Arizona Desert Survival Tips, Arizona Prepping

Prepper Primer: Welcome to Prepping 101?

June 26, 2021 by Spike 1 Comment

Are You A Prepper?

What comes to mind when you think of “prepper?” Most people think of a paranoid guy running about in the bush, armed to the teeth and living in either a cave or a spider hole dug into the dirt. Honestly that is not far from the truth in some cases. Your average prepper today is an individual or a group that is prepared or preparing for any emergency or contingency.

Regardless of our perception of what a prepper is, it is reasonable to assume that because of the Covid plandemic, IT’S MADE preppers out of all of us.

The year 2020 and Covid brought us government lockdowns and other restrictions. We’ve suffered economic drawdowns thru forced business shutdowns and employee layoffs. Many small businesses went out of business. There are commodity shortages and empty store shelves. No toilet paper or Kleenex. Canned goods like soups and veggies are rare finds. Lastly, no hydrogen peroxide, hand cleaner, rubbing alcohol, N95 masks, and rubber gloves are to be found on store shelves.

On top of this calamity and bedlam, we have the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots with looting and destruction happening even to this day. I can go on, and Americans are still suffering through this. If you weren’t a prepper before, YOU SHOULD BE NOW! The good news is, it’s never too late to get started prepping.

Prepper Psychology.

When I was a kid in the 70’s, we didn’t call them preppers. We called those people hermits or “nut jobs” right? The typical perception of a prepper was the Vietnam vet who chose to live apart in the bush, secluded from society like Johnny Rambo. Then along comes the 90’s and we are introduced to Burt and Heather Gummer in the movie Tremors.

Burt was played by Michael Gross and Heather by Reba McEntire. Ya gotta admit.., they were the coolest preppers EVER! Fortified home, guns, and ammo to no end. Who didn’t envy their basement? We laughed at the characters, yet wished we could be just like them. PREPARED FOR ANY SITUATION.

The Gummers!

Today, nothing could be further from the truth. The prepper community is comprised of all walks of life. Conservative, Libertarian, liberal, as well as folks who just want to be left alone. The fact is, while there is a small percentage of “crazy” preppers, the vast majority are sane and rational people. It’s never been about a doomsday apocalyptic world full of zombies and brigands in a post-nuclear fallout world. While that stuff makes for great books and movies, it’s really about economic downturns, the breakdown of society, and governmental overreach.

Meanwhile.., the country laughed at these people while real-world emergencies were happening like Hurricane Katrina, the Texas power grid failure of 2021. Let us not forget the more recent Covid outbreak, riots, and lootings. Year after year after year we keep having disasters in this Country. If these aren’t REASONABLE and SANE reasons to prep, then what is? Think about it, who’s crazy now?

Should I Be a Prepper?

Being a prepper doesn’t mean you are paranoid, though a little paranoia is helpful. Preparing is about having your house in good order. It gives you the means to help you keep your family, team, and neighbors safe, protected, and healthy during a disastrous season. This is about having a vision and the foresight to not only stockpile necessities, but to also be actively capable to protect human life and your emergency assets if needed under almost any circumstance.

The Bible tells us in Habakkuk 2:2-3:
“And the Lord answered me, and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Habakkuk 2:2-3″

Why this scripture? Let me translate this if you don’t get it. We’re being instructed to GET A VISION, WRITE IT DOWN, then PREPARE for it. We prepare by stockpiling supplies, practicing, planting a garden, learning new or more skills, going to school, training for “it”, etc, so that we would be ready. And finally to WAIT. Because it, the emergency, disaster, or blessing WILL COME. With this Scripture, whatever the topic or situation is. Be it your love life, a new job or career, running for Mayor in your town, or preparing for a disaster. Apply this Scripture in all facets of your life! This scripture is THE FORMULA for surviving, living, and thriving successfully.

Folks, anything can happen. We can have another plandemic like Covid or the new “Monkey Pox” scare the government is working up. How about a local natural disaster like a hurricane, flooding, or earthquake? What about a rece$$ion or depre$$ion? The Stock market takes a nose dive, the banks run out of money? There is nothing like a little economic collapse to ruin your day huh? Think about political collapse or instability. Our governmental system falls apart and anarchy reigns. Before long, foreign guys with blue berets are checking your new government issue ID card, setting curfews, and telling you where you can go and cannot go.

