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Getting Started
2024 has been a lively year so far. Between a rough hurricane season that reached up into the Appalachian region, the possibility of civil unrest in the wake of the presidential election and a forecast of a hard winter more people are looking at preparedness.
The first thing to know, if you are just getting started, is that preparedness is not a destination, but a journey. There isn't a stopping point where you look around, after buying that last Mountain House meal. or you stack that last case of 556 and you are now prepared. It also isn't solely about learning skills. Yes, the more you know, the less you need. There isn't, however, a stopping point where you can look and say you've learned it all and are now prepared for whatever may come. There will always be something to learn, something to do.
The second thing is to decide how far you want to take things. What I mean is this, there are levels to preparedness. Think of the old number lines that they used to (and may still) teach math concepts. At one end, 0, you have someone who is completely unprepared. At the opposite end (infinity) you have a self sustaining homestead with a tightly knit group of like minded people. Most of us find ourselves somewhere between those two points.
Focusing on things, stuff, is short sighted. It's better to look at preparedness from a conceptual point of view. The first and most important thing to have is a reason to live. Call it what you like, faith, PMA - positive mental attitude, having something to live for has been credited with keeping some people going where others have died. Napoleon has been quoted as saying the moral to the physical counts as three to one. Personally, I am a Christian. I view life as a gift from God that I will fight to keep. Secondly, I have my family that I am bound to lead and care for. I'm not giving that up easily either.
Most place security next. I disagree, once you have your mind right, the body must follow. That means fitness and health. In other words, you have to be able to move and you have to be strong. I'll write more on physical training later. In short, if you have a bug out bag and can't walk more then 50 yards with it on your back before you're out of breath, you have work to do. If you are morbidly obese, forget worrying about a new pistol to ward off the goblins of this world, metabolic disease will kill you quicker than any bad guys. Get your diet in order and get fit, after consulting with your physician, of course.
Once you have your mind and body right, then you can worry about more mundane things. Now we get to security. Counter violence, I mean security, is usually where most preppers start. There is an old meme of an open gun safe packed with rifles and stacked magazines. The text reads "Preparedness has been achieved". By all means, if you are just starting down this path and don't have firearms, get some. Additionally, get some training and spend some time making sure you have a solid zero on everything you have. On a personal level, you need to have or develop the skill sets to deal with threats at the five ranges of combat (grappling, trapping, boxing. kicking, extension weapons). I've trained in many different methods, eastern and western. I count kali as my core art, but have added jiu jitsu to my training because it's a grappler's world right now. You need to learn methods to secure your home both to prevent unauthorized entry and to give you warning on people approaching your property. Beyond that, you need to know how to work with your family and friends to act together to protect both your and their property.
That last sentence brings up something else. You need people around you. People that you can depend on and that can depend on you. What I will say on this is you can have a dream team of people you would want. Might be an SF A team that all grew up on working farms for example. Bottom line, that is prepper fantasy football. Reality is you will have what you have. Skills are important, experience is important, but in my not so humble opinion, reliability is the deciding factor. People can learn skills, they can gain experience, but if you can't rely on them to do what they say they are a liability, not an asset.
Now, we get into what is normally referred to as the 3's of survival. You can survive for 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter, 3 minutes without air and (what I call the Mosby addendum to honor the Mountain Guerilla) 3 seconds without the means to apply immediate counter-violence.
Shelter is going to be your home for most people. It also includes clothing. If you are forced to flee your home for whatever reason, having both sturdy clothing and the ability to construct a shelter, either with a tent, or from material found in the area is going to be important. With this in mind, you should have a plan if you are forced out of your home by emergency circumstances (fire, hazmat spill etc.) to quote Joe Fox, you have to contemplate the unthinkable.
Water is next. Water is, bluntly, a pain in the ass to store. It takes up a lot of room and has to be rotated at relatively short intervals. The minimum recommended amount is one gallon per person per day. That at least is 30 one gallon jugs per person per day. Having several gallons per person per day is a good thing, but you need a way to collect and process water for drinking, washing and cooking.
