Solitary Knife Fighting

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Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published in Issue 11 of our sister publication CONCEALMENT. For more articles on concealed carry, EDC gear, and tactics, go to RECOILweb.com.

The choice to carry a knife as a means of self-defense brings with it the responsibility of learning how to use it, but just knowing how to do something doesn’t make you good at it. Skill comes from repetition through dedicated training. Attending a couple edged-weapons seminars might give you a base knowledge, but it won’t make you proficient with a blade. You must incorporate that knowledge into a regular training regimen to hone your skills.

The great thing about blade training is it can be done pretty much anywhere. Unlike firearms training, you don’t need a designated training area. You don’t need to worry about noise and backstops, and your neighbors aren’t likely to call the police if you do it in the backyard.

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The greatest challenge with solo blade training is knowing where to start. Once you know how to train on your own, the possibilities become endless. The information presented here will give you some good starting points to help you develop a consistent solo training program that will sharpen your edged-weapons skills.

Shadow Shanking

Shadow shanking is the edged-weapon equivalent of shadow boxing, with a little urban slang mixed in. It’s the act of fighting with an imaginary opponent to develop technique, timing, lines of motion, and muscle memory. It’s one of the most useful training methods for learning and training basic movements and movement patterns. There are a few different ways to implement shadow shanking into your training regimen.

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Above: Shadow shanking is the edged-weapon equivalent of shadow boxing. When done with the proper progression and mind-set, it can be a valuable training tool.

Working the Basics

This is how you build your foundation. The best way to set this up is to stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself perform the movements. You might also want to draw a large asterisk on the mirror with lipstick or a grease pencil to give you a visual reference for the various angles of attack. You can then follow these lines with your blade.

We tend to be very unaware of ourselves. Seeing yourself moving in a mirror helps you develop a mind-body connection. It’s the reason gyms and martial arts schools are covered in mirrors. Use the mirror to correct flaws and solidify proper technique until your body knows what the right motion feels like. Go back to the mirror frequently to reinforce proper technique.

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Above: Some solo training tools pictured here include aluminum training blades, a shot timer, a tennis ball on a string, bubbles, and a Rubber Dummies 3D Silhouette Target.

Free Flow

Another form of shadow shanking is free flow. This is where you develop your ability to flow from one cut or thrust to another using the most efficient path for each angle of attack. Start with preset combinations to engrain paths of motion into your central nervous system. As those combinations become more fluid, you can begin linking the lines between various combinations until you’re able to free flow without thinking.

The Ghost

Visualization is the key to fighting the ghost, a cool name for an imaginary opponent. To fight the ghost, you have to imagine an opponent as vividly as possible, seeing his every move through your mind’s eye. Visualize his attacks and react to them using footwork, evasions, defenses, interceptions, and counters. Imagine how he’s reacting to your movements and respond accordingly. This variation of shadow shanking is the most challenging, but the benefits you reap from it are invaluable.

The Training Post

The training post is one of the oldest and simplest combat training tools known to man. Historically known as a pell, this solid wooden post was used to practice striking, cutting, and thrusting with the sword, shield, and spear. It was the ancient swordsman’s equivalent of a boxer’s heavy bag, and its use is recorded in historical documents dating back to the 1st century.

The training post is a vital piece of solo training equipment. Delivering cuts and thrusts against the air is great for developing basic technique, but the resistance of a solid target is necessary for conditioning the mind and body for impact. Just like a heavy bag, using the training post will strengthen your muscles and increase connective tissue resilience. Striking a solid post will challenge your grip and expose weaknesses in your technique.

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Above: Historically known as the pell, the training post is the ancient swordsman’s equivalent of a boxer’s heavy bag.

Training on a post requires very little logistics. A 6-foot pole with a sturdy base is all you need. A solid, dead tree can work just as well. It’s also a good idea to add some target markings like lines and circles to aid with working your cutting angles and thrusting accuracy.

Proper safety precautions are necessary when working the post. Wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from flying pieces of wood. If you’re going to use a live blade, it’s a good idea to wear Kevlar-lined gloves to protect your hand in case it rides onto the blade during a thrust, especially if your blade doesn’t have a substantial guard.

Your Best Buddy “BOB”

Century’s Body Opponent Bag is one of the most useful combatives training devices available. The vinyl skinned, lifelike mannequin provides all the shapes and contours of a human head and torso, making for a realistic, target-rich training environment. BOB isn’t very practical for live-blade training, at least not if you want to keep him around for a while. A synthetic or aluminum training blade, or a homemade “stubby” (knife-shaped, hard foam cutout wrapped in electrical tape), are your best options for blade work on BOB.

When training on the BOB, focus on targeting and precision. Work the eyes, neck, throat, lungs, and abdomen with various thrusts and cuts. It’s easy to forget you have two hands during weapons training, so take advantage of the liveliness of the BOB and emphasize the use of both hands by incorporating empty-hand strikes, checks, and grabs with your live hand (the hand not holding the blade). Move around the mannequin and work as many angles as possible.

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Above: The Body Opponent Bag is one of the most useful combatives training tools. Shown here with the Dionisio Zapatero anatomical rash guard for vital target identification.

Another way to up your game on the BOB is with anatomical drilling. This form of training involves the use of a Dionisio Zapatero anatomical rash guard in conjunction with the BOB. The purpose is to identify the anatomical location of vital targets on the body in order to increase your ability to recognize target landmarks. This particular method was developed with the input of this author and popularized by Scott Babb in the Libre Fighting System.

Rubber Dummy Mayhem

The Rubber Dummies 3D Silhouette Body Target is a self-healing rubber target designed for close-quarters firearms application, but has proven effective for edged weapons training as well. Filipino martial arts practitioners have long employed used automobile tires in various configurations to practice stick and blade combatives.

The Rubber Dummy puts a modern twist on this solo training concept with its three-dimensional human shape and tire-like, hard rubber texture. The Rubber Dummy combines many elements of the training post and the BOB into one training device. The Rubber Dummy can withstand the abuse from a live blade, while offering human target features. Cuts and stabs leave visible markings on the renewable “skin” (applied with spray paint), yielding instant feedback.

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Above: The Rubber Dummy combines many elements of the training post and BOB into one device, able to withstand the abuse of a live blade while offering human target features.

Speed Drilling

Speed drilling is a broad category of solo training with many variations. The purpose is to develop speed, efficiency, and accuracy. For solo training, using a programmable shot timer in conjunction with a suitable striking target, such as the ones mentioned above, works extremely well. The idea is to program the shot timer using delayed start and perform the action within a set par-time parameter. Striking a target that makes an audible sound, like a balloon or X-ray paper will signal the shot timer to record the split, letting you see your actual hit time.

Speed drill progression should look something like this: Begin drilling from a ready position with your blade in hand and address the target at the sound of the beep. Then, perform the drill from a neutral position with the blade in hand. Next, deploy the blade from its carry location and engage from a ready position. Finally, deploy and engage from a neutral position.

Speed drilling with the aid of a shot timer adds stress and challenges you to leave your comfort zone. It pushes you to the edge of failure, so you can recognize how fast you can move without compromising your accuracy or control of your weapon. Always use training blades for these types of drills.

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Above: A programmable shot timer and a quality training blade are excellent tools for developing speed and accuracy.

Ball on a String

Striking a simple ball on a free-hanging string can be one of the most challenging solo drills for edged-weapons training, and it’s also one of the cheapest and easiest tools to set up. Attach a ball to a string and hang it up — that’s it. The weight and size of the ball and the length of the string are variables you can vary to change the level of difficulty. Let the ball swing freely and work your cutting and thrusting angles as the ball swings toward you. Don’t forget to include footwork. That’s about all there is to this simple but effective drill.

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Bubble Buster

Who hasn’t at some point in their life run around poking bubbles out of the air with their finger? It was fun when you were a kid, and it’s even more fun with a knife. Borrow your kid’s bubble machine and go to town. You’ll have random targets floating all around you, so you’ll have to move up and down, side to side, back and forth, and turn around. If a bubble hits you, it means you’ve been tagged, so keep moving and pop them before they land on you. The one caveat is you have to be precise with your blade, no wild swinging or flailing about.

Putting it All Together

The less effort involved in setting up a training drill, the more likely we are to do it, especially when we’re limited on time. The training tools and drills presented here take very little effort to set up. Most can be left in place wherever you set them up, meaning you can quickly visit them and get in some quality repetitions within 5 or 10 minutes. Practice makes permanent, so focus on getting quality repetitions.

Physical preparation is only half the equation when it comes to any deadly force issue. Mental preparation is just as important, if not more so. You must train your mind to deal with the emotional trauma that comes with a violent physical assault. Rather than mindlessly performing countless repetitions, consider incorporating visualization into your solo training. Work through various attack/response scenarios in your mind as you do your drills. This will help prepare you to perform under stress and reduce the likelihood that you’ll freeze during a violent encounter.

Training Resource Links

About the Author

Microtech SOCOM Alpha knife review Summit in the Sand RECOIL 6

Chad McBroom is a 21-year veteran law enforcement officer with most of his time spent in the tactical unit. He has spent over 30 years studying various combative systems and focuses on the science of close combat. Chad is the owner of Comprehensive Fighting Systems, and offers training in empty-hand tactics, edged weapons, impact weapons, and firearms tactics.
comprehensivefightingsystems.com

Book Review: “Cyber Mercenaries: The State, Hackers, and Power”

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The Premise: Humankind’s dependency on technology pervades our lives. In the cracks between man and machine, hackers ply their trade. Motivated by both politics and profit, they affect the building blocks of our survival. Tim Maurer pens a ministerial text steeped in the academic study of statecraft in a world of state and non-state cyber actors. He paints a post-graduate level tapestry of diplomacy, manipulation, coercion, culture, economics, agency theory, uncertainty theory, terrorism studies, international law, and other disciplines to build a taxonomy of cyberspace from the view of the hackers and their beneficiaries — a Marauder’s Map peering into a foreboding future.

