Homemade weapons in times of high strangeness

It seems to me that there are more than a few nations around the world whose citizens are either not allowed firearms, or those whose citizens have to jump through profound hoops in order to legally own them. The nation I live in falls under the latter category.

I'm a gentle person. I don't want to have to deploy weapons against my own people, and I hope it never comes to that. When we were smacked by hurricane Paloma in November of '08, nearly everyone came together to help each other. I noted several people who seemed to skirt around the fringe -- self-serving folk -- who did only for themselves... some even resorting to stealing to acquire what they should've already had stocked up. More shocking to me at the time were folks who make an excellent living (for here) that seemed to break down mentally, that seemed to crack and run in mobs, coming close to demanding goods from others. Fortunately (or maybe not), private donations from de big island and government assistance prevailed, and everything settled down eventually. If not for that intervention, I wonder if we might've had to defend our goods.

We stock a lot of supplies, and we share a lot with others. M'Bride and I had no expectation of people ever paying us back for the goods we shared, and we were not disappointed. I'm further saddened to discover that the lesson that many learned was that I am full of crap by thinking that we all need to think about providing for ourselves and that the government will always come through. They did this time. I'm not sorry that they did, but I wish that people understood that this government is every bit on the edge of financial ruin as the rest of the world.

Onward.

There are a variety of weapons a person can employ to defend onself. Long ago, I had a degree in chemistry. I'm not going to tell you how to make gunpowder or nitrogen triiodide, but a dilligent googler can find these things out for themselves.

Let's examine some of the most rudimentary homemade weapons:

SOCKCHUKA

You take an athletic sock, and put in the toe a potato, a can of soup (my fave), a bundle of coins or marbles or even a rock. At the top of the sock, you tie a knot for your fist to hold onto. Nearly anything you can do with nunchuka, you can do with sockchuka, except perhaps cross-arm passes. This is a formidable weapon for close-contact defense.

Bladed Weapons

Almost every weekend warrior I know owns a knife. Some own swords. I know several people who carry a knife all the time. I do so myself, although it's more of a construction tool for me, rather than a self-defense tool. Many people I know that carry a knife remind me of Muerte from the movie Undercover Blues. Good movie. Funny. Muerte, played by Stanley Tucci, is a low-grade thug who believes that the moves he's seen in movies enable him to prevail in a knife fight. The reality of knife fights -- in my experience -- is that everyone gets cut, regardless of skill level. I have a tad of training in hand-to-hand combat and knives, and if a knife were drawn on me, I would not deploy my own; I am better with my hands and feet than hampered by the necessity of getting close enough to cut, slash or stab. But, that's just me. If you hang your hat on a bladed weapon, practice, and learn. IMO, what makes the difference is the speed of deployment of a bladed weapon. Most knife fights in real life are decided in the opening moves. Do not forget the primary arteries and armpit as disabling cuts.

Bows and atlatyl

I favor a short bow for defense. It can be aimed and shot very quickly, and your recovery time (time to restring a bolt or arrow) is faster. For hunting, I favor a longbow or atlatyl. An atlatyl is simple to make, but difficult to master. There is an inherent flexability in the darts that is absolutely necessary, and not all woods exhibit these traits. With a bow, you can substitute graphite or fiberglass arrows, but an atlatyl dart requires flexability (but not too much) in order to harness the kinetic energy and accellerate the dart. This all requires hours of practice. Consider that now might be the time to practice and become proficcient. What do you have to loose? Time? I tip my darts with cut pieces of sheet steel, and I give them a twist to emulate a figure 8 broadhead. I also file the edges. You can fletch your own darts/arrows with simple duct tape: Mark three lines on the end of the shaft, equidistance from each other. Place the middle of one strip of duct tape on one line, and another on the adjacent line. Press the tape to the shaft, and allow the stick sides to stick to each other. Install the third strip of tape and then trim each one to a classic fletching shape. Experiment. In general, a 5:1 ratio of length:height is favorable for a smooth, flat, flight.

Air pressure weapons

Again, I'm not going to diagram how these can be made. Think about it, and think about a container of air, pressurized, with a solenoid valve, and how you might be able to neck down the output of that cylinder to deliver a projectile.

Snares and traps

If you anticipate bugging in and defending your homestead, think about how you might use various snares or traps to injure members of a mob. I favor a figure-4 trap as a trigger, but there are many that can be used. I think that if it came to that, I might post a warning well prior to the kill zone.

