my friend reviews a survivalist novel

[Viking]

For us older folks, the world isn't anything like we knew it ...   

I'm 26, and that applies to me as well .

[lee n. field]

I'm 26, and that applies to me as well .

As I think I've told you before, "ya ain't seen nothin' yet."

[GigaBuist]

I read this book a while back.  A buddy loaned it to me, I think wanting me to think that everything in there was a good idea.  FWIW this buddy of mine is actually a friend's father, so he's got some years on me.

Crappy fiction, I suppose, and some "fun" stuff to think about, but like somebody already said the idea of planning for 10 years to build up this remote compound, everybody buying identical vehicles, weapons, etc, and then the collapse actually happening... eh, no, that's too much "what if" for my life.

I could see buying up some remote properties with some friends if, like, we used it as a hunting cabin or something for yearly trips, but without that there's no way I could justify it.

[Tallpine]

Some of us just don't like to live in the city to begin with. 

Really it's kind of crowded around here for me.  I'd rather have about 20 sections up at the foot of the Snowy Mountains. 

[Boomhauer]

I have a real bone with preppers who obsess over guns.  Having something easy to maintain, versatile, and powerful enough to defend yourself with is the important part of having a firearm.  Being able to heashot a rabbit and clean it, and then having the balls to shoot a looter is way more important than what caliber, make, model, and modifications the gun is or has.  Being shot with a .22lr doesn't sound any more pleasant than being shot by a zomg .338lapua battle riflez!!1!!!oneeleventy!

Agree, most non-gun people, especially those that don't have time to spend a lot of time on the range or money on guns would be best served with a Ruger 10/22, some factory mags, and a few bricks of quality ammo. MUCH easier to become proficient and stay proficient with a .22 than a centerfire weapon. Same goes for a pistol if they really want one (Ruger Mk II or Mk III guns or the Buckmarks)

[freakazoid]

You mean a group of friends deciding to pull there resources together to help defend each other by all going to a place that is remote and fortified is bad?  I don't recall them all having the same vehicle, in fact I think one even had a mustang. And them all having a gun that can share mags and use the same kind of ammo, doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

[lee n. field]

Agree, most non-gun people, especially those that don't have time to spend a lot of time on the range or money on guns would be best served with a Ruger 10/22, some factory mags, and a few bricks of quality ammo. MUCH easier to become proficient and stay proficient with a .22 than a centerfire weapon. Same goes for a pistol if they really want one (Ruger Mk II or Mk III guns or the Buckmarks)

I just saw a post on another gun forum -- a guy looking for advice on his first rifle.  He doesn't hunt, and wants something capable of taking a deer, to feed his family "in case the SHTF".   

[Boomhauer]

I just saw a post on another gun forum -- a guy looking for advice on his first rifle.  He doesn't hunt, and wants something capable of taking a deer, to feed his family "in case the SHTF".   

Besides having no clue of how to process a deer (or any other animal), he obviously hasn't considered that other people in the area are going to also hunt said deer and the local deer population surely can't last long.

Besides that at least in my area, if you see a deer in the woods, you are generally close enough to shoot it in the head with a .22 and poach it. Distances aren't exactly vast in the often overgrown woods around here.

[KD5NRH]

You mean a group of friends deciding to pull there resources together to help defend each other by all going to a place that is remote and fortified is bad?  I don't recall them all having the same vehicle, in fact I think one even had a mustang. And them all having a gun that can share mags and use the same kind of ammo, doesn't sound like a bad idea to me.

Diversity is a good thing, regardless of the military's hardon for trying to do everything with 5.56.  For scouts, the M16 and variants are great; light, small, low recoil.  For stationary guard posts, lightweight isn't nearly as important; give them a serious cartridge, or even a good crew-served weapon.  In a vehicle, short but powerful is best for the primary weapon, (AR10 or similar) and there's no good reason not to stuff a really good sniper rifle behind the seat.

Having other cartridges for the game-getters also keeps you from inadvertently using up defense ammo on hunting and vice versa.  Obviously you can still use, say, .243 for defense, but it takes a conscious decision to switch rifles rather than just spray-and-pray everything in your foxhole and then realize you can't get meat anymore.

[RevDisk]

Aye. I finished his novel in a single day. Couple of thoughts. Dude is real religious, apparently thinks everyone else is either real religious (or working at being real religious) or else they are a very bad/dangerous person.

His thinking is not very flexible. He has his way, and that are not flexible. Boris phrased it quite well. If you are not prepared to follow his type of thinking, you may find the book somewhat but not extremely useful. I am not saying it's worthless. I'm just saying it has limited amounts of use.

If you read the novel, be prepared for every stereotypical right wing fantasy. From the only liberals being communist cannibals to the UN invading/occupying the US to "Wolverines" overthrowing federal government slash UN globalist slash Jewish banking conspiracy. I noted the half hearted attempt at tokenism. Those parts made me physically cringe. Because a) it's such a simplistic view of the world that the stupidity is actually painful and b) it shows the very sharp limits of the guy's knowledge.  If the above sounds awesome, it's not written as well as you think.  The characters can and are often flat/hollow.  The action scenes start getting written better towards the tail end, but the ending is badly written and abbreviated.  "And then we wins!!!  And everyone accepts religion, and we's haves gold standard, ands the economy magically fixes itself, and the wimmin know their place, ands the evil Europeans pay us to allow them to leave, and we add fifty billion Constitutional amendments"   Etc, etc.

The guy may or may not be very knowledgeable about survivalism techniques and equipment. But he bases his entire life around theology, more so than anything truly objective. Yes, yes, he no doubt studies all kinds of niche "survival" skills. But at the expense of generalist knowledge of banking, commerce, economics, politics, and foreign culture.  Among several dozen other fairly major spheres of knowledge.  It is very apparent that the guy has significant deficiencies in his scope of knowledge. But in fairness, the areas he has applied himself to, he is quite knowledgeable.