Think it can’t happen in the US? We are so polarized right now, we could easily turn into another Kosovo in a few short months. Look at our neighbor to our immediate south. How close are they to the narco’s taking complete control? Yep… it’s raining cats and dogs right now and many here are wondering when anarchy and chaos will take control! If you’re not prepared for anything. Now would be the time to start getting your house in order. (Be sure to read Habakkuk 2:2-3)

What Can I Do To Prepare?

Prepper Guides

Every great adventure starts with a plan. While there are a lot of great prepper plans out there, there is no one single perfect plan. You will need to determine what kind of situations you’re preparing for. A great starting resource is your Local County Emergency board or FEMA. I doubt any conservative prepper likes FEMA, but they do have some great plans out there you can use as a guideline to help you prepare. Check out their FAMILY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION PLAN and the Food and Water in an Emergency plan.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to scope out your local County government Emergency Management website for alerts, information, and plans more specific to your location. Crickey! Even the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has a Zombie Preparedness guide. (have a sense of humor here, they sure did..)

I’m no Mormon, but God bless the Mormon community for walking the talk when it comes to being prepared. Check out these 3 manuals they put out. You can download these and print them out.

These are definitely awesome action plans. Well thought out, and well written, and will absolutely help your structure your own emergency preparedness plans. While I am at it, I don’t want to forget my friend George Wright. He and I were co-workers for almost 5 years and have continued our friendship since those days.

He’s written and published a List book you can purchase on Amazon called The Best Little Survival Gear List Ever. Check it out! Buy this book as George covers a lot of bases in this guide. If you or your team aren’t sure what to do, you can always ask George for a CONSULTATION at George.Wright2026@gmail.com. He is happy to help you.

You’re going to have local considerations that will influence a lot of how your prepare. Folks living in Maine should not prepare a plan based on an Arizona desert plan, or vice/versa. There will be some commonality, however, local/regional geography will determine a lot of what you will be doing to get your house in order.

Plan accordingly. Lastly, this article is not going to answer all of your prepping questions. We’re going to cover some basic things and if there are any specifics to this article it will reflect prepping in Arizona as this blog is about Arizona outdoors. We’ll be talking about surviving in Arizona, not Oregon or New Hampshire.

Prepper Considerations

Ask yourself “where do I start prepping?” Let’s take a look at who you’re prepping for. Most of us will start with family. Number one is immediate family, like your spouse and children, next is probably your parents, followed up with extended family, then close friends & their families. If your group gets much bigger, you’ll stand a chance of having to carry some dead weight in your group.

I’m not talking about elderly parents who need care and help, but friends or associates who are glad YOU prepared and are more than happy to live off YOUR stores, under YOUR protection who bring nothing to the team and will in all likelihood not contribute to the community. If anything, all they bring to the table will be strife and discontent.

Yes, I’m talking about those hot pocket, lazy, snowflake mooches who were useless when things were good and who are now even more useless and more of a liability than an asset. Get rid of the basement dwellers and do so quickly. It’s important that everyone on the team understands & knows their role and expectations for the team to be successful. Then see what kind of emergency you are preparing for.

Let’s face it. Most of us will face weather-related emergencies. Storm knocks out power or flooding. Very possible some limited looting and rioting. These usually last only a few days or weeks before there is a return to some sort of normalcy. Power is restored, flooding recedes, and so on.

The “Bugout”

Next is your geography situation. Not everyone has a 10-acre compound with bunkers and 2-year stash of supplies out in the boonies. Most will have to get through the ordeal by remaining in place. A few things you need to consider will be:

Where is the closest medical aid?
Is potable drinking water nearby?
Is electrical power available?
Does your location have adequate storage for supplies?
Can you relocate to your bugout retreat?
Can you travel to your bugout retreat safely?
Does your location offer protection for your family or team?
Can your location be defended easily?

What questions do you have that you can add to your list?

Most people think prepping means evacuating your home. The honest truth is you’re going to be better off staying at your home or close to it. Bugging out to a remote location isolates you from immediate help and means you are easy pickings for bandits, rogue government personnel, or visits from your mother-in-law. A better solution would be to fortify and equip your home to survive the ordeal or with the help of your prepper team to ready a local place in your neighborhood to use as a base. Pick a place and ride it out in safety and numbers right?

