Table of contents for August/September 2017 in RECOIL OFFGRID

When people learn that I’m the editor of this publication or that I’m a self-defense instructor, the common response is often, “Wow, you must be a badass expert.” That’s not how I see it. Like you, I’m first and foremost a perpetual student — constantly learning, practicing, and improving. Whether it’s in these pages or on the training mat, it’s my job to impart the most useful knowledge so that you can be better prepared for what might lie ahead. No, that doesn’t make me a badass expert. I leave those types of honorifics to people who deserve them. The irony is that those who’ve earned such titles don’t embrace them. I’ve had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with real-life heroes — fearless firefighters, elite military operators, and high-level survival…

It wasn’t my call to make, and this wasn’t some goofy action flick on TV. There were hundreds of lives at risk if the rat’s nest of wires I glimpsed was actually a bomb. And if it was an explosive device, and if I sent a train attendant toward him, I knew that my sweet wife, everyone onboard, and I would likely find out if there was a God that morning. My mind reeled with the weight of my predicament, and my stomach was close to losing its contents. I was absolutely sure I saw something to be worried about — and it was my job to say some thing. But if he really was a bomber and someone spooked him, we were all dead. For a second or two,…

“Sara? Did you see that guy?” I whispered to my wife. “What guy?” she replied. A surge of emotion welled up inside me. It felt defensive, a blend of being afraid for my wife’s safety and anger over the fact that she might be at risk. Sara had always been able to read me like a kid’s book. Big letters, simple words. The color drained from her face as she picked up on my fear. “What’s going on?” she asked in hushed tones. I quickly but quietly explained what I had just seen — the man with the long coat, the wires, and bottles. She rose in her seat a bit, pretending to adjust how she was sitting, to sneak a glance in the direction of the man. She whispered…

In a wilderness survival situation, a trustworthy cutting tool is one of the most important pieces of equipment for staying alive. Without a sturdy and sharp knife, straightforward tasks like breaking down firewood or gutting a fish become frustrating challenges. Knives are equally useful in urban environments, albeit for different reasons. With the right training, a blade can be a powerful selfdefense tool. Or perhaps you have to slice a seatbelt to free an unconscious driver from a burning vehicle. Maybe you simply need to carve open some plastic packaging during a day at the office. For all these reasons and more, it’s a good idea to carry a folding blade as part of your everyday-carry gear (EDC). However, choosing from thousands of designs can certainly be overwhelming. To shed…

Our sofas are comfy. But, let’s not get attached. Getting driven from a shelter is something to plan for, and extreme circumstances could force a hasty flight by foot. Pivoting from a stand-fast-and-defend stance to a mobile light-and-fast game doesn’t mean scrapping your entire prep plan. If you’re already in good shape for a long march, it could be as simple as paring down on some things and adding a few others to your kit. And being prepared … to suffer a little. But mostly being prepared. Ultrarunners — those who cover more ground in a day than most do in a month — are basically preppers with a caffeine addiction who flee for fun. So we figured what better way to test some post-apocalyptic readiness techniques than pushing them…

If you were to ask us about electric bikes 10 years ago, we likely would’ve just laughed. They looked downright silly, had pitiful range, and cost more than a motorcycle. Fast-forward a decade and technological advances have now made these oddities a viable mode of transportation — possibly even a bug-out vehicle. As with any mode of transport, ebikes have their pros and cons. At this moment you’re likely asking, “What about EMPs?” Unlike with a gas-fueled motorcycle, a bicycle-style electric bike can still be human powered, whether it has any juice in its battery or has been hit by an electromagnetic pulse. [See Issue 19 for our debut Debunked column, which tackles this very topic.] War, fire, flooding, and economic collapse are far more likely to shut down your…

The Premise: As of this writing, four of the top five bestselling books in Amazon’s outdoor survival skills section are written by Dave Canterbury. His latest offering, The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, & Cooking in the Wild, is one of them. Upon initial gaze, this manual appears to go into great detail about how to procure and prepare foods when civilization is well out of reach. Canterbury’s straightforward approach is easy to read, and the text is laid out so you can find pertinent information quickly. But can the reader trust the source? The 411: For those who didn’t follow the drama surrounding Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival, in order to land the role of cohost, Canterbury reportedly embellished his Army record by claiming that he served as a…

