How airsoft and skirmishes can teach you about being prepared for survival

Many airsoft BB gun users take part in organized skirmishes - aka fake battles and survival scenarios. A lot of people don’t believe in ‘playing’ with guns or allowing youngsters to play with guns or take part in skirmish activities as they believe it’s setting a bad example. However, using airsoft BB guns and taking part in skirmishes can teach you a lot about being prepared and surviving in any situation.

Honing your shooting skills

You may think that in real life you will never need to know how to shoot a target, but at one point or another, you may well need to be able to do so. Its one thing shooting targetsat a shooting range; it’s completely another shooting a moving target during a skirmish, which is why skirmishes are so useful when it comes to honing your shooting skills. When it comes to surviving in the wilderness, being able to shoot a moving target - ideally, at a distance away - is crucial. Proving that skirmishes are an ideal way to do this, many police forces and military forces use BB guns and skirmishes to help new recruits hone their shooting skills.  

Learning to work as part of a team

Another important lesson that skirmishes can teach you is working successfully as part of a team. If you’re someone who watches survival films or war films even, then you will know that when it comes to survival, teamwork is often crucial. Skirmishes teach you how to not only look after yourself but also your team members, as well as how to obey orders and do as you’re told. If you are put in a leading position, skirmishes also teach you how to lead a team and determine who does what role within it. When it comes to survival (and preparation), being a good delegate is important - this is a skill that leading a skirmish team will allow you to develop.

How to stay hidden

Just like in real wars, the key to surviving when under attack is being able to stay hidden. Taking part in skirmishes teaches you how to stay hidden by camouflaging yourself. It also teaches you how to pick the opportune moment to reveal yourself and how to determine when that is. Talking about careful thinking, it’s also crucial to learn to use ammunition wisely, which is another key thing that skirmishes teach you. You only have a certain amount of ammunition and have to learn to make it last, if you’re going to survive, that is.

Adapting to different environments

Last but not least, skirmishes teach you how to successfully adapt to play in different environments. Sometimes matches will be held outdoors in woodland areas other times they will be held in indoor areas like old malls. If you’re going to survive whatever is thrown at you, you need to know how to adapt to different environments and use your airsoft skills successfully in each of them. They say that practice makes perfect, so the more skirmishes in different environments you compete in, the better.

Airsoft BB guns and skirmishes can teach you a lot about being prepared and surviving anything, from a Zombie apocalypse to a terrorist takeover.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Gear Review: Camelbak Big Chill

Summer temperatures in Texas can get a little warm.  I love my Tervis in the office, but it was just not convenient for my mountain bike. I decided to put the Camelbak Big Chill to the test.

For fun, I rounded up some of my other water bottles to get them in on the action.  They were not all the same size bottles, so I used a 16 oz cup to place the same amount of ice in each bottle.  I only placed ice in the bottles and just measured how long it took for the ice to melt in each bottle.

At the end of 1.5 hours, ice was still visible in all the bottles.  The single wall stainless steel dropped first.  Then, my basic water bottle melted.  An hour later, my non insulated Nagalene and Stanley were done.  Not surprisingly, the two insulated bottles were the only ones still with ice.

The Camelbak Big Chill made 4.5 hours before the ice had all melted.  It gave out while the Tervis still had several ice cube remnants visible.  

The test started at 11:00 AM and outside temperatures reached into the mid 90's.  The Camelbak Big Chill will not replace my Tervis around the BBQ pit, but it will definitely be my companion on my mountain bike excursions.  It might even replace my day hike water bottle.

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

 

Gear Review: SOG Fasthawk Axe VS SOG Tomahawk Axe

SOG Fasthawk Specs:

Blade Length: 2 inches  Weight: 19 oz.  Overall Length:12.5 inches

SOG Tomahawk Specs:

Blade Length: 2.75 inches  Weight: 24 oz.  Overall Length:15.75 inches

Performed a quick field test on some oak firewood in the backyard.  Smaller oak limbs(4-6 inches in diameter) were cut in half easily with both SOG axes.  The largest piece(10-12 inches in diameter) the SOG Tomahawk was definitely easier, but the SOG Fasthawk did the job as well.  In addition, I pruned some small limbs(4-6 inches in diameter) off trees.  Again, I could not find a significant difference in performance between them.

I found the compact size of the SOG Fasthawk to be worth the slight sacrifice in performance over the SOG Tomahawk.  The Fasthawk will be allocated to my EDC(Every Day Carry) and the Tomahawk will find a home in my BOB(Bug Out Bag.)

