Have a Merry Zombie-Free Chistmas!

This makes me feel warm and fuzzy. My family is all good and I hope yours is too. 2016 has been a good year and a tough one too. Lets look back and be thankful for all that's happened.

Merry Christmas!

Black Friday = The Great Panic

Yep, its scary. 

This photo is from a post on my buddy's Facebook page. Smart guy.

Its all fun and games 'till someone gets hurt. What was that report stating that NYC will descend into cannibalism in just two weeks of food running out?

I'm not all doom and gloom but today's nationwide madness is a taste of what can will happen. 

Some thoughts:

• I have food and water under the bed, but is it enough?

• Is my area really safe from rioting and marauders? 

• I have food but many people don't. What's gonna happen when thousands of them are going to start looking for it? Are they gonna ask politely?
• How will my community handle this crisis? 

• Can I really bug in my home location and ride out a crisis?
• I need to know when its time to get outta Dodge. Identifying the early warning signs could be a life saver. I want to avoid the mad rush to escape my area. 

• I think its time to rehearse our bug out drill again with our new SUV. 

• I wish I bought a black SUV. Easier to conceal. The one we got is kinda brightly colored.
• My next homework is the actual checklist when we bug out and how we put all the stuff into the SUV. What goes in, what order, how fast can we do it?

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A Great Panic can happen when food, water, electricity, and other essentials get turned off. It does not have to be a cataclysmic event. 

Get ready, your family is counting on you. 

Stay vigilant!

24th Defense & Sporting Arms Show

How's that piggy bank of yours? This is the time when I buy ammo at a 15-20% discount and maybe a few AR15 magazines. Hope to find a good deal. I'm in the market for .22lr and 5.56, maybe some .380 too.

These guys are some of the very best shooters in the world. Oh, the DSAS also has a Facebook page too. See you there!

Stay vigilant!

Happy Halloween!

I. Family Time

When I started this blog my kid was still tiny. Now she's a tall 8 year old and has grown accusomed to dealing with zombies every year. Here she is with this really cool family doing the Día de los Muertos theme. Nicely done! They even had cold drinks for the grown-ups.

This time we saw more Walkers. Maybe because Glenn and Abraham's deaths were traumatic. I saw a Negan or two, but far too many Harley Quinns. I think the zombie ratio went up this year and the number of Twilight characters are nearly next to zero. Good numbers if you ask me. Keep in mind that this is the Philippines. I wish our weather was a little cooler so we can have more options for costumes, but I'm not really complaining.

I took the opportunity to walk in full kit (without the magazines and ammo and my firearms). However I did take along an air rifle (the Gamo Whisper IGT) that kinda looks like a sniper rifle to complete the look. I also had my bow.

For the 1st leg of Trick or Treat, Mrs. Zombe Hunter was wearing my chest rig while I went with an archery setuo. It was cool coz she looked really nice in it! Sure wish she could play dress-up with me more. I mean, its only once a year. She wanted to do some Lara Croft thing, so it was pretty easy to sell the idea to her. 

For the rest of the night I wore my whole suit sans the guns plus my short-range bug out bag. I was surrounded by a horde of Zeds, Suicide Squad people, Pokemons, Rick's Crew, dead folks from The Book of Life, and the cast of the Avengers (favorite among the little ones).

I regret not being able to take more photos of the participants, but I was very busy taking watch over three small children. 

I only saw one killer clown. Guess they aren't that big a deal in our parts.

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II. A More Serious Note

Mrs. Zombie Hunter had a reflection about how many people were walking around all over town tonight: "out of the thousands, how many are trying to break in and steal things or do bad stuff?". It was something on our mind while we were walking with our daughter.

What if this horde were refugees fleeing some crisis or how about a roving band of desperate people? What if they were gangs pillaging food?

Say the same bunch of 200 people lining up outside that big house asking for candy was really asking for ALL OF YOUR STUFF, not just half?  And even if you wanted to do something to turn them away, could  you?

I think it was nice that she was thinking about all of this without me sounding like some know-it-all. I mean, she always gets an earful when I geek out talking about SHTF. It does not have to be SHTF if even a minor crisis forces people into getting desperate.


III. Two Kinds of Threats

A hungry crowd can become emotional and then turn desperate. I think with the preparations I have, this is something we can manage.  What I'm not so sure about is a crowd that would deliberately terrorize and attack the unprepared. Add that to my list of reasons to bug out. You can't hunker down for that.



IV. On the Nature of Crime and Crisis

Just now, as in literally 2 minutes ago we were talking about criminals. In all our experiences regarding the people who've swindled or stolen things from our property or company we both agreed on one thing:

Criminals will do their thing simply because an opportunity presented itself. Damn the consequences. 

