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HomePosts Tagged "bug out" (Page 2)

In modern war, you would die like a dog, for no good reason.

Hemingway said it. And he was not far from today’s reality.

We are already at war. We are at constant war. If not with another nation, then we are at war with something else. Since we’re fighting in 7 different countries in this very moment, would you be surprised to find out that the number of fanatics hating us grows exponentially?  

So then it is logic that we will be hit when we least expect it. And where we least expect it. For we are too busy planting our seeds of democracy someplace else, while our own country turns into a demo-crazy.  

Fighting terrorism with real weapons begins to sound a little outdated right? It’s like we discovered solar power but we continue to dig for coal. We could maybe end terrorism online if we really paid attention to how things evolve outside the US. Instead of financing useless wars trying to change people that maybe don’t want to change, maybe we should invest in new technologies. Cyber terrorism is the real threat.

When we used the military, they used some planes. When we used drones, they used busses and trucks. When we close the borders they use the internet.

This is not about Putin. Or the dictator in Syria. This is about the rage of the common radicals. And you should fear people who have nothing else to lose.

We fight them abroad. But they are already here. Remember where the 9/11 hijackers trained? On US soil. Remember what airplanes they used? American. Who’s grid is going down if they succeed? Ours. We are not the only ones taking advantage of technology..

And with the help of our own technology, what they’re planning now is going to destroy our infrastructure, our power supply, and the quality of our water. Imagine how easy would be to kill an entire city if you get access to the grid. And it’s all online now.. So everything that is connected won’t start anymore. Because a blackout interrupts more than the grid.

[See: What to do when there are no doctors around.]

Hard to imagine? You better. For time is running out for all of us.

War is something people used to engage in back in the days, when they didn’t know better. When they were still burning people for not believing in God. Did anything change? How come we ask for maturity and understanding and empathy when we have none?

Do you at least care for yourself and your family?

The time has come! This is not a drill.

Want to stay alive? You need to make an effort.

[ See: How to survive a blackout on your own.]

Truth is, a blackout could happen anyways.

Our grid is older than all of us. Remember the March Venezuelan blackouts? It was like living in the Apocalypse.  And it all started because of the Guri hydroelectric plant, which serves 70% of the country. So you do the math. Three major blackouts in one month. Venezuela was crumbling.

For days and nights, unruly crowds sacked 523 stores in Maracaibo as residents stood on their porches wielding weapons to guard against looters. Dozens died in hospitals. Bodies decomposed in the morgue. And what little food remained in refrigerators rotted away as the nation went hungry.

Should we even dare to imagine what if it was us? Are you ready for such a scenario?

Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

Learn here how to become the household healer when a simple blackout disrupts your life.

There are always solutions for the ones who chose life. 

What are you going to do about it? How prepared are you? Let me know in the comments. We can only do this thing together.

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Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

Welcome back. I hope you’ve enjoyed my first piece on wildfires safety and prevention. Without a doubt, it’s a force of nature you don’t want to reckon with; not that you can for that matter. One of the things I’ve been trying to say over these odd years was that preppers are neither gods nor immortals. Realizing that you’re knee-deep in trouble is the first step of your journey.

Try to deny it, and you’re dead as a doorknob. So, what’s the point of prepping and buying stuff if the end-point’s the same? Well, I’m not here to wax poetics or discuss philosophy, but I am going to say this – you need to keep it together, stay focused, and get into the game before the game becomes the death of you. Surviving’s not enough; you need to thrive and continue to live like a boss even though you’ve seen and experienced some nasty stuff. Some wildfire survivors cannot even look at an open flame, let alone use it for warmth or cooking. It’s essential you put everything away so that you can go on with your life.

Anyway, to broach today’s topic which deals in how to live through a wildfire and learn to tell the tale, I want to turn towards a twisty story I’ve heard several years after moving into my newly-furbished hunting cabin. So, there I was – new house, new emergency kit, lots of open space, a little garden; we even had a small white picket fence just like in the movies.

I was very well acquainted with the ranger. And the stories he told me; Geez, talk about human stupidity and carelessness. This one time, the entire regional fire brigade was called not too far away from my cabin because some kids decided to reenact some kind of chapter house initiation ritual. Long story short, several acres of forest went up in flames, leaving those poor idiots trapped inside.

As the ranger’s story went, the EMTs and firefighters couldn’t get to where they were, but they did manage to get them on the cell. As you know, the best way to escape a chocking death is to go low and slow. And that’s what they did. The trouble is, they had to crawl through 2 miles of heavy forest, with the fire on their tails. Miraculously enough, all of them made it through. Why? Because they used their noggins for once and paid close attention to what others had to say. That’s some great piece of advice, no matter the circumstance.

This inspired me to reach out to you guys to let you know that wildfires are out there and they are, as its name suggests, pretty wild. That’s why it’s always a good idea to know what do to if you get caught in the flames. Here’s what I had in mind.

Wildfire routine, as explained by the ranger.

  • Keep calm. Panicking won’t do you any good and, chances are, you will wind up in a ditch with a “smoking-hot” tag on your toes.
  • Forest shelter. If you’re in the forest during the wildfire, your best bet would be to find an area with little to no vegetation. A ditch, a dried-up river bank, an outcrop – anything that doesn’t have leaves, branches, twigs or fuel.
  • Duck and cover. Protect your head and hands by hitting the dirt and using your Go Bag for cover.
  • Wait. Don’t assume for a moment that the danger has passed just because you can’t see the flames. Wait around for a bit. In the meantime, try to get ahold of the authorities with you CB or cell.
  • Move only if necessary. If there’s danger nearby, leg it! Don’t run through as that will force your lungs to inhale more of those poisonous fumes. Steady your pace and keep your head down. If the smoke cloud’s too thick hit the deck and crawl to a safe spot.
  • House fight. If you have a little hunting cabin just like I have, stay indoors with all windows and doors locked and sealed. Before heading inside, don’t forget to turn on all your sprinklers and to aim them at the roof and outer walls. That should keep the masonry from reaching critical temperatures. If you have dust or hazard masks, use them. They’re not Halloween accessories, you know.
  • Cannonball! One nifty trick I’ve learned from the ranger is that you can seek shelter from wildfire by taking a skinny dip. Yup, if you happen to come across a body of water during a wildfire, jump in and stay there until it’s safe. Don’t forget to keep your head out of the water for as long as possible. If the flames extend over the water’s surface, take a quick look around for a safe place to get out, submerge, swim, and get away. Don’t take the skinny dip part too literally. Keep your clothes on.

Feels like I’m reliving a chapter from Emerson’s Self-Reliance. Well, when you’re a prepper, that’s what you basically do – become the character of your own survival book. I can’t say for sure what scares me the worst; the fact that wildfires exist and they cause a lot of damage, or that one of my peers is very likely to start one out of sheer stupidity. I’ll leave that one up to you, for the time being.

But think about this – what are the odds of a wildfire springing up in my neighborhood? Don’t go out there thinking that city folks are more protected from Mom Nature’s wrath just because they hide behind concrete and iron walls.

One more thing – have plenty of cash on hand. Doesn’t matter if it’s a wildfire or another natural disaster. Cash is king at any given time. That’s why I always like to put some money in my glove compartment and my Go Bag. See you around, guys, and stay safe.

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Some wildfire survivors cannot even look at an open flame, let alone use it for warmth or cooking. It’s essential you put everything away and start prepping so that you

The plan seems simple doesn’t it?

All you need for the best chance of survival for your family is a well-stocked bug out bag, a keen attention to your surroundings and careful monitoring of what is happening in the news. With these bases covered you will be a very informed prepper and will be able to get the jump on all of the clueless sheeple if something bad happens. You will load your family up with your bags and hike off into the sunset way ahead of the approaching death and destruction. You have a plan to bug out.

It sounds perfect, but in this article I am going to try and convince you how that might not be the best and first option you should consider. There are many reasons and situations I can think of why you do not want to bug out from your home. You may be asking yourself, how can I even say those words on a prepper blog such as this without getting struck by lightning? It’s true that hunkering down is not the option that gets the most press, but in my opinion during most (but not all) scenarios, it is the better choice. That is unless you are a combat trained Navy Seal. If you are like me, just an average guy with a family and a giant subterranean monster unleashed by nuclear experiments is not headed your way, you might want to stay put. Here are a few reasons why:

You live where your stuff is.

I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of these reasons are going to seem incredibly simple and obvious, but I think sometimes that is the best way to approach a problem. As a prepper you have probably started collecting some supplies to help you get through short and long term emergencies. Some of you have stored a TON of supplies because you have been doing this for a long time or else you are independently wealthy and you just blew up the Black Friday sales.