The 411: This book is a Marianas Trench deep dive into the cyber-verse. It’s an expert’s reference for building future research in a still very new field of study, global hacktivism. Maurer repeatedly packs entire graduate school semester courses into nuanced sentences; each of which could keep tenured Ivory Tower researchers and front line field personnel rolling in work for decades. But if you want to know how cyber warfare is organized and, more importantly, where it has emerged, this book will open your eyes.

The Verdict: The book isn’t an easy read. It’s clearly meant for professionals who have been soaking in global stability analysis hot tub since the Reagan years. Be prepared to look up unfamiliar terms. The text is 163 pages; footnotes take up an additional 70 pages. The author covers how the beneficiaries of hacking for influence fits into the broader art of statecraft using a modified form of the D.I.M.E. theorem of influence, consisting of Diplomacy, Intimidation, Militancy, and Economics. He covers the dynamics of the four types of benefactor-actor interaction where state and non-state players can be either string puller or operator. Maurer then goes on to detail the spectrum of how states can delegate, orchestrate, or sanction hackers. Also discussed is international law surrounding the use of cyber techniques as effectors of influence and warfare.

Maurer draws on research from areas such as the management of militias and the study of its close cousin, terrorism networks, to help color the complexity of the process. He spends time discussing the dilemma of defending against cyber attack; specifically, noting that per international law, nations are obligated to prevent non-state offensive cyber activity even to the point that in the United States it’s a felony to counterattack the hacker if one’s company is bombarded by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or destructive malware attacks.

Students of global diversity will appreciate Maurer’s case studies, where he illustrates the radical difference in the path-dependent evolution of cyber activity in different countries. He covers rich western nations like the United States, where the culture of hacking was born in rebellious cultures antagonistic to the state that evolved a cadre of co-opted hackers seeking to serve to the state for monetary gain. He then describes politically motivated actors sometimes loosely connected to, and other times antagonistic to, states in troubled parts of the world like Iran, Syria, and Ukraine; and how they often switch sides.

He also covers the criminal sanctioning of hackers, aka privateering, in poor states like Russia where a weak $1.2 trillion GDP economy and an overabundance of pauper technocrats has led to cyber-crime-for-hire industries; as long as the underworld actors are careful not to aim their tools at the motherland. And finally, he examines the hyper patriotic phenomenon of China, where hackers are so eager to wreak havoc to defend China’s honor against real and imagined enemies that the state has had to create government infrastructure to tame their zeal.

The book describes how these cyber cultures came to be, why they act way they do, and what happens when these disparate cultures interact. He discusses that this is a battle space for tomorrow’s Cold Wars.

The one drawback to Maurer’s coverage was its narrow focus on the phenomenon of state-sponsored cyber operations. Then again, this is new ground just emerging in places like the U.S. where the orchestration of social media can influence public policy faster than considered deliberation can digest. Conversely, non-state actors are at work in places like Eastern Europe where post-national globalism and open society proponents seek to shape and influence that region’s potentially dystopian future. If you want to survive in tomorrow’s man-machine world, absorbing this book is worth your time.

For a real-world example of the devastation caused by cyber warfare, check out our web-exclusive article on the sophisticated Petya cyber-attacks.

Book & Author
Cyber Mercenaries: The State, Hackers, and Power
Tim Maurer

Publisher
Cambridge University Press

MSRP
$30

URL
www.cambridge.org

Pages
266 pages

Rating
>Thrive
Survive
Die

OFFGRID Library of Recommended Books

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Read articles from the next issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 29

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Check out our other publications on the web: Recoil | Gun Digest | Blade | RecoilTV | RECOILtv (YouTube)

Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Review: Holosun HE510C-GR Elite Green Dot Sight

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Whether you’re hunting, shooting competitively, preparing to defend your home against intruders, or facing a catastrophic bug-out situation, it’s essential to be able to quickly acquire and accurately hit targets with your weapon of choice. Much of this comes down to training, but technology can also give us an advantage in this area. Modern optics provide an easy-to-use alternative to iron sights. Specifically, non-magnified dot sights have become ubiquitous in the firearms world as a result of their versatility for a variety of weapons and lighting conditions.

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These days, the majority of home defense guns and survival rifles you’ll come across will have some form of dot sight in addition to backup iron sights. Even on carry handguns, they’re continuing to become increasingly popular — in a poll we posted last year on this site, 72 percent of readers said they have “positive” or “very positive” feelings about running dot sights on their carry pistols.

The caveat to dot sights is that they can easily cost $500 or more, and while there’s no shortage of low-budget options on the market, many of those airsoft-grade sights are fragile, poorly-built, and/or unreliable (the last things you want on a weapon that you might need for self-defense). Finding a middle ground between price and dependability can be tricky, especially when you’re looking for a sight that doesn’t skimp on features.

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Holosun recently released the HE510C-GR as part of its Elite green dot sight series. It’s an open reflex sight, meaning that it uses a dot projected by an LED onto a thin reflective lens, rather than the cylindrical design of closed tube sights. This is intended to provide maximum field of view and minimal reduction of ambient light. MSRP for the sight is $388, but it’s currently available from various online retailers for $330.

The Case for a Green Dot

In the past, virtually all dot sights used red aiming points, and they’re still the industry standard today. However, green dot sights have seen a surge in popularity lately for various reasons. We’ll admit that some of this is an aesthetic trend, motivated by users wanting something new and different. But there’s more to it than that.

This chart from the UK National Physical Laboratory shows the spectral response of the human eye.

This chart from the UK National Physical Laboratory shows the spectral response of the human eye.

The obvious purpose of any sight is to provide a clear, high-visibility aiming point. From a purely scientific standpoint, the human eye is most responsive to colors in the green portion of the visible spectrum, meaning that a green light will be perceived as brighter than a red or blue light of equal power. As a result, Holosun says its green diode is “as much as 4 times more efficient” than its standard red diode, especially at high brightness settings.

A green LED near the back of the optic projects the dot onto the lens.

A tiny green emitter near the back of the optic projects the dot onto the lens.

Of course, we don’t live in a world of black and white, so in a practical setting the technical advantages of a green dot may be more limited. Much of it comes down to the environments where you’ll be using the weapon — a green dot may offer superior contrast in drab urban environments, while it may get lost more easily against the bright green backdrop of a forest. Personal preference is also a consideration, so you should take a firsthand look at both dot colors and see which works best for you.

If a green dot just isn’t your thing, Holosun offers an HS510C red dot reflex sight that offers the same design and features as the HE510C-GR.

Holosun HE510C-GR Elite Features

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We got our hands on a sample of the HE510C-GR, and decided to take a closer look at its viability as a more-affordable choice in the dot sight market.

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Right off the bat, the packaging caught our eye with its prominent “green dot sight” label. The flamboyant font choice seems out of place, but we soon overlooked this and opened the box. It contained the following items:

  • Sight with included quick-detach mount
  • Adjustment/battery removal tool
  • Spare battery tray with O-ring and screws
  • Torx wrench
  • CR2032 battery
  • Micro-fiber lens cloth

As we said before, this is an open reflex sight which uses Holosun’s “Green Super LED” to project either a 2-MOA dot, a 65-MOA circle, or both onto the lens.

The HE510C-GR can display a dot, circle, or both simultaneously.

The HE510C-GR can display a dot, circle, or both simultaneously.

The optic’s controls are very straightforward, with rubberized “+” and “-” buttons on the left side. The adjustments are as follows:

  • Short presses of “+” or “-” adjust between 12 dot brightness levels.
  • Holding down “-” cycles between the three dot/reticle options mentioned above.
  • Holding down “+” until the reticle blinks toggles between Automatic and Manual modes — more on this feature below.
  • Holding down “+” for 10 seconds adjusts auto-shut-off timer setting.
  • The light can also be manually turned off by pressing both buttons, and turned back on by pressing either “+” or “-“.
  • Elevation and windage can be adjusted by turning a pair of screws with the included adjustment tool. Each click is 1/2 MOA.

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The HE510C’s body is constructed from 6061 aluminum, but it features an additional titanium shroud to protect the recessed lens from impacts to the top or side. The base of the sight features a quick-detach Picatinny rail mount, which includes a locking lever and a Torx screw to adjust the clamping force.

The gap between the body and titanium shroud protects the lens from impacts.

Power comes from a single CR2032 lithium-ion coin-cell battery. This is installed by loosening the two Torx screws on the battery tray, prying it open with the included tool, and reinserting the tray with the battery. Holosun claims a maximum battery life of 50,000 hours with the dot, and 20,000 hours with circle and dot.

Looking down from above, you’ll notice the HE510C features a second power source: a solar panel. This serves two purposes. First, it can fully power the optic using ambient light from the sun or indoor light sources — if these aren’t bright enough, it draws some or all of its power from the battery instead. Second, it acts as a light sensor to measure your environment and adjust dot brightness accordingly in automatic mode.

Automatic Mode

In its default automatic setting, the HE510C will monitor ambient light levels and increase or decrease the dot’s intensity to produce optimal visibility. This ensures you don’t end up looking at an overwhelmingly-bright dot in a dark room, or struggling to spot a dim dot on a sunny day. Within auto mode, you can adjust the brightness range to 8 levels.

