcane rules is technical mumbo-jumbo you probably won’t ever need to know. The point is that the 12″ barrel and short “stock” (which doesn’t count as a stock because it’s part of the reciver?) makes it easier (if not comfortable) to shoot long distances and the lever action is as reliable an action that has ever been invented. The Ranch Hand can fit inside a bag or be lashed to a pack andbe out of the way until you need it. Easy to cache and easy to maintain, the new Rossi is also selling for under $500 which makes it a good deal. I’m currently putting calls into the local guns stores to get one now.

California Tuition Protesters Attempt to Murder Police Officers – A Lesson in Mob Tactics

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Multiple officers were injured in “protests” by students and outside agitators over hikes in tuition proposed by the University of California’s Board of Regents.

From The Daily Nexus:

Three officers were injured while subduing angry protesters, according to UC San Francisco Chief of Police Pamela Roskowski. Chaos first erupted around 9:15 a.m., she said, when students outside the meeting pushed through metal barricades and charged a group of campus and city police officers, intent upon storming inside the meeting. One officer was hurt in the process as the barricades came down.

Officers administered the first round of paper spray minutes later and prevented protesters from entering the building, blocking all accesses with outstretched batons.
The next three or four hours then turned into a tense hold-out between police and protestors. Time after time, dozens of protestors linked arms together to charge the barricades, were pepper sprayed into submission by authorities, fell back in the lines to recover and were replaced by a fresh wave of dissidents.

“Fifteen people were exposed to pepper spray in lieu of using a weapon,” Roskowski said. “The officers conducted themselves really well — they had been rushed, barricades were used to injure the officers, officers pepper-sprayed to defend themselves.”

The so-called peaceful protesters goal was to storm a meeting of unarmed bureaucrats – at which point what? The crowd had been primed for violence by outside agitators (mostly communist and anarchist groups) and injured cops. The first lesson you need to learn is that if lefties start to protest you must do everything possible to not be in the area. Especially if you are in some way involved with the target of the protest. Cops barely controlled this crowd and in the coming months protests will get more violent. Continue reading →

5.11 Tactical Select Carry Sling Bag: Not Just for Mall Ninjas

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When I first was made aware of the 5.11 Tactical Sling Pack I thought it had the whiff of the mall ninja about it. After all, it’s a bag designed for the concealed carry of sub-machine guns. I lived in New York City after 9/11 and I’ve seen how professionals who were issued sub-guns carried them. Openly and with a smug look on their face.

But hey, I’m not an “operator” so I don’t know. Maybe there’s a time law enforcement and private security officers need to pack a sub-machine gun hidden away in an over sized fanny pack.Or maybe 5.11 knows that mall ninjas burn through money on “tacticool” gear because they save on rent by living in their parents basement: Continue reading →