Food is probably the easiest one. A stop at the nearest Dollar General can give you a month's worth of food to hold you over. Long term storage food, typically either grains or freeze dried food can be acquired with a purchase plan that you develop for your family and budget. What's the next level up? Sustainable gardens and livestock.
Air, also includes blood, and keeping that blood inside where it belongs. Get your first aid/trauma care skills under control now.
Those are the basics, in a nutshell. Once you have them under control, you can worry about 'advanced' skills like small unit tactics, CQB, higher level medical skills, herbal remedies, intelligence operations and area studies among others.
Just remember, to mix metaphors, it's a journey, not a destination and that journey is a marathon, not a sprint.
Keto?
Keto? As in the keto diet? I know what you’re thinking, this site is supposed to be dedicated to preparedness, homesteading, martial arts, sharp and pointy things and of course, things that go bang.
Allow me to go back to how this all started. About a year and a half ago, the missus saw a podcast with Jordan Peterson and his daughter discussing their diet, which is pure carnivore. They consume ruminant meat and only ruminant meat. In other words, if it didn’t come off a cow, bison, elk, deer or the like, they don’t eat it. They also listed a number of serious health and psychological issues that disappeared by eating this way.
My wife was intrigued and we discussed trying this out. I was more skeptical. We already ate fairly clean. I was concerned about nutritional issues and having sufficient energy without eating carbs. We finally settled on trying a keto diet for six months and evaluating. We would eat meat, eggs, some dairy, berries and greens. My wife does most of our meal planning and prep, she kept track of macros. We kept our carbs under 20 grams a day, some days eating none at all.
So, what happened? For starters, while we both had the keto flu, it only lasted a day and wasn’t a big deal. I expected to drop five or ten pounds and was bracing myself to run out of gas during sparring, rolling and cardio work.
First, let me tell you that I am one of those guys that, if I am busy, I will forget to eat. I also will on occasion purposely fast as a training evolution regardless of what my diet is. I found that with keto, I become satiated very quickly. Which is good, until it isn’t.
My concerns about lack of energy and scurvy were unfounded. I have had plenty of gas in the tank, whether I’m lifting, doing bag work, shadow boxing or rolling with enthusiastic training partners. There have been no nutritional issues. Some of the research I’ve done show that on reduced carb diets, the body actually requires less vitamins, or it becomes more efficient at using what it has.
Weight wise, the five to ten pounds I expected to lose turned into thirty, yes 30. This, honestly, freaked me right out. I started looking hard at my macros, and forced myself to eat more. I’m currently holding at around 25 pounds under my starting weight. Before you start accusing me of being a fat ass. I will tell you that you would be wrong. Since I graduated from my academy, way back when, I put myself on a strength program which helped me put about 20 pounds of muscle on over the years. I had another five pounds at any given time that I could stand to lose. 30 was unexpected. One surprising thing, at the same time, I started a program to get my deadlift numbers back to where they were prior to an injury. I wasn’t paying that much attention to my body weight during the program. At the end of the program, my one rep max for the deadlift was exactly where it was when I started. However, I had more than doubled my pullups and dips, all with a 30 pound weight loss. So while my weight had dropped significantly, my strength had not and my relative strength had actually increased. More importantly, the aches and pains I had resigned myself to, thinking it was age and mileage disappeared along with seasonal allergy symptoms. My wife has had similar results.
Are there downsides to this? From a performance point of view, no. From a preparedness point of view, the biggest issue is dealing with the conventional wisdom. Most prepper sites, channels, etc. insist on storing mass quantities of wheat, corn, rice, oats, beans, pasta, etc. in a way that will last at least 25 years. Our food prepping budget is split between canned meat, primarily from the good folks at Keystone Meats in Ohio, freeze dried and fresh beef from a local farmer that goes in the freezer. We are working on a year round garden where we grow spinach, lettuce, kale, collards (we are in the south you know) along with turnips (greens for us, roots for the chickens).
What’s my point with all this? Most preppers have amazing food pantries, both day to day and long term storage. Some have arsenals that would make the national guard envious. Skills are all over the place, but some are very comfortable with being uncomfortable. Many are also overweight, deconditioned and suffering from or on the verge of some metabolic disease. All of which could be solved or prevented with a good diet and physical conditioning program.
