Posted on 08/17/2015 5:05:14 PM PDT by SkyPilot
The plan seems simple doesn’t it? All you need for the best chance of survival for your family is a well-stocked bug out bag, a keen attention to your surroundings and careful monitoring of what is happening in the news. With these bases covered you will be a very informed prepper and will be able to get the jump on all of the clueless sheeple if something bad happens. You will load your family up with your bags and hike off into the sunset way ahead of the approaching death and destruction. You have a plan to bug out.
It sounds perfect, but in this article I am going to try and convince you how that might not be the best and first option you should consider. There are many reasons and situations I can think of why you do not want to bug out from your home. You may be asking yourself, how can I even say those words on a prepper blog such as this without getting struck by lightning? It’s true that hunkering down is not the option that gets the most press, but in my opinion during most (but not all) scenarios, it is the better choice. That is unless you are a combat trained Navy Seal. If you are like me, just an average guy with a family and a giant subterranean monster unleashed by nuclear experiments is not headed your way, you might want to stay put. Here are a few reasons why:
You live where your stuff is.
I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of these reasons are going to seem incredibly simple and obvious, but I think sometimes that is the best way to approach a problem. As a prepper you have probably started collecting some supplies to help you get through short and long term emergencies. Some of you have stored a TON of supplies because you have been doing this for a long time or else you are independently wealthy and you just blew up the Black Friday sales.
Even if you only have a week’s worth of food and water, that is nothing to sneeze at. Everything you have is stored probably in nicely organized bins for easy retrieval. You don’t have to carry it and the supplies aren’t subject to the elements. Leaving your home will make you potentially have to leave most, or all of your survival supplies at home. You could put them all in your best bug out vehicle, the diesel Ford F-250 with the trailer, right? Sure you could, but are you sure that truck will always be in your possession? It’s just better to stay at your home base because there are tons of advantages like… I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of these reasons are going to seem incredibly simple and obvious, but I think sometimes that is the best way to approach a problem. As a prepper you have probably started collecting some supplies to help you get through short and long term emergencies. Some of you have stored a TON of supplies because you have been doing this for a long time or else you are independently wealthy and you just blew up the Black Friday sales.
Even if you only have a week’s worth of food and water, that is nothing to sneeze at. Everything you have is stored probably in nicely organized bins for easy retrieval. You don’t have to carry it and the supplies aren’t subject to the elements. Leaving your home will make you potentially have to leave most, or all of your survival supplies at home. You could put them all in your best bug out vehicle, the diesel Ford F-250 with the trailer, right? Sure you could, but are you sure that truck will always be in your possession? It’s just better to stay at your home base because there are tons of advantages like…
Even your kitchen floor is more comfortable than sleeping in the woods
Yes, I know that some people sleep perfectly well in the woods and I can too, once I am exhausted from hiking all day. Honestly, you would have to agree that your old lumpy Serta Posturpedic mattress would be preferable to sleeping in the woods or an abandoned building or even a hammock. Why is that important?
Getting plenty of good sleep has a huge impact on our health. It not only affects your moods, but alertness and even immune system. In a disaster you will be stressed in ways you haven’t even considered. You may be working like a dog and having a comfortable and relatively safe place to rest your head, even if that is the living room floor will be an advantage that the people who think they can just bug out into the woods won’t have.
Built in Community whether you know it or not
In times of crisis, you can almost guarantee that communities will band together in some ways. You probably don’t consider your small neighborhood or dead end street a community but let some disaster happen and you will see humans come together for support, safety and to help each-other out. Being around even just a few neighbors who know you can give you advantages if you need assistance for things like a neighborhood security plan.
Even neighbors you don’t get along with will probably overcome grudges if the disaster is severe enough. Of course there is the potential that your neighbors could turn on you for being the lone prepper but I think in most cases, things won’t go Mad Max for a little while. If it does you will have to adjust, but I believe that most people would benefit by banding with their neighbors for support. You could have an opportunity for leadership here or compassion by helping out others who haven’t prepared. It is much better to strive for this kind of relationship with people than head out the door and face the world with only what is on your back.
Being Cold Sucks and it can kill you
I bet that most of you like to keep the thermostat somewhere in the upper 60’s to low 70’s during the winter. There might be some play in that range, but there are no thermostats outside. Whatever the temperature is outdoors is what you are going to be living with. Can you start a fire or wear warm layers to regulate your body temperature? Of course, but the last place I want to be on a cold winter night is huddled up in my sleeping bag under a tarp even if I did have a nice roasting fire beside me.
There are some situations where you wouldn’t be able to start a fire. Maybe if it was raining and you couldn’t find any dry wood or tinder, or there were people that didn’t look so friendly following you. Staying in your home, even without power can give you advantages of shelter that you won’t easily find outdoors. You can seal off rooms and even your body heat will generate a little warmth. You can black out your curtains with heavy gauge plastic sheeting and even the heat from a lantern or a couple of candles can put out an amazing amount of heat.
