Okay, I am trying to figure out some things and I would like your input on these following questions. What is the length of time you would prepare for? Be it 4, 7, or 20 years, your choice on years. How much ammo should a person stock for defensive use and hunting per year? What would your prep list look like? And if you could make one and post it, that would help. All of this is based on the following scenario.... You have known that this day would come, though you hadn't thought it would be this bad. What happened is you had prepared to face the longest forseeable disaster of a nuclear fallout (such as in Lights Out) though you didn't expect it all to go so wrong as this. What happened? Well, the country was attacked by a foreign enemy with nuclear weapons causing MZBs and EMP. This led to a weakening of the government and around the world the monetary value of cash went into the gutter rapidly. While we were asking for aid from other of our 'allies' they were attacked as we no longer could provide a stable voice to the world so destruction and chaos reigns. There is a worldwide epidemic of breakdown. All countries were nuked and all cash is worthless. There has been nuke strikes, famine, disease, poverty and to top it off, earth was hit by a meteor. We are living in a winter wasteland with super gangs and no backup. Soldiers deserted after many months of trying to control looting in order to defend their families. So now it is just you and those that you choose to protect. Everyone else you chance to meet is a potential enemy of your community. So, based on the scenario, how would you prepare? Please give me your ideas. I am at a loss for my own in some things. Thanks ahead of time. And may the shwartz be wit yoos.
Melbo has a lot of info on the www.survivalmonkey.com site. In my opinion you would never be able to fully prepare for the above, not truly. Most people can't stock 5, 7, or 10 years worth of food. It it just isn't feasable. At a certain point (hopefully as soon as possible) you are able to supply your own food through hunting, fishing, livestock, gardening, canning, etc. My feeling is not to go out and buy as much canned food as you can afford, but to add some to your pantry, supply cabinet, etc. each time you go shopping. I go to Sam's about once a month for canned goods, meats, etc. When I go I spend about $150-200 on canned goods, spices, flour and long shelf life products. I buy the big sealable buckets from Home Depot and I used these to store rice, flour, sugar, salt, etc. in. The canned goods I rotate through my pantry so the oldest gets consumed. Doing this allows me to build up my food supply stocks gradually and cost less. I don't think of how many years of food supply will I need to get by, my feeble mind cannot fathom all of the items and products I would need in a "Lights Out" scenario. I just keep stocking up each month on the things that I regularly use from everything from duct tape to meds, and buy extra when I find it on sale. I tend to think like the mormons though, a years' food supply for everyone in your household is a good idea. Although remember, you are going to have friends, neighbors, extended family, etc. show up during a time of need. So that means extra. If I all the sudden hit the lottery or something, then yeah I would probably go out and buy a years supply right away. Maybe even two years. Water sources and supply also have to be considered. I tend to be a sale shopper, a while back at Wal-Mart I found a great deal on AA batteries and water purity tablets. So I bought all the AA batteries on sale, and nearly all of the tablets too. I wasn't sure what the tablets sold for or I would have bought them all. Now I am kicking myself. Last year I saw a big sale in SN on ammo, so I loaded up on .300 Win. Mag. and .357 Sig. HP's. For me this also has to be gradual, not one big shopping spree. I like to shoot although I don't get to as much as I would like to. How much ammo? For me personally I want 10K rounds of 5.56, 7.62x39, 7.62x51, .22 and .45 ACP each. Yeah, that is a lot of ammo and I will probably never have that much, but it is a goal. Magazines are another thing that have to be stocked up on. 20 mags for each would probably be sufficient. I also have at least two kids to put through college, one in the next five years so things have to be prioritized too. In the scenario you listed above, it is my feeling that one family and even one person would almost certainly not make it. You need the extra people to plant, grow, harvest, hunt, wash, cook, gather, and guard/defend. In "Light's Out" Hallfast had the neighborhood band together, which I think was a good idea. If you live in a neighborhood, even be it a rural one with house or two close by hopefully you can count on your neighbors. Even if you can, what will their food stocks or ammo stock look like? You might need to carry a little more for them, so that they can protect your backside. It's lots to think about, formulate a plan, then start buying in small quantities. That is what I do.