Even if you only have a week’s worth of food and water, that is nothing to sneeze at. Everything you have is stored probably in nicely organized bins for easy retrieval. You don’t have to carry it and the supplies aren’t subject to the elements. Leaving your home will make you potentially have to leave most, or all of your survival supplies at home. You could put them all in your best bug out vehicle, the diesel Ford F-250 with the trailer, right? Sure you could, but are you sure that truck will always be in your possession? It’s just better to stay at your home base because there are tons of advantages like…

Even your kitchen floor is more comfortable than sleeping in the woods

Some parts of Mother Nature are best appreciated when you can leave.

Yes, I know that some people sleep perfectly well in the woods and I can too, once I am exhausted from hiking all day. Honestly, you would have to agree that your old lumpy Serta Posturpedic mattress would be preferable to sleeping in the woods or an abandoned building or even a hammock. Why is that important?

Getting plenty of good sleep has a huge impact on our health. It not only affects your moods, but alertness and even immune system. In a disaster you will be stressed in ways you haven’t even considered. You may be working like a dog and having a comfortable and relatively safe place to rest your head, even if that is the living room floor will be an advantage that the people who think they can just bug out into the woods won’t have.

Built in Community whether you know it or not

In times of crisis, you can almost guarantee that communities will band together in some ways. You probably don’t consider your small neighborhood or dead end street a community but let some disaster happen and you will see humans come together for support, safety and to help each-other out. Being around even just a few neighbors who know you can give you advantages if you need assistance for things like a neighborhood security plan.

Even neighbors you don’t get along with will probably overcome grudges if the disaster is severe enough. Of course there is the potential that your neighbors could turn on you for being the lone prepper but I think in most cases, things won’t go Mad Max for a little while. If it does you will have to adjust, but I believe that most people would benefit by banding with their neighbors for support. You could have an opportunity for leadership here or compassion by helping out others who haven’t prepared. It is much better to strive for this kind of relationship with people than head out the door and face the world with only what is on your back.

Being Cold Sucks and it can kill you

I bet that most of you like to keep the thermostat somewhere in the upper 60’s to low 70’s during the winter. There might be some play in that range, but there are no thermostats outside. Whatever the temperature is outdoors is what you are going to be living with. Can you start a fire or wear warm layers to regulate your body temperature? Of course, but the last place I want to be on a cold winter night is huddled up in my sleeping bag under a tarp even if I did have a nice roasting fire beside me.

There are some situations where you wouldn’t be able to start a fire. Maybe if it was raining and you couldn’t find any dry wood or tinder, or there were people that didn’t look so friendly following you. Staying in your home, even without power can give you advantages of shelter that you won’t easily find outdoors. You can seal off rooms and even your body heat will generate a little warmth. You can black out your curtains with heavy gauge plastic sheeting and even the heat from a lantern or a couple of candles can put out an amazing amount of heat.

You may put yourself in a worse situation

The problem with most bug out plans are that you don’t have a destination. Where are you bugging out to? Do you think the National Forest is going to be reserved solely for you and your family? Do you think you will just set up a tent and start hunting for small game? In a large regional disaster, there could be millions of people leaving the cities. The concept is called the Golden Horde and they will be competing with you for natural resources. With even a few dozen hunters in the same area game will be depleted in days if not sooner. Then you will be stuck near a bunch of other hungry people who blame you for catching the last squirrel.

Being on the road makes you an easier target

One of the advantages of staying put at home is the home field or defenders advantage. When you go out, you do not know what you are walking or driving into. The best you can do is recon very deliberately which will only slow you down more. By staying put in your home, you can set up a neighborhood watch with your fellow neighbors and monitor who is coming in. This gives you the opportunity to set up defensive positions and plans that anyone walking in with thoughts of taking advantage of you, won’t be aware of.

If nobody knows you, you are a stranger

If the people in the town do not know you, they will treat you as suspicious, maybe even hostile.

Have you ever been walking your dog and seen someone strange walking through your neighborhood? This was someone you didn’t know so obviously they fell under suspicion. Had they been one of your neighbors kids you would have recognized them, but this new person stuck out. That is what you will be faced with if you leave your home and go wandering through other towns and cities. In your home neighborhood you will be dealing with known people that you can grow a deeper relationship with. There is a built-in level of trust because they have lived near you for years. If you start walking into a strange town with your bug out bags and AR-15 slung over your bulletproof vest, you may not like the attention you receive.

Gear is heavy and a lot of gear is heavier.

Speaking of walking around in your bulletproof vest and gear, how many of you have walked for 3 days with your bug out bag? OK, now add a full complement of bullets and anything else you think you might need to defend yourself. It adds up quickly even when you try to reduce the weight of your bug out bag as much as possible. These weren’t meant to live for a long time out of. Your food will run out, possibly your ammo and that will help you with the weight, but in a disaster where you are walking out the door in full combat gear, do you think Walmart will be open when you run out of something?

In a grid down you won’t get to call AAA

Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that have a place to go up in the mountains. If you don’t get out before everyone else starts leaving, you could be stuck on the road. What if your old bug out vehicle breaks down? All those supplies you stored in the back of that trailer are either going to feed a lot of other people on the highway or you will most likely die defending them. If you aren’t already living at your retreat before the disaster happens, you will have to be incredibly fast to avoid getting stranded. Let’s say you are ready to go, do you know when you would actually leave? Do you know when the S has actually HTF and it’s time to leave or will you debate leaving with your wife and mother for two days because they think it will all blow over soon?

Leaving home may put you in a worst situation than staying put.

If you get hurt you want to be near a secure shelter not under a tarp

I have a decent first aid supply kit. I don’t have IV’s and a ton of medicine but I can take care of garden variety injuries pretty well. Imagine you somehow break your leg after the grid is down. Would you rather drag yourself into the house, or be stuck in the woods for weeks unable to move? Most hospitals don’t stick their patients out in the back yard for a reason so you will convalesce better with a good roof over your head that is hopefully providing some climate protections. If nothing else, it will be a relatively clean and safe place to get better that beats lying under a log.

So what does staying home mean?

I will write a post about reasons why you may have to bug out later, but staying home doesn’t guarantee you will be safe and secure either. I think each situation has to be taken into consideration as to what is the better option for you and your family. Naturally if there is a fire heading your way staying at home is stupid. It is something to think about that and that may help you begin to form different plans for different scenarios. What are your plans?

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The plan seems simple doesn’t it? All you need for the best chance of survival for your family is a well-stocked bug out bag, a keen attention to your surroundings

Some preppers base the security of their retreat on hiding it so that it won’t be found.

They glow with pride about how carefully they’ve chosen their retreat location, and its remoteness from main roads and likely off-road flows of people too.  They mutter about ‘OPSEC’ meaningfully, and talk about keeping an ultra-low profile, and won’t even tell you what state it is located in.

This is all good stuff and great to talk about, but it won’t keep you hidden.

We don’t mean to discourage any of these things, but we do mean to alert you to the fact that it is not possible to keep your retreat 100% hidden, all the time, from everyone.  Maybe careful measures will extend the time it takes for the first adversary to stumble across your retreat, but maybe also your location will be discovered by chance rather than by careful searching.

Sooner or later, you will be found.  And once one person finds you, he will tell someone else, and before you know where you are, everyone in the area will know about your retreat and come visiting.

Some Location Giveaways

Here are some types of unavoidable give-aways that will draw attention to you and your retreat.  Your concern isn’t just the people who stumble across your location by chance, it is also the people who are drawn to it due to some sort of indicator that calls attention to it, even from some distance away.

For example, what will you do for heat?  As soon as you start burning anything, you’re giving off odors that in a de-industrialized rural area will travel a long way.  One more smell in the city means nothing.  But in the countryside, anything out-of-place that doesn’t blend into the natural smells – and particularly a burning smell, something we are instinctively taught to notice and fear, will be much more prominent and will be noticed from a reasonable distance.

You’re not only giving off smells, you might be giving off smoke too, providing a visible indicator pointing to your location and visible for many miles around.

Talking about smells we instinctively react to, what will you eat?  Even if you only cook ‘low odor’ foods (rice and beans, perhaps) those odors will travel a long distance, particularly if the person smelling them has his sense of smell sharpened by hunger.

Don’t worry, we’re not going to ask what you do about bodily waste, but let’s just say there’s a reasonable chance there may be some smells associated with that, too!

What about energy?  Will you have a wind turbine?  If so, won’t that be very obvious, especially when the blades are turning, indicating that it is still operating and being maintained?

Solar cells neatly lined in rows on your roof and kept clean of debris also indicate that rather than being an abandoned old shack, your retreat is a cared for location with added value sophisticated contents.

It is true that generators can run incredibly silently, but it is also true that the outdoors itself can be very silent on occasion, making even the slightest out-of-place sound, like a generator running, draw attention to itself.

Will you ever leave your house?  In the winter, you’ll be making footprints in the snow.   Will you grow any food in the summer – any type of cultivation or other landscaping will of course be obvious.  Will you ever go hunting – the sound of each rifle shot might be heard for miles.

