Hi from Norfolk (2)

[sledge]

Hi everyone,

I'm from West Norfolk, and I'd suppose have always been a survivalist. I was brought up on the southern edge of Birmingham, and spent most of my childhood routing around in the fields and woods. I started hunting and making little lean-to 'dens' when I was ten with some Polish friends. The adventures we had were based around old WW2 AA posts, old railway tunnels and the old dismantled railway tracks. I suppose my first proper prep was exploring old mine works in an abandoned quarry, where we used to shoot rabbits and dream of surviving a nuke attack in the tunnels.

I'm Pagan, and my family are from Gypsy heritage, so I'd hazard that I've always lived by the creed of need not want, need not greed. So I've spent my entire life enabling myself to life off the grid if I need too, I've lived on a boat, and currently have a little small holding; which I'm gradually making self-sufficient. And too my credit I have waited out four days a few years ago without any power, by having standby generators, solar panels and alternative heating sources.

I have an extensive range of skills; shooting, archery, fletching, fieldcraft, great mechanical skills and have a background in engineering. I have a good military background including tours of Kosovo, Iraq and Afghan, and have conducted training in most theatres for combat and survival. There's two types of survivalist; horders and gatherers. I prefer to think in the gatherer sense; I have little to lose and little to carry, but everything to gain from everywhere I need to go. This means that I don't really have a bolthole and although one might be nice, I'd be prepared to be mobile and utilise my surroundings for food, shelter and comfort. I've spent long periods living in a bivvy, eating ratpacks and rabbits/snakes/lizards/berries, crapping in a hole and bathing in a bucket; so home comforts can be minimal for me.

What am I preparing for? That's a good question! I'm mentally and physically prepared for whatever comes along, having been to places like Kosovo where society completely broke down in a matter of days, I've learned that our society can be a very fragile concept. I'd see the main threats to us in Britain would be civil unrest or a financial crisis. Take the example of the fogs a few years ago, or the volcanic ash cloud; both occasions strained our food chain, and being able to supplement your own food supply means that such crises have less effect.

So, there you have me, if I can learn I will and if I can help I will. So share your thoughts, and please PM me if anyone has anything you'd want to know.

Merry meet to you all

Sledge

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

[Bilbo]

Hello mate and welcome

[junmist]

Hi weclome
know west Norfolk well as I use to live there. Im impressed that you can do fletching usefull old skill to have

[Arzosah]

Yep, welcome to the forum from me too.

I appreciate your comments on the fragility of our food chain - makes sense to me, certainly. I keep looking at crossbows on ebay, and knowing that I need to know more before I even think about buying anything. Good for you for accumulating that number of skills already.

[buttystella]

welcome thats Five of us in the area, sounds like we could learn from you

[sledge]

Thanks for the warm welcome

My personal advice about crossbows would be look realistically at air rifles instead ( I appreciate it's covered in another topic ). I always prefer British or European, but there are some good cheap imports now. My advice would be to go for a spring powered legal power rifle, my preference would be for a fixed barrel with side lever cocking (although I have a break barrel), you get a better accuracy as you don't disturb the weapon. You'd need a scope, maybe 3-9 x 40 variable, nothing too fancy, and a moderator to keep the noise down. In the long term, I'd recommend keeping a few spares for the rifle too, such as a couple of mainsprings, a spare barrel, some spare seals (piston/breech) and the most valuable item you could possibly have; a pellet mould.

If you give the rifle basic care, it will last you a lifetime, I still have a Weihrauch HW35 that I've been using for 27 years and still knock down rabbits at 40-50m

[The Ace of Spades]

Hello. Welcome to UKP.

Ace.

[Arzosah]

Great post on the air rifle, sledge, thank you! I've bookmarked it - I'm checking out my local radio society in January, can't do rifles too, so that'll be in March, I think.

[tigs]

welcome to the forum