Prepping for the possibility of war

[Dave_V]

We can’t change the possibility of war, but we can prepare for it.
Most likely we'll see Cyber, EMP, and possibly Nuclear - all would include power outages.
It's a good bet that any power disruption could require weeks of supplies, but it could be months or longer.
There COULD be radiation, so better to consider that possibility.

Here’s a first draft of a prep list
for those both in cities and rural who may have done nothing yet to prepare for the possibility of a war with Russia.
Experienced preppers jump in and repost with additions, subtractions, re-ordering, or sub-divisions by location etc.
I know it’s a stretch to go back and think of starting with nothing when you already have stuff in place!
Maybe we’ll come up with something decent?!

ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY
#1 Security - Control access to your windows and doors (and property if possible)
- Your weapon of choice for protection
#2 Water - Not distilled (you will quickly deplete your body of minerals) Minimum of 4 weeks worth
#3 Food - Canned, wrapped, and dried, enough for 2 to 4 weeks (most unprepared will die by then)
#4 Go Bag with passport, money, food, water, weapon - anything you may need if you have to leave your shelter quickly. Something to barter with. Any medications that you may need - several months supply worth

REALLY GOOD TO HAVE

• Survival Skill Manual(s)
• Plastic sheeting to cover windows and doors for Fall Out protection
• Potassium Iodide Pills in case of radiation exposure (Put in your Go Bag.)
• Radio with solar, crank, and standard, replaceable, rechargeable batteries.USB charge port.
• Disposable poncho (to remove later if you for some reason are outside during fallout)
  (You’re probably a-goner anyway)
• Disposable wipes and a container for contaminated clothing, poncho, and wipes
• A portable toilet preferably on a “Lowes” 5 gallon pail that can be emptied somewhere else. Lots of toilet paper!
• A high quality respirator for each member (if possible)
• A real time dosimeter (if possible)
• Batteries for LED Flashlights and radio et cetera
• If it's cold, some way to keep warm, lots of blankets and extra clothes
• If it's hot, hand fans because there may not be electricity but make sure you have at least one electric fan in case there is electricity!!
• Garbage Bags (Lots!)
• Water Purification Tablets
• Small Cooking Stove (camping) and Fuel for a month of cooking

If you’re in charge of several people, develop procedures/rules for different scenarios:

• Intruders
• Invited Guests
• Kicking someone out
• When and how much food/water per day
• Food Running Low
  NICE TO HAVE IF POSSIBLE
• Typar (Tyvek secondary) suit with a hood (extra filters)
• A decent respirator (full vision if possible),
• Goggles if necessary,
• Poly overshoes/boots & gloves,
• Rolls & rolls of duct tape to seal the seams
• Hunting and fishing stuff and nets for catching bait
• Water filters
• Long bow, crossbow, and/or recurve with hunting tips,
• Air rifle and pistol
• Heirloom seeds, hand tools and an Analog WATCH
• Entertainment: board games, cards, musical instruments, recorded music, movies.
• Linens, cloth, sewing supplies.
• Bug out location with pre-positioned supplies,
• Livestock and mature perennial plantings,
• Alternative power and fuel supplies (like wood gasifiers).
• LOTS of tools

 

[Illini Warrior]

in an emergency a poncho would be better than nothing - but if prepping you want a Typar (Tyvek secondary) suit with a hood - a decent respirator (full vision if possible), goggles if necessary, poly overshoes/boots & gloves, rolls & rolls of duct tape to seal the seams ....

 

[GaRp58]

I have a full hazmat case with full face masks, extra filters and body suits. All flashlights have rechargeable batteries. Enough gas and diesel for my needs, 14 different ways to cook, 5 water filters plus own well. Water stored and purified. Meds and pain killers, a full OP kit, Extra First aid boxes. Hunting and fishing stuff and nets for catching bait. Garden is planted and watered, seeds and fertiliser for 3 years. Cash for a year of utilities if they are still working. My weak spot is weapons, crossbow and recurve with hunting tips, air rifle and pistol but nowhere near what I need. Flame thrower in a fire extinguisher under pressure. Chemicals for water purification. We feel comfy but it the fighting came near, we would have to decide fast what to do. Welcome them with moonshine and sausages or take what we can and stay ahead of the front lines...