You may put yourself in a worse situation
The problem with most bug out plans are that you don’t have a destination. Where are you bugging out to? Do you think the National Forest is going to be reserved solely for you and your family? Do you think you will just set up a tent and start hunting for small game? In a large regional disaster, there could be millions of people leaving the cities. The concept is called the Golden Horde and they will be competing with you for natural resources. With even a few dozen hunters in the same area game will be depleted in days if not sooner. Then you will be stuck near a bunch of other hungry people who blame you for catching the last squirrel.
Being on the road makes you an easier target
One of the advantages of staying put at home is the home field or defenders advantage. When you go out, you do not know what you are walking or driving into. The best you can do is recon very deliberately which will only slow you down more. By staying put in your home, you can set up a neighborhood watch with your fellow neighbors and monitor who is coming in. This gives you the opportunity to set up defensive positions and plans that anyone walking in with thoughts of taking advantage of you, won’t be aware of.
If nobody knows you, you are a stranger
Have you ever been walking your dog and seen someone strange walking through your neighborhood? This was someone you didn’t know so obviously they fell under suspicion. Had they been one of your neighbors kids you would have recognized them, but this new person stuck out. That is what you will be faced with if you leave your home and go wandering through other towns and cities. In your home neighborhood you will be dealing with known people that you can grow a deeper relationship with. There is a built-in level of trust because they have lived near you for years. If you start walking into a strange town with your bug out bags and AR-15 slung over your bulletproof vest, you may not like the attention you receive.
Gear is heavy and a lot of gear is heavier.
Speaking of walking around in your bulletproof vest and gear, how many of you have walked for 3 days with your bug out bag? OK, now add a full complement of bullets and anything else you think you might need to defend yourself. It adds up quickly even when you try to reduce the weight of your bug out bag as much as possible. These weren’t meant to live for a long time out of. Your food will run out, possibly your ammo and that will help you with the weight, but in a disaster where you are walking out the door in full combat gear, do you think Walmart will be open when you run out of something?
In a grid down you won’t get to call AAA
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones that have a place to go up in the mountains. If you don’t get out before everyone else starts leaving, you could be stuck on the road. What if your old bug out vehicle breaks down? All those supplies you stored in the back of that trailer are either going to feed a lot of other people on the highway or you will most likely die defending them. If you aren’t already living at your retreat before the disaster happens, you will have to be incredibly fast to avoid getting stranded. Let’s say you are ready to go, do you know when you would actually leave? Do you know when the S has actually HTF and it’s time to leave or will you debate leaving with your wife and mother for two days because they think it will all blow over soon?
If you get hurt you want to be near a secure shelter not under a tarp
I have a decent first aid supply kit. I don’t have IV’s and a ton of medicine but I can take care of garden variety injuries pretty well. Imagine you somehow break your leg after the grid is down. Would you rather drag yourself into the house, or be stuck in the woods for weeks unable to move? Most hospitals don’t stick their patients out in the back yard for a reason so you will convalesce better with a good roof over your head that is hopefully providing some climate protections. If nothing else, it will be a relatively clean and safe place to get better that beats lying under a log.
So what does staying home mean?
I will write a post about reasons why you may have to bug out later, but staying home doesn’t guarantee you will be safe and secure either. I think each situation has to be taken into consideration as to what is the better option for you and your family. Naturally if there is a fire heading your way staying at home is stupid. It is something to think about that and that may help you begin to form different plans for different scenarios. What are your plans?
He is one of the best. Somewhere he has a video showing how to bend flexible copper tubing using sand. That one stuck with me because of the simple brilliance of the method. He knows his stuff and he is indeed practical. I have learned a great deal from him.
THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
I have my bug out to get to my bug in. I have to work in a city. I carry an oversized back pack by most city in-comer standards. Within my bug out (not chancing leaving it in my vehicle in case I cannot get to it) is my VERY slim laptop pouch for work. Beyond that is the 38 (loaded), extra ammo (lots), socks, first aide, two days (x2 person) dried rations; vitamins; aspirin; water treatment kit (plus times two bottles) and a multitude of other “things” in case I have to hump it on foot 30+ miles home which would take me 3 days playing it safe. If I can get to my vehicle safely; great; but I don’t plan on it. I plan on having to hoof it. I am more than worried these days about an EMP and given the weakling in the white hut; it is a real possibility since NO nation has a reason to fear him; hell, they can count on him standing our military down.
Infantry Marine here as well. My current bug out weighs in at about 32 lbs (and you would never know it looking at it, couple pounds less after I ditch the laptop). I lug it around five days a week religiously and clock a couple miles a day humping with it. It is never in my vehicle except when I am driving from point A to B (the occasional C). TOO many people think they will sling something on and book. Those people will be in pain several hours later and killing their ibuprofen or aspirin supply post haste because their back is not conditioned. Again, my kit is to get me to my bug in, lots more but certainly not less.