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

The Bug Out Bike-Nashbar Single Speed 29er Mountain Bike

The solution for the bug out bike has been delivered.  The unopened box sits waiting to be born into my gear.  The Nashbar Single-Speed 29er Mountain Bike - MEDIUM is a perfect fit for survival situations due to its simplicity, adaptability, and affordability.

The single speed is all about simplicity.  The bug out bike will take the headache out of bike gear maintenance.  Don’t let the racket of a derailleur compromise your stealth.  This single speed does not have shifters or any derailleur.

The mountain bike is also built for adaptability.  The aluminum frame provides an efficient strength to weight ratio for additional durability. The oversized 29er tires provide exceptional mobility over obstacles on and off road. 

Nashbar delivers affordability for the bug out bike.  Finding a quality single speed mountain bike is like looking for supplies after a devastating event.  Usually, all the inexpensive options are heavy and the quality options are overpriced or unavailable.  Nashbar delivers a lightweight single speed at an affordable price tag usually around $400.

Go for the gear that will have you counting down the days to a survival situation like it was Christmas.  Go for simplicity.  Go for adaptability.  Go for affordability.  Go for the Nashbar Single-Speed 29er Mountain bike.

Riding above the water line.

Riverwalker

DIY Survival Gear Tips - Keeping Things Simple

If you find yourself in a survival situation, every person needs to be able to use what they have on hand and take full advantages of what may be limited resources to satisfy their needs.  Each of your resources will have unique advantages and disadvantages. Your main task should be to figure out how to use these items to meet your needs and increase your chances of survival. Here are some simple tips to remember when making DIY survival gear.

DIY Survival Gear Tips

1. Use only the minimum resources necessary.

Making DIY gear is a great way to train yourself to find alternative uses for items to meet these needs. It is important to keep things simple because this often makes things easier to accomplish. It will also help to reduce the amount of your available resources that will have to be used to make your goal a reality. The less hardware that you need to accomplish your project will increase your ability to achieve a successful outcome with limited resources.

2. Use your survival needs as a guide.

Need is a great motivator. Combining a need with a little imagination can usually lead to a successful project. In a survival situation, failure is not an option and simple solutions often work best.

3. Limit your use of power tools and electricity.

Hand tools work even when there is no power available. Try to design your DIY projects to minimize the use of electricity and the need for power tools. If the grid goes down, hand tools may be your only option to complete your project. You don’t want your thinking to be dependent upon grid power that may not be available.

4. Keep your projects simple and uncomplicated.

Complexity can create more problems than it solves. If you make your projects simple and uncomplicated, other family members can assist in the creation and development of any survival gear you may need. If a project is designed with simplicity in mind, you can free up your time to work on other projects. Children and senior family members can also contribute to the process of making needed survival items if you keep things simple.

5. Remember the primary goal of your project.

Your goal should be to create DIY projects that require minimal tools, no electricity, and minimum amounts of hardware or resources. This will help you be better prepared.

Got DIY survival projects?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

DIY RV Project - Exterior Utilities Hook-up Light

Many times you will find yourself trying to hook up the utilities to your RV at dark thirty. Installing an exterior light on your RV will make the task a lot simpler. It doesn’t matter if you are boondocking or hooking up to a park space. You may find yourself in the dark and fumbling around with a flashlight. An exterior light will leave your hands free to make the process of getting things hooked up a lot easier.

Using a $10 light from the local tractor supply outlet and about 8 feet of two strand 12 volt wire is all you need to accomplish this RV mod. The cover for the power cord was removed and a wire was run from the 12 volt connections inside the RV.  A small hole was then made in the side of the RV for the wire after a suitable location for the light was determined. A piece of coat hanger wire was then snaked behind the siding of the RV until it came out at the side of the electrical cord cover opening. The wire was then hooked to the 12 volt electrical wire and pulled through the hole. It was then a simple process of hooking the wires to the light and mounting the base plate to the side of the RV and installing the light cover.

The light included an on/off switch and the cover was mounted with the switch in the down position. Even though the switch was water resistant, mounting it where it was on the bottom helps avoid rain hitting it directly.

It’s a quick and simple RV mod that can be done in less than an hour.

Got RV mod?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

RV Boondocking Project - DIY Installation for a Reverse Light

One of the most difficult tasks when boondocking is backing your RV into a suitable area. This can be made even more challenging if you don't have reverse lights on your RV and it's starting to get dark. In many cases, In our case, we usually don't reach our destination until it's gotten pretty late in the day. Without decent back-up lights, you could risk serious damage to your RV.

