VZ 58

VZ58

The VZ58.

 I am a big fan of the VZ58. It's a great rifle and you can get one at a great price. There are a few different models and I won't go  into that here but you should be able to pick up one for $500 to $800. It's a much better rifle than the SKS but as it fires the same ammo so you can afford lots of it. 

One other thing to point out about the VZ and the SKS is how tough they are. They are old school weapons made from steel and wood. They can take a lot of abuse and keep on going.

SKS

SKS

The SKS. If money is hard to come by and for a lot of us it is then you can't beat the SKS. It's not the best rifle in the world but you can get one for around $100 bucks.

That's an incredible price for a good solid rifle. And it has the added benefit of the availability of cheap ammo. You can get crates of the stuff for a few hundred bucks.

Beretta CX4 Storm

Beretta CX4 Storm

Beretta CX4 Storm.

Now this little gun is totally different from the SKS and VZ. It's a modern design made with a lot of plastic parts and it fires pistol ammo. But I really like mine. It's light and handy with no recoil to speak of and it would be a fantastic weapon for defending your apartment or suburban house.

The pistol caliber ammo is also suitable for hunting small game like rabbits and you could drop a dear or other large animal if you had to. Not that I would recommend it for large animals. 

One drawback is that it is an expensive little gun. At around $1000 to $1200 it's not something everyone can afford. But it's a great little gun.  Another nice feature worth mentioning is that if you are a fan of Beretta pistols you can get one that takes the same mags as the Storm. That can be really handy.

AR 15 Firearm

The AR 15 family of firearms

 A person could write an entire book on the AR 15.  All I will say is that it is an excellent firearm. It has lower recoil and is more accurate than the SKS and VZ58. On the down side it's a little more prone to breaking and it's requires a bit more maintenance.

The ammunition is more expensive but it's available just about everywhere. It is also more expensive at around $1000 to $1200. As I said before there are lots of great carbines and rifles. The AK 47 family. The FN FAL family. The Ruger Mini 14. The M14 family of rifles.

The list goes on forever. I am actually a big fan of my M1 carbine and would have listed it but for the fact that the .30 carbine ammo is getting a little harder to find.

Junk Guns Are A Good Buy And May Come In Handy

An $8 shotgun and a $20 rifle. May just save your life.

I was at an auction sale the other day and picked up some junk guns. A few old shot guns and a 22. I say junk guns as they are old and a tad rusty. Not really something that a person would want to use. But they were almost free and I have a plan for them. I call them give away guns.

Give away guns are guns that have no real value now but could have real value in a survival situation. One can imagine a situation where you need the help of others to defend your group but the others have no weapons.

Give away guns allow you to arm a large group of people with little cost. Now I know that giving guns to other people has risks but the bottom line is you may find that in order to survive you have to form larger groups of people. One family can not survive for ever without the support of the community.

I offer the following scenario for you. The world is falling apart. Gangs are roaming the streets and you are hunkered down in your house. Your neighbor is also hunkered down in his house. The mob reaches your house and attacks. You can ether fight them yourself or you can fight them with the help of the guy next door. You may have a much better chance of survival with your neighbor backing you up.

As I said before that giving guns to others has risks but you can reduce the risk by the choice of firearms you give away. Shotguns are probably the best choice as they are limited in range and penetration. This makes them better for defence than offence. In simple terms its hard to kill someone who is a long way away with a shotgun. So depending on the type of ammo you give away you can have some control over the range the gun can reach. A 12guage #4 can kill a man close up. It will seriously mess him up out to about 80yards. It probably won't kill him at 80 yards but it will hurt like hell. Or if your neighbor is farther away you may give him a few rounds of Buckshot. My neighbor is about 600 ft away so he may be able to hit my house with buckshot he would need to be really lucky to hit me.

Something to think about next time you see a cheap old gun.

  

How to fortify your castle (your home): Part 1

Ok. The hordes are approaching and you need to keep them out. What do you do?

We have all seen the movies. The Zombies are closing in and the frantic occupants of the house are trying to push furniture up against the doors and nail a few boards over the windows. Makes for exciting viewing but in reality that's not a situation you want to be in.