Will you have 24 hour blackout curtains on all the windows – heck, why not just build your retreat with no windows at all, then!  If not, your retreat will be a beacon of light at night.

The Unavoidable Paper Trail that Leads to Your Retreat

Think about everything that has happened from the moment you bought the property.  Your purchase of the property has of course been recorded in the county records.  If there were any existing buildings on the property, those are probably already part of the county records.

Maybe you bought some unimproved land and built your own retreat structure.  Did you file building permits with the county?  Do you have utility connections (visible or not)?  Maybe even internet or telephone service?  Did you have any contractors do any work on your house?  Or building inspectors visit?  Did you get mail or courier deliveries at that address?  Do you have occasional deliveries of propane or firewood or diesel fuel?  Does a septic tank service company visit to pump out your tanks?

Even if you think you’ve done everything off the record, sooner or later, the county assessors will update their database and discover the improvements on your property.  Their staff know the areas they are responsible for very well, and if they find a new driveway that didn’t formerly exist, they’ll want to know where it goes.  If they happen to see a contractor’s truck going in or out of the driveway, they’ll doubly want to know what is going on.  Or maybe they’re just doing one of their two/five/ten year revaluations of all property in the county, and someone notices from an aerial photo the presence of buildings and clear indications of agricultural improvements on a block of land they had formerly categorized as unimproved forestry land.

Have a look at, for example, this impressive site that records all details of every property in the entire state of Montana.  Chances are there’s a similar database either for your state or at least the county within your state, whether it be publicly online or not.

Other Problems

What do you say if meeting locals in the nearby town in terms of where you live?  Someone, and probably several or even many people, know that you’re out there, even if not exactly where – you’ll be the guy who lives somewhere up back of (some other place).

What about your travels to and from your retreat?  Have other people seen vehicles they don’t recognize (ie, your vehicles) in out-of-the-way places and wondered who you are and what you are doing?  Have you left tire marks, or do you have a formal driveway or some other indicator of a house on the property?

And so on and so on.  Will anyone else for 50 miles around you know about your retreat?  Unavoidably, and of course.

There are countless ways your presence will be inadvertently revealed, and your life will be a misery if you try to hide it.

The preceding examples show some things you have done or will unavoidably do that draw attention to your retreat.  But that’s not all.  Your retreat could also be found accidentally.

Accidental Discovery Too

We know that in a Level 2/3 situation, there will be an exodus of people from the cities.  Remember that for every rural dweller at present, there are about five or six city dwellers.  In theory, this suggests that the countryside might become five or six times more crowded with people than before, so this by itself increases the chances of someone stumbling across your retreat unexpectedly.

In addition to that, think of everyone you know who confidently says they’ll hunt deer or other wild game for food in a Level 2/3 situation.  Deer will rapidly become an endangered species, that’s for sure!  The woods will be crawling with hunters all eagerly looking for game to shoot, so if your retreat is anywhere close to any sort of hunting, expect an influx of hunters in your area.  Ditto for fishing.  Ditto again for any food bearing plants in the vicinity.  Maybe even for people seeking to fell trees for building materials or to burn.

There’s another potential source of disclosure too.  Google Maps, Bing, and other mapping providers are increasing the frequency of aerial mapping surveys, and the quality/detail of the images they post online.  Many counties have aerial survey maps online too.

Your retreat might be miles from anywhere, but that won’t stop a plane from snapping a beautiful aerial shot of your retreat from the air as it flies over doing a photo-reconnaissance sweep.  Your dwelling will be online for everyone, everywhere in the world, to see next time they open up Google Maps.

Okay, so this presupposes that Google Maps or any of the other online mapping services is still available in a Level 2/3 scenario – a dubious scenario, for sure.  But if your information is/was online, it is probably also printed out somewhere, and a more resourceful looter will access good old-fashioned printed county records to identify tempting targets to go hit.  If you were a looter, wouldn’t you consider an obscured out-of-the-way retreat to be more tempting than one close to three or four neighbors?

It also means that from whenever your retreat first starts to appear on these documents and online records, there will be a small but growing level of awareness of your presence, prior to WTSHTF.

Summary

Figure on being found, sooner or later.  You can not rely on remaining hidden.  Once one person finds you, expect them to share that information with more and more people.

Unfortunately, the more unusual your location, and the more creative you’ve been at obscuring it, the more ‘interesting’ it will be for people to talk about it, and the more curious they will be about exactly who you are and what you have.

By all means do all you can to extend the time until you are found, and hopefully to minimize the frequency of times you are found, but sooner or later, you will have uninvited ‘guests’ arrive unexpectedly.  You need to have a plan for what to do once the veil of obscurity is lifted from your location.

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Some preppers base the security of their retreat on hiding it so that it won’t be found. They glow with pride about how carefully they’ve chosen their retreat location, and its remoteness from

The bottom just dropped out all of your warning triggers are telling you that it’s time to pack everyone into the family bug out mobile and leave town before it gets worse. Much worse. You thought ahead which is fortunate for you and your family. You have a vehicle adequately equipped for the journey to your bug out location with essential gear, plenty of fuel with extra in reserve and everyone in the family has their bug out bags stowed safely away. Nervously, you pull out of your driveway in the middle of night to avoid most of the trouble already brewing. This may possibly be the last time you see your home and just like every trip before, you have that nagging sensation you forgot something.

Many disasters that preppers think and plan for could require you to leave the safety of your home, possibly forever. In a situation like this, your well stocked bug out bags and any other gear and supplies you are able to load and carry could be the sum total of all your worldly possessions. Some disaster scenarios assume the worst, a complete destruction through various means that leaves the civilization as we know it destroyed beyond repair for years. In a complete disaster like that, we make assumptions that normal commerce as we know it would effectively be over so the subject of bartering after SHTF comes to mind.

In other scenarios, which some might argue are many times more likely, the world won’t just stop spinning overnight. Every store won’t be closed and you will be able to buy supplies with whatever monetary instruments you have on hand that are still worth a commonly understood value. For most of the world, certainly here in the US we look to cash as the main fallback, but some people are saving precious metals as well to hedge against a currency collapse where that cash you are stowing away is worthless.

Assuming that money in the common forms we are talking about here (cash, precious metals) is able to be used to our benefit during a bug out scenario, have you ever thought about how much you need to put into your bug out bag?

A reader asked me about this subject today and after he pointed out that I hadn’t really addresses the subject on my site, I decided to write an article.

Question from Sam:

I have one question, how much money or other valuables (gold, silver, etc.)do you have in your bug out bag to buy/trade or barter with? I have looked on many prepper sites and have not found an answer to this. Can you please give me some guidance or advice for me?

First, let me thank Sam for this great question and I would encourage anyone else who has questions, or comments about anything you have seen or not seen addressed on Final Prepper to please contact us.

Back to Sam’s question, so how much money do you have in your bug out bag? That part is simple. I have as much “money” as I can carry but I will break this down into specifics with my reasoning why below.

What are some reasons to have money in your bug out bag?

Why have any money in your bug out bag in the first place? Well, there are many good reasons I can think of. Imagine a scenario where the power is out, possibly for weeks. You wouldn’t be able to use ATM machines because they rely on power. Stores couldn’t run credit/debit card transactions without power because they all go through the internet now which relies on power. If the electricity is out, the way we commonly get access to our money or conduct electronic transactions is gone until the power comes back.

You could just drive to the bank and pull out as much as you need, right? Not necessarily. You only have to look to the people of Greece who still can’t get more than roughly $50 out of the bank each day. Would you want to have your cash reserves limited by what the banks could or would allow you to take out? No, I wouldn’t either and that is the main reason why I advocate keeping as much money as logical for you personally out of the banking system.

So having a supply of cash makes sense for the simple fact that you might not be able to get it when you need it most, but what could you possibly need cash for if you were a good prepper and have your fully stocked bug out bag and your BOV with a full tank of gas? I can see situations where a cash bribe might get you past security or could buy your temporary safety. There could be checkpoint guards who could be swayed to let you past if you empty out your wallet and having some cash could facilitate your escape. What about being able to purchase a ticket on a train, plane or some other means of transportation out of a country that is collapsing? It happened all of the time in Germany back before WWII. There isn’t any reason to think we in the US would be immune from needing to migrate ourselves if it got bad enough.

Cash might still be able to be used to purchase supplies if you were out ahead of the panic or were prevented from leaving. If you needed to purchase additional fuel along the route for example and you found a gas station that was only accepting cash, you would be in luck. I think the majority of people might not realize the effects of a currency collapse or revaluation of the dollar, but if you were on top of your gain, you could find someone still accepting cash that could for all intents be worthless.

How much money do you keep in your bug out bags?

