Arms, Security and Defense

As glorified ex-light infantry; I don't need videos to show me what SHTF is as I've seen it.

I don't prefer anything. Each weapon has its advantages and limitations. I don't specialize in one and ignore the others. We practice often with everything.

We have bows, compound and recurve, and a crossbow with a scope. Although I haven't managed a Robin Hood; I do group the arrows.
Adult precision spring and piston type rifles in .177 to .25 caliber. As we live in a rural area; they have dropped raccoons at the high end and squirrels at the low end. They are for hunting to fill the pot as are the traps and snares.
Yes, I have firearms and a lot of them; plus spare parts for them. I also have NVS so I can say hi at night and know what I am shooting and hit it. Literally, I have crates of ammo and I reload.

I'm not an idiot who will run around blasting every thing in sight. Point is, I've been into prepping, food storage, survival and weapons for decades. How much food, medicine etc. do you have?

In addition to buying 20-25 year food, we vacuum packed rice, beans etc.; we grow using heirloom seeds and preserve food, do you?

This isn't a game to us nor to a lot others here. The majority of the folks at the Monkey are dead serious which goes well beyond weapons. Although we differ in the hows, many of us here at the Monkey have the same focus. In addition, we respect each others methods.
Our prayer is that by living in a sparsely populated area we will miss the mobs of locusts that will leave the urban areas.

To me, in addition to sounding judgmental when you are clueless about the other person. You sound rather one dimensional assuming arrows last forever whereas we celebrate diversity. No one way is wrong; yet many ways are better.

 

I do have to say that improvised arms almost always loose against, well...anything else.

 

Improvised weapons are a last resort or situation dependent these days. However, historically, you didn't really see staffs or the maul used much. Just like you wouldn't see a kitchen knife or shovel used for defense by many these days.

 

In Europe, in the late Medieval or Renaissance, you do occasionally find reports of staff use, BUT, that is only because the staff was the basic weapon used for teaching all of the other weapons in HEMA.

 

@ghrit
Thanks, I didn't mean to be so lengthy.

@AxesAreBetter
By your posts. methinks you are quite aware of Japanese stick fighting..

 

Bo, Jo, or walking? Haha.

I'm actually a huge student of warfare, martial arts, and the historical common man, with a strong theme on the common instead of the rare few extreme examples at the top. I spent about 6 years just studying and researching martial arts styles to pick one that would suit my needs before settling in on HEMA. Worth every second spent working on it.

I have also gone further in depth with that study since them, academically, and I have used it as a basis for designing a TTRPG in a fantasy setting that I created from a story I started in high school.

 

IMO the more options available, make for the best use of things.
One doesn't use a shot gun to dispense a mouse nor a stone to kill an elephant .
Having a wide verity of skills and weaponry, or more importantly , the capability of making alternative weaponry can be an advantage.
Post SHTF I may not bring out the fire arms till it is absolutely necessary ,never expose your hold card too soon.

The cheapskate and minimalist want one tool to do every thing for them. like a multi tool, except the multi tool doesn't actually cover it all as efficiently as the tools designed for their jobs at hand.
The cheapskate only halfway believes that he will need the investment.
The minimalist does not want to invest in the body building to handle a 30 LB back pack, which also means his health is probably at greater risk being malnourished . illness and injury are far more critical.
At some point "running from" is going to be impractical and having to take a stand and fight are inevitable .
Reducing ones dependency to the weaker forms ahead of time only makes one more vulnerable sooner . IMO

 

Now see, I'm a firm believer in working smart not hard. I'm not going to use the rock or the shotgun on the elephant, I'm going to use the mouse. With a little training I can have that sucker run elephants any direction I want off cliffs or into pits. He's cheap to feed and reusable.

 

@arleigh
Your 30# reminded me of something I saw once.

Cleaned up by removing profanity.........

I don’t care how many skydives you have.
Until you’ve stepped out the door of an airplane
into complete darkness at 600' with 120 lbs
of combat equipment and 68 lbs of parachute,
YOU'RE

STILL JUST A LEG!

The answer to losing is training.

 

@ghrit
No like rope stretching or the more derogatory being dope on a rope?

Ever jumped from a helicopter? Unlike jumping from a fixed wing where your air speed is up; your control surfaces don't work up air speed is fast enough.

 

Terror. Screw that.

 

Never did any sky diving but did plenty of repelling and rope work in S&R,
If I did the anchors and picked the line I know I can trust it.
My team depended on me to know what I'm doing rigging ropes for bringing them back up , "that's a lot of pressure."

 

@ghrit
Compartmentalization.

@arleigh
Use Firefox or Opera as they have spell check. In addition, IE is the most hated browser by hackers. Teams do trust. Many years ago, I could have led into the doors of hell without a look behind me to see if my team was following.

 

When I move to the wet side, I noted knives were popular as back up weapons in my profession, not just as a tool. I took lessons on how to use one for that purpose.

The other point I would make is most people don't think about how to use the biggest tool they have, their car. It is easy to hit something, the object it to do so and leave the car operational.

 

It is pretty easy to be prepared as far as weapons go. I have hundreds of things here that I could use to defend the house and property. They ALL START WITH MODERN FIREARMS. Then go down hill from there. even a good shovel can be used. axes, hatchets, hammers, even a good screw driver. But nothing trumps a good fire arm for defense of your land , home and self. Stock ammo deep and train to use your guns , conserve ammo when possible. The very best weapon I have is my new AR-15 . The optics are awesome, it is fast to target accurate as all get out and I can carry 210 rounds easy. Backed with a hand gun and my Gerber fighting knife I feel like I am as well armed as I could be.