Communications Gear

Communications are very important in a survival team. Consider both short and long-distance communications for your family and team. Your best option for communications will be HAM radio gear. First will be to have a fixed base station. A base station can reach out locally and is capable of long-distance with relaying stations. Plus there is a huge network of HAM radio operators across the world.

The next thing will be the capability to communicate with your team locally. For that, you can use handheld HAM radios like the BTECH UV-5X3 5 Watt Tri-Band Radio. These are great for the budget minded and you can program these. As a HAM radio these require a license to use, but who cares when things collapse.

Supply Stockpiles.

Okay…, where to begin on this section? Your stockpile is going to be the basic comfort items you will need to survive an emergency. This will include things like foodstuffs, medical and hygiene supplies, and other things like batteries, blankets, matches, propane, duct tape to sleeping bags, and tarps. Your needs will vary from mine, but we all will share some common things. There’s so much more to list. However going into that, I can cover it in additional posts.

An emergency will be either long-term or short-term. Keep in mind your geographic location will also affect what you store and your priorities. I live in Arizona. This means potable water will rank high on my list but that will be less important in places like Nebraska or Maine where you have a lot of water available to access right? Another factor is refrigeration. Refrigeration allows you to store perishable items and medicines that need cold temperatures for storage.

Unless you have solar power available, with no electricity available your stash of frozen foods, medicines and meats won’t last for long. Any emergency involving the loss of power means no refrigeration and the loss of heat or air conditioning as well. You won’t be able to keep items frozen or cold. This is important as you can lose those perishable items like meats or medications like Insulin for diabetes real quick without electrical power for a few hours. Can your party endure extreme cold or heat?

No doubt you will have an extensive list of gear and supplies you will need. Besides guns and medicine, your next most important need is FOOD and water! Not only will you need both, but you will have to be able to store all of this. Your average adult male will need about 750 pounds of food for a year. Figure a bit less for the spouse and each kid. Let’s not forget any pets you have. A cat or two will help keep rodents away. Dogs contribute as sentries and an alarm system in addition to providing companionship. Pets require food and medicines as well.

It’s a long-term and expensive goal to stock up on food for a whole year for a family. You can have immediate success by establishing a 30-day supply. Start with that goal in mind and build it up from there. Call me crazy, but if you’re starting to prep now, recruit one of these “coupon hoarder” ladies to help you and your team.

Food Considerations

So what kind of foods should your stock? First thing is, to figure out your electricity will probably fail. Oh… you have a generator? Well, those are noisy and can draw unwanted attention to you or your safe house, not to mention require fuel that may be better used in vehicles. We’re talking about canned or dehydrated foods. You’re going to want foods that are high in nutrition as well as calories. These foods also shouldn’t need refrigeration, special preparation, or require a lot of water.

Don’t forget to include things for food allergies, special diet needs, and formula for babies if your group has newborns or is about to. Be sure to include vitamins and supplements. Your diet may not have all the nutrients you need, so don’t forget your Vitamin C and D3, B-12, multivitamins, fish oil, Potassium, Garlic, etc. Again, don’t forget foods for pets too. When SHTF, you’re going to need to approach your diet and health with a more holistic view.

Don’t leave out gardening and natural local food sources. You may have a lot of natural food sources in your immediate area that you are unaware of. Learn to know what grows in your local area. Learn where it grows and when it grows. Consider having a garden. Both of these resources need to be cultivated and can take months before anything is ready to eat.

Grocery stores will fail and you will have to rely on what you have on hand. Anything you can grow will be seasonal and can take months to produce fruit. Livestock such as rabbits and chickens can only be replaced through reproduction. Not only will you need the space and time to raise these animals, but you will need food sources for them too.

Plan on having to guard your garden, rabbit hutches, and chicken coops from natural predators and human predators too. ANYTHING you have, be it not enough, barely enough, or plenty of makes you a TARGET for raids or theft. They will take ALL of it if they can. Do not forget this.

Medical Concerns.