I try to keep as much cash as possible where I can access it relatively quickly without needing to go to the ATM or bank. If I had to bug out I would be taking all of the cash I had with me. I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars or anything like that so weight isn’t really a consideration. Money in smaller denominations will probably be better to take with you on one hand because people might be less likely to make change. I don’t imagine anyone is going to worry about getting change for a dollar back but if you needed something that cost $5 and you only had a $100 bill that might hurt a little more. $20, $10 bills seem to make the most sense for regular day-to-day transactions where in a society like Greece, the stores are open but capital controls are keeping you from freely accessing your cash. You could use these small bills at stores to purchase food, pay for meals etc.

In a total collapse though, $100 bills might be needed or could be used more appropriately for extreme inflationary prices. If gas went to $100 a gallon, and you could find someone selling, that $100 bill could spend nicely. Flashing a $100 bill to buy your way through a checkpoint is instantly recognized and might get you through faster than a stack of $20s. I keep a mix of both, but the overwhelming majority is smaller bills ($20). I think if I had $1000 in my bug out bags that would cover me for most conceivable disasters so that is what I plan for.

I would not keep all of your money in whatever form together. I would store some in a shirt pocket maybe. Some in one pants pocket, some in the wallet, maybe more in a fake wallet, maybe a shoe or elsewhere. You don’t want to get robbed of all of your cash in one instant. Diversifying where you have your money could allow you to act like you are giving a bad guy or even a someone driving a hard bargain that you have given them all you have.

Should you take silver coins in your bug out bag?

Is silver and gold a good idea for your bug out bag?

But the other part of Sam’s question had to do with Gold and Silver. Do precious metals make sense for your bug out bag? I think they could, but the situation would need to be pretty unique I think. Some advocate buying 1/10 ounce gold coins because they are worth less than a standard 1 oz coin and they rationalize that one of the biggest complaints about having gold would be reduced. Most people would have a hard time bartering a 1 oz gold coin because they are worth about $1200 each today. Can you imagine trying to get some groceries and giving the person at the register a gold coin? Even if they knew what it was and the worth of it, do you think their manager would allow them to take the coin in the first place, much less give you the accurate change for your transaction? I don’t see that happening.

The 1/10 oz. gold coins are worth about $130 now so the change factor might be lessened, but you would still likely not be able to purchase anything at a traditional store with Gold. What about Silver? The benefit of silver is the value is much smaller. The lesser value makes this precious metal easier to purchase for preppers with limited funds and would seem to be easier to trade with because the change factor wouldn’t seem to be as prominent. You go buy $100 worth of groceries and give the person at the register 5 Silver coins. However, I still think you would have the same problem using these after the grid goes down, at least for a very long time.

Do I keep precious metals set aside for bugging out? Yes I do but I am not counting on using them in the short-term. I probably wouldn’t take more than 10 coins per person with me for the reasons I mention above and their weight.

I know that some will say that Gold and Silver always have value so their worth after a collapse would only go up. I disagree with that from the standpoint that anything you are talking about only has value if the person you are trying to conduct business with agrees with you on the value. A gold coin might be worth $10,000 after an economic collapse, but what good is it if you can’t get anyone to give you something worth $10,000 for it?

If you are talking about taking a box with all of your precious metals to another country and finding someone to give you fair market value, then that does make sense, but getting back to the Bug Out Bag scenario, I think precious metals have a low potential for usability in the days and months after some calamity and that is why I am not taking too many along with me.

That’s what I think anyway. How much money do you have in your bug out bag?

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The bottom just dropped out all of your warning triggers are telling you that it’s time to pack everyone into the family bug out mobile and leave town before it

As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents like Tornadoes, Earthquakes or Hurricanes to longer term disasters that might not be caused by Mother Nature. Even these relatively common regional weather events can cause massive damage in some places, but shelter and safety is usually within a short drive or walk from your home. To reach safety, it may be necessary to throw your Bug Out Bag into the car or on your back and get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible before the roads are clogged or leaving is no longer possible. The hope is that you will be able to come back home as soon as the disaster has passed and conditions are safe for your return.

When you are preparing to Bug Out, there’s a lot of advice on various aspects of preparing like how to select the right bug out bag, or how to load your bug out bag. We can give you lists of supplies to actually pack in your bug out bag but in some cases, you simply won’t be able to carry everything you will ever need to in one pack.

The perfect bug out bag will give you basic supplies, food and shelter to live for at least 72 hours, hopefully longer without being so heavy that it will kill you. A bug out bag is designed to give you what you need to survive without the benefit of your home and all its supplies but it is only a short-term solution because it will be impossible to carry every single thing you would ever need for any potential scenario. What if the disaster is longer than 72 hours? What if you aren’t able to come back home ever again for some reason? What if the grid goes down and you can’t get to your money any more due to bank holidays, power outages or some currency crisis?

How can you protect your money?

There are a lot of things that we put in our bug out bag but a supply of money is one of those at the very top of the list when we start to consider what we might need in order to survive. I am not talking about lost in the woods survival here but surviving in a society that still operates in cash. Until we have some TEOTWAWKI event, money still has purchasing power so having some extra cash on hand is wise. You might not be able to access the money you have in the bank anymore like the people in Cyprus, so I recommend keeping a relatively large amount of cash hidden somewhere that nobody can find it outside of your bank. Having all of your money in the bank makes this a single point of failure so having a decent amount of cash on hand, as long as you take precautions could save your rear if the banks decide they can’t or don’t have to give it back. How much should you keep out of the bank? That’s up to you but I try to keep as much as possible outside those doors that can lock me out.

Zimbabwe Dollars ranging from 10 to 100 billion printed within a one year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.

Maybe your money will still be accessible, but with inflation it simply won’t buy you anything at some point in the future. This isn’t without precedent as it has happened in the Weimar Republic after WWI and also in Zimbabwe. As a hedge against actions beyond our control; some people are storing precious metals for long-term protection against inflation. Holding physical gold and silver could be crucial to your family’s survival if the currency collapses so many preppers are acquiring silver and gold coins should the Dollar fail someday or the banks prevent you from accessing the money in your accounts.

While those beautiful shiny coins could save your life financially speaking if the fiat money you have ends up being worthless, they also have their disadvantages. When it comes to bugging out, you have to consider the weight. If you have been quietly purchasing precious metals for years in anticipation of an economic collapse, have you given thoughts to how you will take all of that with you?

There are a lot of options when it comes to precious metals. Some people like James Wesley Rawles advocate using pre-1965 US coins because of their silver content. Smaller denominations, in easy to understand measurements would be easier to barter with other individuals he reasons and I agree with that theory. Instead of spending my weekends sorting rolls of quarters from the bank though; I have settled on 1 ounce Silver coins as my precious metal of choice. I chose silver coins because they were more affordable than gold and I could see paying someone with a silver coin being much easier than chiseling off a piece of my gold coin. Gold coins because of their worth are easier to carry, but harder to make change for. I could carry one gold coin or 70 silver coins. When you are bugging out that weight will start to add up.

Let’s say it was the end of the world and you had to bug out with only the items in your bug out bag, your trusty AR15 or preferred end of the world firearm and all of the money you have. If you had one gold coin you could easily carry that around practically anywhere, but the problem comes in when you wanted to purchase something with it. You couldn’t go to a restaurant and pay for a meal with a fraction of your gold coin. You would want some smaller bills (coins) so to speak.

So, instead of gold you chose silver and now all of your silver is loaded in your bug out bag. Just 200 silver coins will weigh over 14 pounds. What if you had more silver? What if you had cashed in your 401K and have 1000 silver coins? That would be over 60 pounds and I don’t care who you are, adding that much weight to your bug out bag will hurt you sooner or later. Not to mention, if you lose your bag or someone steals it, all of your money is gone.

A bug out plan with Precious Metals

So what is a good prepper supposed to do? I still recommend having some precious metals because I don’t have faith the long term health of our monetary system. Does that mean I am right? You have to investigate that for yourself and make up your own mind. If you do plan to purchase some precious metals how can you plan to bug out on foot with all that coin?

You can’t.

What? Is that your great advice? Well, not exactly but you have to plan on this happening. I have some silver and this works for my me and my family, but I would not load it all into my Bug Out Bag. I also might not load it all in my vehicle if I was bugging out either. So what would I do?

I would bury it. Yes, I would bury my precious metals in containers I could dig up later. This poses a couple of problems too though. What if I can’t make it back to my buried treasure? What if I couldn’t find it after it was buried? These are the realities of storing all of your money outside of a central location but they can easily be mitigated. If I had a bug out location, I would bury some, probably most of my silver there. I probably wouldn’t bury much more than a handful of coins if any along the route. I would also bury a lot at my current location. If I was planning to bug out and had time I would dig it up and take it with me, but if the plan was to bug out on foot, I would only take a small amount with me in my BOB and leave the rest buried.

How much would I take? For a bug out scenario I would probably take 20 silver coins and several hundred dollars. All of this money would be divided into different hiding places and probably with different people. This way if one person gets robbed or lost you don’t lose all your money.