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If you prefer, you can also set the optic to manual mode with 12 brightness levels (10 for daylight and 2 for night vision). The sight has a memory function to remember these settings.

Shake Awake

To further extend battery life, the HE510C has a “Shake Awake” motion sensor which can detect movement and immediately turn the sight on. It will then remain on for 10 minutes (default), 1 hour, 12 hours, or indefinitely, depending on the auto-shut-off timer setting you’ve selected.

Our Impressions

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After removing the sight from its box, we installed the battery. Even with the screws removed, the battery tray seals tightly to keep out water and dust, so prying it open with the included tool was a little tricky. We took our time to avoid scratching the finish. Luckily the extremely long battery life means we probably won’t be replacing it again for a decade.

Thanks to the included quick-detach mount, installing the HE510C on a Picatinny rail is easy. Just depress the release button at the end of the locking lever, swing the lever open, and place it on the rail. The Torx adjustment screw needed to be loosened a few turns before the mount would clamp snugly. This mount is a big plus, since adding QD functionality to many other dot sights means spending an additional $100 on a separate QD mount or riser.

The HE510C’s mount places it at absolute co-witness height for standard AR sights, so it aligned nicely with the A2 fixed front sight and Magpul MBUS flip-up rear sight on our S&W M&P-15 Sport II test gun.

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Learning the controls was simple — we simply left the optic in its default automatic setting with a 10-minute shut-off timer, and increased the brightness setting slightly. The Shake Awake feature is very sensitive, and the sight activated reliably as soon as we picked up the gun. If you’re keeping this sight on a truck gun, you’ll definitely want to disable Shake Awake to avoid draining the battery with every bump in the road.

The green dot is clear and easy to track against a variety of backgrounds, even in intense midday sunlight. The dot and ring both exhibited good sharpness.

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We tested the automatic brightness feature by walking between light and dark rooms — we were pleased to see the dot adjust on its own with barely a second of delay. One issue with this system is that it measures ambient light directly above the sight, not in front of the sight. This means that if you’re aiming from a dark room into a fully-lit one or using a weapon-mounted light to clear a dark hallway, the dot will wash out and become difficult to track. Manual adjustment alleviates this, but requires fiddling with the controls.

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Holosun claims this sight is “parallax free” but the reality is that all dot sights have some amount of parallax (i.e. perceived movement of the dot when you move your head — see this video for a demonstration of the effect). Fortunately, we didn’t notice any substantial parallax during our testing, so this sight is good-to-go on that front.

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Zeroing was straightforward, and we didn’t notice any substantial point of impact shift after putting rounds downrange at 50 to 100 yards with our M&P-15. Holosun says the sight can be used on shotguns, so we mounted it on a Remington 870 Tactical and ran through some 00 buckshot to see how it held up. Despite the harsher recoil, the dot didn’t wander.

Conclusion

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Considering our previous experiences with inexpensive red dot optics, we were interested to try this Holosun, considering its full list of features and affordable price. We were pleased to find that it offers solid build quality and reliability at a price that’s hundreds less than a comparable setup from other big-name companies.

Is it capable of taking years of hard use or surviving a house fire? Only time will tell, but our initial impressions of the HE510C-GR Elite have been positive. For the record, Holosun offers a limited lifetime warranty against defects on the housing or lens, and a 10-year warranty on the illumination system (this applies to Holosun’s Elite optics only; Classic optics have a 5-year lens warranty and 3-year illumination warranty).

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As for the topic of green dot versus red, color preferences will vary from one person to the next, but we found the Elite green dot was easy to pick up against most backgrounds. For home-defense or urban applications, we slightly prefer the green dot. Again, if red is your personal preference you can check out this sight’s red-dot counterpart from Holosun.

Overall, we’re glad we tried the HE510C, and it surpassed our expectations. Admittedly, it’s not going to make other more-costly optics totally obsolete, but it’s a dependable sight that offers good value for the money.

For more information on Holosun products, go to Holosun.com,

Reader’s Get-Home Bag Loadout: Russ from Virginia

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We always enjoy discussing and comparing our survival gear to that of our friends, since we often give each other helpful input and ideas. We might see a way we can simplify and remove weight, pack items more efficiently, or replace tools with with superior alternatives. There’s much to be learned through this collaboration.

Recently, we received an email from a reader named Russ, who previously wrote to us about lessons learned on his 23-mile solo hike across the Colonial Parkway in Virginia. Russ is a 68-year-old Army veteran with an admirable dedication to remaining physically fit and prepared. In his email, he told us about a new S.O.C. Short Range Bug Out Bag he purchased, and took the opportunity to share a breakdown of the gear loadout it contains.

A photo of Russ from his days in the Army.

A photo of Russ from his days in the Army.

I set up a new pack and tried it out last Saturday with a 8-mile circuit through the country around my neighborhood. It’s a Sandpiper of California Short Range Bug Out Bag, which I found in the P/X. Its capacity is 17 liters larger than my previous pack, a 20-liter Red Rock Outdoor Gear Transporter Day Pack.

Reader recap Virginia colonial parkway preparation survival hike trek trail 2

Russ with his previous Red Rock Outdoor Gear backpack.

The Short Range BOB is a 37-liter capacity, which gives me additional internal space plus more outside attachment points for my various pouches. The padding on the S.O.C. is a bit thicker, as I would have expected, both on the shoulder straps as well as the back. The S.O.C. also has a sternum strap and waist belt to balance the load — I had fabricated both for the Red Rock Transporter. Honestly, I overloaded the Transporter, it is an excellent pack and is destined to become the second gear pack for my truck.

Russ Hobgood go bag loadout survival gear bug out backpack shtf hiking 2

In the following photos, I laid out the pocket/pouch items. There’s a poncho with a poncho liner attached, a bed roll inside a poncho, and a ground cloth that is reflective on one side and orange on the other for a VS [emergency signaling] panel.

Outside the pack, the blue rope is 30 feet of Blue Water accessory rope. The external medical pouches have all the usual IFAK items; tourniquets, pressure bandages, bandages, alcohol wipes, tape, scissors and such.

Lower Pocket

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30′ Blue Water flat tubular nylon with carabiners, 100′ 550 cord, small cable ties, sewing kit, extra straps, Rite In The Rain notebook, duct and electrical tape, 5.11 Station gloves, waterproof Pelican box w/extra batteries and phone charger, Pelican box w/ cigarettes & matches (I don’t smoke, but might need it to befriend or trade with someone), waterproof map and assorted set of LokSak bags.

Middle Pocket

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SmartWool beanie, mylar space blankets, whistle, Swiss Army knife, Gerber multi tool, Petzl e+Lite headlamp, small fixed-blade knife with Kydex sheath, pen, Saltstick tabs, Grinds [coffee pouches], paracord bracelet, micro fiber towel, cooling towel, Ranger pace cord, chemlights and an odd spike-shaped tool called a CIA dagger.

Large Pocket

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5-liter dry bag (socks, extra shirt, meds, toilet paper and wipes, Columbia rain jacket), CamelBak with LifeStraw filter conversion, canteen cup, Esbit stove w/ fuel tabs, waterproof matches, 8-ounce flask, LokSak bag w/snacks and coffee, extra medical supplies.

The knife is a Vietnam-era Ontario jet pilot survival knife. It holds a good edge and works well for batoning fire wood.

Upper Side Pouches

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Water bottles — a LifeStraw Go and a converted CamelBak with LifeStraw filter.

Lower Right Pouch

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Lensatic compass with clinometer, binos, Gerber map light, map marker.

Lower Left Pouch

Russ Hobgood go bag loadout survival gear bug out backpack shtf hiking 5

UCO waterproof matches, pepper spray, Gerber fire steel, Purell (good for fires in wet conditions), signal mirror, Silva Type 27 compass, small Victorinox tin with Bic lighter wrapped in twine and duct tape, small folding knife (I try not to have so many knives but they are so handy), magnesium fire starter, tinder roll and pine resin.

That fairly well covers it. I hope to change over to a Geigerrig Hydration pouch system this week, that would give me about 6 liters of water on board. This whole rig weighs in around 35 pounds or so. Its a cross between a get-home bag and a backpacking bag.

Hope this will be of interest and some use. I really enjoyed reading reading Issue 28; it’s got all the disasters covered — financial, medical and grid down.

Video: Rudiger Roll Fire-Starter

Written by

When it comes to fire-starting, we all know about the obvious modern methods — lighters, matches, and ferro rods. As for more primitive ignition sources, you’re probably aware of how to make a bow drill, use a magnifier to focus sunlight, or strike flint against steel. These methods are all well-publicized. However, there’s one traditional fire-starting method you may not have heard of: the Rudiger roll.

advanced-fire-starting-techniques

The Rudiger roll is named after German survival instructor Rüdiger “Sir Vival” Nehberg, who documented the method in one of his books, but legend has it that this method was originally developed by WWII POWs who needed to start a fire without tools. The Rudiger roll consists of a flattened piece of combustible fibrous material, such as jute twine, cotton, hemp, or yucca fibers. The material is arranged into a long strip and covered with a layer of powdered abrasive/accelerant, such as ashes, rust, tobacco, or even crushed walnut husk. Accelerants are recommended but not always used — it’s still possible to start a fire with nothing but the fibers, though more friction will be required.

Rudiger Roll fire starter tinder cotton jute fiber survival 1v2

Once the fibers and accelerant are combined, the strip is rolled tightly into a bundle that resembles a cigarette or a joint. This bundle is then placed on top of a flat surface such as rock, concrete, or a wood plank. Another flat item is placed on top of the roll, pressed down, and moved forward and backward rapidly to apply friction to the Rudiger roll. With the right technique, the friction should leave the roll smoldering in just a few seconds, ready to ignite a tinder bundle.

