Destiny Survival

Back on December 13th, Jim Cobb was my guest on DestinySurvival Radio. (You can read about it here.) He returned as my guest yesterday. Jim’s the author of an informative book called Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary.

As usual, my blog post about our first interview was published on Friday. That happened to be December 14th, the same day the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting took place in Connecticut. That day’s post was one of my most read posts for a few weeks. And, as we all know, sales of guns, ammo magazines and ammunition have gone through the roof. People all over the country are concerned about home and self defense.

So how do we put this in perspective for preppers?

Without minimizing the importance of owning firearms, Jim pointed out that guns are just one piece of the home security puzzle. If you end up needing to draw your gun on another human being, a link in your security planning and preparation has failed somewhere.

We discussed the basic recommendations for firearms given in his book. There’s no need to spend a lot of money on guns. Start with a .22 rimfire rifle. Move up to a 12 gauge shotgun, and handgun.

In this book Jim compares the attributes of pistols vs. revolvers. We touched on that in our first interview.

Jim’s first rule is not to cache or hide anything you don’t want to lose forever. Your cache could disappear for any number of reasons.

When caching, hide away supplies you may need in a pinch. Are their strategic places along your way to work or another important location?

Another reason to cache is to get something out of your home you don’t want to have there. /Do you have handguns you want to keep away from children? This is the sort of cache you’ll want to be able to keep an eye on. Jim suggested practical ways to cache valuables in or near your home.

When is it time to leave home and bug out? What if too many people are planning to bug out too early? If a collapse happens, should you head for the hills right away? Would you be able to make it in the wild? Armchair preppers won’t.

Much depends on what the catastrophic event is and what your situation is. Stay home if you can, but don’t ignore reality when the situation dictates that you leave.

Have options. Ask yourself if where you are now is unliveable under the circumstances. If you decide you can’t survive there any longer, where will you go? How will you get there? Have you planned this out ahead of time? Or will you become a refugee?

The bag for you and your family members is a very personal thing. It will vary according to need. Jim gives a broad overview of what your bug out bag should include.

In the book Jim recommends using backpacks when bugging out. That way one hand isn’t occupied by pulling a suitcase on wheels. But I wonder about the possibility of using a dog or horse to haul or pull gear and supplies, assuming animal power is available.

Is CB radio a viable radio choice in a survival situation? Jim and I have a minor disagreement on that one, but we agree on several other principles about communication. It’s essential to do more listening than talking and transmitting.

Be sure you and your family or group coordinate as to the radio equipment you use for communicating. Test it out.

I can’t help but throw in my two cents about a couple of other things.

Regarding shortwave radios, there’s a lot less on the bands than there used to be. The BBC, Radio Netherlands and numerous other international broadcasters, have stopped broadcasting to North America. They’ve put their content online or satellite. So you won’t hear much in English these days, except for Cuba, China and a few commercial stations here in the U.S. And who knows how any of these stations will fair in a total collapse situation?

It’s a good idea to get a shortwave radio with single sideband capability to hear the amateur radio bands. There’s sure to be plenty of activity there, as long as ham operators have a power source. If you’re interested in ham radio for yourself, it’s worth it to get licensed. A local ham radio club can help you get licensed and get equipment.

I agree with Jim’s recommendation in his book to have some kind of alternate power source, such as for solar power. Keep rechargeable batteries and a solar battery charger on hand, too. Some wind-up radios have the ability to charge cell phones.

By the way, the book includes tables for the phonetic alphabet and police 10 codes. Those 10 codes are useful, but they may be going away slowly as government agencies move toward plain speech.

We briefly discussed the importance and value of each person in your family or group. Everyone has value and can contribute something, whether it’s a teenager who’s a tech whiz or an elderly lady who’s a gardening and canning expert.

Don’t overlook anyone. Each person has unique skills and knowledge.

I encourage you to hear my whole interview with Jim Cobb when you listen to DestinySurvival Radio for January 10, 2013. In both the interviews i’ve had with him, he’s been a well spoken voice of reason and moderation.

If you haven’t yet ordered his book, you really should. He packs a lot of common sense info on a variety of relevant topics into a little over 200 pages. It’s a DestinySurvival Amazon Pick. Order by clicking on the image of the book below. You’ll be taken to the Amazon.com page where it’s featured. Add it to your cart to start the order process.

You can also check out Jim’s site at www.survivalweekly.com.

Any thoughts? Leave your comment below and let other preppers know about any home security insights you have.