Now some furniture by the door might actually be a good idea at first. It's probably the fastest thing you can do, so go ahead and shove your piano in front of the door but you really need to have a fortification plan.

I don't know what kind of place you live in so I can't tell you exactly what will work best for your situation. Living on the 10th floor of an apartment building is different than an old farm house in the country.

So what I am going to do over a number of blog posts is share with you some of my fortification and defense plan. You can take what you want from it and change it to meet your needs.

Step one - get your guns!

Arm myself and my family members. I have set up my firearms storage in such a way that I am never more than 60 seconds from a firearm. Most of the time I can have access to a firearm in less than 20 seconds but as I am a big believer in safe storage of firearms some times it's just not practical for me to have guns all over the place.

Some people have said that if a person can get to a firearm in just a few seconds it can't possibly be stored safely. Well that's just not true. In today's safety conscious environment manufactures have come up with a wide variety of gun safety gear that's both effective and quick. On each of my firearms I have a three digit combination trigger lock and as I am careful to turn the tumblers to the same position each time I lock the gun it takes me 6 to 10 seconds to unlock the gun.

As well my gun cabinet has a 4 digit digital lock that takes me exactly 4 seconds to unlock. I suggest you do a few drills to see how long it takes you to get to your guns. This will help you work out any bugs and ensure you can get to your firearms as fast as possible. Remember to make sure that you use a digital lock for your guns that has a backup key.

If you have a digital only lock it could get fried by an EMP or the batteries could just be drained. It would really suck to have done all this work and then end up dead because your batteries were out of juice.  Now for you non-firearms owners you still need to think about weapon storage. And safety. Because by "weapons" I mean a sword, a bayonet, a baseball bat, pepper spray, stun gun and so on.

You may not need to lock up your weapons but they need to be readily accessible in an emergency. It will not do you any good to have a baseball bat if you can't find it when you need it.

Stay tuned to Zombie Apocalypse Survivor blog for Part 2 coming soon!

Silhouette Targets for Shooting

I just bought some great shooting targets today for target practice at our local gun club. I like the first one and my wife chose the second. If you need to get out and do some target shooting to hone your skills, you might want to try these for your practice


50 - Pk. Silhouette Targets 50 - Pk. Anatomy Targets

Weapons: Defending your Home, Food & Family with Light Carbine or Rifle

As promised in my last blog post on defending your home, food and family, here's #2 of my suggestions for your must-have weapons.

A light carbine or rifle

SKS

There are hundreds of firearms in this category and many of them are excellent. So I will simply tell you what I like and you can make up your own mind.

The SKS. If money is hard to come by and for a lot of us it is then you can't beat the SKS. It's not the best rifle in the world but you can get one for around $100 bucks. That's an incredible price for a good solid rifle. And it has the added benefit of the availability of cheap ammo. You can get crates of the stuff for a few hundred bucks.

VZ58

The VZ58. I am a big fan of the VZ58. It's a great rifle and you can get one at a great price. There are a few different models and I won't go into that here but you should be able to pick up one for $500 to $800. It's a much better rifle than the SKS but as it fires the same ammo so you can afford lots of it. 

One other thing to point out about the VZ and the SKS is how tough they are. They are old school weapons made from steel and wood. They can take a lot of abuse and keep on going.

Beretta CX4 Storm

Beretta CX4 Storm. 

Now this little gun is totally different from the SKS and VZ. It's a modern design made with a lot of plastic parts and it fires pistol ammo. But I really like mine. It's light and handy with no recoil to speak of and it would be a fantastic weapon for defending your apartment or suburban house. The pistol caliber ammo is also suitable for hunting small game like rabbits and you could drop a dear or other large animal if you had to. Not that I would recommend it for large animals. 

One drawback is that it is an expensive little gun. At around $1000 to $1200 it's not something everyone can afford. But it's a great little gun.  Another nice feature worth mentioning is that if you are a fan of Beretta pistols you can get one that takes the same mags as the Storm. That can be really handy.

AR 15

The AR 15 family of firearms. A person could write an entire book on the AR 15.  All I will say is that it is an excellent firearm. It has lower recoil and is more accurate than the SKS and VZ58. On the down side it's a little more prone to breaking and it's requires a bit more maintenance. The ammunition is more expensive but it's available just about everywhere. It is also more expensive at around $1000 to $1200.