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

Dave_V and I kind of teamed up on this, given the current situation, to give beginners an outline of sorts and to give the rest of us long-haulers a chance to chime in and maybe audit (for the 1,000th time) our preps. So please add your knowledge to the thread. Dave has offered to put all of the gathered info into a easy to reference format and make it available to all here later.

My approach is Rawlsian for the most part. (The Precepts of Rawlesian Survivalist Philosophy - SurvivalBlog.com) though not faith based like JWR is. I plan on helping some carefully selected people within reason. I have decided to teach them to fish rather than giving them one, in the sense of prepping.

There are a couple of precepts of JWR that run true, no matter where you are, or what has happened because they fall into the category of common sense:

• Tools without training are useless and the most valuable tool you own is located between your ears and always in your possession.
• It is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
• Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
• The law of redundant redundancies; Two is one and one is none.

Because prepping can be so overwhelming at times…the list is long and expensive I treat prepping a little like triage.

• Tier 1 preps : having on hand, Food , Water, Shelter, Safety wherever you are (home, traveling or at work this includes emergency go bags and the all important Bug out bag)
• Tier 2 Preps : Defense, Currency (this includes barter items: precious metals, common caliber ammo, tobacco, alcohol, and useful skill sets), Copies of important documents like land deeds, mortgages, etc., Transportation, PHYSICAL how to and reference books! Heirloom seeds, hand tools and an Analog WATCH.
• Tier 3 Preps : Medical/dental, the ability to renew all of the above as they used, knowledge/growing skill sets. entertainment: board games, cards, musical instruments, recorded music, movies. Linens, cloth, sewing supplies. Bug out location with pre positioned supplies, facilities, livestock and mature perennial plantings, alternative power and fuel supplies (like wood gasifiers).

Second part of prepping is trying to predict what conflicts are likely to happen in your environment.

There are three kinds of conflicts that you will encounter and prepare against.

• Man against Man : this includes obvious things like someone trying to take your preps or your transportation, raid your garden, beating you up to get the last can of soup on the shelf or even difficulties within your shelter group.
• Man against Nature : this conflict may involve hungry bands of feral dogs, wolves, coyotes, snakes, spiders or things like a late freeze that kills all the blossoms on your fruit trees or a drought that forces you to choose between having water to drink and watering your garden.
• Man against Himself: This is something that is often ignored and rarely discussed by the prepping community. One of the things that happens in real survival circumstances is that people, good people, lose their humanity. I have mentioned several times here that my Grandmother survived the Holodomor. In those times people became so desperate, that neighbors would kidnap unsupervised children off the streets and eat them. Sounds monstrous doesn’t it? But, when I looked further at what happens to the human mind and body once starvation is advanced, I felt pity for the perpetrators who survived. Imagine the guilt they felt for the rest of their lives when their delusions were gone! How do you forgive yourself for something like that?
• Man against himself is one of the most difficult things you will have to deal with because you do not know what difficult decisions you will have to make until they happen.
• Knowing yourself…honestly, not who you wish you were or what you strive to be, but where you are RIGHT NOW? Assess both your strengths and weaknesses, and then work on enhancing the good and shoring up the bad. There is no place in prepping for false self-assessments (giving yourself a participation trophy), because it will bite you in the butt (and your group), eventually. This includes an evaluation of your morals. Religious or simply spiritual, virtues, ethics: however you wish to define morals, having a clear sense now, of your lines in the sand will at least set off alarm bells and give you a moment to reassess if you find yourself approaching that line.

A third area I have used to assess my prep levels is what I call Environmental Considerations : the conditions of the particular environment you find yourself in.

- Duration of situation: is this crisis going to last an hour, a day, a month, a year or a lifetime?