Rudiger Roll fire starter tinder cotton jute fiber survival 2

The following video from David West shows how to assemble and use the most basic Rudiger roll, composed of cotton and ashes.

Another YouTuber who goes by Boggy Creek Beast has dedicated dozens of videos to testing the effectiveness of a Rudiger roll with various natural and manmade materials. He has used chaga fungus, baking soda, poplar bark, manure, bone dust, newspaper, and even manganese dioxide from an alkaline battery. Watch the video below for an introduction to the technique, or check out his channel to see all his Rudiger roll videos.

Managing Dehydration: A Thirst for Knowledge

Written by

WARNING: This article is meant to be a quick overview and not a detailed guide on dehydration. Professional medical care should always be sought first before attempting any of these methods.

As self-reliant people, we understand the importance of water. We store it in our homes and bug-out shelters, carry it in our vehicles, and bring it with us during every hike or workout. The problem is that even with an abundance of available water, we often neglect the water within our own bodies.

Nearly two thirds of your body weight is water, yet taking that fluid status for granted, particularly during strenuous activity, frequently leads to dehydration and death. Here we’ll discuss the factors that contribute to water loss, followed by signs and symptoms of dehydration. Lastly, we’ll discuss some strategies for fluid management.

Activity and Environment

There are several factors that contribute to fluid loss. Exercise and temperature are among the biggest causes. Clearly, the hotter the environment or the more intense and prolonged the activity, the more water we lose, especially if we naturally sweat a lot. Don’t just assume, however, that increased activity and temperature are the only things to watch out for. It’s easy to think about replacing water when it’s hot outside, but many assume replacing it during the cold, dry winter months, isn’t as critical. Dehydration can and does still occur when you’re exposed to lower temperatures.

Deconditioning also plays a part in increased fluid loss. The simple truth is that being out of shape will require you to exert more energy and sweat more than usual, which may cause some to succumb to the heat more easily. Many people don’t realize that altitude also contributes to fluid loss. The higher you go, the more you perspire and lose water through increased respiration. The water/sweat also evaporates faster at higher altitudes due to higher atmospheric pressures, especially above 5,000 feet. Being aware of the factors that contribute to water loss is important.

Obvious signs of dehydration are thirst, dark-colored urine, and fatigue, which occur in mild dehydration (less than 5-percent body fluid loss). As water loss becomes moderate (5- to 10-percent loss), we can experience worsening of the aforementioned symptoms as well as increased heart rate, weak pulse, decreased urine output, decreased sweating, and decreased levels of alertness.

Replenishing

When dehydration is severe (greater than 10-percent loss), the mental state can be drowsy, even obtunded, and perspiration can stop, with the skin having “goose pimples.” There’s very little urine output and the respiratory rate increases. This is a situation that requires immediate medical attention, as it puts vital organs at risk of permanent damage.

In order to estimate how much fluid to replace, there’s a simple calculation. There are more precise equations that can be found on the Internet, but here we’ll keep it simple:

1) Take your weight in pounds, and divide by 2.2 to get your weight in kilograms.

2) Since your body is essentially 60-percent water, take your weight in kilograms multiplied by 0.6 to get the liters of water contained in your body. For example, if a male is 220 pounds, then the equation is (220/2.2) x 0.6 = 60 liters of water in his body.

3) Therefore, in a case of mild dehydration (5 percent) for this 220-pound (100kg) male, who we just calculated to have 60 liters of water in his body, would result in 3L of water lost during the activity (60L x 0.05 = 3L).

So with the signs of dehydration and the simple calculations above, we’ve one way to estimate how much water is lost during activity. Another is to weigh yourself before any activity, then weigh yourself afterward to find out how much weight you lost. You can assume that the weight lost was all water weight and replenish accordingly. As a general rule, 1 liter of water is equal to about 1 kilogram of weight. So, in our example, the man who lost 3 liters of fluid would have lost 3 kilograms of weight, or approximately 6.5 pounds.

Emergency water prep filter purifier disinfectant plastic bottles 6

If you don’t have a scale and anticipate a hard workout in a hot environment, we’d recommend drinking a ½ liter of water a few hours before the event, then about 250mL of water five to 10 minutes prior to the activity. During exercise, I would recommend drinking about 250mL every 15 minutes. This latter recommendation is approximately the maximum amount of fluid an average person can absorb from the stomach in that time period.

Having a Water Survival Plan

In a survival situation, however, remember from the rules of three that you can only survive roughly three days without water. Maintaining your hydration in a survival situation is crucial. As the level of dehydration becomes more severe, fatigue can interfere with performing tasks critical to your own survival. Mental clarity diminishes rapidly but is recovered slowly. The best approach is to prevent dehydration in the first place, by drinking water while you can. Trying to drink 250mL of water every 15 minutes in a stressful bug-out scenario may be a reasonable goal, assuming your cache of water is plentiful. If you’re bugging in, you may be able to stretch that out to every one to two hours, depending on ambient temperature and activity level.

Improvised Purification

Solar water disinfection purifier filter bacteria drink bottle 6

We all know that boiling water is one way to kill harmful pathogens, but did you know that it’s also possible to reliably purify water using clear bottles and exposure to sunlight? In the following article on OFFGRIDweb, we discuss SODIS, a solar water disinfection process designed for use in developing nations: offgridweb.com/?p=8644

Oral Rehydration Salts

Dehydration first aid fluid water health hydration drink medical survival 5

Above: Oral rehydration salts often come in such small packets like this example from Chinook Medical Gear. Keep some in your medical gear stash in the event dehydration and water scarcity becomes an issue.

What about the benefit of oral rehydration salts? The World Health Organization has developed an oral rehydration salt (ORS) that consists of sodium chloride (2.6g), glucose (13.5g), potassium chloride (1.5g), and sodium citrate (2.9g). These are available through the internet; one packet is dissolved in 1 liter of water. There are other ORS out there that you can put in a bottle of water, but they can have varying amounts of these four components.

The combination of “salts” was developed from treating severe dehydration due to infectious diarrhea in developing countries, where kids and adults were losing a lot of water and potassium. The potassium replacement was important to prevent cardiac complications. The glucose was added not so much for nutrition, but to assist in getting sodium into the cells. The sodium citrate was important to neutralize the acid built up in a severely dehydrated body. Some commercial ORS may have magnesium (to help with potassium transport) and may not have the sodium citrate. The citrate would only be important in very severe cases of dehydration. In a survival situation where there’s no ORS available, you could make a solution by using 1 liter of water, 6 leveled teaspoons of sugar (25.2g), and a half teaspoon of table salt (2.9g).

Alternate Hydration Methods

What about sports drinks? While these were developed to help aid athletes to recover faster, many physicians believe that sports drinks are generally not as helpful as people believe. The benefit you may perceive is the replenishment of glucose from the activity. What’s often lacking in these sugar-heavy beverages is the balance of electrolytes to accompany the glucose. If you don’t have water, it may be a reasonable alternative to consume a sports drink; however, it’s not recommended to rely on sports drinks when water is available.

Above: Do not rely solely on sports drinks in a dehydration situation if you have access to clean water.

Should you avoid caffeine? Contrary to popular belief, research shows that caffeine usually doesn’t act as a diuretic. A diuretic is a substance that makes you urinate more than the fluid consumed and is commonly used for those people with heart failure. Multiple factors can sway the argument toward caffeine being a mild diuretic. Are you dehydrated while drinking caffeine? Are you used to drinking caffeine? How much caffeine is being consumed at a time? If the answer to those questions is yes, yes, and more than 360 mg of caffeine, then you may notice a small diuretic effect. If you’re foraging for food in a survival situation, keep in mind that plants such as dandelion, onion, garlic, grapes, watermelon, and asparagus can have a diuretic effect.

You may have heard that zinc can be helpful in preventing dehydration since it has been studied in Africa during infectious diarrhea outbreaks (e.g. cholera). Zinc boosts the immune system and aids in intestinal transport of glucose and sodium. Studies have suggested that in cases of severe infectious diarrhea, patients who were given zinc had a significant decrease in severity and duration of diarrhea. They were also less likely to have recurrence of symptoms for months afterward.

Zinc supplements are often used to boost water retention and absorption.

Zinc supplements are often used to boost water retention and absorption.

The amount of zinc used in these studies was up to 20g a day for those over 6 months old, and 10g a day for those under 6 months old. Keep in mind that these were impoverished countries where zinc ingestion through foods was poor. In our western culture, we certainly get our fair share of zinc in our foods. In a survival situation, we have foods like garlic, raspberries, pumpkin seeds, cashews, almonds, and asparagus that all contain good amounts of zinc. It’s not known whether consuming zinc in a milder form of dehydration is beneficial.

Health Considerations

There are a few physiological items to discuss regarding dehydration as well. First, your gastrointestinal system always seems to be the first organ sacrificed when blood volume is low (e.g. dehydration). When you’re low on fluid, your body makes sure that your heart, brain, and lungs have all the fluid they need to keep you alive. If you eat while you’re dehydrated, your body doesn’t do a great job digesting the food, because the stomach was shut down to shift blood (fluid) to other more important organs. This is one of the reasons that you don’t feel hungry when you’re dehydrated.