This part is difficult to write since it is such a vast area to cover. I’ll do a lot of this in additional posts. So for now, it suffices to say that your main health or medical-related threats are going to be wounds and disease/infections. As urban society breaks down, the first things to go will be water services, this means no water at your faucets and your plumbing will just stop. Without fresh water and waste disposal, diseases like Dysentery and Cholera will show up. And it will get worse from there. This alone can wipe out most of your group, never mind roving bandits and thieves.

Lack of water also means a breakdown in hygiene. So no water for showers or flushing toilets. The shower will become a rare treat which means a lot of people are dirty and grimy. And let’s not forget assorted wounds. Be real here, we are talking gunshot wounds and accidents that break the skin. Your axe slips when cutting wood and into your foot it goes type of wound. Dirty bodies are prone to infections. That small cut on your hand from broken glass may turn septic. Do not doubt that Sepsis will kill you as easily as any bullet can.

You need to realize that most of us are not doctors or Nurses. Heck, not even close to being EMTs. So how do you do this? What we can do is take a first aid course and Stop The Bleed. Be sure you stock up on things like vitamins and supplements to help boost your immune system. And stockpile over-the-counter antiseptics, ointments, pain relievers, burn creams, alcohol wipes, bandages, slings, and wraps. Add items from there.

Any group would be lucky and privileged to have an RN or a Doc in their group. If all they contribute is to hand out aspirin, count yourself lucky that they are part of your group. I served in our Navy and I’ve seen firsthand how Marines treat their Corpsman. Nobody and I mean NOBODY messes with their Corpsman. They LOVE their corpsmen. Again, you are very fortunate to have a medical pro in your group.

You can learn some more advanced skills. There are plenty of resources out there that cover topics like sutures (stitches) for example. Lots of YouTube videos demonstrating how to do this, and Amazon sells Suture Practice Kits so that you can learn. I carry in my blowout bag a copy of the Tactical Combat Casualty Care and Wound Treatment book. It’s got a lot of info in it that will help you stabilize a person until you can get professional medical help. I will cover my blowout/trauma bag and IFAK in another post.

Weaponry.

Let’s talk about firearms and the other weapons you may want to have in your arsenal. Since survival needs can vary so much, we are not going to debate with anyone why our choice is wrong and their favorite gun is THE survival gun of choice. That is ridiculous since there is no one perfect survival gun.

What we do know is, if you’re serious about surviving an emergency, having a small arsenal of personal firearms for each team member, allows that person to be able to pick the best possible gun for a specific mission. Having several types of guns is good. In addition to guns, I would highly recommend having a bow or crossbow in your inventory as well.

So what is going to determine your weapon needs? First is your local environment. Urban or remote? Geography would be next. Then, what is the weapon going to be used for? (Hunting, patrol, self-defense?) And lastly your budget. What can you afford?

Before we get into guns, let’s talk about archery tools. Having a bow or crossbow is a great addition to your inventory. If you need to put meat on the table and wish to remain stealthy or undiscovered. You can’t knock a bow for these reasons. They are quiet to shoot, and easily maintained. I previously owned a Primal Gear Bow and these days my inventory includes a crossbow.

My Primal Gear Bow was a 50lb draw and capable of taking wildlife easily the size of a deer and smaller. My crossbow is a 175lb draw. It’s got a lot more power and range. The downside of a crossbow is loading it is not as fast as a bow. I like them both. Make sure you have extra strings, parts, and plenty of arrows and bolts if you expect a long-term survival situation.

Let’s move on to guns now. I had several firearms and got rid of all of them years ago while going through a divorce. A few years later I decided to get back into it. This time I was going to buy based on specific needs. This would affect the caliber choice, type of firearm, its purpose, and my budget. This is also my opinion, your choices may be different and that is okay too.

Make your purchase for your reasons not necessarily mine. I’m going to say the most important consideration I make in a firearm purchase is ammunition availability. There are a lot of way-cool calibers out there, but if you can’t get ammo, what good is it? Therefore I tend to stick with military calibers.

I’m talking about the .9mm, the 5.56/.223 Remington and .308 Winchester/7.62x51mm NATO. These are my core calibers. You can buy ammo in just about any store that stocks ammunition and it’s easy to reload. The next caliber to choose is law enforcement calibers like the .357 Magnum, .38 Special or .40 SW. I opt for the .357 Magnum as that is a fantastic hunting and self-defense round. Plus if you own a .357, you can shoot .38 specials thru it. Any other caliber choice is up to your needs, just be sure to stockpile ammunition for it.

