Pistol Caliber Carbines for SHTF

I can remember very clearly how 10 years ago people were saying that the 9mm carbine or submachinegun was obsolete.  This was when the 300 BLK platform was the cool kid and anybody who had a short barreled 5.56 was somehow doing it wrong for CQB.

Back then the only PCC I could think of was the Kel-Tec SUB2K.

The same critics are now singing praises over every new AR9 coming out saying its ideal for home defense and 9mm isn't anemic. 

I never thought that carbines were obsolete.  The US army has recently acquired a 9mm SMG.

There will always be a place for a pistol caliner carbine before, during, and after SHTF. 

For the Zombie Apocalypse, I would recommend one for a few key reasons:

1. Ammunition availability: there was never a great rimfire drought for traditional pistol ammunition. In the Philippines, 5.56 and 7.62 are hard to come by in this present political climate. 

2. Superior handling: It may lack the power and range of a proper rifle caliber, but a PCC can help a shooter land quicker and accurate fire in distances up to 100 yards far better than someone using a handgun. 

Its so easy, smaller framed people could use it effectively. 

More on that later.

3. Size: The smallest ones like the new IWI Uzi can fit inside the smallest of man-bags. An AR9 can be folded and stuffed into a laptop bag. How cool is that? 

4. Training opportunities: Many countries such as mine have competitive venues for PCC matches. Just like in the USA, the Philippines has caught... the PCC bug. We even have carry permits for them too because of convoluted gun logic that for once works in our favor. 

5. Variety: There is a PCC for everyone.  The Angstadt UDP-9, Ruger PC carbines, IWI Tavor 9mm, Norinco MsP5 clone, CZ Scorpion, Sig MPX, JP Enterprise AR9s, CMMG Banshee, and a whole lot more have already seen tournament use here in the Philippines.  

6. You could add a suppressor. Against the undead? 'Nuff said!

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For our young Hunter I've had two firearms in mind for her, the CMMG Banshee or the Kalashnikov KR-9. 

East vs. West!

I'm really a NATO kind of guy and prefer the AR15 ergos aesthetics, but that Russian PDW looks slick, shoots really well, and is ideal for folks who want a gun that's good to go without all the tinkering AR-platform boys like to do. 

I am likely to go with the Banshee for my stated reasons, plus parts availability and the delayed blowback technology in its bolt. An edge is and edge. 

Think of a suppressed short barreled rifle with an optic that wakes up when you grab it, plus 33 rounds on tap. 

With this in her hands she'd be incredibly potent against any foe, living or undead. 

Things are looking up. With more choices becoming available to us and careful planning we could vastly improve our defensive capabilities.  

Stay vigilant!

Survival Strategy #15: The AR-15 for SHTF

Photo from UDMC Corporation

I. In a SHTF scenario, you need the right tools for the right job. In my family's moderately-sized collection of firearms, we only have weapons suited for short to medium range engagements. I have decided that we need a rifle that would be effective beyond 300 yards. Its time to save up for an AR-15.

I have been putting this off for years. Since my last post on this blog I had poured myself into competitive shooting and acquiring other survival essentials for my family. Before I get my first center-fire rifle, I wanted to make sure that we can live comfortably when the grid finally goes down. Hey, I gotta show Mrs. Zombie Hunter that I'm all about the skills and not just the "toys".

Im a pistolero but I'm kinda new to long range marksmanship. Sure we have two rimfire rifles, the Kel-Tec SU22 and a Marlin XT22. Both function flawlessly and have specific roles WTSHTF. I have tons of ammo for them and  hitting head-sized targets out to 100-150 yards with them is a cinch.

My wife and 8-year old daughter learned to shoot with these and we can take down thousands of Zeds from a safe distance quietly because they are suppressed.

Take a look at this photo on the right. This is a hundred yards and hitting head-sized targets wasn't so bad. We could easily land two-inch groups using both these rifles with a 1-4x on the Kel-Tec and a 4-16x on the Marlin.

However the .22lr can only do so much...

I hate to say it but we are at a huge disadvantage against HUMAN threats. Despite onerous Firearm Ownership Laws in my country, you can bet that there would be thousands of hostiles armed with the ubiquitous Elisco or Colt M16s over here when things go south.

And speaking of draconian firearm laws...

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Why so much fuss over a rifle? To my American readers, here's a few details on our laws that makes it difficult to just grab a few rifles off the shelf and call it a day.

