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Thread: Hare-Brained (or not) Prepper Schemes?

  1. #21
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    As to gold for SHTF- Im in the "WHY?" category. You wont get anything I need from me with it, Ill tell you that. If you can barter something useful, even do a trade or skill for me I might be needing..THATS "gold" to me.
    To each his own though.
    In the eighties, early, mid & late nineties...I used to read a series of sci-fi books called DEATHLANDS. 400 years after total nuclear destruction. Survivors faced mutants, acid rain, evil barons, just all kinds of shit. The JACK {currency} of the time was ammo. In one scene..this group the books follow, walk into a town, the leader goes up to the barkeep/innkeeper, says
    "We need rooms". "You got the jack?!" was the reply. Without a word, he pulls his internally silenced Sig out of its holster, and fast as lightning jacks the round from the chamber, and plops it onto the counter.
    The Innkeeper gleefully scoops it up and accommodates the entire group, with room AND board. One...round.
    Of course...that's just sci-fi & could NEVER happen...in real life...right?
    The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than the cowards they really are.

  2. #22
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    Interesting thread. I don't personally do gold but I do silver. It's more of something I can pass onto my kids, and I buy only 99% pure coins from US/China/Canada/Australia. You can also buy rounds and bars, but I prefer the coins and collector rounds/items like these:

    https://www.providentmetals.com/2016...ver-eagle.html
    https://www.providentmetals.com/silv...r-bullets.html
    https://www.providentmetals.com/2017...aple-leaf.html
    https://www.providentmetals.com/molo...er-rounds.html

    I agree booze, beans, and bullets will be best barter items. .22 is coming back down, although I think it will get back to a nice a round at some point: http://www.sgammo.com/catalog/rimfir...ion/22-lr-ammo

    And you can distill liquor at home legal without a license for personal consumption. They actually make still kits which I'm actually planning on looking into soon. Here is something I'm gonna check out in the near future, but have not dug into yet:

    http://www.hillbillystills.com

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by thopkins22 View Post
    Rather than spend a bunch of money on booze, you could buy a still and research how to make spirits safely.

    I dunno how you get licensed to produce spirits for personal consumption, but I know that legally/more practically if anyone in your house wears a CPAP, you can make your own distilled water with it.

    Plus you manage to avoid stockpiling crappy booze. In a world where people are bartering, I'd rather be able to actively produce something than simply hope I've saved enough.
    I don't think you need a license to make, you need a license to sell.

    My dad has done beer and wine for years; you're allowed something ridiculous annually (like dozens of gallons). You can give it away, just not sell it. Not sure if hard alcohol is different.

  4. #24
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    Hare-Brained (or not) Prepper Schemes?

    You may NOT legally distill spirits at home without a federal license regardless of who the consumer is...or for that matter if there even is a consumer.

    There are states that allow home distilling with their own laws, or have inexpensive licenses available for those intending on personally consuming their own product. But there are states who have legalized marijuana too...and that doesn't change its legal status with the federal government.

    Now I'll say that if you're the only consumer of your spirits, it's almost impossible for them to actually catch you, never mind have any desire to.

    Beer and wine are of course different. Probably the best and most influential part of Carter's legacy.
    Last edited by thopkins22; 01-14-17 at 01:01.

  5. #25
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    IMO, in a post SHTF world where governments brake down and the rule of law can no longer be enforced, food and water will be the highest commodity. There will be those who have it, and those who don't. Those who don't will try to take it from those who do. The common currency will be bullets, the flying kind. Don't believe me? Just watch people on Black Friday beating each other for a measly 20% discount!

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3ACR_Scout View Post
    One Year After, the sequel to One Second After, talks about using .22 ammo to trade because of its value for hunting small game, which tends to repopulate faster than larger game like deer.







    As for the gold thing . . . it is about securing one's wealth AFTER a collapse.

    Gold, silver, jewels, have always had value and used as currency through out human civilization. They won't do you any good if you can't protect them or you starve to death.

    Bartering . . .

    Most human vices / creature comforts will be in high demand. Cigarettes, booze, ammo, and yes even sex will be in high demand. Firearms will be up there as well. Antibiotics will be worth more than their weight in gold. Same would go for water filtration equipment.

    Cheap things you can sock away for a barter economy is bar soap. Lasts forever so long as it doesn't get wet, cheap, highly portable, many uses (cleansing wounds, personal hygiene staving off infections, launder clothing, brushing teeth, etc.). New toothbrushes in their original packaging, again cheap, last forever, highly portable, etc.

    Reading Selco's blog about his survival in an urban environment during the Bosnian War he kept things going by learning to refill Bic lighters. He stresses that Bic lighters were HUGE as most people want a simple fast means to create fire. The average person now days has no knowledge much less experience in creating fire. Most folks don't smoke anymore so not many people carry a lighter on their person where at one point almost everyone had a lighter on them. If you go to the tobacco counter in your local Sam's or Costco they sell huge multi packs of Bic lighter for less than $1 a lighter.
    "In a nut shell, if it ever goes to Civil War, I'm afraid I'll be in the middle 70%, shooting at both sides" — 26 Inf


    "We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them." — CNN's Don Lemon 10/30/18

  7. #27
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    .22 ammo, shotgun shells, lighters, grain alcohol and roll your own tobacco.
    I would also say if you can raise small livestock, rabbits and chickens.
    How do you make change for a Gold Coin?

  8. #28
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    Personally, I don't subclscribe to the whole prepping for TEOTWAKI or some Civil War/Red Dawn situation. I prep so that I can carry on with a relatively normal life should I lose a job (like happened in October) or a freak ice storm or tornado hits and leaves me without power/water/gas for a week or three.

    In that, I lean most of my savings towards a standard savings account, cash, silver and other barterable items (.22, some smokes or dip, etc.)

    Another thing is I can buy an ounce or two of silver here and there and not be out much. An ounce of gold would make my car payment for several months. For that reason alone, that makes Silver my PM of choice.

  9. #29
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    Something else I've been contemplating: the well head and piping for the house is in an insulated pump house. I'm thinking of hooking it up to a solar power system so at least I'll have water if the grid goes down the tubes or something.

    Thoughts?

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doc Glockster View Post
    Something else I've been contemplating: the well head and piping for the house is in an insulated pump house. I'm thinking of hooking it up to a solar power system so at least I'll have water if the grid goes down the tubes or something.

    Thoughts?
    So you are talking about an off grid solar energy system, which was something I was looking into when we built our house last year, but on a larger scale. For a shed, small cabin, or pump house, you'd need collector panels, a controller, energy storage, and an inverter. Very doable at the level you are talking about.

    Check out the off grid kits from Grape Solar:

    https://m.costco.com/Grape-Solar-400...100049288.html

    Pretty much all you'd need besides batteries


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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