Posted on 04/30/2013 1:11:03 PM PDT by Kartographer
Looking for a bug out bag checklist to make sure your bug out bag isn’t lacking anything critical? Instead of another long written post about bug out bags, we thought we’d put one out there in pictorial form.
Hope this gives you a few ideas on items you haven’t checked off your bug out bag checklist quite yet. We know one bug out bag isn’t right for every occasion, but this is how we are packing our bags for a TEOTWAWKI scenario.
(Excerpt) Read more at shtfplan.com ...
Preppers’ PING!!
These bug out bag threads are expensive.
There’s a Great Storm coming you can feel it.
Its your choice you can prep or you can stand around on a bridge waiting for FEMA to bring you a bottle of water, a MRE, a warm blanket and a kiss for your boo-boo and maybe you can even get your picture as you stand there on the national news.
Any one with half a brain can look around and see for themselves what is happening right before their eyes.
So listen to what the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. NIV Proverbs 22:3
One of the things Selco covers in this article is the fact that many will not accept that a breakdown is occurring even as they watch it happening before their eyes. Why don’t they realize it? It’s caused by a condition called ‘Normalcy Bias’ a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
A good article on ‘Normalcy Bias’ is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/
You either prepare and stand on your own beholden to no one or you become dependent on others to provide your basic needs and become their ‘serf’. Me I don’t want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly don’t want to have to kiss some ‘gubberment’ third class bureaucratic to try and coax some help from them, I don’t want some ‘jack booted’ thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep. And last but not least I don’t want to be shut up in with a bunch of ‘zombies’ and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get.
There is a Great article in my Preparedness Manual on building your on Bug Out Bag titled: A Highly-Mobility 72 Hour Kit-by Ward Dorrity. You can download the whole manual at:
http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!
For those of you who haven’t started already it’s time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, cash (I myself have been putting up change for the past few years both for the metal content and the fact that using change places to make what purchases you can will move you down the the list of possible marks during shtf), tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say “When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.”
Again I like to recomend FReeper’s ChocoChipCookie Blog The Survival Mom (Please Blog Police let this one slide!) Where you can get lots of useful information like:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/11/20/8-morale-boosters-for-any-worst-case-scenario/
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/02/survival-priorities-the-rule-of-three/
And More
Also there is Ferfal’s Blog a survivor of Argentina’s first collapse:
And there is Selco’s Blog a Bosnian War survivor at:
“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger. Underestimation can be fatal.”
/johnny
Consider adding a USB memory stick with important documents scanned and stored on it in PDF and JPEG formats. Encrypt data.
Insurance contact forms, copy of passport, credit card contact list etc.
A PDF can be printed, the KPEG and be made as a photo print at ‘one hour’ photo places.
Nice graphic.
I bought a little SS folding shovel (Outdoor Products) at Wallyworld this morning. Smaller than a VHS tape, light, under $5.00. Maybe to dig a rain channel around a shelter. Or if I’m really hungry.
If you're already sufficiently bugged out, your home is your 'bugout bag'.
Only city people worry about this kind of thing.
That’s gonna be one HUGE bug out bag.
where’s the iphone and TV remote go?
Just buy the new takedown 10/22. It comes with a nice pack that attaches nicely to my backpack. It has been reliable for me so far after putting around just over 300 rounds down range with the kids. Add a few 25 round magazines and it your in business.
Not bad. But ...
Most Americans have CRAP for footwear: shoes/boots AND proper socks. Especially women (just an observation).
I have two pairs of broken-in high-end Wolverine high-top lace-up boots and field-tested socks — for hot and cold weather. My footwear can go 500 miles farther than I can.
water filter — Katadyn is kinda pricey and a bit bulky. I prefer the Life Straw - one per person. Plus three of the two bottle sets of water purifier w/ iodine. One is none, two is one. My pack has a 1.5 liter ‘camel pack’, plus two 1 liter bottles packed with STUFF until I need them for agua.
AND while I admire his collection, he must plan to bug out unopposed AND in great physical shape. (a) That is a LOT of weight to heft around unless you are used to it AND in good shape. If you haven’t worn a load that heavy and know how to fit it to YOU, you’ll have blister under your arms in 5 miles. (b) You can’t maneuver in a pack that big. You can walk, but you can’t fight.
I travel (in my suitcase) with a much more modest ‘walkout’ bag that will keep me safe, fed and warm WITH GOOD FOOTWEAR for 72 hours and 100 miles if needed. I have walked with it and am used to it.
As a suggestion — take this list and keep it in a bag either IN your car or ready to put in it. My bag is a get home bag (from work) or a walkout bag if I am in the middle of BF Florida and the rental car breaks down. Knowing I have 3 days and 100 miles in the trunk is a good feeling. Just sayin’.