How are you set for home defense? Does your prepping strategy include security measures? When society collapses, will the desperate masses come for your food and prepping supplies?

Disaster readiness expert Jim Cobb shows you how to implement a complete plan for operational security and physical defense in his book Prepper’s Home Defense. He was my guest yesterday on DestinySurvival Radio to talk about it.

Jim Cobb has worked in the investigation and security fields for twenty years. He’s been a survivalist and prepper for most of his life.

The bio in his book says he lives in the upper Midwest. So he’s not giving away secrets about his exact location. But wherever that is, he’s with his wife and three kids, which he describes as adolescent weapons of mass destruction.

National magazines such as “Boys’ Life” have published his articles on preparedness. His material is online at www.SurvivalWeekly.com and in blog posts at www.Survival-Gear.com.

The full title is Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary. It’s meant for a post-collapse world. Some of his recommendations are illegal, and he tells you that. However, many of his tips can be put into practice now to keep your family safe and secure because they’re suitable for any time.

This book is one that’s worth having in your survival library. Each chapter could be a book in itself. The appendices at the end contain resource lists on further reading and where to find prepping supplies.

Here are the topics he covers.

At 223 pages, I’m amazed he packs in as much information as he does.

Jim was a well spoken, knowledgeable guest. We covered a lot of ground, but left plenty more for him to talk about on a future show.

It’s Jim’s goal to inform people about the many pieces to the security puzzle. It’s not just about having firearms and ammunition. You don’t have to have a military background. And you don’t have to have a lot of money.

Jim explained the strategy to deter, delay and defend. Deter a threat by not giving anyone reason to think you’re a target. Delay by slowing down the bad guys enough so you can take action. That makes you better positioned to defend yourself.

One of the topics relevant to today, before a collapse, is structure hardening. Will your doors withstand an attempted break in?

For OP SEC, are you practicing discretion and not drawing undue attention to yourself? Are you introducing others to prepping so there will be fewer people pounding on your door when things fall apart?

Should you have a safe room? Do you have food storage and other prepping supplies first?

If you’re new to firearms or have little experience, should you get a revolver or pistol? Do you really have to have a big caliber firearm?

What weapons or tactics aren’t effective? Isn’t it better to have weapons you have experience with?

Are you practicing situational awareness? Or are you missing clues that could allow someone to attack you?

Which breed of dog makes a good family guard dog? Is a mutt from the pound suitable?

Should you tell your children that your prepping is secret or private? What should you tell your children to do if they get lost?

How do you connect with other preppers? Could there be more of them out there than you realize?

Get answers to these questions and more when you listen to my interview with Jim Cobb on DestinySurvival Radio for December 13, 2012. Check out Jim’s site at www.survivalweekly.com.

Get a copy of Jim’s book by clicking on its image below. You’ll be taken to the Amazon.com page where it’s featured. Add it to your cart to start the order process. By the way, it’s a DestinySurvival Amazon Pick.

But keep reading below because you might win a copy for yourself.

It pays to listen to DestinySurvival Radio because you never know when I’ll throw in a bonus or two.

I gave away a LifeStraw personal water filtration system, courtesy of EarthEasy.com. Knowing most of my listeners hear the podcast rather than the live show, I was looking for the first person who sent me an e-mail before the 19th with “LifeStraw” in the subject line. I made this giveaway as simple as possible because I’ve had trouble with contests announced during my show.

This time things were different, and I had a winner right away. She’s Anna
from Silicon Valley, CA, who e-mailed me while the show was still airing live. I discovered her entry when I finished the show.

I gave readers a chance to win a prize, too. Between December 14th and the 19th, anyone who left a comment on this post was entered to win a copy of Prepper’s Home Defense. My first winner didn’t claim her prize, so I reopened the contest until December 30th.

Here’s how I picked the winner. Ten different people (not counting myself) left comments on this post during the contest. I used www.random.org to generate a random number from 1 through 10 The number generator kicked out 2.

Angel B. was the second person to leave a comment, so she wins the book. Congratulations Angel.

My thanks to everyone who entered the contest.

My thanks to Ulysses Press for making the book available to give to you. I’m grateful they put me in touch with Jim Cobb as well. He’ll be on DestinySurvival Radio again in a few weeks, and we’ll talk more about Prepper’s Home Defense and related things.

You’re invited to leave a comment, even though the contest is over now. Any thoughts on what you’ve read in this post? How about something you heard on the show?