#1 The “Survival Gun”.

I’m talking about your generic rifle that can put food on your table. I wanted something relatively quiet, cheap to shoot, affordable ammo, and budget economy. I chose the Marlin XT-22MR .22 magnum bolt action rifle. The .22mag is a poacher’s dream. In a remote situation you probably won’t hear the shot a half mile away, .22’s/.22 mags will drop a small deer and other small to medium size game animals, plus you can buy and stock a lot of ammunition for the rifle.

Bolt action or semi-automatic. These are great choices and be sure you put a decent scope on it like the Tasco World Class 3–9X50 Rifle Scope. This is a great gun to keep varmints out of your garden or to pop a turkey or small deer with. The downside of this caliber is you cannot reload your cases.

#2 The “Patrol Rifle”.

A patrol rifle is a short-barreled rifle (16″ to 18″ barrel length.) is semi-automatic and can effectively engage targets out to 500 yards. Not gonna lie here. My patrol rifle is my AR-15. The AR-15 is the most versatile gun you will have in your inventory. Mine is a 5.56mm and will also shoot .223 Remington’s. You can hunt deer, varmints, and small game with it. In a self-defense situation, it’s capable of engaging 2 legged varmints out to 500 yards, not to mention its rapid fire.

You can buy 10-round, 20-round, 30-round, and 40-round magazines for it. Even a 100rd drum is available for it. This gun gives you a lot of “yee-haw” firepower when you need it. This is typically, the most popular general-purpose rifle to arm yourself with for any SHTF situation!

#3 The Shotgun.

Nothing says “home defense” like a tactical pump-action shotgun, right? The shotgun is one of the most versatile guns you can have in your arsenal. I’d recommend picking one of the different gauges which are the 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and the 28 gauge. 12 gauge is the largest and the .28 gauge is the smallest gauge of the three. What makes the shotgun such a great weapon is you can shoot solid slugs, buckshot, or birdshot.

It’s a great choice for close self-defense use and absolutely fantastic for hunting depending on your shot size. You can have several barrels for your type of shotgun handy and switch them out for whatever purpose you need. Short barrel for defense and a long barrel with a choke for hunting.

Another aspect that makes this such a great gun is unlike the others guns, this one only needs minimal training in its use. Learn to clean it, learn to load it, and point it in the direction you want to shoot & pull the trigger. You don’t need to worry about hitting the target’s bullseye with a scattergun. These babies are “pray and spray.” That pretty much sums up your basic shotgun training. Pump action or semi-automatic, it’s your choice and either will serve you well.

#4 The Hunting Rifle.

Okay, now we can get more technical in our choice. This would allude to a heavier caliber cartridge. My first choice for a caliber is the .308 Winchester. I have a Stag AR-10 in .308 Win. It can shoot both the .308 Winchester and the 7.62 NATO. It has a 22″ barrel with a 4-16X44 30mm Mil-dot scope. This rifle is capable of easily engaging a target at 1000, maybe 1100 yards if you know your gun and your ammo. In addition to harvesting wild game and rifles can function as an anti-material weapon such as taking out a vehicle engine if you need to stop a motorcycle, car, or truck. It can also function as a heavy squad weapon.

This is a great tool to have. It would also serve you well to have a bolt action rifle in this caliber too for all the same reasons as the AR-10 except for its lack of capability as a squad weapon. In my opinion, no semi=no Bueno!

We know the .308 Win is a great all-around caliber. But should you need a heavier round with a longer reach and knockdown power for say, up to 1500 yards. I’d suggest adding a .7mm Magnum or .300 Winchester Magnum in a bolt action to your inventory. Just so you know.., the .7mm mag performs ballistically about the same as the .300 Win mag. However, it is a lighter bullet, but with about 25% less recoil. Either one of these calibers would round out your arsenal pretty well in my opinion. Keep in mind, the bolt action makes a great rifle for the sniper/overwatch roles if you need that.

#5 The Handgun.