Now factor that in a crisis scenario and all the big kahunas leading bands of wannabee marauders. That's what we should look out for.



Yeah. This Halloween was good. Nobody got hurt, except our teeth :-)



Stay safe and stay vigilant!

Photo Editing my Wasteland Suit With Prisma

Yep, this is me. hello zombie world! - TZH

click photos to enlarge

I've spent nearly two years putting this loadout together including the various tests for this blog. Nearly half of it is photography. Just yesterday I stumbled upon PRISMA on Google Play and its now my go-to photo editor to make my drab old photos look zombie-apocalypse themed. I love it!

The various filters really capture the mood I was looking for and I'm really happy how they come out. I can't wait to see how this app will evolve. Its free but frankly I'm prepared to pay a fair fee for some premium features because this stuff is pretty slick.

All my photos now have a comic-book feel and I think its perfect for my blog. Easy Peasy: I just put my favorite photos in my mobile phone, edit them with Prisma, and presto!

I don't have professional photography or studio so this app helps make my photos look way better. I actually spend a lot of time admiring my own collection and a lot more when they're edited.

Anyway, here's a sneak preview of my Wasteland Suit (still thinking of a more appropriate name) that's designed to operate away from my base for extended periods.

I can do well fighting a horde of zombies while knee-deep in floodwater in a raging tropical storm. In the dark. That is what my kit is designed for.

Its got a suppressed Kel-Tec SU22, eight 30 round magazines, my high-capacity Para-Ordnance P16.40 with 3 extra 19 round magazines, my United Cutlery M48 Tomahawk, and a Schrade bushcraft knife. There's more ammo and survival gear in the backpack.

This ain't cosplay, all my equipment is the real deal. My gear is not not mil-spec but I'm happy to say that everything is ready and tested for SHTF.

Full details to follow sometime soon. Pinky promise.

My kit was assembled and evaluated more than a year ago. If things go bad, I can put it all on in less than 10 minutes and it comes with my tier-two bug-out-bag which is good for about 7 days tops.



Stay vigilant!

Photos from the 24th AFAD Defense & Sporting Show

 from the Department of National Defense / Government Arsenal

 We bought this gun!

 More ammo from the DND / Government Arsenal

Available to the Philippine Army 

 Kiosks to apply for carry permits

 Speed Edge

 Haven't seen you before...

Lock & Load

Stay vigilant!

Blog Activity: Lots of Visitors from Russia

click to view da stats

I just want to say "thank you" or спасибо to all the cool dudes who are visiting me from Russia.

Its most probably a bunch of bots and hackers or something but if there are humans out there who are dropping by, yes you have my appreciation.  :-)
Stay Vigilant!

International Tribunal in the Hague Rules in favor of the Philippines, #CHexit

On this day June 12, 2016, my country defeated china's illegal and imaginary nine-dash-line claim. This is a massive swathe of the ocean and it encroaches heavily into our Exclusive Economic Zone and Territorial Waters. The International Tribunal in The Hague unanimously ruled that all of china's claims are invalid. 

You won't believe how the hashtag #CHexit is trending right now! Hahaha

I am celebrating this historic victory because china has been building illegal structures on our islands. They have harassed our fishermen, caused irreversible damage to marine resources and wildlife, and prevented us from rightful oil exploration. 

They have also sought to justify their theft by presenting various fabricated historical maps and text, all of which were easily debunked by their own scholars who are most probably living in a re-education camp by now.

china will not respect the ruling but our allies the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, and the EU are going to use this as legal basis to enforce and uphold Freedom of Navigation in the West Philippine Sea. The whole world is turning against them.

Yes folks, this is not a zombie attack, but it sure as hell could raise military tensions in my part of the world. Its nearly as bad as a global zombie apocalypse. 

A little explanation on that pariah of a country's preposterous imaginary claim

Want to know the details? Here are the Key points of arbitral tribunal’s verdict on PH-China dispute. 

This is a real threat to national security for all the affected nations in Asia especially mine because the chinese government believes its own hype and thinks it can bully us. 

So yeah, this is one the things people in my part of the world are PREPPING for. 

To use the battlecry of my ancestors: MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS! 

Long live the Philippines!

Stay vigilant!

Coming Soon: 24th AFAD Defense & Sporting Arms Show

See you there!

How Much Ammo Do You Need for the Zombie Apocalypse?

I'm always worried about having enough ammunition. WTSHTF, you won't be able to buy them or the components to reload. Ammunition will be a scarce but essential thing that will be crutial to survival.

Ammo is useful! You can defend yourself, you can hunt for food, you can use them for barter in a post-collapse society. Even brass would be worth trading things for, so pick them up when you can.