As I said before there are lots of great carbines and rifles. The AK 47 family. The FN FAL family. The Ruger Mini 14. The M14 family of rifles. The list goes on forever. I am actually a big fan of my M1 carbine and would have listed it but for the fact that the .30 carbine ammo is getting a little harder to find.

Next up will be #3 - the handgun

Weapons for Defence: 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun

As promised in my last blog post on defending your home, food and family, here's the start of my suggestions for your must-have weapons.

The 12 gauge pump action shotgun

Probably the most versatile and effective weapon ever invented. The 12 gauge pump can do more jobs than any other firearm. With a simple switch of the shells you load into it the shotgun can go from a bird or rabbit hunting gun to a devastating buck shot or slug gun. In fact the only thing a shotgun can't do is long-range shooting. 100 yards is about the most any of us can get out of a smooth bore shotgun. However In 99% of situations 100 yards is more than adequate to get the job done.

Another advantage of the 12 gauge shotgun is the availability of the ammunition. You can get it everywhere. Almost every farmer has a 12 gauge and a box or two of shells and if the store sells ammo you can bet they have shells. The 12 gauge can be a little bit hard on the shoulder if you are not experienced with it so you will have to practice with it. You can't just purchase one and stick it in your closet and expect to be proficient with it. But with a few hours practice you will be amazed at how good you can get.

Stay tuned for #2 - the light carbine or rifle

Defending Your Family, Food and Property in an Emergency Situation

Weapons. It's a sad fact of life that we sometimes need to resort to violence to protect ourselves and our property. With this fact in mind you need to think about having weapons to defend your perimeter from intruders. The most effective weapons are of course firearms but for those of you who can't get or don't want a firearm think about what else you can have on hand to defend yourself with. Things like.....

A baseball bat. A sword. A bow and arrow or crossbow. A flare gun. An axe. A big knife. A simple flame thrower ( I can show you how to make a simple one in just a few minutes ) Use your brains and imagination.

Firearms are the best weapons of course and I recommend that every one who is serious about survival should have at least one. What kind of firearm you choose to get is up to you. Everyone will tell you something different when it comes to what gun is best.

For now let me share with you the three most important types of firearms you should have in your arsenal:

1. The 12 gauge pump action shotgun
2. A light carbine or rifle
3. A handgun

I will explain each of these weapon choices in detail (pros and cons) in my next blog post, and I'll post photos so you can see what I'm talking about

What's Your Bug Out Plan and What's in Your Bug-Out Bag?

Do you have a bug-out plan? If you are going to survive a disaster you need a plan - either stay put or leave. A GOOD plan, as in Get Out Of Dodge.

Your Bug-Out Plan
Today I'm going to talk about a bug-out plan. First, where is your safe place? Have you got one in mind? Do you have your primary route planned? What about backup routes in case roads are blocked or impassable due to weather or other problems. You might not be able to count on GPS or your iPhone so be sure you've got old-fashioned paper maps in your bug-out bag.

Make sure every family member knows your family's emergency signal - that is, what you are going to do if it's time to hustle and get out. Is it a code word? Is it a blast on a whistle or fog horn? Define each family member's task - and practice the drill. You should aim for 10 minutes or less for grabbing what you need and getting to your car.

Even little children can have a task. In my family, my son has trained his children in their tasks. The 7 year old's job is to help his younger brother grab warm outdoor clothing and boots even if it's summer, then get them to the front door. Their older sister knows she helps with the youngest.  Why warm clothing? Because he's prepared for a year or longer and they may need winter clothes later even if it's summer when the crisis happens.

Each child knows to grab their own bug-out bag (they call it a go-bag), one toy and get to the front door. There they wait for mom or dad to escort them to the vehicle.

You need a different plan for summer then you do for winter. Do you have a wagon for summer in case your car breaks down or is stuck somewhere? A wagon will allow you to pull younger children or bottles of water and bags of food. What about bicycles? And for winter you need a sled or toboggan in case you have to walk to your safe place. You could also pack snowshoes and make this a fun family activity ahead of time - learning to walk on snowshoes is exhausting and takes a bit of practice so why not plan some family snowshoeing outings?

