Contest Interest

Hey All, I am curious how many of you would be interested in participating in a contest.

Final details are to be determined but the broad strokes are as follows. I want to talk about a topic having folks take some pictures and talk about what they use and why. Sharing ideas that have been working for us and collaborating to make all of our systems better. It could be EDC (probably this one first) or gun porn or food storage or whatever. The amount of effort involved will be roughly commensurate with the prizes. I do not expect folks to go to a whole bunch of effort for a prize worth five bucks. If it goes well this could develop into a monthly or bi monthly thing.

Before I put too much effort into getting something good going I want to see if folks are interested in participating. If there is interest I will put something pretty good together and if not I will put my time, energy and resources into other things.

So if you feel like participating in something please let me know in the comments section.

And The Winner Of The Prepare Wise 16 Serving Entree Sampler Is..

The winner of this highly contested and most excellent contest for a 16 Serving Entree Sampler brought to you by our friends Prepare Wise is, wait for it, John Mosby.

JM, Please send me the address you want the prize to go to.

Thanks to the folks at Prepare Wise for making this happen. Please go to their site and check out all the great stuff. 

Give Away: Prepare Wise 16 Serving Entre Sampler

Thanks to Prepare Wise today we are giving away a 16 Serving Family Entree Sampler Pack. This is a cool sized package to try out a bunch of different meals and supplement a get home bag, or 72 hour type kit. The rules for this contest are simple. Just say you want it in the comments section. The winner will be announced later this week, probably Friday.

And The Winner of A Free Copy of 299 Days Is...

 The winner of the 299 Days contest is Polumetis. Please send me the address you want the book shipped to within 7 days.
 

Book Give Away: Win a Free Copy of 299 Days

A brief synopsis of 299 days:
                                                         

Meet Grant Matson: lawyer, father, suburbanite husband who awakens to the fragility of modern society and embarks on a personal journey that introduces him to a world of self-reliance and liberation.

299 Days: The Preparation, the first book in the 299 Days series, depicts the inner struggles Grant must face as he exists in a social system he recognizes as unsustainable and on the verge of collapse, but one in which he has built his life around. What begins as a return to his roots, self-sufficiency and independence, becomes a full blown move to prepare for what may come. Engaging, insightful and a bit suspenseful, follow Grant’s transition from a self-perceived “sheeple” to a full-blown “prepper.” Will his fears come true? Is he an extremist? What if nothing happens? What if something does?

 You can also visit www.299days.com or www.prepperpress.com for additional information.

Anyway if you want the free copy just leave a comment saying so by leaving a comment. The Winner will be announced Friday and will have 7 days to claim the book by sending me their shipping address.

And The Winner Is Everybody

William won the full copy of The Western Front (it is broken into 3 smaller books).

Will E, Crazy Stevo, Nona, Joe, Green Eyed Jinn, Pearls and Jdwortl all win a copy of Part 1 of The Western Front.

Here is how this is going to work. Send an email to acotwf@gmail.com saying "I am XXX from the Western Front Contest" not later than 1 week from right now AKA Friday morning. The winner's will get an email from Amazon gifting them a copy of the book. They can use it on a Kindle or with the Kindle reader app for their computer or whatever.

Huge thanks to Archer Garret for letting everybody be a winner; sort of like kids sports these days, except without the breakdown of work ethic in modern society.

Western Front Give Away Contest

We are giving away a copy of  The Western Front the complete collection by Archer Garret. Additionally we will give away 5, count them 5, copies of the Part 1 of Western Front. Just let us know you want it in the comments section. The contest will end on Friday.

Brushfire Plague Give Away- And The Winner Is...

The winner of our Brushfire Plague giveaway is Chris. Please send your mailing address to me via email at theotherryan@yahoo.com. If you fail to do so within 7 days an alternate winner will be selected.

And The Winner Of The Prepper Next Door: A Practical Guide For Disaster And Emergency Planning Is

Pearls, Please send me the address you want the book sent to. Thanks to The Prepper Next Door for making this giveaway happen.

Also the winner of our last contest Green Eyed Jinn, please send me your address. An alternate winner will be selected on Friday if I have not heard from you.

Want A Free Copy Of The Prepper Next Door: A Practical Guide For Disaster And Emergency Planning?

From assembling a bug out bag to understanding the role fireblocking plays in slowing the spread of a home fire, The Prepper Next Door: A Practical Guide For Disaster And Emergency Planning is written for both newbie and veteran preppers.

For example, in the chapter about firearms: New prepper topics: selecting a defensive handgun, learning to shoot accurately, and concealed carry. For advanced preppers: measuring rifle headspacing, comparing the 5.56 mm to the 223 Remington, and distinguishing between the 308 Winchester and the 7.62 NATO.

A prepper from the early 1980's, Palmer shares his opinions and also writes about what other preppers recommend. He draws upon the experience and knowledge of a wide range of people. To learn about cold weather clothing and survival, he turns to ice fishermen and Alaskans. For dealing with poop, he learned from RVers and sailors. For choosing the best water purification systems, he looks to what backpackers and relief organizations in third-world countries use.

