SHTF.... (not another fantasy)

[vrwc]

well a short version of my preplanning
first decide to ride it out at home or migrate to family ranch
either way i keep the following in my truck for the purpose of rounding up the family: car-16 with 3 mags and about 500rds 5.56 fmj,rem 870 with some 00 buck and soft impact, sig p239 with 3mags and about 500 rds 9mm,IIIa vest, III over vest, IIIa mil style helmet, frag googles, case of mre's, ect all I have enough fuel to get to ranch plus a long reserve,
The wife has a sig p239 in her car with 4 mags and a IIIa vest,
At home we have a ready bag with mini-30's (to be replaced by ar's) 700 rds 7.62x39, cetme .308, 500 rds .308, extra rifle plates III, 10/22 rifle,
I have pre assembled food and hydration kits ready to go in the truck quickly, the home is pretty mundane just lost of various weapons and ammo. the plan is if the SHTF for real the family (uncles/parents,ect) will meet up at the ranch where we have lots of ammo/machine shop/fuel/generators/clear field of fire from the cabin/food/ect , all the roads are easily blocked,
My family has a long tradion ot military service USMC/Navy so we would end up with at least 6 people including my self that have ar's/body armor, and comm gear,

So the point i am trying to make here if at all possible try to get the whole family involved , a lone rifleman is a pain but a fire team is a little more troublesome for looters/blue helmets to deal with

ps i am not from the black helo/tin foil hat camp, being prepared is just something that my family has always stressed,

one other thing to keep in mind is my bug out route is 100% interstate major road free, if your are only trying to protect yourself/family its far better to avoid the firefights in the first place.

 

[TallPine]

We're not going anywhere.

My main concern would be the folks "bugging out" to the hills where we are.

You need to contact me in advance to make reservations.


Of course, if the Yellowstone Caldera really did blow, we wouldn't be worrying about anything ever again.

 

[J-Man]

OK, bug out early if possible and have a place to go with various backup routes to get there. Don't be a refuge. If you can't bug out early and can stay in place, stay put. There are over 200 million firearms in this country but most households have less than 50 rounds of ammo. There will be a lot of lead flying around at first and will taper off rather quickly.
As for who the enemy will be- everyone! Desperate people do desperate things and most people are "law abiding folks" only because there ARE laws- for now. If, say, power is lost for more than 3 days over a large area, or worse yet a week+, people will begin to starve. And they will take whatever means necessary to prevent that. Including looting your supplies. You wouldn't let them would you? Are you willing to kill someone if it came down to your hide or theirs? Just some thoughts to keep in mind.
As a general rule, stay away from as many people as possible outside your group. You do have a group of like minded indviduals ready to help each other out? Loners won't get far. And hooking up with strangers is even worse (hence, the "don't be a refuge").
Make no mistake, if SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, or whatever you want to call it hits it will be bloody, mean, and very horrific. I deal with mangled and dead and suffering people all the time on the Fire Department. Multiple that by thousands of times, throw in a few hurt or killed loved ones, and you'll begin to get the picture....
Hope for the best but prepare for the worst!

 

[Sam Fisher]

I don't have an exorbitant amount of ammo - maybe 2000 rounds of various calibers, mostly 7.62x39 and .45 but enough to fend off bg's for a while I'm sure. And, I always buy more every payday.

After reading the posts in this thread I'm convinced the best thing for me to do in a situation is stay put. I have water supplies, food supplies, coffee, cooking and heating stoves (back packing type), and most importantly - a roof over my head! If I bug out several things are imminent.

1. - I will lose my home and everything in it to the very people I'm running from.
2. - I'll be living in the wild with the barest of necessities. (winter is coming).
3. - There's no place like home! While sitting in the hills freezing, I'll be wishing I stayed home. (familiar surroundings.)

Screw it... I ain't goin' no where! Home is where my heart is and I'd rather die defending it, than die somewhere in the wild while a bunch of rioters are enjoying my home.

 

[98G]

**A primary point was that if one is truly concerned about some form of serious societal decay, moving to a Good Place is but the initial effort at living through Bad Times. He suggested moving to a small town and acquiring/having some set of skills which makes you a necessary part of the community.

That's not bad advice for a continuing condition of Good Times, IMO.

, Art**


While I'm not a real subscriber to the SHTF theories, that thought occurred to me...I decided that Critical Care Nursing would likely be in high demand in any such scenario, and would also pay the bills and be quite fulfilling during normal times....