I felt a small little punch on my arm and looked over at my wife, Sara. “Hellooo … come back to Earth, spaceman Spiff,” she said. I smiled back and apologized for being distracted, but my mind was still trying to make sense of what I’d just seen. It sure as hell looked like a bomb in some sort of suicide vest, but I couldn’t be positive. My eyes tracked the man to his seat, while I tried not to look like I was watching him. The man continued to stumble around, taking extra care to not let anyone incidentally touch him. The man finally found his seat, four rows up from mine on the other side of the aisle. I whispered ever so quietly in Sara’s ear: “I think…

Extras: Other must haves? “Carry a whistle,” Bob Aksamit says. “You can whistle louder than you can holler.” “I do like to have a little knife,” Candice Burt says. “There’s a lot of things you can do with that — you can cut your shoes open,” a move ultrarunners use if their feet swell too much.…

Running isn’t a bad workout; it just isn’t the only workout, as some would lead you to believe. Cardiovascular exercise and preparing for the fight go hand in hand. But running on its own doesn’t build muscle or develop functional strength. Running in nothing more than skimpy shorts with a fanny pack of electrolyte goo won’t prepare you for SHTF. You need an exercise that’ll test your power, endurance, and cargocarrying capacity. This workout, of course, is ruck marching. Whether you prefer to go at it alone or wish to seek out a training group to motivate you, ruck marching (or “rucking”) is a growing trend you should be consider joining. Long before health-minded folks used weighted packs for exercise, soldiers carried rucksacks into the field and backpackers carried frame…

The Myth: Every hiker, camper, and bushcrafter knows that moss grows on the north side of trees and rocks, and you can use it as a navigational guide if things go south … right? How about wrong? It’s time we navigate through this moss myth and find a path to the truth. The Reality: The term moss is a bit confusing to non-botanical people. Actual moss — of which there are over 12,000 species — is a small low-growing plant that’s nonvascular and doesn’t produce seeds. Moss is a spore-bearing plant, found throughout the world and commonly seen in damp shady places. To further confuse budding botanists, not every plant that’s called a “moss” is actually a member of this group. Both algae and lichens are sometimes mistaken as a…

WARNING! The content in this story is provided for illustrative purposes only and not meant to be construed as advice or instruction. Seek a reputable selfdefense instructor first. Any use of the information contained in this article shall be solely at the reader’s risk. This publication and its contributors are not responsible for any potential injuries. Oh, the pain! If you’re a dude, you know what we’re talking about. The agony buckles your knees, sucks the breath out of your lungs, and makes you go more pigeon-toed than Marilyn Monroe in her white, blown skirt. For most guys, the first introduction to the anguish of testicle crushing comes in the form of a kick — intentional or otherwise. And when someone says “kick,” one tends to think of either soccer…

While surviving a disaster is never easy, for many it’s actually the aftermath that can be the most challenging. After a crisis, you may find yourself among a large group of people under some very difficult conditions. It might be in a private residence, a public school being used as a makeshift shelter, or maybe it’s the worse of the worst — thousands of people packed like cattle into a large public structure. Think the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, where hordes of tired, hungry, thirsty, highly stressed-out people were shoehorned into tight quarters for extended periods of time without adequate resources. Add in the sweat, the smells, the crying, the collective desperation, and you can understand how the situation can quickly get very ugly. What is Close-Quarter Etiquette?…

Anybody who stayed up too late in the mid-1980s remembers the cringe-worthy infomercial for the Showtime Rotisserie. This appliance cooked Flintstone-sized hunks of meat. Studio audience members bellowed like parrots, “Set it and forget it!” Seth McGinn’s CanCooker makes the same type of claims, suited for cooks on the go. Inspired by the meals cooked in a 10-gallon cream can and served to ranch hands on his grandparents’ cattle farm in Nebraska, Seth McGinn wanted to replicate his childhood experience but had trouble finding a modern can that could handle the task. In 2009, he brought his own to market, allowing people to cook a lot of food with little effort. Made from FDA-approved 1060 anodized aluminum, the CanCooker comes in three varieties: the 4-gallon Original, the 2-gallon CanCooker Jr.,…

Although the internet is an incredible tool for disseminating knowledge, it’s also full of armchair experts who may lead you astray. In an anonymous setting, nobody really knows for certain if you’re Ray Mears or a 12-year-old hyped up on Mountain Dew. This leads to the rapid spread of survival myths. For every helpful and well-informed prepper you find online, you’ll find a dozen others trying to convince you it’s totally safe to drink urine through a LifeStraw. (FYI, the filter doesn’t remove dissolved salts, so it’s not safe at all.) The out-of-control digital rumor mill encouraged us to launch our new Debunked column in this magazine, and it’s also a major motivating factor for our content on OFFGRIDweb.com. We’re definitely not infallible, but we do everything in our power…