Oh, and an unspecified but sufficient store of fuel and cash at ‘home’.
A few bits that can be very useful.
The old Romans kept their togas and other garments white by washing them in human urine. An adult’s daily urine contains some 25-30 grams (a lot) of urea CO(NH2)2, which as a cleaner behaves like ammonia (NH3). After washing in urine, it is of course rinsed in a lot in clean water, so this is a technique to use if you’ve got a lot of clean water.
Hand sanitizer contains about 62% ethyl alcohol, which is just over the bare minimum of 60% alcohol needed to sanitize. However, some Walgreens stores sell 91% isopropyl alcohol, which you can add to your sanitizer to boost its antiseptic qualities. (Which is a lot cheaper than buying grain ethyl alcohol.)
Toilet paper really is a precious commodity, so (again if you have fresh water), you should consider cleaning yourself the “Asian way”. Even if you just pre-wash with an enema bag (something useful to have for several reasons), you will save a lot of toilet paper. You may even be comfortable enough to dry off with a cloth rag, which you then pitch in the urine bucket to clean.
After testing to see which you prefer, you might consider getting dental tape instead of floss. Tape is stronger, lasts longer, and is much less likely to shred, leaving fibers between your teeth.
Don’t carry bleach, because it is mostly water. Instead carry dry sodium hypochlorite powder you can get at a hardware store (importantly, *not* the substitute, but the real stuff). Clorox is 6.15% sodium hypochlorite, which means if you have a box of powder, and water again, you have a heck of a lot of bleach.
A good field soap is Naptha soap, which is used by hunters to conceal their scent from their prey. Some hardware stores also sell specialty soaps you should check out.
I really like little disposable lighters that you can get three for a dollar these days. However, when it is really cold, wet and windy, there is nothing like a Zippo lighter.
There are two kinds of P-51 can openers. The little ones work great. The big ones break all the time.
As far as tape goes, duct tape is okay for some things, but lousy for others. If you need strong and durable, go for wide strapping tape. For heat and cold resistance, go for 2 mil foil tape, which also makes a good emergency or heat reflector.
Also, something that takes up very little space but is incredibly useful: very high tensile nylon zip ties at the hardware store (which you might have to hunt for).
Well, not exactly.
My wife and I both have our own bags in our main car. We have extra food and gear in a 3rd bag which I can consolidate with my main bag to carry. We are set for at least 3 days of walking if necessary. We call them our "get home bags". If we are going somewhere any distance in our second car we transfer them all. It only takes a minute.
You need to get home to your bug-in location if you are out in the car someplace and get stuck. Twenty or thirty miles to get home is a long way to walk if you are not properly prepared for it and you likely can't do it in one day - especially if you are older, like us. We are often at least that far away from home just on a day trip.
The bags can also be used in an emergency if one needs to get "out of town" fast. Just hop in the car and take drive off!
These bags give us a lot of peace of mind.
Another good bug out gun. My son has is a 22cal Henry Survival rifle.It comes apart and fits in the water proof stock that floats.
Nice graphic. Got all the basics.
I'm not hiking in the woods. I could with one of the backpacks, but not doing it. I will leave if a hurricane comes through and come right back afterward if the house is still standing and not flattened by trees. For the hours I'm in a hotel, I'll have the two backpacks and a rolling bag - and the Yorkie. I'll also grab the fire resistant box with important papers in there and take that (plus the jewelry bag).
With the rolling bag, I could live away from home two weeks and have plenty of water.
I do have the military can opener and a spork - those are in my purse right now. I have a multitool in my car and there's one in each backpack that came with it. I have put a package of paracord and ducktape in one of the backpacks. Those backpacks came with everything one needs for days including three days of packaged water and food bars. I know if I have one of those, I can stay out of the rain with a tarp with ropes on it and a rain poncho and have what I need. There is first aid and toilet paper and tooth brush and toothpaste. Just grab the bag and leave.
Each person has to decide what to have ready to go if he/she/they have to leave for a period of time.
Having nothing ready to leave is foolish if one lives in tornado or hurricane or earthquake country or the power goes out in a freak event (that happened to me in hot summer).
On carrying stuff, taking a note from the VietCong, 4 zipties, a broomhandle and a bicycle make a pretty good way to move heavy loads. I've tried it with my bike.
Of course, I'm not a spring chicken any more, and 10-15 miles a day in the summer would be harsh on me, and those that caused the problem wouldn't want to run across me. I would have an attitude. ;)
/johnny
BTT. I love these threads. Personally I use them to generate lists so that when TSHTF and society as we know it has fallen to a shattered, smoking wreck, I’ll just log into the Cabelas website, transmit them the list, put the whole thing on my Visa card, and wait for the FedEx guy. Seems like a pretty foolproof plan to me.
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