Table of contents for April/May #36 2020 in RECOIL OFFGRID

We consider it our job, and frankly our duty, to think about the unthinkable — to take a hard look at the worst that lurks inside our fellow humans. Of all the brutality we inflict upon each other, abducting a person by force is perhaps one of the most severe. The surprise, uncertainty, and utter lack of control over our own fate violates the very fabric of what it means to be free men and women. It’s an issue that gets overlooked by a lot of survival- and prepper-themed publications on the news rack. We’re not sure why. Maybe because it’s more “fun” to imagine grander, cinematic disasters. Maybe it’s because kidnapping and hostage-taking preparation doesn’t sell gadgets and gear. Perhaps the numbers simply aren’t deemed high enough to warrant…

So much had changed in just one minute. The look on my wife’s face had turned from beautiful and bored to truly terrified and alert. A man lay dead on the floor, and the murmur of many people chatting had been replaced by the tumult of gunfire and screaming. A dozen questions struggled for the limited attention my mind could give them. Why had these men burst into our conference? Why were they restraining some people and killing others? What could I do to save my wife? After being herded together like cattle, my mind began to go numb. The number of questions had settled down from so many to just two. “Why?” was the first thought, although knowing why this was happening didn’t serve much purpose in the moment.…

You’ve read many articles in the pages of this magazine about the importance of basic land navigation skills — being able to read a map, work a compass, and navigate from point A to point B. But from a practical standpoint, this is one area where technology makes things so much easier. Satellites orbiting the earth allow GPS receivers to pinpoint your location instantly. And computing power that used to fill a room is now available in the palm of your hand. Combine the two, and you have no- fuss, no-muss navigation. So, while it’s essential to master the fundamental skills, you might as well save time and effort by taking advantage of modern technology whenever it’s available. Purpose-built portable navigation devices were once a booming business, but GPS-enabled smartphones…

We’ve all been there — you swallow a piece of food that was too big and begin to panic that it won’t go down. For some people, it actually doesn’t go down and starts to become a medical emergency. However, taking too big a bite isn’t the only thing that could cause you to stop breathing. Let’s look at some common airway obstructions and methods to relieve them. What is the Airway? Let’s talk about the airway first. It’s the gateway to your respiratory system and can be divided into two sections: the upper airway and the lower airway. The upper airway is comprised of the nasopharynx (nose and throat) and the oropharynx (mouth and throat). The lower airway consists of the larynx (voice box) and trachea (windpipe) before it…

Many in the prepping community make the mistake of taking the old saying “a man’s home is his castle” too literally. It’s wise to take charge of your abode and fill it with gear and supplies, but those items aren’t going to do you any good if you happen to be elsewhere when something goes wrong. And unless you don’t get out much, the likelihood of dealing with an emergency away from home is substantial, especially behind the wheel of a vehicle. As I mentioned in my Bag Drop column last issue, the statistics tell us that driving is easily one of the most dangerous activities we perform on a daily basis. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records show 34,000 fatalities and 1.9 million injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes…

Kris Southards spent over 26 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). He started as a correctional officer and worked his way up to eventually retire as a management center administrator. During his early years with the BOP, he was selected to attend the first class of Hostage Negotiation Training. While much has changed in the years since then in technology and weapons, the art and science of hostage negotiation has remained fairly constant. The other things that have remained constant are the suggested behaviors hostages should follow. These skills were used on a routine basis during his work with prisoners. Tim MacWelch has been a survival instructor for more than 20 years, training people from all walks of life, including members from all branches of U.S. Armed Forces,…

Abduction scenarios can originate in a myriad of ways. It’s not always about guys in ski masks jumping out of a panel van and putting you in zip-ties. Many of the students who’ve been through the training that I’ve provided over the years dealing with counter-custody have actually faced situations of irregular custody. This may involve being restrained illegally within the confines of their own community by people they actually know, or during home-invasion situations. So, don’t close yourself off to the possibilities of this being a threat in your environment. It’s not something you only need to think about or prepare for if you travel outside of your hometown or country. The Feathered Snake Eating its Tail For our intents and purposes, we’re going to be focusing on abduction…

One of the preeminent facets of self-defense is situational awareness. Unfortunately, those two words have become a catch-phrase-turned-mantra beaten to death by nearly every book, video, instructor and Internet forum about personal protection. But so much of the talk about situational awareness seems to be just people yelling at each other to make sure they have it. Rarely do we see a concise, level-headed, repeatable explanation as to exactly what mental processes make up this mystical “awareness” and how exactly we use them to protect ourselves from potential threats. In contrast stands Orbis Operations — a company that provides training and support services to government agencies and military units around the country. Among their offerings is a set of classes on Situational Awareness Training. This training is based off a…