Another factor in nutrition and fluid loss during a long-term survival scenario is a protein in our body called albumin. Although albumin has several important roles in the body, for our purposes here, its job is to keep fluid inside the blood vessels. If we re-visit the rules of three, we know we can survive about three weeks without food. Although we have albumin stored in our body, these levels can be depleted over a few weeks, especially if food is scarce. When albumin levels are low, water leaks out of the blood vessels and into the places where the tissues cannot use the water (this is called “third spacing”). This process decreases blood volume, decreases blood pressure, and creates an environment that leads to organ failure and death.

Optimal fluid management during activities or during survival situations is essential to maintain peak performance. By recognizing the signs and symptoms of dehydration, we might prevent a progression of dehydration that affects our performance. By managing our fluid intake to meet the demands of activity and the losses of fluid, we can prepare to perform at peak levels.

About the Author

David Miller, DO, FACOI, is an internist in private practice. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1990, he has a unique perspective on patient care and disease management. Experiences away from the office include being a fight doctor for regional MMA bouts and a team physician for a Division I university in west central Illinois. Dr. Miller is an instructor for the Civilian Crisis Response Team (medical section) based out of Indianapolis.

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Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Watch Your Back: Backpack Armor Buyer’s Guide

Written by

We have our EDC and SHTF gear list for everything from going to the store to a doomsday incident. But what preparation have you made for your kids as you send them off to school? With mainstream media setting the stage for deranged individuals to get their claim to fame by going into so-called “safe zones” and harming the innocent, we’re forced to start looking at ways to protect our families in all facets of their daily life. Body armor is more economically accessible than ever, so you can wrap your loved ones, or even yourself, up in the latest Kevlar protection in case every parent’s nightmare becomes your reality.

With the influx of media attention, today’s market is packed with options for backpack armor. Some of these we’d literally stand behind, while others need some refining before they’re ready to catch rounds in the real world. We hit the range with several test samples to examine some options for armoring up our kids’ backpacks or even our own EDC bags.

The Testing

To simulate a realistic test, we looked at how most users would wear the bags during a shooting incident. The bags would likely either be held as a shield or worn as a vest. To that end, we arranged the following test parameters to best simulate these scenarios without the benefit of a fully-appointed ballistics lab:

Each bag was suspended by a target stand and shot in its center mass from a range of 15 meters.

Level IIIA bags were shot with an S&W M&P 2.0 Compact 9mm loaded with CCI Blazer 115-grain FMJ.

Level III+ were shot with an AR15 using a 20-inch barrel and .223 Remington 62-grain FMJ.

Note that a level III+ rating isn’t an actual NIJ standard, denoting that the manufacturer asserts the armor will meet the NIJ level III standard in addition to other threats (see sidebar to the right). We tested them with .223, given the ubiquity of the round in America. The two III+ plates in this guide are advertised to defend against .223.

AB4Y8312.psd

Initially, each bag was shot with a 500-page ream of 20-pound paper, 2 inches thick, in front of it. This simulates the approximate thickness of two textbooks to see how much, if anything, a backpack’s normal contents would do to stop a bullet on its own. Surprisingly, this was enough to stop a 9mm round. Of course, we wouldn’t recommend using paper reams alone as body armor, but the experiment provides some empirical evidence about how well it might stop a bullet. We re-tested each IIIA panel without the paper to see how well they’d hold up alone to defend against a caliber they’re rated for. As expected, the reams alone didn’t stop the .223 rounds at our testing distance.

Armor Considerations

Weight: Look for the highest-level protection with the most reasonable weight. We all want the highest level of protection, but it comes at the cost of weight and bulkiness. With some plates weighing more than 10 pounds, it can become almost impractical for daily carry and may very quickly be the first item removed when the backpack needs to be lightened up.

Independent Testing: Look for plates or panels that are independently tested. Any manufacturer can imply all of their products meet NIJ standards, but a reputable manufacturer will have an independent lab put each specific product through the paces. Don’t just check if the company’s other products are tested, look for a recent testing report for the specific product you’re buying.

Bigger is Better: Get the panel that will cover the most real estate inside your bag or backpack. This provides the most protection and most cover as a shield. While the bad guy is slinging rounds and not aiming for a small panel, you would be surprised how small you can make yourself behind even a 10-by-13-inch panel.

Train and Educate: Teaching loved ones how to react in an active shooter incident is just as important as fire drills or any other disaster planning. Develop the mindset that a ballistic backpack isn’t a personal effect to be left behind — it’s a defensive tool to grab and take with you in an emergency.

Ballistic backpack body armor buyers guide review test shooting gun shtf survival 1

Potential Issues

Don’t Place and Forget: Especially if you’re integrating a soft panel into your pack, check the panel placement frequently. We all get in a hurry and cram books, computers, and other items into a pack. If not located in a snug compartment, soft armor panels can easily get stuffed to the bottom of the pocket and won’t do much good in that position.

Humidity: You might think that Miami humidity only turns women’s hair into a bad ’80s album cover, but in humid conditions, Kevlar fibers puff up and create separation between the weave. This results in a reduction of the armor’s stopping ability. The same applies to wet armor — that stopping ability is reduced much more. NIJ testing indicates that armor’s effectiveness returns once it’s dried out completely.

ICW: “In Conjunction With” systems are a hard plate and soft armor backer that are designed to be used together to provide the rated protection. The plate degrades the projectile to a safe velocity to be captured by the second layer of soft armor. If you use the plate or soft armor by themselves, you won’t receive the listed protection, though some may indicate another rating when used standalone.

New and Improved!: The newest high-tech armor choices may sound appealing, but at times it’s best to wait. Give some subject-matter experts an opportunity to put the products through their paces and see what stands the test of time.

Expiration: The NIJ states that body armor must have an expiration date listed by its manufacturer. Most manufacturers put a five-year expiration date on their panels, but look at the tag to be certain.

NIJ Armor Ratings Explained

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), a division of the Department of Justice, has been setting voluntary body armor standards since 1972. Its testing standards set the baseline for expectations of performance of body armor in the United States. Note that the “A” suffix of any body armor category, counterintuitively denotes a lower level of protection than the parent category. The most commonly seen ratings (the latest NIJ 0101.06 revision) certify protection from the following specific threats:

Handgun Calibers

  • Level IIA: 9mm FMJ 124-grain bullets at 1,225 fps and .40 S&W FMJ 180-grain bullets at 1,155 fps (six shots)
  • Level II: 9mm FMJ 124-grain bullets at 1,305 fps and .357 Magnum JSP 158-grain bullets at 1,430 fps (six shots)
  • Level IIIA: .357 Sig FMJ 125-grain bullets at 1,470 fps and .44 Magnum SJHP 240-grain bullets at 1,430 fps (six shots)

Rifle Calibers

  • Level III: 7.62x51mm FMJ steel-jacketed 147-grain bullets (M80) at 2,780 fps (minimum of six hits) Note: 5.56 may or may not be stopped by Level III, depending on bullet construction and velocity, which is largely dependent on barrel length. For example, at close range, M193 ball from a 20-inch barrel is harder to stop than M855 from a 16-inch barrel, despite the latter having a steel penetrator. This is due to the 55gr bullet’s higher velocity.
  • Level IV: .30 caliber armor piercing bullets (.30-06 M2 AP) at 2,880 fps (single hit)

Body Armor FAQs

Are body armor panels TSA approved?
Yes! TSA has permitted body armor in carry-on and checked luggage for airline travel. Don’t be surprised if you receive some extra scrutiny or a trip to the special room though.

Can I own body armor?
Yes, it’s legal in all 50 states unless you are a felon of a violent crime. And it can be shipped to your doorstep in all states, except Connecticut.

CYA Tactical Veterans MFG Level IIIA Soft Armor

AB4Y7995a.psd

Protection Level
IIIA Double Panel

Dimensions
12 by 14 by 0.5 inches

Weight
1 pound

Tested Inside
EDC Minimalist Pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$315

URL
www.cyaconcealment.com

Notes
CYA Tactical was founded by James Renteria who spent years in situations where the threat of getting shot was a daily reality. While in Iraq, he started contemplating how to combine armor with the everyday functionality of a backpack to design a modular protective system. CYA Tactical’s system can be set up for a child to take to school or incorporated into a vest for first responders to incidents. The EDC Minimalist Pack system includes the panel, but you can also buy the panel individually. The CYA Tactical panel stopped the 9mm bullet in the first two layers of armor fabric (the CYA Tactical has extra material on the cover for water resistance) without any bullet deviation; no rear panel deformation was noted. The backpack’s design is pretty standard fare with three compartments and plenty of room for books and laptop.

Premier Body Armor Vertx EDC Ready Panel

AB4Y7980.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
9.5 by 16.75 by 0.22 inches

Weight
1.49 pounds

Tested Inside
Vertx EDC Ready Pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$200 (panel)

URL
www.premierbodyarmor.com

Notes
This panel from Premier Body Armor is designed specifically for the Vertx EDC Ready Pack and makes an impressive daily item for anyone from school children to adults. It provides ample room for a laptop and a couple of books without adding much extra bulk. The pack’s internal Kydex panel is replaced with the armor panel and maintains rigidity, while adding ballistic stopping power. The pack is sold separately by Vertx; Premier offers other panel shapes to fit various models. The Premier panel stopped the 9mm bullet in the second layer of armored fabric, with less than 1 inch of displacement of the bullet in the panel. The Vertx EDC Ready Pack will accommodate a 15-inch laptop, has several internal compartments to keep your daily EDC organized, and is mesh lined to accommodate customization of pouches.