TMH, it is entirely too easy to overthink these situations. Start small, like a three day bug out plan, extend it to a couple weeks over time, then go for the longer term. If I read all I think I read into your situation, you can easily do some experimenting. Take the three day bag and hit the road (for three days) and see if what you have selected is enough. You can easily dream up "what if" scenarios while gone to test the bag's contents, especially if you go loaf around a National Forest with the bag over your shoulder. Could you make it if you fell off that rock? Suppose you soaked your head in the creek that is known to be polluted? How about the blisters from the shoes you chose by mistake? Then, as EL says, build up the stuff you will need for longer periods a bit at a time. Won't save you money particularly with prices rising, but the bite will be far less painful.
Okay, I am trying to figure out some things and I would like your input on these following questions. What is the length of time you would prepare for? Be it 4, 7, or 20 years, your choice on years. How much ammo should a person stock for defensive use and hunting per year? What would your prep list look like? And if you could make one and post it, that would help. Given that particular scenerio, I wouldn't need as much ammunition as most; maybe one or two bullets.
Thanks for the replies. They point things out to me that are useful. My plan is this: I plan on finding a nice community to live in and get me about 2-5 acres. Get to know the people so I know who would be beneficial and who may be enemies, though in a rural situation, most people tend to have good morals and are sociable. I plan to do a year or two worth of stock. I have an idea that I should learn field medical, canning, small time tanning, leather working, gardening, and a little about animal raising. Combine that with basic carpentry, plumbing and some base welding. I think that would be good for a knowledge base. I am going to print any online manuals I can find and have the pages laminated. Going to gather hand tools for hard times. I'm going to stock about 5 different calibers of rifles - 300win mag & .50BMG & 30-30 & 270 & 22, two of shotguns - 12 & 20, two of handgun - 45 & 9mm and specials like AR15 & maybe AK. I will have day&night scope capabilities for the rifles. I will have laser dots for shotguns and handguns backed up by glow sights for the handguns. I will have a vehicle for bugging out. Maybe a suburban to carry my gear, armored of course. Haven't figured it out yet. If my neighborhood is overrun with MZBs maybe I can find some group that would find a use for my knowledge and join with them. That is unless the neighbors have built a contained camp. Who knows. That's my plan so far.
A very ambitious plan, but if you live long enough, you can get it done. In the meantime, cultivate like minded individuals with some of the skills you don't have. A solitary existance is tough to deal with. Think tribe.
I know that I will need others that think the way I do. However in my current location, there is none to be had. Also, I will not look to live on the west coast or on a fault line. All it takes is one bang and CA goes into the ocean. I just can't make up my mind. I will get it done though. When I set my mind to something there is nothing that can stop me. The hard part will be finding people of the like mind as me that has room in their area with land I can buy to make a plot available for my safety. Now if I could find a certain number of people and we all put in some money together to buy a big parcel of land that we start to use for prepping, then that would be good. Though you have to take into account what if they want out and whatnot. I am independent and don't like relying on anyone to a point where I could suffer for it when the wind blows strong. It is one thing to say you believe this way or that and when the chips are down, most of their talk is pure BS and they will leave you high and dry. I am thinking more along the lines that if I can one day have a nice piece of land, then I can allow some people to bugout there under the condition that we work as a team. If they can't hack it and start causing dissention in the community, then I have no problem opening the gate and sending them down the road. I won't be Master of the place, though I will expect everyone to pitch in and help. Only together can we work as a community, and if someone wants to start trouble then that will be eliminated quickly. That is my biggest fear. Someone killing the community before it gets off the ground.