Without going into too many details, I'll ramble a bit....A blast shelter for SHTF will work just fine in normal times as a tornado shelter, and if fitted with a vault door and dehumidifier makes a dandy gunsafe with enormous capacity.....The difference in a gun enthusiast and a survivalist is the amount of ammunition - gun enthusists have many guns and a little bit of ammunition for each one, whereas survivalists tend to have a whole ????load of ammo.......Before bugging out, you really need to have a specific destination and your own property to go to, as those hills you have selected as a destination in all likelyhood belong to someone who is more prepared than you are, and will greet you with force of arms rather than open arms.......Knowledge is worth more than material items-what's it worth for me to accurately differentiate your wife's endometriosis from the acute appendicitis you thought it might have been?....Those of you who talk about a BOB - have you walked 60 miles in 3 days carrying 65 lbs recently? Are you kidding yourself about your capabilities?......And advertizing what you have and what you are prepared for invites not only looters but also unprepared individuals - the ones who laugh at you now will be at your doorstep at the first hint of trouble.....Are you REALLY prepared to use force to keep your food and water? You can be certain that within a week there will be those ready to use force to take it from you....

98G

 

[Mike Irwin]

Subaru Outback. Should get me where I need to go.

Only problem is, I'm in a large metro area. I may not be able to go anywhere fast.

 

[Don Galt]

I don't know why people are afraid of tinfoil hats. If someone was running around talking about a worldwide threat of fascism, claiming we would be in a world war in 10 years, you guys would be talking about tinfoil hats.

But so would the people who heard this same guy in 1930. We just had the 1929 stock market crash. (Ok not exactly the same, but the country is different and the economic impact we've had is like 1930-1931.)

Bear with me while I give you a plausible scenario-- no tin foil hat needed:

A depression may well be coming. The Euro is being adopted accross Europe. Major trading partners with Europe are going to start using the Euro where tehy had used the dollar. The US has run trade deficits for decades, at the same time pursuing a strong dollar policy. Part of this policy has been that central banks should use the dollar as a reserve currency. Inflation in the second half of the 90s was %8. YES %8! The reason you didn't see the prices going up that fast was the CPI is easily manipulated, and a large number of US dollars were exported to trading partners to sit in banks, effectively taken out of the US economy and thus not causing the rise in prices. Now that the fed wants to increase the money growth rate-- inflation-- to %10, and central bank dishording of gold is not sufficient to keep gold prices down (And at any rate they are going to run out of gold to dishord at some point!) there could come a time in the next couple of years where banks decide the dollar has slipped enough and that they should start converting to the euro en-masse before the rest do. So they start splitting their paper reserves between the dollar and the euro, %50/ %50. This alone-- even though they haven't abandoned the dollar, would likely create a hyperinflationary scenario... which causes prices to rise, which causes the government to be tight for money, which causes the printing presses to run on and on, which feeds the hyper inflation.

ITs happened before. Hell, its happened before IN THIS COUNTRY! TWICE! (Ref: Confederate dollars and revolutionary war dollars.)

Or, there could be a massive natural disaster... these things do happen as we all know, and to predict them is tinfoil hat territory, but the idea that they happen is simply realistic.

In any large disaster, from hyperinflation to hurricanes, looters are a problem. Apparently there was a lot of looting and various crime after that big hurricane in Florida a few years ago. This happens regularly.

So being prepared does not require you to buy into some wild eyed scenario. Even if you think my hyperinflation warning is bunk, our current society is not exactly as robust as it used to be. Y2K was a real threat in the sense that if it had happened, we would have been screwed--- if the nation lost any major resource for a long period of time-- such as the NY black out going on for a week or two-- things would deteriorate fast. Even with the relatively short problems we see every hurricane season and every couple of years with earthquakes and whatnot, we see people start looting.

And ther'es no way the police can police in a situation like that.. they will be after whatever the state is worried aobut-- the disaster or what not... not out to protect citizens.

I don't understand carring a gun in case you might get mugged, but not having a couple dozen gallons of water standing by. You're more likely to need the water than the gun, I think. (Or better yet, be prepared in both situations.)

So, please tell me what the source of the tin foil hat comments are if I'm not getting it. IF the chances are 1/100, but the consequences of not being prepared are devestating, and the cost of being prepared is low, isn't it simply pragmatism to be prepared? Thats why so many people carry....

I'm new to the gun culture... so maybe I missed where everyone was in a tizzy over Y2K and a lot of people got hornswaggled and thats why they now pooh-pooh survivalism... or is it something else?

 

[gun-fucious]

A 650cc On Off Road motorcycle is a good thing®

i was attempting to head up to PA the night a truckload of missles spilt out on I 70 near Hagerstown.

Can you say 100 square mile gridlock?

If the excrement encounters the windmere, HUM-DINGER or not, you ain't driving anywhere.

Attempt the baja cross country boogie and you are gonna wind up stuck in the sinkhole on Farmer Brown's back 40.

Theres also a good possibility that the State & Federal Police folk
will require you to "Shelter in Place"

In the event of an all out TEOTWAWKI,
i would expect State borders to be closed.
In my wife's PA home town, the National Guard has several Tanks.

Tanks on the bridge trump Hummer H2s.