Leatherback Gear Leatherback Civilian One

AB4Y8002.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
19.5 by 13.5 by 7.5 inches

Weight
5 pounds, 3 ounces (2x panels)

Tested Inside
Leatherback Civilian One pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$329

URL
www.leatherbackgear.com

Notes
Leatherback Gear’s civilian backpack was our overall favorite of the bags in this guide. This bag is very inconspicuous to the point that a casual observer would never suspect double armor panels are carried inside. The company’s founders, a team of law enforcement and first responders, noticed the vulnerability of victims after responding to an active shooter event. So they set out to design a purpose-built defensive backpack, which splits apart to protect your front and back. One dig on Leatherback’s marketing material is their claim that the ITW Fastex straps “transform into tourniquets” — we certainly wouldn’t want to rely on these thin straps to stop blood flow. This system includes both pack and front and back panels, although a panel can be purchased separately. During testing, the panel stopped the 9mm bullet in the third layer of armored fabric without any back deformation. The bullet moved slightly in the fabric, but appeared more to tangle up in the weave than do any sort of yawing.

ShotStop BallisticBoard Level IIIA Soft Insert

Ballistic backpack body armor buyers guide review test shooting gun shtf survival 6

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
10 by 12 by 0.26 inches

Weight
1.1 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$150

URL
www.shotstop.net

Notes
The IIIA soft panel had no issue defeating the 9mm caliber within the third layer of armored fabric without any bullet yawing. ShotStop doesn’t currently sell backpacks to pair its panels with so this panel and several others in this guide were tested using generic backpacks.

ShotStop BallisticBoard Level III Rigid Insert

AB4Y8303.psd

Protection Level
III+

Dimensions
10 by 12 by 0.9 inches

Weight
4.25 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
FAIL

MSRP
$249

URL
www.shotstop.net

Notes
When we first took the ShotStop’s III+ panel out of the box, it reminded us of the ICW plates we’ve seen issued to first responders many years ago. This panel was the only panel that failed the rated calibers during testing. The 9mm round didn’t penetrate but traveled the entire panel and fragments exited the bottom edge. Fragments of the 5.56 round penetrated and exited out the back of the panel.

ShotStop BallisticBoard Level IIIA Clipboard

Ballistic backpack body armor buyers guide review test shooting gun shtf survival 8

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
10 by 13 by 0.26 inches

Weight
1.3 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$165

URL
www.shotstop.net

Notes
The IIIA BallisticBoard Clipboard is an interesting concept of an armored panel in the guise of a clipboard. This would be handy for school faculty or businessperson who isn’t always able to carry a bag with them. The 9mm bullet was stopped in the second layer of armored fabric with a 1-inch yaw of the main bullet and smaller fragments traveling over 5 inches through the panel. The back face had less than 1/4 inch of deformation. We’d put a sticker over the ShotStop branding for a more discreet look.

ShotStop BallisticBoard Level IIIA Rigid Insert

Ballistic backpack body armor buyers guide review test shooting gun shtf survival 9

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
11 by 14 by 0.26 inches

Weight
1.6 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$165

URL
www.shotstop.net

Notes
Shotstop’s IIIA is one of the larger panels tested and very light weight for its size. The 9mm bullet was stopped in the top four layers of armored fabric; it yawed and traveled over 4 inches through the panel before stopping. Back face deformation was less than 1/4 inch.

TuffyPacks 12×16 Ballistic Shield

 

AB4Y8345.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
12 by 16 by 0.30 inches

Weight
1.5 pounds

Tested Inside
SwissGear Multifunction Pack (available at TuffyPacks)

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$157

URL
www.tuffypacks.com

Notes
Of the standalone soft panels, the TuffyPacks provides the most coverage area. The 12-by-16-inch panel is designed for children’s backpacks, and a 12-by-18 version is available for larger adult backpacks. Thanks to the way this panel fitted to the rear of the pack, it didn’t seem to get displaced easily. Tuffy offers this as a package you can buy with the pack and panel together or as a standalone insert. The TuffyPack panel had very minimal layer damage, with the 9mm bullet only penetrating through two layers. Being a soft panel, no back deformation was sustained. The 9mm round stayed fairly well within the impact area in the panel. TuffyPacks supplies this with an inconspicuous Swissgear Travel Gear backpack. The Travel Gear will fit a 17-inch laptop, is made of heavy-duty 1,200D polyester material, and opens like a clamshell to allow the backpack to be scanned by TSA without removing your laptop from your bag.

AR500 Armor Hybrid Backpack Armor

AB4Y8342.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
11 by 15 by 0.25 inches

Weight
1.5 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$143 (at time of testing)

URL
www.ar500armor.com

Notes
AR500’s soft IIIA panel has a large coverage area and stood up to the rounds fired. The AR500 soft panel stopped the 9mm bullet in the third layer of armored fabric, and there was no bullet yaw after impact.

AR500 Armor Lightweight Backpack Armor

Ballistic backpack body armor buyers guide review test shooting gun shtf survival 12

Protection Level
III+

Dimensions
11 by 15 by 0.48 inches

Weight
10.5 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$178 (at time of testing)

URL
www.ar500armor.com

Notes
This is the sort of plate you could put in a bag next to your desk and know that it’ll stop almost anything coming its way. We took this plate back out for some additional testing and dumped a magazine of 5.56 into it without any ill effects. But while it excels in ballistic protection, its drawback is weight. This plate tips the scales at 10.5 pounds. It may be asking too much of many people to carry this daily, but we wouldn’t mind having it nearby for emergencies. During testing, it was difficult to even locate the 5.56 impact in the panel coating. The 9mm and 5.56 bullet didn’t penetrate any further than the spall coating in the panel, and there was no back face deformation.

BulletSafe Bulletproof Backpack Panel

 

AB4Y8347.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
10 by 14 by 0.55 inches

Weight
1.5 pounds

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$99

URL
www.bulletsafe.com

Notes
The BulletSafe panel is a semi-rigid panel and fit easily in all the backpacks we tried it in. It had very insignificant panel deformation during testing and captured the 9mm fragments without issue. It allowed some rigidity to the pack and comes in a polyester pouch to guard against moisture. The BulletSafe panel stopped the 9mm bullet within the first six layers of its material. The bullet stayed directly at the impact point without any yaw throughout the panel.

Dfndr Armor Handgun Armor Backpack Body Armor (EIIIASA-B)

AB4Y8353.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
11 by 14 by 0.6 inches

Weight
1 pound

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$190

URL
www.dfndrarmor.com

Notes
For its size, the Dfndr panel was the lightest. Its size and rigid shape fit a laptop sleeve perfectly and provided a large surface area as a shield. The panel was tested in a Swissgear backpack that is very inconspicuous and will hold a 15-inch laptop. The 9mm bullet was stopped in the third layer of armored fabric with the bullet fragmenting within less than 1 inch of yaw from point of impact. The back face of the panel had less than 1/2 inch deformation to the panel.

Man-PACK Bulletproof Backpack Insert

AB4Y8017.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
13 by 10 by 0.25 inches

Weight
1 pound

Tested Inside
Man-PACK Apollo

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$140

URL
www.man-pack.com

Notes
The Man-PACK backpack insert is a rigid panel similar to the other panels. With a rigid panel, there’s less worry that it’ll get shoved to the bottom of a pack. You can purchase the backpack and panel separately or together, and Man-PACK also offers other bags and packs to choose from. The Man-PACK armored panel was tested in the Apollo solar backpack. The backpack itself is roomy and has compartments to hold your laptop, books, electronics, and maps. And to keep your electronics charged up, it has an integrated 7-watt solar cell. The 9mm bullet was stopped in the third layer of armored fabric and had all but a few fragments dissipate throughout the panel, with some traveling as far as 6 inches from point of impact. The back face of the plate had 1/2 inch deformation from the impact.

Citizen Armor Aegis Armored Shield Insert

AB4Y8361.psd

Protection Level
IIIA

Dimensions
13 by 10 by 0.25 inches

Weight
14 ounces

Tested Inside
Generic pack

Test Result
PASS

MSRP
$99

URL
www.citizenarmor.com

Notes
This is a very inconspicuous, semi-rigid panel. The Citizen Armor Panel stood up to testing with minimal deformation to the rear of the panel. One concern is that the only labeling is the “Citizen Armor” brand tag in the corner. Missing were any typical markings of rating, date of manufacture, or registered manufacture. Citizen Armor should add this labeling to their panels, which at minimum would allow customers to keep track of the panel, its rating, and expiration date. The Citizen Armor Panel stopped the 9mm bullet in the second layer of armored fabric and had less than a 1/4 inch deformation to the back face of the panel. The 9mm bullet was trapped at point of impact without any yaw.

More From Issue 28

Don’t miss essential survival insights—sign up for Recoil Offgrid’s free newsletter today!

Read articles from the next issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 29

Read articles from the previous issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 27

Check out our other publications on the web: Recoil | Gun Digest | Blade | RecoilTV | RECOILtv (YouTube)

Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Video: Making an 18th-Century Onion Pie

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In any survival situation, the ability to cook creatively is a tremendous asset. Many cooks have adapted to times of scarcity, such as the Great Depression, by making the most of the few resources they had. This meant scavenging for wild edibles like acorns and dandelions, hunting rodents and other small game, or simply combining miscellaneous items to create a meal from odds and ends.

Onion pie recipe survival food meal cooking eggs potatoes apples 3

The following video from the Townsends YouTube channel demonstrates one such unusual recipe for onion pie. At first mention, this may sound like a disgusting type of dessert, but it’s actually a savory entree that dates back to the 18th century. It contains equal quantities of four ingredients that were common even among poor colonist families: onions, potatoes, apples, and eggs.