Well my basic thoughts on it would be, for say a family of 4 or less (assumeing you have neighbors that are on desent terms and may be able to help with some things) would be about 1-2 years of stocks and a minimum of 10 acres of land with livestock already in place. The 10 acre minimum would assume good to excelent soil and graze and the live stock would need to limited to small animals for this small of a patch to maintain them (remember that the average family farm was always 40-80 acres). So I would go with about 5-6 female goats of a dual purpose (milk and meat) breed and probably 2 bucks, 50-100 chickens (mostly hens of a broody breed, i.e. will hatch their eggs), and at least 5-10 female rabbits and 2 males. Put in at least 1/2 an acre in garden and about the same in orchard, a minimum of 2 acres of the remaining would have to be in hay to cut and store a minimum of 2-3 times a year in order to feed the stock through the winter then at least 1 acre in grain to feed the chickens in the winter as well as to grind for flour. This already takes up 4 acres of the land and leavs only 6 for the animals to graze and if its prime for graze then there are few if any trees so fire wood becomes a problem. As long as you can maximize the land though and maybe go localy to cut wood then you should be able to squeek by on the 10 acres and the 1-2 year supplys should get you by untill your first crop comes in and while you build your animals up a bit so you can slaughter them as needed while keeping a good breeding pool. Now as far as guns and ammo I would say a minimum of 1k of ammo for your large bore hunting rifle and 5k for the battle rifles (keep in mind that its no fairy tale and if you are in battle enouph to burn that then you will be loseing folks that would have used it and if you survive then those you engaged didnt and you are likely to be able to gather weapons and ammo from them), then at least 1K for each other cal other than .22 which I would try to stock at least 10-20K for. The .22 will work for most any game at close range with good placement and livestock can be slaughtered with a knife or ax and not wasteing ammo then if ammo runs out for the rest then it is likely to be scarse all around and if attackers are reduced to bows and such then even a .22 is a big advantage. Then I would make sure to add at least a couple of flint locks to the collection along with a bullet mold and practice some at makeing black powder then you can feed them forever as long as you can knap a new flint when needed. I figure with that basic plan then as long as radiation and so dont get you and you are not foolish enouph to be searching out fights with either locals or peacable passers by, then you have a realistic chance. As far as skills to learn to be most likely to be welcomed by a group if needed, my top sugestions would be along medical line. Learn dentistry but learn to do it with old fashioned tools since you wont have x-rays and such, learn herbalism and medicine so you can apply the herbalism along with the skills to treat basic injuries (serious injuries beyond maybe a broken leg are likely pointless without antibiotics or any modern medical equiptment that runs on electricity) since you would not have acess to modern pharmasuticals. I have heard many many folks who figured they would not hesitate to let groups of children starve at the gates even state that any medical folks would be welcomed with open arms to join them, the thing most have not taken into account is that the average MD of today would be virtualy useless 6 months (if not 6 hours) after a TEOTWAWKI situation since they would have no diagnostic or lab equiptment and no drugs to give out, but if you know the plants of the area and such and how to use them then while it may not be AS effective in many cases as the drugs it would be FAR better than a MD with no drugs or equiptment. Just my quick thoughts on it.
I think the small community plan is a good one. Safety and productivity in numbers. Sounds like you are off to a decent start in your thoughts. I can't give you a comprehensive list of what I have because I pack it away and keep on securing more of everything. Start with the very basics and keep adding to from there. I'm shopping Nuke stuff these days
Thanks for the replies guys. One of my biggest problems is the whole trust thing. I will work on that though. I do see that most that will make it will be 'communities' or 'tribes'. As far as turning people away, it is in my mind an imperative to accept small children who would otherwise starve and die without some kind of help. However if they are travelling in a group with some adults then I leave it in the hands of destiny. I will give them food and water and wish them well. That is just me. And if I happen to see anyone harming a child, the elderly or infirm in a SHTF situation, then without a seconds thought, their gear will be mine, if you know what I mean. There will be no excuse to abuse children, the elderly or the infirm. I will do my best for everyone that I can up to the point that it is detrimental for my survival and then I will still try and help those by looking for others that can help. I will brook no immoral behavior even in those rough times. If we cannot work together then we will fall. There of course will be those out for themselves who steal, kill and do other things and I understand that. I understand that evil lies in the hearts of men. However they won't last long. It is the way of the world. There is a saying that only the strong will survive. This does not mean what idiots take it to mean. It means the 'strong in mind and will' will survive. Not those perceived strong guys that prey on the weak. Okay, how did I get on this rant? Geez. I will end it here. Enjoy.