RW, Jr.'s RV didn't have any reverse lights and it really made it difficult to back-up when there wasn't much daylight left. To remedy this problem, I installed an LED spotlight on the spare tire carrier on RW, Jr.'s RV. If we wind up getting set up late in the evening, we don't have a problem because of a lack of daylight.

.The main obstacle was making a mounting bracket for the light. Replacing the existing taillights with ones that incorporated reverse lights was a pretty expensive proposition and they wouldn't have provided very much additional light. Standard reverse lights aren't very bright and wouldn't be a lot of real help when it gets dark.

I used an old aluminum bracket and a piece of 1/2" electrical conduit that was in my junk pile to fabricate a mounting bracket. It only required a couple of holes to be drilled in the spare tire mounting bracket to attach the light. I mounted it in a centered position that enabled the light to be used to its maximum advantage. This gave the maximum amount of light coverage.  

The light was wired directly into the trailer wiring harness to the reverse light wire which hadn't been hooked up. Now RW, Jr has a spotlight that works any time he is backing up his RV. He can also see me when I'm guiding him into place if it's dark. I used a  10 watt 12 volt  DC LED Floodlight for the reverse light. It's water-proof and puts out a lot of light.

Got boondocking light?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

Riverwalker’s Gear Review - Instafire

Being able to start a fire is one of the best skills you can develop. It also usually requires some form of kindling or fire-starting material to make the task of building a fire easier and simpler. You also want to get that fire started quickly before it gets dark. Here’s a quick review of Instafire.

RW, Jr. left me in charge of the firewood for a short boondocking trip we were on and unfortunately my wood pile had gotten wet from a brief rain shower the day before. Wet or even damp wood can be extremely difficult to start a fire without some help along the way. It was time to check out the firestarter product from Instafire.

Instafire is fairly inert and very safe to handle. Although you should be able to start several fires with a single package, I opted to use the whole package. It does start easily with a match or a lighter and doesn’t flare up like charcoal starter or other readily flammable types of firestarters. It comes in a fairly rugged package that still manages to be easily opened by hand. A pile of the Instafire mixture was dumped in my hand and then added to the wood in my fire pit. With a quick flick of my Bic, I had a decent flame going right away.

 It also burns really hot!

Advantages of Instafire:

!. It’s very safe to handle (non-toxic) and doesn’t impart fumes to items being cooked over the fire.

2. It lights easily with a match or lighter. These are the two most common means of starting a fire used by most people on a regular basis in most circumstances.

3. It works well for starting charcoal without the usual fumes from charcoal starter or ashes blowing in the wind from using newspaper.

3. It burns extremely hot and handles large chunks of damp wood with ease.

Disadvantages of Instafire:

!. It can be a little pricey but is available in larger containers to reduce the cost.

2. Although the package stated you could start several fires with a single package, it’s difficult to gauge how much is needed when your wood is wet or damp.

Instafire worked really well to get my fire started. It had no problem with getting my damp wood chunks burning. In less than thirty minutes, we had a decent fire. I probably wouldn’t use it on a regular basis but having some handy in case your firewood is wet or damp couldn’t hurt. It can also help if you have someone that has a low tolerance for some of the other types of chemical firestarters.

Got firestarter?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

DIY Gear - Off Grid Power Tools

Off Grid Power Tools

Battery packs can be expensive and the chargers for them can also fail to recharge the battery packs sufficiently. Sometimes you have to use a direct solution to solve a problem. In this case, a small portable drill that operates on 12 volts was modified to work directly off a 12 volt source such as a car or tractor battery. Include a short extension cord and you are good to go.

Got off grid power tools?

Staying above the water line!

Riverwalker

DIY Solar Project - Portable Water Pump - Part Two - Assembly and Accessories

In Part One the basic planning for making a portable water pump was covered. The actual project assembly closely followed my initial plan and only a few changes were made from the original design plan.  Most of the changes in the original plan were made in order to enhance the functional operation of the portable water pump or to simplify its use.

Building a DIY Portable Water Pump - Assembly and Accessories

1. Portable Power Options - Using Solar Panels 

One of the best ways to keep any system portable is to have a convenient power source. While the choice to use battery power was inevitable, using solar panels to keep that battery power maintained would keep the system portable and there would be no need for a grid connection.

 Once a decision was made to use a couple of small solar panels to charge the portable water pump’s batteries, it became a simple task to install the panels. I didn’t want a system where you had to worry about hooking up a remote solar panel with wires running to it. A self-contained system was going to be easier to use and make things less complicated.

It turned out that two small 12 volt solar panels could be easily attached to the handle of the rolling tool box and still leave plenty of room to grip the handle. The handle was also able to be completely folded in the down position without any additional interference.