As I said before I choose my guns based on caliber. I love the .9mm. It’s easy to shoot and easy to control. The recoil isn’t anything like my .357, or the .45acp. Plus .9mm are PLENTIFUL. I have two. One is a full-size Canik, the other a sub-compact Springfield Armory XDS Mod 2. The compact is my concealed carry. In an urban SHTF situation, I’ll be packing my full-size Canik as the magazine hold 18 rounds.

If I’m in a remote area out in the bush. My Colt King Cobra .357 magnum reigns supreme. The .357 has greater range and far superior knockdown power compared to my .9mms. I can hunt with my .357 magnum where I wouldn’t with my .9mm. 2 different environments, and 2 different handguns to choose from. Whatever the reason, the handgun is primarily a backup & self-defense weapon. I feel you need a lot of flexibility in what you can use. Buy what your budget can afford, and make sure you can handle your weapon efficiently and proficiently. Buy plenty of spare magazines or speed loaders for it and practice, practice, practice.

#6 Firearm Optics.

What about firearm optics? Okay, all my stuff has red/green dot optics mounted on it. I love red-dot scopes. My dot scopes are dialed in at 200 yds. With my “older” eyes and no glasses, whatever my dot is on, I’ll hit it with every pull of the trigger. This is great, BUT, I also make sure my iron sights are sighted in as well. Iron sights will be your most reliable sights. And you don’t want to be caught unable to shoot & defend yourself with a broken scope on your rig right?

Now if you’re like me, relying on the red dots, then you need to have spare scopes and lots of batteries on hand. Batteries wear out as they are affected by extreme high and low temperatures. This can result in a liability at an inopportune time.

Scopes break too. Drop your rifle and watch it hit rocks sliding down a hillside and see if that scope ever works properly again. Some will drop alignment after lots of shots, especially with larger rounds. The heavier recoil can trash a scope. These things happen all the time. So have extra scopes available just in case. And don’t forget to log as much shooting practice with your iron sights as you do with your scopes. Your life will depend on it.

#7 Reloading Ammunition.

I would advise that you learn to reload your own ammunition if you can. Delegate someone on your team as your master reloader, or require each team member a specific caliber to reload. For example, say Bob loads all the .223 Remingtons, Linda all the .9mms, and George does all the .45acp’s. This way no one person bears all the responsibility and equipment expen$e of all the teams ammo needs right? I load 4 calibers for myself. Using 3 progressive presses, a single stage press, multiple reloading dies, and other reloading accessories. It’s easy to load a lot of ammo fast, but I also have a life and I wouldn’t want to be loading for 10 others on the team all the time.

I can shoot 1000 rounds in a Saturday morning easily, it’s easy for me to reload to replace my ammo, but to have to do so for 10-12 others who shoot like me? Reloading is not a full-time job for me. So have your team share this responsibility. You can all share the costs of the equipment so that the financial burden doesn’t fall on one person. Then order in your brass, bullets, primers, and powder, and have your caliber “expert” load your ammo. Work it out guys and gals, let reloading be a team effort.

What’s great about reloading your own is you can test your load recipes and tailor loads for specific guns and uses. Guns are finicky! I’ll wager you buy 2 50 round boxes of the same factory ammo, split that ammo up with 5 guys with the same skill level, but each a different gun of the same caliber, then all shoot identical targets at the same range and I’ll bet 2 or 3 of the five shooters will have different ammo performance results. You eat power foods to fuel your body and enhance body performance right.., guns (the body) and ammo (the fuel) is no different.

Some ammunition is great for shooting cans and paper targets at the range, in other rounds you may want optimum precision accuracy at 500yds, 700yds, or 1200yds. Reloading allows you to build those custom loads for superior reliability and accuracy. Consistency matters.

With a progressive press, you can easily churn out 200-400 rounds in an hour. Progressive presses are great for handguns and small rifles calibers like the 5.56mm and .223 Remington. For larger calibers like the .308 Win, 30-30 or 30-06 run with a single-stage press. Matter of fact, any round your load that requires super precision, load these with a single stage press. Progressives can have a little too much powder inconsistencies as you cycle through the stages.