The Forge 2.0
Some time ago, you may recall, I wrote an article entitled 'What Are You Training For'. I had seen too many people doing some truly ridiculous and counter productive things in their physical training. Most of the time because of something they'd seen in a magazine or on line. I wrote that article as both a rant and as a reminder to myself to stay focused on my priorities. Yes, strength is important, but raw strength, without mobility, coordination and gas in the tank won't take you as far as some would have you believe. Likewise, the ability to run a marathon is great, if your goal is to run a marathon, otherwise I'd remind you to look up what happened to the first guy to run one.
When I was still on the job, there was a weight room in the station I took advantage of, I also trained regularly at a dojo and had a training area in my home. I've always had some type of home gym of varying kinds. While I see some of the advantages of using a public/commercial gym, for me, the advantages of a training area at my home outweighs going to a public facility. Like what you ask? I never have to wait for equipment, if I want to try something out of the norm no one will tell me not to. I can combine training in unique ways that I couldn't in a public facility. For example, before bow season started I combined archery with sprint training. I'd run a quarter mile repeat, take a shot at a given distance, walk back to the start and repeat the process for 6 to 8 cycles. Most importantly, my last three home gyms were in unheated/air conditioned spaces so there was also a toughening factor that I liked beyond the traditional strength and conditioning work.
Prior to moving south, when we had our homestead, the 'gym' consisted of three sets of kettlebells, a makeshift pullup and dip bar and a heavy bag in a dirt floor barn. No heat, the dirt floor turned to mud in the spring and fall which made muck boots necessary in season. I had space on the property for sprints and a lot of country roads for the occasional distance run. No heat, no air conditioning, I began calling it The Forge.
Now, the missus and I are renting a small cabin on 40 acres. No barn, but there is a one car garage. Still no heat or AC, but the floor is concrete.
Once we got settled in the new digs, I unpacked the weight pile from storage. In addition to the three sets of kettlebells, I now had a few hundred pounds of Olympic plate, pull up and dip bars, a heavy bag and speed bag stand and a power rack. I have an area where I can run sprint repeats mainly 50, 100 and 440 yards. Temperatures range from the teens to over 100.
The Forge 2.0 is an improvement over the old place. It has everything I need and nothing I don't. The only thing I could use is a few more square feet of space, but that falls under the nice to have not need to have category.
What is my point? Other than get fitter? Get fitter outside as much as possible. There is a great gym where I'm working right now. I and a few others take advantage of the mat rooms for jiu jitsu and kali work, but there is something about getting out in whatever weather and training hard, forging both your mind and your body. Try it, you'll thank me later.
The Mammoth Sniper Challenge
I recently had the opportunity to be part of the staff for the 15th anniversary Mammoth Sniper Challenge. How did this happen? I was in a meeting at the day job, the site director mentioned that the base we share space with was sponsoring Mammoth. After the meeting I contacted one of the site instructors who liked long range shooting to let him know. Turns out he was one of the assistant match directors. He asked if I was going to compete. I replied I could handle it physically, but, wasn't trained up for the longer shots. I was then asked if I wanted to work it. There was some talk back and forth and I agreed.
Let me interrupt to say that while I have shot competitively, I was on a rifle and pistol team at one job, I am not a competitive shooter. My interest and training is strictly geared for either protecting me and mine or putting meat on the table.
I was assigned to be a squad leader, which turned out to be the best job possible. I got to see all the courses of fire instead of being stationary.
Let's get back to the match.
Overview
The match is a two man team event consisting of a series of long range shooting scenarios along with a series of timed ruck marches. Shots ranged out to 100 yards for pistols and 900+ for rifles. Competitors are required to carry everything they need to shoot the match and sustain themselves for three days. Nights one and two are spent in the field, camp is broken each morning. Any gear left or forgotten is considered abandoned. Competitors get it back at the awards ceremony on day three.