Another advantage of this set-up was that a tab stop on the handle allowed the mounted solar panels to be angled in a manner that increased the exposure of the solar panels to the sun. 

Installation of the small solar panels was a simple matter of drilling four holes in the handle and bolting the solar panels to the tool box handle.

2. Mounting the Water Pump

The water pump was then mounted to the bottom of the included toolbox storage tray. It would have been nice if the tray had offered a flatter surface on the top side. This would have made it easier to mount the pump to the tray. As a result, the pump was mounted to the underside of the tray which had a relatively flat mounting surface. I also didn’t want to leave the tray out as this would leave less storage options and also allow a set of pliers or a screwdriver to be kept handy.  

Keeping the pump mounted above the floor of the upper toolbox also allowed room for storage of the suction and discharge hoses. There is enough room for 30 feet of discharge hose and 10 feet of suction hose to be stored in the bottom of the toolbox. It was a simple task to flip the tray over in order to use the pump and deploy the suction and discharge hoses.

There were two minor problems encountered with the hoses. The first was a small weight needed to be added to the suction hose because the weight of the debris strainer  was insufficient to keep the end of the suction hose submerged. The other problem was kinking hoses caused by the pump design. This was solved by adding an elbow to the suction and discharge outlets of the pump.

Testing the pump found it to have a minimal current draw of slightly more than 2.5 amps and a surge draw of about 4 amps until the pump was primed. This is low enough that it shouldn’t place a significantly large burden on the batteries.

3. Installing the Batteries

The lower bin of the rolling toolbox offered space that could be utilized to hold a battery (or batteries) depending upon their size. Other versions of this toolbox offered a removable upper toolbox and a lower bin that was capable of holding a larger battery. The lower bin on this model of toolbox did not offer sufficient room to hold a larger deep-cycle battery (Group 24 or 27?). This also would have increased the weight factor significantly and ultimately affected its portability.

Four 6 volt / 13 amp hour AGM batteries were mounted in the bottom bin. They were wired in series and parallel and would supply ample power to the pump. A small piece of 2X4 lumber was used on each end of the bin to secure the batteries in place. The AGM batteries were also able to be mounted in any configuration since they are sealed units. The cost of batteries could have been cut in half by using only two to power the pump but I felt the additional reserve power offered by using four batteries was worth the additional cost.

There was also sufficient storage space left in the bin to hold a few additional items. These items included a grid charger, an external power supply hook-up and a bag of spare hose parts.

4. Installing the Solar Charge Controller

In order to avoid the possibility of cooking the batteries, a solar charge controller was mounted in the lower bin of the toolbox. The charge controller was mounted using Velcro patches to avoid having to work in a confined space and dealing with the real possibility of accidentally shorting the wrong wire, This made it easy  to detach the controller from the inside of the bin and pull the unit into the open to add or remove wiring as necessary.

5. Accessories

Four switches were installed on the lower sides of the toolbox to control various functions. These were a power switch that cut the main power to the charge controller and pump, a charge switch that disabled the charging function of the solar panels, a switch for an optional light was added in case it got dark before the water pumping chores were completed and a voltage switch was also included to indicate battery status without a continuous display from the voltage meter creating an additional strain on the batteries.

There could have been additional cost savings by using simple toggle switches which are considerably cheaper than the chrome plate switches actually used in the project.

The addition of a small work light added increased functionality should working conditions not have ideal lighting circumstances. This light was wired directly to the batteries and was operated with the simple flip of the switch. This allows any pumping chores to be completed even if you don’t finish before it gets dark.

An external 12 volt 120 watt plug was added to give the added option of using a larger external battery as a power source for extended operational capabilities of the pump. It can also be used to power other 12 volt accessories as needed. This was wired directly to the batteries and was protected with a 10 amp fuse.

It is important to note that it would perhaps have been better to mount the batteries in the top and the pump in the bottom. Unfortunately, this would have made the toolbox even more top-heavy that it was originally. The weight of even two small batteries would exceed the weight of the pump and make the toolbox even more unstable. Placing the batteries in the bottom section made the toolbox quite stable.

While this project cost approximately $200 to make and was completed with all new parts, it doesn’t need an extension cord to make it work. It can also go where and when it’s needed very easily. There are also areas where the costs can be decreased (batteries, switches or other accessories) and place this type of portable pump on a similar cost basis with a grid-dependent water pump.

There is one additional note about the portability of this unit. The total weight as assembled was slightly more than 25 pounds and this made it quite easy to lift over obstacles or be easily pulled over rough terrain on its wheels.

Got portable pumping power?

Staying above the water pumping line!

Riverwalker