- External Psycho-social responses: who am I surrounded by? Strangers, trusted friends and family? Do I know how they respond under EXTREME duress and the effects of an adrenaline rush? Are they going to be in a frame of mind to make sound, reasoned decisions or fall prey to the normalcy bias? Am I in a crowded city filled with random people or in a sparsely populated area where we are mostly likeminded and have at least met one another?

- Immediacy of natural resources available: Are there enough resources where I am to meet demand? How secure are those resources? An example is a lake or river. You may think, I will have all the water needed, just purify it and I am good. There are a couple of problems with this. One is contamination by a migratory population. Another is access. There is a reason animals of prey are completely paranoid when approaching the local watering hole! A person in the dessert will have to be much more focused on storing water than someone living where digging down a foot, produces a water hole. Someone living in northern plains, will have to procure more firewood than someone living in the Piney Woods of South Texas.

- Timing: when it happens, where will you be? An economic collapse at least gives you a caution flag if you are watching whereas a cyber attack or EMP can come out of the blue. Will you be stuck on the express way? At the office? On vacation in a foreign country or state?

-Security measures: Group size, skill sets, type of land, location and the caliber of your enemy will dictate how much land you can realistically hold. Do you need physical reinforcements on top of that? Is part of your strategy to scare people off by looking like an impenetrable fortress or to have a low profile, hoping no one notices you? Would you rather be surrounded by land where you have a clear line of sight for a mile or more around, or use your familiarity with your environment and forests to get an upper hand?

Again, feel free to ask question or add your two cents...that is why we are doing this; it is a kind of virtual think tank exercise!

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

I have a full hazmat case with full face masks, extra filters and body suits. All flashlights have rechargeable batteries. Enough gas and diesel for my needs, 14 different ways to cook, 5 water filters plus own well. Water stored and purified. Meds and pain killers, a full OP kit, Extra First aid boxes. Hunting and fishing stuff and nets for catching bait. Garden is planted and watered, seeds and fertiliser for 3 years. Cash for a year of utilities if they are still working. My weak spot is weapons, crossbow and recurve with hunting tips, air rifle and pistol but nowhere near what I need. Flame thrower in a fire extinguisher under pressure. Chemicals for water purification. We feel comfy but it the fighting came near, we would have to decide fast what to do. Welcome them with moonshine and sausages or take what we can and stay ahead of the front lines...

Just for reference so that people new to prepping don't feel discouraged, how long have you been at this?

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

I have some bows myself but stick with long bows. I find crossbows cumbersome and slow on the reload.

One thing a lot of preppers overlook is the value of silence!

When the traffic noises are gone. When the planes are no longer flying overhead. When people are laying low. The sound of a gunshot will be akin to a neon "Eat at Joe's" sign flashing in the desert for some.

I was agitated about ten years ago while on another prepper forum, there were a surprising number of people claiming to be preppers, mostly young and starting out, who outwardly admitted that if the Shumer Hits the Fan (SHTF), they were simply taking their guns, shooting skills and ammo, hoofing it to the nearest government owned land and raiding other hunter's/refugee camps, supplies and kills! They said it was easy pickings just follow the sounds and smells of campfires and smoking meat.

 

[DrHenley]

The sound of a gunshot will be akin to a neon "Eat at Joe's" sign flashing in the desert for some.

I think the nearest desert to the BOL is just under 1,000 miles away.
In the woods, it is very difficult to determine where gunshots are coming from, especially high powered rifles because the sonic crack is usually louder than the muzzle blast and it sounds more like an echo off of something in the distance. Shotguns and subsonic handguns are a little easier to tell what direction they came from, but the sound reverberates through the woods bouncing off trees.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

No "food deserts" either? Our home base is in the forested hills, mostly limestone, see pic at left, considered a semi-arid climate...and there are very strange acoustics there where we can hear someone talking half a mile away as if they were standing next to us and sound of gunshots simply bounce around.
At the BOL, also forested but much damper, soft and flat ground with high air humidity's, I have had no problems determining the direction of shots. So perhaps that is another environmental consideration?