While valuable reading to all preppers, the book is primarily written for urban and suburban preppers. It encourages all Americans to make modest preparations to survive short-term disasters and emergencies. For more about the book visit, ThePrepperNextDoor.com.

TOR Here: We are giving away a copy of this book. Leave a comment saying you want it. The winner will contest will run for approximately 48 hours and the winner announced shortly thereafter.

Contact Request

Green Eyed Jinn, You won our recent book giveaway contest. Please send me your address so I can get the book to you.

And The Winner of a Free Copy of Stacey's Quest Is...

Green Eyed Jinn, I am pleased to announce that you are the winner of a free copy of Stacey's Quest. Please send the address you wish the book to be sent to me via email at theotherryan@yahoo.com.

Also be sure to check back on Monday for another give away.

Have a good weekend,
Ryan

Want To Win a Free Copy of Stacey's Quest?

We are giving away a copy of Stacey's Quest. The contest will run for 3 days with me ending it Thurday evening Central European time (mid to early afternoon in the US). All you have to do to enter is say that you would like a free book in the comments section or via email. I will use a random number generator to choose the winner and will announce the results Friday morning (my time so Thursday eve in the US).

I would like the winner to shoot us back a quick note (or a full bore review if you want) to share. The purpose of this is to help other readers decide if the book might be for them. That being said it is not like I will SWAT the winners house if a review is not promptly sent. I have no way (or maybe more accurately desire) to enforce this so it is a polite request instead of a condition of winning.

Anyway if you want to enter I would recommend being on a blogger profile or putting your email addy in the comment (the annonish 7.62 Fisherman@freeemail.com is fine, I certainly wouldn't use real.name.hometown@work.com). This will make sure the book goes to the actual winner as opposed to the first person to send an email saying they are the winner. I can't tell who is who if you logged in anonymously.

Please leave a comment if you are interested in the FREE copy of Stacey's Quest.

Blah- Moving Sucks

The web ate my first post. Busy with moving stuff today. A book give away for Stacey's Quest to announce tomorrow if the pace of things allows me time to post.

We Would Like To Welcome Our Newest Advertiser-PrepareWise

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, PrepareWise, LLC provides affordable and delicious meals packaged to be used for long term food storage and outdoor recreational use. The company specializes in freeze dried food products that can be stored safely and securely for up to 25 years, and offers the best prices online. Created as a source to provide emergency food storage products along with valuable consumer information, PrepareWise aims to help families and individuals make informed decisions about food storage. The PrepareWise website is located at http://preparewise.com.


PrepareWise is starting off with a giveaway contest featuring freeze dried food storage and other survival gear. The contest will run February 1st- February 18th with prizes given out each week during the contest and ending with the grand prize giveaway on the 18th, it is worth $1300!! Become our fan on Facebook and be automatically entered into the drawings. For rules and more information visit our freeze dried food storage blog.

Survey Says

So congratulations to Bro Brandon B. who gets his choice of:
500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/40-sandw-180-gr-fmj-flat-magtech-50-rounds
500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/45-acp-230-gr-fmj-armscor-50-rounds
500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/9mm-115-grain-fmc-magtech-50-rounds
Plus an ammo can: http://www.luckygunner.com/surplus-ammo-can-50-cal-green-new-1

Again I want to thank the good folks at Lucky Gunner for making this contest possible. They support this blog so you should support them. If you plan to purchase ammo then check them out before going elsewhere.

Merry Christmas,
Ryan

Question Of The Day

Dear TOR:

What is a wooby? What is a bivy? Thanks.
-Saddle Tramp

Saddle Tramo, Thank you very much for the questions. I am consistently suprised about how rarely I get questions. I think part of it is that there is a very macho streak in many survivalists so that unless they will actually die (Excuse me but where do you keep the Israeli bandages? I have a bit of a gunshot wound and could really use one.) I like questions because they show me that someone is TRYING TO LEARN. Any time one person has the guts to actually ask a question there are surely 5 folks who didn't know what was being talked about and were embarassed to ask.

A bivy is a water resistant/ proof bag that goes over your sleeping bag to keep you warmer and dry in inclimental weather. Here is an example of one. They vary in size and exact patterns. Some are just a waterproof sack which goes over your sleeping bag and zips all the way up. Some have a small pole or two to kind of get the bag off of your head. Personally I can say the waterproof sack style bivy takes a little bit of getting used to; though the first time it really raint it is amazing how quickly you will pull the top cover all the way over your head. Unless you are truly clostrophobic (sp) I would say the ones with the poles aren't necessary. The advantage of a bivy sack instead of a tent is that it is much lighter. A bivy weights a couple pounds which is a heck of a lot less than most tents. Also they are a lot more compact.

