Canadian Prepper: It's Time to Let Your Survival Instinct Kick In

Off the Cuff Public Off the Cuff
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Originally published at: https://peakprosperity.com/canadian-prepper-its-time-to-let-your-survival-instinct-kick-in/

In this long-overdue podcast, I host the Canadian Prepper to find out his own reasons for and approaches to prepping.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we share a lot of views and reasons and even methods, such as planting a garden!. But Nate, The Canadian Prepper, is one of those people who not only does things, but does them right.

His food forest garden video is a high-quality testament to that fact.

Nateā€™s background in human psychology got him on this path many years ago after recognizing human psychological vulnerabilities and systemic risks post-2008 financial crisis.

So we unpacked his progression from urban academic to being a rural homesteader, and how modern society tends to nudge people away from self-reliance and often even basic awareness of the various predicaments we face.

His model for preparedness covers what he calls ā€œThe Ten Cā€™s:ā€ Conflict, Commodity Scarcity, Cyber/AI Threats, Contagions, Commerce/Economic Collapse, Censorship/Coercion, Civil Unrest, Citizenship/Immigration Issues, and Climactic Shifts.

In other words, there are a lot of potential vectors that could disrupt our flow of food, electricity, and other necessities of life. So why not be resilient?

Nate noted a post-COVID shift toward broader acceptance of preparedness across political and cultural lines, driven by growing awareness of systemic vulnerabilities. Have you noticed that shift? I certainly have.

Given the enormity of the potential risks and challenges, where should one get started?

Nate suggests starting small, and with the basics ā€” food, water, and self-protection.

We covered a lot of territory, and weā€™ll have to dive in to cover the rest at some future moment in time. Assuming thereā€™s an internet, that is.

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Nate!

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Love CP, but yeah he definitely chicken littles a lot (just based on twitter news)

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In the book on the ā€˜Burgess Shaleā€™ ā€œWonderful lifeā€, the question of why out of all the fanciful life forms that were present only one strain survived (the notochordal one). The analogy was that for salmon migrating thousands of miles, if there was a 6 inch culvert just before the spawning beds, then the strongest most determined (and less than 6 inch diameter fish) would be selected for survival. That analogy also seems to apply to prepping; what is or could be a random but critical determinant?

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In my opinion, the survival instinct train left the station a long while ago. Those that missed it will hopefully figure the correct direction to run down the tracks while trying to be stealthy. CP has some excellent content which is always appreciated.

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Regarding home / perimeter defense and offense, the tenants that Dale Comstock described in this segment of his recent interview on the Danny Jones podcast applies.

Speed > surprise > violence of action > momentum.

The mental conditioning required for not shriveling up and being disciplined in your OODA loop requires lots of training, and that should be done perpetually (not just once).

Cued at 1:29:07.

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This is sooo important. I came home late one night in a raging blizzard, my wife (ex-leo) had fallen asleep downstairs next to the wood stove. The dogs didnt bark, me struggling with the frozen door lock woke her and as I came around the corner a 357 ,was presented immediately from a low ready to a canā€™t target miss head torso shot in a perfect weaver stance from a classic DRT ambush position. From a dead sleep in a chair, across the room to present a weapon in around seconds seconds with out even thinkingā€¦she was horrified, I was impressed. Our after action discussion indicated ā€œshe just did itā€ when she heard the door knob rattle. Train, visualize, train some more, as you move through life learn to observe and game potential threats and how you would respond.

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Glad she trained her stand-down too!

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Oldest daughter unexpectedly came in our house on morning, just happens to be the morning after I had brought wife home from the hospital. I stood up when I heard what sounded like someone messing with the lock (door is always locked), pistol in itā€™s holster in my hand. When the door opened, I pushed the holster off and came around the corner to the front door. I was aimed slightly off to the side, finger on the frame. Once I got done yelling at her, I took her key away from her.

Like you, I thank my training, and even competition (pseudo training) for the quick response, and not inadvertently puling the trigger.

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TommyCast interviews Dale quite often for those interested in hearing more from him.

Those Delta Force guys are scary as hell

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One might consider a hammerless and DAO revolver with the appropriate DAO trigger muscle memory training for low light close in situations. In my opinion, hammer back and single action is a accident waiting to happen, including shooting yourself. My wife, son (he is a very proficient shooter) were fortunate to get some very competent instruction from a trainer on the concept of close in defense situations. Specifically on LEO encounters and the statistics and metrics of encounters. It is worth researchingā€¦the take away is train for unexpected, fast close responses with little A fast, placed in the 2-3 shots to a debilitating body area group placed in a point and shoot manner is almost always more effective than a slow precision group in the real world. Drills and practice included detection and typical threat, assessment escalation tells of a perp. a good review of agressor body language, how to manage your weapon at each stage, defensive blocking moves and weak hand weapon management for close encounters defending oneself. Probably the best training session I have ever experianced.