Keep in mind that the crisis that we are preparing for may take years to overcome.

On the flip side however, I'm not trying to scare you into hoarding tons of bullets, you need to balance this against your family's other needs. Butter or bullets? Choose wisely!

Here are some of my firearms and what goes through my head when I think about how much ammo I need for each of them:

I. .40 S&W

I go through about 1600 rounds per month for IPSC practice and competitions. That's training every Thursday and then weekend matches. My pistol eats a lot of ammo just so I could stay "hot". I also have two extra guns for my sport.

To put things into perspective, I shot 10,000 rounds in the past 6 months for competitive practice alone.

I only have 2000 left. Since I have multiple pistols, having 5,000-10,000 should be a minimum. 


II. .177

I have a break-barrel air rifle, the Gamo Whisper IGT in .177, and I want to have as much ammo for this as I could because its an ideal training rifle and great for small game hunting. This airgun can also punch through a zombie skull below 30 meters.

I have a total of 1200 rounds. I think I should have at least 5,000 so we can shoot this gun whenever we like.

III. .38 spl

My Armscor M206 holds a special place in my collection. My wife keeps this handy as her home carry. Its not her favorite, but she can fight with it. Its a tricky gun to shoot accurately using double-action, but the single action mode is ideal. Its short sight radius is tough to use so this gun needs decent range time to become proficient with.

I've got about 300 rounds of this and perhaps it would be nice to have 1000 for storage. 

IV. .380 auto

I have two pistols in this caliber. The Kel-Tec P3AT and my new SIG P238. These are two of the most popular pocket carry guns. They also serve as backup to my primary .40 high-cap. The Kel-Tec is hard to aim, the SIG however is a dream to shoot.

I got about 500 rounds of these and having 500 more would make me feel better.



V. 12 Gauge

The  Benelli M3T is my ultimate CQB weapon. If I have to protect the house or clear a building, this would be my tool. This is a bit tricky because of the wide assortment of loads. I have 00 Buck, slugs, birdshot, #4 Buck, and "bantam" loads that are small and let me load an additional round to make a 7+1 into an 8+1 capacity.

This is also the bulkiest. heaviest, and most expensive of all my ammo. Perhaps this is why I got .22lr in the first place.

I have a total of 550 rounds. Most of these comprising the full-power "combat" loads. I should aim for 2000 rounds. 

VI. 5.56 and .223

I don't have a centerfire rifle yet. However I made my commitment to get one by purchasing close to 3000 rounds. 

I will store these and attempt to build a minimum of 6000 for storage and then the rest would be used for practice and matches. When I get a second AR-15, I will then bump the reserves to 10,000 rounds.  

VII. .22LR

                                               Marlin XT-22YR & Kel-Tec SU-22, awesome zombie slaying weapons!

Say hello to my favorite caliber. Its so much fun to shoot a semi-auto suppressed rifle. Its tremendously satisfying to practice with a quiet bolt-action rifle. The whole thing about these guns is pure enjoyment. They're also the means by which I will thin the hordes of undead with. Nothing will destroy more zombies than the mighty .22lr. 

That being said, I don't think I could ever say that I would have enough of this caliber. I now have 7,000 rounds of assorted .22lr. They are primarily subsonic and "super-quiet" Armscor rounds. 

Super-quiet ammo averages 860fps, and the 40 grain head easily blasts through two coconut shells at 35 meters. 

This is the bullet for the apocalypse, home defense, hunting and good old plinking!  

I want to hit 10k rounds for this soon and hoard even more. Its also a bummer that there is no way to reload this in any practical manner. Thank goodness the factory over here churns them out with regularity and at a decent price. 

This reminds me to get me a suppressed .22lr pistol and another semi-auto rifle that would have mags compatible with my SU22.

VIII. Deficiencies?

Funny, I don't even have 9mm or .45ACP. Those two are the most commonplace ammo in the whole world aside from .22lr. Is this going to be a problem for me? Yes! It forced me to increase my reserves because I am expecting to have a hard time keeping my .380 and .40s properly fed.

IX. Conclusion

So there you have it. This is how I answer "how much ammo do I need for SHTF". All I did was ask myself what I intend to do with these firearms. 

I admit that I have too many different kinds of ammo. In a perfect world I would have just 2-3 kinds of ammo so my logistics won't be such a headache, but all of the firearms have a very good purpose.

Perhaps I need to consider reloading. As it stands my prepping budget does not yet have this in my short-range plans. Having the ability to reload would help me a whole lot. I'll give it some serious thought.

This is going to be expenseive...


Stay vigilant!

UPDATE:

As of October 2019 we got our selves two 9mm handguns! I can reload this caliber too so I'm off to a great start. Yahoooo! (January 24, 2020)

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!