You may be asking what the point of buying silver is if it is going to be so hard to carry. You may be saying the same thing about bugging out. This article may be bringing up more problems than solutions but these are things to consider if you plan on bugging out. Having to bury your money in the ground isn’t ideal but neither is losing all of your money when the banks need a bail-in. Having to bug out isn’t ideal either and it helps to plan for how you are going to take your money with you or keep it safe until you can get back.

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As Preppers we take steps to plan for disasters that could force us out of the comfort and safety of our homes. These threats could range from regional weather incidents

 

One only has to watch the news during a holiday weekend or a severe storm event to image the difficulty bugging out using the interstate highway system. Even secondary country roads, while perhaps more practical, may either be less than ideal or could present even a more hazardous situation for a number of reasons.

But, making the decision then to hoof it with your gear and your family might be a death warrant, just waiting to be issued-(especially if your living in the desert southwest with triple digit temps).

However, there is another highway to consider: The Watery highway.

You could conceivably bug out by boat if you live within a short drive from the coast, lake, large river or even stream. Before you throw in with Gilligan and the Skipper though, here are some things to consider.

Geographical Location and Destination

Where you live or perhaps what body of water is closest to your location that you can get to quickly and safely reach will be a key factor in determining what kind of boat to consider.

You also need to consider your destination or if you plan to keep moving from location to location. Are there islands especially isolated ones with perhaps a cover where you can retreat to? You would need to select one with good protection from storms; you will need one that offers concealment and also good visibility in case of unwelcome visitors. Finding one that has a fresh water supply and small game is ideal. And don’t forget, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans are usually abundant with food.

Maybe we don’t get our own stick of Special Forces operators, but a boat could be a great option for many preppers.

Yet, another thing to consider is the watery highway you plan on using. For example, I live near the Colorado River. I might consider a sailboat as my main bug out vehicle. But I would not be able to navigate the entire river in such a craft. A rubber raft or kayak would be more practical if I had to traverse the entire length.

That is why it is best to plan for many different type of bug out scenarios. But remember, you must practice your plan, refine it as required and remember all your prepping plans must be flexible so you can adjust to any current situation.

Reconnoiter before you Bug Out by Boat

No matter what body of water you are considering, you need to take the time to scout the land and get to know the land on either side of it. It is vital to know where there are places you can hide; places where you can bring a boat close to shore-so you can gather water, hunt wild game, dig up supplies that you buried earlier or tend to a prepper garden or even camp. Location landmarks, or build some that you can spot from the water. Have a nautical map with you so you can transfer the information to it. Remember that landmarks can look different from the water especially at night or bad water conditions. Create or convert a get home bag to a going ashore bag.

Depending on the intended use-you only would need a limited amount of supplies and tools unless you are planning or forced to hunker down on land for an extended period of time.

What will the costs be?

Some may dismiss the idea of using a boat for a bug out vehicle because of costs. In this day and age, especially in this economy, you can purchase a sail boat with a shallow draft with trailer in reasonable condition for about the same price of a used car or perhaps a bit more. Plus remember that a boat can also be used and should be used for vacations. Why not combine a weekend get a way with prepper training. The more training your crew has the easier it will be when that SHTF HAPPENS.

Something like this 4-Person Inflatable Boat Set with Aluminum Oars and High Output Air Pump could give you a bug out advantage if you live near a waterway.

Still one has to be careful not to purchase something that will become a money pit. There are numerous videos on you tube and books available to guide you in the purchase process. There are tax advantages to consider and many banks offer boat financing.
In addition, depending on your situation, you should also consider purchasing a rubber raft or kayak. Both are perfect for fishing, scouting and going places where you main craft are unable to go.

Maintenance for your boat

Boats like recreational vehicles can be costly if not properly maintained. Yet, with a little knowledge and foresight, you can carry spare parts, fiberglass patch kits and make many repairs while on the run. Look at it this way, if you are considering buying some land in a remote area, building a cabin, hauling in water and supplies-the idea of a boat that already has a cabin, can carry your supplies and fresh water. It is also mobile which means you have a chance to sail away to another area if your current location becomes too dangerous- the cost factor might start to become more attractive.

What Equipment do you need for your boat?

OFFGRID by Recoil SUMMER 2014 Bug out boat/Urban Survival issue

Boats are self sufficient or can be for longer periods of time. While this statement is factually true. It depends on the boat you have. A kayak or small fishing boat would not be equipped with all the bells and whistles. The larger boats such as a sail boat can be equipped with a full kitchen, redundant power systems to include generators, solar power and wind turbines. Showers, sewage systems, radar, GPS, marine and ham radios, televisions, freezers, ice makers as well as a water maker which turns salt water into fresh water. It can also filter fresh water. A huge bank of batteries could also be installed and used to provide power without depending on the boats main engines and fuel supply.

However no matter what type of craft you decide on. You should also make sure you have the following.

Life Jackets: While required by law, these are essential for all passengers in a boat. Your attention will be focused on moving from point A to Point B. A child could easily fall overboard. Expect the unexpected and think safety.

Water tight containers: Used to carry your food, fresh water supplies, extra clothing, prepaid cell phones, weapons, ammo, tools- everything you need to protect from the water or bad weather. You should also have a supply of plastic trash bags, zippered sandwich or freezer bags for dry storage.

You also need to carry rope, first aid kit, pocket knife, insect repellent, spare parts and even a spare paddle.

Plastic Bail out buckets, beach towels or large sponges: Besides bailing or mopping up water, these items have many uses both on and off the boat.

Portable toilet, some type of reusable system along with toilet paper, small paper bags, a normal size coffee can and a separate container with a toilet chemical. Being on the move may require you to wait until a later time to get rid of such waste. Therefore, you can use the paper and or plastic bags to hold the human waste and used toilet paper and seal it up in the coffee can (s) until such time you can dispose of it properly. Remember, in proper disposal can be a clue to others that you are in an area or point out what direction you are traveling. Be sure to take the time to dispose waste properly.

One might think that preppers should not consider such luxury. But, I disagree. Your job is not only to survive and keep your family safe. If you have to bug out for a long period of time and can provide your family with a normal sense of life’s conveniences psychologically you are increasing your chances of survival, reducing fear, anxiety, and the breakdown of the family unit. Ask yourself this, if you build a cabin, what basic conveniences would you spouse demand that it come with. Ask yourself, How long would it be before the kids start to rebel. The right boat purchase, if practical for your area and bug out plan, would have many if not all of these options and may help convince your spouse to agree to the purchase.

Security on your boat

There are pros and cons to strongly consider before buying a boat. Your geographical location, the waterway you plan to navigate. Is the boat primary for transportation or are you going to live on it. You and your crew would need to stay vigilant. A watch program and or a drone scout would be practical requirements to keep marauders, pirates, or others away from you, your family and your boat.

A larger amount and a larger variety of weapons and ammo can be carried on a boat. However, again being out on a boat, you could be exposed. Watchers on shore, in buildings, on other boats could spring a trap and track you to your final location..

Weather and other dangers

Boating can dangerous. Your exposure to heat, humidity, adverse weather conditions, bugs, mosquitoes, snakes, water lice, leeches can quickly cause illness or even death. Objects in the water, logs, reefs, junk, could damage or even sink your boat. Proper training and education, practice trips, proper first aid kits and training would help minimize the threat level. Anytime and especially during a bug out situation, boats and boaters will most likely face some unique hazards that one may have experienced in the past during normal outings.

Exposure: Being out on the open water, you and your craft will be highly noticeable. There will an ever threat from marauders, pirates, or others. You could find yourself in a sudden fight or flee situation. It will be important to gauge your travels based on many of the concerns listed above.

Hidden dangers: If you have the opportunity, make trial runs to become familiar with your planned and un-planned routes. Mark known or potential hazards on your map and be sure to have a back up map. In addition assign a member of your crew as a spotter. Have them watch for V-shaped patterns on the surface of the water. This could be an early warning of stumps, sandbars, branches or other objects that are under the surface and could damage your boat or cause an accident that might cause injury to a crew member.

Where ever possible, scout the shoreline as part of trial runs. Know where someone could hide a boat and set up an ambush or fasten a chain or heavy cable across a river or narrow opening.

Noise discipline

Sound travels over water. You and your spotter need to not only watch for hazards, you need to listen for them too. In addition, you, your boat and your crew need to practice noise discipline. It must become second nature.
This also applies anytime you leave your craft to make excursions on land. Being a gray man out on the water or in a boat is much harder than in an urban or rural setting. But, it can be done with practice and being aware of your surroundings at all times.

There is no law that states that being prepared cannot also be a way of bonding and creating wonderful memories for you and your family. Boating is a great way to get your family accustom to outdoor activities, living off the land, and having prepping become second nature.