These are all situations that we hope never occur. I know that I do. It would cause me profound grief to take the life or injure a hungry, desperate person. That doesn't mean that I am unwilling, just that if I could negotiate giving up part of my goods, that would be far preferable. What I've seen in my life -- the lows that humanity can stoop to -- indicates to me that many people would choose to take by force if they could what they should've provided for themselves before the crash.

Ask yourself -- to what depths are you willing to go? If TSHTF, or a TEOTWAWKI situation occurs, will your neighbors band together with you, or will they fight you? Now is the time to make those relationships. If you grow your own, can you keep it?

Water

Not a weapon, but water is everything. Please, if you get nothing more from this humble thread than this, please think seriously about providing water for you and yours. Where would it come from? How would you filter it? Do you have containers for transporting water? Think about acquiring a few bottles of Polar Pure. Each of these tiny little bottles of iodine crystals is capable of treating up to 500 gallons of water.

Making a cache for tools/weapons/goods

Even when I lived in the heart of Los Angeles, I had a cache. It's simply a matter of burying a weatherproof container. Consider that if your plan is to bug out to another location, that you might benefit from a string of caches along the way. If you have land, you might benefit by buring a small cistern and filling it with goods. If you don't have a water source, this is a good option for collecting the runoff from your roof also (assuming that your roof is an inert material that doesn't contaminate the water).

Be safe all. Potential hard times are incoming. Regardless of what your situation is, now is almost too late (IMO) to be beginning your survival strategy.

Remember, you can't share it if you don't have it. If you have it, you have choices. I didn't want this thread to resonate as fearmongering, but I do personally feel that high strangeness is upon us.

Peace

reply to post by argentus


I am a fan of sling shots. You can order them from Bass Pro Shops or buy them at Wal Mart. Any small rock is your ammo, and if you practice, you can get fairly accurate. It's quite when shot, and anyone with an older brother can attest to the fact that they hurt like a mo fo. The Wrist Rocket was the best one. It has a brace that lets you get some extra power.

I hope it never comes to neighbor vs. neighbor. If it did, I am not sure I would want to be a part of the outcome. Anyone who would die to save a life would look quite foolish taking one.

reply to post by network dude


Thank you NW dude! Since "any armament capable of throwing a projectile" is illegal here, I'd forgotten to include my trusty wrist-rocket.

Very good points you bring up, as always. More than anything, I just wanted folks to start thinking about the logistics and ramifications of protecting themselves and their families. Surgical tubing is very cheap, however in the tropics it breaks down very quickly. I have several yards of it in the freezer in a ziplock. A ziplock alone doesn't seem to preserve them. Perhaps I'll have to experiment with tubing in a ziplock with the air sucked out.

Thanks again for the input. I completely agree. I hope to not have to ever battle my neighbors. As I'm sure is your case, these are people I care about, and with a little cooperation, we can all work together to benefit the whole much more effectively than battling each other. Still, there are some within a 1/2 mile of me that I think are opportunists. I hope to not see the fugly side of them again.

reply to post by argentus


fugly

So most weapons are illegal on your rock? I hadn't thought about that. And here I had plans to move the family down. I might have to re-think that. Or I could just leave the weapons here and have my wife feed my enemy her famous Armpit chicken. (chicken curry) even the dog said no.

gobstoppers, jawbreakers, and other hard candy make good cheap slingshot ammunition.

their spherical shape makes them very accurate.

You forgot a few.

Hammer knife

Glue a knife onto a hammer and you have a hammer knife

80mph Knife

Glue a knife to your bumper and drive 80 miles an hour it will kill pretty much anything.

poor mans molotov cocktail

Just pour gasoline on anything and lite it on fire.

gun clip special

Take a gun clip and glue it ont a baseball bat, you can kill someone with that.

Pipebomb (sort of)

Get a lead pipe (you can attach a scope if you want) and just beat the living hell out of anything with it.

Alcohol

Give me way too much of it and let me loose on any town.

The reality of knife fights -- in my experience -- is that everyone gets cut, regardless of skill level

Well the trick in using a knife is do not let the other person know you have one untill it is inside him.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by zaiger]

Originally posted by LurkerMan
gobstoppers, jawbreakers, and other hard candy make good cheap slingshot ammunition.

their spherical shape makes them very accurate.

Wrist rockets and jaw breakers....not bad. Cheap and easy. I like it.

reply to post by argentus


Wow, imagine fighting a civil war with candy and slingshots. That would be one for the history books.

Originally posted by SmokeandShadow
Wow, imagine fighting a civil war with candy and slingshots. That would be one for the history books.