A wooby is properly called a poncho liner. Here is a picture of them. They are a light quilted nylon/ poly blanket which is quite warm for it's weight and rolls up pretty compact (about the size of the big family sized Campbells soup can) They can in theory be attached by the little strings on the side on the inside of a poncho but I don't recall ever actually seeing anyone do that but I think it was a big thing back in Vietnam. In the last decade or so people just use them as blankets.

As the story goes they are called woobies because you would be cold without it. I bring one to every Army overnight trip I go on. They are great for slipping into your sleeping bag's stuff sack to make it a bit warmer or to put into an assault pack for a mission. In cold weather (below 35ish) a woobie alone will not keep you comfortable but it will be the difference between being somewhat cold and tossing and turning all night and slipping into the danger zone.

Also you have just until early Saturday morning to enter our Awesome Ammo Giveaway Contest. Seriously you can get a whole bunch of free ammo for no money and a very modest investment of a few minutes of your time so hurry up and enter. Even if you don't have a good use for ammo cans you can just get a whole bunch of buddies to vote for you and win that way. Seriously enter already.

Want Free Bullets?

It really doesn't take much effort. 

a. Write a post on your site/blog/forum elsewhere online about how you use ammo cans.  Here is a shell you can use if you want.

" Lucky Gunner partnered with TSLRF to put together a contest. The goal is to come up with the most creative way to use ammo cans. I use ammo cans to _____________________. The prize is a half case of free ammo! See the full details here."

If you paste that shell into your blog or website or favorite forum then add in what you use ammo cans for and you will be good it go. You  do not need to use the above shell. I just wrote the shell out to make it as easy as possible for you to enter. For a qualifying post you just need to be sure you link to  ammo cans and TSLRF in your post!

b. Copy the link to your post and add it to the comments section on this post.  You can also email a link to your entry to me. This enters you into the contest.

c. The contest will run until 14 November. After the contest has closed, I'll do another post w/all the qualifying entries.  Our readers will get to vote on which post was the best (either entertaining or most informative) via a survey. Folks who enter can tell their readers/ friends and family about the survey and they can vote in favor of your entry - so be sure and spread the word!

d. Based on the poll results, the winner gets their choice of 500 rounds of ammo from Lucky Gunner. They get to choose between:

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/40-sandw-180-gr-fmj-flat-magtech-50-rounds

or

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/45-acp-230-gr-fmj-armscor-50-rounds

or

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/9mm-115-grain-fmc-magtech-50-rounds

The winner gets to pick one of those and of course, that 500 rounds will also come w/the ammo can: http://www.luckygunner.com/surplus-ammo-can-50-cal-green-new-1

If you have any questions please leave a comment or email me. I can't wait to see your creative ideas and for one lucky reader to WIN A HALF CASE OF FREE AMMO!

Ammo Give Away Contest!

a. Write a post on your site/blog/forum elsewhere online about how you use ammo cans.  Here is a shell you can use if you want.

" Lucky Gunner partnered with TSLRF to put together a contest. The goal is to come up with the most creative way to use ammo cans. I use ammo cans to _____________________. The prize is a half case of free ammo! See the full details here."

If you paste that shell into your blog or website or favorite forum then add in what you use ammo cans for and you will be good it go. You  do not need to use the above shell. I just wrote the shell out to make it as easy as possible for you to enter. For a qualifying post you just need to be sure you link to  ammo cans and TSLRF in your post!

b. Copy the link to your post and add it to the comments section on this post.  You can also email a link to your entry to me. This enters you into the contest.

c. The contest will run until 14 November. After the contest has closed, I'll do another post w/all the qualifying entries.  Our readers will get to vote on which post was the best (either entertaining or most informative) via a survey. Folks who enter can tell their readers/ friends and family about the survey and they can vote in favor of your entry - so be sure and spread the word!

d. Based on the poll results, the winner gets their choice of 500 rounds of ammo from Lucky Gunner. They get to choose between:

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/40-sandw-180-gr-fmj-flat-magtech-50-rounds

or

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/45-acp-230-gr-fmj-armscor-50-rounds

or

500 rounds of http://www.luckygunner.com/9mm-115-grain-fmc-magtech-50-rounds

The winner gets to pick one of those and of course, that 500 rounds will also come w/the ammo can: http://www.luckygunner.com/surplus-ammo-can-50-cal-green-new-1

If you have any questions please leave a comment or email me. I can't wait to see your creative ideas and for one lucky reader to WIN A HALF CASE OF FREE AMMO!

Huge Announcements

Walker is out of the hospital. He is back to being pretty content and minus a bit of diaper rash perfectly healthy. We are really happy to have him home and well. Just being back home does a lot for our spirits and his temperament. Thanks for all the prayers and such.

I am also pleased to announce that we are partnering with our loyal advertiser Lucky Gunner on an awesome contest. It has been brewing for awhile and finally everything is right. All the details will come out tomorrow but here is a teaser, FREE AMMO! I am not talking about a little bit of ammo either.

Have a great weekend,
Ryan