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Again, train the stand-down, but in a different manner.
Friend observed to me- LEOs that were drilling in a dedicated training facility (fancy paintball arena) were doing the same draw, 2-3 shots, lower or reholster, repeat, that they had trained on paper at the indoor range. It had become a reflex or habit.
I donā€™t know what the fix is for it, beyond awareness if you/range buddies are doing this.

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I enjoyed this one, thanks guys! Much to contemplate. A recentering is in order for me, but one thing will echo for a while:

ā€œā€¦ both sides are being played.ā€ - Nate, at 1h, 25min

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I gotta agree with Nateā€¦cant defeat a noun. I do like thatā€¦yes declare them a criminal orgā€¦but this terrorism crap needs to stop. They called parents at school board meeting terrorstsā€¦you gonna take away due processand drone them in the streets?
Scares the bejeebers out of me how far our govt has gone.

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Strangers are one thing but for many of us, the big ones that missed it will be family and friends and the tracks will lead directly to us.

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Thats funny and true. But I cant think of a single person that I align with a hundred percent and he does present excellent content.

It was a great discussion.

Nate is intelligent and appears genuine, so like everything else in life, I just take away whats important and simply overlook other parts that dont concern me.

He started to drift into the political and caught himself several times which was good. Iā€™ve made my own mind up there, and while its impossible to cull politics from these discussions entirely, Im glad both he and Chris focused on the meat of the matter. Thats the content I seek.

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I watched the Food Forest video that was mentioned during their discussion - pretty cool method - reminds me of the three sisters gardening method (corn, beans, squash) but on a more permanent scale.

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Well geez, itā€™s about time you two collaborated. Great to see Nate on your channel and vice versa. Nate seemed a bit restrained compared to his usual passionate self, but either way, a great video. Iā€™ve been following Nate for years and his knowledge in prepping and to some extent, geopolitics is very wide. He also has a talent for always coming up with new angles on prepping.

I hope to see more of this.

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I had an opportunity to take a shoot donā€™t shoot class that some police officers got to take. It was eye openingā€¦ not so much for the skill set, I had that down pretty good, but more importantly my own reactions. In my home, I react completely different than I do on the street. I had seen this in specialized competition, but with full on stress (as best can be accomplished in training), very similar responses. I literally shot a home intruder in the back in the FoF training. Instructor was screaming at me, why did you do that, why was he a threat? My reaction and taking the shot was 100% spot on. They had actually set me up because the prior scenarios, I had nailed. Instructor first said, this is why police officers have a break after officer involved shooting, and second, he needed me to articulate why I took the shot. Nobody else in my class was set up to that level. It made for an interesting group review. I was struggling to articulate why I took the shot.

One competition, we had to clear our home. Front door lock was broken, wife and kids were supposed to be in the house. I was the last person of the whole day (about 200 people) to go through the shoot house. I went through in low ready, until I got to the last room. Was at high ready going through the last door. They had a photo of a man holding a gun on a womanā€™s head. My first shot, right between the eyes, 2nd shot 1" above that. Again, the RO was trying to get me to articulate why I took the shot without any warning. 10 people in our group, and I got to hear people before me telling him to put down the gunā€¦ A couple of people never even took a shot. Me, never said a word. The only thing I said, that was my wife and family, there was nothing to say.

On the street, Iā€™m a pansy. I understand and recognize that.

I do understand you point of fast responsesā€¦ itā€™s one of my struggles with USPSA, I shoot too slow. First shot is usually quick and accurate, subsequent shots are slow. IDPA, I do somewhat better. PPC, where I cut my teeth, very accurate, but that is purely slow shooting.

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I am rather slow in a timed shoot. The goal in my mind is to stop the threat, or, better yet dissuade the threat. We reside in a pretty remote area with unexpected visits from strangers who are stuck , broke down. More than a few of them are tone deaf on how to approach a residence in the middle of nowhere. We pretty much carry concealed anytime we are outside. I have had my hand on my pistol, safety off unstrapped holster ready to present several times without even thinking about it on a an abrupt encounter. Never had to draw, thank GOD. I hope never to get to that point. That said, I have had had had several interviews from predator types sizing me up they seemed to intuit I wasnā€™t a easy victim and disengaged. The best ourcome! The otherday I had to fire some shots from a concealment carry to break up a viscious multi dog fightā€¦my wife was amazed at how fast it happened. Agressor dogs suddenly found other things to do on hearing the gunfire. From my perspective, it just happened with out even thinking about it. YMMV Practice, practice, practice pray for wisdom and judgement.

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