Yep, until someone loses an eye. "You'll shoot your eye out!"

I like mallets. Nothing says, "Reliability" like no moving parts.

Any piece of bar stock can be cut to length with a hacksaw, and sharpened. Then you have a machete. A piece of car leaf spring would be ideal.

Spring steel is the best for long blades.

I personally like having a lanyard keychain with a bunch of keys on it. I use to lifeguard and i would twirl the whistle around so when i picked up a lanyard and i started swinging it around like my lifeguarding days i noticed that it could be an awesome weapon. Could you imagine getting struck in the face by a 2 foot lanyard with 10 keys on it? That would definitely do some damage.

Also i took a few martial arts and had a friend/coworker who was in the iran military and he taught me some Bo skills. A bo is a really awesome weapon and once you become effective with them you can use anything, especially a screwed off mop stick or a long pvc pipe.

Those are my two favorite homemade weapons. You can easily set pvc pipe or a mop handle by doors without them sticking out much and i highly reccommend buying a lanyard for your keys so you can use that as a weapon.. plus it's harder to lose your keys that way!

reply to post by Romans 10:9


Don't forget marbles, two or three small ones in the sling cup with give a 'shotgun' effect. also ball bearings. paint ball guns loaded with red, might make them stop and think long enough for you to get away, or close enough for a knockout blow. and my favourite, 180 pound draw weight crossbow.

How about poor man's Napalm.

Vaseline, gasoline, and liquid soap. Learned this one in the military back in the 80's.

Just don't get it on you while lit and try to rub it out, lol.

A crossbow!
Most certainly a crossbow... They are kind of illegal where I'm from, but the materials and blueprint to build one are not...

Someone said napalm?
Well, there is always the problem of how you are going to disperse it, but I'd rather make it with gasoline and styrofoam (it "melts" in gasoline).
Don't tell your mom you heard it from me, mmmkay?

[edit on 18-5-2010 by Raud]

I must have missed something along the way here so I'll ask:
Why does it seem that everyone's idea of of SHTF day includes some sort of barbaric war where we all beat eachother to a pulp with makeshift weapons?

Just befriend a Religious fanatic that lives somewhere close in your area and keep him/her on speed dial. When your enemy comes around call the fanatic up and tell the fanatic that your enemy is at your location and is an "anti-(INSERT HERE the appropriate religion)" and that God (INSERT HERE the appropriate god) spoke directly to you and said that this person is evil and is the Devil and needs to be destroyed for the sake of (INSERT HERE the appropriate religion).

ABSOLUTELY the MOST effective way to eliminate all enemies!

reply to post by sonofnone


Well, eventually, the bullets and bombs will disappear as the remaining supply will run out. That will be your "durr" moment of the day. You are most welcome.

As a result, instead of vast armies fighting over oil and land. It will just be two random guys fighting over a 300 year old can of clam chowder with broom sticks and rock slingy things.

reply to post by argentus


I like the way you think....its at least researched and proven methods, many of which I practice.

One offering I am putting forward to you...the traps and snares section.....the animals or ppl "caught in said traps" if it came down to it, are in fact great weapons them selves, let a captive go hungry a few days and let them eat for a reward of protection, that could be an asset from both types of thing caught, angry hungry animals are fierce, and so are ppl!

In short a wepon that makes other weapons and also feeds that weapon...its a self feeding machine...if ran right.
yes very barbaric, but if it got "that bad" you got to think outa the box.

ETA feel I need to elaborate an example for entertainment purposes...

If...you found my food cache, and if you got in, then I would count on you tripping a wire closing the door behind you, dumping out ohh say 10 squirrells, and a half dozen hungery cornered wild racoons...
even w/gun/andor knife your gonns be sweating bullets in that little room for bit and think real hard about whats gonna happen when you figure out how to get out....

[edit on 20-5-2010 by Doc Holiday]

So the point your need a weapon all those laws would have been swept aside for anarchy.

Well, a bit of knowledge goes a long way... Quite a few guys and gals here know how to make the black stuff from scratch... from that you turn most things into a basic projectile launcher..

And with that type of experience you can modify things like simple crow scarer's into quite effective weapons for defence.. who except perhaps experienced troops will be able to tell the difference between a modified crow scarer that causes little harm and a IED, which would buy some time or give you a potential advantage.

a reply to: argentus

If you're going to store water for future drinking, instead of buying a weatherproof container you should just get a potable potable water tank with a liner to protect it from any contamination right?