Onion pie recipe survival food meal cooking eggs potatoes apples 2

The video shows how each ingredient is prepared and thinly sliced — the first three ingredients are raw, while the eggs are hard-boiled. These items are added to a pie crust along with some salt, pepper, nutmeg, mace (another spice from the nutmeg plant), butter, and a splash of water. The pie is then covered with more crust, cooked in the oven, and served with optional mushroom ketchup.

This onion pie recipe may sound odd to the modern palate, especially if you’re not a fan of onions. But difficult times may call for creative cooking, and being able to think outside the box can keep your family fed and ensure no food goes to waste.

Sticking Points: Creating Improvised Spear Heads

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We all have that one friend. Anytime you take him into the woods, the first thing he does is break out his knife and grab a stick to sharpen it into a “spear.” When you ask him what he’s doing, he usually responds with, “this is in case something jumps out at us” or “so I can stab a bear.” While the effectiveness of such a spear is questionable, there’s no doubt it gives your friend a sense of security — and for good reason.

The spear is perhaps the first man-made weapon; examples of sharpened sticks date back hundreds of thousands of years. Spears are just as effective today as they were in the days of primitive man. The practicality and purpose of different types of spears hasn’t changed, although the manner in which they’ve been presented over the years has. We did our research, coming up with six different types of pointed sticks you can use for protection and food collection.

41.JPG

Materials

Before you get started, you need a basic understanding of the wood you’ll work with. Wood can be broken down into two categories: green or seasoned and living or dead, respectively. You can work with either to make your spear, but understand that green wood will be easier to carve. The tradeoff is water weight and durability. Some of this weight and durability can be altered with fire hardening, but that’s generally done just to the tip.

31.JPG

Seasoned wood will be more difficult to carve as it will be harder, and it will also have less flexibility. Consider the type of wood you’re using too. Seek out good hardwoods (non-evergreens) in constructing your spears. Also, remember that too thin of a shaft will easily snap, while too thick will take too much carving to reduce down to a fine point.

If we had the choice and time, we’d select green wood we could fire harden while leaving some flexibility in the shaft to prevent snapping. We wouldn’t strip the shaft of all the bark, as the extra texture can serve as a handle. We would, however, remove any knots and high points to prevent injuring our hands in use and slowing down delivery speed if it slips in our hand.

Spear/Javelin

10.JPG

What that friend we all have probably makes when he sharpens a stick is a really crude version of a spear or javelin. As previously stated, there’s no exact date as to when primitive man first sharpened sticks into a tool or weapon, but the Clacton Spear, a sharpened wooden spear point, is on display in a London museum and dates back 400,000 years. Over time, shapes evolved and varied in length, thickness, and wooden materials used.

When making a single pointed spear, start with large power cuts to remove a significant amount of material as you rotate the spearhead around. Four to six good power cuts will give you a crude tip. Move your blade to the shoulders created where the power cuts meet and knock them off. Continue removing shoulders until your spear head is round. Depending on the type of wood, you can use the sapwood (the “spot” in the center of the wood with different coloration) as your center point. Continue to remove bark down the shaft until the point where you want penetration to stop.

Spears were used for combat and defense in many civilizations. Over time, stone and then steel heads replaced sharpened sticks. To this day, steel spears are still used on some boar hunts and in the hands of indigenous people in Africa.

Straight Single Barb

14.JPG

It’s uncertain when the innovation of the barb was added to a spear, but it was likely inspired by examples in nature. Stingrays, for instance, have a barbed spike, and some bird talons are barbed as well. Wherever it came from, a barb increases the retention attributes of spears by hooking into the prey’s flesh and bone, preventing it from escaping.

Carving a barb requires knowledge of a stop cut. This cut runs perpendicular to the spear shaft, with its depth dependent on how large of a barb you want. If you have a Swiss Army Knife or multitool equipped with a saw, this will make the process much easier. After a stop cut is carved into the shaft, take your blade and cut toward it in the direction of the tip. The stop cut will prevent the knife from cutting past it, and the barb will start to take shape. At this point, you can leave the point barbed with a shelf or undercut it to create a hook.

Many hunting spears from the Philippines have been made this way and show great variation throughout the 7,600 plus islands. Barbs can be created with wood, bone, and steel. Optimal barb size, shape, and quantity are largely determined by the prey hunted.

34.JPG

Above: The author utilizes a natural fork in the spear shaft as a thumb support. This greatly improves comfort and the amount of force that can be applied.

Harpoon with Detachable Head

A barbed spear drastically increases the chances of preventing prey from escaping. Should you be lucky or skilled enough to impale an animal, you don’t want to let go. Sometimes though, letting go is your best option. Take, for example, the Thule Inuit people who hunted Greenland mammals from kayaks. We can’t imagine how angry and violent a seal or whale becomes when stuck with a sharpened stick. This is why the technology of the harpoon was created. The harpoon is the reason why the Thule thrived in the North Atlantic, and the lack of harpoon technology is likely the reason why the Norse abandoned their efforts to settle in Greenland.

To create a harpoon, you need to make three segmented components: the barbed harpoon tip, harpoon shaft, and strong cordage. The tip is friction-fitted into the harpoon shaft. This can be accomplished by wedging it between a split in the shaft or a hollow made into the shaft that the smaller diameter shaft of the harpoon tip slides into like a cork into a bottle. The tip can be attached to the shaft with the cordage, or the shaft can be “disposable” and break free with only the harpoon stuck in the prey and cordage in the hands of a hunter, much like fishing with a hand line. The hollow is created with the tip of your blade and requires a relatively thick harpoon shaft.

42.JPG

Check out historical examples of harpoons from New England whaling, and you’ll see flag-pole–sized main shafts. The wedged harpoon is much easier to create, although it lacks the same mass as the hollow harpoon shaft. The example we created for this article is made out of wood for demonstration purposes. In reality, bone or steel would be a better option for a harpoon.

The detachable-head harpoon should be used on animals that’ll likely thrash about when hit. The cordage tether will let you give it space and let it tire out as you close the distance and dispatch it with other means.

Split Pinning Spear

Two-prong split pinning spear for fishing

Two-prong split pinning spear for fishing

Large spears work on large animals, but with large animals come a greater chance for injury to the hunter. Smaller game isn’t as easily punctured with wooden tips; hide and fur can slow down and limit the penetration of a spear tip. Dishonest portrayals of spears being thrown through a small fish suspended in the water are a disservice and have been repeated over and over in movies and television shows. Fishermen will tell you that even with a sharpened metal hook, baiting small fish is difficult. Wooden tips aren’t as fine, sharp, and durable, and a swimming fish isn’t supported the same way it is when held by hand as it’s baited. A better option to puncturing spears is pinning spears.

A basic pinning spear is easily constructed. Cut a 1-inch-wide spear shaft to length. Ideally, it should be as tall as the hunter, if not taller. More compact “hand spears” can be useful if you’re pursuing prey that live in tight quarters and under rocks. Once the correct length is cut, wrap the shaft with cordage, tape, or another tight binding material about 8 to 12 inches from the thicker end.

If you wrap a green piece of wood, you’ll likely have to rewrap it as the wood dries, shrinks, and the binding becomes loose. Use the thicker end to put as much mass forward while pinning. After binding, remove the bark from the thicker end to the tip. At this point, use a blade with the assistance of a wooden baton to split the thick end down to the binding. The binding will prevent the split from traveling too far down the shaft. Bevel the edges of the forked ends to prevent them from splintering, and place a small twig or carved wedge in the fork to keep it open.

Variations of this forked spear include using hawthorn thorns as barbs or heavy blackberry brambles affixed with resin or thin twine. The spear is used by pinning the prey to the ground, where it can be picked up with your hands or dispatched with another tool.

Four-Prong Pinning Spear

Four-prong spear for fishing, small reptiles, or small game

Four-prong spear for fishing, small reptiles, or small game

The split-tip spear gives you a chance to pin an animal between two points. With a couple additional steps, it’s easy to convert a split-tip spear into a four-prong pinning spear, increasing your chances of wedging an animal. Follow the same steps as the split-tip spear up until the shaft is split in half. At that point, take your blade and turn it 90 degrees on the split tip for the next split to run perpendicular to the first.

Once you split the tip down to the wrapped section, with both splits in the wood, squeeze the tip together and sharpen it to a point. Then, spread it open with a couple twigs. An optional step is barbing each of the four prongs. This type of pinning spear is slightly less durable than the single split tip spear, but it’s highly effective against small reptiles and amphibians. If the four prongs are sharpened to a point and used against a thin-skinned animal, it’ll create four separate wound channels.

Gaff Hook

26.JPG

This next one isn’t necessarily a spear, but it works at the end of a long shaft and applies the same skills as some of the previously mentioned tips. The gaff hook is different than a traditional spear — instead of thrusting out and away from you, pull it back toward you. Commercial fisherman use the gaff hook as large game fish come close to their boats, and this tool works exceptionally well to harvest fish and wild plant edibles just out of reach.

The most important material needed to create a gaff hook is a naturally occurring fork in a tree. If the fork is too wide, it can be lashed tighter and steamed or dried into a more parallel gaff hook and shaft. A forked tree limb can be cut at the joint, preserving the two forked branches. Cut one branch approximately 6 to 12 inches from the joint, leaving a “J” shaped piece of wood.

Sometimes, a growth of branches will create three branches originating from a single knob, and you can use two of the three branches as hook points. Sometimes, the hook will work as designed, and other times it’ll scoop instead. In either case, the objective is to bring the prey or harvest to you.

Above: The Crawford Survival Staff is a modern multipurpose spear. Available spear attachments include a single blade, triple-prong, and gaff hook.

