Conflicted Cards Review

Gear Review: Conflicted Cards
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I recently purchased a set of conflicted cards and used them to discuss survival issues with my wife.

When I first saw the cards I knew I would have to get them, I wasn’t sure how good they would be, but I immediately recognized the value of the concept.

I am pleased to report that these cards are really well thought out and I got a lot out of using them.
They are designed to be used as a game – and each card has a survival scenario and to play the rules are simple:

  1. Every scenario assumes the world has gone into chaos and that the apocalypse has taken place.
  2. When dealing cards, feel free to shuffle and pass around the cards between the players or leave the deck in the center of the gaming area and everyone draws a card, or any other way you see fit.
  3.  Each turn starts with a player reading a question card to the person next to them, moving clockwise.
  4. Once the card is read, discard it aside.
  5. The answering player has 3 minutes to describe exactly what he or she would do in order to deal with the scenario.
  6. The remaining players will grade the answering players question on a scale from zero to three.
  7. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
  8. Feel free to vote openly or in secret, depending on the maturity of the group. If in secret, one player must be chosen to add up the grades and announce a winner.
  9. Always take the scenarios on the cards at full face value. When in doubt about the complexity of the scenario of a card, the asking player will have the right to frame the scenario or question as they see fit, keeping it close to reality.

Although Conflicted: The Survival Card Game has no foul language or nudity, the content is aimed at mature audiences only. Life in a post-apocalyptic world isn’t to be taken lightly.

My wife and I take turns digging through the cards and selecting a scenario that resonates with us and then asking the other what they would do in the scenario.

By using the cards In this manner we can feel out the similarities and differences in our mindset. Its amazing how this simple card set can break through assumptions and point out true beliefs.

As SouthernPrepper1 said in his review , I also see some use as a method to vet potential survival team members, but I have yet to use it in this context.

At $14.95 I think this is a very good deal – the discussions this game facilitate are worth much more than the price of the cards. Personally I plan on bringing this to the next family gathering and seeing just what other members think…

Prepper Pete

Book Review: Prepper Pete
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I recently got the opportunity to review a very interesting book from Kermit Jones Jr.

This military Chaplain and father of 4 young children needed to figure out how to introduce the concept of personal preparedness to his daughters without scaring.

In this book Kermit uses the old prepper analogy of prepared ants to explore the concepts of prepping through the life of one particularly smart  ant named Pete.

In Pete’s travels he and his family decide they need to prepare and in a simplistic and non-judgmental way they store food, learn skills, and prepare for a variety of unknown and known disasters.

What I like most about the Prepper Pete series is the message. Prepper Pete says “Some people prepare because they are afraid. Our family doesn’t have to be afraid… because we are prepared!”

This is a fun way to introduce kids to the work of preparedness by showing them that preparedness is based out of common sense and love rather being a crack-pot thing to hide.

I have read this book to my Son, and I look forward to discussing it with him as he gets older, but right now all he wants to talk about is “me milk” and “down please”.

Pact III Club Timer Review

Pact III Club Timer Review and Demonstration
Pact III Club Timer

I want to do two things in this article on the Pact III Club Timer;

I want to not only talk about what a shot timer is and why you need to use one in your firearms training program.  Additionally, I wanted to review and demonstrate the Pact III Club timer.

If you are already familiar with shot timers you can skip the introductory paragraphs.

A shot timer is a chronograph that measures elapsed time

What makes it of use is that instead of having a button to start and stop a shot timer responds to the pressure wave of a gunshot. Most of them have a countdown timer attached to a buzzer. This buzzer allows for solo training.  You can activate the timer and then wait until it buzzes to begin firing.

I think shot timers are invaluable to good firearm skill advancement. They give the shooter a way to measure the second half of the accuracy/speed equation.

When working with shooters that are trying to increase their defensive capabilities with a pistol I like working with a 9 inch paper plate at 7 yards. We work on being able to quickly draw and put multiple rounds in the plate without missing. If the shooter’s target shows a tight accurate group then it is time to speed them up, if they miss the plate then they need to slow down.

A Timer is Objective

Having a shot timer lets the shooter get objective and measurable times.  You can then compare them with past exercise times.  It allows fact based observations.  Being able to say “by changing my grip I shoot an average of .06 seconds faster” is more useful to a shooter than “this feels faster”.

To get full use you need to know the difference between split and par times.

Split time is the time between shots.  This is useful if your exercise involves multiple rounds in a scenario.

Par time is total time, and is similar to the par at golf. If you set the device with a par of 7 seconds (which is a very respectable time for an el president drill) the buzzer will sound to let you start.  Next then buzz will sound again at 7 seconds to let you know you hit the limit.

Timers, especially the Pact III are simple to use and only have a few buttons.

On this model you have four buttons; Go, Rvw (Review), and Up & Down arrows.