Think about the weather and the geography of where you live. If you live in a big city you will want to plan a route that doesn't use the roads and highways that everyone else will be using. If you live in a deserted desert area, your choice of clothing and water will be very different from someone who lives in a rural snowy area.

Your Bug-Out Bag
You do have a bug-out bag for each family member don't you? A bug-out bag is a small backpack filled with essential gear and food to last you 72 hours or as long as it takes to get to your safe place.

What you put in your bug-out bag is up to you but experts recommend 3 to 4 litres of water per person per day. You will also need water contamination tablets in case you have to purify water from streams or lakes.

Non-perishable food is necessary - granola bars, trail mix, or MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) if you have them. Look for lightweight foods and be sure every family member has some in their personal bug-out bag in case you get separated. It's a personal choice as to how much food you need to pack.

Take sleeping bags if possible. Duct tape, ropes, a tarp and a good knife may come in handy if you have to abandon the vehicle and sleep outside. I like to have a small knife for things like removing a splinter, cutting string or rope, and a larger knife for defense, chopping small branches off of trees, opening cans etc.

Rain gear is essential. Be sure everyone has something they can wear in case you're walking - ponchos, even garbage bags with a hole cut for the head are better than nothing

Have some extra clothing already packed - socks, undies, pants, sweaters, shorts etc. Be prepared for all types of weather. Lots of extra socks are important as your feet may get wet if you have to walk.

Take any medication you need. Throw in some basic medical supplies - bandages, antibacterial ointment, pain meds, anti-diarhea meds etc.

If a weapon is on your list as a necessity, make sure you have ammo for it ready to go. Ensure that every family member who is old enough has training in gun safety if you are taking a weapon with you. Being safe is important!

Everyone should have a signalling device such as a whistle in their go bag, and once you are on the road, it should be on each person's body. That way if the group gets separated you can hopefully find each other. Teach your children what to do if they get separated from you. Pack a signal mirror and a foghorn or a flaregun too.

What else might come in handy? A compass, flashlight, matches, something for collecting and boiling water.... the list is endless. If it's winter, take some tea candles and a clean tuna or salmon can to put the candle in, so you can have heat in your vehicle if you end up sleeping there.

And don't forget cash. We suggest you have some cash hidden and handy in case of an emergency situation. Remember electronics may be down so that ATM machine isn't going to work. Stores and banks might be closed.

         BE PREPARED! BE SELF-SUFFICIENT! BE SAFE

Doomsday Preppers - An Interesting Show

Are any of you watching Doomsday Preppers on TV? There are some good ideas and tips on Emergency Preparedness from some of the preppers. I have to say that some of them come across as total nutcases but that's just my opinion. Others are just regular folks, like you and me, who want to be prepared for any emergency survival situations.

I've been thinking about how the one guy made his own bows out of wood from the forest, and another made his own tomahawks. Both items can be used for hunting food or as weapons for defending your home and emergency food supplies.

One thing I hadn't thought about was cutting and preparing my firewood ahead of time. I've been pretty busy in other areas of emergency preparedness but need to get working on this. I'd like to have something that saws my cut and downed trees into logs a lot faster than me with a chainsaw though!

We've got other items on our To-Do list and my wife has a list in her Food Storage Inventory book of foods she needs to stockpile this year.

A To-Do list is a really helpful tool in preparing for emergency survival. I'll share ours in another post.

My step-son came up and took a one day Trauma Course which he shared with us as best he could afterwards. My other step-son is in the military and he's going to come up this July and teach us some radical first aid techniques that he's learned.  It's important to have a good First Aid kit on hand and to know how to use it. I don't just mean some peroxide and bandaids, I'm talking about being able to treat more serious medical problems. But that's another blog post!

Welcome

Welcome to Zombie Apocalypse Survivor. The intention of this blog is to provide practical and useful advice on how to survive the coming zombie apocalypse. This blog will cover such topics as weapons, shelters, combat and survival gear, food storage, survival plans and many other useful subjects. With over 30 years of weapons and survival experience it is my hope that I can help you prepare for the coming onslaught.