Variations of Improvised Heads

Beyond carved wooden tips, a survivor can fashion a number of improvised heads from the surrounding resources. Early man moved from wooden tips to stone and eventually bronze and steel. Even the scavenged litter you find on your average hike can be converted into functional improvised spear heads. Here are three ideas for spearheads that you can easily fashion with some ingenuity and practice.

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Metal Can Lid: Metal can lids, ideally steel rather than aluminum, work great as spear tips and arrowheads. Fold and break the metal at angles, creating a point. The edge can be sharpened or barbed with the assistance of a rock and/or multitool. Wedge it between a split branch and tie it in place.

Coat Hangers: The best coat hangers for improvised heads are the heavy-duty metal variety dry cleaners use for hanging pants. Use a multitool to clip the hangar into 12-inch lengths. Using a rock as an anvil and another as a hammer, pound the ends of the cut metal rods flat. Then cut the section you pounded flat in a similar manner as the metal can lid to form a point. Tie three or more metal rods to the end of a pole to use it like a forked tip spear.

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Plastics: Plastic can be very brittle, but it can also be sharpened to a point and used with great effectiveness against frogs and thin-skinned reptiles. Even plastic wrap and bags can be melted and shaped into extremely sharp points. One only need to look at some of the clever prison shanks that are fashioned when no other weapons are available. Necessity is the mother of all invention.

Fire Hardening Process

Fire hardening is a process of rapidly removing moisture from green wood to make it hard enough for use as a tool or weapon. The easiest way to fire harden a wooden spear tip is to place it in the ashes (not coals) of a hot fire. Inside the ashes, the wood can’t burn as there’s heat present, but no oxygen. The heat pulls the moisture from the wood as it dries.

Fire-hardened wood has a much more distinct sound to it than green untreated wood when tapped with the back of your knife. We’ve fire-hardened beech and hop hornbeam to create digging sticks and digging adze tools that have stood up to years of abuse digging in rocky soil. Spear tips can benefit from the fire-hardening process, and if time and resources allow, this step is well worth the effort.

Conclusion

A true spear is much more than a sharpened stick. Learn to fashion various spear points and techniques to maximize the return on your investment of time and energy. Don’t just make something “in case you have to stab something.” Make a dedicated spear to function in exactly the way that you need.

More From Issue 28

Don’t miss essential survival insights—sign up for Recoil Offgrid’s free newsletter today!

Read articles from the next issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 29

Read articles from the previous issue of Recoil Offgrid: Issue 27

Check out our other publications on the web: Recoil | Gun Digest | Blade | RecoilTV | RECOILtv (YouTube)

Editor’s Note: This article has been modified from its original version for the web.

Survival Scenarios: Storm Evacuation Decision

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None of us can accurately predict the future, although many people have tried throughout history — we’re looking at you, Nostradamus. There’s always an element of uncertainty, especially when it comes to making pivotal decisions that could spell the difference between life and death.

One particularly challenging choice we may face during survival situations is whether to stay put or evacuate. On one hand, remaining where you are may feel like the easiest and safest choice, since you know the environment and resources you have as well as the potential dangers you’ll face. As the saying goes, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. On the other hand, remaining stationary can leave you in serious trouble if things take a turn for the worse. You might even wish you had bugged out when you had the chance.

Hurricane aftermath 3

Storm evacuations are one of the most critical stay-or-go decision points we face. In some cases, you may be left to weigh the risks of riding out the storm against the risks of leaving home. In other situations, you may be given a strong recommendation or direct order to evacuate, and have to make your choice based on that information. Attempting to travel immediately before or during a storm poses many dangers, as does leaving behind the resources and physical security of a manmade structure. But refusing to evacuate can be truly disastrous — just look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, or most recently, Hurricane Michael.

For today’s entry into our ongoing Survival Scenarios series, we’ll help you consider how you’d respond to the onset of a sudden and powerful storm, much like these recent examples. As usual, we’ll explain the details of this hypothetical survival situation and the background information you’ll need to know. Then we’ll end with a poll where you can make your choice and see how other readers responded to the situation.

Background Info

Flickr.com/geni643

Flickr.com/geni643

It’s early fall, and you recently moved to Ashland, Virginia with your wife Rebecca and 2-year-old daughter Cynthia. Six months ago, your company offered you a transfer to its new office in Richmond, and with that offer came a pay raise that made your affirmative response an easy decision. Your house is about 25 miles from the second-story office downtown, and your commute takes roughly 45 minutes each way with normal traffic.

At the beginning of the week, you begin to hear news reports about a hurricane in the Caribbean, with forecasts indicating it will hit northern Georgia and South Carolina before moving inland. As the week progresses, these forecasts remain consistent. You expect some moderate rain, but you’re far enough from the predicted path that you’re not especially concerned about anything more severe. Thursday arrives and the storm path has shifted north to make landfall in Wilmington, North Carolina. However, there’s still no indication you’ll get more than some mild flooding and wind.

Storm preparedness

On Friday morning, you awake to an urgent phone call from your boss. He needs you in the office ASAP because one of the servers went down and the company’s operations are in chaos. You roll out of bed, dress quickly, kiss your wife and daughter goodbye, and jump in your car. On the way to the office you notice the early-morning sky looks darker and more ominous than you expected, and the rain is really coming down. On the radio, you hear of heavy flooding and wind damage in the Carolinas, and realize that the storm may not be slowing down as much as anticipated. But your boss was insistent you come in.

All morning, you’re busy dealing with the fallout from the server crash, but you soon realize the office isn’t as busy as it should be. Many employees didn’t come to work, and those that did are talking anxiously about the weather outside. It’s now pouring rain, with gusting winds shaking the trees outside. Looking at your phone, you learn that the hurricane — still a powerful category 3 — is headed right for Richmond in a few hours.

Flickr.com/beauconsidine

Flickr.com/beauconsidine

With every passing minute, the weather outside seems to be getting more intense. A handful of coworkers leave, and you see them drive away through the buffeting rain and water-filled streets. You begin to wonder if you should head home to be with Rebecca and Cynthia since they’re not accustomed to hurricanes. But you know what your stressed-out boss will say about leaving, and you really need this job.

You have access to the following supplies:

The office has 4 partially-filled water coolers, two vending machines with snack food, and a fully-stocked first aid cabinet. There’s also a backup power system to keep the servers and emergency lights running if the power goes out. There are currently seven employees at the office, including your boss and yourself.

Your get-home bag is in the trunk of your car, which is parked in the lot just outside the office. It contains a change of clothes, a rain coat, protein bars, water filter, toiletries kit with basic first aid items, emergency blanket, rechargeable headlamp with spare battery, multi-tool, and a 9mm handgun with two 15-round magazines. There’s also half a case of bottled water and a pair of waterproof boots in the trunk.

Ruck survival fitness backpack bag bugout medical 4

Back home, you have a fully-stocked pantry with plenty of shelf-stable food to survive for weeks, and 20+ gallons of clean water set aside. Physical security there is about average for a small house, and your wife is reasonably confident using the weapons in your safe if someone were to try to gain entry. Flooding is possible but unlikely based on your home’s elevation, so wind damage and looters/property crime are the primary concerns.

Knowing that high winds often lead to power outages and that flooding might impede your ability to get home, now is the time to leave if you’re going to do so.

Staying at Work

Flickr.com/alecperkins

Flickr.com/alecperkins

If you choose to stay at the office, you won’t have to venture out into the worsening storm. You’ll have access to the limited supplies in the office, as well as the get-home bag and other items in your car. You’ll also be stuck with your boss and five other coworkers — this could be beneficial if you work together, or could turn into babysitting frantic and unpredictable people for the duration of the storm.

The biggest advantage here is that you won’t be attempting to drive home in severe conditions. Flooding, downed trees and/or power lines, closed roads, and traffic jams could trap you in your car before you get home, and this would be extremely dangerous. Staying where you are removes the risk of becoming stranded on the road.

Flickr.com / Maxstrz

Flickr.com/maxstrz

The obvious downside to this plan is that you won’t be with your wife and daughter when the hurricane hits your home. You hope they’ll be OK given their resources and the location of your house, but if something catastrophic happens you won’t be there to help. It’s also unknown when the storm and flooding will abate enough for you to return home. Flood waters could easily fill the first level of your building, leaving you stuck in the second-floor office away from your family for days.

Returning Home

If you decide to head home, you’re only a 45-minute drive away from your family — although it’s more likely an hour plus in this weather.

Flickr.com/tanj

Flickr.com/tanj

Road and traffic conditions are a big unknown. The storm is coming from the southeast, and you’d be driving north out of the city. It might be a trouble-free trip aside from intense rain, or gridlock and flooding might prevent you from escaping downtown. You check your phone and see that news sites are proclaiming devastation in Virginia Beach and the first signs of flooding in Richmond, but it’s hard to say how accurate these reports are to your immediate vicinity or your planned route.

Don Becker / U.S. Geological Survey

Don Becker / U.S. Geological Survey

If you make it home successfully, you’ll have access to your family and all the supplies you’ve stockpiled. You can then decide whether the three of you should leave home to a secondary location, or hunker down. But if you commit to leaving the office and only make it partway home, you could face the full power of the hurricane out in the open. That result could be life-threatening.

The Decision

Based on the information above and the pros/cons of each choice, it’s time to decide which course of action you’d take. Would you stay in the relative safety of the office with limited resources, and trust that your wife and daughter will be OK at home? Or would you immediately get on the road and try to reach your house before the full intensity of the hurricane arrives?

Enter your decision into the poll below, and feel free to justify that choice in the comments section.