To use, simply press the go button and wait to hear the buzzer to initiate your training scenario.

If you look at the picture at the top of the article you will see the face of my Pact III timer.

At the upper left is the total number of shots fired in that string. You can see I fired 5 rounds.

The 41.16 is the total time measured to the hundredth of a second.
It is also the time that I fired my 5th shot.

At the bottom left, the .82 is the delay between the beep and my first shot.

Finally, the 39.43 is the split, the time between the 4th and the 5th shot.

Using the Review function will show you when every shot was fired.  It will also show the splits between them.

In this case you can see that the delay between the fourth and fifth shot was almost 40 seconds.  This left me with about one second to fire the first 4 shots.

Since you can also see it took me 8 tenths of a second to fire the first shot, the second, third and fourth shots were fired extremely fast.
You can correctly deduce from this, that I was just trying to make noise and was not firing very consistently or accurately…

The review button and the arrow keys to cycle through the shots.  You can see the splits between each shot to get an exact picture of what happened.

In my opinion as a firearm instructor, I think that a shot timer is a vital piece of training gear.  When used to evaluate your shooting and identify trends, progress and plateaus can make you a better shooter.

At around 125 dollars at Brownells.  This piece of equipment can definitely make your training dollars more effective and help you become a better shooter.

To order a timer, or see one of the thousand of other great gun related items please visit Brownells from the link below.

Review Mason Jar Sprouting Lid

Review Mason Jar Sprouting Lid

Review Mason Jar Sprouting Lid
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Since wheat is such a large part of my food storage plan, I try to sprout it occasionally to keep my family accustomed to the taste and texture of different ways to eat bulk wheat.

One of the problems I have when I sprout is not straining the wheat properly and having a white mold grow in my sprouting jar.

When I saw a $5 Mason Jar Sprouting Lid on Amazon I thought I would try it.

This lid made sprouting using mason jars much easier – I could fill and drain the jar without having to take the lid off –

It was much simpler than my old method of using a piece of cheesecloth and a rubber band.

It is also easier to clean – and I imagine that it will last as long as I will.

For those that don’t want to use a store-bought solution – I imagine you could drill a bunch of 1/8 inch holes in a plastic mayonnaise jar lid.

Sprouting is a great way to get more nutrients and use out of seeds, and seeds are generally easier to store than many other foods, so I feel that this is a win.

However, if you don’t want to buy a lid like this, I think you could probably improvise a mason jar sprouting lid using a Parmesan cheese lid.

Thriftyvac Vacuum Sealer Review

Thriftyvac Vacuum Sealer
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Since oxygen is one of the primary enemies of food storage, preppers, homesteaders, and those living frugally can all benefit having the ability to vacuum seal food. The problem for preppers is that most vacuum sealing options are electrically operated. For the frugal, the problem is that most systems use proprietary bags that are expensive. Homesteaders may have issues with the availability of bags – I know I tend to have a half empty roll of bags when I start to process meat.

A few months ago, while exploring the kick-starter website, I found a innovative device that solves all of these problems. I immediately sponsored the project, and asked the inventor, Dr. Cannon, to come on my podcast and explain his machine.

Last month I finally got his thiftyvac device in the mail, and while it was smaller than I had imagined (a good thing), it was every bit as useful as I had imagined.

Basically the thiftyvac is a fixture that turns a large ziplock bag into a vacuum chamber that allows the user to vacuum seal smaller ziplock bags sealed inside. This is useful because traditional electric powered sealers can only work with their proprietary bags that have tiny ridges molded into the plastic – use something smooth like mylar and they cannot pull a vacuum.

Since the bag is placed inside a chamber, as the air is sucked out of the chamber pressure is equal inside and immediately outside the bag so that even smooth bags can be emptied of air.

All you do after the vacuum process is complete is to press the inner Ziploc bag closed.

Let me tell you, I kick myself every time I see it, as it is so simple and elegant, I wish I had thought of it myself.

Dr. Cannon stayed with many commercially available parts both to keep prices low and to ensure reliability. One integral such part is the air pump – the thriftyvac includes a small hand powered pump that allows the device to be used without electrical power. I find that not only is the thriftyvac cheaper to use than my food-saver, it is smaller, and much easier to use.

What is even more impressive is that he did not stop there, Dr. Cannon also invented a new set of mason jar lid adapters, and an adapter to use the thriftyvac with commercial vacuum sealers for those that choose not to use the hand pump.

I am planning on experimenting with it more and see if I cannot use a mylar bag clamp and my 7mil mylar bags. I also want to see if I can use his pump instead of my break bleeder pump as I like using the mason jar adaptors I bought previously.

I haven’t received anything for this article, or the 5 star review I posted on Amazon – I bought my own thriftyvac. I just believe in the product, and think that it serves to solve a need that I have had for a longtime. Namely a cheap way to vacuum seal food and ammo when the power is out…