II. Restrictive Firearm Ownership in the Philippines:

TLDR: Republic Act #10591 and its Implementing Rules & Regulations 

In my country, our laws assign you a higher bracket for each firearm you own:

Type 1 License allows a citizen to own and possess a maximum of 2 registered firearms.
Type 2 license – allows a citizen to own and possess a maximum of five (5) registered firearms
Type 3 license – allows a citizen to own and possess a maximum ten (10) registered firearms
Type 4 license – allows a citizen to own and possess a maximum of fifteen (15) registered firearms
Type 5 license – allows a citizen, who is certified gun collector, to own and possess more than fifteen (15) registered firearms.
                                                    Utter BS! Elitism!

Licensing fees range from $20 from Class 1 every two years to $320 for the Type 5 License, on top of other fees. Pretty dang hard for the regular Pedro and Juan to arm up. This really sucks! :-(

In America, you can basically own as much as you like. It is not the case over here. Count your blessings, fight for your rights!

Basically, the more you own, the more you pay for their registration every two years. So for Filipino gun owners on a smart budget like me, all purchases are deliberate. In my bracket of Type 3, I won't bump up my catergory needlessly.

III. So why an AR-15?

1. Parts and maintenance are readily available. Despite local terrorist groups using AKs, the NATO rifle is still the most popular long arm in the country.

2. I can use it for competitive shooting! We can train and become skilled with it. USPSA 3-Gun Nation events are actually running over here every month so there are many opportunities to become competent riflemen.

3. Ammunition is abundant thank goodness. I can get into reloading in the near future.

3. Its an ideal defense & survival weapon 'coz my wife and daughter can use it pretty well. They had more fun with the rifles compared to our pistols.

4. I need reach! My Shotgun, 5 pistols, air rifle, and two rimfire rifles won't cut it over 150 yards.

IV. What kind of AR-15?

• A 16 inch stainless steel barrel with a full-length handguard
• I'll put my Vortex Viper PST 1-4x on it plus back-up sights
• It will be suppressed
• Its a 3-gun rifle so it will be more expensive, but reliability & performance is what I'm after
• I want NV capability but that is a wishlist item for now since importing them to the Philippines would be very difficult... but not impossible!

V. Where am I now? 

I got ammo! Nearly 3000 rounds at a great deal and they are now squirreled away at a secret but convenient location. I can build up to a minimum of 6000 to store away and use excess for training and competition.

I have also selected the company to build my rifle: United Defense Manufacturing Corporation (UDMC). Why them? They are a relatively new firearm manufacturer but their high-quality rifles were selected by a Southeast Asian country as their army's next-generation rifle.

They use premium parts and Bergara barrels. UDMC rifles have won international matches. And here's a huge plus: their factory located really near my home! I am in good hands. 

My original plan was a budget rifle like the Smith & Wesson M&P 15 Sport for the fantastic price and reliability. Other choices were from Noveske and Colt. My dad has a few M16A1s from the Vietnam era and maybe a Colt M4 or two, but I did not want to subtract from his collection.

Later on I'll get another one for my wife and daughter. For now I want a premium-grade one that could stand the rigors of competition.

I'm pretty excited to finally visit their store and make the down payment hopefully in August. They said they can build it in less than two months including customization. Stay tuned for that!

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Its good to be blogging again. I've got new topics to cover as well as the survival gear I mentioned earlier.

Family life and my career in Risk Management has been all good in the past two years since my last blog entry. I hope all of you guys are doing well and have made more progress in survival preparation.

I was originally going to make just a small journal entry when I started this 3 hours ago, but hey. I love this. I can't do anything half-arsed. Photo on the right shows you how I feel right about now...



Stay vigilant!

Home Improvement: Rainwater Harvesting

I've been quite busy these past few days doing some important housework.

We upgraded our water tank and retooled our old one for rainwater harvesting. The shiny new tank is connected directly to the water company's pipes and can hold up to 23 gallons. In case of service interruption, it is good enough for 48 hours of household needs. For drinking & cooking, we've got various filtration systems.


My Situation
In a tropical country such as ours, we are visited by about 18-22 typhoons per year. It also rains most of the darn time. With my new system, we'll never be thirsty!

About 3 of these storms would hit our city directly, and maybe just one or two of these would knock out electricity & water for 1-2 days.

Its only a minor nuisance. The time spent in the dark with family is a good opportunity to actually try your survival gear. Mosquito nets, monopoly, candles & lamps, food, extra water, and medicine will all be nice to have for that short period while the power company fixes things. 

Now once in a while something as big as Katrina or a screwed up nuclear plant would happen. A royal mess such as this would certainly put a strain on your life span. The living dead rising up to eat us all? I'm talking about that too.

This is where preparedness comes in. 

This is my old tank. It can hold 40 gallons of skyjuice.

The Strategy of Water Storage

Water is life. If you have a lot of it, you could stay barricaded at home for extended periods. WTSHTF, one of the worst things you could do is to bug out at a time of great panic. What most survivalists don't get is that bugging out can be extremely dangerous! If you've built a strong home defense, then perhaps it would be better to hunker down during the early phases of the crisis. 

