What Do You Choose?

1. Bowie knife, and sheath w/accessories, WIP
2. sawyer filter and water bags,
3. 17 HMR and ammo.
4. .357 mag and ammo and shoulder holster
5. colloidal silver generator w/FAK
6. distiller pressure cooker cup+ accessories and eating utensils .
7. Poncho and liner. nylon over pants.
8. 5 lbs beef jerky, and 5 lbs of breakfast bars, and or trail mix.
9. one man tent, (home made) and boat shrink wrap tarp. ( home made)100'paracord
10. walking staff and it's accessories.

 

Rifle and 9 rounds of ammo.

The other items needed will appear like magic thereafter.

 

Magic is an illusion ,so that those preparations are a figment of your imagination .

 

You had any trouble with the bullets malfunctioning on that .17? Been hearing some reports that the bullets have been fragmenting before doing damage, especially in foggy conditions.

 

For my list of items, I'd go for stuff that could not be foraged for.

Just as an exercise in discovering what usable items could be found, having been discarded by others, I emu-bobbed (policed) several kilometers of road along the Lakesway South of Forster NSW Australia,
from the Teatree Rd intersection
Google Maps to The Green Cathedral Google Maps.

I didn't catalogue the items found, but from memory included:

* Various lengths of different gauges of wire, and cordage
* Numerous PET bottles with lids of varying capacities
* Glass containers (jars and bottles, many with lids)
* An assortment of aluminium and steel cans, and some spoons and knives
* A discarded fishing kit (sans rod and reel), but with busted tackle box, hooks, lines of varying breaking strengths, sinkers, floats, small hand reels, some lures, knife (rusted), and other small miscellaneous fishing tackle.
* A number of disposable gas lighters, some still functional with butane, some with functional flints
* Several items of discarded clothing including a pair of board shorts, a couple of T Shirts, a sweater with an arm missing, a few pairs of underpants/panties, an assortment of cotton and woollen socks in various sizes (with laundering and some minor repair, most were serviceable to wear or use in repairs)
* Some shoes (male and female), matched and unmatched in various sizes, styles and condition
* Some flip flops, unmatched in various sizes and styles
* Oddments of sheet metal, plywood, timber,
* A collection of hardware (nails, screws, bolts, nuts, washers, lead wheel weights, (and fixings salvageable from dumped furniture))
* Bits of carpet and carpet underlay
* Bits of canvas, and polypropylene fabric
* Billets of wood
* Some small / cheap wallets / purses in poor condition) with cruddy cosmetics (one with a mirror)
* Paper and cardboard
* A Burlap bag
* Some gloves of varying type and condition (leather and rubber)
* A bottle opener / corkscrew / tin opener - rusted
* Some sunglasses (all broken) but a useable pair could be cobbled together from the parts.
* A very cruddy looking towel with many small holes
* A qty of disposable washcloths in desperate need of washing
* Some discarded fruit (some with viable seeds)
* Discarded fast food containers (with and without food remnants)
* Oddments from motor vehicles like floor mats, broken indicator lights, collision debris etc
* A child's flotation vest
* Assorted broken discarded children's toys

To be continued.....

 

I would be cautious about retrieving things off the ground depending on the nature of the disaster.
Besides IEDs booby traps and contaminated materials biological or chemical or radio active.
The idea of leaving something to be a trap inadvertently might well expose one to other hidden dangers.

With the 17 HMR, I reasoned that reloading "on the run" is useless due to the materials one must carry to accomplish that.
Now if one has a home base and a group that work together then reloading is perfectly practical . that being th case I have relaodg gear an other weapons to cover that issue.
By volume however the .17 HMR is 1/5th the volume of the .223 meaning I can carry 5 times more and only be a fraction less effective as a .223.
So far as the bullet fracturing ,I have not tested all the different ammo I have acquired for the .17 HMR. Other people have already done those studies on your tube.
Point is the ammo available in the hand is more valuable than what needs to be reloaded. and if your carrying dead weight it's not helping you at all.
After shooting my .17 , my son doesn't even want the .223 or the .22s he wants the 17.(Which he will get eventually.)

 

Interesting perspective. I never would have thought of that. You are correct that it would be depending on the disaster. In the book Alas Babylon, radiation was an issue and some people will not think about picking up stuff that ends up near you but is contaminated. Very good point @arleigh

 

Had a discussion/argument along while back on the first forum I joined. Their thing was zombies, and I basically went against the grain on every discussion topic their was, but one that stuck out to me was how everyone planned to "forage/scavenge" off the "bones of the dead society", and based most of their preps on the idea that the zombie hordes would come in, they would shoot them down with their vast array of "combat kit" on their person, and then break into houses to find food, clean clothes, and medicine, etc.
They made a point about entering a city in search of valuables at one point, and I took the extreme view that I would burn the b#### to the ground instead of going in it. When they tried to shout me out from their "moral superiority" Platform of Greed", I calmly told them that you have to be alive for any of that to do you any good.
SHTF, one booby trap can easily take out a handful of dudes. Or one accident where the modern structure of something has malfunctioned, or, in that scenario, doing CQB housclearing in a city full of zombies is stupid, and all of that is unneccessary unless it is a calculated risk to go in search of something you KNOW you need, and you are going in with shopping list.

 

If I am a "traveller" doesn't that mean I can be in a large variety of situations...from being in the middle of some bad hombres to checking into a FEMA camp? If that is the case, the ten essentials I want on my person must be things that are useful to me but not something bad folks are going to covet or the authorities are going to want to confiscate. So I am going to need not only the essentials that are always with me, but essentials that I can hide/cache and get back to if I need to GTFOD, right?

 

I'm a traveling, traveling man, oh yeah...
1. Canteen
2. Canteen cup
3. Fish Hooks size 3/0
4. 3 blade Uncle Henry pocket knife
5. Bic lighter
6. 6' x 7' poly tarp
7. US Army wool blanket
8. 100' paracord
9. Slingshot
10. plastic bag in bed roll with a couple pounds of instant oatmeal
Blanket to be used as blanket roll to carry most gear.

 

Something else to consider.
If there is an EMP your LED flash lights will be useless.
For this reason I have both incandescent and LED bulbed lights .along with LEDs in faraday boxes.
They have been making LED bulbs that replace incandescent for some time so having the old stile flash lights is worth it.
Surplus stores are carrying the old style with the angle head ,which also has colored lenses, $9-$10 .
The red lens is particularly important so your to giving your self away at night . ideally it's best to hike by moon light but on a moonless night you've little choice.

 

I carry candle lanterns with me.