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  One only has to watch the news during a holiday weekend or a severe storm event to image the difficulty bugging out using the interstate highway system. Even secondary country

Many times through the years I have stumbled into prepper articles or discussions about the best firearms to have for SHTF. There are always different perspectives and I myself have shared my own opinions about what I think are the top 5 firearms every prepper should have. Naturally this assumes firearms are available to you legally and you don’t have any ethical problems with the thought of using them if needed for their intended purpose. Training in the proper use and safety of these firearms should go without saying.

But invariably, somewhere in the conversations about the best caliber or whether or not the AK is better than the AR, someone will bring up the concept of air rifles as an alternative to more traditional firearms. For many years I dismissed this advice out of hand because I assumed that anyone who thought it was a better idea to use an air rifle for survival was either anti-gun or had some element in their personal lives that prevented them from owning a firearm. A real gun instead of a toy…

I never really delved into this subject and it was a recent email from a reader of Final Prepper that prompted me to look into this topic further, if for no other reason than to fully state my opinion and let the world give me their thoughts on this subject.

Sam writes:

There are many that would like to make a bug out bag but can’t because they may be on a fixed income or in debt e.g. college students or retired. However, Harbor Freight Tools offers some free stuff using coupons that can be used to put in a bug out bag, and anyone can buy a good pack back at any second-hand store for $3 to use. I give Harbor Freight 5 stars for having up to 12 free things that can be used in a bug out bag.

Any prepper should be able to have a high power air rifle if they can’t afford a .22 or other if they chose to bugout so what is a good inexpensive air rifle that someone on a fixed income can buy to use in a SHTF or to bugout with? I would like to know what TPJ recommends or do a story so everyone can read.

First of all, thanks for the email Sam! I always appreciate good information, like the tip about Harbor Freight and for the question about the air rifles. So as I read the question from Sam, I think he (I assume this is a he and Sam is not short for Samantha. Damn both our gender confusing monikers!!!) is bringing up a couple of points. First, that a high-powered air rifle is a cheaper alternative to even a .22. The second is that this high-powered air rifle will be used in a SHTF/Bug Out scenario. I am sure there are other issues and I will try to address my thoughts around each in this article.

Why do so many people recommend an air rifle for survival?

Cost – Air rifles for survival seem to make sense to a lot of people for some very compelling reasons. Most air rifles do cost less than even the lowly .22 Rimfire rifle out there. You can get a brand new Ruger 10/22 Semiautomatic for between $250 and $350 depending on where you shop, but I have found sales on brand new, perfectly capable .22’s for much less. You can also find deals at gun shows that are even less than that. I picked up a perfectly good .22 at an auction for $100.

Air rifles come in a wide array of calibers just like regular firearms but for the purposes of this discussion I’ll stick with .177 calibers. That is the size most of us young kids grew up shooting in the back yard. Why not go up in size to .22, .30, .045 or even .50 caliber (yes they make .50 caliber air rifles)? For a couple of reasons; first off, in some locations; when you go over .18 caliber the local law enforcement usually considers that to be a “firearm”. Some locations regulate according to the muzzle velocity. For an air rifle to fly below this requirement you are looking at muzzle velocities generally below 500 feet per second in some areas. There are air rifles that are much higher power than that, like the Gamo Whisper Silent Cat Air Rifle which has a muzzle velocity of over 1200 FPS!, but if you are purchasing an air rifle that is viewed by law enforcement as a firearm, you are filling out paperwork just like you would have for a .22 so one advantage of the air rifle disappears. Additionally, the larger calibers go up in cost considerably and we are trying to stay on the more economical side here for Sam. I don’t consider the Benjamin Bulldog .357 which is arguably “high-power” and able to take down larger animals in contention for this article for the main reason that its cost is right about $1,000. Not ideal for the prepper on a fixed income.

1200 FPS with a scope for less than $140.

Quiet Operation – Air rifles use compressed air generally or a spring mechanism in some cases but usually in both they are far quieter than a regular rifle. Some models like the Gamo above even have a suppressor included making them even more quiet. An air rifle, it would seem would allow you to hunt without making your presence known in a wider area and this could have great benefits to the average prepper who is trying to stay on the down low. You wouldn’t want everyone who is hungry and possibly starving themselves to hear a loud gunshot and lay in wait for you to come walking back to camp with your prize only to take it away from you.

No license/background check required (normally) – This goes back to my previous point above. As long as you aren’t going into the more powerful air rifles which demand higher muzzle velocity, there isn’t usually a background check for someone buying an air rifle. This could have advantages to people who due to their background may be prevented from legally purchasing firearms.

What is an air rifle good for?

So the first question comes back to do you need an air rifle for survival and to answer that question, I want to look at some things air rifles are good at. The first is hunting small game. By small game and in consideration of our caliber limitations that do not require licensing (with caveats) that means birds, squirrels, possibly rabbits and other animals in that size range. For someone living in a city that has an abundance of birds or rodents, an air rifle could make an excellent choice for a survival tool especially if that state doesn’t allow firearms of any kind or severely limits your ability to purchase them.

880 air rifle kit includes safety glasses, 4×15-millimeter scope with rings, 500 Daisy pellets, and 750 BBs – $60

Air rifles are great to practice your shooting skills or to teach younger shooters the fundamentals without too much worry of accidents (“You’ll shoot your eye out kid.”). Shooting air rifles is a low-cost sport too because the pellets can be purchased for less than $5 for 250. You can purchase 2400 BB’s for that same price and as far as I know, the government isn’t stocking up on pellets and BB’s just yet.

Quiet operation is another non-trivial benefit of air rifles for survival situations as stated above. You don’t get too much quieter even with sound suppressors than air rifles.

What is an air rifle not good for?

Going back to the initial question about great air rifles for survival and in consideration of something that is cost-effective and doesn’t require licensing, what are the arguments against an air rifle? Do air rifles make a good bug out survival option? I don’t really think so in most cases for the following reasons.

Not good for long-range – This is subjective I know but most air rifles in the category we are talking about above aren’t going to be highly effective past 50 yards. Even at 50 yards, you will have drop on that pellet so you will need to know your weapon and compensate accordingly. Could you kill a rabbit past 50 yards with a pellet gun? Maybe and I know that some of this comes down to the skill of the shooter, but the weapon does have limitations. I think the rabbit would take off before the pellet reached it because sound travels faster than the average muzzle velocities we are talking about here, but again I am generalizing to some extent.

Not good for larger animals – You simply aren’t going to be killing larger animals with the lower caliber (cost-effective) air rifles. Could you shoot birds and squirrels all day and feed yourself? Sure you could, but what if birds and squirrels are few and far between? What if it’s winter time?

Velocity of up to 1,200 fps with PBA Raptor ammunition; 4×32 air rifle-scope – $99

Not acceptable for self-defense – Firearms for me, even more so in a SHTF scenario when I am forced to bug out are primarily for self-defense. This is the two-legged kind of predator I am talking about here and you aren’t going to defend yourself with a pellet gun. You might fool someone from a distance, but you would have to be extremely lucky and that luck would run out if you had to shoot at someone and all they heard was pftt.

Firing multiple rounds quickly – For shooting a single squirrel in a tree or a bunny sitting there next to your garden, single shots are fine in most cases. Most air rifles are single shot. You have to pump them or cock the charging handle after each shot. There are some manufacturers that have something resembling a magazine so you don’t have to reload, but you aren’t able to fire semi-automatic. Also, your velocity can decrease if you shoot too many shots too fast. Rapid fire isn’t recommended.

Air Supply dependent – Some models used compressed CO2 air cartridges. What if you run out of cartridges? Other models use a pump-action and I personally have witnessed these wear out over time and become less effective. That was with me shooting my air gun occasionally. If this air rifle is your main source of food, could the seals and parts wear out more quickly? Additionally, temperatures affect the air cartridges. Ideally, they are used in warmer temperatures, but not too warm or the cartridges can explode.

I do believe air guns have their place. I have one in my home, so I guess I would have to answer the question two ways. I wouldn’t ever choose an air gun as my go-to bug out firearm unless I had no other options whatsoever. Actually, if this truly was a SHTF scenario and I had no firearms, getting my hands on a weapon would be just about my first priority.

Do I think an air rifle for survival would be better than nothing? Yes, and there are some good models shown above, but I think even a .22 would be better and with some searching you can find a .22 rifle (maybe used) for about the same price as a good air rifle. At least you would have something more suitable for self-defense and taking larger animals.

Now its your turn. What do you think?

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Many times through the years I have stumbled into prepper articles or discussions about the best firearms to have for SHTF. There are always different perspectives and I myself have

 

I live in Chicago, the most dangerous city in America.

Not only is it the most dangerous city in America, but it is obnoxiously difficult to get out of even in the best of times. Geographically, it is three-sided (lake Michigan prevents egress to the east) and the only high-speed avenues of approach run North/South. Dismounted movement in any direction is not a viable option, as you would most likely become prey even in a situation where society has not collapsed. Most of the antagonists (see: gang members) in the city are already well armed, and if not well-trained they are nonetheless combat-hardened and more than audacious enough to be a serious threat. To make matters more complicated, I have two children under the age of 7.