Rainwater harvesting will definitely reduce the amount of time spent outdoors. Let me repeat: doing anything  outside the safety of your home is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Especially if thousands of walking dead are out there. With a good rainwater harvesting system, you have one less reason to go foraging.

If you need to drink your stuff, make sure you have a sure-fire means of purification. More on that later.

My home has a stone perimeter wall that is 6 feet high. I've got lots of food, ammo, medicine, and a box of monopoly, crayons & musical stuff for my daughter to play with while the world outside goes nuts. So there's got no immediate need to bug out because of the preparations we've made. If we must escape, my emergency map will do the trick.

Stay vigilant!

Is your castle sturdy?

We just got hit by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter about 100 kilometers from my hometown.   Not yet the big one.  Have you been doing anything constructive?

Click to Zoom

For most of us, our homes will be the castle that protects our loved ones from the living dead.  Have you considered that it may no longer be safe in case an earthquake hits? 

A zombie apocalypse is not a short term event.  Months, weeks, or years may pass before mankind overcomes the crisis.  By then, government services that you are paying for would have already bellied up. 

The problem is that Mother Nature won't change her schedule just 'cause a few billion zombies are eating a few billion mammals.

Ready or not, she's gonna hit us.

Your Taxes VS The Zombie Apocalypse

I suggest you start making your taxes work for you sooner rather than later. One way is to call on the City Building Official's Office.  Its their job to make sure that buildings comply with safety standards.  Most of their attention is focused on high-rises and other commercial structures. 

If your home was built more than 10 years ago, it is time to have it checked.  Many new technologies have come up in the past decade, and your crib has been hit more than a couple of times since.  Those little cracks on the wall may not mean anything today, but what about the ones you don't see?  Quit worrying and do something about it. 

Its never too early to get the most out of things while the authorities are still around to work for you.  While you're at it, avail of essential services, programs, and other "freebies" that your municipality has to offer.  Free T-Virus vaccination?  Heck yes! 

Grab these things in the near future for your family's sake.

Stay vigilant!

Survival Strategy #8: Home Defense Analysis II, The Siege

In Part I of our Home Defense Analysis, we examined how we could fortify the interior of our homes in case TSHTF with nifty help from Floorplanner.com.  With that essential first step, we have learned how to identify a few critical areas that could turn our home into a castle.  

In this segment we complete the picture by integrating other survival strategies to be ready for the worst-case scenario: The Siege.

The Situation:

Your group has kept a low profile for a long time since the outbreak.  Your home's defenses have been hardened & have stocked up on renewable sources of sustenance.  Things were going well until hordes of walking dead began moving through your neighborhood. Your family knows how lay low, early preparedness & vigilance have seen to that.  However one of your neighbors have somehow managed to attract the attention of a big group which are now attacking their home.  To your horror, they detect your presence despite everything you've done.   They are at the gates...  

click to zoom

If you've done your homework, entry points would be barricaded, weaknesses have been corrected, defensible areas created, and you've also prepared multiple emergency exits that lead to safety.  Take note of the SUV that's wonderful at blocking gates.  You won't need it in a major outbreak.  The wiser choice would be to travel noiselessly by foot or bicycle to your next safe houses.  

The Problem Grows

Most people assume that a perimeter wall and lots of guns will do.   I've got a tall one made of cement & the front's got sturdy iron bars.  Mrs. Zombie Hunter is pleased because of the quality workmanship.  Unfortunately, this will not be enough.  Once they've detected you, the horde will pull at your gates endlessly and the metal will give way after a few hours.  They don't tire, sleep, or pause for breaks.  Use this time to make final defensive measures.

once they've detected you, they won't go away

Hard Choices

At some point you will need to take action.  You need to assess the situation to decide if your defenses will hold or not.  If they will not, mostly because of ever-increasing numbers, your family must be prepared to escape.   Getting trapped only means delaying the inevitable. If you're trapped, you're dead. Don't ever get trap.  Remember that the fear of change and the unfamiliar can be too much for some of you. Time is life, act before its too late!

• Step 1:  Agree on the conditions that identify when it is no longer possible to defend your home.  This will help break paralysis of some fearful or unwilling group members.

• Step 2: Stay on top of the situation so you know when its time to leave.  Before this happens, your family needs to be ready to go.  Bug-out-bag, emergency maps, back-up plans, etc.

• Step 3:  Slow them down. Create a path. Escape!

For step 3 to work, you need to keep the undead from entering your home long enough to get your family ready.  Yeah yeah, this is when we start shooting those undead bitches. 

