{VANITY} A little prepper help if ya please

8/18/2012 | me

[mykroar]

Looking for a little prepper guidance, specifically around long-term food (MRS vs freeze-dried) and maybe where to obtain. Also interested in a good site to obtain ammunition (or would the next local gun show be the way to go). Picked up a Mossberg 12 gauge & a Hi-point .45ACP Carbine a few months back.

I am currently in an apartment, so space is an issue to a degree. Thanks ahead of time - last weekly prepper thread was a month ago.

[JRandomFreeper]

The last thread was Friday.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Mash here for yesterday's thread.

/johnny

[Lurker]

Please pick up the white courtesy phone.

[RC one]

freeze dried lasts longer than military MREs but pretty much requires potable water for reconstitution. MRES are good for maybe 5-10 years. some of the contents seem to last longer than others. Gun shows are the best source of ammo IMO because there’s no paper trail. .45 acp would be more difficult to obtain than 9 mm in a total meltdown. It can easily be reloaded with a minimum of experience and equipment however and you should be prepared to reload it. The lee hand press with a set of .45 dies, a case trimmer, and a set of powder scoops would probably get you going for less than $100.

[EdReform]

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/

[rockrr]

As far as seeking ammo goes - try this site: http://ammoseek.com/

They’re not perfect but they do seem pretty good at querying the different sites for current ammo prices. Then go support your local gun show. Check out pricing there and compare. Remember the extra that you may be paying in shipping and taxes depending on which way you go - figure all the associative costs to find the real deals.

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Having a portable CB radio might be a good thing if there's an EMP attack and all cellphone comm goes down (or if our gov't takes it down).

Also, FR links:

10 Things That Every Survivalist Needs

The ULTIMATE checklist for emergency preparedness supplies

If you go here and scroll down a bit, here are some great PDF's to save to your desktop or print:

Top 10 Survival Downloads (PDF's) You Should Have

[eartick]

Mossberg 12ga good choice, feed it some 3” #4 Buckshot if it is chambered for 3” shot shells for home defense and stock up on bird shot for SHTF food supply gathering.

For online orders I like www.ammoman.com Sign up for there news letters. Watch for specials and I like the free shipping.

Always visit the gun shows for local bargains on ammo.

MREs for short term needs (6 mth to a year). Freeze dried for 10-15 year out planning.

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Foodinsurance.com has all kinds of emergency food packages.. A tad pricey but good quality and they even have a backpack stuffed with goodies in case you have to flee your area.

[IncPen]

pang

[Twinkie]

We’re a bit “over”weight; so are storing some of our provisions “on the hoof” so to speak. I’d suggest not getting too crazy trying to store every possible delicacy known to mankind in your provisions. We got several big cans of Provident Pantry stuff, but didn’t go overboard on that. Have stored a few cans of Alaskan salmon, but rotate them; nothing like some good protein to keep you going. Also got a couple of large cans of freeze dried heirloom garden seeds (we have a bit of garden space). If you have a water well or a fresh water spring near your house, that’s a good thing - because water storage is - to me - sort of a grim proposition. - We stretch and don’t waste our food, make corn cakes instead of pans of cornbread, small batches of pancakes out of whole grain pancakes. Husband is in charge of the ammo; I depend on bear spray for my defense. Nasty No Trespassing signs help, too. You hate to do that; but we’ve had some problems with trespassers off the river over the years.

[outofsalt]

Freeze dried lasts MUCH longer but is more expensive. I like www.beprepared.com aka, emergency essentials. I buy a few #10 cans monthly. Dehydrating and vacuum packing and/or canning, curing and smoking at home is cheaper by far and very easy, if you do your DD and stick to it you can lay up a lot of good stuff quickly but the shelf life is shorter and you must be conscious of rotating stocks.
Water is #! priority for preparedness! Make this effort first depending on your location this may or may not require much effort.
All things gun and ammo are cheaper at the, private level, gun shows, internet and stores in that order. Walmart, Sam's club and Costco are doing more and more in all of these areas and can be worth your time to research their availability of products and supplies.
Knowledge is probably the most important resource you'll need after water. READ EVERYTHING you can on the subject and share your understanding with your family and friends. I have printed good articles and keep a spiral notebook so if the SHTF and I'm not around my folks will have some sort of guidebook to refer to on what I've learned and have accrued.
Best to you, OOS

[PA Engineer]

How long do you want to prepare for?

[Kartographer]

May I suggest that you down load and review my Preparedness Manual at:

http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf

NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!

You will find articles on many of the questions that you are asking as well as many questions that haven’t occur to you as of yet. It’s written for those just starting or for those who are old hands at prepping.

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, a extra couple changes of oil and filters for your car, 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.”

Or as the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.
NIV Proverbs 22:3

Lastly this for the doubters and the scoffers.

“There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger.

Underestimation can be fatal.”

[Kartographer]

I’ve talked to hundreds of preppers over the last three and the one comment I hear the most is that they have a ‘feeling’.

These people are from all social, education and financial backgrounds. They say that there are demonstrable statistic that show that the number of people missing airline flights that end up crashing is higher than the average number of people that miss flights. I know myself there have been times when I have putted around doing this and that in the morning, which is unusual for me only to leave and find that a big wreck has taken place along my route to work. I say listen to that little voice in the back of you head, because there’s a good chance it knows what its’ talking about.

Don’t let the scoffers and the doubters get you down. They laughed at Noah right up until the first raindrops started falling.

[Shadowstrike]

Also suggest the single serving size cans of fruits, vegetables, meat (yes Spam has a small size can), tuna, cheese whiz, ect.

They are easy to store under the bed, under the couch, and that way if you have a situation were you can’t get any water for cooking you will at least have something to eat.

[103198]

Ping...

[The Duke]

I believe MRE's should be planned only for "eating on the move" (either by foot or vehicle). Freeze Dried is good, but before that I would put back at lest 5 gallons of dried beans and 5 gallons of dried white rice in vacuum-sealed mylar bags sealed in food-grade 5 gallon plastic buckets with sealed lids. In fact, here we order freeze-dried meat products from ShelfReliance specifically to have some meat to throw in with our beans and rice.

To compliment that we've also put back some big jars of crunchy peanut butter, honey, crackers and vitamins.

So, in summary, MREs for eating on the move and freeze-dried meat products to compliment beans and rice.

(Also, don't forget to store tobasco, various spices, etc. to go with that beans and rice.)

We get good, competitive prices for ammo at Walmart. We get our mylar bags from:

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/mylar_food_storage_bags.htm

Also, there are some decent video tutorials on YouTube that cover vacuum packing beans and rice in mylar bags.

[DBrow]

“They say that there are demonstrable statistic that show that the number of people missing airline flights that end up crashing is higher than the average number of people that miss flights.”

Well then let’s see the statistics. I can put limits on the numbers:

There are not that many flights that crash (100 per year?), and let’s assume an average of 300 seats per crash, and how many could miss a flight with 300 seats available? Even if you assume that all 300 passengers missed the flight that crashed (30,000 per year), that does not come close to the 93,000 commercial flights per day. If one person per flight missed it, that would be 93,000 missed flights.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090405222940AAgDZaF

http://www.quora.com/How-many-people-fly-domestically-in-the-United-States-each-day