I know… why on earth would any preparedness-minded individual choose to live in such an indefensible position? There are many reasons why a family might find themselves in such a survival nightmare, ours is very simple and, unfortunately, equally inexorable: I am in the United States Military and I am stationed here. I won’t go in to what I do here other than it is very routine and far from glamorous, and I am here for a three-year tour.

So hopefully that should put to rest all of the obvious questions. Suffice to say I now understand that there are reasons why NOT living in the city isn’t necessarily a viable option, at least not in the short-term. Not everyone can just uproot to the rural redoubt property, plant some corn and put up a solar array.

I have several combat tours as an Infantryman in the middle east. Through these experiences and the balance of my 20 some odd years in the military, I can easily make the mental leap between what a metropolis like Chicago is today and what it could be after a societal collapse, in fact I have experienced it firsthand in Baghdad circa 2005 or so. In central Iraq, we were not the primary danger to the average Iraqi citizen. Most dangerous to them were the rape gangs, terrorist cells that used murder and extortion to raise funds to fight coalition forces, and regular members of the criminal element present in every place in the world. AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) was the dominant terrorist network that rose out of the ashes of Baghdad in the years following the invasion. They were notorious for their strong-arm tactics to wring funds out of the indigenous population. They kidnapped young girls from families with means to pay ransoms. These girls were subjected to the most unspeakable captivity, raped many times a day, and had little chance of being returned to their families alive, no matter how much those families paid. Citizens were tortured and maimed in order to instill in them enough fear that the terrorists would reliably be provided materiel support and the victims would be far too afraid to speak to us or tell us who they were. Our patrols lasted 12 hours…. The terrorists lived among them and controlled them through fear and intimidation.

I don’t think most preppers realize how hellish the collapse of our society would be. I don’t think most reasonable people can imagine the magnitude of violence that people will readily visit on their neighbor when propelled by ideology, hunger, or sometimes simple profit. Can you imagine living in a place where your wife and your daughters were commodities? Where your sons are either killed or kidnapped or forced to fight for and perform suicidal tasks for evil men? Preppers talk about bugging out, and getting their families to safety… but I’m not sure most realize that the concept of safety is an illusion if you are alone. Much like the United States, Iraq is a large country, and most people lived in cities, but rural areas of Iraq were terrorized just as much as the urban areas. In many places it was more so due to proximity to resources and opportunities for the terrorist networks to conceal their own activities.

A family alone was prey. Nothing more.

I would like to dispel some myths about the way preppers in America think about how we will survive the coming collapse. Here are my top three:

1. I will bug out with my family to our cabin in the woods and we will grow a garden, raise chickens, and wait out the worst effects of the collapse.

Maybe, if you’re lucky…. but if you are alone in the woods you will most likely be found and be raped, killed, and looted. We know that the 240,000,000 plus people who live in our American cities will run out of resources and begin the process of starvation after about 72 hours or so. They are going to go somewhere. The strongest will have already preyed on the weak, sick, and stupid. The ones who find you will be strong, they will be motivated, and they will be ruthless. If they weren’t they would never have survived the urban exodus. They aren’t going to knock on your cabin door in broad daylight. Your chances as a family alone are very low.

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival

2. I am safe because I have the 5 best SHTF guns that I saw in a cool online survivalist forum and a zillion rounds.

Congratulations. If you have no or very little training, you’ll be lucky to make it to your first magazine change. Smart bad guys will back off after you shoot at them and simply wait for the opportunity to kill you and take your awesome weapons and free fodder. And they will be smart… or they would be one of the dead dumb ones who didn’t make it out of the city

3. I have enough food and resources to survive indefinitely, and I have a foolproof plan of egress and evasion, and I have thought through all the variables.

I hope you do. Have you done several complete rehearsals of every aspect of your plan? A wise old NCO once told me “don’t expect what you don’t inspect”. You don’t know what you don’t know unless you have run through the plan on the ground to shake out the bugs. It is very likely that there are fatal flaws that could be easily corrected given an honest rehearsal. This rehearsal must include your entire family or group, it must include all the physical movement and labor that the real thing would include. You must use the gear and resources that you would be using were the worst to occur. If you do not regularly train on your plan, then what you have is not a plan… it’s called a theory.

Pulling yourself and your family through is far more about physical conditioning and mental toughness, confidence in your training and in your plan, and good old-fashioned luck. I survived over 500 combat patrols with a single weapon, my issued M4 with a good weapon light, and the seven loaded steel magazines I kept with me on my body armor. I didn’t carry huge knives or tomahawks or pounds and pounds of the newest and coolest “tacticool” useless crap… just a multitool and an expandable baton. Sometimes we were out for 12 hours, sometimes up to 36 hours. The point is that it’s way more about the gear between your ears than the gear hanging off of every molle loop or picatinny rail.

Along with my training and a solid plan, I had my brothers on my left and right. They were my survival community. The truth of the matter is that in order to survive a collapse, we must build communities. In a community we have sentinels on guard 24 hours a day. We have a person on duty monitoring communications equipment to stay in contact with neighboring communities 24 hours a day. Our community has guards that patrol for resources and interdict incursions. In a community there is a division of labor where we can teach our children, grow our food, mend our shoes, and stand watch over our fences simultaneously. In a community we are strong enough to live in peace. Whether that community is our extended family, or a network of like-minded citizens who prepare and TRAIN together, it is precisely hanging together that will keep us from hanging separately.

That’s how the people survived after we destroyed Iraq. They relied on the members of their communities and their tribe, and they rebuilt. If the worst happens, we can learn much from them.

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  I live in Chicago, the most dangerous city in America. Not only is it the most dangerous city in America, but it is obnoxiously difficult to get out of even in

Pop quiz. If you had to leave your neighborhood and the route you normally take was blocked would you have an alternate way out? What if the alternate was blocked? What if all roads out of your neighborhood were blocked by military check-points? Would you have a backup escape route or would you be trapped staring at the lights ahead wishing you had made it out sooner?

Most days when I am driving home from work my mind is on autopilot. I make the turns I normally make, engage my turn signal at the proper time and generally drive the correct speed without even looking at the gauge on my dash. I do this not because I am a robot, but because I have done this so many times the actions are ingrained into my muscle memory. I am sure it is this way for many of you who drive to work every day.

But have you ever stopped to think of your escape routes during an emergency? What if the normal paths you take aren’t available? What if you aren’t even able to take your vehicle? Does your bug out plan allow you to get creative or are you hoping for the best? For those of us who live in more rural/suburban settings, driving our vehicles everywhere is almost taken for granted. We rarely get out and explore the world outside of these paved streets but knowing what is out there could be the key to your survival if you find yourself depending on alternate route options. Knowing your area by foot could save your life in the right circumstances.

Going off-road

Knowing the roads out of your neighborhood is pretty simple and I would bet that most of us have that down already but could you go off-road if the way was blocked? Could you cut across a field or through the back of a neighbor’s yard to get out to another road? Have you ever considered that at all? In a recent post I mentioned the need for a bug out vehicle that had the capability to go off-road and this is a good example where that could be necessary. Maybe it isn’t the road out of your neighborhood, but it is a major road that you would normally take to get out-of-town and it is blocked. A line of cars stretches before you and you can see a roadblock ahead. What do you do now?

Ideally you would have considered all of this well in advance. I routinely go for walks through my neighborhood. Usually I stick to the roads, but there are also trails near where I live so me and the survival dog will check those out from time to time. I live on the outskirts of a decent sized city right in the middle of too many and too few people. A few miles in either direction puts me solidly into rural farmland or the congestion of downtown.

I know the best option is to move but I am where I am for now so my prepping so far has been looking at ways I can avoid getting stuck in a trap should something block our access out.

A creek might make vehicle traffic impossible but it is an alternate way out on foot.

Identify any natural boundaries that could block you in

The area I live in has mild hills around. There is a pretty good-sized creek on my southern border that I would be able to cross on foot if needed, but I also know areas where the banks are low enough to allow a properly equipped 4 wheeler to cross also. Getting across the creek is one obstacle that could give me an alternate way out if all the other methods were blocked.

In addition to the creek I have property between me and all of the major roads. Some of this property is fenced, but bolt cutters would allow me to cut through any fence if needed. Once on the other side of the fence, I could follow woods through other yards to come out well down the road, potentially avoiding the road block. There are other routes that could take me through public land where radio towers are mounted, possibly down power line right-of-ways to make alternate tracks out of the area.

None of this is rocket surgery it just takes the normal plans we might make when we are preparing our families for some evacuation need and takes them a step further. Each of us can get out of our car and spend a couple of hours every month or so surveying our neighborhood. Maybe you don’t have creeks and woods to worry about; perhaps your neighborhood is alleys and blocks of large buildings. There will still be options if you are looking the right way.

