The Survival Weekly Dispatch - Volume 13, Issue 15

Hey folks, thanks for checking out the newsletter this week. Locally, we’re looking at a lot of rain and thunderstorms over the next few days. Provided the storms don’t bring twisters to town, I don’t mind. It makes for great writing weather.

Much of last week was spent on photo research for Common Sense Everyday Carry. I’m a much better writer than I am photographer, but I think I did okay overall. As it stands right now, the book will have more than 200 full-color images.

Something I wanted to mention about the book, and I touched on this during a recent interview I did with the Prepper Broadcasting Network, is that the book shouldn’t be seen as a giant checklist. There are somewhere around 15 categories of gear covered in the book, from knives and pocket flashlights to medical kits and defense weapons. There’s a ton of gear discussed throughout, and you’d have to be some sort of maniac to try and carry all of it on your person at the same time all day long. The book isn’t a list of what you should have with you. It’s more like a menu. Look at what’s offered and decide what is best for you and your own situation.

The book comes out in August. Preorder your copy now from Amazon or the bookseller of your choice.

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Last week, my wife and I attended a Stop the Bleed class. This is something I highly recommend to everyone, along with CPR/AED training. The curriculum for Stop the Bleed is pretty simple and easy to follow, but there’s a hands-on portion that’s important and it can’t really be taught online.

Stop the Bleed isn’t really a first aid class, at least not in the truest sense. The focus is simply on how to handle a traumatic bleed until first responders are on the scene. This involves direct pressure, packing the wound, and potentially the use of a tourniquet. The class takes about an hour, more or less.

Your assignment for next week, if I may be so bold as to give you an assignment, is to seek out a local Stop the Bleed class. If an online search doesn’t net you anything promising, reach out to your local fire department. They may not offer the class, but they should be able to point you in the right direction.

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For those who aren’t aware, I have a Patreon account to which you can subscribe. A mere $4/month gets you three posts a week delivered right to your inbox. Up it to $6/month to get seven posts a week. You’ll receive sneak peeks at books and other projects I’m working on as well as tips and tricks related to preparedness. Note - the $1/month tier is basically just a tip. There’s no content sent out at that level.

All the info is here.

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For the record, all of my books, including the upcoming Common Sense Everyday Carry as well as the recent 2nd editions, are 100% Human Authored. The same holds true with every single article, review, and blog post that has ever appeared, and will ever appear, under my byline.

In the wake of Hachette pulling at least one book due to suspected AI use by the author, I thought I’d make my stance clear.

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Dacia Arnold, Brian Keene, and myself are getting together this week to discuss doing a new episode of How to Survive 2025. For the new folks, that was a limited series podcast we did for part of last year (hence the name). You can get caught up on all of the episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts while we work on deciding what we’re doing next.

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Here’s a snippet from Common Sense Everyday Carry.

I picked up this tip from Pat McNamara from TMACS. If you’re carrying a small flashlight in your pocket, add a large rubber O-ring to the pocket clip. When you clip your flashlight to your pocket, have the rubber O-ring resting outside the pocket. To remove the light, just slip a finger through the O-ring and pull. No muss, no fuss. As a bonus, if you’re in an altercation, you can let go of the light and it will dangle from your finger, allowing you to go hands-on without losing track of it.

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For our hike over the weekend, we visited Beckman Mill County Park near Beloit, Wisconsin. We usually visit there a few times a year. The trails aren’t very long at all, but there are some cool things to see, including this bridge.

Survival Tip — Gray Man

Reading through posts on social media, it appears that many people have a misunderstanding of the whole “Gray Man” concept. For those who have not heard about this previously, the term Gray Man refers to blending into the crowd around you. The idea is to fade into the proverbial woodwork and not be noticeable.

The key to success is to know the environment. I’ve seen people on FB demanding that if you carry a “tactical” backpack, you’re not a so-called Gray Man. Or if you wear 5.11 brand pants, somehow you’re broadcasting to one and all that you’re a super-secret badass and inviting trouble.

Tell you what, in my neck of the woods, I see just as many tactical-styled backpacks as I do JanSport. And all sorts of dudes are running around with the ever-so-fashionable cargo pants.

You have to read the room, as they say. Emulate the crowd you’re going to be around. If you’re heading downtown to the business district, odds are your standard attire of an untucked flannel shirt over a 40-year-old rock band T-shirt is going to stand out a bit against the sea of suits and ties. On the other hand, one of those suit-wearing dudes will stick out like a cockroach on a cheesecake if he swings into happy hour at the Double Deuce on Friday night.

Also worth noting is that your physical appearance is just one aspect of this Gray Man concept. Your behavior and actions are just as important. When you’re on top of your situational awareness, you’re watching for anomalies, right? You’re looking for signs that something isn’t right. A very simple example is if a crowd were all moving quickly in one direction, but there’s one guy either standing still or moving in the opposite direction. There may be all sorts of legitimate reasons for it, but the aberration should catch your eye and draw your attention, at least until you figure out what’s happening.

What you say, how you say it, where you go, all of that and more can conceivably come into play. If you want to blend in, you can’t be the person going against the traffic flow, so to speak. If you want to be unnoticed, then you should avoid doing things that will get you noticed. Follow the crowd until you can peel off, for example, and don’t get into arguments with those around you, even if you don’t agree with what they’re saying.

Those who develop their situational awareness skills will often do well with the Gray Man approach, simply because they’re already paying attention to the world around them.

Backwoods Survival Guide Magazine

For those new to my little corner of the Internet, I am the Editor in Chief for Backwoods Survival Guide magazine. Here is the cover for the current issue available in stores right now.

You can find Backwoods Survival Guide just about anywhere magazines are sold, including:

• Walmart

• Publix

• Walgreens

• Rite Aid

• CVS

• Tractor Supply

• Fleet Farm

• Barnes & Noble

Questions, Comments, Complaints, Concerns?

I am always just an email away - jim@survivalweekly.com.