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Here at Paladin, our slogan is that "You don't RISE to the occasion. You FALL to your level of training." This can mean a lot of things, to to a lot of people, but one thing it should also mean to you is "Don't buy more gear than you can learn how to use." Another corollary would be to not dilute your training by buying several different models of the same type of gear.
Read more: Don't buy more gear than you can learn how to use.
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"Abandoned vehicles line an exit ramp along I-75 South during the winter storm on January 29, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia."
Over the past day, thousands of people in Atlanta have been stranded at locations away from home, or even if their vehicles for up to 12 hours. As our society grows more accustomed to, and reliant on, the comforts of daily urban living, the rate at which these otherwise mundane forces of nature present serious risks to people will only increase. This disaster was caused by only 3" of snow! However, you don't have to let it get you. There are lessons to be learned from these events, and you can make sure that they never pose more than an inconvenience to you.
Read more: 10 lessons learned from those stranded by Atlanta's winter storm "Leon"
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Any good disaster preparedness plan includes measures to escape the affected zone, also known as "bugging out". In the picture above, we see a scene from the 48-hour traffic jam created in Texas, as residents attempted to flee Hurricane Rita in 2005. As that episode illustrates, the challenges go far beyond keeping snacks and jumper cables, in an emergency kit, in your car.
There will be many thousands, possibly millions of people mass-evacuating simultaneously. Our roadways are sensibly designed only to accommodate a small portion of the populace being on the road at one time, so like they found out in Texas, the road system quickly becomes completely overwhelmed. As this happens, the problem exacerbates, because the slower traffic is moving, the fewer vehicles are making it to their destinations off the roadways, as more vehicles pour in. Let's examine several options to overcome the problems. No single solution is is going to work in all environments, geographies, and disasters, so it is probably wise to prepare for more than one.
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A couple weeks ago I happened across the website of Conflicted: The Survival Card Game. The cost of a deck is $15, so I ordered one, and they showed up quickly. The basis of the "game" is that the cards portray various challenging or morally difficult scenarios, and you should discuss them with your friends and prepper buddies. The hope is that through these discussions and thought experiments, you'll gain valuable insight into possible Courses Of Action (COA) to take, should analogous situations ever face you in the future.
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Steel reactive targets: Safety and use
Source: The FBI Training Bulletin - August 31, 2003
There are presently a variety of steel targets on the market allowing a wide range of firearms training techniques. However, many of these targets do not provide adequate protection from bullet splatter (the bullet fragments that are reflected when a target is hit), so accidents can occur. It is important, therefore, that the user know what factors make training on steel targets as safe and effective as possible.
When shooting steel targets, a "splatter zone" appears. This zone is the area in which the great majority of bullet fragments eventually wind up. The total amount of splatter in this zone is primarily dependent on the following four key issues: 1) Angle of deflection, 2) Target hardness, 3) Bullet design and 4) Target placement.