But, generally your suggestion would be, if in the forest don't utilize sub sonic ammo?

 

[DrHenley]

Hills may help with locating gunshots. My BOL is in the flatlands, and there are dense forested areas interspersed with large open agricultural areas. When I'm hunting there are often duck hunters and deer hunters, so I hear both high powered rifles and shotguns quite often while in the woods. Most times, I can tell a gunshot came from a general direction (like somewhere behind me), but I can't tell how far, or a specific direction. A gunshot two miles off sometimes sounds like its a couple hundred yards away. And then a gunshot two hundred yards away sometimes sounds like it's miles away. It all depends on the temperature, humidity, wind and how much vegetation is in between me and the gunshot.
Winds and high humidity on open ground (typical duck hunting weather) muffle gunshots so much that my own gunshots sound much quieter than normal.

 

[GaRp58]

how long have you been at this?

Survival training with the Boy Scouts and Explorers started back in 1974 and since then I had a scratch bag too. (BOB now)
Anybody who gets caught out in the wilderness of TX or CA without anything to save themselves have to start from scratch. I have wandered the south side of America as a 17 and 18 year old for 9 months living out of my backpack. Always had a bag of staples and emergency tools and things to survive with.

 

[tmttactical]

I just installed a suppressor / moderator on my air rifle. I will do a sound comparison / point of impact shift test this weekend. I don't plan to suppress my firearms. Maybe after the SHTF I will consider making a suppressor.

 

[GaRp58]

They said it was easy pickings just follow the sounds and smells of campfires and smoking meat.

UNFORTUNATELY!! THEY will be right on one side and very dead on the other. I told a story from someone visiting in Lebanon and his friend decided to grill a lamb for him to celebrate him visiting. The starving locals smelled the lamb, climbed the fence and when the shooting started, the friend just barely got out the gate in his car and escaped. The host and his family died in the fight for his preps and the house was torched.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

I just installed a suppressor / moderator on my air rifle. I will do a sound comparison / point of impact shift test this weekend. I don't plan to suppress my firearms. Maybe after the SHTF I will consider making a suppressor.

I recently got a .22 cal air rifle, and it is still pretty noisy....What moderator did you go with?

 

[GaRp58]

But, generally your suggestion would be, if in the forest don't utilize sub sonic ammo?

Sub-sonic ammo is only good with an adjusted silencer. According to the caliber and weapon, if done right, you will actually only hear the mechanism of the weapon and the impact of the slugs if not too far away from the target.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

UNFORTUNATELY!! THEY will be right on one side and very dead on the other. I told a story from someone visiting in Lebanon and his friend decided to grill a lamb for him to celebrate him visiting. The starving locals smelled the lamb, climbed the fence and when the shooting started, the friend just barely got out the gate in his car and escaped. The host and his family died in the fight for his preps and the house was torched.

That story is the perfect example of only partially hitting the mental prepper switch!

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

Sub-sonic ammo is only good with an adjusted silencer. According to the caliber and weapon, if done right, you will actually only hear the mechanism of the weapon and the impact of the slugs if not too far away from the target.

Unfortunately here in the US, there are certain things you want to stay away from because they get you flagged for buying them and actual silencers, are one.

 

[GaRp58]

I recently got a .22 cal air rifle, and it is still pretty noisy....

If it was not too expensive, try dieseling your gun. But beware each gun reacts different.

 

[rainingcatzanddogs]

Light is another thing most don't think about...Just as when there is no moon and no light pollution, you are suddenly treated to a blanket of stars you have never seen before, in a grid down situation, every small light, even the glow of a cigarette, can be a danger to you.

 

[GaRp58]

The idea is getting the compression in the gun to get so high, that the oil or vaseline actually ignites with spontaneous combustion just like in a diesel car or truck motor. The gun gets louder but a bit faster.

 

[GaRp58]

because they get you flagged for buying them and actual silencers, are one.

There is way too much info for making an impromtu silencer from oil filters, propane bottles, plastic bottles and bottle caps even. Practice and try.