Excellent article.
Bugging out now is better than later, IMO, because it gives you time to figure out your mistakes and correct them. I know some folks doing some things they might regret.
A family I know built a cabin on a mountain with only one road in and out. . Easier to defend against the zombie hordes, they’ll just pick ‘em off coming up the road. Huh. But it’s actually unlikely any zombies will be climbing any mountain roads. Far more likely the homesteaders will get their own selves trapped, in or out, by a fire, a mudslide, a snowstorm, a serious injury, a broken down vehicle, once they get there. IF they get there when SHTF. It’s 800 miles away.
Nobody needs to go to a mountaintop or a desert to escape the feral hordes. You can hide in plain sight and let them pass right by you.
There’s lots of cheap land that can be had just 20 or 30 miles out of town. Get off the freeway, onto any county or farm road, and look for miles of wooded frontage. Tuck your cabin back in the woods, where it can’t be seen from the road, and hunker down. The time to start planting a garden is now, not after SHTF.
Oh, and instead of three wee bottles of Gallo wine I’d stick to Everclear. For medicinal purposes and as a firestarter, of course.
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I tried Everclear about 40 years ago, I’d prefer paint thinner.
Hurricane Ivan also hit Alabama hard. Gulf Shores was essentially wiped out. I live just north of Tuscaloosa and we had hurricane force winds. We were out of power for several days and had limbs down everywhere. Luckily we had plenty of supplies because the local media stressed how bad it was going to be. We had it made, though, compared to the poor people on the Gulf.
We found out what “horrible” really was on April 27, 2011...
Exactly! Even Marines have a logistics train behind them. They may be days or weeks out, but they return to base to recoup and restock.
Unless your name is Elijah, your oil will run out at some point. In a total SHTF scenario, the only long-term solution is kick-starting your local means of production.
That’s not food; that’s what you feed food. Now, rabbits are yummy.
Looking thru most of the discussion so far, and I have to say most folks have this idea down pretty good...
It has taken me years, and the best lesson I learned over that time, was to not let a lot of people know you are prepping...
All I have to add is this, if you cannot walk away from anything you are doing at that moment when the decision has to be made, in 30 seconds, you are behind the curve, if you already have a place you are going to, if not bugging in...
I wont lock the door, we’ll load the dog, throw the wife in the bed of the truck, and we are gone...Or maybe the other way around, it depends on how I feel...
As for letting anyone know, that’s kinda up to you...The obvious people know (3, plus the dog), and we have plenty of stuff to take care of us for quite some time...
You got to consider security, and keeping a very low profile...
If you bug in, I would try not letting anyone know you are there...Neighbors can be nosy, but laying low for a weekend might be a great drill, and kinda fun if you have kids...Just game it out ahead of time, and in the end, see if anyone (neighbors) ask where you were...
Just tell them you were laying low for the weekend, and be glad they noticed nothing from you for 48 hours...
If not, and somebody noticed something try to be coy about it and see what they saw...Keep it simple, if it was a light, a curtain move, the dog barking, etc etc etc...
It will give you something to think about and improve on...
I would also, on a side note, never talk about what I have, how much I have, and where I’m going...Not even in such a generally anonymous forum such as this, or any other...
Just remember rule #1: “Don’t talk about bug-out club.”
bkmk
Here are a few good items you can purchase on-line that I have found to be good products:
A Blast Match firestarter - sparks five times hotter than a lighter or regular match.
A cutlass Ka Bar machete - cuts through things with great efficiency and stays sharp, amazing quality.
5 gallon collapsible water containers.
Water purification tablets.
A good head lamp.
I didn't go in after we started evacuating thousands via buses (Gen Russ Honore finally took charge), but I spoke to some who did.
They described it asa kind of Lord of Flies meets a large Sceptic Tank.
The water was off, because of no power. People just deficated and urinated EVERYWHERE! Diapers were littered on the floor of the whole place. Roaming gangs had already established "territory." Any food and water distribution had already been taken over by the thugs. There were stories of gang rapes.
No thanks.
The day before Katrina hit, I will never forget the FOX News report. Shep Smith was walking around the French Quarter, telling people a Cat 5 was off the coast, and asking why they were still there? They cursed at him on live TV, and were drunk.
They say the "poor" could not afford to leave, but that is really not true. Many of the stupid remained as well, and I think that whole situation helped created this "bug out" culture. Again, there are times to leave. Katrina would have been one. But hitting the highways too late or at the wrong time can be deadly too.
Blunt force trauma - I have to remember that one.
Our home is pretty defensible - bugging out is only viable for us in cases of natural disaster.
bump for later read
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