Conditions
The match was held at Fort Barfoot, Virginia. Normally, January in this area isn't bad. Unfortunately, Mother Nature threw a curve to Virginia, and the rest of the nation. All three days began with temperatures in the teens. Night one saw several inches of snow, which produced slick and icy roads for the ruck portions. This resulted in a reduction of the ruck times for days two and three.
Initial Observations
Competitors were primarily from throughout the continental U.S. There was at least one team from Canada. Ages ranged from 20's to late 50's. Backgrounds varied from civilian shooters with no military or law enforcement background to active LE SWAT snipers and military SOF members.
100 two man teams had signed up, 85 checked in the day before the start. Day two began with 19 fewer teams. I lost track of the teams that either dropped or were unable to complete the challenge. I can't give you an accurate number that completed the match, but it was in the low to mid sixties. It was good to note that no team was disqualified for safety issues. The ones that were dropped, not quit, were due to either an injury to one team member or they didn't complete the ruck marches in time.
Equipment has changed dramatically since I was doing this for a living. Rifles ranged from old standbys like the Remington 700 to the latest Accuracy International offerings.
NightForce and Vortex were well represented in optics. Field gear varied, packs were primarily from Osprey, and Mystery Ranch. A few Kelty's and some issue packs were seen with the military teams. Jetboil stoves were everywhere.
The Match
The days started early for both staff and competitors. Competitors had to have their camp broken, packed and ready to go in time for the 6 am briefing. Chris, the match director, would give an initial brief and make a few comments. The squad leaders would get a roll call and brief the competitors on the march route, distance and time hack for the ruck. Competitors would then be given a brief time for last minute tasks. They would then go to the start point. Once cleared by range control, the squad leaders would get out in front of the group and signal the start. We would move to the finish line and wait for our squads. The match had half the group going one way, the other half going in the opposite direction. Each group had around an hour to get to their ranges. Once their, four stages were set up for each group on the first two days. Ranges were set up so that while competitors were briefed about the course of fire, they couldn't see the actual course until they were shooting it. Day three consisted of another ruck of about an hour. The stages, however, were done on a flat range where everyone could see what was happening. Once all squads completed the courses of fire that day, they would then ruck back to the original start point. Yes, the return walk was timed as well.
Scores were tallied at the end of every day. The last day a meal was provided, the top shooters were awarded cash prizes, champion belts and their choice of prizes supplied by match sponsors. These ranged from Magpul accessories and gift cards from folks like Bravo Concealment to NightForce rifle scopes. All competitors got to choose gear from the sponsors according to how well they shot.
Observations
I will say that this was a challenging match, both for staff and competitors, from both the standpoint of the courses of fire as well as the conditions everyone had to work in.
The match reinforced several things that I knew to be true. First, it's not the Indian and it's not the arrow, it's both. Most competitors had thousands invested in rifles and gear. Many had the latest and greatest. Gear I would have given teeth for when I worked for a living. I watched shooters miss relatively easy shots. I also watched people fumble with gear all because they had not practiced with it.
Electronics did not always fair well with the cold. The teams that overcame these issues were the ones who had learned how to judge distance and wind without them.
One shooter stood out to me. I wish I'd seen him begin shooting, I would have videoed him and study it. He was running a plain vanilla Remington. I think the scope was a Leupold, but I'm not sure. He ran it flawlessly. One stage was shoot five, reload and shoot five, offhand at 100 yds. After emptying the internal magazine, the shooter loaded one round at a time, hit everything he aimed at and finished with plenty of time to spare. He did, in fact, beat shooters running rifles with detachable box magazines.
While I am not, generally, a fan of competition shooting. Primarily because most (all) matches bring in practices for safety that only apply to the match and are dangerous if done in the real world. I will say that this match was a good test of the shooters and their gear.
Conclusion
Folks have asked me if I will work the match again. If I can get the time off, absolutely.
Will I shoot it at some point? I'm evaluating that now. I'm certain I can still perform well enough to finish the course. I have to decide if it's worth it to me to put the work in that I would need to for that.
If you are looking for a challenge, and you can shoot long range, I would recommend you look into the Mammoth Sniper Challenge.