Enemy at the Gates
Have your shooters quickly assemble at pre-designated firing positions.  The goal is to slow them down long enough for your family to get their stuff ready.  Hopefully you've been able to train your wife and other family members to use firearms proficiently.  The more shooters per household, the better.  Always have at least ONE person going around your home to make sure that the undead have not found an unforeseen weak spot in your defenses.

For this scenario, rifles would be best suited because of the distance from the windows to your gates.  Accurate shots to the head from beyond 15 meters will be hard to do with any other weapon.

The ideal firing positions would have a good field of view and have a criss-cross pattern so that your two shooting positions form a kill zone.  This is where the maximum amount of damage can be inflicted at an area where the enemy has been funneled into.  See the above figure to see what I mean.

At this point, your family members should be ready to escape to the emergency exits.

this is it. don't get scared now

The Breakthrough
This will be the most distressing part of the siege. Once they've reached the main doors, shotguns and close range weapons will be effective.  Before they break in, your non-combatants should be already near the exits.  The whole idea is to gather the zombies into one area: the front door.  This is to increase the chance that there will be much fewer undead on the other side.

The interior home defense analysis will play a crucial role here.  You should have identified where the defensible areas are inside.  A properly barricaded staircase can be defended by even a single person with just a handgun & an axe because only a maximum of about two zombies could come up the stairs at a time.  The goal of the people upstairs is to escape through the windows and balcony at the second floor to the rear of the home.

In our example, the kitchen is a natural strong point. Tables and other objects can quickly form an effective barrier.  You can stop a lot of them from here. Once everybody upstairs have moved to the back of the house, the defenders in the kitchen can execute the escape plan.

In the picture above, the defenders have drawn the enemy inside and have slowed their movement with well-placed barriers.  Making a stand in these optimal locations can maximize your firepower!

The Escape

You've been able to get your kids and elderly to the emergency exits.  They've also got their bug out bags & provisions.  The defenders have blocked the kitchen door that leads out with a refrigerator and washing machine.  This is it, time to escape!  

Your home is lost but everybody's okay.  If you were paying attention to our previous activities, your family members would be equipped with the special emergency map.  The map also identifies danger-zones to minimize risk during travel.  If properly done, these would be multiple locations that are situated near ideal resource points to keep you well fed & safe for a long time to come.  

Conclusion:

1. If you put all of the previous survival strategies together, you will be able to defend your home and get out alive & stay alive.

2. Don't be lulled into complacency.  Any fortress can be breached.  Always have an escape plan!

3. Vigilance is the first line of defense, preparedness will help you endure.

4. All of this won't mean jack if you don't involve your family.  Teamwork will be the best weapon against the zombie apocalypse!

Stay vigilant! Be prepared!

Survival Strategy # 6: The Home Defense Analysis, Part 1 (INTERIOR)

Staying up at night because the zombie horde could crash into your home and eat everybody?    I sleep well because I did a Home Defense Analysis that turned my home into a castle.  Let me help you.

Start by going to Floorplanner.com, its an awesome resource.  Quickly make one for your home, then take a screen capture & print it out.  Do not share your plans with people you don't trust!  This information should not fall into the wrong hands.


For Part One, we will focus on the interior.  

Identify these attributes:

1. Weak points that undead intruders will try to break down.  - Reinforce these right away.  Glass windows & screen doors are good enough for mosquitoes and burglars, but you need something strong enough for THREE zombies per square foot.  Iron bars are a popular choice.  DO NOT FORGET to seek advice from your significant other to make sure that your reinforcements are aesthetically sound.  Sturdiness is your department.

2. Defensible Areas - a place that has many advantages where it will be easy for you to hold off multiple attackers.  If they break in, you can make a stand here.  Stick to your goal of buying precious time for your family to either escape or destroy the intruders.

3. Places to Barricade and Reinforce - Even after reinforcing your weak points, you still need to know what will need to be boarded up.  Your storage inside your home should have wooden planks, nails, saws, and hammers so you could accomplish this in the shortest amount of time WTSHTF.

4. Emergency Exits - Every home needs more than one of these.  You need it mostly for Fire.  Against a zombie horde, you need these so your family would never be cornered & trapped.

5. Hidden Weapon Cache - When an emergency happens, you will need to secure your family.  Placing hidden & secure weapon safes in strategic locations will let you accomplish your main goal w/o wasting time.  This could come in handy in a hectic fight.  Remember the rules of gun safety!

I created an analysis using a floor plan similar to my home.  I determined what I needed to do and have thus achieved peace of mind.

click to zoom

Your improvements to the home will protect your family & impress your woman.  

A well-made Home Defense Analysis will keep burglars, the living dead, your daughter's suitors & similar pests away from your loved ones.  

Stay vigilant!

Now head on to this page for part two.