Check out Lee Precision (https://leeprecision.com/) for some great budget presses and dies. Lee makes reloading components for just about every caliber out there. If you’re just starting out, your going to need a press and dies. I would suggest buying a “press kit” for the caliber you need. You will also need a set of calipers to measure your cases and rounds, tumbler and media to polish your cases, deburring tool, a primer pocket reamer, a priming tool and a reload manual just for starters. You’ll want more accessories and tools as you learn more. Also, all of the bullet manufacturers have load book or data you can access on their websites.

#8 Firearm Maintenance/Gunsmithing.

Guns like your car require regular maintenance and upkeep. Before you ever fire that first round through your gun, you should know how to disassemble it and do a deep cleaning on it. Your firearm manual will cover this and you can search on Youtube for videos as well. We all heard growing up that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” That’s true for your shooting irons as well.

Dirty weapons can foul and cause jams and/or render the weapon useless. The last thing you need to happen is an issue requiring you to fieldstrip your rifle apart and clean it 2 minutes into a skirmish. If you’re that guy, let’s just call you “casualty number one”. You clean your nalgas so your culo doesn’t stink right, well treat your weapons the same or better!

Another skill or function you need is the ability to repair your weapons. Having an Armorer or gunsmith in your team is another asset you will value. You don’t need to ability to build a gun, but you sure better know how to fix them. Two immediate things you will need is a gunsmith tool kit. Get the basic tools. Then stock some spare parts to replace work or broken part on your guns. I consider the AR-10/AR-15 to be a very RELIABLE and ROBUST platform. But I make sure to have extra parts in case of breakage or failure.

As I swap out OEM parts with aftermarket parts I bag and label to OEM parts. I’ve also ordered spare firing pins and spring kits for my guns. Gunsmithing isn’t just about fixing your guns.., I don’t know about you, but I love the aftermarket options available for my firearms. I tweak all of my stuff to shoot better and function easier for me. I think the premier place for tools and part’s is Brownells.com. These guys have it all.

Now let’s get into the “how-to” aspect of it. Knowledge is key here. Youtube is a fantastic resource for finding out how to use, repair, and customize your shooting irons. From breakdown and cleaning, to replacing OEM parts with aftermarket parts to advanced gunsmithing techniques. Next would be a collections of gunsmithing books. Amazon has a lot of book choices.

You can find a generic gunsmithing book or one specific to your model of firearms. There is courseware available on Amazon too. I found the American Gunsmithing Institute’s Armorer’s Course DVD for my.9mm XDS there. American Gunsmithing Institute Armorer’s Course Video on DVD for Springfield Armory XD Pistols – Technical Instructions for Disassembly, Cleaning, Reassembly and More.

Now if you’re looking for a more formal approach, then a gunsmithing school is another option. These can be expensive, but going to a formal school can open the door to another career. There are several you can pick from. Some are online/remote, others are physical brick-and-mortar schools. Here in Arizona, we have the Sonoran Desert Institute School of Firearms Technology. You have a lot of options here. Start exploring them.

I know we covered a lot of ground here and that left out several other great weapon systems like the AK line. Great gun, but like I said, I’m keeping this article really basic. When you buy a firearm, I’m sure your budget is your first consideration. Get what you can afford, then stock ammo and spare parts for the weapon. Know how to clean, maintain/repair and shoot your guns. A cheap gun in the hands of a practiced shooter is every bit as good as a high-dollar gun. YOUR SKILL MATTERS MOST, not the gun!

Wrapping It Up.

We talked a lot about basic stuff here. I hope you find this guide a great starting point for yourself. I know there are more detailed and better articles out here, but I will say this. Do not depend on one source of information. Do your research, plan to the best of your abilities, prepare for the worse, and let’s all hope we never have to use this in a real SHTF situation.

And the last thing I want to bring up is training! Operating in extreme circumstances with teamwork and coordination requires constant training. Whether it’s First Aid, construction skills, or operating as a fire team in a security situation, you all need to train and to train often. To operate as a well-oiled machine means training a lot. Repetition builds that muscle memory that becomes instinctive reactions. Do it again and again and again.

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Written by Spike

Spike is a 12 year US Navy Veteran. An Information Systems Analyst by day, and Content Provider by night who enjoys Photography & Camera Tech, Fishing, Reloading, Shooting, producing Web & Video content and listening to viking music. You can reach me on email, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram