Perhaps I should call it an INCH rather than a BOB. If I leave my home to bug out it's because I dont plan on coming back. I know I will catch a lot of slack for this, but I am asking everyone to honestly think about what I am about to say before responding. Whenever I tell someone I know who is a prepper (outside of this forum) that I don't put food in my BOB, they call me crazy or stupid. In a previous thread, I was told "clean food is the hardest thing to find". Respectfully I must disagree. For thousands of years FIRE was the hardest thing to find. Yes you can fire plough or bow drill a fire if needed. Trust me it is a pain in the ass, you will burn many calories doing it, and matches are much easier. A little less food means a lot more matches. Now you must also hunt for food. You can be primitive man and chip rocks into points, or you can use bullets. Less food equals more ammo. Also please keep in mind, IF I bug out (notice the big IF), it will be permanently. Not for a few days until things settle down. So what good is a few days worth of food, compared to the need I will have to hunt and cook food for possibly months or years. If you plan on bugging out for a few days or a few weeks until the shit is wiped from the fan blades. Then by all means pack food. If you plan on a permanent bug out, I ask... Is food really needed in your BOB, or are there other items that in the big picture and through the long run might help you survive better?
Seems like a terrible idea to me....what if you have enemies nearby and must hide in a hole for 3, 4, or 5 days? Fire is a definite no no in a evasion scenario so if you were able to kill something quietly enough without giving away your position how would you cook it? If you were holed up hiding it would be pretty tough to gather wild edibles so can't go that route...i can just think of a lot more scenarios where enough food to get me out of harm's way would be a positive versus a negative...just my thoughts but to each his own
Well, my thoughts are none of us know exactly what, if anything precisely, to be prepared for. I feel it's simply wise to cover what possibilities we can. Because of where I live, I'm extremely dedicated to bugging in. But I still have a go-bag if needed, which includes food and water, along with filtering supplies. It makes sense to me, to not have to worry about food for a week or more. If a bug-out is required, I'm pretty sure things will be hectic enough, without adding the problem of finding eats. I enjoy knowing I'm as prepared for whatever, as my little brain will allow......
"The Plan" is stay put. Do I have a get out of Dodge bag? Betcher butt. Once you evaluate your worst bugaboo and prepare for it, you MUST allow for a forced change in plan. What's in my bag? Well, let's just say enough to get me to location #2 (very nearby shelter) or #3 (quite a ways off, needs sock full of gas.) Plan C is still undeveloped, but started. There will be some nutritious stuff in all cases. And fire gear.
Yes, the "IF" is necessary to stress. And if you do bug out, I can guarantee the necessity alone will be most burdensome for the first (1) to (3) days hiking to your bug out location (if you have one or not). Therefore, it is wise to plan accordingly --one cannot search for food, prepare it and eat on the go if they are fighting to stay alive. A forced march is no fun at all, no matter the amount of training. Bringing 'some' food with you is just good thinking, but your mileage may certainly vary. Below you will find an E-book series I wrote ("Bug Out Remedies") a long time ago on bugging out. It's rough, but there is some important information inside. There's just no way to predict an uncertain scenario. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. General Survival - BUG OUT REMEDIES (Complete Vol 1-3)
We are a Bug-In Family, as there really is no place to go, from here, as we are surrounded by 250 miles of alaska wilderness. So, Momma and I have our 72 hour BOBs, that we travel with, and deal with the rest, via CNN, and Talking Heads..... When the SHTF, we will watch it on CNN, and then goto bed, and see if the Sun comes up the next morning..... ....
Really!! No food! Good Luck! Fire? Water, dried food good clothes stay hidden in plain sight, the fire brings enemies, forget the fire. Looks to be yet another question that has been answered 10,000 times.
Admittedly sirvival with out food is an art form and there is no one way that always works 100% of the time but.... I guess i'm an old F@rt who like to have a fall back plan.... with out food you lack the most basic of fall back plans when bugging out... no food may mean moving at less than your most efficent speed, having to take food from others and thus attracting more notice than needed when bugging out, or trying to hunt/gather when you really need to be laying low and leaving no sign of your being there.... the rule is one is none and two is one so three is better.... three days of food can be streatched to 6 days if necesary which may make the difference between a sucessful bug out to a safer AO and leaving your gear to some determined MZB who was able to wait you out and zap you.... either way YMMV but I personally wouldn't consider doing it that way....
You are quite lucky. I myself plan on bugging in, in almost every scenario. Thus, my BOB is more of an INCH bag (I'm Never Coming Home) It would have to be a crazy scenario that would cause me to bug out. In which case 3 or even 6 days worth of food is really meaningless to me considering I may be months or years without a place to call home. I don't know, just reminds me of the saying "give a man a fish and feed him a day, teach him to fish and feed him for life" As for the poster whom referred to hiding from the bad guy. That is total meltdown war stuff. If that happens, I want to be in familiar areas (kinda hard to hide unless you are familiar with your surroundings.) I have caches for that.
My wife and I keep 3 days food and water in our BOB. We plan to bug in if at all possible, but if we have to leave I have prepositioned caches of food and other needed supplies along multiple bug out routes that can be reached within a day or a day and a half of walking. It can be burdensome maintaining and rotating supplies,but it is worth it not having to worry about it.I really woudn't have it any other way!
Air water shelter / fire transportation hygine security food Pretty hard to get along with any of these. Even harder to live for extended periods out of a backpack, off the land. I might suggest adding a couple of plans b, c , d etc etc. But of course if you want to do that go ahead That's freedom for ya, ain't it? Thad (not aimed at the OP, but I have seen a lot of these run off / live off the land posts lately, seems to be stage one before you stop and think it well through, then most realize that unless you have somewhere to go and have stuff / family and such already there that just bugging out makes you a refugee.)
Just a scenario. You have to leave home for whatever reason. The place you are going to is ten miles up the road. Easy enough right? Sure it is. You did remember that you like to walk through the woods to keep away from MZBs right? You forget about that gully? Oh, you slip and break or fracture your leg. That's not good. Though you can still live off the land. So how long now is that ten mile hike? I have seen many videos of light and heavy amounts of food. One guys bag weighed at least 60 pounds. I dare say that 20 lbs of it was food. What? Seriously? There is such a thing as not enough and too much. I myself have three MREs in my bag. One MRE sitting near the bag that is field-stripped so when I go, I can shove it in cargo pockets for munch on the run. Water, Food and Air.
I can appreciate your thought process and just like others I initially thought "what the flip flop is this guy thinking". Then once I gave it a thought for a moment or two I changed my thoughts on it. You can survive a long time(weeks) without food. We teach people that they should have three days worth of supplies in their BOBs because the government states that it will take approx three days for them to get basic supplies to needy people after a disaster. I have three days worth in my bug out bag but, I also have alternative plans.
I would at least take some high calorie energy bars for a few days worth of food. They are small and can give you a energy boost when you need it. Doing physical work while fasting is no fun. I have the Coast Guard type food bars that have a days calories in a small block (relative to the calories) since they will last a long time, it doesn't take up a lot of room. I don't really plan on bugging out permanently the main reason I have it is for something that forces you out of the home and you need to take off quickly, earth quake being the main concern I have. Before anyone decides not to have some form of body fuel in their BOB I would highly suggest fasting three days while doing intense physical labor or hiking several hours each day. IMO you would need at least a few days of food to get you where you are going. You never know what obstacles might turn that 30 minute drive into a three day hike. If you didn't want to take a full three days worth of calories then even if you took enough for 1,000 a day that would be better than nothing at all.