A basic understanding of lockpicking is one of the most valuable urban survival skills one can have in their arsenal. For many, the idea of lockpicking may be relegated to the realm of criminals and hackers, but there are many legitimate legal uses for these skills. A locksmith can be an expensive solution to regaining entry into your own home, automobile, or safe when your keys are locked inside. Under such circumstances, a basic knowledge of lockpicking might save you a good chunk of cash. If ever the day should come that you’re the victim of an unlawful custody situation, a solid foundation of lockpicking skills and an understanding of the inner workings of the most popular lock designs could likely aid in your escape. And in a worst-case, end-of-the-world…

You may have heard the term “snap gun” or seen one of these strange-looking tools in photos before, but you may not have been sure what they were or how they work to pick locks. Pick guns operate on the same principle as a game of pool. If you have two balls touching each other and hit the first one, it stays put while the ball behind it is knocked away. This is what a pick gun does with the top pins and the bottom pins in a lock. When it strikes the bottom pin, the energy is transferred to the top pin, which ideally bounces above the shear line simultaneously with all of the other top pins, enabling the lock to be picked. Strangely, many locksmiths seem to scoff…

Studies have indicated that around 17 to 22 veterans die by suicide on a daily basis. According to a recent piece in Military Times, “Veterans are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than Americans who never served in the military. For female veterans, the risk factor is 2.2 times more likely.” Think about that. As you read this almost two-dozen family members may have received a call today from someone who started off the conversation by saying, “We regret to inform you that …” It seems like an almost insurmountable problem. That is, until you meet people like Brady Pesola who care enough to deal with it proactively. As a fellow veteran, he’s lived through it and seen his share of those in the armed forces who’ve fallen…

Backpacks are a topic of endless debate and speculation within the survivalist community. What’s in your bug-out bag? Do you have a go-bag in your car? What about a get-home bag at the office? Is your every-day carry bag stocked with survival gear? These are all questions we’ve heard discussed ad infinitum on blogs, forums, social media pages, and at in-person gatherings. There’s nothing wrong with this line of thinking — we’ve written plenty of articles about packs, and even established our Bag Drop column as a recurring feature to delve further into various configurations. However, it’s easy for a laser-like focus on this subset of load-bearing gear to distract us from the fact that there are other viable options for carrying supplies. It’s no secret that many common practices…

Knife fighting, or edged weapons defense, has always been a weak spot for me. Coming from a background where firearms were the default mode of combat, sharp and pointy implements always seemed to be relegated to shop duty. Cutting open MREs or prying lids off crates of ammo were probably the most common tasks I used my knives for overseas. But as a civilian, the likelihood of using a knife in a self-defense scenario is probably higher than it was in Iraq or Afghanistan. I’ve known and worked with people who are life-long students of the blade, who've literally travelled the world just to learn different ways of fighting with knives and swords. Most of those folks have a style they prefer, or have synthesized their own over the years.…

When you know you’re about to face a challenging situation, what do you do to prepare for it? In school, you’d be foolish not to take notes and study hard before an important final exam. In a professional setting, if you were tasked with giving a presentation to the board of directors at your company, you’d certainly create an outline of key points and commit your speech to memory prior to the big day. Athletes spend months or years practicing with their teams before a championship. Consider how ridiculous it’d be to assume you’d pass that test because you brought a freshly sharpened pencil, ace the presentation because you installed the latest version of Powerpoint, or win the big game because you just bought a brand-new pair of cleats. This…

The Premise: In Issue 32, our feature “A Look at Locks” provided an overview on common household locks, and elsewhere in this issue Chad McBroom did up a nice primer on lockpicking as well. In many survival, escape, resistance, evasion (SERE) courses, you’ll find that lockpicking is often a common part of the curriculum. Whether it’s defeating locks to find food, seek shelter, or escape from unlawful incarceration, there’s no denying that understanding how to bypass locking mechanisms is a critical part of survival training. The Visual Guide to Lock Picking, 3rd Edition is a good starter manual to familiarizing yourself with the anatomy of many of the most common locks you’re likely to encounter. The 411: The information is provided in very straightforward, easy-to-understand prose. Everything is clearly explained,…