When was the last time you took a closer look at your immediate surroundings? Do you know who has fences in their yard and who doesn’t? Do you know who is rarely home or who leaves their trash cans by the road for a couple of days after pick-up? Do you know the area around your neighborhood from an aerial perspective? Google Earth or even Google maps is a great way to pretend you have your own drone and you are conducting surveillance of your territory. Start in on your property and zoom or pan out to see details you might have missed driving by. This information could give you options when it looks like there are none.

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Pop quiz. If you had to leave your neighborhood and the route you normally take was blocked would you have an alternate way out? What if the alternate was blocked?

 

I am so sick and tired of a large majority of these stories always talking about all these real nice things people have for Bugging out. Oh look at our All terrain 4X4 Super Duty Extended Cab 8ft bed Jacked up fully loaded Ford Diesel Pickup. With our totally decked out bug out trailer that’s going to keep me and my family safe so I can return to my $ 180,000.00 a yr. job.

I mean am I the only one that feels this way? I make $ 50,000.00 a year as a Professional Firefighter.  And just to state, at the end of the day, I really don’t have a lot of money left. I also work a part-time job. Still can’t seem to come up with money to buy that kind of truck. Plus have all the extras, we all know they’re going to say this man has.

So let’s get down and dirty here and talk about what a common working man would have. Poor Man Prepping… Now I may be all wrong here, and just a complete dumb-ass. But most of the people I know are just like me. Just trying to make, a better life for their kids. We are the ones that don’t have that bug out location, and are going to have to bug in at first just to see how things go.

One day at the station we were sitting around the table, and the talk was about The Walking Dead, love the show, but I asked ‘so what would you guys all do if SHTF happened right now?’ Boom the world fell apart. We went around the table and each guy that was in the conversation said what they would do. Every single one of them gave pretty much the same answer. Get their guns, grab their stuff, load up the family and leave. So when it came around to me well, they didn’t like my answer. I was going to go to each one of their houses, and grab their stuff, I can use to help me and my family survive in our home. Something to think about.

Yea we do have some Bug out Bags and Boxes ready to go, our own small stockpile of prepping supplies. Maybe even a Chevy pickup to throw all that into. But in the end, we will be the ones banding together to make it. Yea I might be the one with the stove and cooking supplies, possibly a shotgun to try to protect my family with. But my neighbor could be the guy with all the guns and nothing else. It just cracks me up that as I read article after article on here it always seems as though there trying to brag or show off in some way.

So now that I’m way off point.

Good! I am going to start writing my own articles and see where this takes me, I can say one thing for sure we are going to talk about what a common working man can afford and can get. Should they have 3 to 6 months worth of food stocked up in his basement with his AR15 and Shotgun and all his other guns, plus Gallons and gallons of water? Well it would be nice. But then again were talking about what we can do to prep.

Let’s start small, and build from there.

1 Sharpe Permanent marker, no this may never stop a mob from stealing your stuff but it will make sense in a sec. Cases of water is really what got me going, Buy one or two cases and store them in a cool dry place. Write on the case year and date you bought them. (Sharpie Marker) This will at least let you know how old it’s getting and what gets drank first or rotated out. Same thing with some canned foods vegetables, Dinty Moore beef stew, spam canned meats –  write on the can when you bought them and exp. date so it’s easy to see. Oatmeal, pancakes just add water mix, syrup. Sure, sure if you can get more go for it. But just start saving what you can.

Then try to set up every family member with a bug out bag so it is ready to go. Have them plan for a weekend away from home, 2 nights three days. This will give them something in their bags –  try to add in a few other important items. Plate, Cup, Bowl, fork, knife, spoon. This can all be cheap plastic ones bought at a dollar store. Don’t forget to have each person pack an old blanket and pillow if possible.

Now I know most of us have food at home, well when it’s time to go nothing says you can’t take that with you it’s always a good idea to save those old grocery bags to load your food up. Take it. Just make sure what you take you can cook and eat. Pots and pans from the house may just be all you have. Draw up a check list and keep it close by. I am not saying don’t read the other articles or even take ideas from them, they are all good and may help in one way or another.

As far as your Bug out vehicle that’s going to take you away to the middle of nowhere, or a Budget Inn. Will the family car will most defiantly do? Yes! Should we all strive for a nice place in the middle of nowhere, and that 4X4 ATV I mention? You can if you want.

But my grandmother once said to me when I asked, why we don’t have a bomb shelter?

She said, ‘If we did have one would you really want to be the last ones left on earth, when everyone else is gone?’ If were truly going to make it to the next century and the SHTF we need to band together as the human race, cause without each other we die divided. Just my thoughts.

Look for more from me in the Future.

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  I am so sick and tired of a large majority of these stories always talking about all these real nice things people have for Bugging out. Oh look at our

It’s like a bad scene out of a disaster movie mixed with your worst nightmare. Some event forces you and your family to leave your home with only your bug out bags on the backs of you and your family. The good news is you are prepared and have set aside provisions and planned for the trip. You also have a destination 50 miles away at a relative’s house that is waiting for you with plenty of security and supplies. You expect the trip to take 3 days of walking back roads. Not ideal, but certainly doable.

The trip starts out normally enough but you were forced to travel in almost constant rain. At the end of day one everyone’s feet are sore, most have blisters and your younger children are starting to act like they can’t go on another mile.

Our bug out plans eventually come down to relying on our feet in a worst case disaster to carry us to safety. Sure we have options and my personal first option is staying in my home. When that fails me I have a bug out vehicle, but if that isn’t an option we strap packs to our backs and hit the trail. Injuries to your feet can incapacitate quickly so it is important to care for these modes of transport that would be crucial in a disaster scenario. One main issue with walking long distances is blisters. Another topic that is a little less discussed is trench foot.

What is trench foot?

Trench foot is caused when your feet are wet for long periods of time and as it advances, blisters can easily form in the skin that is first pruned and wrinkled. Left untreated these blisters can become infected, your skin begins to slough off. You can also experience swollen feet, cramping and numbness. Severe cases of trench foot can cause skin and muscle damage so this is something we want to get in front of quickly before it keeps someone from being able to walk.

Trench foot has been a problem as long as we have had feet and shoes, but it came to prominence in the trench warfare of WWI where soldiers would spend days with their feet covered in water and mud. While this likely won’t happen to your little survival group, minor effects of trench foot could cause issues and can be relatively easily prevented with some quick and simple tips.

severetrenchfoot

Severe trench foot can cause tissue and muscle loss. This man will never have to worry about clipping his toenails again.

How can you prevent trench foot?

The key to preventing trench foot is simple in theory. Keep your feet dry. The hard part is doing this as a habit and may be even more difficult if you are on the run or being pursued. Here are a few tips you can employ to help you.

  • Keep your feet dry and clean – Easier said than done. When you are hot, your feet sweat. When you have to cross water, your feet get wet or if you are forced to hike through rain, snow or wet grass. Assume your feet will get wet, but you can buy footwear and socks that help that condition. You can purchase waterproof boots and moisture wicking socks. When you stop, make sure you take your socks off and check your feet. If your socks are wet, allow your feet to dry Use foot powder if you have it and treat any blisters before they get worse.
  • Change your socks often – This simple act could do more good than almost anything else. Put on dry (a different pair) socks when you stop to take a break. You can hang the wet ones on your pack to dry out. Some people recommend two pairs, but I would say three are better so you can hopefully clean one pair too. Roll your socks inside out so you can keep up with what has been worn.
  • Let feet air out – Allow your feet to breathe and dry as long as possible especially if you are experiencing symptoms. Lying down will help with circulation. Again, if you are in a pursuit/combat situation, you don’t want to go to sleep with your shoes off, but for the rest of us, keeping your feet dry and healthy is easier than dealing with injury and infection. If the weather is very cold, you will have to adjust this, because you don’t want frostbite either.
trenchfootsymptoms

Early signs of possible trench foot if left untreated and the feet aren’t dried out.

What should you have in your bug out bag?

There are a few simple supplies you can have in your bug out bag that will help you prevent and treat trench foot if you are forced to bug out.

  • 3 pairs of wicking socks
  • Foot powder to remove moisture
  • Moleskin or blister block to address blisters before they get worse
  • Antibiotic cream
  • Good hiking boots or shoes that allow your feet to breathe should help them dry faster. Waterproof boots should keep them dryer. Either has benefits depending on the conditions. I prefer heavy-duty hiking boots that take a beating.

Part of planning to bug out has to extend to more than just the necessary contents of your bug out bag. There is the health and well-being of the people you are bugging out with too that should be considered. Proper foot care will keep people healthier and keep them moving longer.

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It’s like a bad scene out of a disaster movie mixed with your worst nightmare. Some event forces you and your family to leave your home with only your bug